Question: Scott Lang managed to go subatomic and survive - is it possible that the wasp (a.k.a. Janet Pym) survived when she went subatomic?
Jon Sandys
7th Jan 2016
Ant-Man (2015)
7th Jan 2016
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: Why doesn't the movie acknowledge the actress change for Rachel? I mean everyone who watched Batman Begins will be clueless if they didn't know that Katie Holmes chose not to reprise her role. But the movie never explains this and are people just supposed to go along with it?
Chosen answer: Actors are often changed between movies, occasionally with acknowledgment, more often not. James Bond immediately comes to mind, Jennifer in Back to the Future, Bruce Banner and Rhodey in the Marvel films, Clarice Starling in the Silence of the Lambs/Hannibal...the list goes on. The recasting of Evelyn in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor got a passing nod to the audience (actually, as did the first recasting of Bond), but most of the time audiences are just expected to accept the change and move on.
Answer: I'm really not sure how you think a movie can address an actor being replaced. Unless it's something like Deadpool or Wayne's World, where characters speak directly to the audience, there's no real practical way for a movie to openly acknowledge that one of its characters is being played by someone new.
16th Nov 2015
The Terminator (1984)
Question: I've always wondered this even as a kid. I never read any of the novels associated with the movies so it might have been addressed there. If a computer system became self aware and a computer system is what launched all the nukes, then what created the first Terminator? I get how they're all made on an assembly line but someone or something had to make the machines and equipment that makes the Terminators.
Chosen answer: Skynet being an artificial intelligence, it could take control of existing machines to repurpose them. It doesn't become self aware until 1997, by which point robotic technology would be much more advanced than in 1984 (and it had already been somewhat self-reliant before that point, so presumably a degree of military fabrication was already set up to be controlled automatically). With its vastly accelerated rate of development and intelligence, it could use existing factories to create basic machines, use those to retool and create more complicated machines, etc. From what Kyle says the ultra-realistic Terminator model we see here is a relatively new development (he comes from 2029) so Skynet has had about 30 years to set up a series of self-improving machines and its own murderous infrastructure.
16th Nov 2015
Friends (1994)
Question: In this episode, Chandler and Monica go on a small trip together. They have a fight because Chandler is too obsessed with watching a car-chase on TV and Monica keeps switching rooms. When they come home, they have a conversation in Monica's apartment where Chandler says "I guess it's over now", to which Monica replies "Why, exactly?" Chandler says " Cause we had a fight" and Monica's respond is "That's silly. If you were going to give up every time you had a fight with someone, you'd never be with anyone longer than...OH!" They both seem to realize something here. What is it??
Chosen answer: They both realise that one of the reasons Chandler hasn't had a long term relationship is because he assumes a fight means the end of things (together with his generally rocky attitude towards relationships!). Monica never realised that's how he thought, and Chandler never realised that was wrong.
Answer: Is that the entire answer? The way Monica responds makes it sound like she's finally understanding an incident that occurred many episodes or seasons before. Like they expect the audience to realise it's the punchline to a joke long-ago uttered.
9th Oct 2015
Family Guy (1999)
Business Guy - S8-E9
Question: In the episode, Peter threatens to fire Lois, and she responds with "you wouldn't" and Peter then replies with "Oh really, does the name Lacey Chabert mean anything to you?" which in turn makes Lois go wide eyed and reply with "OK, I'll behave" and Peter then goes on to add "Yes you will" Can anyone explain this joke if it is a joke to comprehend?
Answer: Lacey Chabert was the actress who originally voiced Meg in early episodes. She left of her own accord due to being in school and other acting work; Seth MacFarlane has stated there was no tension with her leaving, but it makes for a handy joke for the show.
3rd Dec 2014
General questions
What movie features a scene where a baby's pram is witnessed rolling away downhill (possibly down steps)?
