Question: Why was the movie called "The Sand Pebbles?
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Question: In the epilogue, Victoire Weasley and Teddy Lupin are referred to as cousins. How can they be cousins? Were either of Teddy's parents related to the Weasleys?
Answer: The book never refers to them as being cousins - the reference to "Our Cousin" is said by the young James Potter about Victoire Weasley, who is indeed his cousin. Teddy Lupin is unrelated to either family, although, as he was orphaned in the Battle of Hogwarts, he has long been welcome at both the Potter and Weasley households. Harry states that Teddy comes round for dinner about four times a week; while this may well be something of an exaggeration, it still serves to show how close Teddy is to the family, hence James, who likely sees him as a surrogate older brother, referring to him as "Our Teddy".
Question: Gaear gets the kidnapping job from his friend Shep. He can choose anybody he wants to help him do it. Why does he choose Carl, a person he obviously can't stand? They don't "fall out" - Gaear hates him from the get-go. And don't say that Gaear deliberately chose someone he disliked because he planned to kill him all along. Yeah, right... Planned to bring an axe to a gunfight. Great plan. Granted, it worked. But that was not planned. Anyway, Gaear is all ursine impulse, not organized forethought. So why Carl?
Answer: Gaear would choose who he thought was the best person to help him pull off the job, regardless of whether or not he likes him. He's not particularly intelligent, and Carl is the smarter of the two and that would be an asset. Gaear also appears to be very anti-social and it's doubtful he has any friends, or at least any that would participate in such a plot, and this may be the only person he knows of who will go along with it. His choice really has little to do with liking someone and everything to do with getting the job done. Gaear may very well have intended to kill him later to help eliminate any ties to the crime and to keep the money. It's easier to kill someone he doesn't like.
All good points! I might add Gaear was "mostly brawn." His limited intelligence ("dull normal" at best?) and lack of basic communication skills ["Where's pancakes house?"] would interfere with his ability to engage in constructive conversations with Jerry to arrange the kidnapping. He'd also have difficulty making a plan and following through on his own. Gaear wouldn't have any problem overpowering a person to be kidnapped, but needed someone like Carl to make the before and after plans.
Question: Why was the fence down in the flashbacks with Hershel at the prison?
Answer: The walkers could have knocked them down more than once. There may have been another wave that knocked down the fence earlier and they're going to put it up again soon.
Question: Is Gabby Johnson saying "Reverend" or "Rerand" during the church scene?
Chosen answer: Reverend.
Question: In John Carpenter's version, Michael knew who his sister was because of some kind of evil power that enabled him to recognize her. In Rob Zombie's version, he is taken to a mental institution, apparently wasn't possessed by evil and hadn't seen her in years, so how was he able to recognize her?
Answer: John Carpenter's version never had the two of them as siblings. This wasn't the case until the sequel when the studio needed to add a plot twist to the film so they wouldn't be making the same exact film again. In Zombie's version, Laurie drops the mail off for her father at the Myers' house that has her address on it. That is how he begins stalking her because he goes and murders her adopted parents, but I'm not sure how he realizes they are brother and sister.
Question: At the fort they cover their cannons with sheepskin. Why?
Answer: During inclement weather, dry sheepskins were used to keep rain from entering the barrel. During battle, wet sheepskins were used to cool down the barrel to decrease the likelihood of the powder exploding prematurely.
Question: Can someone please explain why the uruk hai are being born through those mud sacs and why?
Answer: There is some contention about the origin of the orcs and the Uruk-hai, and it seems Tolkien was fairly vague on these points (are orcs corrupted elves, are the uruks half-orc/half-men?). Several web sources say that on the DVD commentary for Fellowship, Peter Jackson says that the Uruk-hai emerging from mud sacs was based on an early Tolkien line that orcs "worm their way out of the ground like maggots" - not sure where or when he said this, but it seems to be a movie-only notion.
Question: When Pushkin wakes up after Bond pretends to kill him at the press conference, he apologises to his wife/girlfriend for putting her through the trauma. But since she was in the bathroom when Bond was there interrogating Pushkin (about Koskov etc.), wouldn't she have heard Bond and Pushkin discussing the staged assassination (after Pushkin says "Then I must die")?
Chosen answer: She could have been let go off screen once it was clear that Bond wasn't going to kill Pushkin, so they could formulate the plan in secret.
Question: Is it common public knowledge, in the wizarding world, that Professor Snape used to be a Death Eater? It seems that a lot of parents might complain about him being allowed to teach at Hogwarts.
Answer: It is, but many Death Eaters used the "I was being controlled" defense and ended up getting away with their crimes.
Question: It shows in Jason's dream that he drowned as a kid, so how is it that he is now an adult? Also was he handicapped or just deformed?
