Question: How is it possible for everybody from other countries to know about the wager that Phileas made when the only ones who knew about were the members of the Academy of Science?
Question: When Kylo Ren tries to use the Force on Rey, he mentions that they need the last piece of the map, and that they have the rest. However, when R2-D2 wakes up, we find out that he had the map the entire time. Was Kylo bluffing or did he know where the rest of it was? Was there a copy or did I miss something?
Answer: The First Order already has the piece that R2-D2 was carrying as well. That is the first piece, the large piece of the map missing a small section. The second piece is carried by BB-8 and only by BB-8, the missing piece in the map. All the first order needs is that second piece, and so does the Resistance. However the Resistance needs R2-D2 to activate again so he can show them the first piece, so they can put the second piece in it.
Answer: The piece of the map that R2 had was also recovered from the archives of the Empire.
Question: Are Professor Kirke and Mrs. MacReady both aware of what the wardrobe really is and what it can do?
Answer: Spoiler alert: this gives some important plot twists away. Sometimes a bit of unresolved mystery improves a story, and I think this is the case here. But the book partly answers your questions. At the end of the last chapter it is shown that Mrs MacReady thinks the wardrobe is just a piece of furniture. She knows nothing about Narnia. But Professor Kirke amazes Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy by expressing familiarity with Narnia and explaining that a wardrobe might well be a portal into Narnia. If C S Lewis had not written any more books after completing "The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe" Professor Kirke's knowledge of Narnia would probably have been an unresolved mystery. But C S Lewis later wrote "The Magician's Nephew" which tells how Professor Kirke visited Narnia as a boy. The final chapter of this book says he took an apple back with him, which he planted in his garden. It grew into a tree, was cut down and made into the wardrobe. So Professor Kirke was not consciously aware of what the wardrobe could do, but with hindsight, he realised that he had set up a chain of events that caused the children to discover Narnia.
Answer: While Professor Kirke is aware of the existence of Narnia, as he was there when it was created, he doesn't appear to be aware that the wardrobe can act as a portal (although he may suspect that it has unusual properties, as the tree from which the wood came to create it grew from a Narnian apple). Mrs MacReady doesn't know.
Question: At the end of the "We Are One" song, Simba and Kiara have returned to pride rock around sunset. Fine, fine, but the thing that's been bugging me for years is: Kiara stares intently at something, causing Simba to frown and look up to see what she sees. He seems to chuckle, then turns back to her. What is it that they were looking at before he says "You'll understand some day" and why is it there?
Answer: Kiara is staring at the tip of Pride Rock and thinking of the that she will be a leader one day, due to the fact that shown in the first movie that this is where the new kings/queens roar to show that they are the new rulers. Simba notices her looking and chuckles at the irony of him having wanting to be leader so badly at her age and Kiara not wanting to be a leader at all.
Question: How did Palpatine come back? Cloned? Or somehow survived the Death Star explosion, which seems unlikely.
Chosen answer: According to the novelization, Palpatine sensed Vader's internal conflict and created a clone as a backup in the event that Vader betrayed him. When Vader threw him down the shaft, Palpatine transferred his consciousness into the clone's body.
Answer: It is not said exactly how he came back. He says that he had died before which presumably is him dying in ROTJ. The most we get is the reference to Sith ability that some consider unnatural.
It is not said how he came back, but I get the idea that he was using the Force to keep himself alive. At least that's the message I was getting when I saw that Palpatine's fingers were wilted away. And I thought that the power he was using was urging his life to go on, but his physical appearence was being dragged behind.
Answer: The line "The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural" is a direct reference to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in which Palpatine says the same line verbatim to Anakin. Recall that a major plot point to that prequel is that the Sith have long been rumored to have found a method to cheat death. This film strongly suggests that Palpatine had indeed discovered this method. The film doesn't go into specifics. My understanding is the novelization says his body is a clone. Going by his appearance in the film (blank eyes; body manipulated by machine), it suggests to me that he is a reanimated corpse.
Question: Is it true that the Jamaica bobsled team performed poorly at first during training as shown in in the film?
Answer: The real Jamaican team performed poorly throughout the Olympics and did not finish.
Question: After the dog and Prince Wendell have been switched, why does the Queen even care about having the dog (who is really Prince)? She doesn't know that Tony can talk to him, so as far as she knows, no one can understand the dog at all. Why would she be concerned?
Answer: Because if Wendell and the switched dog somehow came in contact with each other then they would switch back. She does not want to risk this happening.
