Garlonuss

1st Sep 2011

Inception (2010)

Question: Cobb tells Ariadne that his wife buried something deep inside her and never let it out. What was he referring to?

Answer: She buried the truth that she was living in a dream. She'd chosen to make the dream life her real life. She did it by hiding the totem (which is what they use to distinguish reality from dream) in a safe box.

Garlonuss

3rd Aug 2011

Superman II (1980)

Question: Can someone explain to me what exactly was the explanation for the Superman logo projectile that he throws off his chest towards the end? that just seemed like an incredible plot hole and totally unexplainable as Superman's suit is never shown to have any powers in this film series.

Eyexpress333

Chosen answer: It's not a plot hole. It's just a power we've never seen before or since. However, in the history of Superman (like in the old TV show and such) it's a common thing for Superman to suddenly have a power we'd never been told about then never see again. It's weak story telling, but it's not a plot hole.

Garlonuss

Answer: The cellophane S is not a power of Superman's. It was created by the technology in the fortress of solitude. The same goes for the holograms.

Question: This just interests me, but when Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, and he has to go and join the champions, why is Dumbledore angry with him? There's no way Harry could have submitted his own name because he's not of age yet, and he is not educated enough to over-ride Dumbledore's Age-Line spell or fool the Goblet into accepting him, and there's no way Hermione would have helped him because she's too moral about using magic for the wrong reasons; Dumbledore should know both these things already if he is such an intelligent and knowledgeable wizard.

Answer: Quite simply, the first assumption anyone would have would be that, however the name got in there, it was because Harry wanted to circumvent the restriction. That's why, when Dumbledore comes back to see him a minute later, the first thing he did was grill Harry about how the name got in there. Harry hardly has a flawless record where school rules are concerned, and even Ron assumed he'd done it somehow.

Garlonuss

7th Jul 2011

Rango (2011)

Question: Why did Rango's eyes never work independently from each other like a normal Chameleon? I think it would have added a bit more humour to the movie.

Rayza

Chosen answer: For the same reason he can talk and wear clothes: To make him identifiable to the audience, especially kids. Independently working eyes would have been funny, but would work best as a side or supporting character than the main character. It's important for the audience to identify with the hero, so they make him as human as they need to.

Garlonuss

Question: In The Making Of The Lost World, there was an interview with one of the crew members. Someone mentioned a deleted scene when the men out in the long grass get attacked by raptors and some of them were hang-gliding off the cliff and get attacked by pteranodons. But in Jurassic Park III, all of the pteranodons were in the bird cage. The only pterosaurs that were free were the pterodactyls (which shows at the last scene in The Lost World). What was it that attacked the men? Were the pteranodons not in the bird cage yet?

blonddude207

Chosen answer: Some may have escaped, but that doesn't mean that all of them would necessarily have escaped. They're more likely to run into them in the giant cage than outside, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any outside the cage.

Garlonuss

20th Jun 2011

I, Robot (2004)

Question: Lannings wrote the three laws and built VIKI as his first robot, which leads to the conclusion that VIKI has been programmed with the three laws. If VIKI is programmed with those laws, how can she order robots to ignore humans orders and even kills them?

Friso94

Chosen answer: Viki is following what has been called the 0th law of robotics. It is an extrapolation of the other three with an application toward humanity as a whole rather than individual humans and is interpreted as "A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm". The idea being that she has now concluded that to fail to take action to prevent the self destruction of humanity itself would be a violation of that law. And being the 0th law, it supersedes all other laws, just as law 1 supersedes law 2 and law 2 supersedes law 3. Her actions may be regrettable or undesirable, but according to the 0th law, they are necessary to save humanity as a whole.

Garlonuss

Chosen answer: What exactly are you asking for here? I'm sure they can sense the heat, but "get hot" is a relative term. When I lived in Brazil for a couple of years, I'd be walking down the street, sweating my brains out while the kids on the side of the road would be complaining that it was too cold out for them. Yet we're both still just as human. Now, if Hades is a god -- god of the Underworld, no less, as you point out -- how are we supposed to know how hot is too hot for him?

