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: Why was this movie a Universal Studios movie, when the others were DreamWorks?

Answer: Universal Pictures (which is owned by NBCUniversial) bought DreamWorks Animation in 2016. However, this film is still a DWA production, it was just now distributed by Universal Pictures. All films have been produced by DWA, but they all used different distribution companies.

Bishop73

Answer: Since...always. Depends entirely on the balance of earnings / expenses in the couple. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-women-are-paying-alimonythat-includes-supporting-their-exs-porn-habit-2018-05-23.

Jon Sandys

Question: I may have forgotten this but how come in all the incarnations of Myers he never speaks? There some reason, maybe it was to make him seem less human, maybe seem even more spooky?

Rob245

Answer: In a meta "behind the scenes" context, Michael was more or less intended to basically be the pure, simple personification of evil. He's basically the closest thing there could be to a "real life boogeyman." Choosing not to have him speak was a way for the filmmakers to keep his evil "pure" and simple. He has no real personality or motivation - he simply does evil things for the sake of doing them. His actions speak for him, so to speak. It is also arguably frightening to imagine why someone who could speak would choose not to. In terms of the movies themselves, it's never really 100% explained. It's implied that he stopped speaking and basically lost all traces of humanity after killing his sister. The closest we get to any sort-of direct explanation is in the 2018 sequel that "Halloween" creator John Carpenter approved and produced, in which Dr. Sartain clarifies that Michael can speak, but simply chooses not to for reasons unknown.

TedStixon

Question: If the bus driver saw Dana choking Roy on the bus, why didn't she say or do anything about it? Also, if Roy got in trouble for breaking Dana's nose, why didn't Dana himself get in trouble for choking Roy?

Answer: A straightforward answer is because these events happened in the context of a movie and the writer simply did not have the bus driver respond or Dana get in trouble. Only the writer could tell you why. If these events happened in the real world, there are several possible answers. The bus driver's job description may not have a provision to discipline students. Her primary duty is driving the bus in a safe manner to get the kids home safely. A driver must watch the road and traffic, not passengers. Her quick glance in the rear view mirror would not enable her to see all that transpired. To take action would involve stopping the bus and getting off schedule; the kids would get home late and their parents would be worried waiting for the bus. Maybe she just didn't want to get involved. She could get injured if she tried to intervene. Bus drivers might get fired if they hurt a student even when breaking up a fight. She may have thought the kids need to stand up for themselves.

KeyZOid

Why didn't the bully get in trouble? Maybe because the adults/ school officials thought the broken nose was enough punishment for his behavior. Maybe the bully is a persistent problem and trying to discipline him would only make matters worse. Maybe his parents are just as bad or worse and the school didn't want to deal with them. Maybe no-one reported that the bully started it and was choking Roy because they were afraid of him and didn't want him to retaliate. The bully looked like the victim, not offender. Maybe others thought the bully's home situation was awful and he already had a difficult life and a lot of stress. Maybe the bully has a psychiatric disorder and/or takes medication that increases his aggression. Maybe the adults also think the kids need to work out their differences amongst themselves. Maybe the bully is already under the supervision of the juvenile probation office and - one more offense - would be certified to the adult court and get even worse.

Question: Manny replaces the starter motor on the car Ray steals, and it works fine. Once the engine is running it doesn't need the starter motor, so how did all the cars suddenly stop if all the aliens did was fry the starters? Any cars already running wouldn't have been affected. Yes you could argue that it affected their ECU's, but not all cars have ECU's and some still rely on good old mechanical engineering.

Answer: I got the impression that all the cars had dead batteries. There are even some people who have their vehicle's hood raised and appear to be checking their batteries. Ray asked Manny, "What is it? They dead?" Manny replied, "All of them. Everything. Look at this. The starter's fried." Having dead batteries does not mean that all the cars had fried starters or bad solenoids. Conversely, having a fried starter does not necessarily mean that the battery is bad/dead. Since Manny was working on the vehicle, the vehicle was not running - this may have prevented the vehicle from also having a dead battery. Maybe the bad solenoid was not at all related to the attack - it was just the reason it was at the garage to get fixed. Once the solenoid was replaced, the car would now start because the battery was spared because the motor was not running during the attack. (I'm not sure if my answer makes sense; I never heard the word solenoid until I watched this movie!).

