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.

Quantum Leap (1989)

Camikazi Kid - June 6, 1961 - S1-E8

Question: In this episode, Sam leaps into Cam, a teenager with braces. So when Sam looks in his reflection, he sees the braces, even though he's not wearing any himself. Someone submitted a mistake from one episode when Sam's reflection is wearing glasses, even though Sam isn't. While braces aren't as easy to put on or take off as glasses, they're still not part of the body (such as a zit), so shouldn't Sam have braces himself, the same way he'd have glasses on when leaping into somebody? Or should it not be considered a mistake that the reflection is wearing glasses and Sam isn't?

Bishop73

Answer: The obvious answer is that it would be very difficult to fit actor Scott Bakula with braces for an episode. As for the in universe rules, we can assume that items permanently attached to one's body (dental work, pacemakers, artificial joints, etc), would stay with the original body. Otherwise Sam would suffer agony when someone's fillings were jammed into his teeth. You have to have some suspension of disbelief when it comes to things like this. Why weren't Sam's shoes constantly too big or too small? Why does everyone look him in the eye, even when he's posing as someone much taller or shorter?

Brian Katcher

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Question: What exactly did Fredo do to help Roth (that led to the assassination attempt at Lake Tahoe)? Fredo says ‘I never knew they would try to kill you'. Ok, but what was going on exactly then? What did he think was going on? What *was* going on? All we know is Michael's room got shot up and Fredo betrayed him, leading to the event.

Answer: Fredo was offered money and business opportunities by Michael's enemies for providing what he thought was relatively harmless information about his brother. Fredo naively believed that Michael was never in any danger.

raywest ★

Chappie (2015)

Question: Is there any significance (or Easter eggs) in the book titles on the bookshelves in Sigourney Weaver's office? One of the titles was "The Grand Tour", another was "Green." I couldn't make out the other titles.

Iluvmovies310

Breakdown (1997)

Question: When Kurt Russell gets pulled over by the sheriff, the sheriff gets shot and begins to radio dispatch. Dispatch then asks the sheriff what his 20 (location) is. Kurt Russell grabs the radio and also does not tell dispatch where they were, but dispatch says they are on the way. How can they be on the way if they don't know his location?

Answer: There's only one major road in and out of the town. They knew where the Sheriff was coming from (Red called in an accident out of town to get the Sheriff out of their hair). If they start driving along the road the Sheriff took to get back to town eventually they'll find him.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Jeff (Russell) may have thought that the sheriff already called in a location explaining why he didn't include it. He was not by the sheriff at the time the sheriff made the radio call - he ran up to him shortly afterwards.

Answer: There would be a tracker in the radio to let dispatch know exactly where the officer is.

The_Iceman

GPS? RF frequency? No tracking on walkie-talkies in 1997.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Question: What does Fee-lie say to the elf lady when he's leaving her to go to the Lonely Mountain? He tells her he's something and she says she doesn't know what that means.

Answer: He speaks the Tolkien created language of Dwarvish and says amrâlimê, which I'm told translates to "My Love", or "I Love You" depending on interpretation. I personally don't speak Dwarvish though, so use at your own risk.

jimba

Flightplan (2005)

Question: Even if Carson was exposed as the hijacker, how would the US, and Canada charge him? The crime was committed outside of both of those nations.

Answer: They can still arrest him, regardless of where the crime was committed. He'd likely be extradited to the appropriate place to be charged. Also, the crime was occurring while the plane was on Canadian soil. There would also be matters of violating international law.

raywest ★

Predator (1987)

Question: Why did Dillon really want Dutch and his team to go to Val Verde? He says it was to locate a helicopter that was shot down and to look for Hopper but, after the successful raid, Dillon is seen looking through some papers, so he wanted Dutch there for some other reason.

