Serleena

“Oh, yummy. There's someone I need to eat.”

—Serleena

Serleena Xath was an operative of the Kylothian military that has spent the last 25 years searching for the Light of Zartha. She learns that Agent Kay tricked her into that fruitless search and wanted to squeeze him to death "like a tube of toothpaste."

She was the main antagonist of Men in Black II, and her human form was portrayed by Lara Flynn Boyle.

Biography

War with Zartha

During more than 50 years, since the 1970s, the Kylothians have been at war with the Zarthan, a conflict that began in the 1920s. Serleena, a high-ranking agent in the Kylothian army and queen of the Kylothians, arrived on Earth several years ago when she discovered that the Zarthan had brought the Light of Zartha to the planet to safeguard and protect it under the watch of the MIB agency.

On a rainy night, Serleena met with the Men in Black and the Zarthan princess on a farm situated in the middle of a vast plantation. She demanded that they hand over the Light, but Agent K responded that they were neutral in the conflict and that if she wanted the Light, she would have to find it herself. He then activated a device on his watch that opened the roof of what seemed to be a simple tower, revealing a spaceship that took off into space.

Seeing the spaceship, Serleena believed it was the Light of Zartha escaping and decided to shoot the Zarthan princess, Lauranna, killing her to gain an advantage in the war. She then quickly boarded her ship and pursued the spaceship launched by the Men in Black.

Over the years she traveled from planet to planet in her search for the shuttle, constantly being disappointed and destroying many worlds in her own bitter anger. However, she was contacted by Scrad who notified her that the light had been back on Earth the whole time. After a quick change, of course, Serleena headed to Earth, landing in New York.

Arrival on Earth

Serleena's spaceship descended into a park, immediately attracting the attention of a nearby dog. The dog, intrigued by the unusual appearance of the spaceship, approached both the object and Serleena herself with curiosity. This initial interest soon transformed into more aggressive behavior, and the dog began barking insistently in the direction of the spaceship and Serleena.

In response to this threatening attitude, Serleena let out an intimidating roar, which succeeded in scaring the animal away, causing it to flee the area quickly. This first encounter reflects Serleena's imposing and dangerous nature, capable of instilling fear in Earth's living beings.

After this episode, Serleena assumed the form of a snake, slithering through the park with stealth and speed. As she moved along the ground, she came across an abandoned magazine. The wind blew the pages open, revealing an advertisement for the Victoria's Secret brand. The ad featured the model Lara Flynn Boyle, whose image captured Serleena's attention. Serleena then proceeds to transform into an exact copy of the woman in the picture, and moments after she is finished, she is attacked by a mugger named Creepy, who drags her behind a bush with the intent of raping her. He is instead eaten by Serleena however, and she returns to the magazine with a full stomach . Realizing that her belly ruins her disguise, she growls in annoyance while her stomach growls loudly. She regurgitates his remains before his clothes can be digested, taking them to change into.

Serleena Talking — Serleena meeting with Scrad and Charlie

She first stops by Scrad/Charlie's department to find him watching TV and eating junk food. Without him knowing she's Serleena, Scrad/Charlie gets impressed by her beauty, only to have her shove two tentacles into their ears as a bitter reminder of who they were talking to. They talk about finding the light and agree to look for information at a pizzeria nearby while she eats a greasy hamburger.

MiB Infiltration

Then she goes to the MIB headquarters, where she seduces a worker by revealing her bra, explaining that "she wants to learn how to be an underwear model because people tell her she has real potential." As a distraction, Scrad and Charlie pretend to have a heart attack upon seeing Serleena's sexy lingerie. Next, Serleena uses her tentacles to capture all the agents present in the main area, activating code 1.0.1, which triggers the building alarm, allowing J and K to escape by being "flushed down the toilet." After that, Scrad and Charlie inform Serleena that Agent K was neuralized but had been inside the building so that the Agent could recover his memory. Because of this, the evil Serleena decides to release the alien prisoners from the agency (Jarra, Dog Poop, Corn Face, Pineal Eye, Mosh Tendrils, and Flesh Balls) to help her, offering them the planet Earth for whoever brings Agent K to her, telling them to start by looking where there is a deneuralizer, except for Jarra. After that, Serleena threatens Z, demanding that he call K and deliver the Light of Zartha to her. She warns him that if they don't comply, both will lose: she won't have the Light, and Earth will be destroyed because the Light must leave the planet before midnight. Z calls who Serleena believes to be K, but it turns out to be Michael Jackson, a distraction that Z uses to attack her. However, Serleena is unfazed by any of the agent's attacks, allowing her to take down Z. Then, Serleena notices that Frank is hiding among the tentacles of an alien. Shortly after, J calls who he believes to be Frank to inform him that they are going to the worms' place, but it turns out to be Serleena imitating Frank's voice while he is tied up. Later, Serleena, along with Scrad and Charlie, goes to the worms' house, splitting the aliens in half and kidnapping Laura, taking her to the base. Upon arriving at the base, she asks Jarra to build a ship for her, and he agrees in exchange for Agent J.

