KHHHHAAAAAAAAAN!!!
—James T. Kirk

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount Pictures, 1982) is the second feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. It is widely regarded by fans as the best film of the series, and many non-fans regard it as one of the best science fiction films.

Directed by Nicholas Meyer. Written by Jack B. Sowards

James T. Kirk

• [eulogizing Spock] We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted, in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most.... [voice breaks] human.

Dialogue

[Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov meet Khan and his followers]

Commander Chekov: [shocked at the sight of a familiar face] Khan...

Khan Noonien Singh: [looks at Captain Terrell] I don't know you. [walks over to Commander Chekov] But you...I never forget a face, Mister...Chekov, isn't it? I never thought to see your face again.

Captain Terrell: Chekov, who is this man?

Chekov: A criminal, Captain. A product of late 20th century genetic engineering.

Terrell: What do you want with us? Sir, I demand to—!

Khan: You are in a position to demand nothing, sir. I, on the other hand, am in a position to grant...nothing. What you see is all that remains of the ship's company and crew of the Botany Bay...marooned here fifteen years ago by Captain James T. Kirk.

Terrell: [tries to reason with Khan's followers] Listen, you men and women, you haven't—!

Khan: Captain! Captain. Save your strength, Captain. These people had sworn to live and die at my command two hundred years before you were born! Do you mean he [refers to Chekov] never told you the tale? To amuse your Captain, no? Never told you how the Enterprise picked up the Botany Bay, lost in space from the year 1996 with myself and the ship's company in cryogenic freeze?

Terrell: I've never even met Admiral Kirk!

Khan: 'Admiral?' 'Admiral!' 'Admiral'... Never told you how Admiral Kirk sent 70 of us into exile in this barren sand heap, with only the contents of these cargo bays to sustain us.

Chekov: [furious] You lie! On Ceti Alpha V there was life! A fair chance -

Khan: [shouts] THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!!! [walks back to Chekov and calms voice] Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after we were left here. The shock shifted the orbit of this planet, and everything was laid waste. Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress! It was only the fact of my genetically-engineered intellect that allowed us to survive. On Earth... [grins wistfully]... two hundred years ago... [sighs nostalgically] I was a prince... with power over millions.

Chekov: [angrily] Captain Kirk was your host. You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him!!

James T. Kirk: [shocked at the sight of a familiar face] Khan.

Khan: You still remember, Admiral. I cannot help but be touched. I, of course, remember you.

Kirk: What is the meaning of this attack? And where's the crew of the Reliant?

Khan: Surely I have made my meaning plain. I mean to avenge myself upon you, Admiral. I deprived your ship of power and when I swing around, I mean to deprive you of your life. But I wanted you to know first who it was who had beaten you.

[Montgomery Scott has just seen Peter Preston die in front of Admiral Kirk and Doctor McCoy]

Montgomery Scott: Why? Why?!

Kirk: [referring to Khan's motive] He wants to kill me for passing sentence on him fifteen years ago. And...he doesn't care who stands between him and his vengeance.

[James Kirk has just seen Clark Terrell commit suicide and Pavel Andreievich Chekov collapse in agony.]

Kirk: Khan, you bloodsucker! You're gonna have to do your own dirty work now! Do you hear me? Do you?

Khan Noonien Singh: Kirk! You're still alive, my old friend!

Kirk: Still, old friend! You've managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target!

Khan: Perhaps I no longer need to try, Admiral.

David: Oh, no! Let go! He can't take it! [tries to save the Genesis components, only to see them beamed up by Khan]

Kirk: Khan! Khan, you've got Genesis, but you don't have me! You were going to kill me, Khan. You're going to have to come down here! You're going to have to come down here!

Khan: I've done far worse than 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 in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. [whispers] Buried alive!

Kirk: [apparently exploding with rage, able to stand no more] KHHHHAAAAAAAAN!!! [cut to a shot of the planetoid] [echoing] KHHHHAAAAAAAAN!!!

David Marcus: Every time we have dealings with Starfleet, I get nervous. We are dealing with something that... could be perverted into a dreadful weapon. Remember that overgrown Boy Scout you used to hang around with? That's exactly the kind of man...

Carol Marcus: Listen, kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a Boy Scout!

Spock: Were I to invoke logic, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Kirk: Or the one.

Spock: You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been and always shall be yours.

McCoy: Go? Where are we going?"

Kirk: Where they went.

McCoy: Suppose they went nowhere?

Kirk: Then this'll be your big chance to get away from it all.

Lt. Saavik: [to Kirk] On the test, sir. Will you tell me what you did? I would really like to know.

Dr. Leonard McCoy: Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Star Fleet cadet who ever beat the "No-Win" scenario.

Saavik: How?

James Kirk: I reprogrammed the simulation so that it was possible to save the ship.

Saavik: What?!

David: [chuckles] He cheated!

Kirk: Changed the conditions of the test... got a commendation for original thinking. I don't like to lose.

Saavik: Then you've never faced that situation, faced death.

Kirk: I don't believe in a "no-win" scenario. [pulls out his communicator] Kirk to Spock.

