Question: Two questions. 1. When Scott catches Santa on the roof, Santa falls down and vanishes. When Scott, as Santa is caught and arrested, how come he didn't vanish? 2. Is it ever explained why Santa, when he lands in Scott's yard, disappears?
raywest
17th Feb 2023
The Santa Clause (1994)
19th Jan 2023
Criminal Minds (2005)
Question: Kate says she wants to take a year off for her new baby, Hotch says her job is still there, but we never do see her again. Possibly a way of just writing her out due to Jennifer Love Hewitt being pregnant in real life? Also the character not being well liked?
Answer: The official explanation was that Love Hewitt was written out at the end of Season 10 was because she was pregnant. She was still pregnant when Season 11 began filming and unable to resume the show then. After giving birth, Love Hewitt wanted to focus on being a full-time mom and chose not to return. When the series was rebooted on Paramount+, she was already cast in another show. However, Love Hewitt's departure may have have been prompted by fans disliking her character, even though producers claimed viewers had accepted her by the end of the season. This allowed her a graceful exit.
15th Jan 2023
A Quiet Place (2018)
Question: If they were still uncertain of their safety, why was the baby no longer under oxygen and his box with its lid? Especially when Lee had to leave them alone to look for the other kids.
16th Jan 2023
The Craft (1996)
Question: When Laura's hair is falling out in the school shower, she looks at Rochelle and says that she doesn't know what she did to deserve this. Why doesn't Rochelle say anything? She could at least point out the way that Laura bullies people, without revealing the witch coven.
Answer: I think this moment shows how people don't always "learn their lesson" — at least not when you think they should learn it. Rochelle seems to realize that her spell has been useless because Laura is not changing. She can't imagine why she deserves this.
Answer: Because unlike Laura, Rochelle is, or was, essentially a good person. And good people tend not to kick someone when they're down.
14th Jan 2023
Smallville (2001)
Question: In this episode, Lionel falls to his death. While still on the steps, covered with a tarp, the cop tells Lex that she needs a positive identification, so Lex must look at the dead body to confirm it's Lionel. Lionel was a well known public figure, and they obviously knew who he was well enough to get Lex to identify him. I've seen cops do this in other shows, so is it really a policy or practice to get family members to give a positive identification? Would they ever ask for it at the scene?
Answer: This is a common TV/movie trope that sets up a dramatic "reveal." It mostly streamlines the plot and eliminates the need to film an entirely separate scene. In real life, identity is handled at the morgue. A photograph of the corpse would be shown to family, a close friend, or other associate. This is done in a visitor's room and not in the lab. The family can supply photos that the coroner could compare with the body. A person's identity can be verified by other physical traits-birthmarks, scars, medical conditions, etc. In extreme cases, DNA testing would be used.
13th Jan 2023
Timecop (1994)
Question: How can their house still be standing in 2004 when it was destroyed in 1994? Even if they rebuilt it it wouldn't look s old, it would only be a few years old.
Answer: In one of the flashbacks, it is shown that the wife designed the house and had been thinking about it for a long time. I think the easiest answer to this is: the house was simply rebuilt the same as it was.
Answer: My understanding was the timeline had been reset in such a way that the explosion had never happened.
Except that the explosion did happen. When Max carries Melissa out of the house to prevent her death again, their house is exploding in the background. This is because McComb had placed a bomb in the house to ensure that the explosion would kill Max which of course had ultimately failed.
The explosion happened, but it was before Max returned to his own time in the future. Once he went back through the time portal, everything somehow reset itself to before the bomb being detonated. The previous events in the past were erased in favor of an alternate timeline. The movie does not attempt to give a logical explanation, and it makes no sense, as most time-travel stories never do, but a "suspension of disbelief" is employed here. We're supposed to accept that it happened. Max is the only character who knows what the previous timeline was like, but he now has no idea of current events (like his wife and son being alive) in his alternate life during the intervening time from when he was in the past and returns to the "new" present.
8th Jan 2023
The Punisher (2004)
Question: Would Castle's life have really been saved by jumping into the bathtub before the grenade went off?
Answer: In Season 9, Episode 20 of "Mythbusters," Adam and Jamie tested whether a person could survive a "toilet bomb" (recreating a Lethal Weapon 2 scene) by jumping into a cast iron bathtub and being covered with a bomb blanket. They used 1 kg of C-4 explosives that created a blast with a peak lethal pressure of 180 psi outside the tub. The pressure inside the tub was recorded as a survivable 8 psi, though with probable hearing damage. From what I read, a grenade has a much lesser psi force than what the C-4 explosion produced. Depending on the circumstances, it seems plausible that a person could survive the force and shrapnel while inside the tub.
Answer: It's plausible but highly unlikely. Assuming it's an old metal bathtub (which seems to be the case), it's possible it might have deflected enough of the percussive shock and shrapnel to save him, but unlikely that it'd stop everything. It's one of those things where it probably wouldn't work 90% of the time... but there's that 1 out of 10 chance it could possibly work if he got really lucky and no big pieces of shrapnel came his way. (Plus, stranger things have happened in real life).
24th Feb 2004
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Question: Why does the girl have writing on her eyelids? What is the joke there?
Answer: She has written "I love you" on them. It's why Dr Jones splutters his speech and focuses on them.
8th Jan 2023
Passengers (2016)
Question: Did Jim ever get an answer from homestead support?
Answer: No, at least not during the movie's run-time. Homestead stated that it would take fifty-five years for a response to reach Jim. If a return message ever was received, it was never mentioned in Aurora's epilogue. Most likely, both Jim and Aurora would be dead by the time it ever reached the ship.
