One of the complaints nerds have about the new J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie is the very odd use of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" when young Kirk is driving his stepdad's classic car off a cliff. Although I liked the movie, I did think it was odd to hear such a well-known, popular song in Star Trek. Well, TR commenter PossibleMisnomer has an idea why the song was used, and I think he's 100% right -- it's because William Shatner has a long history of mispronouncing the word sabotage as "sabo-taj." Watch the above video, and you can even hear him refusing to admit his pronunciation is wrong (during some kind of voice work), and then him saying "sabo-taj" back in his Trek TV days. I am 100% convinced Abrams used the song as a nod to this, and now I think it's awesome and hilarious.
Comments
cam said:
I'M JAMES TIBERIUS KIRK!!!!
the music was great! they could have plastered the music over a space battle and i would have loved it.
i had a problem with a kid jumping out of a car to counteract the 60 mph plus he was going. it was looney tunes. it's like jumping in a falling elevator to counteract the fall: doesn't work, never works, never comes close to working.
buttt...when event horizons to black holes don't exist, what matter physics? i don't need physics...
I'M JAMES TIBERIUS KIRK!!!
Posted 05/12/2009 at 06:20:20 AM
Frito said:
My question was why hasn't that song been used before?
Put it over Star Trek 5, and Sybok just became watchable.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 06:28:58 AM
cummins said:
I just keep loving this new Star Trek movie more and more. Given Abrams' love for subtle and blatant easter eggs and puzzles, the use of "Sabotage" makes perfect sense.
Also, did anyone else see a Tagruato sign during one of the Earth scenes? For those of who you have lives, Tagruato is the company said to be responsible for the creation of the "Cloverfield" monster in that film's ARG.("Cloverfield" was also an Abrams production).
It's really quite pathetic that I know this. Jesus.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 06:29:42 AM
Arsenal said:
See I just assumed that Kirks Stepdad listens to classical music when he is driving his 200 year old car, or is it 300 years old, still working makes it impressive.
It would be like me stealing my dads Horse and Carriage and blasting Bach on the grammaphone
Posted 05/12/2009 at 06:30:52 AM
AlexB said:
Yeah, I just assumed someone was a fan of oldies. But that explanation is much, much better.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 06:54:25 AM
THE PR0F3550R said:
It would be like me stealing my dads Horse and Carriage and blasting Bach on the grammaphone
@Arsenal - LOL Warp Factor 9.0!!
Go Amish Kirk!
Posted 05/12/2009 at 07:05:11 AM
MattK said:
The guy who made this video would like to think it was because he made this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umN2x2t7i5s&feature=channel_page
Posted 05/12/2009 at 07:10:34 AM
hotchman said:
Another little reference was Uhuru (sp?) orders a slusho at the bar.
Another little quirk, Kirk's step dad is Greg Grunberg from Heroes.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 07:16:53 AM
Arsenal said:
of course Greg Grunberg , him and J.J are B.F.F.F
But I did not know that it was his voice
Posted 05/12/2009 at 07:31:10 AM
Jason said:
NEver thought of that. Excellent point. That tape has ties to some excellent Stern Show bits.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 07:42:35 AM
BorgQueen said:
Ha! Very funny point about the song and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the reason JJ included it. Still thought it was stupid in the movie but at least there may be a reason behind it.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 08:57:54 AM
mightynard said:
wow, they were really committed to getting in that shatner joke at the risk/expense of pulling you out of that timeline.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 09:15:37 AM
Glitchy Goblin said:
I love the new movie even more now. ^_^ However! I will say that restoration has been getting better and better. Look at things we can restore and renew now that we couldn't ten years ago. So, maybe, just maybe, I can excuse the car and music. After all, the MP3 player thingie was very new.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 10:31:54 AM
PossibleMisnomer said:
Sweet! My comment's the basis for a post!
I'm way happier about this than I would have been for winning the MadLibs contest. :)
Church: Honestly, probably the only reason I made the connection is because the first Rock Band game came out. Someone made the Shatner reference while we were playing the song one day, and ever since then we've sung the chorus as:
"What could it be, it's a mir-aj, I'm tryin' tell you all it's sabo-taaaaj!"
Posted 05/12/2009 at 10:40:47 AM
Jaime E. Galvan said:
I liked the use of the song in the scene. I figured the reason that particular song was chosen was because the old Beastie Boys albums like "Illcommunication" are being re-issued on vinyl and special two-disc editions this year.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 10:47:29 AM
ZeroCorpse said:
Like I've been saying, there's NO shortage of old pre-22st century entertainment in Star Trek, and I don't see how listening to "Sabotage" is any different than:
* Dressing up and playing Sherlock Holmes in the holodeck.
* Listening to and getting advice from a 1960s nightclub act.
* The WHOLE BRIDGE CREW dressing up as ancient sailors.
* Fighting side-by-side with Abraham Lincoln.
* Visiting Mark Twain and bringing him to the 24th century.
* Performing Bach, Beethoven, and other classical music.
* Listening to early 20th century Jazz (Riker).
* Vacationing in the old American west.
* Listening to ancient earth classical music (Picard).
* Playing war games based on ancient Earth battles.
* Playing cards with Einstein, Newton, and Hawking.
* Having Klingons recite Shakespeare.
* Having genetically-enhanced humans recite Moby Dick.
* Captains who CONSTANTLY reference Moby Dick.
* Comparing a new crew member to Pinocchio.
* Jim Kirk saying "Double dumb-ass on you!" in the 80s.
* Scotty trying to talk to an Apple Macintosh computer.
* Data taking an interest in art from various centuries.
And so on.
I mean, come on! How does a piece of Beastie Boys music playing from a music archive differ from anything else in Star Trek's ancient past?
There's only one issue with that *particular* time period (the 90s), and that is that in the original timeline the human race would have been in the midst of the Eugenics Wars when that song came out-- but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have been written either way. Most canon sources make it clear that the Eugenics Wars were centered in Asia and the Middle East, and that America was largely untouched... So the Beasties would have had ample opportunity (and indeed, maybe MORE inspiration) to write "Sabotage".
Posted 05/12/2009 at 02:11:53 PM
Stephen said:
Anyway, old Kirk had all the artifacts in his quarters in II & III, so maybe it's just a constant personality quirk of his that he's into retro stuff. In another timeline, he'd be playing a Game Boy Pocket.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 02:52:54 PM
Snoodle said:
It didn't bother me to begin with, but that's just awesome.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 03:39:48 PM
Alice said:
Hah! I sincerely hope that this was JJ's motive behind using the song.
The greatest "WTF?" music moment in the movie is when Spock has just thrown the placement offer back in the Vulcan council's face and delivered his "live long and prosper" line like a true badass.... Camera close up of his face... And then the rock music kicks in, just before we cut away to Kirk in the car.
There was a split second where I almost believed that Spock was going to turn around and walk out to that song.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 06:26:52 PM
Bix Dugan said:
Has anyone brought up how in "A Piece of the Action" Kirk never was in a car before?
Also while I'm here.... Was that Lt Arex from the Animated Star Trek in that opening scene?
Posted 05/12/2009 at 10:14:59 PM
Tasha said:
Actually Kirk's issue in "A Piece of the Action" was the manual transmission that had to be double clutched, something he didn't know how to do. Also the car had a manual choke. The 'vette has full a syncromesh transmission, not requiring double clutching, and of course has an automatic clutch.
BTW I loved how Spock told the Vulcan council "Live Long and Prosper" like it was an insult.
Posted 05/12/2009 at 11:36:09 PM
v3rlon said:
Actually, the Kirk in "A Piece of the Action" didn't have Greg Grunberg for a stepdad, so he never got to steal the corvette. His real father was still alive.
No, plot holes and continuity errors were with Romulans. The Fedaration didn't know about the Vulcan-Romulan link unti "Balance of Terror" and the Klingons didn't have cloaking technology until around the time of "The Enterprise Incident," but the D7's in the Kobayashi Maru test were 'de-cloaking.'
Posted 05/13/2009 at 03:35:53 AM
Ramone said:
I thought the use of the Beastie Boys was great. Much better than the way Zack Snyder shoe-horned all that music into Watchmen. Watchmen would have been better without it.
Posted 05/13/2009 at 09:06:36 AM
ZeroCorpse said:
@V3rloon
Presumably, the destruction of the Kelvin (and perhaps the Borg's interference during First Contact) meant that the Federation pushed up their schedule when it comes to technology... There's no reason this can't also include a hyped-up search for intelligence on known enemies, like the Romulans and Klingons.
They knew Romulans and Vulcans were connected because they were more aggressive with the Vulcans when it came to information-gathering, and Klingons had cloaking devices earlier for the same reason Starfleet had the Enterprise out much earlier than in the original timeline; Everyone was freaked by the crazy-powerful ship that destroyed the Kelvin, and wanted to be ready if it ever came back.
So Klingons started cloaking earlier, and Vulcans spilled their guts earlier.
Posted 05/13/2009 at 12:55:14 PM
Lynn said:
Whoa, how come no one's brought up how the Beastie Boys adore dropping Star Trek references in their music, including Ch-Check it Out where they appeared dressed as characters from Original Series, Brouhaha and, of course, Intergalactic with: "Your knees start shakin and your fingers pop, like a pinch on the neck from Mr. Spock"?
Combined with this interesting piece o' evidence, the BB and Trek sound like a match made in heaven.
Posted 05/16/2009 at 06:21:43 PM
Shyhoulud said:
This Youtube vid was posted 2 years ago and features the song 'Sabotage' against a montage of Startrek 2: The Wrath of Khan. Notice Mike D's screams overlayed on Shatner's "KHAAAAAAN"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPWM1mbios8
If there was a vid that influenced JJ Abrams' choice it may well have been this one...or it could have been coincidence :)
Posted 05/20/2009 at 08:38:47 AM
Rich said:
I'm sure the mispronunciation joke explains the reasoning, but the lyrics of the song are also noteworthy in terms of movie's re-working of the old TV continuity in favour of the new movie one, thanks to Romulan time travel... so now everything you thought was going to happen, might be totally different. Take it away, Beasties:
"...because your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear...."
"'Cause What You See You Might Not Get
And We Can Bet So Don't You Get Souped Yet
You're Scheming On A Thing That's A Mirage
I'm Trying To Tell You Now It's Sabotage!!!"
Posted 06/01/2009 at 10:48:35 AM
Alder Knight said:
@Lynn -
Late to the party, but For Your Edification:
http://slyoyster.com/movies/2009/did-the-beastie-boys-inadvertently-invent-the-vulcan-nerve-pinch/
Posted 09/14/2009 at 02:08:22 AM
ben said:
The car should've been a 21st century concept model. By Kirk's time, it would be an "antique".
Posted 09/29/2009 at 10:32:02 AM






