Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: What is the significance of the phone call from China that Consul Han receives after his daughter leaves for school, when no one answers? (00:10:10)

sarvate3

Answer: I believe that they were confirming he was still there, possibly in an attempt to ensure he and he daughter were not together in the car to school. If he was present with her, then that would ruin the kidnapping and extortion situation.

Timothy Conard

Question: Why did Lee agree to come with Carter to try and rescue Soo Yung instead of going back to Hong Kong, during their conversation on the plane? They talked about Carter's father and his dislike of the police profession. Why did this change Lee's mind? (01:12:30 - 01:13:05)

sarvate3

Answer: Lee believed Carter was selfish and only cared about finding Soo Yung to further his own career. Carter explained that he was cynical about police work because his father was an excellent cop but was killed during a routine traffic stop. Hearing the story about how Carter's father died showed Lee why Carter acts the way he does. Lee was wrong to write Carter off and he recognizes that Carter really just wants a chance to prove himself. Carter shows Lee that he is willing to accept that there is more to police work than serving your own interests when he says "Prove me wrong." This is what changes Lee's mind.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why didn't Chris want the cure to spread in the end?

Answer: Just like the humans, he had a fear of becoming extinct.

Answer: The vampires were now everywhere, with very few humans left in their blood farms. Their food supply was dwindling and it was getting to the point that they were facing extinction by starvation. The only way to keep life going was for the vampire disease to be cured and everybody to turn back human.

Quantom X

Then why didn't he want it to happen?

He successfully created a substitute.

Question: Is there any information given about what happened to Maul's ship after his defeat on Naboo?

Bane91

Answer: According to information found on Star Wars Wookiepedia, Darth Maul's ship, known as a Scimitar, fell into the possession of Darth Sidious after he was defeated on Naboo. Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Scimitar.

Casual Person

Say My Name - S5-E7

Question: Did Walt plan on killing Mike? If so, why? It seems like he just did it in a fit of rage, but then why did he take his gun?

MikeH

Answer: As you stated, it was in a fit of rage, he regretted it right afterwards.

Question: When Brian is about to be crucified, soldiers arrive with news of his release. The soldiers ask for Brian, and everybody shouts "I'm Brian." Is this a parody of the "I'm Spartacus" episode in the Kirk Douglas/Stanley Kubrick film of "Spartacus"? If so, would this support my feeling that Life Of Brian is primarily a parody of classical/biblical 'epic' films?

Rob Halliday

Answer: Actually, no, the primary goal of "Life of Brian" was not to parody biblical films. Terry Gilliam has stated that the "important" objective of the movie was "to offend a lot of people," particularly "Jews and Christians, because they're easy to push around." Gilliam further said that, at the same time, they were "very cautious not to offend Muslims, because they're the dangerous ones." Both Gilliam and John Cleese have also said that, while the Pythons took care to avoid blasphemy (not directly mocking Jesus of Nazareth, with whom the Pythons had no quarrel), they fully intended that the film be heretical (in defiance of Catholic Church doctrine and dogma). Make no mistake, "Life of Brian" is not supposed to be a lighthearted parody of biblical films; it's supposed to be a sharp stick in the eye to the Roman Catholic Church.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: The scene is a parody of the scene in "Spartacus" (although they are saying "I am Brian" for completely different reasons.) However, the film is meant to be a satire on religion itself and not a parody of epic films. The Pythons did a lot of research to try and accurately portray 1st century Judea, which is why it may look like a biblical epic, but I can't recall any biblical epics they parodied. At the time it was considered blasphemous, and not a parody, and banned in several areas in the UK and some countries. Although the Pythons argued it's not blasphemy but heresy.

Bishop73

Answer: You are indeed correct. It is a parody of the "Spartacus" scene but mostly of religion.

raywest

Perhaps not so much a parody of "Spartacus" as a tribute to Stanley Kubrick. Monty Python writer Terry Gilliam was very much a fan of Kubrick films and became friends with Kubrick in the 1980s. Gilliam claimed that Kubrick had even spoken with him about making a sequel to Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (with Gilliam as director). Chances are, the "Spartacus" allusion was part of Gilliam's contribution to the "Life of Brian" screenplay, a tip-o-the-hat to Stanley Kubrick.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: One of the boys, called Piggy, wears glasses. Piggy's glasses become an important, prized object, because the boys can use the lenses to refract the sun's rays, and thus start fires. It is fairly well established, that, on a hot day, in bright sunshine, one can focus the sun's rays through a magnifying glass to set light to combustible material. (I've done it myself, although it took me rather longer than the book or film suggested, and it only made a very small flame.) But could you use spectacles, that people wear to correct defective vision, to start a fire in this way? Surely, if this was possible, wouldn't it mean that when people who wear glasses went out in hot sunny weather, then they would burn their eyes?

