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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nicholas Meyer
Produced by	Robert Sallin
Written by	Harve Bennett Jack B. Sowards (story and screenplay) Gene Roddenberry (creator)
Starring	See table
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Gayne Rescher
Editing by	William Paul Dornisch
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	June 4, 1982
Running time	116 min. (Director's cut)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$97,000,000 (worldwide)
Preceded by	Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Followed by	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount Pictures, 1982) is the second feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series. It is often referred to as ST2:TWOK , TWOK , or simply Star Trek II. It is widely regarded by fans as the best film of the series, and has been described as enjoyable by both fans and non-fans of Star Trek.^[1] This may be partly due to the tone and style of the film, which is firmly character-driven. The film starts a story arc trilogy spanning to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Expectations and critical reception 5 Franchise follow-up 6 Character and actor notes 6.1 Kirk and Shatner 6.2 Khan and Montalban 6.3 Others 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

The film opens with an unfamiliar female Vulcan in command of the USS Enterprise, but most of the familiar bridge crew (Spock, McCoy, etc.) are present. Attempting a rescue mission in the Klingon Neutral Zone, the Enterprise is attacked by three Klingon battle cruisers, with the apparent loss of all hands. The situation is soon revealed to be, in actuality, the "Kobayashi Maru Test", an intentional no-win situation designed to test the character of officers-in-training. The unfamiliar character is introduced as Captain Spock’s protégé, Lieutenant Saavik. Admiral James T. Kirk oversees the training session externally.^[2]

At the same time, aboard the USS Reliant, First officer Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell are searching for a lifeless planet to serve as a testing ground for "Project Genesis", a device that reorganizes molecular matter on a sub-atomic level, turning barren environments into life-sustaining ones. They beam to the surface of a likely candidate, Ceti Alpha VI, and quickly become captives of Khan Noonien Singh. Khan and his followers were genetically-enhanced fugitives from the late 20th century. (They had been in suspended animation in space when they had been found by the Enterprise and the then-Captain Kirk (in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed"). After Khan tried to kill the Enterprise crew and steal the ship, Kirk had banished them to Ceti Alpha V, which at the time had been a lush planet.) Khan explains that Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after their banishment, shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V to mirror that of Ceti Alpha VI (which is why the Reliant misidentified it) and causing an environmental disaster. Most of Khan's followers had died in the ensuing disaster and Khan still blames Kirk for all of his troubles. Khan employs the small offspring of a nasty indigenous animal (known to fans as the "Ceti Eel") to control Chekov and Terrell and forces them to reveal the details of their mission, and the whereabouts of Admiral Kirk.

Later, the Enterprise is on a training voyage under the command of Captain Spock with Kirk observing. Kirk suddenly receives a garbled message from Space Station Regula I, a remote science laboratory where Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and son, Dr. David Marcus, have been laboring to create the "Genesis Device". Informing Starfleet Command of the situation, the Enterprise is ordered to investigate. Since Spock's trainee crew are now on an active-duty mission, Kirk assumes command.

En route, Khan, now in control of Reliant, attacks the Enterprise, crippling her and wounding or killing many of the trainee crew. During negotiations over the terms of the Enterprise's surrender, Khan reveals his knowledge of, and desire for, the Genesis Device. Kirk and Spock use their knowledge of Reliant's computer codes to lower their shields and mount a successful counterattack, damaging Reliant enough to ensure it must temporarily retreat.

The Enterprise makes its way to Regula I, where they find most of the Genesis team dead, though some, including Carol and David, have escaped deep inside the planetoid of Regula itself. Chekov and Terrell are also present, but under hypnotic suggestion as spies, allowing Khan to steal the Genesis Device. Khan then orders Terrell to kill Kirk, but Terrell cannot and kills himself instead, while Chekov overcomes the influence of his own "Ceti eel" and faints. Kirk and Spock arrange a rendezvous in code, which Khan fails to decipher; upon returning with the Regula survivors, Kirk takes the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula, which will interfere with both ships' defenses and weapons. Despite the advice of his lieutenants, Khan pursues in the Reliant.

After a game of cat-and-mouse (both starships are more-or-less blinded by the nebula), the two ships exchange fire. Khan's lieutenant and friend, Joachim, is slain; on the Enterprise, radiation leakage forces the warp engine to fail and go offline. Though intelligent, Khan lacks Kirk's strategic experience, and the Enterprise is able to outmaneuver and then cripple the Reliant. Khan, beaten, and horribly injured, activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter within the nebula—including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of the Genesis Device and begins to lumber away using impulse engines; without warp drive they will not be able to escape the nebula in time. Spock goes to Engineering and, despite taking a fatal dose of radiation poisoning, restores the warp drive, allowing the Enterprise to escape the Genesis explosion.

