Best movie questions of 2011

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Hugo picture

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?

Luka Keats

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.

Neil Jones

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Source Code picture

Question: Why does the train where the action takes place have the locomotive as the last car? When two trains pass each other at one moment, the others locomotive is at the beginning.

Billcow

Chosen answer: Trains that shuttle back and forth on shorter stretches don't usually turn around at the terminus. They simply go "backwards". So, in one direction the loco is in the front, on the way back it's at the end of the train.

Ioreth

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Mr. Popper's Penguins picture

Question: Why are there no baby penguins in the scene where they go to the zoo and escape?

Answer: Zoos in places without lots of natural arctic temperatures are probably not equipped well enough to care for the acute needs that baby penguins would require.

Quantom X

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Sanctum picture

Question: On their helmets were two torches (flashlights). The bigger light had two options, an LED cluster and a standard bulb. Wouldn't the battery have lasted longer if they chose the LED option?

Rayza

Chosen answer: Being someone who uses the PETZL Duo headtorch (the light used in this movie) I can say that yes, the LED option lasts MUCH longer than the standard bulb.

Braddles

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Answer: Rosery Road.

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Bernie picture

Question: Bernie made a full confession of murdering Mrs. Nugent to the police. In the event of full confessions, the cases go before a judge only for conviction and sentencing. So why did Bernie have to go before a jury trial?

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: Confessing to a crime is not the same as pleading guilty in court. The DA had charged Bernie with premeditated murder (1st degree murder), but still had to prove in court it was premeditated, Bernie only confessed to killing her.

Bishop73

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Cowboys & Aliens picture

Question: Colonel Dolarhyde mentions about having participated in the Battle of Antietam and losing men in the Cornfield. Did he fight for the Union or the Confederacy?

Answer: I was unable to find any reference about which side Dollarhyde fought for in the Civil War. It may have been deliberately left ambiguous to make his political alliances more neutral, and instead, focus on his personal character and how it evolves during the film.

raywest

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Jumping the Broom picture

Question: When Jason's mom arrived what did the sign say?

Answer: If you're talking about the sign the driver was holding, it's just says "Mrs. Taylor", which is her last name.

Bishop73

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The Three Musketeers picture

Question: I haven't read the novel - is their servant British in the book (if his character appears in the book at all)? It seemed like an odd choice given that they are warring with England, but perhaps it was just a good accent for the comic relief?

Answer: The servant is definitely French in Alexander Dumas' novel.

raywest

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Zookeeper picture

Question: What exactly did Shane do to Bernie?

Answer: If you're talking about in the past, he actually didn't do anything. Shane was going to tease/hurt Bernie with the stick, but Bernie grabbed it. Shane then lied to the zoo about Bernie attacking him which led to Bernie being moved. Although prior to Griffin kicking Shane's ass, Shane ended up cutting Bernie in the face.

Bishop73

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The Muppets picture

Question: What did Richman hate about the Muppets?

Answer: He was a greedy man who wanted to drill underneath the Muppet Theater for oil. He was Ebenezer Scrooge.

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Hop (2011)

Hop picture

Question: How were the Pink Berets able to track the easter bunny's son?

Answer: Phone.

Answer: When they say James (his real name) instead of Fred.

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Kung Fu Panda 2 picture

Question: How could Shen know that Po would be the baby panda from the village attacked by Shen's army?

Bunch Son

Answer: Since Po's father was presumably the only panda to attack Shen's wolves head-on, there's a chance Shen could have seen him. Plus in the flashback, Shen orders his wolves to attack Po and his mother before Po's father defends them both with his mallet.

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Green Lantern picture

Question: In a post-credit scene, it shows Sinestro taking off his green ring and replacing it with a yellow one. What was the reason for it?

Answer: In the comics Sinestro founded and led the Sinestro Corps, a group similar to the Green Lanterns, but they use the yellow part of the emotional spectrum: fear, rather the the green energy of willpower.

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X-Men: First Class picture

Question: Why is Charles okay with Mystique joining Magneto's side? They're supposed to be brother and sister but he doesn't even attempt to talk her out of it.

THGhost

Chosen answer: He's not okay with it, but he knows that Erik's views appeal strongly to her. To all intents and purposes, she's already made her decision - to try to stop her would likely only lead to an argument, which is not how he'd want them to part. Plus there is the somewhat major side issue that Charles has just been shot, so it's not really the right time for a discussion on conflicting mutant philosophies.

Tailkinker

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Chosen answer: A couple of techniques were used. In most cases, Evans would film the scene normally, then the effects team would digitally shrink his character down to the smaller size. This would generally require some on-set adjustment to allow for eyelines - in some cases Evans would be physically lower than other actors, in others, they would look at his upper chest while he looked over their heads. In a few cases, actor Leander Deeny, who possessed the necessary scrawny physique, would film the scene, collaborating closely with Evans to ensure that the character's mannerisms remained the same. Deeny's features would then be digitally replaced with those of Chris Evans. Deeny appears briefly in the movie as the bartender in the pub Rogers visits to recruit his team.

Tailkinker

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Cars 2 picture

Question: How do the lemons discover Leland Turbo?

Answer: They heard him recording the message to Finn and found his words suspicious.

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Answer: Angie was not a character in the first Diary of A Wimpy Kid book and was made specifically for the first movie, as told in the audio commentary of DoAWK. Chances are fans disliked the character.

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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance picture

Question: Was it the decision of the directors to have Ghost Rider killing people rather than using the Penance Stare like in the first movie. I found it odd that Johnny stated that the Ghost Rider would go after anybody such as people who tell little white lies.

Answer: The entire film was designed to have a different tone and feel from the first film, to be accessible to viewers who never saw the original. Thus this film exists as something of a soft reboot. In interviews the directors also stated the origin story for Ghost Rider never made sense to them and they wished to change aspects of the character for this film. That includes removing the Penance Stare and making Ghost Rider have an uncontrollable desire to feed on the wrong people have committed, even things like little white lies could set him off.

BaconIsMyBFF

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In Time picture

Question: We see in the movie that the time is like money but where is the "time" generated?

Ddiods

Chosen answer: When they turn 25, their built-in clock starts counting down from 1 year. Since time is the currency, they must then work and contribute to the economy, in order to earn time and survive. The government gives that one year of time to each person, as both a population control measure (if they don't work and earn, they'll die) and an economic incentive.

David R Turner

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