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I saw a variety of movies recently.  Well, maybe not variety, as they were all a similar type.  First I watched The Taking of Pelham 123 on Netflix.  Next I watched The Next Three Days at the Dollar Theater, and I finished up the triad with Unstoppable also at the Dollar Theater.  I noticed quite a few similarities between the movies.  Well, obviously, 1 and 3 involve trains.  2 and 3 had some similar actors, while 1 and 3 both star Denzel Washington.  1 and 2 deal with people dealing with charges they might be wrongly charged.  But all three involve a striking similarity.  Well maybe not as striking as trains, but crucial upon reflection.

In Pelham, Denzel plays a subway train dispatcher who has to confront some hijackers and save the day.

In Days, Russell Crowe plays a college professor who has to figure out a plan to break his wife out of jail and save the day.

In Unstoppable, Denzel and Chris Pine play train engineer and conductor who have to stop a runaway train from wrecking havoc and save the day.

No men in tights and flowing capes.  No geniuses inventing away in their lab.  No super spies with guns and explosions.  Well, there are guns and explosions.  But these guys aren’t the experts.  At least, not experts in saving the day.  But here is point number 1 of todays’ post: Everyone is an expert in something.  Maybe expert is not the best word, but everyone knows something about something.  You prepare and live your life and learn and grow and work and become the person you are.  Everyone has a place, a sweet spot, a comfort zone, if you will.

They know their craft.  They have studied their line of work, like subway trains or literature or, well, trains.  They are good at what they do.  (Although, this disclaimer: Crowe’s John Brennan is seen less as a professor character and more as a father/husband character.  Which is even more of a lifestyle than simply a job.)  And something happens in their situation.  Whether it’s hijackers stealing a train and interrupting the schedule, murder accusations breaking up a family, or a series of goof choices by a couple of goofs causing a train to run amuck and charge onto the characters’ train line, it’s always something in their neck of the woods.  So, there’s point number 2 of today’s post: Trouble always finds its way home.  Not home as in origin, but home as in HOME- your home, my home.  Whether it’s weather or war or pain or rain, something is always coming or has already come.  It’s going to hurt and it’s going to smart, but it’s life, and you have to get used to it.

So trouble comes and what do they do?  They try to pass off the responsibility to someone else.  But that won’t stay or satisfy.  They try to pass the blame off on someone else.  But that won’t stick.  They try to live as if nothing happens, but that can’t sustain them in such troubling times.  Eventually, they can’t stand it anymore and are either called to step up, try to step up, or simply step up and do something about it.  Meet the hijackers.  Plan an escape.  Chase the train.  And there’s point 3 of today’s post: Sometimes, it’s you who has to step up and do something.  Sometimes.  Sometimes it’s the police or firefighters or politicians or philosophers or teachers or parents or trial lawyers.  But sometimes it’s you.  Sometimes.  And when it comes down to you—when the hijackers want you to come to them or the lawyers give up or the higher-ups keep goofing up and cause more mayhem—you have to do something.  And it’s going to be something out of your zone.  You’re going to leave your home, leave your sweet spot, leave what you know, or at least move beyond just knowing.  Crowe’s John Brennan is not prepared to kill or steal or break in or hide from the cops—but he ends up doing it, because he believes it has to get done.  Denzel’s characters are experts in the train systems, but not in running with a gun or atop a train or confronting killers, but it gets done because it has to get done.  They choose to sacrifice themselves for others, because– you want to know why?  Because they do it every day.

All three heroes (even Chris Pine’s character, who seems to fade in the shadow of Denzel’s Frank Barnes) are fathers.  They know what it is like to give up freedoms, personal feelings, lifestyles for their children.  They are heroic figures in these adventures because they are heroic figures in the everyday.  And even more, they aren’t perfect.  One is accused of taking bribes, another is making immoral choices to save his love, another is… well, Barnes is pretty much awesome.  (I guess he disobeys commands, but…)  But they all have something to fight for.  More than just their job or their workplace or the status quo- they are fighting for those who are the victims of trouble—a train full of hostages, a motherless child, towns of unsuspecting citizens.  In the end, the heroes fight the people.

