Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - PG
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is a more violent feature than the original, G-rated Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with assorted character deaths and torture. One of the biggest stars of the series is a casualty. While the TV Captain Kirk always seemed to have girlfriends on every planet, this is the first time it's acknowledged that one of them bore him a now-adult son, and their paternal relationship is not close or cordial.
Families can talk about the parallels between Khan's obsession with avenging himself on Kirk and one of the books glimpsed in Khan's personal library, Moby Dick. What do you think of Spock's code of sacrifice for "the needs of the many"? This movie added to Trekkie lore a Starfleet Academy flight simulation test in which a practice captain faces a seeming no-win battle scenario. Why do you think this is important training? What would you do in this scenario?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
It was good to be a science-fiction movie fan in 1982. Out-of-this-world features released that year, which seemed to reach a pinnacle of entertaining scripts, mind-expanding concepts, and cutting-edge special effects, included E.T., Blade Runner, The Road Warrior, Tron, and STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. This last one even proved that sequels from adaptations of TV shows could be better than originals (talk about mind-blowing concepts), since the first Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a bit of a disappointment.
Hearkening back to the action and brisk pacing of the classic TV series -- but with a budget generous enough to fit a movie's panoramic scope, and consistently smart dialogue as a bonus -- this feature went directly to its small-screen ancestor to borrow a nice juicy villain, seen in the Star Trek episode entitled "Space Seed" (available by itself on video). It's Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), a genetically engineered super-being warlord of the 1990s (those "far future" calendar dates now do tend to inspire giggles), launched into space in suspended animation in 1996, discovered by the Federation Starship USS Enterprise 200 years later and, when he proved to be still as dangerous and conquest-thirsty as ever, marooned by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) on a desolate planet with his followers.
This movie picks up his story 15 years after that, with the Enterprise now a training vessel for Starfleet cadets under most of the original bridge crew. Kirk, now an admiral, is persuaded to come aboard by his old friend Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), who's concerned that the aging Starfleet hero is languishing at this desk job (we get a good look at Kirk's San Francisco home, for once; what kid would have guessed the galactic adventurer was a picky antique collector?).
But Khan has managed to escape with his people and hijack a well-armed Federation starship of his own. Obsessed with wreaking vengeance on Kirk, he lures the Enterprise into a devastating battle while plotting to steal the Genesis project, a bomb-like device capable of creating or destroying new worlds.
It's often and erroneously repeated that science-fiction movies are just Westerns with ray guns. And, aye, Star Trek itself came to NBC-TV in the 1960s promoted as the cosmic equivalent of a popular old horse opera called Wagon Train. While space spectacles such as Serenity might fit this sagebrush description, it's worth noting that director Nicholas Meyer claimed to have very little prior knowledge of Trekdom when he came aboard. Instead, he said, he took inspiration from his favorite Napoleonic-era naval adventures, novels in the C.S. Forester Horatio Hornblower series. That's indeed how Star Trek II plays out, as a seagoing military epic transplanted to deep space, with questions of command and leadership, duty, and sacrifice for the welfare of the crew. And, of course, awesome vessels trying to cannonade each other to pieces.
Yet there's still room in the script for observations about friendship, aging, military misuse of science, contentious father-son relationships, and the futility of revenge. Since the chance of any further Star Trek movies was iffy -- and Leonard Nimoy was hoping at the time to sign off playing Spock for good -- you get the feeling here everyone is really giving the material all the respect it's worth, just in case this turned out to be the final Star Trek as we knew it (it wasn't, of course). The result is a blend of passionate acting, great music, fine f/x, philosophy, ethics, and derring-do to create what some fans consider the best of the Star Trek features.
Khan's obsessive quest for Kirk is a deliberate reference to another maritime source, Moby Dick. This movie might inspire kids to tackle that notoriously tough Herman Melville read. For other epics of the Earth's high seas that might mirror Starfleet, there are Horatio Hornblower movies on video dating from the 1951 Gregory Peck version to a 2003 TV miniseries, not to mention the similar Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Another interplanetary battle epic that has very obvious naval-engagement vibes is the video game adaptation Wing Commander.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentWe learn that Kirk has an illegitimate son by an old lover, and she describes the Starfleet hero as "no Boy Scout." Kirk eyes a pretty Vulcan, but that's as serious as it gets. |
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ViolencePhaser and photon-torpedo battles, with deaths (including major characters in the series). Two men are tortured in gruesome detail with brain-burrowing insectlike parasites put into their ears. Scenes of corpses after a massacre. |
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Language"Hell," and various forms of "damnit" from Dr. McCoy especially. |
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Social BehaviorThere's a continuing theme throughout about how to react with courage and resourcefulness in a seemingly hopeless situation. Kirk learns to accept his aging and the mortality of his friends, and there's a closing act of heroic self-sacrifice. Starfleet is, as always, racially integrated, and a female Vulcan character has more of a presence than women usually do on the ship. |
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CommercialismStar Trek itself is an enormous commodity. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSocial drinking, with Dr. McCoy bringing Kirk some "old" (22nd century) wine for his birthday. |
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