Tranquility by Scene

1. Tranquility by Scene

2. Scene 1 • In River’s Alliance school, a teacher gives the class a brief history of the setting. • We left Earth. • There was a war between the Alliance and the Independents. The Alliance won. • 12? Year old River says the Independents don’t like the Alliance government because they “meddle” in or control everything. • The teacher stabs her in the forehead. • It was just a memory.

3. Scene 2 • In an Alliance Parliament-subsidized lab, 17 year old River is restrained in a chair with tubes coming out of her, she appears to be asleep. • A mysterious man questions a lab tech. • He sets of a diversion, reveals he is Simon, River’s brother, and breaks her out. • Mid-break out, this is revealed as a recording.

4. Scene 3 • The Operative contemplates the recording in an Alliance archive room. • The lab tech comes in and demands to see his credentials. He is satisfied, but gleans nothing about the man. • The Operative is there to kill him because he erred in allowing key members of Parliament to be in a room with a psychic. • The lab tech tries to run, but the Operative forces him to fall on a sword. He comforts the lab tech as he dies.

5. Scene 4 • We see a Firefly class ship called ‘Serenity’. • It’s falling apart. • We follow the captain, Mal, through the ship as he urges his crew to make ready for a job and to fix the ship. • We meet Wash, Jayne, Zoe, Kaylee, Simon, and River. • They’re going to rob a bank in town. They rev up the hovercraft and take off.

6. Scene 5 • The crew (Mal, Zoe, and Jayne) take control of the station while River discovers a man who was trying to be a hero. • The get into the vault, but as they’re robbing it, Reavers arrive. • After telling everyone to get inside the vault, the crew boards the mule. • The would-be hero from before tries to go with them, but it’s too much weight, so Mal pushes him off and shoots him so the Reavers won’t torture him.

7. Scene 6 • The Reavers pursue the mule as the crew tries to make it back to Serenity. • Zoe calls Wash to come to them. • A spear-like weapon connected to a rope is shot through Jayne’s leg. Mal shoots the rope to free him. • They make it back in using a maneuver called “barn swallow” and shoot the Reaver that makes it in with them.

8. Scene 7 • River swallowed a bug. • Kaylee is concerned for Simon…for some reason. • Simon is furious that River might have been hurt. He says they’re getting off at the next stop.

9. Scene 8 • Mal and Zoe talk about leaving people behind. • Zoe says it will make life easier if the Tams leave, but she thought they could have saved the man back at the heist. • Mal insists they couldn’t’ve made it back with that many. • Zoe says, in a time of war, they never would have left anyone behind.

10. Scene 9 • Jayne cleans up the ship as Kaylee watches. • He talks about the Reavers: • Cut their own faces • Rape and murder • Eat people • He wonders how they got that way. • Kaylee says Shepherd Book said they were just men who’d been driven mad by the prospect of endless space.

11. Scene 10 • Mal watches a video alone in his cabin. • It’s a home movie Kaylee made of Inara. • She’s packing her shuttle to leave Serenity. • Her job is a ‘companion’. • Kaylee insists Mal wants her to stay. • Inara replies, “That man doesn’t know WHAT he wants…”

12. Scene 11 • Simon and River prepare to leave as everyone else disembarks either to relax or do business. • Kaylee gives them advice. Both she and Simon seem unhappy about the situation. • Simon asks River if she wants to stay. • She replies that it’s too dangerous.

13. Scene 12 • Kaylee second-guesses Mal’s decision to kick the Tams off. She says it’s just like Inara. • Mal and Jayne meet with Fante and Mingo to discuss dividing the bountry. Fanteand Mingo seem uneasy. • River enters…sees a strange commercial…and starts beating everyone up. • Mal and Jayne, astonished, get up to stop her. • Just as it all comes to a head, Simon utters an odd phrase and Rivers falls to the floor, unconscious. • Mal picks her up and carries her out.

14. Scene 13 • We see an ominously lit, giant ship with an Alliance stamp. • We look over the Operative’s shoulder as he sees, through the security feed, the fight and then Mal taking her away. • Mal’s information about his criminal and war careers flash across the screen.