Chosen answer: Jason survived due to his unique healing abilities, at the end of the original "Friday the 13th" he is shown coming out of the lake. He is deformed with some mental handicap.
Question: Did Wonka intend for those 5 kids to find the golden tickets? In other words, did he have Charlie in mind as the heir all along? It looked like the candy shop owner purposely gave Charlie the bar with the ticket in it. Also, Wonka treated Charlie kindly upon meeting him at the gate whereas he was sarcastic to everyone else-including Grandpa Joe, who didn't deserve the abrupt rudeness.
Answer: Yes, he did. Mel Stuart initially wanted to reveal that Willy Wonka had strategically placed the Golden Tickets in order to give the factory to Charlie. The idea was dropped, but the hints remained in the fact that Mr. Wilkerson conveniently showed up every time a ticket was uncovered.
Answer: It isn't clear the extent to which Wonka had a hand in the selection of the five finalists. The scenario you outline would be more likely in the later "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) with Johnny Depp. In that version, and in the book, it is expressly stated that Grandpa Joe had once worked in the Wonka factory, making it more likely that, somehow, Wonka would have prior knowledge of the Bucket family. In the 1971 version, with Gene Wilder, Wonka has no explicit ties to the Buckets. That being said, it is quite coincidental that the faux "Mr. Slugworth" just happens to be everywhere a winning ticket is found moments later, which lends credence to your suggestion. Wilder's Wonka is portrayed as a highly eccentric and slightly dyspeptic candy mogul with a sardonic tone and a sadistic streak. His sarcasm to other characters is a reaction to the flaws which they openly display - and he really isn't even that rude, at that. In Charlie, Wonka recognizes a pure soul, to which he responds with kindness. The book and the 2005 film portray Willie Wonka as having a more childlike nature and being highly distrustful of adults, which would explain any wariness he might have regarding Grandpa Joe.
Question: To date, Frozen is the highest grossing animated film of all time, beating Toy Story 3. I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me what animated film is highest if you account for inflation, or only count the number of tickets sold. For example, I know that Gone with the Wind out performed Avatar by ether criteria.
Question: When Blackadder is imprisoned with Baldrick and notices the door has been left open, why doesn't he escape? Why does he want the door closed and locked?
Answer: The Baron tells Blackadder they will be sent to a convent school outside Heidelberg to spend the rest of the war teaching young girls home economics, which he sees as the ultimate humiliation. Blackadder, however, is delighted to be spending the rest of the war "teaching nuns how to boil eggs" rather than being shot at every day.
Question: Why in season 9 do so many of the episodes follow many of the characters on their days off?
Chosen answer: Probably to broaden the scope of the show's plot and give the audience a chance to see the characters in a different setting, People act differently at home from the way they do at their workplace. By the ninth season, the characters would have become overly familiar and predictable. It gives the writers a chance to do something different with them.
Question: How old are Nick and Elizabeth? Hallie says that Nick's fiancee, Meredith, is young enough to be her sister. This would imply that Nick is at least sixteen years past Meredith's age, twenty-six. That would make him forty-two, so he was thirty or thirty-one at the time the girls were born. However, Meredith left Nick because they were "so young" and didn't get along. The early thirties years are not usually considered young ages for getting married and having children.
Answer: The marriage certificate at the very beginning of the film says he was 24 (in Jan 1986). Thus, in the summer of 1998 he would be about 36/37 (depending on when his birthday is), and so is about 10 years older than Meredith. An 11-year old would probably view this age difference as greater than adults would.
Answer: It depends on your point-of-view. Youngsters often consider people in their 30s as being "old" while more mature adults over the age of 40, would consider someone in their early to mid thirties as still being very young. Everyone matures at a different rate, and some people in their early 30s still think and act like they're much younger.
Question: In the Vito Corleone funeral scene at the grave site, the family is sitting before the coffin, Fredo is absent, where is he?
Answer: Freddy had been sent to Las Vegas after the Don was shot, not only to learn the casino business but also because he was emotionally traumatized by the murder attempt. He was also severely affected by his brother Sonny's death. Attending his father's funeral would have been too much for him, becoming overwrought and making a scene. Michael, now head of the family, would not have wanted this.
Question: Why does Saruman have the orcs cut down the trees to make the orcs, when it looks like the orcs are being "born" out of mud sacs...what's the significance of what the orcs are doing down in the hole in the ground?
Answer: In addition to "birthing" the Uruk-hai (the enhanced orc soldiers), Saruman's orcs were also forging armour and weapons for the army of Isengard, which is why they were cutting down the trees to use as fuel. They were underground as the Uruk-hai process seems to involve the earth or ground in some way.
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Chosen answer: It's a pun on the name of the boat which features in the film: the fictional U. S. Navy ship USS San Pablo. The sailors on the San Pablo call themselves the sand pebbles.
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