Tips on Writing an Action Scene: Star Trek The Wrath of Khan VS Star Trek Into Darkness

Tips on Writing an Action Scene Wrath of Khan

How many times have you seen an action scene in a movie and gone…“meh.”

But that car just flew into a helicopter that was saved from crashing on the people below by one of Chris Evan’s arms! How could it be meh?

Why is it that some action scenes just don’t cut it?

And how do we as writers avoid this terrible fate? We love writing scenes with action and tension and swords and car crashes and giant green superheroes that get pissed at everything.

But how do we make them stick?

Because great action scenes are...well...great.

That action has to be earned. The protagonists, antagonists, the themes, and even those side characters, all have to come together first.

And if you write books like I do, or want to, that means we have to put in the work chapters ahead of time.

Let’s play the geekiest comparison game to show you how.

Star Trek The Wrath of Khan VS Star Trek Into Darkness

For whatever reason, I watched these two movies back to back the other day. (And I compare these two because of Khan, obviously, which the action centers around.)

It had been a long time since seeing either, but I do remember being an Into Darkness defender despite the critics/fan impressions/common sense.

And it had been even longer since I watched Wrath of Khan, but I remember it being the king of Star Trek for a good reason.

What I didn’t remember is just how SLOW The Wrath of Khan is, holy shit.

And that’s not a dig at it either. It rocks. In fact, that’s part of the point I’m going to make. I love just about everything that happens in it. The characters are dealing with relatable flaws, and the anticipation for every confrontation is oozing through each scene.

The Enterprise probably fires it’s weapons fewer times than I can count on my hands.

Yet it gripped me way more than Into Darkness.

Into Darkness had phasers firing, and Chris Pine shouting more than his little face could handle it. (But seriously, I think he’s about to pop a damn blood vessel every time he speaks any louder than a normal conversation.)

The inherent problem with Into Darkness, and a lot of modern remakes or reboots, is they replace character-driven stories for pew pew lasers (phasers) and fighting.

Those battles typically look badass but never have the emotional impact of the original.

I mean, that giant dreadnaught catching up with the Enterprise in warp and blasting it apart in a matter of seconds is crazy in Into Darkness. And, man, I wish I cared more! Because it doesn’t stick with you.

Not a super great day at the space office

So how can we tell if our action scenes are going to fall flat?

How do we write The Wrath of Khan and not Into Darkness?

Tense Action Scenes Require Relatable Characters

In Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Admiral Kirk is past his glory days. He is going through a midlife crisis of Shatner proportions.

It’s not that he’s this crazy old bastard who isn’t allowed in Starfleet anymore, I mean, he’s an Admiral for God’s sake!

But the adventure of exploration and the intensity of something real is long behind him. He runs training sessions with new officers that are an echo of the excitement that used to fill his life.

He is like anyone who feels their best days are behind them.

The older you get, the more relatable he is.

Compare that with Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness. His only flaw is that he’s an asshole. He’s smart, talks his way out of anything, he’s good in a fight, and everyone thinks he’s hot shit for no reason.

It’s hard to find something relatable in there.

There’s his connection with Christopher Pike and some daddy issue stuff that could have been good, but it’s forgotten by the time Kirk and Khan are playing spaceman together.

It’s hard to relate to someone who has it all and is only losing it because he refuses to stop being a complete dick all the time to everyone he meets. It would have been nice to see Kirk’s character grow from the first movie.

(And I should note that I have fun with the Kelvin timeline stuff. The first J.J. Abrams Trek is one of my go-to action movies)

But maybe that’s a problem too since Star Trek really isn’t supposed to be about its action, but the deep characterization and philosophy behind it.

If you want your action to stick, look to Kirk in Wrath of Khan instead of Into Darkness. Find something human and relatable with your characters. If your readers can’t put themselves into that character in some way, you have a problem.

And nothing hits quite like the feeling of not being able to get something back from your past.

Good Action Scenes Require You to Care About the Antagonist Too

So...Khan. There are some super obvious problems with having Benedict Cumberbatch play him in the new one when, you know, the original is Ricardo Montalban. But I won’t dive into that.

I will admit that Into Darkness got me to watch Sherlock for what it’s worth. But this time around, I found myself not caring about a character the writers wanted me to feel somewhat bad for.

Again, it comes down to relatability.

