This article contains details of the various background deaths which occur in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, which reboots the original Star Trek continuity established by the franchise creator Gene Rodenberry.
- In the pre-title scene, the Starfleet vessel USS Kelvin is attacked by the Narada, a highly advanced Romulan ship. One of the Narada's missiles inflicts severe damage on the Kelvin, killing several crew members.
- The Narada launches another scatter-missile and the Kelvin's point-defence phasers fail to stop all of the projectiles. The hull is breached and a female crew member is blown out into space.
- Captain Robau - Commanding officer of the USS Kelvin, played by Faran Tahir. He boards the Narada via shuttlecraft to meet with Nero and negotiate a cease-fire. Nero's first officer Ayel asks Robau the location of Ambassador Spock, whom Robau does not recognise. Ayel then asks what the current stardate is, which Robau answers honestly. Nero is not happy with the captain's answer as he responds by impaling the captain through the heart with his spear.
- After Nero kills Robau, the Narada resumes attacking the Kelvin. Two officers on the bridge are killed in an explosion caused by the next volley.
- A crewman, possibly the chief engineer, is seen running through the engineering deck when he is suddenly caught in an explosion.
- As the Kelvin crew evacuates, George Kirk (portrayed by Chris Hemsworth) remains aboard and uses the ship's phasers to shoot down the Narada's missiles targeting the fleeing shuttles. With the ship's autopilot disabled, George is forced to fly the ship himself and sets it on a collision course with the Narada. As the Kelvin flies toward destruction, George listens to his wife Winona over the comms as she goes into labour and gives birth to their son: James Tiberius Kirk. George is able to say "I love you" to his wife one last time before the Kelvin collides with the Narada and explodes. The Narada survives the collision, but is severely damaged.
- Twenty-five years later, Jim Kirk is studying at Starfleet Academy. One night he is having intimate relations with an Orion cadet and hides under her bed when the Orion's roommate - Uhura - comes in. Uhura tells her roommate that she was in the long-range sensor lab and had intercepted a Klingon transmission. Apparently, forty-seven Klingon ships had been destroyed whilst patrolling their borders. What no one is yet aware of is that Nero is responsible for this.
- The USS Enterprise and six other starships respond to a distress signal from the planet Vulcan. Having their warp jump delayed, the Enterprise is the last ship to arrive. By the time they arrive, the other Starfleet ships have all been destroyed by the Narada.
- The Narada fires on the Enterprise and four crew members are seen caught in an explosion.
- Dr. Puri - Chief medical officer of the Enterprise. He is never shown on-screen and is revealed to have been one of the casualties when the Narada opened fire. With Puri dead, Leonard McCoy takes on the role of CMO.
- Olsen - A Starfleet redshirt played by Greg Ellis. He joins Kirk and Sulu in space-jumping down to the Narada's drilling device. He is eager and excited at the prospect of fighting Romulans, but as is Star Trek tradition, he suffers an embarrassing fate. As the away team reach the drill, Olson opens his parachute too late and hits the drill platform hard. He survives the impact only for his chute to get sucked toward the drill's particle beam. He is pulled into the beam and vaporised.
- A group of Romulans battle Kirk and Sulu on the drilling platform. During the fight, Sulu kicks a Romulan over one of the drill's heat exhaust vents and the soldier is vaporised by a blast of excess heat.
- Kirk almost falls to his doom as his Romulan opponent has him hanging off the edge of the platform. Luckily, Sulu intervenes and uses his sword to impale the Romulan through the back. The Romulan's body then topples over and off the platform to the planet below.
- Having drilled straight to Vulcan's core, Nero launches a probe containing a minute amount of a substance called "red matter". This substance reacts with the planet's core and generates a black hole at the centre of Vulcan that destroys the entire planet.
- Before Vulcan is destroyed, Spock beams down and enters the Katric Ark where his parents and the planet's leading council are in session. Spock leads them out, but a statue collapses as they flee and one unlucky Vulcan is crushed beneath it.
- Another Vulcan is crushed by a cave-in as Spock and the others flee.
- Six billion Vulcans were estimated to have perished when the Vulcan homeworld was destroyed. Roughly 10,000 Vulcans were off-world during the event and Ambassador Sarek and the Vulcan elders were evacuated by Spock.
- Captain Pike is held captive aboard the Narada and Nero tells him about how Romulus was destroyed and his wife perished while he was off-world.
- After being stranded on the planet Delta Vega, Kirk is pursued by a creature called a drakoulias. The canine beast almost reaches Kirk until another monster, a hengrauggi, bursts out of the ground and crushes the drakoulias in its jaws before tossing its corpse aside to pursue Kirk.
- After meeting Spock Prime, the elderly Spock from the original Star Trek timeline, Kirk learns via mind-meld that the planet Romulus was destroyed by a supernova. Spock had used his timeship, the Jellyfish, equipped with red matter, to generate a black hole that would absorb the supernova, but he was too late to save Romulus.
- When the Enterprise catches up to the Narada, Scotty beams Kirk and Spock over to the enemy ship, believing that they will materialize in the cargo bay. They don't. They beam onto the command deck. Miraculously, Kirk and Spock avoid being shot dead by the surrounding Romulans and manage to shoot several of them.
- Kirk stuns one of Nero's men, allowing Spock to mind-meld with him to glean information from him. Whilst Spock is mind-melding, another Romulan appears behind him, but Kirk shoots him from off-screen.
- Kirk finds Captain Pike and shoots the Romulan guard standing over him.
- Another Romulan guard runs up behind Kirk as he is busy releasing Pike. The captain grabs the disruptor pistol Kirk had taken from Ayel and shoots the guard.
- Having commandeered the Jellyfish, Spock uses it to destroy the Narada's drill and then attempts to collide the Jellyfish with the Narada. Spock is beamed out just before impact and the collision causes the red matter aboard to ignite and implode, creating a black hole. Kirk makes one final communication to Nero and offers him help, which Nero defiantly rejects. Having gotten his answer, Kirk gives the order to open fire and the Enterprise unloads its full arsenal upon the Narada, ensuring its destruction.