How Serenity Should Have Ended

POSTED BY: two
UPDATED: Sunday, January 20, 2013 13:34
VIEWED: 15723
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TWO

Sunday, December 11, 2011 2:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Serenity should have ended with the ship landing directly on top of Two so he (she?) wouldn't be around to try and tell us how they can write better screenplays than Joss Whedon.

What Joss did can't be blamed on me. He wrote two versions of the Operative/Mal gunfight. These are almost identical, except Joss shrank the field of battle from 40 feet down to spitting/pissing distance. When Joss did that, he made it hard to believe the Operative and Mal can miss. I'm not rewriting Joss's gunfight. Joss rewrote his own. Or the set designer told Joss to make the fight cozy to save money . . .

Can't Miss At This Range

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

BYTEMITE

Sunday, December 11, 2011 3:11 AM

Quote:
the Operative could have walked to the railing and put the gun barrel against Mal's back.

Not honourable enough for the Operative.

Quote:
And then Mal and the Operative quick-draw when they are close enough to spit in each other's face. How Mal managed to not kill the Operative and only hit the gun

Addressed that one already. Mal's mistake was to not follow that up with a shot to the face, or not throwing the Operative into the pit, or thinking the Operative wouldn't try to follow him over to the mainframe platform, or knock him off

TWO

Sunday, December 11, 2011 3:21 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Addressed that one already. Mal's mistake was to not follow that up with a shot to the face, or not throwing the Operative into the pit, or thinking the Operative wouldn't try to follow him over to the mainframe platform, or knock him off

Odd that Mal forgets that the Operative tried to kill him a moment ago and Mal can't think about that because he has a more important task to do. I believe Mal can multi-task. He is smarter than the screenplay allows him to be. If Joss had left the gunfight the way it was written in the 190 page version, the smartest thing Mal could do is exactly what he did. But Joss changed the gunfight and Mal becomes a dope.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

BYTEMITE

Sunday, December 11, 2011 3:33 AM

I'll grant that. Though it might still work dramatic tension wise with the being tackled while crossing.

Maybe Mal was out of bullets for some reason and remembered how impossible beating the Operative in melee was, so he had to resort to try to tricking the Operative. So maybe he was hoping the Operative would try what he did, only the Operative didn't fall like Mal was hoping.

TWO

Sunday, December 11, 2011 3:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I'll grant that. Though it might still work dramatic tension wise with the being tackled while crossing.

Maybe Mal was out of bullets for some reason and remembered how impossible beating the Operative in melee was, so he had to resort to try to tricking the Operative. So maybe he was hoping the Operative would try what he did, only the Operative didn't fall like Mal was hoping.

Joss made a boo-boo when he cut 3 lines from his script:
There is a slim, rail-less catwalk running across the middle.
It can rotate to form a bridge, but the controls on this side are shot.
It's forty feet to that and forty feet from that to the 'island'.

In the movie, that catwalk does not materialize until the fight is over. Joss should have let Mal stand on the catwalk and shoot at the Operative, just as Joss originally wrote the gunfight. Then it makes perfect sense when Mal doesn't cross back to kill the Operative after he shoots the laser gun out of his hand.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

BYTEMITE

Sunday, December 11, 2011 5:22 AM

The problem is the Operative still needed to catch up to Mal to have an exciting melee fight, and it's boring to watching someone shoot at someone else and keep missing.

TWO

Sunday, December 11, 2011 5:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
. . . it's boring to watching someone shoot at someone else and keep missing.

Then you will love Jayne in Full Metal Jacket

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

TWO

Saturday, January 7, 2012 1:23 PM

Remember Pulp Fiction? Samuel L. Jackson, playing a hit-man, decides to retire after a punk fires every bullet in his gun at Jackson and miraculously misses at close range. It was a sign from God to retire and become a preacher-man.

Mal is not some frightened punk that can't shoot straight. How can Mal miss at close range? And yet he misses the Operative. It's a bleeping miracle direct from God!

The Operative, just like Samuel L Jackson, gets introspective and decides to retire at the end of Serenity. That was very Tarantino of Joss Whedon.

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

CHRISISALL

Saturday, January 7, 2012 4:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by two:
Mal becomes a dope.

That's one thing I can relate to- I'm generally a smart fellow, but I can become a dope when attempting to multi-task!

The laughing Chrisisall

CHRISISALL

Saturday, January 7, 2012 4:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
[B
Maybe Mal was out of bullets for some reason and remembered how impossible beating the Operative in melee was, so he had to resort to try to tricking the Operative. So maybe he was hoping the Operative would try what he did, only the Operative didn't fall like Mal was hoping.

Actually, that was my impression the first time I saw the movie.

The laughing Chrisisall

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