Serenity : The Big Damn Movie

If you haven't seen the show, please do. It's nice. But this recap doesn't assume that you have -- and in that, we're being a touch nicer than the movie. And meaner, considering the best characters get routinely shit on. If you have seen the show...I hope I've done justice. You deserve it.

The Universal logo globe becomes Earth-That-Was as we hear the prologue once again. This time, though, it's from the Alliance side. See if you can decode the propaganda: "Earth-That-Was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many." We see ships bound out from what is left of Earth-That-Was. "We found a new solar system: Dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. Each one terraformed, a process taking decades to support human life. To be new Earths. The central planets formed the Alliance." We see these new Earths, all different, all interesting. One looks a lot like Naboo. "Ruled by an interplanetary parliament, the Alliance was a beacon of civilization. The savage outer planets were not so enlightened, and refused Alliance control." One looks a lot like Tatooine. "The war was devastating. But the Alliance's victory over the Independents ensured a safer universe." We pull back to reveal a screen, diagrammed with a visual representation. "And now, everyone can enjoy the comfort and enlightenment of true civilization." The teacher speaking is Tamara Taylor, a wonderful Toronto actor who is maybe best known here for her role as Michael's ex on Lost, and she's speaking to kids in various kinds of dress, Asian dresses and Mormon shirt-and-tie, kneeling at desks with styluses in an open tent. Outside them is a beautiful garden.

This is smart because it's always been easier to explain the show in terms of a physical spectrum: toward the center, the Alliance, absolute control. Spinning out into the prairie, absolute chaos. Chaos, control. You like? And at the extremity, in the black, the Reavers: just as bad as the Alliance, but in a completely different way. (If you fall on the Farscape side of the argument: compare the cold, rational energy of the Sebaceans with the brainless inner fire of the Scarrans.) And this is the point of the show, and the film: petty criminals or not, the men and women of Serenity, of all the worlds outside the Core Planets, are people, not extremes, not symbols, and they have to live somewhere on that spectrum, which means they're fucked either way.

"Why were the Independents even fighting us? Why wouldn't they look to be more civilized?" History is written by the victors. Another child speaks, only to be interrupted: "I hear they're cannibals." "That's only Reavers!" The children fight over whether Reavers exist -- it's a standard point that the Alliance planets have a vested interest in not believing in Reavers, and I always thought that was because of the chaos/control stuff, but as we'll see in this movie, it's a bit more involved than that. Same war, different battle. "Full well they are. I heard they attack settlers from space and kill them, and wear their skins, and rape them for hours and hours." Succinct, you creepy little kid. The teacher shouts in Mandarin, asking them to button it. "It's true that there are dangers on the outer planets..." Toward the back of the class, a cute but severely baggy-eyed little girl is doing amazing things with her desk, tapping it like a hummingbird, making it dance and bleep. "So with so many social and medical advancements we can bring to the Independents, why would they fight so hard against us?" And the spooky, funny little girl, genius River Tam, gives the child's answer, no less right for being blunt: "We meddle. People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think. Don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes, and in their heads, and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome."

And the teacher gives the authority answer, no less wrong for being logical: "River, we're not telling people what to think, we're just trying to show them how." She leans in and stabs something deep into River's forehead. We jump-cut to an older River (Summer Glau, the River you know already), where she's being experimented upon in a cold, blue laboratory, needles in her brain, strapped in a chair. The world of you watching a movie has become the world of a history lesson, has become the world of a history class, which has become a nightmare. She screams. Dr. Mathias registers that she's in REM, "off the charts," and wants to "amp it up." He turns to a freakishly beautiful Alliance inspector, a guy named Simon we know from the show, who's holding a strange-looking device and looking at him intensely. Simon does everything intensely.

"See, most of our best work is done when they're asleep," the doctor explains to the guy. "We can monitor and direct their subconscious implant suggestions. It's a little startling to see at first, but results are spectacular. Especially in this case. River Tam is our star pupil." The man, whose name is Simon, has in fact heard that. The doctor refers to her suitability for "defense deployment, even with "the side effects." Yeah, the side effects are a bitch. "Tell me about them." She unstable, clearly, due to the "neural stripping" somehow fragmenting "their...reality matrix." This gobbledygook is basically manifested as "borderline" something. "What use do we have for a psychic if she's insane?" This Simon man is wearing a flattering uniform. "She's not just a psychic. Given the right trigger, this girl is a living weapon." She screams and moves, in the chair. He doesn't seem to notice. "She has her lucid periods. We're hoping to improve upon the...I'm sorry, sir, but I have to ask. Is there a reason for this inspection?" Simon, who is creepy on a good day, asks if he's making Mathias "nervous."

"Key members of Parliament have personally observed this subject," Mathias equivocates. "I was told that the Alliance's support for the project was unanimous. The demonstration of her power is..." Simon asks how she is doing physically, but Mathias thinks he means her physical performance: "Like nothing we've seen." Simon stalks the room. "All our subjects are conditioned for combat, but River -- she's a creature of extraordinary grace." True that. She is one of those girls that is acceptable-looking at rest, but becomes beautiful when she's moving. River moans, and Simon looks directly at her, something Mathias basically has yet to do. "Yes. She always did love to dance."

The man in uniform hits the floor with his strange device, kneeling. A head-level shock wave drops all the doctors and aides and soldiers in the room. "River, it's Simon. Please, it's Simon. It's your brother." In terms of the philosophical framework of the show, it's important to note a few things that will help us make sense of the unholy mess that is this movie: the linguistic difference between "River" and "Reaver" is negligible at best. That's always been the point, but it becomes medically precise in the movie. Likewise, the difference between "Simon" and Core Planet "Sinon" is similar, if softened. She's nuts, he's anal-retentive, but he's older, primary, so he wins. The centrifuge of the 'verse keeps it all centralized, and that is -- not some kind of weird obsession with the Southern side of the American Civil War, as some seem to think -- the point. Chaos, control. This is about Reconstruction, as Joss ever is, not slavery. Or it is about slavery, but not like that. Point being, Simon's shiny and beautiful but broken inside, she's visibly nuts, but knows the truth about everything -- it's just that nobody can understand when she speaks. Her signal-to-noise is ugly at best. They are the spectrum, and between the two of them, they fuck up everything they touch. He unstraps his sister and she's pretty wobbly. He gets up and runs to the door, taking off his armor. Suddenly, she's standing right behind him, across the room, freaking him out.