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: The is something that I didn't understand in the movie. Spiderman killed Electro, which is something completely out of character. What was Marc Webb thinking?

Answer: Peter didn't set out to kill Electro, but he has to stop him somehow. Overloading him is pretty much all Peter has to work with in terms of stopping Electro's rampage. He doesn't know what effect it will have on his opponent, but he hopes that it will serve to stop him in his tracks, which it does. Had Peter set out with the specific intention of killing Max, that would indeed have been wildly out of character, but he didn't - he simply did what he had to do to stop him. It's unlikely that Max is actually dead anyway; it's well known that Sony intend to bring the Sinister Six into play in upcoming movies and Electro has been a key member of most incarnations of that team, making it highly likely that he'll be back.

Tailkinker

Question: When Charles and Otho are taking the model downstairs, I think it's Charles that says "let's take it apart" or something like that, and Otho says "that's sexual, get it both ends." What did he mean? I never got that part and its meaning.

Answer: He says "It's sectional" not "It's sexual". He's just confirming it comes apart for easier carrying.

Question: This is a two-part question. 1. When the Dementors first appear on the train, why does frost cover the windows and the train become so cold? 2. If the Dementors were sent to capture Sirius Black, why would they be on a train full of Hogwarts students?

Answer: The frost appearing whenever the Dementors are nearby never happened in the books. It was solely a creation for the movie as a device to foreshadow their oncoming and ominous presence. This same freezing over plays a part later in the movie when Harry saves Sirius from the Dementors by the lake. The audience already knows it signals something bad is about to happen. Regarding the second part of your question, When Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban, it was known that he wanted to kill someone who was at Hogwarts. Because he was convicted as Voldemort's accomplice in Lily and James Potters' murders, it was assumed he was on his way to kill Harry. The Dementors are on the Hogwarts express, and later at the school, to protect Harry as well as hunt for Sirius. However, the Dementors have overstepped their purpose and become a threat to Harry, who has a particularly strong reaction whenever they approach him.

raywest

Question: Does anyone feel that Miguel Ferrer tinkered with the ED-209 causing it to malfunction so that his creation of Robocop could take its place? I'm asking because during his and Ronny Cox's argument, Ronny tells him he'd better hope his bastard creation doesn't fail... Or something like that.

Enchantress

Chosen answer: There's no particular evidence that the ED209 was actually sabotaged - it's stated in the movie that the reason the test failed was that it failed to register the noise of the gun hitting the floor because of the thick carpeting used in the conference room. Morton simply took the opportunity created by that failure to push his own program, royally pissing off Dick Jones, who doesn't want what he sees as an inferior project to make the company look bad.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Jack cut himself before throwing the coin to Will? I thought the curse only needed Will's blood?

Answer: The curse needs the blood of everybody who took a coin from the chest. All the other pirates have already contributed so, as the movie opens, the only blood needed is Will's, substituting for his father. During the finale of the movie, Jack takes a coin from the chest, adding himself to the curse, so his blood is now required as well as Will's.

Tailkinker

But I didn't see any blood on the coins, and none of the pirates cut themselves, even before Will became part of the mix.

Yes, the other pirates did cut themselves before Will came into it, off-screen. The lack of blood on the coins can simply be explained as most of it dripping to the bottom of the chest, it being washed away by storms blown into the cave, or by the fact that they didn't drop that much blood on it in the first place.

When they had Elizabeth they believed she was Bill Turner's daughter, but they all thought the curse had failed, none of them had cut themselves so it makes zero sense.

They had been collecting back the coins for years. During that time they repaid their own blood. All they needed was the last coin and the blood of Bill Turner to break the spell.

lionhead

Question: Why are the Malloy twins referred to as twins (I don't see any resemblance)?

Answer: They could be fraternal twins. Fraternal twins don't always share a resemblance.

MasterOfAll

Answer: It's a play on "Irish twins" - 2 children, one born 9 months after the other.

Question: Can you please explain to me how Doc got into the DeLorean from within the truck? Clearly the internal width of the truck is not capable of handling gull-wing doors whilst parked inside. He would have had to push the car out, get in, drive it back in, then remotely close and open the hydraulic door/ramp on the back of the truck. This is one of the things which really sticks out in the film for me.

Answer: The side clearance of the DeLorean DMC-12's doors is actually only 11 inches (less than a regular side-hinge car door). The truck would be around 7.5 feet wide inside, the DeLorean is just over 6 feet 1 inch wide so if it was driven in 4 inches to the right it would be possible to open the driver's door.

Sierra1

Question: When Khan speaks to Kirk, he tells him that he wants revenge for the death of his wife. Who was Khan's wife?

Answer: Lt. Marla McGivers was the crew member.

