Question: This has always confused me. In the scene with the guards, which one always lies and the other always speaks the truth, Sarah asks which door leads to the castle gate then she figures out the riddle and chooses a door. However, the door she chooses, the supposedly correct choice, doesn't lead her to the entrance instead it's a trap. So did she choose the wrong door, or just the wrong direction for the hands to take her?
Answer: She did choose the right door...if she had chosen up, she would have very likely come out at the castle, but she chose down.
If you pay attention down was also the correct answer. The Goblin king was angry when he discovered she was down there "She never should have made it this far" or something similar upon finding this out. Had she chosen up she would have ended up back at the beginning.
Answer: Sarah did indeed select the right door and did ask a sensible, albeit confusing question. The reason she fell into the oubliette (and the helping hands) is because as she walked through the door she said "I think I'm getting smarter. This is a piece of cake" - saying "piece of cake" within the Labyrinth to say how easy something is brings bad luck upon those who say it. Sarah said it to Jareth and he upped the stakes (reducing her time). Hoggle said it later (in Goblin City) and then they got surrounded by Goblins.
Question: Can anyone tell me the significance of Jareth's necklace? Throughout the movie it is silver with a gold center circle. But in his last scene with Sarah after the Escher room, it is reversed- now gold with a silver center circle.
Answer: The necklace is a symbol of Jareth's power throughout the story. All the time that Sarah is in the Labyrinth, Jareth has more power than her, because she doesn't really know what she's doing, and isn't taking one particular path, just getting lucky at the right times. At the end, as we all know, Sarah triumphs, and Jareth's necklace changes to admit his defeat.
Question: Are the events real or imagined?
Question: Can anyone explain the riddle the two guards tell Sarah (before she falls down into the helping hands). I know there's a certain question you can ask and the answer helps you figure out which door it is. can anyone help?
Answer: It is the same as multiplying. Two positives or two negatives make a positive and a mixture of positive Lets say right door and negative left door will always return a negative answer. To simplify further lets call the one door -X and the other door +X. -X (X) = -X So when done this way the answer you get back is always the negative. Then to switch polarity you just multiply by -1. Or for the more vocal learners out there the friend (+) of my friend (+) is my friend (+). The friend (+) of my enemy (-) is my enemy (-) and lastly the enemy (-) of my enemy (-) is my friend (+) or to explain with the doors The Liar and The truth Teller Produce/tell a lie when you have one answer for the other (multiply thier values). So you know the answer is the polar opposite or inverse value.
Answer: One Guard always lies, and one always tells the truth. This is absolute. So when Sarah asks Guard A to tell her what Guard B would say, she knows it will be a lie, no matter what. If Guard A were the liar, he would have to lie about what Guard B would have said. Since Guard B would have told the truth, Guard A would then have to tell the lie to Sarah. However, if Guard B were the liar, he would obviously have lied. However, Guard A would then have to answer the question truthfully which would be the lie from Guard B. Hence, no matter which guard is the liar and which guard is the truth-teller, the answer that Sarah gets would have one and exactly one lie in the answer. Knowing this, Sarah takes the other road.
Answer: I still don't understand how Sarah's logic isn't incredibly flawed. Both guards can say yes or no depending where the right door is and I don't understand how she reached a decision with this in mind.
She figures out that the red guard is the truth teller because the blue guard saying the door behind Red leads to the castle truthfully is impossible since if that's true that would mean Red is lying but said the truth. So, Blue saying the door behind Red is to the castle has to be a lie, so that's the liar and the door behind Blue is to the castle. Basically she asks Red if Blue is the liar, and he said yes, which can only be the truth because a no would mean he is the liar but tells the truth about that. He can't answer no. In both cases (either the liar or the truth teller) the Yes means that the door behind Red is not to the castle.
In no way does Sarah figure out which guard is the truth teller. She just forced the guard she spoke with to give her an answer that contains a lie. She didn't ask the guard which way she should go. She asked the guard what the other guard's answer would be. The liar would lie about what the truth teller would say, hence it would be a lie. And the truth teller would accurately report that the liar would lie, hence the answer would be a lie. Try it out with two of your friends. Have the two of them decide on one to tell the truth and one to lie, unless you change her question or one of them gets confused and answers incorrectly, the answer to your question would have to be a lie no matter who you spoke with.
