Question: Can inverting a plane completely upside down and then turning it 180 degrees truly keep it from going down in a sharp nosedive and "gliding" to safety? Seems rather far-fetched but made for a very interesting exciting movie focal point.
Jon Sandys
6th Nov 2012
Flight (2012)
25th Jan 2011
Shutter Island (2010)
Question: Is he actually sane at the end? I ask this because it looks like he makes them think he is insane so they will give him a lobotomy, and in that way he could forget about killing his kids indirectly.
Chosen answer: I think it's meant to be ambiguous, as nothing's explicitly stated either way. My take was the same as yours, namely that he'd rather die as a good man than live as a monster, to reference the line he says, but him still being actually insane also fits.
17th Aug 2008
Hancock (2008)
Question: Who are "them" or "they"? When Mary explains to Hancock all the times in history they have been attacked she always says "And we were attacked by them" or "When they came". Why were they being attacked? Could it have anything to do with the fact that at the time they would have been a couple in history where interacial relationships would have been frowned upon, or were they being attacked by some higher power entity?
Answer: The implication is that people like the bad guy in this movie always seek out and target higher power beings like them, so eventually someone will always come after them.
10th Nov 2007
General questions
I'm looking for a movie that isn't too old or too new. It starts off with a couple and another man(there may be more people) who eventually become shipwrecked and then those 3 end up on the island. The husband is injured and the the wife and the other man soon become closer. There is nudity in this movie. I'm sorry but I don't remember the ending.
Answer: Sounds like Swept Away, starring Madonna.
Answer: It could be Survival Island (2005). A wife and crewman fall overboard and end up on a deserted island. They become lovers, then the husband shows up. It's an erotic thriller.
18th Nov 2006
Gremlins (1984)
Question: According to imdb.com Jerry Goldsmith composed the music for the film. But I ran across a copy of the soundtrack which names Danny Elfman as the composer. I have also seen him credited for the music in both "Gremlins" films on several occasions, both on TV and online. Why is Elfman getting credit if Goldsmith composed the music?
Answer: It's hard to get a definite answer to this, as I've found conflicting answers online. However, by 1984 Danny Elfman hadn't done much composing, with his musical work largely restricted to songs as part of his band. As such I'd think it was unlikely he composed the Gremlins score. No music from the Gremlins films are on either of his compilation CDs either. The closest thing to a reason I can find for the mis-crediting is that on the Gremlins 2 DVD one of the deleted scenes apparently has some music from "Beetljuice" (which Elfman scored) used over it, which may have led to the confusion.
Goldsmith also had a cameo in the film (as did Steven Spielberg) as the man at the phone, while Spielberg rolls around on some sort of bicycle-type vehicle.
Answer: I purchased the Gremlins theme on my iPhone, listed under Danny Elfman, and it's the original theme. I'm guessing Danny bought the rights.
Any Gremlin theme song you bought with Elfman's name attached was mislabeled. He didn't buy the rights to any of the songs Goldsmith created.
3rd Jun 2006
X-Men 3 (2006)
Question: At the very end of the movie, before the credits, with Magneto playing chess, did he manage to move or knock over the chess piece?It cut to black too quickly for me to see. Were they trying to show that the cure was not permanent?
Chosen answer: The piece did move, very very slightly. I'd argue that the cure is generally permanent, but perhaps with someone of Magneto's power the X gene can't be permanently suppressed, and will slowly regenerate itself through his body, gradually restoring him to full strength.
3rd Aug 2005
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Question: What are some of the plot points that are covered between Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions within the "Enter the Matrix" video game?
Chosen answer: The game covers the retrieval from a post office of the information about the sentinels digging (information we see dropped at a post box in the Animatrix), the escape from the ambush at the start (ie. what's happening inside while Neo fights the agents), Ghost and Niobe getting into the matrix and ending up in a car behind Morpheus, further exploration of the mansion the Keymaker's held in (including more details on the type of program Persephone kills, ie. vampire-like), the destruction of the power plant, and Niobe's arrival at the end in her ship. In terms of specific plot, from memory there's nothing particularly significant - the game fleshes out minor events not seen in the film, but there's no particularly new information.
