Question: House said he regretted not having his leg amputated. He could've done it any time, so why didn't he later?
raywest
20th Aug 2019
House, M.D. (2004)
19th Aug 2019
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Question: What time of year is this film set? One day it's warm enough to swim outdoors in central Spain, the next day it's ski season in northern Italy.
Answer: The time setting is vague, but both Italy and Spain have Mediterranean climates (mild wet winters, hot dry summers). However, climate also varies by altitude, and, at certain times of the year, it could conceivably be cold enough in the Italian Alps for skiing while it is warmer in Spain for outdoor swimming. Also, movies tend to ignore reality for the sake of storytelling.
19th Aug 2019
The Brady Bunch (1969)
Question: There's a scene in this episode I haven't seen in over 30 years (edited out in more recent years) where the 4 kids upstairs are arguing (boys vs girls) and the kids continuously stamp their feet on the floor and then Alice is shown downstairs watching her cake in the oven. Periodically with all the stomping from upstairs, the cake gets flatter until very flat the end of the scene. Question is does anyone remember this scene and why does the cake in the oven get flatter every time a kid stomps from upstairs?
Answer: I think I remember that episode - but, more importantly, my mother always told me (and my siblings) to stop jumping/ stomping, running in the kitchen, and opening the oven door when a cake was baking... because these could make the cake fall. I believed my mother... and I, as a child, also caused a few "fallen cakes" because I didn't quite always listen (right away, anyway). I'm sure Alice's fallen cake episode was exaggerated, but cakes really CAN fall from stomps and opening the oven door too soon. Usually, it has something to do with the baking powder and how the air bubbles change during the baking process. Doing something that might cause the oven and cake inside to move/shake can suddenly change the air bubbles inside the cake and cause a collapse. I don't know all factors that have to occur for a cake to fall (collapse in the middle), but I've seen fallen cakes during my adulthood and... well... caused at least a few myself. Regarding Alice's cake falling each time one of the Brady kids stomped upstairs, I'm not sure if a series of falls could occur. IF it is possible, I think there would have to be way too much baking powder in the batter or some other inaccurate combination of ingredients that alter the chemical process during baking.
Answer: Realistically, a cake would not deflate in that way. There are some desserts, like delicate, airy souffles, that can deflate during and after baking, and that must be served almost immediately from the oven. The scene, broadly played for humor, is merely meant to show the argument's growing intensity gauged against the rate of the deflating cake.
Answer: I haven't come across a scene like that, but maybe over time what you remember got mixed up with episodes of other shows, so this is just a suggested episode. "Try, Try Again." In the episode, Mike is preparing a gourmet meal for Saturday. Jan is practicing tap dancing in the kitchen and his soufflé that he had spent 3 days preparing is knocked to the floor. While it is true soufflés can "fall" (meaning deflate), it's because the cooking time was wrong (or opening the oven door too soon) or the structure of the egg whites is too weak. Noises don't make them collapse.
This was not from "Try, Try Again" (though I do remember that scene too). That was in a later season when the kids were older. The one I was talking about was during the first season when all the kids were young. I know the scene in question were the 4 youngest kids and the scene started by each the boys and girls arguing that Greg/Marcia (running for student body president) doesn't stand a chance against him/her to win (boys for Greg, girls for Marcia).
That's "Vote for Brady", s01e11. I watched it and for some reason Carol tells Mike to be careful, after he makes too much noise, indicating noise will ruin the cake. Alice does keep checking on the cake with the oven light every time the kids make too much noise. However, the cake is always fine, and in fact getting bigger. Then, realizing the cake is fine, Alice is relieved and leans against the counter, knocking over the cutting board. The cutting board crashes to the ground, which this time does cause the cake to flatten. It seems like an exaggerated prop, I've never see a cake rise like that, it looks like how a muffin might rise. Then it's somehow deflated, as if it was hollow, like a puffed pastry, or too raw. If it was too raw, it shouldn't flatten in the oven. But the look of the cake doesn't remind me of any puffed pasty, which is made from a dough, not a batter and the cake looks like a batter cake to me. So, it just deflates for irony or comedy of error reasons.
19th Aug 2019
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Question: Is there anywhere I could find behind the scenes of Buckbeak's execution? From before they went back in time? If so, can I please have a link?
Answer: Buckbeak was never executed. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had mistakenly believed he was because from their vantage point on the hill, they could not see that Buckbeak had already disappeared. What they initially saw was the executioner swinging his ax in frustration because Buckbeak was gone. We learn later that the "alternate" Harry and Hermione had already rescued him before the execution. Therefore, there are no scenes filmed showing this.
