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 does Charles look out of the window in the end of the movie, when he's teaching a class?

Answer: Presumably he is sensing the presence of Jean/Phoenix.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: "Club Mario" was reruns of the original show repackaged with new live action segments. It was a cheap way to present the old animated episodes as a new show. Club Mario was incredibly unpopular and eventually reruns of the original show with the Captain Lou Albano segments were aired in its place.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: I never saw it from the beginning. Does it actually show the home invasion, or is he just telling us about what happened?

Answer: The theater version shows the wife's rape and murder, but not the daughter's. When the little girl interrupts her mother's rape, Darby smiles and laughs as he tells Clyde and Ames, "I'll take care of her, kids like me." He then picks her up and carries her into another room as Clyde's wife stares at Clyde as she dies and that's when Clyde blacks out.

Answer: We see Clyde answer the door and immediately get assaulted, but we do not see his wife's rape, nor the murders of the wife and daughter.

Phaneron

Answer: He's in prison for killing Darby and Ames, though factually, since he hasn't even been charged with either murder, he should be in county lockup. This is a pretty glaring goof for a film that makes commentary on America's justice system.

Phaneron

Question: Who could they return the money to? The guy who paid Vincent was killed.

Rob245

Answer: The money would be returned to the police and used as evidence. Even though Beetroot is dead the police still need to do an investigation to close the case. Since the $4 million was used in a felony (conspiracy and theft), the money would be impounded by the city.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: In a nutshell, it's because the film's protagonist is a mentally disturbed killer, and certain groups in America thought the film's violence would lead to copycat behavior.

Phaneron

I never got this aspect of the controversy, if anything, it goes to show what can happen when mental illness goes untreated.

ctown28

I agree with you on that, but unfortunately, there's so many people, at least in the United States, that have no sense of nuance and are prone to knee-jerk reactions. They would rather condemn and blame different kinds of media for society's ills, rather than stop and look at the message something is trying to tell.

Phaneron

I read about the concern over possible copycat behavior in an on-line article; Phaneron's answer is correct.

KeyZOid

Answer: Because the left thought it would encourage violence and mocked liberal run cities.The right thought the same on violence, it seemingly justified a mentally ill guy's actions, that it made white businessmen bad guys. Both sides in general only complained about Joker for attention.

Rob245

Answer: I watched the clip. Hermione does not appear to be smiling, though if she is, she is probably reacting to Ron's usual hyperbolic reaction to many situations. Hermione had said his leg looked "painful," so Ron then exaggerates, saying they might have to "chop it," as a means to elicit more sympathy. Both know the injury is not that serious.

raywest

Answer: Based on the way Hermoine's head is positioned in the shot, it's kind of hard to tell. Though a closer look will show that she does smile a bit after Ron says "They might chop it", just before the shot cuts. She likely found Ron's belief that he might lose his leg to be somewhat amusing. In the following shot, when Harry approaches Sirius, Hermoine can be heard off-screen saying "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will fix it in a heartbeat", so she must have thought he was worrying about it too much.

Casual Person

Question: If Magneto didn't kill Shaw, what would they have done? It seems like killing him was the only possible way to stop him.

MikeH

Answer: Charles wanted to incapacitate Shaw and all he needed to do this was to get the helmet off. Once the helmet is off Charles could freeze Shaw and they could figure out a way to hold him. With no helmet Shaw is very little threat (if at all) to Charles. Erik kills a defenseless man unnecessarily.

BaconIsMyBFF

Actually Xavier says that he can only control this man for so long. Meaning he was struggling keeping him frozen like that. They didn't have forever. An option for Xavier could have been to release Shaw once he knew what Erik was going to do but that could cause Shaw to go nuclear on the spot and kill everyone.

lionhead

Yes, he could only hold him for so long but instead of taking the opportunity to incapacitate/capture him, Erik steals the helmet, gloats, and then slowly pushes a coin through his head.

BaconIsMyBFF

I'm not sure what the actual plan was. Charles freezing was the only thing preventing Shaw from killing everyone. Even if Erik manages to wrap Shaw into something, as soon as his mind is free he will be able to use his abilities. He killed him slowly, which was unnecessary, but killing him was the only option IMHO.

lionhead

Question: In the beginning of the movie, a car passes the school bus. The car had a huge cockroach on it. What kind of person would put a cockroach on their own car? It can't be just an accessory. Is there anyone who knows about that? What exactly is that for?

Bunch Son

Answer: The truck belongs to an exterminator. The big cockroach would just be a way to get noticed while driving around. It's the same truck the 3 kids find later.

Bishop73

Question: How did Ben manage to fool the fingerprint scanner?

Answer: He took Abigail's fingerprints from a glass that she was holding. When he put his thumb up against the fingerprint scanner, it was actually Abigail's fingerprint that was being scanned, so the scanner was tricked into thinking that Abigail was trying to enter the room and not Ben.

Casual Person

I think Ben would have a hard time fooling the fingerprint scanner since the scanner analyzes not only your fingerprint but your blood pressure, and body temperature.

Would his body temperature and blood pressure be different from Abigail's?

Brian Katcher

Question: In the scene, where Lenny informs Homer that they're giving away free donuts at the shop and that they're going very fast, why didn't Homer ask Lenny to save him some? If he did and Lenny agreed, Homer wouldn't have to hurry up nor dump silo in the lake, thus the dome situation could have been avoided.

