Serenity quotes

View Quote The Operative: I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. You should have taken my offer. Or did you think none of this was your fault?
Mal: I don't murder children.
The Operative: I do, if I have to.
Mal: Why? Do you even know why they sent you?
The Operative: It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.
Mal: So me and mine gotta lay down and die so you can live in your better world?
The Operative: I'm not going to live there... There's no place for me there, any more than there is for you. Malcolm, I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.

View Quote The Operative: It's not over. I can't guarantee that they won't come after you. The Parliament. Your broadwave about Miranda has weakened their regime. They are not gone, and they are not... forgiving.
Mal: That don't bode especially well for you, giving the order to let us go, patching up our hurt.
The Operative: I told them the Tams were no longer a threat, damage done. They might listen, but I think they know I'm no longer... their man.
Mal: They take you down, I don't expect to grieve overmuch. Like to kill you myself, I see you again.
The Operative: You won't. [Pause] There is nothing left to see.

View Quote Wash: We’re about 70 miles from the Training House, and nobody on radar. If the Alliance is about they're laying low.
Mal: They're about. Find us a home. I'll take the shuttle a little closer. Zoe, ship is yours. Remember. If anything happens to me or if you don't hear from me within the hour, you take this ship and you come and you rescue me.
Zoe: [Jokingly] What? Risk my ship?
Mal: I mean it. It's cold out there. And I don't wanna get left.

View Quote Wash: Well, if she doesn't get us some extra flow from the engine room to offset the burn-through, this landing is gonna get pretty interesting.
Mal: Define "interesting"?
Wash: [deadpan] "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"?
Mal: [over intercom] This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then... explode.

View Quote Zoë: Cap'n didn't make 'em fugitives.
Kaylee: But he coulda made 'em family! 'Steada keepin' Simon from seein' I was there. And I carried such a torch, and we coulda... Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!
Mal: [shocked] Oh, God! I can't know that!
Jayne: I could stand to hear a little more.

View Quote Zoe: Sir, I don't disagree on any particular point. It’s just... in the time of war, we would've never left a man stranded.
Mal: ...Maybe that's why we lost.

View Quote [After Simon is wounded]
Simon: River. River, I’m sorry.
River: No. No.
Simon: I hate to leave.
River: You won’t. You take care of me, Simon. You've always taken care of me. My turn. [Runs out and fights the Reavers, closing the door behind her.]

View Quote [After the crew, eavesdropping on a 'wave between Mal and Inara, sees Inara invite the crew to join her at the companion training house]
Wash: Inara. Nice to see her again.
Zoë: So... trap?
Mal: Trap.
Zoë: Are we going in?
Mal: Only but a few hours out.
Wash: Yeah, but, remember the part where it's a trap?
Mal: If that’s the case, then Inara's already caught in it. She wouldn't set us up willing. Might be we got a shot at seeing who's turning these wheels. We go in.
Kaylee: But how can you be sure Inara don't just wanna see you? Sometimes people have feelings. And I'm referring here to people.
Mal: You all were watching, I take it?
Kaylee: Yes.
Mal: Did you see us fight?
Kaylee: No.
Mal: Trap.

View Quote [After the Operative beats Mal and Inara]
The Operative: Nothing here is what it seems. [Picks up his sword] He isn't the plucky hero. The Alliance isn't some evil empire. This is not the grand arena...
Inara: And that's not incense.
[The Operative turns just as the flash bomb goes off]

View Quote [As River is holding a gun on him]
Mal: The government's man, he says you're a danger to us. Not worth helping. Is he right? Are you anything but a weapon? I've staked my crew's life on the theory you're a person. Actual and whole, and if I'm wrong, you’d best shoot me now—
[River ****s the gun]
Mal: [Quickly] Or, we can talk more.

View Quote [As the Reavers are chasing them]
Mal: Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Jayne: How come they ain't blowing us out the air?
Mal: They wanna run us down. The up-close kill.
River: They want us alive when they eat us.
Jayne: Boy, sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?!

View Quote [Mal's Mule crashes into Serenity's bay. Simon, who stayed behind, rushes to River asking if she's all right. Kaylee, who also stayed behind, rushes to Simon.]
Kaylee: [to Simon] Are you okay?
Mal: Is HE okay?!

View Quote [Preparing to leave the ship]
Mal: Hey little one. Understand your part in all this?
River: ...Do you?
Mal: This is what I do, darlin'. This is what I do.

View Quote [Speaking with Fanty and Mingo, who are identical twins]
Mal: Fanty. Mingo.
Mingo: He's Mingo.
Mal: He's Fanty. You're Mingo.
Mingo: [grins] How is it you always know?
Mal: Fanty's prettier.

View Quote [Deleted scene]
The Operative: Serenity... you lost everything in that battle. Everything you had, everything you were. How did you go on?
Mal: If you're still standing there when that engine starts, you never will figure it out.
Mal: (After the Operative has left) What a whiner.