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: A couple of questions that I hope someone can answer. First, what was the name of the ship that was found in the Mongolian desert? And second, was it a real-life vessel or something created for the movie? I've heard about the 5 real-life planes that were uncovered in Mexico, but the ship is a mystery to me. If so, where can I find info on it?

Answer: It didn't disappear in the Bermuda Triangle. It lies 40 miles from St. Augustine, Florida, which is 314 miles from Miami.

Amy Emerick Tice

Answer: The ship that was found in the Gobi desert is called the "Cotopaxi." It was a real tramp steamer, named after a stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains. The ship and its entire crew disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle sometime in December, 1925 while en route to Havana, Cuba. You can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Cotopaxi.

raywest

Question: In the scene where Lennox introduces Sam and Carly to Director Mearing, he says that Carly "Knows all about the Autobots and knows Bumblebee". Yet, just one scene prior, she looks at Bumblebee like she's never seen him before. Does she know about the Transformers or not?

Brad

Chosen answer: Sam probably told her all about the Autobots but she had probably never seen Bumblebee 'in person.' Shock and awe.

XIII

Question: When Prof. Rosa asks Ben to answer a "quiz-question" in college about 3 doors of which only one has a brand new car behind it, he explains he has a chance of 33.3% of choosing the correct door. However, when Prof. Rosa opens one door and leaves Ben a new chance to choose he claims that his chances of choosing correctly have increased from 33.3% to 66.7%, but as he already knows what is behind one of the doors, the car must be behind one of the other doors. Shouldn't his chances now be 50% in stead of 66.7%?

martijnvdvelden

Chosen answer: No, the 66.7% (2/3) chance, while counter-intuitive, is correct. See here for a much more detailed and thorough explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem.

Guy

Question: Probably a dumb question, but when I first saw this film.I thought that the opening scene where a young family is mugged in an alleyway was supposed to be a flashback to when a young Bruce Wayne lost his parents. Of course we know it isn't, but is that what the filmmakers wanted us to think. Or was it just my way of thinking?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: It foreshadows what will be learned about what happened to Bruce Wayne's family and what set Batman on his path.

raywest

Answer: It's not just you. No matter how many times I watch I find it refreshing that this Batman movie doesn't start off by making us watch Bruce's parents get murdered for the dozenth time. But fans of the character definitely would have fallen for it in the theater, so it's like a clever inside joke for their benefit, I think.

CountArtha

Question: Do continuity mistakes really count for this film considering it is a haunted room and one could say that the room itself is moving things around or manipulating objects?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: There would have to be a point made within the movie of things being different from shot to shot. Otherwise it would have to be considered a mistake.

Phixius

Question: I understand that the Autobots conveniently landed in America, but why do they only side with the Americans in their missions? There's a scene where Optimus and Sideswipe go on a mission to the Middle East. I just thought that Optimus and the other Autobots would've considered who was the best country to side with, not just agree to go out with the Americans.

GabbyMac

Chosen answer: Because it's the Americans specifically who are helping them, so, as Optimus explains in the opening monologue, they help the Americans with their conflicts in return.

Phixius

Question: In Gordon's ''secret room'', why is there a Union Jack-flag with a swastika in the middle? Does Gordon sympathise with Nazis or was there something behind it? It seemed a little odd to me, since a Neo-Nazi wouldn't enjoy reading the Quran and, more importantly, be gay.

Answer: The item in question is intended to be a protest poster - it's an artistic piece protesting the similarity between the totalitarian government taking power in the UK and Nazi Germany, a comparison that Gordon likely feels is not unjustified. A poster of that nature would likely be banned immediately; as such, Gordon has every reason to want to keep one as a symbol, but obviously keep it well concealed.

Tailkinker

Season 5 generally

Question: In season 5, after Harmony comes to work for Angel, it seems like certain scenes look like it's during the day. If it is during the day, does Harmony get around like Angel does, by using sewers and such?

cntrybrat

Chosen answer: Probably so. Or she may have a company car with necro-tempered windows like Angel's.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Okay, so if all the male werewolves wear nothing but shorts so they have less clothes to destroy, how come Leah still wears a shirt? It just seems that as a werewolf, she wouldn't care about nudity any more then her packmates. And, yes, I am aware they couldn't show her naked for the PG-13 rating. I'm looking for the in-universe answer.

Brad

Chosen answer: How do you know that she or anyone else "wouldn't care." Leah is the lone female shape-shifter among the males, and most women would feel extremely uncomfortable baring their breasts in that situation. Her male counter-parts would likely feel just as exposed and uncomfortable if they went without shorts in front of a group of women. It's a matter of decorum. Also, is a PG-rated movie. Nudity in movies usually results in an "R" rating, which limits the audience and revenue.

raywest

Question: Why didn't they just bring Sylvia/Lauren Garland back on set, to stop him finding out about Truman's true nature? It was Sylvia that Truman wanted to go off and go to Fiji with.

Shadow5

Chosen answer: Because she would have revealed the truth to him. That's why she was removed from the set in the first place.

Phixius

Question: What was the deal with the mirrors? Are there spirits in the mirrors? Or can Violet (or whoever's body happens to be inhabited) see her "true self" in the mirror? When Caroline first spends the night, a figure, like Mama Cecile, can be seen in her little mirror. If the spirit is in the body (Violet's), why would it be wandering around? So, the mirrors expose their true identity, correct?

RareJewel

Chosen answer: Yes.

Phixius

Question: When Borden and Fallon are in the same scene, is someone else playing Fallon? Or does Christian Bale play both, the same way Arnie Hammer did on Social Network?

