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: When McClane is crawling up into the elevator shaft and the news reporter mentions Colonel Stewart, McClane looks at her and says "Stewart, that's who it was." Did he mean "That's who it was on the speaker." Or "That's the guy I bumped into today"?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: That's the guy he bumped into earlier, and didn't remember where he'd seen him from until she said his name.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: I don't get what happens at the end. Does Sean Connery come back to life? Someone please explain.

Answer: After Quartermain is buried, we see a witch doctor performing magic above his grave and the clouds darken indicating something is about to take place. The witch doctor is chanting "Return" and the grave begins to shake. Although we do not see Quartermain come back to life it is most definitely hinted that he did and left room for a sequel which never came to pass.

Question: I know Mr. B left the girls 1 million dollars...how much did he leave Manly? Or did he leave Manly the mansion? And did the lawyer say he left the nephew nothing or zero?

Answer: Mr. B left the girls 100 million dollars. Manly was left with everything at the mansion including the mansion itself. The nephew got nothing.

Nephew got 2 cents.

I've always wondered what she said, because nothing, and zip, never matched up. 2 cents totally does.

It's many moons later but I'm glad you answered what Manly received. I was trying to read the lawyers lips but I didn't get Manly. I knew the nephew got zero; good.

He left the girls $100 billion. He was in the fabric industry. Worth well over $100 million. Manly the mansion and everything in it. 2 cents to the nephew.

Answer: Girls got 100 million dollars.

Did they get a million a piece.

They had 50 million a piece.

Answer: Nephew was left with zip.

Question: When Professor Snape first talks to Harry about Occlumency, what is he doing with the leather belt thing on the table? He only points his wand at Harry when he casts a spell; it's unclear why anything in the belt was necessary.

Answer: These were instruments Snape probably intended to use at some point in teaching Harry Occlumency. Their contentious relationship had quickly ended their lessons before Harry learned this skill.

raywest

Answer: Shaun's last name is Riley. It can be seen on a poster ad from Shaun's DJ days.

Question: How did Rick got the tattoo on his arm in the first place and how did he know the reply for the riddle given by Ardeth?

Answer: In the movie, when Ardeth - after being given the correct answer to the riddle - claims that Rick has the "sacred mark" making him a "warrior for God", Rick says something like: "Nah, I got this slapped onto me while I was in an orphanage in Cairo." The explanation is simple: Rick was an orphaned child who was raised in Cairo, in an orphanage which belonged to the Medjai (who were very much infiltrated in the city, as evidenced further by the fact that Mr. Bey, the curator of Cairo's Museum of Antiquities, was a Medjai himself). Children in this orphanage were given the wrist tattoo which all Medjai are marked with when they come of age at sixteen, and were taught the riddle since the moment they were brought there. However, they were not told about the meaning of the riddle, nor were they made aware of the Medjai's existence as a society; the response was simply repeated to them until it was so ingrained in their memory, that upon hearing the riddle they would automatically offer the correct answer, thus allowing the Medjai asking the riddle to recognize them as part of their society. The reasons for the Medjai to own that orphanage to begin with are shrouded in mystery, but it can be speculated that they simply used it as a way to even further increase their numbers.

KrystalFlare

Question: Although I don't know for sure, I believe I read somewhere that the voice used for Joshua was John Wood (Falken) recording words backwards then reversing the tape so the words would come out forwards but in a machine-like sound. Is this correct?

Answer: Writer Walter Parkes explained they had John Wood read the dialog backwards to give it a flat tone (i.e. Game a play to like you would). Then after rearranging it they would synthesize and process it to give it an electronic quality.

Bishop73

Question: How exactly was Semos able to organize a rebellion against the humans, since he was just an ordinary ape who was trained for whatever assignment he would be needed for?

Answer: The dialogue recorded by one of the survivors of the Oberon tells that the apes, particularly Semos are much smarter than they had ever realized. He was not ordinary, he was the offspring of two chimps that had been genetically modified for increased intelligence. Semos had intelligence near or equal to humans.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Who was the mutant at the beginning and what did he (or she?) find? It was something like an iron X-men logo.

Pavel Soukup

Chosen answer: The character is never specifically named, but visually he is a reference to Nate Grey, a.k.a. X-Man.

Phaneron

Answer: As for what was found, my opinion is that it was a belt buckle from an X-Men uniform.

jshy7979

Question: Is it ever established why the Kaiju attack cities? Why they perceive a challenge, a threat, a resource worth taking there specifically? If they are a decent biochemical match to Earth life, and are hungry, why don't they attack schools of fish, or fishing/whaling vessels, if nothing else, they should attack the cannery row? If they are after a non-living resource, like minerals, why don't they root through the seabed or attack mines?

dizzyd

Chosen answer: Because they are scouts for an invasion of Earth from another dimension. They are testing our response to their arrival and military capabilities and the best way to attract military attention is to attack population centers.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: According to the Internet search I did, that last song for this episode is, "Morning After Dark," by Timbaland.

raywest

Question: Is it realistic that Mars vehicles like Mark's rover or in some scenes his handcart would use rubber tyres? No Mars rover before used them and I would think they could not stand the low Martian atmosphere and temperature differences.

MSpotter

Chosen answer: Whatever was used before on Mars is irrelevant as to date, only robotic vehicles have been used. As this is depicting how humans would live and function on Mars, the vehicles would be designed quite differently. Presumably, the "rubber" tires have been specially manufactured to withstand Martian conditions. Mostly likely they would be solid and not have an inner tube filled with air or some other gas that is affected by the atmosphere.

raywest

Answer: She's a collector.

MasterOfAll

Question: If the MAV could be blown over by a storm of sufficient force, wasn't it very risky dropping the Ares IV Mav five years in advance of the mission?

Answer: The crew (and mission control) are in constant contact with the previously dropped MAV and would have aborted the mission and continued back to Earth had the MAV become inoperable before their arrival. Weir states this explicitly early in the book.

Answer: Yes, it is very risky unless the new Ares MAV is in an area with much calmer weather patterns.

Question: The Collector was already a holder of the Aether (reality stone). Once the Orb destroyed the majority of his place, where do you think he hid the Aether?

Answer: It's unlikely that the place on Knowhere is the only location he has. He could easily have moved it to another.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Why did Thade kill the two apes that were with him after they showed him the trail left by Leo's pod?

Answer: To prevent anyone else from learning that Leo came from space. After Pericles' ship crashed, there was a prophecy of a second coming of Semos, the founder of Ape civilization. Thade wants to kill all humans, so if anyone found out, it would be considered a sign and the council might consider making peace with the humans.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Wallace's briefcase has a sticker upon it saying: Blackpool, Bognor and Beaconsfield. To what do they refer?

Bunch

Chosen answer: Bognor Regis and Blackpool are seaside towns, so presumably, those are places Wallace and Gromit have been on holiday in the past. Beaconsfield is an inside joke: It's where the National Film and Television School is located and a number of scenes were filmed there.

Chosen answer: Chris originally came from a Dark Future that was changed when he saved Paige's life. It's in that dark future that Piper died.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Where did Star Lord get AA batteries for his Walkman?

Answer: Likely he didn't, but instead was able to use an alternate power source that he found or was introduced to during his time in outer space.

Phaneron

Question: Will's primary motive for rescuing Jack is so that he can trade the Black Pearl for his father. But why would Davy Jones want the Black Pearl at all, he already has a very good ship? Why does Will think this is the best way to rescue his father?

zadoo1

Chosen answer: Will says he needs the Black Pearl to free his father, he's not planning on trading him. The Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean, so chances are he's planning to take the Flying Dutchman by force, and free his father that way.

Friso94

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