Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Directed by	Nicholas Meyer
Produced by	Robert Sallin
Written by	Jack B. Sowards
Starring	See table
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Gayne Rescher
Editing by	William Paul Dornisch
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	June 4, 1982
Running time	113 min.
Language	English
Budget	$11,000,000
Preceded by	Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Followed by	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
IMDb profile

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount Pictures, 1982) is the second feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. Originally released to theatres as Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. It is often referred to as ST2:TWOK or TWOK. It is widely regarded by fans as the best film of the series, and even many non-fans regard it as an excellent science fiction film. This may be partly due to the tone and style of the film, which is firmly character-driven, and almost completely avoids the pseudo-science that detractors see in other Star Trek films and TV series. ^{[citation needed]} The film starts a story arc trilogy spanning to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Cast

Plot summary

Ricardo Montalban as Khan

Building upon a previous Star Trek episode

In the Star Trek episode "Space Seed", the USS Enterprise stumbled upon Khan Noonien Singh and his followers in cryogenic suspended animation aboard a "Sleeper ship" named the SS Botany Bay. Khan was awakened and found to have been genetically engineered for physical and mental superiority. Khan was imprisoned in his "guest" quarters when he was later identified as a murderous tyrant who fled defeat in late 20th century Earth. He escaped and revived his followers, fellow "supermen" who had helped him rule a quarter of the Earth during the 1990s. They seized control of the ship with the assistance of Enterprise officer Lieutenant Marla McGivers, who had fallen in love with Khan. After defeating Khan, Captain James T. Kirk gave him two choices: exile to the uninhabited but habitable planet Ceti Alpha V or imprisonment in a Federation penal colony. Khan replied by alluding to the words of Satan from Milton's poem Paradise Lost: "Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven."

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan begins fifteen years later as Admiral James T. Kirk is spending his 52nd birthday reviewing a training exercise. As expected, Lieutenant Saavik has lost the "no-win" Kobayashi Maru scenario, "a test of character" rigged so that every cadet fails. When she questions her performance, Kirk assures her that "A no-win situation is a possibility every commander may face." Further, he counsels, "how we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life."

Captain Kirk's birthday

Outside the training room, Kirk thanks Captain Spock, now commanding the Enterprise, for his birthday gift, an antique copy of A Tale of Two Cities. Spock returns to the Enterprise to prepare for Kirk's inspection, and Kirk goes home to his San Francisco apartment. Dr. Leonard McCoy arrives, bringing illegal Romulan ale for refreshment, and antique reading glasses as his gift; the latter are also practical, since Kirk is allergic to the medication (Retinax 5) normally used to treat age-related vision problems. Kirk resumes brooding, prompting McCoy to question why they're treating his birthday like a funeral. He charges that Kirk is using his birthday as a pretense. The truth is that Kirk regrets no longer commanding a starship, and finds his duties as an admiral unsatisfying.

Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov encounter Khan

Meanwhile, the crew of the starship USS Reliant has found an apparently suitable test planet for Project Genesis in Ceti Alpha VI. Over subspace, molecular biologist Dr. Carol Marcus — head of the project team aboard Spacelab Regula One — emphasizes that the planet must be completely lifeless: "There can't be so much as a microbe, or the show's off."

Captain Clark Terrell and first officer Commander Pavel Chekov beam down to the planet to check, but lifeless it is not. They discover cargo containers with signs of human habitation, but no people. When Chekov discovers a seatbelt with "Botany Bay" as an inscription, he becomes terrified. He tells Terrell they have to leave immediately, but Khan and his followers are outside waiting, and capture them.

Khan's plot for revenge against Kirk

Khan's history is briefly retold in an exchange with Chekov, whom Khan remembers from before (see below, "Space Seed" actually was before Koenig joined the cast). When Khan says that Kirk marooned them "here," Chekov accuses him of lying, because they were left on Ceti Alpha V. Khan angrily bursts out, "This is Ceti Alpha V! Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after we were left here." The shock shifted Ceti Alpha V's orbit such that it went from merely inhospitable to nearly unsurvivable.

Khan now realizes the Reliant mistook the planet as Ceti Alpha VI and that Chekov and Terrell hadn't expected to find him there at all. He questions his prisoners about their mission, but they remain silent. Khan then uses the slug-like young of "Ceti Alpha V's only surviving indigenous life-form" — the ceti eels, to which he says he lost his wife — to gain control of Terrell and Chekov. The creatures burrow through their victims' ear canals into their brains, leaving them in a highly suggestible state. Khan nods with satisfaction, once again addressing Terell and Chekov: "That's better. Now tell me, why are you here? And tell me where I may find...James Kirk."

