10 Even More Best "I'm Dead And I Know It" Movie Moments

Throughout Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, legendary villain Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) frequently quotes and paraphrases Herman Melville's literary opus Moby-Dick, which makes sense given the film's clear thematic inspiration from the novel.

Khan is not unlike the book's vengeful Captain Ahab, a comparison cemented in his final scene where his ship, the Reliant, is defeated by the Enterprise, leaving him gravely wounded.

In an attempt to kill his foes as well as himself, Khan activates the terraforming tech known as the Genesis device, while quoting Ahab's own vicious tirade from the end of the novel: "To the last I grapple with thee; from Hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

And like that, Khan appears to die, seconds before the Genesis device detonates, incinerating the Reliant and Khan's remains with it. It was nothing if not a fittingly badass way for Trek's finest foe to meet his end.