6th Jul 2005
General questions
What was the first movie to be release on DVD?
Answer: Twister.
1st Jun 2005
General questions
What is the longest running film ever made?
Chosen answer: It's a film called "The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World", and clocks in at a mighty 48 hours. http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0342707.
30th May 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: Is Padme's line "This is how democracy dies" or "This is how liberty dies"? I've seen both in news reports and on Google. I saw the movie on the 27th of May and it was definitely liberty, but my friends say that on opening night, it was democracy. The scripts I've found online say liberty, but some news articles say democracy.
20th May 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: Obviously there's some background on the Sith Lords that isn't explained in the movie. There is the implication that they ruled before the Republic was established. Is there more to this backstory?
Chosen answer: The best place for this is the official Star Wars Databank: http://www.starwars.com/databank/organization/thesith/index.html. There's also a lot of information in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sith.
1st Apr 2005
General questions
I always assumed that the widescreen versions of films were the entire viewing area, and the fullscreen versions had part of the viewing area cut off from the sides so that it would fill the television screen. However, I recently noticed a couple of movies whose fullscreen versions had *more* to see on the top and bottom, meaning that the widescreen versions had part of the top and bottom cut off. Why on earth would they cut portions of the top and bottom off of the viewing area, when it is completely unnecessary to do so?
Chosen answer: A frame of film is square, rather than rectangular, so there are two options to get a widescreen picture. If an anamorphic lens is used, then the entire frame is used to capture a slightly horizontally squashed image, then in projection the entire frame is stretched out into widescreen. The other route taken is to block off the top and bottom of the frame, resulting in the correct rectangular shape. In projection a metal plate is used to only display this rectangular area. Because only the central region is meant to be shown, filmmakers will very often put boom mikes or other things just outside of that area - after all, otherwise a microphone will have to be further away from the actors just to avoid an unused area of film anyway. However, if a fullscreen (4:3 ratio) version is created by including these top and bottom sections rather than cropping the sides (possibly because both edges of the screen have to be seen in that shot, otherwise something important will be cropped), some things will be seen which were never meant to be. A good example is seen in the fullscreen version of "The Matrix" - when Neo receives the mobile phone near the start, you can see a crew member's hand in shot at the bottom of the screen. This is also the reason some people think a boom mike is accidentally in shot for the entirety of a movie when they see it in a theatre. If the projectionist hasn't positioned the metal plate properly, the bottom of the correct area is cut off, and too much of the top is shown, frequently exposing the microphone. So ultimately the top and bottom can only be used when they don't contain film-making equipment, and even then the framing of the shot may look odd, as the film was never shot with those parts of the screen in mind.
5th Feb 2005
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
Question: Why does the USAF pronounce the word 'lieutenant' as 'loo-tenant' whilst the RAF and RAAF pronounce it 'lef-tenant'? I realise there are different spellings between countries (aluminium and aluminum, for example) but the word lieutenant is spelled identically in the US and UK, yet still pronounced differently. What's the specific reason for the different pronunciation of this word?
Answer: No-one seems 100% sure. The closest we can get seems to be that the spelling and pronunciation evolved differently - the current spelling comes from the French - lieu tenant = place holder, ie. someone who acts in place of an absent superior. The pronunciation appears to have derived from English ears hearing the "w" sound in the French pronunciation as something closer to a V or F (certainly possible if older French pronunciation was anything like, say, modern German, where words such as "wunderbar" are pronounced "vunderbar"). This site (http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OLD-ENGLISH/2000-11/0973487763) quotes some examples from the 12th century onwards of English spelling, with the first syllable varying between "luff", "lieve", and "Leif". The French spelling seems to have eventually become the standard, but the mis-pronunciation remained, possibly as it was so widely used already. When America declared independence they made an effort to shed many effects of English influence (such as gradually switching to driving on the right). Noah Webster (of dictionary fame) encouraged the independent development of American English, and came up with the American Spelling Book, which pushed spellings and pronunciations in the US rapidly towards their current forms, including the more literal pronunciation of the word "lieutenant".