I know that. I meant are there any behind the scenes videos for that scene at all.
Thank you. Please let me know if there's more.
Why would they film scenes that would never make it into the movie?
Happens all the time - they often end up on DVD. They're removed for editing or pacing reasons, or an alternative scene is filmed.
The request was for behind the scenes footage, not unused footage.
19th Aug 2019
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Question: Was Madame Maxime really half giant? Because when Hagrid says this to her in the book she is offended and says that she is just big boned. So is that true? Is she really big boned or was she lying?
Answer: She was half-giant, but Madame Maxine was extremely self-conscious about her heritage and denied it. Apart from feeling out-of-place due to her height, she knew giants were feared and considered lower-status denizens in the wizard world. They were generally dangerous, unpredictable, and not particularly intelligent.
19th Aug 2019
This Boy's Life (1993)
Question: In the book, Dwight and Toby paint the whole house white, including the piano. But in the movie, I don't remember that scene. They definitely have movie still photos though of Robert De Niro and Leonrdo DiCaprio covered in white paint. Anyone understand this?
Answer: It's typical in movies that more scenes are filmed than what makes it into the final film. This has to do with continuity, the film's overall length, plotting, etc. If a certain scene does not serve the overall story structure, then it is edited out. Sometimes the studio insists that certain scenes be cut, even over a director's objections. After a movie is released on DVD, the deleted scenes may be restored in a "director's cut" or there's a separate section showing all the edited portions.
Thanks! Just wanted to make sure I wasn't making it up.
12th Aug 2019
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Question: What did Rooney mean when he told Grace to "go soak your head"?
Answer: It's an old insult, somewhat equivalent to 'buzz off'.
13th Aug 2019
Timecop (1994)
12th Aug 2019
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: Why would the Trade Federation need the queen to sign a treaty to make their invasion legal if they've already invaded the place and taken over anyway?
9th Aug 2019
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Question: How could Bellatrix possibly have recognised Neville?
Answer: She's seen a picture? Been given his description? There are any number of possibilities.
Answer: I'd say this is a deliberate movie mistake to provide plot exposition. Bellatrix was one of the Death Eaters who tortured Neville's parents into permanent insanity when Neville was a young boy. It's unlikely Bellatrix would recognize Neville on sight, but this reveals her involvement in the Longbottom family tragedy, and shows that Neville fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters is personally motivated.
Answer: He looks like his father, wears similar clothes.etc.
5th Aug 2019
Groundhog Day (1993)
Question: This might be a silly question but it did puzzle me just a little bit. The old man in the film, when Phil first starts to care for him he starts referring to him as Dad and Pops. Is there supposed to be any actual relation between them, or is he just referring to him as this as sort of a kind title?
Answer: I think he is just using them as terms of elderly respect. It would be pretty callous even for Phil to completely disregard the homeless man at the beginning of the film if he was some sort of relative. The old man also does nothing to indicate a shared history between them.
It was a common term that was often used in the early-to-mid 20th century where a kindly, older man would affectionately be referred to as "Pops." In movies of that era, there was often a minor character referred to in this way, particularly if no-one knew his name (i.e. the stage doorman, the custodian, etc).
4th Aug 2019
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Question: 2 questions: 1. What Is the significanceof the Deathly Hallows story (Luna's dad wears it around his neck, is it some sort of religion?), and 2. Why did Dumbledore draw the symbol in correspondence with Grindlewald?
Answer: It's a bit complicated. The Deathly Hallows were not tied to any religion but to mythology. They were the three powerful and revered magical objects (the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility) that, through history and legend, were believed to give whoever possessed them immense power and mastery over death. The Deathly Hallows symbol, like the one Mr. Lovegood wore, is a circle, a triangle, and a straight line that represent the three objects.Voldemort only coveted the Elder Wand, wielded by Dumbledore, because it was the most powerful wand in the world. Dumbledore won the wand from his former friend, the evil wizard, Gellert Grindelwald, after defeating him in a fierce duel. Mr. Lovegood merely serves as a plot device to explain the significance and lore of the Hallows that were tied to Harry's ancestors, the Peverells. Dumbledore placed the Deathly Hallows symbol in the book as a clue to Hermione about the Elder Wand's importance. In the book, when Harry became the Elder Wand's master, he chose to return it to Dumbledore's tomb; in the movie, he destroys the wand. He deliberately dropped the Resurrection Stone in the Forbidden Forest so that no-one, including himself, would be tempted to summon a spirit from the Netherworld. He kept the cloak, that he had inherited from his father. Harry understood that truly "mastering" death was not fearing it.
