10 Movie Details Hidden In Another Language
6. River's Completely Ridiculous Safe Phrase - Serenity
In Joss Whedon's cult classic sci-fi Serenity, Simon Tam (Sean Maher) uses a Russian safe word phrase to put his sister River (Summer Glau) to sleep when necessary, given that she's a brainwashed assassin capable of becoming violently volatile at a moment's notice.
The phrase is "Eto kuram na smekh!," which per Whedon's typical attention-to-detail isn't mere random Russian babble but an actual saying derived from Old Russian. In Whedon's own words:
"It's something my Russian teacher in England used to say. It means 'that's absurd.' Well, the words are literally 'that's laughter for chickens,' and that means 'that's absurd.'"
And now armed with that knowledge, just try and take the phrase seriously whenever you next revisit Serenity.