Miscommunication and redirection of Enterprise

As Kirk inspects the trainee crew on the Enterprise, setting out on a training cruise, he receives a garbled and enigmatic message from Carol Marcus. In it, she complains of Kirk's apparent order — relayed by the brainwashed Chekov at Khan's direction — that the Genesis Device be transferred to the Reliant upon its arrival at the spacelab. When communications become completely jammed, he assumes command from Spock and diverts the Enterprise to Regula to investigate.

En route to Regula One, the Enterprise encounters the Reliant, which doesn't respond to hails. Saavik starts to quote General Order Twelve, but Spock interrupts her: "Lieutenant, the admiral is well aware of the regulations." In a serious lapse of judgment, Kirk ignores the standing orders to take a defensive posture, including raising the Enterprise's shields, when the Reliant remains silent. A voice message from the Reliant claims that the starship's Chambers coil is overloading its communications system, a claim that Spock's scans immediately refute.

The first battle between Enterprise and Reliant

With the ships nearly on top of each other, the Reliant raises her shields and locks phasers on the Enterprise. Kirk orders the shields to be raised, but too late: the Reliant scores a direct hit on the Enterprise's engine room, causing severe damage and casualties, then hails the crippled Enterprise to discuss terms of surrender. On visual, a smug Khan can hardly contain his glee as he declares he is avenging himself on Kirk. Kirk offers to surrender himself and beam over, if Khan will let the Enterprise and its crew go. Khan accepts if Kirk also turns over all information the Enterprise has on Project Genesis — a good sign, notes Spock, as it means Khan didn't find any Genesis data at the Regula station. Kirk stalls, claiming difficulty in retrieving the data. This allows Kirk and Spock precious moments to retrieve the Reliant's security access prefix code from the Enterprise's computers. The transmitted code lowers the Reliant's shields, allowing the Enterprise to use its last bit of phaser power to damage the Reliant enough to force its retreat.

(In the Director's Edition, Peter Preston's death scene in Sickbay is extended to include an exchange between Kirk and McCoy, wherein Kirk laments his earlier lapse of judgment: "We're alive only because I knew something about these ships that he [Khan] didn't.")

Arrival at Regula I

The Enterprise limps its way to Regula I. Kirk, McCoy and Saavik beam onto the station and find the staff brutally murdered, all the computer memory banks erased, and Terrell and Chekov locked in a storage container in stunned shock. Discovering that something was beamed into the center of the Regula planetoid, which the station orbits, Kirk calls the Enterprise and receives a very grave damage report. He instructs Spock that if the landing party doesn't signal within one hour, the Enterprise crew must restore what power they can and head for the nearest starbase. The five beam to those coordinates and discover three survivors, including Carol and David Marcus. David attacks Kirk, believing that he killed the people left on Regula I. While he apparently recognizes Kirk, he may or may not realize that Kirk is his father (in an earlier line in the movie, he calls Kirk an "overgrown Boy Scout (Carol) used to hang around with"). Kirk definitely doesn't realize the young man is his son. Kirk asks Carol, "Is that David?" with surprise, suggesting that he hadn't seen David in years, perhaps not since birth.

Adm. James T. Kirk shrieks his famous line, "KHAAAAAN!".

Terrell and Chekov suddenly pull out their phasers, order them all not to move, and call the Reliant. Khan orders Terrell to kill Kirk, but Terrell struggles with the order. After vaporizing the third Regula staff member, he turns his phaser on himself. Chekov collapses as the mind-controlling slug exits his body. Kirk kills the slug, then challenges Khan to come down to kill him, but Khan simply beams up Genesis, and the following interaction ensues:

Khan: "I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Buried alive."

Kirk: "KHAAAAAN!" (echoes) [1]

The "Genesis cave"

Carol suggests to her son that he show McCoy and Saavik the "Genesis cave," with food "enough for a lifetime, if necessary," to ensure an opportunity to talk privately with Kirk. Her subsequent dialogue with Kirk reveals she was his old love, and that David is their son. She held custody because she wanted him with her, "not chasing around the universe like his father."

