Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: When Sandy and Danny bump into each other after the pep rally, why did the rest of the T birds make angry looks towards Danny?

Answer: Because he dropped his tough guy attitude and sounded like a wimp. That's why they looked at him like that.

lartaker1975

Answer: Probably because Danny's attention has been diverted to Sandy rather than him hanging out with them.

raywest

Question: When the doves are released as Fiona and Shrek step out of the onion carriage the guy releasing them has very odd eyes - is there any reason behind this? (00:15:00 - 00:20:00)

Answer: He's a parody of the wall-eyed actor Marty Feldman, perhaps best known for his role as Igor in 'Young Frankenstein.'.

Brian Katcher

Question: What song is playing at the Blue Oyster Bar when Copeland and Blankes are forced to dance with the patrons? It's the one that has, what I think is a mambo like sound.

Answer: The song is called "El Bimbo" and was performed by Jean-Marc Dompierre and his Orchestra. It's a cover version, the song was originally produced by Bimbo Jet (a French group). This song is played in several other Police Academy films.

Bishop73

Question: Was the Soviet Union hockey team as good as the movie makes it out to be?

Answer: Yes. Prior to the 1980 Olympics, the Soviet Union's men's hockey team had won 5 out of the last 6 Olympics (taking 3rd in 1960). They also won the next 2 Olympics (plus the 1992 Olympics as part of the Unified Team). The 1980 team also consisted of at least 6 returning gold medalists and several world champions and future gold medalists.

Bishop73

Question: What character did the actor John Aprea play in the movie? The credits at the end lists him as 'The Killer', but who did he kill? He wasn't one of the two hit men at the hotel.

Answer: Notice: Aprea is credited as "Killer", not "The Killer." I think this confuses reviewers, as they assume he must be one of the hit men. However, the hit men are credited as "Phil" (Bill Hickman) and "Mike" (Paul Genge). Genge is much older than Aprea and Aprea does not look like the grey-haired hit man, as another contributor has pointed out already. There is no other killer in the plot. Perhaps Aprea's scenes were cut.

Answer: The doctor that alerts Bullitt that the grey-haired hitman is in the hospital looks like Aprea. He calls himself Dr. Kenner, and that character is uncredited. Maybe "Killer" was supposed to be "Kenner" in the credits?

Answer: Aprea portrays the Organization hood who shoots wildly at Johnny Ross as Ross' car careens out of the parking lot into and down the alley during his getaway in Chicago.

Answer: In a Bullitt movie clip on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) website, it identifies John Aprea as the killer who goes to the hospital to murder the witness. Bullitt chases him to the basement toward the end of the film.

raywest

The killer that Bullitt chases is Paul gange (listed in the credits in the role of "Mike") despite the TCM website. Aprea is listed in the movie's credits as the killer, but also lists gange as Mike. Look the name up on IMDB and you can see from his photo that he is the guy Bullitt chases. Why John Aprea - at least 20 years younger than the killer in the movie - is credited as the killer, I have no idea. And I have no idea where in the movie Aprea really appeara.

Question: How can Michael recognize Laurie as his younger sister since he wouldn't have seen her since she was only two years old?

Answer: There is a scene where Laurie dreams about meeting Michael as a young teen. It's unknown whether this is an actual memory of real events, but since nothing indicates otherwise, we could assume the he saw her at an older age when she looked closer to her 17-year-old self.

Show generally

Question: Why does Murdoch's bike not have a ring bell or horn? He is often seen cycling through the busy streets at high speed to arrive on a scene ASAP but never uses any sound warning apart from yelling occasionally - which looks pretty awkward for an official person.

Dangar

Answer: It's certainly a personal choice about using one, and probably similar to how some people refuse to wear a helmet or forego other safety equipment. Most bells and horns on bikes are not very loud and probably wouldn't be heard in busy traffic, making them mostly ineffective. Murdoch would likely still yell, even if he had a bell or horn.

raywest

Question: Why does the Game Boy Advance remake involve the bosses being differently battled, such as Queen B using Zingers, and have cameras as collectibles, which the SNES version does not have?

Answer: Because the game boy advance has high quality, they added cameras, which expanded the SNES version into the game boy advance version.

Question: Bullitt goes to little market and buys 6 Swanson TV dinners. What kind? And right before that he sniffs something near the doorway. The grocer says "fresh today." What did he sniff?

Answer: He sniffed green onions. He actually grabbed 7 dinners. The dinners were: on the left going down; Italian Style (lasagna), Meatloaf, and Turkey. On the right going down; Fillet of Haddock, Chinese Style (chow mein I believe), Swiss Steak, and Beef. The Beef was under the Swiss Steak that he grabbed when moving the dinners over to the left.

Bishop73

Question: They are found and removed from the patient's eye so easily. Why didn't they go in through the eye from the very beginning to begin with?

Answer: The miniaturized sub was injected into the man's carotid artery (neck) because it directly led to the brain and the blood clot. It was an unobstructed pathway taking the least amount of time for the sixty-minute mission. Exiting through the eye was done as an emergency escape route after the mission was sabotaged and the sub was destroyed. It was only easy to remove the crew once they exited the eye and were floating in the tears. Getting to and out the eye was difficult.

raywest

Question: In the surgery scenes, it actually appears to this nurse that the scrub nurse may be a real one. Is she?

Answer: No, she's played (uncredited) by Barbara Bosson, an actress who had an extensive TV career.

Answer: She was the wife of Steven Bochco. He created the TV Shows, Hill Street Blues, Doogie Howser, L.A. Law, N.Y.P.D. and countless other shows. All of which influenced TV programming today, with hard hitting stories, ripped from the headlines and subject matter.