The original Khan (Ricardo Montalkhan...I couldn’t resist) was abandoned on a planet with his crew. Kirk thought it was a nice planet they could live out the rest of their lives on. Instead, disaster struck, and the planet got knocked out of its orbit somehow and became, essentially, the Mad Max set.

Khan loses people he loves, including his wife, and thought they would have to scrape out a miserable existence until they all died.

Now, losing loved ones and feeling trapped is something you can place yourself into his shoes for. It makes sense logically that he would be pretty pissed–even if his revenge is misplaced since Kirk had no way of knowing they would get screwed like that.

Cut to Into Darkness again, and we have an unrelatable Khan.

His crew, who we never get to see him interact with, is trapped inside missiles? Because he had to protect them? It’s a stretch, to be sure.

He wants to keep protecting them, so he has to take down Starfleet to make that happen. Which, Kirk is ok with for a while since it’s against an admiral that’s also trying to kill him.

The emotional connection Khan has with his crew isn’t earned because we never see it, and it’s lost in the plot, again, about when he and Kirk start playing spacemen.

Most importantly, Wrath of Khan sees it’s antagonist thematically mean something to Kirk. Khan is a mistake of Kirk’s past. He has to face the consequences of that choice now.

Just like he does with his former flame and adult son he’s never been in the life of. All this while he struggles with his midlife crisis. It all flows together. The past is smacking Kirk in the face over and over again.

Into Darkness starts with Kirk losing Christopher Pike, a father figure, and he knows Khan kills him. But is ok working with Khan? Otherwise, the two have no history at all. There’s no thematic element to make it mean something.

So in the action scenes when they face-off, there’s a character depth lacking that would otherwise create a powerful fight between two titans that hate each other.

There’s no chess game.

And speaking of those action scenes specifically…

Action Scenes Need the Audience to Care About the Nobodies

Star Trek is what gave us the term “red shirts.” They are the inconsequential background extras that die so that the writers can set the stakes without killing off a main character.

Ironically, we kind of care about the nobodies in The Wrath of Khan.

When Kirk boards the Enterprise, he’s a legend to the new crew. We even learn one of the engineers’ names! Preston. Oh, poor Preston.

Part of the plot is how this new crew might not cut it under any kind of pressure. And when the moment comes, they prove themselves after all.

Preston, acting as the face of the nobodies, sacrifices himself to stay at his post.

When Khan fires phasers into the side of the Enterprise, and we see bodies start flying in Engineering, we actually care about them a little.

Any time the Enterprise is hit, we tense up, knowing that there are lives on the line.

In Into Darkness, the Enterprise is ripped up pretty brutally, but we never get a face for the nobodies. It’s fairly horrific seeing people fly out into space in warp, but I haven’t had any connection to them.

If you want your action scenes to have an impact, give a face to the nobodies. Like Preston, they don’t have to have this huge role that fills tons of time or plot points. Just get them to stand out a little. Get your reader to see a human being in that background character.

Don’t give your readers red shirts. Give them Prestons.

How to Write Your Action Scenes

So let’s go over our checklist one more time for TL;DR sake.

Make relatable characters. Your action scenes won’t have an emotional impact if your reader has no emotional connection to the characters. Pretty simple.
Your antagonist needs to be relatable too. Don’t forget there’s a human behind the evil villain; otherwise, they are just a mustache-twirling necessity.
The bad guy should play into the theme of your characters. Khan is Kirk’s past incarnate as he misses what he used to have in The Wrath of Khan.
Give a face to the extra characters. Action scenes usually come with a ton of collateral damage. Make sure your reader cares.

And one last thing.

If your bad guy is going to slowly slip into madness, make sure we get to see the progression.

Khan in Wrath of Khan is such a great villain because his obsession with revenge slowly consumes him.

Khan in Into Darkness starts going super crazy because...he wants to?

Benedict Khanberbatch has no end game. What’s his goal now that the admiral that besmirched him is dead?

In Wrath of Khan, we have a crystal clear idea of what motivates Khan.

Keep that in mind as you write. The goals of your antagonist are just as important as your protagonist. When those two collide, we get great action scenes that have been earned.

I know you are probably super excited to get to writing your action scenes but make sure you do your homework first. Those scenes need a build up to make them really hit home.

Then, you’ll have your reader on the edge of their seats.

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