Although it’s still over five months until J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness hits theaters, Abrams graciously gave a very special advanced showing to a die-hard Trek fan – who is dying of cancer and won’t live long enough to see the film in May.
The life-long Trekkie, Dan, is 41 years old and is dying of cancer. He was diagnosed with Leukemia 3.5 years ago, underwent treatment, and has then additionally recently been diagnosed with another “unrelated” cancer, and only has a few months to live. His wife bought tickets to see The Hobbit, in order to watch a 10-minute clip of the Star Trek sequel before the film, but it didn’t end up playing. In high desperation to see Star Trek Into Darkness before Dan passes away, his wife and a friend reached out to Reddit for help.
Amazingly, connections were made, and as stated in the comments section, J.J. Abrams left a message on their answering machine to set up a viewing for Dan. Sometime within the past nine days, Dan and his wife were able to view Star Trek Into Darkness.
Dan’s wife writes: “Hi everyone, it’s Daniel’s wife, we are of course sworn to secrecy, BUT we are officially allowed to say we saw it and we enjoyed it IMMENSELY as a film and as a gesture…. However; Daniel ‘hates’ being an ‘inspiring cancer story’ we his friends and loved ones would prefer for the update to have more of a heartfelt message of giving, especially during this season: This is a story of us giving something to him, the ‘internet’ community giving something to him and ultimately being a heartwarming gift to our friends, family and so many others. This story of us (and of course JJAbrams & Bad Robot) being able to give this surprise gift of a screening to a huge movie buff like Daniel, especially a film made by a film maker who obviously makes movies with such care, with a fan like Daniel in mind (and a person like me who knows slightly less about these things).”
She goes on about the film specifically: “This is also so poignant as JJ Abrams took so much care in the first Star Trek movie to at least TRY to get everything ‘right’ for the fans and we were so touched when he was concerned that we wouldn’t 100% enjoy the screening as it’s still being worked on……. Be assured we enjoyed it 110%!”
It’s extremely kind, knowing how secretive J.J. Abrams is with his work, that he made the very big gesture to let Dan see this before he passes. We send warm thoughts to Dan and his family in the coming months.
Star Trek Into Darkness hits theaters on May 17. Be sure to check out the new HD stills that were released today.
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