“How do Reavers clean their spears? They run 'em through the Wash.” - Nathan Fillion

“I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.” 😭😭

"I swallowed a bug" One of the best lines ever for character development.

"Not THE Serenity. Just Serenity." There's some Browncoat cred for ya right there!

Typically: The villain is the hero of their own story. The Operative: "I'm a monster. What I do is evil."

“You mean, sex?” “Yes” “Well the hell with this, I’m gonna live.” 😂😂😂😂👍 Go Kaylee!

The thing that gets me about Jayne is that out of all of them, he was one to say "TURN IT OFF!" when they were first seeing the Reaver footage. I mean you KNOW he's seen some really bad stuff in his line of work, but he didn't look away like some of them, he simply said "TURN IT OFF!"

Two subtle things I love in this. When the operative tells Mal he can't make him angry, then at the end fight Mal says to him "I haven't made you angry, have I?" And when the operative calls River an albatross, and at the end Mal calls River "Little Albatross." I like the call backs, and that they didn't try to make them too obvious.

Jayne has a very subtle character growth moment (not easy to spot but a big deal for Jayne). During Mal's "I aim to misbehave" speech, Jayne takes a gulp of alcohol [?] from a container, then passes that container to Simon to drink from. Jayne was never one to share a drink with Simon, until this moment. It's the little extra moments like this that really adds to the quality of the Firefly Universe.

When they were landing at Mr. Universe's place, Jayne made sure everyone was buckled in before himself.

When the assassin pulls a freaking sword and Mal picks the tiny screwdriver it cracks me up everytime

River constantly reads the minds of everyone in range. That's how she knew about Miranda. When the scientists showed her off to the alliance members of Parliament, she sucked up all their darkest little secrets. She doesn't know consciously until things bring it to the surface, like the activation signal. This is what makes her such a terrifying combatant. She has access to all the skills and knowledge of everyone in the fight, knows exactly what they are going to do and knows exactly where they are. This is why she could take out all the reavers. In that fight she WAS the reavers AND the serenity crew AND whatever alliance soldiers were in range. As for her learning to pilot, she long ago pulled all the skills from Wash, Mal, Inara, Kaylee and every and anyone else who can fly. It just wasn't there until she sits down at the controls. It's quite the super power.

Jayne: You gonna say words over me, when I die? Book: Oh, I expect you'll be around, long after we're all--

I always liked that Jayne actually made sure everyone was strapped in before taking his seat, showed his growth.

Summer Glau is talent, beauty, and grace in one person. Her ballet training shows in almost every scene.

Possibly the most astonishing part of this film to me is the fact that Chiwetel Ejiofor delivered this performance in his mid-20s. Much like Heath Ledger, he delivers an absolutely iconic villain performance that makes him seem a decade or two older than he is.

You're just about the only reactors I've seen who included the albatross bit, and "Yes. I've read a poem. Try not to faint."

The dialog during the "long take" was aimed, in part, at people who'd never seen "Firefly". That, the tour of the ship, and the preamble scenes. To get a movie made, it had to be accessible to non-fans. (Also helped that Whedon could do it for cheap, about $40 million.)

I'd like to add that the "villain" also recognized that it was over. There was nothing more to do for him. I don't think he truly killed people just for the sake of it. It was his sincere belief he was doing it for the betterment if society, and there was no more good to be done by killing the crew.

The epic conclusion to the beloved TV series. But then there's the comics and graphic Novels showing us what happened to Mal and the rest of the crew, as they embarked on more crazy adventures.

What was most interesting was that The Operative was an antagonist but not a villain, not in the regular sense. Yes, Mal got him riled up in the moment, but once he saw the Alliance made worlds worse, he bore the crew no ill will. Defeated both physically and by the strength of his own beliefs (or Mal's). An unusual but very cool ending for an antagonist.

"you don't want to watch your brother having sex." remember river's reaction to wash and zoe getting at it? how far away she could feel it? do you really think anyone on that ship has any privacy from river?

Jayne develops. He is the first on who says lets avenge Shepard Book, when in the past he would have been all, "Count me out." Also right after he says lets do this he passed the bottle to his crew mates. He's finally all in on being a crew member on Serenity.

"Im so sad about Wash" Book - Am i a joke to you?

I miss this show and really love this movie and wish they could have done more. I also love Mal's speech about what it takes to keep a ship flying.