Saavik and McCoy are amazed when David shows them how the Genesis Device transformed the interior of the Regula planetoid into a life-rich environment. But now unable to hail the Enterprise, they worry more for the ship and crew than for themselves. After relating the tale of how he was the only cadet to beat the Kobayashi Maru, Kirk surprises everyone by contacting Spock: their exchange before beaming down was a ruse to trick Khan, who they knew would likely be intercepting and monitoring any transmissions. Spock beams the party aboard, and Kirk begins thinking of how they can escape the Reliant, which is not as badly damaged and still has more firepower.

The Enterprise is hit by phaser blasts in the Mutara Nebula.

The second battle between Enterprise and Reliant

Kirk manages to lure Khan into the nearby Mutara Nebula, where he subsequently outmaneuvers him by taking advantage of all three dimensions of space. With the Reliant disabled and about to be boarded, Khan sets the Genesis Device to detonate. The Enterprise lost warp power in the initial battle, and on limited impulse, has no chance to escape. Spock, unnoticed in the desperation, goes down to Engineering. He is about to enter the reactor room when McCoy stops him, saying "No human can tolerate the radiation that's in there!" Spock replies that as McCoy himself frequently points out, he isn't human; he then distracts McCoy and nerve-pinches him, apologizing that he has "no time to discuss this logically." Pressing his hand against McCoy's forehead to initiate a mind-meld, Spock intones "Remember". Spock then enters the room and successfully makes repairs amidst heavy radiation streams. On the bridge, a cadet monitoring the Engineering station announces that the main engines have come back online. With seconds to spare, Kirk orders Commander Hikaru Sulu to engage the warp engines, and the Enterprise narrowly escapes just as the Genesis Device detonates.

Genesis Device on Activation

The Death of Spock

The final victory over Khan comes at a tragic price: even Spock's half-Vulcan body cannot withstand the lethal dosage of radiation he has suffered. Kirk races to engineering, arriving only in time to exchange a few brief words with his former first officer and closest friend. After Spock satisfies himself that the ship is out of danger, he states that it was "logical" because "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Spock then declares his friendship for Kirk, offers the traditional Vulcan greeting ("Live long and prosper") and then dies.

At the very emotional funeral, Kirk eulogizes his old friend, and Spock's body, encapsulated in a photon torpedo, is launched onto the newly formed Genesis planet. Afterward, David comes to his father's quarters to make peace: "I'm proud, very proud, to be your son."

"I feel young"

The final scene on the Enterprise features a captain's log voice over entry by Kirk (indicating the Enterprise will head to Ceti Alpha V to rescue the Reliant's stranded crew), followed by a brief conversation between Kirk, McCoy, and Carol on the Enterprise bridge as they whimsically watch the new Genesis Planet on the view screen. Both the log entry and the conversation are steeped in symbolism, and muse provocatively about how Spock's death may not be an end:

Kirk (voice over): "Captain's log, star date 8141.6. Starship Enterprise departing for Ceti Alpha V to pick up the crew of U.S.S. Reliant. All is well. And yet I can't help wondering about the friend I leave behind. 'There are always possibilities,' Spock said. And if Genesis is indeed life from death, I must return to this place again."
McCoy: "He's really not dead, as long as we remember him."
Kirk: "'It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. It’s a far better resting place that I go to than I have ever known.'"
Carol: "Is that a poem?"
Kirk: "No. Something Spock was trying to tell me on my birthday."
McCoy: "You okay, Jim? How do you feel?"
Kirk: "Young (voice cracking). I feel young."

The Spock voiceover

We see the surface of the new Genesis planet, with Spock's torpedo tube lying in a clearing in the middle of one of the newly created forests. Then, at the end, the Genesis planet and its primary are shown, with a voiceover of Spock saying, "Space...the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her on-going mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

Themes

Kirk and Spock say their farewells.

The Wrath of Khan is in some ways a story of Kirk's mid-life crisis. Unsure of his place in the world, unable to break out of his rut as an admiral, it takes his encounter with Khan and his assumption of responsibility for an untried crew to show him where he truly belongs. Unfortunately, the price is high.

