Question: What was that rotting corpse lying in the bath at Buffalo Bill's basement, minutes before the light is shut down? Who did it belong to and what has happened to it?
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: Isn't the National Guard supposed to be in the US only? Then why did the sergeant talk about them being in Kandahar?
Answer: The President of the United States could have sent them there. Remember G.W. Bush sent some National Guard troops to Iraq and Afghanistan during the wars.
Question: How long approximately did Jack and Rose sit in the water?
Answer: Based on accounts from 5th Office Harold Lowe (played by Ioan Gruffudd), he waited approximately 20 minutes after the sinking to begin the process of freeing up a lifeboat to look for survivors. His whole operation took about 45 minutes. Jack and Rose would have been in the water for probably close to an hour.
Question: When George Clooney and Matt Damon are going to break into the vault they have two small silver round disks that they slide towards the guards. You see these disks pop open but don't see any type of gas or vapor emerge. Any idea what those things were?
Question: Neither Dunbar nor the non-commissioned officer he talks to just before he makes his suicide run at the beginning of the film appear to have to trouser stripe common to officers and non-commissioned officers. Shouldn't they as part of the Union uniform of the era?
Answer: There were variations of the stripes depending on which branch of the Army a soldier was in. The trousers were sky blue and NCOs had a dark blue (infantry), red (artillery) or yellow (cavalry) stripe down the leg. Junior officers which included corporals, had a French blue stripe. Senior officers wore navy blue trousers with a black or gold stripe.
Question: Why did Lanning build a robot that functioned independently of the USR mainframe, had alloys strong enough to endure vast drops and steal nanites, had a pre-programmed knowledge of Spooner... And then tell it to kill him? Furthermore, it is Sonny's own suggestion to kill Viki with nanites, so why didn't Lanning just get him to jump out the lab and do that, or at least convey a less cryptic message about what was going on?
Answer: People would not likely listen to just the robot. By killing himself he ensured that Spooner would take him seriously. This would also keep VIKI from finding out and planning around it.
But why couldn't Lanning just kill VIKI in the first place?
Because VIKI basically had complete control over him. She could lock him in the lab, stop his access to information, stop him from communicating with others, etc... Developing Sonny allowed him to deceive VIKI and still kill her in the end.
Answer: VIKI was too powerful to fight on his own. VIKI could control the robots.
Question: When 'Jerome' has his blood tested with the syringe, and jumps up pretending to be in pain, he puts his own test tube down on the trolley, but the sample from his arm was in the syringe; why does the doctor not realise that it's not his? Is he in on it, or is the syringe suppose to be filling from the test tube, like the finger print capsules?
Chosen answer: Jerome does a little sleight of hand, switching the vials.
Question: I guess I fell asleep, but what is significant about the unrecorded flight that left 7 hours earlier?
Answer: It means Colonel Jessup was lying about the 6am flight being the first flight off the base. He says a few times, and Kaffe confirms it several other times, that after they made the decision to transfer him (which was itself a lie), the next possible flight was 6am the following day. That was incorrect; there was one that left at 11pm that same day. The missing flight proves that Jessup altered the Gitmo log books to remove the 11pm flight, but the Andrews log books will show that same flight landing, thus demonstrating both the lie and the cover-up.
Answer: It would show that the colonel was lying about getting Santiago out of there as soon as possible.
Question: During the Occlumency lessons, when Snape sees the memory of Aunt Marge's dog attacking Harry, why does he want to know whose dog it was?
Answer: There is no specific reason. It could simply be that he is curious.
Question: After Marty enters 1885, in his fleeing from the Indians, the DeLorean's fuel line gets ruptured and it loses all its gas. When Marty tells Doc this, Doc says gasoline doesn't even exist yet. However, Doc's DeLorean, which is now hidden in a cave, has its own gas supply in its gas tank and will not need it anymore, as 1955 Doc would just refill it after getting it out of the cave. Why didn't Doc siphon the gas from his DeLorean, and refill Marty's? He said the only problem at that moment was no gas. Not that he could not patch the fuel line, which would have been easy.
Chosen answer: We don't know how much gas was in the De Lorean when it got struck by lightning - Doc may not have bothered to top-up regularly as he was using the anti-gravity (powered by Mr Fusion) a lot, and also Biff had used the car and may have used up some fuel. As Doc was putting it in storage, he would have drained the fuel before putting it in the mine to prevent damage (and 1955 Doc implies the tank was empty and that he filled it up) He also may have been reluctant to tamper with the car in the 1880s as it could have been damaged or destroyed (by a mine collapse), thus leaving him stranded in the 1880s and Marty in the 1950s with no time machine.
