James T. Kirk quotes from Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

James T. Kirk

There will always be those who mean to do us harm. To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves. Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us. But that's not who we are... When Christopher Pike first gave me his ship, he had me recite the Captain's Oath. Words I didn't appreciate at the time. But now I see them as a call for us to remember who we once were and who we must be again. And those words: Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Spock

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Kirk

Spock, we're talking about your life!

Kirk

If Spock were here and I were in there, what would he do?

McCoy

He'd let you die.

Kirk

I don't know what to say.

That is a first.

Kirk

Why is there a man in that torpedo?

There are men and women in all those torpedoes, Captain. I put them there.

Kirk

Who the hell are you?

A remnant of the time long past. Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace in a world at war. We were condemned as criminals; forced into exile. For centuries we slept, hoping when we awoke things would be different. But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space; my ship was found adrift, I, alone, was revived.

Kirk

I looked up John Harrison. Until a year ago, he didn't exist.

John Harrison was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause. A smokescreen to conceal my true identity. My name is...Khan.

Kirk

Why would a Starfleet admiral ask a 300-year-old frozen man for help?

Because I am ... better.

Kirk

At what?

Everything. Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time, and for that, he needed a warrior's mind. My mind. To design weapons and warships.

Spock

You are suggesting the admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect?

He wanted to exploit my savagery! Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock. You, you can't even break a rule, how would you be expected to break bone? Marcus used me to design weapons to help him realize his vision of a militarized Starfleet. He sent you to use those weapons, to fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet, and then he purposely crippled your ship in enemy space leading to one inevitable outcome. The Klingons would come searching for whomever was responsible and you would have no chance at escape. Marcus would finally have the war he talked about, the war he always wanted.

Kirk

No. No. I watched you open fire in a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers. You killed them in cold blood!

Marcus took my crew from me...

Kirk

You are a murderer!

He used my friends to control me. I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons I had designed, but I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone and when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear. [sheds a tear] So, I responded in kind. [turns to face Kirk] My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?

I'm going to make this very simple for you. Your crew for my crew.

Spock

You betrayed us.

Oh, you are smart, Mr. Spock.

Kirk

Spock, don't-

Mr. Spock, give me my crew.

Spock

What will you do when you get them?

Continue the work we were doing before we were banished.

Spock

Which, as I would understand it, involves the mass genocide of any being you find to be less than superior.

Shall I destroy you, Mr. Spock? Or will you give me what I want?

Spock

We have no transporter capabilities.

Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional. Drop your shields.

Spock

If I do so, I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise.

Well, let's play this out logically then, Mr. Spock. Firstly, I will kill your captain to demonstrate my resolve. Then, if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew.

Spock

If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people.

Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not. I will target your life support systems, located behind the aft nacelle. And after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now, shall we begin?

Spock

Lower shields.

A wise choice, Mr. Spock. [sees torpedoes beamed to the Vengeance as he kicks Kirk] I see all 72 torpedoes are still in their tubes. If they're not mine, Commander, I will know it.

Spock

Vulcans do not lie. The torpedoes are yours.

Thank you, Mr Spock.

Spock

I have fulfilled your terms. Now fulfill mine.

Well Kirk, it seems apt to return you to your crew. After all…[beams away Kirk, Scott, and Dr. Marcus]…no ship should go down without her captain.

Kirk

How's our ship?

Spock

Out of danger.

Kirk

Good...

Spock

You saved the crew.

Kirk

You used what he wanted against him. That's a nice move.

Spock

It is what you would have done.

Kirk

And this... this is what you would have done. It was only logical. I'm scared, Spock. Help me not be. How do you choose not to feel?

Spock

I do not know. [tears fall] Right now, I am failing.

Kirk

I want you to know why I couldn't let you die... why I went back for you...[Scotty looks on mournfully]

Spock

Because you are my friend. [Kirk places his hand against the glass and gives the Vulcan Salute as he dies] KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!

McCoy

Oh, don't be so melodramatic. You were barely dead. It was the transfusion that really took its toll. You were in a coma for two weeks.

Kirk

Transfusion?

McCoy

Your cells were heavily irradiated. We had no choice.

Kirk

Khan?

McCoy

Once we caught him, I synthesized a serum from his superblood. Tell me, are you feeling homicidal, power-mad, despotic?

Kirk

No more than usual.

Kirk

You saved my life.

McCoy

Uhura and I had something to do with it too, you know.

Spock

You saved my life, Captain, and the lives of the-

Kirk

Spock, just... Thank you.

Spock

You are welcome, Jim.