7. The Legitimate Threat Of Death In The Enterprise
A lot of people die in Khan. The captain and crew of a hijacked Starship are all killed (except for Chekov). The scientists who ran the Genesis project are all tortured to death. Random people die all through the Enterprise, including Scottys protégée. And finally, at the end of the film, Spock dies and is buried in an emotional funeral sequence that brings the weight of loss home to the characters and the audience. A lot of people die in Into Darkness too. The Dad suicide bomber (hell always be Mickey the Idiot to me), the evil general, and most dramatically Christopher Pike. Pike is supposed to be the person who forces Kirk to deal with loss (although how a character shaped by his fathers death hasnt been forced to go through counseling to learn how to deal with loss is beyond me), but nobody with a name dies on the Enterprise. Pikes death occurs quite early in the movie, and the movie moves so quickly that its emotional import is overwhelmed by the plot. The fact that Spock died at the end of Khan gave the audience and characters the space to deal seriously with grief. And, of course, I cant go through the article without pointing out that switching Kirk for Spock as the dead person, and then bringing Kirk back, completely undercuts the entire point of the dealing with loss theme. The character whose death is most affecting is brought back to life inside of 20 minutes, and apparently thats not supposed to reinforce the idea that death can be avoided if youre clever enough. Which is Kirks misguided belief for the whole movie. And which is proved correct by the plot, but somehow Kirk learns his lesson anyway.