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

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'' 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 (Film)|previous movie]] (which took guts considering the small budget).

No relation to the aborted ''Star Trek Phase II'' TV series, whose pilot became ''[[Star Trek the Motion Picture (Film)|Star Trek the Motion Picture]]''.

* [[Bottle Episode]]: A movie version. Paramount was determined to save money after spending $40 million on ''[[Star Trek the Motion Picture (Film)|Star Trek the Motion Picture]]'' (including development on the aborted ''Star Trek: Phase II'' TV series), which is why Bennet hired a production team with mainly TV movie experience, reused [[Stock Footage]] from the first movie, and Meyer wrote the script so that a majority of the scenes would be shot on the ''Enterprise'' bridge set (which was also redressed as the ''Reliant'' bridge).

* [[Cold Blooded Torture]]: What Khan does to the scientists on Regula I in the [[Novelization]]. We only see the aftermath in the movie.

* [[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.

* [[Everybodys 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!]]

* [[Its What I Do]]: Same with [[It Has Been an Honor]].

* [[Kill Em All]]: In the opening ''Kobayashi Maru'' sequence, the TOS crew dies, except for Kirk, who is absent and unmentioned. Then a door opens, Kirk walks out of a cloud of light and smoke, everybody picks themselves up, and the viewers [[Like You Would Really Do It|realize they've been had.]]

* [[Luke You Are My Father]]: Doesn't actually occur on screen, so the viewer is left unsure as to when David finds out who his father is. When David and Kirk first meet the former is extremely hostile to the latter, even going so far as to accuse Kirk of killing everyone at Regula. At the end of the movie, David and Kirk reconcile and he says he's proud to be Kirk's son. It's possible David knew all along and just refused to acknowledge it. The dialog makes it fairly clear that Kirk knows he's the father, but has obviously also never met David face to face before this film.

* [[Mathematicians Answer]]:

** When asked about this at conventions, Walter Koenig likes to tell a [[Fanon|humorous story]] about how Chekov, then a lowly [[Red Shirt]], met Khan by using a restroom [[Potty Emergency|Khan had much need of]]. Upon discovering that Chekov had [[This Is Unforgivable|also depleted the toilet paper]], Khan cursed the poor ensign and declared he would [[Call Forward|never forget his face]].

* [[Skyward Scream]]: A sort of [[Beam Me Up Scotty]], parodies always turn Kirk's "KHAAAAAANNNN!" into this. In the film itself it shows a level view of Kirk screaming and then cuts to an image on the planet's surface.

* [[Theme Music Power Up]]: No less than ''three''.

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

* [[Well Intentioned Extremist]]: Khan. His wife and people died because Kirk forgot to check up on him after he exiled him, remember?

* [[Whole Plot Reference]]: Loosely, to ''[[Moby Dick]]''.

[[Category:Film]]