20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: First Contact
First Contact remains a mighty Trek classic over 25 years later.
While the fanbase is divided on where exactly Star Trek: First Contact ranks among the Trek movies released to date, most will agree that it's one of the stronger entries into the franchise.
Following the disappointing Star Trek Generations, First Contact was the first "proper" Next Generation movie, and felt like a potent statement of intent for this era of Trek films.
More exciting and action-packed than most of its predecessors, First Contact split the difference between the series' trademark humanism and more mainstream-skewing set-pieces, delivering a Trek film that played well across the board.
As a result, First Contact was the highest-grossing Trek film at the time of its release, a record it would hold until J.J Abrams' 2009 reboot.
Widely acclaimed by critics and scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup, the Jonathan Frakes-directed epic set a standard that neither of its direct sequels, Insurrection and Nemesis, could get close to.
The means through which the film was made - given a massive budget but little time to get the job done - sure are fascinating, as these 20 must-see stories and anecdotes about its production will detail. Let's dig in...
20. It Had A Considerably Bigger Budget Than Generations
First Contact's final budget was set at $45 million, making it the most expensive film in the franchise up to this point, tied with the very first film in the series, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
After the release of The Motion Picture, the sequels received considerably smaller budgets, with First Contact's predecessor originally priced at a slender $25 million, before reshoots and overages pushed it to $35 million.
First Contact having $10 million more to play with allowed the production team to plan and stage more elaborate, effects-driven action sequences, as ultimately became a large part of the movie's mainstream appeal.
Its subsequent box office success prompted Paramount to drop a stonking $70 million on the direct sequel, Star Trek: Insurrection, which wasn't nearly as well-received either critically or commercially.