Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is widely considered the best of the twelve films produced in the Star Trek franchise.
Synopsis
The movie begins in a training simulator with a young Lieutenant Saavik taking the infamous Kobayashi Maru command exam. The scenario ends in the deaths of everyone on the bridge except the commander, Saavik. Kirk then appears at the front of the room, advising her to pray as "Klingons don't take prisoners." Following the simulation, Spock gives to Kirk a copy of A Tale of Two Cities as a birthday present.
Meanwhile, Chekov, now first officer of the USS Reliant, is taking part in a survey of a planet they think is Ceti Alpha 6 for something called Project Genesis. They locate something that might make the planet unsuitable for the test and head down to the surface to find out what it might be and if it can be transplanted. At this point, he and the Captain of the Reliant, Captain Terrell, find Khan Noonien Singh and his colony of genetic supermen. Khan uses Ceti Alpha Eels to persuade the two to tell him about Project Genesis.
Back on Earth, Kirk is "celebrating" his birthday with Dr. McCoy and expresses distress at feeling old and useless. Bones tells him to get back his chair before he really does become old. What follows is Kirk going to the Enterprise to take it out on a training cruise.
At the research station, Regula One, the scientist working on Project Genesis receive a transmission from the Reliant; Chekov tells them that the planet checks out and they are ready to transfer Genesis to the ship for complete testing. They are aghast at this, demanding who ordered it. They then are told it was Admiral James T. Kirk.
Back on the Enterprise, Kirk receives a transmission from Regula One from the project leader, Carol Marcus, demanding to know why he is taking Genesis away from her. Unable to respond because the signal is being jammed, Kirk is ordered by Starfleet to investigate. This requires him sharing information about Project Genesis with Spock and McCoy, and they head to Regula One to investigate.
While on the way, they encounter the USS Reliant on an intercept course. Ignoring regulations, as pointed out by Lt. Saavik, they close on the Reliant with their shields down. Once at point-blank range, Khan attacks the Enterprise heavily damaging it. Disabled, Kirk is forced to use the Reliant's prefix code in order to strike back, forcing them to withdraw. After the battle, they continue to Regula One, where they find the research team members left on the station tortured and killed. They also locate Captain Terrell and Chekov. Using the transporter on the station, they beam down to the Genesis stage two test cave and are attacked by the still mind-controlled Chekov and Terrell. Terrell kills himself when ordered by Khan to kill Kirk, and the eel inside of Chekov exits his body leaving him incapacitated. At this point, it is revealed that David Marcus, one of the chief Genesis scientists, is actually Kirk's son. After spending some time talking with Carol, he goes into the main Genesis cave and banters with Saavik about the Kobayashi Maru test and his "solution" to it. As if in answer to Saavik's incredulous comments about his "solutio" to the test, he contacts Spock to have the party beamed up to the still wounded Enterprise.
On board the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock decide to take advantage of the nearby Mutara Nebula to draw Khan and the Reliant into an even fight. The conditions of the nebula make shields and sensors nearly non-functional. Making sure to taunt Khan as they enter the nebula, Kirk then engages Khan in a dogfight in the nebula until they manage to heavily damage the Reliant, killing everyone on its bridge but Khan himself. Kahn did manage to damage the Enterprise in turn, taking its main engines offline. In a final act of defiance, Khan activates the Genesis Device in order to take Kirk out with it. As the Enterprise tries to escape the area, Spock heads down to engineering, and -- after mind melding with McCoy -- enters the engine chamber and repairs the main engines enough to allow the ship to escape.
The movie ends with Spock's funeral and Nimoy reading the famous lines, "Space the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her mission, to boldly go where no man has gone before." The last shot of the movie is a slow zoom in to the new Genesis planet onto the photon torpedo tube that served as Spock's coffin.
Additional key figures
- Khan Noonien Singh
- Ceti Alpha V
- USS Reliant
- Clark Terrel
- Carol Marcus
- David Marcus
- Genesis device
- Space lab Regula One
- Mutara Nebula
- Ceti Alpha Eel