Serenity (2005)
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The crew of a transport spaceship must protect a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret from a pursuing government agent.
The story
Set in 2517, the story follows the crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship, whose captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing Independent side against the Alliance. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret. The crew must navigate the complexities of their survival while dealing with the consequences of the passenger's condition and the pursuit of an Alliance agent tasked with recapturing her.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In the 26th century, humanity has colonized a new solar system where the Alliance rules over the Independent territories. The crew of the spaceship Serenity takes on a psychic passenger, River Tam, whose brother Simon tries to keep her safe from an Alliance agent known as the Operative. After a subliminal message triggers River's mental conditioning, the crew discovers a conspiracy involving a planet called Miranda. They learn that the Alliance's actions created the Reavers, a terrifying threat. To expose the truth, the crew must travel to Miranda and broadcast a recording of the Alliance's secrets. During a desperate final stand against both Reavers and the Alliance, the crew manages to broadcast the truth, weakening the Alliance government. The film ends with the crew escaping, with River becoming the ship's new pilot.
- First release year
- 2005
- Runtime (minutes)
- 119
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Joss Whedon
- Writers
- Joss Whedon · writer
- Cast and characters
- Nathan Fillion · Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds; Alan Tudyk; Adam Baldwin; Summer Glau · River Tam; Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Genres
- space Western; science fiction; action
- Themes
- individual liberty; choice
- Tone and mood
- adventure; western
- Premise and plot tags
- space opera; sci-fi; western
- Source material / true-story basis
- Firefly
- Franchise connections
- Firefly
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews and several awards, though it underperformed at the box office.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 82% · scale: percentage · review count: 187; Metacritic · score: 74 · scale: 100 · review count: 34
- Awards and nominations
- Nebula Award · Best Script · win
- Production trivia
- The film was the first to fully conform to Digital Cinema Initiatives specifications.; The name 'Miranda' was inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest.; The ship's code name 'C57D' is a reference to the film Forbidden Planet.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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