Serenity

Corrected entry: In the closing scene where the Operative tells the Alliance soldiers to stand down, one of the soldiers (almost out of frame) lowers a set microphone.

Nick Bylsma

Correction: I've watched this scene multiple times and I cannot see a microphone anywhere. Every soldier is holding a gun and nothing else. Where abouts is this microphone? "Almost out of frame" isn't very precise.

THGhost

Corrected entry: After Serenity crash lands on Mr. Universe's planet, Kaylee says she can rig the door so it won't open once it's shut. All points say she has done this. However, once Mal comes back, he asks where River is. The door which is supposed to be shut for good opens dramatically to show River standing in the middle of dead Reavers just in time for the wall to fall down. River is nowhere near the door, and no one inside the room has gone anywhere near it either, so regardless of just how permanently that door was sealed, nothing's caused it to open.

Correction: Kaylee does say she can seal the door, but it's River that actually does it by hitting the big red "close door" button when she jumps through; there's no reason it can't be opened again.

Corrected entry: During the final fight scene between Mal and the Operative, Mal breaks his back (or possibly just dislocates his shoulders). Yet, a few scenes later they're talking and he shows no signs of injury whatsoever.

Correction: After the final fight between Mal and the Operative, Serenity has been completely rebuilt. This couldn't have happened overnight. That's plenty of time for the Operative and Mal to heal from their respective injuries.

Corrected entry: In the pilot of Firefly, River seems shocked to see Simon when she wakes up from cryosleep. In Serenity, she sees Simon before going into cryosleep, so she should remember. One could argue that due to her mental problems she simply forgot, but River's memory has always been extraordinary, even in terrible circumstances.

Brad

Correction: Waking from cryosleep results in brief temporary mental disorientation.

Phixius

Corrected entry: According to Joss Whedon, people in the Firefly universe speak only English and/or Chinese (see Special Features and the movie's subtitles), and yet, the writing we see everywhere is Japanese (there's a difference between Japanese and Chinese script; it's obvious for those who know).

Correction: Joss Whedon misspoke; this is not a movie mistake.

Corrected entry: In the opening sequence, the movie shows Simon Tam personally rescuing River; however, in the pilot episode of the series he states that he funded a group to sneak her out to him.

Correction: So he lied about the details. These are people who he's only just met, has no way to know whether he can trust, he's hardly going to want to admit to having personally broken into a secure facility, so he lies. It's quite understandable that he would be somewhat evasive.

Tailkinker

Correction: Actually that man said his own dialogue with his own voice. Joss's voice is what you hear coming from down the stairs in the "hidden" vault.

Corrected entry: During the bank robbery scene, down in the vault. Just after Jayne shows up to warn Mal of the reavers, count the people moving behind Mal. Zoe was already in the vault and Jayne went to join her. Then Jayne runs behind Mal out of the vault, followed by someone else (I think it was Zoe) and then Zoe again. Though it's unclear, three people exit behind Mal after only two went in.

Correction: There was a security guard already in the vault. It's him running out.

Corrected entry: On Miranda, when they do the spiral shot around River during her "they're everywhere" speech, a camera person in white is visible in the window to Wash's left. (01:13:30)

Correction: There is nothing in the windows immediately on either side of Wash, either time the shot circles River. The "person" in white in the window is to Zoe's left, and it's actually the body in the window that startled Kaylee a few moments before.

Corrected entry: When Shepherd places his hand on Mal's ear and face, it leaves a large bloody mark. The mark vanishes for a few shots, then returns.

pinkwafer

Correction: No, it doesn't. The shadows on his face are just really sharp and dark so you can't see the stains really well, but they're there. The position of the stains (more on the neck and ear, actually) puts them out of straight camera range, too.

Corrected entry: In the scene near the beginning when the Operative is investigating the escape of Simon and River, he is reviewing the recording of them escaping from the facility. During his conversation with the doctor, he changes the recording to show the doctor's and Simon's conversation, pointing out the phrase "Key members of Parliament." Later, after he has killed the researcher, the Operative goes back to the recording and it's back to Simon and River escaping, seemingly without him changing it back.

Correction: Watch it again - you can see the hologram change back to Simon and River after the "key members" quote.

Nick N.

Corrected entry: After the reavers first show up in town, there is a harrowing chase back to the ship. At the finale, it's Mal and friends heading straight for the reavers. Serenity shows up in the middle of them with the cargo doors open. The crew slides neatly into the ship and to safety. A few moments later, a reaver, along with the top of his ship enters through the same door. The mistake here is that the reavers were going the opposite direction. Not only would the reaver ship just scrape the bottom, it would have had to instantaneously change directions in order for the top to be shorn off like that. Basically, for what happened to work, the reavers would have had to have been directly behind them instead of head on, as they were.

Correction: Serenity does not appear in between the hovercraft and the reaver ship. It appears behind the hovercraft which is "swallowed" by Serenity from behind. Serenity's cargo doors are located on the front of the ship, not the rear, as this entry seems to imply.

You are both right. The hovercraft was being chased by the reaver ship. Then Zoe, the hovercraft pilot, spun around heading towards the reaver ship. At that point they were moving in the same direction as Serenity, which swooped in behind the hovercraft, and Serenity's front facing docking bay opened and "swallowed" the hovercraft backwards, easing any damage that might happen to the crew. The reaver ship was shorn off correctly.

Corrected entry: When the Operative is reviewing the computer file on Mal, one of the notes reads "Awarded Valor Commendation: Battle of Serenity Valley." Since the Battle of Serenity Valley was the decisive battle of the war, which the Browncoats lost, who awarded him the commendation? The Browncoats had surrendered, so they were certainly in no position to hand out medals, and the Alliance would surely not have given Mal an award for fighting them so tenaciously.

Correction: The battle of Serenity Valley lasted over two months - there would certainly have been lulls in the fighting during that time as the combatants resupplied, regrouped and so forth. Mal went from commanding a single squad in the battle to being in charge of over two thousand soldiers, keeping their morale up and keeping them in the fight. Given his heroic actions, the Independent commanders obviously decided to award him the commendation for valour during one of those lulls.

Tailkinker

Continuity mistake: While Zoe determines the location of Miranda, there are two shots of Jayne with his arms down by his sides - one where he is standing behind Inara and one with Wash in the foreground. When it cuts back to the shot of him standing behind Inara, his left hand is on his belt. His hand then returns to its original place when it cuts back to Wash. (01:04:20)

THGhost

More mistakes in Serenity

Mal: Just get us on the ground.
Wash: That part will happen most definitely.

More quotes from Serenity

Trivia: You may have noticed that the man who tries to pull a gun during the opening bank robbery and is later killed out of mercy by Mal looks familiar. It is none other than Glenn Howerton, best known for playing Dennis on the dark comedy series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." This movie was released just a few weeks after "Always Sunny" first premiered.

TedStixon

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I honestly have no clue why I thought this counted as trivia when I submitted it, but looking back, I think it's a bit of a stretch and probably shouldn't be listed. Maybe if it was his first role it would be trivia, but it wasn't.

TedStixon

I'm OK with it, to be honest - might not be his first role, but I didn't know he was in Serenity, and reading this made me go back and rewatch the scene. It's a grey area, granted, but to my mind trivia encompasses anything that makes you go "huh, didn't know that"!

Jon Sandys

Definitely trivia! Super cool fact I didn't know. He is very famous Now and the proximity of the episodes in similes are definitely relevant.

More trivia for Serenity

Question: Why is River bare-foot so often, especially on a ship that has a lot of metal flooring?

Answer: She has several mental disorders, presumably she finds shoes confining or uncomfortable. It's notable that when she does have footwear it's almost always heavy calf high boots, instead of slippers or more comfortable shoes.

Grumpy Scot

To add; She likes to dance, and being barefoot it's easier to move around.

lionhead

Something I always wondered is when she goes on the heist barefoot at the beginning of the film, none of the other characters seem to notice or care that she's in bare feet. Even her brother, Simon, didn't try to get her to wear shoes.

Answer: The reason is that Summer Glau had severe tendinitis and arthritis in her feet and wearing shoes was painful for her.

LorgSkyegon

I actually got to ask Summer this at Galaxy Con. She said that being barefoot helped her focus on becoming her character.

More questions & answers from Serenity

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