Serenity: Difference between revisions

[[File:Serenity_movie_poster.jpg|frame|Half of writing history is hiding the truth.]]

 

 

 

Shortly after the end of the series, the crew of the Firefly-class ship ''Serenity'' is still getting into trouble. The presence of [[Ill Girl]] and government experiment [[Super Soldier|River]] [[One-Man Army|Tam]] has brought the fist of [[The Empire|The Alliance]] down on her, [[The Good Captain|Captain Malcolm Reynolds]], [[Badass Adorable|River's]] [[Knight Templar Big Brother|brother]] [[The Medic|Simon]], [[Wrench Wench|Kaylee]], [[Action Girl|Zoe]], [[Non-Action Guy|Wash]], [[Token Evil Teammate|Jayne]], [[Christianity|Shepherd]] [[Badass Preacher|Book]], and even [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|Inara]].

 

More details are brought to light about the experiments that were done on River [[Super Soldier|by the government]] and the [[Government Conspiracy|Alliance conspiracy]] that she [[He Knows Too Much|learned by accident]] through her [[Psychic Powers|powers]], [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|driving her insane]]. Pursued by a [[Determinator|ruthless]] and [[Utopia Justifies the Means|devoted]] [[Knight Templar|Government Operative]], the crew seek to solve the mystery surrounding River Tam and the Alliance that has caused them so much misery, and perhaps use it to get out from under the thumb of the Alliance once and for all.

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[Atop a Mountain of Corpses]]: {{spoiler|River}}.

* [[Ax Crazy]]: River, though it turns out she has a reason for it. {{spoiler|She absorbed a number of the Alliance's dirtiest secrets, including Miranda. Knowing that your benevolent government was behind the Reavers would be enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone reliving the events leading up to it.}}

* [[Badass Crew]]:

** [[Badass Bookworm]]: Simon. Do not threaten his little sister. Just don't.

** Just plain [[Badass]]: Jayne, Zoe.

{{quote|"Let's be bad guys."

* [[Band of Brothels]]: The Guild of Companions.

* [[Bar Brawl]]: Started by River, actually.

* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: The rescue of River. Simon generally.

* [[The Movie|The Big Damn Movie]]

* [[Black Screen of Death]]: During the fight between River Tam and the Reavers.

* [[Blessed with Suck]]: River.

* [[Book Ends]]: *crunch* "What was that?"

* [[Brain Bleach]]:

* [[Break the Cutie]]: In this case, comes conveniently pre-broken. There are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T2mz4JJzEo&feature=related the R. Tam Sessions], and enough flashbacks to see her being broken.

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Mal does a perfect hatchet job on [[Knight Templar|The Operative]], systematically destroying [[Utopia Justifies the Means|every belief he's based his horrific actions on]].

* [[Brick Joke]]: Jayne's grenades. See [[Chekhov's Gun]] below.

* [[Buffy-Speak]]: ...well, it ''is'' a [[Joss Whedon]] movie.

* [[Bulletproof Vest]]: {{spoiler|The Operative is ''not'' a moron.}}

* [[Cannibal Clan]]: The Reavers are based on the legendary [[wikipedia:Sawney Bean|Sawney Bean]] clan.

* [[Casual Danger Dialogue]]: {{spoiler|Mr. Universe}} records his last words:

{{quote|''Guy killed me, Mal. Killed me with a sword. How weird is that?''}}

* [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]]: Mal suffers a vicious case of it. It's mostly under control at the start of the film, then has a flare-up about half-way after it's been irritated by exposure to {{spoiler|the truth about Miranda}}.

* [[Close-Knit Community]]: Haven.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: A number of characters are willing to fight dirty.

** Mal shoots not one, not two, but three unarmed men over the course of the two hour film. Take that, Boba Fett.

** And other characters, like the Operative, who are not morons.

{{quote|'''Jayne:''' Hell, I'll kill a man in a fair fight -- or if I think he's going to start a fair fight....}}

* [[Command Roster]]:

** [[The Captain]]: Mal.

* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: On the surface, the Alliance is a highly advanced democratic civilization. Start digging deeper and you have oppression and abuse perpetrated in the name of [[Utopia Justifies the Means|making them all Better Worlds]]. Such abuse includes kidnapping a teenage girl and screwing with her brain to make her into a weapon and a behavioral modification experiment that results in the unintentional {{spoiler|extermination of an entire planetary population and the creation of the Reavers}}.

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: The Operative informs Mal that his ship has locked onto Serenity's pulse beacon and will fire with a single command. Mal responds by handing him said pulse beacon. He also preps six decoys for nav sat tracking, (Serenity being signal #7).

* [[Cruel Mercy]]: Mal does this to the Operative near the end.