KeyZOid

Question: What was the whole thing of not wanting to turn in the $987,000 they found in the car because it would make them appear untrustworthy? Why would all cops distrust them for handing it in? I get that dirty cops would be annoyed but when they were counting it in the precinct, every cop was drawing them daggers.

The_Iceman

Answer: The idea is if cops wouldn't take a million dollars for themselves, free and clear without risk, they are impeccably honest. Therefore, they wouldn't accept bribes and probably not hold still for shakedowns or payoffs. They wouldn't cover up drug or weapon planting and would testify against crooked cops.

Show generally

Question: Is there any reason they can't introduce sand worms to other planets in the Duniverse, there to proliferate and produce a greater, more widely distributed quantity of the spice? The newborn worms are called sandtrout, by virtue of being more or less the size of such. Should be easy enough therefore to capture some, surround them with sand in the spaceship to imitate their homeworld, and take them to some other planet the Empire is willing to give up for any other use, then let them grow and produce spice? Much greater abundance, much surer supply (the proverbial eggs in one basket), much closer at hand for any other world in the Universe?

dizzyd

Answer: There could be a number of reasons: introducing non-native species can be devastating to an environment; the sandworms may only be able to survive in certain conditions that other planets lack; they may be unable to reproduce once introduced to a different environment; moving the number of worms needed to produce an adequate supply may be cost-prohibitive; it may be decades before the worms are old enough to produce the spice, the new environment might change the quality and chemical composition of the spice that is produced; political conflicts, and so on.

raywest

Answer: If Spice is even half as useful as the novel says, those are all trivial inconveniences compared to the payoff that would make it worth a try.

dizzyd

Next to the fact the unique conditions of Arrakis is what makes the spice melange (not just the worms, but also the planetary conditions) you have to also understand that having the spice production on one planet makes it much easier to control. Whoever controls the spice controls the universe. It wasn't until much later (hundreds of years after the death of the god emperor) they were able to replicate the spice, but before that they didn't even know how the spice was even made. A large reason for this is they had no AI (forbidden) to help analyze the spice melange.

lionhead

Fine, I accept the monopoly theory.

dizzyd

Question: How did the box get out of the cement in part 3 and into a pillar in part 4?

Answer: Not sure why you submitted this question for the eighth film in the series. But regardless, that's just a bit of what's called "retroactive continuity," which is a term for when a movie either changes or ignores things from previous films. Rather than having the box be in the cement floor, it was relocated to a cement pillar. This change was presumably just because the writer or director thought it would look more dramatic for it to be ripped out of a pillar as opposed to being just dug up from the floor.

TedStixon

Answer: Officially, the individual has been ordered to attend, failing to could be interpreted as either, Failure to follow orders, dereliction of duty, going AWOL, or even desertion. It would depend on the underlying reason as to why the person doesn't appear.

Question: When he was looking through the seating chart, how did Frank know that Boothe was James Carney at the presidential dinner?

The_Iceman

Answer: Frank had reviewed and was familiar with the list of the attendees since he was concerned about an attempt, and when he looked at the faxed list of new bank accounts, the name Carney jumped out at him.

jimba

Answer: John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln.

Not the question. "Booth" is just a pseudonym used by Mitch Leary (John Malkovich) at the beginning of the film, until Frank and the FBI figure out his real identity. Your answer is right insofar as that's why Leary called himself "Booth." But the question is, how did he immediately connect Leary with the name James Carney on the seating chart.

When he spoke with Sandy Riggs, the organizer of the event, Sandy Riggs said, "Be right back, Mr. Carney." Then when he read the name James Carney on the guest list, he made the connection.

Question: In the initial chase scene when Max secured the Semi for pulling the tanker, the driver of the car with the man in back firing the triple arrow cannon gets the snake dropped on him and fires the arrows into the back of the driver's seat. The arrows stop because of the padding. Am I mistaken, or did the arrows not go through enough to reach the driver?

Movie Nut

Answer: From what I saw in that scene, the arrows did penetrate through the padding into the driver, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

Scott215

Question: Why didn't Clint Eastwood shoot the radio operator with the silenced pistol rather than trying to sneak up to him to stab him?

