Because they only focus on the campy side. Shatner is a master for subtle stuff. His only weakness is stepping on the gas, which is the case for most actors.
I think it was in a Nicholas Meyer interview that said he made Shatner do a LOT of takes ... they started out a little hammy but as they got to the last takes, that's when they got the best performances.
@@royroblox I was going to mention that, too. Meyer basically said if you kept going, Shatner got almost bored and wasn't so over the top. He has certain "moments" of bad acting I think, especially in the old days, but he can be pretty good at times.
The way he says "no..." when Spock fell limp and died was masterfully drlivered. Its nuanced, and brilliant. Its the sound of a strong man breaking in grief.
Shatner was a travelling stage actor, some of his performances were outside, he spoke in the cadence he did to project his voice so everybody in the audience could hear him clearly and it stuck, as he spent his latter career largely sending himself up, people forget how good a actor he actually is.
In theaters it was a triple wave: when Spock died people were openly weeping, then when Kirk says “human” in the eulogy, they teared up again. But finally when it was Spock’s voice, not Kirk’s as in every other episode, that said the “these are the voyages of the Enterptise” people just couldn’t contain it any longer and were bawling out loud. It was the most emotional theater experience I’ve ever witnessed.
Agreed - until 'Up'. That initial 15 minutes of the film had EVERYONE in the theater in tears. Pixar really knew how to knock it out of the park back then. What a shame they've mired themselves in controversy since.
When he first started the table reads and rehearsal, he felt like he was just doing the same character as he did on Fantasy Island. So he went home after shooting on a Friday and watched "Space Seed" over and over again to learn his own mannerisms and nuances perfectly. Apparently, four times through was the magic amount of repetition, because that's how many times he watched himself as Khan before going back on Monday and blowing EVERYBODY away with the way he'd been able to become just like the old Khan again over a single weekend. Also, the chest piece was just a rumor. He could've given Jack Palance a run for his money.
Who else could absolutely CRUSH lines taken from a circa-1851 novel: "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!"
As a 45 year old guy that grew up watching this film, a couple of years ago I got to watch it in the theaters for the 40th anniversary with my (then) 15 year old daughter. She had never watched anything Star Trek (all the way through anyway; she’d seen bits and pieces). When it was over she turned to me and said “that was really good.” It was a proud dad moment and something I’ll cherish forever.
11:20 Before anyone tells you otherwise... That really is Ricardo Montalban's chest muscles. Not a prosthetic or rubber chest as has been rumoured for decades. Director Nicholas Meyer confirmed this in the dvd commentary. Ricardo Montalban stayed in top shape well into his sixties.
If my old man brain recalls correctly, I think I watched Mr. Montalban answer the nonbelievers at the time by pumping out a few pushups on the Johnny Carson show.
If I remember right they expected to have to make a fake chest for him, but were shocked when he took his shirt off. Benedict Cumberbatch is a good actor, but Khan was always Ricardo Montalban. Nobody else can play the character like he could.
I find it really hard to associate with being the guy from Fantasy Island. It is him and he is in good shape but that iconic white suit with black tie makes it so hard for me to keep the two characters as one actor.
I don't think it was a "senior officer" thing. It was just the jacket riding up. If you really want to go beyond that, probably Spock just trying to be proper and dignified. You know, like Spock would be.
@@holddowna Even listening to "Genesis Countdown" on the soundtrack makes me tear up. The music in this movie is incredible. I don't care if Horner borrows from his own scores when what he's borrowed works so damn well.
"Mister Saavik" is a callback to old Naval tradition. The Captain often calls junior officers Mister. As a sign of respect and equality aboard ship, and to counter the outdated assumption that a woman was bad luck aboard ship, the Navy and Coast Guard extended the moniker to all officers, regardless of gender.
James Horner was a huge Star Trek fan. He has a brief cameo (which is in your RUclips edit) where he and two other crewmen are going to battle stations. Star Trek 2,3 and 4 are all connected by a continuing storyline. Just so you know.
@@Tehui1974 same. When I write fiction as an adult, I often use the trope of someone's orifices being attacked or invaded while they are restrained in some way and unable to protect themselves. I find the situation to be very violating and traumatising to put a character through, and even in situations where the event is ultimately averted or subverted in some way, I can still feel the apprehension of that character the next few times I pick on them to do something.
Ricardo Montalban said that when he first started running his lines at home, he just couldn't recapture the personality of Khan. He said that he kept coming off sounding like Mr. Rourke from "Fantasy Island." So he asked the director to send him a copy of the original episode. He said that once he watched it a few times, the frame of mind he was in when he created Khan's personality came back to him.
The line Khan spoke at the end "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee...." is the line Ahab used in Moby Dick just before he died trying to kill the White Whale.
Lots of lines from Moby Dick: "Aye, aye! and 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." Khan read Moby Dick but never came to the realisation that he was Ahab and obsession would be the death of him. Khan was as good as dead the moment he decided to even TRY to engage Kirk in starship combat.
@@THXbox yeah, that part of the soundtrack is pure gold. You can feel how one life (Spock) ends while another life (the Genesis planet) starts. James Horner does some shit that I find almost synaesthetic.
This is one of the best movie scores of all time, RIP James Horner. One of the best films of all time and certainly the best in the Star Trek franchise.
Well, I love this score a lot, too (it was one of the first OMPs I ever bought,) but It is in many ways a retread of the score he wrote for the film Battle Beyond the Stars. If you haven't seen that, you should, if only to compare the soundtracks. (And for Sybil Danning.) Horner plagiarised his own score...but with good reason; in its second incarnation here, it's a masterwork!
@@stevejordan7275 No shame in that. In fact, it's a sign of mastery. What might be a bit more "sleazy" is how in his "Battle Beyond the Stars" soundtrack, he also took some rather obvious clues from Star Wars ("Here They Come") and Star Trek: The Motion Picture ("Klingon Attack"), but even those I would not call plagiarism but just the normal way of inspiration.
@@JacobSprenger TMP is awesome but I must say Generations is much better than most people think. Two captains scenes are amazing and epic, and the VFX and music, the villain Soran, Guinan, crash scene, etc It has a lot of great moments...
What's incredible is that Kirk and Khan are never in the same room together. They're always in different locations yet they both have such a physical presence that you feel them fighting.
The reasoning behind that is because Ricardo Montalbán was busy filming Fantasy Island at the time, so they had to work around his schedule. His scenes were shot months apart from the rest of the cast. And as a cost-saving measure, they reused a redressed version of the Enterprise's bridge for the Reliant's bridge, so that's also why you never saw Kirk and Khan in the same room in The Wrath of Khan.
@@astrofan1993 Cost saving measures indeed. Gene Roddenberry was legendary over budget shooting TMP, and while it definitely was a success in the box office under Star Trek fans, it wasn't something Paramount was willing to repeat. Gene was kicked upstairs to an executive function, as far as would be feasible from direct control over production. Meyer was hired as an upstart writer/director, and after he did a brilliant rewrite of WRoK, production was on. Gene didn't like the more militarized naval visual Meyer introduced, but imho this film did a lot to re-invent Star Trek for the '80s and '90s. Also the Monster Maroon uniforms are amazing, especially together with the non-commisioned / cadet uniforms around.
@@Tuning3434 Yeah, this was the first Star Trek movie I showed to my girlfriend a couple weeks ago. I wasn't going to start her off with TMP. There's a reason why it's sometimes called "The Slow-Motion Picture" by the fans. The pacing is just too slow, there's not enough action, and it's more philosophical and existential than other Star Trek films. Since my girlfriend is more into Star Wars, I wanted to show her something with a bit more action in it. And I also love the uniforms from TWOK-onwards; they actually stand as some of my favorite uniform designs in the franchise, along with the uniforms from the the early seasons of DS9 and all of VOY, the TNG movies from FC-onwards and later seasons of DS9, the uniforms from ENT, and the uniforms from the first couple seasons of DIS. Basically, I liked anything that was standardized across departments, with the color-coding of each department kept to a minimum. That being said, I do like the uniforms from LDS, since they do work well in animation and even live-action, as well as the uniforms that the kids wore in PRO. Didn't really like the uniforms in TMP, though. As ridiculous as the color-coded uniforms from TOS looked (although I did like their updated design in ST '09 and STID), the dull grays and tans of the TMP uniforms were just ugly. I don't know why every sci-fi franchise in the 1970s had to have uniforms that looked like that.
“Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human.” This is what my friends and I said at the funeral of a childhood friend who died saving his family in a rafting accident. Our group saw this on the screen back in the 80s. We grew up reading sci fi and fantasy together. As adults we went in different directions, but we kept in touch.
Spock died in this film because Nimoy wanted out. Filming the first film was very laborious and not very pleasant for any of the actors. So, when they went to sign Nimoy for this one, he made his dea
You were absolutely correct... Chekov was not yet a crew member in Space Seed. Khan had never met the man before the scene in this movie. I remember Walter Koenig saying in some interview that when he realized the fact that they had never met, he didn't tell the director because he thought they would remove him from half of the movie. No work, no pay and all that jazz.
