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}}

* [[Abandon Ship]]: Two separate cases in the film's climax.

* [[Absent Aliens]]

* [[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.

* [[Big Badass Battle Sequence]]: Alliance Fleet. Reaver army. 'Nuff said.

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

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Book, Wash, and a couple of tons of innocent people all die, but word gets out about Miranda. And Simon and Kaylee are together. So... take it how you will.

** The movie's existence itself could be considered one. Yes, it exists, but its low box office turnout makes it unlikely we'll ever see our Big Damn Heroes on the silver screen (or on the air) again.

* [[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]].

* [[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?''}}

{{quote|'''Mr. Universe''': "From here to the eyes and the ears of the 'Verse, that's my motto. Or, it would be, if I started having a motto."}}

* [[Ceiling Cling]]: River Tam while in the Alliance laboratory. And just about everywhere else.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Mr Universe's ''love doll'' of all things.

** Also Jayne's grenades.

* [[Chewing the Scenery]]: [[Nathan Fillion]] (Mal) does quite a bit of this in the DVD outtakes.

{{quote|'''Mal:''' Did you see us fight?

** River also does this in the deleted scenes.

{{quote|'''Simon:''' What will Miranda show us?

* [[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.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: {{spoiler|River, completely, totally, utterly ''obliterating'' the Reavers by herself.}}

* [[Curse of the Ancients]]: All the swearing that isn't done in "Mandarin"(-ish) has an Old West feel to it. Gorramit.

* [[Danger Deadpan]]: Wash is a completely different character when flying the ship: normally he's loud and panicky, but at the helm, he is completely calm and collected, no matter what imminent doom might be following him.

{{quote|'''Wash:''' This landing is gonna get pretty interesting.

* [[Dead Man Writing]]:

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Mr Universe:}}''' "Guy killed me, Mal. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that?"}}

** Shepherd Book has some good lines, {{spoiler|even as he’s dying in great pain.}}

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

* [[Death Glare]]:

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

* [[Dramatic Irony]]: The Audience and Mal know what the Reavers are, but The Operative does not, and boy is he in for a ''surprise''...

{{quote|'''The Operative:''' "There are a lot of innocent people in the air being killed right now."

* [[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.

* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]: {{spoiler|Poor Wash.}}

* [[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]].

* [[Establishing Character Moment]]: The Operative gets a fantastic one.

{{quote|'''The Operative''': In older, more...civilized cultures, when a man failed as utterly as you have, he would throw himself upon his sword.

[''the Operative pulls out a sword'']}}

* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: The Alliance vs the Reavers.

** River has a brief hallucination regarding Miranda. She's dressed in the outfit the Blue Sun groups put her in, no shoes. The camera again follows her feet a little.

* [[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."

* [[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.

* [[Government Conspiracy]]: [[All There in the Manual|Possibly]] a private sector conspiracy by Blue Sun, but with definite government involvement.

* [[Government Drug Enforcement]]: {{spoiler|The G-23 Paxilon hydrochlorate introduced into the air processors of Miranda, to keep the populace quiet and non-violent. It ended up causing apathy and lethargy so extreme that the majority of people just laid down and died and caused the remainder to become the hyper-aggressive Reavers.}}

* [[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.

{{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.

* [[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 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.

* [[Ill Girl]]: River, of course.

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

* [[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.

* [[Killed Mid-Sentence]]: {{spoiler|Wash, after it looks like everything's going to be okay}}.

* [[Knight Errant]]: Mal.

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: Also Mal.

* [[Lodged Blade Recycling]]:

{{quote|'''Operative:''' ''(stabs Mal)'' Do you know what your sin is, Mal?

* [[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.

* [[Manchurian Agent]]: River's activation at the Maidenhead.

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

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

* [[Mind Rape]]: Whatever the Academy did to River, she didn't turn out very well.

* [[Misfit Mobilization Moment]]: "No more running. I aim to misbehave."

* [[Nay Theist]]: Mal. More specifically, he is a ''[[A Worldwide Punomenon|mal]]''[[Genius Bonus|theist]]. He equates belief to God, giving Book two of his better lines:

{{quote|'''Book''': When I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?

* [[Necessarily Evil]]: The Operative views his crusade this way. {{spoiler|He abandons this notion after finding out the truth about Miranda.}}

* [[Nerds Are Sexy]]: Both Simon and Kaylee.

* [[One-Man Army|One-Waif Army]]: River.

* [[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.

{{quote|'''The Operative:''' "I'm impressed that you would come for her yourself. And that you would make it this far in ''that'' outfit."

* [[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]].}}

* [[Playful Hacker]]: Mr. Universe. He even has a [[Sex Bot|lovebot]].

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

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

* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]: "Yes, she always did love to dance," for Simon. "Do you know what your sin is?" for The Operative. "...right now I'll go with Wrath", for Mal.

* [[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}}.

* [[Pressure Point]]: Used by the Operative.

** {{spoiler|And brutally subverted by Mal in his final fight with The Operative when he pretends to fall victim to this technique. In truth that particular pressure point was rendered invalid from a war wound, and he just played along so he could catch The Operative off-guard.}}

* [[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.

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

* [[Sex Bot]]: Turns out to be useful for other things, too, like messages.

* [[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.

* [[Single Tear]]: The Operative, when he sees {{spoiler|the footage from Miranda}}.

* [[Sliding Scale of Law Enforcement]]: Police in the series run the gamut from honest to corrupt to incompetent to dangerously savvy.

* [[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.

* [[Talkative Loon]]: River.

* [[Tear Jerker]]: The second landing at Haven, when Wash died, and those ten minutes when ''nobody'' believes River could possibly survive.

* [[Telepathy]]

* [[Theme Music Withholding]]: The "Ballad of Serenity" only appears in the end credits, and only as an instrumental.

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

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Notable Quotables]]

[[Category:Science Fiction Tabletop Games]]

[[Category:Dark Horse Comics]]

[[Category:Film]]