And so, where are you in these stories?  Do you take the easy way out?  Do you cause terrible situations?  Do you let trouble come home?  Do you stay out of the way?  Or do you step up and do something?  We all have our areas of expertise, whether work or art or passion or just our own lives.  Trouble always comes.  But you have been prepared, trained, readied in your sweet spot to rise above it, rise above yourself, and become the hero.  If it’s your time.  But that should never be the excuse—“It’s not my fight.”  If trouble comes to your home, you need to pull out the shotgun and fight—(although it can often be done without violence)—for the ones that you love.  If it’s your place and time, it’s time to step up and save the day.

Is it your time?

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/stepping-up-no-not-step-up/

Watching through these episodes of Torchwood Season 3 alone and with my family helped me realize how significant this show (specifically this season) is—politically, philosophically, relationally, and more.  They touch on the issues of significance, meaning, fear, motivation, negotiation, purpose, family, sacrifice, honor and more.

And now that I have hyped up the show far beyond than what I can deliver, go watch it.  On Netflix or elsewhere.

But since I know you won’t, forgive my feeble attempts to make sense of my senseless thoughts.

The show Torchwood is devoted to the Torchwood team, who defend the Earth from extraterrestrial attack (that is, when The Doctor isn’t around.)   Thus, it is filled with action and adventure and romance (and sometimes sex—often sex, too much, really).  While Doctor Who is about the human in the realm of the alien, Torchwood is about the humans in the influence of the alien.  People band together, become empowered, are tested beyond their abilities, and find themselves in community.  However, in Season Three, we have lost two crucial members of the team, and the other three are still dealing with the pain of searing loss.

The threat is an alien force called the “456”.  The truth is, we don’t know their name, and when things are nameless, they are more potent in fear.  And like the show title says (By the way, there are SPOILERS here, so sorry if you don’t want them) the Children of Earth are being used by the 456.  First they cause children to stop what they’re doing, all over the world.  Creepy.  Then they cause every child on earth to scream in unison.  Creepy beyond all other creepiness.  Then they begin to speak as one.  And whenever they stop, they wake up with no memory of the occasion.  Way creepy.

The thing is, this show deals with the Children of Earth.  (If you couldn’t get that already.)  While many shows have adults or teens or children facing monsters and aliens (most shows in this scifi adventure genre), they often do it by choice.  They choose to fight.  In this season of Torchwood, the children are the victims.  They used.  They are brought into the fray by no force of will.

You see, the 456 hit us where it hurts.  They attack earth using our children.

Not killing them or stealing them (well, there was that one time… and yet) but simply by controlling them.  We try to create worlds where children are safe and protected: locked homes, gated communities, surveillance in schools and protection at our borders.  But the aliens simply send out a signal and BAM! they stop.

But its something different.  In Doctor Who, some aliens control humans (yes, including children) using their blood type.  And its more unsettling, as they cause the humans to travel to the top of rooftops, as if they are all to commit suicide.  But no.  Things turn out okay.  But in this case, the children were a part of the crowds, not the sole victims.  When children are singled out and victimized, it is something worse.  Much worse.

Fortunately, Torchwood doesn’t pretend the children are innocent or perfect.  They portray real, authentic children.  And that makes it worse.  If the children were little angels, our cynicism could rise up and say, “Oh, just kill off the little buggers already.”  But no.  they portral realistic human children, with their faults and qualities.  And they are defenseless and beyond saving.

We get protective around children.  I know I do.  When an adult suffers harm, we are saddened; but when a child suffers harm, we mourn and grieve and are angered, righteous anger.  When Gavroche dies in Les Mis, that’s when I tear up.  It’s such an unjust world that we live in.

And so in Torchwood we look into the courts of justice, behind closed doors, into the inner sanctum of British government.  We see how they deal with the alien threat.  You see, the aliens are demanding, on threat of destroying the world, 10% of the world’s population of children.  Yeah.  Not ten children or a hundred.  Thousands upon thousands upon millions.

Does that make it worse? Or easier to bear?

The politicians must now decide.  And face the questions:

– Can we sacrifice the 10% of our children to save everyone else?

– Do we have the right to make that decision?

– How do we decide who gets taken?

– How can we make this appear beneficial to the public?

Questions of serious implications.  Political.  Psychological.  Philosophical.  Religious even.  What would you do?

The deliberations are painful.  Painful.  Utterly and dreadfully painful.  But what would you do?  What could you do?

The show gets a little preachy near this point, and they comment on how numbers of children die every day.  Disease. War. Accidents. Abuse.  And we accept it.