There were comics exploring "years later", but to me, end of this movie is them soaring off to live on in Browncoats' imaginations everywhere. We don't need a reboot, remake, or revisit. Having the crew make little cameos in a game set in that universe would have been fun, but that project's deader than Wash now.

When Mal talks about what keeps a ship flying, it could be taken as a metaphor for the franchise.

Hey now.... Jayne was one of the first to voice up about wanting to "Do Right" after they knew. He lost his Shepherd-lift-bro and has a strong moment.

In my opinion, one of the most well-made movies ever. My 2nd favorite movie of all time. There are many examples to support the claim of it being considered among the greatest movies ever. But my favorite is that by killing Book and then Wash it created actual stakes. When Zoe says "do you really think any of us are going to make it through this" she was saying exactly what I was thinking when I watched it for the first time. For much of the last act I expected everyone to die. Especially as everyone started getting shot. Most movies today have no real stakes. At no point do you ever think the main character is really in any kind of real jeopardy. There are exceptions, but they are few, and most not done nearly as well as this one.

Never gets easy to lose Wash and Shepherd Book.

“He ain’t coming.” 45 year old man holding back sobs over here.

River saying "They never lay down." was a reference to the way the Reavers reacted to the chemicals pumped into the air on Miranda. Its reinforced when we hear the voice over of the teacher telling the children to lay down superimposed on the desiccated corpse.

Jane has his moment- when he passes the drink to Simon. There's an undertone of family/crew there from Jane of all people!

You should watch Con Man. It's a show made by Alan Tudyk about an actor who used to be on a popular but cancelled scifi show. The show is all about him going to conventions and dealing with crazy fans. Each episode is only 10-20 minutes long since it was a web show.

"Why _did_ Mal bring her back?" Have you been watching the series?? SHE'S PART OF HIS CREW. Mal is very very very tribal. It's why I love him. (not in any perverted romantic kinda way, just... as a character...)

In the Extras portion of the DVD there is an extended scene that was mostly cut from the movie that shows Mal telling the Operative that he will kill him if he sees him again. In the extended version the Operative then looks up at the Serenity logo on the side of the ship and says "You lost everything in the Battle of Serenity Valley. You lost everything you believed in, everything you were. How did you go on?" Mal refuses to answer him, saying only "If you're still standing there when that engine starts, you'll never figure it out". Mal then turns and walks into the cargo bay saying to himself "What a whiner!" It seems the Operative knows he has to become someone new, but doesn't know how.

i think The Operative is one of the greatest villains of cinema history but my interpretation was always that he just accepted that Mal had beaten him in that moment of exposing the message, and there was no point in killing further than that (after Mal had spared him, no less) - I'd never considered that the humanity of seeing the creation of the Reavers actually convinced him 🤔

I've always thought that that scene where they move through the Reaver ships was very unsettling, it highlights what the Reavers are all about without throwing it in your face

Part of the awkwardness of the opening scene with the crew was they had to re-introduce the crew for the few who wandered into the theatre without watching the series. There was a scene in the script that was cut for some reason during the whole Mal gets Inara away from the operative bit. Inara asks him something (I don't recall, been years since I read it) and he says "I don't know." she responds with a "that's not a good answer etc etc etc". The final scene with them plays a little differently in that context. "Ready to get off this heapand back to civilized life?", "I don't know.", "Good answer."

Warehouse 13 is a good one for after this, that's a great show, plus Simon and Kayleigh turn up in an episode

Even after countless rewatches over the past several years, this movie STILL hits me in the feels. I don’t care how corny this might sound: I love Firefly so much that it hurts. 😢🥲

Wow, your opening reminded me of the perfect follow up series to this. Farscape. It's incredible. Multiple seasons with a full movie to end it all. It's got the kind of western frontier stuff, too.

"I swallowed a bug" will forever be my favorite line in any movie ever.

Did you notice that when they are watching Sarah Paulson talking about what happened on Miranda that River mouthed some of the words that she was saying as she was saying it. I didn't pick it up on first viewing. Probably noticed it on around watch 100. But I thought that was a cool touch which showed that this was the thing that was driving River mad.

"Sheppard Book used to tell me, 'Can't do something smart, do something right.'" -- Jayne You really think Jayne doesn't have an arc?