15. Scene 14 • Mal shackles River in a locked room. • Simon reveals that he knew she had been programmed, but not for what. He had been told the safe-word, just in case. • Mal is furious that his crew’s been in danger this whole time. • Jayne asks why they’re back. • Mal looks at Zoe as they both recall their earlier discussion about not leaving anyone behind.

16. Scene 15 • The crew (Wash, Zoe, and Mal) speak to Mr. Universe. • He appreciates the violence and shows off his “love-bot”, Lenora. • He helps them figure out that someone high up in the Alliance military sent out a subliminal signal through the commercial to trigger River so they could find her.

17. Scene 16 • Simon cleans River up as she wakes. • He tries to comfort her and find out what ‘Miranda’ means. • It involves a memory that River says ‘isn’t mine’. • She suggests he kill her so that the situation won’t get worse. • Simon insists that will never happen.

18. Scene 17 • We see Inara standing at the top of some stairs. • The Operative approaches. • She widens her eyes in horror.

19. Scene 18 • Serenity arrives at Haven where Shepherd Book lives. • They greet everyone as friends and the Shepherd give Mal advice. • He gives specific warnings about the Operative and urges Mal to believe. • Mal says he wants to know about Shepherd Book’s knowledge of the Alliance. Shepherd Book says he will not divulge the information.

20. Scene 19 • Back in River’s dream/memory place in her head, we see her as 12 again. • The teacher tells them all to rest and lie down. • River, scared, refuses. • Shadows of dead bodies replace the teacher and other students. • She wakes. A voice says, “Cut them down!” • She wakes again.

21. Scene 20 • Mal is awakened by a communication from Inara. • Kaylee, Jayne, Wash, and Zoe wash • They have a very awkward conversation in which she asks for help subduing a local problem. • She assures him that there will be payment.

22. Scene 21 • Mal goes and talks to Jayne, Zoe, Wash, and Kaylee about the communication. • It’s a trap. • Mal says they should go anyway because Inara’s already in the trap. • Serenity goes to Inara’s Training house.

23. Scene 22 • Mal, disguised, enters and speaks to Inara. • The Operative enters. • They talk. • They fight. • Inara’s flash bomb disguised as incense saves them and they escape in the shuttle. • Serenity drops several fake nav-sat dummies.

24. Scene 23 • The Operative tells his team to look for Serenity’s nav-sat. • He’s informed that there are seven. • He sits…looking grim.

25. Scene 24 • On Serenity, they bring Inara up to speed. • Jayne questions why they’re protecting River and risking their lives. • He invokes Mal and Zoe’s military record, which does not go over well. • Inara tells Mal this isn’t the war.

26. Scene 25 • Mal and Inara have a small side conversation. • He tells her to keep her critiques to herself in front of the crew. • She says she wasn’t trying to detract. • He says she always makes everything fuzzy for him and he wishes she was elsewhere.

27. Scene 26 • River is back in her memory/dream place. • Now 17, she walks through the classroom in the costume she wore in the lab chair. • A screen shows a planet and a moon. • Back in the classroom she is overcome with images of the dead, and then a reaver attacks. • She wakes and looks determined/defiant.

28. Scene 27 • Jayne imbibes some sake and comes to a decision. • He draws his gun and opens River’s cell. • River is braced against the ceiling with a hefty-looking can in her hand. • The gun goes off.

29. Scene 28 • The crew hears the gun and hurries to the mess. • Jayne’s down and the door is locked. • The rest go around, except for Simon. • River comes out and hits Simon in the throat and kicks him down before he can make her sleep.

30. Scene 29 • Mall goes through some ducts to get to the bridge where River is. • He “sneaks” in, but her gun is trained on him the moment he comes in. • He speaks with her about whether she’s worth saving or not. • River points to a planet on the screen and says, “Miranda.”

31. Scene 30 • The crew learns that Miranda is a planet with no history, astronomy, or…anything. • They want to go check it out, but there are reavers between Haven and Miranda. • Not worth the risk. • They plan to hide out at Haven again.

32. Scene 31 • Haven has been destroyed. Everyone is dead. • Mal finds Shepherd Book near death. • The Shepherd tells him that he shot the ship down and urges him to just believe. • He dies. • Zoe realizes that the Operative didn’t know their destination…he just killed ALL of their friends everywhere.

