Serenity (Full Reaction)
Added 2024-04-02 02:20:03 +0000 UTCHappy Monday!
Take my love, take my land. Take me where I cannot stand. I don't care, I'm still free. You can't take the sky from me...
We all loved the 14 episode show Firefly. Now, we get to watch a movie that will wrap up the story lines for the crew of the Serenity. An Alliance agent is hired to track down River and prevent her from revealing a terrible secret.
Watched on: Google Play / Runtime: 1:58:57
❤️🐑
Comments
Hi Jax, I don’t think you caught one of my favourite jokes because you momentarily talked over the Captain below, at *** and didn’t hear his words. After Malcolm’s first call with Inara, on the deck with the crew: Kaylee: But how can you be sure Inara don’t just wanna see you? Sometimes people have feelings. I’m referring here to people. Malcolm: You all were watching I take it? *** Did you see us fight? *** Kaylee: No Malcolm: Trap. Also, Lamby’s awesome. Thanks for the reaction!
𝖦𝖺𝗋𝗒 𝖬𝗈𝗋𝗀𝖺𝗇
2024-07-01 18:37:35 +0000 UTCThanks for your essays Michael, I appreciate the time and effort, these theories all seem very plausible. My only exposure to Firefly are the episodes and movie. I'd like to share an observation that only occurred to me while watching Jax's episode 5 reaction - maybe I'm clutching at straws, but it's an odd coincidence 🤷♂️ "I just realised child River says the independence cut off the alliance using dinosaurs 😮 I wonder if River was not simply using her imagination but dinosaurs were really involved. Wash plays with dinosaurs too, it seems like they might have been planting seeds to a future plot line that never had the chance to be told."
𝖦𝖺𝗋𝗒 𝖬𝗈𝗋𝗀𝖺𝗇
2024-07-01 00:52:51 +0000 UTC19:03 Wash, Book and many others might agree, Mal. (In fact, Jayne so much as told you so to your face, 58:20.)
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-13 22:34:50 +0000 UTCThe Alliance sure messes people up. River, Reavers. Reavers, River. Hmm...
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-08 07:04:57 +0000 UTCActually I think it gives you a good idea what it would of been like being River for years... Imagine if an imaginary reaver could suddenly appear...or a dead body would talk to you... I am impressed she was as sane as she was :-)
Joseph E. Jackson
2024-04-05 02:41:29 +0000 UTCIt appeared, at times, like someone was trying to cop an unwanted feel betwixt……. You were just really jumpy…… All I’m saying.
Lamar Smith
2024-04-03 22:03:30 +0000 UTCWell, Dearest Jax, I think we’ll have to nominate this as your ‘jumpiest reaction yet.’
Lamar Smith
2024-04-03 21:42:33 +0000 UTCWell, here we are...
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-03 06:31:56 +0000 UTCOh, you've got a good dad.
Richard Flores
2024-04-03 05:11:45 +0000 UTCI saw this movie before I even knew there was a series it was based on. It just looked like a cool sci-fi movie based on the DVD case cover, and that was enough for me at the time (I was 8, I believe, when I first saw this. Maybe 9). My dad caught me watching the movie literally minutes from the end, and nearly lost his mind that I'd watched it without having seen the series first. So, he dropped the full series set on my lap and told me to watch it properly or I was grounded. 😄
BubblyRainbows
2024-04-03 04:23:53 +0000 UTCIt's a very good sequence. I'm told there was a hidden cut when Mal and Simon were going down the stairs, but I can't spot it. My dad claims Serenity's entire structure is split into two different sets, so they couldn't actually walk from one end to the other in one take. But I have no specific official statement or information for that claim, so I could have been misinformed. The opening stroll through Serenity is impressive even if there is a cut in the middle, but have you ever seen a certain episode of "The Haunting of Hill House"? Now THAT really blew me away. I don't want to say too much because of a vain hope that someday Jax might react to the show, but seriously...
BubblyRainbows
2024-04-03 04:18:08 +0000 UTCGreat movie and great reaction. Your denial on characters dying stays consistent with this movie, RIP Ant-thony & Wash.
Eddie
2024-04-03 04:15:52 +0000 UTCYour reaction was great. This was a great movie, but I always have a hard time watching it. It was a great show with amazing stories. Can't wait to see where you go next.
Aendery2k
2024-04-03 04:00:11 +0000 UTCBut I assert that the Firefly pilot provided more character insight and development for the dinosaurs in half a minute than the entire Jurassic franchise!
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-03 00:31:52 +0000 UTCThis is in fact one of the two best “those dinosaurs are the same size as the trees” movies. The best of course is Jurassic Park.
Alex Ch
2024-04-02 22:24:17 +0000 UTCThere was no way this movie was going to do enough business for it to drum up more business via movies or more seasons...because it so beautifully puts a bow on what already came, and so clearly is made for the fans of the show. Ah, well...
Steve Mercier
2024-04-02 20:25:35 +0000 UTCMichael has already discussed Inara's Secret in a comment to the last episode, to wit: she has a terminal illness. Which makes Jax's comment at 1:58:38 amusing*. * You may replace this word by one you find more fitting. :-)
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-02 20:02:00 +0000 UTCZoe, Wash, & Kaylee I got nothing. Maybe the actors have never revealed those secrets, or maybe the writers didn't give them any because they planned to add them in a later that never came. I doubt Jax will ever read the follow up novels or comic books, so I'll just say that Zoe was pregnant at the end of the movie. But that's not an old secret from her backstory, so it doesn't really count. If anyone has heard of these characters' backstories that came from the mouths of the actors or writers, I'd love to hear them. I've tried to look for clues in the series, but I've come up blank(other than Kaylee apparently having an interesting sexual kink - lol). And now I'm done. ;)
Michael Kemmet
2024-04-02 19:00:50 +0000 UTCJayne Not much here. The best I can do is that he's supporting his mother and siblings. Almost all of the crew have no family beyond the other crew, so they create a found family. But Jayne stays on the outside of that because he has a real family separate from the crew. The show makes it very clear that slavery/indentured servitude is a real thing in the Firefly universe. It makes me wonder if that's what Jayne's family is. What if Jayne is trying to put enough money together to buy his family out of slavery and set them up on a new planet/moon? If that's the case, it puts a different spin on why he's so greedy. Maybe it's actually for a good cause. It doesn't necessarily make him a "good" character, but it might make him less of a "bad" character.
Michael Kemmet
2024-04-02 18:52:49 +0000 UTCMal I came across this theory a couple years ago but can't remember where. I think the source said either Nathan Fillion or Joss Whedon said it at a panel or during an interview, but I can't be sure or prove it, so take it with a grain of salt. The theory says Mal actually comes from one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Alliance. The automatic response to that from viewers is: "Well, what about in Our Mrs. Reynolds where he says he grew up on his mother's ranch?" My counter to that is: "What about Mal's father? We know nothing about him." The theory goes on to suppose that Mal absolutely hates the rich and powerful part of his family and fought as a Browncoat mostly because of that hatred. And there are a couple other moments in the series that support the theory. Think about Mal's insults to Inara. It's obvious he doesn't hate her as a person(he loves her). And we can see in Heart of Gold that he doesn't despise sex workers(he treats them all with respect). So what is it about Inara that sets him off? It's because she's a Companion. The Companions' Guild is one of the most powerful and influential organizations in the Alliance. If Mal hates everything about wealth and political power, and it's clearly a very personal hatred, then Companions would be a symbol of that lifestyle and a trigger for him. So Inara is the ultimate contradiction for him: everything he loves and hates, all in one package. Explains the push-pull. A second moment that supports this theory is one I just spotted during Jax's watch-through. If Mal grew up on a ranch and hates everything well-to-do, why does he know the pattern dance in Shindig and performs it flawlessly and without effort? Sure, there might be other reasons, but I bet that was meant to be a hint about Mal's past. My version of the theory is that Mal did indeed grow up with his mother and a bunch of ranch hands, but not for all of his childhood. Maybe his mother had an affair with a powerful man, maybe it was an assault, maybe it was something in between. But however it happened, Mal's mother ran off and made a life for herself and her son. Then Mal's father eventually learns about him. Maybe he always knew about him and Mal's mother dies and the father needs to take custody, or maybe Mal's father learns about Mal's existence and rips Mal away from the only life he's ever known. In any case, Mal is sent to an inner planet somewhere around the ages of 10 to 15 and given a crash course in how to be a young nobleman(how he learned the dance). After growing up free and with a mother that loved him, Mal would absolutely hate everything about this new life(including Companions) and run away from it as soon as he could. Maybe straight into becoming a Browncoat. If true, this could lead to some stories where Mal meets and is forced to confront family members. It could also lead to some conflict with his core crew. Why are they always struggling to eat and stay flying when Mal could have access to massive amounts of money whenever he wanted to? And what if Mal's family is one of the owners of Blue Sun? How would that affect the relationship between Mal, Simon, and River?
Michael Kemmet
2024-04-02 18:45:09 +0000 UTCSimon Simon's secret is also pretty clear if you know where to look. Simon was resentful toward River; maybe even hated her a little. Deep down in Simon's brain, he viewed River as the one who ruined his life. But that thought is buried so deep it's almost a subconscious thought in his head. And Simon loves his sister dearly, so whenever those feelings bubble up, he pushes them back down and hates himself for them. There are two or three moments that give confirmation to the theory, though the writers cleverly hid them. I forget the episode(Serenity or Train Job maybe), but River says something to Simon like, "You gave up everything for me." There's another moment like that in Ariel where Simon, River, and Jayne are moving through the hospital and she says something like, "This is where you should be." Our first thought as the audience is that these are things being said by a grateful sister to her brother. But that's not what they are. Remember that River is a reading telepath. Those aren't River's thoughts, those are Simon's thoughts and River is just reading and repeating them. Had the series continued, I expect there would have been a moment in either a season or mid-season finale where Simon would have had a moment of weakness and betrayed River. When the story continued after the break, we would've seen that Simon would've immediately regretted the decision and tried to fix it, but either River or another of the crew(Kaylee?) would have witnessed it. The crew would have spent the first one or two episodes after the break rescuing River from whoever had her, but dealing with Simon's (momentary) betrayal would have been food for a multi-episode arc(much like Jayne's after Ariel, but more so).
Michael Kemmet
2024-04-02 18:14:16 +0000 UTCLet's do Book next. This one gets a bit tricky because there is a canon backstory for him. A few years after the movie, there was a short comic book series that told his backstory. I have no proof of this, but I don't think that was the original plan for his character. I agree with Baalberith in their post above that Book was originally supposed to be a former Operative. In my mind, this is how it all went down: The series got cancelled but the movie was greenlit. There was a tiny chance the movie could lead to a second season of Firefly, but Alan Tudyk(Wash) and Ron Glass(Book) already had commitments. The writers were looking for an antagonist for the movie and also knew they were never going to be able to develop Book's backstory like they had planned, so they decided to combine them. A couple years later, they were approached about the comic and couldn't now use Book's original story, so they came up with an alternate version. But that's just my theory. But can you imagine the great story possibilities if Book really was a retired Alliance Operative and eventually the crew found out? Think of how Simon and River would have reacted when the secret came out. Book would have been exactly what they were running from. And think of Mal and Zoe. Book would have been a symbol of everything they hate and fought against. More than anything, that's why I'm sure of my theory. There are a lot of multi-episode plotlines that could come out of this version of Book's story. So Book was an Alliance true believer when he was a much younger man. He did terrible things for the Alliance, but he thought them to be the right thing. At some point, he either lost his faith, was betrayed by his superiors, or just got too old for the job. He left that world and became a shepherd to atone. Or maybe he never left that world at all. Consider what River read from his mind in Objects in Space: "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not." Was that a thought/memory coming from his past life, or was that a current thought about River and Simon and he was still an Operative? Food for thought.
