Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Not just this, but every cinema and television adaptation of the legend of The Man in the Iron Mask that I have seen, without exception, has always left me asking the same question. A man is locked up in a lonely prison where his face is hidden by an iron mask. The Three Musketeers or some similar swashbuckling heroes rescue him. He may have worn the iron mask for weeks, months, or even years. So why is it, that, when the iron mask is removed he always emerges clean shaven?

Rob Halliday

Answer: The mask would be periodically removed by the prisoner's attendants to shave his beard and cut his hair. Leaving it on permanently and letting his beard and hair grow endlessly would create physical and medical problems, possibly even suffocating him eventually. The goal was to keep him imprisoned for a long period of time, not to execute him.

raywest

But isn't he wearing the mask so that nobody will know who he is? If the prison staff keep removing the mask to shave him and cut his hair then they will all know exactly what he looks like, and they will be able to identify him. In many versions of the story he has to wear the mask so that nobody will recognise him as the king's twin brother. If the prison guards remove the mask won't they see how he resembles the king? Alternatively, if the prison guards already know that he is the king's twin brother, then why bother to mask his face?

Rob Halliday

Anyone who was guarding and/or attending to the prisoner would be loyal to the king, acting as his agents, and sworn to keep his secrets. Not doing so would be treason. They would likely have minimal knowledge of who this person was, nor would it matter to them. They may or may not notice any resemblance to the king. In the prisoner's disheveled and weakened conditioned, it would not be obvious that he is an identical twin. Also, few people in pre-mass media times, knew what royals looked like, probably only catching occasional glimpses of them from far away, if ever at all.

raywest

Answer: In the 1939 version of The Man in the Iron Mask starring Louis Hayword, when the mask is taken off, he does have a beard. Phillipe even asks Louis how long it will take for his (Louis') beard to grow once he is in the mask.

Answer: It is important to note that the video in question was obviously facetious in tone. However specifically regarding the fight on the beach, Daniel's fight with Bobby on the soccer field, and Daniel hosing Johnny down in the bathroom it could certainly be argued that Daniel either escalated the situation or directly instigated violent contact. Also of important note, the series Cobra Kai essentially lends credence to these arguments and paints Daniel as a much less honorable hero and Johnny as a much more sympathetic villain.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Like someone mentioned, that video was pretty much a joke. Daniel was never the bully and like others have mentioned in these q/as Johnny wasn't full bully either. Daniel did however have a temper and exacerbated the situations while Johnny let himself be egged on by Dutch and Kreese. In the Cobra Kai show, Johnny did also exaggerate to Miguel and the other Cobra's and even himself that Daniel was the bully, but he was just deluding himself. And you can see by his expressions that he knew he was lying. If you go back to the beach scene you will see Johnny was being an abusive d**k to Ali and Daniel was the only one that stood up for her. Johnny ripped her stereo out of her hands, broke it and got in her face. Yeah she got right back in his face, but this is when he, as the wrong party should have backed down. He did not so Daniel stepped in. If No One stepped in to help her, they would have been all disgraceful in my eyes. The show and movie are pretty nuanced and quite deep.

Answer: It appears that way at certain times throughout the film, Daniel tends to instigate fights such as getting involved between Johnny and Ali's fight on the beach, and spraying Johnny with the hose in the bathroom. Of course Johnny summed it up when he said to Daniel "You couldn't leave well enough alone."

Answer: Because the part of House was written as an American and the part of Chase wasn't.

Greg Dwyer

Answer: A number of reasons. Ali's friends are rich snobs who look down on Daniel because is an outsider; he and his mother do not have money; they live in a modest apartment; Daniel's mother drives an old car and she has to drive him and Ali for their date, etc.

raywest

Question: When David touches the guy in the stadium he feels that he is carrying a gun but when he actually checks him he doesn't find one. Why?

Answer: I believe you are confusing the man with the gun with the man with the drugs. The man with the gun is never searched because he steps out of line and walks away. The man with the drugs (who is played by director M. Night Shyamalan) is searched for drugs, but David doesn't find any. Either he had the drugs in the stadium at a previous game or he sold/passed them along to someone else before David bumped into him.

