The
resources of Earth have been depleted, and humanity has moved to another
solar system with many terraformed planets. All the planets are
controlled by the supposedly peace-loving Alliance. But a frontier
justice still holds sway further from the Core of the Alliance, where
outlaws like the crew of Serenity can scrape out a living if they keep
clear of Alliance forces and the Reavers, savage, cannibalistic and
mindlessly violent humans who dwell beyond the outer planets and raid
the Alliance worlds around the rim.
In order
to earn her continued passage onboard Serenity, a fugitive from
the Alliance, the telepathic River Tam, accompanies Captain Malcolm
Reynolds, Jayne, and Zoë on a mission to steal the payroll of an outer
planet security company financed by the Alliance. During the robbery,
the crew narrowly avoids capture by a Reaver raiding party when River is
able to telepathically sense their approach. Wash, the ship's pilot (and
Zoë's husband) brings the ship to intercept the crew's surface vehicle,
saving the crew from a grisly fate.
River's
brother Simon, the crew's doctor, angrily reacts to the captain's
willingness to put his younger sister in such grave danger. Captain
Reynolds responds by suggesting they leave at the next planet they land
on, Beaumonde, where the crew expects to sell their loot. Simon agrees
to the arrangement. The Tams do indeed disembark at Beaumonde, but while
the captain haggles with the buyers, River starts attacking people in
the bar. Despite being a 90-pound girl, she manages to knock out
everyone, including Jayne, and is about to shoot Captain Reynolds when
Simon arrives and shouts a phrase in Russian, causing her to fall
asleep.
Simon
explains to the captain that, during her captivity by the Alliance, she
was trained and conditioned to become an assassin. The only thing that
can stop her after this conditioning has been triggered is the
"safe-word" he uttered. Despite knowledge of this new danger, the
captain allows Simon and River to continue travelling on Serenity.
The crew
contacts Mr. Universe, a reclusive techno-geek who dwells with his
robotic wife on a planet surrounded by an opaque ion cloud. After
watching the security camera footage of the bar on Beaumonde, Mr.
Universe discovers that River's outburst was triggered by a subliminal
message in a seemingly harmless cartoon advertisement that had been
broadcast all over the Alliance during the previous weeks. He tells the
crew that before her attack, River had whispered the name "Miranda". He
also notes that the footage has been viewed by someone else with high
Alliance clearance.
Fearing
Alliance pursuit, the crew takes refuge in the Haven mining colony with
Shepherd Book, a priest who once travelled with Serenity's crew.
Book warns Mal that the Alliance agent pursuing River is likely to be an
"Operative", and very dangerous. Shortly thereafter, the captain
receives an urgent plea for help from Inara, another former passenger.
Knowing that an Alliance agent is hunting for his ship, Mal suspects a
trap, but decides to visit Inara anyway. His fears are realized; Inara
is held hostage by a ruthless Operative, whose name is never revealed.
The Operative offers to let the captain go on his way if he turns River
over to him, but thanks to Inara's quick thinking, she and the captain
escape the Operative and return to Serenity, which takes off
undetected.
Another
of River's outbursts shows the crew the meaning of "Miranda". It is the
name of an outer rim planet, which had once been inhabited but was
thought to be wiped out in a terraforming accident. River had
subconsciously learned something mysterious about the planet when she
came in telepathic contact with a member of the Alliance Parliament
during her training. Travelling to Miranda to learn more would require
crossing through what is now Reaver territory, which the crew members
agree would be suicide, so instead Serenity returns to Haven and
Shepherd Book.
On
arrival, however, the crew discovers that the outpost has been ravaged
by Alliance forces, and its inhabitants, including Book, massacred.
Several other outposts that had harboured Serenity in the past
have also been destroyed. Captain Reynolds receives a message from the
Operative claiming responsibility, and promising more of the same until
River is turned over.
The
captain responds by heading for Miranda to find the secret the Alliance
is willing to commit mass murder to protect. Serenity, disguised
as a Reaver ship, passes through the Reaver armada that surrounds the
planet Miranda.
