Serenity

Serenity is a film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is set in the universe of the cancelled Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place six months after the events of the last episode . more...

Like the television series that spawned it, Serenity is a science fiction Western, using elements of both genres. The film was released in the US on September 30, 2005.

Story

Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a transport and cargo ship 500 years in the future. Their lives of petty crime are interrupted by a psychic passenger who carries a dangerous secret.

The resources of Earth have been depleted, and humanity has moved to another star system and terraformed many of the planets. All the planets are controlled by the supposedly peace-loving yet still rather authoritarian Alliance. But a frontier justice still holds sway farther from the "core planets", where outlaws like the crew of Serenity can scrape out a living if they keep clear of Alliance forces and the Reavers, savage and cannibalistic humans who dwell beyond the outer planets and raid the Alliance worlds around the rim.

In order to earn her continued passage onboard Serenity, a fugitive from the Alliance, the telepathic River Tam (Summer Glau), accompanies Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), Jayne (Adam Baldwin), and Zoë (Gina Torres) on a mission to steal the payroll of an outer planet security company financed by the Alliance. During the robbery, the crew narrowly avoids capture by a Reaver raiding party when River is able to telepathically sense their approach. Wash (Alan Tudyk), the ship's pilot (and Zoë's husband) brings the ship to intercept the crew's surface vehicle, saving the crew from a grisly fate.

River's brother Simon (Sean Maher), the crew's doctor, angrily reacts to the captain's willingness to put his younger sister in such grave danger. Captain Reynolds responds by suggesting they leave at the next planet they land on, Beaumonde, where the crew expects to sell their loot. Simon agrees to the arrangement. The Tams do indeed disembark at Beaumonde, but while the captain haggles with the buyers, River suddenly starts attacking people in the same bar that the captain and Jayne are patronizing. Despite being a 90 pound (41 kg) girl, she manages to incapacitate everyone, including Jayne, and is about to shoot Captain Reynolds when Simon arrives and shouts a phrase in Russian, causing her to fall asleep.

Simon explains to the captain that, during her captivity by the Alliance, she was trained and conditioned to become an assassin. The only thing that can stop her after this conditioning has been triggered is the "safe-word" he uttered. Despite knowledge of this new danger and his anger at not being told about the possibility of carrying a potential living weapon, the captain allows Simon and River to continue traveling on Serenity.

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