I like Walter Koenig' story of how Chekov and Khan could have met ("Chekov was using [the only?] bathroom on the ship and kept Khan waiting so long he nearly peed his pants. When he came out, Khan angrily came up to him and said 'YOU!! YOU I WILL NEVER FORGET!!' 🤣🤣🤣")
Ppl don't realize how Continuity worked in start trek. It's ENVIROMENTAL Continuity - NOT serial. That's why retcons become. " This was ALWAYS that way. " This is what modern mcu bs doesn't seem to grasp.. instead they just rewrote timeliness cuz they're not creative enough to work within the confines of already established cannon. When chekov was introduced in season 2 - the environmental continuity made it presumed he was always a part of the crew. This is all a part of the serialized nature that "nothing can change". Which Berman clung to this really limiting tng/ds9 - ppl back then wanted more serial development especially so the universe could be less static, a living changing environment Another great exampleis the warp scale. Although there again ppl don't realize they were using a different scale at that time. But the retcon warp scale was seen in St-ENT - then it's likely its more like Metric vs Imperial. 2 different standards to do the same job. No big deal. But yeah thx to gene needing the warp number to be higher though... caused a monkey wrench when it came to warp drive development.. and they didn't even utilize teams warp to explain it.. Meh anyway I'm rambling now i forgot wtf my point was. How it was useful
The official explanation was that Chekov was not working the bridge during the original Khan episode but that he and the other crew members who were there were affected by Khans presence would remember him. He was on the ship just not part of the cast or something like that.
@@richkingsny5399 This. Chekov was part of the "lower decks" during Star Trek's first season, and didn't get promoted to the bridge crew until the next year.
Five years ago my dearest friend of 45 years passed. He was a huge Trekkie who identified most closely with Spock. At his Celebration of Life I used Kirk's line: "Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most human." Thank you for a great reaction.
I saw this in the theatre. Everyone was shocked and in tears at Spock's last scene with Kirk. When Spock, struggling in pain, said to Kirk, "I have been and always shall be your friend." it was totally devastating. One of the most iconic bromances in history had just come to an end. It really affected those of us that grew up watching Kirk and Spock over the years before these movies came out.
And at that point, it was to be the closing chapter of Trek. The creators/Actors all believed this was the final film so it really was a poignant finale that deeply hit all of us, even if later on it actually kept on gloriously.
@@paulpolpiboon9535 Yes, exactly. At that point we didn't know it would continue. If I remember correctly, fan outrage had a lot to do with bringing Spock back.
Paul Winfield, who played Capt. Terrell here, would return to the Star Trek universe 9 years later, in ST:TNG, S6 Ep2, _Darmok,_ as the Tamarian Captain Dathon. Sadly, the veteran actor died of a heart attack in 2004, much before his time at age 64. We would like to have been graced with his acting skills for many more years, but _'Shaka, when the walls fell.'_
There is a reason THIS is the pinnacle of Star Trek! I haven't watched it in 15 years....and now I'm sitting here bawling like a baby (and I'm 63....yep saw it in the theatre when it came out). Thank you...thank you for making me feel....young. RIP James Horner.
Nicholas Meyer, the director, has a clip on youtube explaining that he never really understood fandom's love for Star Trek and these characters. The day they shot Spock's death, the crew were all in tears, and at that point he said he started to understand what he had been missing the whole time.
The young engineer Scotty was carrying was his nephew. His nephew had joined Starfleet to be an engineer like his uncle. And, when the other cadets ran he stayed at his post. As I recall from the novelization, him staying at his post and doing his job is one of the reasons the Enterprise survived that attack. And notice how they cut to Spock and even he shows an instant of emotion over it.
Both the 80's TV edit of the movie & the later director's cut for DVD include the scene where his relationship to Scotty is established in the extended inspection scene.
A couple of years ago for the 40th anniversary of this movie my son and I went to a special screening of this. After the screening there was a Q&A with William Shatner. We were able to get front row seats. As a life long Star Trek fan it was quite the experience. He was extremely nice, very witty and humorous. A great experience to share with my son, who is carrying on being a fan now as well
I managed to get to the same event, but it was in 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was a week before the covid lockdown started, felt so lucky to have made it before then, and get my first (likely only) picture with the man himself. He speaks so well you could listen to him for hours just talking about the weather.
I also went to the 40th anniversary screening with my son, but in Seattle and without Shatner. I saw the movie in the theater in 1982 when it first came out. It was such a joy to be able to share my experience with my kid all those years later. It was like when I took both of my kids to see Phantom Menace 25 years after I saw the original Star Wars in the theater in 1977. Sadly. that movie was not as good as the original. but then again ST: The Motion Picture was nothing to write home about either. Like you, being able to share a small part of my growing up experience with my children is something that I hold dear.
1982 - high school senior and Trekkie - I lied to my parents so I could go alone to see this flick - my very first movie theater experience and still the best! - 42 years later and this film still makes me tear up - the screenplay, the visuals, and James Horner's music score - Fascinating!
This movie cements the relationship between Spock and Kirk for those unaware of it yet. Great performance by Ricardo Montalban, one of the greatest antagonists ever.
Fun Fact: Chekov joined the show in Season 2, Space Seed with Khan was a Season 1 episode. I asked Walter Koenig about that at a convention. He confessed he did notice, but was afraid if he brought it up they'd write him off the movie and he'd lose the work. So he kept his mouth shut and rolled with it.
I like to think that Khan happened across Chekov's face in the database when he was reading through the ship's library in the series. For all we know, Chekov could have been crew (just not yet bridge crew).
Michael Eisner (later of Disney) was running Paramount when the studio started discussing a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The execs demanded a lower budget and more mainstream project, and Eisner felt the first film lacked a definitive villain and demanded one be included in the sequel. He hired television producer Harve Bennett, who promised he could bring in a sequel film at roughly half the cost of the first movie and - to keep costs down - used Paramount's television division to shoot the film rather than the motion picture division. All the sets from The Motion Picture were reused (in some cases refurbished and changed slightly) including using the Enterprise bride for both Enterprise and (re-dressed) Reliant as well as the simulator at the beginning of the film and some of the special effects footage (leaving drydock, some of the warp scenes) were recycled from TMP. This all allowed the sequel to be shot for $12 million rather than TMP's $40 million (itself inflated because the costs of what was supposed to be the Star Trek: Phase II tv series for sets, costumes, and scripts were rolled into the TMP budget). Harve Bennet - who was completely unaware of Star Trek prior to being hired - watched all 79 episodes of the original series to get an idea of what exactly "Star Trek" was. One episode in particular - Space Seed - particularly one of the last lines of the episode, "It would be interesting, Captain, to return to that world in a hundred years and to learn what crop has sprung from the seed you planted today" made Bennett decide that Khan had to be the definitive villain of the sequel. Leonard Nimoy, who had ongoing legal issues with the studio as well as having a difficult time during the filming of TMP due to constant re-writes and changes, had no interest in returning for a second film. Director Nicolas Meyer personally met with Nimoy to ask him to come back, as he felt the film could not be called Star Trek without Spock in it. Nimoy countered saying he would be willing to reprise the role if it included an epic death scene for Spock - something Nimoy felt would stretch his acting chops and also guarantee he would never have to do another Star Trek project ever again. Meyer agreed and the scene was written, though the script had to be revised (Spock was originally supposed to die in the middle of the film, when Reliant first attacks the Enterprise) when the plot was leaked among the fan community and it caused outrage amongst Trekkies. The revision moved Spock's death to the end of the film, but added the simulator scene where Spock is "killed" and Kirk makes the joke, "Aren't you dead?" in hopes it would throw the fans off and they would not know of the final plot point. Something unforeseen happened. The production of the sequel was so different from TMP - much more relaxed and a fun atmosphere - that everyone was shocked during the wrap party when Nimoy announced to everyone he was looking forward to coming back for the third film. This created a whole new set of problems for the producers and writers.
I grew up watching Star Trek. One of my earliest conscious memories is sitting in my dad's lap and watching TOS with him. These characters are like old friends to me, and I can confidently say without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And after all these years, Spock's death scene still breaks me.
I saw this movie on its opening day in 1982, before anyone knew how it ended. Most of the audience, including me, was in tears. Ricardo Montalban's performance reminded me what an underrated actor he was. He had a long career on the stage and in movie musicals (he introduced the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," with Esther Williams in 1949). He's mostly remembered as the star of Fantasy Island, but he gave some memorable dramatic performances, including one as a Japanese kabuki actor in Sayonara.
I saw this on opening day, too. But I saw it after the very first screening of the day finished. There had been rumors of Spock's death for months, and someone drove around the parking lot shouting "the vulcan buys it". I thought, "what a jerk". Then I get into the auditorium and after the first scene, I thought, "what jerk, but no harm done". I still wasn't prepared for the ending.
One thing a lot of movies these days miss. Not all by any means...but many underestimate or outright ignore how much the score makes or breaks a movie. Name any great movie, and I expect the score it stop notch as well. Well...music...score isn't always the best term anymore.
I agree. Titanic is fantastic...but the nautical elements of this theme (in keeping with the Meyer's view of STAR TREK as a submarines-in-space idea) is perfect.
"The ship? Out of danger" gets me every time. This movie is quite special in that it cements a solid backstory of revenge even if you've never seen an episode in your life. Everything is delivered by the two enemies so well. Such a great, great movie!
Its not just the special effects, this movie was really well written. I cant watch the new Marvel or DC comics movies because the writing is horrid.
