3. Serenity - River Versus The Reavers
'Serenity', aside from being Whedon's ultimate love letter to the Firefly fans whose fervent belief and passion for a movie was the driving force behind it, was also a chance for Whedon to experiment and work with action sequences, something that with a limited TV budget and scale he'd previously been unable to do. Here, in this component of the film's finale, River bravely sacrifices herself to save the lives of her crew to buy them time in a fight. However, as we see, the willowy and fragile-looking River isn't a match for the hungry, cannibalistic Reavers. She utterly destroys them. River becomes a force of nature, with her body necoming the ultimate weapon. Whedon wisely utilizes actress Summer Glau's propensity for dance and history as a ballet dancer (she was first cast as a ghostly prima ballerina on 'Angel') to make her a fluid assassin. With cleavers in hand and some serious flexibility, River decimates these feared creatures and lives to fight another day as one of Whedon's most beloved and archetypal heroines.