WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
- Pretty much any of the screams at various points of the movie (the screams following the data archive in London being blown up, the screaming of the Enterprise's crew being sucked out through the hull breach or when several are caught in another explosion; Carol's scream upon witnessing Khan crushing her father's skull).
- For that matter, what Khan does to Carol. There's a helpless person on the floor, surely he wouldn't—*stomp*
- The death of Admiral Pike. He's obviously afraid and in pain, and despite Spock's efforts, he dies that way.
- Harrison slaughtering the Klingon patrol. One unfortunate mook has his entire upper body disintegrated. Also qualifies as a Moment of Awesome for Harrison.
- Benedict Cumberbatch goes above and beyond creepy in his role as John Harrison AKA Khan Noonien Singh. Even when he's not being outright horrifying, as seen below, there's just something about him that has you nervous.
- Khan crushing Admiral Marcus' head with his bare hands.
- And the sheer rage in Khan's face when he hisses, "YOU. YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME SLEEP."
- Just that noise that Marcus' skull makes when Khan caves it in with his hands. Ugh.
- We don't get to see Marcus die. Instead, we cut away to Carol screaming in horror and Kirk looking utterly terrified.
- Here, you too can have the piss scared out of you.
- He attempts to crush Spock's skull during the final fight. Though a Vulcan skull clearly gives him more trouble, we hear this dreadful creaking and Spock drops all strategy in favor of escape; for just one moment, we see Spock look absolutely terrified.
- Khan taking Implacable Man up to eleven when Uhura is trying to stun him with a phaser. He takes ten, maybe eleven shots, and each just shoves him back a bit before he goes right back to trying to close in on her with a blood-chilling Death Glare. The look on Uhura's face is sheer terror as she realizes that all she's doing is slowing him down and pissing him off.
- If he's not actually doing something, you can just tell he's plotting. Not thinking. Plotting.
- Why did Marcus wake up Khan? "He wanted to exploit my savagery. You, Mr. Spock, you can't break a rule. How would you be expected to break bone?" Spock's expression confirms that he's aware Khan is right.
- When Khan tells Spock he will kill everyone onboard The Enterprise if he doesn't get the torpedoes, he SMILES. He's relishing the idea.Khan: Your crew requires oxygen to survive. Mine does not. I will target your life support systems, located behind the aft narcelle. And after every single person onboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now...shall we begin?"
- And after Spock gives him the torpedoes, what does Khan do? He still intends to kill everyone onboard The Enterprise.Khan: Well, Kirk. It seems apt I return you to your crew. After all. No ship should go down without her Captain.
- Khan crushing Admiral Marcus' head with his bare hands.
- The look on Spock Prime's face when Spock asks him if he had ever encountered Khan says it all. Especially if you've seen either the original series or Wrath of Khan, you know from Spock Prime's willingness to break his vow so Spock, Kirk and the crew have a chance at survival is a damn good sign at how dangerous Khan is.
- Spock: In your travels, did you ever encounter a man named Khan?(Beat)Spock Prime: As you know, I have made a vow to never give you information that could potentially alter your destiny. Your path is yours to walk and yours alone. That being said, Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary The Enterprise ever faced. He is brilliant, ruthless and will not hesitate to kill every single one of you.Spock: Did you defeat him?Spock Prime: At great cost, yes.
- When Bones gets his arm trapped in the torpedo. Think about it from Kirk's point of view: He can't beam Bones back aboard without taking the torpedo with him, and if he beams Carol out, then he's condemning one of his best friends to certain death. At the same time, if he lets her stay and she can't defuse the torpedo, they're both dead. Imagine having to make that choice.
- What's worse is how fast he has to make that choice. It all happens in 30 seconds!
- The USS Vengeance itself is pretty terrifying just when they reveal that it can actually catch up to the Enterprise in warp, and we can just see it bearing down on the Enterprise with the creepiest of noises. Not to mention that it looks very intimidating, courtesy of its black paint job and massive size.