Kirk was well-known for bending and breaking rules for expediency; in fact, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Klingon General Chang accused him of being a "career-minded opportunist" because of how often Kirk disobeyed orders. Kirk chose to ignore Starfleet regulations in the first battle with Khan, and he paid for it dearly, both in the deaths of novice crew members, and ultimately in Spock's supreme sacrifice that saved the ship from Khan's final gambit. Spock's death is widely regarded as one of the most powerful scenes in the history of Star Trek, and when Kirk himself died in Star Trek: Generations, many critics claimed that the scene failed to live up to the standard set by this film.

Ultimately the film is about life, death, and rebirths, and the relationships between two generations: Kirk with David, his son; Scotty with Peter Preston, his nephew; Spock with Saavik, his protege; and Khan with Joachim, one of his henchmen. (Some fans believe Joachim was Khan's son with the deceased Marla McGivers.)

Unable to see past his hatred, unable to conceive what life he might still have ahead of him, Khan took his crew on a mission of death and, ultimately, suicide. Kirk, by contrast, refused to give in to hate, and through his love for his friends he found a new life for himself. He was also able to bridge the gulf between himself and his son, and his rapprochement with David in many ways best represents the emotional core of the film.

We also see the friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy portrayed in greater depth than ever before. In the movie, Kirk is the ego of the three - he is the captain, the head of the ship, and his orders are the final word. McCoy serves to represent the more passionate and romantic id aspect of the three, encouraging Kirk to follow his more animalistic side. Spock is the superego; he tempers McCoy's influences, and provides a more rational, logical view of things. Their friendship is like a tripod; if one leg were to be removed, the entire thing would collapse.

The Kobayashi Maru test is representative of the no-win scenario. As a cadet, Kirk essentially cheated by secretly reprogramming the simulator so that he could win. In doing so, he missed the whole point. Kirk has made a career of being able to gamble and win, of outwitting his opponents and always having a clever, ingenious trick up his sleeve, even when his opponent is smarter and stronger than he. Kirk himself sums it up: "I've cheated death, tricked my way out of death, and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing." Because of this, he feels that he has never truly faced death, but cheated it all his life. And that it took Spock's ultimate sacrifice to drive home for him the entire point of the Kobayashi Maru test: "How we face death is at least as important as how we face life."

During the film, Khan quotes extensively from Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (just as Picard does in Star Trek: First Contact), while Kirk quotes from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Each character in some ways follows the path of the protagonist of their respective books.

Comments and criticisms

In its departures in tone and subject matter from the previous film, TWOK seems to have been influenced by the 1979 movie Alien, from the unexpected discovery of an ancient space wreck on a desolate planet, to macroscopic alien body parasites, characters with hidden conflicts of loyalty, secret weapons research, and even various details around the destruction of the Reliant versus that of the Nostromo. It's been said that in TWOK, unlike most of the other Trek films, the universe is a dark and scary place full of dangerous people. It's worth noting that TWOK is the only Star Trek film where the antagonists are all human, albeit they are for the most part genetically-engineered supermen.

Admiral Kirk issues a command to Lieutenant Saavik, who is played by Kirstie Alley.

The film is notable for being the first major role for Kirstie Alley, who played Lieutenant Saavik. The character of Saavik, and in particular Alley's portrayal of her, resonated with fans. Alley, not wanting to be typecast as a sci-fi actress, declined to continue her participation in Star Trek and in the next two films Saavik was portrayed by Robin Curtis (Shatner's movie memoir suggests that Kirstie Alley's salary requests were also at the root of her decision not to reprise her role). Valeris in Star Trek VI was originally supposed to be Saavik, but Gene Roddenberry changed the character, in part, because it was noted that most fans would never have accepted that Saavik consciously betrayed the Federation. (Director Nicholas Meyer took exception to this, pointing out that he created the character of Saavik and knew her better than Roddenberry.)

This is also the first Star Trek episode or movie where damage to the outer hull of the Enterprise is seen.

The film was much more action-oriented than its predecessor, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but Star Trek II was much less costly to make, with a modest special effects budget and TV production schedule. Indeed, the project was supervised not by Paramount's theatrical division, but by its television unit, and produced by Harve Bennett, a respected TV veteran (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man). Bennett produced the next three films in the series as well, and appeared in a cameo as Admiral Robert Bennett in his series valedictory Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Star Trek II re-used many models from the first film, including the three Klingon battle cruisers in each movie's opening scene. (One criticism of Star Trek: Generations is that it reused footage of an exploding Klingon bird-of-prey, but such recycling is nothing new.) Nevertheless, Star Trek II owes its considerable success to being primarily a character vehicle. By any reasonable account, Star Trek II rescued the Star Trek franchise.

