I am 61 years old and have seen all the episodes and all the movies. This was a phenomenal movie. When Spock dies, there was dead silence in the theater, not even crying at first. The shock hit so deep that no one uttered a single sound. Enjoy the films. Live long and prosper.
@@Patriiiiick Seen EVERY STAR TREK film at the cinema, all the way back to ST:TMP in 1979. People today don't realize exactly what EVENTS these films were. When a new ST film was coming out it was TRULY a MAJOR release. I would be in HEAVEN as the lights dimmed and the Paramount logo came on the screen. For me, it was like seeing beloved friends again I had not seen for two or three years.
The story I got was Mr.Nimoy was disappointed with the first film and only agreed to do the sequel if his character was killed off. However, once he saw how great a job they were doing, he changed his mind about Spock's death, that's why the "remember..." seed was planted.
this movie came out a year before i was born and it's the only movie i seriously regret not getting to see for the first time in a theater. spock was always my favorite character when i was a kid. still my favorite from the tos cast.
When this came out in 1982, that ending killed all of us. Nobody was expecting it, and it shook everyone to the core. It was a long wait to the next film…
Actually, there was a leak before the movie came out and in order to hide it, they had the training mission in the beginning and Kirk says, “Aren’t you dead?” It made everyone let their guard down and think, oh someone must’ve been referring to this when and misunderstood Spock’s death.
@@DanSolo871 I saw Rik J's comment and came here specifically to say exactly that, but you beat me to it. I also remember there being rumors that a member of the main cast got killed off (and the huge speculation that it _was_ Spock), and that simulator scene where almost everyone _dies_ just capped that off. Another thing I remember not initially understanding was how Saavik was the captain of the ENTERPRISE in that scene (and not Spock). The producers kept that mystery by changing the uniform and rank insignia from anything previously seen. We _saw_ everyone's rank insignia, especially Saavik's and Spock's, but didn't know what rank they actually represented.
Khan did know about the remote lowering of the shields, but he wasn't practiced in running a starship. He scans around the console, shouting "Where the override? The override?" He knows what to do, but he's never done it before. This was also a point in the original episode with Khan, when he said he needed the cooperation of some of the ship's crew because he and his people weren't experienced enough to do it.
I saw this three times in the theater in 1982. It was a huge theater around 800 seats and packed. When Spock died there probably wasn't a dry eye in the house. Khan had suffered 15 years suffering the loss of his wife and basically surviving. Obviously by the time these events occurred he was so damaged all he cared about was revenge. People change with age and life experience.
You nailed it. Khan in this movie is often compared to Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. He’s a solid leader who loses himself to obsession. Did they notice that Kirk & Khan never appear on screen together? Montalban was a magnificent, classically trained actor from Mexico who is almost as well known for his role in Fantasy Island.
@@danielm3192 Hi. Sorry to take so long to reply. Yes I think the audience cheered immensely at that moment. The battle scenes were so well done. They stilll look great.
My brother and I went to see this at the theater when it first came out. The place was filled with hard core fans. You could have heard a pin drop when it became obvious that Spock was gone. Aside from the actual, more than you might expect from grown men, weeping. I really was fighting back tears. It was a profoundly surreal experience
Yeah, when I was a kid, my brother took me to see this movie in the theater. Also, we both loved it and both loved the TV series. It still chokes me up till this very day when watching this movie!
This film was a huge hit. On a small budget of 12 million it grossed over 90 million. Critics & fans both loved it. An instant classic. The Genisis briefing computer graphics were innovative for its time.
They deliberately didn't just give you the same Khan from the TV show. It was fifteen years later, and this Khan was obsessed with revenge. Movie Khan is Captain Ahab chasing the White Whale (and even quotes from Moby Dick). TV Khan was obsessed with power, which is a less compelling character trait.
There’s a copy of moby dick on khans bookshelf in the cargo pod, he’s clearly had time to read it over and over again to memorise the quotes even if he doesn’t realise he has become ahab and will suffer the same fate as him chasing his own white whale - Kirk
A few of my Navy pals and I got in line early for opening day in Groton, Ct. The line behind us was 3 AUDIENCES LONG - it stretched out of sight behind the strip mall. With that large a crowd, the manager asked us if we wouldn't mind starting the shows early and we all roared YES!! If they had a trailer for TWOK I never saw it but, of course, I knew very well who Khan was having grown up watchin TOS in the 60's. The crowd I sat with was unreal... lots of cheers and lots of tears for our beloved crew. Never forget it!!
I was in an audience who were there FIRST obviously for our love of ST. It was a pumped up crowd, in other words. But I was unprepared for the reaction around me just because I'd never experienced a movie with so much beloved history. We did not see Spock's death coming at all (and I had never heard any of the rumors beforehand). Crying took over the theater - hell even I was crying - but I am talking about people who cried as if they just lost their own brother kind of crying. "He's dead already..." caused the most sorrowful tears. The other thing I remember very well was the look on the faces of the next audience coming in as we departed. They could read our expressions as we passed one another and THEY COULD TELL they were in for something special as so many cheeks were still wet. There were even quick conversations in small groups almost like a IT WAS AWESOME!! baton handoff. I went back to see it at least 4 more times in the summer of '82 and I can still see those long lines in my minds eye.
The wild part was, Recardo Montabon was huge at the time. Known for playing Mr Roarke on Fantasy Island. Seeing him playing his iconic role, on the big screen, was mind-blowing.
Thing is Montalban absolutely relished playing the part of Khan, he was willing to reduce his fee to reprise his role. IMO, he did it with great gusto.
@@EdgyNumber1 He really struggled too. He was afraid he'd played Roarke for so long and was so known for him now that he'd never be able to do a convincing reprisal of Khan and he requested the film reels of the original episode (in about 1981 when they were prepping to shoot this film that was kind of hard to come by) and the studio obliged him and he watched the episode about 20 times to get the feel of how he did Khan 15 or so years prior.
@@bob1986 Wow! He really loved the character. It was interesting seeing Khan go from cold calculating mastermind to a bring hellbent on revenge. The smartest people can throw their intelligence under a bus when hatred and revenge consumes their mind. The scene where Chekov enters the Khan's vessel to investigate, you notice a copy of Moby Dick on the bookshelf. This was very, very subtle foreshadowing - an indication of Khan's mental state after being castaway all those years. Montalban played the transition of this persona well.
In the Genesis Tunnel Caves, I am shocked there was room for anything else besides Captain Terrell's Cajones. Offing himself instead of Kirk was one of the greatest sacrifices in Star Trek, Period.
Not to mention Spock died because of Khan. No other ST villain has caused the death of a main character besides Khan himself. Even if he did lose to Kirk, in the end he took away Kirk's best friend. That's no small feat.
Note a small fact. Khan never saw the Enterprise getting away at the last moment, which means that he died thinking he got his revenge. Small comforts. 😊
Khan's wife didn't survive that world. When he lost her, he lost his mind. He's more easily baited into making the wrong moves than he used to be. It DID give us a chance to see Ricardo play an insane, vengeance -hungry role. It was shocking to us back in the day because we were used to seeing him as the nice guy Mr. Rourke from the Fantasy Island series. Man had range.
You're right, it wasn't the original Khan. The original Khan had one goal when he woke up, to regain his empire, but then he fell in love and took a woman who would become his wife when he was exiled to the planet. Then he lost his wife because of his exile and for twenty years he fumed with rage and became filled with a new goal, revenge. Khan was driven mad with revenge after twenty years of exile. So you're right, this Khan was not the same Kahn from Star Trek TOS.
Yea Kahn was changed in his older age. His extreme arrogance took over which is common for augments. It is kind of like Spock's dad Savik when he got older he lost control of his emotions. Old age lowers defenses.
Viewers tend to pick up on the Moby Dick references in this film, but neglect A Tale of Two Cities (Spock's birthday gift to Kirk), a novel about a man who sacrifices himself in order to save someone else.
I saw this in the theater when I was 18 years old. I remember crying like a lost child. Spock was, and still is, the moral role model I never had but hoped for. Welcome to the family.
When the move was released, I was 6-years-old, and I distinctly remember a lot of people not just crying in the theater, but absolutely bawling and inconsolable, we're talking screaming, wailing, snot filled ugly crying here. As a total aside, one thing I take a smidgen of pride in is that on the car ride home from watching Wrath of Khan, I correctly predicted the exact title of the next movie. I'm not sure if I was a genius, or if the overall thread of the next movie was way too predictable.
Ricardo Montalban certainly did age well - and, 1 of the most superb actors there was. He could switch from something dramatic like this, to comedy spoof material in 1 of the Naked Gun entries with Leslie Nielsen with ease. I had forgot actually how long back now since he passed, RIP.
You need to watch Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock. Seriously. Watch it soon. Khan was so consumed by grief, vengeance, and hate it blinded him to reason. He had gone mad from it after 15 years. That's why the change. Side note, Khan was always my favorite Star Trek villain of all time. September of 1982, for my 8th birthday, my mother gave me a baby angora bunny, this cute, fluffy, gray cotton ball of adorable cotton candy...ness... I named him Khan, after Khan Noonien Singh. Mom thought I was kinda nuts. 🤣
I loved aging Kirk when I was a teenager. I love it even more now that I'm old. I've also grown to appreciate the art of tragedy more and more. I've cried at that beautiful death scene a thousand times, and I'm not the only one.
"He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!" - Khan Noonien Singh 🎥 💓 🍿
"No Kirk, the game's not over...until the last that we grapple with thee. No... No you can't get away. From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee." - ibid 😁💯✌
"I've done far worse that 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 at the centre of a dead planet. Buried alive." - K.N.S.
@@iKvetch558 "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee." - Captain Ahab (Moby Dick) Kahn was a fan of the classics and if you look at the book shelf of the Botany Bay you will see Moby Dick and a number of other revenge classics.
Fun fact: at the funeral scene, when Kirk's voice breaks that scene was William Shatner actually showing emotion because the scene felt real to everyone actually saying goodbye to Spock.