Answer: The film was extensively shot on location in San Francisco, foregoing a sound stage for interior scenes, and was noted for depicting realistic police and medical procedures. The scene in the E.R. used real doctors and nurses as extras. The actress, Barbara Bosson, was likely coached by the medical staff.

raywest

Question: What happens right before the well blows up? Like almost like a premonition of what is about to happen?

Answer: I'm afraid you are going to have to be more specific. Several things happen before the well blows, several things that happen at once and are crucial to the well blowing out.

lionhead

Question: Is it really possible that the guards left Andy's cell completely unchecked after his deal with Norton? I mean, no all round inspections, structural maintenance or even repainting - anything that would have revealed his escape plan at once - for 20 straight years?

Dangar

Answer: The prison is known to be corrupt and thus maintenance would be at a bare minimum. Prison guards rarely actually go into the cells unless there is concrete information of a smuggled item etc. Andy was well liked by most of the inmates so no-one would really snitch on him. He was also working for Norton so his cell had a lot of things a prison cell should not have - books, the poster, the rock collection, a table etc. Red narrates that Andy worked for so long to escape, working in small increments, chipping away bit by bit and dumping the dirt outside. Guards, managers etc would change over 20 years and nothing happened that would warrant a renovation.

Answer: Well they probably did do inspections, but of the common things like the mattress and toilet. They don't check behind the poster, I think most try their best to ignore it. None of the guards expected he was making a hole behind it, since that's not possible, in their eyes. I hardly doubt they paint (or plaster) a cell that's occupied by an inmate. And the construction work is so expensive and time-consuming, they don't do structural maintenance unless it's really necessary (meaning when something falls off).

lionhead

Question: Why didn't the crew cut the pipe before the blowout occurred?

Answer: Simple answer: They couldn't. Long Answer: On Deepwater Horizon, after they screwed up completing the well and it started flowing uncontrollably, they tried the blind rams, then the pipe rams, and then the shear rams. None of them worked. The shear rams didn't work. Thus, they had a total, uncontrolled blowout and no way to stop the well from flowing.

Ssiscool

Question: Just an observation. There's 5 or 6 minutes of screen time between the initial shrinking of the sub / crew and the start of the 60-minute clock. Shouldn't those minutes have been included in the countdown?

Answer: I think the countdown began after the crew were injected into the patient's body.

No, the countdown started after the second shrink.

Answer: The sub was shrunk in stages, with the lab personnel performing different tasks at each step. The clock automatically reset after each step was completed and as the next shrink phase commenced. The final sixty-minute countdown began after the last shrinking stage and when the sub is injected into the scientist's body.

raywest

Question: A helmet that is built to withstand thousands of PSI can really be broken by a few slams with a fire extinguisher?

Dangar

Answer: The helmet is designed to withstand immense pressure that is equally distributed over its entire surface. Direct blunt-force impacts by a hard metal object like a fire extinguisher may compromise the structural integrity.

raywest

Question: How did Luther know where they stashed the money, and how did he blow through over $750,000 practically overnight?

Answer: I would also think Luther had found his "Retirement Fund" and was not going to give it up that easy, and had it hidden in a way that it was not going to be easily found, like he did, thanks to the not so crafty criminals who hid almost a million dollars in an air vent.

I agree with that answer. Bear in mind that if Luther could find the money easily, something he must have done as part of his job as the chief janitor of the building, he sure as hell wasn't going to make it easy for the next person to get it from him. And the amount, according to "Francheska" (Frankie), was "Over $75K and counting..." not $750K. There's a big difference.

Kahuru1

I thought it was "296,000 and counting."

Answer: Luther worked as the cleaner in the building where the girls hid the money in the air duct. He apparently just happened to come across it while cleaning. As to blowing through it, he may have been lying to them that it was all gone, but he had already bought some pretty expensive items. Something like a fancy sports car alone can cost $100,000 or more.

raywest

Raywest, I don't think he even admitted to having the money at all, except denying that he even knew anything about it before "Teshaun" (Tete) shot him from behind. That act alone rendered recovery of whatever was left almost impossible. Luther went to the grave with that secret.

Kahuru1

I thought they worked for him, so why would he be cleaning? Also, who cleans air vents in an office building?

Answer: The girls were certainly not the craftiest of criminals, certainly amateurs. You NEVER hide that kind of cash in an air vent - EVER. Unfortunately, in life, you take the exam and the lesson is learned after.

Kahuru1

Answer: I would say his death in Phantom Menace was more of a controversy. He was a fan favorite character from the movie, and his fight scene largely regarded as the best part of the movie. It was more he was brought back to please the Star Wars fans and few, if any, had problems with it.

Quantom X

Answer: Ezra rescued Ahsoka by pulling her through a portal into the World Between Worlds, but it looked like Vader was about to kill her when Ezra intervened.

Sierra1

Question: Where were the interior shots of the jail filmed?

Answer: Online information says "El Dorado" was filmed at the Old Tucson Studios located west of Tucson, AZ and also near the Suguaro National Park, as well as other outdoor locations in Arizona and Utah. Old Tucson was a complete recreation of a mid-1800s Old West town, which had over a hundred authentically-recreated western buildings, including a jail. There was also a film studio housed there. Hundreds of western movies and TV shows were filmed at the location. Most likely the jail scenes were filmed at the Tucson film studio and also at the replicated jail. The site also operated as an amusement park, but it has recently closed.

raywest

Answer: Paramount studios is the only building location listed at IMDB. Everything else is outdoor locations. Towns, ranches, horse trails and mountain terrain.

Answer: Paramount Studios. Look in IMDB.

There's 16 filming locations listed, how do you know Paramount Studios is where the interior of the jail scene was filmed? Nothing on IMDB suggested it.

Bishop73

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