How Did Mal Miss....Twice?

POSTED BY: Jongsstraw
UPDATED: Monday, January 8, 2007 10:48
VIEWED: 4168
PAGE 1 of 2

1 2 NEXT PAGE

JONGSSTRAW

Sunday, January 7, 2007 1:06 PM

In Serenity, the pilot, Malcolm drew his pistol and shot the Fed right in the head.

In Serenity, the movie, he had two opportunities to kill the Operative, but both times he shot him in the chest which was protected by body armor.

He could have even shot him in the legs, or keecaps to wound and disable, or the head to kill, but he didn't. Why not?

REDLAVA

Sunday, January 7, 2007 3:10 PM

Well number 1, the first time Mal shot the Operative in the training house he didn't know he was wearing armor so he didn't go for a head shot. The second time he shot, in Mr. Universe's generator room, it was an old fashioned wild west duel. Mal didn't have time to aim properly, plus the fact that the Operative deflected his successive shots with the armor on his arms. The only shot that he had on the Fed in the Pilot was to the head so that is what he had to take.

ECGORDON

Sunday, January 7, 2007 3:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Redlava:
The only shot that he had on the Fed in the Pilot was to the head so that is what he had to take.

That's correct. Any other shot in that situation would have endangered River.

I think it is the natural inclination to go for a heart shot first, then Mal's follow-up shots the second time he faced the Operative were deflected by the armor on his forearms.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

DONCOAT

Sunday, January 7, 2007 3:46 PM

I agree with ecgordon. Mal was a trained soldier, and soldiers are trained to aim for the center of body mass. That gives the highest probablility of a hit.

In the case of the generator room scene, that would go double since it was a quick-draw, shoot from the hip situation. Even so, I can almost hear Mal thinking, "Gorramn it, I forgot about that damn body armor!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pointin' right at it!

MIRAMEL

Sunday, January 7, 2007 4:53 PM

that always bothered me too. i think you guys are making good points, but it still seems like by the end the operative was pretty much just cowering there, and mal could have walked up, put the gun to his head, and dropped him. maybe not, but that still feels to me like hte one (1) time in the movie where someone did something unrealistic/dumb to advance plot (or rather, advance awesome fight scene).

~~~~
98% of teens have smoked pot, if you are one of the 2% that haven't, copy this into your signature
~~
Fear is the Mind Killer
~~~~

AURAPTOR

Sunday, January 7, 2007 6:39 PM

Quote:
maybe not, but that still feels to me like hte one (1) time in the movie where someone did something unrealistic/dumb to advance plot (or rather, advance awesome fight scene).

Far more unrealistic, I thought, was when they were on the transmitting platform, and the Operative ran his sword through Mal's midsection. You catch a glimps of it in the final version, but in the preview version, it was more graphic, with Mal taking the sword out, and then continuing to fight.

A nerve cluster being re-located was a nice twist , but having Mal run clean through w/ a sword, then pulling it out, then carrying on w/ the fight , not to mention making it back up to the rest of the crew...... that was a bit much. I'm glad Joss at least edited it down some.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

CAUSAL

Sunday, January 7, 2007 8:57 PM

DonCoat's right--Mal was an Independence soldier, and soldiers are trained to aim for center-mass. Why? If you hit center mass, many (militarily) good things happen: the sternum shatters, spraying bone fragments (in addition to the lead of the bullet) into the target's chest cavity, increasing the chance of killing the target; the guy falls down, so if by some miracle he lives you can aim more carefully on your second shot; you might drill him right through the heart (which is not, contrary to popular opinion, on the left side of the chest, but closer to dead center; if you're really lucky, you might even sever the spinal column. But let's say you aim for center-mass, and for some reason, your aim is thrown off by three inches. No problem here: instead of an of the aforementioned affects you might still hit the heart; you might hit a lung; you could sever an artery; you could make a rib explode into a lung; you'll definitely still knock him down, and you still have a reasonable shot at killing him. Let's say you miss by a full foot--you still have a better-than-even chance of hitting the target, and you might even scramble his intestines while you're at it. So even if he tries moving his torso out of the way, or if your aim is thrown off, you're still going to at least wound him.

The head, on the other hand, is a whole other deal. Miss three inches from the center of the head, and your bullet whizzes through empty air. Plus the head moves a lot faster than the torso, so if it's moving, hitting it is going to be pretty difficult. Aiming at the head is a bad way to fight, CounterStrike and all those special operations movies notwithstanding. Hell, even the best of our military still trains their operators to put two in the chest before they aim for the head--and those are the guys who shoot thousands of rounds a week in training. Is Mal accurate enough to shoot someone in the head? Obviously: he hit Dobson. But would he have done that if it weren't the only option available to him? Hell no--you take the sure thing.

________________________________________________________________________
Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets

I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

Vote Firefly! http://www.richlabonte.net/tvvote/index.html

ASORTAFAIRYTALE

Monday, January 8, 2007 3:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
the Operative ran his sword through Mal's midsection.

Didn't the sword go through his leg though? 'Cause then he is kinda limping after that too. I would also think that he wouldn't be able to fight very well if he had just been stabbed there...

---------
Love keeps her in the air when she outta fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.

PHOENIXROSE

Monday, January 8, 2007 3:35 AM

No, he was certainly stabbed through the side of his midsection; you can see him holding the wound closed with his hand as he limps out of the elevator. I have no idea what to think about the realism of him continuing to fight with a wound like that, but I've heard of people fighting with broken arms or fingers, etc. Maybe adrenalin? I don't know.

[]

KEVINGREY

Monday, January 8, 2007 5:56 AM

Or simply the fact that he took it through the flesh and it happened to miss vital organs/arteries, etc. As long as someone has a semi-decent clotting factor, surviving such and still being able to carry on in limited fashion, is not completely out of the range of possibility. Though, I'm certain it wouldn't tickle.

I think there are always going to be situations and circumstances in stories where a certain suspension of disbelief is required. Or at least consideration of the fact that such situations and circumstances can have a multitude of possible outcomes based on millions of minuscule factors, that really have nothing at all to do with the way in which a writer is advancing the storyline.

The reason Mal missed his head is because it was written that way so that the threat would continue to drive the story. There are million ways in which one can suggest it makes no sense and a million ways one can reconcile "why" it worked out that way if one cares to.

If one really wants to ponder impossible situations, discuss how in 1972, Vesna Vulovic became the only survivor of the terrorist bombing of the plane she was a stewardess on (Yugoslav flight 364) when the seat she was strapped to tumbled 33,000 feet to a mountainside. (Guiness World Record holder - Longest fall survived without a parachute)

If this is possible, I guess it isn't hard to imagine how one might muddle through a little sword-in-the-gut.

Sometimes, life stretches credulity even farther than make-believe.

1 2 NEXT PAGE