Star Trek: The Motion Picture Ending Explained (In Detail)

With its premiere in 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture 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 vessels before continuing its course to Earth. When the 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 stunning visuals and quintessentially Star Trek story, Star Trek: The Motion Picture set box office records at the time of its release. However, the film was met with mixed reviews, with some critiquing its slow pacing and reliance on visual effects. Still, Star Trek: The Motion Picture remains beloved by many fans, and it remains a crucial part of Star Trek's timeline. Plus, the success of the film led Paramount to make five more Star Trek movies with 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 the whole thing worth it.

V'Ger's Secret Is That It's Earth's Voyager 6 Probe

It Turns Out V'Ger Was Not 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 arriving at the true center of the mysterious vessel, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Captain Will Decker (Stephen Collins) exit the Enterprise and find themselves in a large chamber. At the heart of the chamber lies V'ger — a NASA probe called Voyager 6 that was launched from Earth centuries before. Kirk recalls that NASA's Voyager program was meant 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 far side of the galaxy. The Voyager probe then ended up on a machine planet, where the machines constructed a vessel for Voyager 6 so that it could complete its original directive. As V'ger traveled across the galaxy collecting information, it gained so much knowledge that it achieved sentience. Upon reaching Earth, V'ger sought to fulfill its purpose by delivering all of the information it had gathered to its creator.

What Happened To V'Ger At The End of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

V'Ger Merges With Ilia & Will Decker

As the Enterprise tries to learn more about the entity approaching Earth, V'ger sends a probe to scan the Enterprise bridge. The probe scans the new Deltan navigator, Lt. Ilia (Persis Khambatta), and soon vanishes, taking Ilia with it. Before long, V'ger visits the Enterprise in the form of a robotic replica of Ilia. Because V'ger downloaded everything about Ilia, it also incorporated her memories and emotions into its new form. V'ger reveals that it has returned to Earth to find its creator, but Kirk and his crew do not know how to respond to V'ger's inquiries.

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

Star Trek: The Motion Picture's Ending Set Up A New 5-Year Mission We Never Saw

Kirk Gets The Band Back Together To Take On V'Ger

Prior to the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Kirk and many of his crew members had scattered across the galaxy after the end of Star Trek: The Original Series. Although some crew members, like Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nicols), Sulu (George Takei), and Chekov (Walter Koenig), had 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 the V'ger mission, Kirk personally drafts Dr. McCoy, and Spock later catches up to the Enterprise after receiving telepathic signals from V'ger itself.

The mission to save Earth from V'ger brings Admiral Kirk and his crew back together aboard the Enterprise, and they remain together at the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Spock no longer wishes to continue pursuing kolinahr, and the Enterprise appears poised for another 5-year shakedown cruise. Star Trek: The Motion Picture comes to a close with a final message on the screen — "The Human adventure is just beginning." This implies that the following Star Trek films will pick up right where The Motion Picture left off, but Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan jumps ahead from the 2270s to 2285.

Star Trek's First Movie Was A Hit, But Why Isn't The Motion Picture Remembered That Way?

Many Fans Feel That The Director’s Edition Improves Upon The Original Film

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

Star Trek: The Motion Picture did well enough for Paramount to greenlight a sequel, but they removed Roddenberry's creative control and significantly reduced Star Trek II's budget. For the second film, Harve Bennett was hired as producer, and he turned to 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, director Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan became a resounding success, receiving more positive reviews and reviving interest in the Star Trek franchise.

V'Ger Wasn't Seen For 45 Years - Until Star Trek: Lower Decks

Lower Decks Brings Back V'Ger (Kind Of)

At the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, V'ger merges with Ilia and Decker into a new lifeform, but this lifeform is never seen again. While technically, the merged version of V'ger has still yet to make an appearance, Star Trek: Lower Decks has made at least two references to Star Trek: The Motion Picture iconic villain. In the opening scene of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 8, "Upper Decks," the lower deckers are carving pumpkins. Lt. Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) reveals that he carved an image of V'ger into his pumpkin, which prompts Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) to imitate V'ger's voice.

The other V'ger reference comes in the opening credits for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, which depict the USS Cerritos encountering 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 Motion Picture is better remembered for its visual effects rather than its human drama, but it nevertheless ushered in a new era of Star Trek and continues to be referenced and fondly remembered today.