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Serenity (film)
Encyclopedia
Serenity is a 2005 space western
film written and directed by Joss Whedon
. It is a continuation of the short-lived 2002 Fox
science fiction television
series Firefly
, taking place after the events of the final episode
. Set in 2518, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a cargo ship
. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing side. Their lives of petty crime are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.
The film was released in North America on September 30, 2005 by Universal Pictures
. It received generally positive reviews and was number two its opening weekend, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend. The movie spent two weeks in the top ten, and its total domestic box office gross was $25.5 million with a foreign box office gross of $13.3 million. However, it did not make back its budget until its release on DVD. Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005
and FilmFocus
. It also won IGN Film
's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie. It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script
for 2005, the 7th annual 'User Tomato Awards' for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes
, the 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie, the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form and the 2006 Prometheus Special Award
.
with frontier justice among the outer planets. A young girl, River Tam, is being mentally and physically conditioned by Alliance scientists. She is rescued from them by her brother, Simon and the two seek refuge aboard the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity captained by Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds
. An Alliance agent, the Operative, is tasked with eliminating River as she has been observed by Alliance politicians and may have learned certain secrets due to her psychic abilities.
Aboard Serenity, Mal brings River on a bank raid against her brother's wishes. They are attacked by Reavers, animalistic humans who savagely mutilate, rape, and murder their victims. They escape, but Simon decides to leave Serenity at the next port. While Mal meets fences
Fanty and Mingo, River becomes entranced by a TV commercial and begins attacking everyone. Before she can attack Mal, Simon arrives and shouts a "safe word" which causes her to fall asleep. Mal reluctantly allows Simon and River back on to Serenity. The crew contacts a reclusive hacker known as Mr. Universe who analyzes the commercial and discovers a subliminal
message being broadcast across the Alliance designed to trigger River. He notes that River whispered the name "Miranda" before attacking.
Mal receives a call from Inara, a former passenger. Suspecting a trap but realizing that she is in danger, Mal visits Inara and is confronted by the Operative. The Operative offers to let Mal go free if he turns River over, but thanks to Inara's quick thinking she and Mal escape. After another of River's outbursts, the crew learns about Miranda, an outer rim planet thought to have been rendered uninhabitable as the result of a terraforming
accident. Serenity travels to Haven, a mining colony and home of Shepherd Book
, a former passenger and friend of the crew. They discover the outpost has been destroyed by Alliance forces. The Operative has ordered the deaths of all of Mal's contacts to deny him a safe haven and promises that he will continue to pursue them until River is turned over.
Mal orders Serenity modified to resemble a Reaver ship so they can reach Miranda. After sailing through a fleet of Reaver vessels, the crew discovers a normal planet, with its cities empty and laden with corpses. They discover a log recorded by an Alliance survey team explaining that the Alliance administered a chemical designed to suppress aggression, which killed off the populace. However, one tenth of the population instead became hyper-aggressive and unstable. The Alliance is responsible for the creation of the Reavers.
Mal contacts Mr. Universe's transmitter to arrange to have the log transmitted throughout the verse, but the Operative is already there. Serenity departs Miranda, but as they leave Reaver territory, they open fire on one of the ships. The Reavers pursue Serenity to Mr. Universe's planet where they engage the waiting Alliance fleet. The Operative's ship is destroyed but he survives in an escape pod. In the confusion, Serenity manages to crash land, but pilot Wash is killed by a pursuing Reaver ship. Finding Mr. Universe dead, Mal learns from a recorded message of a second transmitter. The crew sets up a last stand against the pursuing Reavers, buying Mal the time he needs to send the message. The crew find themselves overwhelmed by the Reavers and retreat behind a set of blast doors, but find they will not close. Zoe and Kaylee are injured, but Simon discovers he has left his medical kit at their prior position. As he rises to retrieve it, he is shot. He apologizes to River for failing her, but she announces that it is her turn to take care of Simon. She charges through the blast doors, triggering the closing mechanism and throws the medical kit to Simon before being dragged away by Reavers.
Mal finds the transmitter, but The Operative reveals himself and the two begin fighting. Mal disables The Operative and restrains him next to a railing, forcing him to watch the recording from Miranda. Mal returns to his crew finding them safe. The blast doors open to reveal River has single-handedly defeated the Reavers. The wall behind her explodes and they are surrounded by Alliance troops. The Operative, realizing he has been lied to by the government, gives the order for Alliance operatives to stand down from executing the Serenity crew.
After the crew buries their dead friends on Haven, they patch up Serenity in a repair yard on Persephone. Kaylee and Simon consummate their relationship. The Operative tells Mal that the Alliance has been weakened and that Mal and his crew are safe for the moment. Serenity returns to space with Mal at the helm and River acting as copilot.
with Universal Pictures
, who immediately signed on after watching the episodes on DVD. By June 2003, actors Nathan Fillion
and Adam Baldwin
confirmed the deal on the official Firefly forum, as did Whedon in several interviews.
The opening sequence shifts perspectives several times, from a traditional narrative to that of a schoolroom which is later revealed to be River's disjointed memories. Whedon said in the DVD commentary that the approach works thematically as well, since it depicts River's fractured state of mind. Once the narrative reaches Serenity herself, Whedon uses a long tracking shot
of several minutes to establish "safety", as well as (re-)introduce every character aboard ship and touch on their personality and motivations.
On March 3, 2004 the movie was officially given the greenlight
to enter production and was revealed to have a budget of under $40 million. Typically, production of a movie would try to save money by not filming in Los Angeles
, but Whedon insisted on staying local.
Principal photography began on June 3, 2004. Joss Whedon said that the film would be titled Serenity, in order to differentiate it from the TV series. (Whedon also mentions in the Serenity DVD commentary that Fox still owned the rights to the name 'Firefly'). All nine principal cast members from the television series (Adam Baldwin
, Alan Tudyk
, Gina Torres
, Jewel Staite
, Morena Baccarin
, Nathan Fillion
, Ron Glass
, Sean Maher
, and Summer Glau
) returned for the movie. Stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski, a student of Jeet Kune Do
under Dan Inosanto
, created a customized fighting style for Summer Glau to use in the film's fight scenes. It was a hybrid of Kung Fu, kickboxing
and elements of ballet
, all combined to create a "balletic" martial art.
One cost-cutting item that could not be reused from the television show was the original set of the interior of the spaceship Serenity, which had to be entirely rebuilt using frozen images from the Firefly DVD set. The set for the failed colony, Miranda, was filmed on location at Diamond Ranch High School
in Pomona, California.
On September 17, 2004, Whedon announced on the movie's official website that shooting had been completed.
Renowned comic book artist Bernie Wrightson
, co-creator of Swamp Thing
, contributed concept drawings for the Reavers
. Other comic book artists who contributed to the production design include Joshua Middleton
and Leinil Francis Yu
(Visual Companion).
Serenity costumes are influenced by Wild West style: natural materials such as wool, cotton, and leather in drab earth tones predominate. Some clothing also reflects an east, south, and southeast Asian and Indian fusion of color and beauty as well as influences from the American Civil War, late 19th century as well as the 1930s depression era. Mal's suspenders are strongly influenced by a World War II design. The clothing of the Alliance
organization within the series (in reality, reused uniforms from Starship Troopers
) is monolithically monochromatic, similar to the uniforms of the Galactic Empire
in the Star Wars
films. Serenity appears to be influenced by Western genre
set design, in particular, entertainment programs set in the West
during the 1970s and 1980s such as Little House on the Prairie
. The cramped interior of the Serenity ship itself appears to be strongly influenced by the "worn future" precedent set by the famous fictional Star Wars spaceship the Millennium Falcon
but devolved even further. In a similar vein to the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
, Serenity goes for an occasional underdone look, or "used future", as Star Wars creator George Lucas
refers to it.