24th May 2019
The Next Three Days (2010)
Question: How did John Brennan know Laura would be transferred to a hospital?
Answer: John planted fake blood work for Laura indicating that she had hyperkalemia (increased potassium levels), a condition that is potentially fatal. She would need to be transferred to a hospital to be treated.
If Laura was was suffering from hyperkalemia, wouldn't the jail doctor have reported it before John planted the fake blood work?
She wasn't actually suffering from it. John had planted the fake medical report that the doctor presumably then read and acted upon by arranging for her to be transferred to the hospital.
I doubt the jail's doctor would be fooled by the fake medical report since Laura wasn't showing any obvious physical symptoms.
Many medical conditions do not show physical symptoms early on, but are detectable with tests. For example, people live with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, brain tumors, etc. for some years before experiencing any physical effects. The doctor read the results of Laura's blood test, and, as was standard procedure, had her admitted to the hospital, presumably for additional testing that could not be performed within a prison setting. Also, after some additional reading on the subject: hyperkalemia often has no early symptoms. Later symptoms are flu-like-such as muscle aches, physical weakness, nausea, fatigue, etc. That may be why John chose that particular condition, and it is something Laura could easily have faked.
I still think the jail's doctor would get suspicious since blood test results are not monitored and delivered to a county jail by an outside lab.
Suspicious or not, he would act in the patient's best interests. If the hospital blood tests come back negative, then he doesn't have a problem. If Laura dies in his care from an easily treatable condition which he knew about, it's goodbye career and hello huge malpractice suit. He would be fully conversant with the procedures used while transferring prisoners to local hospitals, including the very close security put in place, and he has no reason to think that someone is putting this incredibly elaborate escape plan into effect.
Speaking of a prisoner being transferred to a hospital, does that happen very often?
But don't jails, and prisons tend to keep a prisoners hospitalization a secret?
3rd Aug 2019
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Question: In the droid factory, when the smasher crushes what Anakin's arm is trapped in, his lightsaber shoots out, but how is it when his arm is released from it, it's now back in his hand as if it never shot out? It seems too noticeable to be a mistake.
Answer: I watched the clip on YouTube. It's hard to see, but Anakin's light saber is always in his hand. Just after the light blade is switched off, the sword's hilt can still be seen in his palm as his arm is trapped. When his arm is freed, he's still holding the light saber, but it has been damaged.
Yeah the top part of the lightsaber is cut off by the machine and bounces off. I think that what the question asker is referring to, mistaking it for the entire saber.
31st Jul 2019
Gilligan's Island (1964)
Question: All through the show MaryAnn makes coconut cream pies for everyone. Where does she get the eggs, milk, wheat flour...every ingredient but the coconut?
Answer: It's never explained how she gets the ingredients. There may be substitute ingredients someone on a tropical island could possibly use, like eggs from island birds, wild sorghum as a substitute flour and sweetener, wild goats milk (such creatures are common enough thanks to sailors of previous centuries), citrus fruit for flavor, etc.
30th Jul 2019
Bullitt (1968)
Question: How did the bad guy have a gun on the flight? He pulls a gun in the airfield chase scene so he had to have it on the plane as he jumped off it.
Answer: Airport security in the late 1960's was not nearly as thorough as it is in present day. Metal detectors didn't become commonplace at airports until the early 1970's.
27th Jul 2019
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Question: Why did Sirius slash the Fat Lady entrance? and if it wasn't him, presumably it was Lupin, but again, why?
Answer: Sirius was attempting to break into the Gryffindor common room to find and kill Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), who had been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers for the past twelve years.
Following on from this answer, when the Fat Lady would not give him access to the tower because he didn't have the password, Sirius (not Lupin) became angry and slashed the painting in an attempt to get her to open and allow him access. However, she still refused him access and then left the portrait, essentially sealing off the common room.
26th Jul 2019
Cast Away (2000)
26th Jul 2019
What Lies Beneath (2000)
19th Jul 2019
Doc Hollywood (1991)
Question: Why do the Owens go to the doctors to have their mail read? Even a small town like Grady would have a librarian, not to mention they certainly have friends who can read.
Answer: That's just the long-standing relationship they had with Doc Hogue and assumed it would continue with Dr. Stone. Hogue was more than a doctor to the town folk. He was a strong father-figure that everyone felt they could go to for a variety of reasons. Also, this is a comedy film, so the characters and their situations are deliberately cliched and quirky.
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Answer: As long as the leg remains physically viable, even if it's impaired and not causing chronic pain, a reputable doctor would not amputate simply because a patient wants it removed.
raywest ★