Question: Was the ghostwriter murdered? Why? The book had already been published, and he only discovered the truth about Ruth minutes before, so who would have wanted him dead?
Question: Why does Norton lie and say that he "has company" and then make De Niro wait longer during the robbery? Sure, Norton double crosses him later, but wouldn't making his partner wait put both of them in danger of getting caught since it delays them and increases their chances of getting caught?
Answer: Norton already has an advance plan to prevent himself from getting caught. The delay is both to fluster DeNiro, and to prevent him from having enough time at the moment of the double-cross to come up with an alternate to handing over the prize without getting caught himself.
Question: If the ship's artillery is only equipped with 5-inch starburst rounds (as stated more than once), how do they use the much larger guns to sink the submarine?
Answer: The smaller guns were only equipped with the Starburst rounds. The 16 Inch Cannons were still supplied with live ammo. None of the characters left to fight had experience with the 16 inch guns except for the Gunner's Mate, therefore none of them thought to use one of the 16 inch guns.
Answer: In earlier versions of the "Annie" story, she is orphaned when her parents are killed in a car accident. In the musical, they died in a fire. In the 2014 re-imagining, Annie lives in foster care after being abandoned by her family. Early on, she hopes to one day be reunited with them. We, the audience, never learn their whereabouts, nor whether they are alive or dead.
Question: When Nikki came to see Terri, he laid his hat and coat in the chair - no package. Later, he went to the chair and got the package that contained the scarf. Was the package placed there at a later time?
Question: When Georges is being deported back to France, why didn't Brontë go with him? They realised they were in love with each other plus there was nothing stopping her from going to France with him.
Answer: It's implied she will be coming with him when George says he will write to ask 'when are you coming cherie?' and the way they laugh and exchange rings. She just has to wrap up loose ends in NY then she'll be on her way to him.
Question: Are the characters in this movie based on actual people? Is it a true story or a fictional story that was entirely possible?
Answer: The movie was written by Tom Hanks and some what reflects the music industry during that time period. It is not about a real band, but shows how a lot of bands were treated at the time and how quickly you can rise and how you can fall even faster.
Question: In the scene where Vincent is just about to launch, the doctor testing him mentions his son. My brother seems to think that the doctor knows Vincent is not who he pretends to be because he is Jerome Morrow's father. Is there any evidence for this?
Answer: None whatsoever. The doctor seems to have worked out that Vincent is not who he seems to be from simple observational evidence. It's because of his son that he feels sympathy for Vincent and hasn't revealed that he's tricking the system.
Question: Wouldn't David & Jennifer's mom be worried about the sudden disappearance of her daughter, seeing as how Jennifer stayed behind in Pleasantville rather than returning to the "real world"?
Answer: We don't see much of the "real world" after David returns other than his conversation with his mother. I am sure in time she would have been worried but there seem to be many unanswered questions which might make it not so simple.
Considering that a couple of days in Pleasantville turned out to be just an hour in the real world, it's possible Jennifer could spend 3-4 years in uni and cone back with it being just a weekend in the real world. David could just make up something in that period she's gone.
Actually if a couple of days is just an hour than 3-4 years is more than 2 weeks.
Question: In the scene where Johnny and Ponyboy are talking in the lot, Ponyboy goes over to sort out the fire. The camera zooms up on Johnny and you can hear voices echoing. Does anyone know what they're saying? I can't make them out.
Answer: Johnny is recalling the argument he heard his parents having; the voices were meant to sound angry but not to be understood. Its to help us understand his horrid home life.
Question: What is A.J. doing when he burns Mark's CD? Why would he ruin his CD, if that's what he's doing?
Chosen answer: He is making sure the CD can't be played anymore because nobody really likes Mark's music.
I never understood that part because they were singing along to the song Mark chose to play.
Question: Why did they use actors who couldn't sing in the leading roles? Wouldn't it be easier to cast people who could sing instead of dubbing with other singing voices?
Answer: People would not come to the theater to see Marnie Nixon despite the fact that she has sung the lead roles in West Side Story, The King and I, and My Fair Lady. They'd rather see that darling girl from "Miracle on 34th Street" again (or Deborah Kerr or Audrey Hepburn) than an unknown with actual talent.
Answer: Natalie Wood was more well-known. And Wood actually COULD sing, she just couldn't hit the high notes perfectly. In fact, she was told only some of her singing would be dubbed.
Question: How did blood drop reached Marta's shoes, even though it was too far from Christopher Plummer in the suicide scene? (00:53:50)
Answer: To add slightly to the other answer, evidently some of the blood in the scene had to be digitally removed for the film to secure a PG-13 rating, which explains why we don't see any actual spray/gush. But we are to assume that a drop managed to splash onto her shoe when he slit his throat.
