The film's ending explained (in detail)

With its debut in 1979, Star Trek: the movie launched the Star Trek franchise into a new era of big-screen adventures for Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew. In the opening sequence of director Robert Wise's special effects extravaganza, a massive space cloud easily destroys three Klingon ships before continuing its course towards Earth. When Starfleet monitoring station Epsilon IX informs Starfleet Command of this approaching cloud, they assign the newly retrofitted USS Enterprise to intercept the entity before it reaches Earth.

With its impressive visuals and essentially Star Trek history, Star Trek: the movie set box office records at the time of its release. However, the film received mixed reviews, with some criticizing its slow pace and reliance on visual effects. Yet, Star Trek: the movie remains loved by many fans, and remains a crucial part Star Trek timeline. Additionally, the film's success led Paramount to make five more Star Trek films featuring Kirk and his Starship Enterprise crew. Slow plot or not, seeing Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) reunite on the big screen made it all worth it.

V'Ger's secret is that it is Earth's Voyager 6 probe

Turns out V'Ger wasn't really a villain after all

As Admiral Kirk and the Starship Enterprise approach the space cloud, Spock finds a way to communicate with the entity known as V'ger. Upon reaching the true center of the mysterious ship, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Captain Will Decker (Stephen Collins) exit the Enterprise and find themselves in a large chamber. In the center of the chamber is V'ger — a NASA probe called Voyager 6 that was launched from Earth centuries earlier. Kirk recalls that NASA's Voyager program was intended to collect data from its travels and transmit it back to Earth.

Captain Decker theorizes that Voyager 6 must have disappeared through a black hole and ended up on the other side of the galaxy. The Voyager probe then ended up on a machine planet, where the machines built a ship for Voyager 6 so it could complete its original directive. As V'ger traveled the galaxy collecting information, gained so much knowledge that he achieved sentience. Upon arriving on Earth, V'ger sought to fulfill his purpose, handing over all the information he had gathered to his creator.

What happened to V'Ger at the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

V'Ger merges with Ilia and Will Decker

As the Enterprise attempts to learn more about the entity approaching Earth, V'ger sends a probe to scan the Enterprise's bridge. The probe examines the new Deltan navigator, Lieutenant Ilia (Persis Khambatta), and soon disappears, taking Ilia with it. Before long, V'ger visits the Enterprise in the form of a robotic replica of Ilia. As V'ger downloaded everything about Ilia, he also incorporated her memories and emotions into his new form. V'ger reveals that he returned to Earth to find his creator, but Kirk and his team don't know how to answer V'ger's questions.

After discovering that V'ger is actually Voyager 6, Kirk and his crew find an ancient code from Earth meant to respond to V'ger's radio signal. Unfortunately, V'ger does not allow the code to be completed because he now wants to merge with his creator. Decker determines that V'ger needs a human to deliver the code to evolve. Because of his previous romance with Ilia, Decker volunteers to join V'ger. Decker and V'ger/Ilia then merge into a new life form and disappear into space, no longer being a threat to Earth.

Star Trek: Movie Ending Sets Up New 5-Year Mission We've Never Seen

Kirk brings the band back together to face V'Ger

Before the events of Star Trek: The film, Kirk and many of his crew scattered across the galaxy after the end of Star Trek: The Original Series. Although some crew members, such as Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nicols), Sulu (George Takei), and Chekov (Walter Koenig), remained on the Enterprise, Spock and McCoy were elsewhere. Spock was on Vulcan undergoing the Kolinahr ritual to purge his emotions, and McCoy had retired from Starfleet. After being assigned to the V'ger mission, Kirk personally summons Dr. McCoy, and Spock later reaches the Enterprise after receiving telepathic signals from V'ger himself.

The mission to save Earth from V'ger brings Admiral Kirk and his crew back aboard the Enterprise, and they remain together at the end of Star Trek: the movie. Spock no longer wishes to continue pursuing Kolinahr, and the Enterprise appears poised for another 5-year test cruise. Star Trek: the movie ends with a final message on the screen - "The Human adventure has just begun." This implies that the following Star Trek the movies will start exactly where The film stopped, but Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan jumps from the 2270s to 2285.

The first Star Trek film was a success, but why isn't the film remembered that way?

Many fans think the director's cut improves on the original film

Despite setting box office records at the time of its initial release, Paramount was disappointed with Star Trek: the movie disgusting considering your expectations for the film. Star Trek: the movieThe company's modest initial budget grew to $44 million, which was the largest of any film made in the United States at that time. The film received mixed reviews, with many negative trends, and currently sits at 52% out of 100 on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Ultimately, the studio blamed Gene Roddenberry and his rewrite of the script for the film's shortcomings.

Star Trek: the movie did well enough for Paramount to greenlight a sequel, but they removed creative control from Roddenberry and significantly reduced Star Trek IIbudget. For the second film, Harve Bennett was hired as producer and used a classic episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (Season 1's 'Space Seed') and leaned into the swashbuckling aspect of the series. With a story by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards, from director Nicholas Meyer Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan became a resounding success, receiving more positive reviews and reviving interest in Star Trek franchise.

V'Ger hadn't been seen in 45 years - until Star Trek: Lower Decks

Lower Decks brings back V'Ger (sort of)

At the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, V'ger merges with Ilia and Decker into a new life form, but this life form is never seen again. Although technically the merged version of V'ger has not yet appeared Star Trek: Lower Decks made at least two references to Star Trek: the movie iconic villain. In the opening scene of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 8, "Upper Decks", the lower decks are carving pumpkins. Lieutenant Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) reveals that he carved an image of V'ger into his pumpkin, which leads Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) to imitate V'ger's voice.

The other V'ger reference comes in the opening credits of Star Trek: Lower decks Season 5, which depicts the USS Cerritos facing a massive space battle involving numerous Star Trek villains. With each subsequent season, this space battle has added more and more villains to the scene, and season 5 added V'ger to the mix. Star Trek: the movie is more remembered for its visual effects than its human drama, but it nevertheless ushered in a new era of Star Trek and continues to be referenced and fondly remembered to this day.