Question: Is the Canyon of the Crescent Moon a real place, or was the shot of the canyon as seen from Donovan's binoculars just a place created for the film?
Phaneron
9th Aug 2020
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
3rd Aug 2020
X-Men (1992)
Question: Does anyone know why Gambit was featured less and less in episodes as the show went on? He was one of the most popular characters in not just X-Men, but all of Marvel Comics around the time this series first aired, so unless it had something to do with his voice actor's contract, it seems odd they wouldn't have utilized him more.
Answer: Chris Potter, the original Gambit voice actor, did indeed quit the role in the 4th season. His last episode was The Phalanx Covenant Part 1 so it seems reasonable that Fox would limit the use of the character even though it was recast. It doesn't appear that Potter left the role due to animosity, he stated in an interview that he wished to play Gambit in the first live action X-Men film.
3rd Aug 2020
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Question: How could Belloq know/believe that the Ark is a powerful artifact, but also be completely oblivious to the Bible specifically mentioning that some Bethshemites were smitten for gazing into it and Uzzah was smitten for touching it?
Answer: There were probably many reasons. Propelled by greed, he may simply have chosen to filter out certain aspects of the biblical text, believing what he wanted to believe. He may have misinterpreted or had not bothered with the details of what was written in the bible.
Add in that he was hired by the Nazis to do the job of finding and utilizing the Ark. He had to make sure it worked so he could present it to Hitler.
2nd Aug 2020
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Question: After Darth Vader betrays the Empire and kills the Emperor, who, for the very brief period of time that the Empire was still around, would have risen to the top of the chain of command?
Chosen answer: The Empire splintered a bit after the death of the Emperor. Some members of the Imperial Council attempted to grab territories in order to maintain some form of power. Others attempted to carry on as if nothing had happened and told the people that the Emperor had escaped the destruction of the Death Star. Officially, the new leader of the Empire was Grand Admiral Sloane, who commanded the Imperial Navy. She enacted the Emperor's contingency plan, called Operation Cinder, which was essentially destroying everything because of the Emperor's death.
2nd Aug 2020
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Question: What exactly are the spirits that emerge from the Ark? I get that they are malevolent ghosts, but what is the purpose of them first emerging from the Ark as beautiful women? Are they supposed to be the ghosts of women from Babylonia, or Jerusalem, or any other significant location from Biblical times?
Answer: They are angels. They are initially beautiful, but become terrifying when they destroy those who look at them. That's why Indy and Marion are spared, as they keep their eyes shut.
29th Jul 2020
Dick Tracy (1990)
Question: Is "Dick" Tracy's first name, or his occupational designation?
Answer: His full name was Richard Tracy, but it was used seldomly.
Chosen answer: It's a bit ambiguous. Tracy's creator, Chester Gould, originally named his character, "Plainclothes Tracy," until an editor suggested changing it to Dick Tracy. A "dick" is a dated slang term for a cop or a private detective. Dick appears to be Tracy's first name, but it is also descriptive of his profession. This is called a "double entendre." It's typical for authors to contrive a name that reflects their characters.
16th Jul 2020
Aliens (1986)
Question: Maybe I'm missing something, but if Ripley had been in hypersleep for 57 years, how could she have had a dream about speaking to Burke before waking up and actually meeting him?
Chosen answer: While the opening scene does show her in hypersleep, the moment we she her wake up (after the alien starts to push in her belly) is NOT her waking up from hypersleep, it's just her waking up from another bad dream. At that point she's been in the hospital for some time and already met Burke, but she's having nightmares. Presumably, this particular dream is of her remembering her first moments waking from hypersleep and then turning into a nightmare scene.
14th Jul 2020
The Sound of Music (1965)
Question: Did they use blue screens for this movie? I was watching it recently, and certain scenes looked like the distant background was fake, such as the nighttime scene when Captain Von Trapp confesses his love for Maria in the gazebo, the trees in the far background look superimposed, but I can't tell if that's because of the lighting.
Answer: Although bluescreen was used at the time, it was a photochemical process and not that reliable. For the scene you're describing, it was likely shot in a studio with a painted background. For more expansive night scenes, they shot them "day-for-night." They would be shot on location during the day with the image darkened and filtered to look like night.
