YMMV / Serenity (2005)

• Catharsis Factor: River unleashing her super fighting skills and killing all the Reavers is a truly gripping moment - especially coming after the shocking deaths of Wash and Book. The audience is led to believe that more characters are going to die, and you're fully expecting her to go down fighting. She not only survives but she eliminates the rest of the enemies too!
• Cult Classic: The movie didn't perform very well financially, but it is almost universally loved among the show's original fans.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Included in the blooper reel is an extra take of the shot in which Mal orders his crew to mask their ship as a Reaver's. The original scene is very nearly a Kick the Dog scene, but the moment Mal's improvised orders change from the script is the moment that he takes the line and guts it with a screwdriver. Seen here.
    Mal: Put Book front and center; he's our friend, we should honor him. Kaylee, find that kid who's taking a dirt-nap with baby Jesus—we need a hood ornament. Jayne! Try not to steal too much of their shit!
  • More canonically, after Mr Universe's Heroic Sacrifice, we see him lying dead... in the arms of his own love doll. With his final message recorded in it.
• Fanon:
  • The dress Zoe wears in the funeral scene at the end is her wedding dress, as a Tomboy like her seems unlikely to own a white dress for any other reason.
  • Also that by the end Zoe is pregnant to give her Someone to Remember Him By to make Wash's death sting that little bit less. This is later confirmed by the official comic continuation.
• Fanon Discontinuity: While fans love and accept the movie itself, many of them disregard the deaths of Wash and Shepherd Book.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Jayne snaps at River, uttering "I'll show her good and all, I got man parts" in "Trash". Fast forward to the Curb-Stomp Battle of Maidenhead, and...
  • In a very dark way. Wash gets killed just to prove Plot Armor doesn't apply here. Now, go to Rogue One and who is the first character killed to prove there's no Plot Armor? Yup. Played by the same guy.
  • The Operative’s actor would later go on to play Baron Mordo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a man who is also a Well-Intentioned Extremist desiring a world free of something.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Operative is an intelligent, honorable, and particularly efficient agent of the Alliance, and perhaps the greatest threat the crew of Serenity has ever faced. Dispatched to deal with the exceptionally dangerous River Tam, he begins tracking her via initiating a subliminial Trigger Phrase and tracking Captain Mal Reynolds and his ship. Luring Mal into a trap, The Operative outwits him via wearing body armor, only to barely lose him. Hoping to lure out the Serenity, he orders attacks on any ports that once harbored Mal's ship and crew. He then lures Mal into a trap via their ally Mr. Universe, and confronts him on the planet Miranda, calling off his army when his defeat is assured and parting on civil terms. Returning in Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, the Operative joins in an Enemy Mine with Mal to free River's fellow test subjects. When accosted by Zoe, who desires to kill him, he states that he believes she is in the right to, before stating he will defend himself.
• Memetic Mutation: "Ceiling River is Watching You Fornicate."
• Moral Event Horizon: The Operative's destruction/massacre of anywhere/anyone Serenity might go to for help.
• One-Scene Wonder: Sarah Paulson has about five minutes of screen time playing Dr Caron on the Apocalyptic Log. Her shocking against-type performance (she was best known for comedies at the time) and the absolute Tear Jerker scene got her notoriety on This Very Wiki before she climbed to greater heights (see below).
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Solomon Northup is the Operative. He was a successful character actor and appeared in things like Children of Men and Love Actually, but he's far more famous these days.
  • Sarah Paulson likewise was only recognized for the occasional recurring part on TV (such as Grey's Anatomy or Deadwood) or supporting parts in comedy movies like What Women Want. These days she's instantly recognizable for American Horror Story, Glass (2019), Bird Box and American Crime Story. Hilariously enough, she also starred in 12 Years a Slave.
  • Tamara Taylor was River’s Academy teacher here just shortly before taking the role of Camille Saroyan on Bones and ultimately becoming a series regular. Interestingly, Adam Baldwin also guest starred in a season 1 episode.
  • Glenn Howerton is one of the bank hostages that Mal ends up mercy killing when the Ravagers invade.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans of Firefly were not pleased that the "space western" elements from the TV show were dropped in favor of a more traditional sci-fi feel. This is ignoring the fact that many entire episodes of Firefly are largely sci-fi and had little "western" to them^note "Bushwhacked", "Out of Gas", "Ariel", "War Stories", "The Message", "Objects in Space" and the entire intro sequence of the movie is as pure "space western" as you could get.
• The Woobie:
  • River becomes this even more so than the original series, where we finally see what she went through and the effect the torture had on her brain. There are parts of the film where she's just begging to be killed so she doesn't have to deal with it.
  • Simon of course has to take care of River while she's in the above state, and feels helpless for most of the run time.
  • Dr Caron in her testimonial has fully accepted that she's responsible for both killing half the planet and creating a monster race out of the rest and the best she can do is warn people about the danger.