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: Who was the hooded person who shot at the women with the shotgun?

Answer: Florentino, the Mexican member of the Cowboys played by Paul Ben-Victor. Earlier a brief close up of him is seen as he is stalking the Earps and, though only seen briefly as he shoots at the women, his mustache is quite easily recognizable if you pause the movie.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: The Vatican is aware of the birth, somewhere in the world, of Christine (though not knowing her identity at the time), and the Satanists are present at her birth and know that she is "the one." It's safe to assume that the Vatican, and the Catholic Church in general, has spies/informants in the Satanists' society, and were able, in the intervening 20 years between Christine's birth and the events of the film, to track her down to New York and send Aquinas there (the fact that he was sent by the Vatican is established).

Answer: She wasn't exactly fond of the fact when she learned the truth. Telling her before then could ruin Satan's plan, i.e. the revelation could cause her to commit suicide years before the ordained time or she could flee to where they may never find her.

Phaneron

Answer: Because he realised it was in braille.

Answer: He found it very hard to believe Eli was blind/able to read a book written in braille.

Answer: Since Denise is never seen or heard by any of the other characters; since Phoebe abruptly stops mentioning her immediately after this episode; and since Phoebe is, to put it gently, a little weird, I think we can safely assume that yes, Denise was made up.

However Phoebe is also known to come out with random things that seem impossible but is true.

Ssiscool

I'd say that Denise being made up is a fair assumption, as Rachel lived with Phoebe long enough to the point where there was no issue with this mystery person returning.

Question: Why do the toys not want people to know they're alive?

Answer: Because they are supposed to play out the part of a toy, that's their purpose. They want to be there for a child as a toy.

lionhead

Ok, but what are they afraid might happen if people knew they were alive?

I don't really know how you want to look at this but if you look at it realistically I think it's quite obvious what they are afraid of. If it became publicly know that every toy ever made, including all teddy bears, remotely controlled cars and even etch-a-sketches are sentient, then you could probably expect a reaction comparable to that of Sid. Fear and panic.

lionhead

Also, wouldn't toys risk being experimented on, imprisoned, or destroyed if they revealed to humans that they were alive?

Exactly what happened to Sid. He found out and freaked out.

Answer: They're not necessarily afraid, it's just part of being a toy. Woody even mentions "breaking rules" when they move in front of Sid. They may just accept that it's something they're not supposed to do.

But they did reveal themselves to animals like Scud and Buster though.

Trainman

How are dogs going to tell anyone? Besides, they don't care since they are animals.

Answer: I think it's safe to assume that, unless a toy makes a conscious decision to reveal their true nature, they automatically default to inanimate toy mode. Otherwise, Buzz would have easily revealed himself within the first hour after Andy got him. With that in mind, since it's apparently something they have to work to do, I would propose that it's not that they have a reason not to want anyone to know their true nature, but that they have to have a real reason to reveal it in order to do so, like Woody had to save Buzz.

Garlonuss

But Buzz could just as easily make the conscious decision to move whilst Andy was there, he thought he was the real Buzz lightyear after all, and not a toy. Then again, in the plot it's kinda stupid Buzz doesn't think he's a toy even though Andy plays with him. But if Woody can move whilst a human is in the room, then any toy can do that. Therefore, it's a decision not to do so. Buzz most likely got asked by the other toys to play the part and he obliged since he needed them till his ship was fixed, but still.

lionhead

I said it appears they have to make a conscious decision to reveal their nature. Buzz not knowing his true nature makes that kind of impossible for him so he reverts to toy mode when Andy's around. Probably without even being aware of it.

Garlonuss

That's a possibility. But then the question arises how the other toys became self-aware and why they are self-aware in the first place. It appears this is the first time they meet a toy that doesn't know he's a toy. On one side you have toys that are aware they are a toy and want to play by its rules and on the other hand you havee toys that don't believe they are one but magically never reveal their sentience.

lionhead

Who said this was the first time this has happened? For all we know, Woody could've thought he was a real cowboy before realizing he's a toy. We just don't see his or any of the other toys' backstories.

You can tell by Woody's surprise, that it takes so long to realise Buzz actually thinks he is really a space ranger. Again, all the other toys know they are toys and worry about toy things.

lionhead

Yet Buzz could also believe he's on a secret mission from Star Command, hence why he freezes. He didn't even believe he was a real toy at this point. Not a plot hole and not confusing. Also, toys can somehow "sense" when people are nearby and only move if either A), there's no people around or B), nobody's looking. Notice how all the toys go back to "toy form" any time this happens? They're very careful, not stupid.

Also a possibility, sure. Just to be clear; I'm not against the idea and thought process behind the plot. It's just a animated movie for kids. I just like to argue.

lionhead

Answer: I questioned this to myself; even at Pizza Planet, before Buzz learns he's a toy, he gets picked up by Sid in the claw machine and turns back into an inanimate object which means by some sort of unconscious decision he becomes a toy again.

Answer: The Hormones are playing at Ross and Emily's wedding.

Super Grover

Answer: What happened to Syndrome happened high in the air, Elastigirl mentions she can't see whats going on and panics. They never actually see what Jack-Jack is doing and think Syndrome is hurting him.

lionhead

Question: The opening scene, as well as several others, shows Kaiju skeletons lying on the beach. In the first film, Kaiju bone power was $500 an ounce, used as a aphrodisiac. If that is the case, why is there 10s of millions of dollars just lying on the beach deteriorating?

