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: Rosalyn twice references the book "Power of Intention." Wasn't that first published around 2005?

Answer: It was published in December of 2005.

raywest

Question: Since the Moon is not gone, just broken into pieces, wouldn't this still provide the same mass, and hence the same gravitational attraction? Hard to see how the tidal effect would destroy the Earth without physically removing the Moon's mass. Makes a nice visual, but seems to fall flat on the science.

Answer: The gravitational pull of the broken moon is spread out, not concentrated in a single body, and therefore broader but weaker. This would alter the tides. Whether it would do so as depicted I can't tell you.

Phixius

Question: What do the soldiers have in their mouths during combat? Shortly after Miller's team disables the machine gun nest at Omaha Beach you can see Tom Sizemore take something out his mouth and drop it and later when Edith Piaf's song is playing he takes something out of a bag and puts it into his mouth again.

Answer: During landing scene he puts chewing tobacco in his mouth... later we see him take it out and then still later he takes more from the same pouch.

Answer: They're chewing gum, or maybe tobacco.

Thomas Norris

Answer: Chewing tobacco without a doubt.

stiiggy

Swords into Ploughshares - S2-E7

Question: When the girls and Rosemary's mother go to the mortuary to see who was impersonating Rosemary, Rosemary's mother says just before they see the body, "It's just a waste of time me going home, really." What does she mean?

kh1616

Chosen answer: Maybe she thinks she's so old that she'll be back in the mortuary soon, so why go home?

kh1616

Question: When Kristoff takes Anna into the Valley of the Living Rocks, seeing that Anna is freezing, he suggests she warms herself up by one of the holes where steam is coming out. If the valley is heated by the steam, why doesn't Olaf feel the heat or melt?

Answer: Olaf doesn't sit by the steam vent as he does later by the fire with Anna, so who's to say that it is warm everywhere? It could be very localised.

Question: Why use a 1965 Lincoln with a 1963 front clip? No limo like that was made in 1963.

Answer: The front clip is from a 1961 Lincoln presumably to make the car more correct for when the story takes place. However, the limousine was made by Lehmann-Peterson which did not begin production of the cars until 1963.

Question: When Bilbo is inside the mountain, after he wakes Smaug he puts the ring on to hide. After a few moments Smaug says something about Bilbo having something gold but more "precious." Bilbo shudders and takes the ring off as if in pain. Does this imply that Smaug knows what The Ring is? Does he know how truly powerful it is, and the history of it?

Answer: You would have to assume so. Dragons are incredibly ancient creatures and powerfully magic, Smaug would probably have been alive around the time of the rings creation, and even if he didn't know about the history he could have sensed the magic in the ring. But I doubt that he cared much for it other than owning it, as he wouldn't be able to wield it.

Question: Is this 'Wrong Turn' series based on some true events or it is just a fiction? If true events, what are they?

Answer: Just fiction. Based, if anything, on mere urban legend.

Phixius

Question: Was any reason ever given as to why Gandalf chose Bilbo to go on this journey and not someone else?

Answer: In the film, Gandalf tells the dwarves he chose Bilbo because hobbits are light on their feet, and because Smaug would not recognise the scent of a hobbit as he would a dwarf. Also Bilbo is the most adventurous of the hobbits in the Shire. This reason is not in the book but is from the story "The Quest of Erebor" in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.

Sierra1

Question: Why on earth does Bilbo remove the ring in front of Smaug? He has no real reason to believe that Smaug won't simply eat him or roast him. Smaug can hear and smell him but can't see him, so as long as he remains still, he is safe unless Smaug gets lucky. Seems like taking the ring off is a huge risk that was not necessary.

oldbaldyone

Chosen answer: Bilbo is actually quite clever, I think he was trying to talk his way out by buttering Smaug up. If he tried to run, Smaug, who was on high alert, would have caught him and swallowed him without a second thought. By playing with words he was able to both interest and distract Smaug, and get away.

Answer: Smaug started talking about the ring, which started drawing the attention of the Necromancer (Sauron), causing Bilbo pain. Remember, wearing the ring made one noticeable to dark forces.

Brian Katcher

Question: Why does Hellboy have to live inside a huge safe, with a massively thick door? This is his home; he chooses to live there. Why is he locked up?

kh1616

Chosen answer: A movie conversation explains Hellboy actually doesn't like being cooped up and enjoys going out from time to time, but this causes a big problem for the secret organization he's supposed to work for. Long story short, he has a curfew and the safe is the only way to make sure he doesn't break out.

Question: In the first scene in Tombstone the cowboys are in Mexico and the people are preparing a wedding feast. At one point bananas are being set on a table. Were bananas available in northern Mexico around 1880-81?

Chris Lind

Chosen answer: Yes, bananas were introduced to Mexico by Vasco de Quiroga in the 1550s. By the 1880s, there was massive banana production along the entire Caribbean coast from Columbia to Mexico.

Sierra1

Question: How does the "timeline loop" with the kid becoming the mob boss (and looking to kill Bruce Willis 30 years later) start? If it gets started by "old" Bruce Willis killing the kid's (future mob boss) mother, and getting him very angry and revengeful, because Willis wants to revenge the death of its wife by the future mob boss... Then it is a chicken and egg problem.

AnthonyA

Chosen answer: The first time the time-loop occurred it is not necessarily due to Bruce Willis' character killing her. She could have died in another way, instigating the timeline in which Bruce Willis is taken to close his loop. He knows who the rainmaker is and therefore attempts to kill him in order to preserve his happy future. This in turn creates a brand new timeline in which Joe kills himself to save Sara, who in turn prevents the rainmaker from becoming a crime lord.

Chosen answer: It's a Chinese water dragon.

Question: I once read a book (I think it was called "worlds of JRR Tolkien") in there Legolas was described as having short, curly, dark hair. So why was Orlando Bloom, who has short dark hair, given a long blond wig?

Answer: Any description of Legolas' hair purporting to come from Tolkien is extremely misleading. Tolkien never once gave a description of Legolas' hair. However, there is also a reference to Frodo looking up at Legolas' "dark head", but this was at night so it may not be an indicator of hair colour. Tolkien also explicitly states that only the house of Finarfin (of whom Galadriel is a descendent) had golden-hair amongst the Elves, the majority of whom were dark-haired. Despite this, we also know that Legolas's father, Thranduil, was golden-haired (this is mentioned in The Hobbit) and the film-makers may have based Legolas' hair colour on this. In addition, the blond hair may have also been chosen to help differentiate him from the dark-haired Elrond and to further illustrate his status as a visitor to Rivendell, which is primarily populated by dark-haired Elves.

Question: Liam Neeson says he needed Johnny Squares as "a video tie-in." What does he mean by this? How does a music video help a film or vice versa?

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: MTV was extremely popular in 1988, especially with the young demographic his film was intended for. Having a music video tie-in would increase the film's exposure as well as its potential box office performance.

zendaddy621

Question: Did Tommy die? If so, did his body get burned up?

Answer: He did die in the end when the mother sue was on the phone she mentions "losing tommy and the others" or something like that.

Answer: Most likely he did die. After Carrie set the gym on fire, she walked out and locked the gym doors behind her so that no one could escape, leaving Tommy to die too.

Question: Why didn't Hans Gruber simply place 5 hostages in a room and threaten to blow their brains out if John McClane doesn't hand himself in? John McClane is the good guy with a conscience and Hans Gruber is the ruthless killer that kills 2 people in a heartbeat, John would have been forced to hand himself in or be responsible for their deaths. Even if Hans didn't want to kill anyone, he could have pretended to shoot people one by one. John wouldn't know any better.

Answer: We don't know what John would have done in that circumstance. Obviously Hans was planning to kill everyone with the explosives anyway at the end. Perhaps John would have suspected that. Also, doing that would invite more police incursions.

Greg Dwyer

The fact that we don't know how John McClane would have acted doesn't remove the fact that it would most likely have been a good way to coax him out. Also, depending on when Hans Gruber would have decided do implement this strategy, John probably wouldn't have known about the explosives on the roof as he only finds out about them at the 3rd act break. As for the "more police incursions" part, I couldn't disagree more; Hans already killed two hostages - one on speaker with the police -, all the cops in LA seem to be there already, and don't forget that the involvement of the FBI is part of their plan anyway. This is definitely the one major plot hole of this otherwise perfect film.

It would have been, but plenty of movie plots don't pan out the "perfect" way without it being a plot hole. Killing Ellis is a reasonable first step, it doesn't work, and then the events of the plot pick up pace - Gruber goes to check the detonators, as that's a priority. He's hoping/assuming they can get through the rest of their plan by isolating McClane, or at least prevent him causing more chaos. They want the power shut off - they don't want to cause such massive carnage that the building is stormed before then. They need to get helicopters, blow the roof, and escape as planned. Hans doesn't want to derail things any more than they already have been.

Jon Sandys

Seems to me like they have all their bases covered; the police isn't even able to get in with a tank as he blows them up so I don't think the police "storming the building" is even a possibility in the reality of the film. Also, after blowing up that tank, that's two hostages and a bunch of cops dead so I would say the situation is pretty derailed. Everything is going as planned for Hans and his team, except for McClane, so he should be in damage control mode and this is an obvious solution. He doesn't even have to change his plans, just tell McClane he's gonna kill one hostage every 10 minutes until he shows up unarmed and tell one of his henchmen guarding the hostages to do it while they go along with the plan and maybe even try to find McClane at the same time. I think this is something Hans should have at least considered, but the screenwriters just didn't think about it/didn't want to address because they couldn't think of a good reason for him not to do it.

There are no cops dead, Hans says "Just wound them" and despite the awesome explosion, the APC isn't actually penetrated or destroyed. But Hans needed this to turn into a standoff, a show of force would prevent a SWAT raid from expediting the deadline, he needed to get all of the hostages up on the roof to make his getaway downstairs, and executing a bunch of them would bring suspicion onto how cooperative he is (His plan to blow up the roof relies heavily on the police sending in choppers) they cooperate with him, which they won't do if they think Hans is a crazed lunatic who's only interested in more and more carnage, if he wounds the cops and only shows he can defend himself, and that he was being reasonable. The cops would play ball, and they would believe he's willing to spare the hostages lives, plus he always planned on taking one hostage as a contingency, if they thought they were gonna be killed they'd become a liability. Patton Oswalt talks of a real plothole though lol.

John McClane would know they'd kill him as soon as he shows up, as soon as he heard "We'll have to tell Karl that his brother is dead" he knew that all bets were off, he lost his chance to end it civil, if they had no personal connection to the first terrorist John kills then maybe putting 5 people into a room and doing an Air Force One on them would work, but not when John knows he'll be body number 6. Al says it best "If he gave himself up they'd both be dead" with Ellis execution, John watched them take control of the hostages, watched them execute the Takagi, and when the first Terrorist thinks he's found John he shoots first after saying "I promise I won't hurt you" and then taking his bag and realizing how well financed and equipped, these guys weren't domestic terrorists, they used serious money, serious contacts, and serious planning to get themselves into this building on this night. He knew the only way to play ball with them was fists and elbows.

Just because a character doesn't do a thing I doesn't make it a plot hole. The plot was that he didn't do it. You may consider a different approach "better" but that's irrelevant. You may as well try to argue that any character choice that doesn't fit with a perceived meta is a plot hole. It isn't, it's just the plot.

Hans thought Ellis was a good friend of John's and John still didn't give up when he was going to shoot him. If John wouldn't save his friend, why would he care about others. Plus Hans told Karl earlier he could stall the police but not if they heard gun shots. The police would have absolutely stormed the building if he started killing the hostages.

Zorz

Answer: Hans Gruber needed the last vault lock to open by cutting off the electricity, he didn't wanna escalate it further so that the FBI would start getting more aggressive, he needed them to play ball so he could make it seem like he's just a terrorist who martyr's himself and the hostages, and by the time they figured out him and his men aren't among the remains, they'll already have left in the basement with the ambulance. Shooting 5 people would have escalated it to the point that the FBI wouldn't play ball with him.

Question: When Hellboy has the stinger on his arm, in the alley behind the library, he tosses it to Myers, who throws it away, but it's back home - it was thrown away; how did it get back home? Or who took it home?

kh1616

Chosen answer: Myers just threw it a short distance away because he didn't really want to hold it. He obviously picked it up and took it back to base.

Question: I was reading the mistakes for "Hellboy" and I saw one that completely blew me away: In the scenes down in the disused train tunnels, Hellboy comes out of one with his massive arm now on his left and he's holding a gun in his right. How could the make-up people make such a huge mistake, and how come Ron Perlman, the actor who played Hellboy, not notice the difference?

kh1616

Chosen answer: They didn't put the prosthetic on the wrong arm, the scene is flipped; it's a mirror image. An extremely common film-making technique, it's usually only ever noticeable at all with asymmetrical characters and structures, like Hellboy and his stony arm.

Phixius

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