3 месяца назад+2
Never understood why hollywood didnt just combine the best of both, instead they sort of dropped practical and now most movies are just a mess of CGI with too much going on. CGI should of been a way to enhance practical and fill the gaps where practical couldn't do it. But oh well, no point in thinking of what may have been, we got what we got.
He's that buff. No chestplate. And I don't know of a single person who ever watched this for the first time wasn't brought to tears when Spock died. You included. Hell, I've seen it 30+ times and I'm still teary-eyed.
Saavik and Spoke actually spoke English in that scene when Kirk boards the Enterprise. The scene was dubbed later making a Vulcan language fit the mouth movements. There is a video here on YT that talks about it.
This movie is effing PEAK. It's poetry. This dialogue is brilliant, the symmetry, for foreshadowing, the payoffs. And I think the classic crew has never looked better than here.
“Jim Kirk was many things… but he was *never* a boy scout.” Her delivery of that line is gold. And the blocking with her walking out as she speaks, it’s like a mic drop.
Loved the dramatic acting in this film. Great writing and good acting. Being in the theater when this premiered was powerful. The best Star Trek film I think.
I cry every single time Spock walks up to that glass and tells his friend, in his way, that he loves him and will miss him. And I watch this movie at least once a year.
Calling officers 'Mister' is an old navy tradition. Yes they were Ricardo Montalban's real pecs, so yes he was buff! He'd had back problems for years so had to do a lot of working out to build his core strength and help his back.
I've also heard -- might be urban legend -- that his son was doing some hobby bodybuilding as well, so of course dad had to prove that he could keep up with his kid and ended up getting pretty ripped.
Maybe a bit more like Napoleonic era sailing ships, engaging in broadside attacks, and sneaking around in the ocean fog. Meyers has admitted to the overt naval aspects of this space yarn, calling the milieu "nautical, but nice."
@@allanalogmusicat78rpm Most of the ship stuff is very naval, but the nebula fight is straight-up submarine fighting. No visibility, relying on tactics and guesswork and sporadic vibrations to figure out where the other ship is. And the use of a z-axis being vital.
They of course based this on Space Seed, but included elements of Balance of Terror for the battle parts...which of course borrowed from the film The Enemy below(1957) So, yeah submarines.
"Sauce for the goose, Saavik." We usually hear it as "what's good for the goose is good for the gander," but it was "Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," originally. Also, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is the famous beginning of *A Tale of Two Cities*, by Charles Dickens. It's probably ironic because the other famous line from that book, "It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done," also foreshadows Spock's sacrifice.
9:50 Walter Koenig was not yet cast as Chekov when "Space Seed" first aired...HOWEVER he has joked at many conventions saying that Chekov WAS on the ship on the lower decks when Khan was on board and that he was taking a rather long time in the bathroom forcing Khan to wait, and when Chekov finally came out of the bathroom, Khan looked at him in the eye and said, "You, I will never forget your face."
I saw Deforest Kelley at a convention in 1984. He told that story to a thrilled crowd before they screened Wrath of Khan. It was like Rocky Horror, everybody was speaking the lines and talking to the screen. Great memory.
Star Trek is at it's best when it's not the weapons that get it done, but the crew's wits and ingenuity. Even though any version of the Enterprise has enough firepower to level a continent without breaking a sweat.
My favourite thing about this film is that it weaponised the assumptions of the characters and the audience against them. Star Trek in the 60s was a fun, weekly sci-fi adventure show and Kirk was the swashbuckling hero of that show - this film takes that character (and our assumptions from watching the show) and puts them in a real life situation, where the villain-of-the-week doesn’t just disappear off screen but lives on for 20 years and plots revenge, where not every situation can be sorted out in 42 minutes plus commercials, and a man who’s never faced the death of a friend because they all had to be back on the show next week finally has to face that reality. Wrath of Khan is where Star Trek - the series, the characters and the fans - grew up.
5:00, Spock gives Kirk an antique pressing of "A Tale of Two Cities," which opens with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Later, Kirk quotes the ending of the book. "It is a far better place I go than I have ever been before." So Kirk read his best friend's final gift cover to cover. 😭
Yes. And that last line of _Tale_ is spoken by a character (Sydney Carton) who is going to his certain death, having sacrificed himself to save others.
He didn't. In the last scene, we see his glasses in he has picked up the book to read it but can't. He has simply read it before, and Spock knew of his fondness for the story, so he got him an antique embodiment of it. It is almost as if Spock and McCoy coordinated their gifts to help Jim feel less depressed about getting old. McCoy wasn't lying when he said he kept the bottle for medicinal purposes. He was coming with it to treat Jim's depression.
In 1975, Leonard Nimoy wrote his first autobiography, "I am Not Spock." You could consider his relationship to Spock, not Disimilar to Dr Lazarus in Galaxy Quest. He wanted to distance himself from the character. He had been typecast, producers and directors didn't believe he could portray an emotional character because he had embodied the ever logical Spock so effectively. Or they felt fans so universally recognized him as Spock that his presence would take them out of any story he was involved in. The outpouring of love for Spock and stoeies of how the character had inspired and inpacted so many fans all over the world brought Nimoy to peace with the character before the next film. In 1995, Nimoy wrote his second autobiography, "I Am Spock."
In the director's cut, we find out that the Cadet that Scotty carried to the bridge was his nephew. "He's blinded by revenge". Yes, Khan failed to learn the lesson from Moby Dick and Captain Ahab who he, ironically, quoted at least three times.
@@tanizaki Because he clearly knows the story well enough to commit passages to memory and identifies with Ahab, but "ironically" wasn't SMART enough to learn from Ahab's faults and mistakes.
@@tanizaki Ahab was so blinded by his need for revenge that he sacrificed everything: his ship, his crew, and even his own sanity. Much like Khan does. This movie is so loved, revered and respected because it mirrors that classic novel. The director even went so far as to show the book in Khan's library.
There is a joke about how Khan knew Chekov..... Once at a Convention someone asked Walter Koenig how it was that Khan knew who Chekov was when the Character hadn't been introduced yet and Walter said 'It's because Chekov cut in front of Khan at the Bathroom and thus left a lasting memory....'
This is an all-timer. The themes and the story are timeless. I love how the spaceship battles are like submarine fights. Add the James Horner score and you've got a great film - Star Trek or otherwise!
@@trekkiejunk He's tricking Khan into thinking he's defeated, so Khan leaves the area (thinking he's marooned Kirk like Kirk did to him) and Spock can come pick them up.
One of the best sequels ever Great performance from the whole cast especially shatner and Montalban. A movie you can watch time and time again and always enjoy it. Big thumbs up
I am a Guy... but at 34:21 you are my inner self at this point in the movie lol I loved this move growing up the 80s as a Kid... and even to this day, Star Trek II is still my number one favorite Star trek movie!
As philmansfield said, people mock Shatner but I think his reaction to Spock's death shows the quality of his performance. He doesn't fall to his knees and shout NOOO to the heavens. He is broken. In that scene he says "no" as a defeated man. And then he slowly slumps down. Like the death of any loved one, his mind hasn't fully processed it. What is truly sad is you can't perform such acting without deeply understanding that level of grief. Without losing a loved one yourself.
I agree completely that Shatner is unfairly mocked over his acting. Every time I see the scene where Kirk runs into the engine room and instantly stops with that look of utter horror as he sees his closest friend in that chamber, I get chills. And that's not the only time he's shown what a great actor he is. Also, I read somewhere many years ago that, during that scene, the audience is carefully manipulated. McCoy and Scott stop Kirk from running into the chamber, and we aren't allowed to see yet what Kirk sees (but we know he sees it... that horrified expression makes that obvious). McCoy stops him from opening the door to the room and says what you would expect the engineer to say: "You'll flood the whole compartment." When Kirk says "He'll die," Scott is the one who says what you would expect the doctor to say: "He's dead already." That's when we actually see Spock, and we see he's NOT dead. And then, a couple of minutes later, he really does die. That scene is so brilliantly set up on so many levels.
Needless to say, when this movie came out, it was the first time I ever saw Kirstie Alley and I fell instantly in love. When you wondered how old she was in this movie, I had to look her up on IMDB. This was released in 1982 and her birthday was in 1951, so she was 31, somewhat older than she looks.
That really was Mr. Montalban pecs, not a fake. He was always into fitness even in his later years. He exercised regularly until he lost the capacity to walk due a back injury he suffered as a young man. As he aged that injury got progressively worse.
@@English_MoFo Yeah, but they were developing the "Star Trek: Phase II" series for television, featuring Persis Khambatta as Ilia. They abandoned it due to Star Wars and made movies instead. But some of the stories were developed into a fan series under the names "Star Trek: Phase II" and "Star Trek: New Voyages".
That was a nod to people that had heard Spock was gonna die halfway through the movie, so they changed it to the very end and threw in that line to throw everyone off.
I love the parallels between Khan and Captain Ahab, Khan's obsession with revenge, how they showed the book "Moby Dick" in his collection, and his quote, "from hell's heart I stab at thee."
Love love your reactions. You are amazing!! My mother loved sci-fi movies and shows and got me into them from the beginning of my life. I was 7 years old seeing this in the theater and crying so hard at Spock’s death. I will never forget it. Can’t wait for more Star Trek and other reactions from you !!
