Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Difference between revisions

'''Kirk''': "[[Big Word Shout|KHAAAAAAAAAN!!]]" }}

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|Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country]]'' they hired Cliff Eidelman because they couldn't afford James Horner.

* [[An Aesop]]: This movie (and by extension [[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|the next one]]) can be seen as being about consequences. Most of the events in this film occur because of Kirk's actions in the past, or reference his cavalier attitude to rules -- the entire film would have been averted if Kirk had not been so careless as to have marooned Khan on Ceti Alpha V without doing a complete survey of the planet and the surrounding system. He even [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledges this]] when he ruefully admits that he never actually learned the lesson that the Kobayashi Maru test from the beginning of the film was actually trying to teach -- instead of accepting some situations for what they were, he merely kept cheating until he was able to get his way. {{spoiler|Both Spock, and later David die for his hubris}}. And his {{spoiler|refusal to raise the shields despite the fact that Starfleet regulations state that if ANY approaching ship does NOT respond to any communications, you are to RAISE THE SHIELDS}}. Saavik was cut off by Spock before she quoted the regulation in in its entirety, however the implication is pretty clear. Plus the fact that {{spoiler|after the attack Kirk said to Saavik "You go right on quoting regulations"}}

* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: Not quite, but of the two ''Reliant'' crewmen affected by the Ceti Eels, guess which one commits suicide? Of course, it helps that Chekov's a main character, and that the Black Dude has a noble motive for his suicide - {{spoiler|to avoid killing Kirk on Khan's eel-enforced order}}

* [[Darkest Hour]]: [[And I Must Scream|"Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet... buried alive. Buried alive!"]] {{spoiler|As it turns out, [[Irony|the planet isn't dead. They're not even marooned.]]}}

* [[Deconstruction]]: The subtitle of this movie could just have easily been ''The Deconstruction Of [[The Kirk|Kirk]]''. Most of the core traits associated with Kirk and what their consequences in [[Real Life]] would probably be are examined and pulled apart. The adventurer who faces a problem on a weekly basis, solves it and promptly [[Reset Button|forgets it ever happens]] is suddenly brought face to face with one of those problems he faced a decade and a half before, and no doubt never gave another thought, and discovers the consequences of his thoughtlessness can be [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|measured by the body count]]. The suave lady killer with a girl in every port discovers that one of his conquests (and it's implied that it's the only one he ever truly loved) has resulted in him having [[Luke, You Are My Father|a son he's never known]] and who hates him. His tendency to place fast and loose with the rules leads to his ship being crippled and a score of dead cadets, all of which could and should have been avoided by simply raising the shields, {{spoiler|and his trait of [[Take a Third Option|finding novel solutions to intractable problems]] ends the life of his best friend and trusted right hand}}. It also shows what happens when you take the dashing, devil-may-care heroic adventurer, age him a few years and put him in a desk job; a full-blown mid-life crisis.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Khan has a lot of [[Eye Candy|really pretty boys]] [[Good-Looking Privates|in his crew.]] And he's not exactly hard on the eyes himself!

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Raise the damned shields, those Starfleet regulations were written for a reason, Kirk! So much for one big happy fleet? U.S. warships go to combat readiness when they come across a fleetmate with radio problems, especially a fleetmate with radio problems, who also refuses to respond to visual and audio communication such as a signal lamp, signal flags, or loudspeakers, and continues to bear down on you. Kirk chastises himself after the fact though.

** Scotty bringing Peter Preston all the way up to the bridge instead of straight to sickbay. At least it was a 50/50 shot that McCoy would be in either place.

*** From Scotty's expression of shock, [[Heroic BSOD|it looked like he wasn't thinking clearly.]]

* [[In the Original Klingon]]: "Do you know the old Klingon proverb that revenge is a dish best served cold? It is very cold... in ''spaaace''." (Who knew Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was a Klingon?)

* [[Not So Different]]: Carol admits this regarding Jim and David.

* [[2-D Space]]: Both used (for filmmaking purposes) and inverted (for story purposes).

{{quote|'''Spock''': "He's intelligent, but inexperienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking".}}

* [[The X of Y]]