After the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, executive producer Gene Roddenberry wrote his own sequel, involving a plot he had touted before in which the crew of the Enterprise travel back through time to assassinate John F. Kennedy and set a corrupted time line right. This sequel was turned down by Paramount executives, who blamed the relative failure of the first movie on the constant rewrites demanded by Roddenberry. He was ultimately removed from the production and reduced to an advisory position.

The film was directed by Nicholas Meyer, who later directed Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. According to Meyer, "The Undiscovered Country", a quotation of William Shakespeare, was also a working title for "The Wrath of Khan." It was changed, without Meyer's consent, by studio executives. Meyer has said that the studio's intitial new title was "The Vengeance of Khan," and that he had to remind studio heads that George Lucas was at that time working on his 3rd Star Wars film with the working title of "Revenge of the Jedi."

The film's story is a rewrite of three separate scripts: "The Omega Device" by Jack Sowards, involving the theft of the Federation's ultimate weapon; a script featuring Saavik by Samuel Peeples; and a script featuring Khan by Harve Bennett. Director Meyer wrote a new script in a matter of weeks using the best pieces of plot and the best characters from all three.

During filming, rumors abounded among fans that Spock would die (it is speculated in Shatner's memoir that the primary lifegiver to these rumors was Gene Roddenberry). Meyer didn't want this expectation to overshadow the rest of the film, so he scripted Spock's "death" in the first scene - the character pretends to be dead in a training exercise, slumping against a wall - so as to mislead viewers into being surprised at the film's ending. After the first scene, as Kirk and Spock left the training facility, Kirk quipped, "Aren't you dead?" Originally, Spock's death was supposed to be permanent, as Nimoy no longer wished to appear in future sequels. But as Nimoy has said, he changed his mind after his good experiences during filming, hence the mind-meld with McCoy before he goes to certain death in the engine room, and Kirk's musing that he must return to Genesis. It should be noted that Nicholas Meyer did not contribute to the scenes in which Spock's tube is visible on Genesis as it was his intention that Spock's death be irrevocable.

The James Horner score is considered by many to be one of the best Star Trek film scores to date. A portion of the score draws heavily on Sergei Prokofiev's "Battle on the Ice" from the score for the movie Alexander Nevsky.

Trivia

Enterprise and Reliant face off in the Mutara Nebula.