I like you made the comparison to Master and Commander. Lorewise some of Kirk's favorite literature is Horatio Hornblower which was old sailing ships battling side-by-side, and the writers wanted these space battles to have that same feel of battle. The parallel you noticed was very intentional.
The first time I saw this movie was on my 21st birthday. A group of friends and I stood in line to see it and it did not disappoint! What was it like seeing it on the big screen, you asked? Indescribable joy at the beginning with the original theme playing over the star field to deep sadness at the end. Such a wonderful experience. Just a few thoughts: the rumor mill was rife back then, even before the internet. There had been rumors about Spock dying in the movie so when he "died" at the beginning, I thought that was it. When he died for real at the end, it was a real shock. Industrial Light & Magic did the special effects. The video of the Genesis device was one of the earliest completely CGI rendered images. This led to the creation of Pixar.
No Khan would not have read up on the prefix codes that disabled shields. This is 15 years later and I assume "Prefix" codes where something that was developed after he was exiled.
"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," A movie about Time, Age, and the most intimidating villain, seeking to end Captain Kirk. The best thing about this is Ricardo Montalban's commitment to the character, working out to create a physically intimidating, megalomanic Khan Singh.;)
This era uniforms do have division separations. Check the collars. White-Command Yellow-Operations (Helm/ Engineering) Grey-Operations (communications/ Navigation/ Techs) Light Green- Science and Medical Kaki or Beige-Tactical Red- Cadets, Trainees, and Enlisted. The Rank pin is on the top of the lapel on the jacket and left sleeve also denotes rank with stripes. This is also the first uniform to feature actual Modern Navy ranks.
I get where you're coming from about how Khan seemed nerfed. But consider: he spent 20 years on essentially a desert planet. He spent that time losing the people he had come to know and love, and he spent that time knowing that Kirk had promised to "check on their progress," but never did. He spent that time looking for someone to blame for everything that went wrong, and when Checkov showed up, he finally found that someone, if he hadn't already settled on him: Admiral James T Kirk. From that moment on, his rage and lust for vengeance consumed every part of him, and as we saw, it put logic, reason, and intelligence in second place. His Lieutenant Joachim told him repeatedly that he had already won, that he didn't NEED to keep going after Kirk. He HAD Genesis, and could have done so many things with it- things that could even have hurt Kirk more in the long run, if properly applied. But because of his blindness due to rage, because he was consumed by vengeance, he ignored the intelligent solutions in favor of more immediate vengeance, the quicker attacks. As to his technical control over the Reliant, if you'll recall even in the TOS episode he didn't have full knowledge of how the Enterprise worked. He absorbed quite a bit, but he still needed the Enterprise crew to run the ship for him. He only took what he needed immediately and left the rest for those who would serve him. It's not stated directly in the movie, but the novelization reveals that while he offloaded most of the Reliants crew to the Botany Bay, he kept the Engineering staff of the Reliant aboard using the same Ceti eels he used on Terrel and Checkov to control them, and used them to run the ship's engines. So it makes sense that he wouldn't have known the relatively obscure and almost never used technical detail about the command codes, because they wouldn't be something that would be quickly available to general staff and it probably wouldn't occur to Terrel (probably the only one aboard the Reliant with direct access to them) to offer it to Khan unprompted, considering they seemed to have very little initiative without direct orders, as we saw when Checkov hesitated and had to be told offscreen by Khan to offer Kirk's name as the one who took Genesis. And in the end, despite all of these disadvantages and missteps on Khan's part, he STILL ended up causing more harm to Kirk than any other foe ever had, nearly destroying the Enterprise and succeeding in killing Kirk's best friend. And if it hadn't been for Spock's sacrifice, despite all of his errors, he still would have won. So while he may not have appeared to be quite as smart as he was in his youth, there were good plausible reasons for that change, and it wasn't just a case of Hollywood nerfing the villain. Also, without offering any spoilers, Khan is the best single villain of the Trek movies. None of the other villains reach the same level as he did, though some of them do more damage. Shoot, even the next villain, Kruge (a Klingon played by Christopher Lloyd, so y'all have that to look forward to!) technically does more damage than Khan did, but is nowhere near the same level of villain as Khan.
Great info and analysis. Never read the novelization, but did it say that Kirk actually promised to "check on their progress"? Space Seen and the movie didn't show that, and I assumed Khan only said it because of the disaster that befell Ceti Alpha V. If that hadn't happened, presumably he wouldn't have much cared if anyone checked up on him.
I like Carol Marcus' reply to her son's bratty remark about Kirk being an "overgrown boy scout": "Listen kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was Never a Boy Scout."
Guys this was the film that saved the franchise. The first movie "The Motion Picture" was a box office failure. If this hadn't been big at the box office, it would have been the last film. The film cost $12 million to produce and made $97 million at the box office and set a world record for the opening day box office. It is considered the best TOS film by fans.
@@pleasantvalleypickerca7681 I never claimed you said anything of the sort. Just because someone replies on a UA-cam comment, doesn't mean they are accusing you of anything, or speaking against you in any way. I was only offering that some fans don't agree with Wrath being the best film. Nothing more.
@@k1productions87 Gosh thanks for educating me! Maybe don't tell folks a film doesn't need a villain to be good. Your comment had a judgmental tone as does this one. Anyway we are both Trek fans. So I have no need to comment again. Glad you enjoy Voyage.
Chekov joined the crew for season 2 but the Khan episode, Space Seed, was in season 1. was Chekov part of the Enterprise's crew before his first appearance on the show or did production make a mistake in continuity & give the role of meeting Khan to the one member of the crew who hadn't been there & shouldn't get the Botany Bay reference?
In all honesty it probably was a continuity error and they would have been better off having Sulu on the Reliant (even though he wasn't in Space Seed either, at least he was onboard). The Enterprise needed Sulu as helmsman though, so let's just pretend Chekov was onboard in Space Seed, but hadn't been made Navigator yet lol.
I saw an interview with Walter Koenig once and in it he said right out that he realized the error right away, that he wasn't part of the crew when they found Khan and they had never met. He said he wasn't about to say a word and give up the screen time he was getting.
Ricardo Montalban, who played Khan was actually type cast as a good guy. My dad says that a lot of people were completely shocked that he not only played a villain, but did so brilliantly. People did not expect him to be such a perfect villain.
Navy tradition anyone in command of as vessel can be called captain regardless of rank. The Kobyoshi Maru is a training exercise that all Starfleet Academy Graduates must take at least once.
@@RKnights They did. Several of them. The Starfleet Command computer game, the most recent is Bridge Commander from a few years ago. There is even a Klingon Academy game staring Christopher Plummer that has a KM style mission.
@@RKnights they used to have a video game at arcades that you could sit in like the captain’s chair with controls on the sides. You warped in and out of sectors protecting star bases. If you waited the Klingons would line up and could take them all out with one torpedo.
Let me try and put this in perspective for you and other viewers. "Star Trek" went off the air in 1969. The fans were, of course, very unhappy. The fans wanted NBC to bring the show back. In 1972 the first "Star Trek" convention was held (I was there). If there were any science fiction conventions in the world before that, I certainly didn't hear about them. The first convention got a couple of thousand people. They occurred about once a year and each year the attendance was much bigger than the previous year. This phenomenon wasn't even close to being mainstream. It was a cult phenomenon. I remember being semi-ridiculed by a couple of my college roommates for being a fan, although there were already quite a few of us in the dorms. In 1973 "Star Trek: The Animated Series" began on Sunday mornings. It lasted for a year. In syndication, the show started to get vastly more popular. The fans wished and wished for the show to come back, but it didn't. There were rumors from time to time, but nothing actually materialized. Finally, ten years after it was cancelled, with the success of "Star Wars," "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" came out. It was a dream come true for the fans after a decade of wishing. We were in seventh heaven. Some of that euphoria was still present for this, the second movie. People who didn't live through this as fans of the show would have a very hard time understanding how magical these movies seemed to us after wishing in vain for so long.
@@adamcollazo8228 In those days, there was nowhere to go to see excerpts from it or even, really get any news about it. It's existence was just a rumor. It certainly didn't make the evening news.
@@brandonflorida1092 Huh? it's existence was not a rumor. Gene Roddenberry publicly stated the new show was coming. The new show was supposed to be headlining Paramount's new television network. Scripts were written, sets were built, and film footage was shot. All the actors from TOS except for Leonard Nimoy had signed on for the new show. I'm sure you know all this. Here is a June 1977 newspaper article. i0.wp.com/trekkerscrapbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/trekkies-have-won.jpg
@@adamcollazo8228 I know all about "Phase 2." You don't understand what I'm saying. Where were we going to find out anything about it? The Internet? UA-cam? They didn't exist. We had the TV news, newspapers, and the library and nothing else. Just because you can find some newspaper article NOW using THE INTERNET, doesn't mean that had you lived back then, which you clearly didn't, you would have happened to stumble across that article. During the entirety of the years that "Phase 2" was planned and in production, I maybe heard a few words about it five times and never heard anything very specific. And during those ten years after "Star Trek" went off the air, I heard numerous rumors which were untrue. You say, "Gene Roddenberry publicly stated?" Where were we supposed to see that he had made that statement??? Despite the fact that you can find some article TODAY using THE INTERNET, I promise that you could have read thousands of pages of newspapers back then and never once see any mention of "Star Trek." It wasn't considered important enough.
Listening to your conclusion, I have something to say. In the TV Show, he did not 'Hate' Captain Kirk, however in this movie he was overwhelmed by hate and the fact that Kirk was also now an Admiral, really got to him. Also, Kirk showed him up in that first sneak attack. The dude was not mentally prepared to fight Kirk with that personal hate consuming him.
I can understand Khan's character taking a band turn; becoming angry and reckless. He saw himself as a man of destiny, who even defeated time to escape his enemies and try again. But, then he found himself on a dead world, losing years of his life, where the most he was able to accomplish was just barely staying alive.