This future envisioned in Serenity has two political and cultural centers: Anglo-American and Chinese. Characters all speak English and Mandarin, with the latter language reserved for the strongest curse words. While these two are the dominant languages of the film, other languages are also spoken in the Firefly / Serenity universe, including Russian (spoken by Simon during the movie). The safeword phrase that Simon uses to shut River down, "Eta kuram na smekh", is a Russian expression ("Это курам на смех"). Literally, it means, "That's for chickens to laugh at" — a Russian idiom for "That's ridiculous". The Japanese Katakana
characters are also present around the universe, most obviously seen in the flowing script on River's desk screen at her school. A sticker with the Arabic word "الدحار" (ad-dHār) appears behind Jayne's head on a wall inside Serenity's bridge when the crew is discussing whether or not they should go to Miranda.
As the budget for the film was considerably smaller than for other films, practical special effects were used as much as possible: if a CGI
composite was required, as many tangible sets and props as possible were constructed to minimize the use of CGI effects. The most technically challenging scene was the mule skiff chase. For budgetary reasons, a gimbal
and CGI, much like those used in the pod race in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
, were quickly ruled out, creating a challenge for the production team to find an alternative. Instead, the crew fashioned a trailer with a cantilevered arm attached to the "hovercraft" and shot the scene while riding up Templin Highway
north of Santa Clarita. Serenity visual effects supervisor Loni Peristere stated in a Los Angeles Times article, "Traditionally this would have been, like, a 30-day shoot. I think we did it in five." Zoic Studios
, the CG-rendering company that produced the graphics for the series, had to perform a complete overhaul of their computer model of Serenity, as the television model would not stand up to the high-definition scrutiny of cinema screens (and High-definition video
resolution).
, and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony
under Newman's direction. According to director Joss Whedon's sleeve notes for the album, Newman was recommended by Universal's music executives when he requested a musician capable of "everything". Whedon's directions to Newman for the Serenity theme were that he wanted something homemade and mournful that would let viewers know that they were now "home" and evoke the idea of the pioneer, when everyone only had what they could carry. The official soundtrack
was released on CD on September 27, 2005.
It is of note that the acoustic guitar version of the "Ballad of Serenity" (from Firefly), which was used at the end of the film's credits, is absent from the soundtrack.
. The first stage of screenings was held in 10 cities on May 5, 2005. The second stage, held on May 26, 2005, added 10 more cities and was also the source of controversy when theaters began selling tickets before the official announcement was made, leading some shows to be immediately sold out. The third round, with an additional 15 cities, was held on June 23, 2005. The screenings proved successful, with all three stages selling out in less than 24 hours, the screening in Washington, D.C.
sold out in a mere 22 minutes and the screening in Phoenix in only eight minutes.
Australian audiences were the first outside North America to get preview screenings. After an exclusive Sydney
test screening, Melbourne
held a public screening on July 21, 2005. This was followed by a film festival screening on the Gold Coast
on July 22, 2005. Public preview screenings were held in Adelaide
and Sydney
on August 1, 2005, and Perth
on August 4, 2005. Further screenings were held in Victoria
, Tasmania
, and Queensland
in late August. There had been a screening of the unfinished film in February 2005 at the British Film Institute in London. This version of the film had a temporary score, including movements from Braveheart, as well as some unrendered effects and scenes which were later deleted. The audience comprised industry professionals and fans.
A showing of the finished film billed as the "Gala Premiere" was held at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
on August 22, 2005, followed by an interview with Whedon the next day, and preview screenings across the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 24, 2005, in London
, Birmingham
, Manchester
and Dublin. Several of the screenings in all the countries featured the attendance of Joss Whedon and the film's cast, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Whedon also attended two Q&A sessions after sold-out screenings of the finished film in Melbourne
and Sydney
on September 12, 2005 and September 13, 2005.
The trailer also generated considerable buzz on the internet. It was uploaded on April 26, 2005 and by April 28, 2005, it topped the Yahoo Buzz Index. On October 5, 2005, Universal made the first nine minutes of Serenity available online. A browser plug-in allowed the viewer to see the opening of the film in full-screen broadcast quality (bandwidth
permitting). The clip was removed a few weeks later.
Serenity was also the first motion picture to be screened digitally, fully DCI
-compliant.
, and published by Simon & Schuster
imprint Pocket Star Books
on 2005-09-01. Serenity: The Official Visual Companion was written by Joss Whedon, published by Titan Books
, and released on September 1, 2005 in paperback. It contained the film's screenplay, along with other supplemental features such as concept art, film images, and a map of the universe. A role-playing game
titled Serenity
, published by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd
, was released in 2005. This was followed by Serenity: Out in the Black by Tracy and Laura Hickman.
A three-issue comic book
series titled Serenity: Those Left Behind
was released from July through September 2005. It was intended to bridge the gap between the end of the television series and the beginning of the film. The comic was written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, illustrated by Will Conrad and Laura Martin
, and published by Dark Horse Comics
. The story focuses on the crew of Serenity taking a salvage job from Badger following a botched theft on a backwater planet, and the pursuit of River by the ominous blue-gloved men seen in the television series. In March through May 2008, a new Serenity miniseries, titled Serenity: Better Days
, was released, relating a heist where everything goes right and the crew finds themselves in a rare place: on easy street. The adventure takes place "before the movie and before certain people were iced"; i.e., in the timeframe of Firefly.
campaign, producing five short videos that were released on the internet between August 16, 2005 and September 5, 2005. These short films, known as the "R. Tam sessions
", depicted excerpts of counseling sessions with the character River Tam while she was being held at a "learning facility" known only as "The Academy". The counselor in these sessions is played by Joss Whedon himself. Taking place before the events of the film or the television series, the videos shed some light on the experiments and torture "The Academy" conducted on River. They "document" her transformation from a shy child prodigy to the mentally unstable character of the television series.
DVD
, UMD
, and VHS
, and the DVD quickly went to #1 in sales on Amazon.com
. It also spent two weeks in the top ten on Billboards Top DVD Sales charts, peaking at #3. As of January 15, 2006, the DVD/VHS rentals of the film had grossed around $9,190,000. Included as extras on the DVD are an audio commentary by Joss Whedon, deleted scenes and outtakes, and several short documentaries. These documentaries include "Future History: The Story of Earth That Was", "What's in a Firefly", and "Re-Lighting the Firefly". Also included is a short introduction to the film by Joss Whedon, and an easter egg
that features a small featurette on the "Fruity Oaty Bar" commercial. NASA
astronaut
Steven Swanson
, a fan of the show, took the Region 1 Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis
' STS-117
mission, which lifted off on Friday June 8, 2007. The DVDs will permanently reside on the International Space Station
as a form of entertainment for the station's crews.
The film was released as a two-disc set in Australia (Region 4) and parts of Europe (Region 2) on February 8, 2006. This version included new features, in addition to the supplemental material found on the North American (Region 1) release. At present, disc 2 is exclusive only to Australia and Benelux — Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand. It was released in Germany as part of the special edition However, other international territories may decide to release the 2nd disc as well. Added material for disc 1 includes "A Filmmaker's Journey: Journey with Joss from Script to Screen", which is available on all international DVDs, but not the US version. Added material for disc 2 includes a Joss Whedon Q&A session filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, extended scenes, and two documentaries titled "Take a Walk on Serenity" and "The Green Clan". An "exclusive collector's tin" version of Serenity was released for the two disk edition by the EzyDVD chain of stores in Australia.
Serenity was released on HD DVD
on April 18, 2006, and was one of the first films to be released on the format. It ranked in the later 100s on Amazon.com
in top selling DVDs. Given the low demand for HD DVDs at that point, this is quite notable. The disc included all of the bonus features found on the original Region 1 disc. As of November 29, 2006 Serenity was the fifteenth highest-selling HD DVD. After the title key for Serenity was copied from a software player
(as documented in Muslix64's doom9 forum thread) and posted on the internet as a riddle, the film soon became the first HD DVD release to be released on the BitTorrent network on January 12, 2007. The pirated release was a 19.6 GB 1080p
VC-1
.EVO file with 5.1 DDPlus encoded sound. Although many other releases soon followed after the discoveries in muslix64's thread, Serenitys marked the beginning of widespread HD DVD pirating.
