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: A few cadets had a fight in the cafeteria. Wouldn't they be expelled from the academy?

JeffSteele

Answer: In the universe of the film, the rule seems to be that if a cadet initiates a fight, he or she will be expelled, while anyone else involved would not be (since they were merely defending themselves). That's why Blankes specifically goads Mahoney by saying "Go on, you throw the first punch," and when they are later brought before Harris, he simply asks, "Who threw the first punch? That's all I want to know."

Chosen answer: Not necessarily. They would likely face some sort of disciplinary review, and, if found responsible, receive sanctions ranging from a warning, probation, retraining, dismissal, and so on.

raywest

Answer: Harris finally got the chance to kick Mahoney out, so he didn't care about the others.

lartaker1975

Question: Was the atmosphere and splash landing as dramatic as shown in the movie?

Answer: Naturally the movie ramps up the drama, but it was a fairly accurate depiction. The radio blackout lasted a little longer than depicted in the film due to the shallow angle of the ship's reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Also, the first communication from the capsule was not from Jim Lovell and was from Jack Swiggert, who said, "Okay, Joe." The amount of condensation shown inside the capsule was also accurate.

raywest

Question: When exactly is the movie set? I mean what time frame.

Answer: 1886. The Statue of Liberty began being reassembled in April 1886 and was completed in October 1886.

Bishop73

Question: 1. How did Hook travel to London to kidnap Peter's children? 2. How is it Hook can know with certainty who Peter's kids are, but he doesn't know that Peter Banning is supposed to be Peter Pan? Wouldn't he have to have been following or spying on the family for some time know who the kids are in the first place? 3. How is Hook not able to find where the Lost Boys are hiding when Neverland is a single island?

Phaneron

Answer: 1) Though it is never fully explained, the mystical way Peter Pan would come and go from Never land. 2) It was Smee who was doing the spying. When Hook asked Smee, "This can't be my great and worthy foe?" Smee replied, "I have all the information here." He had a file of paper work on Peter. 3) Hook knew where the Lost Boys were, When Peter asked, what happened to the Never Tree. Tinkerbell said, "Hook burned it when you didn't come back." He considered the Lost Boys not worth the effort. It was Peter, he wanted.

Question: Couldn't Nigel have attempted to return the jewel himself instead of sending Dr. Bravestone and his associates to do it?

Answer: Nigel, being an NPC, doesn't have the skills necessary to get to the shrine. He knows the group does, and that's why he sends them.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: No, he couldn't. As the other answer indicated, Nigel is not a person, he's a character created by Jumanji, and his entire purpose in the world of Jumanji is simply to deliver instructions to the players and welcome them into the world. It would undermine the entire game for him to try to return the jewel himself.

TedStixon

It would be pretty pointless to send Dr. Bravestone and his associates to return the jewel, if Nigel attempted to the jewel himself.

Answer: Nigel might actually be being selfish "Van Pelt will kill anyone who has the jewel, so instead of sacrificing myself, since it's my fault he found it, I'll give it to you guys and put you in danger. Cheerio."

Question: Why are the Confederates in Mexico using the Confederate Battle flag and not the "official" Confederate Flag?

Noman

Answer: Because as far as they were concerned the battle was not over, the South would rise again.

Question: Why does the man at the beginning want to buy the house so badly? The movie never explains it.

Loudomvis

Answer: No, that is not the answer and nothing to support that conclusion.

Answer: For its real estate value, the house has a reputation for being haunted and Dylan McDermott, a city boy wanting to be a farm, would fail.

Question: How did Miss Milner know that it was Teddy who (unintentionally) asked her out on a date? She couldn't see him and he didn't introduce himself so I am very confused.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: She had a secret lust for him. She was the office (Sex and the City) Samantha Jones. Plus they were married in real life, so the joke was that he despised her, while she wanted him.

Question: At the end of the film, which Clint Eastwood is Dave McFly referring to when he tells Marty "Who are you supposed to be, Clint Eastwood? Was he referring to the real Clint Eastwood or to 1885 Clint Eastwood? (Marty's alias in 1885).

Answer: Since Marty is dressed the same way Clint's character in the spaghetti westerrns was, I pretty sure he was referring to the real Clint Eastwood.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: The joke is that Marty as Clint Eastwood has become a historical figure, known probably only in their town. His clothes are probably most remembered, so Dave thinks he is impersonating him.

lionhead

Question: Did I hear correctly that Jacob says "Seth will spell me in the morning" when he's telling Edward and Bella that he's staying with them overnight at the campsite that Edward set up to hide out during the fight? If that is correct, I've never heard that expression before.

