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: What is the story behind Grizabella? Why do the other cats seem to hate her and shun her?

Answer: It's a bit vague, but when Grizabella was young, she left the other Jellicle cats, turning her back on them to live another life, thinking she was more glamorous than the others. Now that she is older and has fallen on hard times, she returns, wanting to rejoin the tribe. The other cats are resentful that she considered herself better than them, and they are put off by her shabby appearance, so do not want her back.

raywest

Answer: Dodge shot Ferriman, believing him to be dead. Ferriman was not dead, and he then killed Dodge. Ferriman then morphed into Dodge's form.

raywest

Answer: Aquaman does in fact have powers. It is a long running joke that Aquaman is not a useful member of the Justice League due to a seemingly useless set of powers.

Question: How would the train have been able to go back the same way with the ice on the lake cracking?

Answer: Because it's a magic train.

Question: I'm confused about the ending. When talking to the journalist, the journalist looks to his right and he sees a young Nemo running to the train. Eventually, Nemo chooses to be with neither of his parents. Did Nemo's extremely long life actually happen or, was he actually still a child deciding what to do at that point and he only imagined possible futures?

Answer: This film is mostly open up for interpretation but I understand it that young Nemo thought up older Nemo and it actually happened, maybe in an alternate universe. Don't forget that Nemo could remember the future so most of what he imagines is probably going to happen. Unfortunately he can't predict choice so he doesn't know which life happens so all of them happen at once and they don't happen as well because he chose to make no choice (Zugzwang). Hope that explained it.

Question: What made Cooper think that Amelia was in love with Edmunds? Cooper asks Amelia about Edmunds, she tells him about him but she never says anything to indicate that she's in love with him.

Answer: Cooper was able to read more into Brand's comments and her emotions than she openly stated. When he questioned T.A.R.S. (the robot) about any relationship between Brand and Edmund, T.A.R.S. declined to answer, citing a discretionary protocol, leading Cooper to believe there was something. Brand also pushed for the team to land on Edmund's planet even though evidence showed that Mann's was the better prospect. Cooper strung different clues together and was guessing, but when he questioned Brand, she answered honestly.

raywest

Question: Just because Cobb knows how Mal's totem works, how does this mean her totem no longer works for her? Is it because Mal doesn't trust Cobb not to manipulate the spinning of her totem when they're in the same dream together? Or is it because somebody could manipulate somebody else's totem in a dream by accident just because they know how it works?

Answer: Cobb placed a thought in her head that her world isn't real. He intended for this thought to be applied to the limbo world they created, but instead it was applied to the real world. She simply cannot get the idea out of her head that she is still dreaming when in reality, she is awake. Nothing Cobb can say or do can convince her she is wrong, because the one safeguard they have (totems) has been broken because Cobb knows how it works. She simply thinks Cobb is the one with the problem, can't or refuses to wake up, and thinks Cobb is manipulating her totem to make her think she is awake when she is not. We never actually find out if she was wrong or right either :).

oldbaldyone

Answer: In order for a totem to work a person has to be 100% sure it wasn't manipulated by anyone else. If someone else knew what made the totem special you could never be completely sure someone else wasn't manipulating it. The spinning top itself is a bad choice for a totem anyway, since anyone who sees it being used should instantly tell what makes it special. Think about it like this: if you had to keep valuable information locked away in a safe and had to be sure that nobody could ever sneak into the safe, even someone you know and love, you would want a secure combination for that safe that nobody else could guess. If your combination was your birthday, how could you ever be 100% sure that nobody would ever guess the combination? Could you ever be 100% certain that nobody has looked in the safe?

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Perhaps a weird question but why did Patty call the cops when she found out Dewey was posing as Ned? Wasn't that ridiculous since it didn't really seem like too much of a crime - as Dewey said to Patty "it's not like I murdered anybody"?

Answer: It's fraud at the end of the day. And in doing so he has put the kids at risk, and possibly ruined Ned's reputation.

Ssiscool

Answer: Donald Menken, the Vice President of Oscorp, framed Harry for covering up Max Dillon's accident and has him removed so he could take over the company. By the end of the movie, Oscorp would now be under his control.

Casual Person

But he was killed in a deleted scene.

Deleted scenes don't make for canon content - it has to involve a degree of guesswork. Some deleted scenes happen, we just didn't see them in the movie, others are movie ideas that were cut out precisely because they don't fit the movie as released, so didn't happen. No way to know which is which, and this is just a thought exercise anyway.

Jon Sandys

So this is possible that, at the end of this movie, Menken is still alive, right?

Answer: Bernadette is surprised at the thought that Sheldon could get married. Going against everything she knows.

Ssiscool

Question: What is the name of the instrumental track that plays where Akasha tells Lestat "I'd like you to kill her" and Jessie is turned into a vampire? It's beautiful but I don't know the title, and it's not on the original soundtrack.

Answer: There were two soundtracks for Queen of the Damned: one of rock songs by Jonathan Davis and others, and a score album by Richard Gibbs. The track you are talking about is "Long Live Jesse" from the score album.

Sierra1

Question: When Harry is packing his trunk at the end and Dumbledore is talking to him about setting the curtains on fire, does anyone know what is written on the inside of the lid of Harry's trunk?

