Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Trivia: As the shuttle with Kirk and company approaches the Enterprise in Space dock, Sulu says "I'm delighted. Any chance to go aboard the Enterprise..." According to IMSDb.com, there was a full dialog between Kirk and Sulu in the original script. The rest of Sulu's line was "however briefly, is always a chance for nostalgia." Kirk also told Sulu the he had cut the orders for Sulu to Captain the Excelsior.

Movie Nut

Trivia: This movie is basically a retelling of another story. When the camera first pans the shelves of the Botany Bay it stops and centers on one book on the shelf in particular.....Moby Dick. That is what this movie is about. Khan is Ahab, The Enterprise is Moby Dick. At one point in the book the whale is circling Ahab's ship on the ocean. At one point in the movie the Enterprise is circling the Reliant (Khan's ship) in the Motara Nebula. Ahab had a scar up one entire side of his body given to him by an encounter with the Whale. At the end of the movie Khan has a burn mark/scar up one side of his body as well. Not to mention that Khan quotes from Moby Dick throughout the movie. The last quote he utters is one that Ahab uttered "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee, for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

Trivia: Early script drafts featured Khan gaining psychic powers with the ability to create illusions in the minds of others. One draft even replaced Khan entirely with an original villain who better suited such fantastical mental powers. By the time Nicholas Meyer wrote the shooting script, Khan was reinstated as the villain and the psychic angle was dropped.

TonyPH

Trivia: Broke the record for highest grossing opening weekend at the time, earning $14 million in three days.

TonyPH

Trivia: When the crew is pulling up the grates to lower the photon torpedo into its launch track, you can see a crewman in a red jacket in the background. The way he is fidgeting, he is obviously an extra that didn't know what to do after "Action" was yelled. Though, I guess we could be charitable and say he was a green ensign unsure of what to do at Red Alert.

Grumpy Scot

Trivia: Every shot of the Enterprise that doesn't also contain another element exclusive to this film (such as the Reliant, Space Station Regula I, the Mutara Nebula, et al.) is stock footage from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Yes, all of them. Every last one! If it's a solitary shot of the Enterprise floating through space, it's re-used footage.

TonyPH

Trivia: It's been noted that the villain Khan represents the book 'Moby Dick'. In addition, the heroes of the film represent 'A Tale of Two Cities', the Charles Dickens tome Spock gives to Kirk as a gift. Like the character Sydney Carton, Spock makes a noble sacrifice, and at the end Kirk quotes, "It is a far, far better thing I do now..." Star Trek II is essentially "Moby Dick Vs. A Tale of Two Cities (in Space!) "

TonyPH

Trivia: Prop master Joe Longo, a Ricardo Montalban and Fantasy Island fan, modified a small toy robot, painted a tux on it and used a poster to give it Tattoo's face. When Montalban first pulled into the studio parking lot, Longo sent the mechanical Tattoo toddling out to his car. Every day of the production after that, "Tattoo" arrived in the passenger seat of Montalban's car, came to the set with him, and went home every night to play around the actor's swimming pool.

Jean G

Trivia: This film was supposed to be called "The Vengeance of Khan". They changed the title because of the rumor that "Return of the Jedi" was going to be called "Revenge of the Jedi" and released the following year.

Dr Wilson

Trivia: For many years, the UCLA library has held a tape for a black and white 1982 sci-fi film titled "Pisces Project." That is a code name: it is in fact an early rough cut version of 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' featuring many deleted scenes that cannot be seen anywhere else. It's been sitting there since possibly the 1980s. It is available for public viewing via appointment, but the tape is prohibited from leaving the building.

TonyPH

Trivia: Kirk and Khan both mention that Khan was marooned on Ceti Alpha V fifteen years earlier. This movie was released fifteen years after "Space Seed" aired on television.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: Composer James Horner has a cameo as an Enterprise Crewman running down a corridor during preparation for the final battle, just before the torpedoes are launched into the launch bay.