Serleena talking control of MiB Headquarters

Upon returning to the headquarters, Serleena locks Laura in the spaceship Jarra was assembling. When the ship was ready, Serleena orders Jarra to take Laura to Kyloth immediately. However, at that moment, Serleena sees the base elevator open. A robot tries to shoot at the elevator where the agents should be, but K destroys the robot by trapping it in the elevator with a grenade. K manages to escape the elevator only to be caught by Serleena, who was behind him. J stops the countdown of a machine that would launch Laura into space and shoots Serleena before she can eat K. Serleena, arrogantly, had assumed that K was going to deliver the killing blow, but he corrected her, also telling her that her flight is canceled, referring to her plan to send Laura through a spaceship to Kyloth.At the same time, K is captured by Serleena, who taunts him about the death of his love Laurana and intimidates him by sticking her Kylothian tongue in his ear, though K doesn't find it amusing. But just as Serleena is about to kill K, she is ambushed by Agent J from behind, who shoots her with a weapon that disintegrates most of her body.

Battle for the Light of Zartha

She is seemingly destroyed, but her initial worm form survives. Quickly, she regenerates and steals a futuristic vehicle to chase after the trio of Jay, Laura, and Kay. After an intense chase scene, Serleena is tricked into being eaten by the giant worm, Jeff, along with her spaceship.

Thought to be safe from Serleena's wrath, the trio reach a rooftop and prepare a hidden shuttle for Laura to leave on. However, Jeff bursts through the roof and explodes, revealing Serleena in a giant mutated worm-like form. As Jay was thrown around by her tentacles, trying not to be eaten, Kay casually spoke with Laura before shooting Serleena, releasing Jay.

After launching Laura, Serleena returned and showed her true form, that of a huge viney plant, and flew after Laura, but Jay and Kay casually shot her with their weapons, destroying her for good in a bright fireworks display and returning to HQ.

Alternative Ending

Originally, Serleena was supposed to die betrayed by Scrad & Charlie, who would disintegrate her with a 'proton detonator,' after which Agent K would give Scrad & Charlie a place in the Men in Black.

Personality

Serleena was described by Agent Jay as "one of the most feared aliens in the universe." She was extremely hostile and aggressive, displaying an obsessive need to retrieve the Light of Zartha. She also showed an extremely hearty appetite, eating food quite frequently - either be human food or humans themselves. She also talks slickly and is able to get someone whatever they want if they do something for her.

Physical Appearance

Serleena Transformation — A concept of Serleena's metamorphic abilities showing how she assumes her human form

Because of her ability to metamorphose, it's unclear what Serleena actually looks like. In the archive footage of 1978, Serleena appears to be a humanoid mass of vines and tendrils; when she first lands on Earth, she looks like a tiny snake-like plant creature.

Her Lara Flynn Boyle disguise is her most prominent form. In Agent K's flashback, Serleena takes the shape of a cloaked woman with vines for a face. After being eaten by Jeff in the subway, Serleena takes the form of a huge snake-like plant beast, and then a mass of vines with a human face.

Some of the concept art for Serleena depicts her looking like humanoid-plants, a caecealian-like plant creature, and in a few instances, a four-legged monster plant, and human-like sea monsters.

Powers and Abilities

Serleena possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a Kylothian.

Weaknesses

Serleena had all the standard weaknesses of a Kylothian.

Other Appearances

In Men in Black: Alien Crisis a simulation of her plant form is used as a boss fight during initiation.
In the Men in Black III App, Serleena appears in her plant form as a boss.

Gallery

Appearances

Trivia

One of the discarded ideas was that Serleena would transform into a giant, robust, and bulky monster with multiple legs according to some concept art, but this was ultimately abandoned.
Another discarded idea was that Serleena would turn into a gigantic flying creature with three heads similar to that of an eel, bat wings, and several legs. This form was nicknamed by the fans as 'The Dragon'.
Famke Janssen was originally cast as Serleena and had even filmed some scenes but was forced to drop out of the project due to a death in her family.
Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, and Yeardley Smith auditioned for Serleena.
Serleena's goals are very similar to Edgar the Bug's from the first movie.
A behind the scenes source (The Director) implied that she actually, ironically enough given her personality, she had loved ones back on her homeworld, possibly even children.
Serleena has many things in common with the antagonist of the Godzilla saga, "Biollante." Among these characteristics are: both are plant creatures with reptilian features, both change forms during the movie, both have some connection to a human (Biollante being made from the cells of Dr. Genichiro's daughter, and Serleena taking the form of model Lara Flynn Boyle), both transform into orange particles at the end of the movie (Biollante turning into spores and Serleena being disintegrated), and both appear at the end of their respective movies as larger and more monstrous versions of themselves.
It is curious to observe how Serleena, despite her evilness and apparent lack of empathy towards other species, showed curiosity and a playful attitude upon arriving on Earth and interacting with a dog that found her. It wasn't until the dog started barking that her attitude abruptly changed; at that moment, she displayed her aggressiveness by roaring to scare it.
In her alien identifier file, it says she is an operative of the Kylothian Military, possibly meaning she is not the apex of the Kylothian and there is a higher power she answers to.
Serleena was originally going to look more like a plant, but David Nakabayashi said: "I think the change was very good; moving from plants to something that looked more like an animal was much more terrifying. It created a kind of 'yuck! I don't want to touch that, and I don't want that thing to touch me' response in the audience".
While Serleena is the antagonist, her role as an "evil villain" can be questioned, because throughout the movie, she objectively doesn’t do many purely evil things.
- She didn't kill the Men in Black at the headquarters.
- Her only human victim was a criminal.
- She was quite patient with the MIB when they interfered in the Kylothian-Zarthan war, where they should have remained neutral.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 ^1.7 Reference 1

[ref1-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 ^1.7 Reference 1

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