Star Trek Beyond is a 2016 American science fiction action film directed by Justin Lin, and written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. It is the 13th film in the Star Trek franchise and the third installment in the reboot series, following Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto reprise their respective roles as Captain James T. Kirk and Commander Spock, with Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldaña, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin reprising their roles from the previous films. Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella, Joe Taslim, and Lydia Wilson also appear.

Principal photography began in Vancouver on June 25, 2015. Two weeks after its Sydney premiere, it was released in the United States on July 22, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. The film is dedicated to the memory of Yelchin and actor Leonard Nimoy, who both died before the film was released. The film grossed $343.5 million at the box office, and received positive reviews from critics. At the 89th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. A sequel entered development but was ultimately canceled.

The Federation starship USS Enterprise arrives at Starbase Yorktown for resupply and shore leave for its crew. Struggling to find meaning in the third year of their five-year exploration, Captain James T. Kirk has applied for a promotion to vice admiral, while recommending Spock as his replacement. Meanwhile, Hikaru Sulu reunites with his husband and daughter, Montgomery Scott works to keep the ship operational, and Spock and Nyota Uhura have decided to take a break from their relationship. Soon, Spock receives word from New Vulcan that Ambassador Spock—Spock's alternate-universe counterpart—has died.

Enterprise is dispatched on a rescue mission after an escape pod drifts out of a nearby uncharted nebula. Its occupant, Kalara, claims that her ship is stranded on Altamid, a planet in the nebula. Upon arrival, a massive swarm of small unknown ships ambush and quickly overwhelm the Enterprise and begin to tear it apart. The swarm's leader, Krall, and his followers board the Enterprise, and capture and kill many crew members, in an attempt to capture the Abronath, a relic recovered during a recent mission. Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship, leaving the disintegrating Enterprise saucer section to crash land on the nearby planet Altamid.

On the planet, Krall captures Sulu, Uhura, and other survivors. Kirk and Pavel Chekov, accompanied by Kalara, locate the Enterprise's saucer section. Knowing that Kalara knew they would be attacked, Kirk tricks her into revealing herself as Krall's spy. She is killed when Kirk and Chekov escape Krall's soldiers and flip the Enterprise saucer, crushing her. Dr. Leonard McCoy and a wounded Spock search for other survivors elsewhere on the planet. Spock tells McCoy that he ended his relationship with Uhura and is leaving Starfleet to help the Vulcan survivors and continue the late Ambassador Spock's work. Jaylah, a scavenger who previously escaped Krall's encampment where her father was killed, rescues Scotty and takes him to her makeshift home, the grounded USS Franklin, an early Starfleet vessel reported missing over a century earlier. Scotty is reunited with Kirk, Chekov, McCoy, and Spock. Krall coerces the captive Enterprise crew to hand over the Abronath, then uses it to complete an ancient bioweapon. With the device complete, Krall intends to kill Yorktown's inhabitants, then use the base to attack the United Federation of Planets. Kirk and the others free the crew as Krall launches into space with the bioweapon, leading his drones to Yorktown.

The Enterprise survivors power up the Franklin and launch her in pursuit of Krall. Theorizing the swarm's system may be vulnerable to high frequencies such as VHF or radio; they jam and destroy the swarm by broadcasting the song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. Krall is chased by the Franklin through Yorktown. Uhura, Kirk, and Scotty discover from the Franklin's logs that Krall is Balthazar Edison, Franklin's former captain. A pre-Federation human soldier, Edison rejected the Federation's principles of unity and cooperation with former enemies like the Xindi and the Romulans. When he and his crew were stranded on Altamid by a wormhole, the survivors used the extinct natives' technology to prolong their lives at the cost of the others, and repurposed the ancient race's dormant mining drone workers into the swarm. Thinking the Federation had abandoned them, Edison planned to destroy the Federation and resume galactic conflict. Kirk pursues Edison into Yorktown's ventilation system, where Edison activates the bioweapon. Before it can spread, Kirk ejects it and Edison into space, where the weapon disintegrates Edison. Using a commandeered alien ship, Spock and McCoy save Kirk moments before he is also blown into space.

In the aftermath, Commodore Paris closes the files of Captain Edison and the USS Franklin crew. Though offered the promotion to vice admiral, Kirk decides to remain as a captain with his love of adventure restored; Spock, after finding a photograph of Ambassador Spock's Enterprise crew, chooses to remain in Starfleet and renews his relationship with Uhura. On Kirk's recommendation, Jaylah is accepted into Starfleet Academy. As the crew celebrates Kirk's birthday, they watch the construction of their new ship, the USS Enterprise-A, and resume their mission.

Leonard Nimoy appears in a photo cameo appearance as Spock Prime, alongside George Takei, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and Nichelle Nichols as the Prime versions of Sulu, Chekov, Kirk, Scott, McCoy, and Uhura, respectively. Jeff Bezos cameos as an alien Starfleet official. Carlo Ancelotti has a brief cameo as a doctor at Starbase Yorktown.