Answer: Most famously probably The Untouchables, although that took its cue from a sequence in the silent movie Battleship Potemkin, which has been referenced in several movies since.
3rd Dec 2014
General questions
There's a movie I watched half way through. I never got the title. It had two gentlemen, young and old. The young man knocks on the old man's door, which is opened. He is having an affair with the old man's wife and in love. The whole movie it was just the two of them in the house. Please help what's the title, I want to look for it and see what happens at the end?
Answer: This sounds exactly like "Sleuth". There have been two versions - one in 1972 with Michael Caine as the young man and Laurence Olivier as the older one. The 2007 version featured Michael Caine as the older man and Jude Law as the younger one.
29th Oct 2014
General questions
There was a movie that starred Tim Daly and Sean Young. The movie was about Tim Daly convicted of a crime and he is sentenced to be executed. His execution would be televised around the world. Sean Young portrays an attorney who finds holes in the case and tries to prove Tim innocent.
Answer: The IMDb says they both starred in Witness to the Execution: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111737/.
16th Sep 2014
The Legend of Zelda (1989)
The Ringer - S1-E1
Question: Once Zelda and Link confront Ganon on the road, he summons more skeletons up and they surround Link and Zelda. 7 Skeletons against Link and Zelda. So what's Link's plan of action? He takes off his belt and wraps it around himself and Zelda, strapping them together back to back to fight the 7 skeletons. This to me seems like it would just hinder their mobility. So my question is what is the really point of Link strapping himself to Zelda like that while surrounded? does it actually make sense to do that?
Chosen answer: It'll be to ensure that they're always facing directly away from each other, 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, meaning between the two of them they've pretty much got 360 degree coverage. Otherwise there's a chance they might end up at say 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock, leaving themselves exposed from another direction.
20th Aug 2014
Friends (1994)
Question: I, and some other people, remember an episode in which Monica's obsessive-compulsive tendencies have so annoyed her employees in the restaurant that they lock her in a refrigerator. Some other people do not remember this, and my best efforts looking through plot summaries have not turned it up. Searching with Google on Monica and refrigerator has not helped. So does someone know where it is, or approximately where it is? Thank you.
Chosen answer: This is season 4, episode 10, "The One With The Girl From Poughkeepsie". Everyone who works under Monica hates her after she got their old boss' job in an earlier episode. She hires Joey just so she can fire him to bring the others in line, but he's enjoying the money so doesn't play along. At one point they lock her in the walk-in freezer, where she gets covered in marinara sauce. This makes her so upset that Joey relents and lets her fire him.
6th Nov 2008
Mary Poppins (1964)
Question: How did they film the shot with the different colour medicines coming out of the same bottle?
Answer: Most likely a variation on the "inexhaustible bottle" magic trick which has existed in various forms for hundreds of years - it relies on different chambers holding different liquids, and air holes in the bottle being covered or not change the pressure and allow the desired liquid to flow out. As the scene is one continuous shot with the entire bottle visible, this seems most likely - the air holes could be on the side away from the camera, with Julie Andrews repositioning her thumb for each colour. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inexhaustible_bottle.
2nd Apr 2004
Rock Star (2001)
Question: Did Mark Wahlberg do all his own singing?
Chosen answer: Wahlberg's songs were sung by Miljenko Matijevic, lead singer of "Steelheart".
21st Jan 2014
Back to the Future (1985)
Question: If Marty goes back to the future and sees a duplicate of himself go back to the past, would the duplicate see the Marty that had just got back to the future watch him (the duplicate that goes to the past), thus 3 Deloreans and infinitely more Deloreans as it continues...and so on and so forth, or is that the the universe rewriting his timeline to prevent this time loop of paradoxical events?
Chosen answer: There wouldn't be infinitely more Deloreans, as versions of Marty would keep having to leave in order to appear at a different point in the timeline to watch himself. There's no real limit on how many there could be at once though - at one point on November 12th 1955 there are four Deloreans in Hill Valley at the same time (brought there by Marty from the first film, Marty from the second film, Biff from the second film, and the one Doc buried from 1885). They're all the same car, just travelling from different points in time.
