When Shepherd Book dies earlier in the film, it was pretty hard to take. Then Wash dies just when you think they all make it through safe...that crushed my soul. Excellent storytelling by Joss Whedon.
For me it was the moment the doc got shot. At that point I thought “oh. It’s one of THOSE finales…” glad I was wrong. This film is a masterclass in 3rd act tension.
Every. Single. Time. Because "she" didn't just refer to the ship. I know, you knew that. But it was such a deft touch in the script, I have to point it out to praise it.
And I have not, and never will, forgive Fox for committing the most colossal screwup in the history of entertainment. No, I do not feel that is an exaggeration.
Maybe. Some things become great because their potential was thwarted and we dream of what they would have been, and sometimes those dreams become Season 8 of Game of Thrones 🤣 I'm okay with where Serenity ended.
I just rewatched the show for the first time in years. This used to be mine and my brother's favorite show to watch and loved the movie. He was the ultimate underdog and fighter. He died from Muscular Dystrophy in 2018. Been a while since I cried about it. This was very cathartic.
I couldn't imagine any other crew for Serenity, not one single character. It was perfect from the beginning. The actors knew their roles and played them, well, perfectly...
@@greanstreak04 I love casting against type, it can really work. Like the time they cast identical guys in fat suits as Puck, who'd waddle off stage left, then a second later, his identical twin would waddle in from stage right. Or a breathtaking beauty in a nude leotard cast as the monster Caliban. Gilbert as Mal would make it comedy, like when Woody Allen cast himself a a super spy. Casting against type can be hilarious.
@@shaderax_storm6165 He may be the only person that could manage that frilly dress better than Jewel. I don't know if his vocal tone/cadence would match hers for important technobabble moments though. There'd be trade-offs for sure.
The sheer amount of subtext in this scene is something i fucking love. They're saying so much more than what they're saying, because right now they're still compartmentalizing what they just went through. They can't actually talk about it. So you get "She'll fly true," and "Storm's getting worse." They've got a way of talking about their feelings without doing it and I really love how it's written.
I love Reynolds' speech because there's actually truth to it. You spend enough time & effort on a machine, you know how it behaves and can determine any problems it's having just by paying attention to subtle signs.
It's how I get with the cars I've had in the past, from movement to engine sounds I know when they've had an issue even before any black smoke pops up. When you love something you know it through and through
@@jonnyb70 Scotty never said it as poetically. But there was that one original series episode where he KNEW something was wrong with the ship just by the feel of it. Tried to explain that to Spock - but typically Spock didn't understand. But Spock is also an intelligent man who knows to trust his engineer. He said he couldn't account for a feeling like that himself, but he wouldn't dismiss the notion out of hand. If Scotty thought something was wrong, then something was wrong. Turned out Scotty's instinct and Spock's trust was justified. And they both saved the ship. As for poetry - perhaps McCoy said it best in his cameo in the pilot of Next Generation: *"You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home."*
I've been a truck driver for 18yrs...you nailed it on the head. I mean, I'm not even a gear-head (who would have more awareness than I do), but you do learn the song. You can lose the speedo and the tach, but you know the machine, you've learned the song.
When you work with a machine and care for it enough, it will speak to you. You sense it's status by the feedback it gives you. Seat of the pants is a real, actual thing. I have known several in this way.
This scene always impressed me as a contrast between two ways of thinking. I almost feel sympathy for the agent because the realization that "there's nothing left to see" for him is existential. He's been asking himself "what's left of me?" and he's finding no answers. He's lost. He knows that everything he believed he was doing was not as pure as he had thought...that he had been supporting lies without question. I would consider this as a cause for shame, and if I were a believer I would be tempted to start searching for something else to believe in. But I'm not a believer...and neither is Mal. Mal's character lives in a more conscious state, like most who prefer to know rather than believe. There's no existential crisis in a person like Mal when they realize they've been mistaken; the mistakes they make do not include ignoring reality, or holding ideas without thought. Someone like Mal will admit their mistake, pick up the pieces and rebuild, and get on with the business of life. The agent...like Shepard Book...is left searching for something else to believe in. They don't know how to rebuild and life has no meaning without faith. This world - hell, any world - is not for people like the agent. Their world will always be "the next one".
For me when he says "There is nothing left to see." I think what he means is that his belief is shattered, and thats all he was, was his belief, so now he is nothing. The Operative believed in a Perfect World, a world without sin, and was willing to do any manner of evil to help the Alliance achieve such a thing, even if there was no place for him there. Then he see's that recording and realizes he wasn't helping build a Perfect World, but the Alliances "Perfect World", where sins are excused if the Alliance commits them. He cannot believe in that. However, he's a believer, he must have a cause to exist properly. So, now he has to go search for something new to believe in.
it sounds the the death throes of an ex liberal's emotion and false moral righteousness driven worldview as he embraces the cold, harsh, but factual and adult reality of conservative thinking
Fox showed episodes out of order, and had a lot of preempted episodes. I gave up on the series on-air, but bought the DVD's later because I'm a Whedon fan and it was quite inexpensive. It was completely different watching them in order.
It would be easy to embed a chip or even a barcode on a gravestone that led to a webpage about the person with videos, so you could learn about the person.
