Serenity is a 2005 American science fiction action film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is a continuation of Whedon's short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly and stars the same cast, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2517, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing Independent side against the Alliance. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.
Serenity | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Joss Whedon |
Produced by | Barry Mendel |
Written by | Joss Whedon |
Based on | Firefly by Joss Whedon |
Starring |
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Music by | David Newman |
Cinematography | Jack Green |
Edited by | Lisa Lassek |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 119 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $39 million |
Box office | $38.9–40.1 million |
The film stars Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was released in North America on September 30, 2005 by Universal Pictures to generally positive reviews and several accolades, including the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the Prometheus Special Award and the Nebula Award for Best Script, but underperformed at the box office.
Screenplay
In the 26th century, humanity has left an overpopulated Earth to colonize a new solar system. The central planets formed the Alliance and won a war against the outer planet Independents—those who resisted joining the Alliance. River Tam (Summer Glau) is conditioned by Alliance scientists into becoming a psychic and an assassin. She is rescued by her brother Simon (Sean Maher). During her training, River inadvertently read the minds of several top government officials and learned their secrets. Consequently, a top Alliance agent known only as the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is tasked with recapturing her.
The siblings have found refuge aboard the transport spaceship Serenity with Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres), pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk), mercenary Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), and mechanic Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite). Despite Simon's objections, Mal brings River on a bank robbery. River warns them that savage and cannibalistic Reavers are coming. They escape, but Simon decides he and River will leave Serenity at the next port. Once there, however, a subliminal message in a television commercial causes River to attack numerous bar patrons, and Mal takes the siblings back aboard the ship. The crew contacts reclusive hacker Mr. Universe (David Krumholtz), who discovers the message designed to trigger River's mental conditioning. He notes River whispered "Miranda" before attacking and warns that someone else saw the footage.
Mal receives an invitation to visit from Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin), a former Serenity occupant. Despite knowing it is a trap (Inara did not argue with him), Mal goes to rescue her. The Operative confronts Mal, promising to let him go free if he turns River over. Mal refuses and, with Inara's help, barely escapes. River reveals that Miranda is a planet located beyond a region of space swarming with Reavers. The crew flies to the planet Haven to ponder their next move, but they find Haven devastated and their old friend, Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), mortally wounded. The Operative claims responsibility, promising to keep pursuing them and killing anyone who assists them until he gets River.
Despite the crew's objection, Mal disguises Serenity as a Reaver ship and travels to Miranda through a Reaver fleet without being attacked. On the planet, the crew find all its colonists dead and a recording by the last surviving member of an Alliance survey team (Sarah Paulson). She explains that an experimental chemical designed to suppress aggression was added into Miranda's atmosphere; the population became so docile they stopped performing all activities of daily living and placidly died. A small portion, however, had the opposite reaction and became extremely aggressive and violent beyond madness. In effect, the Alliance created the Reavers and this is the secret River Tam had discovered.
Mr. Universe agrees to broadcast the recording, luring the crew to the Operative. However, the Operative kills him, orders the destruction of his transmitting equipment, and prepares an ambush. Knowing this, the crew deliberately provoke the Reaver fleet into chasing them and lead them to the Alliance armada in orbit of Mr. Universe's planet. The Reavers and Alliance ships battle while Wash manages to pilot Serenity through the crossfire to the planet; despite taking serious damage, he crash lands near the broadcast tower before being killed by a Reaver spear. The Operative's ship is destroyed but he manages to get to an escape pod and also heads to the broadcast tower.
The rest of the crew make a last stand against the Reavers to buy Mal time to broadcast the recording. Through a message recorded by Mr. Universe before his death, Mal learns of a backup transmitter, but the Operative comes across this message as well. Sustaining heavy injuries, the crew retreats behind a set of blast doors that fail to properly close. A Reaver shoots through the opening, severely wounding Simon. River dives through the doors to close them before the Reavers drag her away. At the backup transmitter, Mal fights the Operative, finally subduing him and forcing him to watch the broadcast recording. Mal returns to the crew, and the blast doors open to reveal that River has killed all the Reavers. Alliance troops arrive, but the Operative orders them to stand down.