Answer: Contrary to popular belief, a gun silencer (also called a suppressor) is noisier than depicted in many movies, whereas a knife is completely silent, assuming the victim dies instantly and does not cry out while struggling.

raywest

Answer: Most shows do flashbacks to show how things begin or what circumstances brought them to their current predicament. The modern episodes was to show how their legacies live on. Hercules changing his name to Kevin Sorbo and starring in a series about himself or Xena, her soul being reborn to continue her fight against evil.

Question: After defeating Mrs. Voorhees, why did Alice decide to sleep in a canoe? (I understand her being tired, but not why she slept there).

Answer: She was exhausted from fighting to stay alive. She collapsed in the boat.

Answer: Because she couldn't find a bed? So a canoe would be the next best thing.

ChristmasJonesfan

Question: There is something I don't understand about Arthur. Why is he so reluctant to be king of the undersea nation of Atlantis?

Answer: I agree with the other answer but would add that suddenly becoming the ruler of such a huge and diverse kingdom that he'd been detached from growing up and to then assume such an immense responsibility would be daunting. Being king means sacrificing your personal freedom in the service of others.

raywest

Answer: Because he felt abandoned, by both his mother and his people. He was considered the bastard of a human and mermaid, and, like an interracial couple, it was considered illegal and immoral. Why rule when you're not wanted?

Take It to the Limit - S2-E13

Question: I don't understand Lily's nervousness about impressing Dean in this episode - almost as if they have never been on a date. She already referred to him as her "boyfriend" in "Smoke on the Daughter", and they arranged a date in that episode. And he has been in her bedroom and brought her a Christmas present ("I Saw Daddy Hitting Santa Claus"). Why does this episode suddenly make it seem like they have never been on a date?

Answer: "Take It to the Limit", while aired as the 13th episode, was the 7th episode produced for the 2nd season (production code 207). "Smoke on the Daughter" was the 8th episode (208) and "I Saw Daddy Hitting Santa Clause" was the 10th episode (210) produced. Often shows air episodes out of production order for various reasons. If they had aired 210 in order, it would have aired on Jan 23rd instead of Dec 19th, hardly a good time to air a Christmas themed episode.

Bishop73

Answer: To my knowledge, "Rush Hour 3" is supposed to take place roughly 10 years after the first movie, given she's all grown up and is around 20/21 years old.

TedStixon

Answer: At the end of "Rush Hour 2", Isabella is heading to New York. Lee and Carter then decided to go to New York too. At the beginning of "Rush Hour 3", when Carter is talking to Lee, Carter says Lee is still mad at him because of what happened in New York. He then says, "It was 3 years ago." Lee brings up Isabella, indicating it was the same New York trip. This is the only indication the film takes place roughly 3 years after the first one, but just seems to be a mistake. When Geneviève takes off her wig and Carter thinks she's a man, he says, "I'm Brokeback Carter." "Brokeback Mountain" was a 2004 film, so more than 3 years have passed.

Bishop73

Question: Why does Doc send Marty back to September 2nd? Doc gets shot on the 7th, so this is a very short timetable to work with.

Answer: The letter that Marty received in 1955 was dated September 1st, 1885; sending Marty back any earlier than that date could potentially cause a time paradox, which was something Doc took great care to avoid throughout the majority of the film trilogy.

zendaddy621

Marty can go back anytime in the 8 months and tell Doc that he will be murdered and to send a letter that was dated September 1st.

Answer: No one expected that the DeLorean's fuel tank would end up becoming damaged. If it weren't for that, Doc and Marty would had been able to return back to 1985 immediately.

Rassdyt

Question: Would it really be possible to get a fingerprint off glass using the method Ben uses in the movie?

Answer: Simply put, yes, but that would be the easy part...it is doubtful that a simple ink impression would be able to fool a fingerprint scanner of the sophistication of the one at the National Archives. Most importantly, high-end scanners don't just read the print, they measure the ridges and minute imperfections, which a 2-D impression on a rubber glove wouldn't provide. Some even measure the user's pulse rate and can detect the difference between actual skin contact and "dead" tissue (e.g, a rubber glove). So, it's a mix of real technology (used often in law enforcement, etc.), and Hollywood magic to advance the plot.

Question: Why did Wendy just wave at Squints instead of getting up and walking over to the fence to talk to him?

Answer: She was the lifeguard on duty.

kayelbe

Answer: In addition to being on duty, girls/females during that time period were not likely (or as likely compared to now) to approach and/or initiate conversations boys/males.

KeyZOid

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