• The film introduces Star Trek fans to the "red jacket" uniform (a red double-breasted tunic over a color-coded turtleneck shirt), widely regarded as one of the most popular and attractive Star Trek costumes in comparison to the colored shirts and tunics of the original series and The Next Generation. In addition, the fictional history of Star Trek indicates that the uniform seen in Star Trek II, adopted sometime between the events of The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan, was one of the longest issued uniforms of Starfleet, lasting well into the 24th century. (Later versions of this uniform, as glimpsed at in several TNG episodes, would see the turtlenecks replaced by crewneck shirts and the belt eliminated.)
• The commentary on the special edition DVD for the film claims that the visual of the Genesis Device's impact on a barren planet is the first CGI effect ever used in a movie, although in truth, Futureworld was actually the first, using pioneering 3d graphics to animate a hand and face almost 6 years earlier. The Wrath of Khan was released in the United States 35 days before the release of Walt Disney Pictures' CGI-intensive Tron , itself released on July 9th, 1982. Pixar, which at the time was a division of Industrial Light and Magic contributed to both films.
• Some of the footage from the Genesis Device demo video shows up in the laserdisk arcade game Astron Belt.
• This movie is mentioned in the Barenaked Ladies song Grade 9 on the album Gordon.
• Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) were never actually face-to-face at any point during the film. All of their interactions are over the viewscreen or through communicators. Shatner describes in his book Star Trek Movie Memories (ISBN 0-06-017617-2) how their scenes were filmed four months apart.
• Though Arthur C. Clarke did not include The Wrath of Khan in his list of best science fiction films ever made, he "brooded over" the omission.
• In the novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Saavik's heritage is revealed to be half-Romulan. In addition, Sulu is given the rank of Captain, and is soon to command the U.S.S. Excelsior. (A prior version of the script includes mention that Admiral Kirk had signed orders granting Sulu the captaincy of the Excelsior, however this was omitted from the final script, and the appearances of the vessel do not reflect this original plot point.) "Regula One" is given the name Regulus. Carol Marcus is the lover of Vance Madison, one of the scientists on the space laboratory.
• Inside joke: Among the "antiques" visible in Kirk's San Francisco apartment is an ancient home computer that is recognizably (based on the trapezoidal shape of its monitor) a Commodore PET. At the time Star Trek II was filmed, William Shatner was the celebrity pitchman for Commodore computers. (In the DVD commentary for the Director's Edition, the computer is pointed out but referred to as a Commodore 64.)
• The film earned $14,347,221 in its opening weekend at the US box office, at the time the largest opening weekend gross in history.
• At a budget of US $11,000,000 in 1982 dollars (approximately US $23,000,000 in 2006 dollars), as of 2006 Star Trek II was the cheapest Star Trek motion picture to have been made to date, which was due to requirements placed on the production given the cost overruns of its predecessor Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Star Trek II is still the cheapest even when one adjusts for inflation; most of the film was shot on the same set, as the bridge of the Reliant was a redress of the Enterprise’s bridge and the "bridge simulator" (from the opening scene) was a simple reuse of that set.
• The film also featured a cameo of Transporter Chief Kyle (John Winston) from The Original Series. Kyle is now a Lieutenant Commander and serving as Communications Officer aboard the USS Reliant.
• Kirk receives a bottle of Romulan ale with a vintage of 2283 as a gift from McCoy. This is the first time a traditional calendar date (as opposed to Stardate) has been used on screen to provide a rough date for the events of this part of the Star Trek universe. The exact year in which Wrath of Khan takes place is still a matter of conjecture, however, but it is known to take place some time after 2283 (McCoy says of the ale, "it takes this stuff awhile to ferment" suggesting some period of time has elapsed since that year). The licensed (although officially non-canon) reference book The Star Trek Chronology conjectures that Wrath of Khan takes place in the year 2285, 14 years after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture; however this appears to contradict the statements in the film that the events of "Space Seed" occurred 15 years earlier.
• In the computer game, Starfleet Academy, a variant of the initial encounter with the Reliant is used as a training exercise for the player's character. As Captain Kirk sheepishly notes as he introduces the exercise, it is intended to teach the importance of obeying the standing orders of raising defenses when a sister ship of the fleet is encountered but refuses to communicate.
• Mark Lenard, who portrayed the Klingon captain in the first film, and Sarek in three of the four following films, wanted to appear in this one too. But Sarek wasn't in this film, and with the exception of Saavik and Spock, there were no other good alien roles.
• There were some questions as to whether Ricardo Montalban had prosthetics applied to his chest, to make him appear more muscular during his scenes as Khan. Montalban himself, as well as numerous people associated with the production of the movie, actively refuted it, saying that those muscles really were his, and citing the fact that, even going into his 60s, Montalban was physically very active, and worked out regularly.
• Additionally, it was reported that Ricardo Montalban took a substantial paycut to reprise his role of Khan, because he enjoyed playing the character so much.
• In the Seinfeld television series episode, "The Foundation," Jerry paraphrases a line from this film in an attempt to console the parents of George's late wife, Susan. As a result, Susan's parents found a charitable organization in her honor and appoint George to sit on its board of directors, much to his dismay. The premise climaxes with George exclaiming "KHAAANNN!!!"
• KHAAAN.com is a website featuring a video clip of Kirk shouting "KHAAANN!!", complete with audio. The site is occasionally linked to on internet forums when expressing strong dismay in response to another post.
• During the funeral scene for Spock, James Doohan actually played the bagpipes. It was originally intended that the piped version of Amazing Grace be continued into the exterior shot, but the choice was made in post-production to switch to an orchestrated version after the scene left the torpedo room.
• Nicholas Meyer reported on the DVD that he did endless takes with William Shatner so that Shatner would get tired of doing his usual overblown performance as Kirk and fall into a more natural performance.
• Around 1982, an Atari video game based on this movie was developed, but was not released.
• This film is the only one of the originals to include the use of both phasers and photon torpedoes in shipboard use.
• In the 1983 Dan Aykroyd comedy flop Doctor Detroit, the (likely fictitious) threatened sequel shown at the movie's close is named Doctor Detroit II: The Wrath of Mom.
• The film was originally intended to be titled "The Revenge of Khan" but was retitled to avoid conflict with the forthcoming third Star Wars movie, "Revenge of the Jedi." By the time the third Star Wars film was retitled "Return of the Jedi," marketing for "Wrath of Khan" had already begun.

