--- title: "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" year: 1982 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan" fi1m_score: 85 critics_score: 83 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-18T12:21:31.426393+00:00" updated: "2026-09-18T12:21:54.845523+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) Directed by Nicholas Meyer · 1h 53m · MPA PG · Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller **Fi1m score: 85** · Critics 83 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* Two starships, one grudge, a lot of maroon wool and William Shatner reaching for his reading glasses > Nicholas Meyer takes a television cast, a small budget and a villain from an old episode, and makes the one *Star Trek* film about growing old. Ricardo Montalban rages, William Shatner listens, and the last reel earns every tear it asks for. ## Synopsis Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) has a birthday he does not enjoy, and Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (DeForest Kelley) marks it by giving him a pair of antique reading glasses. Meanwhile the USS Reliant, under Captain Clark Terrell (Paul Winfield) and Cmdr. Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), is surveying dead planets for Project Genesis, a device built by Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) that can turn barren rock into a living world. On what they take for an empty desert they find Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), the tyrant Kirk marooned there fifteen years earlier. Khan seizes the Reliant and wants two things: Genesis and Kirk. When the Genesis station goes quiet, Kirk takes the Enterprise, on a training cruise under Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), to find out why. ## Review The first *Star Trek* film was long, slow and solemn, and *The Wrath of Khan* is Nicholas Meyer’s answer to it: a chase, a grudge and a crew who have noticed the grey in the mirror. Meyer had never seen the television series when he took the job, and it seems to have helped. He treats the Enterprise as a warship and Kirk as a man promoted past the work he was good at. The story, by Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards, brings back Khan, a villain from an old television episode, and lets the two men hunt each other for 113 minutes. It is the best of the *Star Trek* films and we would recommend it to people who have never watched a minute of the series. Ricardo Montalban is the reason it works. Khan quotes Melville, strokes his followers’ faces and delivers every line as if to a mirror he admires; Montalban plays him big and never plays him stupid. Meyer’s trick is that Kirk and Khan are never in the same room. They speak by viewscreen, so Montalban acts most of his part at a camera lens, which suits a man who has spent fifteen years talking to himself in a desert. Shatner does less than he has ever done and is better for it. He listens. Early on McCoy (DeForest Kelley) gives him a pair of reading glasses for his birthday and he looks at them as though they were a diagnosis. We did not expect to be touched by William Shatner’s eyesight, and we were. The film was made for a fraction of what the first one cost. Gayne Rescher lights the bridge in reds and ambers where the earlier film was grey and blue, so the ship looks lived in rather than hosed down. Robert Fletcher puts the crew in maroon wool jackets with white collars, and they stop looking like hotel staff and start looking like a navy; Khan’s people wear rags cut from the wreck they crawled out of. Joseph R. Jennings’s corridors are television corridors, but his torpedo bay full of cadets in hard hats and his orange desert on Ceti Alpha V do what is asked of them. James Horner’s score is the biggest thing in the film: sea horns for the Enterprise, low growling brass for Khan, and a main theme that sounds like a ship leaving harbour rather than a rocket leaving a pad. William Paul Dornisch cuts the space battles like a submarine film: the enemy, the bridge, a man waiting to be told he is dead. The nastiest thing in the film is not a battle at all. It is a pair of small creatures Khan lifts from a tank and slides into two men’s ears, and the way Meyer holds on Paul Winfield’s face while it happens. It horrified us as children and it horrified us again, because Winfield plays what follows as a man who knows what has been done to him and cannot say so. The 12 certificate is fair. Not everything holds. Kirstie Alley’s Saavik is written as a Vulcan and played as a head girl, and the script uses her mostly to have the rules explained. Merritt Butrick’s David Marcus is a sulk in a jumper, and Bibi Besch, warm and quick in her first scenes, is given less to do as the film goes on. The model shots wobble when the ships turn. Shatner, so restrained for an hour, is let off the leash mid-film for a shout that has kept impressionists in work ever since. Against the series’ own standards it sits at the top. Against the space films of its decade it is smaller than [*The Empire Strikes Back*](https://film.one/film/the-empire-strikes-back) or [*Alien*](https://film.one/film/alien) and more interested in people. One dissenting review called it camp melodrama. It is, and the melodrama is what carries it. The second half takes a turn we will not describe. Watch it with someone who thinks they dislike *Star Trek*. It is about getting old, and it has the decency to be a thriller while it says so. *Fi1m score 85, published 18 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason: it is the film the first one should have been. Nicholas Meyer’s direction is credited again and again with getting the pace right, restoring the wit and warmth of the television series, and putting the cast ahead of the effects. Ricardo Montalban’s Khan is the performance singled out most often, a vengeful, Melville-quoting villain who gives Kirk something to push against. Several reviews note how well the script wears its themes of ageing and mortality, and most treat the final reel as the emotional high point. The spread is narrow at the top and then falls off a cliff. Ten of eleven reviews are positive. The Los Angeles Times is warm but cooler than the rest, approving mainly of Meyer’s affection for the characters. Time Out is the lone dissenter, finding it low camp and the ageing crew faintly embarrassing, a view no other critic shares. ### Reviews we read (11) - **The AV Club**, Zack Handlen (A): The critic praises the film's expert pacing, sense of adventure, terrific script, superb performances (especially Shatner's), and iconic action set pieces, calling it the best Star Trek film and something one never tires of watching. The emotional weight of Spock's death is singled out as what elevates it beyond typical Trek. