Star Trek II - Sci-Fi Movie Review, Cast & Crew, Transcript and Trailer

This is Admiral Kirk. We tried it once your way, Khan, are you game for a rematch?

The film begins in the midst of a test given to starfleet officers for training purposes. These trainees are taking part in a simulation, and Captain Spock's protege Lt. Saavik fails to save the Enterprise from a Klingon attack. It is Admiral Kirk and is crew who are overseeing the tests....it seems that Kirk no longer pilots his starship in space.

meanwhile on the USS Reliant Commander Chekov and Captain Terrell are searching for a lifeless planet to serve as a staging ground for a project called Genesis. Chekov and Terrell beam down to the surface of Ceti Alpha VI and quickly become captives of Khan Noonien Singh. Singh was a product of human engineering and he and his followers were picked up adrift in space whilst hibernating, before being marooned by Kirk on the planet. Khan explains that the planet is actually Ceti Alpha V, its orbit altered and its ecosystem destroyed when Ceti Alpha VI exploded. Khan uses tiny creatures, ceti eels, to control the will of both Chekov and Terrell and forces them to reveal the details of their mission. Khan knows that the Genesis Device can destroy a planet as much as create one.

Khan then seizes the Reliant and maroons her crew on Ceti Alpha V. Through manipulation of Chekov and the scientists working on Project Genesis, Khan lures Kirk from Earth, intending to exact his own vengeance for the death of his wife during their exile. Khan attacks the Enterprise, crippling her warp drive and weapons systems and killing many of the trainee crew. In place of destroying the Enterprise, he accepts Kirk's offer of himself but only if he gives up all computer records of Genesis. This gives Kirk enough time to externally disable the Reliant's shields, after which they successfully launch a counterattack, disabling the Reliant's weapons and driving them off.

The Enterprise limps to Space Station Regula 1, the staging area for Project Genesis. They find several of the Genesis team dead, murdered by Khan. They also discover that several more, including Carol and her son, David have escaped deep inside the planetoid of Regula itself.

Khan successfully captures the Genesis Device using both Chekov and Terrell. He orders Terrell to kill Kirk, but the captain cannot and kills himself instead. Kirk and Spock exchange a coded message detailing the Enterprise's viability and repair time, a message that Khan fails to decode. Kirk and the survivors on Regula beam back to the Enterprise, which flees to the nearby Mutara Nebula; both Kirk and Spock know that standard ship defenses such as shields and phaser tracking systems will be inoperable in the nebula’s magnetic field, leveling the battlefield with Reliant.

The Enterprise and the renegade ship then face each other within the nebula. The two ships exchange fire and further damage to the Enterprise is sustained in the engine room, causing a radiation leak. Through tactical awareness Kirk is able to cripple the Reliant and Khan, who is mortally wounded, activates the Genesis Device and programs it for detonation. The Enterprise, detecting the energy surge begins to move away, but without main power and warp drive, will not be able to escape in time. Spock goes to Engineering and is able to restore the warp drive, allowing the Enterprise to escape the explosion.

Spock, however, suffers fatal radiation poisening in the control chamber. He and Kirk exchange their last words and Spock dies. A funeral is held and the coffin is sent to the new planet the Genesis wave explosion has created.......