Ranking: The Biggest Protagonists From 2016's Summer Blockbusters

The Role: The captain of the USS Enterprise as they pass the three-year point of their five-year exploration mission, and stare down a new threat with a personal vendetta against Starfleet.

Though it's easy to dismiss Chris Pine's take on Kirk as a fairly frothy, sexy contemporary riff on the character, writer Simon Pegg brought an unexpectedly psychological dimension to the character this time around.

Early on, the movie finds Kirk meditating on his father, namely that as his own birthday approaches, he'll surpass the age his father ever reached, which naturally has Kirk pondering the nature of his own existence.

At the same time, the movie still paints him as a total bada**, especially when staging an elaborate distraction on his motorcycle, so fans get the most well-rounded and multi-faceted depiction of the character yet from the three Kelvin Timeline movies.