Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Is there any significance behind the song "England's Mountains Green" (or whatever it's called)? It seems to be the only song anyone ever sings, outside of sketch-specific songs (like the Lumberjack Song).

Xofer

Chosen answer: The song you talk of was originally a poem by William Blake called 'Jerusalem'. It speaks of the possibility of Jesus having visited England. The poem has four verses but you only ever hear the Monty Python boys sing the first one which goes, "And did those feet in ancient time/Walk upon England's mountains green/And was the holy Lamb of God/On England's pleasant pastures seen?" If there's any sort of in-joke connected to it's use, I'm not aware of it. It seemed to just be the standard song/hymn they used when a song was needed that wasn't sketch specific. Some of the sketches it appeared in were 'Salvation Fuzz/Church Police', 'Buying a Bed' and 'The Art Gallery Sketch'. Something that may be relevant, though, is that the only one who was present every time it was sung was Eric Idle. Perhaps he just liked it?

Question: What type of horse did they use to play Brego?

Answer: Brego's real name is Uraeus. He is a warmblood stallion, a former FEI dressage horse, and was afterwards owned by Viggo Mortensen.

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Question: Why doesn't Jarod just go to the FBI or police and say, "Hey, these people kidnapped me as a child and are trying to rekidnap me, please arrest them". After what he's been through I cannot think of any reason for him to protect them. Also, why, when he's pretending to be a doctor or some government official, does he run when Parker or Sam or whomever come to get him? If he's in a hospital do you really think they could just drag him out at gunpoint unnoticed? It can't be that The Centre had infiltrated all of these government agencies to such a high level, or how could Jarod continually pretend to be FBI, ATF, Justice Department and military personnel without being caught? Many times he actually worked in the offices of these organizations.

Charles Fraser

Chosen answer: Well, there ARE people at the Center he wants to protect: Ms. Parker, Sydney, and Broots. Plus, people with influence like the Triumvirate has could stymie any investigation. And telling the FBI would necessitate revealing who and what he is to them, and he might be afraid that the Federal government would treat him as a guinea pig/resource like the Center did. Presumably, when the Center sends out Sweepers, they're "disguised" as law enforcement officials, with official-enough looking credentials to fool the casual onlooker. And just because the Center might have influence in government doesn't mean they necessarily have actual agents present everywhere. Perhaps Jared, in his Pretends, has made sure he's "under the radar." Besides, Jared doesn't KNOW how far up Center influence goes - after all, he wouldn't still be searching for "the truth" if he knew everything about the Center and its influence, would he?

Question: Can someone please explain the scene where McClane and Hans are alone near the roof. Hans says his name is "Bill Clay" and the camera zooms in on a board with the name Clay on it. What is the significance of this? Does this give Hans away? And if so how?

Answer: No, this doesn't give Hans away - the zoom represents McClane checking the board out - getting proof that there is indeed a person in the building with that name (listed as W. Clay, for William). Hans has obviously done his homework, but McClane doesn't trust him anyway, hence the trick with the empty gun.

Tailkinker

The zoom to the board occurs before McClane turns around to glance at it. Most likely Gruber was improvising here - he heeded a name, scanned the board quickly and picked one off it.

He doesn't turn - the name board is just behind Hans to his left, in John's direct eyeline.

Answer: John already knew what Hans looked like. He saw him through the vent on the top of the elevator (after sending Karl's brother down wearing the sweater) - He also saw Hans shoot Takagi (which is why he says "Just like you did with Takagi" after Hans says he's gonna count to three).

Answer: It ties in to the earlier scene when McClane first enters the lobby and has to look up his wife in the fancy directory. It seemed like a pointless scene, but it establishes that the ONLY people left in the building are on the 30th floor. Bill Clay works on the 29th floor, and so isn't actually in the building at all. Gruber doesn't know this, he just picked the name, and that is how McClane knew he was lying.

The people on the 30th floor were attending the party, regardless of what floor they worked on, so Clay could have been there. I agree with Tailkinker's answer about Hans having done his homework. It appears that Hans had noticed Clay's name on the board and improvised a cover. As the others indicated, McClane wasn't fooled, though I don't think McClane was positive it was Hans. He'd previously only caught glimpses of Hans while in the elevator and also when Takagi was shot, but he did not see his full-face or close-up. McClane likely recognized his voice, even with the American accent.

raywest

Question: What exactly is the space jockey and why haven't we seen it in the other films except its fossilized self sitting in the what I call the laser gun?

Answer: It's another race of space alien that is also subject to infection by the Aliens. This particular one was infected and moved as far as it could from its race's known space and broadcast a warning before it died. The presence of eggs in the hold may indicate that it was a research ship. The race was never used in other Alien movies because it adds a new dynamic to the plotlines: two alien species, locked in mortal combat and neither particularly friendly with humans. In the Alien pseudo-prequel Prometheus we learn these beings are known as the Engineers and have interesting ties with both the aliens and humans as well.

Phoenix

Answer: Other theories, mostly developed in the comics derived from the original franchise, assume the xenomorphs were biological weapons conceived by the Space Jockeys for some interstellar war of theirs. Hence, the crescent-shape derelict was just a bomber, full of eggs and operated by a single pilot to minimize risks of accident with this mostly dangerous cargo. - what just happened though.

AKA, the plot of Prometheus.

lionhead

Question: What is the significance of Bourne's and The Professor's headaches? The Professor might have explained it just after he mentioned them, but I didn't catch what he said.

J I Cohen

Chosen answer: It's something to do with the conditioning that the Treadstone agents go through. The precise cause isn't clear. It is mentioned more in the sequels, but not to any great extent - either PTSD or medication seems to be the root of it.

