Joss Whedon's glorious and captivating 2005 sci-fi tale rose from the ashes of the cancelled TV series FireFly to stake its claim as an eminent sci-fi story.
It has everything: bogeymen, conspiracies, legends, great battles, not overindulgent CGI, martial-arts fights, compelling character relationships and plenty of action.
The film centres around Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a hardened veteran from the galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living, pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ramshackle ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing Mal has left to family - squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.
When Mal takes on two new passengers - a young doctor called Simon (Sean Maher)and his unstable, telepathic sister River (Summer Glau) - he gets much more than he bargained for. Simon has rescued his sister from a secret base, where the authorities had been exploiting her psychic powers. Now on the run from the coalition, the authorities will stop at nothing to reclaim River.
The crew, who had been skimming unnoticed around the outskirts of the galaxy, find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board Serenity herself.
Serenity is a Film programme that first aired in 2005 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