Answer: Homer has been known not to make the smartest decisions, and the decisions he does make, he makes without fully thinking them through. Clearly he wanted to get some donuts as quickly as possible without thinking of any other ways, so he decided to ditch the silo in the lake as it would be the fastest way of getting it off his back, even if it's not the smartest. Also, putting that aside, he likely wanted his own pick of the donuts rather than have Lenny guess what he wanted.

Casual Person

Question: Are there canonically any Jedi with lightsabers that are yellow, orange or just plain white? Mace Windu got a distinguishing purple one at Samuel L Jackson's request, and pink ones I suppose aren't viewed to be intimidating enough.

dizzyd

Answer: Ahsoka Tano uses white lightsabers later in life: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ahsoka_Tano%27s_white_lightsabers, reflecting her choice not to affiliate with the Jedi or Sith. While yet to be confirmed, Rosario Dawson is strongly rumoured to be playing the character in season 2 of The Mandalorian, and we may well see her with white lightsabers in live action then.

Jon Sandys

Answer: In Clone Wars we see Yellow (also in episode IX), Yellow-Green, Light Blue, Black and White. In the canon videogames you even see Orange, Cyan and Magenta.

lionhead

Answer: I'm not sure if they ever did but there's an episode with flashbacks and all of Lois' pregnancies. When Lois was pregnant with Malcolm, Hal used to do early stimulation exercises for Reese, it's proven that children who were stimulated early get higher IQ's. There's a line Louis says to Hal in that episode, something like: "He calls your phone. I don't know who is this helping, but not Reese", and then they do a close up to her belly, implying that's how Malcolm got so smart. But turning back to which side, probably Hal's side cause his father is kind of rich and successful as is most of his family which is why they didn't like Hal marring Lois. Ida and Victor were just farmers back in their country.

Question: After Simon had helped all of the kids out of the bus when it was in the water he was taken to the hospital where he later dies. What did he die from? Was he sick or did his body just shut down?

Answer: I don't know if it was ever stated what Simon died of, but Simon - against the odds - lived much longer than the doctor thought he would. Simon continued to "outgrow his body" (internal organs became too large for his tiny body). It can be assumed that Simon contracted pneumonia or hypothermia from being in the frigid water when he rescued the children from the submerged bus. I think Simon - expected to die at a very young age - was staying alive until he could realise his purpose or "God's Plan" for him. To "believers", Simon was "made small" and practiced holding his breath underwater (seemingly for no apparent reason) so that he'd be able to save the kids on the bus... then, having fulfilled "his purpose", was called "home."

KeyZOid

Question: When the Mandarin shoots the guy on the TV broadcast, is it real or fake?

Answer: It was fake. I believe at one point later in the movie you see him shaking hands with the guy after shooting him, showing they staged it. Remember, he is an actor.

lionhead

Question: The boys are playing baseball and young Carol shows up in a wheelchair. Shakes says she is his sister, so why later in the film does she ask him why he never asked her out.

Answer: I believe you are confusing two characters and what person's sister. The girl in the wheelchair (can't remember her name offhand) was Hector Maldonado's sister. Hector was on the opposing stickball team. Carol (who was not in a wheelchair) was Michael's girlfriend, so Shakes saw her as "taken" and "off limits." (Shakes wouldn't steal his friend's girlfriend).

KeyZOid

Answer: He was startled for a brief second, then quickly realised, Bruce had gotten the remote pilot device fixed on the Bat-Hover craft.

Question: Surely the Federal government would realise Goldfinger's involvement once he tried selling them his gold? That and what does China promise him for creating economic chaos in the West?

Rob245

Answer: He wouldn't have to sell the gold. He would keep it and become the new Fort Knox. He'd become the richest man in the world, worth billions, back in the 1960's, it was unheard of.

Answer: Yes, the U.S. government would realise that Goldfinger was involved. The movie's plot is deliberately unbelievable and merely intended for entertainment, not reality. Audiences are expected to employ a "suspension of disbelief." China promised Goldfinger the nuclear bomb so that he could carry out his plan. They wanted to create economic chaos in the US while Goldfinger's own gold would become far more valuable.

raywest

Question: Did the real Lefty actually have "cancer of the prick", as was claimed in the movie?

Answer: Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero suffered from testicular cancer, as well as lung cancer.

Bishop73

Question: Is there any reason why this is M. Night Shyamalan's only film to not have a Blu-Ray release? Like rights issues or something of that matter? Seems very odd that of all movies, this is the only one not available in HD.

TedStixon

Answer: I don't know if there is one particular reason why The Village was not released on Blu-ray, but there are several factors that might help explain why not. I believe the movie had mixed reviews - some people liked it and other people did not. If a movie does not appear to be in high demand, it wouldn't make financial sense to release more on DVD or Blu-ray. If a movie already made a big profit ($200 million), perhaps it is best to move on to a new movie. Also, many people never bought any Blu-ray discs, primarily because they didn't think the higher costs were justified and/or they never bought a Blu-ray player. Blu-ray discs typically have a lot of "extras" that many people want to see. Perhaps there were few, if any, extras that could have been included, thereby reducing a Blu-ray's appeal. Even if none of the above is significant, there is a big factor that is/will be affecting all movies - discs in general are already obsolete, streaming has been taking over.

KeyZOid

This is unrelated to the movie itself, but many people are interested in the extras, such as commentary tracks, making of - documentaries: features streaming services can't provide.

Jukka Nurmi

At least one streaming service I know does support extras, Apple, and has since 2009.

Answer: True... but I'm saying that maybe they didn't have anything to add.

KeyZOid

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