Trivia: On the original movie poster and certain DVD releases, it shows the Enterprise firing on Space Station Regula One, when no such scene exists in the movie.

GalahadFairlight

Trivia: The death of Spock was leaked out very early on in the production of this show (they suspected Roddenberry as he was very against it). When they were planning the training scenario at the beginning of the movie, it was originally going to be about halfway through the movie. They decided, however, to move it to the beginning so we would assume it was real. They then decided to 'kill' Spock off right there at the beginning (along with the rest of the bridge crew). That way, those watching the show for the first time who were told that Spock would die, would assume (after it was revealed that the beginning was a training scenario) that Spock was only going to pretend to die. That way, even though they were told that Spock died in the movie, they were still surprised when he actually did.

Garlonuss

Trivia: Saavik was originally written to be a male character, which would explain why her name begins with 'S' when traditionally female Vulcan names start with 'T'.

TonyPH

Trivia: The individual shots that involve the Enterprise moving out of the space dock are identical to shots used in the first film.

Trivia: In the Genesis cave, Bones responds to Saavik's question with "You are looking at the only Starfleet cadet who ever beat the No-Win Scenario." This is later expanded on in the novel "The Kobiyashi Maru", where Kirk, Bones, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty are adrift in a shuttle craft, and Kirk tells his story of how he won. He asked that it be kept secret because "if anyone tries this again, Starfleet will know where they got the idea." They were going to expel him for this, but gave him the commendation because they wanted commanders who could think on their feet.

Movie Nut

Trivia: Kirk and Khan never meet face to face during the movie. They only speak to each other over communication links such as starship view screens. They did meet in the original TV series episode.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: After Spock's funeral, the shot of the Enterprise coming toward the camera is a re-use of the shot after V'ger evolved at the end of The Motion Picture.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: When the Enterprise is leaving space dock, look at the right (starboard) side of the ship. You can see the shape of the mounting arm the model was mounted on, even though it was blacked out to look like space, and it also blocked out the bottom of the dock. The footage was reused from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Movie Nut

More mistakes in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Dr. McCoy: Go... Where are we going?
Captain Kirk: Where they went.
Dr. McCoy: Suppose they went nowhere.
Captain Kirk: Then this will be your big chance to get away from it all.

More quotes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Question: This isn't technically a mistake per se, but it involves Spock's funeral. Several Enterprise crewmembers are killed during the battle with Khan, and yet only Spock gets a funeral. Perhaps there was a smaller memorial for the others, and Spock got a full funeral due to his status as captain, but why is Kirk only sending Spock's body to the Genesis planet? I imagine he sent only Spocks's body there since in ST3 there aren't dozens of little regenerated human babies crawling around down there.

Vader47000

Chosen answer: I imagine there was a memorial service for everyone killed. Starfleet's policy on corpses is probably to return them to Starfleet HQ where their families can collect them for whatever services or ceremonies they want unless the crewman had left instructions specifying otherwise. There's no telling why Kirk sent Spock's body to Genesis. Based on Sarek's reactions in ST3 he almost certainly went against Spock's wishes, unless of course, Spock left no recorded instructions and Kirk did what he thought would please Spock based on his being highest ranking officer and Spock's closest friend. It also seems very out of character for Spock to just assume that whoever he transferred his katra to would be able to handle it and carry out his wishes (McCoy certainly couldn't!). Ultimately it seems we have to chalk it up to a plot device to base the sequel on.

Grumpy Scot

According to the novelization, Kirk's intentions were to send Spock's remains into the Genesis sun. Lieutenant Saavik altered the trajectory of the torpedo beforehand, due to Spock's desire to see the Genesis effect for himself. The torpedo casing was expected to incinerate when entering the atmosphere. As pointed out by David Marcus in STIII when the pod was detected on the scanners, the gravitational fields were in flux at the time, and the pod had obviously soft-landed on the surface.

More questions & answers from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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