Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Why does Brad take the blame for Charlie for shooting April with the slingshot? If he tells dad that Charlie had done that, he would've told him it was an accident.

Trainman

Answer: Charlie had become a chronic drunk and the town considered him a crackpot with his claims about alien abductions being foretold through his dental work. Even though it was an accident, he could have been declared incompetent and a danger to himself and others; he possibly could have been involuntarily committed. Brad is protecting him.

raywest

Question: After being shot we see Valentina wrapping her arms around her abdomen. When Jackal approaches her she slowly raises her arms and reveals her wound. Why did she do that?

Answer: Agree with the other answer, but would add this was likely also a directorial decision to show the audience how seriously wounded she is, foreshadowing her eventual demise.

raywest

Answer: I believe she knew she was dying and was making a last ditch effort to stop him. It may have been a futile try, but how many dying criminals have done the same thing, getting that last shot at the Hero.

Question: How did the police not come across the fact that Nichols drove Richard's car, meaning he had access to the keys to the house or that a phone call was made from the car while it was in his possession? Surely this would have been known or mentioned to the investigators since they had a timeline of Richard being at the fundraiser?

Movielover1996

Answer: Yes, but as is shown in the film, the police investigation was incompetent at best. They decided very early on that Richard was guilty, and did only the most rudimentary of legwork to prove their theory, while not following up on leads like this one that would just muddy the waters. Definitely a misstep on behalf of Richard's defense not to bring it up at trial, of course.

For sure, the Chicago PD thought they had an easy open and shut case and did no real investigation. That's why they are still mad at the end because they were jerks who didn't want to admit how lazy they were.

Answer: Possibly, but very unlikely. The mid-credits scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home sees Eddie Brock telling his bartender that he intends to go to New York to "talk to this Spider-Man guy" (paraphrased), which would suggest he's never heard of Spider-Man before, and if he occupied the same universe as the Andrew Garfield version, he would definitely know who Spider-Man is, not least because Eddie is an investigative journalist, and Spider-Man would undoubtedly be one of, if not the most, famous persons on the planet.

Phaneron

Answer: No, it's established that Tom Hardy's Venom is in a universe of his own. The mid-credit scene of "Let There Be Carnage," shows him jumping into the MCU and seeing Spider-Man for the first time. At the end of "No Way Home," he wants to go to New York, but is pulled back, but leaving a piece behind. Somebody will be Venom in the MCU, maybe rich kid Eddie Brock, his arrongance would be perfect for Venom.

Venom, as in the symbiote, knows who Spider-Man is and has been to multiple universes. It's Eddie Brock that seems unaware of Spider-Man. Although there was that "incident at the Daily Globe", which in the comics is what started Brock's hatred of Spider-Man.

Bishop73

Answer: I agree it's unlikely he's in the Garfield universe. At the time of the film, Tom Holland was already Spider-Man. It would be different if this Venom film came out before 2016. But the Symbiote has been to other universes in the multiverse as explained in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage", so it's possible it's been to the Garfield universe and could be the same one from the Maguire universe.

Bishop73

Question: How was Batman able to get to Harvey Dent faster than police to Rachel? I mean, I can think Bat's technology being way faster of course. But for example: if all units were sent to Rachel's location, there might have been some units patrolling near her location so it would have been faster to have them go there first. Right? What other possibilities am I not considering?

Paradox Rastafa

Answer: I honestly think within the context of the movie, we are just meant to assume that most units are either at the police station (given a high-profile terrorist suspect - the Joker - and many of his goons were just captured) or still at the scene of the massive chase that just occurred earlier in the night, since there was a lot of destruction or chaos. Thus, there simply wouldn't be any available units closer to Rachel's location. It's a little far-fetched, sure... but it's basic "suspension of disbelief." It's required dramatically for the plot to progress. (Similar to the fact that in the sequel, many of the Gotham City PD got stuck underground by Bane... it's a little far-fetched, but it works for the plot.) Batman was simply able to get to Dent's location faster since he's using the batpod, which is a bit of a technological marvel and can get around much quicker and easier than a police car.

TedStixon

Answer: This could be a plot hole, but I would posit: Given how corrupt/easily corruptible the Gotham police are, it's likely the Joker may have bribed/threatened/otherwise coerced the beat cops to a) steer clear of the areas where he was holding Dent and Rachel, or b) ignore the call to go to that location. You're right that Batman's tech is what allows him to reach Dent faster than Gordon et al. Reach Rachel; the Joker set it up that way, so that whoever Batman saves means the other one dies.

Answer: Batman showed up only a few seconds before the GPD, they arrived as the building blew.

Question: McElroy is gutshot at close range. Operated on w/ rusty pliers, no drugs. Minutes later he walks around, and next day seems fine as he rides in a posse. Totally impossible! Shouldn't he be dead?