Garlonuss

14th Mar 2011

Tangled (2010)

Question: I can't figure out how Rapunzel had the tiara to give back to Flynn in the boat scene, yet Mother Gothel found it in its hiding place after Rapunzel left the tower and gave it to the Stabbington brothers. Did I miss something important that explained this?

Answer: After tempting the brothers with the tiara, she got them to join up with her and she had access to the tiara again. Then, when she met up with Rapunzel in the forest, she gave it to her and told her to see if Flynn would still stick around if she gave it back to him.

Garlonuss

10th Mar 2011

Aladdin (1992)

Question: When Jasmine is pretending to be in love with Jafar, why does Jafar look shocked? It wouldn't make sense for him to be, since he wished for Jasmine to fall for him and as far as he's concerned, his wish has been granted.

Answer: Yes, but the genie hadn't done anything yet. Quite obviously hadn't done anything. Jafar was in the middle of 'persuading' the Genie when she suddenly had this change of heart.

Garlonuss

4th Mar 2011

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Question: If Malcolm is dead how does Cole's mother see him in the movie?

Answer: The answer is simple: she doesn't. If you watch the movie carefully, you'll note that the only one who actually ever acknowledges Malcolm's presence is Cole. For the rest of the movie, you only assume that everyone sees or acknowledges Malcolm simply because of the way the scenes are shot. When a scene starts by showing Malcolm sitting in a room with Cole's mother, we as a movie-going public have been trained to assume that means they have been talking. However, we never actually see that happen.

Garlonuss

Answer: It is established that ghosts "gloss over" evidence that they are dead. Malcolm probably has a general sense that he spoke with the mother, and would only realise he didn't if he deliberately thought about it or if Cole had pushed him to remember.

23rd Jan 2011

TRON: Legacy (2010)

Question: After Rinzler "destroys" Clu, Flynn suddenly develops the urge to switch disks with Quorra. Why? As far as he is concerned, Clu is dead. He has no reason to think otherwise.

Brad

Chosen answer: He doesn't know Clu is dead. And a little prudence never hurts. Flynn knows Clu and clearly it was entirely possible that Clu was still alive. If they all got back to the portal, it made no difference. If Clu showed up to stop them, Flynn knew what he had to do and needed to make sure that Sam had his disc to get out.

Garlonuss

24th Jan 2011

Farscape (1999)

Show generally

Question: Why is John's Farscape-1 module able to navigate wormholes where some other, more sophisticated craft, notably Peacekeeper Prowlers, cannot without liquifying passengers?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It's never explained. John mentions a theory that his less technologically developed craft simply interferes with the wormhole less than the "superior" Vipers, but they never make a concrete determination on that point. But we also have to take into account the fact that Moya traverses wormholes with no ill effect as well.

Garlonuss

Chosen answer: Yes, he developed a way to test for Cylons. He even figured out Boomer was a Cylon, so we know it works. But in a later episode, he specifically tells Head 6 that he hasn't been doing the testing that he claims to have done because he actually prefers not to know, because it only breeds paranoia and fear. His opinion of Cylons is, after all, not typical.

Garlonuss

Question: There is a scene where Sarah Connor is pulling out bullets from the back of the T800. My question is how did they achieve this effect? Rubber pliers was my first thought, but you cannot see any bending at all as they are forced in and twisted, plus as the pliers go in, you can see quite a depression in the skin of the T800, it looks rather rubbery and flexible. So the body looks like a fake, but it's Arnie's head on top, but it's difficult to tell. I would love an answer or opinion on this as it has got me stumped.

kazara1001

Chosen answer: They've artificially built out Arnold's back. This allows them to press the pliers into holes the prosthetic and have plenty of room before hitting his back. If you look carefully at the base of his neck and around his shoulders, you can see where they've blended the prosthetic into his normal skin. A good job, but not 100% perfect.

Garlonuss

28th Dec 2010

Minority Report (2002)

Question: There's a quote that I don't understand: "The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn't change the fact that it was going to happen." I immediately thought, "Yes, it does change the fact that it was going to happen." If Witwer hadn't put his hand there, it would have happened. However, he did, thus "changing the fact that it was going to happen," right? Isn't this the point of the whole movie: determinism is foolish and that different actions produce different consequences?