The Operative provides medical aid and resources to repair Serenity. He tells Mal the broadcast has weakened the Alliance government, but while he will try to convince the Parliament that River and Simon are no longer threats, he warns that they will likely continue their pursuit in retribution for getting the word out. Serenity takes off with River as Mal's new pilot.
- Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds
- Gina Torres as First Mate Zoe Washburne
- Alan Tudyk as Pilot Hoban 'Wash' Washburne
- Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra
- Adam Baldwin as Mercenary Jayne Cobb
- Jewel Staite as Mechanic Kaylee Frye
- Sean Maher as Doctor Simon Tam
- Summer Glau as River Tam
- Ron Glass as Shepherd Book
- Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative
- David Krumholtz as Hacker Mr. Universe
- Michael Hitchcock as Dr. Mathias
- Sarah Paulson as Dr. Caron
- Yan Feldman as Mingo
- Rafael Feldman as Fanty
- Nectar Rose as Lenore
- Tamara Taylor as Teacher
Development
The film is based on Firefly, a television series canceled by the Fox Broadcasting Company in December 2002, after 11 of its 14 produced episodes had aired. Attempts to have other networks acquire the series failed, and creator Joss Whedon started to sell it as a film. He had been working on a film script since the show's cancellation. Shortly after the cancellation, he contacted Barry Mendel, who was working with Universal Studios, and "flat-out asked him" for a way to continue the series as a film, including as a low-budget television film. Mendel introduced Whedon to then Universal executive Mary Parent. She had seen Firefly and immediately signed on to the project, even though Whedon had yet to create a story. Whedon remarked:
“ | Universal came in where I thought nobody else would, and quite frankly, I'm not sure anybody else would've, with absolute faith and has maintained it. It's been the easiest process in terms of dealing with a studio that I've ever had. And they turned it into—not a blockbuster, which is not what I was trying to make, but not a low-budget movie either. They wanted to make a real movie out of it. They wanted to give us the scope that the show could never have had. So all I had to do was come up with a story that was worth that. | ” |
In July 2003, Whedon said that though there was interest in the project, "I won't know really until I finish a draft whether or not it's genuine." He felt that any film deal was contingent on keeping the show's original cast, though he later stated that retaining the cast was "never an issue" as Universal executives believed the cast suitable after watching every episode of the series.
In early September 2004, a film deal with Universal was publicly confirmed. Universal acquired the rights to Firefly shortly before the confirmation. Whedon felt that the strong sales of the Firefly DVD, which sold out in less than twenty-four hours after the pre-order announcement, "definitely helped light a fire and make them go, 'Okay, we've really got something here.' It definitely helped them just be comfortable with the decisions they were making, but they really had been supporting us for quite some time already." Whedon felt it was "important people understand that the movie isn't the series", and so the project was titled Serenity.
Writing
After Universal acquired the film rights from Fox, Whedon began writing the screenplay. His task was to explain the premise of a television series that few had seen without boring new viewers or longtime fans. He based his story on original story ideas for Firefly's un-filmed second season. Whedon's original script was 190 pages, and attempted to address all major plot points introduced in the series. After presenting the script to Barry Mendel under the title "The Kitchen Sink", Whedon and Mendel collaborated on cutting down the script to a size film-able under his budget constraints. All nine principal cast members from the television series were scheduled to return for the movie, but Glass and Tudyk could not commit to sequels, leading to the death of their characters in the second draft of the script. The tightened script and a budget Mendel and Whedon prepared were submitted to Universal on a Friday and on the following Monday morning, Stacey Snider, then head of Universal, called Mendel to officially greenlight the movie.
Universal planned to begin shooting in October 2003, but delays in finishing the script postponed the start of shooting to June 2004.
Filming
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