@@turbopokey Mal was NOT referencing Zoe singularly. On the surface they were talking about the mechanical integrity of the ship. One level deeper was Zoe's ability as an individual to survive the loss of her husband. Even deeper Mal was talking about the complex organism that is the crew and ship, past and present, and their relationships with one another. At the core of the entire Firefly and Serenity story is the love between Mal and Zoe, which is entirely spiritual. They are basically the same person in two bodies with two brains and two sets of emotions.
Zoe's pregnant in this scene, in case some of you didn't know this. It's canon in the companion comic book to the movie which bridges the show and movie together. Wash left a son behind. :)
Now that my anger, hurt and depression of this show being cancelled too soon has eased....we are left with 16 eps and a near perfect movie...and a head full of dreams of what may have been.
@@johnmcternan4157 Jericho? With all of those hills and mountains in Kansas? An empty church with dozens of candles burning? People walking out of shelter after a radioactive rain, some putting their hands on wet rails and walking through puddles? My Master's thesis was on how to survive a nuclear attack. Watching Jericho was like watching the Keystone Cops. Both were asinine.
Forever (abc) Avatar: the last airbender Star Wars: the clone wars Star Wars: the mandalorian Transformers Prime Also Babylon 5, but that one’s a fair bit older than firefly. Point being, there’s good stuff out there if you know where to look.
BSG? The expanse? (Though I if I could trade the last season of BSG for some more of this I would do it in a heartbeat - they did NOT know how to end that show)
Love this movie and the series. Absolutely gutted it was cancelled. This final scene in the cockpit is really something, perfect ending but it came far too soon.
The whole scene tho...River saving Simon, Mal beating the operative, River going commando on the reavers and going straight to the funeral scene...beautiful and, in my opinion, primarily due to the music... Just fucking perfect...miss you, firefly.
The saddest part is how this movie/series is about libertarian space pirates revealing the crimes of the empire(America). The very first line from river is "we meddle" and "we're meddlesome." It's a message of self-determination, independence, non-interventionism, and then the boneheaded writer Joss Whedon fails to realize the brilliance of his own writing by coming out end endorsing the drone-bomber supreme, warmonger elite, meddlesome Obama Bush The Third.
@@mrniusi11 incoherent writing that should never be deleted, but held upon a Pedestal, as if to say, "Herein is retardation purified. Witness, and avoid."
"I'd like to kill you myself, I see you again." "You won't. There's nothing left to see." And then Mal searches him out and asks for his help in the sequel comic.
@@jimmyfey Yeah, there's a bunch of comics but "Leaves on the Wind" is the one I'm talking about. It's not great tbh but it's a continuation of the story at least.
@@fourthhorseman4531 since Mal made it clear his intentions if he saw the Operative again probably not...that being said that does not mean he could not or would not influence more favorable conditions to drift towards the crew of Serenity in a round about way
Na would rather see what came before this, the fact that made him such a good villain was not redemption. It was that he knew he was a monster, but that monster of himself would in his eyes do great good in the right hands. He is like another of my favorite villains in the Record of lodoss wars with Ashram, as dark knight that does what he has to good or evil to secure the needs of his own people regardless how it makes him out to be.
Found out about it after reading comments on Castle clips about something called Firefly and watching that episode where he is dressed as Reynolds. That was more or less two years ago.
@@davidhawley9419 I had high interest in viewing but when I saw them on horses I just mentally checked out. Never gave it another chance that first season, space cowboy movie, I'm outa here. It wasn't until Serenity(no horses) which I believe came after the series,that the series took on a whole other dimension. Bottom line is no series could have had the scope of Serenity but by the time it was released it was already too late. Now don't get me wrong.....I like horses but the idea of our horses on another planet.....ya, I was just in the wrong mood for that kinda shit.
God I love the dialogue in this movie….Especially the last few scenes when the entire crew was essentially saying their goodbyes to the fans of the franchise…..
I can’t believe that they never really did anything with this franchise, there’s a couple books and a comic, but the series universe is ripe for an RPG game, spin offs and sequels but apparently the license holders just hate money
"Can know all the math in the 'verse but take a boat in the air that you don't love? She'll shake you off just as sure as a turn in the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keels...makes her a home."
My favourite moment was still “If Kaylee doesn’t give me more power things are going to get interesting.” “Define interesting.” “Ohgawdohgawdwe’reallgonnadie.”
Been about three years since last viewing. I think it's about that time again. Just love these characters! The sword death of the doctor was a jaw dropper.
I've watched this scene many times and just realized how well Summer Glau played River at that moment. Up to this moment River's character was damaged /angry /broken in some way. In this scene she simply a young woman. She could finally live in the moment and not in the past.
My mumand i sar down to watch this when it first came out . . . . . . Mum was devastated when Wash died and i felt so angry at rhe ridiculous banality of his death . . . . .suffice to say, we both didn't watch it again for many years. This and Babylon Five: i cant watch them since she passed away . . . . . . two tv shows, fiction on a screen, yet so many memories of sitting with my mum and being together.
4:33 Having a psychic crewmate is having a close friend who knows you eerily too well. "Yeah I know but I wanna hear you say it anyway." Those are some of my best friendships. Both ways.
Well he was, in his own way, an honorable man. He showed that when he prevented the surviving Serenity crew being executed and made sure their ship got repaired. There are few things in this world more dangerous than an honorable man who wrongly believes what they are doing to is righteous.
In an interview Joss actually corrects some of the Operatives assumptions. 1. That Mal doesn't want another war, just wants to go his own way. 2.Extended: the Operative: "How did you move on after Serenity where you lost everything?", "You still here when the engine goes you'll never find out". Keep walking keep moving that is how he moved on after Serenity Valley. 3.Extended: "What a whiner?" in the next few seconds Mal asks Zoe how she (Serenity) is doing, and Zoe who just lost the man she loves simply says "She's tore up plenty, but she'll fly true".
Of all the fine films and blockbuster movies Chiwetel Ejiofor has been in, I think this movie has given him his best lines to act. Okay, 12 Years a Slave, too. He played the operative so well.
@@mione12gft71 Not to mention that the movie, while I'm sure it can be great on its own, really needs the show as the backdrop. That way, you *know* the characters already.
He does if you believe the stories, he was an operative for the Independents. He killed an officer and took his place, worked his way up the Alliance command, torturing and killing his fellow independents, then when the time came he delivered such hurt upon the Alliance that has never been seen since. He was discharged and found his way into the Southdown abbey where he lived till he left to wander as a Missionary looking for a ship on Persephone and well the rest is history.
@@wyettastone Honestly I feel like it would have been better if he was an operative for the alliance and not the whole double agent story we got. That he was like the operative in this movie, a true believer that the horrible things he was doing was for a greater good, only to realize it was a lie and walked away from it all. The other possible origin that I feel would have been interesting is if he was not only an Alliance General, but the one who commanded the forces at the Battle of Serenity Valley. He would have witnessed the merciless carnage against the Independents and yet be congratulated as a hero by the alliance, for slaughtering people doing nothing more than fighting for their homes. He would be filled with guilt and decide to resign his commission and retire to a life of penance.
As I mentioned on my comment from about a year ago, it is a sad losing two members but the end was time to rebuild to start again on a new adventure, even with bits falling off.
Goddamn Gina Torres is Beautiful! I know we are sad this show has stopped. But the Actors and Actresses have gone on to play wonderful roles and Comic Con events.
Putting rocks on graves is something that is done in Judaism to symbolize permanence of memory and legacy and respect for those passed, unlike flowers which eventually wither and die
3:55 I love that brief lonely moment. Mal: "Ah heck I'm used to an automatic, but I think I remember how to drive manual..." River: "I have never driven a car. Here we go!"
I always thought The Inquisitor went off and became a Shepard just like Book, and Book himself used to be an Inquisitor himself and fell out of it becoming the man he was when we ran into him at the beginning of Firefly.
Just hit me like a freight train all over again - I was thinking Zoe looked so gorgeous in that white dress and it stood out as such a different look for her. Where'd that dress come from? And some BASTARD rebel voice in the back of my head just now said - "Of course she'd look beautiful. In her wedding dress..." FUCK.
There are those who want new episodes of Firefly. There are times that I stand in those ranks. If it never happens this film gave the perfect send off....
I pray it never happens. Seen quality of writing on shows now? No, let it end like it did, we don't need to drag everything back up just to ruin it for $$$.
I know I'm only the most recent in a long line of people remembering this wonderful film for a regretfully, way too brief series. This moment (0:01), deep within a desolate canon's a beautiful moment, and I think, probably the most fitting way to remember the real passing of Ron Glass. Though many remember him (as do I) in Barney Miller, as Det Harris, it's this role, as Shepherd Book, a deeply spiritual man, with an unspoken, but traumatic, dark past, which still haunted him, yet caused him to rise above it- one in which he was seen by his largest, widest audience, which will live on, long ahead. RiP.💐
This movie give me “serenity” everytime when I see it...great actors,powerfull script...I would like to have friends like them...peace to all of you readers...
Sometime ago, I was talking with a good friend about this show, and told me "they can continue the series, or do a remake or something". I told him something I keep thinking, it will a bad idea. A continuation is too hard, too much time passed, the actors are, well... Some too old for that. And a remake is even worse, you will never find someone with that charisma, that chemistry to crew the Serenity. However... What about the universe? Despite the crew, the universe was unique and interesting. It can be explored again. Whatever happened during the war, or even better, after this movie. How the reavers creation echoed and weakened the Alliance regime... I don't know, Firefly's verse was pretty unique and had the potential to be deep enough for more than just one show and a movie. At least some interesting little stories, or something.
The reason this was Whedons best show? It had, by far, the best cast. Nearly the whole cast either went on to a long acting career or was at the end of one. That and this show had by far the best music of the Whedon library.
@@mione12gft71 Angel is actually his best show, and has the best character arcs (Wesley in particular). The issue with Buffy is that with rewatches Buffy herself becomes insufferable at times, and you come to realize that Xander is a raging douchebag.
Serenity is an amazing movie through and through but this ending is what makes it special, every time I see it I want to run out of my house and slap everyone who hasn't seen this movie
I had the idea of a scene years later in which the Operative starts a journey similar to Shepard Book abroad a ship like the Serenity, and River is the pilot.
No. The buffer panel that fell off at the beginning came from the bow. The thing at the end was one of the "petals" that covers the primary (FTL ?) engine at the stern when not in operation.
Кино
“A captain’s goal was simple. Find a crew. Find a job. Keep flying.”
When Shepherd Book dies earlier in the film, it was pretty hard to take. Then Wash dies just when you think they all make it through safe...that crushed my soul. Excellent storytelling by Joss Whedon.
Wash's death was a signifier that the series itself was gone.
It was the abruptness of it, just.. boom, Wash is gone, no drawn out final words, just… that’s it, gone.
My wife was completely shocked when Wash died, and almost started crying.
For me it was the moment the doc got shot. At that point I thought “oh. It’s one of THOSE finales…” glad I was wrong. This film is a masterclass in 3rd act tension.
"Think she'll hold up?"
"She's tore up plenty, but she'll hold true." I cry every time.
Every. Single. Time. Because "she" didn't just refer to the ship. I know, you knew that. But it was such a deft touch in the script, I have to point it out to praise it.
“Could be bumpy.”
“Always is.”
I always want to hug Zoe when she says that.
You're not alone in that.
Me too.
I weep for what we lost when this show got cancelled. It could have been one of the best shows of all time.
And I have not, and never will, forgive Fox for committing the most colossal screwup in the history of entertainment. No, I do not feel that is an exaggeration.
Instead it turned it one of the best films all time
Maybe. Some things become great because their potential was thwarted and we dream of what they would have been,
and sometimes those dreams become Season 8 of Game of Thrones 🤣 I'm okay with where Serenity ended.
2020, you are living in the pax waxxine agent creating a zombie apocalypse. That should be enough.
Disney released a rumour saying they are planning on Reviving Firefly, picking up where it left off.. all the original cast members etc.
River sums up my feelings to this series perfectly.
Mal: "Since you already know what I'm gonna say"
River: "I do. But I like hearing you say it."
Fuck I might frame this comment and put it on my wall lol
That's brilliant :)
My beloved niece. My sister by another mother.
"Okay. Clearly an aptitude for...uhh ..."
"I just like to hear you say it."
Such a good kid.
River Tams ... such a unique character.... I love watching her.
I like how she cuddles herself with the warm words of passion for his love-Serenity, from Mal
I just rewatched the show for the first time in years. This used to be mine and my brother's favorite show to watch and loved the movie. He was the ultimate underdog and fighter. He died from Muscular Dystrophy in 2018. Been a while since I cried about it. This was very cathartic.
zen hugs and condolences
I couldn't imagine any other crew for Serenity, not one single character. It was perfect from the beginning. The actors knew their roles and played them, well, perfectly...
I dunno, I think Mal could have been recast, but then we lost Gilbert Gottfried.
@@LordMondegrene OMG, Gilbert as Malcolm? Of course it could never work. But as a throwaway episode of Chloe having a bad dream aboard Serenity ...
@@greanstreak04 I love casting against type, it can really work. Like the time they cast identical guys in fat suits as Puck, who'd waddle off stage left, then a second later, his identical twin would waddle in from stage right. Or a breathtaking beauty in a nude leotard cast as the monster Caliban.
Gilbert as Mal would make it comedy, like when Woody Allen cast himself a a super spy. Casting against type can be hilarious.
Morgan Freeman as Kaylee! Come on guys its so obvious.
@@shaderax_storm6165 He may be the only person that could manage that frilly dress better than Jewel. I don't know if his vocal tone/cadence would match hers for important technobabble moments though. There'd be trade-offs for sure.
The sheer amount of subtext in this scene is something i fucking love. They're saying so much more than what they're saying, because right now they're still compartmentalizing what they just went through. They can't actually talk about it. So you get "She'll fly true," and "Storm's getting worse." They've got a way of talking about their feelings without doing it and I really love how it's written.
TheHedgehogGiraffe Absolutely an outstanding Comment here folks!!
Joss Whedon is great at using subtext.
Double entendre.
I always love the tragic way that Zoe is kind of talking about herself when taking about the ship. Heartbreaking.
Even more so when you realize Mal wasn't really asking about Serenity.
What a beautiful ending to a perfect film.
Piece of Serenity falls off.
Mal: "What was that?"
That line cracked me up so hard in the cinema. Still does today. 🤣
I love that Mal calls River "Little Albatross"
Well, you know, he *has* read a poem or two.
I loved Summer Glau's smile as she commented, "I do, but I love to hear you say it."
The whole series was how I imagined life in space would be. Great series. Great movie. Still miss it.
nah movie was fucking shit. Fuck Whedon for killing Wash for no reason
I love Reynolds' speech because there's actually truth to it. You spend enough time & effort on a machine, you know how it behaves and can determine any problems it's having just by paying attention to subtle signs.
i'm surprised Scotty never said anything similar.
It's how I get with the cars I've had in the past, from movement to engine sounds I know when they've had an issue even before any black smoke pops up. When you love something you know it through and through
@@jonnyb70 Scotty never said it as poetically. But there was that one original series episode where he KNEW something was wrong with the ship just by the feel of it. Tried to explain that to Spock - but typically Spock didn't understand. But Spock is also an intelligent man who knows to trust his engineer. He said he couldn't account for a feeling like that himself, but he wouldn't dismiss the notion out of hand. If Scotty thought something was wrong, then something was wrong. Turned out Scotty's instinct and Spock's trust was justified. And they both saved the ship.
