Question: In the US, can you really be taken to a police station for (presumably) making a phony phone call? To me it seems like a waste of resources since it is probably a common occurrence. Also Jeannie would have stuck to her story that it was true...as break-ins do happen all the time.
Charles Austin Miller
29th Sep 2018
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Answer: Illinois law makes making a false report on 911 a form of disorderly conduct.
Answer: I think the main thing was Jeanie wasn't in school and was probably taken in for truancy as well as the supposedly phony call. But it's unlikely that they would have taken her to the police station if she was picked up at home.
29th Sep 2018
Contact (1997)
Question: What type of ring are Ellie and her father wearing? It looks like other cast members are wearing a blue ring as well and both of them have the rings on when her father holds her hand.
Answer: The ring looks like sterling silver with a semi-precious Lapis Lazuli stone (not terribly expensive, even today). The name Lapis Lazuli literally translates (from Latin and Persian) to "Stone of the Sky," which probably explains Ellie and her father wearing the rings. Her father always encouraged her interest in astronomy and radio communications, and she spent much of her career waiting for "a voice from the sky" (as is also mentioned in the movie's dialogue). Other characters in the movie wearing replicas of Ellie's ring could be interpreted as their support for Ellie unravelling the alien message and going on the space mission. Another interpretation could be that the blue-stoned rings in the film are a tribute to astronomer and author Carl Sagan, who famously described the Earth as a "blue dot" decades ago. Sagan, who wrote "Contact" and consulted on this film, died during the movie's production.
29th Sep 2018
The Time Machine (2002)
Question: How is the hologram artificial intelligence system still operational and has power after 800,000 years?
Answer: We don't know what kind of power supply the AI system is running upon, but it's possible it's a system that works on some unlimited energy source that doesn't need fuel or uses very little energy.
Answer: It's a plot hole. Just as, in the original 1960 George Pal movie, the Eloi are still human and speaking 20th Century English. After 802,000 years, all artifacts and traces of our modern civilization will be long, long, long vanished (excepted perhaps for a handful of fossilized bones). Additionally, after such a long time, the human species will probably be long extinct.
14th Jun 2018
Hereditary (2018)
Question: Not sure this is a movie mistake. When the mom is sawing off her own head, wouldn't the sawing have stopped once she cut through her spinal cord? The muscles in her arms/hands would have gone limp and her head would not completely fall off - though it would fall forward. You don't actually see her head fall but you hear the bang on the floor and her head is missing at the end.
Answer: When she's sawing off her own head, she's also suspended about 12 feet in the air. Afterwards, you also see the headless mom's body levitating up to the treehouse. So, obviously, there were powerful demonic forces that suspended her in the air, sawed off her head, then carried her up into the treehouse.
25th Sep 2018
Hereditary (2018)
Question: Was the daughter possessed the entire time before she died? I noticed at the end one of the cult members at the end said something about the demon being released from the female host.
Answer: As the film progresses, we learn that the mother's side of the family has a history of serious mental illness, and the maternal grandmother was a secret devil-worshipper who was trying to fulfill an evil prophecy (crowning one of The Eight Kings of Hell from her own family). The little girl, Charlie, did apparently suffer some sort of mental illness, and she was raised and heavily influenced for 13 years by her devil-worshipping grandmother. Near the end it is revealed that Charlie actually was, all her life, a temporary female host for one of The Eight Kings of Hell; but she had to die because the prophecy called for a male host to be crowned King. At the very end, Charlie's cursed soul migrates into her older brother Peter's body; whereupon, he is crowned one of The Eight Kings of Hell.
24th Sep 2018
Alien (1979)
Question: In the last scene when Ripley is escaping in the shuttle, why is the Alien wedged awkwardly in the wall? And why is it so mellow about getting out and killing Ripley?
Answer: The xenomorphs are quite intelligent, despite their savage nature. In this scene, for example, the alien understands that the Nostromo is about to self-destruct, and it correctly anticipates Ripley using a shuttle to escape the blast. The alien carefully hides in the shuttle and goes into a dormant state (so as not to alert Ripley to its presence until they are well underway). When Ripley realises the alien is aboard, she dons her pressure suit and sprays the alien with fire-extinguishing gas to prompt a response. After a startled jump, the alien languidly reveals itself because it is emerging from its dormant state, but also because it knows there is no escape for Ripley in the tiny spacecraft. The implication is that it is in no hurry to kill her, which heightens the tension and horror of the scene.