Phaneron

Question: Have the filmmakers offered any explanation as to why they used CGI for Wolverine's claws in the bathroom scene? As has been pointed out numerous times, the CGI is very poor. Given that the previous three X-Men films used practical claws that looked just fine, this seemed like a very impractical thing to do, especially considering the extra time and money going with CGI would require.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: While it's not a definitive answer, the practical claws were still dangerous and several stunt people, and Hugh Jackman himself, have been injured during filming of the X-Men films. I don't know if they simply wanted to try to be safer or if there was a request made. Plus, the other films still used CGI claws for certain scenes, so perhaps they thought they could pull it off. It should be noted that Hugh Jackman went back to practical claws during filming of The Wolverine.

Bishop73

Question: Has there ever been an explanation as to why the number "57" appears throughout the film? The number appears specifically three times: Ripley was floating in space for 57 years, the sentry guns have a model number of 571, and 157 colonists were killed. It just seems like the number comes up too many times to be a coincidence.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: I have done some research looking into this, and I can't find anything about it. Only stuff talking about her being asleep for 57 years. I believe the other two occurrences are in fact coincidence. If it was meant to signify anything, it would likely have appeared more and as its own number of 57. Not part of 571 or 157.

Quantom X

Show generally

Question: Karl bought Susan a new house, when she was living in a trailer. When did she move back to the old one? because when she and Mike were moving out she said that Julie was growing up in this house (which she wasn't).

Answer: Susan didn't end up accepting Karl's offer to buy her a new house, and she stayed in the trailer until her house was finished being rebuilt.

Madiking

Question: In the scene with the hotel clerk, where someone (presumably Linus) calls and informs him that Julia Roberts is coming, why does the clerk roll his eyes and say "we are happy she would consider us again", or something to that effect, and then announces in Italian to the other two clerks that "Julia Roberts is coming" Is this a reference to another movie Julia was in or did she have an incident in Rome in the past?

Answer: It had always been a rumour that Julia Roberts likes to have a big deal made of her being somewhere. It is actually the opposite, so they poked fun at it.

Question: If the Wolf, the Ape, and the Croc were all exposed to the chemical around the same time, then why is it that the Croc grew to almost triple the size of the other two by the time they hit the city? The ape is bigger than the croc at normal sizes and the wolf is more or less the same size. So why did the croc get that much bigger than the other two?

Quantom X

Answer: Perhaps the chemical has different effects on the animals that it is being exposed to, and the crocodile was mutated into a much bigger size than the gorilla and wolf. I don't think the movie is really expecting anyone to question this, but is really just done to give the protagonists an opponent to face.

Casual Person

Pingpong Rescue - S2-E9

Question: Tory, and the other guys working with him pop most of the balloons, and release only a few. Why not release the entire bunch of balloons they made?

Answer: Because releasing helium balloons is dangerous to wildlife who eat the balloons once they have landed and deflated or popped. Releasing all those balloons would be a major risk.

Ssiscool

I thought it was because a plane might run into them.

Question: What exactly did that Police Officer mean when he said to Miss Hannigan "Look what I found under a paving stone"?

Answer: Paving stone is just a description of the City's street pavement, like the Lower East Side's Belgian block pavers or even cobblestones. It's pretty much similar to saying "Look what I found under a rock" and both are uncomplimentary to Annie.

Super Grover

Question: Why was Evan interviewed separately from the other "survivors"? Why is he so special; I thought all he did was win the lottery?

Answer: You thought correctly. He did only win the lottery. We only see Evan interviewed separately. It's just possible that he was last to be interviewed. Kimberly and the others were being babysat by Officer Burke, so it's likely they were interviewed before Evan. I think that all or any witness would be interviewed separately whatever the circumstances.

Alan Keddie

Answer: Right before Barney and Andy walk into the courthouse to meet Governor Ed, his chauffeur (played by Rance Howard) is standing beside the Governor's car. In the next shot inside the courthouse, when Governor Ed shakes Barney's hand, I'm presuming the young man with the Governor is his aide or personal assistant. The young man is carrying an attache case which likely belongs to the Governor, and earlier the Governor told Andy that he had some business in the vicinity.

Super Grover

Answer: I heard that that man was also Ron Howard's real father. Is that true?

Yes. The governor's chauffeur was played by Rance Howard (Ron Howard's father).

Answer: He was jealous that Molly was still alive and Candice was dead.

I think this was because Molly witnessed the killing, and he didn't want to go to jail.