Rob Halliday

Answer: The key factor there is the focus of the light over distance. The light coming through the glass is refracted and focused on a single point. But it's bent like a ribbon. There is a "sweet spot" so to say where you have to hold the magnifying glass or lens at just the right distance and angle from the object to focus the center point of the light on it. Typically, this means holding the glass out a good several inches or even a foot or so away from what you wish to ignite to get the focal point of the light on it. Someone wearing glasses has them pretty much right up to their face. And so the light can't reach a focal point. Also keep in mind that for focusing the light through a lens, it needs to be angled just right for the light to go through it at the optimal angle and focus. Usually this means facing the sun directly. Typically people don't look up directly at the sun, at least not for more than a second. Especially with glasses on.

Quantom X

Answer: Only convex magnifying lenses can be used to focus the sun's rays in such a way as to start a fire. A convex magnifying lens is bowed outwards on both sides. Such lenses are found in magnifying glasses, binoculars and cameras, for examples. Conventional spectacles to correct vision are convex on one side and concave (bowed inward) on the other side, and so cannot be used to start fires. If Piggy's glasses are used to start fires, then he is wearing convex magnifying lenses (which would only be useful for up-close reading purposes, and they would be utterly useless for any other vision correction) ; and, if indeed he is wearing truly convex magnifying lenses for some reason, then his retinas could certainly be damaged by even glancing at the sun.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Lenses for nearsightedness would not work, but they could be corrected for the purpose by filling their concave areas with clear water, which would make the whole object correctly refract sunlight.

dizzyd

That's a reported "survival" trick (placing a drop of clear water in the center of a concave lens so as to focus the sun's rays) ; but I've never had any success with it.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why did the T-1000 kill the officer in the beginning and steal his clothes? Later we see the uniform heal so we know he can create clothing.

brianjr0412

Answer: He didn't steal his clothes, but copied them. He can only copy things that he physically touches. He had to touch the cop to take on his look. Also since the cop was a witness to this ruthless killing machine, it needed to kill him to protect itself from being discovered too soon. The Terminator is an infiltration unit on an assassination mission to kill John Connor. As advanced as it is, it needs as little attention drawn to it as possible. Having the entire police force chasing him down would not be ideal for his goal to get Connor and would inevitably slow him down and risk allowing Connor a better chance of escape. The T 1000 also is an emotionless machine programmed by other machines that are intent on killing off all humans in the future. It doesn't value human life, and if anything has been programmed to regard them as a pest to be dealt with. The cop was a means to an ends and an obstacle to take out. As well, the cop did also posses a weapon, and was the T-1000's quickest way to get his hands on a gun.

Quantom X

Answer: While the T-1000 did kill the officer at the beginning (which is pretty much standard behavior for Terminators), it didn't steal the officer's clothes. It merely sampled the officer's appearance as soon as it touched him. However, it did steal the officer's firearm, because the T-1000 could not mimic complex mechanical objects or weapons (it could only mimic stabbing and cutting weapons).

Charles Austin Miller

Question: What does it mean when Bella's dad moves his hand in a circle around his head? (01:17:55)

Answer: Bella asks her dad to be nice to Edward. It looks like he was making a halo over his head, meaning he'll be an angel (he'll be nice to Edward).

Bishop73

Answer: He wasn't quick enough in that moment, having only obtained them a second ago. He has to close his hand or snap his fingers to do what he wanted to do, like stop stormbreaker. He didn't have time for that.

lionhead

Answer: It should be noted that compared to their comic book counterparts, the Infinity Stones are not quite as powerful. In the comics, a closed fist is not required to use the Stones. They respond to the will of the person wielding them. The Infinity Gauntlet is merely a means of housing them and giving whomever wields them a place on their person to keep them. In the comics, Thanos would be able to stop Stormbreaker with but a thought, but in the film, the Stones essentially need a moment to "charge up," and Stormbreaker's trajectory is working against them.

