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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gen0673.jpg]]
2 [[caption-width-right:350:[[PreMortemOneLiner "Fire."]]]]
3
4WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
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6* When the ''Enterprise''-D crew finally defeats the Klingon ship, Data yells out "YES! UGGH!" with a fist in the air.
7** Throughout the battle, the Klingons clearly revel in their advantage, making it that much sweeter when Data exploits a little technobable to trigger their cloaking device and force their shields to drop. After the Klingons have their OhCrap moment, the movie cuts back to Riker.
8--->'''Riker''': ''[[TranquilFury (calm)]]'' [[PreMortemOneLiner Fire.]]
9** The score helps as well - during the cut back to Riker, the music drops out, he says his PreMortemOneLiner, then it cuts back to the Bird of Prey, the torpedo launches, and the music swells back in.
10** Hell, the dialogue on the Klingon ship as they realize they are screwed sets it up perfectly.
11--->[[ThisIsGonnaSuck "WE ARE CLOAKING!"]]\
12[[BigWhat "What?!"]]\
13[[OhCrap "OUR SHIELDS ARE DOWN!"]]
14** Their faces say it all.
15** And since Worf is at Tactical, he gets to fire, getting more revenge on the House of Duras.
16* And who can forget Data's "Oh...SHIT!"?
17* Kirk and Picard's conversation in the Nexus, where Picard talks the old captain into one last mission and Kirk offers career advice. The galaxy's two greatest heroes sharing the screen is quite a sight to behold.
18** It was no accident that this scene was the clip most widely seen in ads, interviews, and reviews at release.
19** It's noted under TheCastShowoff, but it needs reiterating: Kirk has his horse ''walk sideways'' to join Picard. Anyone not suitably impressed has never ridden one. It's not something that horses naturally do, nor are apt to want to do unless a very knowledgeable individual is at the helm.
20* [[TearJerker The sunlight shining into the bridge, and the long pullback showing the crash damage of the Enterprise.]]
21* The opening sequence with the ''Enterprise''-B attempting the rescue of the transport ships caught in the Nexus. Not only packing enough action and suspense in 15 minutes than most movies do in 90, but also packing CharacterDevelopment for Kirk in the form of angst that he is no longer '''the''' Captain of the ''Enterprise''.
22** Harriman may not come across as a very impressive captain (Expanded Universe notwithstanding), but one good thing that can be said about him is that he AintTooProudToBeg. When he realizes how far he's in over his head, he swallows his pride and asks Kirk for help.
23--->'''Harriman:''' Captain Kirk...I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.
24** And, of course, when Kirk is given this chance to swing back into action, he doesn't waste any time reminding everyone that he ''is'' still the legendary Captain Kirk.
25** And at the point when Harriman volunteers to go adjust the deflector dish, Kirk sits down in the Captain's Chair, rubbing his hands on the seat, when [[CharacterDevelopment he realizes he has to let it go]]...
26--->'''Kirk''': Wait. [[MoreExpendableThanYou Your place is on the bridge of your ship]]. ''[stands up]'' [[HeroicSacrifice I'll take care of it]].
27*** Bridge Drop or no Bridge Drop, the fact remains that Kirk died as he lived, a hero to the last.
28*** When you think about it, really think about it, a bridge drop was really the most appropriate way for Kirk to go in the grand scheme. What caused the Bridge Drop scene? [[FaceDeathWithDignity Kirk risking his life]] to protect and preserve the lives of innocents he didn't even know, including [[RefusingParadise leaving the eternal peace and happiness of the Nexus]], having the HeroicWillpower to do so. Basically what he'd been doing for his entire tenure in Starfleet. So in the end, DroppedABridgeOnHim actually ''is'' a dignified way to go, at least for Kirk.
29*** Kirk could have died in interphase on the USS ''Defiant''. He could have died in a wrestling match with a Gorn. He could have died on the bridge of the USS ''Constellation'', being swallowed along with it by a planet eating alien doomsday machine. [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan He could have been blown to pieces by a 1990s dictator]]. Instead, he died '''''saving 230 million people''''', an entire species, all life in a star system, as well as the entire crew of the Enterprise-D. This was Kirk at his finest. Those people will never know he died for them. But he did it anyway. Not for thanks, not for adulation, but because it was ''the right thing to do''. And when it comes down to it, that's the basis of Kirk. An explorer and an adventurer to the end. The kind of man who'll put his own life on the line for others, because it's ''the right thing to do''. Godspeed, Captain Kirk.
30*** Going back to Harriman, he also is first to volunteer to go to the deflector room, and it's only when Kirk tells him that "your place is on the bridge of your ship" that he stands down. He'd also been putting forward suggestions for rescuing the refugees trapped in the energy ribbon. Despite clearly being out of his depth, Harriman does continually make an active effort, not just his crew but Harriman himself, leading by example to find a solution and do something, to make sure that the Enterprise isn't just there to passively watch as people die. That alone cements him having the center chair of the Big E, even if the death of James Kirk under his captaincy was a shadow that he'd never be able to escape.