{{quote|'''Mal''': Hell, I'm gonna grant your greatest wish. I'm gonna show you [[Ironic Echo|a world without sin]].}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Mal:''' Shouldn’t’ve been you. Alliance shoulda hit us. Shoulda hit me.

'''Book:''' That crossed my mind.}}}}

* [[Death Glare]]:

** Zoe to Jayne: "You want to leave this room."

* [[Derelict Graveyard]]: Reaver Territory... Including the Reaver ships.

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: River's dialogue indicates that she crossed it at some point during her time at the Academy.{{spoiler|The Operative crosses when he learns the Alliance made the Reavers.}} The R. Tam Sessions used to promote the movie sees the entire [[Break the Cutie]] process in action. Poor River...

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: A well-done type four.

* [[Diegetic Switch]]: An inverse example: when the crew lands on Haven, a mellow, earthy tune is playing. As the scene changes to everyone sitting around the campfire, the music morphs into Jayne playing on his guitar.

* [[The Dreaded]]: The Reavers.

* [[Driving Into a Truck]]: The Mule escapes the Reavers by driving up the ramp into ''Serenity''.

* [[Drop Pod]]: The Alliance escape pods, and possible others.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: River {{spoiler|uses a sword and axe taken off the Reavers during the big showdown}}.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: It says something when movie's ending is one of the more ''positive'' ones Joss Whedon wrote.

* [[Earth-That-Was]]: [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Fly At the Camera Ending]]: A chunk of Serenity breaks off and flies at the camera.

{{quote|[[Call Back|"What was that?"]]}}

* [[Forced to Watch]]: The Operative was definitely wowed by the recording on the PAX. Better worlds, indeed.

* [[Future Slang]]

* [[Get Out!]]: "You wanna leave this room."

* [[Ghost Planet]]: {{spoiler|Miranda}}.

* [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]: The Operative is a trained and skilled martial artists, Mal just hits things.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: Sarah Paulson's recording {{spoiler|ends with her being attacked by the Reavers}}. She's moved out of the frame, but the sound leaves no doubt about her fate.

* [[Grand Finale]]: The film is pretty much this for [[Firefly|the series]].

* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: The Mandarin-ish and Cantonese-oid phrases scattered through the dialogue, often as [[Unusual Euphemism|family-friendly swearwords]]. Doubles as a [[Bilingual Bonus]]. As the DVD set shows, they used actual Mandarin phrases, although as mentioned above, the pronunciation is so atrocious that even native speakers will have trouble deciphering them, and some of them are absolutely hilarious in English.

** Another [[Bilingual Bonus]] for the name of {{spoiler|the chemical used on Miranda. Pax is Latin for "[[Gone Horribly Right|Peace]]"}}.

* [[Groin Attack]]: When River is triggered in the bar on Beaumonde, in the middle of trashing the place and beating the crap out of everyone within reach, she grabs Jayne's package and squeezes. Hard. Jayne is icing it down in the next scene.

* [[Hard Work Montage]]: At the very end.

* [[Hate Plague]]: {{spoiler|A small portion of Miranda's population had an extremely violent reaction to the Pax, becoming the first Reavers.}}

* [[Heel Realization]]: {{spoiler|The Operative}} upon seeing the evidence of what happened on {{spoiler|Miranda}}.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Subverted by {{spoiler|River}}; see the main page for details. Played straight with Simon in what amounts to a lingering [[Heroic Sacrifice]] through the entire series and movie when he gives up status and fortune and lives with outlaws, so he can rescue and comfort his sister.

* [[Heroic Safe Mode]]: Zoe.

* [[Hilarious Outtakes]]:

{{quote|"TRAPPPP!"

* [[Honor Among Thieves]]: The crew of Serenity. Notably Mal of course.

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Especially Mal. Jayne calls him out on it when he gets fed up, but brings it up himself later.

{{quote|"Shepherd Book always said, 'If you can't do somethin' smart, do somethin' right.'"}}

* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]: Inara, to name one.

* [[Car Fu|Hovering Transport Cart and Personnel Vehicle Fu]]

* [[Humans Are Flawed]]: Joss states in the commentary that the point he wanted to make with this film is that while the [[Seven Deadly Sins]] are bad, they're also inseparable from human nature. This is demonstrated with {{spoiler|Miranda}}, a world where everyone is either dead or completely inhuman.

* [[Humans Are White]]: For a universe which is heavily Asian inspired and merged completely with Chinese culture, ''none'' of the main cast members even have Asian features; Tam is likely a Chinese surname, but Simon and River don't look at all Chinese.

* [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]]: "Put a bullet to me. Bullet in the brain pan. Squish."

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: The Operative.