Phaneron

Answer: This is a fictional account of a real-life event and the people depicted in it. Frank Morris was a vicious and dangerous criminal who, played by movie-hero Clint Eastwood, is made into a sympathetic figure. The Wolf character, who was probably not real or highly fictionalized, is contrived solely to create conflict in the plot by making him Morris' enemy. It also shows the constant danger and abuse from other prisoners.

raywest

Answer: Here's a bit more detailed of an answer, after I had some more time to think about it. Remember that Anakin is still young, in his mid to late 20's approximate. He still had a ways to go till he reached the rank of Master on his own anyways, with the council being skeptical of him to begin with. His induction onto the Council was not something they wanted in the first place. Rather, it was Palpatine that appointed him as his representative on the Counsel.The Jedi had been growing to distrust Palpatine in this time and even Mace Windu stated that they could feel the Dark Side surrounds him. They didn't yet know he was secretly Sidious, but even still they had a growing concern about him and his ability to stay in office longer than intended as well as him reaching for more power. The Jedi allowed Anakin onto the Council because it was an opportunity for them... to use Anakin to spy on Palpatine. An assignment given to him off the record. They denied him the rank of Master for a number of reason. 1. His age. Again he's not even 30 yet and Obi-Wan even stated that to be on the Council at his age was unheard of. 2. They didn't trust him fully. He hadn't earned the respect and experience needed for the rank of Master yet. And there was the matter of Yoda sensing his future to be very clouded and unsure. Like Charlies said, his exceptionally high Midiclorian count and his unpredictability due to it was a high cause for concern. 3. It's likely they didn't intend to keep him on the Council. The war was close to ending, or so they hoped. The Separatist armies were dwindling and on the run. It looked like victory was a sure fire deal in the near future, as Count Dooku had been killed and they had traced the location of General Grievous. Once Grievous was dealt with, the war would pretty much be over at that point. They just feared that Palpatine might not relinquish his power at the end and needed someone close to him to keep an eye on him. Anakin was the only one among their ranks that could do that job due to his friendship with Palpatine. Which also that friendship was another red flag for them for Anakin. I believe that once the war was over and Palpatine finally removed from office now that things were settled, they did not intend to keep Anakin on the council any longer since he was an unwelcome semi-forced member in the first place. Allowing him to possibly earn his own way in the future and achieving the Rank of Master on his own right, if he could do it. So, basically, they didn't trust Anakin, he was too young, they needed him on the Council only temporarily, and intended to boot him off the Council and let him earn his own way back on his own after the dust had settled from the war. Just as we know... things didn't turn out that way.

Quantom X

Anakin was also acting very immature.

This is true. After he was put on the council he complained that it's not fair and not right.

Answer: He had not yet proven himself enough. Keep in mind he's still pretty young here, somewhere in his mid 20's. The Masters are older, more experienced and proven Jedi who are wise and have gained the respect. Also his closeness to the Chancellor made him a liability and they were not sure they could trust him to make decisions rationally when he was involved.

Quantom X

Answer: In "Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace," Qui-Gon Jinn discovers and reveals to the Jedi Council that 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker has the highest midichlorian reading ever recorded. Midichlorians, of course, are the microscopic lifeforms that allow Jedi and Sith alike to wield The Force. Anakin's midichlorians are off the chart, meaning that he has potential to be the strongest Jedi Master ever. Ever. That's why the Jedi Council approaches Anakin's training very, very cautiously. Rather than fast-tracking him to Jedi Master, the Council extends Anakin's apprenticeship to focus on his self-discipline, because they fear that this kid is a ticking bomb who could, potentially, flip to the Dark Side with catastrophic results (which is precisely what happens).

Charles Austin Miller

Keep in mind his age as well. Even Obi-Wan stated to him that to be on the council at his age has never been done before.

Quantom X

Answer: The only two ways for a Knight to achieve Masterhood, are for the Knight to successfully train a Padawan to Knighthood. The other is an extreme act of heroism, as determined by the Council. Then the Knight can be given a second set of trials more difficult than the first, pass them and achieve Masterhood. Anakin hasn't done either of those.

Question: Why does Art3mis seem surprised that she can't finish the race past King Kong for the first Easter egg? Isn't it widespread knowledge by then that nobody can get past that point (which is why there's barely anyone trying to complete the hunt anymore)?

Rosco

Answer: If it's widely known then they wouldn't do the race. They keep on trying and getting to the point with King Kong is all they know, somehow getting past him this time. Artemis, when she saw the jump, thought she could do it this time, but after Parzival saves her and tells her it can't be done she realises he is probably right and she wouldn't have made it.

lionhead

Answer: Maybe she thinks a motorcycle can do it because cars and trucks haven't been able to do it yet.

Question: Is there any real significance to the key around Beverly's neck that you see her wear throughout the film? I don't believe they ever really mentioned it and she is just seen fiddling with it a couple times. But she's never seen without it.

Quantom X

Answer: It's the key to her apartment. She wears it around her neck so she doesn't lose it.

Question: Why does Logan cave in to Xavier's request to stop and stay with the Munsons when he knows they are being tracked by deadly mercenaries?