A two-disc Collector's Edition DVD of the film was released for Region 1 on August 21, 2007. According to Whedon, the excellent sales figures for the "Normal Edition" DVD allowed this release. The DVD included all of the once-Australian-exclusive bonus features, sans the Joss Whedon Q&A session filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, and with new content including a DTS 5.1 surround track, a second commentary with Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass, the R. Tam sessions (dubbed "Session 416"), and the Sci-Fi Inside: Serenity documentary. Universal Pictures redesigned the film's official website to reflect the new DVD set.
On Tuesday, December 30, 2008, Serenity was released on Blu-ray Disc.
, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. By mid-June, 41 such screenings had been confirmed for cities in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States, and as of June 19, 2006, there were 47 scheduled screenings. The project was referred to as "Serenity Now/Equality Now" on the official website, is often referred to in shortened form as "Serenity Now", and was coordinated through "Can't Stop The Serenity".
This has become a multi-venue event held each calendar year in various countries and cities and on various dates throughout the year. Funds raised by the events go to Equality Now (and other charities). The following are results from past and ongoing events (in USD):
Serenitys international box office results were mixed, with strong openings in the UK, Portugal and Russia, but poor results in Spain, Australia, France and Italy. United International Pictures
canceled the film's theatrical release in at least seven countries, planning to release it directly to DVD instead. The box office income outside the United States was $13.3 million, with a worldwide total of $38.9 million, slightly less than the film's $39 million budget, which does not include the promotion and advertising costs.
. Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "Two Thumbs Up" rating, and The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a triumph", while The New York Times
described it as a modest but superior science fiction film. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card
called Serenity "the best science fiction film ever", further stating "If Ender's Game
can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made. I'd rather just watch Serenity again."
However, some reviewers felt the film was unable to overcome its television origins, and did not successfully accomplish the transition to the big screen. USA Today
wrote that "the characters are generally uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the futuristic Western-style plot grows tedious" while Variety
declared that the film "bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars".
announced an online poll to name Node 3
of the International Space Station
, and NASA-suggested options included Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture. At the March 20, 2009 poll close, 'Serenity', led those four choices with 70% of the vote, though the winner of the poll was 'Colbert', a reference to late night comedy show host Stephen Colbert
(In the end, the poll was discarded and the node was eventually named 'Tranquility'). Multiple internet sites have asserted that that name is a nod to the Whedon-created fictional spacecraft, while Fox News observed simply that it "shares the name of a spaceship in the cult favorite television series 'Firefly'".
The Operative embodies the Alliance and is, as Whedon described, the "perfect product of what's wrong with the Alliance". He is someone whose motives are to achieve a good end, a "world without sin". The Operative believes so strongly in this idea that he willingly compromises his humanity in furtherance of it - as he himself admits, he would have no place in this world. In contrast, Mal is, at the movie's beginning, a man who has lost all faith. By the end of the movie, however, Mal has finally come to believe in something — individual liberty — so strongly that he becomes willing to lay down his life to preserve it. Whedon has said that the most important line in the film is Mal's contented promise to the Operative at its climax: "I'm going to show you a world without sin", as he shows him the Miranda footage. Whedon's point is that a world without sin is a world without choice, and that choice is ultimately what defines humanity.
Joss Whedon said in the DVD commentary track that the planet "Miranda" was named for Shakespeare's
Miranda in The Tempest, who says in Act V, scene I: "O brave new world, / That has such people in't!" The Alliance had hoped that Miranda would be a new kind of world, filled with peaceful, happy people, and represents the "inane optimism of the Alliance".
Malcolm Reynolds, the main character in this film, shoots at least three unarmed people, even one that was surrendering. On the DVD director's commentary, director Joss Whedon stated that he included this scene as "a reaction to the Greedo incident
in Star Wars
."
The Fruity Oaty Bar commercial is partially inspired by Mr. Sparkle, the mascot of a fictional brand of dish-washing detergent, who was featured in The Simpsons
episode "In Marge We Trust
". Whedon also mentions, in a feature on the Serenity DVD, that when the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial was being designed, he constantly asked the animators to redesign it and make it even more bizarre than the previous design, until it arrived at the version presented on screen.
for the network). Fans' hopes for further theatrical films appear to have been partially dashed by Serenitys mediocre box office showing. Whedon has stated that if a sequel is made, he hopes to address the character Book's backstory and deal with Jubal Early, a bounty hunter character in Firefly. The first major sequel rumor began on December 1, 2005, when IGN Filmforce
reported that Universal had expressed an interest in making a Serenity TV movie for broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel
(which is owned by Universal), and eventual DVD sale. It was expected that commissioning of a television sequel would be contingent on strong DVD sales of Serenity. In a January 2006 interview, Whedon doubted the chances of a sequel. On June 23, 2006 a number of fans organized and spread word of "Serenity Day", on which all fans were proposed to purchase a copy of Serenity in an attempt to convince Universal that a sequel would be profitable. The significance of this day was that June 23, 2006 was the one-year anniversary of the third and final advance screening of Serenity prior to its release, as well as Joss Whedon's birthday. The impact of the event could be seen from Serenity reaching #2 in the Amazon DVD Charts, the highest ranking the DVD had reached since January 16, 2006.
On October 1, 2006, Whedon posted a comment to the Whedonesque.com
website, responding to a rumor that he was currently working on a sequel to Serenity. He wrote,
Whedon's response to the rumor consequently sparked many websites to publish articles stating that he would never work on a sequel to Serenity. Whedon again returned to Whedonesque.com to respond to the new stories and wrote,
In an interview at the 2007 Comic-Con
, Whedon stated that he believes hope for a sequel rests in the sales of the Collector's Edition DVD. In an August 2007 interview with Amazon.com prior to the Collector's Edition DVD release, Whedon stated, "It's still on my mind, I mean, but I don't know if mine is the only mind that it's on." He later said, "You know, whether or not anybody who's involved would be available at that point everybody's working, I'm happy to say is a question, but whether I would want to do another one is not a question." On October 4, 2007, Alan Tudyk
suggested in an interview that Universal was considering another film due to DVD sales, although Joss Whedon later discounted Tudyk's statement as being "wishful thinking."
Space western
Space Western is a subgenre of science fiction, primarily grounded in film and television programming, that transposes themes of American Western books and film to a backdrop of futuristic space frontiers; it is the complement of the science fiction Western, which transposes science fiction themes...
film written and directed by Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
. It is a continuation of the short-lived 2002 Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Firefly
Firefly (TV series)
Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
, taking place after the events of the final episode
Objects in Space
"Objects in Space" is the 14th episode and series finale of the science fiction television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon. Serenity encounters Jubal Early, a ruthless professional bounty hunter who will stop at nothing to retrieve River...
. Set in 2518, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a cargo ship
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing side. Their lives of petty crime are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.
The film was released in North America on September 30, 2005 by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. It received generally positive reviews and was number two its opening weekend, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend. The movie spent two weeks in the top ten, and its total domestic box office gross was $25.5 million with a foreign box office gross of $13.3 million. However, it did not make back its budget until its release on DVD. Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005
The Film programme
The Film programme is a British film review television programme, broadcast weekly on BBC One, presented by Claudia Winkleman and Danny Leigh. The title of the show changes each year to incorporate the year of broadcast, with the current series being Film 2011, but when referring to successive...
and FilmFocus
FilmFocus
FilmFocus is a British film website which has been running since January 2004. According to Alexa Internet data it is the second most popular film website in the United Kingdom behind Empire 's website.-Site Features:...
. It also won IGN Film
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie. It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script
Nebula Award for Best Script
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Script. The stated year is that of release; awards are given in the following year. Winning titles are listed first, with other nominees listed below. In 1974, 1975, and 1977 the award was for "Best Dramatic Presentation"...
for 2005, the 7th annual 'User Tomato Awards' for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie, the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form and the 2006 Prometheus Special Award
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
.