Answer: No, he didn't change the fact that it was going to happen. He prevented it from happening. But until he stopped it, it was going to happen. And no matter how many times you look back at that sequence, it was going to happen. Up until a point, it was going to happen. It was just prevented.

Garlonuss

Answer: The statement involves the idea of arresting people who did not commit the crime yet but are going to. Until the precogs tell someone to change things, the idea is that it will happen. If Anderton had rolled the ball and the other guy was not watching, it was going to fall. The only way to change it would have been for Anderton to say something. Things will happen unless the future is changed. Ultimately the idea is proven sketchy at the end at best.

oldbaldyone

28th Dec 2010

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Question: In the scene where Tony takes strawberries to the office, there is a cool 'thing' on the desk that doesn't stop turning. It looks like it's a holder with a metal stick on top, balanced by a loose stick on each end. Does anyone know what that thing is called? I can't find it on Google (but I'm probably using the wrong search strings).

Answer: It's a Swinging Sticks Kinetic Energy Sculpture.

Garlonuss

Question: When Marty and Doc are on the train at the end, and Clara shows up, Doc says that Clara will have to go with them to 1985. Why does Doc say that? Someone submitted a correction saying that Clara is better off in 1885 because she was supposed to die so staying in her own period is better than going to the future, so why would Doc suggest such a thing?

Answer: Simply because, believe it or not, it's hard for Doc to kill someone through inaction. He saved her life when she was supposed to die. But that doesn't mean it'd be easy for him to do nothing now and just let her die when he knows he can do something to save her. And by taking her to the future, he is likely thinking he can avoid any other complications that may arise from the fact that she is still alive when she's already supposed to have died.

Garlonuss

Answer: They literally had no choice but to take her with them! They had gone past the windmill so they didn't have enough track left to stop the train before it went over the ravine so that's not an option. Doc and Marty are not murderers, they are not just gonna leave her on the train so that she dies! Plus, let's say they didn't care what happens to Clara, you've still got a problem... Clara is in the cab, she has the controls! How long before she just starts pulling random levers, turning random valves etc whilst trying to work out how to stop the train? If the train slows down at all, they will not have enough time to get it back up to speed... Them, the train and the DeLorean would be at the bottom of the ravine.

Answer: At this point, Doc is already in love with Clara. He did not plan for her to be on the train, but once he saw her there, he definitely wasn't going to leave her to let her die a horrible death.

jshy7979

16th Mar 2010

Toy Story (1995)

Question: Pixar movies have always shown to have adult themes. Was Buzz drunk during the Mrs. Nesbit scene?

Answer: There wasn't anything for him to get drunk on. He was just wallowing in self pity and frankly, his world had just fallen apart, so it's understandable that he'd act a little loopy as a reaction.

Garlonuss

Answer: He was apparently drunk on Darjeeling tea - Woody takes the teapot away, saying he's had enough.

5th Mar 2010

General questions

I saw a movie when I was a kid in the early 80's, but I only remember a few parts, and I think it's a scary movie. Kids are in a school coatroom, when the school is closed. I also remember an angel or something at the end in a red dress, and there is a house on a beach side cliff that is lit on fire at the end. Does anyone know the name of this movie?

Answer: It sounds like you're describing Lady in White.

Garlonuss

12th Feb 2010

Moulin Rouge (2001)

Question: Children could have been a good extra to the film. You could have had maybe Christian or Satine having a younger sister or brother and the Duke having a niece or nephew both about thirteen or twelve and instead of Tolouse finding out about the duke killing Christian, the Duke's niece could have talked to Christian or Satine's sister and the Duke found out that his niece or nephew had told and done something to her and then Satine or Christian's sibling could have gone to find them and had to rush to try to save Satine and Christian from going away from each other entirely. Maybe they could have had a little love story too within Christian and Satine's. What do you think? Why couldn't children have been put in the film?

Answer: It simply didn't happen. Why SHOULD they have done it. Just because it COULD have happened, doesn't mean they made a big mistake by NOT doing it. It's like saying "I really liked Star Wars, but why couldn't they have made it about a little guy with hairy feet who wanted to destroy a ring?" That just wasn't the plot they went with. But, on a more practical level, there could have been people complaining about children present hanging out with 'ladies of the night'.

Garlonuss

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