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I watched Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan last night and it still holds up really well.
There’s very little that could be considered flab on it, yet it still has time to breathe, to touch on the message, the themes of relevance, ageing, life, death, that are its emotional core.
There’s very little that could be considered flab on it, yet it still has time to breathe, to touch on the message, the themes of relevance, ageing, life, death, that are its emotional core.
Kahn is essentially Moby Dick meets Run Silent, Run Deep in space, but it’s also more than that. Yes, it has a perfect blend of action and tension, but it also has poignancy and pathos. Relationships are both taken for granted and also explored, avoiding unnecessary exposition.
Kirk is truly developed as a character, not as a hero, but as a problematic character. Whose bravado has allowed him to avoid the consequences of life, be that facing death or being a father. He admits to cheating his way out of everything, only to realise he’s cheated himself.
It’s this realisation that he’s cheated death but avoided life that is central to the film, with Kahn his reflection - both men who have had their lives taken from them by Kirk’s cheating, but whereas Kahn aches for his loss and all that was taken, Kirk avoided experiencing it.
Bones & Spock give him council, both men representing his heart & his head respectively, where Kirk must balance & temper these two sides to find a solution, to find his purpose once again.
He has lived all his chances, he feels, but by the end he has a second chance at life.
He has lived all his chances, he feels, but by the end he has a second chance at life.
And the message here is that we mustn’t avoid living. Must not cheat ourselves of that experience. That loss actually can define us, to help us grow and live.
Kirk says this to Saavik, but he only pays it lip service. It’s not until he sees Genesis that he really understands it.
Kirk says this to Saavik, but he only pays it lip service. It’s not until he sees Genesis that he really understands it.
Kirk has been defined by avoiding pain, where as Kahn is consumed by it, and it is this dichotomy that also brings the message into sharper focus; Just as one can’t avoid loss, one can’t afford to lose oneself to it either. That a balance must be struck for one either to live.
Now, there’s far more I could say about the performances, the direction, the production design, costuming, and that score, but it was this deft storytelling, this message in a bottle that I took away from the film and it is why Kahn is, IMO the most accomplished Trek film.
As a post script I’ll simply say that while further Trek films were an inevitability and the killing off of Spock perhaps demanded his resurrection (and granted the film sets this up), I think it was a mistake to bring Spock back as they did...
Because the whole point of TWOK is that we can’t avoid or cheat our way out of the consequences of life. That death and grief and loss tells us about who we are. The next film essentially undoes that lesson and puts Kirk (and the audience) right back to how they were before.