Answer: The rationale is that blood can travel quite far from an artery and her shoe therefore got the droplet on it even from the doorway - however it does seem to me that the filmic portrayal is lacking, since you don't actually see any instance of spray. Rian Johnson' script says "Blood gushes." What we see in the scene is that it is trickling down his cut - a bit.
Question: What was Lindsey referring to when she called Coffey "Roger Ramjet"?
Answer: Roger Ramjet was a 1960's American cartoon character who was extremely patriotic, but dimwitted.
Answer: She's comparing the overzealous, gung-ho Coffey to the 1960s cartoon character, Roger Ramjet, a frenetic, extremely patriotic, though not particularly bright American-hero guy. He worked for the U.S. government and routinely saved the world, using energy pills that gave him brief increased strength.
Answer: Dudley Do-right, Inspector Clouseau or Maxwell Smart, only in a '50's space cartoon, that's Roger Ramjet (I imagine Buzz Lightyear is the nearest pop cultural successor).
Question: I've noticed that throughout the movie, the first two fingers on many character's right hand are orange. Most noticeable when Holden sees Banky at the end and in the lesbian bar when Banky is swapping stories with Alyssa. What's the significance of this?
Answer: I'm gonna be totally honest... I'm 99% sure there's no significance. In fact, I think it's just stained skin from all the smoking people do in the movie. Most people hold their cigarettes between their first two fingers. And most of the characters are depicted smoking throughout the film, which means they had to smoke a LOT during filming to maintain continuity. I used to get occasional orange (and sometimes yellow or light brown) stains on my fingers and hands when I smoked cigarettes. Especially if I smoked more than one in a short period of time and didn't wash me hands between them. So it's probably just smoking stains on the actor's fingers. In fact, I looked, and you see Banky holding a lit cigarette in his right hand and smoking during the story swapping scene you mentioned, with gives some direct evidence to my theory. (For reference, those stains can wash off with some good scrubbing).
Question: In one of the extras, Tim Burton says that he got the idea for Corpse Bride from a story. He said just that it was just a few paragraphs, but what is the story that he is talking about?
Answer: It's a 19th century Russian Jewish folk-tale - the story starts quite similarly, with the lead character saying his vows while putting the ring on what he believes to be a stick. The tale generally finishes with the rabbis annulling the marriage and the living bride vowing to honour the memory of the corpse bride throughout her marriage - which ties into the Jewish tradition of honouring the dead through the lives of the living.
Question: What is the drug the characters use in the film? They inject it like heroin, but they snort it like cocaine. There's also the dialating eyelids, which occur when coke is snorted - so what is the drug in the film? And please don't base the answer on the IMDB.
Answer: Both heroin and cocaine are used in the film. Cocaine is used mostly by Marion, and also injected at least once but heroin can also be snorted. The route of administration stereotype does not hold to all drug users (except for alcohol, which can pretty much only be taken by mouth) The fact the prison guard says "He won't be putting any more DOPE in that arm" - dope is slang for heroin in New York, not coke - and the severe withdrawals as soon as the drug is unavailable suggests heroin is used by all three major characters. The pills used by Sara are preludin, dexedrine and diazepam (according to the novel which the film is based on) but I do not know what the "Blue" pill (the one she takes in the afternoon) is.
Question: When Nicholas and Mr. Squeers arrive at the school, Nicholas asks, "Is this Dotheboys Hall?" and Squeers replies something I can't understand, followed by, "We call it that in London because it sounds better." Anyone know what he says?
Chosen answer: Squeers says, "No need to call it a hall up here" and then he says "We call it that in London because it sounds better."
Answer: Who would want him dead? Ruth, for one, as well as Professor Emmett (her CIA recruiter) and others involved in the conspiracy. Yes, the book had been published, but the secret message only comes across if one is in possession of all the knowledge that the writer had acquired, which the casual reader would not have. And minutes is plenty of time for Ruth, Emmett, or anyone else to make a phone call and arrange the hit.
The published book was a rewrite and would not have the secret message in the chapter beginnings.
The published book was a rewrite of the original manuscript. He gives her the original manuscript that he was working off, not a final draft.
Makes no sense, he was run down 2 minutes after she read it.
We know the beginning of the book was rewritten as he didn't like it. Almost certainly, the clue is not in the published version of the book. Ruth was shocked to read the note and is delivering her speech so is unlikely to be complicit in the murder of the Ghostwriter. The ending suggests that Ruth, too, is little more than a pawn in the whole conspiracy.