Answer: It's hard to say what was written on the inside of the trunk. Sometimes they write the company that made the trunk so it might have had the manufacturer's name inside of it and maybe even the year that it was made as well. It seems like everyone at the school has very similar trunks so it may have his name written inside of it so as not to confuse it with anyone else's.

Answer: It looks like information for Harry's trunk in case it was ever found by someone. Probably had his phone number and address inside of it.

You wouldn't put that information on the inside.

lionhead

You would if you didn't want to display your personal information everywhere but also expected that if your trunk was lost, the finder would open it to see whose it was. Yes it is more practical to have an ID tag or similar in modern luggage but the Harry Potter stories are deliberately written as quaint and old fashioned.

You don't open luggage you find. Name of the owner is always on the outside.

lionhead

Sure you would. Presumably, it's very difficult to lose a trunk that big, given the modes of transport that Harry uses. Info on the inside would be a last resort.

Question: Just some questions about Charlie and Principal Newman: 1. So, just to double-check, Charlie defaces the school and gets into trouble because Principal Newman hates Christmas? 2. How does Charlie get over Principal Newman being his stepmom and do they get along in the end? 3. If the graffiti Charlie is trying to get rid of doesn't come off, how does he get it done or does he still have to do it after Principal Newman becomes Mrs. Claus? 4. In the end, is Charlie still on the naughty list?

Answer: 1. Yes. Charlie gets into trouble for defacing school property - his way of protesting Principal Newman's anti-Christmas policies. 2. That question was not addressed but it can be presumed Charlie accepted it and got over it. 3. Charlie tells his dad the graffiti won't come off, but he was just complaining how difficult the paint removal was. It can be surmised the paint was eventually removed (with difficulty and a lot of elbow grease). Yes, he still has to do it after Principal Newman becomes Mrs. Claus, as his dad would not allow the extreme vandalism Charlie did to slide. 4. Most likely Charlie was removed from the Naughty List because he repented, did a good deed by sacrificing a tooth to summon the Tooth Fairy to bring Principal Newman to the North Pole and was also cleaning up his vandalism against school property. After Christmas Day, he started with a clean slate and a new chance to be good for the next year.

Scott215

Question: Why does Masters torch some of his paintings? Is it a psychological compulsion? Do they not meet his standards?

Answer: Masters is a gifted, talented (yet eccentric), artist who captures his mood and feelings of the moment and puts them down in the form of paintings. He does need to sell them, if at all, as he makes enough money from his lucrative counterfeiting operation. He did not need or want those paintings anymore, because they represented past moods or feelings, so he burned them, which is part of his eccentricity.

Scott215

Question: Was "Dakota" really the secret word the money carrying horses trained to stop for?

Answer: In the movie, yes, it was. Historically, nobody knows as different teams of horses were most likely trained to respond to different code words. The code word "Dakota" was just an example the movie used to illustrate that code words were used for stagecoach deliveries, especially when the coaches were transporting high-value cargo.

Scott215

Answer: It's unlikely that code words were used like that in real life; horses don't understand "words", just sounds. Expecting a team of panicking runaway horses to respond to a separate code word that means stop, when their regular voice command for stop ("ho" or "whoa") is ineffective just doesn't make sense.

They weren't panicked runaway horses, as stated in the film, they were money carriers trained not to stop no matter what. Regular voice commands weren't effective because they weren't trained to obey them. The code word was the voice command. And horses can, in fact, be trained to respond to specific words, so it is entirely likely.

Question: How did Chester Copperpot expect to find the treasure without the map with its clues?

Answer: He was a professional treasure hunter who'd probably done years of research. He was on the right track, after all.

Brian Katcher

11001001 - S1-E15

Question: Since it takes two people (usually the captain and first officer) to arm and disarm the self-destruct sequence what would happen if one were killed and couldn't concur to disarm? I am supposing it would go to the next ranking officer but if they are the only ones on the ship (like in "11001001") what would happen then?

Answer: If one or both commanding officers were incapacitated in some way and unable to disarm the self-destruct, then presumably the ship would explode and they would be killed. That is the inherent risk in such a system. However, being as its a TV series, there is always some technical loophole that saves the ship.

raywest

Answer: It probably won't happen to a real hotel if it is built correctly.

Question: What is the last song from the end credits - the orchestral song during the concept artwork, not the "Problem (The Monster Remix)" song?

Answer: The last song I believe you're referring to was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. However, there are no official names for the scores he composed. It would just be something like "End Credit Suite."

Bishop73

Answer: I a monster.

Question: This follows on from the continuity mistake about Sister Ruth wearing makeup. Sister Ruth has been a nun, living under religious vows for many years. After the nuns start their mission in the Himalayas she becomes infatuated with English expatriate, Mr. Dean. Eventually she puts on a fashionable dress, assumes an attractive hairstyle, and even applies lipstick (at the time it was somewhat controversial for any woman to wear lipstick). She then tries to seduce Mr. Dean. Could a woman who has lived a life of religious self denial change into a convincingly steaming seductress?

Rob Halliday

Answer: There's no way of knowing. For the purpose of the movie's plot and to heighten the drama and underlying sensual passion, the Sister Ruth character was probably portrayed as being more sexually savvy than a lapsed nun normally would be. She may also have dated a lot as a teenager, watched many romantic movies, or read romance novels before becoming a nun. Also, not all nuns are sexually inexperienced before joining the church. Some enter when they're older, have previously been engaged, married, and so on.

raywest

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.