Answer: It's Bale, at least whenever you can see Fallon's face. The same way they do twins played by the same person in any other film.

Phixius

Question: Why was Pocahontas angry and upset when Tomas killed Kocoum? Kocoum tried to kill John, and he would have killed him if Tomas hadn't been there. He saved John's life.

Answer: She didn't exactly hate Kocoum though. She loved John, sure, but Kocoum was someone she'd known her whole life. It's not unreasonable she'd be upset over his death, whatever the circumstances.

Phixius

Question: A few things; first, why is it Davy Jones and his crew, in some scenes towards the end, seem to work along the EIC so readily (for example, Davy Jones launching himself over Mercer to protect him)? I would think it would have been more of a 'following orders grudgingly, because they were forced to'. Also, related to the aforementioned scene, why didn't Jones just order the Dutchman to be taken underwater at the time, then take the chest back? They wouldn't have been able to fire their cannons or shoot guns with wet powder. Finally, was Jones really 'against' the Brethren Court? If he hadn't been fighting for the East India Company, would he have just kinda ignored the whole battle, still perhaps fighting on one side or the other to fulfill his own motives, or maybe even go so far as to fight with the Brethren?

Answer: Jones must keep Mercer alive likely because the soldiers have standing orders to destroy the heart if he comes to any harm. Jones does not submerge the ship because that takes time and it would be immediately apparent what he was doing. At any point before the cannons were submerged the soldiers could destroy the heart. If Jones were not at the mercy of the EIC, he most certainly would have been fighting against the brethren as they sought to free Calypso; something Jones very much did NOT want to happen.

Phixius

Answer: I don't think the ship can sink with living people on it. When Will was aboard the Flying Duchman in "Dead Mans Chest" it never sunk. And *spoiler* in "Dead Men Tell No Tales" the ship immediately rises as soon as Henry sets foot on deck.

Question: At the end of the movie, Fungus is seen amongst the employees promoting doing fun stuff, but since he is seen assisting Randall, and generally helping him and Waternoose with the scream machine earlier on, shouldn't he have been banished (like Randall) or hauled off by the CDA (like Waternoose) when the whole plan came to the CDA's attention?

Answer: Fungus was an unwilling lackey, not a co-conspirator.

Phixius

Question: In a scene towards the end of the movie, where Tina asks Dorian to give her one last kiss before the time bomb blows up the Coco Bongo, Eddy (one of Dorian's men) wants to turn off the bomb. Why would Eddy suddenly want to change his mind and turn the bomb off if he's taking part in blowing up the Coco Bongo in the first place?

zackman

Chosen answer: Because they're lingering longer than he's comfortable with. He's not having second thoughts, he just wants to stop the timer temporarily until they're finally finished.

Phixius

Chosen answer: He was going to tell her that he was the one who planted the idea (performed an inception) on Mal's head that "this world isn't real." Which ultimately was the reason she became obsessive and killed herself.

Phixius

Question: Why were there so few crew members on this very very large ship? If even one of them had a heart attack, they'd have to maintain the ship with only 80%.

Answer: There are several possible reasons. For one, the ship is fully automated, and the computers perform many technical functions, basically running everything. The crew is barely essential, and is kept in stasis during much of the voyage, awakened only at specific periods to perform specialized tasks or attend to unexpected problems. And though the ship overall is large, its function is simple: hauling a huge payload. Also, the ship is owned by a ruthless corporation wanting to maximize their profits. One way to achieve that is by using minimal personnel. They no doubt assume that if one crew member was lost or incapacitated, the others would manage somehow. On this particular voyage, however, the company intended to find and utilize the alien, and having a small crew, which they consider "disposable" makes it easier to achieve that. It was probably intended that Ash, the robot, would murder the crew or see to it that the alien "impregnated" them with embryos before returning them to stasis, only to die later.

raywest

Answer: The question may not be referring to this, but just in case: the ore refinery towers are often mistaken to be part of the ship, but this is actually a load that the ship is towing. What we see detach and land on the planet is in fact the entirety of the ship.

Question: What could Tarzan's loin cloth possibly be made from? It doesn't look like anything that could be found in the jungle that isn't human made.

Eyexpress333

Chosen answer: It could be any number of things, including some man-made material that was left by hunters or explorers. It could also be animal skin, either from some beast that was hunted or a found carcass.

raywest

Question: At the end of the movie, when Bella and Edward walk into the prom building, the camera shows a shot of Victoria. She has her back turned, but the camera is on her long enough that there is no doubt it's her. Edward would know she is there because he can smell other vampires. Did they do that on purpose or is it a mistake? I can't find any online information about it.

Answer: The viewer is most certainly meant to see that it is Victoria. What the viewer is not meant to do is question her presence. In all honesty it was most likely a movie error by the writer. Although it is possible that Victoria knew this and somehow hid her smell because her ability pertains to hiding.

Yep. The viewers were supposed to see Victoria standing there and she can mask her scent to blend with others. But the thing is, Edward has a powerful mind reading ability, he should've heard or known that Victoria is nearby, especially given the strong feeling of revenge that Victoria was feeling at the moment.

Answer: There's never any answer given about this, but Victoria, knowing that Edward can smell other vampires, would have taken measures to cover her scent or positioned herself so he was unlikely to detect it. Also, if any of Edward's "siblings" also attended the prom, then their scent would be intermingled with Victoria's, helping to mask it. This is a large gathering and Edward is mostly focused on Bella. Other's individual thoughts and scents may simply go unnoticed.

raywest

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