A Star Trekies' Nightmare? The Movie Mistake That Got Past Millions

10-17-2014: Important Addendum at bottom of page!

Caution - Nerd Alert: the following article is all about Star Trek and making movies, and human brains. Those seeking unique social and political and futurist commentary and comedy from JamesGMason.com, please skip ahead to other more fascinating articles. -----> side bar

I posted a comment on YouTube that became this diatribe about movie mistakes and so now it's a weblog article. This one mistake in particular, I thought, is unique and astonishing. The segment of video in subject in this comment: SKIP AHEAD TO 4:03

Very good. I was interested to see that you included "My name is Khai!" 1:09:20 about (4:03 in your video above). But the wrong point of interest in that shot seems to have got past even you, oh critical one (praise). Because the sarcastic surprise here is NOT that he is the character we Trekkies expected (but not four-year olds), but that the audio is "K-h-a-i." Not the very different "K-h-a-n." I had wondered why moviemistakes.com had not published my submission about this error, now I know, it must have got passed the webmaster, of that site too, because you include the shot and dialogue here in this now popular video.

But this audio/lines/editing/proofing/observing error is no minor error. I think it's a huge error for these reasons: Scene is introducing the villain, in person. The actor playing Khan when asked who he is by the young Captain Kirk, responds with "My name is Khai!" In all dialogue that follows throughout the remainder of the film his name is properly pronounced by all other characters as "Khan."

Relevant note for non Trekies: Khan is an already written and famous character and villain, and a known nemesis of Captain Kirk since the 1960’s original series, and in film in Star Trek the Wrath of Khan, both appearances played by Ricardo Montoban (Fantasy Island host). Inconsistent most with this scene is that J.J. Abrams (director) has a reputation for detail. But Kahn is a Star Trek institutional character, so you don't screw-up his name in his introduction scene - not in the proto-religion of Star Trekian. That is, his character is a fixed-point in the entirety of the Star Trek story time-line through several decades of the venerable science fiction success. Screwing-up his signature egoist statement (emoting of his name), is a royal screw-up (Trekies know).

This is an error of production, of a category of error far more important than a “stupid mistake,” or just a vocal “flub” from an actor. This shot in this scene was easy, a close-up with one line (after several lines in other shots previous). There may have been many takes for this dramatic close-up, but this take got-passed some of the best people in Hollywood, for the completion of a very expensive shoot. I think this is epic in movie mistake history for these and other reasons:

It cost more than $100 million, to make this movie appear beautiful and suspend the disbelief of millions of Star Trek fans (with high expectations for accuracy) by keeping with Roddenberry’s original format.

If you know that the brain interprets sounds, and not our ears, you realize how a mistake as wrong as this can get past the brains of thousands (perhaps tens of millions) of people, including everyone on set (hundreds), everyone in the editing room, soundtrack engineers, including director J.J. Abrahms himself, and then on to full production and distribution where millions of Star Trek fans (including the presenter of this compilation a.k.a. Mistake), also interpret the sound of "Khan" instead of the actual audio which is "Khai."

Psychology lesson here: If we rely frequently on what our minds expect, we are more likely to hear, or even see, or feel, what we have established in our minds that we should expect.

I think this mistake should be presented to all film students in the future who have hopes of one day directing, anyone assistant directing, anyone involved in the final editing of a film, and so on. Psychology students would also benefit from learning of this major movie error.

*Some of you, will read this post and immediately go back to the shot in the video and review "for your own ears," and STILL hear K-h-a-n, "Khan." This is a major indicator your mind is vastly immersed in itself, and less so in interpreting your environment. See a shrink, or a therapist, talk about Star Trek a lot in that first interview! :-)

Important Addendum, 10-17-2014:

An apparent different version/distribution of the movie, from two distribution copies I have viewed have been found where the shot has been corrected - a proper take inserted, that may have been distributed later in 2013. It appears there are many copies of this film where the sound "Khai" can be heard clearly, instead of "Khan." In those copies (likely many) even a lip reader can see he is pronouncing the “ai” vowel sound, not bringing his mouth together to indicate he is producing the vibrating “n” vowel sound. I first viewed it on Direct TV pay-per-view in July of this year, 2014. Then I found this compilation of mistakes in the film, in a Youtube video published 12-9-2013 by a highly critical movie mistake buff a.k.a. "Mistake," that verifies what i am hearing and seeing in this shot: http://youtu.be/TriQoab0XfQ?t=4m1s (4:04) where the take/clip is definitely "Khai." The maker of the compilation may have a dvd copy predating this clip http://youtu.be/b8Sa6oUUByE 
that has been presented to me as an example that no mistake existed. Mistakes' copy probably originating when it was first mass produced and distributed. That Direct TV had the "Khai" version in 7-2014 may be because they were using an early 2013 version. I am not getting any contrary opinion on this matter from google+ members, from large G+ Star Trek groups, about this mistake - who are also hearing "Khai" in the Youtube clip of this shot I am using to verify that the mistake indeed exists.


If Paramount revised the film then redistributed the new version in 2013, they missed the boat, allowing for the "Khai" versions to dominate the market. To their advantage a psychological phenomena of hearing what your mind expects to hear, allows for many people to internally interpret “khan” even when the audio is clearly “Khai.” So the mistake flys-past unnoticed. As it got past many, including Abrahms, all on the sound set, editing, production and so on.

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