Things you didn't notice until you got the DVD...
POSTED BY: Shiny
UPDATED: Sunday, April 30, 2006 15:27
VIEWED: 34330
PAGE 9 of 12
It's late on New Year's Eve. I got a lot of 'em.
*During the hovermule chase, there's a very very quick shot of the Reaver shooting the razor wheel at the mule (the one that pins the cartrige case down). His head and arm are popping halfway out of a crack in the hule of the Reaver ship. Interestingly (or, more probably, not) the second razor wheel (that flies by Mal's head as he's trying to shoot the tether is not shot from a gun, but rather tossed by a kind of catapult system where the Reaver used to be.
*When Mal tries sneaking up on River on the bridge while she's looking for Miranda, River points the gun at him without turning to look. This shot is very reminiscant to a shot in "Objects in Space" when Simon tries sneaking up on Jubal in the cargo bay. Jubal points his gun at Simon without turning around, just as River does.
*Something I noticed in Joss's commentary, he describes the Operative exactly the same way as he describes Jubal in his "OiS" commentary: "not psychic, but intuitive enough to be considered psychic."
*Something I noticed in theaters, but not mentioned anywhere (to the bestest of my knowledge), in the Maidenhead bar, the anchor reporting on the Lilac Reaver attack says, "No Alliance government has ever confirmed the existance of Reavers." Hmm. I wonder why?
*The "NOT MANDATORY" flashing in the background of the Oaty Bar commercial. What a weird disclaimer...
*Some split second shots during River's triggering: River's "evil eyes" transposed over the octopus' eyes; two shots of Reavers (one looks like a stone statue, the other is the Reaver who kills the woman on Lilac); a terraforming station (on Miranda perhaps?).
*Asians in Beaumonde! (Not being racist, it's just I didn't see any that much in the series, so it was good to see that the second half of the Alliance is still represented.)
*Mal looks royally pissed in his "mug shot" when the Operative is researching him. Hee.
*Same scene: Mal's listed as recieving valor commendation for the Battle of Serenity. Who awarded him? The Independents before they crumbled in defeat? The Alliance out of respect?
*Same scene: Mal's DNA is on record.
*Serenity has a pasta maker in the dining room.
*Mal has a map of Earth-That-Was in his bunk.
*The Alliance soldier that was blew up Haven was surrendering (hands in the air) when Mal shot him.
*Jayne cuddling with his big gun as they're going through Reaver space.
*Mr. Universe's planet is "pretty damn close" to Miranda.
*A cartoon of Snow White is being played on one of Mr. Universe's screens. Not sure of the significance exactly, but Joss references Snow White several times in his commentary.
* The red paint (and all other color except for grey) disappears as Serenity crashes into Mr. Universe's building.
Peace and Goodwill.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I noticed in the scene where Inara waves Mal, as he stumbles out of bed you can see an ancient style map of North & South America on the wall above his bunk. 500 years in the future, and how many solar systems away, and he STILL has a map of Earth-that-was on his wall. FUN-NY!
Of course, to see this, we have to stop looking at our half-naked captain--something that's just a bit tough to do. 
"I love my captain."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
* When Serenity takes off from Haven with its "hood ornaments", the atmospheric friction is enough to turn the corpses into skeletons, but not (apparently) enough to burn through the ropes that hold them there. Nor to burn away the red paint, or even char it. Perhaps they used special high-temp rope and paint designed for spacecraft hulls.
* There is director's commentary and subtitling on the deleted scenes as well as the main movie.
* One CGI scene (or is it model work?) doesn't ring true. During the crash landing, before it enters the "hanger area", one shot of the sliding Serenity just seems too slow, as if it's already nearly stopped. Perhaps this was intended to represent a "slow motion" effect, but it's a bit jarring to my eye -- takes me out of the moment. That's the only such case in the film. Too bad it happens at such a critical and tense time.
* I think I've discovered the splice in the "oner" shot (ship tour during opening credits). I knew it happened as Mal and Simon head downstairs. Now I think I see exactly where it occurs: just as Mal's head disappears, the instant before the camera swings around to pick up Simon. Could be wrong, though. Them Hollywood boyz is tricksy.
-- Good catch re the Earth-That-Was map. I've often wondered how much is remembered about ETW and how accurately. It's fairly ancient history for the people in the new system, and not very relevant to thier current lives and concerns. An even better question is: if there were some (most) left behind on ETW, are we still in communication with them?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Clearly this is a "tell": the Browncoats are Pastafarians.
Originally posted by thesoapboxer:
*Serenity has a pasta maker in the dining room.
Quote:That's our captain. Crow through the engine, and now this. Serenity 2 may be a courtroom drama.
Originally posted by thesoapboxer:
*The Alliance soldier that blew up Haven was surrendering (hands in the air) when Mal shot him.
Quote:Jayne is, perhaps, the most afraid of Reavers of all of them. That was true in the series as well as the movie. Adam does a great job portraying that, using only facial expressions and body language.
Originally posted by thesoapboxer:
*Jayne cuddling with his big gun as they're going through Reaver space.
Quote:I'd chalk this up to the need to push the plot forward, rather than any clue as to the structure of the Firefly 'verse.
Originally posted by thesoapboxer:
*Mr. Universe's planet is "pretty damn close" to Miranda.
Quote:I noticed that too. Another screen has a cartoon of a giant green dinosaur stomping through a city, Godzilla style. We get a couple different glimpses of this one as the scene progresses (during the scene when Mr. U. gets "killed with a sword"). How weird is that?
Originally posted by thesoapboxer:
*A cartoon of Snow White is being played on one of Mr. Universe's screens.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Some I noticed in theatre, some on DVD, and I am not going to point out the innumerable "nods" to the series, except my favs:
*When Mal & Inara are in the shuttle (deleted scene) there is some Mars Rover-esque thing hanging in the netting.