Plot
In 2518, humanity has moved to another star system. The inner planets are controlled by the AllianceAlliance (Firefly)
The Alliance is a fictional supra-governmental entity in the Serenity franchise, a powerful authoritarian government and law-enforcement organization that controls the majority of territory within the known universe...
with frontier justice among the outer planets. A young girl, River Tam, is being mentally and physically conditioned by Alliance scientists. She is rescued from them by her brother, Simon and the two seek refuge aboard the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity captained by Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds
Malcolm Reynolds
Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds is a fictional character and main protagonist in the Firefly franchise. Reynolds is played by actor Nathan Fillion in the 2002 TV series Firefly and the 2005 film Serenity. In the series, Reynolds is the captain of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity...
. An Alliance agent, the Operative, is tasked with eliminating River as she has been observed by Alliance politicians and may have learned certain secrets due to her psychic abilities.
Aboard Serenity, Mal brings River on a bank raid against her brother's wishes. They are attacked by Reavers, animalistic humans who savagely mutilate, rape, and murder their victims. They escape, but Simon decides to leave Serenity at the next port. While Mal meets fences
Fence (criminal)
A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
Fanty and Mingo, River becomes entranced by a TV commercial and begins attacking everyone. Before she can attack Mal, Simon arrives and shouts a "safe word" which causes her to fall asleep. Mal reluctantly allows Simon and River back on to Serenity. The crew contacts a reclusive hacker known as Mr. Universe who analyzes the commercial and discovers a subliminal
Subliminal stimuli
Subliminal stimuli , contrary to supraliminal stimuli or "above threshold", are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception. The large majority of research has found that subliminal messages do not produce strong or lasting changes in behavior...
message being broadcast across the Alliance designed to trigger River. He notes that River whispered the name "Miranda" before attacking.
Mal receives a call from Inara, a former passenger. Suspecting a trap but realizing that she is in danger, Mal visits Inara and is confronted by the Operative. The Operative offers to let Mal go free if he turns River over, but thanks to Inara's quick thinking she and Mal escape. After another of River's outbursts, the crew learns about Miranda, an outer rim planet thought to have been rendered uninhabitable as the result of a terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
accident. Serenity travels to Haven, a mining colony and home of Shepherd Book
Derrial Book
Derrial Book is a fictional character played by Ron Glass in the science-fiction/Western television series Firefly and its sequel movie, Serenity...
, a former passenger and friend of the crew. They discover the outpost has been destroyed by Alliance forces. The Operative has ordered the deaths of all of Mal's contacts to deny him a safe haven and promises that he will continue to pursue them until River is turned over.
Mal orders Serenity modified to resemble a Reaver ship so they can reach Miranda. After sailing through a fleet of Reaver vessels, the crew discovers a normal planet, with its cities empty and laden with corpses. They discover a log recorded by an Alliance survey team explaining that the Alliance administered a chemical designed to suppress aggression, which killed off the populace. However, one tenth of the population instead became hyper-aggressive and unstable. The Alliance is responsible for the creation of the Reavers.
Mal contacts Mr. Universe's transmitter to arrange to have the log transmitted throughout the verse, but the Operative is already there. Serenity departs Miranda, but as they leave Reaver territory, they open fire on one of the ships. The Reavers pursue Serenity to Mr. Universe's planet where they engage the waiting Alliance fleet. The Operative's ship is destroyed but he survives in an escape pod. In the confusion, Serenity manages to crash land, but pilot Wash is killed by a pursuing Reaver ship. Finding Mr. Universe dead, Mal learns from a recorded message of a second transmitter. The crew sets up a last stand against the pursuing Reavers, buying Mal the time he needs to send the message. The crew find themselves overwhelmed by the Reavers and retreat behind a set of blast doors, but find they will not close. Zoe and Kaylee are injured, but Simon discovers he has left his medical kit at their prior position. As he rises to retrieve it, he is shot. He apologizes to River for failing her, but she announces that it is her turn to take care of Simon. She charges through the blast doors, triggering the closing mechanism and throws the medical kit to Simon before being dragged away by Reavers.
Mal finds the transmitter, but The Operative reveals himself and the two begin fighting. Mal disables The Operative and restrains him next to a railing, forcing him to watch the recording from Miranda. Mal returns to his crew finding them safe. The blast doors open to reveal River has single-handedly defeated the Reavers. The wall behind her explodes and they are surrounded by Alliance troops. The Operative, realizing he has been lied to by the government, gives the order for Alliance operatives to stand down from executing the Serenity crew.
After the crew buries their dead friends on Haven, they patch up Serenity in a repair yard on Persephone. Kaylee and Simon consummate their relationship. The Operative tells Mal that the Alliance has been weakened and that Mal and his crew are safe for the moment. Serenity returns to space with Mal at the helm and River acting as copilot.
Cast
- Nathan FillionNathan FillionNathan Fillion is a Canadian actor, currently starring as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. He is also known for his portrayal of the lead role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its feature film continuation, Serenity.He has acted in traditionally distributed...
as Malcolm "Mal" ReynoldsMalcolm ReynoldsMalcolm "Mal" Reynolds is a fictional character and main protagonist in the Firefly franchise. Reynolds is played by actor Nathan Fillion in the 2002 TV series Firefly and the 2005 film Serenity. In the series, Reynolds is the captain of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity...
: A former sergeant on the losing side of the Unification War, he struggles to survive free and independent of the Alliance. Captain Malcolm Reynolds was named #18 in TV GuideTV GuideTV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...' s "25 Greatest Sci-fi Legends" list in 2004. - Gina TorresGina TorresGina Torres is an American television and movie actress. She is known for her roles in science fiction and fantasy. She has appeared in many television series, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys , Xena: Warrior Princess , the short-lived Cleopatra 2525, as well as Alias , Firefly Gina...
as Zoe Washburne (née Alleyne): A former corporal who fought under Mal in the war, and Wash's wife. She is fiercely loyal to Mal, whom she addresses as "sir". - Alan TudykAlan TudykAlan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
as Hoban "Wash" Washburne: The pilot of the ship, and Zoe's husband. He often acts as a voice of reason on the ship. - Sean MaherSean MaherSean Maher is an American actor, best known for his role as Simon Tam in the science fiction television series Firefly and followup movie Serenity.-Early life:...
as Simon Tam: Simon is River's loving older brother who helped rescue her from the Alliance. He and River are taken in by the crew of Serenity. A trauma surgeon before the rescue, he serves as a doctor to the crew. His life is defined by his sister's needs. - Summer GlauSummer GlauSummer Lyn Glau is an American actress, known for playing River Tam in the science fiction series Firefly and follow-up film Serenity, and for playing Cameron in the series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.-Early life:...
as River Tam: River is a seventeen-year old psychic genius. She and her brother are taken in by the crew of Serenity after he rescues her from an Alliance Academy where she was subjected to medical experimentation and brainwashing. The Alliance's pursuit of River acts as the film's motive. However, more abstractly the film is the "story of Mal as told by River". - Morena BaccarinMorena BaccarinMorena Baccarin is a Brazilian-born American actress most widely known for roles in several American science fiction television shows: as Inara Serra in the series Firefly; as Adria in the series Stargate SG-1; and as Anna in the 2009 version of the series V...
as Inara Serra: A Companion who formerly rented one of Serenity' s shuttles. In one of the Operative's traps, Mal is reunited with Inara at her training house, and the two escape back to Serenity. - Adam BaldwinAdam BaldwinAdam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
as Jayne Cobb: A mercenary skilled with weapons, Jayne is often the "main gun" for jobs and is someone who can be depended on in a fight. Jayne acts and seems dumb most of the time, but may be smarter than he lets on. As Whedon states several times, he is the person that will ask the questions that no one else wants to. - Jewel StaiteJewel StaiteJewel Belair Staite is a Canadian actress, who portrayed Catalina in Space Cases, Kaylee Frye in Firefly and Serenity, and Dr. Jennifer Keller on Stargate Atlantis.-Personal life:...
as Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye: the ship's mechanic, has an intuitive, almost symbiotic, relationship with machines and is, consequently, something of a mechanical wizard. She is also notable for a persistently bright and sunny disposition, and her crush on Simon Tam. - Ron GlassRon GlassRonald E. "Ron" Glass is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as the witty Det. Ron Harris in the television sitcom Barney Miller , and as the spiritual Shepherd Derrial Book in the short-lived 2002 science fiction series Firefly and its sequel film Serenity.-Early life:Glass was...
as Shepherd Derrial BookDerrial BookDerrial Book is a fictional character played by Ron Glass in the science-fiction/Western television series Firefly and its sequel movie, Serenity...
: A shepherd, or preacher, with a mysterious past, Book was once a passenger on Serenity, but now resides on the planet Haven. Mal and the crew look to him for help. - Chiwetel EjioforChiwetel EjioforChiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his...
as The Operative: A ruthless, intelligent agent of the Alliance assigned to track down River and Simon. Although Ejiofor was on the top of the casting director's list for the role, the studio wanted someone better known. Whedon, however, was eventually able to cast Ejiofor. - David KrumholtzDavid KrumholtzDavid Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
as Mr. Universe: A "techno-geek" with good relations with the crew of Serenity, especially Wash, Mr. Universe lives with his "love-bot" wife and monitors incoming signals from around the universe.
Development
The film is based on Firefly, a television series canceled by Fox television in December 2002, after 11 of its 14 produced episodes had aired. When attempts to have another network acquire the show failed, creator Joss Whedon attempted to sell it as a film. Through a business connection, he was introduced to Mary ParentMary Parent
Mary Parent is an American film executive, who is currently the Chairperson of Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Worldwide Motion Picture Group. She was a former President of Production for Universal Studios. There, she was responsible for Meet the Fockers, The Bourne Supremacy, Serenity, and other films...
with Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, who immediately signed on after watching the episodes on DVD. By June 2003, actors Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion is a Canadian actor, currently starring as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. He is also known for his portrayal of the lead role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its feature film continuation, Serenity.He has acted in traditionally distributed...
and Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
confirmed the deal on the official Firefly forum, as did Whedon in several interviews.
Writing
After Universal Studios acquired the movie rights to Firefly 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 Fireflys unfilmed 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 Universal under the title "The Kitchen Sink", Whedon was asked to cut down the script to a size filmable under his budget constraints. Universal planned to begin shooting in October 2003, but delays in finishing the script postponed the start of shooting to June 2004.The opening sequence shifts perspectives several times, from a traditional narrative to that of a schoolroom which is later revealed to be River's disjointed memories. Whedon said in the DVD commentary that the approach works thematically as well, since it depicts River's fractured state of mind. Once the narrative reaches Serenity herself, Whedon uses a long tracking shot
Long take
A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...
of several minutes to establish "safety", as well as (re-)introduce every character aboard ship and touch on their personality and motivations.
Filming
Universal, while on board with the movie, was not willing to spend the typical $100 million for a story set in space. Whedon convinced them he could do it for less money, and do it in 50 days, instead of the usual 80.On March 3, 2004 the movie was officially given the greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
to enter production and was revealed to have a budget of under $40 million. Typically, production of a movie would try to save money by not filming in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, but Whedon insisted on staying local.
Principal photography began on June 3, 2004. Joss Whedon said that the film would be titled Serenity, in order to differentiate it from the TV series. (Whedon also mentions in the Serenity DVD commentary that Fox still owned the rights to the name 'Firefly'). All nine principal cast members from the television series (Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
, Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
, Gina Torres
Gina Torres
Gina Torres is an American television and movie actress. She is known for her roles in science fiction and fantasy. She has appeared in many television series, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys , Xena: Warrior Princess , the short-lived Cleopatra 2525, as well as Alias , Firefly Gina...
, Jewel Staite
Jewel Staite
Jewel Belair Staite is a Canadian actress, who portrayed Catalina in Space Cases, Kaylee Frye in Firefly and Serenity, and Dr. Jennifer Keller on Stargate Atlantis.-Personal life:...
, Morena Baccarin
Morena Baccarin
Morena Baccarin is a Brazilian-born American actress most widely known for roles in several American science fiction television shows: as Inara Serra in the series Firefly; as Adria in the series Stargate SG-1; and as Anna in the 2009 version of the series V...
, Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion is a Canadian actor, currently starring as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. He is also known for his portrayal of the lead role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its feature film continuation, Serenity.He has acted in traditionally distributed...
, Ron Glass
Ron Glass
Ronald E. "Ron" Glass is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as the witty Det. Ron Harris in the television sitcom Barney Miller , and as the spiritual Shepherd Derrial Book in the short-lived 2002 science fiction series Firefly and its sequel film Serenity.-Early life:Glass was...
, Sean Maher
Sean Maher
Sean Maher is an American actor, best known for his role as Simon Tam in the science fiction television series Firefly and followup movie Serenity.-Early life:...
, and Summer Glau
Summer Glau
Summer Lyn Glau is an American actress, known for playing River Tam in the science fiction series Firefly and follow-up film Serenity, and for playing Cameron in the series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.-Early life:...
) returned for the movie. Stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski, a student of Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do is a hybrid martial arts system and life philosophy founded by martial artist Bruce Lee with direct, non classical and straightforward movements. Due to the way his style works they believe in minimal movement with maximum effect and extreme speed. The system works on the use of...
under Dan Inosanto
Dan Inosanto
Daniel Arca Inosanto is a Filipino-American martial arts instructor from California who is best known as a student of the late Bruce Lee and authority on Jeet Kune Do Concepts.-Martial arts:...
, created a customized fighting style for Summer Glau to use in the film's fight scenes. It was a hybrid of Kung Fu, kickboxing
Kickboxing
Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....
and elements of ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, all combined to create a "balletic" martial art.
One cost-cutting item that could not be reused from the television show was the original set of the interior of the spaceship Serenity, which had to be entirely rebuilt using frozen images from the Firefly DVD set. The set for the failed colony, Miranda, was filmed on location at Diamond Ranch High School
Diamond Ranch High School
Diamond Ranch High School is a high school operated by the Pomona Unified School District in Pomona, California. In 2003, Diamond Ranch was named as a California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education. In April 2007, it was named a California Distinguished School for the...
in Pomona, California.
On September 17, 2004, Whedon announced on the movie's official website that shooting had been completed.
Design
Bernie Wrightson
Bernie "Berni" Wrightson is an American artist known for his horror illustrations and comic books.-Biography:...
, co-creator of Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing, a fictional character, is a plant elemental in the created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. He first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century . The Swamp Thing then returned in his own series, set in the contemporary world and in...
, contributed concept drawings for the Reavers
Reaver (Firefly)
Reavers are a group of humans in the television series Firefly and the movie Serenity who live on the fringes of civilized space and have become animalistic...
. Other comic book artists who contributed to the production design include Joshua Middleton
Joshua Middleton
Joshua Middleton is an artist and designer working in the animation, film, comics, and book industries...
and Leinil Francis Yu
Leinil Francis Yu
Leinil Francis Yu is a Filipino comic book artist, who began working for the American market through Wildstorm Productions. In an interview published in Marvel's Daily Bugle newsletter, he described his style as "Dynamic Pseudo-Realism."-Career:Leinil Francis Yu was first recognized after winning...
(Visual Companion).