Answer: He wanted Dutch and his team to help him retrieve the intelligence documents he was rooting through. The Soviet officer shot by Dutch ("Knock knock!") was also looking at the same documents and was planning on moving them out of the country. The story goes a CIA operative was carrying intelligence and was shot down over Val Verde by the guerrillas who are aided by the Soviets. Dillon sent Jim Hopper and his Green Beret unit there to rescue his men and retrieve the intelligence but they were ambushed and killed by the Predator. Believing Hopper and his men were killed by the guerrillas, Dillon felt he had no option left but to hire the best rescue team he knew to complete the mission. Dillon knew Dutch didn't do this sort of black ops work so he lied to him and made up the story about rescuing a cabinet minister.

BaconIsMyBFF

The Village (2004)

Question: In the tower where Lucius and another guy were watching, the guy told him he is a good friend and hopes he wasn't seen. What did he mean by that? Or was he just thanking him for being out there with him? Just wondering if there was more to it.

Redivy22

Answer: It appeared that he was thanking Lucius for sneaking out after late-night hours (probably breaking the village curfew) to join him in the tower.

raywest ★

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Question: Doc is a scientist right? The DeLorean had a ruptured fuel line and needed gas which, as Doc pointed out, was unavailable at the time. Surely he knew how to distill booze to make ethanol? (There was plenty of whiskey around at the time). I mean, they've used it to power cars in Mexico for ages. Why didn't Doc suggest this?

Bodragon

Answer: They did try it. Doc ran the engine with the strongest thing the bartender could find them and it blew out the engine. It takes all the power a heavy car like a DeLorean has to get up to 88 MPH. It wouldn't be able to get that much power running on ethanol, in addition to the damage caused to the engine.

Greg Dwyer

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Question: Why there was no invitation for Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie, and what were they doing at that time?

Answer: It's possible there was an invitation that they declined. Given the experience on the other island, both were terrified about going back.

Greg Dwyer

Answer: It's not really mentioned what they were doing. However, they weren't in the film because they weren't in the book, although Grant is mentioned briefly, talking to Richard Levine about new fossil finds. Michael Crichton ended up writing the sequel book after the success of the film. He decided to bring Ian Malcolm back (despite being declared dead in the epilogue of the first book) because he needed him, as the "ironic commentator", and said he could do without the other characters. So his story just focuses on Malcolm going to Isla Sorna. Although, in the book Malcolm goes to rescue Levine after he's reportedly went missing on the island and in the movie Levine isn't even a character.

Looper (2012)

Question: So what happens to the past you when you're sent back from the future? If 30 years ago you were sitting at the dinner table with your family would you just poof away and disappear? I'm stuck on these two dimensions and being alive in both scenarios. Another example it's 2000 and I'm 10 it's 2030 and I'm 30 if I was sent back to be killed when 30 what happens to 10 year old me at that point in life?

Answer: Nothing will happen to your 10 year old self or past you. He/she would live their life as your grown self would remember it. They would do whatever you did that instigated your trip to the past, provided you do not interfere with your younger self. Going to the past does not inherently alter the timeline.

Rick and Morty (2013)

A Rickle in Time - S2-E1

Question: What is the title of the piece of music playing when Beth performs field surgery on the deer? It sounds like it might be by the group Enigma, but I can't seem to find any more info about it.

zendaddy621

Chosen answer: It's called "The Enigma of Copyright" by Headphone Activist.

Bishop73

Answer: Return To Innocence by Enigma.

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Question: When Meg returns with her father, did she still have to write apology letters to Principal Jenkins and Veronica?

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: With Meg's father returning after four years, her mother probably had other things on her mind than Meg's punishment. But with all Meg had learned about kindness and love, she might have decided to write the letters anyway.

Brian Katcher

Stargate SG-1 (1997)

Answer: There were a number of concerns. Firstly, that the knowledge of a hostile alien race would lead to a mass panic amongst the population. Additionally, other nations would want to be involved and would be angry at the US military gaining advanced alien technology. This is seen as a valid concern in later seasons, when the IOA was set up.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Question: I've heard that Lucius was right in Voldemort's inner circle so why is he treated even worse than Pettigrew?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: In addition, Lucius is directly responsible for the destruction of his first horcrux, the diary, for the frivolous reason of trying to discredit Arthur Weasley.