Due to the box office and critical dissapointment (no spoilers) of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, this movie saved the franchise in the 80s and set the course for Star Trek the Original Series to grow in popular culture and later spawn The Next Generation in 1987, for which there was huge anticipation.
though in actual numbers, The Motion Picture drew higher numbers at the box office than Wrath of Khan did. The difference was, Motion Picture's budget was much, MUCH higher. So even though Wrath earned less, it made more
@@willdecker4630 Yeah, a lot of people resort to revisionist history, because they fall for one of the Hollywood lies. Specifically, that just because they spend more money on the film, the only money it made is after those expenditures are removed from the earnings - feeding us only that number, to make us believe that less people paid to see it. The fact of the matter is, more people bought a ticket to see Star Trek the Motion Picture than Wrath of Khan Also, Voyage Home out-performed Wrath of Khan as well, in BOTH metrics (minus budget AND total ticket sales).
@@k1productions87 Spot on, Plus some folk say TMP wasn't a Huge hit like Star Wars...as it didn't take as much at the box office. Well all i can say to them is ..Name another 70's film that did!
@@willdecker4630 Paramount wanted it to be Star Wars meets 2001 meets Close Encounters... and that standard was quite frankly impossible to meet. If anything, that mindset alone can potentially doom your production from the get-go. Don't try to be "the next" anything,... be the FIRST something. All that being said,... Wrath wasn't a huge hit like Star Wars either. NONE of the Star Trek films were, nor could they be. But of course, when it comes to Wrath, no one tries to make that comparison, because it doesn't suit their case. Nope, TMP is the only time that comparison mattered.
From the opening, the audience was hooked. The ending left people literally in tears in the auditorium. And yes the movie did well at the box office, setting up for the sequels.
I guess now you get why some were advocating for watching things in order xD Imagine how you would have reacted if you had invested in these characters for 3 full seasons But still a great reaction and now you will see how the crew's realtionship grew this strong, knowing where they'll eventually get to ^^
After the first Star Trek movie was met with a rather tepid response from fans and critics, Nimoy expressed some reluctance to come back to the character again feeling the movie they did make was their best shot at it and it was time to put the franchise to bed. So, in an attempt to get him interested in doing a 2nd film the idea was suggested that Spock would be killed off in this movie. Unfortunately this idea was appealing to Nimoy. Not that he wanted to kill Spock so he never had to play him again, but just that it would make a good plot and bring some dramatic excitement to the film that he felt the first one lacked. When the film came out it was much more successful than the first one was and fans and critics alike praised the film. (spoiler) Nimoy was more than happy to return to the franchise and almost immediately after the film was released he began dropping hints that his character was coming back. Much to the surprise of the studio who thought Spock was finished. Nimoy went on to have a much bigger role in the production of most of the Star Trek movies that came out after this. In fact he directed the next two.
Well the tease of Spock’s return insisted by the studio. And Leonard had so much fun doing this film. For him it was like filming TOS. He regretted that the character was going to die. So the hopeful ending was added almost last minute. You are absolutely right that killing the character was not out of malicious like Han.
It was huge.. After the massive letdown from the Motion Picture.. Multiple viewings were a must! Side note.. It was the first movie to use computer generated effects with the summary video of Genesis. Star Trek was always ahead of its time.
Kirstie Alley was Saavik. Half Romulan half Vulcan. She jumps when Kirk shouts. Totally un Vulcan. This was a surprisingly well made movie. The colours, photography, story, actors, the quality.
To give an idea of how impactful the film was; this film came out in the summer of 1982, over 40 years ago. Some of the top hits in theaters were: - Poltergeist - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial - Rocky III - Blade Runner - First Blood - Gandhi - An Officer and A Gentleman It was in the top 5 of the best summer movies of 1982. It gave life to the Trek franchise after The Motion Picture; it would setup future movies to be made, and would ultimately lead to Trek returning to TV with The Next Generation.
It is hard to oversell just how big a year 1982 was for movies. Out of a hundred and something movies that released that year I think I watched at least 30 and know of plenty more of them that were hits but not genres I was super interested in. It was a REALLY huge year for sci fi and fantasy movies.
@@hackerx7329 Big thanks to Star Wars for kicking that off. from 1978 through 1987 we had hit after hit after hit. Amazing, trend setting films that we basically grovel at the knees to now.
The Wrath of Khan was released in North America on June 4, 1982 by Paramount Pictures. It was a box office success, earning US$97 million, Nearly 40 years after the film was originally released, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) is still the most popular Star Trek movie in a series currently thirteen entries and counting.
Star Trek II through V is one continuous story. Yes this one was awesome. Kind of like a submarine hunting another submarine. But my favorite will always be IV. The comic element catches you off guard.
@@skiking226USA Nope. It's a pretender to the throne. It also suffers from what most future ST suffer from - "Khan imposter Syndrome", as in TWOK was a success, therefore we need a NEW Khan for THIS next movie. Khan worked for MANY unique factors and it is impossible to duplicate those. Nor should anybody try.
Alex says, "I was keeping quiet...just waiting..." Dude !! You were fighting sleep so bad for at least 30 minutes...lol...omg how could anyone fall asleep during this movie ?!?! Being intelligent doesn't make one smart, look at how Khan and his people were living then "snap" someone from the ship that left you there pops up..of course Khan's mind goes to his hatred of Kirk it makes perfect sense for a man who thinks he's entitled to be treated as a king...and he had no time to study all the aspects of a star ship, imagine what one needs to learn to pilot today's passenger plane...compare that to learning all needed to know about a star ship..and there was no time to learn much anyway, Dr. Marcus had sent out a message to Star Fleet..Khan needed to act quickly..it all makes perfect sense when you truly consider the facts
The theatre I went to was full when this came out. It was also full the next couple of times I went to see it that same week. This was also my go to film when it came out on VHS late nights on the weekends for a very long time. The original cast just had their roles dialed in.
The line wrapped around the block twice to see this on opening day. And I was in it as just a lil kid, hehe. And, it was Amazeballs. The audience was captivated.
In the Star Trek universe, the events of Star Trek the Motion Picture took place about five years after the end of the Kirk's 5-year mission. But it took the producers almost 20 years to produce a movie). During this time, Kirk had become admiral, the Enterprise was updated and someone else was captain. A year or two later is when the events of The Wrath of Khan takes place when Spock was the captain and in charge of training cadets. With regards to the uniforms, Star Trek creator, Gene Rodenberry, was the one that came up with the pajama look for the series. When it came to this movie, Rodenberry wasn't in charge and the producers wanted a more military/naval feel. So the costume designers came up with these uniforms, which I think are the best ones in the franchise. Rodenberry, however, hated them. He didn't like the military aspect of the movies. When they decided to make a new series in the mid 80s, Star Trek: The Next Generation (which takes place about 75 years after the time of Kirk) Rodenberry had more of a say in the costume design and brought back the pajama look.
Star Trek is episodic. Babylon V is epic, the first season of Babylon V builds a lot of characters that cover a giant story arc, with mysteries that aren't explained until the end.
Ya, Babylon 5 is is a little slow first season. But need to watch it to make sense of every season that follows. It's a fantastic season. Even though the graphics don't hold up as well. Back in the day it was a big deal for a TV series. All done on Amiga computers using Lightwave 3D from Newtech. The series is so good, that the graphics to me are still good. You see ships that you can't see anywhere else.
Mr Preston is Scotty's nephew. It's reveled in a deleted scene and the novelization. The transporters were developed for the Original series so they wouldn't have to do the special effects of a shuttle craft every time they wanted to go down to a planet.
No one expected the death of Spock... sort of. Prior to the movie being filmed, Nimoy had indicated that he wanted out of the franchise and negotiated a death scene with Roddenberry. An early draft of the script leaked and Spock's death was rumored in the press. To combat that, Nicholas Meyer wrote in the simulator scene at the beginning with Spock's "fake" death, which was then "accidently" leaked, too. As they had hoped, the press picked it up and ran with it saying that Spock doesn't really die, it was a simulation! Thus, when the movie was first released and Spock really dies at the end, it took the audiences by complete surprise. Nimoy, soon after filming his real death scene, realized he'd made a grave mistake, but didn't know a way out of it. It wasn't until the cast saw the premiere and that last scene of the torpedo casket on the Genesis planet, (a scene none of the cast had seen at that point,) that Nimoy realized Roddenberry had given him an out. Thus, when ST2:TWOK did well at the box office, Nimoy was asked to come back as Spock in the next movie, which he agreed to do, as long as he got to direct. Paramount and Roddenberry agreed. Nimoy ended up directing the next two films.
When Khan was setting off the Genesis device, he was quoting Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. When we saw this in the theater, it was a gut punch that Spock died..
If I could explain how excited my friends & I were when the trailer came out!! We were in junior high & Star Trek & Star Wars geeks. Ricardo Montalbán was so good as Kahn but I think the austere environment, loss of his wife, death of his people & time changed him...superhuman or not. Spocks death just hit like a ton of bricks. Gasps, crying & disbelief was all over the audience. Needless to say we had to wait for the next installment which was maddening!
of all the movies of the Star Trek universe, this one was the best, by a director that didn't even understand Star Trek! and he went on to direct the next best Star Trek movie years later: Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country. Star Trek II was widely successful after The Motion Picture, making fans wanting more.
People clapped as the ship pulled out of space dock. All smiles around. The close-up shots of the Enterprise I had to do myself as a kid, with the model I built. (not as good)
Saw this opening night, first run. Talk about crying.... the ENTIRE theater audience was shell-shocked as we watched the end credits, then slowly, in a trance, exited the theater....
This is a perfect example of how cloudy could turn your judgement when anger rages. Revenge was more important to Khan than the torpedo itself. Like the saying goes, "give a speech while you are angry and it will be the most regretful speech you'll ever give in your life". Remember also that Khan came from a different era than Kirk when woken up. The earth was in a whole different state of advancement in civilization compared to the one Kirk lived. Khan was the product of genetic engineering meant to be created as "the super human" to be used into a world that almost destroyed itself by war during his period. (Hence, in the future, genetic engineering was forbidden.)
leonard nimoy had always been one of my favorite actors, spock one of my favorite characters..when mr.nimoy passed away few years ago it was like losing a personal friend
There's an interesting piece of symbolism at the end. Spock was always Kirk's steadfast second in command. An intelligent and analytical mind who always gave him counsel and wisdom. The death of spock means that Kirk has lost that insight which is shown by his reading glasses being broken.