And though it’s a little contrived, it’s true.  We do accept death for the survival of our survival.  Death of soldiers and firemen, workers and politicians.  We allow it to happen, accept that it’s a reality for maintaining our world.

But children…

They don’t choose to fight in our world’s battles or participate in our violence.  They are beyond that.  They are the victims.

Which is why I love any and every person who works to protect our children.  Help our children.  Save our children.  Teachers. Soldiers. Doctors.  Because they are making the ultimate sacrifice.  They don’t sacrifice the child for self-preservation, as the politicians ultimately do in Torchwood.  They sacrifice the self for the child.  They give of themselves and give and give to provide a way for the children of earth.

Now, I apologize for the past 5 or so paragraphs.  They are a little preachy.  And I don’t want to deliver a sermon.  I just want to raise the questions.

– What would you do in their shoes?

– Is sacrifice of the minority acceptable for the survival of the majority?

– Can we even judge those who must make those decisions?

– What else could be done?

– Why are children so important?

It’s okay to answer “I Don’t Know” sometimes.  But we must still face the questions and see what rises in our minds and settles in our spirits.  So.  What do you think?

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/torchwood-children-of-earth/

A man has trouble talking.

Really.

That’s it.

That is the problem of the movie.

In a time of coming war and political issues, this is the central topic of The King’s Speech.

And thank God.

We need the personal.  (Or at least I do.)  (However, the royals prefer not to talk about personal matters, thank you very much.)

But in stories of war and battle and oppression and abdication and debate and hate (sorry, I couldn’t resist the rhymes) we need the focus point.

You see, when you are teaching a person to dance, and they must do spins, a method to keeping them from losing balance and staying on task is to look at a specific point on the wall, like a clock or a sign or a mark, and look at that point for every turn.  Spin and look.  Spin and look.  Spin and look.  It usually works.  (But as for me, I’m just a bad dancer, so it didn’t help much.)

But it sure helps in movies and art.

We need that personal connection, that human key, that focus point to keep us from getting dizzy.  That’s why we don’t have a story about the Montagues and the Capulets- we have Romeo and Juliet.  That’s why we don’t only have shots of numerous starships travel across space in Star Wars– we see the stories of Solo and Skywalker, Vader and Chewie.  Sometimes it’s just a little focus point in a dizzy world at war.  Sometimes it’s a couple examples in a larger story.  And sometimes, it’s about the people themselves.

Such is true in The King’s Speech.

The story begins.  And the Duke of York must make a speech.  And he does.  But each stammer, each stutter, each “uh” and “eh” and “k” and “da” and utterance echoes through Wimbley Stadium and through our theater.  And you feel his pain.  You feel his agony and embarrassment and shame and guilt and uncomfortable feelings.  It’s something that Colin Firth – and the royals and British in general—are good at, simply because they are so respectful and honorable and proper and right.  When they have to be improper or seemingly rude or wrong, they hate it.  And the Duke hates his stammer.  But he feels its just a part of him and he must deal with it.

– What problem do you have that you have resigned to?  Why have you given up?

Fortunately, his wife is his advocate.  She still believes.  She fights for her husband, and finds Lionel.  Odd, lovely Lionel.  They go to great lengths to show how ridiculous Lionel is.  He even admits his ridiculousness.  But he has passion, that is sure.

He tries to create a focus point.  He provides friendship to the Duke, so that he doesn’t have to worry about his brother’s (literal) affairs, or the King’s disapproval, or the millions of his subjects.  He helps the Duke by calling him Bertie and having him call him Lionel and saying vowels at the top of his lungs and doing calisthenics and singing his feelings and bribing him with toy planes and glue.  He grounds him.  He becomes a friend, because the Duke has never had one.

– What can a friend do that no one else can?

But of course, the problems arise.  Lionel crosses lines, as friends often do.  The Duke, or Bertie, belittles Lionel, as friends shouldn’t do.  And the two separate, as is human and normal.  But will they come together?  Can they be friends?  Should they?  It finally comes up (SPOILER) that Lionel is no doctor or professional—His methods are based on experience and though they have been effective, he has no credentials or degrees or letters after his name.  But does it matter?  Does it?

The King’s Speech is a brilliant picture of a man’s struggle, with his identity and failings and position and family—and friend.  Beautiful shots and stimulating soundtrack create stunning scenes with awe-inducing performances.  It must be seen.  See it.  In theaters if you can, but its okay if you wait.  But just telling you, Firth will probably win the Academy Award for this role.  So—watch it.  Now.