Michael Kemmet
2024-04-02 17:56:33 +0000 UTCWell, I'm back with the giant posts about character secrets. I have no idea if anyone reads these(including and especially Jax - lol), but I said I was going to do them, so I suppose I should. ;) I'm starting with River, and I think I'll split each character into a different post. We pretty much got all of River's secret in the movie. She was turned into a receiving telepath and implanted with insane levels of skills and knowledge to become the perfect assassin/spy/weapon. At some point during her training, she was exposed to very highly placed members of government/corporations that had important and horrible secrets. River's brain was already fractured by the experiments/treatments (the human mind isn't adapted to hear the thoughts of others), and the horrors she was exposed to from those minds completely broke her. She didn't know what thoughts were hers and what thoughts were foreign; they were all jumbled around. This is why she wonderingly said "I'm all right" the second time after she vomited on Miranda. The Miranda-Reavers secret was the worst horror floating around her brain, and now she knew it was an external memory and her brain could start to heal. There are indications the secret was originally supposed to be more of a corporate thing in the TV series rather than a pure government thing like it is in the movie. It was supposed to be linked to a corporation named Blue Sun. There were two times in the series where River reacted badly to the Blue Sun logo. The first was in Train Job(?) where River started ripping the labels off cans of food. Those labels had the Blue Sun logo on them. The second was in Ariel when River sliced Jayne's chest with a knife. Jayne was wearing a Blue Sun t-shirt. In both cases, River was subconsciously lashing out at the source of her pain. That's pretty much everything for River. There is a short series of videos(8 min total) called the River Tam Sessions that were included as DVD extras, but they give more flavor to the character rather than additional storyline info.
Michael Kemmet
2024-04-02 17:31:48 +0000 UTCNathan Fillion describing the audience reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWZuiJgBaxI
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-02 16:54:21 +0000 UTCThank you so much for posting this reaction, absolutely loved it and your reaction to the events that happen (I think my favorite has to be the saddened look you got when you realized that Chiwetel Ejiofor (the agent) was not a good person). The set was the same one that they used for the TV show - it's one continuous set that includes the entire ship and all the different sections in it (this was done on purpose and to great effect imo). The movie definitely had a bigger budget though... it's like comparing the Star Trek TV Shows with the various motion pictures... it's just not the same money being spent!
Alexis
2024-04-02 16:19:19 +0000 UTCThere are two Firefly comics published by Dark Horse (full name: Firefly Legacy Deluxe Edition) that give us more of this story. The first one has events from after Firefly but before Serenity in it, including some additional backstories for some of the characters (Shepard Book being one of them). The second one takes up the story after Serenity and tries to wrap up some of the loose ends. There is another set of comics published by Boom Comics that is supposed to not be as good (I haven't read them myself), and there is also a set of books (9 I think) but I haven't read those either.
Alexis
2024-04-02 16:16:19 +0000 UTCOh, such a great way to kick off April, the long awaited reaction to "Serenity"! You did not disappoint (not that you ever do) and your reactions were perfection, especially during those jump scares. If you haven't already, look up the deleted scenes and bloopers (I have them on the DVD but I think they're all on the internet). There's one showing Inara teaching other companions and a conversation with another woman at the Academy that's good, but there's also one with the Operative learning how to find Inara so he could get to Mal (now we just have to wait until you fall in love with Morena Baccarin in the "Deadpool" films). And the bloopers are hilarious and the swearing in them is NOT in Chinese! One of the things that just comes through is how much the cast love each other, which really worked for the characters.
HeyHeyJK
2024-04-02 14:50:54 +0000 UTCThere's only 2 movies I've seen in theaters where I've heard the whole audience literally gasp at something. Spider-Man 3 is one, it happened several times actually, and Serenity is the other when Wash was killed. Almost 20 years later and that has stuck with me. Alan Tudyk was also very Alan Tudyk about it too. He would ask if everyone else's script ended on page 60 and that the movie just ended with them landing on the planet. One of my favorite behind the scenes stories. I saw all this is total reverse order. I'd seen the trailer for Serenity and thought it looked cool so I watched it without ever hearing of Firefly. But I never felt lost, so they did a great job of not making people like me feel like I was missing important info. There is actually a hidden cut in that opening scene on the ship. The 2 levels of the ship were 2 different sets, so when Mal and Simon are going down the stairs, when the camera whips back to Simon, that's the hidden cut so they could go from one set to the other. That's how well shot it all is because you don't even notice!
Ed Scoglio
2024-04-02 11:56:49 +0000 UTCJax, how could you possibly put me through this? I'm here for entertainment, but this, this is pure emotional torture! How will I ever be able to recover from these horrors you made me watch? I mean, bad enough that: Book and many of the Gang's friends and contacts get murdered We find out nearly all of Miranda's 30 million inhabitants died An untold number of Alliance soldiers and Reavers get killed in battle Wash dies Zoe gets badly slashed Jayne gets shot Kaylee gets hit by poisoned darts Simon gets shot Mal and the Operative severely injure each other And, lest we forget, Wash dies. But as if all of this death and carnage wasn't enough, you seem to think that we also need to be exposed to the tragic suffering of sweet, sweet River. The poor girl swallowed a bug!!! I don't think I can stay in such a toxic environment, especially without a Lamby to comfort me!
