Even though it’s over four decades old,Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khanis generally considered one of the bestStar Trekfilms, as well as the one that saved the franchise after the disappointing performance of its predecessor, 1979’sStar Trek: The Motion Picture. It also happens to have one of thesaddest goodbyes in movie history. Director Nicholas MeyersavedWrath of Khanfrom repeatingTMP’s mistakes, and, in doing so, ensured that the crew of Kirk’sEnterprisewould continue their adventures on the big screen.
The Wrath of Khanis a sequel to “Space Seed,“one of the most beloved episodes of the originalStar Trekseries. In “Space Seed,” Kirk and theEnterprisecrew find adrift Khan Noonien Singh,the perpetrator ofStar Trek’s Eugenics Warsin Earth’s past, and after trying to welcome Khan and his followers into the 23rd century find that his need for power is too strong; after Khan attempts to take control of theEnterpriseand fails, Kirk maroons him and his crew on the uninhabited garden world of Ceti Alpha V and go about their merry way.
The Wrath Of Khan Is A Story About Vengeance And Legacies
It’s Also A Story About How Leaving Your Greatest Foe Alive Might Not Be A Good Idea
Set fifteen years after “Space Seed,“The Wrath of Khanstarts as another Federation ship, theReliant, surveys the Ceti Alpha system looking for a lifeless world to help testthe mysterious Genesis Device. An errant life sign on the barren sixth planet gets theReliant’s captain, Clark Terrell, and first officer Pavel Chekov, formerly of theEnterprise, to investigate, only to find Khan and his compatriots alive. It turns out a massive stellar accident had actually destroyed Ceti Alpha VI only six months after Khan was marooned, andthe debris turned the paradisiacal fifth planet into a blasted hellscape.
Star Trek Subtly Brought Back Wrath of Khan’s Scariest Alien
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4’s menagerie reintroduces the only thing worse than Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Khan uses Ceti Alpha V’s only remaining life, the disgusting Ceti eels, to mentally control Chekov and Terrell, and then takes over theReliant, stranding her crew on the planet below. After learning the details of the Genesis Device and how it has the power to completely reshape any planet its fired at, and that the Starfleet Admiral supervising the project is his old nemesis Kirk,Khan sets a course for the Regula One space station, home of the Genesis Projectand its designers, Carol and David Marcus – Kirk’s estranged ex-lover and illegitimate son.
Khan’s Plan To Strand Kirk’s Away Team On The Genesis Asteroid Fails From The Beginning
All Of Khan’s Scheming And Boasting Proves To Be No Match For Spock’s Ability To Improvise
Khan’s manipulations convince Kirk, who was supervising theEnterpriseas it serves as a training vessel for a crew of Academy cadets, to head to Regula One, thinking he needs to help Carol. Upon arriving,theEnterpriseis ambushed byReliant, as Kirk assumed it was still crewed by Starfleet personnel instead of Khan’s followers. A quick skirmish leaves both vessels damaged, and Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Lieutenant Saavik beam down to Regula One to investigate. There they find the unconscious Terrell and Chekov, who explain that Khan murdered the scientists, but that the Marcuses escaped to the nearby planetoid.
Wrath Of Khan’s Star Trek Captain Beat Sisko By A Decade
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Benjamin Sisko isn’t actually the first Black Captain. That honor goes to Captain Terrell in The Wrath of Khan.
Kirk and company beam down to the planetoid, and suddenly Khan has the upper hand; Chekov and Terrell reveal themselves to still be under Khan’s control, holding the Admiral and others at phaser point while hailing Khan. Khan orders Terrell to kill Kirk, but Terrell manages to resist, and instead kills himself while Chekov collapses, his own eel dying. Kirk grabs the active communicator and taunts Khan, to whichthe Augment leader responds by beaming up the Genesis torpedo and promising to destroy theEnterprise, thereby stranding Kirk on Regula forever.
Spock reported that main power would take two days to restore, noting cryptically that they would be doing those repairs by the book, and that “by the book, hours would seem like days.”
Kirk’s dramatic responding shriek of"Khan!” is one of theStar Trekmovie’s most memorable quotes, but all the memes and references to it forget the fact thatKirk, angry as he is, knows he still has a trump card. Before beaming down to Regula, Kirk and Spock had discussed the status of the repairs toEnterprise; Spock reported that main power would take two days to restore, noting cryptically that they would be doing those repairs by the book, and that “by the book, hours would seem like days.”
TheKobayashi Marusimulation, which Saavik and her recruits attempt at the beginning of the film, is a standard Starfleet test of command ability; the cadet in the captain’s seat is told that the civilian vesselKobayashi Maruis stranded in hostile space and about to suffer a warp core breach. The cadet’s ship could reach theMaruin time to rescue the crew, but that would violate the Federation treaty with the hostile power and likely be met with hostile force, if not taken as an act of war, essentially forcing the cadet to attempt to solve the trolley problem.
As Kirk explains to Saavik and David after he tells the story of how he cheated to win theKobayashi Marusimulation, he doesn’t believe in no-win scenarios, but he does believe in Starfleet Regulation 46A –no uncoded messages are to be transmitted on an open channel in a combat situation. With that, he hails theEnterprise, and Spock reports that main power was indeed restored in the two-hour window his quickly improvised code had promised. With that, Kirk and the others beam back to theEnterpriseand begin planning how to disable Khan and theReliant.
Kirk Proves Himself The Superior Tactician In The Battle In The Mutara Nebula
Ship Battles, Much Like Chess, Have Added An Extra Dimension Since Khan Won The Eugenics Wars
Despite the repairs, theEnterpriseturns out to still be too damaged for a straight-up fight, even against a smaller ship like theReliant, sothey set course for the nearby Mutara Nebula, hoping that the ionized gases of the interstellar dust cloud will disruptReliant’s sensors and shields, evening the playing field. Khan, impulsive as ever, orders an immediate pursuit; when his right-hand-man Joachim convinces Khan to be more cautious, and theReliantbegins to let theEnterpriseslip away, Kirk opens a channel to taunt Khan again, drawing theReliantinto the nebula.
Star Trek Movies Always Copy The Wrong Thing From Wrath Of Khan
The Wrath of Khan has been copied many times by the Star Trek movies but they always miss the chance to create another big idea like Project Genesis.
With both ships now effectively flying blind amid the nebula’s gases and dust, the crew of theEnterpriseplay a vicious game of cat-and-mouse with theReliantuntil a near collision allows both ships to strike each other with torpedoes, disabling one of theEnterprise’s torpedo tubes and causing an explosion onReliant’s bridge, which kills several of Khan’s crew. Then, theEnterprise’s main power fails again, forcing Scotty to seal the warp reactorbefore the engineering staff are overwhelmed with radiation.
Khan may be a genetically engineered military genius, he built his empire entirely within Earth’s gravity well, and he has no concept of how to battle in three dimensions.
Kirk is frustrated, feeling that Khan keeps retaining the edge in the fight, butSpock’s sage advice proves once again to be theEnterprisecrew’s saving grace. After analyzingReliant’s movements, he points out to Kirk that Khan’s tactics are hampered by “two-dimensional thinking,” which makes sense given that while Khan may be a genetically engineered military genius, he built his empire entirely within Earth’s gravity well, and he has no concept of how to battle in three dimensions.
This proves to be just the spark Kirk needs to pull a Phyrric victory out of his hat; he has theEnterpriseleave the plane on which they’ve been battling withReliant, and waits untilReliantpasses by before dropping down behind and crippling Khan’s ship with a barrage of phasers and torpedoes.Khan’s crew are dead and the tyrant himself is left crippled and alone onReliant’s bridge, with only the Genesis control console for company.
Spock’s Final Sacrifice Saves The Enterprise Because The Needs Of The Many Outweigh The Few
Spock’s Belief In Logic Is In Direct Conflict With Kirk’s Refusal To Believe In No-Win Scenarios
Khan, with his dying breaths, activates the Genesis Device and aggressively quotesMoby Dickas he watchesEnterpriseretreat. Spock notices the energy from Genesis building and advises a rapid retreat, but with main power seemingly down for good, theEnterpriseis forced to limp away at impulse speeds, unlikely to clear the Mutara Nebula before the Genesis detonation consumes them. With Kirk doing his best to lead his crew through what looks like his final no-win scenario,Spock slips into the turbolift unnoticed, heading to Engineering to pursue the only logical option.
As Spock reaches the reactor chamber, Dr. McCoy, who has been treating Scotty and the other engineers for radiation poisoning, tries to stop him, pointing out that the radiation in the chamber means certain death, even with Spock’s resilient Vulcan physiology.Spock, as always, refuses to listen to the doctor, rendering him unconscious with a nerve pinch, and then, almost as an afterthought, mind-melds with McCoy for just a moment before entering the chamber.
Spock’s mind-meld with McCoy is so that he can transfer hiskatra– the Vulcan term for someone’s living spirit – to the doctor. Knowing he was certain to die, Spock made sure that some part of his self would live on in McCoy to return home to Vulcan.