I have one other thing to say... I'm glad you guys were moved by Spock's death. So many movies keep it light and don't make you feel much. It's a sign of how rich the characters are that you mourn them in fictional death.
It's interesting you made the similarity with Master and Commander: both Gene Roddenbury and this film's director cited the Horatio Hornblower novels, which are set in same Age of Sail time period as Master and Commander, as an influence on TOS and Wrath of Khan.
12:43 this is the first time computer generated imagery was used to make realistic fire, water and landscaping not to mention realistic planets and stars. The makers felt like it wasn't realistic enough so they reserved this technology just for the simulation of transforming a moon into a life-giving planet. The rest of the movie is just standard special effects of the time. Still amazing technology for 1982
4:30 - I can talk about this because you've seen the movie now. Fun bit of trivia. The Kobiyashi Maru test shown in this movie was created by the writers because it was leaked that Spock was going to be killed off. So they had multiple characters pretend to die in the beginning as a fake out to the audience, so it'd still be unexpected when it actually happened later. Also this test became so famous that it's constantly referred to even in modern Star Trek.
The relationship between Kirk and Marcus is only inferred to have occurred sometime early in Kirk's career, maybe even before he commanded Enterprise. As you watch the original series, you'll see that Kirk has a reputation with the ladies. When you get to watching the movies, the director's cut of The Motion Picture is better than the theatrical cut. But sit back and enjoy the ride. BTW, the writer of The Wrath of Khan was going for a "Hornblower in space" feel. So it is natural to be reminded of Master and Commander.
Carol Marcus is often attributed as being the girl that Kirk & Gary Mitchell reminisced about in the series' 2nd pilot ep: MITCHELL: Hey man, I remember you back at the Academy. A stack of books with legs. The first thing I ever heard from an upperclassman was, watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. In his class, you either think or sink. KIRK: I wasn't that bad, was I? MITCHELL: If I hadn't aimed that little blonde lab technician at you KIRK: You what? You planned that? MITCHELL: Well, you wanted me to think, didn't you? I outlined her whole campaign for her. KIRK: I almost married her!
I think you're a little off base with Khan's abilities to learn. In the original series Khan says he needs the crew of the Enterprise and tries to recruit them. So in my head canon Kahn skipped over parts of the tech manuals that he couldn't understand and concentrated on the parts that he could understand. As an engineer I can tell you that understanding engineering principles is more about education than intellect. So Kahn didn't understand all of the Reliant's tech manuals anymore than he understood all of Enterprise's tech manuals. He only understood a portion of the easiest parts of those manuals.
I went to see it with my dad & brother at the theater went it first came out….there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, including me, my brother & my dad…we were all a mess. It’s a hell of a thing when Spock died. 😑
All I am going to say is the fact that the theaters in my town was packed for a month. Just to watch this one. Just because of the effects alone was great and cannot beat the cast either. I love that younger generations like the old episodes as well. But you should have started with the first Star Trek. But not many liked the first one. Star Trek 2 Wrath of Khan is by far the best. But I am a Star Trek fan and love all of them. Take care all
The theater experience was surreal. I went to a theater that was packed with Trekkies. The audience was so invested in everything. From the credits, to every character interaction, to the heart wrenching ending. It was the best experience. Easily Top 3!
You have to remember that Khan has never commanded a Starship in his life. Everything he learned was from a book. Kirk has had 15 years of hands-on experience. That's why Khan kept making rookie mistakes. Kirk is street smart. Khan is book-smart. You should give credit for the victories that Khan was able to get.
@@actioncom2748 And he actually was an instructor at the Academy, and he had a high academic rating. Gary Mitchell said upon first meeting him that he was basically a "walking stack of books with legs."
Khan wasn't experienced with starships so it's not surprising he didn't know about the prefix code, Saavik on the other hand was a Lieutenant who regularly quoted Starfleet regulations so I'm more surprised she didn't appear to know about prefix codes.
I remember in the early 80s, this was one of the first movies released on videotape with the new “Hi-Fi” technology, which suddenly improved the audio quality from the equivalent of AM radio to almost CD quality. 11:42 This moment means a lot to old-time fans of the series. Bones and Spock were on opposite sides of almost every argument (as you see in the later Genesis discussion scene). To have both of them saying the same thing to Kirk is a big deal. Nicholas Meyer (who directed this movie and rewrote the script) is a heck of a guy - he also wrote the screenplays for Star Trek IV and VI, and directed VI (thus becoming the reason behind the belief that the even-numbered Star Trek movies were the good ones). He also wrote and directed “Time After Time,” where H.G. Wells travels in time to pursue Jack the Ripper, and directed the famous TV movie “The Day After.” In this movie, he inserts dueling literary threads: Khan quotes or paraphrases Ahab, the revenge-obsessed captain in Moby Dick, while Kirk and Spock reference the book Spock gives Kirk: A Tale of Two Cities.
My parents took me to see this in the theaters when this came out! It was huge and this did well! In my opinion, it's still the best Star Trek film ever made!
Glad you liked it...can you imagine the thrill for those who say the show as kids and then watch the movies as adults. After the show was cancelled we watched the reruns every day after school then go outside and play Startrek I was always Spock and my older brother was Kirk. Mr Spock always my favorite character
Khan was a super genius, but that doesn't making him omnipotent. And we're talking about starship command here. Could you imagine plopping Napoleon down in the bridge of a nuclear submarine (roughly a hundred years of progress). Napoleon was a genius. Do you think he would become an instant expert in submarine warfare in just a few days? He never commanded naval vessels-and neither did Khan. Space combat didn't even exist in Khan's time and he'd never even seen it before this movie. Besides, starships changed a lot in the time Khan was exiled (even in the original show he admitted that he could not run the Enterprise without the help of some of the crew) and a security prefix code isn't something that's going to immediately pop up when calling up the technical manual on basic starship operation. Spock points out that it is a gamble whether Khan changed it or not. And no, this is NOT the Khan from the show. He's consumed by rage, unable to accept the fact that he wasn't smart or strong enough to prevent the death of his wife. He is broken and irrational. From the second he learns about Genesis, he's all go and no stop, so I don't think it's unreasonable that this is something he didn't think to change. Honestly, the fact that he and his people ran the Reliant as well as they did is pretty incredible.
One of the most powerful death scenes on screen. Many men have shed a tear over the end of this movie. It's an American movie classic.
Starring a Canadian ;)
if you don't cry while watching this scene, there's something wrong with you...
I am 61 years old and have seen all the episodes and all the movies. This was a phenomenal movie. When Spock dies, there was dead silence in the theater, not even crying at first. The shock hit so deep that no one uttered a single sound.
Enjoy the films. Live long and prosper.
I am truly jealous you got to see this at the theatre!
I concur, I’m 57 and it was amazing the effect Spock’s death had. It was like the President being shot or something.
@@Patriiiiick Seen EVERY STAR TREK film at the cinema, all the way back to ST:TMP in 1979. People today don't realize exactly what EVENTS these films were. When a new ST film was coming out it was TRULY a MAJOR release. I would be in HEAVEN as the lights dimmed and the Paramount logo came on the screen. For me, it was like seeing beloved friends again I had not seen for two or three years.
The story I got was Mr.Nimoy was disappointed with the first film and only agreed to do the sequel if his character was killed off. However, once he saw how great a job they were doing, he changed his mind about Spock's death, that's why the "remember..." seed was planted.
this movie came out a year before i was born and it's the only movie i seriously regret not getting to see for the first time in a theater.
spock was always my favorite character when i was a kid. still my favorite from the tos cast.
When this came out in 1982, that ending killed all of us. Nobody was expecting it, and it shook everyone to the core. It was a long wait to the next film…
Actually, there was a leak before the movie came out and in order to hide it, they had the training mission in the beginning and Kirk says, “Aren’t you dead?”
It made everyone let their guard down and think, oh someone must’ve been referring to this when and misunderstood Spock’s death.
@@DanSolo871 I saw Rik J's comment and came here specifically to say exactly that, but you beat me to it. I also remember there being rumors that a member of the main cast got killed off (and the huge speculation that it _was_ Spock), and that simulator scene where almost everyone _dies_ just capped that off.
Another thing I remember not initially understanding was how Saavik was the captain of the ENTERPRISE in that scene (and not Spock). The producers kept that mystery by changing the uniform and rank insignia from anything previously seen. We _saw_ everyone's rank insignia, especially Saavik's and Spock's, but didn't know what rank they actually represented.
Yeah between that and all the crying at E.T., I think my parents didn't want to take us kids to the movies any more
This was the Infinity War of the 80s basically
This shocked even the Empire!
Khan did know about the remote lowering of the shields, but he wasn't practiced in running a starship. He scans around the console, shouting "Where the override? The override?" He knows what to do, but he's never done it before. This was also a point in the original episode with Khan, when he said he needed the cooperation of some of the ship's crew because he and his people weren't experienced enough to do it.
Ok That makes sense
@@RKnights It’s like Spock said, “He’s intelligent but inexperienced.”
Exactly. Knowledge vs experience.
Also, the Reliant is a much newer ship than when Khan was on the Enterprise.
@@ShawnRavenfire Or at least updated. Even Kirk had trouble understanding the Enterprise's refit.
I saw this three times in the theater in 1982. It was a huge theater around 800 seats and packed. When Spock died there probably wasn't a dry eye in the house. Khan had suffered 15 years suffering the loss of his wife and basically surviving. Obviously by the time these events occurred he was so damaged all he cared about was revenge. People change with age and life experience.
That’s awesome. How did people react to Kirk firing on Reliant after getting the prefix code? I’d imagine they were going nuts lol.
You nailed it. Khan in this movie is often compared to Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. He’s a solid leader who loses himself to obsession.
Did they notice that Kirk & Khan never appear on screen together?