Problems and inconsistencies

• In previous episodes, such as "The Doomsday Machine" Starfleet ships are shown as able to scan the make-up of entire star systems before entering them. This makes the Reliant's mistaken identification of Ceti Alpha V unlikely. The presence of a new asteroid belt in Ceti Alpha VI's place would have been noticeable.
• Khan's recognition of Chekov is a retcon, since "Space Seed" was produced before the character of Chekov was added to the television series. A humorous anecdote Walter Koenig likes to tell at conventions about Khan's recognition of Chekov: while Khan still had free rein of the Enterprise, he entered one of the ship's bathrooms. After waiting for Chekov to leave the only stall, and leaving Khan with no toilet paper, Khan exclaims "I never forget a face, Mr. Chekov!"
• Khan refers to his former life 200 years ago during his dialogue with Chekov and Terrell. He mentions to Terrell that his followers "have pledged to live and die at my command 200 years before you were born". He also recalls that "200 years ago I was a prince." This seems to contradict the notion that the Star Trek universe of Kirk's era is about 300 years from the present, especially since Chekov specifically states that Khan is from 1996, making it improbable to retcon the Eugenics Wars to the mid 21st century (the writers of the Deep Space Nine episode Dr. Bashir, I Presume admit to a script error that later suggested that the Eugenics Wars happened in the mid 21st Century). At the time this movie was written and during the time of TOS, "300 years from today" was a rough approximation suggested by Gene Roddenberry. Many unofficcial publications (such as Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise) assumed that Star Trek of the Kirk era could be set in the early 23rd century making Khan's rough 200 year approximation from the 1990s more likely. However, the bottle of Romulan ale that Kirk receives from McCoy is dated 2283.
• After Khan's first attack on the Enterprise, Scotty brings the badly injured body of his nephew, Peter Preston, to the bridge rather than directly to sickbay. This could of course have been a malfunction in the turbolift system as the ship was badly damaged at the time.
• Kirk's immortal and often parodied scream of "Khhhhaaaaaaaan!" is extremely bizarre since the taunting that provoked it concerned Khan trapping Kirk and company for "all eternity" inside the Regula asteroid. At this point Kirk knew full well they would be rescued by the adequately functional Enterprise. All parties should have also realized a supply ship would be visiting an important research station sooner or later. In an overblown bit of acting worthy of Shatner, Kirk may have affected his rage to lull his enemy into a false sense of security, as he was perfectly well-composed in the following scene.
• David told Kirk that the Genesis device could not be manually stopped, but no explanation was given for why the Enterprise couldn't attack the Reliant until the device was disabled or destroyed (though battle damage could have had the crew worried about further creeping failures that could be caused by overloading the ship's damaged and possibly saturated heat sinks with further weapons fire). Of course, there is the possibility that destroying the Genesis Device after activation may have caused the Device to detonate even sooner.
• Even though they were equipped with full hazard gear and facing an absolute death sentence, no one in engineering, including Scotty, was willing to reactivate the ship's warp engines due to intense radiation. This could be seen as a serious lapse in judgement by both Kirk and Scotty. Of course, at the time, Scotty was incapacitated and the rest of the engineers were trainees; it is possible no one other than Spock had the expertise needed to fix the warp drive.
• A burial at sea is usually only performed when it is impractical to return the body to shore. It is never explained why Kirk jettisons Spock without his family's permission and much to the horror and outrage of Spock's father, Sarek, as seen in the following film. It is possible that, as a Starfleet officer, Spock may have left instructions as to his preference as to the disposition of his body. The novelization of Star Trek II suggested that Spock's body posed a radiation risk if it remained on board for the voyage home. It is suggested in the novelization of Star Trek III that Spock chose to have burial at sea for two reasons: 1. He did not believe that his mixed heritage would allow his interrment at Gol on Vulcan. 2. He identified more highly with the traditions of Starfleet than Vulcan and so decided on burial rites more in line with those pertaining to a commissioned star naval officer.
• Kirk gets blood on his uniform. The blood spot moves every few shots.

External links

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Box Office Mojo
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at StarTrek.com
• DVD Journal review
• Flash animation of the infamous screaming scene
• Famous audio of kirk shouting at Khan

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