As for poetry - perhaps McCoy said it best in his cameo in the pilot of Next Generation:
*"You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home."*
I've been a truck driver for 18yrs...you nailed it on the head. I mean, I'm not even a gear-head (who would have more awareness than I do), but you do learn the song. You can lose the speedo and the tach, but you know the machine, you've learned the song.
When you work with a machine and care for it enough, it will speak to you. You sense it's status by the feedback it gives you. Seat of the pants is a real, actual thing.
I have known several in this way.
This scene always impressed me as a contrast between two ways of thinking. I almost feel sympathy for the agent because the realization that "there's nothing left to see" for him is existential. He's been asking himself "what's left of me?" and he's finding no answers. He's lost. He knows that everything he believed he was doing was not as pure as he had thought...that he had been supporting lies without question. I would consider this as a cause for shame, and if I were a believer I would be tempted to start searching for something else to believe in. But I'm not a believer...and neither is Mal.
Mal's character lives in a more conscious state, like most who prefer to know rather than believe. There's no existential crisis in a person like Mal when they realize they've been mistaken; the mistakes they make do not include ignoring reality, or holding ideas without thought. Someone like Mal will admit their mistake, pick up the pieces and rebuild, and get on with the business of life. The agent...like Shepard Book...is left searching for something else to believe in. They don't know how to rebuild and life has no meaning without faith.
This world - hell, any world - is not for people like the agent. Their world will always be "the next one".
For me when he says "There is nothing left to see." I think what he means is that his belief is shattered, and thats all he was, was his belief, so now he is nothing. The Operative believed in a Perfect World, a world without sin, and was willing to do any manner of evil to help the Alliance achieve such a thing, even if there was no place for him there. Then he see's that recording and realizes he wasn't helping build a Perfect World, but the Alliances "Perfect World", where sins are excused if the Alliance commits them. He cannot believe in that. However, he's a believer, he must have a cause to exist properly. So, now he has to go search for something new to believe in.
There's a cut scene where he asks Mal how he kept faith because he's now lost his. Mal replies LOL GFY
@@KS-xk2so The agent decided to destroy the alliance from the inside, and during it, attempt to find something else worth living and fighting for.
I’m late to the game here, but effing brilliant take. Well said.
it sounds the the death throes of an ex liberal's emotion and false moral righteousness driven worldview as he embraces the cold, harsh, but factual and adult reality of conservative thinking
Never even heard of a show called "Firefly"... Saw this, and immediately knew I really fucked up... The characters, the plot...I am in love...
Never too late to be a Browncoat
Fox showed episodes out of order, and had a lot of preempted episodes. I gave up on the series on-air, but bought the DVD's later because I'm a Whedon fan and it was quite inexpensive. It was completely different watching them in order.
Welcome to the family.
_Aim to misbehave_
Fox's greatest failure.
Those holo things is really good idea.Too see the person not just the grave.
I wish we had those.
Perhaps someday we will.
It would be easy to embed a chip or even a barcode on a gravestone that led to a webpage about the person with videos, so you could learn about the person.
@@cjeam9199 you say that like it wouldnt be anyway... miss you Nan xx
Злой Волшебник well... we do actually...
I have seen pretty good likenesses laser engraved into the stone.
Mal: You think she'll hold together?
Zoë: She's torn up plenty, but she'll fly true.
He wasn't just talking about the ship.
Louis Taplin mal: "could be bumpy"
Zoey " always is"
No you are right. Zoe was too. We all are
Somewhere Nathan said even he didn't know Mal was referencing Zoe when he said those lines.
Neither was she.
@@turbopokey Mal was NOT referencing Zoe singularly. On the surface they were talking about the mechanical integrity of the ship. One level deeper was Zoe's ability as an individual to survive the loss of her husband. Even deeper Mal was talking about the complex organism that is the crew and ship, past and present, and their relationships with one another. At the core of the entire Firefly and Serenity story is the love between Mal and Zoe, which is entirely spiritual. They are basically the same person in two bodies with two brains and two sets of emotions.
@@cholesterol6703 I know, I didn't think I needed to spell it out...
Zoe's pregnant in this scene, in case some of you didn't know this. It's canon in the companion comic book to the movie which bridges the show and movie together. Wash left a son behind. :)
A prime example of bittersweet.
Someone to remember him by , good trope
His birth will be a "Wash-out".
A daughter, actually. Emma.
TIL~ :D
I need to read the Leaf on the Wind series.
Now that my anger, hurt and depression of this show being cancelled too soon has eased....we are left with 16 eps and a near perfect movie...and a head full of dreams of what may have been.
I've only seen 14 episodes...where are the other 2?
The last television show I ever gave a damn about. I still miss it.
The boys on Amazon?
The Expanse ?
Jericho and Battlestar (especially) for me.
@@johnmcternan4157 Jericho? With all of those hills and mountains in Kansas? An empty church with dozens of candles burning? People walking out of shelter after a radioactive rain, some putting their hands on wet rails and walking through puddles? My Master's thesis was on how to survive a nuclear attack. Watching Jericho was like watching the Keystone Cops. Both were asinine.
Forever (abc)
Avatar: the last airbender
Star Wars: the clone wars
Star Wars: the mandalorian
Transformers Prime
Also Babylon 5, but that one’s a fair bit older than firefly.
Point being, there’s good stuff out there if you know where to look.
BSG? The expanse?
(Though I if I could trade the last season of BSG for some more of this I would do it in a heartbeat - they did NOT know how to end that show)
A great movie, a great series. It was hard to see Wash and Book die, because that was the end of the shows or any sequels.
I loved those characters. Quite possibly the best thing there has ever been on TV. Ever.
Love this movie and the series. Absolutely gutted it was cancelled. This final scene in the cockpit is really something, perfect ending but it came far too soon.
The whole scene tho...River saving Simon, Mal beating the operative, River going commando on the reavers and going straight to the funeral scene...beautiful and, in my opinion, primarily due to the music...
Just fucking perfect...miss you, firefly.
"River going commando"...
The saddest part is how this movie/series is about libertarian space pirates revealing the crimes of the empire(America). The very first line from river is "we meddle" and "we're meddlesome." It's a message of self-determination, independence, non-interventionism, and then the boneheaded writer Joss Whedon fails to realize the brilliance of his own writing by coming out end endorsing the drone-bomber supreme, warmonger elite, meddlesome Obama Bush The Third.
@@mrniusi11 incoherent writing that should never be deleted, but held upon a Pedestal, as if to say, "Herein is retardation purified. Witness, and avoid."
@@r.e.tucker3223 Well, Arnold was less scary. Very less (maybe River was like Indian Joe)
"I'd like to kill you myself, I see you again."
"You won't. There's nothing left to see."
And then Mal searches him out and asks for his help in the sequel comic.
There’s a sequel comic?
@@jimmyfey Yeah, there's a bunch of comics but "Leaves on the Wind" is the one I'm talking about. It's not great tbh but it's a continuation of the story at least.
"Hang on, I gotta comfort a grieving widow, flirt with a high class courtesan, and teach a teenage girl about love."
The operative should've gotten his own film. Villain in a quest for redemption sort of thing.
I'd watch that. Many of the greatest, most memorable villains would be heroes if they had just been right.
might get something like that eventually at least as a stand alone comic series...
I know it'd never happen, but I kind of wished he'd go with the crew of the Serenity, start a new life and all that.
@@fourthhorseman4531 since Mal made it clear his intentions if he saw the Operative again probably not...that being said that does not mean he could not or would not influence more favorable conditions to drift towards the crew of Serenity in a round about way
Na would rather see what came before this, the fact that made him such a good villain was not redemption. It was that he knew he was a monster, but that monster of himself would in his eyes do great good in the right hands. He is like another of my favorite villains in the Record of lodoss wars with Ashram, as dark knight that does what he has to good or evil to secure the needs of his own people regardless how it makes him out to be.
People didn't know what they were missing with firefly. Either did I till years later and it was to late.
The ads for it were horrible. Made it look dumb.
Found out about it after reading comments on Castle clips about something called Firefly and watching that episode where he is dressed as Reynolds. That was more or less two years ago.
Same here. I vaguely remembered ads for it. Then I caught the movie in the theater one Saturday and immediately bought the series right after.
@@davidhawley9419 I had high interest in viewing but when I saw them on horses I just mentally checked out. Never gave it another chance that first season, space cowboy movie, I'm outa here. It wasn't until Serenity(no horses) which I believe came after the series,that the series took on a whole other dimension.
Bottom line is no series could have had the scope of Serenity but by the time it was released it was already too late.
Now don't get me wrong.....I like horses but the idea of our horses on another planet.....ya, I was just in the wrong mood for that kinda shit.
they screwed them on timeslot as well.
I'm so glad they did a proper send off for this series. It never got the air that it deserved.
3:38 "I don't know"
"Good answer"
Makes me weak at the knees every time.
God I love the dialogue in this movie….Especially the last few scenes when the entire crew was essentially saying their goodbyes to the fans of the franchise…..
can't believe this is 16 years old already..
I can’t believe that they never really did anything with this franchise, there’s a couple books and a comic, but the series universe is ripe for an RPG game, spin offs and sequels but apparently the license holders just hate money
"Can know all the math in the 'verse but take a boat in the air that you don't love? She'll shake you off just as sure as a turn in the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keels...makes her a home."
One of the best emotion wretching endings I ever seen!
I’ve always loved this last scene between River and Mal.
There is nothing left to see, a man admitting his loyalty was to the wrong people.
"I’m a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar!"
I just love how it ends, a piece of the ship falling off and Mal going "What was that?" exactly how it all started.
My favourite moment was still “If Kaylee doesn’t give me more power things are going to get interesting.”
“Define interesting.”
“Ohgawdohgawdwe’reallgonnadie.”
Been about three years since last viewing. I think it's about that time again.
Just love these characters!
The sword death of the doctor was a jaw dropper.
What an ending to the series. So gutted they cancelled this show but dang it if they didn't wrap it up freaking incredibly with this movie.
I've watched this scene many times and just realized how well Summer Glau played River at that moment. Up to this moment River's character was damaged /angry /broken in some way. In this scene she simply a young woman. She could finally live in the moment and not in the past.
Same goes for Mal in the end. Movie really is about moving on from trauma in life.
My mumand i sar down to watch this when it first came out . . . . . . Mum was devastated when Wash died and i felt so angry at rhe ridiculous banality of his death . . . . .suffice to say, we both didn't watch it again for many years. This and Babylon Five: i cant watch them since she passed away . . . . . . two tv shows, fiction on a screen, yet so many memories of sitting with my mum and being together.
The Operative and Hans Gruber in DieHard were my favorite villains. Both were intelligent and sophisticated.
"How we treat our dead is what makes us different from them that did the killing."
4:33 Having a psychic crewmate is having a close friend who knows you eerily too well. "Yeah I know but I wanna hear you say it anyway." Those are some of my best friendships. Both ways.
The ending of this movie, effectively ending the series gave me some salt in my eyes. Hard giving a farewell to something you give a damn about.
We'll always hold a damn good memory of our family in our heads just as sure as the turn of the worlds - right up till the end of the 'verse ;)
Not ' farewell ' . Never ' farewell ' . Just ' see you later ' .
Never get tired of watching this movie.
The long shot at the end of the funeral scene (at 0.45) always gets me for some reason, beautiful.....what a great movie!
I actually pity the Operative. He was brainwashed, and when the truth came he faced it and accepted it and went on his way.
Well he was, in his own way, an honorable man. He showed that when he prevented the surviving Serenity crew being executed and made sure their ship got repaired.
There are few things in this world more dangerous than an honorable man who wrongly believes what they are doing to is righteous.
I always suspected the Operative is what Shepard Book used to be. I suspect he had a similar experience to what the Operative is shown to have here.
In an interview Joss actually corrects some of the Operatives assumptions. 1. That Mal doesn't want another war, just wants to go his own way. 2.Extended: the Operative: "How did you move on after Serenity where you lost everything?", "You still here when the engine goes you'll never find out". Keep walking keep moving that is how he moved on after Serenity Valley. 3.Extended: "What a whiner?" in the next few seconds Mal asks Zoe how she (Serenity) is doing, and Zoe who just lost the man she loves simply says "She's tore up plenty, but she'll fly true".
Of all the fine films and blockbuster movies Chiwetel Ejiofor has been in, I think this movie has given him his best lines to act. Okay, 12 Years a Slave, too. He played the operative so well.
he is a criminally underused actor, even now
Firefly and Serentity - cracking scifi.
Never saw the TV show. Movie is absolutely great on every level. One of those things that’s perfect the way it is.
please, watch the show. it's a masterpiece
@@mione12gft71 Not to mention that the movie, while I'm sure it can be great on its own, really needs the show as the backdrop. That way, you *know* the characters already.
@@superexoticshrub idk. I see folks saying they don't need to watch the show, but i was really was mixed on this while watching
I think Shepherd Book had some similar background story like here the Operative have....
He does if you believe the stories, he was an operative for the Independents. He killed an officer and took his place, worked his way up the Alliance command, torturing and killing his fellow independents, then when the time came he delivered such hurt upon the Alliance that has never been seen since. He was discharged and found his way into the Southdown abbey where he lived till he left to wander as a Missionary looking for a ship on Persephone and well the rest is history.
@@wyettastone Honestly I feel like it would have been better if he was an operative for the alliance and not the whole double agent story we got. That he was like the operative in this movie, a true believer that the horrible things he was doing was for a greater good, only to realize it was a lie and walked away from it all.
The other possible origin that I feel would have been interesting is if he was not only an Alliance General, but the one who commanded the forces at the Battle of Serenity Valley. He would have witnessed the merciless carnage against the Independents and yet be congratulated as a hero by the alliance, for slaughtering people doing nothing more than fighting for their homes. He would be filled with guilt and decide to resign his commission and retire to a life of penance.
I agree. Just before he died when he speaks to Mal about faith kind of cements it
10x better than star wars
Amen to that fellow brown coat
Aye.
Wouldn't exist without Star Wars. Mal is Han Solo and Joss has said as much.
ONe of the great SFI shows of all time
This always gets me. 😢
It's raining here while I watch this. How fitting.
You have to laugh and shed a tear on " What was that?". Cause you gotta to know no matter what, they would keep going.
As I mentioned on my comment from about a year ago, it is a sad losing two members but the end was time to rebuild to start again on a new adventure, even with bits falling off.
Despite the tragic losses, I was still happy to see Kaylee and the Doc finally hook up. Lucky bastard.
Just about my all time favourite six minutes of film. Always remembered.
Goddamn Gina Torres is Beautiful!
I know we are sad this show has stopped. But the Actors and Actresses have gone on to play wonderful roles and Comic Con events.
Putting the rocks on the graves is so minimal, but so big.
Putting rocks on graves is something that is done in Judaism to symbolize permanence of memory and legacy and respect for those passed, unlike flowers which eventually wither and die
@@lavierakoover893well said....I want to go back to Long Island to put a stone from my Las Vegas home on my father's grave...
3:55 I love that brief lonely moment.
Mal: "Ah heck I'm used to an automatic, but I think I remember how to drive manual..."
River: "I have never driven a car. Here we go!"
Great Tv show GREAT film Thank You for showing this , WHAT WAS THAT YES
I always thought The Inquisitor went off and became a Shepard just like Book, and Book himself used to be an Inquisitor himself and fell out of it becoming the man he was when we ran into him at the beginning of Firefly.
That’s a pretty good way of explaining Book’s backstory, without actually straight up telling it.
Just hit me like a freight train all over again - I was thinking Zoe looked so gorgeous in that white dress and it stood out as such a different look for her. Where'd that dress come from? And some BASTARD rebel voice in the back of my head just now said - "Of course she'd look beautiful. In her wedding dress..."
FUCK.
OH OKAY THEN shit. Now *I* have to process this...how.
"Think she'll hold together?" ...great line, he's asking about Zoe too.
River is ceiling cat
There are those who want new episodes of Firefly. There are times that I stand in those ranks. If it never happens this film gave the perfect send off....
I pray it never happens.
Seen quality of writing on shows now?
No, let it end like it did, we don't need to drag everything back up just to ruin it for $$$.
@@PutYourQuarterUpGaming well said
I know I'm only the most recent in a long line of people remembering this wonderful film for a regretfully, way too brief series.
This moment (0:01), deep within a desolate canon's a beautiful moment, and I think, probably the most fitting way to remember the real passing of Ron Glass.
Though many remember him (as do I) in Barney Miller, as Det Harris, it's this role, as Shepherd Book, a deeply spiritual man, with an unspoken, but traumatic, dark past, which still haunted him, yet caused him to rise above it- one in which he was seen by his largest, widest audience, which will live on, long ahead.
RiP.💐
This scene always tears me up...
"what was that?"
one of the greatest end lines
So sad.... so much to learn about Book... Wash was a great character... what a great cast... what a great show.
He was an operative...not much else to learn if paid attention to character arc for operative in the movie.
Along with the episodes to Firefly I find a nirvana typed passiveness to all of the characters participating with this piece of fine work.
River: Storm's getting worse...
Mal: We'll pass through it, soon enough..
(line I woulda loved)
River: Didn't mean this one...
Mal: -.-
Love the music in this scene!
This is really the.best sci fi movie since Wrath of Khan. That is saying a bunch.
This was such a great film
This movie give me “serenity” everytime when I see it...great actors,powerfull script...I would like to have friends like them...peace to all of you readers...
Sometime ago, I was talking with a good friend about this show, and told me "they can continue the series, or do a remake or something". I told him something I keep thinking, it will a bad idea. A continuation is too hard, too much time passed, the actors are, well... Some too old for that. And a remake is even worse, you will never find someone with that charisma, that chemistry to crew the Serenity.
However... What about the universe? Despite the crew, the universe was unique and interesting. It can be explored again. Whatever happened during the war, or even better, after this movie. How the reavers creation echoed and weakened the Alliance regime... I don't know, Firefly's verse was pretty unique and had the potential to be deep enough for more than just one show and a movie. At least some interesting little stories, or something.
You need to read the comics.
Not to mention the Yahoo they give the project too will have a different vision for the series and I'll turn into crap
Concerning today's sitch in movie industry, I'd rather they leave the Firefly alone. They will only ruin it.
The music is some of the best tracks I've heard in all of sci-fi!
Slinky dress...(sobs uncontrollably)
Love this music
This like so many shows gone before they should have.
the operative is actually a sad character
Like all state opwratives in reality at the ending of the world, which habe fought against truth.
Imagine dedicating your life to a cause only to find out one day that it was all horse manure and the people you'd revered were just using you.
The reason this was Whedons best show? It had, by far, the best cast. Nearly the whole cast either went on to a long acting career or was at the end of one. That and this show had by far the best music of the Whedon library.
i think buffy is better, but firefly is the shit too
@@mione12gft71 Angel is actually his best show, and has the best character arcs (Wesley in particular). The issue with Buffy is that with rewatches Buffy herself becomes insufferable at times, and you come to realize that Xander is a raging douchebag.
@@seandlax9 nah. Buffy is better, but loved angel
@@seandlax9 and buffy isn't annoying
@@seandlax9 but yeah, the character development in Angel was better
Alright alright... i will watch Serenity and Firefly again...
Serenity is an amazing movie through and through but this ending is what makes it special, every time I see it I want to run out of my house and slap everyone who hasn't seen this movie
The "what was that?" at the end was perfect.
God, I loved this series and movie.
I had the idea of a scene years later in which the Operative starts a journey similar to Shepard Book abroad a ship like the Serenity, and River is the pilot.
"What was that?" "Same thing that fell off at the beginning of the show."
Was glad someone else caught that, one of the funniest lines at the beginning of any movie, then to end it shows a continuity we all needed.
No. The buffer panel that fell off at the beginning came from the bow. The thing at the end was one of the "petals" that covers the primary (FTL ?) engine at the stern when not in operation.
"What was that?" - Captain Malcolm Reynolds.
Mal will always admire honor and conviction even if it is an enemy who believes differently.
best Film of all time
Now I just want to see River flip, dive and weave Serenity like Han Solo. I'll bet she is the best pilot ever.
Dang it... got something in my eye again... ;)
"I am a leaf on the wind"