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In the final episode of Firefly (Objects in Space):

River Tam is aboard the Serenity

However, at the start of the movie Serenity,

River is at a high-security Alliance medical complex, presumably after having been captured

Is it ever mentioned what events occurred between the final episode and the movie?

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  • 13
    The rest of the series? We wish.
    – Schroedingers Cat
    Commented Jan 14, 2012 at 11:23
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    Hey Chad, I know this question is very old now, but would you consider switching the acceptance checkmark? The currently accepted answer is very short and not properly justified ("I always assumed ...") while the second answer is based on argued evidence and script confirmation, which makes it a much better answer by the usual site standards (votes in this case notwithstanding).
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Sep 16, 2021 at 14:11
  • @Randal'Thor Done
    – Chad Levy
    Commented Sep 22, 2021 at 4:45

7 Answers 7

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The question's premise is wrong.

River does not end up in Alliance hands between the series and movie.

The scene you are referring to is a holographic recording.

You can tell it's a hologram because of the lighting difference between the room and the image being projected.

A dark blue tinted room. A lone figure faces obliquely away from the camera. They are viewing two holographic figures, tinted beige. One of the figures is female in appearance and crouching the other one male, standing. Both are holding vertical bars of the platform they are standing on

It eventually details how Simon rescues his sister (watched by 'The Operative'), which leads you up to the beginning of the Firefly series, and cuts out to the beginning of the movie.

The script also backs this up,

THE OPERATIVE (O.S.)

Stop.

The action freezes.

(CONTINUING)
Lovely. Lovely. Backtrack.

The action REVERSES, taking us back to the moment of Simon and River on the gurney just before it rises.

THE OPERATIVE (O.S.)

(CONTINUING)
Stop.

There is a motionless beat, River frozen in that crouch, and he steps through what we now see is a hologram of the event.

And then later on:

THE OPERATIVE

River was your greatest success. A prodigy -- A phenomenon. Until her brother walked in eight months ago and took her from you.

(emphasis added)

So not only are the events a hologram, but the script shows they occurred 8 months prior to the film, which could easily place them before the series began.

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    I dont disagree with this assessment; that is how the movie is supposed to be interpreted. But in canon there is an inconsistency between show and movie. In episode one Simon details how he got River; smuggled over to him in cryo by people on the inside. The inconsistency is jarring, and the confusion of OP is understandable. Your answer really doesnt confront any of this. In Jaynestown Simon is stumbling over himself: "who is this criminal mastermind"; he's learning to be ballsy. He cant be retroactively made courageous.
    – SquishyRhode
    Commented Oct 24, 2023 at 4:42
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I always assumed that the sequence at the start of the movie was a flashback to before the start of the TV series.

I guess that this isn't particularly clear - but the actual sequence is revealed to be a recording.

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    I watched that scene, and thought it WAS perfectly clear.
    – Jeff
    Commented Jan 14, 2012 at 15:58
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    This answer is incorrect: it was not a flashback, it was in present time, but it was a viewing of a recording, as described by @Pureferret.
    – Jay Bazuzi
    Commented Jan 15, 2012 at 3:39
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    flashback / holographic recording - not really much difference
    – HorusKol
    Commented Jan 15, 2012 at 6:40
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    @Paperjam - well, yes and no - in the recording we see and are told about only a limited detail about what is being done to River. At the start of the series, Simon shows that he knows River was being experimented on, but has no idea of the exact nature of the experiments nor the damage done to her
    – HorusKol
    Commented Jan 16, 2012 at 10:51
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    @Paperjam is correct, but this is an acceptable plothole to me - it's caused by the need to jam the backstory into the movie for the benefit of those who didn't see the series. (The rescue shown in Serenity is also inconsistent with Simon's description in the pilot episode of the series.)
    – Tynam
    Commented Apr 26, 2012 at 0:11
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The Firefly in universe sequence goes like this:

  • River is taken to the government facility
  • Simon rescues her
  • They board the Serenity
  • Lots of adventures
  • Events of the movie

However it's shown to us in this order:

  • They board the Serenity
  • Lots of adventures
  • River is taken to the government facility
  • Simon rescues her
  • Events of the movie
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  • 11
    s/lots of adventures/not nearly enough adventures, but otherwise, spot-on. :)
    – Martha
    Commented Dec 5, 2012 at 20:12
  • Jumbling the chronology of events seems to be a theme with this show. Whether its the syndicated airing, or the flashbacks.
    – SquishyRhode
    Commented Oct 24, 2023 at 4:46
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I always assumed that she was captured again because she's not in cryo during the holographic recording shown at the beginning of the film, and originally, Simon didn't break her out. He paid other people to sneak her out in cryo and only met the on Persephone afterward. I guess Whedon thought he had to punch up the back story for the movie.

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    That's a good point about River being in cryo. I'm sure the breakout was retconned because Wheddon had to both provide a brief back-story for the Serenity viewers, many/most of which had not seen Firefly, and also spice it up a bit for the silver screen.
    – Chad Levy
    Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 2:49
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    I assumed that the cryo was meant as a way for Simon to transport River without anyone recognizing her, not that he actually shipped her out of the Alliance Camp frozen in a box. She certainly seemed to know what was going on when she unthawed, and wasn't all "how the hell did I get out of that camp?".
    – KutuluMike
    Commented May 1, 2012 at 16:22
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It is a flashback on how Simon had a key role in rescuing River from the facility.

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-1

At the end of the 3-part comics series, which are the events after the final episodes, the operative is sent after River and Simon. So the breakout hologram scene must refer to events before the series. However the operative is in the current timeframe, he is viewing a past event. Also it is known that Simon spent “years" getting the clearances to gain access to River, something that could not have happened after the events of the series, since he was a known “fugitive" by that time.

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-2

I think she was re-captured, when Simon originally broke her out, he wasn't aboard the Serenity yet, and it's the Serenity ship they board, so she must have been captured somewhere between the series ending and the movie beginning.

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  • 4
    This is just plain wrong
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:09

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