23rd Sep 2018
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Question: What did Sarah and Enrique say to each other in Spanish, before greeting each other?
Answer: Sarah also calls Enrique "sneaky like a snake."
Answer: All I hear is Sarah saying, "Enrique? You here?" And Enrique says, "Good to see you, Connor. Always knew you'd come back" or something like that.
20th Sep 2018
Mouse Hunt (1997)
Question: What year does this movie take place?
Answer: There's not really an answer, because the film has sort-of a nebulous timeframe given its cartoon-like atmosphere. Ex. Everything is old fashioned in design, including architecture and clothing, but current technology is also present. It's not really meant to take place in the "real world" or a specific timeframe, so much as be a silly throwback to old comedies and especially old Laurel and Hardy films. So, the best answer to your question would be that it just sort of exists in its "own" time, so to speak - an amalgam of different time periods all put together for maximum comedy impact.
"Mouse Hunt" was not modeled on 1930s Laurel and Hardy films so much as it was a direct retread of 1940s "Herman and Catnip" and "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, which spawned many knock-offs over the decades, from "Coyote and Roadrunner" cartoons to live-action comedies such as "Home Alone" and others.
17th Sep 2018
I Am Legend (2007)
Question: When fixing up and preparing the house defenses, why is Neville so pressed for time? What type of preparing does he do?
Answer: He has to make sure that he's back at his home with plenty of time to lock everything down, sound proof the establishment, and make sure no lights are visible from the outside. His place of residence has to appear like any other place in New York at the time as deserted and with nobody there. If the Night Stalkers saw any evidence at all that that was where he was living, they would attack like they do later in the film. Neville is military trained, so punctuality and having a set schedule to do things is pretty well ingrained into him now. And by giving himself plenty of time and room for error, he can take care of any contingencies that arise and any repairs to make sure everything is ready before the creatures come out.
Neville also uses gallons of chemicals (possibly chlorine bleach) every afternoon to cover his scent in the immediate vicinity of his home. Apparently, the Night Stalkers and their dogs have a keen sense of smell, particularly for uninfected humans.
17th Sep 2018
General questions
In a lot of crime dramas, why is it when someone isn't aware that they committed a crime are they let go but in others they are arrested. Eg: In an episode of Law and Order: SVU, a teenage boy ends up raping his girlfriend's little sister but, he doesn't remember doing it because he was sleep walking so he was let go. In another crime drama, if somebody receives stolen property but was never aware that it was stolen, that person gets arrested.
Answer: It's called "drama" for a reason. Screenwriters seldom immerse themselves in legal fact, but almost always use legal consultants to just "fact check" their fictional work. As any attorney can tell you, it's virtually impossible to consolidate all of the intricacies of criminal or civil law into a one-hour television episode or a two-hour feature film. Even jury selection can last days or weeks, as the legal counsels attempt to explain "the law" and court procedure to jury candidates. So, anything you see in theatrical depictions of "the law" is often arbitrary and cherry-picked and sensational and has very little to do with the actual practice of law.
Answer: In general, there must be "mens rea" (guilty mind) or intent in order to be convicted of a crime. The defendant/accused had to be aware that a crime was being committed and there was no legal defense/ justification/ or excuse for committing the crime. There are usually exceptions to these general rules of law, such as "strict liability" offenses (merely committing the act makes the person guilty). Although a law cannot be vague, criminal statutes often must be interpreted (and one court's interpretation can be overturned by a higher court). The laws are not always clear-cut, legislators cannot necessarily foresee unusual acts that may or may not fall under a particular law or defense to committing a crime, juries are not always willing to convict defendants who appear to be guilty (think "OJ Simpson"), and so on. The legal drama shows often use very unusual situations and/or newly-decided cases to create a similar (perhaps bizarre) case that will have a dramatic or shocking outcome.
10th Sep 2018
10,000 B.C. (2008)
Question: What happen to D'leh's dad?