Answer: When putting any vehicle into storage for a long time, fluids must be drained from the vehicle. 1985 Doc most likely did this after being sent to 1885.
Question: During the scene in which Matt detaches himself from Ryan so that he does not pull her away with him, why didn't he bounce back towards her when the rope snapped taut? Was there something that kept pushing/pulling him away that I missed?
Answer: If they had been tightly tethered to the space station, he would have bounced back toward her. But her foot was only tangled in parachute cords, so that when the tether snapped taught all it did was begin to pull her away from the station as the parachute cords gave more and more slack, slipping more and more loose as they drifted further away.
Question: If the opening scene was staged to get 007 to surrender, then it seems it was a terrible plan. Look how many Russians got killed by Bond and 006. It seems very awkward that the whole thing was staged. Why did Bond need to surrender? Why couldn't 006 just shoot him (besides the usual reason that 007 must be executed through an overly involved and escape-riddled plan) What would they do with him once he was captured? Too many questions and a weird scenario.
Answer: The plan was not to capture 007, it was to stage 006's death. Trevelyan's long-term goal was to steal money from the Bank of England and cover it up using the GoldenEye satellite - he presumably did not have time to run the Janus Syndicate and implement this very elaborate plan whilst serving as a full-time MI6 officer. In fact, it was probably the intention that Bond should escape and tell the British government that 006 had died a hero's death.
Question: At the dance competition the camera dwells on a random drunk guy with his tie round his neck for several seconds. He also partly invades the dance floor to dance with Cha Cha during the routine with JT. Who is he or what is his purpose / role?
Chosen answer: He is just an extra. They show him once, looking momentarily concerned, as Sandy brushes past him when she storms out of the gym. They show him in the center of the frame again a short time later hamming it up and enjoying himself. And he does partly invade the dance floor and dance in front of Cha Cha, for no apparent reason other than a moment of being noticed. But he has no actual purpose other than adding his ebullience to the background of the scene.
Answer: It was Sonny or one of the T-birds did that because he was drunk.
Question: What is the significance of the red markings on the doors of some of the buildings after the monster visit? Are they specific to the people that live inside these buildings? Are they on all doors or specifically selected doors?
Answer: The markings on the doors were to scare the young villagers. No other reason is mentioned.
M. Knight used red in sixth sense too. Must signify something. Maybe bc the monsters robes were red and the villagers were to bury all red objects.
Question: Why are the dates on the tombstone near the start of the film over 100 years in the past of the time the film was set? Presumably, due to the remote nature of the village, the young inhabitants would have no concept of time in relation to modern technology, so why bother making up a date at all?
Answer: There would have to be some sort of progressive timeline if the elders wished to continue fooling the younger villagers, who have no clue about the modern world. Most likely, the elders chose the time period that they wanted to replicate and kept the same dates. Also Edward Walker, being a history professor would be teaching the younger ones about the past and if there were history books, it would be difficult to explain why there was a time gap of over a century.
I like this answer. Just wish to add that by adding ground rules to the fantasy world, i.e., a specific year, the elders are more able to work toward a singular vision. In other words, using a specific year helps them to all keep their story straight.
Question: Why does the TV repairman chastise Bud's date for taking an apple off the tree to give to Bud? Even though it's a humorous biblical reference, it doesn't make sense that giving a fresh piece of fruit to someone would be inappropriate in Pleasantville.
Chosen answer: The repairman wanted things to stay the same in Pleasantville, and Bud's date was supposed to be dating Whitey, not Bud. The repairman doesn't like that Bud is changing Pleasantville.
Question: In several mistakes on this page, there is a reference to a Predator dubbed Celtic. Which one is Celtic, anyway?
Answer: Celtic is the second predator to die in the big fight. His death comes at the hands of "Nethead" (aka Grid) when he attempts to kill the alien with some sort of ceremonial knife while it was subdued with the net. He can be described as having an unusual mask because it displays some additional protrusions around the mouth, possibly as a re-breather of some sort. Celtic also has a scratch on his mask which he got when fighting the alien.
Question: How did Elsa and her subjects find out about the duke's intention to kill her, giving Elsa the reason to banish him?
Answer: The duke was the strongest opponent of Elsa from the start, calling her a monster and noting how dangerous she was the second he saw her ice powers. Later, his guards (who Elsa had already seen at the ball and were dressed in his colors) showed up at her ice castle and actively attacked her, trying to kill her even as their own lives were in danger. She could naturally assume they were following his orders and that he wanted her dead.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: The body in the bathtub is Mrs. Lippman, the previous owner of Jame Gumb's home. Notice the long grey hair coming from the scalp. He would have wanted someone young, large, and whole.