Here’s our vacuum cleaner buying guide to help you decide what’s right for you. But do you know who invented vacuum cleaner or when? I had a place to put my script sides,” says Fillion, who relishes playing the darker side of Malcolm. “He’s a cranky, mean guy but I like him because he fights all the time — fights he knows he’s not going to win. Whedon was nothing if not prepared going in. We spoke to Joss Whedon and other members of the cast and crew of “Serenity” to learn how they did it. As it turned out, loyal fans of the series — dubbed the Browncoats after the garment worn by “Serenity” captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) — weren’t done either. Fillion says, assessing one of the pint-size replicas. The best way to determine how many different elements are present in one molecule of table salt is to count the capital letters in the chemical formula.

They weren’t sure who would be shooting what so they had us get familiar with everything that could possibly work its way into the script,” says Sean Maher, who plays Dr. Simon Tam. Jewel Staite (ship’s mechanic Kaylee) adds, “This one gun was so heavy that every time I shot, it would ricochet and I’d get burns all over my legs.” Baccarin had to learn archery for the movie. “I really took to it. River Tam. I had to completely retrain my body, and it took three months, all day, every day,” says Glau, who did all but two sequences herself. “But all the swords and blade work, the guns and the daggers, I did myself. Though including nine “Firefly” characters plus two new ones (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and David Krumholtz) was a challenge for Whedon, it wasn’t as complex as opening up the action for the big screen, making it fun and accessible to unfamiliar viewers while pleasing the faithful, and doing it all for under $45 million. Peristere, while directing commercials and involved at Zoic with TV series including “CSI”, “Battlestar Galactica” and “Prison Break,” hopes to re-team with Whedon. In traditional coverage in CG, you might have 10-12 different angles of the battle, but we had what we called our virtual dogfight camera,” Peristere says. “We had our animators pretend they were a chase plane following Serenity and their goal was to keep Serenity in frame as best as they could while missiles, vehicles and obstacles get in the way.

In this article, we’ll look at the special effects that went into making “Serenity” real, as well as weapons, armor, costumes and characters. Like nuclear weapons and biological weapons, chemical weapons are often classified as weapons of mass destruction. So you’re probably surprised when this simple act leaves you feeling like you’ve been run over by a truck. The big advantage over ethanol, DeMorro says is that any diesel car can run biodiesel with minimal modifications. Whedon stresses, however, that “Serenity” is less about visuals than character — and what the actors playing them can do. None of those films, however, offer the kind of immortality that “Serenity” has already provided: action figures. The battles in “Serenity” get bigger as the movie goes on. Whedon is currently writing the script for the upcoming “Wonder Woman” movie. As for Serenity herself, Whedon insisted that the ship not receive a major makeover in her transition to the big screen. That chase scene, involving the “Serenity” crew and a ship of cannibalistic Reavers, was the responsibility of Loni Peristere, the visual effects supervisor and second unit director on the film. Peristere, a self-proclaimed “graduate of Joss Whedon University.” He worked with the director on “Buffy,” “Angel” and “Firefly” and is now a partner at Zoic Studios, a visual effects house.

Earning critical acclaim but not enough of a Nielsen rating to support its cost, the sci-fi western “Firefly” lasted less than a season on Fox back in 2003. That would have been it, were it not for the show’s tenacious creator, Joss Whedon, who refused to take cancellation for an answer. Sales topping 200,000 copies of the DVD box set made Universal Pictures take notice and greenlight a film version as Whedon’s feature directorial debut, with the entire TV cast intact. Set dressers brought in trees and brush to cover the highway ledge, and cameras were mounted on the tow rig and a following car to capture the sequence. For the actors, stepping onto the set “was like coming into your living room and your mom rearranged all the furniture and things aren’t where they were but you’re still home,” says Morena Baccarin, who plays Registered Companion Inara. Adding things like rivets and details took about 12 weeks. We took parts off ships and reapplied them in different ways and shapes, with digital tool kits.