A burial in space is held, and Spock's coffin is sent into orbit of the new planet that the Genesis explosion created. Admiral Kirk and his son, David, make peace, and the crew leaves Genesis reminiscing about Spock. In the final scene the coffin is seen to have soft-landed on the planet. The final monologue, the familiar (but slightly altered) "Space, the final frontier...", is delivered in Spock's voice.

Actor	Role
William Shatner	Admiral James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	Captain Spock
DeForest Kelley	Commander (Dr.) Leonard McCoy
James Doohan	Commander Montgomery Scott
George Takei	Commander Hikaru Sulu
Walter Koenig	Commander Pavel Chekov
Nichelle Nichols	Commander Uhura
Bibi Besch	Dr. Carol Marcus
Merritt Butrick	Dr. David Marcus
Paul Winfield	Captain Clark Terrell
Kirstie Alley	Lieutenant Saavik
Ricardo Montalbán	Khan Noonien Singh
Judson Scott (uncredited)	Joachim, Khan's henchman
Ike Eisenmann	Midshipman Peter Preston
John Winston	Commander Kyle
Paul Kent	Lt. Commander Beach

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

After the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, executive producer Gene Roddenberry wrote his own sequel, involving a plot he had touted before in which the crew of the Enterprise travel back through time to assassinate John F. Kennedy and set a corrupted time line right (a storyline which was also used in an episode of Red Dwarf).^{[citation needed]} This sequel was turned down by Paramount executives, who blamed the relative failure of the first movie on the constant rewrites demanded by Roddenberry^{[citation needed]} (he was ultimately removed from the production and reduced to an "Executive Consultant" advisory position).

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

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

Meyer notes that prior to starting the film, he read many or all of the Horatio Hornblower novels, and thus imprinted the nautical "atmosphere" of the Royal Navy into the film.

Early prints of the film lacked the "II" in the main title, and the film was often referred to as "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" in publicity materials.

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

At a budget of US$11,000,000 in 1982 dollars (approximately US$23,000,000 in 2006 dollars), as of 2006 Star Trek:II was the cheapest Star Trek motion picture to have been made to date, which was due to requirements placed on the production given the cost overruns of its predecessor Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Star Trek II is still the cheapest even when one adjusts for inflation; most of the film was shot on the same set, as the bridge of the Reliant was a redress of the Enterprise’s bridge and the "bridge simulator" (from the opening scene) was a simple reuse of that set.

Star Trek II re-used many models from the first film, including the three Klingon battle cruisers in each movie's opening scene. Also it used the same shots of the docked Enterprise that were used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but these shots were greatly shortened. Nevertheless, Star Trek II owes its considerable success to being primarily a character vehicle. By any reasonable account, Star Trek II rescued the Star Trek franchise.^{[original research?]}

The James Horner score is markedly different from Jerry Goldsmith's score for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture, switching from Goldsmith's dark, heavy themes to a sound evocative of seafaring and swashbuckling. A portion of the score draws heavily on Sergei Prokofiev's "Battle on the Ice" from the score for the movie Alexander Nevsky^{[citation needed]}. The opening and closing titles also feature the return of Alexander Courage's well-known Star Trek theme (which was only used briefly by Goldsmith), and the voiceover from the original series ("Space... the final frontier..."), this time read by Leonard Nimoy before the closing credits roll. This was Horner's first major film score, and musical cues from it appear in many of his later projects, including Cocoon and Aliens. Despite the differences, Horner did borrow one signature sound from Goldsmith's earlier soundtrack: a very deep string tone (produced by the "blaster beam"), used to accentuate moments of tension and danger.

The engine warpcore of the refit USS Enterprise was later reused in the engine room of the USS Voyager on Star Trek: Voyager.

At a Creation convention in St. Louis, Missouri in 1984, Bibi Besch stated that if she had filmed The Wrath of Khan after filming The Day After rather than before, her portrayal of Carol Marcus and of Dr. Marcus' attitude toward the Genesis Device would have been very different, due to what she learned about the effects of nuclear weapons while filming The Day After.

It is the first Star Trek episode or movie where damage to the outer hull of the Enterprise is seen (and incidentally also the only TOS film in which we see a ship fire its phasers.) TWOK is the only Star Trek film where the antagonists are all human, albeit they are for the most part genetically-engineered supermen.

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

The film had its first public preview in Overland Park, Kansas in the Spring of 1982. The cut shown at this one public preview did not contain the hurriedly filmed coda showing Spock's burial tube on the surface of the Genesis Planet.