Serenity costumes are influenced by Wild West style: natural materials such as wool, cotton, and leather in drab earth tones predominate. Some clothing also reflects an east, south, and southeast Asian and Indian fusion of color and beauty as well as influences from the American Civil War, late 19th century as well as the 1930s depression era. Mal's suspenders are strongly influenced by a World War II design. The clothing of the Alliance
Alliance (Firefly)
The Alliance is a fictional supra-governmental entity in the Serenity franchise, a powerful authoritarian government and law-enforcement organization that controls the majority of territory within the known universe...
organization within the series (in reality, reused uniforms from Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers (film)
Starship Troopers is a 1997 American military science fiction film, written by Edward Neumeier , directed by Paul Verhoeven, loosely adapted from Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the only theatrically released film in the Starship Troopers franchise...
) is monolithically monochromatic, similar to the uniforms of the Galactic Empire
Galactic Empire (Star Wars)
The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It is a galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in Star Wars...
in the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
films. Serenity appears to be influenced by Western genre
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
set design, in particular, entertainment programs set in the West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
during the 1970s and 1980s such as Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
. The cramped interior of the Serenity ship itself appears to be strongly influenced by the "worn future" precedent set by the famous fictional Star Wars spaceship the Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
but devolved even further. In a similar vein to the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
, Serenity goes for an occasional underdone look, or "used future", as Star Wars creator George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
refers to it.
This future envisioned in Serenity has two political and cultural centers: Anglo-American and Chinese. Characters all speak English and Mandarin, with the latter language reserved for the strongest curse words. While these two are the dominant languages of the film, other languages are also spoken in the Firefly / Serenity universe, including Russian (spoken by Simon during the movie). The safeword phrase that Simon uses to shut River down, "Eta kuram na smekh", is a Russian expression ("Это курам на смех"). Literally, it means, "That's for chickens to laugh at" — a Russian idiom for "That's ridiculous". The Japanese Katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
characters are also present around the universe, most obviously seen in the flowing script on River's desk screen at her school. A sticker with the Arabic word "الدحار" (ad-dHār) appears behind Jayne's head on a wall inside Serenity's bridge when the crew is discussing whether or not they should go to Miranda.
Visual effects
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
composite was required, as many tangible sets and props as possible were constructed to minimize the use of CGI effects. The most technically challenging scene was the mule skiff chase. For budgetary reasons, a gimbal
Gimbal
A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis. A set of two gimbals, one mounted on the other with pivot axes orthogonal, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain immobile regardless of the motion of its support...
and CGI, much like those used in the pod race in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the fourth film to be released in the Star Wars saga, as the first of a three-part prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as the first film in the saga in terms...
, were quickly ruled out, creating a challenge for the production team to find an alternative. Instead, the crew fashioned a trailer with a cantilevered arm attached to the "hovercraft" and shot the scene while riding up Templin Highway
Templin Highway
Templin Highway is a two-lane road in Los Angeles County, California, United States that connects Interstate 5 and the old Golden State Highway with the north end of Castaic Lake. Originally named Warm Springs Road, it was renamed in 1967 after county highway commissioner Newton H. Templin, who had...
north of Santa Clarita. Serenity visual effects supervisor Loni Peristere stated in a Los Angeles Times article, "Traditionally this would have been, like, a 30-day shoot. I think we did it in five." Zoic Studios
Zoic Studios
Zoic Studios is a visual effects company based in Culver City, California. They specialize in visual effects for feature films, episodic television, commercials, video games, advertising design, and interactive online media...
, the CG-rendering company that produced the graphics for the series, had to perform a complete overhaul of their computer model of Serenity, as the television model would not stand up to the high-definition scrutiny of cinema screens (and High-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
resolution).
Musical score
The film's musical score was composed by David NewmanDavid Newman (composer)
David Louis Newman is an American composer and conductor known particularly for his film scores. In a career spanning nearly forty years, he has composed music for nearly 100 feature films.-Life and career:...
, and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony
Hollywood Studio Symphony
The Hollywood Studio Symphony is the credited name of the symphony orchestra behind many major soundtracks, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Sucker Punch, Jurassic Park 3, Last Samurai, Pirates of the Caribbean, We Are Marshall, Spider-Man 2, Lost and The...
under Newman's direction. According to director Joss Whedon's sleeve notes for the album, Newman was recommended by Universal's music executives when he requested a musician capable of "everything". Whedon's directions to Newman for the Serenity theme were that he wanted something homemade and mournful that would let viewers know that they were now "home" and evoke the idea of the pioneer, when everyone only had what they could carry. The official soundtrack
Serenity (soundtrack)
- Reviews:* , by Spence D. at IGN.com* by Steve Townsley at tracksounds.com...
was released on CD on September 27, 2005.
It is of note that the acoustic guitar version of the "Ballad of Serenity" (from Firefly), which was used at the end of the film's credits, is absent from the soundtrack.
Release
Hoping to generate buzz through early word-of-mouth, Universal launched an unprecedented 3-stage campaign to sneak preview the then unfinished movie in 35 US cities where the series had earned high Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. The first stage of screenings was held in 10 cities on May 5, 2005. The second stage, held on May 26, 2005, added 10 more cities and was also the source of controversy when theaters began selling tickets before the official announcement was made, leading some shows to be immediately sold out. The third round, with an additional 15 cities, was held on June 23, 2005. The screenings proved successful, with all three stages selling out in less than 24 hours, the screening in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
sold out in a mere 22 minutes and the screening in Phoenix in only eight minutes.
Australian audiences were the first outside North America to get preview screenings. After an exclusive Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
test screening, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
held a public screening on July 21, 2005. This was followed by a film festival screening on the Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
on July 22, 2005. Public preview screenings were held in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on August 1, 2005, and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
on August 4, 2005. Further screenings were held in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
in late August. There had been a screening of the unfinished film in February 2005 at the British Film Institute in London. This version of the film had a temporary score, including movements from Braveheart, as well as some unrendered effects and scenes which were later deleted. The audience comprised industry professionals and fans.
A showing of the finished film billed as the "Gala Premiere" was held at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
on August 22, 2005, followed by an interview with Whedon the next day, and preview screenings across the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 24, 2005, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Dublin. Several of the screenings in all the countries featured the attendance of Joss Whedon and the film's cast, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Whedon also attended two Q&A sessions after sold-out screenings of the finished film in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on September 12, 2005 and September 13, 2005.
The trailer also generated considerable buzz on the internet. It was uploaded on April 26, 2005 and by April 28, 2005, it topped the Yahoo Buzz Index. On October 5, 2005, Universal made the first nine minutes of Serenity available online. A browser plug-in allowed the viewer to see the opening of the film in full-screen broadcast quality (bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
permitting). The clip was removed a few weeks later.
Serenity was also the first motion picture to be screened digitally, fully DCI
Digital Cinema Initiatives
Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC or DCI is a joint venture of major motion picture studios, formed to establish a standard architecture for digital cinema systems.The organization was formed in March 2002 by the following studios:* Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
-compliant.
Marketing
Several tie-in products were released to promote the film; The novelization of the film was written by Keith R. A. DeCandidoKeith R. A. DeCandido
Keith Robert Andreassi DeCandido is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and musician, who works on comic books, novels, role-playing games and video games, including numerous media tie-in books for properties such as Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Supernatural,...
, and published by Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
imprint Pocket Star Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
on 2005-09-01. Serenity: The Official Visual Companion was written by Joss Whedon, published by Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
, and released on September 1, 2005 in paperback. It contained the film's screenplay, along with other supplemental features such as concept art, film images, and a map of the universe. A role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
titled Serenity
Serenity (role-playing game)
Serenity Role Playing Game is a science fiction role-playing game released in 2005 and set in the universe of the movie Serenity and television series Firefly...
, published by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd
Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd
Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd is a publisher.It published Serenity role playing game in late 2005 to coincide with the release of Joss Whedon's feature film Serenity based on the television series Firefly...
, was released in 2005. This was followed by Serenity: Out in the Black by Tracy and Laura Hickman.
