Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Why would Dr. Lanning's perfectly good house need to be demolished right after he "committed suicide?"

Corey Bayless

Chosen answer: It didn't. Destroying the house (and any potential evidence) was part of the cover up.

Question: Since I have never been in the military this is confusing. Does it make any sense that The President, a former fighter pilot, as well as General Grey would not know about Area 51? I find it hard to believe that Captain Steven Hiller would know about Area 51 but the 2 most powerful men in the U.S. would not.

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: Hiller didn't know what Area 51 was, he just knew there was a base nearby, because he flew over it in battle. Recall his exchange with Russell Casse in the desert when they were picking him & the alien up; Casse said there's no base on the map, Hiller said it's there, he just flew over it. The base isn't named at that point by either Casse or Hiller.

Question: In the scene where the Surprise is becalmed, at the very start as the camera zooms out it shows that the ship is flying a line of signal flags. What is the message that they are trying to send? I tried looking it up, but I didn't have any luck.

Answer: The signals that were contemporary to the setting of the film were Sir Admiral Home Popham's "Telegraphic Signals or Marine Vocabulary." However, it appears that there is no clear signal actually being sent. For reference see Nelson's signal of "England expects that every man will do his duty" during the Battle of Trafalgar. By Pope's coding, one is supposed to signal in groups of hoisted flags, beginning with a red/white diagonal signaling the start of a message, and a blue/yellow diagonal signaling the end. Individual flags stand for numerals and the groups of numerals match phrases or letters within Pope's codings. For example a lone "3" signal represents the letter "C" while a set of signals sending "416" stand for variations of "Instruct-ed-ing-ion-s." The best I can make from the film (the yellow colors of the flags appear to be washed out due to post-processing), is that they begin a signal then send "392" ended with a "substitute" flag. Possibly standing for "impossible-ility" while the section on the Main seems to indicate "602" or "part-ed-ing-ition" without a "Finished" flag. For reference here is a link to a scanned original copy of the 1803 Edition of the Codes: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433008120291;view=1up;seq=1 And a link to a PDF that has the 1806 version with drawings of the flags: http://3decks.pbworks.com/f/Admiral%2520Home%2520Popham%2520Telegraph%2520signal%2520book%2520Final%2520edition.pdf.

Question: Lupin said he recognised Harry because of the eyes, but apart from the eyes, Harry looks like his father. Shouldn't Lupin recognise him as the son of one of his best friends?

Answer: This is a plot hole. Harry is often told, "You look just like your father, except you have your mother's eyes." or some variation of that. Because of this, there really isn't a logical explanation as to why Lupin wouldn't immediately recognize Harry as his best friend's son.

Question: Why does Maggie's mother and sister call her Miriam?

Answer: Because Maggie's name was Mary Margaret Fitzgerald, Maggie for short. Her family was calling her "Mary M", with a thick Missouri accent.

Question: I noticed that during the whole film, when bullets hit the soldiers' bodies, dust comes out (even on a wet Omaha Beach). Why is that?

Answer: It is eiderdown that blows into the air when they get hit by a bullet. They used eiderdown because it was a very warm filling for their assault jackets. Eider is still rarely used in the manufacture of some sleeping pillows and quilts.

Answer: That was a mistake in the series.

Also, the episode is called 'Babies First Demon' and this alone tells us that it's Wyatt's first time in the field (so to speak) and as the sisters say, they've done a good job of clearing up their own magical messes so far. Nobody really knows how advanced Wyatt's powers are, or will become. That's why the cleaners appear, to nip things in the bud. The Cleaners didn't want to chance that the sisters could clean Wyatt's magic up, just incase they couldn't. Therefore intervening themselves, just in case.

Chosen answer: When the cleaners first surface in season 6 it is mentioned that usually the girls have been able to clean up their own messes (as seen in season 3 episode 22 when Phoebe turns back time thus concluding in the death of Prue).

Answer: Because they wanted them to fix their own mistakes.

Chosen answer: I think her head was in the hat box after he dug it up from the garden where the dog was digging under the marigolds.

You are correct that it was her head.

raywest

Question: Everybody seems to believe that the machines are not able or at least not willing to make use of the energy from the sunlight above the darkened sky. But I have some problems with that. Morpheus tells us about this when he is with Neo in the construct for the first time. But is Morpheus really 100% believable in that question? Isn't this just his version of the story? We can believe him that the humans darkened the sky (this is confirmed in Animatrix and visible on screen) and the machines created fields of humans as their source of power (he saw those fields himself). But maybe he's wrong? Could he really know for sure how much energy the machines need? Or that the machines don't use the energy from sunlight? Is there any point in the trilogy where the machines definitely do confirm this? For me it would make more sense for them to do so: using the humans would inevitably decimate the population with every generation. If we believe that the humans' "foods" are the liquidated dead this would hardly be enough for the whole lifespan of another human (and there's also energy drained from the machines). I don't say this wouldn't make sense for the machines, but sooner or later they will have to use another source of power if they want to live forever, so why not start with it now? They would have infinite energy and could control humanity at the same time. And as we see they are able to build any types of complex weaponry/flying guardians etc., it should be easy for them technically to get past the dust and use the energy somehow. Am I right with this or is there a better explanation?