- Adding to this is a bit of Fridge Horror: The Vengeance is referred to as "Dreadnought-class." Since ship classes are typically named after the first one built, there's probably another ship out there named USS Dreadnought that's just as powerful as this one. And if this is an actual class of starships, then there may be more of these things out there...
- As a crewmember aboard the Enterprise, it would be bad enough being sucked out into space when the hull's breached. Now imagine being one of the casualties when the Vengeance blows holes in the Enterprise while they're at warp.Khan: If you think you're safe at warp... you're wrong.
- Admiral Marcus forcefully having his own daughter beamed off the Enterprise so that he can destroy it without harming her. Carol's screaming while she's being beamed off makes the entire scene even more chilling.
- Hell, everything about Marcus is blood-chilling. He revives Khan Noonien Singh, one of the most dangerous warlords who ever existed, so he can enlist Khan's help to militarize Starfleet for a war with the Klingons — and forces Khan to cooperate by holding his cryogenically-preserved friends hostage. When Khan rebels and flees to Qo'noS, Marcus decides to not only kill him and his "family," he also uses Kirk and the Enterprise crew as part of a Uriah Gambit, sacrificing them just so he can provoke the war he wants. And then, when that goes Off the Rails by Kirk taking Khan alive and learning the truth from him, Marcus has no compunctions about murdering everybody aboard the Enterprise, just so they can't reveal what he tried to do. This is no ordinary Insane Admiral we're talking about; this guy is evil.
- The scene where the Enterprise is falling into Earth's atmosphere. People are falling through the ship's levels, and they're either crashing into things like walls, ramps and, well, THINGS. Or having things fall on them. Imagine hanging on for dear life and something—or someone—smashes into you. Yikes.
- It gets worse. We get a quick shot of the shuttle bay, with shuttles getting tossed around like toy cars while the crew is attempting to Abandon Ship. They can't even escape while the ship is tumbling like that. Even Starship Troopers didn't have as unnerving a Sinking Ship Scenario as this film pulls off.
- Kirk's death. Imagine being in Spock's place: Watching your best friend slowly die from radiation poisoning while being completely helpless to do anything to save, or even comfort, him.
- Khan crashing what's left of the Vengeance into San Francisco. Considering the number of buildings fallen, it's like 9/11 up to eleven. Likely many thousands of deaths.
- Spock going berserk and almost beating Harrison/Khan to death.
- The scariest part is we had just seen both Khan and Spock in an intellectual battle; not civilized, but cool, calm, and in control. Then Khan thinks Spock killed his fellow Augments and Spock witnesses the death of his best friend. After that, all bets are off; their intelligence and control are completely gone.
- When Kirk dies, Spock lets out a loud scream that lets us know that Khan is going to pay for what he's done.
- Khan was terrifying because we knew what he could do and we finally got to see it completely let loose. Spock was terrifying because we have never seen him go full-blown on someone before this moment. And holy shit can that Vulcan do damage! He attacks Khan with the nerve pinch and breaks Khan's arm over his shoulder after hitting him repeatedly with a piece of metal he tears off the hover vehicle they're on!
- To paraphrase Doctor Who: Good men don't need rules. There's a really damn good reason that Vulcans have so many.
- The scariest part is we had just seen both Khan and Spock in an intellectual battle; not civilized, but cool, calm, and in control. Then Khan thinks Spock killed his fellow Augments and Spock witnesses the death of his best friend. After that, all bets are off; their intelligence and control are completely gone.
- How many tens of thousands died when the Vengeance crashed? How would you have liked to have been a tourist on Alcatraz Island (one presumes that this is its function in the future) and be erased without warning by a giant starship falling from the sky? Or in any one of the dozens of buildings that were leveled by the crash?
- On Kronos, when Uhura tries to negotiate with the Klingons who have found them, the platoon's leader angrily seizes her by the throat and slowly draws a brutal-looking knife from his boot with clear intent to use it. Had Harrison not intervened...