Final Question:

– What is your focus point?  What grounds you?  What makes the big picture real and intimate?  If you don’t know, find one.  Now.

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/the-kings-speech/

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for the 3rd time yesterday.  And I enjoyed it once more (though I fell asleep a couple times, caused more to jetlag than anything else).

From beginning to end (well, maybe middle, as this is only Part 1) the movie argues for the need of community.

This is the first movie to feature the three friends (Harry, Ron, Hermione) at the very beginning, within the first five minutes. While the saga is about Harry, this movie shows the importance that each person plays in eachother’s lives.  It is not just about Harry, it is about Harry and Ron, Ron and Hermione, Hermione and Ron, Ron and Harry.  There’s an amazing plot and great effects, but it is the characters that we follow, love, and cheer.

The Order of the Phoenix is a prime example of community in action.  I wonder if there are actual groups that function like the ones we extol in movies.  Each member of the community puts his or her life at stake for the one.  All for one and one for all.  They don’t just do it for Harry, but at the same time, they do.  Would this happen in your family?  Your friend group? Your workplace?  Your church?

But the community of Ron and Hermione and Harry, that is a beautiful community at work.  For though they fight and argue and run away and come back, they love each other.  They are there for each other.  They are one.

So often, we isolate and alienate and believe the lies.  The lies of the locket.

The locket intensifies the fears and the beliefs that Ron has about Harry and Hermione.  He feels useless, neglected, unloved.  But with Harry’s help, after he helps Harry, a wonderful give and take relationship, Ron defeats the locket.

And so we too, must defeat the locket and Voldemort and our own demons and fears and problems.  But not alone.  With our friends by our side and our powers as one.  Yes, I know, this sounds very Captain Planet-y, but it’s true.  We are better together.

Ron: You don’t know how it feels! Your parents are dead! You have no family!

Harry has no parents nor family, in the blood sense, but his family is his friends.

Scrimgeour: These are dark times, there is no denying. Our world has perhaps faced no greater threat than it does today. But I say this to our citizenry: We, ever your servants, will continue to defend your liberty and repel the forces that seek to take it from you! Your Ministry remains, strong.

The Ministry falls.  It is not institutions that can save the day, but the people themselves.  And when the days are dark, people show their worst- and their best.

The Deathly Hallows in themselves are a community.  They work best as one.  Meanwhile, the Horcruxes function through the splitting of a soul.  Gathering or Splintering, Community or Isolation, Together or Apart.

So that question must be asked.  Together or Apart?  Will you live life together or apart? Together with friends or apart and alone?  Community or Isolation?  Gather Together or Splinter Apart?  Choose.

These are just some of my thoughts.  For a much more in-depth analysis and story, check out Greg Garrett’s One Fine Potion.  Here’s an interview with the author:http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Deeper-Magic-Deeper-Meanings-in-Harry-Potter?offset=0&max=1 and here’s the Amazon page for the bookhttp://www.amazon.com/One-Fine-Potion-Literary-Potter/dp/1602581983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294619475&sr=8-1

Who are we supposed to end up with?

Who are we supposed to root for?

Who are we supposed to love?

Knives or Ramona?

And more.

In this movie, (SPOILER ALERT) towards the end, Scott flip flops back and forth between being a jerk and being brave, being smart and being foolish, choosing Ramona and choosing Knives and choosing neither.  And it’s amazing how my heart moved along with the film.

When he went with Knives, I thought “But what about Ramona?!”

When he went with Ramona, I thought “No! Knives!”

And so on.  And so forth.  And it seems that context just changed how he felt, and how I felt as well.

When he realized he had been a jerk to Knives, he went back to Knives.  When Knives encouraged him to go after Ramona, he thought that was best.  And so on and so forth.

At one point, Scott complains about how Ramona is so impulsive.  But Scott, you are.

And we are.

He makes his decisions based on that moment’s desire.  And that is usually either fight (for something we want to have) or flight (from what we once had).  Pushing for the future or running from the past.

And we are.

We must enjoy this moment in time.  Be present.  But know about the past and the future.  Do not hide or forget or pretend, but face up to reality and say, “Yeah, you’re big, you’re tough– so what.  I’m here and I’m happy.  So there.”