Answer: In that era, movies didn't have computer-generated images and instead used a rear-projected screen of a previously filmed location. The actors would be in front of the screen to make it appear as if they were in some different location. The actors were posed in a way that the audience could not tell they were in front of the screen.
8th Jul 2020
Hook (1991)
Question: Is the food fight scene completely imaginary, or are the Lost Boys actually able to will food into existence by imagining it? I always thought it was the latter growing up and we as the audience didn't see it until Peter, as the audience's proxy, saw it for himself, but any YouTube videos I watch about this movie all seem to think all the food was just in everyone's collective imaginations.
Answer: Neverland very much runs on "If you believe, it will happen" which is what Tink means during the meal when she says "If you don't imagine yourself as Peter Pan you won't be Peter Pan." So by the rules of Neverland, as soon as Peter believed it was real it was then real. The dinner was trying to teach him to believe as, in Neverland, if you don't believe it then it won't happen.
2nd Jul 2020
Hook (1991)
Question: 1. How did Hook travel to London to kidnap Peter's children? 2. How is it Hook can know with certainty who Peter's kids are, but he doesn't know that Peter Banning is supposed to be Peter Pan? Wouldn't he have to have been following or spying on the family for some time know who the kids are in the first place? 3. How is Hook not able to find where the Lost Boys are hiding when Neverland is a single island?
Answer: 1) Though it is never fully explained, the mystical way Peter Pan would come and go from Never land. 2) It was Smee who was doing the spying. When Hook asked Smee, "This can't be my great and worthy foe?" Smee replied, "I have all the information here." He had a file of paper work on Peter. 3) Hook knew where the Lost Boys were, When Peter asked, what happened to the Never Tree. Tinkerbell said, "Hook burned it when you didn't come back." He considered the Lost Boys not worth the effort. It was Peter, he wanted.
27th May 2020
South Park (1997)
Question: Is there any particular reason the TV and radio stations on this show begin with a W, when they would geographically begin with a K? The creators of this show are from Colorado, so it seems unlikely that they wouldn't know that W-prefixes are for stations east of the Mississippi River.
23rd May 2020
South Park (1997)
Question: Whenever a character enters or calls City Wok, Tuong Lu Kim says "Can I take order, pree?" I get the show is playing with the stereotype of Asians mixing up their L's with R's, but why does he say "pree" instead of "prease?"
Chosen answer: City Wok is a real-world Chinese restaurant that happens to be a favorite of series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone; Mr. Kim's speech peculiarities are taken from his real-life counterpart, which is also why he says "Sh*tty Wok' rather than "City Wok" when he answers the phone.
15th May 2020
The X-Files (1993)
Question: After Office Eggers lynches Melvin Peters in the streets, he is shown at his arraignment not long afterwards and given a $5,000 bail. Since the FBI had oversight of the case featured in this episode and Peters' murder was directly linked to the case, wouldn't Eggers be taken into FBI custody and consequently spend a longer time in lockup awaiting arraignment in front of a federal judge instead of the one from his own county?
5th May 2020
South Park (1997)
3rd May 2020
The X-Files (1993)
26th Apr 2020
The Simpsons (1989)
Oh, Brother, Where Are Thou? - S2-E15
Question: How exactly did the production of Homer's car bankrupt Herb? If Herb, as a highly successful car manufacturer, was spending so much money spoiling Marge and the kids that an $82,000 price tag for making a car was enough of a straw to break the camel's back, wouldn't he have gone bankrupt sooner than later anyway?
Answer: It wasn't the cost of one car, but that they'd produced thousands of Homer's ridiculous vehicles, which they'd marketed as a family car, but cost five times as much as a new car at the time. No one would buy them and the company went under.
Wasn't the car just a demo though? How would they have been able to produce thousands of cars in such a short amount of time?
Big difference between a "demo" or prototype car compared to a launch car. The dealers must have stock available of the launch car so people can actually buy them straight away.
20th Mar 2020
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Question: When Woody Harrelson is eating the key lime pie in the opening scene, how exactly was that pie made? It looked more translucent like Jello, as opposed to regular key lime pies, which resemble cheese cake.
