474 – Serenity

Firefly comes to a close with the motion picture, Serenity.  Simon and Eugene discuss. Movie Synopsis: We open on what appears to be flashbacks showing the day Simon broke River out of the Alliance experimentation facility.  Paradoxically, even though this happened in the past, he seems to know quite a bit more about what was being done to River than he did during the TV Series.  Actually, it’s a recorded replay that an Alliance Operative – a man without a name – is reviewing.  River is a psychic and she was exposed to top members of the Alliance Parliament and they don’t like the idea that she might be carrying some of their secrets around in her head.  The Operative will find her. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] In the now times, Simon and Mal are arguing.  Mal means for River to earn her keep and that means going on a mission to rob a security payroll.  Mal threatens to kick the Tams off if he doesn’t back down. The mission goes reasonably well until the Reavers arrive.  The Reavers like nothing better than to kill, rape and eat humans alive.  Everyone is afraid of Reavers.  They escape – just, but Simon punches Mal for risking River’s life.  Mal, in turn, kicks them off the ship.  He will leave them behind on Beaumont. On Beaumont, Mal and Jayne visit some local crime lords, working on their latest deal.  River happens to walk into the same bar, sees a TV commercial and goes into full-on kick ass mode.  She starts beating up and killing everyone in the room, even Jayne and Mal.  Simon has followed her into the bar and shuts her down with a single word, which puts her to sleep.  Apparently, she has been programmed with a safe word.  A safe word Simon knew about all along, but never saw fit to use previously. Mal brings the Tams back on the ship and locks up River. We’re introduced to an old associate of the Serenity crew – one we’ve never met before – Mr. Universe.  A tech head, but not an Ed Head, who monitors lots of communications.  After intercepting the footage of the fight at the bar, he is able to ascertain that the commercial River saw contained a subliminal message intended to trigger her.  He also can tell that someone else has already gotten hold of the same footage. Meanwhile, Inara, who has left the crew and living on a training planet, gets a visit from the Operative. The Serenity has gone to Haven, where Shepard Book now lives.  He warns Mal that he’s up against an Operative and that’s nothing like he’s ever faced before. Inara soon calls Mal for help on an obvious false pretext.  Everyone knows it’s a trap, but they go anyway. Meeting the Operative doesn’t go well, and Mal is handed his butt on a plate, but with Inara’s help, they escape. The crew are uncomfortable with the current situation, and Jayne is downright put out about the Tams being back on the ship.  Later, he decides to take matters into his own hands and dispose of River, but she bests him and takes control of the ship.  Mal tries to talk her down and does, to a point.  Since she saw the commercial, the name Miranda has been on her mind and she’s used Serenity’s computer to find Miranda.  It’s a supposedly nothing planet far out past Reaver space.  They’d be nuts to go there. They return to haven instead where they discover it’s been wiped out by the Alliance, Book included, who dies in Mal’s arms.  The Alliance Operative is killing everyone who has ever worked with them or granted them haven.  All they have to do it turn over River and it will all be over. Mal goes a bit mental, he forced the crew to use the corpses of the dead on Haven, and other bits of junk to disguise Serenity as a Reaver ship and they go to Miranda to find out what the mystery is. On the planet they discover it is dead.  All the people just died.  In fact, they literally just gave up and died, for they find the wreckage of an Alliance rescue ship which reveals that Miranda was used as a pacification experiment.  A chemical was pumped into the air designed to make the population less aggressive.  It worked so well they just stopped and died. That is, all but 10% of them, who became nightmarish monsters – the Reavers. Now Mal has a crusade:  The planets and all the people must know what the Alliance did, so they head back to Mr. Universe so that he can broadcast the info everywhere.  The Operative and a fleet of Alliance ships is waiting there, so Mal brings along some friends – the Reavers.  In the space battle that ensues, they make it to Mr. Universe’s control center, but not without casualties.  Wash has been killed, and the crew are facing an impossible force of Reavers and are trapped in a dead end.  They are slowly being beaten. Mr. Universe is also already dead, killed by the Operative, but he left a final message to Mal which reveals a backup control center that is still operational. Mal again battles the Operative and, through dumb luck, he overcomes him, broadcasting the message to everyone everywhere. Meanwhile, River, protecting her brother has single-handedly killed all the Reavers.  Next, it looks like she may have to kill all the Alliance troops, too, but the Operative has them stand down.  The damage is done.  River is no longer a threat because the secret is out. He even arranges for Serenity to get fixed.  What a nice guy he really is! The crew, with River piloting, take of for what is no doubt a long-running series of movie adventures to come. [/expand]