You kinda have to forget what you know about the series; this movie stands on it's own. IMO, one of THE BEST scifi movies ever.

Jayne is more friendly with both Simon & River in this film. Thus there was a form of character change from him.

I would really love a movie adaptation of “A shepherds tale” which is a comic that goes into Shepherd Books back story and its super interesting

If you notice what the operative says when he kills the 1st guy with his sword (River's breakout scene), he says "we're making a better world, all of them better worlds" & have a look back at the pilot episode 'Serenity', when Mal uses the turret to bring down a ship in the opening few minutes, look closely at the top middle of the HUD of the turret, you'll notice it has a 'W'... The same font W from the Alien franchise for Wayland-Yutani, with the same tag line for the co. "Building better worlds"

Nice reactions. While most will probably say I'm wrong (including Whedon and others), in my mind Shepherd Book is a former Operative who gave it up. Kind of a "come to Jesus moment" like the Operative at the end of the movie. It all fits. Book's knowledge, expertise with weapons, hand to hand fighting skills, etc.

Love. You can learn all the math in the 'Verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

River knew the make/model of serenity from waking up in and observing the infirmary in the first episode. ❤️ She can absolutely pilot.

I had no problem with River becoming the pilot of Serenity. In the episode with the bounty hunter, she stated "I am the ship".

Y'all should really watch the blooper reel... it's hillarious and shows just how much fun they must have had making this.

This movie came out close to Revenge of the Sith. It always blew me away how much better the “Sky full of ships” battle was handled in this vs. RotS. Also, check out Filmjoy’s video essay on Serenity. His description of watching what happens to Wash in the theater is devastating.

"I'm not one of your crew!" "Yes you are." Fucking kills me every time.

Once a Brown Coat, always a Brown Coat. Can't stop the signal. Been a pleasure watching the series again through your eyes.

"You take care of me, Simon. You've always taken care of me. My turn."

A lot of the early interactions between Mal and Simon read off to me, too. I think the problem was that the mistrust issues displayed had actually been addressed and dealt with in the show and it didn’t make much sense how they resurfaced. It’s my only real complaint with the film. I chalk it up to Whedon and the writers trying for cram a season or two’s worth of plot development into two hours.

Reading the novelization of this movie really helps flesh out a lot of the finer details.

"A leaf on the wind" is always enough to spot a Browncoat. I use it as my username on most websites. Here are some various things that have come out in either comics or commentary after the show ended. -Shepherd Book's past: there was a comic released in 2010 called Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale that finally allowed us to learn Book's past. I'd recommend finding it and reading it yourself. But in case you don't and still want to know... The short version and core details are that as a young man, Book (then known as Henry Evans) was an independent. When it began to seem that war was on the horizon, he and some of his friends talked of inserting a mole into the Alliance to help the independents' cause. Book volunteered. But part of being a mole was that because all correspondence from Alliance soldiers is closely monitered, he needed to have a way to communicate with the independents. So with the latest in technology, they removed his eye and replaced it with a biorobotic eye which would be able to transmit what he saw to the independents (they connected his ocular nerve to the replacement eye so that he could see... So Book infiltrates the Alliance, rising through the ranks and becomes a high ranking officer. Until one day, while in command of an Alliance ship, he sabotages an operation which causes an entire Alliance cruiser to be destroyed. At this point he was relieve of duty and went his own way. He was adrift for a long time, until the brother of someone who served on the destroyed Alliance cruiser found him, and beats him up. During his recovery, he discovers God and joins the abbey. -There was another comic released the same year called Float Out, which is about Wash. It follows some of his former pilot colleagues who are talking about him and trying to come up with a way to honor him. The most important takeaway from it is that Zoe is pregnant at the end of the movie, with Wash's daughter. I believe another comic shows that River was the girl's baby sitter. --There are actually many more comics. I haven't read most of them myself. I need to fix that some day. -What I'll leave you with is a bit of hidden history of Inara. It was never really hinted at in the show, but it turns out that Joss planned (and he told this to Morena Baccarin so she could try to play it into the character), that Inara is suffering from a terminal illness. She left the companion house and boarded Serenity because she wanted to see the verse before she died. Falling in love with Mal was not among her plans, and is likely the reason she decided to leave Serenity. She didn't want him to suffer watching her die.

There was one small moment with Jayne at the end when they have to strap themselves down he makes sure everyone is strapped in and safe before he straps himself in even getting himself injured if I remember right.

I think even Jayne showed some growth. He was shown to still be an asshole, but I think he was also shown to be more comfortable with his place in the Serenity and more loyal to the rest of the crew after all that's happened. He tried to subdue River at the bar when she got triggered and he even said "It's me" to her so that she'd calm down, so that shows they have moved on from his betrayal on Ariel and they have some kind of trust. He also spoke fondly of Shepherd Book to Mal, and felt more comfortable challenging Mal's leadership textually but accepting it sub-textually anyway, like when he said he'd do a better job at running the Serenity and Mal just told him, "Well, you can't!" and he just let it go after that, and during the final showdown with the Reavers he was concerned a bout Zoe. I agree the others went through more changes than him in the movie, but I still feel he's not the same as he was in the show. I guess it's valid to say that he didn't change during the movie and his growth happened mostly in the span of time between the show and the movie. And though there's a comic book that kind of contradicts it, it's safe to say that before retiring and becoming a Shepherd, Book was probably an Alliance Operative just like the bad guy in this movie. It explains his mysterious background perfectly. Too bad we never got more seasons and so many plot threads will never be explored.

Dollhouse is the next step in your Joss Whedon library. You'll Love It

“I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I…” cry my freaking eyes out!!

There is a great comic series set 20 years after this film where Zoe is the captain of the ship with a brand new crew which includes her daughter, it's implied that she was pregnant through the events of this film. Kaylee and Simon also live on a farm with their twins. River lives on a moon looking after a bunch of children herself too, just as strange as ever.

At 12:18 when Jane asked Whyd you bring her back on? and Mal looks to Zoe, its a callback to their earlier conversation about how in wartime, they never left a person behind.

29:35 I like that the Simon & River scene is what got her emotional. That was sad for me in the first time. 31:18 The image of River with two weapons in hands is fantastic. 31:56 Aaaw... :) 32:13 "-In the engine room too. -Right where she likes it." :D 32:24 Well, she's a weird girl :) 14:33 & 31:51 Summer Glau/River

"Eta kooram nah smech". Old Russian, it means "that is for hens to laugh at", meaning something is absurd. Those are the words with which Simon puts River to sleep. Whedon got the expression from one of his grandmothers.

At sci fi cons, Glau signs autographs with, "I swallowed a bug."

If i remember correctly the movie 'Serenity' was mad, obviously, after the show was cancelled after just one season. The movie was made to show what was going to happen if the series had continued on after the first season. One could only imagine what the series wouldve been like.

River got one scene to shine. All the precog abilities that were hinted at, unleashed.

I feel the same way about the dialogue at the start of this film. It's very 'first draft'. Still love the film though. It's weird how many people think the guy let them leave just because there wasn't any point in killing them. Have you seen the film guys? He didn't just let them leave he had their ship fixed up, left his position with the alliance and told Mal "You won't see me again, there's nothing left to see." The message 100% got to him.

Y'all are gonna' watch it again and again too. I'm not even sure how many times I've watched it. And I will again.

Thanks to you both for doing the series and the movie. It was a lot of fun watching along with you. Cheers!

Jayne's best character development happened in the series. Mainly Jaynestown

Hi guys, great reaction. I never noticed that Inara was wearing a blue dress at the end. But let me contribute a couple of little gems along the way: On Miranda, River throws up and says she feels better (and she does) she's somewhat closer to normal. Aim to Misbehave speech: Jayne passes the bottle of brandy to Simon (his way of accepting him as part of the crew) so Jayne did have a character arc of sorts. I don't know if you notice, but Mal called River "Little Albatross" in the cockpit as she assumes Serenity's helm - a reference to The Operative calling her an albatross. Kaley saying she's gonna live, and she does. There were many such things that Kaley would say that came true throughout the series and in this movie. I felt the same way about the dialogue and tone at the beginning, somewhat off kilter.

6:48 Glen Howerton (Dennis Reynolds) "Its always sunny in Philadelphia". Listed in the credits as - The town "tough".

While the show shouldn't have been cancelled and there were many seasons worth of story to tell, at this point, we are where we are, and we need to let go of the idea of a reboot or more seasons, or even another movie. Just let it lie and enjoy what we got.