Answer: This is a reference to the TV show episode that this movie is a distant sequel to. In that episode, one of Kirk's crew falls in love with Khan and helps him take over the ship. When Khan is exiled to the planet, she chooses to go with him. So it would be that after the catastrophic events of one of the planets in that system exploding and causing all sorts of damage to their new planet, she was killed there and Khan blames Kirk for it.

Quantom X

Question: Did Henry know the young Max cheated at chess?

Answer: Yes, that's why Henry refers about telling the truth under the influence of wine.

Question: After the final fight where Ghost is killed in the exploding helicopter, it is eventually revealed that he supposedly survived it during the end credits and returning for one of the mock sequels titled "34 Jump Street: Return of the Ghost." Did he really survive the explosion or was his return just a gag and he really died after all?

Answer: Given the obviously jokey nature of all the mock sequels in the closing credits and the highly explosive nature of what happens to him, it's probably best to assume that Ghost was indeed killed in the helicopter.

Tailkinker

Question: At the beginning, Lyle refers to the song Camptown races as "The Camptown lady"? Is this simply cause he's stupid, or is there any other reason?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The opening line of the song refers to the Camptown Ladies and the phrase "Camptown Races" never appears anywhere in the lyrics. If nobody told him otherwise, Lyle may simply have assumed that some variation on "Camptown Ladies" was the actual title.

Tailkinker

The actual title of the song was "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races," written by American lyricist Stephen Foster and first published in 1850. Over many years on the minstrel show circuit, the title was shortened to "Camptown Races" and was sometimes erroneously called "Camptown Ladies." While the phrase "Camptown Races" doesn't appear in the lyrics, the phrase "Camptown Racetrack" does appear in the second line: "Camptown ladies sing dis song, doo-dah, doo-dah, Camptown Racetrack five miles long, oh-de-doo-dah-day." The song refers to Camptown, Pennsylvania, a real town with a popular horserace in the mid-1800s.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: It's a scar. No explanation is given as to how he got it - presumably it was added to the character's look to suggest a violent past.

Tailkinker

Question: How can Cobb be accused of killing Mal when she was on a ledge across from the hotel suite?

Answer: The gap between the window Cobb is in and the ledge Mal is sitting on doesn't appear to be particularly wide, so it would be unclear exactly where she fell from; if she was physically thrown from the window, which is the scenario she's trying to fake, she wouldn't fall straight downwards, so a position some distance out from the window would not be unexpected. Add to that her stated claims that he threatened to kill her and the very obvious signs of a struggle in the room, to say nothing of the fact that Cobb ran, and he comes out of the whole sad affair looking extremely guilty.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the name of the children's book Dr Erik Selving takes off the cart, and the one that Jane is reading when Thor brings Selving to the camper drunk?

Answer: It was manufactured specifically for the movie. It doesn't exist.

Brad

Question: What was that thing that Mole picked off Milo's finger to examine with his binoculars?

Answer: Just a piece of dirt.

Brad

Question: Who is the lad in the Wreck Room that almost fights Stanley? His name is not mentioned at all.

Macca

Answer: His name was Lump.

Chosen answer: In the book, his name isn't mentioned either. Also in the book, Stanley mistakes the man for Caveman when they say, "Nobody messes with the Caveman", because this was the first time Stanley had heard the nickname.

Brad

Answer: His name is Lump.

Question: Why does the Resurrection stone only allow Harry to see his parents, Remus, and Sirius? Why not Alastor, Tonks, Snape, Cedric, Fred, and others?

Answer: The resurrection stone allows you to see people you love the most. His parents and Sirius are there for obvious reasons as they were his family. Remus was also just like family to Harry. He was one of his father's best friends, the father of Harry's godson (who was orphaned in the war just like Harry), and the closest thing to a father figure Harry had after Sirius died. The others while there's no doubt they held a place in Harry's heart, Harry was not as close with them as he was with the others. Therefore, they would not appear to him with the stone.

He practically grew up with Fred. I would think he would be there as well.

lartaker1975

Chosen answer: It means he drank a lot - he's implying that Martin's golf club was hollowed out and filled with alcohol.

Sierra1

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know the year and number of the episode in which Homer tries to teach Bart how to get extra stuff at the Kwik-E-Mart by putting it on a doughnut, then when confronted by Apu, telling him that's the way he found it?

Peter Mataichuk

Chosen answer: In episode number 160, "Lisa's Date with Density" from 1996, Homer tries to pass off lots of candy as sprinkles on a donut, but Bart wasn't with him.

Sierra1

Question: In the Director's Cut, was the conversation that Lawrence had with the old man a dream or did it really happen? Lawrence dropped his wallet then put it in his bag and the old man offered to give Lawrence his cane, but he politely declines. After waking up, the old man is gone but his cane is there, and Lawrence's wallet is back on the floor on the same spot.

Answer: It really happened. The discrepancies are meant to show Lawrence's mental state.

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