"Star Trek II" grossed $78,912,963 in the U.S. and $97,000,000 worldwide. Although it made significantly less than "The Motion Picture," it was more profitable due to its lower $11,000,000 budget [1]. The film earned $14,347,221 in its opening weekend at the US box office, at the time the largest opening weekend gross in history.

Though Arthur C. Clarke did not include The Wrath of Khan in his list of best science fiction films ever made, he "brooded over" the omission.^{[citation needed]}

Around 1982, an Atari video game based on the film was developed, but was not released.

In 1985 the computer game Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative based on the Kobayashi Maru test from the film was released for C64, Apple II and PC.

In the computer game Starfleet Academy a variant of the initial encounter with the Reliant is used as a training exercise for the player's character. As Captain Kirk sheepishly notes as he introduces the exercise, it is intended to teach the importance of obeying the standing orders of raising defenses when a sister ship of the fleet is encountered but refuses to communicate.

The film introduces Star Trek fans to the "red jacket" uniform (a red double-breasted tunic over a color-coded turtleneck shirt), widely regarded as one of the most popular and attractive Star Trek costumes in comparison to the colored shirts and tunics of the original series and The Next Generation.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the fictional history of Star Trek indicates that the uniform seen in Star Trek II, adopted sometime between the events of The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan, was one of the longest issued uniforms of Starfleet, lasting well into the 24th century. (Later versions of this uniform, as glimpsed at in several TNG episodes, would see the turtlenecks replaced by crewneck shirts and the belt eliminated.)

A screenplay for a spin-off prequel to Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan was commissioned in 1982 by Paramount Pictures. Titled Prison Planet, it told the story of what happened to the Khan character between the events of "Space Seed" and those of the second Star Trek feature film. The film never got out of the development stage.

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

Nicholas Meyer reported on the DVD that he did endless takes with William Shatner so that Shatner would get tired of doing his usual overblown performance as Kirk and fall into a more natural performance.

Among the "antiques" visible in Kirk's San Francisco apartment is an ancient home computer that is recognizably (based on the trapezoidal shape of its monitor) a Commodore PET. At the time Star Trek II was filmed, Shatner was the celebrity pitchman for Commodore computers. (In the DVD commentary for the Director's Edition, the computer is pointed out but referred to as a Commodore 64.)

Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) were never actually face-to-face at any point during the film. All of their interactions are over the viewscreen or through communicators. Shatner describes in his book Star Trek Movie Memories (ISBN 0-06-017617-2) how their scenes were filmed four months apart.

It was reported that Montalban took a substantial pay cut to reprise his role of Khan, because he enjoyed playing the character so much.^{[citation needed]}

There were some questions^{[attribution needed]} as to whether Montalban had prosthetics applied to his chest, to make him appear more muscular during his scenes as Khan. Montalban himself, as well as numerous people associated with the production of the movie, actively refuted it, saying that those muscles really were his, and citing the fact that, even going into his 60s, Montalban was physically very active, and worked out regularly. Nicholas Meyer, in the audio commentary of the Director's Cut makes it clear that Montalban is not wearing a prosthetic chest. ^[3]

In the original series episode "Space Seed", Khan was described in dialog as being the result of a "selective breeding" program. However, in the movie, Chekov described Khan as being "the product of 20th century genetic engineering."

An error notorious throughout Star Trek fandom is that Khan and Chekov both recognize each other during their initial encounter in the film, despite the fact that Chekov did not appear in "Space Seed". (Koenig had not yet joined the TV series at the time.) While it is possible that Chekov learned of the earlier incident with Khan from the other Enterprise crew members, no explanation is given for why Khan knows Chekov. It has been suggested by Koenig and by fans that Chekov was already a member of the crew, but not yet a bridge officer. Cartmell and Whelehan note that the filmmakers could have easily preserved continuity with the original series by using Kyle, a member of the Reliant's crew who had met Khan, instead of Chekov. An alternative rationalization for this error is provided in the novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, where Chekov had been "an ensign assigned to the night watch" who had met McGivers and who had "locked himself in his cabin and cried" when she left with Khan.^[2][4]

In reality this error was a simple oversight by the filmmakers. Meyer justifies it in the DVD audiocommentary by noting that Arthur Conan Doyle made similar oversights in his Sherlock Holmes stories; Koenig frequently tells a humorous story of an encounter between Khan and Chekov in one of the ship's heads.

Khan, despite never having encountered Klingons, asks "Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?" The quotation is actually from the 18th-century novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, although it also was cited as Sicilian in a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Adrian Conan Doyle and as Arabic by G. Gordon Liddy in an interview in Playboy Magazine.

