So Kirk is dead, everyone is standing around his body in sickbay. McCoy goes over to his desk with the Tribble on it. Just behind McCoy there's a red shirt guy sitting up on the med bed looking in the direction of where Kirk's body is and he's smiling. What's up with that. I find it really weird every time I see it. It's like that guy who photo bombed the crowd in San Francisco before a Starship smashed into it. Did he hate Kirk? Or is he glad that a yellow shirt died this time instead of a red shirt.
He is happy because when they said he would be an extra in Star Trek he didn't realize he would be sitting next to Captain James T. Kirk in a pivotal scene.
That would be my guess. He's the Abramsverse version of Ensign Ricky, the Redshirt who shares a scene with Kirk, but it is in fact Kirk who dies. Or maybe he's just so pumped up on space morphine?
It's hard to tell from this pic (click to enlarge), but it doesn't look like he's smiling to me: Then again, the pretty nurse is holding his hand, so that may be why he might be smiling. Or Dr. McCoy just gave him his erectile dysfunction pills, so he's like Smilin' Bob. Or he could be an ancestor of that guy in the background on the Enterprise-D bridge who cheered prematurely when they blew up the Duras sister's BoP, stealing Data's thunder.
I don't suppose there's a screencap of the smiling guy in sickbay or anything? Edit: Ninja'd by Im in Ur Childhoodz
I watched it on the big screen a few times and although the camera isn't focused on him he does seem to be smiling. It really stuck out each time.
He's giving a little smile in agreement to the nurse having said to him, "He's not really dead, as long as we remember him."
I think he's smiling cause he just woke up and realized he didn't get sucked out into space when the compartment he was in, blew up during the attack.
I think his smiling as it looks like the nurse is wearing a skin tight top. The view from the front must be pleasing....
The ship is close enough to Earth to be getting live feed of the final game of the World Series, in this shot everyone but Bones is watching it. Redshirt (smiling): "CLEVELAND TAKES IT, OH MY GOD, CLEVELAND CLEVELAND CLEVELAND !!!!!
Don't you know? Nero's arrival changed the date of the World Series. Yes that's right, a huge Space Octopus showing up and destroying USS Kelvin made the MLB decide to hold the World Series at a different time of year.
Of the suggestions so far, my votes go to: "Smiling Bob" and [Looking at his shirt color] "Thank God this time you didn't get a random "Red Shirt", with no lines, killed"