Greg Dwyer

Voldemort was angry with Lucius because he repeatedly failed him. Lucius smuggled the Diary Horcrux into Hogwarts via Ginny, the plan failed. Lucius also failed to retrieve the prophecy orb from the Ministry of Magic, resulting in a huge battle and certain Death Eaters being sent to Azkaban prison. Voldemort usually severely punished anyone who failed him.

raywest ★

Except Voldemort was still in hiding in Albania when Lucius did this. He never told Lucius to give it to Ginny.

Greg Dwyer

Lucius took advantage of an opportunity to use Ginny to get the Diary into Hogwarts rather than as an act to discredit Arthur. He couldn't risk giving it to Draco, who he would not have trusted to carry out the mission.

raywest ★

Except that Lucius putting Tom Riddles' diary into Ginny's cauldron happened in "The Chamber Of Secrets." Not in this movie. The question was why Voldemort treated Lucius even worse then Pettigrew.

It might have happened in an earlier movie, but that doesn't mean Voldemort forgot.

lionhead

Answer: Lucius fell out of favor with the Dark Lord after he had failed to retrieve the prophecy (about him and Harry) that was stored at the Ministry of Magic. Voldemort thereafter treated him badly, continually humiliated him, and intended to kill Draco to further punish Lucius.

raywest ★

Unstoppable (2010)

Question: They try to stop the runaway train by deploying another train in front of it and continuously braking. Instead of having a man come in from a helicopter, why not just have a man jump from the train in front onto the runaway train? (00:40:00 - 00:45:00)

Answer: It would be a lot more dangerous trying to jump from one train to another, and there'd probably be only one chance for success or else die trying. The helicopter allows for a little more maneuvering.

raywest ★

Black Swan (2010)

Question: I didn't understand the movie. Was it all a metaphor for her descent into madness? And the ending. How much of the movie was imagined and how much was actually real?

dannydandan8888

Answer: **Spoiler Alert** I would say you are correct about the movie being a metaphor for descent into madness, but also displays themes of repressed sexuality and transformation. As the main character is given the lead role, she must play dual roles, one good and one evil, with the hallucinations representing the latter. Towards the beginning, Nina only embodies the personality traits of the white swan, innocence and grace. As the film gradually progresses, Ninas hallucinations represent her metamorphosis into the seductive and mysterious black swan. The film expertly convinces the audience that Lily (Mila Kunis) is out for Nina's role. In a twist ending, it is revealed that Nina has imagined most of her encounters with lily (including their sexual one) and has instead been battling herself, such as breaking away from her domineering mother and coming to terms with her sexuality. At the end, Nina really does stab herself (but actually hallucinates it is Lily she is stabbing) and her fate is left ambiguous.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Question: Kreacher says he betrayed his master by not being able to destroy the locket but wouldn't betrayal be refusing to destroy the locket after Regulus told him to?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: Kreacher did not have the ability to destroy the locket horcrux which is why he believed he failed his master. Only a few magical objects (Gryffindor's sword, the basilisk fang, fiend fire, etc.) had the power to destroy a horcrux.

raywest ★

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Question: When Mantis keeps the wolf from firing the weapon, he shouts, "Fear the bug!" Is it some kind of a parody?

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: No, it is merely a joke about the size of Mantis and his surprising fighting prowess. "Fear the..." is a somewhat common joke. For example, the University of Maryland uses the unofficial slogan "Fear the turtle!"; the Milwaukee Bucks use the slogan "Fear the deer", etc.

BaconIsMyBFF

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Question: Since Voldemort didn't know house elves could have apparated in and of the cave, why did he need Kreacher to test the defences? Why not just have Regulus?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: As you have pointed out, Voldemort didn't know Kreacher could apparate in and out of the cave because house elves have their own magic that wizards do not. Voldemort's arrogance led him to many oversights, this being one of them. Because Voldemort considers house elves to be nothing more than vermin, he would rather sacrifice them instead of a (to his knowledge) loyal death eater who could potentially aid him in the future.

Answer: In The Half-Blood Prince, we learned that only one wizard could cross in the boat. Kreacher is not a wizard, and Regulus is.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.