Movie: Serenity
Scene: Opening scene directly after "Universal" logo
Scene Length: 1:45
Description: Scene starts off with zooming up on the planet Earth from the "Universal" logo where large flashes come from locations of prominent cities in the United States South and Mexico, where it is shown that spaceships have launched. The voiceover describes the situation surrounding humans' leave of Earth. The ships that launched from Earth arrive at planets in a new solar system and the voiceover describes the solar system as having dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. A new shot of an industrial, futuristic building in a hostile environment of snow and fast-moving clouds. The voiceover explains that each of the new planets and moons had to be terraformed so that they could each become a new Earth, friendly to humans. Another planet of grass and sleek, futuristic buildings with small ships flying around. Voiceover says that the central planets formed The Alliance, which is governed by a parliament and is the apex of society. Yet another planet is shown, this one more of a desert, similar to the Southwestern United States. Voiceover describes the more savage planets as not being as enlightened as The Alliance and that they refused Alliance control, which caused a terrible war. A large shadow of a space ship moves over the settlement as the war is mentioned. A long-shot of a desert planet from space is shown which later zooms out to an electronic representation of the planet and its orbit as well as those around it. The voiceover says that The Alliance's victory ensured a safer universe. The voice is revealed as a woman standing in front of the electronic picture of the solar system. The woman says that everyone can now take advantage of being part of true civilization. The shot changes so that it shows the woman as a teacher standing in front of a class of children sitting on the ground at futuristic, wooden desks. One boy, about 13, asks why The Alliance even chose to fight the Independent Planets and why they wouldn't want to become more civilized. The shot goes to a girl of about the same age answers that she has heard that the inhabitants of those planets are cannibals. It cuts to another boy who replies to the girl that she's talking about Reavers. It cuts again to another girl who exclaims that Reavers aren't real but the boy quickly says that they are. It goes back to the boy who first mentioned Reavers and he starts talking about all of the horrible things that he has heard of Reavers doing to settlers. The camera goes back to just the teacher who calls the class to attention in Chinese while raising her hand. The class falls silent except for birds chirping in the surrounding gardens. The teacher explains that dangers are real out on the outer planets. The shot goes to behind a girl who is using a double ended instrument to tap on moving lights on her desk while writing down complicated equations on her pad of paper. The girl looks up at the teacher who says that it would be unreasonable for the outer planets to fight The Alliance who has all of the social and medical advances. The girl in the back with the equations interrupts by saying "We meddle." The teacher calls on her by saying her name, River, to hear the rest of her explanation. River looks up from her desk to say, "People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think. Don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome." All the while River is talking, the teacher is slowly walking towards her with a condescending smile on her face as if correcting a young child's mistake. She finally gets to River's desk where she bends down and gently takes the double-ended instrument from the girl before saying, "We're not trying to tell people how to think. We're just showing them how." The teacher quickly takes the tool and moves it in a stabbing motion at River's head while still smiling and just before impact, it cuts to another scene.
