Remember Star Trek II? You know, Wrath of Khan? Well there’s this scene that people love to laugh at. Maybe you’ve heard of it. And I see people of all types going on about what a ham Shatner is and how he overplays that yell and how goofy it is and all of that.

And yet they all seem to miss the point that it’s a god damned ruse! Look. Khan has Kirk and friends on the planet. Trapped. The Enterprise is stopped and can not help them. So Khan abandons them on the planet to die a slow death. Here’s the final exchange:

Kirk: Khan, you bloodsucker. You’re going to have to do your own dirty work now! Do you hear me? Do you?

Khan: Kirk? You’re still alive, my old friend?

Kirk: Still, “old friend!” You’ve managed to kill everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target!

Khan: Perhaps I no longer need to try, Admiral.

Kirk: Khan… Khan, you’ve got Genesis, but you don’t have me. You were going to kill me, Khan. You’re going to have to come down here. You’re going to have to come down here!

Khan: I’ve done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I’ve hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her; marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet… buried alive!

Kirk: KHAAANNNN!

And there’s your yell. EXCEPT! Before that we had this:

Kirk: Captain Spock, damage report.

Spock: Admiral, if we go by the book. like Lieutenant Saavik, hours could seem like days.

Kirk: I read you captain. Let’s have it.

Spock: The situation is grave, Admiral. We won’t have main power for six days Auxiliary power has temporarily failed. Restoration may be possible, in two days. By the book, Admiral.

Kirk: Meaning you can’t even beam us back?

Spock: Not at present.

Kirk: Captain Spock, if you don’t hear from us within one hour, your orders are to restore what power you can, take the Enterprise to the nearest star base, and alert Starfleet Command as soon as you’re out of jamming range.

Uhura: Sir, we won’t leave you behind!

Kirk: Uhura, if you don’t hear from us, there won’t be anybody behind. Kirk out.

And so we have it set up that Kirk and friends are trapped, right? There’s this scene telling us the Enterprise will leave. Then Khan goes and ditches them and Kirk loses it. Uhm. No.

See not long after that Khan yell, the Enterprise beams Kirk up. Because the whole “Hours will seem like days” thing was code. Really fucking obvious code, even. But Kirk knew if Khan didn’t get out of there the Enterprise would get fucked when it came back for them. And how do you make Khan leave? Convince him that he’s won and broken you. By losing your shit. So you fake it and yell as big time as possible and scream your fool head off.

And yet people who have seen the movie seem to utterly miss this. Kirk isn’t losing his shit and screaming in frustration. He’s faking it to make it. Going so large it can’t be missed. Not only did it fool Khan, it seems to have fooled almost every who sees it.