October 03, 2005
A FLAW IN SERENITY?
It's a very minor plot element, but since I believe that ANY detail about Serenity is at least a tiny spoiler, I'm putting this in the extended entry. Please don't read this unless you've already seen the movie, or you're less sensitive to having movie details revealed than I am...
Early in the movie, in the scene where Simon & River escape from the secret Alliance medical facility, they get lifted up an airshaft, while below them, deadly security lasers are systematically being activated, starting from the bottom of the shaft, but getting ever closer to the intrepid escapees.
My thought is this: if *I* were designing a security system for a secret Alliance medical facility, *I'd* make it so that the deadly lasers closest to the exits would activate first, and have them work their toward the interior of the building.
Yes, I know that the point of the scene was to increase dramatic tension by introducing a "running out of time" element, but I found it to be a surprising lapse in Whedon's otherwise acute instincts for realism.
As a credit to the series, there's only one other spot in one of the 15 episodes of Firefly where I question Joss's judgment.
In the episode "Trash", Wash is flying Serenity dangerously close to the automated dumpster, and the ship's proximity alarm is beeping like crazy as he struggles to hold the ship steady.
Why didn't he turn the damn thing off?
EVERY alarm ever made has a "STFU" switch so you can cut the noise after it gets your attention.
In fact, why didn't he disable the damn thing so it didn't go off in the first place? It's not like he wasn't anticipating getting close enough to trigger it.
Ah well, minor quibbles, both.
I'd gladly put up with a dozen of these in every show if they'd just bring back the series.
hehehe true, but movies don't follow logic so faithfully because they need that plus-factor that keeps the plot running. i personally don't like these minor errors because sometimes they're just so plain illogic that it becomes annoying.
You put way too much thought into that.
Why not just turn on all the lasers at once?
Or even better still, why aren't they always on, only to be turned off for maintainence?
Answer: I don't care, the movie rocked.
I got the impression that the shaft had some other duty - so you wouldn't want them all to be on all of the time. But turning them all on at once when you DID need them makes a lot of sense, unless the power system couldn't handle the surge. In that case, start from the top, fer sure!
Excellent movie - I wanna go back...
I can see a power surge issue in turning them all on at once (like not firing up all the motors in a factory at once) but your point about starting at the exit and working back still applies.
First episode, River is in a hybernation chamber. I had always assumed this was part of smuggling her out of the military hospital. With the escape portrayed as it was in the movie, why would Simon ever need to place River in hybernation?
Good question... I suspect it was because he thought it would be easier to maintain a low profile if he didn't have River's random psychotic episodes constantly drawing attention to them.
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