Dont know if anyone else has mentioned it, but ‘Dark Matter’ - similar kind of edge of the verse setup, a crew of stereotypes that develop as they go (especially as they start off with no memory of who they are) and whilst it was cancelled they got 3 seasons of familiar but new stories.

25:13 - Her head is blocking it, but in the bottom-left you can see the Reaver ship that chased the crew in the pilot episode of the TV series.

I need Shepherd Book’s full backstory to be really satisfied 😉 Also, I would have liked more info on the “two by two, hands of blue” guys, but I recognize that the movie had to pick and choose which stories to tell. Overall, I was very happy with it.

now you know why every geeky teenage boy in 2005 fell in love with summer glau

That lady has the best scream. It shatters me.

I've seen this film maybe a dozen times, but only just recognized an actress who also appeared in one of my favorite shows. @ 2:36 the girl with the long hair is the actress who had a semi-recurring role as Mezati, one of the Borg children, in Star Trek-Voyager.

That first scene is awkward because it's an intro to the characters for people who didn't watch the show. It's so easy to imagine the crew progressing through a few seasons of doing jobs and gradually investigating the Alliance's experiments on River, and through that uncovering clues to Miranda and the secret of the Reavers. They didn't even bring back the blue gloves for Serenity (maybe implied them). What we do have is great but Fox definitely robbed the world of so much more

I loved Mr universe when he said toss me my thirty coin. it's a reference to Judas the Betrayer of Jesus.

So happy. And sad. Firefly is a special show, with a unique story, and an interesting history. One of my favorite things. It's been wonderful sharing it with you two. Thanks. Now, the end. Happy and sad. Well, here we go!

Somebody once said that the starting sequence in this movie has to be taught to any movie makers to show how to develop characters to a new audience while also making it a very fun watch for people who already know the characters. They are completely correct. P.S. The acting might feel weird for Simon Tam because I think Josh Weadon had to change the character a bit to suit the new story (Simon saving River personally instead of Simon paying a group of people to save River like in the show). So Simon has become more confident, stronger, not afraid to confront the Captain.

It was a satisfying ending. Better than not getting any answers.

I was happy with the ending. I wish we had a few more seasons. Fun fact I saw the movie first and about 5-7 years later saw the show when I found out about it.

WHY did Inara leave? Why didn't she and Mal get together when it's obvious to everyone that there's something there? Whedon didn't reveal this until almost ten years after the show's cancellation (get ready to have your heart broken): Inara has loved Mal for quite some time... but she has an incurable disease. She is well aware that she doesn't have much longer to live. And when she realized that Mal was starting to fall for her too, she chose to leave... out of love for him. She knew it would hurt him deeply if he were to fall for her, and then lose her.

I think, if they brought it back, I would want it to be more like a sequel series, or a series set in the same world, with the same amount of time having passed in that world as passed in this one(if for no other reason than that they might be able to occasionally get the original cast to guest star.) I think the universe has a lot of potential yet, but those particular characters stories have been told. we don't necessarily need to follow them any more. I would not want a reboot, or a "where are they now" thing. More a Star Trek:TNG thing.

The phrase Simon says to put River to sleep is a Russian saying, that roughly translates to "that is for chickens to laugh at." It basically means "that's ridiculous."

Of all the cons I've been to the coolest exp to this date for me was going to the panel for Serenity at Wondercon in SF when this came out. The entire cast had the best chemistry and so much love for this show and it's fans.

I loved that you noted the detail about Inara at the end. I had not considered the blue/red/gold thing, but it fits. What I did notice was that, throughout the series, even when Inara is dressed "casually" she is still immaculately done up. Hair, make up, etc. Even drinking Kaylee's wine with Mal after 'Shindig' or bathing in the first episode. This is the first time we see her....just Inara. Casual (blue) dress, no make up, hair just loose and down. She's stopped putting on the show.

I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.🥺 A fitting, bittersweet ending to a beautiful story. They stuck the landing in my opinion. Just like Wash would have.

Just about to start watching, but I gotta say...what an exciting but sad day In case you don't know, the story is continued in a series of graphic novels. And yes, we get Book's secret backstory in one of them 😜

All my years with this show I never even heard OR thought that. OMFG 🤣🤣🤣🤣 "I hope they don't kill Saffron."

Dude, you defenitly rock this whole cowboy thing. No Irony here!