Question: At the end of the movie the town clock that was removed from the train station is shown stored in a basement just as the basement floods. The clock is seen to still be working, but how, given that there was no one there to wind it? As the clock was made during the first world war it would be mechanical, not battery powered.
Answer: It is symbolic, showing that time never stops. Everyone will be swept up by the tsunami eventually. No force of nature can compare to time itself. Nothing at all.
Question: How could Eleanor be related to Hugh Crain if all of Hugh's children died at birth?
Answer: Crain had two wives. All of his children from his first wife, Renee, died at birth and then Renee killed herself. Later we find out that Crain had a second wife, Carolyn, and they did have a child who survived. Carolyn is Eleanor's grandmother.
Answer: Nell learns she's the descendant of Hugh Crain's second wife (who ran away after learning of Crain's murderous nature).
Question: What was the deal with the mirrors? Are there spirits in the mirrors? Or can Violet (or whoever's body happens to be inhabited) see her "true self" in the mirror? When Caroline first spends the night, a figure, like Mama Cecile, can be seen in her little mirror. If the spirit is in the body (Violet's), why would it be wandering around? So, the mirrors expose their true identity, correct?
Question: Much ado is made near the start of the film about the kidnappers sending Elise's finger back to her family as a threat, but we learn later that she was never harmed. Did the film ever explain where the finger actually came from, or if it was even sent at all?
Answer: The finger is never shown, only mentioned. Since Elise looked to have all her fingers one must assume it was made up as part of the scheme to fool everyone.
Question: When Charlie first goes into the cave, he places Emily's music box on a plank of wood, and pushes it so that it floats along the small stream; why did he do that?
Answer: It is just to scare them. The music makes an eerie noise. and the music box was one of Emily's prized possessions. it would scare her to see it floating in the stream.
Question: Near the end of the movie, Edward Gracey says to Ramsley that the letter is written in Elizabeth's hand. If Mr. Gracey knew what Elizabeth's writing looks like, wouldn't he have realized that the fake letter Ramsley wrote was in fact fake and not from Elizabeth?
Chosen answer: Considering Ramsley's intelligence, he would have been able to make "couterfeit" handwriting.
Question: Why is Jennings drunk and worried about the situation? Is he just upset? I can't understand why the other maid said she would do anything he asked.
Answer: Jennings' drinking problem stems from his having been a World War I conscientious objector, for which he was imprisoned. He has kept this secret and is worried the police investigation will uncover his past and jeopardize his job. The maid, Dorothy, is secretly in love with Jennings and wants to protect him.
Question: There was a "Friday the 13th" TV series that ran from 1987-1990 and had about 70 episodes; does anybody know where I can see these episodes online?
Chosen answer: No, not all of them. The first three episodes are on Youtube. Direct TV new horror-movie channel - Chiller TV - is airing all the episodes currently, but you have to subscribe to the TV station (check out ChillerTV.com.) They are not officially on DVD, but are also sold on ebay. The series has no affiliation to the Friday The 13th Jason films.
Answer: The entire series is now on DVD. You can most likely find them on Amazon or a video store.
Question: Why does the Station Inspector chase children who are on their own and threaten to send them to an Orphanage? Is that what it was like in the 1930s?
Answer: He's not making it a point to chase down random children - he's like a security officer at an airport. It's his job to apprehend thieves and troublemakers and keep the station safe, and he only threatens to send children to the orphanage if they don't have parents for him to return them to. Also, it's implied once he finally apprehends Hugo that his particular harshness toward orphans (and most of his character flaws in general) is due to apparently having been one himself. He spells out the kinds of lessons he was forced to learn by growing up without a family, explaining how he became so cold, bitter, and antisocial.
Chosen answer: It is more than likely an early form of our modern day child protection. Just as today if children are found to be at risk, they can be and are taken away by social services and put into foster care. In the film, orphans may have been seen as a plague in an area that attracts posh looking people in stark contrast to urchins in rags eating out of bins. Most European orphanages/care homes/hospices/whatever you want to call them at that time were no better than anything depicted in Charles Dickens 50 years previously.
Question: Salt has been with the agency for a long time and has earned the trust of her colleagues, so when she is accused of being a spy, why would her superiors take the word of a defector over her?
Answer: They have to at least investigate that kind of an accusation, and when Salt so vigorously resists arrest it basically confirms, in their minds, that she is in fact a spy.
I actually kind of find it shocking that they would be willing to believe a guy who would do or say anything to save himself and since Salt was with the agency a long time, they could have at least given her the benefit of the doubt.
Question: After Margo was convicted, why did Tony move one of their beds into the living room?
Chosen answer: It's mostly so the audience can see more of Tony's underlying character. This is Margo's bed, and Tony wanted it separate from the bedroom that they shared as husband and wife. Tony is "emotionally divorcing" himself from Margo as he is about to start a new life as a single man. Leaving the bed in the bedroom would serve as a reminder of his guilt in framing his innocent wife for a murder she did not commit. The bed is likely parked there until he can get rid of it.