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: River.

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: One of [[I Love the Dead|three]] [[Nemean Skinning|things]] the Reavers do to their victims. And if you're very, very lucky, [[Complete Monster|they kill you first]]. Of course, from the [[Mercy Kill]] scene, it's clear they prefer their dinners alive and screaming.

* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: {{spoiler|Wash.}}

* [[Indy Ploy]]

* [[Insane Equals Violent]]: The Reavers.

* [[Instant Sedation]]: Averted when Kaylee is shot with three tranquilizer darts.

* [[Instant Win Condition]]: The Operative's mission is to {{spoiler|eliminate River Tam before any of the big state secrets she has in her mind can be let out}}. He's willing to kill huge amounts of people, the protagonists included, to pursue this mission. Once {{spoiler|the broadcast of Miranda goes out, that mission is a failure, so he has his men stand down, as the damage is done, and killing Mal and the others is no longer "necessary" to him.}}

* [[Intro Dump]]: For viewers who haven't seen ''[[Firefly]]'', the intro has explain that Earth has been abandoned and humanity now occupies another star system, the [[Backstory]] elements of the Alliance/Independents war, River's treatment at the Academy and Simon's rescue, and introduce us to the Serenity and nine characters who already know each other. All done in ten minutes with admirable deftness.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: When Mal shows {{spoiler|the Miranda recording}} to the Operative, he forces the latter to eat his words about how he was building "a world without sin" by showing him what such a world would actually look like.

* [[Jumped At the Call]]: Simon's rescue of River.

* [[Karmic Thief]]: Mal Reynolds and crew take a job which involves stealing a [[Law Enforcement, Inc.|private security payroll]]. It's a job hurting [[The Empire|The Alliance]], so they're [[Jerkass Victim|Jerkass Victims]], but Mal has no intentions of handing out his crew's cut to the poor.

* [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]: It's safe to say that there was no sympathy for Dr. Mathias when the Operative killed him at the beginning.

* [[The Kirk]]: Mal.

* [[Knight Errant]]: Mal.

'''Mal:''' Aw hell, I'm a fan of [[Seven Deadly Sins|all seven]]. ''(pulls sword back out)'' But right now, I'm gonna have to go with Wrath.}}

* [[Make It Look Like a Struggle]]: Mal has an exchange with a guard early in the film about doing this so it doesn't look like the guard just rolled over and let them take the cash.

* [[Maybe Ever After]]: {{spoiler|Mal and Inara}} seem to end on this vaguely good note.

* [[Mercy Kill]]: For anyone taken by the Reavers:

{{quote|'''Jayne:''' I won't get et! You shoot me if they take me!

* [[Mr. Vice Guy]]: Mal.

* [[Mutant Enemy]]: "Grr. Arg."

* [[Mysterious Past]]: Book, and to a lesser extent River.

* [[Mysterious Waif]]: River.

* [[Neutral Female]]: Subverted.

{{quote|'''Inara:''' And that's ''not'' incense. ''[flashbang grenade detonates]]''}}

* [[No-Holds-Barred Contest]]: The final fight between Mal and the Operative is a brutal beat down on both sides.

* [[No-Nonsense Nemesis]]: Played with between River and Mal.

* [[Noble Fugitive]]: Simon and River.

* [[Nose Art]]: The ship's name is painted in a stylized seal on the bow of the ship, in [[Bilingual Bonus|both English and Chinese.]]

** The crew later invokes this trope by disguising their ship {{spoiler|as a Reaver vessel, complete with lots of red paint and human corpses lashed to the hull.}}

* [[Now Let Me Carry You]]: "My turn."

* [[Oh Crap]]: "Target the Reavers! Target the Reavers! Target ''everyone!'' ''SOMEBODY '''FIRE!'''"''

** When Inara meets the Operative. She's very good at reading and controlling body language, so the way her smile fades before he even said anything speaks volumes.

** The head scientist gets an understated one when Simon says, "She always did love to dance." He has just enough time to realize that this isn't a government official he's been escorting into Top Secret research areas before he is knocked out by the stun grenade.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Sarah Paulson's monologue (which gets played twice) is chill-inducing brilliant:

* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: When Mal gets stabbed during his fight with the Operative, though having Alliance medical care available soon after may make it somewhat less applicable. In all other cases, averted.

* [[Organ Dodge]]: The Operative's [[Pressure Point]] technique targets a nerve cluster {{spoiler|Mal had moved due to an old war wound}}. [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty|The Operative is led to believe that it actually worked before a devastating surprise counterattack]].

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Mal's big plan to slip past the Reavers is to disguise Serenity as a Reaver ship - it's just rundown enough to pass for one too.