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/star-trek-space-seed-the-wrath-of-khan-1798205985) - **Empire**, Angie Errigo (90/100, inferred): The review praises Nicholas Meyer's direction for balancing character interplay with effects and highlights the return of Ricardo Montalban as the vengeful Khan as energizing the film. It singles out the story's focus on aging, comradeship, and a shocking self-sacrifice for praise while noting the film's witty, literate script. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/star-trek-2-wrath-khan-review/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): The review praises the strong villain performance by Ricardo Montalban as Khan and the film's focus on character relationships and sacrifice over special effects. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-1982) - **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (90/100, inferred): The review finds the film invites wonderful callow dumb fun with the right amused self-mocking note from director Nicholas Meyer, praising the cast's toned-up energy and the inexpensive epic's yarn-spinning. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1982/06/28/the-only-logical-thing-to-do) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the sequel swift, droll, adventurous and gadget-happy, a vast improvement over the first film with a stronger plot and peppier direction by Nicholas Meyer. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/04/movies/new-star-trek-full-of-gadgets-and-fun.html) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The second and finest Star Trek movie is a low-budget corrective to the first film, delivering a slick and seductive cat-and-mouse narrative between Kirk and Khan. The critic singles out the emotive finale that restates themes of ageing and mortality, along with slick effects and the memorable villain quoting Melville. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-1982-review-a-slick-and-seductive-cat-and-mouse-game-8dv9l7w3g) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (90/100, inferred): The review deems it a very satisfying space adventure closer in spirit to the TV series, highlighting the revenge plot, emotional final reel with Spock's sacrifice, and effective direction by Nicholas Meyer. [Read](https://variety.com/1981/film/reviews/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-1200425117/) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The 1982 sequel directed by Nicholas Meyer is a brisker, brasher work than its predecessor that returns to the crowdpleasing energy of the TV series. The critic highlights the heroic and tragic sacrifice of Spock as a standout moment of raw emotion that influenced later franchises, while praising the film's charm and innocent idealism in the Kirk-Khan duel. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/01/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-review-spock-and-kirk-shine-in-charming-enterprise-revisit) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the ride much smoother than the first film, crediting director Nicholas Meyer for preserving the series' essential squareness with affection and respect for the characters and actors. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-star-trek-wrath-khan-review-19820603-snap-story.html) - **Time Out**, PT (30/100, inferred): The film is a low-camp humanoid melodrama that follows up the TV episode 'Space Seed' with Kirk facing Khan's revenge via the Genesis device. The ageing crew's antics produce a mix of embarrassed guffaws and incredulity in a movie that feels post-TV and pre-D.W. Griffith. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/star-trek-2-the-wrath-of-khan) - **Den of Geek**, Adam Sloman (5/5): The critic calls it one of the best entries in the franchise and a great action film with real emotional impact, crediting Nicholas Meyer for getting the source material right despite never having seen the show. They single out the strong performances and character interactions, especially among Kirk, Spock and McCoy, along with the tense nebula battle. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-retrospective-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Nicholas Meyer - **Director:** Nicholas Meyer - **Screenplay:** Jack B. Sowards, Nicholas Meyer - **Story:** Jack B. Sowards, Harve Bennett - **Cinematography:** Gayne Rescher - **Editor:** William Paul Dornisch - **Music:** James Horner - **Production design:** Joseph R. Jennings - **Costume design:** Robert Fletcher - **Producer:** Robert Sallin - **Cast:** William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk; Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock; Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien Singh; DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy; James Doohan as Cmdr. Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott; Walter Koenig as Cmdr. Pavel Chekov; George Takei as Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu; Nichelle Nichols as Cmdr. Uhura - **Runtime:** 1h 53m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 4 June 1982 - **Genres:** Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller - **Budget:** $12 million - **Box office:** $97 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIYaRb6XpQ ## Where to watch in the US - Paramount+: streaming, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - Apple TV: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $7.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-18.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Enemy Below* (1957): Two captains who never meet, hunting each other by instrument; Meyer’s template, plainly. - *Das Boot* (1981), Fi1m 89: Men in a metal tube waiting to hear whether they are dead, at length. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/das-boot.md) - *Moby Dick* (1956): Where Khan got his lines; Gregory Peck’s Ahab is nearly as grand a grudge. - *Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country* (1991), Fi1m 74: Meyer returns to the crew, older still, and gives them a Cold War to end. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/star-trek-vi-the-undiscovered-country.md) - *Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World* (2003), Fi1m 86: Wooden ships, a long chase and a captain who feels the years in his knees. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan