Serenity

The movie, Serenity, is a science fiction based in the future. Although I have not seen the series, Firefly, I have heard that this movie is from that series... or maybe I have it backwards. In any case, it was interesting watching the movie with someone who really enjoys the series.

In the movie, the main character, River, has powers that surprise everyone on board the space ship, except her own brother. She is able to read people's minds and kick ass better than any other little girl ever. Her mind, for an unknown reason, was embedded with information on a secret and those that put it there are out to kill her to protect the secret. In order to protect River, the crew of Serenity realize that they must discover the secret. In the end, they are able to fight impossible odds, convince the assassin that what he believes in is absurd, and tell the entire universe about the secret.

With all the really interesting futuristic technology in this movie, it is easy to overlook the real issue. The simple HVAC system that spread the secret weapon. There really isn't too much to understand about how air handling systems work, yet, not knowing could kill you (at least in the movie). In the movie, they wanted to try to weed out the violence by making everyone not want to fight. They killed the fighting spirit in people by releasing chemicals into the air that were supposed to calm people down, but not kill them. The chemicals worked too well. Humans lost all sense of reason to fight, even to do everyday tasks, or humanly functions like breathing. Eventually, the entire world died... billions of people. All because they felt no reason to live. Except for the few people who reacted the opposite to the chemical. Those people became the most feared and hated evil beings in the universe.

What if something like this happened in reality. There are all sorts of deadly chemicals that could get into your average air handling system. This is a very real threat in today's society. Many people fear chemical warfare, and although it happened accidentally in the movie, it could be a very dangerous weapon. A chemical that kills will power is exactly the type of thing that the enemies of a free country might be looking for.