Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
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| Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| 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 (1979) |
| Followed by | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) |
| Allmovie 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 Star Trek 2 or The Wrath of Khan and 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.[citation needed] The film's storyline is a continuation of the episode "Space Seed", from the original TV series, and reprises Ricardo Montalbán in the role of Khan. The film also starts a story arc trilogy spanning to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
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[edit] Plot
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 protégée, 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, including his wife, as a result and Khan still blames Kirk for his misfortunes. 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. Although the crew are trainees, since they are now on an active-duty mission, Kirk assumes command.
En route, Khan, now in control of the Reliant, attacks the Enterprise, crippling her and wounding or killing many of the trainees. During negotiations over the terms of the Enterprise's surrender, Khan reveals his knowledge of, and desire for, the Genesis Device. Kirk offers to deliver himself and "Project Genesis" information to Khan, in return for the safety of the Enterprise's crew. Unknown to Khan, Federation Starships can issue orders to each other when the recipient ship's 'prefix code' is used. While ostensibly recalling the Genesis information from the Enterprise's databanks, Kirk and Spock command Reliant to lower her shields. Kirk launches a successful counterattack, crippling the weapons and warp drive on the Reliant, ensuring Khan can not escape but forcing him to 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, killing all of Khan's remaining followers. Khan, mortally 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 the 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.
[edit] Cast
| 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 |
[edit] Production
[edit] Scripting
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.[3] This sequel was turned down by Paramount executives, who blamed the relative failure of the first movie on the constant rewrites demanded by Roddenberry[4](he was ultimately removed from the production and reduced to an "Executive Consultant" advisory position).
Star Trek II's story instead incorporates elements of three separate scripts: "The Omega Syndrome" by Jack Sowards, involving the theft of the Federation's ultimate weapon; a script featuring a male "Dr Savik" (sic) 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.[5][6]
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.[7]
[edit] Filming
The 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.[8]
Star Trek II re-used many models from the first Star Trek film, including the three Klingon battle cruisers in each movie's opening scene. It also used the same shots of the docked Enterprise that were used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but these shots were greatly shortened.
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.
[edit] Budgeting
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 2008, Star Trek II was the cheapest Star Trek motion picture to have been made to date, even when adjusting for inflation. This was largely due to requirements placed on the production given the cost overruns of its predecessor Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Most of the film was shot on the same set, as the bridge of the Reliant and the "bridge simulator" from the opening scene were simply redresses of the Enterprise’s bridge.
[edit] Scoring
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.[9] 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.
[edit] Expectations and critical reception
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 "Original Series" film in which we see a ship fire its phasers.) The Wrath of Khan 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.[10] 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]
[edit] Franchise follow-up
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). 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.
The 47th Star Trek spinoff novel is called Kobayashi Maru and tells the story of how several notable characters passed the test and in particular the 're-programming' mentioned in the film that Kirk did to avoid the 'no win scenario'. Ecklar, Julia. The Kobayashi Maru (Star Trek, Book 47). Star Trek. ISBN 978-0-671-65817-5.
[edit] Character and actor notes
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
[edit] Kirk and Shatner
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.)
[edit] Khan and Montalban
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This article appears to contradict the article Les Liaisons dangereuses. Please see discussion on the linked talk page. |
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[who?] 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. [11]
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][12]
Walter Koenig himself once joked while presenting at a convention that; "Chekov was actually holding up the toilet on Khan. He opened the stall door, having left no toilet paper, to find an angry finger being pointed in his face and was told, 'You! I'll NEVER forget you!!'"
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.
Khan asks "Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?" The quotation is also 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.
Khan frequently quotes (or paraphrases) the character of Captain Ahab from Herman Melville's Moby Dick in the movie; the intention is to draw a parallel between Khan's obsession with Kirk and Ahab's obsession with the titular whale. In the early scene where Chekov's landing party discovers Khan's group, Moby Dick is one of the books on Khan's bookshelf, along with King Lear and The Holy Bible. "He tasks me" is a direct quotation from the novel. Ahab's "I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the horn, and round the Norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up" is paraphrased as "I'll chase him round the Outer Nebula and round Antares Maelstrom and round perdition's Flames before I give him up". Ultimately, Khan's final words, "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" are directly taken from Ahab's final words.
[edit] Others
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; William Shatner's "Star Trek Movie Memories", 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: The Undiscovered Country" (1991) 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. In Shatner's "Star Trek Movie Memories," it says that Roddenberry felt that Saavik had achieved "beloved character status" and should never be revealed as a traitor. A quote from Director Nicholas Meyer in Shatner's book, says that he took exception to this, pointing out that he created the character of Saavik and knew her better than Roddenberry.)
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] The Director's Edition DVD restores a scene in the movie in which Preston is indeed revealed as Scotty's nephew.
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 (although it was included in McIntyre's novelization and would be continued through her subsequent novelizations of Star Trek III and Star Trek IV). 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.
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.
The composer of the soundtrack, James Horner, makes a cameo appearance as a crew technician in an Enterprise corridor scene.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.reelviews.net/movies/s/st2.html Reelviews.com
- ^ a b c Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan (1999). Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text. Routledge, 179–181. ISBN 0415167388.
- ^ Cromely's World: Book Review 18: Star Trek Movie Memories
- ^ Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- ^ Movies - Star Trek II -The Wrath of Khan
- ^ OTTENS.Forgotten Trek | Behind the scenes on The Wrath of Khan
- ^ OTTENS.Forgotten Trek | Behind the scenes on The Wrath of Khan
- ^ http://mario.lapam.mo.it/films/st2.htm
- ^ Alexander Nevsky - Sergei Prokofiev
- ^ Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - Box office / business
- ^ Meyer, Nicholas: "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Directors Edition" Audio commentary by Nicholas Meyer
- ^ Henry Jenkins (1992). Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. Routledge, 104. ISBN 0415905729.
[edit] Further reading
- 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.
[edit] External links
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at Allmovie
- 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
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