4th Jan 2023
Winnie The Pooh (2011)
18th Dec 2022
Monster-in-Law (2005)
Question: What's the drama about the color peach in this movie?
Answer: Then I would say it was about the overall color theme for the wedding. Viola immediately took over planning every detail for the wedding, even choosing what color she liked, without any input from the bride (Charlie). Viola was deliberately provoking Charlie to stop her from marrying her son.
Answer: If you mean the peach-colored mother-in-law dress, it was specially made for Viola to wear at the wedding. Instead, she showed up wearing a long white gown. It is NEVER socially acceptable for any wedding guest to wear white. That color is only for the bride to wear. It is her special day and no-one is ever supposed to do anything that takes attention away from her. Viola purposely wore white to disrupt the wedding.
I meant the peach photo album at lunch and the peach dress. I know about anyone other than the bride wearing white. Did Viola or Charlie say they didn't like the color peach?
28th Dec 2022
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
Question: At the end, why did the Turtles decide to keep their existence a secret from the public? If they are introduced to them, the city would likely appreciate them for saving the city and seeing them as the greatest heroes.
Answer: It would be nearly impossible for the Turtles to continue their crimefighting crusade if the public knew of their existence. They would become instantly recognizable international "celebrities" who were constantly in the public eye, allowing criminals to avoid and work around them.
4th Jan 2023
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Question: How was Umbridge able to cast a patronus?
Answer: She casts it like any other witch or wizard by using her wand and saying "Expecto Patronum". It is considered advanced magic, but most magical people can learn how to do this. When Harry (disguised as Runcorn) entered her courtroom, she had already cast her cat patronus to keep the Dementors at a distance.
Casting a patronus requires a very happy memory, though. And considering that she seems to be very angry and never felt that she was given enough power, she must have never had a happy memory.
"Must" is total conjecture. Perfectly possible for an angry resentful person to have one happy memory to call on.
Villains still have personalities. Depending on what specifically makes Umbridge happy, she could easily have a lot of happy memories.
Umbridge seemed quite happy while torturing Harry with the punishment pen, when she was ejecting Trelawney from Hogwarts, when she ousted Dumbledore as Headmaster, happy in her devotion to Voldemort, and so on. Happiness is an individual thing. Her sense of happiness was quite perverse.
Only those who are pure of heart are capable of producing a Patronus. Those who aren't would be devoured by maggots that shoot out of the caster's wand. Umbridge wasn't pure of heart because of all of the horrible things she did, so shouldn't she have been eaten by maggots?
1st Jan 2023
Ever After (1998)
Question: When Prince Henry almost marries the Spanish woman, why are the Baroness and her daughters there? At the ball, he told Danielle "You are just like them", referring to his dislike of them.
Answer: It would be expected that people of a certain social rank are invited to important ceremonies and events, regardless of one young prince's personal feelings about anyone in particular. It's about the monarchy maintaining strong social and political ties to aristocratic families and retaining their loyalty and influence for their own power. Not inviting them or others over petty squabbles would be insulting and potentially weaken alliances.
1st Jan 2023
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Question: Would Claire's sushi, handed to her by her Dad in the morning, still be a fancy treat after sitting at room temperature for five hours?
1st Jan 2023
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: What would happen if two or more houses won the House Cup? Would there be some kind of contest to decide who should get it or would the houses share it?
Answer: Agree with the other answer, but would add that Dumbledore could also devise some sort of tie-breaking task or contest to determine who wins the House Cup. It could even be a coin toss. There's actually some online discussion about this and some have suggested the same possibilities. It's apparently never been explained by J.K. Rowling.
1st Jan 2023
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Question: The 'shooting off sparks in the maze' at the end feels particularly clumsy...was the book the same way? Like, if this is all magic, why would the maze not be able to recognize who shot off the sparks, and make sure that person was ejected from the maze? Otherwise, it seems like you could use this to sabotage a competitor (e.g, if Viktor knew Cedric was coming around the corner momentarily, then he could shoot up sparks and run away, so that Cedric would be in place to be sucked up by the maze).
Answer: In both the book and movie, the contestants sent up sparks. However, all were pre-warned of the dangers and that they were pretty much on their own upon entering the maze. In the book, the maze is filled with hazardous objects and creatures that each contestant had to overcome. In the movie, the hedge itself is the danger, and it appears Voldemort (aided by Barty Crouch, Jr.) manipulated it to ensure that Harry reached the middle while it sabotaged and controlled the other competitors. Therefore, the maze would not protect the contestants. The four were unaware the maze was corrupted and were so focused on winning that they ignored the dangers. All were determined to continue as long as they could.
1st Jan 2023
A Christmas Story (1983)
Question: Was Ralphie's family poor? Their house and furnishings seem pretty low class, but they never seem stressed about money, and they have a fairly extravagant Christmas.
Answer: They weren't poor and appeared to live a fairly comfortable middle-class life within their modest means. They could probably afford to splurge a little on Christmas. People who went through the Great Depression during the mid-20th century tended to hang on to old items, even if they could afford new ones and, unlike today, had lesser interest in material possessions. My own parents grew up in that era and rarely bought anything new, no matter how dated or worn. Also, situations (like holidays, social gatherings, special events, etc.) tend to look a bit exaggerated in movies and TV for visual effect.
I've also noticed this among my family members who grew up in the '60s through the '80s. They don't buy new things if the older ones are just fine. Since the late 2000s, it's more common for people to think that possessions and decor need to be "updated."
1st Jan 2023
Picture Perfect (1997)
1st Jan 2023
A Christmas Story (1983)
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.
Answer: To answer both questions, when the first Santa fell off the roof, he was killed and that is why his body vanished. Scott obviously did not die, so his body would not disappear just because he was arrested.
raywest ★