Matty Blast

Question: Why did Senator Organa want to wipe away C-3PO's memory? Was it to further ensure that Luke and Leia's existence would be kept a secret?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: I would say it was mostly done to fill a plot hole with the original Star Wars. If his memory wasn't erased then C3PO would have recognized Owen Lars and Aunt Beru in the original Star Wars. Plot-wise, I'm sure the justification is safety.

William Bergquist

Question: Why didn't Luke just stay in the cave and wait until the next morning to contact the Rebel base? Isn't the cave just as adequate a shelter as what Han dug for him?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: There's still a very large and annoyed Wampa in there, and there could easily be others in the depths of the cave. Running out into the cold may not be the most sensible move in the world, but it's reasonably understandable.

Tailkinker

Question: We learn that the Clone army was secretly being created, raised and trained on Kamino, without the Jedi's knowledge. What about all the Republican starships, cruisers and walkers we see at the end of the movie? Where were they built, and how did Sidious and Dooku manage to keep that a secret as well?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: The assault ship, gunships, walkers and tanks were built by Rothana Heavy Engineering (a subsidiary of Kuat Drive Yards) who were contracted to the Kamino cloners to secretly develop and build the war machines for the clone army. RHE had hidden shipyards over the planet Rothana, which is why the Republic was unaware of the project.

Sierra1

Question: In this movie we see a shot of a mechanical arm placing Darth Vader's helmet onto his head. But in ROTJ, removing Vader's helmet & mask made him die according to Luke. Is this because in ROTJ it was his helmet *and* his mask being removed, while in ESB it was just his helmet?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Removing the mask alone would not make Darth Vader die. He stil had breathing help built into his suit. Vader was already dying when Luke took his mask and helment off in ROTJ, due to injuries sustained by Luke and the Emperor's force lightning. Anakin (Vader) just wanted to see his son Luke with his own eyes, before he died.

Mark English

Chosen answer: Obi-Wan told luke how his father was more machine than man now, and Luke knew Vader had a life support system, so he concluded that he would die without his mask, especialy given the weak state he was in.

Piemanmoo

Answer: It's almost certainly known - through Rebel intelligence gathering if nothing else - that Vader's suit functions as a life support system and the various details that go along with that.

TonyPH

Question: Is it possible, or even probable, that Palpatine was somehow responsible for Shmi Skywalker's pregnancy? When talking about Darth Plagius who could create life it's implied that Palpatine was the apprentice and knows the power too.

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Plagueis taught Palpatine everything he knew, even his knowledge of midi-chlorian manipulation (though Palpatine could not master the skill) and roughly ten years before the events of The Phantom Menace, Palpatine and Plagueis attempted to create a super-being via midi-chlorian manipulation which inadvertently resulted in Anakin's conception (Plagueis theorised the conception was the Force "striking back" for their unnatural use of it) Thus inadvertently Palpatine is indeed responsible for Anakin's conception.

Darius Angel

Question: When some Jedi die, they disappear (Yoda, Obi-wan). When others die, they don't (Qui-gon, Vader). Why is that? I thought this phenomenon would be explained in this movie, but unless I missed something, no explanation was given.

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Powerful force users seem to have some degree of control over their bodies even after death. In the later series, Luke's wife Mara Jade Skywalker only allows her body to disappear when her killer, and nephew Jacen Solo arrives at her funeral as a clue. Thus it appears that a powerful force user can simply choose if they wish their body to disappear.

Darius Angel

Answer: Towards the end of the movie Yoda tells Obi Wan that Qui Gon has learned the path to imortality and offers to teach this to Obi Wan. In the Clone Wars TV series we see the journey Yoda takes to learn this power. The power to become one with the force is a power you have to learn as opposed to being achievable to all Jedi. Both yoda and Obi Wan has the years between ROTS and ANH/ESB to fine tune and master this power. It is possible that Darth Vader, having seen Obi Wan become one with the force, spent the following years after A New Hope, studying and learning this skill by himself, hence how he was able to appear as a force ghost towards the end of Return of the Jedi, but not quite skilled enough to dissapear on cue.

Question: Was the number 1138 hidden somewhere in the movie? If so, does anyone know where?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: One of the commanders of the clone army has 1138 as his uniform number.

shortdanzr

Question: In the Attack of the Clones DVD commentary, Lucas promised that in this third movie we would finally find out who Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas is, and how he managed to place the order for the clone army without the Council's authorization. I didn't notice any explanation at all - was there one given?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: There was no explanation in the film. An explanation appears in the (authorised) book called, I think, Labyrinth of Evil, which was released shortly before the film and deals with events leading up to the events of the film. To sum it up, Sifo-Dyas was a respected Jedi who had become disaffected with the policies of the Jedi Council. Encouraged by his colleague, Count Dooku (by then secretly studying the Sith arts), he placed the order for the clone army before being killed by Dooku to prevent anyone from finding out about it.