Upon
reaching Miranda, the crew discovers a normal, terraformed planet, with
an earth-like environment which is completely habitable. The strange
part is that the towns are empty. Inside the buildings and cars are
badly decomposed corpses, with no apparent cause of death. There are no
signs of violence or disease. It is as if the people simply laid down
and died.
The crew
discovers a log recorded by an Alliance search and rescue team after the
disaster. The log recounts what has happened: the Pax, a chemical
substance designed to remove aggression and thus render the planet safe
from crime, without violence, had worked too well, and the populace
simply stopped working, or eating, or caring about anything. They simply
laid down and died in their newfound non-aggressive state.
There was
a small minority of the populace (approximately a tenth of a percent)
for which the drug had the opposite effect. They became aggressive and
mentally unstable, mutilating their own bodies, and killing the
researchers who had come to investigate. Thus, the Alliance was actually
responsible for the creation of the Reavers.
The crew
then decides to "do the right thing", and reveal this secret to the
Galaxy by using the transmitter equipment belonging to Mr. Universe.
When they contact Mr. Universe, it is revealed that the Operative is
already waiting along with an Alliance fleet. Serenity leaves
Miranda, but is challenged by a Reaver ship. The crew opens fire using a
gun turret salvaged from Shepherd Book's settlement, causing the Reaver
fleet to give chase. When they arrive at Mr. Universe's secret planet,
Mal and the crew are able to use the Reaver fleet to cause chaos amongst
the Alliance, giving them a chance to make it to the surface of the
planet. During the attack, the Operative flees the battle in an escape
pod and follows the crew to the surface.
Serenity
is followed by a Reaver ship, which fires an electro-magnetic pulse at
them, disabling power. Wash is able to restore emergency power at the
last minute and effect a crash landing; however, just as the crew looks
to be out of danger, Wash is killed by a harpoon shot from the following
Reaver ship that pierces the cockpit. Unfortunately for Wash, the
cockpit was the only point that the Reaver harpooners could attack from
the outside. There is no time to mourn and Mal pulls Zoë away from
Wash's dead body just as another harpoon is fired into the cockpit.
Fleeing Serenity to continue their assumed mission of getting the
word out, the crew decides to set up a last stand in a small corridor to
hold off the Reavers and give Mal the time he needs to make way to Mr.
Universe and transmit the message.
Mal
arrives to find Mr. Universe has been killed. However, before he died,
he was able to leave a pre-recorded message with his robotic wife which
informs Mal that there is a secondary transmitter in another area of the
complex. Meanwhile the crew is losing ground to the Reavers and is
forced to retreat when Zoë and Kaylee are injured. They try to close the
blast door, but it stops leaving a small opening. This buys them some
time, but then the doctor is shot by a stray bullet meaning there is no
one to tend to the injured. He tells them he needs his medical bag which
he left in the preceding room. River tells her brother that it's time
she looked after him, and she heads back through the blast door to face
the Reavers.
In the
meantime, Mal has reached the second transmitter and finds it is
inconveniently located on a platform surrounded by a large drop. He is
about to attempt to reach the platform when the Operative shows up. They
have a stand-off, which results in Mal being quicker on the draw and
shooting (but not killing) the Operative. He then proceeds to try and
reach the transmitter, but a revived Operative follows him. There is a
fight between them and then the Operative uses a move which is designed
to completely disable his opponent — however it has no effect on Mal due
to an old war injury.
Mal does
not kill the Operative, and instead disables him with a similar move and
leaves him trussed up to watch the recording from Miranda. Back with the
crew, River has been using her academy training to finish off the Reaver
onslaught and the crew is saved. As she finishes, the Alliance troops
enter, but instead of giving permission to shoot her, the Operative
orders the squad to stand down.
The crew
patches up Serenity and leaves the planet, while the Operative
makes his own exit, possibly to become a fugitive from the Alliance
himself. The crew buries the bodies of their friends Mr. Universe,
Shepherd Book, and Wash, and leave the planet with Mal in Wash's seat at
the helm, and River acting as his co-pilot.
