Director J.J. Abrams screens Star Trek Into Darkness for terminally ill trekkie

January 2nd 2013, 1:51pm

Every now and again we’re reminded that humanity doesn’t totally suck. We’re inundated with enough doom and gloom on a daily basis, so it’s always a welcome treat to hear about the goodness that can come about through human kindness. Case in point is the recent plea by the friend of a terminally ill man with a number of ailments seeking a screening of either the 9-minute preview of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS or, if by some chance, the entire film, as the man has weeks to live.

The terminally ill man, named “Dan,” has suffered a massive amount of treatments in connection with his illness and was unable to get to the theater to see the IMAX screening of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, which had the 9-minute preview. All of this transpired on Reddit, starting on Christmas Day, which later trickled down through MTV Geek, amongst other channels, before finally reaching Paramount and J.J. Abrams.

Here’s the traffic from original poster ideeyut and another friend, Garry Hendrix:

“I just wanted to say that I know and work with Dan (the guy who’s dying) but I don’t know the OP. Dan’s been running the New York Asian Film Festival with me and a few other guys for years. If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of all of this, I use my actual name as my Reddit name, and you can visit the NYAFF (New York Asian Film Festival) page on Facebook. If you still have doubts that are keeping you from helping, feel free to email me:[email protected]”

On December 27th, things really heated up quickly:

“Thanks everyone, and a huge thanks to OP ideeyut for posting this. JJ Abrams just called Dan’s wife and left a message. He’s going to try to arrange a screening for Dan, either of the film or at least of the 9 minute promo reel. I’ll never say anything bad about JJ Abrams again. Seriously. He is now beyond reproach as far as I’m concerned.”

Then, on December 29th, ideeyut followed up with:

“He got to see it a couple of hours ago and loved it. JJ Abrams is the man. I’m going to buy an extra ticket for Dan when it comes out.”

So, it took roughly four days to reach Paramount and J.J. Abrams, arrange a screening, and execute said screening for a terminally ill Trekkie. I’d say that’s a damn fine feat and a heartwarming gift from all involved. We’ve heard of tales like this before and it’s awesome to see such compassion from the people we constantly look up to as our heroes. They’re not all like that, so it’s sure great to find out when they are.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS opens in IMAX and 3D on May 17, 2013.