11th Jan 2005
General questions
In many films, I have read, (and actually seen in the films) that an actor/actress onscreen mouths the words another actor is saying. It happens in Home alone 1, one of the Harry Potter films and in the latest Bond film. Why does this happen?
Chosen answer: I can't give a definite answer, but all I can think is that they've rehearsed the scene so often that they know other people's lines (possibly leading up to their own cue), so mouth along with them without even realising it, and no-one else notices. Kind of like during the filming of the Phantom Menace - Ewan McGregor was making lightsaber noises during the fights and wasn't even aware he was doing it until someone pointed it out to him!
24th Jul 2004
The Matrix (1999)
Question: Might be a classical one, but I'm still clueless :) The story includes the imprisonment of humans because of the energy they produce. It's clear though that the human body cannot give back more energy that it requires to stay alive. Employing humans for that matter is simply a waste of energy. Maybe the humans there have this as an "urban legend" and the machines keep humans in this form for some other reason?
Answer: Remember Morpheus mentions a type of fusion as well, which nicely blurs any power analysis we can do based just on body energy. The theory I've heard and quite like is that while power considerations are part of the reason, connecting billions of human brains together would also make for a hugely powerful parallel processing system, capable of all the computing power the machines need for both running the matrix and their own needs.
30th May 2004
The Mummy (1999)
Question: Why do they place a curse on Imhotep which makes his mummy evil? What would the Egyptians benefit from this?
Answer: It's ultimately a bit stupid, but a side-effect of the horrible punishment they've inflicted on him, making him suffer for so long, is that if ever he's resurrected he'll have powers and be immortal, which is why people are set to make sure he's never awakened. Just killing him would make more sense, but since when does anyone major die easily in films?
Answer: Imhotep was already evil. As for the curse, like Judas it was a living death, even though his body died, his spirit wouldn't enter Heaven or Hell, but remain in limbo. Like a vampire, he was resurrected with supernatural powers.Unbound and all powerful.
24th Apr 2004
Friends (1994)
Question: Please tell me if this true: out of all six, is it only Joey and Monica who have not kissed each other?
Answer: No, Phoebe and Monica have not kissed each other either. Ross and Monica kissed in college (we find out in series 10) - she was asleep on a bed and Ross thought it was Rachel covered by coats. Ross and Chandler may have kissed - in "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Remember Which Sister", it's implied he drunkenly kissed Monica, Rachel, and Ross, but Ross may just be joking.
Actually phoebe and Monica did for a brief moment in the London episodes. At the beginning the leave the apartment and for some reason all the girls kiss on the lips.
24th Mar 2004
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Question: What style of black leather jacket does Ethan Hunt wear just before the chase scene near the end of the movie, I've been looking for ages trying to find something similar?
Answer: The costume designer was Lizzy Gardiner, who can be contacted through Sandra Marsh Management (smarshmgmt@earthlink.net). The IMDb is the best place for questions like this.
20th Apr 2004
Angel (1999)
Question: I'm sure I've seen the actor who plays Nox before. Is he the same guy who played the Vampire that Buffy encounters in Conversations With Dead People in Season 7 of BtVS?
Chosen answer: Yes - Jonathan Woodward (http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0940950/).
14th Apr 2004
Swimming Pool (2003)
Question: Could someone please explain the end to me? Why was Julie a different person at the end when she was in her father's office?
Chosen answer: Julie was not the publisher's daughter. Julia, who we see at the end, is the real daughter - given that Sarah doesn't seem very surprised to see Julia at the end (and the reaction of the secretary proves she's known to everyone), the most likely explanation is that the entire sequence in France is in fact the content of Sarah's book, and never really happened.
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Chosen answer: Popular mechanics wrote an article covering this. In short, inverting a passenger jet is certainly doable, but the specific chain of events seen in the film are more of a stretch. Possible, but...challenging, to say the least!
Jon Sandys ★