Goofs for
Serenity (2005) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When the Operative is reviewing Mal's file, Mal's first name is spelled "Malcom", then "Malcolm".
  
  
• Continuity: When Jayne passes the jug of Blue Sun to Simon, the label is facing her. When he picks it up to drink, the label is facing him.
  
  
• Continuity: Security camera footage shows Mal and Jayne sitting at a table with Fanty and Mingo before they enter the bar.
  
  

• Continuity: The wide angle shot of the security camera footage, when Mal and Jayne first enter the bar, shows a time stamp that doesn't change when the camera zooms in.
  
  
• Continuity: In the very last scene, when River and the Captain are flying the ship, Mal presses a button, which lights up. In the next shot the light is off. In the next shot, it is on again.
  
  
• Continuity: At the start of Dr. Caron's holographic recording, there is a noticeable delay before she says, "... .and you can see, it isn't what we thought". When the recording is replayed and broadcast at the end, the delay is gone.
  
  
• Continuity: When the operative says, "Stop Backtrack, stop!" River looks straight ahead. When the Operative emerges from the record projector, River is looking to her left.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Kaylee finds a dead boy. If you look near the gunshot wound in his stomach, he is still breathing.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When River somersaults through the hatch, just after Simon is wounded, she is wearing a brace on her right knee. The brace disappears in the next shot.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Jayne comes running down the stairs to tell Mal that Reavers are in town, you can see the set on the left of the shot.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the operative and Mal are fighting in the temple, the operative kicks his gun from his hand. The operative is clearly a stunt double.
  
  
• Continuity: When Simon rescues River at the start of the film, he smudges the spot of blood on her forehead. When they leave the room the spot is no longer smeared.
  
  
• Continuity: On Mr. Universe's planet the audience is told Kaylee rigged the blast doors so no one could open them once they are sealed. Yet, right after Mal asks about River, the blast doors do open. Furthermore, River is standing in the middle of the room, away from any buttons. As the camera zooms closer to her, it can be seen that no one is near the button on the opposite side of the door either.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Operative kneels down with his sword angled up to impale the paralysed Dr. Mathias, he does not flinch at all as the approximately 170 pound doctor falls upon the sword. The impact of the doctor's full weight falling upon the sword, which is held in place by only one hand and in an awkward angle, would in all probability knock the Operative over and, given the position of his arm and the weight involved, most likely break or dislocate his arm.
  
  
• Continuity: As the Operative pulls his sword from Dr. Mathias's body, there's a small patch of blood a few inches across on the doctor's shirt. Given that he's just been completely run-through, one would expect there to be rather a lot more blood and also for it to still be flowing full force, rather than the static stain that we see.
  
  
• Factual errors: After the crew first escape from the Reavers, Simon sets off a series of fire extinguishers to put-out the burning wreckage in Serenity's cargo hold. Fire extinguishers of this nature work by smothering the fire and depriving it of oxygen. Given the size of fire, it could not have been put out so quickly and the gases used by the extinguishers would not be breathable by the crew - someone would at least be coughing, even if the gas used was something as harmless as carbon dioxide.
  
  
• Continuity: When Mal and Zoe talk about the man left behind during the bank job, there's an orange/yellow light flashing that reflects off of the right of Mal's face but not at all off Zoe's, even though they're standing right opposite each other.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After River kills all the Reavers, he blasts through the wall. A "dead" Reaver at the bottom left corner of the screen flinches.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Chinese writing throughout the movie is nonsense. For example, a pod marked "Search and Rescue" in English says "Hillock thus for it minor" in Chinese.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: On Miranda, around the time of River's "Make me a stone" speech, Jayne turns around to the left. In the next shot, he turns around to the right. In the commentary for the special edition, he admits that he did it on purpose.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When the dying Shepherd Book removes his blood-covered hand from Mal's face, it leaves no blood on Mal's cheek. Subsequent shots show smudged blood.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: When the operative tells the Alliance soldiers to stand down, one soldier (almost out of frame) lowers a set microphone.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: On Miranda, when Simon comforts River as she says "Please God make me a stone. . ." his eyes follow the camera rotating around them. He looks directly at it for a split second before it pans up to Jayne.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: While being chased out of town by reavers, the mule wipes out a market stall and its yellow awning. As the reavers then pass the same spot, the awning and market stall are still intact and in place.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: In the big gun battle between the crew and the Reavers, just as Zoe fires her shotgun for the first time, Inara is in the background, holding a bow and arrow instead of the bolt thrower she is supposed to be using. The bow-and-arrow was the original weapon used, but it was replaced in post-production due to test audience reactions.
  
  

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