STAR TREK Fan's Dying Wish Comes True Thanks To Director J.J. Abrams
Last week, a friend of a dying Star Trek fan took it to reddit to see if something can be done for Daniel, who has an aggressive and rare tumor, and has been given less than two months to live. His dying wish was to see Star Trek Into Darkness early. Now, his wish came true. Check it out...
On December 25th, Grady Hendrix posted on reddit a story about his friend Daniel, a dying Star Trek fan, who has a terminal cancer and less than two months to live. Daniel was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 38, and as his wife says, it's been a hell for him. Dan's dying wish was to see Star Trek Into Darkness early, or at least the 9-minute preview. This story spread across the internet in a big way. Director of the film, J.J. Abrams also saw it, and reached out to the family . Thanks to TrekMovie, we now know that Daniel saw a rough cut of the film. In a statement below, his wife thanks everyone for the support:
"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 JJ Abrams & 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). Also, it was truly amazing that a film-maker so secretive as JJ Abrams was kind enough to show this to us.
It is also so wonderful for his friends & his family to finally hear some good news from us, They know how important film is to Daniel & could not think of a better way to please to him. So this gesture really has brought a lot of smiles all around.
It was a wonderful thing to see with Daniel and a wonderful thing to see Daniel enjoy – Making someone as ill as he is smile for any length of time really makes a difference. (At this point making me smile is good too)
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%! We are so grateful thank you, thank you, thank you...
Quite moving, and it's absolutely great to see that Abrams did this. Daniel is a big movie fan as well, and he has been running the New York Asian Film Festival with his friend who posted this story and some other people. It's amazing to see how all this came together, thanks to the internet and the support of a lot of people. A good deed, indeed.