Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Scene 15 Summary

  • A punk rocker blares music on the bus across from Spock and Kirk. Kirk asks him to turn it down, but the kid just pumps it up even louder.
  • Finally, Spock gives the punk a Vulcan nerve pinch, knocking him unconscious and incidentally shutting off the boombox. This is met with uproarious applause.
  • Spock asks Kirk why he's been using so many "colorful metaphors," by which he means "curse words." Kirk says that it's just the custom of this era. Social commentary FTW.
  • Kirk and Spock arrive at the Cetacean Institute and join a tour. It's led by Dr. Gillian Taylor, an assistant director at the facility.
  • The tour is lovely and informative. Gillian emphasizes that whales are fundamentally gentle and humanlike—which is ironic because humans are currently driving whales to extinction.
  • We see some gruesome video of whale hunting. Spock responds by saying that it is "not logical" to hunt a species to extinction.
  • Gillian leads the group to the large seawater tank where George and Gracie live.
  • To Kirk, this is the jackpot. They can just beam the whales up to the ship from here.
  • The tour continues. Gillian explains that they will soon be releasing the whales into the open sea, which might throw a wrench into Kirk's plans.
  • The group descends into a large, windowed room where everyone can look directly at the whales. It's magical. We even hear the whales singing.
  • Suddenly, a strange figure swims up to the whales. It's Spock, that Vulcan weirdo.
  • Spock rests against a whale and places his hands on its head. By now, the crowd has noticed, and Gillian rushes up to the surface with Kirk in hot pursuit.
  • Furious, Gillian confronts Spock. Kirk pretends to be on Gillian's side, but Spock blows his cover by calling him "admiral" and talking about the extinction of humpbacks in the past tense.
  • Gillian tells Spock and Kirk to leave, or she'll call the cops.
  • Spock and Kirk stroll past the Golden Gate Bridge. Kirk tells Spock that he doesn't always have to tell the truth, which is something Vulcans always do.
  • Either way, Spock was able to telepathically communicate with the whales. That's a good thing.
  • Back at the institute, Gillian is wistfully looking at the whales when her coworker Bob approaches. They talk about how sad she is that the whales are leaving.