People talk about 2001 and Star Wars as the best sci-fi movies ever made but rarely mention this one. I think ST2:WOK deserves to be included in that conversation. 40 years later, it still slaps as hard as it did in theaters in '82. BTW, not a dry eye in the house during Spocks sacrifice. 4 decades later and I still bawl like child during that scene. 😢 ❤
Well one reason is many rightfully see it as less a sci-fi movie and more a war/submarine movie. The combat scenes and the lighting and shots are VERY much a submarine movie.
My god though, it HAD to stand out. SO many movies in '82 for Sci-Fi/Fantasy ppl: Tron, The Dark Crystal, E.T., Blade Runner, Conan The Barbarian, The Thing, Firefox... What a year!
Also, Spock dying was leaked to the press, resulting in outrage among fans. As a result, Nicholas Meyer change the script by adding "Spock's death" in the Kobayashi Maru test in the beginning as a fake out. So audiences went to see the film having the rumors about Spock's death in their heads and when they saw he "died" in the opening minutes, everyone happily breathed a sign of relief thinking that's what the rumors were about. So when Spock actually dies at the end of the film, it really took everyone by surprise despite the rumors and his death hit doubly hard.
I saw this in the theater when it came out with my father. We were both Star Trek fans and had seen the original series so many times. I said the same thing to my dad in the theater when Chekov said "Kahn...". I looked at my dad, at the age of 12 and said "Chekov wasn't in the series yet." You made me smile so much when you noticed that. Well done.
Reliant also know as the Miranda -class was always one of my favorite starship designs. Fun fact: as seen in the film it's technically upside down from what the model makers intended. When the model was unboxed and assembled at the studio they accidentally put it together with the engines hanging down under the saucer and not above the saucer similar to Enterprise. The director chose to keep Reliant in its altered state instead of reasembling it engines up. Feeling the difference would make it easier for audiences to tell the two ships apart.
@@anothergalaxys4780 Comparing First Contact with Khan, is like comparing the best wine to the best beer, they're both good, but they are in completely separate categories
Having Spock "killed" in the simulation at the beginning was a genius red herring. It had been reported during the film's production that Leonard Nimoy would not be returning to Star Trek after this, so people thought he was being killed off here. When they realize it's just a simulation they relaxed and then were totally taken aback when Spock sacrificed himself at the end. This actually was going to be Nimoy's last movie, but when he saw the reaction of test audiences at Spock's death he realized how powerful even a Star Trek film can be and so not only agreed to do another one (if they let him direct it, which they did) but also filmed the short scene of him interacting with Dr. McCoy ("Remember...") to let fans know that there's a possibility for Spock to return. The director Nicholas Meyer was not happy with this and did not want to direct any more Star Trek movies. He did finally come back to direct part 6, which is one of the best ones. Nimoy went on to direct 3 and 4 and Shatner directed the 5th one.
Hard to believe this film is 42 years old and still holds up to today. I saw this movie in 1982 when I was 8 years old in theaters and it remains my all-time favorite Star Trek film. Subscribed! 💯
I had the good fortune to see TWOK in the theaters in my college days. The engine room scene brought open sobbing from the audience; at the first notes of Scotty's bagpipes, the sobbing got even louder. The Star Trek movies were the cinematic events of the decade!
![Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [Extended] Reaction](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/G-g9Ilx3XrQ/mqdefault.jpg)
People mock Shatner's acting but his voice breaking during the eulogy gets me every single time I watch this.
Because they only focus on the campy side. Shatner is a master for subtle stuff. His only weakness is stepping on the gas, which is the case for most actors.
I think it was in a Nicholas Meyer interview that said he made Shatner do a LOT of takes ... they started out a little hammy but as they got to the last takes, that's when they got the best performances.
@@royroblox I was going to mention that, too. Meyer basically said if you kept going, Shatner got almost bored and wasn't so over the top. He has certain "moments" of bad acting I think, especially in the old days, but he can be pretty good at times.
The way he says "no..." when Spock fell limp and died was masterfully drlivered. Its nuanced, and brilliant. Its the sound of a strong man breaking in grief.
Shatner was a travelling stage actor, some of his performances were outside, he spoke in the cadence he did to project his voice so everybody in the audience could hear him clearly and it stuck, as he spent his latter career largely sending himself up, people forget how good a actor he actually is.
In theaters it was a triple wave: when Spock died people were openly weeping, then when Kirk says “human” in the eulogy, they teared up again. But finally when it was Spock’s voice, not Kirk’s as in every other episode, that said the “these are the voyages of the Enterptise” people just couldn’t contain it any longer and were bawling out loud. It was the most emotional theater experience I’ve ever witnessed.
yeah but, how was the popcorn back then?
@@DaleWinarski popcorn has been, and shall always be, your friend
Agreed - until 'Up'. That initial 15 minutes of the film had EVERYONE in the theater in tears. Pixar really knew how to knock it out of the park back then. What a shame they've mired themselves in controversy since.
@@mervinmerencio6861hahahaaaa
@mervinmerencio6861 : 🖖 Add salt...and butter.
Ricardo Montalban performed a master class in scenery chewing in this movie. He was epic.
When he first started the table reads and rehearsal, he felt like he was just doing the same character as he did on Fantasy Island. So he went home after shooting on a Friday and watched "Space Seed" over and over again to learn his own mannerisms and nuances perfectly. Apparently, four times through was the magic amount of repetition, because that's how many times he watched himself as Khan before going back on Monday and blowing EVERYBODY away with the way he'd been able to become just like the old Khan again over a single weekend. Also, the chest piece was just a rumor. He could've given Jack Palance a run for his money.
@@tommytwotacos8106 Yep, he said he started doing pushups again when he was cast. Good actor.
Who else could absolutely CRUSH lines taken from a circa-1851 novel: "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!"
As a 45 year old guy that grew up watching this film, a couple of years ago I got to watch it in the theaters for the 40th anniversary with my (then) 15 year old daughter. She had never watched anything Star Trek (all the way through anyway; she’d seen bits and pieces). When it was over she turned to me and said “that was really good.” It was a proud dad moment and something I’ll cherish forever.
11:20 Before anyone tells you otherwise... That really is Ricardo Montalban's chest muscles. Not a prosthetic or rubber chest as has been rumoured for decades. Director Nicholas Meyer confirmed this in the dvd commentary. Ricardo Montalban stayed in top shape well into his sixties.
If my old man brain recalls correctly, I think I watched Mr. Montalban answer the nonbelievers at the time by pumping out a few pushups on the Johnny Carson show.
Back when this was released, a few wise guys called it "Star Pecs."
If I remember right they expected to have to make a fake chest for him, but were shocked when he took his shirt off.
Benedict Cumberbatch is a good actor, but Khan was always Ricardo Montalban. Nobody else can play the character like he could.
I find it really hard to associate with being the guy from Fantasy Island. It is him and he is in good shape but that iconic white suit with black tie makes it so hard for me to keep the two characters as one actor.
He said he did like 200 push ups a day until filming
The fact that Spock straightens himself to maintain decorum before speaking to a senior officer is heartbreaking and really shows his character.
It was improvised in the moment. Brilliant.
@@alienlovearts- Because the uniforms, as great as they looked, had a habit of riding up when the actors went from seated to standing.
He did the "Picard Maneuver" 5 years before Picard.
I don't think it was a "senior officer" thing. It was just the jacket riding up. If you really want to go beyond that, probably Spock just trying to be proper and dignified. You know, like Spock would be.
And just as a masculine Vulcan he wants to maintain his dignity
I think we all still cry at the end of this movie.
Yep was crying again while editing !
I still cry every time I watch it
Are all three of you still crying? Please update. 😉
@@holddowna Even listening to "Genesis Countdown" on the soundtrack makes me tear up. The music in this movie is incredible. I don't care if Horner borrows from his own scores when what he's borrowed works so damn well.
"Mister Saavik" is a callback to old Naval tradition. The Captain often calls junior officers Mister. As a sign of respect and equality aboard ship, and to counter the outdated assumption that a woman was bad luck aboard ship, the Navy and Coast Guard extended the moniker to all officers, regardless of gender.
Cool! I like it ! I figured as much
Everybody call Ames "Mister" from now on.
@@holddowna
Mister Ames, set a course for Star Trek III immediately. Warp 4.
James Horner was a huge Star Trek fan. He has a brief cameo (which is in your RUclips edit) where he and two other crewmen are going to battle stations. Star Trek 2,3 and 4 are all connected by a continuing storyline. Just so you know.
@@THOMMGB Love that trilogy
RIP James Horner, your brilliant music score will live to the 23rd century and beyond.
I'm 49 years old and I watched this movie as a small kid in the 80s. Watching those bugs go into peoples' ears freaked the f* out of me.
A whole generation of kids went to bed with the covers and pillows piled around their ears... at least I did.
Gotta wonder what RFK Jr. thinks of that scene nowadays . . .
Heh heh, yeah I remember the theater vividly, and I had to get out of there and calm myself down elsewhere, Bambi was playing. I was 10 or so, lolol.
I still have trouble having things in my ear (like radio ear pieces) because of this movie.
@@Tehui1974 same. When I write fiction as an adult, I often use the trope of someone's orifices being attacked or invaded while they are restrained in some way and unable to protect themselves. I find the situation to be very violating and traumatising to put a character through, and even in situations where the event is ultimately averted or subverted in some way, I can still feel the apprehension of that character the next few times I pick on them to do something.
