11 Powerful Movie Deaths Devalued By The Sequels
6. Spock - Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
Tell me, dear readers: how is one of cinema's most iconic deaths supposed to hold onto its meaning if, before you've even seen it, the very TITLE of the following film tells you that the character isn't actually dead?!
...Well, actually, he is, technically speaking - at least, in body. Learning that Spock transferred his katra (spirit) to Dr. McCoy right before he died, the crew are able to restore his life by reuniting the katra with his body, which, conveniently enough, has been reengineered on the newly created Genesis planet (albeit as a child).
He's an extremely fast-growing child, however, and before long, Spock is back to his correct age. On his home planet, an ancient ritual brings together his soul and body, and, though a tad forgetful at first, the stone-faced Vulcan quickly returns to his old inscrutable self.
It's as if nothing ever happened - and that's precisely the problem. As entertaining as the film is, its entire premise is nothing short of a complete U-turn; for Spock, whose death in The Wrath of Khan now holds little to no value, and for Khan himself, who has technically been robbed of his greatest victory.