Montalban was a magnificent, classically trained actor from Mexico who is almost as well known for his role in Fantasy Island.
@@danielm3192 Hi. Sorry to take so long to reply. Yes I think the audience cheered immensely at that moment. The battle scenes were so well done. They stilll look great.
My brother and I went to see this at the theater when it first came out. The place was filled with hard core fans.
You could have heard a pin drop when it became obvious that Spock was gone.
Aside from the actual, more than you might expect from grown men, weeping. I really was fighting back tears.
It was a profoundly surreal experience
Yeah, when I was a kid, my brother took me to see this movie in the theater. Also, we both loved it and both loved the TV series. It still chokes me up till this very day when watching this movie!
This film was a huge hit. On a small budget of 12 million it grossed over 90 million. Critics & fans both loved it. An instant classic. The Genisis briefing computer graphics were innovative for its time.
They deliberately didn't just give you the same Khan from the TV show. It was fifteen years later, and this Khan was obsessed with revenge. Movie Khan is Captain Ahab chasing the White Whale (and even quotes from Moby Dick). TV Khan was obsessed with power, which is a less compelling character trait.
There’s a copy of moby dick on khans bookshelf in the cargo pod, he’s clearly had time to read it over and over again to memorise the quotes even if he doesn’t realise he has become ahab and will suffer the same fate as him chasing his own white whale - Kirk
Loosing a wife sometimes does have an effect.
A few of my Navy pals and I got in line early for opening day in Groton, Ct. The line behind us was 3 AUDIENCES LONG - it stretched out of sight behind the strip mall. With that large a crowd, the manager asked us if we wouldn't mind starting the shows early and we all roared YES!! If they had a trailer for TWOK I never saw it but, of course, I knew very well who Khan was having grown up watchin TOS in the 60's. The crowd I sat with was unreal... lots of cheers and lots of tears for our beloved crew. Never forget it!!
That sounds like an amazing experience
Cheers during the first space battle when Kirk gets the prefix code? I bet they were going crazy.
I was in an audience who were there FIRST obviously for our love of ST. It was a pumped up crowd, in other words. But I was unprepared for the reaction around me just because I'd never experienced a movie with so much beloved history. We did not see Spock's death coming at all (and I had never heard any of the rumors beforehand). Crying took over the theater - hell even I was crying - but I am talking about people who cried as if they just lost their own brother kind of crying. "He's dead already..." caused the most sorrowful tears. The other thing I remember very well was the look on the faces of the next audience coming in as we departed. They could read our expressions as we passed one another and THEY COULD TELL they were in for something special as so many cheeks were still wet. There were even quick conversations in small groups almost like a IT WAS AWESOME!! baton handoff. I went back to see it at least 4 more times in the summer of '82 and I can still see those long lines in my minds eye.
The wild part was, Recardo Montabon was huge at the time. Known for playing Mr Roarke on Fantasy Island.
Seeing him playing his iconic role, on the big screen, was mind-blowing.
I loved him in the og Planet of the Apes franchise, small part but still awesome
Thing is Montalban absolutely relished playing the part of Khan, he was willing to reduce his fee to reprise his role. IMO, he did it with great gusto.
@@EdgyNumber1 He really struggled too. He was afraid he'd played Roarke for so long and was so known for him now that he'd never be able to do a convincing reprisal of Khan and he requested the film reels of the original episode (in about 1981 when they were prepping to shoot this film that was kind of hard to come by) and the studio obliged him and he watched the episode about 20 times to get the feel of how he did Khan 15 or so years prior.
@@bob1986 Wow! He really loved the character. It was interesting seeing Khan go from cold calculating mastermind to a bring hellbent on revenge. The smartest people can throw their intelligence under a bus when hatred and revenge consumes their mind. The scene where Chekov enters the Khan's vessel to investigate, you notice a copy of Moby Dick on the bookshelf. This was very, very subtle foreshadowing - an indication of Khan's mental state after being castaway all those years. Montalban played the transition of this persona well.
He wanted to be in the film to reprise his role as Khan..he lowered his asking price so the studio could afford his services.
To answer the question of why Scotty seemed so upset at the death of Preston
There's a deleted scene that explains that Preston was Scotty's nephew
Actually, they've reinstated that scene. In the original one I saw, they had it in there.
@@coxmosia1 Yeah, in a director's cut of the movie
In the Genesis Tunnel Caves, I am shocked there was room for anything else besides Captain Terrell's Cajones. Offing himself instead of Kirk was one of the greatest sacrifices in Star Trek, Period.
Khan spent 15+ years in an apocalyptic wasteland, went mad, but still saved his people and almost beat Kirk. Put some respect on his name!
We have nothing but respect for Khan. Love that guy
KHHHAAANNN!!!
Not to mention Spock died because of Khan. No other ST villain has caused the death of a main character besides Khan himself. Even if he did lose to Kirk, in the end he took away Kirk's best friend. That's no small feat.
Note a small fact. Khan never saw the Enterprise getting away at the last moment, which means that he died thinking he got his revenge. Small comforts. 😊
@@Paul_Waller LOL.That's FUNNY !! LOL.
Khan's wife didn't survive that world. When he lost her, he lost his mind. He's more easily baited into making the wrong moves than he used to be. It DID give us a chance to see Ricardo play an insane, vengeance -hungry role. It was shocking to us back in the day because we were used to seeing him as the nice guy Mr. Rourke from the Fantasy Island series. Man had range.
Ditto
De Plane! De Plane!
A couple decades of exile in a wasteland will twist any mind.
200 years of stasis is basically a nap.
Alex was falling asleep in this and had his eyes closed during a bunch of key sequences. I think he would have enjoyed it more if he was more awake.
He probably has sleep apnea. Very dangerous.
You're right, it wasn't the original Khan. The original Khan had one goal when he woke up, to regain his empire, but then he fell in love and took a woman who would become his wife when he was exiled to the planet. Then he lost his wife because of his exile and for twenty years he fumed with rage and became filled with a new goal, revenge. Khan was driven mad with revenge after twenty years of exile. So you're right, this Khan was not the same Kahn from Star Trek TOS.
Yea Kahn was changed in his older age. His extreme arrogance took over which is common for augments. It is kind of like Spock's dad Savik when he got older he lost control of his emotions. Old age lowers defenses.
Viewers tend to pick up on the Moby Dick references in this film, but neglect A Tale of Two Cities (Spock's birthday gift to Kirk), a novel about a man who sacrifices himself in order to save someone else.
I hadn't picked up on it in 40 years, so good catch.
I saw this in the theater when I was 18 years old. I remember crying like a lost child. Spock was, and still is, the moral role model I never had but hoped for. Welcome to the family.
When the move was released, I was 6-years-old, and I distinctly remember a lot of people not just crying in the theater, but absolutely bawling and inconsolable, we're talking screaming, wailing, snot filled ugly crying here. As a total aside, one thing I take a smidgen of pride in is that on the car ride home from watching Wrath of Khan, I correctly predicted the exact title of the next movie. I'm not sure if I was a genius, or if the overall thread of the next movie was way too predictable.
Ricardo Montalban certainly did age well - and, 1 of the most superb actors there was. He could switch from something dramatic like this, to comedy spoof material in 1 of the Naked Gun entries with Leslie Nielsen with ease. I had forgot actually how long back now since he passed, RIP.
He was the Latin Marlon Brando! Ricardo was one of the greats.
He was amazing!
You need to watch Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock. Seriously. Watch it soon.
Khan was so consumed by grief, vengeance, and hate it blinded him to reason. He had gone mad from it after 15 years. That's why the change.
Side note, Khan was always my favorite Star Trek villain of all time. September of 1982, for my 8th birthday, my mother gave me a baby angora bunny, this cute, fluffy, gray cotton ball of adorable cotton candy...ness... I named him Khan, after Khan Noonien Singh. Mom thought I was kinda nuts. 🤣
I loved aging Kirk when I was a teenager. I love it even more now that I'm old. I've also grown to appreciate the art of tragedy more and more. I've cried at that beautiful death scene a thousand times, and I'm not the only one.
"He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!"
- Khan Noonien Singh 🎥 💓 🍿
"No Kirk, the game's not over...until the last that we grapple with thee. No... No you can't get away. From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee." - ibid 😁💯✌
@@iKvetch558 "Ahh. Kirk, do you know the Klingon proverb that revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, it's very cold in space..."
@@Philbert-s2c I do love that one too.
"I've done far worse that 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 at the centre of a dead planet.
Buried alive."
- K.N.S.
@@iKvetch558 "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee." - Captain Ahab (Moby Dick)
Kahn was a fan of the classics and if you look at the book shelf of the Botany Bay you will see Moby Dick and a number of other revenge classics.
Don’t be too down on Khan’s knowledge of the Reliant. He did pretty good to get as far as he did with the short amount of time he had.
Especially that in the classic canon he came from the early 1990s!
Fun fact: at the funeral scene, when Kirk's voice breaks that scene was William Shatner actually showing emotion because the scene felt real to everyone actually saying goodbye to Spock.
I like you made the comparison to Master and Commander. Lorewise some of Kirk's favorite literature is Horatio Hornblower which was old sailing ships battling side-by-side, and the writers wanted these space battles to have that same feel of battle. The parallel you noticed was very intentional.
The first time I saw this movie was on my 21st birthday. A group of friends and I stood in line to see it and it did not disappoint! What was it like seeing it on the big screen, you asked? Indescribable joy at the beginning with the original theme playing over the star field to deep sadness at the end. Such a wonderful experience. Just a few thoughts: the rumor mill was rife back then, even before the internet. There had been rumors about Spock dying in the movie so when he "died" at the beginning, I thought that was it. When he died for real at the end, it was a real shock.
Industrial Light & Magic did the special effects. The video of the Genesis device was one of the earliest completely CGI rendered images. This led to the creation of Pixar.
No Khan would not have read up on the prefix codes that disabled shields. This is 15 years later and I assume "Prefix" codes where something that was developed after he was exiled.