And we must.

For it is not only Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  We too face the foe.

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/

I’ve thought about this for a while.  Maybe it will keep my writing soul alive.

People are creating blogs left and right and east and west, often to give off their opinions about the latest news story, the hottest album, or the newest celebrity goof.

I’m gonna try to be more about truths than opinions.

Not my truths, but God’s.

I am a media hound/fly/tick/tiger.  Music, somewhat.  News, sort of (not really).  But when it comes to TV and Movies, I’m your man.  Not exactly the man whose seen it all, but a man who’d like to see a lot.

Well, I need to start processing what I’m taking in.  Philosophies.  Stories.  Truths.  And to help with the chewing and digesting, I’m going to analyze the media that I’ve seen/heard/experienced and try to determine the good and the bad and what it means for us.  And me.  And you.  And Jesus.  And the pandas.

So sit back, read, and think.  Chew the honeycomb (Although if you want some real honey comb and not my imitation sugar version, try this. www.biblegateway.com)

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/opening-eyes/

Well, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see this movie- but the person I was seeing a movie with REALLY wanted to see this, so I went ahead and did so.

Now, I could get critical about the details, the bad editing, the poor sound quality (not sure if it was the theater or the actual movie), and other stuff- but that’s not why I’m here.

As I watched this story of two old men longing to live before they die, I wondered what my own bucket list would be.  Well, I wouldn’t call it a bucket list- that just sounds preposterous/stupid to me.

• THE THEORETICAL/THE IDEAL

Carter constructs his bucket list.  Edward steals it, sees it, and begins to dream.  He tells Carter, in so many words, “Let’s do this stuff!”  Carter responds with excuses upon excuses and one that stood out to me was something on the lines of this.  You see, Carter’s freshman philosophy professor told his students to write a “bucket list” of things they want to do before they kick the bucket.  Carter puts it off until, well, the foot’s accelerating in the direction of the bucket.  He’s got 6 months to 1 year to live.  So he writes things like “See something truly majestic” and “Drive a Shelby” (a car he’s loved for years).  However, when Edward actually proposes to do them, Carter back down, saying they were only “theoretical.”  It was more about writing the bucket list than actually accomplishing the items on the list.

How often do we, as Christians, create lists like these- theoretical lists, where the only thing we expect to do with them is write things down and think about life and how we should live.  In Sunday school, we have little kids write down ways they can love their classmates at school- sharing food, taking turns, saying nice things.  Then we, the older and more mature Christians, go to Bible studies and such and create noncorporeal lists, verbal lists, in which we say things like “I wish I could…” or “I should…” or “I’m really gonna start…”  Do we actually take our lists seriously?  When we look at the Gospels, look at Jesus’ treatment of “outsiders” and say that he told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, that too is a list.  And we can’t even execute that one item.

• THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Shocking as it is, in a small way, Jack Nicholson kind of plays the Holy Spirit in this movie.

Okay, okay, I know.  Nicholson’s character Edward tries to get Carter to go cheat on his wife and he curses up a storm and treats most other people with disdain and disrespect.  But ignore all that, and focus just on what Edward does for Carter.  He provides him with money to fly around the world and do amazing things.  He’s a comforting friend that actually does try to help him do the right thing.  And he truly cares about the betterment of Carter.  He cares about making him a better, more flourishing, more alive human being.  (and I still am questioning the comparison, and maybe I will post a rebuttal to that statement.  but for the moment, Jack Nicholson plays the Holy Spirit in The Bucket List.)

• THE GREAT ADVENTURE

In this movie, Carter and Edward do more in 3 months than they did in an entire lifetime.

Or did they?

Edward did, surely, for he learned to love and to take joy in others and give joy to others- that is truly an adventure.

But Carter was already living the adventure, and I think he realizes that in a scene where he is sitting at the table, surrounded by his wife, children, and grandchildren.  He complains earlier in the movie about the work he did so that his kids would be okay.  However, at this moment, I think he realizes that the real adventure is to live the real, day-to-day life- dealing with family issues, the job, life in general.

Still, he did have a great time riding a motorcycle on the Great Wall of China….

John 10:10

• BROTHERLY LOVE

Carter and Edward truly bond.  They share their lives together for a few months, and somehow become as close as lifelong buds.  I think that’s because they did some certain things together that friends should do together.

