How Serenity Should Have Ended

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

Saturday, December 10, 2011 2:23 PM

The art is by Gary Lee from Taiwan www.wretch.cc/blog/T2266
The original art is at http://garylight.deviantart.com/art/How-Serenity-Should-Have-Ended-273
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After he shot the Operative for the first time, Mal should have learned his lesson. That beating the Operative gave Mal could never, ever, be forgotten. But the next time he shot the Operative, in Mr Universe's basement, Mal completely forgets what he learned. Did Mal have transient global amnesia due to blunt force trauma? Mal gets another beating as a reminder.

Would you make the same mistake Mal made, twice? Are you a slow learner, like Mal?

PENNAUSAMIKE

Saturday, December 10, 2011 2:48 PM

Aiming for the head is not an easy shot compared to full body mass.
BUT, after firing the first shot, Mal should have kept firing until he could take the head shot.

WISHIMAY

Saturday, December 10, 2011 2:56 PM

Yeah, we've thought of that every time. I could try to find a loophole like it's harder to hit somebody in the head and Mal's arguably not the greatest shot so he went for a safe shot, or maybe he thought killing the Op would've just made somebody else come after soo not the greatest idea, maybe his first concern was just slowing him down, but....

IT WAS A MOVIE!! Silver screen, yanno. I'm sure everything in life can be solved quicker with massive amounts of ammo , but then the stories would be alot more dull...

I still liked the movie. And the comic, it's nice to see what's going on in my head on paper.
Thanks fer postin' it...

BYTEMITE

Saturday, December 10, 2011 4:23 PM

What Mike said. Also, he didn't shoot the Operative in the head on Mr. Universe's moon because he had to shoot the gun out of the Operative's hand - if he had gone for the head there, Mal might've gotten shot due to death spasms.

Lastly, if he had killed the Operative at the training house, the Operative wouldn't have been around to doctor reports and lift the entire crew's fugitive status.

TWO

Saturday, December 10, 2011 4:31 PM

The shootout in Mr Universe's basement between Mal and the Operative was staged differently between the 190 page screenplay (the one where Wash and Book survive) and the 126 page shooting script. The 190 page version explains why Mal could not get close enough to shoot dead the Operative. The 126 page version screwed it up because Joss Whedon forgot to keep a barrier (the pit of death) between the Operative and Mal. Why? Joss never said. Joss unintentionally made Mal look very stupid.

I'll underline the big difference in scripts. Maybe it was money. Maybe there wasn't enough money to have Mal and the Operative 40 feet apart when they start their gun battle on the set.

The 190 page version of Serenity:
INT. BASEMENT, OVER THE GENERATOR - CONTINUING
Mal has reached it and surveys the situation. Before him is a railing, and he can look down on the generator shaft. Not surprisingly, it's miles deep, with machines constantly rotating and grinding, and arcs of electricity ricocheting around it. Big ol' death pit.
On the other side is a small island of a platform, on which sits the console to broadcast the message from, protected by a clear (but unbreakable) plastic partition. There are cables and chains running along the ceiling, but the only feasible way across is a series of ladder rungs over the pit. 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'.
MAL
Hard to get to. That's a fact.
Mal makes his way, hand over hand, along the horizontal ladder. Legs swinging out over the abyss. He's only just about to reach the first catwalk and he's in a lot of sweaty pain.
He hears a clatter behind him and he swings himself, jumps for the catwalk as laser-fire grazes his side and blasts all around him.

The 126 page version of Serenity:
INT. BASEMENT, OVER THE GENERATOR - CONTINUING
Mal has reached it and surveys the situation.
Before him is a railing, and he can look down on the generator shaft. It's miles deep, with machines rotating and grinding, and arcs of electricity ricocheting around it. On the other side is a platform, with the broadwave console sitting behind a clear plastic partition. Cables and chains run along the ceiling, around a series of ladder rungs.
MAL
Hard to get to. That's a fact.
Mal is on the railing, reaching for the 'rungs' on the ceiling just above him. He can almost get them -- one wrong move and he pitches into the jaws of death...
A laser shot nails him in the lower back -- he arches, legs sliding off the rail -- he falls and hits the rail with the backs of his legs, flipping painfully onto his face as he falls, mercifully, back onto the platform.

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

BYTEMITE

Saturday, December 10, 2011 4:52 PM

I think I can see why they changed it though. There'd be no dramatic tension for The Operative to climb hand over hand towards the platform while Mal shoots at him and misses.

TWO

Saturday, December 10, 2011 4:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think I can see why they changed it though. There'd be no dramatic tension for The Operative to climb hand over hand towards the platform while Mal shoots at him and misses.

I think you got that backwards. There's no dramatic tension for Mal to go hand over hand back the way he came in order to kill the unarmed Operative. You know, after Mal shoots the gun out of the Operative's hand and he hides from Mal's bullets.

I just come to think of it: shooting the gun out of the Operative's hand is a very TV Western thing to do. Very Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Lone Ranger, or Rifleman.

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

BYTEMITE

Saturday, December 10, 2011 8:36 PM

No, there is, because the operative is close enough that he's able to catch up to Mal and tackle him, knock him off the money bars. Mal manages to catch himself on something else just when we think he's going to plummet to his death.

TWO

Saturday, December 10, 2011 9:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
No, there is, because the operative is close enough that he's able to catch up to Mal and tackle him, knock him off the monkey bars. . .

The way the scene was written in the 190 page version of the screenplay, which is not the same as it was filmed, was the Operative shoots from 40 feet away and almost misses Mal. Nicks him. In the finished movie, the Operative could have walked to the railing and put the gun barrel against Mal's back. Maybe the Operative suffers from what it is called when your gun fires too soon -- premature ejaculation. Or something else.

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, I will never know. Maybe he can't spit straight.

The 190 page version for this duel made more sense. Mal and the Operative are at 40 feet separation, half the width of the Pit of Death. Duels customarily start back to back, walk 10 paces, turn and fire. That's about 40 feet.

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

ECGORDON

Saturday, December 10, 2011 11:13 PM

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.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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