"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," A movie about Time, Age, and the most intimidating villain, seeking to end Captain Kirk. The best thing about this is Ricardo Montalban's commitment to the character, working out to create a physically intimidating, megalomanic Khan Singh.;)
Fun fact: Khan's last words were a quote from "Moby Dick". Kirk was his "white whale" so to speak.
This era uniforms do have division separations. Check the collars.
White-Command
Yellow-Operations (Helm/ Engineering)
Grey-Operations (communications/ Navigation/ Techs)
Light Green- Science and Medical
Kaki or Beige-Tactical
Red- Cadets, Trainees, and Enlisted.
The Rank pin is on the top of the lapel on the jacket and left sleeve also denotes rank with stripes. This is also the first uniform to feature actual Modern Navy ranks.
Kahn became obsessed over the years. It's why he quotes Capt Ahab from Moby Dick so much.
I get where you're coming from about how Khan seemed nerfed. But consider: he spent 20 years on essentially a desert planet. He spent that time losing the people he had come to know and love, and he spent that time knowing that Kirk had promised to "check on their progress," but never did. He spent that time looking for someone to blame for everything that went wrong, and when Checkov showed up, he finally found that someone, if he hadn't already settled on him: Admiral James T Kirk. From that moment on, his rage and lust for vengeance consumed every part of him, and as we saw, it put logic, reason, and intelligence in second place. His Lieutenant Joachim told him repeatedly that he had already won, that he didn't NEED to keep going after Kirk. He HAD Genesis, and could have done so many things with it- things that could even have hurt Kirk more in the long run, if properly applied. But because of his blindness due to rage, because he was consumed by vengeance, he ignored the intelligent solutions in favor of more immediate vengeance, the quicker attacks.
As to his technical control over the Reliant, if you'll recall even in the TOS episode he didn't have full knowledge of how the Enterprise worked. He absorbed quite a bit, but he still needed the Enterprise crew to run the ship for him. He only took what he needed immediately and left the rest for those who would serve him. It's not stated directly in the movie, but the novelization reveals that while he offloaded most of the Reliants crew to the Botany Bay, he kept the Engineering staff of the Reliant aboard using the same Ceti eels he used on Terrel and Checkov to control them, and used them to run the ship's engines. So it makes sense that he wouldn't have known the relatively obscure and almost never used technical detail about the command codes, because they wouldn't be something that would be quickly available to general staff and it probably wouldn't occur to Terrel (probably the only one aboard the Reliant with direct access to them) to offer it to Khan unprompted, considering they seemed to have very little initiative without direct orders, as we saw when Checkov hesitated and had to be told offscreen by Khan to offer Kirk's name as the one who took Genesis.
And in the end, despite all of these disadvantages and missteps on Khan's part, he STILL ended up causing more harm to Kirk than any other foe ever had, nearly destroying the Enterprise and succeeding in killing Kirk's best friend. And if it hadn't been for Spock's sacrifice, despite all of his errors, he still would have won.
So while he may not have appeared to be quite as smart as he was in his youth, there were good plausible reasons for that change, and it wasn't just a case of Hollywood nerfing the villain.
Also, without offering any spoilers, Khan is the best single villain of the Trek movies. None of the other villains reach the same level as he did, though some of them do more damage. Shoot, even the next villain, Kruge (a Klingon played by Christopher Lloyd, so y'all have that to look forward to!) technically does more damage than Khan did, but is nowhere near the same level of villain as Khan.
Great info and analysis. Never read the novelization, but did it say that Kirk actually promised to "check on their progress"? Space Seen and the movie didn't show that, and I assumed Khan only said it because of the disaster that befell Ceti Alpha V. If that hadn't happened, presumably he wouldn't have much cared if anyone checked up on him.
@@Raja1938 I honestly don't remember if Kirk actually said that, I was just going by what Khan said since apparently he believed that.
Khan was obsessed with revenge his character makes perfect sense imo.
I like Carol Marcus' reply to her son's bratty remark about Kirk being an "overgrown boy scout":
"Listen kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was Never a Boy Scout."
Guys this was the film that saved the franchise. The first movie "The Motion Picture" was a box office failure. If this hadn't been big at the box office, it would have been the last film. The film cost $12 million to produce and made $97 million at the box office and set a world record for the opening day box office. It is considered the best TOS film by fans.
I still consider Voyage Home to be the better "Star Trek" film. It doesn't have to have a "bad guy" to fight in order to be a good film
@@k1productions87 I never said it had to. Also I never said anything negative about the Voyage Home, so really don't get your criticism.
@@pleasantvalleypickerca7681 I never claimed you said anything of the sort. Just because someone replies on a UA-cam comment, doesn't mean they are accusing you of anything, or speaking against you in any way. I was only offering that some fans don't agree with Wrath being the best film. Nothing more.
@@k1productions87 Gosh thanks for educating me! Maybe don't tell folks a film doesn't need a villain to be good. Your comment had a judgmental tone as does this one. Anyway we are both Trek fans. So I have no need to comment again. Glad you enjoy Voyage.
I will only say... there was no tone... its text. Any tones you may infer are all on you.
What you may not know is that Chekov, the guy who survived the bug in his ear became a regular character in the second season of Star Trek.
Chekov joined the crew for season 2 but the Khan episode, Space Seed, was in season 1. was Chekov part of the Enterprise's crew before his first appearance on the show or did production make a mistake in continuity & give the role of meeting Khan to the one member of the crew who hadn't been there & shouldn't get the Botany Bay reference?
In all honesty it probably was a continuity error and they would have been better off having Sulu on the Reliant (even though he wasn't in Space Seed either, at least he was onboard). The Enterprise needed Sulu as helmsman though, so let's just pretend Chekov was onboard in Space Seed, but hadn't been made Navigator yet lol.
I saw an interview with Walter Koenig once and in it he said right out that he realized the error right away, that he wasn't part of the crew when they found Khan and they had never met. He said he wasn't about to say a word and give up the screen time he was getting.
Ricardo Montalban, who played Khan was actually type cast as a good guy. My dad says that a lot of people were completely shocked that he not only played a villain, but did so brilliantly. People did not expect him to be such a perfect villain.
Navy tradition anyone in command of as vessel can be called captain regardless of rank. The Kobyoshi Maru is a training exercise that all Starfleet Academy Graduates must take at least once.
Yup, we understand that now. They should make a video game on it.
@@RKnights They did. Several of them. The Starfleet Command computer game, the most recent is Bridge Commander from a few years ago. There is even a Klingon Academy game staring Christopher Plummer that has a KM style mission.
@@RKnights they used to have a video game at arcades that you could sit in like the captain’s chair with controls on the sides. You warped in and out of sectors protecting star bases. If you waited the Klingons would line up and could take them all out with one torpedo.
Let me try and put this in perspective for you and other viewers. "Star Trek" went off the air in 1969. The fans were, of course, very unhappy. The fans wanted NBC to bring the show back. In 1972 the first "Star Trek" convention was held (I was there). If there were any science fiction conventions in the world before that, I certainly didn't hear about them. The first convention got a couple of thousand people. They occurred about once a year and each year the attendance was much bigger than the previous year. This phenomenon wasn't even close to being mainstream. It was a cult phenomenon. I remember being semi-ridiculed by a couple of my college roommates for being a fan, although there were already quite a few of us in the dorms. In 1973 "Star Trek: The Animated Series" began on Sunday mornings. It lasted for a year. In syndication, the show started to get vastly more popular. The fans wished and wished for the show to come back, but it didn't. There were rumors from time to time, but nothing actually materialized. Finally, ten years after it was cancelled, with the success of "Star Wars," "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" came out. It was a dream come true for the fans after a decade of wishing. We were in seventh heaven. Some of that euphoria was still present for this, the second movie. People who didn't live through this as fans of the show would have a very hard time understanding how magical these movies seemed to us after wishing in vain for so long.
Don't forget Star Trek: Phase II, a continuation of the TOS, that was so close to becoming a real TV show in 1977.
@@adamcollazo8228 In those days, there was nowhere to go to see excerpts from it or even, really get any news about it. It's existence was just a rumor. It certainly didn't make the evening news.
@@brandonflorida1092 Huh? it's existence was not a rumor. Gene Roddenberry publicly stated the new show was coming. The new show was supposed to be headlining Paramount's new television network. Scripts were written, sets were built, and film footage was shot. All the actors from TOS except for Leonard Nimoy had signed on for the new show. I'm sure you know all this. Here is a June 1977 newspaper article.
i0.wp.com/trekkerscrapbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/trekkies-have-won.jpg
@@adamcollazo8228 I know all about "Phase 2." You don't understand what I'm saying. Where were we going to find out anything about it? The Internet? UA-cam? They didn't exist. We had the TV news, newspapers, and the library and nothing else. Just because you can find some newspaper article NOW using THE INTERNET, doesn't mean that had you lived back then, which you clearly didn't, you would have happened to stumble across that article. During the entirety of the years that "Phase 2" was planned and in production, I maybe heard a few words about it five times and never heard anything very specific. And during those ten years after "Star Trek" went off the air, I heard numerous rumors which were untrue.
You say, "Gene Roddenberry publicly stated?" Where were we supposed to see that he had made that statement??? Despite the fact that you can find some article TODAY using THE INTERNET, I promise that you could have read thousands of pages of newspapers back then and never once see any mention of "Star Trek." It wasn't considered important enough.
Spot on. One correction: Star Trek: The Animated Series ran two seasons, 1973 and 1974. I have the full series on DVD.
Listening to your conclusion, I have something to say. In the TV Show, he did not 'Hate' Captain Kirk, however in this movie he was overwhelmed by hate and the fact that Kirk was also now an Admiral, really got to him. Also, Kirk showed him up in that first sneak attack. The dude was not mentally prepared to fight Kirk with that personal hate consuming him.
I can understand Khan's character taking a band turn; becoming angry and reckless. He saw himself as a man of destiny, who even defeated time to escape his enemies and try again. But, then he found himself on a dead world, losing years of his life, where the most he was able to accomplish was just barely staying alive.