Ricardo Montalban said that when he first started running his lines at home, he just couldn't recapture the personality of Khan. He said that he kept coming off sounding like Mr. Rourke from "Fantasy Island." So he asked the director to send him a copy of the original episode. He said that once he watched it a few times, the frame of mind he was in when he created Khan's personality came back to him.
Welcome, my friends, to Khan's planet.
Think he said it was only 2 or 3 times he had to watch it before he was back in the Khan mindset.
@@memnarch129 he had to watch a chrysler cordova commerial
@@flerbus Khan lost because the Reliant's seats weren't made of rich Corinthian leather. Enterprise was in fact tricked out with those.
@@Sgt_Glory and he was actually reborn through the genesis device and later was defeated by lt frank drebin
The line Khan spoke at the end "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee...." is the line Ahab used in Moby Dick just before he died trying to kill the White Whale.
As I recall there’s a few lines lifted from the book. It’s a brilliant idea, lends parts of the movie a very poetic quality.
He heaps me. He tasks me, and I shall have him.
Lots of lines from Moby Dick:
"Aye, aye! and 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."
Khan read Moby Dick but never came to the realisation that he was Ahab and obsession would be the death of him.
Khan was as good as dead the moment he decided to even TRY to engage Kirk in starship combat.
"See you around, Ahab."
8:47 And there was the book Moby Dick. :)
"Jim, I think you'd better get down here... Better...hurry..." - then the cut to Spock's empty chair always gets me...
Same here I have rewatched ST2 the most of all the movies and I am always in bits at that moment .
The music really goes into overdrive at just the right time.
@@THXbox yeah, that part of the soundtrack is pure gold. You can feel how one life (Spock) ends while another life (the Genesis planet) starts.
James Horner does some shit that I find almost synaesthetic.
Not just the best Star Trek film; one of the best science fiction films ever made.
This is one of the best movie scores of all time, RIP James Horner. One of the best films of all time and certainly the best in the Star Trek franchise.
For those who don't know, James Horner tragically died in 2015 while flying his airplane around in the mountains.
This was his first big film score.
He was 29.
Well, I love this score a lot, too (it was one of the first OMPs I ever bought,) but It is in many ways a retread of the score he wrote for the film Battle Beyond the Stars. If you haven't seen that, you should, if only to compare the soundtracks. (And for Sybil Danning.) Horner plagiarised his own score...but with good reason; in its second incarnation here, it's a masterwork!
@@stevejordan7275 No shame in that. In fact, it's a sign of mastery.
What might be a bit more "sleazy" is how in his "Battle Beyond the Stars" soundtrack, he also took some rather obvious clues from Star Wars ("Here They Come") and Star Trek: The Motion Picture ("Klingon Attack"), but even those I would not call plagiarism but just the normal way of inspiration.
I just saw your post! I put one on about James Horner. KRULL is another movie he did as well. Awesome one
There are highs and lows in Star Trek films. But this? This is the absolute pinnacle.
First Contact is the best forever.
Wrath is peak Trek.
Well, y'all know the adage: even numbers are good, odd numbers are bad (except 1).
@@JacobSprenger TMP is awesome but I must say Generations is much better than most people think. Two captains scenes are amazing and epic, and the VFX and music, the villain Soran, Guinan, crash scene, etc It has a lot of great moments...
@@elzar760 For me no Trek movie is peak Trek. I think that adjective belongs to the best TNG, TOS, DS9 episodes...
What's incredible is that Kirk and Khan are never in the same room together. They're always in different locations yet they both have such a physical presence that you feel them fighting.
The reasoning behind that is because Ricardo Montalbán was busy filming Fantasy Island at the time, so they had to work around his schedule. His scenes were shot months apart from the rest of the cast.
And as a cost-saving measure, they reused a redressed version of the Enterprise's bridge for the Reliant's bridge, so that's also why you never saw Kirk and Khan in the same room in The Wrath of Khan.
@@astrofan1993 But having those limitations and still making it work is some real skill of the writers and editor.
@@astrofan1993 Cost saving measures indeed. Gene Roddenberry was legendary over budget shooting TMP, and while it definitely was a success in the box office under Star Trek fans, it wasn't something Paramount was willing to repeat. Gene was kicked upstairs to an executive function, as far as would be feasible from direct control over production. Meyer was hired as an upstart writer/director, and after he did a brilliant rewrite of WRoK, production was on.
Gene didn't like the more militarized naval visual Meyer introduced, but imho this film did a lot to re-invent Star Trek for the '80s and '90s.
Also the Monster Maroon uniforms are amazing, especially together with the non-commisioned / cadet uniforms around.
@@RachelKos Oh, totally. I have huge respect for them.
@@Tuning3434 Yeah, this was the first Star Trek movie I showed to my girlfriend a couple weeks ago. I wasn't going to start her off with TMP. There's a reason why it's sometimes called "The Slow-Motion Picture" by the fans. The pacing is just too slow, there's not enough action, and it's more philosophical and existential than other Star Trek films. Since my girlfriend is more into Star Wars, I wanted to show her something with a bit more action in it.
And I also love the uniforms from TWOK-onwards; they actually stand as some of my favorite uniform designs in the franchise, along with the uniforms from the the early seasons of DS9 and all of VOY, the TNG movies from FC-onwards and later seasons of DS9, the uniforms from ENT, and the uniforms from the first couple seasons of DIS.
Basically, I liked anything that was standardized across departments, with the color-coding of each department kept to a minimum. That being said, I do like the uniforms from LDS, since they do work well in animation and even live-action, as well as the uniforms that the kids wore in PRO.
Didn't really like the uniforms in TMP, though. As ridiculous as the color-coded uniforms from TOS looked (although I did like their updated design in ST '09 and STID), the dull grays and tans of the TMP uniforms were just ugly. I don't know why every sci-fi franchise in the 1970s had to have uniforms that looked like that.
“Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human.”
This is what my friends and I said at the funeral of a childhood friend who died saving his family in a rafting accident.
Our group saw this on the screen back in the 80s. We grew up reading sci fi and fantasy together. As adults we went in different directions, but we kept in touch.
One of the Best line deliveries ever spoken by the man
He just has to bite out that last word and he cracks doing so. So good.
To me, this is the absolute pinnacle of Trek. They got absolutely everything right.
Spock died in this film because Nimoy wanted out. Filming the first film was very laborious and not very pleasant for any of the actors. So, when they went to sign Nimoy for this one, he made his dea
Very touching. Thats quite a story! Most fans wouldn’t have the guts to say those famous lines.
You were absolutely correct... Chekov was not yet a crew member in Space Seed. Khan had never met the man before the scene in this movie. I remember Walter Koenig saying in some interview that when he realized the fact that they had never met, he didn't tell the director because he thought they would remove him from half of the movie. No work, no pay and all that jazz.
I like Walter Koenig' story of how Chekov and Khan could have met ("Chekov was using [the only?] bathroom on the ship and kept Khan waiting so long he nearly peed his pants. When he came out, Khan angrily came up to him and said 'YOU!! YOU I WILL NEVER FORGET!!' 🤣🤣🤣")
Ppl don't realize how Continuity worked in start trek. It's ENVIROMENTAL Continuity - NOT serial. That's why retcons become. " This was ALWAYS that way. "
This is what modern mcu bs doesn't seem to grasp.. instead they just rewrote timeliness cuz they're not creative enough to work within the confines of already established cannon.
When chekov was introduced in season 2 - the environmental continuity made it presumed he was always a part of the crew. This is all a part of the serialized nature that "nothing can change". Which Berman clung to this really limiting tng/ds9 - ppl back then wanted more serial development especially so the universe could be less static, a living changing environment
Another great exampleis the warp scale. Although there again ppl don't realize they were using a different scale at that time. But the retcon warp scale was seen in St-ENT - then it's likely its more like Metric vs Imperial. 2 different standards to do the same job. No big deal. But yeah thx to gene needing the warp number to be higher though... caused a monkey wrench when it came to warp drive development.. and they didn't even utilize teams warp to explain it..
Meh anyway I'm rambling now i forgot wtf my point was. How it was useful
The official explanation was that Chekov was not working the bridge during the original Khan episode but that he and the other crew members who were there were affected by Khans presence would remember him. He was on the ship just not part of the cast or something like that.
@@glytchd Just drink three or four tequilas and it makes perfect sense
@@richkingsny5399 This. Chekov was part of the "lower decks" during Star Trek's first season, and didn't get promoted to the bridge crew until the next year.
Five years ago my dearest friend of 45 years passed. He was a huge Trekkie who identified most closely with Spock. At his Celebration of Life I used Kirk's line: "Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most human." Thank you for a great reaction.
THIS... is the best comment. My condolences for your friend.
@@lashawnwilliams5664 thank you
I'm sorry for the loss of your friend, but he's fortunate to have had a friend like you who understood him and celebrated his life.
@@yellowblanka6058 thanks
I saw this in the theatre. Everyone was shocked and in tears at Spock's last scene with Kirk. When Spock, struggling in pain, said to Kirk, "I have been and always shall be your friend." it was totally devastating. One of the most iconic bromances in history had just come to an end. It really affected those of us that grew up watching Kirk and Spock over the years before these movies came out.