*I forget the exact scene at the moment, but Wash is talking to others onboard Serenity and in the background there is one of those "solar system mobiles" except the "sun" is red and it only has a couple of orbital bodies...so I assume it is of a planetary system, question is which one?
*Following Serenity's "downy feather" landing where the really odd-looking (to some peoples) feet on the landing gear come out, the next scene is River coming down behind Mal in bare feet. Foot fetish much Mr. Whedon? LOL!
*Animals:
Duck - opening scene in the "school" behind young river in the pond
Lizard - in a cage in the Maidenhead
Goldfish - in a bowl in Mr. U's HQ
(someone in the theatre was like "Animal Trainer?" during the credits, so my attention to detail immediately blurted these out )
Llamas - well, in my fractured reality matrix! 
*The subtitles during the Joss Interview on the DVD, Joss says "Millenium Falcon"...apparently the same doofus who subtitled "You're a rabbit, Mal" (instead of "Gorramit, Mal") in The Message subtitled this "Millenium Vulcan".
*The coffin crates in the final battle with the Reavers look like the crate that had Tracey's body in The Message episode.
*Inara's weapon...they didn't cgi the shots with her in the background while Jayne was in focus...so she has a Boltgun, NO! a Bow!, no wait...a BOLTGUN!, what the...a bow again??? Gorramit! Clean this up for the Special Edition DVD please! 
*When Serenity crashes onto the runway, the model seperates slightly (top & bottom halves)
*The three colored skulls on the Hover Mule, reminiscent of the jolly roger on the front of the old mule
*Oh, and to add to the "scar" list for Mal, he also has the scar from Shindig on his right side, to go along with the other 3. 
*The movie, in contrast to Book's statement "No I don't", tells you all about Book, in point of fact. Sure, it is general terms, but he tips this when he tells Mal the Op is the kind of man who "Believes hard. Kills and never asks why." Book was that man, once upon a time...Catholicism filled that void when he left that world behind, whatever his reasons, he needed something to believe in, which is why he knew Mal needed the same. Inara reaffirms this as well.
*When River cocks the gun at Mal, right after he says "...you best shoot me right now", the gun doesn't budge. Not a breath...so it had to be on a stand of some sort, for Summer's benefit and to keep the gun in its dramatic position, yes?
*(for fun)Mr. U is played by the same actor who played Bernard the Elf in the Santa Clause...also a bit of a recluse with an near unlimited supply of tech surrounding someone who "didn't exist".
*One of Mr. U's screens shows scenes from a cartoon with a dinosaur in it...this helps cement the relationship between him and Wash by pointing out their similar characteristics (such as love for wacky ETW history and sense of humor)
*During the battle scene between the Reavers and the Alliance (and this is my favorite fun moment), one of the Reaver ships harpoons an Alliance ship and starts spinning, swinging the Alliance ship, around and around. This not only shows how insane they are, but how intelligent Reavers are (to design a ship that can not only do that, but they then use their prey as a projectile weapon against a larger ship...and I believe that is when Serenity gets hit by a chunk and Wash tells Mal "It's okay! I am a leaf on the wind!")
*The expressions on Wash's face as he is doing all that fancy flying during the battle. I swear he creamed his shorts!
*The lines "Y'all are Browncoats, eh? Fought in the war for Independence?" etc. are actually Joss Whedon's voice.
*There is another Firefly in the background when Serenity is docking on Beaumonde
*The Reaver Trans-U ship
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
thanks a bunch =) oh another thing, I just wanted to see if I was the only noob that took my friend explaining to me what the operative meant when he said in the end "there is nothing left to see"
my friend explained to me .. the whole thing about his character being a samurai based character...and basically he went and ended his life because of his huge failure in his task/mission...
that totally like winded past me every time I saw it up till my friend talked about it...I was like grr me is dumb LOL
anyone else miss this?
I'm not sure if you're saying that the Operative went off to kill himself, but if you are, I want to say that I don't think that is the case.
His character is similar to a samurai, obviously, but I think the whole point is that by the end of the movie he has LOST that system of belief. The "old" operative would quite likely have killed himself for failing in his mission, but now, even THAT sense of self has been destroyed. He is an empty shell without even that belief anymore.
(This is clearer in the extended deleted scene where he asks Mal how he goes on after losing his belief.)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I don't think either of these were mentioned yet:
- In the Oaty Bar ad as River's watching it in the Maidenhead, for a split-second you can see the embedded code running through the octupus' body. Kinda obvious, too, but I hadn't noticed it before. 
- On one of Mr. Universe's screens, the same Blue Sun commercial is playing as was seen in "Ariel." (Mr. U's first scene, just as he mentions the "puppet theater", on the far right; a woman drinking from a can).
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Two things I noticed:
-During the start of the Reaver shootout, Jayne AND Mal both toss ss outside, yet you only hear one explosion.
-The DVD packaging is very shiny ;-P
=================================
Uh, please?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Not sure about this one, but when Serenity lands at Beaumonde, there is a maintenance man standing there when the crew gets off and he has a big 8 on his shoulder and I seem to remember that in the Postman with Kevin Costner, the soldiers all had 8's on thier arms. Could be wrong, possible related or not, just a thought.
The hover car also reminded me of Blade Runner hover cars.
So much too see and am glad that you are pointing them out!! Thanks!!!
Have a better one!!!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Sorry to bump this gigantic thread but THIS is weird:
@ 43:10 I hear Simon say:
"..but I am.."
Just after asking River if he was talking
to Miranda now. It's not in the subtitles.
Audio editing booboo?
kinda spooky ;]
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME