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: Do the sewers of New York really fill up with toxic waste every night as stated in the movie, or was this just for the purpose of the plot?

lartaker1975

Chosen answer: No they do not. This is only for the purpose of the film's plot.

raywest

Question: How come Trudi sometimes needs an oxygen mask but mostly doesn't - I can understand her not needing one (apparently, there is a glass partition between her and the rest of the helicopter; so whoever is with her has to wear masks, as they are behind the glass partition. But at one stage, Trudi and Norm are up front and Jake and Grace are behind them, and none of them are wearing masks - is the glass partition movable? And during the battle scene, you can see a bullet hole in Trudi's helicopter glass - shouldn't she need a mask now, as the outside air is getting in? Finally, how come Trudi needs a mask just after the home tree is destroyed and she and Norm and Jake and Grace (who was shot and is dying) escape and head for the Tree of Souls? What makes this time so special?

kh1616

Chosen answer: The cabin on the Aerospatiale SA-2 Samson is pressurised, and there are two sealed doors with windows separating it from the open cargo area. There are actually four seats in the cabin which is why Jake and Grace don't need masks. The cabin pressure is slightly higher than the atmosphere (+0.3 psi) which means that if there is a small rupture in the hull or canopy (such as a bullet hole) the oxygen will leak out rather than toxic gas leaking in.

Sierra1

Answer: Modern tempered glass was developed and patented in the early 1900s and was in general use by the 1940s. It would have been routinely used by businesses at the time Irving was breaking out store windows when he was a boy.

raywest

Question: When the man who was looking for the cat, before he was killed, there is water dripping from somewhere, where is it coming from?

Answer: The water is condensation coming from the cooling towers of the ship. The ship is seemingly powered by a nuclear reactor, and the towers above Brett are the ship's equivalent of the large hyperboloid towers seen in traditional power plants. Following this scene Ripley remarks about Brett's abduction "...then it disappeared into one of the cooling towers." This is furthered by the end sequence - Ripley shuts off the cooling system ("Mother; I turned the cooling unit back on!") - which coincides with her action of raising the 4 towers, which would presumably cut off access to the cooling water which serves to keep the core from melting down. This is also supported by her not being able to stop it after a certain point - when the imminent temperature for meltdown is reached coolant can not be returned, because it will flash boil from convective heat before reaching the core, which prevents the required conductive cooling.

Question: Does anybody know what Calypso's yelling when she's finally being freed?

Answer: She says "Malfaiteur en tombeau, crochir l'esplanade, dans l'fond d'l'eau!" which is an incantation in French that translates roughly to "Across all the seas, find the path to he who wrongfully entombed me!"

Question: In the final scene, Wilee is doing a narration whilst he rides his bike. In the background a song is playing. What is this song? The song also continues to play as the end credits go along. (01:20:30 - 01:21:00)

Chosen answer: The song is "Baba O'Riley" by The Who.

Question: During the chase scene at the impound lot, Wilee is chased by a cop onto a high platform and another cop climbs on top of the platform. To avoid the other cop, Wilee jumps off the platform with his bike. In a sudden close-up of Wilee, a slash sound is heard. What is this slash sound I am hearing? (01:11:40)

Chosen answer: I think that sound is the front wheel giving way. If you look closely, you can see that his front wheel is wobbling a little as he escapes. This may be why he ditches his bike and steals the cop's bike soon after.

Question: If Ripley was operated on and an alien removed a few days ago, how come they have a fully grown queen who is laying eggs, 8 to be precise as there are 8 people who have been ingested and turned into aliens? But later, when most of the crew have ejected successfully or been killed when a hand grenade was thrown into their escape pod along with an alien, one of the scientists says there are 12 more? How can that be?

kh1616

Chosen answer: Well firstly the queen was probably genetically engineered, like Ripley herself. A few days might be all the time they need to have a fully grown queen created. Secondly the 8 incubated victims were only the latest batch, they had been incubating people with xenomorphs for quite a time I suspect.

lionhead

With regards to the quick growth of the alien queen, it is standard for the xenomorph in nearly every film they appear (Aliens is the only exception, the only chestburster shown in the film is quickly killed by Apone) to grow to full size in around one day. Presumably the same is true for the queen.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why did all of the slaves have such beautiful teeth? The elderly woman slave who sang had a perfect set of white teeth. I can't imagine that slave owners took their "property" to the dentist on a regular basis. And how good was the dental work in the mid 1800's anyway?

Answer: Few slaves would have had healthy, straight white teeth or had access to professional dental care, which was not very advanced at that time and it was painful. This is a detail the filmmakers either deliberately chose to ignore or were careless in how they depicted the characters' conditions.

raywest

Question: Can you still get this film in 3D? I heard that it's only in 2D now, but does anyone actually know if there's a DVD that has it in 3D?

Hamster

Chosen answer: It's was finally released in 3D on DVD in 2009.

Answer: Friday the 13th Part III in 3D is also available on Blu-ray as part of a set of all the films from 1980 to the reboot. I know because I own it. There are two pairs of 3D glasses included in the tin.

Alan Keddie

Question: Hermione had to go to the hospital wing after partially transforming into a cat. How did she explain her condition to the hospital staff and/or teachers (if she had to miss classes), without revealing that she made the Polyjuice potion?

Answer: As there are lots of ways for young witches and wizards to get into various predicaments like this, Madam Pomfrey doesn't ask too many questions, she simply treats the students for whatever ailments they present with (this information comes from the books).

kristenlouise3

Question: If Voldemort is attached to Quirrell in this movie, then he heard Snape arguing with Quirrell and threatening him. Wouldn't he then become aware that Snape is actually loyal to Dumbledore? And wouldn't he be angry that Snape tried to protect Harry during the Quidditch game?

Answer: Voldemort believes that Snape is playing a role, not that he is actually loyal to Dumbledore.

Phixius

Question: I swear that I remember Bond, on his way to Baltimore made love to the co-pilot, and when M says "he's well on top", that was because he was on top of the co-pilot making out...am I hallucinating?

Answer: Pussy Galore was the pilot and he doesn't make out with her at that point. You may be thinking of Moonraker, where M asks Moneypenny if Bond is back from Africa, she replies "He's on the last leg of his journey," and it cuts to Bond romancing a woman in a plane.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Various reasons, but mainly to drive the Dukes out of Hazzard County because the family have been foiling his schemes since his and Uncle Jesse's bootlegging days.

Captain Defenestrator

A Christmas Carol - S6-E1

Question: When The Doctor shows young Kazran his future, older Kazran touches his younger self. He did this without an explosion, however, in 'Doctor Who' it has been said that 'if you touch your younger self, it will create an explosion'. How did the older Kazran, in this episode, touch himself without an explosion?

Shadow5

Chosen answer: It creates a paradox, which isn't always an explosion, but can be. And it doesn't do it in this case for the same reason that the controls no longer operate for Kazran: The Doctor's intervention in his life has caused him to not be the same man he was before.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: In both Saw II and III we learn that Amanda is working for Jigsaw, after her test in the first movie. However I don't see the reason why she had to be in a game again, in Saw II. I was hoping that to be explained in Saw III, but apparently, it wasn't. Please enlighten me.

Answer: In Saw V, Jigsaw explains to Hoffman that Amanda's purpose in the second game was make sure the others followed the rules.

Phaneron

Answer: Amanda was in the Saw 2 game to mainly protect Daniel Eric's son from harm, so he could be alive for Eric's test during the police interrogation with Jigsaw. The whole game centered around Eric Matthews and simply included his framed victims. This was Amanda's choosing, so she was the reasonable choice to oversee it.

Answer: In Saw II, Amanda pretended to be one of the prisoners, so she could observe her fellow prisoners.

Question: Inigo shows Westley the sword his father made for the 6-fingered man ("I've never seen its equal"). How did Inigo acquire this sword? You would think that if Count Rugen was prepared to kill Domingo for the sword then he would have taken it with him.

Answer: When Inigo was a child, Count Rugen came to Inigos father and requested a sword be made for him. When the sword was finished, Count Rugen refused to pay the price he originally offered for the sword. Inigos father refused to hand the sword over so Count Rugen killed Inigos father. Outraged, Inigo took the sword his father made and tried to kill Count Rugen. He has kept the sword ever since so he could use it to kill Count Rugen.

Answer: In the book, Count Rugen told the outraged villagers that Domingo had tried to rob him and he killed Domingo in self-defense. He couldn't very well take Domingo's sword after that.

Brian Katcher

Question: Is there anything that explains what Fudge and Malfoy were doing in the hall before the hearing began?

Answer: According to the book, Malfoy was probably there to put the Imperius curse on Sturgis Podmore (a Ministry worker; part of the Order of the Phoenix; who was under an invisibility cloak), so as to make him get the prophecy out of the Department of Mysteries for him. Not to make himself look suspicious, Malfoy started up a conversation with Fudge regarding Harry's hearing when the latter was on his way to the court. Malfoy's main intention was to carry out the Dark Lord's instructions without arousing suspicion.

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know whether the coloured-in photos, which appear throughout the opening titles sequence, are real or made up for the show? If they ARE real, when George Wendt's name appears there's a shot of a man holding a newspaper with 'WE WIN' as the headline - does anybody know what this referred to?

Chimera

Answer: Here is the source of the "WE WIN" photo: http://www.oldnycphotos.com/nyny587ac.html Brooklyn, of all places.

Chosen answer: The pictures in the opening sequences are real pictures of people enjoying alcohol (from various dates), and are not meant to represent or include any of the cast members. The "we win" sign (most likely not a newspaper headline) is referring to the end of prohibition (1933) A fitting tribute to a show about drinking alcohol.

The word "Nazi" appears in the caption to a story underneath the headline. Maybe the headline refers to the Nazi surrender.

Chosen answer: As with most "he-said she-said" situations, we might never know. USA Network spokesman said the show was already planning on going a different direction with some characters. That said, Schram was trying to renegotiate her contract terms, but USA Network did not give in. For more of the story; here's an older news story http://www.today.com/id/5875714.

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