Phaneron

Answer: Logan likely assumed that they were in the clear. The mercenaries were able to keep finding them because they were forcing Caliban to track them, but Logan thought that they had killed him. He had no idea that Caliban was still alive and was tracking them, so he guessed that they were out of their reach.

Casual Person

How would that account for the Reavers finding them earlier at the casino hotel, though? Wouldn't Logan have been under the assumption at that time as well that Caliban was dead?

Phaneron

Logan may have questioned how the Reavers found them in the casino hotel, but probably not too much to think of which methods specifically were used to find them, since he was mainly focused on getting out of the Reavers' reach. As the casino hotel was a more populated location, he likely took a gamble and guessed that the Munson household was a far safer place to lay low since the house was in a secluded location.

Casual Person

Answer: The media circus that would surround the discovery of a real life mermaid would threaten the girl's goal of trying to get Aquamarine and Raymond to fall in love. It's exactly what Cecilia tries to do when she discovers Aquamarine's secret.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: At the start of Rocky III he is the undisputed world heavyweight champion, who has successfully defended his title 10 times. I thought the point of the first Rocky film was that he was a 'no hoper' who gets a shot at the title. At the start of the first Rocky film he is an 'over-the-hill', outsider, still strong and hard hitting, but past his peak fitness, beginning to age and lose his speed. Rocky is a fictional character, but he still has a wikipedia entry, which says that he was 30 at the time of his fight with Apollo Creed, by which time his record is 44 wins and 20 losses. What is the possibility of a boxing outsider aged over 30 having a turnaround in his career and becoming a successful world champion?

Rob Halliday

Answer: I think the point was that Apollo Creed didn't take him seriously, that he wasn't a serious competitor for him, didn't train hard enough for the fight whilst Rocky fought every chance he got. His way of fighting, not giving up, good chin and deadly punches gives him the ability to got toe to toe and later beat Apollo Creed in Rocky II where Apollo trains way better but wastes time with a smear campaign and still can't beat Rocky's spirit and chin, next to that Rocky trains way better too and has a good mental focus in time for the fight. The later fights when he is champion, as Rocky's trainer Mickey explains, are not real competitors, just show fights to keep the money coming in and keep Rocky healthy. Clubber Lang is the first real competitor after Creed, and he nearly kills him.

lionhead

Question: At the very end, Preston tells Declan "Thank you for everything." To which Declan responds "Oh, thank you, Da." The subtitles even say that he says Da and capitalize the D in it. Why exactly did he say "da"? is that an Irish thing? I don't think he was trying to call him Dad right? and Da is Russian for Yes. And where it being the Russian yes kinda makes sense in that contexts... it does't really. So why did he say "Da" after the thank you? (01:58:35)

Quantom X

Answer: He does say Da - it's an Irish way of saying Dad.

The_Iceman

So the English word "Dad" but then the last D swallowed in the Irish accent. I hear him say dad, the last D quiet but not silent.

lionhead

Answer: Actually, I think he does say "Dad", jokingly referring to Preston looking out for him, protecting him like a father.

lionhead

Answer: Are we sure he wasn't talking about a DA as in Deputy Assistant as a forseen promotion? As we know he is a Special Agent in the movie, but after stating he is quite the hero for saving the First Lady's life perhaps a promotion is also coming.

But that's always pronounced as the initials DA.

Question: As there were not any real creatures and they were only Noah and the elders in suits, how did they make the monsters' growls / scary sounds?

Celldweller55

Answer: It was never revealed exactly how they did this. Much of this is just dubbed in movie sound effects added to make the "creatures" scarier and make it appear to the audience that they are real.

raywest

Answer: Ivy's father revealed to her before she left that they "created" the sounds. This implies they planted speakers with animal recordings in the woods and keep them playing on a loop.

Question: About Luther. Does Ethan tell him the whole truth between Langley and London? How else to explain their conversation about "not letting the list get out in the open"? As far as Luther knows they just stole the NOC List and are about to sell it to an arms dealer. He doesn't know Ethan doesn't intend to actually let Max have it. Unless Ethan let him in on the whole thing. In that case does he also know he won't get paid?

Answer: He does tell Luther, that's why he jams the transmission on the train. By this point the transaction was made. Luther doesn't want any of the agents to get killed because the list was leaked.

So he tells him the whole story off camera? That he only stole it to prove his innocence, etc.

Because Luther is a disavowed agent, but has a conscience and remains loyal to his country. When he realises via camera he has helped steal the NOC list, and says "mother of god", he understands the weight of the information. It sets up Luther's arc from disavowed criminal to reformed criminal working with the government on impossible missions to both of their benefit.

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