Answer: The film never addresses this, and in fact the kaiju black market is never even mentioned. Any answer would be speculation. You could argue that it has been a decade since the events of the previous film and in that time the kaiju black market could have collapsed for any number of reasons (lack of demand, procurement costs, government regulation, etc). We must also consider that the writers were not concerned with consistency between this film and the previous film. Since Hannibal Chau does not appear in this film, nor is he mentioned, the idea of a lucrative kaiju black market appears to have been dropped. Since this film focuses instead on a jaeger black market, it might have been a conscious decision by the film-makers to ignore Hannibal Chau in this film to avoid confusing new viewers who didn't see the original film.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: After the subway ghost shows Sam how to move things, he gets angry at Sam's question about his death, making him kick a cigarette dispenser. After kicking the dispenser, why does the subway ghost suddenly not recognize Sam?

Answer: The subway ghost was a paranoid schizophrenic who committed suicide by throwing himself in front of the train. As a ghost, he still has extreme mood swings that range from denial to grief to anger and even violence, and he apparently suffers short-term memory loss, as well.

Charles Austin Miller

The subway ghost told Sam that somebody had pushed him.

As I said, the subway ghost was a paranoid schizophrenic who is in denial. He insists that he was pushed; but his odd insistence implies that he actually committed suicide.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: The ghost is mentally unhinged with periodic lucid periods before lapsing back into unstable rants.

raywest

Question: On the Russian vessel, shortly after Ryan boards via the airlock, there's a readout in English concerning oxygen. Shouldn't the readout, and indeed virtually everything on that ship, be written in Russian?

Answer: The International Space Station is serviced and manned by representatives from several countries. It stands to reason that because of this, instructions for spacecraft and equipment would be printed in several languages. As the movie shows, in the case of an emergency it would not make sense to have spacecraft and equipment be effectively "locked out" to those who don't speak a particular language when that problem can be easily solved by printing instructions in multiple languages.

BaconIsMyBFF

This is similar to how the airline industry works internationally. All pilots, crew, air traffickers, etc, regardless of what country, speak in English. It is the international language.

raywest

Answer: The original title was simply "Raiders of the Lost Ark" because George Lucas and Steven Spielberg didn't anticipate the lead character exploding into a cultural icon. After this first blockbuster film, they added "Indiana Jones and..." to the title of every sequel, and "Indiana Jones" became a marketing trademark for a deluge of licensed merchandise (most of which was directed at kids and young adults). Years later, in subsequent releases on Blu-Ray and DVD, Lucasfilm actually went back and retitled the first film "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark," in order to keep the collected films under the umbrella of the "Indiana Jones" trademark.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: If Gizmo is not allowed to come in contact with water, then how is he so clean? Since they can't wash him, wouldn't he be smelly and covered in grime?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: In the original script it was mentioned that mogwais could not reproduce if the water was below 25° (which is why the snow doesn't cause them to multiply). So it's feasible they could be washed with ice water. In addition, there are other methods of cleaning that don't require water (e.g. dry cleaning).

Bishop73

Answer: There's a possibility that Mr. Wing, Gizmo's first caretaker, used dry shampoo to keep him clean.

Answer: Google "dust bath" it's something a number of small animals do to keep clean in the absence of water (pet animals too, like chinchillas).

dizzyd

Answer: Rey states that she needs to train in order to help Leia and the Resistance. The message reminded Luke that once he too came to the aid of Leia, and in doing so changed his life forever. It also sparks a pleasant memory for Luke, he loves his sister dearly and the message reminds him of this.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: How did Santa, Anya, Donner and Blitzen get to the North Pole if they passed out?

Answer: They were magically transported there.

Answer: I don't believe she says anything beyond seeing a clearer vision of her past.

Question: Why is everyone talking about the volcano making all the dinosaurs extinct? This technology has now existed for years and years - there would be backups, other clones, other labs. The plot of this movie seems to hang on the idea that when this island is destroyed all dinosaurs that have ever existed or might ever exist will be gone forever. Yes it's still no small thing for a lot of animals to be wiped out by a volcano, but people are acting like it's of much greater significance than that.

Answer: It had appeared that InGen, the company that developed the dinosaurs, had abandoned all of their research on the island when it was evacuated three years prior. They have, of course, been extremely secretive about just what they were doing, and were able to move much of their technology off-site without the world knowing about it, as there would be much controversy and obstruction to them creating more dangerous dinosaurs. It is assumed that anything that was left behind on the island is now being destroyed in the volcano. Of course, this is all a bit of a stretch story wise, but it is contrived in order to make the plot work for the movie. This is called suspension of disbelief.

raywest

Question: During the missing tie mistake, what was that thing that Bond is screwing onto the gun and what does it do?

Richie

Answer: It's a silencer that is screwed onto the gun barrel to muffle the sound of the gunshots.

raywest

Answer: Because he has a developed a bad habit from dealing with dead bodies too long and now has some sort of urge to fill coffins and bury them, even if he has to do it himself.

lionhead

Answer: Because Van Helsing is an outsider causing trouble, like killing one of the Vampire Brides.

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