J.J. Abrams sure is an incredible human being. Last week Grady Hendrix posted a story on reddit about his dying friend named Daniel. Daniel is a huge Star Trek fan who has terminal cancer and has been given less than two months to live. At the age of 38 he was diagnosed with leukemia. His dying wish was to see Star Trek Into Darkness early, or at least the 9-minute preview, and Abrams came through for him showing him a rough cut of the full film. For someone as secretive as Abrams is about his work, this is a huge deal, and such a selfless act of kindness.
This is an incredibly moving story, and I couldn't help but get choked up reading the following statement from Dan's wife thanking everyone...
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...
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Daniel, his family and friends.