Tailkinker

Question: Just before Todd Anderson has his emotional breakdown about Neil's death, one of his friends grabs a handful of snow and shoves it at his mouth. Why did he do that? It makes no sense.

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: He is just trying to get something to help wash the taste of vomit out of Todd's mouth.

Macalou

14th Apr 2005

Bruce Almighty (2003)

Question: The address for Omni Presents is something like 77526 23rd St. Does anyone know if there's a hidden Biblical or religious reference in those numbers?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: It's 77256 23rd St. The #'s spell out "Psalm" on a phone number pad. So it's Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my Shepherd...".

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?

Matty Blast

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.

Jon Sandys

Question: I've always wondered if Mark, just before his final broadcast, told his parents the whole truth. It would seem that way because Mark tells his girlfriend his mom let him use the Jeep ("She kinda loaned it to me"). Also, his Dad was at the gathering in the school's athletic field, but there is no shot of him acting surprised or horrified when Mark pulls in to where the crowd is and gets arrested. So the question is: did Mark fess up to his parents? Or is it irrelevant/left for us to wonder?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Well, with no actual scene where he confesses, it's left up to us to wonder. Personally, I find it unlikely that he'd actually admit the whole thing to his parents, but they're not stupid and already had their suspicions, so the lack of any great surprise on his father's part isn't unreasonable. You also have to remember that Mark's voice changer had already broken before they drove down to the crowd - his father would have easily recognised his voice before his actual arrival, giving him a certain amount of time to get through the initial shock.

Tailkinker

15th Mar 2005

Miracle (2004)

Question: What would have been the tiebreaker in the medal round, if two teams ended up with the same amount of points?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Sudden-death overtime, in which the game ends when the first team scores.

7th Mar 2005

Sliders (1995)

Answer: The show's creator admitted that it was the wrong Arturo.

Chosen answer: It's left for us to wonder.

Chosen answer: Planets that don't actually have a specific name tend to be referred to by the name of the star which they orbit and a number indicating how far out they are - so the planet Tau Ceti IV would be the fourth planet out from the star Tau Ceti. Under this system, our planet could be referred to as Sol III, but as it has a given name, that is used instead.

Tailkinker

Parallels - S7-E11

Question: Even though Worf keeps jumping from parallel universe to parallel universe, he never encounters his double (i.e., the Worf from the universe he jumped into). At the end, when the Enterprise from Worf's final alternate universe contacts the "real" Enterprise, there's a Worf on the bridge with the "real" crew. Does this mean that every time Worf moved into a different reality, all the other Worfs shifted around as well?

Matty Blast

Answer: When Worf jumps to another dimension, whatever Worf is on that ship is immediately sent to the dimension that the original Worf comes from. As an example, when Prime Worf jumps to the dimension where he is married to Counselor Troi, the Worf from that dimension is immediately sent to Prime Worfs dimension. All of the other Worfs stay in their own dimension until Prime Worf is inadvertently sent to one of theirs. After Prime Worf leaves that dimension, the Worf that had been sent to Prime Enterprise would end up back in his own dimension. Not shunted to another one.

Chosen answer: Correct. When Worf jumps, the other Worfs jumped also. That is how the other Enterprise (the one with the same signature as the Worf the episode follows) knew what was going on.

Bruce Minnick

Question: What is the name of the female child Mecha that is inscribed on the boxes across from the boxes of Davids?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Darlene.

Question: Why is it that on some of the notes David wrote for Monica, he said he hated Teddy, but on others he said he loved him?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: These letters made an appearance in the short-story, "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," the story that the movie stems from. Both the movie David and literary David are struggling with the concept of reality. David realizes that Teddy is a 'robot', and thus perhaps less 'real' than living beings. David desperately wishes to be 'real' and Monica's 'real' son. Thus, despite his affections and attachments to Teddy, David sometimes distances himself from Teddy because his status as a 'robot' threatens David's own conceptions of his self. He 'hates' the parts of Teddy that are robotic, because he hates these in himself.

Chosen answer: He wants David to remember him, but he knows he is going to be destroyed, and so gets a bit poetical. "I am" as a message to David to remember Joe was a real person (kind of...) and "I was" because he knows they will never see each other again.

Twotall

Not quite. "I am" - A commentary on consciousness and what existance really means (or could mean) to a Mecha. "I was" - I am more than just "now". I have a past. I learned, I grew, I experienced. Joe is the philosopher of the film...a family-friendly version of Roy Batty in his final scene in Bladerunner - "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain" = "I was."

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