10 Awesome Movie Moments Where You Think The Villain Might Actually Win
4. The Genesis Countdown - Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an excellent Trek movie that was largely praised for delivering arguably the franchise's best-ever villain in genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (played by an excellent Ricardo Montalbán), who previously appeared in the 1967 Original Series episode "Space Seed."
Khan is seeking revenge on Captain Kirk (William Shatner) for exiling him and causing the death of his wife, and though he ultimately ends up mortally wounded by the end of the movie, it also results in Khan's finest moment.
In a last-ditch attempt to annihilate Kirk, Khan activates the Genesis Device, which will ultimately destroy the Enterprise and anything in the vicinity. With the Enterprise's warp drive damaged and therefore unable to flee from the device, it truly does feel like Kirk's goose is cooked.
Even though we as Trek fans know how unlikely it is that the crew of the Enterprise will all be killed, Khan's sense of vengeance is so persuasive that it's tough not to get wrapped up in it.
Ultimately Khan scores something of a Pyrrhic victory, in that the Enterprise only escapes Genesis after Spock (Leonard Nimoy) sacrifices himself to fix the warp drive, but it's far from the retribution Khan envisioned against his true foe.