33. Scene 32 • We see scenes of all of Serenity’s friends, dead. • Mal and the Operative talk over a video feed. • The Operative acknowledges that he himself is a monster, but that he does what is necessary to create a perfect world.

34. Scene 33 • Mal orders the crew to disguise Serenity as a reaver ship so that they can make it through the territory to Miranda. • He’s been pushed over the edge with all this death. • He refuses to let the Alliance control his destiny. • If there’s anything on Miranda that will help cast doubt on the Alliance…he’ll use it.

35. Scene 34 • Serenity passes through reaver space. • It’s terrifying.

36. Scene 35 • They arrive on Miranda…which seems pretty normal. • There are tons of dead people who didn’t seem to die of anything in particular. • They just lay down and let themselves expire. • River says the silence of death, planet-wide, is causing her pain. • Jayne agrees that something is horribly wrong.

37. Scene 36 • They arrive at a beacon…the only sign of activity their sensors could read. • River triggers a video machine. • A woman’s hologram informs the crew that 30 million people died because of a gas, the “Pax”, that the Alliance added to the air to calm the population. • A tenth of a percent of the population had the opposite response. • The Alliance created the reavers. • River vomits…then realizes she is alright.

38. Scene 37 • Mal gives a speech. • He says it’s not right for a government, or anyone, to think that they can force people to be better. • Killing 30 million people and converting a tenth of a percent of the population into Reavers is pretty good proof of that. • He wants to risk it all to get the massage out.

39. Scene 38 • Zoe and Wash contact Mr. Universe. • He assures them that he can get the message out. • He gives them instructions about approaching is world. • He says if anyone shows up; he’ll tell them. • We se that there are Alliance soldier with him. • The Operative kills him with the sword.

40. Scene 39 • Serenity leaves Miranda and heads back through Reaver space. • Near the end, Mal, seated on a cannon mount atop Serenity begins firing on the Reaver ships. • The speed out of there, the Reavers in pursuit.

41. Scene 40 • The Operative is in his ship with a significant fleet. • The hover between Mr. Universe’s planet and the cloudy ionosphere. • Serenity flies through…followed by all the Reavers. • In the ensuing battle, the Operative is forced to jump ship in a pod, and Serenity his hit with an EMP.

42. Scene 41 • Serenity goes into a tailspin which Wash manages to even out. • He attempts to glide the ship into a safe landing as best he can. • The ship is virtually destroyed. • As they sit in amazement that they survived, a Reaver ship fires on them and kills Wash. • Zoe begins to melt down, but Mal gets them all out.

43. Scene 42 • They all head out of Serenity and into the complex. • There is a room with one door and a hallway to an elevator. • After assuring himself that Zoe is functional through her grief, Mal sets off to send the message while the others arm up and prepare to buy him the time.

44. Scene 43 • Mal goes upstairs and sees that the Operative’s people have destroyed Mr. Universe’s station. • He sees his body. • As he stands in front of the love bot, a motion sensor triggers and he hears a message Mr. Universe left for him. • It tells him where to go to send the message.

45. Scene 44 • The crew, Jayne, Zoe, Inara, Kaylee, Simon, and River (who is freaking out…again) hold the line. • Simon confesses his love to Kaylee…who declares that she’s gonna live!

46. Scene 45 • The Operative enters Mr. Universe’s room through the ceiling. • He runs in front of the love bot and inadvertently triggers the message. • He knows where to go to get to Mal.

47. Scene 46 • The Reavers break down the door and Zoe fires the first shot.

48. Scene 47 • We see that Mal has found the terminal he’s supposed to use to send the message. • It’s a platform in the middle of a chasm of death. • He’ll need to use hanging structures and chains to get there.

49. Scene 48 • The crew starts to fire on the Reavers who are making their way to them. • Zoe leaves the line and starts stabbing them wildly in grief. • She is injured.

50. Scene 49 • Mal climbs a railing, only to be shot down by an electronic pulse fired by the Operative. • The Operative ascertains that Mal has found his cause in which he can believe. • Mal fires on him. • He jumps on the railing and goes to the first structure. • The Operative swings, kicks him, and he falls heavily amongst some suspended chains.