** Also when Mal slips into Inara's rooms dressed as another Companion.

* [[Pass the Popcorn]]: When Inara calls Mal.

* [[Perfect Pacifist People]]: The Alliance tried to create a world like this artificially, {{spoiler|and ended up creating the [[Exclusively Evil|Reavers]].}}

* [[Playing with Syringes]]: River at the academy.

* [[The Power of Love]]: The core of Simon and River's relationship. [[Big Brother Instinct|Simon's]] [[I Will Protect Her|love]] for [[The Woobie|River]] is practically the only thing holding her [[Mind Rape|fractured psyche]] together. {{spoiler|As a result, this is [[The Power of Love|the force]] that allows her to [[Mama Bear|pull herself together]] at the end of the film and [[Waif Fu|save]] [[You Shall Not Pass|everyone]].}}

* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]: "My turn."

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: "Eight months. ''Eight months'' you had her on my boat knowing full well she could go '''monkeyshit''' at the wrong word and you never said a thing." It's easy to miss it, but this is a cuss word they couldn't drop on Fox, but could in a [[Big Damn Movie]].

** In the movie's novelization by Keith R.A. DeCandido, a version of the scene on Haven where Mal {{spoiler|announces his plan to use the corpses of the murdered settlers as part of a disguise for ''Serenity'' to cross Reaver space}} is featured where Mal drops the F-bomb to emphasize his point. Pretty sure the same scene is featured in the early draft of the film's script floating around the 'Net, the version where {{spoiler|Wash and Book don't die}}.

* [[Public Secret Message]]: The code that makes River flip out is hidden in an ad spot for Fruity Oaty Bars.

* [[Quick Nip]]: Jayne.

* [[Radial Ass-Kicking]]: [[Summer Glau|River]] fights off Reavers coming at her from all sides.

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: ''Serenity'''s crew.

* [[Seven Deadly Sins]]: What the Operative seems to be obsessed with. Given that they think they can "make mankind better", the Alliance's chief sin seems to be [[Pride]].

** Mal is also a fan of all seven, but right now he's going with wrath.

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Both Mal and Simon get this. Joss Whedon actually apologizes in the commentary for shooting shirtless!Mal at such a close angle and not allowing a full look at his physique.

* [[Shoot the Rope]]: Mal needs several shots to sever the mini-harpoon from Jayne's leg. While he's hanging from the back of Mule II ''at full tilt''.

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: Reavers, at least until their origin is revealed.

* [[A Simple Plan]]: Mal has these a lot. And they go wrong with [[Finagle's Law|alarming regularity]]

* [[Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty]]

* [[Someone to Remember Him By]]: At the end of ''Serenity: Float Out'', it is revealed that {{spoiler|Zoe is pregnant with Wash's daughter.}}

* [[Sonic Stunner]]: Simon apparently found one that only works ''at head level'', then uses it to rescue River by setting it off and ducking (she's conveniently seated at the time).

** Inara's flashbang-incense is a very crude version.

* [[Take a Moment to Catch Your Death]]: {{spoiler|Wash}}, as per the above.

* [[Talkative Loon]]: River.

* [[Thememobile]]: The good ship ''Serenity''.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Not that there's any out there that could help much in River's case, not the very least because she's a fugitive who the Alliance and the Academy want back very badly.

* [[Thicker Than Water]]: Behold, the Power of Brotherhood.

* [[Token Evil Teammate]]: Jayne Cobb (or at least more amoral than the rest of them anyway).

* [[Took a Level in Badass]]: River. Boy did she ever.

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: Zoe and River both get this when their respective loved ones are hurt {{spoiler|(or in Zoe's case, killed).}}

** Zoe simply fires at first, then calmly wades into the middle of the advancing Reavers almost suicidally before getting hurt and pulled back.

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: The Operative and the Alliance's goal.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Happens to the Operative when he sees the Reaver ships following ''Serenity''.

* [[Voice with an Internet Connection]]: the appropriately-named Mr Universe.

* [[Waif Fu]]: River, again. Those poor Reavers.

* [[Waif Prophet]]: River.

* [[Watching Troy Burn]]: {{spoiler|Haven}}.

* [[What a Piece of Junk!]]: Serenity, but [[Berserk Button|never tell Kaylee]].

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Zoe points out that Mal could have saved a man's life simply by dumping the loot from a heist.

* [[You Might Remember Me From]]: Ron Glass, who plays Shepherd Book, is probably best known as Detective Harris on ''[[Barney Miller]]''.

* [[You Rebel Scum]]: From most Alliance officials.

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Notable Quotables]]

[[Category:Science Fiction Tabletop Games]]

[[Category:Dark Horse Comics]]

[[Category:Film]]