The Symmetry of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

https://dejareviewer.com/2016/12/20/cinematic-chiasmus-the-symmetry-of-star-trek-iii-the-search-for-spock/

If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, a chiasmus is a storytelling technique that reveals parts of a story in one order in the first half and then reverses the order in the second half. So everything that happens in the first half gets repeated, just in the opposite order, in the second half. It’s quite beautiful to behold once you realize it’s happening, and it deepens the meaning of already-great films.

And this brings me to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It’s unique among Star Trek films because it shows the aftermath of the previous film and sets the stage for its sequel, so it has quite a few dangling plot threads at the start and finish of its story. And I’m about to demonstrate another way that Star Trek III is unique as it delicately lays out a symmetrical story that begins and ends the same way and has the rest of the events in the film line up perfectly with each other.