Answer: Obviously. But to quote Josephus, movies is magic.

You Only Move Twice - S8-E2

Question: I, like Marge, don't know much about football. Why is Homer disappointed to own the Denver Broncos team? I know his first choice was owning the Dallas Cowboys, but he seems to especially dislike the Broncos.

Answer: I don't think the writers had anything particular in mind when choosing the Denver Broncos to be the butt of the joke. But I wonder if it's meant to be a clue where Springfield is. But, while this episode did air late 1996 when the Broncos had a winning season, given the amount of time needed to produce the episode, it was written when the Broncos were a mediocre team at best. From '92-'95 they had a 32-32 record and never finished higher than 3rd in their division. And the Cowboys and Broncos are in separate conferences, so they're not particularly rivals. But as Phaneron points out, the Broncos ended up winning back-to-back Super Bowls in the following 2 season after this episode aired, so Homer is a very lucky guy.

Bishop73

Probably also worth mentioning that by the time this episode had aired, the Broncos had an 0-4 record in the Super Bowl, and to this day I believe they hold the record for most Super Bowl losses.

Phaneron

The Buffalo Bills also had an 0-4 record at the time of airing having lost 4 straight years.

ctown28

The Vikings are also 0-4 in the Super Bowl. The Patriots have 5 losses (although only had 1 at the time this episode aired).

Bishop73

True, and they would have been a funnier pick for Homer to end up owning, given that two consecutive of those four Super Bowl losses were to the Cowboys. Although Homer fantasizing about being John Elway in the episode Cape Feare makes his disdain for the Broncos rather funny.

Phaneron

Show generally

Question: Maybe I missed a full explanation or it's a plot hole for the show, but how do Michonne's armless, jawless walkers on a leash help mask her scent or let her walk among the walkers?

Bishop73

Answer: The other walkers see the two already upon her, figure that she's already taken, and move on.

Captain Defenestrator

What do you mean "upon her" if they're in front of her and walking forward?

Bishop73

A satisfactory answer hasn't really been given. The general consensus on Reddit is that having the two tame rotting zombies close by overpowers her own smell and the zombies can't detect her. In my previous answer, I was thinking that it was a psychological tactic. The other zombies see that they're about to eat her and about to attack, figure "that one's taken," and move on. This time, I'll go with the internet's answer.

Captain Defenestrator

I broke this question up into 2 because I ran out of room. But, yeah, I thought the idea was either mask her smell or make other Walkers think she's "taken." But in the show, those options don't seem to work for other characters.

Bishop73

"Upon" as in "They are about to descend down on their prey."

Captain Defenestrator

Yes, but I was asking about times when they're in front of her and she's following, not that ever showed any signs of descending down on her.

Bishop73

Well, zombies don't look that carefully to distinguish "Oh, those guys are walking in front of her instead of about to throw her on the ground and eat her. Let's get really hung up on the word "upon" now, shall we?"

Captain Defenestrator

It was my polite way of letting you admit you didn't know what you were talking about and were guessing with a total BS answer.

Bishop73

Ah. Well, I DID admit that earlier.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Curious on why the surgical equipment doesn't melt when removing the Queen chest burster from Ripley when she has acidic blood?

Answer: This is just speculation (and I haven't watched the movie for ages) but the operation is done with medical equipment in a facility designed for studying Aliens, which the military knows a little about. Maybe it is made of futuristic acid proof material.

Question: After a phone call, William tries to take his wife and daughter and leave the town. In the car, his wife asks him why he is a such a hurry to leave, he says "Leaving. That's what they want. So they can destroy my life's work." Who does he refer to and why would "they" try to destroy his life's work?

Bunch Son

Answer: He is talking about the Umbrella corporation stealing his work, specifically, the G-Virus, so they can weaponize the virus. If the process goes well, Umbrella will take credit for it, but if the process goes poorly, Umbrella will blame Birkin for the failure, either way, Birkin loses.

Question: In the book and the movie, why did Sirius wait many years before escaping Azkaban? If I remember the book correctly, he did it by changing into his dog form and walking past the Dementors, who navigate by emotions. I know he had seen Ron holding Scabbers/disguised Peter in the newspaper article, but could he not have turned into his dog form and walked out years ago? Even without knowing where Peter was?