Answer: I think that by this point Peter is too far gone to be thinking rationally or to be reasoned with. And as he says himself Molly witnessed the murdered of a federal agent, so she's got to die. And maybe Peter was just making damn sure that he was safe from Death. I mean, he's already murdered one innocent human being, so what's two more?

Alan Keddie

Question: Why does Laurie drop off mail (that her father gave her) to the Myers house, which is abandoned? Why bring mail to an abandoned house?

rainbowriot

Answer: Laurie's father, Mason Strode, is a realtor who owns Strode Real Estate, and there's a realty sign post in the front yard of the old Myers house. Mason tells Laurie, "They're coming by to look at it later," so we know he's talking about people interested in buying the old property. When Michael sniffs the envelope we see the Strode Real Estate logo, and it presumably contains realtor's paperwork which is pertinent to the sale of the house, and is meant for the people who will be coming by later.

Super Grover

Question: Was I the only person to be struck quite forcefully (metaphorically speaking) by the contrast between Julie Andrews' portrayal of Mary Poppins, as the ever-smiling, cheerful, friendly, vivacious character, who melts everybody with her charm, which seemed wholly at odds with PL Travers' portrayal of Mary Poppins as acerbic, dour, and cynical, who always seems to get her way by utter, overwhelming arrogance?

Rob Halliday

Answer: Travers, herself, was pretty much the model for the original Mary Poppins: an inflexible authoritarian who insisted on advising and reviewing nearly every aspect of the film's production. Which is why Disney had such a hell of a time securing the rights and molding Travers' story into a lighthearted romp.

Charles Austin Miller

Mary Poppins may somewhat resemble P.L. Travers, but her great-aunt, Helen Morehead, is largely considered to be the inspiration for the character. Travers' mother moved in with her aunts after P.L.'s father died when she was a young girl. The aunt would often say, "Spit spot, into bed."

raywest

Some aspects of Mary Poppins were based on Travers' great-aunt (the more positive aspects that Travers remembered from childhood) ; but the overall character was Travers herself.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: No doubt many fans of the books and P.L. Travers agreed with your assessment. However, it was 1964 and Travers' book was heavily "Disneyfied," meaning they imprinted their particular syrupy, family-oriented wholesome stamp on the project, watering down Poppins' dour personality. Travers was appalled by it and would never allow another of her books to be made into a movie. There is a remake in the works, and, hopefully, the current Disney heads will give it a darker tone.

raywest

Question: When the guys are getting ready to go into town, one of them says about the sarge "as short as he is he's out of here in 30 days." Someone also said "anyone as short as Brownie shouldn't have been out there". What do they mean by short?

The_Iceman

Answer: "Short" in this context is military slang for someone whose tour of duty is coming close to an end. It's a derivative of "short-timer."

BaconIsMyBFF

Canadian Road Trip - S3-E23

Question: Wisconsin has no land border with Canada. The nearest crossings from a fictional town near Sheboygan would be Sault Ste Marie, MI or Grand Portage, MN, both of which would take well over a day round trip, so just exactly where did the boys go to Canada from?

Answer: The show's universe actually has Point Place as a suburb of Green Bay, which is further north than Sheboygan. Still, quite a drive, roughly eight hours, to the nearest Canadian land border (as you rightly say, it would be in Grand Portage). Obviously the show's creators were hoping no one would check...the border crossing the boys use is left deliberately vague, and is just a plot device rather than a faithful depiction of Wisconsin geography.

I live in Sault Ste Marie, MI it about 5 hours to Green Bay, one way. Totally doable in half a day round trip.

Answer: It should be noted that while a trip across the Canadian border from Wisconsin would take a while, it certainly wouldn't take more than 12 hours to get there. From Green Bay to Sault Ste Marie, one is less than 300 miles away and would take less than 6 hours to get there. However, as stated, where in Canada they are is never said and very vague. In fact, when you see them at the border, there's a sign behind them with different cities and their distances (Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Sault Ste Marie). However, the distances don't seem to match any border crossing and Sault Ste Marie is 780 km away, which would put them at a Saskatchewan/Montana border crossing.

Bishop73

Answer: No, he did not. He is seen getting off the bus with a suitcase, so he must have not been home for a few days so there is no way he could have known.

Bowling255

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