How William Shatner’s famed wrathful ‘Khaaan!’ became an instant ‘Star Trek’ legend
Hear it again for the first or second or third time soon in a theater near you
“KHAAAN!” is the cry that shook Earth and space.
William Shatner’s Admiral Kirk unleashed the bellow at his rival Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) in 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a moment so profound it earned an instant spot in Star Trek history and popular culture.
Kirk’s over-the-top shout-out put an exclamation point (or four) on Star Trek’s second film, sending the nascent film franchise into warp drive.
Fathom Events is bringing a 35th anniversary Wrath of Khan director’s cut to theaters Sunday and next Wednesday. Prepare for an onslaught of “Khaaan!” imitations and puns, which amuses Shatner. He says his outburst was just another day at the office.
“Who thinks of those things when you’re making a film? Imagine thinking ‘I’m going to say the name ‘ Khan’ and years from now people will be talking about it,’ ” says Shatner, 86. “You’d barely make it through a whisper. It would make you awfully self-conscious.”
History has shown that “Khaaan!” still resonates.
“As Shatner himself said, that cry is the most ‘I-Khanic’ moment in Star Trek history,” says Scott Mantz, film critic for Access Hollywood, who interviews Shatner for a pre-movie segment. “If Wrath of Khan is the Citizen Kane of Star Trek movies, then when Shatner yells ‘Khaaan!’ is the equivalent of Orson Welles whispering ‘Rosebud.’ ”
The cry caps off the epic standoff between Kirk and Khan, with Khan taunting Kirk before he cripples the Enterprise, leaving Kirk stranded on a barren moon, “marooned for all eternity.”
Kirk, who is pretending his ship is disabled so he can lure Khan into a trap, roars in appar-
ent frustration. “He’s an alpha male bellowing his alpha male cry, like I have seen elk do,” Shatner says. Director Nicholas Meyer says he wrote the line himself “in caps with four exclamation points.”
“It’s a bit of a cheat,” Meyer says. “Kirk has to make Khan believe that this round, and it appears to be a final round, has gone to Khan.”
Shatner doesn’t recall more than a couple of “Khaaan!” takes. Shatner says he pulled the rage, amplified by Meyer’s temple-throbbing close-up, from being “totally immersed in the emotion. You cannot fake that. People would recognize it.”
Khan was a box office success, allowing for a future that now spans 13 films. In 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, featuring a newgeneration Star Trek cast, Zachary Quinto’s Spock paid tribute, yelling “Khan!” when Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) ap- pears to die at the hands of young Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch).
“As I fan, I cringed,” Mantz says. “I couldn’t believe they went there.”
Shatner will say only this: Quinto “gives a great impression of screaming ‘Khan.’ ”
Other tributes have been more successful, including a version on Cartoon Network’s animated Robot Chicken with a dramatic Italian cry that Meyer admires.
The original bellower refuses to comment on the parodies. “I Khan-not do that,” Shatner says. “They are not worthy of consideration, really. Especially by me.”