Question: The whole plot of this movie makes no sense. What was the purpose of having all the soldiers "brainwashed' when they just used one to carry out what they wanted? Plus, why go to the trouble of doing all this when they could have just hired an assassin? Plus, how did they know, in 1952, that this man would be chosen to be the Vice-President?
Answer: It's confusing. The entire platoon was brainwashed to be witnesses and verify the fabricated story that Raymond was a "war hero" who saved their lives. Raymond was unknowingly mentally programmed to become a sleeper agent to be used when needed by the Russians or Chinese. He was chosen because Raymond's monstrous mother, Eleanor Iselin, was married to a ruthless, ambitious "Joseph McCarthy-esque" U.S. Senator. She was propelling her husband into being their party's presidential candidate and contacted Communist agents to arrange for her husband's political rival to be assassinated. She was initially unaware that her son would be the chosen assassin. Raymond, being brainwashed, never realised he was a programmed assassin who would have no memory of executing his assignments. He apparently was recruited because of his step-father's political position. It is a rather incredulous plot, to say the least.
Question: Why did the Event Horizon choose to come back after seven years? In fact, why come back at all?
Chosen answer: The movie never explicitly says; but science is as yet unsure what happens to a given piece of matter once it crosses a black hole's event horizon, so who knows? The ship could have been thrown seven years forward in time, or far enough away that it took seven years for it to drift close to Neptune. Pick any explanation you like.
Question: When Arnold Schwarzenegger is in a solitary cell and pretending to go on a psychotic rant, he says in German, among other things, "I'll rip your eyes out!" Does anyone know what the exact German words he is saying are? I can only make out "augen raus!"
Chosen answer: He says "Ich reiss euch eure Augen raus!" The full text from when he starts speaking German is "Ich kann's nicht aushalten! Arrgh! Ich kann es nicht mehr aushalten! Ich kann nicht mehr! Helft mir. Hoert auf mich zu quaelen. Ich Kann Nicht Mehr!" At this point Stallone opens the tunnel and focus is back on Schwarzenegger. "Ich kann das nicht mehr aushalten! Ich halte die Hitze nicht mehr aus! Ihr bringt mich um! Helft mir! Hoert auf mich zu quaelen! Hoert auf mich zu quaelen! Ich sterbe! Ich kann nicht mehr!" Here camera malfunction is detected. "Mein Herz!" Short break while others are yelling. "Ich hoere euch. Ihr Schweine! Ich hoere euch! Ich bring' euch alle um! Ich reiss' euch eure Augen aus! Ich schneid' eure Eier ab und stopf' sie euch in den Arsch! Oh ja, da sind Sie, oh ja!" Lights are switched off. "Oh nein! Nein! Ich fürchte mich vor der Dunkelheit! Ich habe Angst!" Warden enters the box. "Oh Gott, bitte hilf mir!" Here he starts praying The Lord's Prayer. "Vater unser im Himmel, geheiligt werde dein Name, dein Reich komme, dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel, so auch auf Erden. Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute, und vergib uns unsere Schuld, wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern, und führe uns nicht in Versuchung, sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen." He starts yelling again. "Du bist der Böse! Du bist der Teufel!" Stallone climbing, then back to Schwarzenegger. "Habt ihr nicht von jenem tollen Menschen gehoert? Der am hellen Vormittag eine Laterne anzuendete und auf den Markt lief und unaufhoerlich schrie 'Ich suche Gott! Ich suche Gott!'" Translation is: "I can't endure it! Arrgh! I can't endure it any more! I can't endure it! Help me! Stop torturing me! I can't take it any more!" At this point Stallone opens the tunnel and focus is back on Schwarzenegger. " I can't take it any more! I can't bear the heat any more! You are killing me! Help me! Stop torturing me! Stop torturing me! I'm dying! I can't take it any more!" Here camera malfunction is detected. "My heart!" Short break while others are yelling. "I hear you. You pigs! I hear you! I'm going to kill you all! I'm going to rip out your eyes! I'm going to cut off your balls and shove them up your asses! Oh yes, there you are, oh yes!" Lights are switched off. "Oh no! No! I'm afraid of the dark! I'm afraid!" Warden enters the box. "Oh God, please help me!" Here he starts praying The Lord's Prayer. Then he starts yelling again and points at the warden. "You are the evil one! You are the devil!" Stallone climbing, then back to Schwarzenegger. "Didn't you hear of that great man? Who lit a lantern in the bright morning, went to the market place and yelled non stop 'I'm looking for God! I'm looking for God!' "
Question: What were the last lines of the movie?
Answer: Marshall's line was, "Why do you fight it so hard, Earl?" Earl Brook's was, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time and enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is and not as I would have it, trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will, that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen."
Answer: It is never explained what was on the page. It was just a cliffhanger to set up for a 3rd movie, I think.