Spock: [on communicator] Spock here, Admiral.

Kirk: Captain Spock, it's two hours. Are you ready?

Spock: [on communicator] Right on schedule, Admiral. Just give us your co-ordinates and we'll beam you aboard.

Kirk: All right. [to a completely dumbfounded Saavik] I don't like to lose. [bites an apple]

Saavik: [still arguing WHILE beaming aboard the Enterprise] But the damage report! We were immobilized! Captain Spock said it would be two days!

Kirk: Come, come, Lieutenant. You of all people go by the book!

Saavik: By the book?

Kirk: By the book! Regulation 46A: "If transmissions are being monitored during battle --"

Saavik: [astonished] "- no uncoded messages on an open channel." [looking at Spock] You lied!

Spock: I exaggerated.

Kirk: Hours instead of days; now we have minutes instead of hours!

Joachim: [not just as subordinate to superior but as son to father as well] We're all with you, sir, but consider this. We are free. We have a ship, and the means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha V. You have proven your superior intellect, and defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again.

Khan Noonien Singh: He tasks me. 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! [No one responds.] Prepare to alter course.

[Kirk hails Khan]

Kirk: This is Admiral Kirk. We tried it once your way, Khan -- are you game for a rematch? [Khan sits there silently shocked.] Khan, [mockingly] I'm laughing at the "superior intellect." [voice dissolves into an inaudible chuckle]

Khan Noonien Singh: [barely able to restrain his passionate anger] Full impulse power.

Joachim: No, sir!! You have Genesis! You can have whatever you --

Khan: [angrily grabs Joachim] FULL POWER, [shoves him aside] DAMN YOU!

Leonard McCoy: Are you out of your Vulcan mind? No human can tolerate the radiation that's in there!

Spock: As you are so fond of observing, Doctor, I am not human.

McCoy: [grabs Spock by the shoulder] You're not going in there!

Spock: Perhaps you're right. What is Mr. Scott's condition?

McCoy: Well, I don't think he's -

Spock: [nerve pinches McCoy] Sorry, Doctor, but I have no time to discuss this logically. [grabs Scotty's gloves and mind melds with McCoy] Remember.

[seeing Spock lying immobilized in the radiation-filled chamber, Kirk runs towards it]

McCoy: NO!! You'll flood the whole compartment!

Kirk: He'll die...

Scott: Sir! He's dead already.

McCoy: [stricken] It's too late.

Kirk: Spock!

Spock: [climbs slowly to his feet and walks over to Kirk] Ship... out of danger?

Kirk: Yes.

Spock: Don't grieve, Admiral. It's logical. The needs of the many outweigh...

Kirk: The needs of the few...

Spock: - or the one. I never took the Kobayashi Maru test, until now. What do you think of my solution? [He kneels.] I have been... and always shall be... your friend. [He places his hand on the chamber glass, and his voice is a whispered broken husk.] Live long and prosper!

Kirk: [places his hand against the glass as Spock slumps and dies] No. . . .

David: Lieutenant Saavik was right: You never have faced death.

Kirk: No, not like this. I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and - patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing... [But he cannot bring himself to complete his complaint, "I know nothing of death."]

David: You knew enough to tell Saavik that how we face death is at least as important as how we face life.

Kirk: Just words.

David: But good words! That's where ideas begin. Maybe you should listen to them. [hesitant] I was wrong about you...and I'm sorry.

Kirk: Is that what you came here to say?

David: Mainly. And also that I'm proud... very proud... to be your son.

Cast

About

• I’ve always wanted to make a movie with submarines and destroyers and people torpedoing each other — a sort of case of arrested development — but I thought, ‘Oh, OK, this is about the Navy. I know how to do this. … And Khan, because I’d seen that episode ‘Space Seed,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, that guy must be pretty angry by now.
  • Director Nicholas Meyer, "‘Star Trek’: Nicholas Meyer explains his Roddenberry regret" Noelene Clark, LA Times: Hero Complex, June 10, 2011.

External links

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at StarTrek.com

Creator	Gene Roddenberry  (1921–1991)
Television series	Star Trek  (1966–1969) · The Animated Series  (1973–1974) · The Next Generation  (1987–1994) · Deep Space Nine  (1993–1999) · Voyager  (1995–2001) · Enterprise  (2001–2005) · Discovery  (2017–) · Picard  (2020–)
Feature films	The Original Series		The Motion Picture  (1979) · The Wrath of Khan  (1982) · The Search for Spock  (1984) · The Voyage Home  (1986) · The Final Frontier  (1989) · The Undiscovered Country  (1991)
	The Next Generation		Generations  (1994) · First Contact  (1996) · Insurrection  (1998) · Nemesis  (2002)
	Reboot series		Star Trek  (2009) · Into Darkness  (2013) · Beyond  (2016)
Video games	Borg  (1996) · Klingon Academy  (2000)
Proverbs	Klingon · Vulcan
Other	Star Trek franchise · Last words in Star Trek media · Jean-Luc Picard· Phase II