29th Dec 2013
General questions
Trying to find a movie. I saw just bits of it on STARS years ago (pre 2001). The part I remember was a girl with blonde hair walking up to someone in the dark in the desert or outback or something. She's naked and she stops and pees right there in front of the person. It's driving me crazy that I can't remember the name.
Answer: Fairly sure this scene is from "Holy Smoke", featuring Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144715/.
26th Dec 2013
General questions
I am trying to find a movie set in early Russia during the famine. Bad guys break in and kill parents, but while robbing they are starving. The bad guys end up killing the younger brother and eating him. The older brother later hunts each of them and kills them. Which movie is this?
Answer: Sounds a lot like Hannibal Rising, about a young Hannibal Lector (his younger sister gets killed and eaten).
20th Oct 2013
Men in Black 3 (2012)
Question: Why is the place they find Grif called "The Factory"?
Chosen answer: It was what Andy Warhol called his studio. Musician John Cale explained: "It wasn't called the Factory for nothing. It was where the assembly line for the silkscreens happened. While one person was making a silkscreen, somebody else would be filming a screen test. Every day something new."
6th Aug 2013
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Question: How is Kyle Reese younger than John Connor in this movie? I thought Reese was Connor's father.
Chosen answer: It's explained in the original "The Terminator" - Kyle Reese volunteers to be sent back to the 80s to protect John's mother Sarah, before John is born. They get romantically involved and he fathers John in that time period.
17th May 2013
General questions
Please help. This movie was made around 1995-2001. Can't remember a lot of details. There was an old house and boy and a girl lived there. At the end of the movie we realize that they were possessed by spirits of two lovers, who died a long time ago. I also remember that the name of the boy is important, at the end of the movie he asks the protagonist to say his name aloud, and when he does, the boy dies.
Chosen answer: This is an adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw", a horror story written by Henry James. There have been several made over the years, listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw#In_popular_culture.
11th Jun 2013
General questions
When people point out a movie mistake, a lot of the time it is answered as a "character mistake" and not a "movie mistake?" What difference does it make? The scene was written for the movie and filmed. The mistake was not noticed during filming or when editing, the mistake was not noticed and they could have used another footage without the mistake. So how can the producer/director/editor leaving a mistake in post production considered a "character mistake" and not a movie mistake?" This question was answered earlier but the answer still makes no sense to me.
Chosen answer: It's a slight matter of judgment, but broadly speaking "character mistakes" are the sort of mistakes people make in real life - getting a historical date or other factual information wrong, or a mis-spelling on a sign, things like that. As such they could be a sign of bad filmmaking, or just a believable slip that someone could easily make in real life. So it makes sense to have a section for these sort of "behavioural mistakes" different to "factual errors" which are definitely filmmaking/research mistakes, such as wreckage burning in space, or it apparently being daylight everywhere in the world at the same time (both from Armageddon).
15th May 2013
Avatar (2009)
Question: There is a scene where Parker is telling Grace that the piece of ore he is holding, called "unobtainium", is why they are on Pandora. This same ore was used in the 2003 movie, "The Core", to build the manned drilling machine to bore through Earth, to the core. Was the use of the same ore name in Avatar, done with permission from the earlier movie? Or was it a mistake?
Chosen answer: The Core didn't originate the name - it's been used since the 50's and even has its own Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium. There it's described as "any fictional, extremely rare, costly, or impossible material, or (less commonly) device needed to fulfill a given design for a given application."
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Chosen answer: Almost certainly - given comments about that area being separate from normal time and space (coupled with the photo of her and Michael Douglas when young only showing her with her face covered, ie. Without a specific actress cast), it does hint strongly that she'll be rescued at some point, most likely having not aged a day.
Jon Sandys ★