And at that point, it was to be the closing chapter of Trek. The creators/Actors all believed this was the final film so it really was a poignant finale that deeply hit all of us, even if later on it actually kept on gloriously.
@@paulpolpiboon9535 Yes, exactly. At that point we didn't know it would continue. If I remember correctly, fan outrage had a lot to do with bringing Spock back.
I was like 6 when this came out. Spock’s death gets me every time.
@@sleepinggorilla It was sad.
Gary Mitchell: "If I hadn't aimed that little blonde lab technician at you..."
Kirk: "I almost married her!"
nice catch
Paul Winfield, who played Capt. Terrell here, would return to the Star Trek universe 9 years later, in ST:TNG, S6 Ep2, _Darmok,_ as the Tamarian Captain Dathon. Sadly, the veteran actor died of a heart attack in 2004, much before his time at age 64. We would like to have been graced with his acting skills for many more years, but _'Shaka, when the walls fell.'_
He was also the police Lieutenant in The Terminstor.
He was great both times.
- Sokah, his eyes open !!
what do you mean "before his time"? how would you know when "his time" is supposed to be? It seems as though 64 years old was his time.
Oh man! I should have known! I can recognize his nostrils!
There is a reason THIS is the pinnacle of Star Trek! I haven't watched it in 15 years....and now I'm sitting here bawling like a baby (and I'm 63....yep saw it in the theatre when it came out). Thank you...thank you for making me feel....young. RIP James Horner.
❤️❤️❤️
Nicholas Meyer, the director, has a clip on youtube explaining that he never really understood fandom's love for Star Trek and these characters. The day they shot Spock's death, the crew were all in tears, and at that point he said he started to understand what he had been missing the whole time.
The young engineer Scotty was carrying was his nephew. His nephew had joined Starfleet to be an engineer like his uncle. And, when the other cadets ran he stayed at his post. As I recall from the novelization, him staying at his post and doing his job is one of the reasons the Enterprise survived that attack. And notice how they cut to Spock and even he shows an instant of emotion over it.
it was on a cut scene as well. "My sister's oldest"
If you watch close, I believe he is the one that goes back and pulls another cadet to safety.
Both the 80's TV edit of the movie & the later director's cut for DVD include the scene where his relationship to Scotty is established in the extended inspection scene.
It's frustrating that they cut that scene, because its so integral to a plot point, and is only about 30 seconds long.
@@paulhewes7333 Actually, it was his sister's youngest. I know, splitting hairs...but what else do you expect from Trek fans? LOL
Even though I've probably seen this film 30 times, I still get tears in my eyes at the end!
Same here, except 100+
Kirk's speech at the funeral gets me every time. Especially the tear from Saavik and Kirk's voice wobbling with emotion
My ugly crying moment starts as McCoy says "You better get down here" and Kirk looks at Spock's empty chair and suddenly realizes what McCoy means.
It is logical
I get teary eyed just thinking about it all, the last act...
A couple of years ago for the 40th anniversary of this movie my son and I went to a special screening of this. After the screening there was a Q&A with William Shatner. We were able to get front row seats. As a life long Star Trek fan it was quite the experience. He was extremely nice, very witty and humorous. A great experience to share with my son, who is carrying on being a fan now as well
I managed to get to the same event, but it was in 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was a week before the covid lockdown started, felt so lucky to have made it before then, and get my first (likely only) picture with the man himself. He speaks so well you could listen to him for hours just talking about the weather.
I also went to the 40th anniversary screening with my son, but in Seattle and without Shatner. I saw the movie in the theater in 1982 when it first came out. It was such a joy to be able to share my experience with my kid all those years later. It was like when I took both of my kids to see Phantom Menace 25 years after I saw the original Star Wars in the theater in 1977. Sadly. that movie was not as good as the original. but then again ST: The Motion Picture was nothing to write home about either. Like you, being able to share a small part of my growing up experience with my children is something that I hold dear.
“Kobayshi Maru’ed my heart” is the best description of all time! 💕
1982 - high school senior and Trekkie - I lied to my parents so I could go alone to see this flick - my very first movie theater experience and still the best! - 42 years later and this film still makes me tear up - the screenplay, the visuals, and James Horner's music score - Fascinating!
This movie cements the relationship between Spock and Kirk for those unaware of it yet. Great performance by Ricardo Montalban, one of the greatest antagonists ever.
Fun Fact: Chekov joined the show in Season 2, Space Seed with Khan was a Season 1 episode. I asked Walter Koenig about that at a convention. He confessed he did notice, but was afraid if he brought it up they'd write him off the movie and he'd lose the work. So he kept his mouth shut and rolled with it.
Turns out he had a case of the Denovian Clap and was locked in the head for most of Space Seed.
I like to think that Khan happened across Chekov's face in the database when he was reading through the ship's library in the series. For all we know, Chekov could have been crew (just not yet bridge crew).
@@Nebulous6 Or he was a Lower Decker in Season 1...
I mean the only other crew member who could had made sense would had been Sulu but then who would had drove the enterprise?
The novelization puts Chekov as an officer guarding Khan's quarters during the events of Space Seed.
The Best Star Trek Movie Ever Made!
No doubt about it!
This is the one film that people will remember the iconic line:
"KHAAAAANN!!"
@@shainewhite2781
William Shatner: recipient of the 1982 Ham of Year Award. 🏆
First contact the best forever. I really like this one anyway.
I agree. Number 4 is second.
69 likes on this comment... nice. ;)
No, but it is the third best.
Michael Eisner (later of Disney) was running Paramount when the studio started discussing a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The execs demanded a lower budget and more mainstream project, and Eisner felt the first film lacked a definitive villain and demanded one be included in the sequel. He hired television producer Harve Bennett, who promised he could bring in a sequel film at roughly half the cost of the first movie and - to keep costs down - used Paramount's television division to shoot the film rather than the motion picture division. All the sets from The Motion Picture were reused (in some cases refurbished and changed slightly) including using the Enterprise bride for both Enterprise and (re-dressed) Reliant as well as the simulator at the beginning of the film and some of the special effects footage (leaving drydock, some of the warp scenes) were recycled from TMP. This all allowed the sequel to be shot for $12 million rather than TMP's $40 million (itself inflated because the costs of what was supposed to be the Star Trek: Phase II tv series for sets, costumes, and scripts were rolled into the TMP budget). Harve Bennet - who was completely unaware of Star Trek prior to being hired - watched all 79 episodes of the original series to get an idea of what exactly "Star Trek" was. One episode in particular - Space Seed - particularly one of the last lines of the episode, "It would be interesting, Captain, to return to that world in a hundred years and to learn what crop has sprung from the seed you planted today" made Bennett decide that Khan had to be the definitive villain of the sequel.
Leonard Nimoy, who had ongoing legal issues with the studio as well as having a difficult time during the filming of TMP due to constant re-writes and changes, had no interest in returning for a second film. Director Nicolas Meyer personally met with Nimoy to ask him to come back, as he felt the film could not be called Star Trek without Spock in it. Nimoy countered saying he would be willing to reprise the role if it included an epic death scene for Spock - something Nimoy felt would stretch his acting chops and also guarantee he would never have to do another Star Trek project ever again. Meyer agreed and the scene was written, though the script had to be revised (Spock was originally supposed to die in the middle of the film, when Reliant first attacks the Enterprise) when the plot was leaked among the fan community and it caused outrage amongst Trekkies. The revision moved Spock's death to the end of the film, but added the simulator scene where Spock is "killed" and Kirk makes the joke, "Aren't you dead?" in hopes it would throw the fans off and they would not know of the final plot point.
Something unforeseen happened. The production of the sequel was so different from TMP - much more relaxed and a fun atmosphere - that everyone was shocked during the wrap party when Nimoy announced to everyone he was looking forward to coming back for the third film. This created a whole new set of problems for the producers and writers.
I grew up watching Star Trek. One of my earliest conscious memories is sitting in my dad's lap and watching TOS with him. These characters are like old friends to me, and I can confidently say without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And after all these years, Spock's death scene still breaks me.
no one can hear you scream, in space. unless you're James T. Kirk, and then his voice echoes 3 times into space.
@@DaleWinarski because he's that awesome, even the laws of physics bow down to him.
KHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!
KHHHHHAAAAAAAANNNNNN!
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!
@@amehak1922
Scotty: _ye' cannae change teh laws of physics!_
Kirk: _KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!_
I saw this movie on its opening day in 1982, before anyone knew how it ended. Most of the audience, including me, was in tears. Ricardo Montalban's performance reminded me what an underrated actor he was. He had a long career on the stage and in movie musicals (he introduced the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," with Esther Williams in 1949). He's mostly remembered as the star of Fantasy Island, but he gave some memorable dramatic performances, including one as a Japanese kabuki actor in Sayonara.
Montalban was a great comedy villain in The Naked Gun.
I saw this on opening day, too. But I saw it after the very first screening of the day finished. There had been rumors of Spock's death for months, and someone drove around the parking lot shouting "the vulcan buys it". I thought, "what a jerk". Then I get into the auditorium and after the first scene, I thought, "what jerk, but no harm done". I still wasn't prepared for the ending.
The score to this awesome film is beyond great, absolute masterpiece
One thing a lot of movies these days miss. Not all by any means...but many underestimate or outright ignore how much the score makes or breaks a movie. Name any great movie, and I expect the score it stop notch as well. Well...music...score isn't always the best term anymore.
I agree. Titanic is fantastic...but the nautical elements of this theme (in keeping with the Meyer's view of STAR TREK as a submarines-in-space idea) is perfect.
I'm just going to make this comment simple. Thank you for reacting to Star Trek.
"The ship? Out of danger" gets me every time.
This movie is quite special in that it cements a solid backstory of revenge even if you've never seen an episode in your life. Everything is delivered by the two enemies so well. Such a great, great movie!
After 42 years, it still looks great. CGI just can't compete with good practical effects
Its not just the special effects, this movie was really well written. I cant watch the new Marvel or DC comics movies because the writing is horrid.
Never understood why hollywood didnt just combine the best of both, instead they sort of dropped practical and now most movies are just a mess of CGI with too much going on.
CGI should of been a way to enhance practical and fill the gaps where practical couldn't do it.
But oh well, no point in thinking of what may have been, we got what we got.
This movie is full of so many great moments. Ricardo Montalban was acting for the ages as Khan.
Unreal!
He's that buff. No chestplate.
And I don't know of a single person who ever watched this for the first time wasn't brought to tears when Spock died. You included. Hell, I've seen it 30+ times and I'm still teary-eyed.
Saavik and Spoke actually spoke English in that scene when Kirk boards the Enterprise. The scene was dubbed later making a Vulcan language fit the mouth movements. There is a video here on YT that talks about it.
This movie is effing PEAK. It's poetry. This dialogue is brilliant, the symmetry, for foreshadowing, the payoffs. And I think the classic crew has never looked better than here.
Saw this as a teenager in 80s ,half of us in the theater cried just like you did, half were in shock when Spock died
Welcome to the 'We cried when Spock died' club.
Now , you are officially, a Trekki, you have passed the Kobiashi Maru. Welcome aboard. ✌️♥️
Thank u ❤️🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽
@@holddowna 🖖❤️
“Jim Kirk was many things… but he was *never* a boy scout.” Her delivery of that line is gold. And the blocking with her walking out as she speaks, it’s like a mic drop.
Loved the dramatic acting in this film. Great writing and good acting. Being in the theater when this premiered was powerful. The best Star Trek film I think.
I cry every single time Spock walks up to that glass and tells his friend, in his way, that he loves him and will miss him. And I watch this movie at least once a year.
Calling officers 'Mister' is an old navy tradition.
Yes they were Ricardo Montalban's real pecs, so yes he was buff! He'd had back problems for years so had to do a lot of working out to build his core strength and help his back.
WOW
I've also heard -- might be urban legend -- that his son was doing some hobby bodybuilding as well, so of course dad had to prove that he could keep up with his kid and ended up getting pretty ripped.
It’s a submarine movie in space with some of the most iconic sci-fi characters ever. Absolute banger of a movie!
Maybe a bit more like Napoleonic era sailing ships, engaging in broadside attacks, and sneaking around in the ocean fog. Meyers has admitted to the overt naval aspects of this space yarn, calling the milieu "nautical, but nice."
@@allanalogmusicat78rpm Yes - watch the battle from "Master and Commander" after watching this.
CGI modeller @Resurrected Starships has drafted up the Hunt For Red October scenario for Star Trek
@@allanalogmusicat78rpm Most of the ship stuff is very naval, but the nebula fight is straight-up submarine fighting. No visibility, relying on tactics and guesswork and sporadic vibrations to figure out where the other ship is. And the use of a z-axis being vital.
They of course based this on Space Seed, but included elements of Balance of Terror for the battle parts...which of course borrowed from the film The Enemy below(1957) So, yeah submarines.
Saw this movie 6 times as a pre-teen when it came out. I cried 6 times. It is a beautiful film.
"Sauce for the goose, Saavik." We usually hear it as "what's good for the goose is good for the gander," but it was "Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," originally. Also, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is the famous beginning of *A Tale of Two Cities*, by Charles Dickens. It's probably ironic because the other famous line from that book, "It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done," also foreshadows Spock's sacrifice.
9:50 Walter Koenig was not yet cast as Chekov when "Space Seed" first aired...HOWEVER he has joked at many conventions saying that Chekov WAS on the ship on the lower decks when Khan was on board and that he was taking a rather long time in the bathroom forcing Khan to wait, and when Chekov finally came out of the bathroom, Khan looked at him in the eye and said, "You, I will never forget your face."
I saw Deforest Kelley at a convention in 1984. He told that story to a thrilled crowd before they screened Wrath of Khan. It was like Rocky Horror, everybody was speaking the lines and talking to the screen. Great memory.
Why are Klingons so mean? They don't have bathrooms on their starships.
"It was a hell of a thing when Spock died" - George Costanza, right after his fiancee passed.
I have my fiance's funeral this weekend but after that I'm free.
She's not really gone if we remember her.
"...and they shot him into space in that giant sunglasses case..." - Jerry 😅
It's cool that Jason Alexander is an actual trekkie in real life. He was even special guest on a Voyager episode.
@@dr.juerdotitsgo5119 hahahaaaaaa....I always think about that!
Star Trek is at it's best when it's not the weapons that get it done, but the crew's wits and ingenuity. Even though any version of the Enterprise has enough firepower to level a continent without breaking a sweat.
The problem is finding that balance in a 2hr. movie. Some, like ST: 2, get it right, others (ST 5 / Generations), do not.
My favourite thing about this film is that it weaponised the assumptions of the characters and the audience against them. Star Trek in the 60s was a fun, weekly sci-fi adventure show and Kirk was the swashbuckling hero of that show - this film takes that character (and our assumptions from watching the show) and puts them in a real life situation, where the villain-of-the-week doesn’t just disappear off screen but lives on for 20 years and plots revenge, where not every situation can be sorted out in 42 minutes plus commercials, and a man who’s never faced the death of a friend because they all had to be back on the show next week finally has to face that reality. Wrath of Khan is where Star Trek - the series, the characters and the fans - grew up.
Love sharing an incredible movie from the past with you.
why does every other comment get likes or comments, and mine nothing?
Star Trek 2, 3 and 4 can be a story unto itself. Sometimes a cable channel here will play just those three movies in a row.
As they should.
I almost always watch those three together
In 1989, a multiplex opened and as a promotion played the 1st 4 back-to-back-to-back-to-back. It was a glorious day, all were great on the big screen.
20:35 That little CGI animation of the Genesis planet terraforming was produced by Lucasfilm's Graphics Group, which became Pixar in 1986.
5:00, Spock gives Kirk an antique pressing of "A Tale of Two Cities," which opens with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Later, Kirk quotes the ending of the book. "It is a far better place I go than I have ever been before."
So Kirk read his best friend's final gift cover to cover. 😭
Yes. And that last line of _Tale_ is spoken by a character (Sydney Carton) who is going to his certain death, having sacrificed himself to save others.
Well, he may have read it before, too. Would he have had time to finish the whole thing?
He didn't. In the last scene, we see his glasses in he has picked up the book to read it but can't. He has simply read it before, and Spock knew of his fondness for the story, so he got him an antique embodiment of it. It is almost as if Spock and McCoy coordinated their gifts to help Jim feel less depressed about getting old. McCoy wasn't lying when he said he kept the bottle for medicinal purposes. He was coming with it to treat Jim's depression.
There are those who claim that the even numbered movies good, odd numbered movies bad. You, my dear, are a Trekie. And we love them all.
I saw Star Trek 2 at the theatre in the summer of 82. I was 6 at the time and the only movie I have ever cried at when Spock died.
In 1975, Leonard Nimoy wrote his first autobiography, "I am Not Spock." You could consider his relationship to Spock, not Disimilar to Dr Lazarus in Galaxy Quest.
He wanted to distance himself from the character. He had been typecast, producers and directors didn't believe he could portray an emotional character because he had embodied the ever logical Spock so effectively. Or they felt fans so universally recognized him as Spock that his presence would take them out of any story he was involved in.
The outpouring of love for Spock and stoeies of how the character had inspired and inpacted so many fans all over the world brought Nimoy to peace with the character before the next film. In 1995, Nimoy wrote his second autobiography, "I Am Spock."
I have a signed 1st edition paperback of I AM SPOCK. I really enjoyed it. It is also a sort of bellwether of AI copying famous people's images.
Yes that really is Ricardo Montalban's chest. He worked out and kept himself in great shape.
In the director's cut, we find out that the Cadet that Scotty carried to the bridge was his nephew.
"He's blinded by revenge". Yes, Khan failed to learn the lesson from Moby Dick and Captain Ahab who he, ironically, quoted at least three times.
Why is that ironic to you?
@@tanizaki Because he clearly knows the story well enough to commit passages to memory and identifies with Ahab, but "ironically" wasn't SMART enough to learn from Ahab's faults and mistakes.
@@sean_b_drummer Which faults/mistakes of Ahab?
@@tanizaki Ahab was so blinded by his need for revenge that he sacrificed everything: his ship, his crew, and even his own sanity. Much like Khan does. This movie is so loved, revered and respected because it mirrors that classic novel. The director even went so far as to show the book in Khan's library.
@@sean_b_drummer This is why it is not ironic for the Ahab analogue to quote Ahab.
There is a joke about how Khan knew Chekov.....
Once at a Convention someone asked Walter Koenig how it was that Khan knew who Chekov was when the Character hadn't been introduced yet and Walter said 'It's because Chekov cut in front of Khan at the Bathroom and thus left a lasting memory....'
