Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: How did all the colonists get relocated to where the queen is? Do the aliens paralyze them when interacting with them? I can't imagine Hudson going there to be cocooned without struggling.

Answer: In the original script, yes the aliens have a barb at the end of their tails which is used to sting their prey and paralyze them. This was deemed unnecessary, however and the idea was dropped. We are shown an alien grabbing Dietrich and carrying her away and they do indeed just seem to strong-arm their victims and carry them, kicking and screaming the whole way. Bear in mind that a xenomorph is considerably stronger than an average human. It doesn't appear to be any more difficult for them to carry an unwilling human than it would be for a parent carrying a toddler throwing a tantrum.

BaconIsMyBFF

Could be even more than that, they could concuss their captives or release some sort of odour that causes sleepiness. Could be anything. The captives always wake up cocooned before being impregnated so they are anesthetized at some point. We know the facehuggers anesthetize their victims, so the fully grown xenomorphs must have still have the same chemical compound as well.

lionhead

The comic books and novels go into great detail regarding the chemical the facehuggers use to put people to sleep. It has a name and everything. This chemical is what causes some people to have nightmares while they are subdued. Curiously, I've never noticed them saying the adult xenomorph also uses the chemical but like you say, it stands to reason that they do. Why the movies and novels etc. ignore this element entirely is anyone's guess. It seems like an interesting element that has been consistently left out and, like you also say, people just seem to "wake up" after being cocooned but before they are impregnated so obviously they were put to sleep at some point.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: This is explained a bit more in the book. When Stanley and Zero made it to the top of God's Thumb, Stanley sang his families song to Zero. Zero was a descendant of Madame Zeroni, who had cursed the Yelnats family to bad luck when Elya, the Russian ancestor of Stanley, decided not to carry her up the mountain and sing the song to her, which would have rejuvenated her. By singing the song to Zero, Stanley had (by extension) sung to Zeroni, and removed the curse. Then, in the scene directly after, we see Stanley's father find a method of repairing shoes immediately, eliminating the requirements of harvesting a massive amount of resources when you could repair the shoe instantly. Stanley's dad marketed this technique and made a large amount of money quickly, enabling him to get a lawyer. The lawyer interviewed his classmates, who backed up Stanley's alibi, making him innocent.

Question: Spoiler: It's revealed that the first smaller predator was coming to bring a weapon to the humans to fight back against the bigger Predators. If this was the case, then why was it killing people when it first crash landed? It came across a completely different situation going on with soldiers taking out other humans, and it starts killing them, giving Quinn a chance to fight back and steal it's stuff. But why was it killing people to start with if it was bringing us a weapon to help?

Answer: The Predator had landed in the middle of a group of hostile Earth soldiers, who it judged would likely have just shot it immediately. It would have defended itself. And there's also the fact that it could just be for fun because, hey, old habits die hard.

Question: The movie Predator, is supposedly canon to only the first Predator film and never acknowledges the second film from even happening. Sort of a Superman Returns deal where it's a sequel to an earlier film, retconning the later films. This movie, however, acknowledges both of the first films but nothing about Predators is ever mentioned. But considering the premise of Predators, maybe just nobody in the film researching these aliens knows about the events of that film, however unlikely. So my question is this movie canon with all 3 previous films, or does it not count Predators?

Quantom X

Answer: Well, in the case of Predators, it was violent criminals, mercenaries and military being randomly kidnapped and dumped on an alien planet. From the perspective of humans, it would appear that the criminals and mercenaries had gone missing in a more mundane fashion or simply died. If the Predators were covert about it, the Predator researchers would not be suspicious at all. So it's entirely possible it's canon.

Answer: The second film is actually subtly acknowledged by Jake Busey playing a scientist named Keyes, implying that he is the son of Peter Keyes from the second film who was played by his father Gary.

Phaneron

Question: Why did they decapitate Wallace after he said "freedom"? I thought they implied that if he said "mercy", they'd give him a quick death, but if not, they'd continue to torture him. So what would they have done if he said "mercy"?

MikeH

Answer: In the end, they just gave up. They realised he was not going to say it before dying anyway, so they ended it. If he would have said "mercy" they would have done the same thing, but it didn't matter anymore. They couldn't break him.

lionhead

Question: While at the high school, after the witches arrive, Max says "This is your host, Boris Karloff Jr." Is that a real person or a name made up for the movie? With the witches thought to be burned alive, why did Binx snap at Allison and Max for opening the book. With the witches gone, he wouldn't have anything to worry about, right?

