Fridge Brilliance:
- In the commentary, Joss points out that he wanted to make it absolutely clear to the audience that the heroes might die. Wash's death is consistent with the highly cynical universe. Not only was it subverting Contractual Immortality, but it was also subverting a Moment of Awesome.
- The significance of the final scene between Mal and River at the end of the movie can take a while to sink in. Specifically, as Mal is telling River about love, she is curling up in the copilot's chair, wrapping her arms around her knees, in a Fetal Position Rebirth—exactly like she had been shown in the very first scene she appeared in in the pilot, except in this case, she's awake, clothed, sitting up, and calmly smiling, while in the pilot she'd been unconscious, naked, and lying down, and awoke screaming. The contrast and the symbolism—that River's struggles in the series and movie have led her to take a hand in her own destiny instead of being a helpless, gibbering wreck, is beautiful and so very subtle.
- And, for another commentary-inflicted moment: why does River "want to hear" Mal say his piece? Because hearing is what normal people do, instead of reading minds; plus, she's overjoyed to be able to understand without her crazy getting in the way.
- Why did learning what happened on Miranda drive River crazy? River didn't just learn of what happened, she felt what happened to every person and it shows how strong River really is that it didn't kill her. Remember that in "Ariel", Simon's exam establishes that River has no emotional filters. Essentially, her problem is the exact opposite of a sociopath's: she has too much empathy. If she were to unwittingly pluck the Miranda secret from a high ranking official's mind—not just hear about it on the news, but be exposed to it, unwillingly, in its totality—it's not hard to imagine that it could overwhelm her mentally and emotionally, especially when you consider the torturous situation she lived in at the time.
- A bit of Fridge Horror: River didn't just mind read the secret, but the person she got it from already saw the video in its entirety and she's had flashbacks of that disgusting scene the whole time.
- The Alliance:
- Not only does the Alliance avert the typical SciFi Card Carrying Villainy, but they're actually a much greater threat because of it. Anyone with half a brain can see that people like Emperor Palpatine or Grand Moff Tarkin are incredible assholes and should be resisted. And even if they do manage to cow the populace into staying in line, the populace will be exactly that, cowed into staying in line and not deviating from their predefined role when really, in order for a society to prosper, people need to be free to change and evolve. But with a set up like The Alliance, people won't really realize what's going on until after they are affected by it; who cares if some little girl gets her brain cut up as long as its for "The Greater Good" (provided, of course, that it's not their sister getting her brain cut up—but by the time that happens, it'll be too late).
- For the whole series, it's tempting to say "Yes, the Alliance was mean to River, and their officers are a little humorless, but their goal is for everyone to live in a shiny democratic utopia free from want, and Mal's ideals just lead to everyone living on mudballs ruled by petty dictators and thugs." Then the Big Damn Movie happens, and Miranda strikes everyone as completely in character for the Alliance, and puts things in perspective. In the end, it's not so much about Good vs Evil as it Order Versus Chaos.
- An in-production version, as well: Joss and Gina Torres are talking about Zoe's talk with Mal during the ending scenes, and one of them mentions how Zoe's summation of Serenity's status ("She's tore up plenty, but she'll fly true.") applies to her as well. Nathan overhears this and wonders audibly how he managed to miss that one...
- A solo River taking down an entire army of Reavers (who don't even have the disadvantage of fear, or of hesitance at attacking a little girl) seemed a little unrealistic (if awesome) even for her. Then the Alliance arrives direct through the wall and makes the backdrop even more campy. It took me a few viewings to realize the connection: River won partially because the Reavers who hadn't gotten in the room yet were suddenly attacked from behind by the approaching Alliance troops, splitting their attention.
- A different interpretation that is still fridge brilliance: River is not ordinarily that skilled. But "she feels everything around her. She can't not." She felt the psychopathic rage of the Reavers and assimilated it. Dove willingly into that bottomless hole of hate, let her precognition run wild, and murdered them using their own skills. Only killing them could end what she was feeling, so that worked out nicely.
- The Alliance wanted a world perfectly at peace? They got one. They wanted a psychic commando? They got one of those, too. Even the Reavers can be seen as 'without sin'. There are no criminals among them, no coercion, even. Every last one of them is a perfect manifestation of their inherent nature, as innocent as a scorpion. They are not evil, which was exactly what the Alliance was hoping for. The twist is that they are also simply too dangerous to be allowed to exist. All of this ultimately validates Mal's warning: "...sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again." The experiments on River as well as Miranda are proof that they will continue to try to make people better. They will not stop.The Operative: There are a lot of innocent people being killed in the air right now.
