Kirk and Picard return to Veridian 3 as Soran is preparing his launcher, and they confront him on the mountainside. Eventually, after many punches are thrown and shots fired, Picard reaches the launcher as Kirk risks his life on a shattered suspension bridge to retrieve Soran’s hand-held device that controls the launcher. He succeeds, and Picard re-programs the launcher—though the countdown continues, the clamps are locked so the missile blows up, killing Soran. But meanwhile the bridge has fallen, taking Kirk with it to the bottom of a canyon.

Picard emerges from the dust to clamber down to Kirk. Kirk’s dying words recapitulate the themes he set in the horseback scene. “Did we do it? Did we make a difference?” he asks. Picard says they did, and thanks him. “Least I could do,” Kirk says, “for the Captain of the Enterprise.” And adds, somewhat painfully but joyfully, “It was fun.” This is Kirk’s affirmation of life—of his life. Making a difference is his fun—the two, the goal and the process, are bound together. Then he seems to see something—death approaching perhaps, or beyond this life, and says finally, “Oh, my.”