Question: What happened to Belle's mother? And where are the beast's parents, the king and queen?
raywest
6th Jul 2005
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Answer: In the latest movie, it is explained that Belle's mother died from the plague.
And the Prince's mother died from some unknown reason.
3rd Aug 2006
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Question: After Andy left Runway, she got a job at the New York newspaper. But then she seemed to have made up with Nate, who is moving to Boston. Did she leave her job (again) to live with Nate?
29th Aug 2006
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Question: The singer that we see at the party looks to be male - facial features, dress - but has a very high voice. Is this a eunuch or just a person with a very high voice? Is it even possible for men to sing that high if they are not eunuchs?
Answer: He is probably a "castrato," a male soprano. Exceptionally talented choir boys were castrated before puberty to preserve their high voices. This pracitce lasted from the 16th century until the late 19th. The last castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1913. There are also some men who can naturally sing in this range, called countertenors.
4th Aug 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: When the Kraken attacks the ship near the end, several unnamed "extras" are manning the cannons, getting killed, etc. My question is where did all these sailors come from? All the unnamed sailors in Jack's original crew died on the cannibal island, and they picked up a maximum of four in Tortuga.
4th Aug 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: What is it that Jack Sparrow wants more than the Dead Mans Chest, the thing that his compass is pointing to?
4th Aug 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: Who was that weird guy in the wall that helps the group?
Answer: He is Wyvern, one of Davy Jones' crew. The longer one serves on Jones' ship, the more they are transformed into the ocean environment. This guy has served so long that he's become almost completely absorbed by the ship.
4th Aug 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: What happened to Norrington, how did he lose his title?
Answer: Norrington didn't lose his commission. He felt he disgraced himself by failing to capture Jack Sparrow and resigned from the Navy. Then he aimlessly wandered the Caribbean, sinking further and further into despair.
4th Aug 2006
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
4th Aug 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: Several times, people refer to something about the Black Pearl, that Jack Sparrow made some sort of deal with Davy Jones to raise it from the ocean floor. Am I right, or is there something I haven't picked up on?
Answer: Jack made a pact with Davy Jones to raise the Black Pearl from the ocean depths and to be her captain. Jack agreed that after 13 years, he would surrender himself to Davy Jones and serve on his crew for 100 years.
4th Aug 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: In the corrections page one supposed mistake was about Barbossa's monkey becoming cursed once again. Is it possible that the monkey somehow resurrected Barbossa? If not then how did Barbossa come back?
Answer: No explanation has been given yet as to how Barbossa was resurrected. However, since the monkey has been with the Black Pearl's crew, it seems unlikely it helped Barbossa. We only know that Tia Dalma has played some part in bringing him back. When Jack and the crew first visited Tia Dalma, there's a brief shot of the monkey running into the bedroom. A man's legs can be seen on the bed. Presumably this was the recuperating Barbossa.
13th Jun 2006
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Question: This actually may not be on the movie, but it's bothering me: If the Ministry knows exactly when Harry conjures the Patronos spell, how come they can't tell when Voldemort uses the Avada Kedavra curse, which is supposed to be much stronger?
Answer: Only underage witches and wizards are monitored for using magic outside Hogwarts, and Harry in particular has always been closely watched. Any use of magic by him would immediately be noticed. It's not until the end of HP and the Order of the Phoenix that the Ministry of Magic finally acknowledges that Voldemort has returned. Until then they were not searching for signs of him. Also, Voldemort has supporters working within the Ministry who could have hidden evidence of his presence.
11th May 2006
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)
Question: Do we know if Peyton's husband was really molesting his patients? I can't tell if he killed himself out of guilt, or because he was depressed that he had been accused of something like that.
Answer: Yes, Dr. Mott was molesting his patients, as was seen when he slipped off his plastic glove just before performing a pelvic exam on Claire. After Claire reported Mott to the authorities, a number of other women came forward and their accusations were made public. Mott never showed any remorse, and it appears he committed suicide because he was unable to face the ensuing scandal and criminal investigation.
20th Mar 2006
Red Dragon (2002)
11th May 2006
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: Does the vault number 713 (the philosopher's stone's Gringott vault number) have any symbolic meaning or is it just a random number?
