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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Difference between revisions
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'''Kirk''': "[[Big Word Shout|KHAAAAAAAAAN!!]]"}}
[[William Shatner]] and [[Ricardo Montalbán]] [[Ham-to-Ham Combat|fight]] to see who is the [[Large Ham|Largest Ham]] in the galaxy.
You see, the charismatic Khan Noonien Singh of the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original series]] episode "[[Star Trek/Recap/S1/E22 Space Seed|Space Seed]]" is back. In "Space Seed", Khan, a [[Human Popsicle]] from the [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|far-off year]] of [[History Marches On|1996]], was awakened and turned out to be a genetically-engineered warlord on the run after his side lost the Eugenics Wars. Kirk thwarted his attempt to hijack the ''Enterprise'', depositing him and his followers on an uninhabited planet.
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It's fifteen years later now. Khan escapes his exile with revenge against Kirk as his goal and using a stolen [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] to make good on it. Meanwhile, Kirk has fallen victim to the [[Modern Major-General|Peter Principle]] and is facing a mid-life crisis. It doesn't get any easier for him when a [[Hot Scientist]] he once knew turns up and her son says [[Luke, You Are My Father|Admiral You Are My Father]]. Kirk doesn't like to lose, but this time he may only be able to achieve a [[Pyrrhic Victory]]. The film's [[Bittersweet Ending]] was created with the assumption that Nimoy would be leaving the show for good, but ironically, he liked making this film so much that he wanted to come back, which was the point of the next film.
'''''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''''' is considered by many fans to be the best movie in the series and it's the yardstick against which all other installments are measured. This is largely attributed to the direction of [[Nicholas Meyer]], who had previously penned the best-selling ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' novel ''The Seven Percent Solution'' and directed the film ''[[Time After Time]]'', as well as the work of [[Harve Bennet]]. While Meyer hadn't actually seen the show before, he managed to watch all of the original series's episodes before sitting down to work, concluding that the premise was essentially "''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]]" and did a [[Retool]] to emphasize the [[Space Is an Ocean]] angle. Some of Harve's work included getting rid of the ridiculous [[Space Clothes]] used in the [[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|previous movie]] (which took guts considering the small budget).
Outside the world of ''Star Trek'', ''Wrath Of Khan'' is notable for containing two big breaks. [[Kirstie Alley]] made her acting debut in this film playing the young Vulcan [[Naive Newcomer|Saavik]], even getting the onscreen credit "[[And Starring|and introducing Kirstie Alley]]". This was also the first major motion picture to be scored by [[James Horner]], who would go on to do ''[[The Land Before Time]]'', ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]'', ''[[Braveheart]]'', ''[[Titanic]]'', and ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]''. As Nicholas Meyer once put it, they hired James Horner to do ''Star Trek II'' because they couldn't afford Jerry Goldsmith, but by the time Meyer returned for ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]'' they hired Cliff Eidelman because they couldn't afford James Horner.
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*** Services do change their uniforms, and the "Monster Maroons" were the [[Good-Looking Privates|smartest]] design in the Star Trek franchise, the only challenger (and a distant second) being the later, two-piece ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' version.
* [[Bus Crash]]: The actress who played Marla McGyvers, Khan's lover from "Space Seed", was not able to appear in the film, so she was killed offscreen by the [[Brain Slug|Ceti Eels]] to explain her absence.
** Which makes Khan's
** Although this makes Khan's motive a sort of [[Informed Attribute]]. He wants revenge for something that happened ''between'' the original episode and the movie, which has to be ''told'' to the audience.
* [[Call Back]]: The last line, delivered by Kirk (if you don't count Spock's "space: the final frontier" voiceover) call back to what he told Dr. Marcus during the [[Darkest Hour]] ("How do I feel? Old. Worn out."), and what Dr. Marcus told him back ("Let me show you something... that'll {{spoiler|make you feel young as when the world was new}}.").
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* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: When the ''Enterprise'' crew explore the remains of the Regula space station.
* [[Evil Gloating]]: Put the freaking [[Villain Ball]] down [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|and just blow him to bits, Khan!]]
* [[Evil Overlord]]: [[The Chessmaster|Khan]]. He ruled roughly
* [[Face Death with Dignity]]: {{spoiler|Spock}} straightens his uniform before facing his captain and friend for the final time.
* [[Failed a Spot Check]]: The crew of the ''Reliant'' failing to notice that they were on ''the wrong planet'', related to the fact that they failed to notice another planet ceasing to exist due to a [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Ceti
* [[Faking the Dead]]: Spock supposedly dies at the beginning of the film. {{spoiler|This scene was concocted hastily by Nick Meyer after hearing that spoilers had leaked about Spock dying in the film. To preserve the wham factor of Spock dying, the Kobayashi Maru and its disastrous aftermath was added to fool viewers into thinking that this was the "Spock dies" moment the spoilers meant}}.