During the funeral scene for Spock, it was originally intended that the piped version of "Amazing Grace" be continued into the exterior shot, but the choice was made in post-production to switch to an orchestrated version after the scene left the torpedo room.^{[citation needed]}

The film features a cameo of Transporter Chief Kyle (John Winston) from The Original Series. Kyle is now a Lieutenant Commander and serving as Communications Officer aboard the USS Reliant.

The film is notable for being the first major role for Kirstie Alley, who played Lieutenant Saavik. The character of Saavik, and in particular Alley's portrayal of her, resonated with fans. Alley declined to continue her participation in Star Trek and in the next two films Saavik was portrayed by Robin Curtis. (Several reasons for Alley declining to return have been suggested; Shatner's movie memoir, for example, suggests that Kirstie Alley's salary requests were at the root of her decision not to reprise her role.) Valeris in Star Trek VI was originally supposed to be Saavik, but Gene Roddenberry changed the character, in part because he felt that most fans would not have accepted that Saavik consciously betrayed the Federation.^{[citation needed]} (Director Nicholas Meyer took exception to this, pointing out that he created the character of Saavik and knew her better than Roddenberry.)^{[citation needed]}

In the original script, Dr. McCoy was apparently supposed to say his classic line, "He's dead, Jim" when Kirk attempts to reach Spock. According to an interview with DeForest Kelley, he requested that the line be dropped, concerned that the catch phrase would detract from the dramatic tension of the scene.^{[citation needed]} The line was subsequently given to Scotty, as "Sir, he's dead already."

McIntyre's novelization (which was based on the shooting script for the movie) expands upon the characterizations of several of the characters with material that was deleted from the final movie. In addition to the aforementioned background for Chekov linking him to McGivers, Saavik is portrayed as a half-Romulan with a deprived past, and Peter Preston as someone working in the shadow of his Chief Engineer uncle.^[2]

In addition, Sulu is given the rank of Captain in the book, and is soon to command the USS Excelsior. (Deleted footage includes mention that Admiral Kirk had signed orders granting Sulu the captaincy of the Excelsior, although this was omitted from the final film. It is not until Star Trek VI that Sulu is finally made captain of the Excelsior.)

Mark Lenard, who portrayed the Klingon captain in the first film, and Sarek in three of the four following films, wanted to appear in this one too.^{[citation needed]} But Sarek wasn't in this film, and with the exception of Saavik and Spock, there were no other alien roles.

The composer of the soundtrack James Horner makes a cameo appearance as a crew technician in an Enterprise corridor scene.

• Jennifer E. Porter and Darcee L. McLaren (1999). Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American culture. SUNY Press, 6,125–175,191. ISBN 0791443345. 
• James F. Iaccino (1998). Jungian Reflections Within the Cinema: A Psychological Analysis of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Archetypes. Praeger/Greenwood, 18–21. ISBN 0275950484. 

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Box Office Mojo
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at StarTrek.com

v • d • e Star Trek
Television series	The Original Series (Eps) · The Animated Series (Eps) · The Next Generation (Eps) · Deep Space Nine (Eps) · Voyager (Eps) · Enterprise (Eps)
TOS-era feature films	The Motion Picture · The Wrath of Khan · The Search for Spock · The Voyage Home · The Final Frontier · The Undiscovered Country
TNG-era feature films	Generations · First Contact · Insurrection · Nemesis
Upcoming films	Star Trek (2008)
Other	Star Trek: Phase II · Books · Comics · Games · Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki

v • d • e Star Trek Vulcan stories
Star Trek:	Balance of Terror | Amok Time | Journey to Babel | The Immunity Syndrome | The Enterprise Incident | Star Trek: The Motion Picture | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: The Next Generation:	Sarek | Data's Day | Unification | Gambit | Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:	Take Me Out to the Holosuite | Field of Fire
Star Trek: Voyager:	Learning Curve | Meld | Innocence | Tuvix | Flashback | Alter Ego | Blood Fever | Random Thoughts | Infinite Regress | Counterpoint | Gravity | Juggernaut | Riddles | Unimatrix Zero | Repression
Star Trek: Enterprise:	Broken Bow | The Andorian Incident | Breaking the Ice | Shadows of P'Jem | Fusion | Fallen Hero | Carbon Creek | The Seventh | Stigma | Cease Fire | Bounty | The Expanse | Impulse | Harbinger | Damage | E² | Home | The Forge | Awakening | Kir'Shara | Babel One | Affliction | Demons | Terra Prime | These Are the Voyages...