Due to the box office and critical dissapointment (no spoilers) of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, this movie saved the franchise in the 80s and set the course for Star Trek the Original Series to grow in popular culture and later spawn The Next Generation in 1987, for which there was huge anticipation.
though in actual numbers, The Motion Picture drew higher numbers at the box office than Wrath of Khan did. The difference was, Motion Picture's budget was much, MUCH higher. So even though Wrath earned less, it made more
Saved the franchise? The Motion Picture started it and made more money than 2 to 10.
@@willdecker4630 Yeah, a lot of people resort to revisionist history, because they fall for one of the Hollywood lies. Specifically, that just because they spend more money on the film, the only money it made is after those expenditures are removed from the earnings - feeding us only that number, to make us believe that less people paid to see it.
The fact of the matter is, more people bought a ticket to see Star Trek the Motion Picture than Wrath of Khan
Also, Voyage Home out-performed Wrath of Khan as well, in BOTH metrics (minus budget AND total ticket sales).
@@k1productions87 Spot on, Plus some folk say TMP wasn't a Huge hit like Star Wars...as it didn't take as much at the box office. Well all i can say to them is ..Name another 70's film that did!
@@willdecker4630 Paramount wanted it to be Star Wars meets 2001 meets Close Encounters... and that standard was quite frankly impossible to meet. If anything, that mindset alone can potentially doom your production from the get-go. Don't try to be "the next" anything,... be the FIRST something.
All that being said,... Wrath wasn't a huge hit like Star Wars either. NONE of the Star Trek films were, nor could they be. But of course, when it comes to Wrath, no one tries to make that comparison, because it doesn't suit their case. Nope, TMP is the only time that comparison mattered.
From the opening, the audience was hooked. The ending left people literally in tears in the auditorium. And yes the movie did well at the box office, setting up for the sequels.
23:35 when you mentioned 'Master And Commander', you're very right! More than a couple of folks have called M&C the 'star trek movie we never got'.
I guess now you get why some were advocating for watching things in order xD Imagine how you would have reacted if you had invested in these characters for 3 full seasons
But still a great reaction and now you will see how the crew's realtionship grew this strong, knowing where they'll eventually get to ^^
After the first Star Trek movie was met with a rather tepid response from fans and critics, Nimoy expressed some reluctance to come back to the character again feeling the movie they did make was their best shot at it and it was time to put the franchise to bed. So, in an attempt to get him interested in doing a 2nd film the idea was suggested that Spock would be killed off in this movie.
Unfortunately this idea was appealing to Nimoy. Not that he wanted to kill Spock so he never had to play him again, but just that it would make a good plot and bring some dramatic excitement to the film that he felt the first one lacked. When the film came out it was much more successful than the first one was and fans and critics alike praised the film.
(spoiler)
Nimoy was more than happy to return to the franchise and almost immediately after the film was released he began dropping hints that his character was coming back. Much to the surprise of the studio who thought Spock was finished. Nimoy went on to have a much bigger role in the production of most of the Star Trek movies that came out after this. In fact he directed the next two.
Thats awesome. So we can say this movie kept the franchise alive
Well the tease of Spock’s return insisted by the studio. And Leonard had so much fun doing this film. For him it was like filming TOS. He regretted that the character was going to die. So the hopeful ending was added almost last minute. You are absolutely right that killing the character was not out of malicious like Han.
@@brucechmiel7964 LOL...funny typo...you meant to say "Leonard" as in Nimoy...but you typed "Lenard" as in Mark. ✌😂
@@iKvetch558 yeah damn auto predict.
@@RKnights Without the success of Wrath of Khan the franchise would've died.
It was huge.. After the massive letdown from the Motion Picture.. Multiple viewings were a must!
Side note.. It was the first movie to use computer generated effects with the summary video of Genesis.
Star Trek was always ahead of its time.
Kirstie Alley was Saavik. Half Romulan half Vulcan. She jumps when Kirk shouts. Totally un Vulcan.
This was a surprisingly well made movie. The colours, photography, story, actors, the quality.
"Half-Romulan, half-Vulcan"
So. Vulcan.
@@Taliesyn42 baaa ha ha haaaaa.
Half-ROMULAN?????? I never knew that.
@@johnpooky84 Yep - established in Vonda McIntyre's fantastic novel of the film.
The novel really expands on saviik and peter prestons characters definitely worth a read.
To give an idea of how impactful the film was; this film came out in the summer of 1982, over 40 years ago. Some of the top hits in theaters were:
- Poltergeist
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
- Rocky III
- Blade Runner
- First Blood
- Gandhi
- An Officer and A Gentleman
It was in the top 5 of the best summer movies of 1982. It gave life to the Trek franchise after The Motion Picture; it would setup future movies to be made, and would ultimately lead to Trek returning to TV with The Next Generation.
It is hard to oversell just how big a year 1982 was for movies. Out of a hundred and something movies that released that year I think I watched at least 30 and know of plenty more of them that were hits but not genres I was super interested in. It was a REALLY huge year for sci fi and fantasy movies.
@@hackerx7329 Big thanks to Star Wars for kicking that off. from 1978 through 1987 we had hit after hit after hit. Amazing, trend setting films that we basically grovel at the knees to now.
Words of wisdom from Walter Koenig (Chekov): "If you are ever cast on a Star Trek show, never let them know you can scream."
The Wrath of Khan was released in North America on June 4, 1982 by Paramount Pictures. It was a box office success, earning US$97 million, Nearly 40 years after the film was originally released, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) is still the most popular Star Trek movie in a series currently thirteen entries and counting.
Star Trek II through V is one continuous story. Yes this one was awesome. Kind of like a submarine hunting another submarine. But my favorite will always be IV. The comic element catches you off guard.
First Contact is also as good as this one
@@skiking226USA Nope. It's a pretender to the throne. It also suffers from what most future ST suffer from - "Khan imposter Syndrome", as in TWOK was a success, therefore we need a NEW Khan for THIS next movie. Khan worked for MANY unique factors and it is impossible to duplicate those. Nor should anybody try.
"She doesn't know who she's talking to! Kirk's a legend!"
2 minutes later...really wishing we'd raised those shieldsss...
This film is one of the major representations of the power of cinema to amaze and enthrall and dazzle us. It's majesty in action.
Alex says, "I was keeping quiet...just waiting..." Dude !! You were fighting sleep so bad for at least 30 minutes...lol...omg how could anyone fall asleep during this movie ?!?!
Being intelligent doesn't make one smart, look at how Khan and his people were living then "snap" someone from the ship that left you there pops up..of course Khan's mind goes to his hatred of Kirk it makes perfect sense for a man who thinks he's entitled to be treated as a king...and he had no time to study all the aspects of a star ship, imagine what one needs to learn to pilot today's passenger plane...compare that to learning all needed to know about a star ship..and there was no time to learn much anyway, Dr. Marcus had sent out a message to Star Fleet..Khan needed to act quickly..it all makes perfect sense when you truly consider the facts
You were not expecting Khan Khannnnnnn.
The theatre I went to was full when this came out. It was also full the next couple of times I went to see it that same week. This was also my go to film when it came out on VHS late nights on the weekends for a very long time. The original cast just had their roles dialed in.
Do you remember the crowd reactions?
The line wrapped around the block twice to see this on opening day. And I was in it as just a lil kid, hehe. And, it was Amazeballs. The audience was captivated.
In the Star Trek universe, the events of Star Trek the Motion Picture took place about five years after the end of the Kirk's 5-year mission. But it took the producers almost 20 years to produce a movie). During this time, Kirk had become admiral, the Enterprise was updated and someone else was captain. A year or two later is when the events of The Wrath of Khan takes place when Spock was the captain and in charge of training cadets. With regards to the uniforms, Star Trek creator, Gene Rodenberry, was the one that came up with the pajama look for the series. When it came to this movie, Rodenberry wasn't in charge and the producers wanted a more military/naval feel. So the costume designers came up with these uniforms, which I think are the best ones in the franchise. Rodenberry, however, hated them. He didn't like the military aspect of the movies. When they decided to make a new series in the mid 80s, Star Trek: The Next Generation (which takes place about 75 years after the time of Kirk) Rodenberry had more of a say in the costume design and brought back the pajama look.
Star Trek is episodic. Babylon V is epic, the first season of Babylon V builds a lot of characters that cover a giant story arc, with mysteries that aren't explained until the end.
Ya, Babylon 5 is is a little slow first season. But need to watch it to make sense of every season that follows. It's a fantastic season. Even though the graphics don't hold up as well. Back in the day it was a big deal for a TV series. All done on Amiga computers using Lightwave 3D from Newtech. The series is so good, that the graphics to me are still good. You see ships that you can't see anywhere else.
I saw this in '82, and I swear everyone was in tears when Spock died.
Mr Preston is Scotty's nephew. It's reveled in a deleted scene and the novelization. The transporters were developed for the Original series so they wouldn't have to do the special effects of a shuttle craft every time they wanted to go down to a planet.
No one expected the death of Spock... sort of. Prior to the movie being filmed, Nimoy had indicated that he wanted out of the franchise and negotiated a death scene with Roddenberry. An early draft of the script leaked and Spock's death was rumored in the press. To combat that, Nicholas Meyer wrote in the simulator scene at the beginning with Spock's "fake" death, which was then "accidently" leaked, too. As they had hoped, the press picked it up and ran with it saying that Spock doesn't really die, it was a simulation! Thus, when the movie was first released and Spock really dies at the end, it took the audiences by complete surprise. Nimoy, soon after filming his real death scene, realized he'd made a grave mistake, but didn't know a way out of it. It wasn't until the cast saw the premiere and that last scene of the torpedo casket on the Genesis planet, (a scene none of the cast had seen at that point,) that Nimoy realized Roddenberry had given him an out. Thus, when ST2:TWOK did well at the box office, Nimoy was asked to come back as Spock in the next movie, which he agreed to do, as long as he got to direct. Paramount and Roddenberry agreed. Nimoy ended up directing the next two films.
Roddenberry had no involvement with Star Trek II
When Khan was setting off the Genesis device, he was quoting Captain Ahab from Moby Dick.