Question: At the end of the scene in Brodie's comic book shop, Brodie says "cue the music." What song are Brody, Jay, and Silent Bob imitating?
Answer: Apparently it was a song that was improvised by Jason Lee and Jason Mewes. Stated on the commentary.
Question: Will someone explain to me navigation. I have never heard of "Sou Sou West" or "Sou East by East."
Answer: There are four major directions (North, South, East and West), four minor (North East, south east, south west and north west) and 16 sub directions. Among these are South South West and South east by East. South South West is between South West and South and South East by East is between south east and east.
Question: In theatrical trailers, when the dwarves put Snow White on Shrek's table, he says "Dead girl off the table." In the real movie, however, "girl" becomes "broad", according to the subtitles. Is there a reason why?
Chosen answer: This is most likely because "broad" isn't too nice of a word, and children of any age could watch the trailer. Parents wouldn't want their children to copy inapropriate language, obviously.
Answer: Broad is just a slang word meaning Woman. It was historically a bad word, but now it's not.
Question: Since Loki is the son of Laufey the Frost Giant, why doesn't he look like one?
Answer: When initially found by Odin, he does. Something then acts on him that causes him to mimic Odin's more human appearance, which he then keeps until his exposure to the frost giants during the events of the film, which tips him off to his true nature. Whether this was caused by some magic inherent in Loki even as a baby or whether Odin did something to disguise the child's true origin is unrevealed.
Question: When Liz uses her fire, it incinerates everything around her. How does it not burn off her own clothing?
Chosen answer: Her jewelry does not melt either because the fire wraps around her and shoots outward enveloping her and her clothes and jewelry in a safe environment that allows her to breathe without burning the air going into her lungs. Plus if it burned her clothes it would get an R rating.
Question: When Alan has reached Jumanji, why were the bullet and rifle pulled into the game? They weren't from the game, but purchased by Van Pelt from a gun store.
Answer: The game is essentially "resetting reality" back to the point Alan was first sucked into the game. So it is undoing everything that has been done - including taking away the gun and bullets Van Pelt had purchased.
Answer: The gun and bullets may have been from the real world but they were Van Pelt's property. He purchased them at the gun store. Apparently the game pulls in Van Pelt and anything of his he was using to hunt Alan. It makes sense that the game would do this because Alan defeats Van Pelt by following the rules of the game. Having Van Pelt be able to simply purchase a gun in the real world and kill a player with it even after they've completed the game would be a huge cheat.
Question: Several times in the movie one character is able to ascertain in which hotel room another character is staying simply by asking the front desk for the room number. Was this realistic at the time the movie was made? Today, a hotel would never divulge a guest's room number to a stranger, since such information could potentially be used by burglars and/or predators to gain access to hotel rooms. Was security really that lax in the 1950s?
Answer: Not really. You could (and at some hotels are still able to) keep your room number private or you could not - i.e. you could ask the hotel staff to keep your number secret from strangers, or you could ask them to tell anyone who might ask. Not having seen this movie, I don't know how likely it would be in the situations you speak of that the hotel guest would choose the latter option- it might be a mistake.
Answer: Yes, security was that lax in the 1950s and beyond. People could acquire all kinds of information about individuals from various types of businesses. Not all were so careless, but many were or they naively didn't see a concern. In the late 1980s, I was a student at a university where a non-university person obtained his ex-girlfriend's class schedule simply by requesting it in-person from the registrar's office. Using that information, he was able to locate and fatally shoot her on campus.
Question: The only way that the valley could be flooded by rampaging water is that a dam was broken up river. Otherwise the water rises very slowly. Does the movie explain this? If so I missed it. In which way was that river flooded?
Answer: Probably they have dismantled the coffer dam that was used while constructing the main dam. Hence, the flooding.
Good and reasonable last resort explanation - have the Coens ever addressed it?
Question: Why is it necessary for Draco to confirm that the real Harry has been captured by the bounty hunters? Lucius and Bellatrix have each dealt with Harry before.
Answer: Lucius and Bellatrix were unable to confirm Harry's identity because Hermione had jinxed his face to disguise him just before the snatchers captured them. They are fairly certain it is Harry, but as Bellatrix says, if they summon Lord Voldemort, and they are wrong, he will kill them all. Of all the Death Eaters at Malfoy Hall, no one knows Harry better than Draco, having spent more time with him because they were schoolmates. Lucius and Bellatrix have to be absolutely sure that this is Harry Potter.
Answer: In order to stop Fogg from completing the journey, his rivals at the Academy wired (telegraphed) details to confederates in the countries he visited with instructions to waylay him.