No it's more specific than that. She asked one guard if the other guard would say if this door would lead to the castle. That's different than asking one guard if the other guard would answer with a lie.
I never said she asked if the other guard would answer with a lie. She asked a question that by its very structure has to be answered with a lie. She guaranteed that the answer would be a lie and then took the other door.
No, again, it's more complicated than that. I was wrong about one thing though, she doesn't know who is the truth teller and who the liar is but she asked a question in such a way that it doesn't matter. The question she asks is indirect, she asks it in a way that both the truthteller and the liar would give the same answer. The Yes being the truth means the other door is to the castle, the yes being a lie would also mean the other door is to the castle. It is true she doesn't find out of who the liar and who the truth teller is, she only figures out which door to pick. In her logic she does conclude that the Red one is the truthteller but in reality she doesn't know that. But she is not wrong about which door to pick.
Question: Why doesn't Sara just hold up 5 fingers when shes at the lie/truth gate and ask how many fingers shes holding up? It seems much more simple than her way.
Answer: Sarah was allowed only one question, and asking how many fingers she was holding up would determine which one lies, but use up her only question as to which door to take.
Answer: It would have to be changed to a yes or no question. Am I holding up 5 fingers? For starters. But I think they were more specific with their rules so that she couldn't ask such an easy question.
She could ask any easy question she wanted. But the other answer explained it already. Asking an easy question to determine who's lying or telling the truth wouldn't give her any information about which door they're standing in front of, and she only gets one question.
Question: Ballroom scene: time stop [01:09:15] Right before Sara breaks the glass with the chair. there is a blonde woman in a dress not wearing a mask visible. who is she? Also what is the significance of the Pirate character at timestop [01:08:36.] Outside of Jareth and Sara. this character gets a lot of camera time. including a focal point as the the camera does the 360 degree shot towards the end. Thanks.
Answer: I don't think either of the characters are significant. If they have more screen time than any other extra, it is just emphasising Sarah's confusion and the way she is trying to focus on individuals to try and make sense of what is happening. Or possibly, the director liked the look of the costume/make-up and gave them a prominent place in the scene.
Answer: The pirate is Brian Froud, himself appearing as a cameo.
Question: The ancient Aramaic or Minoan looking script on the shields of the four lying/truth-telling guards: does anyone know what it says or what language it is in?
Answer: What I have been able to decode is "one question. One answer. Tricks and challenge. And one says "lies" while the the other says "truth."
What did you use to decode it with? I have been over several pages of Khuzdul language and was only able to decipher what is written up there "Vzhklaiheaksh." That's the best I could figure it out.
Answer: It's Runes, but I'm not sure which, there a few alphabets.
Answer: Its Tolkien dwarvish, the Khuzdul language. But i'm guessing its just gibberish. What it says on the bottom left part of the left shield is "Vzhklaiheaksh." Which means nothing.
Try with theban runes. They are often mistaken for tolkiens.
Answer: It looks like Tolkien's Runic language. As to what it says, there are translators online that may help.
Question: What is the name of the song that plays over the opening credits?
Chosen answer: The song is called "Underground" by David Bowie. It is preceded by music listed on the soundtrack album simply as "Opening Titles."
Question: On the IMDB Trivia page, it says that little of Terry Jones' script was kept past the point where Sarah eats the peach. I have two questions concerning this: 1) Who wrote the rest of the film? and 2) Why was some of his material removed?
Answer: As with any film, there are often numerous rewrites of the script as the writing process progresses, and it's not at all uncommon for different writers to be brought in to tweak plot points, enhance dialogue and so forth as the script is honed towards the point where they have a finished product that they can shoot. Who ends up with the eventual credit is a highly complex and somewhat arcane process, involving judgement calls on who has contributed what towards the final script. As such, Jones' script being heavily rewritten after a certain point is nothing particularly unusual, but what amounts to standard practice in the movie industry - presumably it was felt that his script subsequent to that point lacked punch in some way, leading to another writer being brought in to revamp it. Other writers known to have worked on the script include screenwriter Elaine May, childrens author Dennis Lee and the film's director Jim Henson. There may well have been others.
Answer: To add to that, the other door was supposed to lead her to certain death, and technically the oubliette wasn't exactly certain death.