Brandon York

Answer: Boris Karloff was a real actor who is mostly famous for playing Frankenstein and The Mummy in the 1930's. He had many other roles in classic horror films of that era.The young host is naming himself after the actor. Binx may have been concerned that the witches were not truly gone, and therefore wanted to exert some caution. His concern was warranted.

raywest

The answer is true, but the question asked about Boris Karloff Jr, who didn't exist. Boris Karloff had only one child, a daughter named Sarah. As for Binx, he was angry about them opening the book and even states that nothing good could ever come from it. He was not only cautious about the sisters (and any concern he had there was valid), but he also knew that everything in the book was evil and didn't want to risk other issues it causes whether the sisters were involved or not.

dewinela

Question: The 3 of them escape the T-1000 after the mental hospital and end up in the desert. Arnold explains the history of Skynet to Sarah and one line of dialogue that has confused me for so many years is me is that he says Skynet became self aware at 2:14am Eastern time. That would be 11:14pm in Los Angeles. Why does the film imply the bombs were dropped during the late morning or early afternoon?

Richie

Answer: Skynet became self-aware at that time, but didn't launch the attack until the humans got scared and tried to pull the plug on Skynet.

Answer: The only indication of the time of the bombing was Sarah's nightmare, which was based on the story told to her by Kyle Reese. Despite this, even with Skynet becoming self-aware in the late evening / night, it doesn't mean it launched the missiles instantly. It may have chosen to wait before attacking.

Question: What happened to Terry, Tommy, Karp, Peter and Tammy?

Answer: Their absence is never explained so it can be assumed they either moved away, lost an interest in hockey, or couldn't participate for some other reason. Terry's brother Jesse is still on the team so he probably hasn't moved.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: In the scenes with the fighter jets flying besides the airliner, the fighters are depicted running with the afterburners (re-heat) on. This surely would not be the case for flying at a low speed of around Mach 0.8?

Answer: This is an error. The fighter jets depicted could easily keep pace with an airliner without the need for afterburners. However, this very well could be an intentional error. The sight of afterburners gives the audience a sense of high speed which heightens tension.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: How did Han and Chewie get off the desert planet at the end?

Answer: Or they could've hitched a ride with the Cloud Riders.

Answer: By the end of the movie, Han and Chewie have been left with some items of worth, plus their smarts and charm. We don't see how exactly but we can assume that's enough to get them into their next adventure.

Answer: I would classify this as the traditional movie serial "cliff hanger" ending where the audience is purposely left pondering what happens to the protagonists and must wait until the next installment to learn the outcome. Considering Solo underperformed at the box office, there is the possibility there may not be another independent Han Solo film. However, the characters would likely reappear in another stand-alone Star Wars film, thus answering how they escaped their situation.

raywest

Question: How long has it been since the last movie? It is said in the fake mission briefing in the beginning that Ethan has been tracking the Syndicate for "the past year", a mission he received at the end of the last movie. Yet I've also heard that the movies are set in the years they come out (2011, 2015, etc) In either case I find it hard to believe that the IMF has not received a new secretary yet if it has been well over a year since the last one died. At the end of Ghost Protocol the IMF is already up and running again. Why haven't they appointed a new head? And who is giving orders/missions in the absence of one? Who gave Hunt the mission to investigate the Syndicate at the end of GP for example?

Answer: The M:I films seem very careful not to show any specific dates (covering up Benji's opera tickets for example). The only thing I could see in this film was the newspaper Atlee has when he meets Ilsa was an actual Evening Standard issue from 16 June 2014. Regarding the IMF Secretary, there could have been one or more appointed since Ghost Protocol, we don't know, there just isn't one at the time of the hearing. Even if there hadn't been one since the Secretary died in Moscow, IMF would have had enough of a command structure to have acting or deputy directors assigning missions.

Sierra1

Question: In the opening of the movie, the Grimm brothers meet the elderly queen in her castle. Several people in the castle are crying and dressed in black. She herself is wearing a black veil, as though she is in mourning. Why? Who was supposed to have died? These things are never addressed in the script.

Answer: She's listed as Grande Dame in the credits and is addressed as "Your Majesty" by her servant and by Jacob Grimm. Many believe that the Grande Dame may be the fictionalized version of the real Marie Therese of France, a descendant of Henry II. It's in the last scene, when the carriage is leaving with the Grimm brothers, that we see in the overhead shot the Grande Dame's chateau is the very same royal palace where Prince Henry had resided. During the first scene, as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm enter the Grande Dame's chamber, when the camera pans slowly from right to left we see a man (behind the candles) who has been leaning over the Grande Dame at her right side, then a servant leans over at her left side announcing, "The Brothers Grimm," and just as she greets the brothers the two women dressed in black are seen standing nearby, one of whom is weepy. At the start of the next shot we see a man exiting in the background, and he may be the same man who had been leaning over the Grande Dame in the previous shot, so perhaps he is her doctor. After they've had tea, offscreen, we see the Grande Dame is sitting up in bed, and there are apothecary bottles on the bedside table. She herself is not dressed in black, she's wearing white/grey ruffled lace, with only one piece of black lace over her white lace cap. I don't get the impression that she's in mourning. It seems reasonable to infer that the Grande Dame is ill. This is strong motivation for her to have written to the Brothers Grimm. Her desire to tell the truth of her great-great grandparents' romance and life, so she could set the record straight about her great-great grandmother, before she herself is gone.