Answer: Human bodies would not be 100% efficient and so energy generated would always be less than energy fed into the farm, so overall making energy losses for machines. The energy fed (dead bodies etc) is not usable by machines directly. Humans seems to be good for energy conversion as well as energy storage. So any excess energy from fusion can simply be stored away in the matrix. Hence the battery analogy (which needs to be charged to be useful).

Answer: The dog featured in the film as Bob Lee companion was trained by owner Drew Thompson. The dog's real name is Logan. He is a Bernese Mountain and English Mastiff X. Drew states that "he is easily the smartest dog I have ever trained".

Question: How did Anton find Llewellyn's home?

Answer: When Llewellyn returns to the site of the showdown for the second time, he leaves his truck parked in an obvious spot. Coming across the truck later, Anton prizes off a plate from Llewellyn's truck that has the VIN on it. This is likely how Anton later tracked Llewellyn down.

When Llewellyn is telling his wife she needs to go to Odessa, he says "tomorrow morning at 9am a man is going to call the courthouse about the registration of my truck. At 0930, he's going to come here looking for me" (or words to that effect).

The_Iceman

Question: Why did Teddy growl in the helicopter when the trio arrived at Manhattan?

Bunch

Chosen answer: It was dangerous for Mecha to go there; he was afraid for David's safety.

David R Turner

Question: Marida's horse is called Angus. So why, when fixing the tapestry on his back, did she call the same horse Hamish?

Answer: When Merida says "Steady, Hamish!", she is talking to one of her brothers (the baby bears) who nearly falls, not the horse.

Sierra1

Question: Can someone please tell me why Mary Jane was apologising to Aunt May and nobody else, and felt bad about leaving only Aunt May?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: Aunt May likely prepared most if not all of the food. Mary Jane felt bad about running out on the dinner knowing all the effort Aunt May put into it.

Phaneron

Question: In the wrestling scene, Leslie Nielsen tags Hulk Hogan who ultimately tags another lady in a red dress. The actress appears to be Joyce Brothers. Is her presence a spoof or am I missing something else here?

Neil Jones

Chosen answer: The lady in the red dress is definitely Dr. Joyce Brothers. Her presence is not a spoof of anything. Just another way to add humor to an already humorous movie.

Chosen answer: Since Del knew that the tuxedo actually belonged to Clark, she most likely thought that the watch and shoes did too.

Question: Sidney and Billy have a brief disagreement at school, during which she makes the comment about her "traumatized life" being "an inconvenience" to him. Then she walks away and we see Billy, who is alone now, getting frustrated and calling himself "stupid." But it later turns out that he was one of the killers. If he secretly hates Sidney, why does he show remorse for upsetting her, when he is all alone at the moment?

Answer: Because he wants to have sex with her before killing her. Creating a distance now is too soon. Keeping her close makes it easier to kill her later too. He wants to hurt her as bad as possible, that why he faked his own death too.

lionhead

Still Charmed & Kicking - S8-E1

Question: Why do the sisters keep changing their appearance throughout a few episodes? We're there issues with replacement actresses that caused the changes? Victor references that they keep changing identities but there is no good explanation as to why.

Answer: You have to watch the previous episodes but basically they are pretending to be dead. They cast a spell to change their appearance in which only Victor and each other can see them for who they are. Their appearance keeps changing because they can't decide what to look like.

Spring - S3-E1

Question: Why did that one adviser have Nusrat killed? I think it was because she killed Jamal, but I have a feeling that there's more reason than just that.

Answer: Nusrat was killed because she knew the secret of Jamal's treatment of her, the pregnancy that was not Ahmed's, but Jamal's, etc. She was a liability to the al-Fayeed family who could be used by their enemies to erode their power. Also, it was Ahmed who killed Jamal, not Nusrat.

Scott215

Show generally

Question: Was it ever established how long Howard spent on the International Space Station? I ask because some story arcs that begin with one season's finale pick up immediately where the last season left off (S4-S5), but others take place more or less in real time, such as when the guys went on a scientific expedition to the Arctic Circle. So did Howard actually spend three months on the ISS, or was there a "time jump"?

zendaddy621

Chosen answer: Howard went up on Expedition 31 and came back on 32. If the BBT universe holds to the same schedule as the real one, he would have been up there for approximately two months.

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