Mal: You have no idea how true that is. - River's powers and Simon's knowledge:
- First viewing: Wait—Simon knew all along that River was designed to be a mind-reading assassin? But he played dumb during the series, even when the crew's life might depend on it. What an outrageous retcon! Also, it's completely out of character for Mal to abandon Simon and River. Second viewing: Oh, so that's what was eating Mal about the Tams....
- In fact, this is an important bone of contention later on after River rips apart the bar. Mal gets pissed at Simon because he wasn't telling them everything he knew about River's conditioning, and it really comes out when he confronts Simon after the brawl.
- The series itself takes on a very interesting new light if you go through it with the mindset that Simon was fully aware that River was a psychic but that he was trying to hide it from the others. Every time he talks about River and her "awareness" he seems confused and hesitant and uncertain—not because he doesn't know what happened to her, but that he is aware of what happened and that he's trying to keep a lid on it and not sure how to do so. This is most obvious in "Safe", where it's clear he's not surprised River knows things about the mute girl she can't, but rather he's trying to find an explanation other than "my sister is psychic."
- At the end, River is shown both doing some electrical repairs on the ship and taking over Wash's role as pilot, skills she didn't show prior in the movie. Except that A) she's a genius who takes to difficult subjects like anyone else does to breathing, B) she's living on a ship with a genius mechanic and a genius pilot, and C) she's psychic. It would be ridiculous if she didn't pick up some skills from Wash and Kaylee. What's she pick up from Mal and Simon? Being a Determinator.
- After River's programming is triggered, and then Mal and Zoe are trying to decide what to do with her, knowing she's dangerous? Well, right after that, River has a conversation with Simon (sort of) where she says "They're afraid of me. Well, I'll show them. Oh, God." She is not referring to the crew of Serenity alone—she's also referring to the Alliance, who are becoming desperate to capture or eliminate her before she reveals their secrets. Talk about powerful dialogue with multiple meanings.
- The Unification War:
- The entire war between the Alliance and the Browncoats wasn't about simply becoming a 'monopoly' in the 'Verse. (After all, with better medicines alone, the Alliance could have launched a 'hearts and minds' offensive with their better technology). What, then? Miranda had become a launching point for an entire fleet of Reavers. From at least one instance, there's reason to suspect that it might "catch" (ie, the Stockholm Syndrome making that one guy 'join'). If they left the Independent worlds be, they'd stay free but also disorganized—and either die piecemeal or actually provide 'reinforcements' for the Reavers' push on to the Core Worlds. Someone in command simply found a pretext to take action. Probably not out of loving concern for the outer worlds, but out of a sense of self-preservation.
- This is even more plausible when you consider their motive to suppress the information. If the outer worlds are free, then it seems likely that sooner or later someone is going to try to find out the source of the Reavers, and hunt down why they just popped up out of the blue, possibly starting with the planet that mysteriously died off just before they showed up. If they're in control of the outer planets, even nominal control, they can prevent that from happening. AND, the war likely served as a major distraction from any public attention to, or investigation of, Miranda. In peacetime, a terraforming failure might be notable enough to attract attention; with a war on, it would almost certainly be ignored.
- You would think that after all the Operative has done to Mal and his crew, he would have earned himself the mother of all gruesome deaths, like being fed feet-first to the Reavers or something. Mal sparing the Operative's life seems like another of Whedon's many subverted tropes, namely in this case how the good guy always has to kill the bad guy. Okay, Mal shows him the truth about the Alliance, but is that really worse than killing him, really? A complete loss of faith really is the worst thing Mal could think to inflict on someone. Because he would know, he suffered the exact same thing at Serenity Valley. There's a deleted scene that makes this more explicit, where the Operative asks Mal how he was able to keep going after Serenity.
- Also, it wasn't a threat, it was warning about being in front of the engine coming on. And we saw what happens in The Train Job.
- When the Operative asks Mal what his sin is, Mal replies "Hell, I'm a fan of all seven. But right now, I'm gonna have to go with wrath." This seems like a snarky Pre-Asskicking One-Liner—which is probably what Mal intended it to be—but if you think about it, wrath really is Mal's sin. Most of his actions in the movie are motivated by anger, first at Book's death and then at the knowledge that the Alliance had wiped out an entire planet and created the Reavers attempting to make people "better". Even in the series, while Mal has mostly resigned himself to the Browncoat's defeat, he still hates the Alliance (and depending on your interpretation of his faith, God) for the war. Had Mal not cut him off, "wrath" is what the Operative would have told him.
- Even more fridge brilliant when you take into account the events of the show as well. He has literally committed all seven sins at some point or another throughout the show and film's run.
- It's a little thing, but watch the Operative's reaction when Mr Universe's fembot says "Mal?" The first thing he does is to look around him, because he doesn't know it's a recording, but thinks she's actually addressing Mal.