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-02 06:48:11 +0000 UTCNot gonna lie. The first time I watched this movie, I rewound it (as in rewound... as in VHS) back to the Serenity logo many times, trying to figure out how long that one-take intro was. And that blew me away. How one actor can move from one end of the ship to the other, and how there is still enough room for the camera people to catch everything. Inter-crew dialogue to capture character, great. Minimizing dialogue while maximizing world-building and character relations, great. Hooking a new audience with in-media-res and trust, great. Supporting long-time fans by keeping the whole ambiance of the show, great. Not gonna lie, to this day, it still blows me away.
Richard Flores
2024-04-02 06:12:07 +0000 UTCJax, thanks for completing this journey and now you have the responsibility to pass the torch to other friends and family (and maybe you already have) to help keep Firefly alive in our hearts and minds. There are many 'Firefly' parties that happen among the Browncoats, watching those 14 golden episodes, even after all these years. You can just picture the joy this brings to everyone. This was a very special series (and movie) that will be watched again and again. So sad it was killed so early but in a way that is what makes it special. Stay shiny and aim to misbehave :)
James Gassor
2024-04-02 05:46:56 +0000 UTCOkay, that was completely delightful! 👍👍 I must admit that, even though I'm not usually sadistic, I *really* enjoyed every single one of the jump scares! The look on your face was so priceless! 🤣
Phil Stubblefield
2024-04-02 05:38:48 +0000 UTCMy personal theory is that Shepard Book either used to be an Operative or something similar for the Alliance, and similar to this villain was at one point beaten and became a shepard, which would explain a few things in the tv show. I enjoy Joss Wheadon's writing as he's very character focused, you can easily see the same style of screen writing in Buffy and Angel.
Baalberith
2024-04-02 05:11:54 +0000 UTCWe did see Mal in his war persona, though I think his anger/brusqueness displayed throughout the movie reflected his struggling with Inara's absence. Of course we'd already seen Zoe's retreat to stoicism before in War Stories, here it was a way to get past loss of Wash.
Robert Inman
2024-04-02 04:58:26 +0000 UTC22:00 Who knew Lamby growls? 22:24 Now there's a sentence I can confidently say I've never heard before. I shall endeavor to use it myself. 59:55 People most definitely don't seem to find it so romantic when I say it. Maybe I should enunciate with greater care. 1:12:14 !!! 1:24:30 Moral of the story: Avoid dangerous artificial chemicals! https://tinyurl.com/5bcdvsax :-P 1:27:00 - 1:27:10 👿 No. Wash is refering to "Leif." He is comparing himself to famed Viking explorer Leif Erikson who sailed the tumultuous seas to discover America. 😛 1:36:18 And now I'm having flashbacks to The Exorcist! :-) 1:38:54 Yep. "There are a lot of innocent people in the air being killed right now." 'You have no idea how true that is.' 1:39:24 "Unlawful"? If the government does it, it must be lawful! :-/ :-/ :-/ 1:53:47 The leaf might be gone, but the bird that made the breeze to blow remains. 1:54:52 C. S. Lewis (yes, that C. S. Lewis): "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-02 04:55:17 +0000 UTCOooh! That makes so much sense.
Jacqueline
2024-04-02 04:55:00 +0000 UTCWhen the movie finally got the green light, the studio wanted all the actors to sign for the possibility of multiple movies. Unfortunately, the actors for Book and Wash could not commit to more than one due to their schedules. So that's why that happened.
Aaron Lovik
2024-04-02 04:51:56 +0000 UTCAlright, alright, alright! Oh. 2005. Never mind. :-P
Happy Hanukkah
2024-04-02 03:28:07 +0000 UTCThere were so many mind blowing scenes in this movie!
Jacqueline
2024-04-02 03:11:52 +0000 UTCWe can only guess which scene you were watching when you got the look on your face that we see in the thumbnail. There are several possibilities.
John Walters
2024-04-02 02:37:01 +0000 UTCBeen waiting for this, Jax! 😁
Phil Stubblefield
2024-04-02 02:22:58 +0000 UTC