Answer: When the mammoth numbers diminished, D'leh's father (the chieftain) left on a quest to find new hunting grounds in order to feed the tribe. Not knowing the true nature of his quest, many tribesmen thought the chieftain left because he was a coward, which was a source of anxiety and guilt for D'leh. Later in the movie, it is learned that D'leh's father was captured by slavers and died as a slave.
23rd Jun 2009
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: What exactly is the lightning the aliens use to get inside the tripods? How does it work?
Answer: For this film, the Martian tripods were already buried deep in the Earth's surface, lying dormant for thousands of years (or more) and only waiting for the actual Martians to arrive. When they did arrive, the Martians did not "teleport" into the tripods, but they were carried down in high-velocity capsules. Fairly early in the movie, a television news crew captures video footage of lightning striking the earth; upon replaying the footage in slow-motion, the TV crew can actually see these high-velocity capsules (containing the Martians) riding down the lightning stroke and into the ground. Therefore, the lightning probably served a dual purpose: It physically bored shafts into the ground directly to the tripods; it then served to guide the high-velocity capsules to the tripods.
Chosen answer: Impossible to answer, there's no indication onscreen as to how.
Actually the movie does explain how the beam works but as for what it's made of? Who knows.
Answer: I'm sure that's their teleportation beam.
Except that, if the Martians possessed extremely advanced matter-energy teleportation technology, they could have destroyed the entire human population without the Martians ever setting foot on the earth.
3rd Sep 2018
Dune (1984)
Question: At the end Paul makes it rain on Arrakis - wouldn't this harm the sandworms? If so, it seems like a mean move on his part, especially considering the role they played in his coup.
Answer: Arrakis did, at one time, have lakes and oceans, and the Fremen (desert people) have an ongoing secret project to restore the surface water of Arrakis (they have multi-million-liter water reservoirs all over the place beneath the planet's surface). Additionally, in the first novel it is mentioned that attempts to drill wells on Arrakis fail because they are inexplicably "plugged up" soon after they start producing water. All of this implies that the Fremen and the worms are working together to protect and hoard a great deal of the water that already exists on Arrakis. If this is the case, then the worms may value the return of surface water as much as everyone else.
29th Sep 2010
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Question: It's been stated that Elsa and Donovan knew how to get through the path to the Grail because Henry was talking about the way as he lay dying. But I'm still confused about when they get across the cliff. Indy threw some sand and stones across the path he 'believed' was there, but would they still be sitting there, basically in mid air for the bad guys to get across? Did they truly believe in the Grail as much as Indy and Henry did and so could walk across the non-existant path?
Answer: The bridge was actually camouflaged into rock looking as if it was invisible (you can see this in movie).
Of course, any "camouflage" would only work from one perspective (from the doorway at one end of the bridge). As soon as Indy took a step out onto the bridge, the "camouflage" would be revealed, as it would no longer be aligned to the background from his new perspective. Viewed from the opposite end of the bridge, the "camouflage" wouldn't work at all and the bridge would be perfectly visible.
Not necessarily. They could have fashioned the stonework so it rendered the bridge invisible from both directions.
Chosen answer: The way I see it, the bridge is there, but is invisible. The true test is to step out into mid-air when you don't know there's a bridge there, trusting in God to rescue you. Indy passed this test, then threw the stones to see whether it really was a bridge there all along, or if it was a matter of faith in the moment you step out (or just to mark his way back). The pebbles stayed, proving the bridge was physical and real, only invisible. When Ilsa and Donovan came along, they could see the pebbles in mid-air, and figured out this as well. Originally, you would have to believe and trust in God to step on to the bridge, but Indy effectively "disarms" this trap by proving that there is a way to cross safely for anyone.
As stated previously, the bridge is not invisible. It is simply camouflaged so that it's not visible from the position Indy had to stand. This is demonstrated in the film when the camera angle changes and shows that the reason Indy can't see it is the marbling of the stone lines up perfectly from one angle. He throws the pebbles onto it once he's across to make it easier for him to see when he returns.
But the camouflage is only going to work from one direction (the approach). Going in the opposite direction (the retreat), the bridge would stand out like a sore thumb, pebbles or not.
However, in the film, Indy turns around and throws the pebbles on the bridge, which is not visible until the pebbles are there.
Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps the original builders altered the vertical stone walls in the "coming back" direction so that the bridge blended from this reverse perspective as well.
Okay, he didn't actually mean invisible, more like "invisible from a certain perspective"
6th Jan 2005
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Answer: Probably, yes. From dialogue, Ferris is about to graduate, and he and Jean seem to be at the same school, so either she's actually the younger of the two (which seems unlikely - would parents give the younger child a car but not the older?) or they're in the same school year. On the assumption that they're in the same year, the most likely scenario is that, yes, they're twins. The only other possibility is that they were born less than a year apart (putting them in the same school year), with Jean probably being the older of the two.
Or Ferris had repeated a year of school sometime in the past and Jeanie had caught up. The gifted car vs computer is a key point of resentment for Ferris throughout the movie, suggesting that Ferris may not have been trusted with a car, and got the computer instead.
Answer: Twins (even fraternal twins) are usually much closer in temperament to each other. Jean, on the other hand, seems very uptight and even envious of Ferris. Could be that Jean is an adopted child, same age as Ferris. There is typically some friction with adopted kids.
30th Aug 2018
The Core (2003)
Question: If the core stopped spinning, where would all the kinetic energy that keeps it spinning go? Energy cannot be created or destroyed.
Answer: For one thing, the rotation of the core is almost identical to (if not a bit faster than) the rotation of the rest of the planet; so the core coming to a stop relative to the rest of the planet is physically impossible. Over billions of more years, the Earth's core and mantle may eventually cool off and solidify (as has happened on Mars), but the core will still be rotating at the same velocity as the rest of the planet. By that time, of course, Earth will have also lost its Moon, so there will be no tidal forces between the Earth and Moon, which means the planet will be seismically dead, but the Earth will still be rotating on its axis. For the time being, though, it would literally take a miracle, an act of divine intervention, to overcome the physics of planetary rotation. If the core could somehow be stopped relative to the rest of the planet (which is physically impossible), then the core's energy would quite quickly be dissipated into the Earth's mantle, which would become an unimaginable inferno (much more so than it already is), propagating seismic and super-volcano activity all over the globe by a factor of, say, 10,000 times normal activity. The Earth's crust would be effectively ripped to shreds by super-earthquakes and eruptions within a matter of hours, perhaps even causing the entire globe to disintegrate into space. As mentioned, though, it would require something on the order of a true miracle to precipitate this chain of events.
Answer: The same place it goes normally: dissipated into the Earth.
30th Aug 2018
Robocop 2 (1990)
Question: The first Robocop 2 attempt managed to commit suicide by shooting himself at where I assume the brain was located. Wasn't this a major oversight in design that the cyborg wasn't made out of hard/thick enough metal so it wouldn't be possible to kill it with a single shot?
Answer: It became apparent that the original Robocop was an extremely lucky one-off success, as the second-generation Robocop experiments were thwarted by incompatibilities that drove the human subjects quite mad. The second-generation Robocop experiments were, thus, probably not outfitted with bulletproof armor in the test stages, just in case they went crazy and had to be put down.
28th Aug 2018
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Question: In the first timeline ending, Russell (Firefist) is not convinced or changed by Deadpool's pleading; in fact, he casts Deadpool aside. Cable then lunges for the semi-auto handgun and takes his last shot, which is intercepted by Deadpool in his left chest (a fatal wound). Seemingly, the only thing that really changed Russell's mind was Deadpool's actual death scene, as Deadpool rambled on with his farewells and gradually faded away. But, in the alternate ending, Cable goes back in time a few minutes and uses an arcade token to stop the bullet that killed Deadpool; thus, Deadpool doesn't die from the gunshot and Russell doesn't react to Deadpool's farewells (that never happened). So, what event changed Russell's mind the second time, if not Deadpool's actual death?
Answer: His change of heart came from Deadpool's sacrifice. In the second timeline, Cable saves Deadpool, but Deadpool had no way of knowing. Firefist still has a change of heart because Deadpool was willing to sacrifice himself, even though he was ultimately saved by someone else.