I’ve never heard that! Thank you for this gold 😂
The genius of the consistent pressing the idea of aging and the meaning of life is often missed about this movie. It's sooo smart.
This is an all-timer. The themes and the story are timeless. I love how the spaceship battles are like submarine fights. Add the James Horner score and you've got a great film - Star Trek or otherwise!
Finally!! my favorite trek movie, so glad to see young people reacting to these classics
I still find it hilarious that Kirk's iconic "Khaaaan!!!" scream is a fake-out and minutes later Kirk is all 'lets go get him' 😉
Wheaton !!!!
a fake out?
@@trekkiejunk He's tricking Khan into thinking he's defeated, so Khan leaves the area (thinking he's marooned Kirk like Kirk did to him) and Spock can come pick them up.
@@trekkiejunkKirk had just got that coded message from Spock. He knows they aren't really trapped.
One of the best sequels ever Great performance from the whole cast especially shatner and Montalban. A movie you can watch time and time again and always enjoy it. Big thumbs up
I am a Guy... but at 34:21 you are my inner self at this point in the movie lol
I loved this move growing up the 80s as a Kid... and even to this day, Star Trek II is still my number one favorite Star trek movie!
Khan's passion, was his undoing.
No, his obsession.
As philmansfield said, people mock Shatner but I think his reaction to Spock's death shows the quality of his performance. He doesn't fall to his knees and shout NOOO to the heavens. He is broken. In that scene he says "no" as a defeated man. And then he slowly slumps down. Like the death of any loved one, his mind hasn't fully processed it. What is truly sad is you can't perform such acting without deeply understanding that level of grief. Without losing a loved one yourself.
The triumvirate give a masterclass in acting in this one.
I agree completely that Shatner is unfairly mocked over his acting. Every time I see the scene where Kirk runs into the engine room and instantly stops with that look of utter horror as he sees his closest friend in that chamber, I get chills. And that's not the only time he's shown what a great actor he is. Also, I read somewhere many years ago that, during that scene, the audience is carefully manipulated. McCoy and Scott stop Kirk from running into the chamber, and we aren't allowed to see yet what Kirk sees (but we know he sees it... that horrified expression makes that obvious). McCoy stops him from opening the door to the room and says what you would expect the engineer to say: "You'll flood the whole compartment." When Kirk says "He'll die," Scott is the one who says what you would expect the doctor to say: "He's dead already." That's when we actually see Spock, and we see he's NOT dead. And then, a couple of minutes later, he really does die. That scene is so brilliantly set up on so many levels.
Needless to say, when this movie came out, it was the first time I ever saw Kirstie Alley and I fell instantly in love. When you wondered how old she was in this movie, I had to look her up on IMDB. This was released in 1982 and her birthday was in 1951, so she was 31, somewhat older than she looks.
As a teen, I had huge crush on Kirstie Alley when she was on Cheers.
@@pleutronhahaha 😂 I was the same...
Even earlier than this, she was once a contestant on The Match Game. You can find that episode on RUclips.
That really was Mr. Montalban pecs, not a fake. He was always into fitness even in his later years. He exercised regularly until he lost the capacity to walk due a back injury he suffered as a young man. As he aged that injury got progressively worse.
'Kobayashi Maru'ed my heart' Really? I like it...
Loved the new uniforms in this movie.
I did too. WAY better than the embarrassing tights from the last movie.
When this movie came out, the entire theater was in the state you were in when Spock died, including myself.
This is still the greatest Star Trek film ever made! 😎
no
@@videostash413Opinions vary. I personally think it is.
I love how Khan takes off one glove right when he's introduced and stays one-gloved until the very end... 😅
be strong. also i own this film too also i understand funeral's i have been too them over the years.
Star Trek II-IV is the best cinematic sci-fi trilogy ever
Yoda has left the chat
@@tru3sk1llif George didn’t make his little space movie in 77 we would have never gotten tos movies 🍿
@@English_MoFo Yeah, but they were developing the "Star Trek: Phase II" series for television, featuring Persis Khambatta as Ilia. They abandoned it due to Star Wars and made movies instead. But some of the stories were developed into a fan series under the names "Star Trek: Phase II" and "Star Trek: New Voyages".
sike
Kirk to Spock at the start of the movie:
"Aren't you dead?"
Foreshadowing, people!
That was a nod to people that had heard Spock was gonna die halfway through the movie, so they changed it to the very end and threw in that line to throw everyone off.
@@MichaelParthum They didn't just throw a line, they "killed" the entire crew.
and?
So was the gift of "A Tale of Two Cities" from Spock to Kirk
I love the parallels between Khan and Captain Ahab, Khan's obsession with revenge, how they showed the book "Moby Dick" in his collection, and his quote, "from hell's heart I stab at thee."
Ricardo Montalban should’ve at least got an Oscar nomination for playing Kahn.
Love love your reactions. You are amazing!! My mother loved sci-fi movies and shows and got me into them from the beginning of my life. I was 7 years old seeing this in the theater and crying so hard at Spock’s death. I will never forget it. Can’t wait for more Star Trek and other reactions from you !!
People talk about 2001 and Star Wars as the best sci-fi movies ever made but rarely mention this one. I think ST2:WOK deserves to be included in that conversation. 40 years later, it still slaps as hard as it did in theaters in '82. BTW, not a dry eye in the house during Spocks sacrifice. 4 decades later and I still bawl like child during that scene. 😢 ❤
Well one reason is many rightfully see it as less a sci-fi movie and more a war/submarine movie. The combat scenes and the lighting and shots are VERY much a submarine movie.
And I rolled my eyes so hard watching Star Trek Into Darkness they almost fell out of my head.
WOK just doesn't belong in the conversation for best scifi movie...imo. one of the most talked about maybe. one of the most overrated maybe.
My god though, it HAD to stand out. SO many movies in '82 for Sci-Fi/Fantasy ppl: Tron, The Dark Crystal, E.T., Blade Runner, Conan The Barbarian, The Thing, Firefox... What a year!
After watch the Enterprise leaving space dock..... MUST SEE
Galaxy Quest it's just brilliant!
Leonard Nimoy only agreed to come back for this sequel, when the director promised him that Spock would die a heroic death.
Also, Spock dying was leaked to the press, resulting in outrage among fans. As a result, Nicholas Meyer change the script by adding "Spock's death" in the Kobayashi Maru test in the beginning as a fake out. So audiences went to see the film having the rumors about Spock's death in their heads and when they saw he "died" in the opening minutes, everyone happily breathed a sign of relief thinking that's what the rumors were about. So when Spock actually dies at the end of the film, it really took everyone by surprise despite the rumors and his death hit doubly hard.
I saw this in the theater when it came out with my father. We were both Star Trek fans and had seen the original series so many times. I said the same thing to my dad in the theater when Chekov said "Kahn...". I looked at my dad, at the age of 12 and said "Chekov wasn't in the series yet."
You made me smile so much when you noticed that. Well done.
Reliant also know as the Miranda -class was always one of my favorite starship designs. Fun fact: as seen in the film it's technically upside down from what the model makers intended. When the model was unboxed and assembled at the studio they accidentally put it together with the engines hanging down under the saucer and not above the saucer similar to Enterprise. The director chose to keep Reliant in its altered state instead of reasembling it engines up. Feeling the difference would make it easier for audiences to tell the two ships apart.
Still the best Star Trek movie ever…and it’s not even close.
The remake was good, but they missed the fundamental importance of this scene.
First Contact is the best, and it will always be the best. Not even close.
Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home. Best Star Trek movie ever. Not even close.
@@Dularr in this case, I must say that one is awesome. My friends, we've come home!
@@anothergalaxys4780 Comparing First Contact with Khan, is like comparing the best wine to the best beer, they're both good, but they are in completely separate categories
Having Spock "killed" in the simulation at the beginning was a genius red herring. It had been reported during the film's production that Leonard Nimoy would not be returning to Star Trek after this, so people thought he was being killed off here. When they realize it's just a simulation they relaxed and then were totally taken aback when Spock sacrificed himself at the end. This actually was going to be Nimoy's last movie, but when he saw the reaction of test audiences at Spock's death he realized how powerful even a Star Trek film can be and so not only agreed to do another one (if they let him direct it, which they did) but also filmed the short scene of him interacting with Dr. McCoy ("Remember...") to let fans know that there's a possibility for Spock to return. The director Nicholas Meyer was not happy with this and did not want to direct any more Star Trek movies. He did finally come back to direct part 6, which is one of the best ones. Nimoy went on to direct 3 and 4 and Shatner directed the 5th one.
Imagine the bandwidth to be able to dump his entire katra into McCoy's head in that instant.
@@briannaamore1383 And upload speeds at that!
@@eschiedler Do they teach that at Vulcan Training School?
"In science fiction there's no such thing as death." -Leonard Nimoy
Hard to believe this film is 42 years old and still holds up to today. I saw this movie in 1982 when I was 8 years old in theaters and it remains my all-time favorite Star Trek film. Subscribed! 💯
I had the good fortune to see TWOK in the theaters in my college days. The engine room scene brought open sobbing from the audience; at the first notes of Scotty's bagpipes, the sobbing got even louder. The Star Trek movies were the cinematic events of the decade!