Answer: Yes, it definitely does not look like a key lime pie. I suspect that because Woody Harrelson is a strict vegan, that it is a substitute made with vegan ingredients.
Answer: My take: The Key Lime pie Mickey eats in the diner looks cheap and trashy on purpose... a garish trailer park version of that pie. The crust isn't even cooked. I think it has more to do with the demographic theme of the diner patrons rather than Harrelson being a vegan.
11th Mar 2020
Boy Meets World (1993)
Question: When Mr. Feeny is talking to Cory in the cafeteria about his score on the IQ test, Feeny is shown purchasing a coffee from the vending machine. Are there actual elementary schools in the United States with coffee vending machines where prepubescent students have the ability to purchase a beverage more suited for younger adults and older? This isn't the faculty cafeteria mind you, because it's the same cafeteria the students are shown occupying throughout the first season. Seems a little irresponsible on the school's part to give students access to coffee.
Chosen answer: In the present day, with the United States abiding by more stricter school health laws, for the most part this wouldn't be in school cafeterias as many cannot even have carbonated beverage machines now. However, in the 90s when the show takes place, it wasn't unheard of for there to be coffee machines in the cafeteria of small schools where the teachers eat with the students as we see them do often in the show. The idea being that the cafeteria was small enough so a teacher or hall monitor could catch a student before they could drink the coffee.
27th Jan 2020
General questions
When I was a little kid I checked out a Batman graphic novel from the library. It had a lot of his rogues gallery in it, most if not all of whom were killed in it. I specifically remember Catwoman being shot and her dying words were along the lines of "Batman, I'm so cold." Batman then kissed her before she died. Does anyone know what the name of this graphic novel/storyline is?
Answer: All Stars #17?
Based on my Google search results, "All-Star Batman" is a more recent publication. The year I read the book in question was probably 1993, so it was probably published in the late 80s or early 90s.
I believe the answer should have been DC Super-Stars #17. That issue features the death of the Earth Two Selina Kyle as part of the origin story of her daughter, Helena Kyle (The Huntress).
That's not it either, unfortunately. I specifically remember Killer Croc being in this, because it was the first time I ever heard of him, and he didn't debut until 1983, six years after DC Superstars #17. I think Batman killed Joker at the end out of revenge for Catwoman. With so many other characters being killed in it, I'm pretty certain it was an Elseworld story and not connected to whatever the main DC universe is or was at the time.
25th Jan 2020
Star Wars (1977)
Question: Are lightsabers capable of cutting through any substance, or are there objects in the franchise (even if the examples are no longer canon) that have been specifically mentioned as being resistant?
Answer: There are several substances in canon and non-canon that are resistant to lightsabers. Beskar, also known as Mandalorian iron or Mandalorian steel was used to make armor and weapons by the Mandalorian people. Cortosis was an ore that, when heavily refined, stopped lightsaber blades and blaster bolts. Phrik was another metal, used in Darth Sidious' lightsabers and the electrostaffs used by Grievous' robot guards. Neuranium was a very, very dense and heavy metal that was partially resistant to lightsabers, but was more often used to shield from scanners. The species orbalisk and vonduun crab had carapaces that could withstand the blow of a lightsaber.
Answer: The Force Awakens features stormtroopers using the "Z6 riot control baton", which they use to block the lightsaber when Finn uses it.
Is it the baton itself that is resistant, or the energy surge around it? Because I know Snoke's guards were able to block lightsabers with energized weapons as well.
Yes you see them in Episode III as well when fighting on the bridge of the chancellor's ship. My guess is the energy blocks the lightsaber. It's logical they would come up with some sort of technology to block lightsabers if materials that can block them are that rare.
Answer: There are a handful of items, but I don't believe any have been mentioned or shown in the film series (other than another lightsaber itself). Mandalorian Iron (also known as Beskar) and Phrix are resistant to lightsaber attacks and have been mentioned in the TV show "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", but I don't recall if their resistance is specifically mentioned in the show.
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Chosen answer: The Canyon of the Crescent Moon is fictional, but based on the real entrance to the Treasury (Al Khazna). The Bab as-Sīq is the wide valley leading to the Sīq, the narrow gorge entry.
Bishop73