Answer: It's a common expression. It means 'to take over'. So Seth will take over in protecting Bella in the morning for him.

Anastasios Anastasatos

Question: In the beginning, the journalist says "this is the first Starship Enterprise in thirty years without James T. Kirk in command." According to canon, the Enterprise-A was decommissioned in 2293, the same year the B was launched. Was she referring to Kirk's retirement in 2263?

Movie Nut

Answer: She was saying that Kirk had been captain of the Enterprise for around 30 years, so the reference to "the Enterprise without James T. Kirk in command" was referring to Christopher Pike's tenure as captain until 2265 (a bit less than 30 years but she was rounding up).

Sierra1

Question: Why doesn't King Candy just not have the race? He doesn't want Vanillope to race/win, so just cancel the race. Problem solved.

Answer: The film implies many times that video game characters have a strong desire to fill out their designed roles, sometimes at their own expense. Ralph constantly has to fight the urge to wreck things, Felix has a strong desire to fix things, Calhoun is obsessed with stopping the Cy-bugs, and the racers in Sugar Rush live to race. Vanellope not being allowed to race causes her a great deal of depression and self doubt. Turbo himself was so obsessed with racing that he couldn't cope with the idea of competing racing games and began to invade them when his game was unplugged. In short, King Candy holds the race because he and the Sugar Rush characters need to race.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: The race has to happen. When Ralph left the Fix-It Felix game, this led Mr. Litwak to believe the game was broken and placed an "Out Of Order" sign on the cabinet which would cause the game to be unplugged. If King Candy cancelled the race, when the kids try to play Sugar Rush and saw no racers, Mr. Litwak would assume the game was broken too and would also have to unplug it. The only way to make sure this doesn't happen is to let the race occur.

Answer: She doesn't believe him because when Howard arrives he tells the nurse that he is faking it, and just asks for a band aid to say he had a shot.

Ssiscool

Answer: Because prior to this, Howard was exhibiting no symptoms of a severe allergic reaction, and she was tired of them wasting her time. However, unbeknownst to her, Howard had in fact taken a bite of a peanut bar (having only faked doing so before, to distract Leonard), so when she sees his genuine reaction, she believes it.

Answer: He was intending to once again wish for world peace. This time he is writing down his wish in a specific and deliberate manner in order to avoid any technicalities, loopholes or misinterpretations the genie might cause, since his first attempt at wishing for world peace resulted in her removing everyone else besides Mulder from the face of the Earth. He stops because Scully convinces him that world peace is something that should be attained through effort and not magic, so he instead uses his final wish to set the genie free.

Phaneron

Question: At the beginning of the movie at the Circle K, how could the future versions of Bill and Ted know Rufus' name when Rufus never introduced himself to the present Bill and Ted?

Answer: Because future Bill and Ted said Rufus' name, so present Bill and Ted learned it. It is circular though since they knew because they knew it.

jimba

Question: Why wasn't the vampire army made in a big city? Mad Magazine pointed this out, surely they'd be noticed making one in a small town?

Rob245

Answer: Victoria's vampire army was created in Seattle. The Cullens began noticing news reports of people, including Riley Biers, disappearing there. The army then traveled to Forks, Washington to attack the Cullens. Mad Magazine is a parody and not beholden to strictly adhering to the plot.

raywest

Question: Why does that vampire group slaughter whole tourist groups? Doesn't this put their secrecy at risk?

Rob245

Answer: As the Volturi vampires have been doing this for some time, they apparently have a well-crafted means to make people disappear without it being traced to them. The local humans may even abet them in this, as there is a long-standing agreement that the residents are never hunted.

raywest

Question: With all the cars Jason Bourne crashed in and kept going, why haven't the airbags gone off?

Answer: This would have been an artistic choice by the filmmakers. Having airbags continually going off each time would have slowed the scene's action and pacing, lessening its dramatic impact. It's not realistic, but it's a movie, and it comes down to what makes for a more exciting story.

raywest

Answer: That they are bitter rivals, the gung ho general didn't like the young know it all kid telling him what to do and what he was doing wrong.

Answer: Yup.

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