* [[False-Flag Operation]]: Khan and his crew using the hijacked USS ''Reliant'' to sneak up on the unsuspecting USS ''Enterprise''.
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{{quote|"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...''"}}
** What {{spoiler|Kirk suffers when Khan's last gambit with the Genesis Device forces Spock to [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifice himself]] to save the ship. "I've hurt you" [[Ho Yay|indeed]]}}.
* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]]: Khan is a "product of late 20th
** And of course the Genesis Device is a literal genetic engineering nuke.
* [[Genesis Effect]]: [[Trope Namer]].
* [[The Glasses Come Off]]: Right before {{spoiler|the ''Enterprise'' takes out the ''Reliant'''s shields}}. [[The Kirk|Kirk]] also tells Khan "I [[
* [[Good-Looking Privates]]: The general Trekker consensus is that those maroon uniforms introduced in this film were the best the franchise ever had for the cast to wear.
** Either that, or they took [[Space Is an Ocean]] to ridiculous new heights.
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** "...But like a poor marksman you keep ''missing the target!''" Subverted in this case, when Khan refuses to rise to the bait and decides to [[Fate Worse Than Death|leave Kirk on the planetoid to rot]].
*** Khan might have taken the bait had Ricard Montalban's schedule allowed him to share production time with the rest of the cast's. This is why Khan and his crew never interact with Kirk and his.
* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: Implied and results in [[Manly Tears]] with "Do not grieve. It was... logical."
* [[It's What I Do]]: Same with [[It Has Been an Honor]].
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** The most brutal one of all is the last one....
{{quote|'''McCoy:''' Jim, you'd better get down here.... Better hurry.
And then Kirk looks over to see {{spoiler|Spock's empty chair}}.}}
* [[Only Mostly Dead]]: Spock after the final battle.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Joachim actually seemed pretty smart, but unfortunately for him, Khan's too bent on his revenge.
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* [[Public Secret Message]]: Spock tells Kirk on an open channel, "If we go by the book, hours become days." To anyone else, this might sound like a case of [[Lawful Stupid]], but Kirk, who'd been discussing regulations about coded messages with Spock earlier, knows that this means {{spoiler|to decode the next message, replace the word "days" with "hours"}}.
** And, in [[Real Life]], this counts as Roddenberry's second attempt to reconnect with his long lost [[World War II]] buddy, Kim Noonien Singh.
* [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!]]:
{{quote|'''Khan:''' THIS. '''IS.''' CETI ALPHA ''FIVE!!!''}}▼
* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: Part of what makes Khan one of cinema's most respected villains is how much his actions cause Kirk to lose.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: A 19th-century naval adventure ''IN SPACE''.
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* [[Rule of Cool]]: The primary reason for the [[Lock and Load Montage]]: There really isn't any ''reason'' why a 23rd century starship should require a dozen crewmembers performing manual labor to load a torpedo, but damn if it isn't ''awesome'' to watch.
** The automated loading system was damaged in their first encounter with Khan, so they had to resort to the human backup system.
* [[Say My Name]]: '''''"[https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/12/09/kirk-khan.jpg KHAAAAAANNNNNN!!!]"''''' Hell, [[The Khan]] even redirects to this trope.
** Though it's the most famous example of [[Large Ham]] ever, [[Fridge Brilliance]] reveals it's [[Justified Trope|justified]] in retrospect: {{spoiler|Kirk, who actually has a backup plan, is ''acting'' in order to convince Khan that he's won -- in other words, he's hamming it up deliberately}}.
* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: Khan and his crew being trapped for 15 years on a desolate world.
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** The concentric tubes of the Genesis control panel resemble the ones that Ripley uses to activate the self-destruct sequence in [[Alien]].
* [[Shown Their Work]]: According to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe9qSLYK5q4 this short documentary], the ILM team that put together the Genesis proposal scenes used the stars as seen from Epsilon Indi (a nearby K-class dwarf) as the background. The Sun is visible toward the end below the Genesis planet as an extra star in the Big Dipper.
* [[Skyward Scream]]: A sort of [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]], parodies always turn Kirk's "KHAAAAAANNNN!" into this. In the film itself it shows [https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/12/09/kirk-khan.jpg a level view of Kirk screaming] and then cuts to an image on the planet's surface.
* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: A chess set is one of the few creature comforts Khan and his followers had on Ceti Alpha V.
* [[Space Clothes]]: Semi-averted. The badass maroon jackets and turtleneck combo is a million steps up from TMP's Starfleet pastel pajamas.
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* [[The Telltale Drapes]]: Chekov finds a buckle that says "Botany Bay" and instantly realizes they're on Khan's ship seconds before they're captured.
* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: No less than ''three''.
▲{{quote|'''Khan:''' THIS. '''IS.''' CETI ALPHA ''FIVE!!!''}}
* [[Time Bomb]]
* [[The Ubermensch]]: Khan would like to think he is. In reality, he's [[Sanity Slippage|gone half-mad]] since being marooned on Ceti Alpha V.
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