Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Ah, Kirk, my old friend. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space.

Khan Noonien Singh

A good modern trailer for the best of the Star Trek films.  Hard to believe it has been 39 years since it came out.  I was studying for the bar that summer, and the day my Bride, then my fiancee, and I saw it was my one bit of entertainment that season.

The film works so well largely because the late and great Ricardo Montalban was such a superb villain.  Sixty-two in 1982, he had the physique of a much younger man and was completely believable as a man driven by tragedy to exact a terrible revenge on Kirk.

Shatner delivered the best performance of his career, as an aging, fifty-one year old, admiral, longing for his lost youth, who still had a few tricks up his sleeve, with his beloved Enterprise, against his old foe.

The film is a wild ride with surprisingly profound observations about aging, change and loss.  The film that saved the franchise.

Advertisement