31* The fandom will probably [[NeverLiveItDown never let her forget it]][[labelnote:*]]according to the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse, neither does the crew[[/labelnote]], but the fact that Deanna Troi was at the helm when the ''Enterprise''-D saucer went down, not in a safe and planned descent but a sudden jolt knocking them out of space and down to the planet below, something that was untested and probably considered something of a worst case scenario, and made through with only light casualties (an exact number isn't given, but the novelization said seventeen, out of a crew of over one thousand) is a pretty impressive feat. (Technical manuals confirm that this is, in fact, a last-ditch effort to save the crew -- and even if that part is successful, the saucer is not expected to be salvageable afterwards.) Data helps too, but Troi's role in this feat is not insignificant.
32** More than impressive when you consider that she's the ''ship's counselor''. Yes, she's had training to be considered the rank of Commander, but she's not a pilot and every single time we've seen her in these kind of situations ("Disaster," "Face of the Enemy"), she's obviously felt out of her depth and yet always manages to pull through with sheer willpower.
33** She also takes the helm during the fight itself. Considering the advantage the Duras sisters had of being able to shoot right through their shields, much of her focus had to be on evasive maneuvers, and Troi manages to keep the ship moving to the point that, while they did manage to take the ship down, it still came AFTER the Duras sisters were out of the picture.
34* Speaking of, the crash of the ''Enterprise''-D saucer is a [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome Visual Effect Of Awesome]] when you remember that it was done entirely with physical models, not CGI. She may have gone before her time, but the ''Enterprise''-D's final flight was quite the sight to see. What's particularly impressive was the way that the saucer's huge size gives it so much inertia that it seems to go on skidding across the ground ''forever'', with each bump tossing the crew and wrecking more and more of the interior, before it finally grinds to a halt with a very realistic jerk that throws most of the characters to the other side of the room.[[note]]Consider that an aircraft the size of a 747 has a maximum take-off weight of 333,400 kg, and it could take up to the length of a runway to skid to a halt: the total mass of the ''Enterprise''-D is nearly ''five million metric tons'', so the saucer has to have a mass of roughly half that. No wonder it takes it so long to stop, even skidding over rough ground.[[/note]]
35* Captain Kirk and Captain Picard working together to defeat Soran. There is just something so damn ''cool'' about seeing two of ''Trek'''s most famous characters fighting side by side against a common foe. Also doesn't hurt that Kirk, now getting well along in years, can still best someone in a fistfight.
36-->'''Soran''': ''[walks along the walkway as before, and is now confronted by Kirk]'' Just who the hell are you?\
37'''Picard''': He's James T. Kirk. [[LivingLegend Don't you read history?]]
38** It gets even better, in the original ending. Soran was actually supposed to ''beat'' Kirk in their fist fight and kill him with a cheap shot. Test audiences didn't like that ''at all''. So the script was re-written at the last minute to include the more awesome DroppedABridgeOnHim scene instead.
39* In the final scene, after Picard gives a short monologue on the importance of living life to the fullest:
40-->'''Picard''': After all, Number One, we're only mortal.\
41'''Riker''': Speak for yourself, Sir. I plan to live forever.
42* The Duras sisters get one, using Geordi as a living camera to obtain the shield frequency of the ''Enterprise''-D.
43* Geordi makes an estimate that they have five minutes to the warp core breach. Riker gives the order to evacuate everyone from the stardrive section to the saucer. When Geordi notifies the bridge that the evacuation is complete, Data follows it up with an announcement that there's still one minute left on the clock. The Enterprise crew manage to evacuate at least half of the ship's entire population, which was always given as over one thousand people, spread out over at least thirty decks (the Enterprise had 42 decks, with the battle bridge for the stardrive section on deck eight), to the saucer in just under four minutes.
44* The ''Enterprise''-D shows off why she was the Flagship pretty damn well in the movie. She was always shown to be tough as nails in the series, taking on and surviving shots no other ship had a hope in hell of coming through on the other side anywhere near intact. In the movie, it takes some of the trickiest moves Soran and the Duras sisters have just to have a fighting chance against her. And she ''still'' takes a beating no other ship would have been able to ''and'' manages to keep '''''the sheer entirety of her crew alive despite the crash.''''' The novelization confirms that ''NOBODY'' was killed in the Saucer Section's crash. She may have just been a ship, an inanimate object at best, but she reminded us of why people were always actively shown feeling hope and relief anytime she came to the rescue in the series. She went out like a badass before her time...but she kept the people who called her home safe. Nobody could have asked more of the ''Enterprise''-D than that, and she delivered in ''spades'' when it counted. Like [=McCoy=] said at ''Encounter at Farpoint'': "You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home." Damned if he wasn't right.

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