A three-issue comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series titled Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: Those Left Behind is a 2005 three-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics. It was written by Brett Matthews with Joss Whedon credited for story, illustrated by Will Conrad, and colored by Laura Martin....
was released from July through September 2005. It was intended to bridge the gap between the end of the television series and the beginning of the film. The comic was written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, illustrated by Will Conrad and Laura Martin
Laura Martin
Laura DePuy is an award-winning colorist who has produced work for several of the major comics companies, including DC Comics, Marvel Comics and CrossGen.-Career:...
, and published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
. The story focuses on the crew of Serenity taking a salvage job from Badger following a botched theft on a backwater planet, and the pursuit of River by the ominous blue-gloved men seen in the television series. In March through May 2008, a new Serenity miniseries, titled Serenity: Better Days
Serenity: Better Days
Serenity: Better Days is a 2008 three-issue comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics, based on the 2002 science fiction television series Firefly, and the 2005 feature film into which it was adapted, Serenity....
, was released, relating a heist where everything goes right and the crew finds themselves in a rare place: on easy street. The adventure takes place "before the movie and before certain people were iced"; i.e., in the timeframe of Firefly.
R. Tam sessions
Universal also employed a viral marketingViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
campaign, producing five short videos that were released on the internet between August 16, 2005 and September 5, 2005. These short films, known as the "R. Tam sessions
R. Tam sessions
The R. Tam sessions are a series of five short videos released by Joss Whedon over the internet, which were set within his fictional Firefly universe...
", depicted excerpts of counseling sessions with the character River Tam while she was being held at a "learning facility" known only as "The Academy". The counselor in these sessions is played by Joss Whedon himself. Taking place before the events of the film or the television series, the videos shed some light on the experiments and torture "The Academy" conducted on River. They "document" her transformation from a shy child prodigy to the mentally unstable character of the television series.
Home video
Serenity was initially released on home video in North America on December 20, 2005. It was released on Region 1DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, UMD
Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on their PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform...
, and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, and the DVD quickly went to #1 in sales on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
. It also spent two weeks in the top ten on Billboards Top DVD Sales charts, peaking at #3. As of January 15, 2006, the DVD/VHS rentals of the film had grossed around $9,190,000. Included as extras on the DVD are an audio commentary by Joss Whedon, deleted scenes and outtakes, and several short documentaries. These documentaries include "Future History: The Story of Earth That Was", "What's in a Firefly", and "Re-Lighting the Firefly". Also included is a short introduction to the film by Joss Whedon, and an easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
that features a small featurette on the "Fruity Oaty Bar" commercial. NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Steven Swanson
Steven Swanson
Steven Ray Swanson is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. Swanson is married and has 3 children. Steven has received numerous awards and honors. These include the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the JSC Certificate of Accommodation and many others...
, a fan of the show, took the Region 1 Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis
Space Shuttle Atlantis
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...
' STS-117
STS-117
- Crew Notes :The initial crew manifest before the Columbia accident was:Astronaut Mark Polansky was originally slated to pilot this mission, but was moved to STS-116, which he commanded...
mission, which lifted off on Friday June 8, 2007. The DVDs will permanently reside on the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
as a form of entertainment for the station's crews.
The film was released as a two-disc set in Australia (Region 4) and parts of Europe (Region 2) on February 8, 2006. This version included new features, in addition to the supplemental material found on the North American (Region 1) release. At present, disc 2 is exclusive only to Australia and Benelux — Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand. It was released in Germany as part of the special edition However, other international territories may decide to release the 2nd disc as well. Added material for disc 1 includes "A Filmmaker's Journey: Journey with Joss from Script to Screen", which is available on all international DVDs, but not the US version. Added material for disc 2 includes a Joss Whedon Q&A session filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, extended scenes, and two documentaries titled "Take a Walk on Serenity" and "The Green Clan". An "exclusive collector's tin" version of Serenity was released for the two disk edition by the EzyDVD chain of stores in Australia.
Serenity was released on HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
on April 18, 2006, and was one of the first films to be released on the format. It ranked in the later 100s on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
in top selling DVDs. Given the low demand for HD DVDs at that point, this is quite notable. The disc included all of the bonus features found on the original Region 1 disc. As of November 29, 2006 Serenity was the fifteenth highest-selling HD DVD. After the title key for Serenity was copied from a software player
AACS encryption key controversy
A controversy surrounding the AACS cryptographic key arose in April 2007 when the Motion Picture Association of America and the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, LLC began issuing demand letters to websites publishing a 128-bit number, represented in hexadecimal as 09 F9 11...
(as documented in Muslix64's doom9 forum thread) and posted on the internet as a riddle, the film soon became the first HD DVD release to be released on the BitTorrent network on January 12, 2007. The pirated release was a 19.6 GB 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
VC-1
VC-1
VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
.EVO file with 5.1 DDPlus encoded sound. Although many other releases soon followed after the discoveries in muslix64's thread, Serenitys marked the beginning of widespread HD DVD pirating.
A two-disc Collector's Edition DVD of the film was released for Region 1 on August 21, 2007. According to Whedon, the excellent sales figures for the "Normal Edition" DVD allowed this release. The DVD included all of the once-Australian-exclusive bonus features, sans the Joss Whedon Q&A session filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, and with new content including a DTS 5.1 surround track, a second commentary with Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass, the R. Tam sessions (dubbed "Session 416"), and the Sci-Fi Inside: Serenity documentary. Universal Pictures redesigned the film's official website to reflect the new DVD set.
On Tuesday, December 30, 2008, Serenity was released on Blu-ray Disc.
Charity screenings
Beginning in January 2006, fans (with Universal's blessing) began organizing charity screenings of Serenity to benefit Equality NowEquality Now
Equality Now is a non-governmental organization founded in 1992 whose stated purpose is to protect the human rights of women around the world. The group provides an international framework for spreading awareness of issues and providing support to local grassroots groups working to address issues...
, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. By mid-June, 41 such screenings had been confirmed for cities in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States, and as of June 19, 2006, there were 47 scheduled screenings. The project was referred to as "Serenity Now/Equality Now" on the official website, is often referred to in shortened form as "Serenity Now", and was coordinated through "Can't Stop The Serenity".
This has become a multi-venue event held each calendar year in various countries and cities and on various dates throughout the year. Funds raised by the events go to Equality Now (and other charities). The following are results from past and ongoing events (in USD):
- 2006: $65,000
- 2007: $106,000
- 2008: $107,219
- 2009: $137,331
- 2010: $127,000
- 2011: $44,017 (as of August 23, 2011)
Box office performance
Despite critical acclaim and high anticipation, Serenity performed poorly at the box office. Although several pundits predicted a #1 opening, the film opened at #2 in the United States, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and closed on November 17, 2005 with a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million. Movie industry analyst Brandon Gray described Serenitys box office performance as "like a below average genre picture".Serenitys international box office results were mixed, with strong openings in the UK, Portugal and Russia, but poor results in Spain, Australia, France and Italy. United International Pictures
United International Pictures
United International Pictures is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios , to distribute some of the two studios' films theatrically outside the United States , Canada, and the Anglophone...
canceled the film's theatrical release in at least seven countries, planning to release it directly to DVD instead. The box office income outside the United States was $13.3 million, with a worldwide total of $38.9 million, slightly less than the film's $39 million budget, which does not include the promotion and advertising costs.
Critical reception
Serenity received mostly positive reviews from film critics, with 81% positive ratings at the movie review website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "Two Thumbs Up" rating, and The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a triumph", while The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described it as a modest but superior science fiction film. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
called Serenity "the best science fiction film ever", further stating "If Ender's Game
Ender's Game
Ender's Game is a science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. The book originated as the short story "Ender's Game", published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Elaborating on characters and plot lines depicted in the novel, Card later wrote additional...
can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made. I'd rather just watch Serenity again."
However, some reviewers felt the film was unable to overcome its television origins, and did not successfully accomplish the transition to the big screen. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
wrote that "the characters are generally uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the futuristic Western-style plot grows tedious" while Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
declared that the film "bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars".