Now, I can accept that in theory, except that Russell repeatedly saw Deadpool putting his ass on the line to rescue Russell. I mean, Russell knew from the very beginning that Deadpool could have killed him (but chose not to) and took some severe ass-beatings on Russell's behalf. Russell was really, really hard-boiled, and I'm not seeing that Deadpool almost getting killed as enough impetus to change Russell's heart. It seems (to me, anyway) it was Deadpool's actual death that changed Russell, such that a mere deflected bullet would not have the same effect.
Deadpool saving Russell in the film is what made Russell think that they were friends. When Deadpool tells Russell that they aren't friends, he remains hostile toward Deadpool, not believing him when he later admits to caring for Russell. At this point Russell is too far gone and will kill. However, it's only when Deadpool takes a bullet for Russell, fully intending to die in both timelines, that Russell sees that Deadpool really does care about him, and would have died to save him.
Answer: In science fiction there are two different ideas regarding time travel. In one, the timeline is fixed, so a person who goes back in time does what already happened in their own past, like in The Time Traveler's Wife - however, this is where the grandfather paradox comes in. The other theory as express in the Back to the Future series is the past can be changed and in so doing change the future for the person who changed it. Deadpool 2 follows the second concept, so Firefist doesn't need any motivation to go back the second time and in fact doesn't go back a second time since the timeline is already corrected and that doesn't present a contradiction.
It presents the contradiction that Deadpool's actual death broke Firefist's cold heart the first time; but the second time Deadpool doesn't die, so Firefist should have no change of heart.
"Except that Russell repeatedly saw Deadpool putting his ass on the line to rescue Russell." Yes, but there's a huge difference between risking your life to save someone and directly sacrificing yourself. Doing something that could get you killed and doing something that will definitely get you killed are entirely different. You may not agree with the change of heart, but that's how it's presented.
Answer: The Firefist the second time around is the one from the first who jumped back in time retaining those memories, and therefore remembers the events from the first time, just like he remembers to place the token to stop the bullet and remembers that he used the device a second time. He doesn't need to experience the death twice to have the change of heart remain.
20th Aug 2018
Gulliver's Travels (2010)
Question: Gulliver's attempt at avoiding a fight with the Blefuscian at sea sea fails. He've been surrounded and shot at. He grabs at the ropes coming from each ship's bow and drags them away. Now, why were there ropes coming from each of the ships and how did they end up infront of them so that he could grab onto them?
Answer: Obviously, it's just a deliberate error in a fantasy film that is full of plot-holes and errors. They certainly aren't anchor lines, as the ships are actively involved in a military engagement (surrounding Gulliver). Also, no navy flotilla of sailing ships would have lines hanging loose at the bow or stern, particularly going into a military engagement. Rather, the lines would be coiled and neatly stowed on deck. In this case, the deliberate error permits Gulliver to tow away the Blefuscudian ships in just a matter of moments (even though Blefuscu is over a half-mile away by water).
18th Aug 2018
General questions
I have noticed a few movies where the shot looks as if a circular camera was used. An example is the kitchen at the very beginning in Scream. How and why are these shot?
Answer: It's all about using empty space to create anticipation. The lens used in the opening shots of "Scream" is a high-content cinematic lens used for extremely wide shots, capturing a huge horizontal image without much vertical distortion and giving the effect of spaciousness. In "Scream," this effect helps to emphasize the fact that Drew Barrymore is all alone in this very spacious house (almost always with Drew right in the middle of the shot) as the stalker keeps calling her on the phone. She suspects that the guy on the phone is watching her, so she is glancing frantically around the house; and the audience, too, is glancing around these big, roomy shots, expecting a jump-scare.
Answer: Fisheye lens?
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: In the United States, phoning in a false report to police can be treated as either a misdemeanor or felony offense (depending on jurisdiction). A false report is considered obstructing law enforcement, which is pretty serious. A misdemeanor offense can result in jail time of a year or less, while a felony offense can result in more than a year's jail time and heavy fines. The important factor that makes it a crime is knowingly trying to mislead the police, not accidentally reporting false information. In "Ferris Beuller's Day Off," Jean was not trying to mislead the police; but, lacking evidence, the police assumed she was knowingly phoning in a false report, so they arrested her (probably on a misdemeanor).
Charles Austin Miller