– They suffered together- in cancer, in family trials, in dashed expectations

– They adventured together- they tried new things, they went new places

– They dreamed together

– They laughed together

– They served eachother

The last scene of the movie (DON’T READ THIS IF YOU DON’T LIKE “SPOILERS” OR WHATEVER) shows two coffee cans sitting atop a mountain- containing the remains of Edward and Carter.  Their final resting place represents their hearts- side by side, like David and Jonathan.  (It might sound fruity, but it really is cool if you think about it.) (And if you just thought about it and still think it’s fruity, well then I throw apples at you!)

There are actually a bunch more ideas floating around in my head, but these are what I’ve got for now.

– God calls us to fulfill our “bucket” lists- John 8:51 (there might be a better example)

– The Holy Spirit provides what we need to truly flourish- Ephesians 3:16 (among other verses)

– The true adventure to be lived is to live your life where you are- 1st Corinthians 7:17

– True friends/brothers suffer together, dream together, live and die together- 1 Corinthians 12:26

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/the-bucket-list/

Well, the other day I was watching the TV show Firefly with my sister, and then after she went to bed I watched the movie that was a continuation of the TV show.  I had seen it before, but seeing it after the TV show episodes really helped.  Anyway, there were some awesome themes I saw in it…

• BELIEF- This movie definitely doesn’t point to a Christian belief, but it does point to belief, to faith, itself.  There’s a “pastor” (they’re called Shepherds in the Firefly/Serenity universe) that tells the main character, Mal, that he’s got to believe… nothing specific, just believe.  Well, in the movie Mal and his crew are uncovering a conspiracy that the government’s tried to cover up.  There’s an Operative hired out by the government that parallels Mal.  The Operative believes in the government, specifically he believes in a perfect world.  (When a friend of Mal tells Mal he can’t beat the operative, they state that the Operative really believes in what he’s doing— which shows the power of belief/faith— good or bad.)  Mal, on the other hand, hates the government (in the F/S universe, the government is like the winning side of the Civil War- Mal fought for the rebel side, and they lost.  The government is bad, though, and makes decisions for many people without consulting them first.)  Mal is not sure what he believes.  After the war, he didn’t really have a cause, anything to believe in.  But when he discovers the secret the government’s been trying to hide, he finds something to believe in.  He and the crew travel to a special planet where he can broadcast to the entire universe the corrupt works of the government.  The Operative tries to stop him and there is a face-off.  They both fight for what they believe, and someone wins.  SPOILER!!!! Mal broadcasts the message and forces the Operative to watch the broadcast- a video recording from the last survivor of a planet where the government tried to put chemicals in the air supply in order to “calm” the population.  The woman tells how everyone eventually stopped fighting, then working, then everyone just stopped doing anything.  The Operative, whom Mal practically chains down, watches the video.  And in the end, he helps Mal and his crew— he sees that his belief is placed in a wrong power.  Mal and his crew were fighting for truth, and the truth will always win out in the end.
• FAMILY- The people on the ship truly act like family.  Sure, they bicker and fight– but isn’t that part of being a family?   Anyway, they fight together, they help eachother, they sacrifice for eachother- it’s truly beautiful.
• NOBLE SACRIFICE- Almost everyone in this movie makes noble sacrifices for others or for a noble cause.  Mal and his crew risk death by going to the planet to broadcast the message.  A friend of theirs who ran the special broadcasting tower was killed, and his broadcasting equipment was destroyed by the Operative.  But in his dying moments, he leaves a message for Mal, telling him where the backup generator is.  Mal risks his life, trying to save a “friend”, Inara, from the Operative and his people.  And in one of the most beautiful moments of the movie, River, this special half-psychic/half-supergirl, bends over Simon, her brother, the doctor who just got shot after trying to fetch his doctor’s bag to help someone, and River tells Simon that he’s been watching over her for so long- now it’s her turn.  She jumps into a room that’s slowly filling with Reavers (picture zombies with the blood rage of vampires and the power of werewolves), throws the bag to Simon, and shuts the door, staying behind to fight for the others.  She risks her life out of love for her brother and the others– and that love motivates her powers into defeating the Reavers.
• SERENITY/THE PAX-The name of Mal’s ship is Serenity.  The name of the chemicals in the air on the dead planet is the Pax.  Both words for peace, but they try to bring peace in different ways.  More thoughts to come…

http://openingeyes.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/serenity/