4th Apr 2006
Fargo (1996)
Question: Are we ever told exactly why Jerry needs the money? His $750,000 deal with the parking lot falls through and he owes GMAC $320,000. He is going to give the kidnappers $40,000, but then it's increased to $80,000. But he sets the ransom at only $1 million. So what is the deal?
Answer: This is incorrect. Jerry had already devised the kidnapping plot before his father-in-law refused to loan him the money. It's never stated why Jerry needs the money. He owes $320,000 to GMAC but why he took that money from GMAC in the first place is never stated. Jerry is a greedy person who got himself into massive debt. He even balks when Carl demands they get $80,000 instead of $40,000, when, if the plan works, Jerry would still get $920,000. He's greedy and desperate and is willing to do foolish things for money. That's basically the "moral" of the story.
Jerry's balking when Carl demands $80,000 could be acting on his part. That amount is supposed to be the entire ransom, so Jerry had to pretend as if Carl's demand was unacceptable. Jerry may well be greedy, which could be why he's in financial trouble to begin with, but in the movie he needs money out of desperation, not greed.
Answer: The business deal didn't actually fall through. Jerry needed $750,000 to proceed with it. He tried borrowing the capital from his father-in-law, who refused to lend it to him. Instead, the father-in-law wanted to invest in the deal himself and to give Jerry a small finder's commission. Outraged, Jerry devised the phony kidnap scheme so he could get the money to invest in the parking lot. (He never intended for his wife to be harmed.) Presumably he planned to pay off the kidnappers and partially repay GMAC with some of the $1,000,000 ransom money, and use the rest for the investment deal.
This is incorrect - he meets with the kidnappers before visiting Wade (the father-in-law) about the loan for the deal.
2nd May 2005
The Interpreter (2005)
Question: Am I mistaken, or did Sylvia say she was born in the US before moving to Africa? I'm just puzzled as to why she was deported in the end even if she has dual citizenship.
Chosen answer: Dual citizenship is complicated, and it does not guarantee a person equal rights, privileges, and obligations in both countries. Nor does one country or the other always recognize dual citizenship. Since Sylvia's main residency has been in Africa, the US would consider that her primary homeland and could legally deport her there. Basically, the government is giving Sylvia a way to avoid prosecution in the US by allowing her to leave the country.
2nd Feb 2006
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Question: Why were Jack and Ennis fighting on the hill on Brokeback Mountain? Ennis's nosebleed looked pretty serious.
4th Apr 2006
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Question: I have a question about the cloaking technology all through the Star Trek universe. Does the cloak actually turn the ship using it invisible, or does it just hide the ship from being "seen" by other ships sensors? In other words, if a ship was cloaked and invisible to the view screen on the bridge, could someone looking out of a porthole still see the ship?
Answer: The cloaking device makes the ship invisible to other ships' sensors and to the naked eye. This was evidenced in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where the Klingon vessel Kirk time travels back to the 20th C. in is hidden from humans while it is in Golden Gate Park and when it hovers over the whaling vessel.
20th Mar 2006
The Thorn Birds (1983)
Question: Fee tells Mary she has two deceased sons. She tells her this before the deaths of Stuart and Hal. I don't remember any other of the Cleary children dying in the novel, what two sons is she referring to?
Answer: When Fee was very young, she had an affair with a man and became pregnant. To avoid a scandal, she was quickly married off to Paddy Cleary, a good and honest man, but someone far below Fee in social class. The eldest son (from Fee's previous relationship) never felt that he fit into the family, and both he and the second eldest son left home early on and met premature deaths. Neither character appears in the TV series, they are only mentioned. Stu and Hal are killed later in the story.
24th Feb 2006
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Question: If the beast was a young boy when he was turned into a beast, why is it the portrait of him he tears up looks like he does at the end of the film?
Answer: Additionally, it sometimes happened that artist made noble rulers look adult even while still young. So it could've been a historical borrowing to foreshadow his later appearance.
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Answer: It's never explained, but we're to assume they are dead. In the case of Belle the absence of the mother is a typical plot scenario for Disney heroines, i.e. Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White, etc., but is never explained.
raywest ★