TedStixon

Trivia: The man who opens the safe at the beginning of the film was played by Weston Nathanson... however, his voice was provided by director Joss Whedon. As is often the case, Nathanson's lines had to be re-recorded in post-production, but Nathanson wasn't available. Joss stepped in and dubbed the lines himself.

TedStixon

Trivia: Universal originally estimated the budget of the film at $100 million, given the size of the movie and the amount of visual effects. Director Joss Whedon told the producers that he could make the movie for under $40 million - true to his word, the film's final budget was a relatively tiny (by action-movie standards) $39 million.

TedStixon

Trivia: The phrase Simon yells to put River to sleep is actually a Russian phrase that translates to something like "This is for the hens to laugh" or "This is laughter for chickens." It's an old idiom that basically means "This is completely ridiculous!"

TedStixon

Trivia: Though it's never said on-camera, Jayne's gun is called "Lux" in the film. The gun was named after a "Firefly" super-fan who used to do fan-art for the series in the same style as the show "South Park." He unfortunately passed away, so the prop was named after him in his honor.

TedStixon

Trivia: "Serenity" has the somewhat dubious honor of being one of the first four films that were released on the ill-fated HD-DVD format on April 18th, 2006. (It was finally released on the competing Blu-Ray format two years later after HD-DVD was discontinued.) Even more dubious, "Serenity" was also the first HD-DVD film to be pirated on BitTorrent.

TedStixon

Trivia: Spoilers: During production of "Firefly," Summer Glau pitched having her character River become a co-pilot of the ship Serenity. She eventually got her wish with this film, as it ends with River acting as Mal's co-pilot after the original pilot Wash is killed.

TedStixon

Trivia: Some Spoilers. Around the time "Serenity" was released in theaters, Joss Whedon co-wrote a comic-book entitled "Those Left Behind" that explains the events that occurred between the end of "Firefly" and the start of this film, and answered some leftover questions from the series. In the comic, among other things, the "Blue Hands" finally make their move and attack Serenity, but are eventually thwarted and killed when they are incinerated by Serenity's thrusters, leading the alliance to give their mission to the much more dangerous "Operative." We also learn that Shepherd Book left Serenity after Mal pushed him too far, making him punch Mal in the face. This finally makes him realise that his time on Serenity has hardened him too much and lead him astray from his attempts at a peaceful life, and he decides to leave on good terms with the crew.

TedStixon

Trivia: The date September 20th has some relevance for this franchise. Mal's birthday in this film is given as September 20th of the year 2468. This is a bit of an Easter Egg reference to former "Firefly" staff writer Ben Edlund, who was born on September 20th in the year 1968. (Same day, exactly 500 years apart.) And on top of that, in a bizarre coincidence, "Firefly" also premiered on September 20th in the year 2002.

TedStixon

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

Trivia: In addition to playing Inara, Morena Baccarin is the voice of the security computer in the Alliance records room.

TedStixon

Trivia: In the cargo bay, there are some boxes that are labeled "Reusable Container: Do Not Dispose." This was a bit of an inside-joke by the set-decorators, as the entire set from the TV show "Firefly" had to be rebuilt for this film after being destroyed.

TedStixon

Trivia: DVD copies of the TV show "Firefly" and this follow-up movie "Serenity" were flown to the international space station in 2007. Several members of NASA are big fans of the show, and had the DVD's (along with some "Firefly" themed gear) sent into space for crew-members to watch. Late on in 2014, astronaut Steve Swanson (who was the one that originally brought along the DVD's seven years prior) also took the first official Instagram photo from space whilst wearing a "Serenity" T-shirt.

TedStixon

Trivia: In a nice bit of continuity, if you pay close attention, you can see some small scars on Mal's body a few times in the film. Most of them correlate to injuries he received earlier in the series "Firefly." (eg. You can see the scar from when he was shot in the abdomen in the episode "Out of Gas" if you look closely).

TedStixon

Trivia: Though not stated blatantly in the film, creator Joss Whedon has confirmed that "Serenity" takes place about six months after the final episode of "Firefly."

TedStixon

Trivia: Despite "Serenity" being the last live-action entry in the "Firefly" franchise, creator Joss Whedon eventually continued the story in a series of comic-books, which are considered canonical with the show and this film. This includes a prequel delving into Shepherd Book's backstory, and two direct sequels ("Serenity: Leaves on the Wind" and "Serenity: No Power in the Verse"), which were released in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

TedStixon