Despite the massive amounts of radiation, Spock is able to repair the reactor in time, and with only seconds to spare, Sulu kicks theEnterpriseinto warp drive.They clear the nebula just as Genesis detonates, consuming Khan, theReliant, and the nebula itself in a titanic explosion that then coalesces as the Genesis matrix recombines the matter into a pristine new planet. Yet Kirk can’t enjoy the sight, as his call to Engineering to congratulate Scotty on yet another miracle is instead answered by McCoy, who implores him to get down there as soon as possible.
Arriving at Engineering, Kirk sees Spock in the reactor chamber, his skin melting and scarred by the intense radiation. Kirk can only watch and impotently press his hand against the transparisteel wall of the chamber. Spock,content in the knowledge that his sacrifice has saved theEnterprise– saved Kirk– gives one last Vulcan salute and a barely audible “live long and prosper” before succumbing to the radiation.
The Genesis Planet Isn’t The Only New Life The Enterprise Leaves Behind
The Genesis Planet’s Soil Would Prove To Be Fertile Ground For A Sequel
The Wrath of Khancomes to a poignant end as Kirk and company gather in theEnterprise’s torpedo bay for Spock’s funeral, andthe torpedo tube used as Spock’s coffin is launched into space. Kirk returns to his quarters to grapple with the copy ofA Tale of Two Citiesthat Spock gave him as a birthday gift at the beginning of the film; David enters and gets his father to admit that for all his cavalier attitude about Khan and theKobayashi Maru, the greatJames Kirk never had to face deathlike this.
Wrath of Khan’s funeral scene is inspired by real-world naval traditions for a burial at sea. Director Nicholas Meyer specifically drew from English novelist C. S. Forester’sHoratio Hornblowerseries for much ofWrath, from shipboard procedures to the new uniforms.
As theEnterprisebegins to limp away from the Genesis Planet, Kirk, McCoy, and Carol stand at the viewscreen, watching the planet shrink away, and Kirk finally begins to understand what Spock was trying to say with the gift. He quotes the last lines ofA Tale of Two Citieswith a wry smile:
It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. A far better resting place that I go to than I have ever known.
McCoy asks Kirk how he’s feeling, to which Kirk responds, “Young. I feel young.” With that, the camera pans over the pristine Genesis Planet, cutting to the planet’s lush surface to show that, thanks to the vagaries of fate and gravimetric distortion,Spock’s coffin managed a soft landing amid the new growth. The camera turns to the sky, then returns to orbit as, over the first ringing notes of Alexander Courage’s theme from the original series, Leonard Nimoy delivers the classic “space, the final frontier” monologue.
The Wrath of Khan’s Legacy Is Still Felt In Star Trek Films Today
From The Undiscovered Country To Star Trek Into Darkness And Beyond
DuringWrath of Khan’s filming, there was no guarantee that a sequel would ever happen. Instead, the mind-meld with McCoy and the shot of the coffin on the surface of the Genesis Planet were added toWrath of Khanat the last minutewhen initial test screenings of the film were met with negative feedback about how dark the film was.Even Leonard Nimoy didn’t know about the final shot with the coffinuntil he saw the completed film.
Leonard Nimoy Quizzes Star Trek Fans About Spock’s Wrath Of Khan Death
In a resurfaced video from 1982, Leonard Nimoy chats with Star Trek fans who have just watched Spock die in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Since then, however,Wrathhas become enshrined inTrekcanonas an event that has rippled throughout the multiverse. J. J. Abrams’Star Trek Into Darknessinverted the plot twists ofWrath, throwing Khan into the timeline of the Narada Incursion, where this time Kirk was the one who died in the reactor chamber (although McCoy resurrected him thanks to some of Khan’s blood and a tribble). Every film villain since has been held to Khan’s gold standard, althoughTrekwriter Ronald D. Moore pointed outthe darker side of this trend.
At the time ofWrath’s release, the fate ofStar Trekwas dubious, sinceThe Motion Picturehad been critically panned in comparison to the concurrently-released and far more popularStar Warsfilms. Yet despite all the odds, and thanks to Nicholas Meyer’s tireless work,The Wrath of Khanwas a critical success, proving thatStar Trekcould compete in the cinema. Grappling with universal themes like aging and death, and leaning as heavily onStar Trek’s love of classic 19th-century literatureas on starship battles,Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khanprovided an example all futureTrekfilms would be compared to.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Cast
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a science fiction film that continues the adventures of the USS Enterprise crew, led by Captain James T. Kirk, as they confront the vengeful Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically engineered superhuman from the 20th century, who seeks revenge against Kirk for stranding him on a deserted planet.