Tailkinker

Question: In the part where Bianca's friend is asking "I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but can you ever be just whelmed?" Bianca answers something like, "I think you can be in Europe" What does she mean?

Answer: The answer doesn't mean anything, it's deliberately stupid to show us from her very first scene how much of an airhead Bianca is. The implication is that Bianca's thinking of something practised in Europe that isn't in America.

Shay

Question: After the scene where Indy first goes onto the German U-boat, he runs around apparently looking for something, then the scene changes to the inside of the sub where you can hear that the order has been given to dive. Was there an actual scene cut out of the film where Indy lashes himself to the periscope? (When Raiders first came out in Aus, I vividly remember seeing it with this scene.)

Answer: The scene you describe was indeed filmed. It was cut out of the US release of the film although I cannot speak for the Australian version. The scene also appears in the Marvel Comics adaptation. http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/deleted_scenes.php has a list of this and the other deleted scenes.

Phil C.

Question: Why is there a lamb in the 'death tape'? I've seen this film at least 20 times, I've figured out everything else except the relevance of the lamb.

Answer: There were lambs on the hillside (near the red Japanese maple tree) that Samara was gazing at when her mother killed her.

Wasn't that just horses?

Answer: The lamb is normally associated with innocence.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: I understand Samara "haunting" her parents, spooking the horses, killing everyone who watches her video as an act of revenge, but why then does she torment (or at least "talk to") Aiden? Aiden has visions of Samara days before his cousin is killed, and for some reason, she seems to interact with him a lot, though we never see it in the movie.

Answer: For some reason, I always thought that Samara started to show things to Aidan after he went to Katie's room during her wake. There, he sees a figure on the TV and the proceeds to tell Rachel that it's not Katie's room anymore (clever word play as Katie had died so nothing was hers anymore, but it also implied that Samara's spirit had taken over her room). Since Aidan was a kid just like Samara when she died, she probably attached herself to him and began showing him things and it seems to have gotten worse after Rachel watched the tape and was infected by Samara. As for the drawings showing Katie's death, Samara didn't show those images to Aidan. Katie herself told him that she was running out of time and possibly that she was going to die. This obviously caused a huge impact on Aidan prompting him to draw those pictures.

Answer: Aiden is psychic. He can sense Samara, though he doesn't understand exactly what he is experiencing.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: How do the people not racing always seem to get to the destination first?

Answer: They take the camel roads, which are easier (and faster) to navigate.

Xofer

Question: When Dr. Buddy is in the control booth at Yankee Stadium, he's talking to a very old man who he's about to tell what message to put on the scoreboard. The way the film is cut, hanging on the old man for a few extra seconds makes me believe he's someone special in real life, but I saw the movie on a special movie channel promo weekend, and the end credits were squashed up to make room for cast interviews. Anyone know who this elderly gentleman might be?

Krista

Chosen answer: That would be the famous Bob Sheppard. He is the long time Yankee announcer. For more info: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/comment/sbcol15.htm.

Bruce Minnick

Answer: The title refers to an experiment in 1907 which attempted to show scientific proof of the existence of the soul by recording a loss of body weight (said to represent the departure of the soul) immediately following death. Referred to as the 21 grams experiment as one subject lost "three-fourths of an ounce" (21.3 grams), the experiment is regarded by the scientific community as flawed and unreliable, though it has been credited with popularizing the concept that the soul weighs 21 grams. (Wikipedia).

Answer: It's called this because supposedly at the time of death everyone loses 21 grams of body weight. Sean Penn's character does a monologue near the end of the movie that goes into this theory.

Tobin OReilly

Question: Frodo is pricked by Shelob in the torso. However he is at the time wearing a mithril coat which are supposed to impervious. How is he stabbed then?

Answer: The stinger actually comes in quite high, presumably above the rather low neckline of the mithril coat. An injury can be seen high up on his chest later in the film, presumably the stinger wound.

Tailkinker

Question: In a few things I've read, Antonio Bandaras is credited as playing Che Guevara but in the credits of the film he's listed as only 'Che'. Is the character actually meant to be Guevara?

Kara

Chosen answer: Though (very) loosely based on Che Guevara, the character of Che is NOT supposed to be him, as was stated by both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Sereenie

Question: I heard that Chris Columbus isn't the director of PoA. Is he or the other director of PoA, going to direct HP 4?

Answer: Neither. Mike Newell (Mona Lisa Smile, Four Weddings and a Funeral) will direct Goblet of Fire.

Krista

Question: Why doesn't Anakin wear the normal or really traditional Padawan outfit?

Answer: There is no Jedi 'uniform' as such - Jedis tend to wear variations on a given look rather than going for a regimented appearance. Anakin has presumably chosen his costume himself - it's quite an extreme variation, but could be seen as along the same lines.

Tailkinker

Caged - S2-E7

Question: In this episode, Catherine says, "I think I know the word that made her throw her coffee," and Sarah says she hates that word. While I could take a few educated guesses, I'm not sure what word they mean and I can't tell from Croft's mouth movements either. Can someone enlighten me?

Answer: I believe that she is referring to the 'C' word.

umathegreatstationarybear

Question: I've been told that the original script for Alien 3 was quite different then it turned out to be, but due to costs/times it was revamped. Is this true?

Azureth

Chosen answer: There are umpteen different scripts for Alien 3 available on the net, some of which are very different to what was eventually made - some of the early ones are set in a monastery, rather than the prison colony that was eventually used.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: What is the episode called (and which series) when everyone reflects on what may have happened? It involves Monica still being overweight and Chandler is a computer geek.

Answer: It's called 'The One That could have been' and it's from series 6. Two parts.

Kara

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