Super Grover

Answer: The woman is not a queen but a grande dame who tells the brothers Grimm that Danielle was her great-great-grandmother. It's unknown why she is dressed in black other than it appears she is in mourning for an unknown person.

raywest

Question: Right at the end, a former co-worker of Dick's drives alongside and says he's working for a great new company that trades in oil and gas. It's called Exron. Dick looks at him and says "oh" and the look he gave is one as if he knows something bad or it should have meaning (if that makes sense). What is the look on Dick's face for?

The_Iceman

Answer: He says he works for "Enron", a notorious company that was involved in a major fraud scandal.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When Tommy was shot, Henry said they shot him in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open casket. Why would they care about that?

MikeH

Answer: Family, and respect for the family, is deeply ingrained in Mafia culture (and in Sicilian culture). Denying Tommy a funeral wherein his family can pay their last respects (the purpose of the open casket) shows the extent to which Tommy angered and alienated his bosses and cohorts.

Question: C-3PO tells Han that he noticed earlier the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. Didn't he try to tell Han this earlier?

Answer: Tried to, yes. But C-3P0 is so annoying and talkative that they tend to ignore him, especially in high stress situations.

Quantom X

Question: At the end did they ever actually survive or did all those Z's on the island kill Kenneth and everyone else?

Answer: It's left ambiguous and for the audience to decide. We don't actually see what happens and there wasn't an official sequel. So maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

Quantom X

Show generally

Question: When Elena and Damon were turned into rippers they were confined because they fed on vampires. Why was Lily not a threat, yet she was a ripper and never fed on vampires.

Alana paulatte

Answer: Because Lily's humanity was not turned off as Elena and Stefan's were...therefore she had some control over her actions and had a conscience whereas the other two did not at the time.

Question: When Mark leaves from the city with his dad... how come the family all beat him to Midland? You see them meet him at the station.

Answer: The train could have multiple stops between their home in Chicago and their old home in Midland. Lots of trains stop at many different towns and cities to let people on and off so this train could have made stops as well.

Question: Why is it that when Selene was bitten by Viktor she didn't receive his memories, which would tell her he was the one who killed her family, but when Michael was bitten by Lucian he got his memories which told him about Sonia?

Answer: Firstly, Vampire Elders like Viktor have control over the memories they pass on. Secondly, Selene was not an immortal when bitten so she would not have seen any blood memory visions. Thirdly, it seems generally only the blood drinker sees the memories. So why did Michael see Lucian's memories? Could be because he was a descendent of Corvinus and had this latent ability, or he did ingest some Lycan blood (as Lucian had just been shot by Selene).

Sierra1

Question: Who is Maisey a clone of? I know her 'mother' died in a car crash but when she asked if her mother visited the park a long time ago, Lockwood answered with "a long time ago" and the camera pans out to a model of the original park.

Answer: Masie is a clone of Benjamin Lockwood's daughter. Benjamin's daughter did die in a car accident and when that happened, he wanted to clone her. But John Hammond was against the idea of cloning humans (which is why the partnership broke up). Once John Hammond died, Benjamin went ahead and cloned his daughter. Only, because of the amount of time that passed and his age, Benjamin tells people Masie is his granddaughter and the cover story is Masie's mother died in a car accident, which is why he's raising her. However, I do not know if Benjamin's actual daughter was also named Masie or if that's a new name. I got the impression that Benjamin's actual daughter died at a young age, and since he wanted to clone her right away, he kept the fact that his young daughter died a secret. So as far as most people knew, Benjamin's daughter grew up and had a child and then Benjamin tells people his (adult) daughter died in a car accident.

Bishop73

I think what they mean is if she was a character from the original movies somehow.

His daughter was not an earlier character in the other films. Lockwood is just reflecting on his late daughter, who he loved and misses. Like John Hammond's grandchildren, Lockwood's daughter likely visited the park at some point. His glancing at the original Jurassic Park model seems to be a reference to the cloning procedure that produced Maisie.

raywest

In the original movies, no, she's not a character (at least what I can recall). Benjamin Lockwood doesn't even appear in any of the original Jurassic Park trilogy films (I'm not familiar with the books enough to know if any Lockwoods appear in those stories though). In "Fallen Kingdom" it's implied Lockwood's daughter visited the island where Jurassic Park was built, meaning she would have done so prior to the events of the first "Jurassic Park" film.

Bishop73

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