John Rambo’s former Vietnam superior, Colonel Samuel Trautman, has been assigned to lead a mission to help the Mujahedeen rebels who are fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but the Buddhist Rambo turns down Trautman’s request that Rambo help out. When the mission goes belly up and Trautman is kidnapped and tortured by Russian Colonel Zaysen, Rambo launches a rescue effort and allies himself with the Mujahedeen rebels and gets their help in trying to rescue Trautman from Zaysen.

The crew of the Serenity is getting desperate. They have lain lower and lower to protect their doctor, Simon Tam (Sean Maher), and his telepathic traumatized little sister, River (Summer Glau), from the alliance, whom he rescued her from a year earlier. This has made getting jobs harder and now they are desperate. When they take River on a robbery during which Reavers (humans who have gone crazy and turned into cannibals) attack, Simon decides that its time to leave the crew of the Serenity for his and River’s safety. She then mutters “Miranda” and goes berserk and nearly shoots Capt. Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), until her brother says the safety word to put her to sleep. Reynolds decides to take them back on board for safety, only now an alliance operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is on their tracks and making Reynolds determined to find out what “Miranda” is and what the Alliance is hiding.

In an ancient time, predating the pyramids, the evil king Memnon is using the psychic powers of his sorceress Cassandra to fortell his great victories. In a last ditch effort to stop Memnon from taking over the world, the leaders of the remaining free tribes hire the assassin Mathayus to kill the sorceress. But Mathayus ends up getting much more than he bargained for. Now with the help of the trickster Arpid, tribal leader Balthazar and an unexpected ally, it’s up to Mathayus to fufill his destiny and become the great Scorpion King.