Awards
- Film of the year awards from Film 2005The Film programmeThe Film programme is a British film review television programme, broadcast weekly on BBC One, presented by Claudia Winkleman and Danny Leigh. The title of the show changes each year to incorporate the year of broadcast, with the current series being Film 2011, but when referring to successive...
and FilmFocusFilmFocusFilmFocus is a British film website which has been running since January 2004. According to Alexa Internet data it is the second most popular film website in the United Kingdom behind Empire 's website.-Site Features:...
. - IGN Film's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and runner up to Batman BeginsBatman BeginsBatman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
for the Overall Best Movie - Won the 7th annual 'User Tomato Awards' for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. - Won Nebula Award for Best ScriptNebula Award for Best ScriptWinners of the Nebula Award for Best Script. The stated year is that of release; awards are given in the following year. Winning titles are listed first, with other nominees listed below. In 1974, 1975, and 1977 the award was for "Best Dramatic Presentation"...
for 2005. - 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie.
- Voted as the best film of 2006 by the writers for the website Box Office ProphetsBox Office ProphetsBox Office Prophets is a web site that contains movie-related features and information. Debuting on July 25, 2001, the site is a de facto sequel to the now-defunct the-prophets.com, a movie web site started in 1998...
and it came 12th Best film of 2006 in the website's readers poll. - Won Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form at the 2006 Hugo Awards.
- SyFy Genre Awards 2006:
- Best Movie Runner-Up
- Best Actor/Movie Runner-Up: Nathan Fillion
- Best Actress/Movie Runner-Up: Summer Glau
- SFX magazineSFX magazineSFX is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy.-Description:SFX magazine is published every four weeks by Future Publishing and was founded in 1995. The magazine covers topics in the genres of popular science fiction, fantasy and horror, within the media of films,...
s best sci-fi movie of all time.
In other media
On February 20, 2009 NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
announced an online poll to name Node 3
ISS node 3
Tranquility, also known as Node 3, is a module of the International Space Station . ESA and the Italian Space Agency had Tranquility built by Thales Alenia Space. A ceremony on November 20, 2009 transferred ownership of the module to NASA...
of the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, and NASA-suggested options included Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture. At the March 20, 2009 poll close, 'Serenity', led those four choices with 70% of the vote, though the winner of the poll was 'Colbert', a reference to late night comedy show host Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
(In the end, the poll was discarded and the node was eventually named 'Tranquility'). Multiple internet sites have asserted that that name is a nod to the Whedon-created fictional spacecraft, while Fox News observed simply that it "shares the name of a spaceship in the cult favorite television series 'Firefly'".
Themes and cultural allusions
While the film depicts the Alliance as an all-powerful, authoritarian-style regime, Whedon is careful to point out that it is not so simple as that. "The Alliance isn't some evil empire," he explains, but rather a largely benevolent bureaucratic force. The Alliance's main problem is that it seeks to govern everyone, regardless of whether they desire to belong to the central government or not. What the crew of Serenity, and specifically Mal and his lifestyle, represent is the idea that people should have the right to make their own decisions, even if those decisions are bad.The Operative embodies the Alliance and is, as Whedon described, the "perfect product of what's wrong with the Alliance". He is someone whose motives are to achieve a good end, a "world without sin". The Operative believes so strongly in this idea that he willingly compromises his humanity in furtherance of it - as he himself admits, he would have no place in this world. In contrast, Mal is, at the movie's beginning, a man who has lost all faith. By the end of the movie, however, Mal has finally come to believe in something — individual liberty — so strongly that he becomes willing to lay down his life to preserve it. Whedon has said that the most important line in the film is Mal's contented promise to the Operative at its climax: "I'm going to show you a world without sin", as he shows him the Miranda footage. Whedon's point is that a world without sin is a world without choice, and that choice is ultimately what defines humanity.
Joss Whedon said in the DVD commentary track that the planet "Miranda" was named for Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Miranda in The Tempest, who says in Act V, scene I: "O brave new world, / That has such people in't!" The Alliance had hoped that Miranda would be a new kind of world, filled with peaceful, happy people, and represents the "inane optimism of the Alliance".
Malcolm Reynolds, the main character in this film, shoots at least three unarmed people, even one that was surrendering. On the DVD director's commentary, director Joss Whedon stated that he included this scene as "a reaction to the Greedo incident
Han shot first
"Han shot first" is a phrase used by Star Wars fans to refer to a controversial change made to a scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. In the scene, Han Solo meets the bounty hunter Greedo at the Mos Eisley Cantina...
in Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
."
The Fruity Oaty Bar commercial is partially inspired by Mr. Sparkle, the mascot of a fictional brand of dish-washing detergent, who was featured in The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "In Marge We Trust
In Marge We Trust
"In Marge We Trust" is the twenty-second episode of The Simpsons eighth season, which originally aired April 27, 1997. It was written by Donick Cary and directed by Steven Dean Moore. The episode guest stars Sab Shimono as Mr. Sparkle, Gedde Watanabe as the factory worker, Denice Kumagai and Karen...
". Whedon also mentions, in a feature on the Serenity DVD, that when the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial was being designed, he constantly asked the animators to redesign it and make it even more bizarre than the previous design, until it arrived at the version presented on screen.
Sequel possibilities
Fans of Firefly had hoped that if Serenity had been successful, it might lead either to a revival of the television series or a film franchise (colloquially referred to as the "Big Damn Trilogy", or BDT). The former was always unlikely, since Fox still owns the Firefly television rights and Joss Whedon reportedly refused to work for Fox again (though he has since written and produced the television series DollhouseDollhouse (TV series)
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon under Mutant Enemy Productions. It premiered on February 13, 2009, on the Fox network and was officially cancelled on November 11, 2009. The final episode aired on January 29, 2010...
for the network). Fans' hopes for further theatrical films appear to have been partially dashed by Serenitys mediocre box office showing. Whedon has stated that if a sequel is made, he hopes to address the character Book's backstory and deal with Jubal Early, a bounty hunter character in Firefly. The first major sequel rumor began on December 1, 2005, when IGN Filmforce
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
reported that Universal had expressed an interest in making a Serenity TV movie for broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
(which is owned by Universal), and eventual DVD sale. It was expected that commissioning of a television sequel would be contingent on strong DVD sales of Serenity. In a January 2006 interview, Whedon doubted the chances of a sequel. On June 23, 2006 a number of fans organized and spread word of "Serenity Day", on which all fans were proposed to purchase a copy of Serenity in an attempt to convince Universal that a sequel would be profitable. The significance of this day was that June 23, 2006 was the one-year anniversary of the third and final advance screening of Serenity prior to its release, as well as Joss Whedon's birthday. The impact of the event could be seen from Serenity reaching #2 in the Amazon DVD Charts, the highest ranking the DVD had reached since January 16, 2006.
On October 1, 2006, Whedon posted a comment to the Whedonesque.com
Whedonesque.com
Whedonesque.com is a collaborative weblog devoted to the works of Joss Whedon...
website, responding to a rumor that he was currently working on a sequel to Serenity. He wrote,
Whedon's response to the rumor consequently sparked many websites to publish articles stating that he would never work on a sequel to Serenity. Whedon again returned to Whedonesque.com to respond to the new stories and wrote,
In an interview at the 2007 Comic-Con
Comic-Con International
San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego , and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans...
, Whedon stated that he believes hope for a sequel rests in the sales of the Collector's Edition DVD. In an August 2007 interview with Amazon.com prior to the Collector's Edition DVD release, Whedon stated, "It's still on my mind, I mean, but I don't know if mine is the only mind that it's on." He later said, "You know, whether or not anybody who's involved would be available at that point everybody's working, I'm happy to say is a question, but whether I would want to do another one is not a question." On October 4, 2007, Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
suggested in an interview that Universal was considering another film due to DVD sales, although Joss Whedon later discounted Tudyk's statement as being "wishful thinking."
External links
- Official Australian website
- Firefly and Serenity at WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
- Interview with Serenity visual effects supervisor
- IGN visits the set of the film
- Translations of Chinese used