Answer: To add to the other fine answer that I agree with, Sirius' mental state negatively affected his desire and/or ability to escape. He languished in prison as a broken man, knowing that everyone believed him guilty and that no-one would help him if he did escape. Others would have killed him. It was a while before Sirius realised the Dementors couldn't detect his dog form. It also wasn't until he'd lost a significant amount of weight from being half-starved that he could slip through the bars as a dog, though, realistically, it wouldn't have taken 12 years to become that thin.

raywest

Answer: And do what? He had no goal, no way of avenging his wrongful imprisonment. He knew the dementors and every auror would be chasing him if he escaped, he had nowhere to go, no plan. Without any leads he would just be recaptured (and killed most likely). Seeing Wormtail in the papers however, gave him a reason to escape.

lionhead

Question: When Carl found his police car smashed into the tree, shouldn't the airbag be deployed?

Trainman

Answer: I'm not sure about Carls cruiser because he appears to be the only Officer in a small town, I doubt very much he's getting into high speed pursuits. However, in my cruiser I have the option to disable the air bag system. This is due to the possibility of the air bags deploying if a suspect vehicle stops and then deliberately backs into the pursuing cruiser.

Answer: It should have deployed, that model Caprice came with an airbag standard. Airbags will sometimes fail to deploy due to equipment malfunction.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why isn't Chong-Li disqualified for any of the times he puts his hands on the referee?

Phaneron

Answer: In the Kumite contact with the referee is apparently not illegal.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: 1) If a commanding officer orders you to do something but what they ask you makes no logical sense should you still do it? I'm of course referring to Apone ordering his people to get rid of their ammo. And what are the repercussions for NOT obeying the order? 2) Why wouldn't they check for aliens coming on the ceiling? Wouldn't the ceiling ducts show up on the blueprints they looked over earlier?

Answer: 1) Of course they are supposed to obey orders. Superiors don't usually completely explain the full reason why they give a specific order, it takes too long. That's why soldiers are trained to obey orders, no questions asked. You can see what happens when soldiers don't obey orders, because they had a good reason to tell them not to fire their guns, and they got lucky they didn't hit anything that could compromise the reactor. Insubordination is a serious offense. But since these are fictional space marines we can't really know what the repercussions would be. 2) The aliens didn't come through any ducts. They were hiding in the walls, which had a similar structure and colour as their bodies (logical since they made it). The marines didn't know the aliens would be so stealthy and smart to hide in the walls. They were there for search and rescue and weren't ready to face the aliens, since they hardly knew anything about them.

lionhead

I think the second part of the question is referring to the scene where Hicks checks in the drop ceiling and finds aliens there. The poster is asking how come the drop ceiling doesn't show up on the blueprints.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Near the end of the movie when Utah goes to capture Bohdi in Australia, he looks quite a bit heavier, was this scene shot sometime after the movie was originally filmed?

Answer: Basing this off nothing but a theory, I always thought that sequence was shot first, given his hair length. I surmised that Keanu came in with long hair to shoot that sequence, then got a haircut to shoot the rest of the movie. Again, this is 100% speculation, just my two cents.

jshy7979

Answer: Possibly. But remember when they were telling Utah about the 50-year storm, they said it would be next year. Plenty of time for the character to gain weight.

lartaker1975

Click - S3-E5

Question: What happened to Seth after he got stranded in the empty, black void? Did he die?

Answer: Seth's fate was left undetermined, so it's unknown if he is alive or dead.

raywest

Question: Why was Molly Weasley absent in this movie? Did her actress, Julie Walters, get sick or was simply too busy with another movie?

Answer: Walters wanted to be in it. "Goblet of Fire" is a fairly long story with many new characters added. In the book, Molly mostly appeared early on in scenes confined to the Weasleys' home. She did not attend the World Quidditch Cup or play a significant role in the overall story arc. To trim its running length, the movie starts later in the story as Harry and the Weasleys, minus Molly, set off for the match. There was really no reason, plot wise, to add her character into the already complex storyline. Harry's family, the Dursleys, were also left out.

raywest

Answer: Yes. After stabbing Maximus and later fighting him in the arena, Commodus knew that despite Maximus' weakened condition, he was unable to beat him especially since Maximus is a better fighter and Commodus was desperate to kill him. He took the knife that he used to stab Maximus with in hopes of succeeding but Maximus was able to turn the knife on Commodus instead.

Question: In the Extended Edition, John Connor is depicted as a senator whilst Sarah observes happily nearby. After all the deadly shootouts and chases, how did two of the most wanted individuals in the whole country (based on sheer destruction, especially against police) manage to get off free, and even get involved in politics? Sarah would've surely gone back to the secure hospital, and John put back into foster care. Or did they somehow convince everyone the Terminator existed after all?

DEvans

Answer: These questions and more are the reason the ending was changed to one where the future is left uncertain.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: If Ralph has robbed the victim, how come Harvey can also steal his money?

Answer: He didn't. After Ralph killed Mr. Colbert, he stole his wallet. He took the money and threw it away. Harvey found the empty wallet, and that's why the police charged him with murder.

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