When we saw this in the theater, it was a gut punch that Spock died..
If I could explain how excited my friends & I were when the trailer came out!! We were in junior high & Star Trek & Star Wars geeks. Ricardo Montalbán was so good as Kahn but I think the austere environment, loss of his wife, death of his people & time changed him...superhuman or not. Spocks death just hit like a ton of bricks. Gasps, crying & disbelief was all over the audience. Needless to say we had to wait for the next installment which was maddening!
of all the movies of the Star Trek universe, this one was the best, by a director that didn't even understand Star Trek! and he went on to direct the next best Star Trek movie years later: Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country. Star Trek II was widely successful after The Motion Picture, making fans wanting more.
He made it like a Cold War submarine movie.
People clapped as the ship pulled out of space dock. All smiles around. The close-up shots of the Enterprise I had to do myself as a kid, with the model I built. (not as good)
Saw this opening night, first run.
Talk about crying.... the ENTIRE theater audience was shell-shocked as we watched the end credits, then slowly, in a trance, exited the theater....
The theaters were packed for this one. I saw it a few times. In a way it changed the tone of Trek going forward.
Always nice to see first time viewers to my favorite franchise ever. :D
Glad you enjoy it! Happy you spent some time with us :-)
This is a perfect example of how cloudy could turn your judgement when anger rages. Revenge was more important to Khan than the torpedo itself. Like the saying goes, "give a speech while you are angry and it will be the most regretful speech you'll ever give in your life". Remember also that Khan came from a different era than Kirk when woken up. The earth was in a whole different state of advancement in civilization compared to the one Kirk lived. Khan was the product of genetic engineering meant to be created as "the super human" to be used into a world that almost destroyed itself by war during his period. (Hence, in the future, genetic engineering was forbidden.)
The color-coding of the "new" uniforms was done with the strap on their shoulder and their undershirts. White was for captains and flag officers.
leonard nimoy had always been one of my favorite actors, spock one of my favorite characters..when mr.nimoy passed away few years ago it was like losing a personal friend
Excellent choice with B5. Just don't judge it on season 1. It is a bit rough, but it gets SO much better!
your analysis of the change in Khan can easily be explained by the TITLE of the movie ... the WRATH of Khan
There's an interesting piece of symbolism at the end. Spock was always Kirk's steadfast second in command. An intelligent and analytical mind who always gave him counsel and wisdom. The death of spock means that Kirk has lost that insight which is shown by his reading glasses being broken.
“Improve a mechanical device and you may double productivity. But improve man, you gain a thousandfold.”-Khan Noonien Singh
I’m 48. I’ve seen this a gajillion times. I know what the future for this story is and even a damn recap of it still brings tears to my eyes. 😢
I have one other thing to say...
I'm glad you guys were moved by Spock's death. So many movies keep it light and don't make you feel much. It's a sign of how rich the characters are that you mourn them in fictional death.
What hit me hardest when I saw this ( in the theatre) was I knew what Spock was going to do as he realised what had to be done to save the ship... 😔
It's interesting you made the similarity with Master and Commander: both Gene Roddenbury and this film's director cited the Horatio Hornblower novels, which are set in same Age of Sail time period as Master and Commander, as an influence on TOS and Wrath of Khan.
12:43 this is the first time computer generated imagery was used to make realistic fire, water and landscaping not to mention realistic planets and stars. The makers felt like it wasn't realistic enough so they reserved this technology just for the simulation of transforming a moon into a life-giving planet. The rest of the movie is just standard special effects of the time. Still amazing technology for 1982
10:46 How well did it do? The lines were wrapped AROUND the theaters all day, all night..
Commercially ST:2 WOK was very successful for the time. It was made for about $11 million and pulled in about $97 million.
One of the greatest movies ever made, and the soundtrack is sublime.
4:30 - I can talk about this because you've seen the movie now. Fun bit of trivia. The Kobiyashi Maru test shown in this movie was created by the writers because it was leaked that Spock was going to be killed off. So they had multiple characters pretend to die in the beginning as a fake out to the audience, so it'd still be unexpected when it actually happened later. Also this test became so famous that it's constantly referred to even in modern Star Trek.
I love that they didnt see what the next movie's title is about....🤣
The relationship between Kirk and Marcus is only inferred to have occurred sometime early in Kirk's career, maybe even before he commanded Enterprise. As you watch the original series, you'll see that Kirk has a reputation with the ladies. When you get to watching the movies, the director's cut of The Motion Picture is better than the theatrical cut. But sit back and enjoy the ride. BTW, the writer of The Wrath of Khan was going for a "Hornblower in space" feel. So it is natural to be reminded of Master and Commander.
Carol Marcus is often attributed as being the girl that Kirk & Gary Mitchell reminisced about in the series' 2nd pilot ep:
MITCHELL: Hey man, I remember you back at the Academy. A stack of books with legs. The first thing I ever heard from an upperclassman was, watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. In his class, you either think or sink.
KIRK: I wasn't that bad, was I?
MITCHELL: If I hadn't aimed that little blonde lab technician at you
KIRK: You what? You planned that?
MITCHELL: Well, you wanted me to think, didn't you? I outlined her whole campaign for her.
KIRK: I almost married her!
@@Raja1938 Yeah in my book that is absolutely Carol Marcus. Blonde. Lab Technician. Right timing. Almost married. Must be.
Khan lost his wife on this barren planet and blamed Kirk, that revenge took precedence over everything.
I think you're a little off base with Khan's abilities to learn. In the original series Khan says he needs the crew of the Enterprise and tries to recruit them. So in my head canon Kahn skipped over parts of the tech manuals that he couldn't understand and concentrated on the parts that he could understand. As an engineer I can tell you that understanding engineering principles is more about education than intellect. So Kahn didn't understand all of the Reliant's tech manuals anymore than he understood all of Enterprise's tech manuals. He only understood a portion of the easiest parts of those manuals.
I went to see it with my dad & brother at the theater went it first came out….there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, including me, my brother & my dad…we were all a mess. It’s a hell of a thing when Spock died. 😑
All I am going to say is the fact that the theaters in my town was packed for a month. Just to watch this one. Just because of the effects alone was great and cannot beat the cast either. I love that younger generations like the old episodes as well. But you should have started with the first Star Trek. But not many liked the first one. Star Trek 2 Wrath of Khan is by far the best. But I am a Star Trek fan and love all of them. Take care all
The theater experience was surreal. I went to a theater that was packed with Trekkies. The audience was so invested in everything. From the credits, to every character interaction, to the heart wrenching ending. It was the best experience. Easily Top 3!
Do you remember the reaction when Kirk fired after getting the prefix code?
You have to remember that Khan has never commanded a Starship in his life. Everything he learned was from a book. Kirk has had 15 years of hands-on experience. That's why Khan kept making rookie mistakes. Kirk is street smart. Khan is book-smart. You should give credit for the victories that Khan was able to get.
Probably 20 years at least. When he first met Khan, Kirk was already an experienced captain.
@@eq1373 Not to mention Kirk studied at a Academy and had simulator training.
@@actioncom2748 And he actually was an instructor at the Academy, and he had a high academic rating. Gary Mitchell said upon first meeting him that he was basically a "walking stack of books with legs."
Khan wasn't experienced with starships so it's not surprising he didn't know about the prefix code, Saavik on the other hand was a Lieutenant who regularly quoted Starfleet regulations so I'm more surprised she didn't appear to know about prefix codes.
@@FreeloaderUK Prefix codes are only known by flag officers/Admiralty.
I remember in the early 80s, this was one of the first movies released on videotape with the new “Hi-Fi” technology, which suddenly improved the audio quality from the equivalent of AM radio to almost CD quality.
11:42 This moment means a lot to old-time fans of the series. Bones and Spock were on opposite sides of almost every argument (as you see in the later Genesis discussion scene). To have both of them saying the same thing to Kirk is a big deal.
Nicholas Meyer (who directed this movie and rewrote the script) is a heck of a guy - he also wrote the screenplays for Star Trek IV and VI, and directed VI (thus becoming the reason behind the belief that the even-numbered Star Trek movies were the good ones). He also wrote and directed “Time After Time,” where H.G. Wells travels in time to pursue Jack the Ripper, and directed the famous TV movie “The Day After.” In this movie, he inserts dueling literary threads: Khan quotes or paraphrases Ahab, the revenge-obsessed captain in Moby Dick, while Kirk and Spock reference the book Spock gives Kirk: A Tale of Two Cities.
Keep in mind the planet that Spock’s torpedo tube landed on-hint.
My parents took me to see this in the theaters when this came out! It was huge and this did well! In my opinion, it's still the best Star Trek film ever made!
No spoilers, but you need to follow up with III and IV. They complete an incredible trilogy of films.
Glad you liked it...can you imagine the thrill for those who say the show as kids and then watch the movies as adults. After the show was cancelled we watched the reruns every day after school then go outside and play Startrek I was always Spock and my older brother was Kirk. Mr Spock always my favorite character
Khan was a super genius, but that doesn't making him omnipotent. And we're talking about starship command here.
Could you imagine plopping Napoleon down in the bridge of a nuclear submarine (roughly a hundred years of progress). Napoleon was a genius. Do you think he would become an instant expert in submarine warfare in just a few days? He never commanded naval vessels-and neither did Khan. Space combat didn't even exist in Khan's time and he'd never even seen it before this movie.
Besides, starships changed a lot in the time Khan was exiled (even in the original show he admitted that he could not run the Enterprise without the help of some of the crew) and a security prefix code isn't something that's going to immediately pop up when calling up the technical manual on basic starship operation. Spock points out that it is a gamble whether Khan changed it or not. And no, this is NOT the Khan from the show. He's consumed by rage, unable to accept the fact that he wasn't smart or strong enough to prevent the death of his wife. He is broken and irrational. From the second he learns about Genesis, he's all go and no stop, so I don't think it's unreasonable that this is something he didn't think to change.
Honestly, the fact that he and his people ran the Reliant as well as they did is pretty incredible.
That's what you get for watching things out of order! 😂
Yup we deserve that 🙂