- During the heist at the beginning, when Zoe stops the 'hero' from drawing his weapon, she tells him that a hero is "a person who gets a lot of people killed." At first, it seems like a random one-liner and it's a pretty funny line, but it also applies to the rest of the movie: Malcolm Reynolds plays hero by resisting the Alliance and gets a whole lot of people killed as a result. Maybe Zoe should've saved that piece of advice for her own captain.
- A small one: a leaf on the wind is a dead leaf.
- The Operative and Inara:
- The Operative goes on about the fact that Mal is “not the plucky hero, the Alliance is not an evil empire, etc.” He promptly gets royally pwned because he forgot that Inara is not the damsel in distress.
- "And that's not incense." That move with the flash-bang probably greatly incensed the Operative.
- As for why she would just happen to have a disguised flashbang? As Atherton Wing taught us, not all men who can hire a Companion are strictly civilized, so Companions must have discrete tools that they can use to protect themselves. Which ties in with Inara's complaints in a deleted scene about how the girls in the training house are not ready for the dangers of the 'verse that their line of work can bring them, thinking that being a Companion is all wealthy men and romance. Even odds if this makes her The Last DJ as she seems to worry about, or merely a Veteran Instructor that the Guild is hoping will help prepare their students.
- The Reavers are a dark parallel to the "Indian Savage" trope. A foreign horde, impossible to reason with, that descends on civilization without warning, does horrific things, and leaves without a word.
- In a deleted scene at the end of the movie, the Operative makes the parallels between him and Mal obvious by asking Mal how he was able to keep living after the battle of Serenity Valley. Mal's response is "If you're still standing there when that engine starts, you never will figure it out." This sounds like a simple threat, but it's actually the answer to his question—the only way to go on is to "keep flying," not to let yourself get stuck.
- A couple small ones from dialogue. After they flee the Reaver attack in town, Zoe tells Mal that they never would have left a man stranded in a time of war. Mal replies that maybe that's why they lost. Later on, after River attacks the bar, they all flee on board the ship. Jayne asks why they didn't leave Simon and River behind. Zoe gives the Captain a significant glance. Another one happens between Mal and Inara. Soon after the first fight with the Operative, Inara is arguing with Mal, telling him this fight isn't the war and that she's too many versions of him to know who she's dealing with. Mal tells her that if he starts fighting a war, he guarantees she'll see something new. After the Operative kills Book's colony, Mal goes to war and Inara is shocked (along with everyone else) when he starts ordering the bodies strapped to the ship. The entire movie, from start to finish, is Mal moving to a war footing.
- You know that little spin at the end of the film? It's a pirouette. River makes Serenity dance.
- Always wondered who opened the blast doors after River killed all the Reavers on Mr. Universe's planet, when she was standing in the middle of the bodies, holding two weapons? Mal had just come up from the lift and the doors opened about 20 seconds later, roughly the time someone would walk between the top of the lift and the doors. They were still on automatic (from the inside).
- When Inara waves Mal and he brings up the trunk she forgot, they both quickly say, "I didn't mean to leave any stuff" and "I didn't look through the stuff," they're both lying. Mal did look through Inara's things, because it was all there was left of her, and Inara intentionally left the suitcase there just in case she ever needed an excuse to call Mal. This is also the reason why it was so conspicuous that they didn't fight. Ordinarily, Mal would have instantly begun snarking about the leftover luggage if he didn't suspect something was wrong, and Inara would've gotten angry that he looked if she wasn't warning him about the trap the Operative was setting for him. In this case, what's not being said is the real code they're using.
- With powerful and zealously loyal agents such as the Operatives, it seems odd that the Alliance would want to create supersoldiers out of River and the like. What's the point? But for all their zeal, Operatives aren't indoctrinated. They clearly choose to serve the Alliance, knowing full well the morality of their actions and sticking with it anyways. It takes an exceptional strength of character and circumstance to forge a person like that. That's not what the Alliance wants. They want streamlining, predictability and absolute obedience (instead of loyalty by choice). When the Operative said that there is no place for him in Alliance's ideal world, he is right. In such a world, he will have outlived his usefulness and been replaced by what River was meant to be.
- When Mal fires on the Reaver vessel stalking them, you can hear the muted thump of his gun as it tears the Reaver ship a new one. This is not what the gun sounds like in space, but what it sounds like from inside of his suit, where the gun's vibrations transmit from the contact with his suit. When Wash goes for full burn, you can even hear Mal groaning in protest through the ship's comm system as he clings on for dear life when the ship accelerates.
- It seems like a Deus ex Machina at first, but on a second viewing, "Mister Universe" is just a lonely Alliance employee who's gone rogue and slightly crazy after too many years crewing an Alliance comm transfer station, and views everything fed to him kind of like how we see YouTube.
- It may seem strange at first that the Pax would cause 0.1% of the population to become Reavers. But some sedatives such as benzodiazepines are well known to cause paradoxical agitation in some people. Someone did their research!
- Speaking of the Pax, while in-universe it's a shortened form of the drug's chemical name (G-32 Paxilon Hydrochlorate), "pax" is also Latin for "peace". The drug's intended effect was a peaceful population.
- "I start fightin' a war, I guarantee you'll see somethin' new." Said by Mal to Inara, it almost sounds like a threat. Mal's an incredibly cynical character and his crew are career criminals, and even his nobler acts trend towards small mercies than any real goodwill; what could this man be capable of when the brakes are cut? Cue the climax, and Mal is once again (quite literally) leading the charge against the might of the Alliance and wins a battle against all odds, and his attitude is vastly more optimistic than it has been the entire time we've known him, save two key scenes from the show; flashbacks when he was in the war. Mal started fighting a war again, and we all saw something new: genuine, nothing-in-it-for-us heroism.
Fridge Horror:
- When the tape is broadcast at the end, it goes to every single receiver in the galaxy. Think how many young kids must've been innocently watching tv and suddenly they see a woman being horribly raped to death instead.
- Some subtle references: Not for nothing is the name Miranda used. Some of the bulkheads on the Alliance ship are more explicit: C-57D. And what are the Reavers, but monsters from the id? O brave new world, that hath such people in it...
- Word of Gina Torres says that Zoe is pregnant during Serenity. And then come the questions: Does Zoe know? If she does, did she get around to telling Wash? Did Wash die knowing that he would never see his child, or did he die without the knowledge that said child even existed? You're welcome.
- As Serenity makes its way through Reaver territory, Mal tells Wash to turn off the intercom to spare the crew from hearing the agonized screams of the Reaver victims. One crewmember, however, cannot only still hear the screaming, but can feel the reasons they're screaming.
- A small one: after the bar beatdown, River is very upset at the idea that Simon might put her to sleep again. Now remember the scientist at the beginning saying that most of her mental conditioning was done in her sleep, and that the Alliance would probably want that to happen when it was convenient for them rather than her, and the reason for the "safeword" might not be what Simon thought.
- The end of the heist at the beginning, after they take off in the hovercraft. Leaving a man behind because there would be too much weight on the craft, and a speedy getaway was needed? And they picked throwing him off as opposed to dumping the cargo? It's rather reminiscent of the events prior to "Jaynestown", isn't it?
- This may not be much fridge, but it finally hit me as to why the Operative was so fond of the Nerve Pinch technique. He's not punishing either Mal or the scientist from the beginning. He knows they will not "Fall on their swords" and is forcing them, so that they have some honor. In his mind, he's not killing them, but allowing them to commit suicide to atone for their failings.
- River's long period of torture seem bad enough? Doesn't seem likely the Alliance would have a huge facility and only torture one person in it, does it? River is psychic and cannot block out emotions. She felt every bit of the suffering of every victim in that facility, and, given her reaction on Miranda, possibly every victim who had ever been in that facility.
- At the beginning, the doctor mentions River is the most successful of all their test subjects. Given even without whatever she saw that snapped her mind River was pretty messed up, what does that say for the condition of all those other subjects?
- The Operative's scorched Earth massacre of Mal's possible hiding places could very well have included everybody on the tv show who was ever nice to the crew. It might even include rivals like Badger or Patience.
- This doesn't bode well for the crew's future either. Mal remarked at the beginning that the Alliance is gradually getting more control and making smuggling more difficult. Every safe house they ever had was wiped out, and if it's ever learned that Mal was the target of the Operative's massacre then nobody is going to want to do business with them.
- The Reavers turned more violent and cannibalistic while their victims became so passive they just sat there and watched the massacre. By the point the former were in full Reaver mode, were the latter even capable of caring?
- One of the Reaver ships is a Trans-U, identical to the one that chased Serenity in the pilot episode of Firefly. If this was the very same ship, it's likely that they raided the settlement on Whitefall ran by Patience after Serenity evaded them. And seeing as it's at the head of the pack chasing Serenity to Mr. Universe's planet, they might have held a bit of a grudge.
- The Operative calls in "every ship in the quadrant". How many pilots and crewmen thought Reavers were just campfire stories before seeing a Reaver armada charging right at them? How many of them suddenly had to fight off Reaver boarding parties and watch their comrades get brutalized by bloodthirsty monsters that were suddenly all too real?
- Just the thought that they had to get back on Serenity afterward and remove poor Wash’s impaled body and Zoe may have had to see it…eew.
