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: When Saruman declares war, why does Grima cry? He's a bad guy siding with Saruman.

Answer: He's a experiencing a moment of guilt, realizing that he has helped unleash a genocidal war machine on his own people.

Jukka Nurmi

Answer: The tear rolling down his cheek is the result of his overwhelming awe at the sheer size of Saruman's army.

Phixius

Question: Why did they let Professor Poopypants get away?

Answer: They never would have found him after CU slapped him far away. Plus Harold destroyed the shrink/grow machine so PP ended up permanently small, meaning someone could easily squish him if he tried anything evil again.

Question: Why did Peter Dawson lie to the shell-shocked soldier about George and not retaliate or have him charged for George's death?

Answer: When George got injured, before he died, Peter did not understand what the soldier had been through. In fact he was honest with him when he asked if George was OK the first time. After he got to Dunkirk he saw what happens in war. What people went through. He understood why someone would be shell-shocked and empathized with the soldier more. After that he wanted to spare the soldiers feelings and not make him feel worse.

Question: When Maurice enters through the castle gate while being chased by wolves, why do the wolves stop before the gate? Why don't they continue chasing Maurice from there?

Johman

Chosen answer: If it's not magic, likely they know that a stronger animal (the Beast) lives there and don't want to enter its territory.

Greg Dwyer

Question: They mention Poseidon's Tomb and his trident is outside it. I get that his trident was stolen from the mermaids but what happened to Poseidon? Where is he? Is he in the tomb and if so how did he die? Why isn't he trying to get his trident back?

Answer: It is unknown what happened to Poseidon, and whether or not he is in the tomb or if he is alive or dead. These appear to be clues that are most likely leading to the next sequel in the POTC series.

raywest

Question: Spoiler Alert. Why did Toomes lie about not knowing Spider Man's identity in the first post credits scene?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: He may want Spider-Man all to himself for foiling his plans, or he may feel indebted to Spider-Man for saving his life.

Phaneron

Answer: Spider-man had saved his daughter's life and his own; Tooms felt like he owed Peter that much.

Erik M.

Question: When Bev drives to meet Ray to have him sign a waiver so her book could get published, Ray tells Amelia that Bev was his first wife. Since Bev and Ray never got divorced, isn't she still his first wife and his marriage to Amelia null and void?

Answer: Amelia is Jason's girlfriend! Ray never says if his Shirley is his wife.

Yes he did. He introduced Bev as his first wife, implying that she's his second wife.

Question: Instead of using the Pensieve to view Voldemort's and Slughorn's memories, wouldn't it have been much easier for Dumbledore to simply tell Harry of his first meeting with Tom and Harry simply asking Slughorn what he knew?

Answer: The purpose of the Pensieve is to preserve the memory exactly as it was recorded. Telling Harry something years after an event occurred is not as effective or as accurate as seeing. It is more impactful if Harry can watch events exactly as they unfolded. Regarding Slughorn, he had refused to give his complete memory because he was ashamed of the unintentional part he played in Voldemort's plan to create the Horcruxes. He was duped by Riddle, but he still did not want anyone to know how foolish he was.

raywest

Answer: Dumbledore went to great lengths to recover the modified memory from Slughorn and convince him to return to Hogwarts as a teacher. Asking Slughorn about the memory upfront would greatly reduce their chances of getting the rest of the memory. It was important for Harry to charm Slughorn because that was one of his weaknesses. He held Harry's mother in high regards, so Harry really was the only key to getting the memory.

Answer: It would have been pointless for Harry to simply ask Slughorn about Riddle because, as Slughorn previously did, he would react angrily, simply refuse, lie, or alter or delete facts as it was too painful and he was too ashamed to admit what he'd done. Even if Slughorn did tell him, memories are tricky, and, over time, people recall facts differently than what actually happened. Dumbledore needed the pensieve for both his and Slughorn's memories so Harry would have an accurate as possible picture of what happened. This is also J.K. Rowling's magical world. It would be pretty dull, literary-wise, to simply have Dumbledore or Slughorn tell Harry what happened.

raywest

Question: Arthur Weasley tells Harry, who tells Ron and Hermione, "If Dumbledore's traveling, then that's news to the ministry." What kind of news is that to the ministry? Is this good or bad news?

Answer: When someone says "that's news to [whomever], " a very common expression, it just means that it is a surprise, and that they had no prior knowledge of that fact. The goodness or badness of the news is not germane to the use of the phrase.

Question: Why were Quentin and Nancy upset when they found out they'd told the truth about Freddy? I'd have thought that kind of reaction would come if they thought he was guilty and found out he was innocent.

JohnShel91

Chosen answer: They were upset because they realise that Freddy is coming to get revenge on them for his death.

Answer: They realised that they really had been molested by Freddy.

Question: There's a scene toward the end of the movie where Adam sits down with his therapist (Katie). The camera shows a full frontal body shot of Adam as he's sitting down. His pants are wet. It looks like he urinated in his pants. But his wet pants aren't addressed. I don't think I missed anything. Or did I?

iXero

Answer: His pants only look wet because of the lighting. The color of the pants and the shadows make it look that way but they aren't really wet.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Near the end, how the heck did Tommy (the child) pass through the kitchen without being noticed by the cooks?

Roman Curiel

Chosen answer: They were in a rush, trying to get things and get out.

MasterOfAll

Chosen answer: Dobby was aware of the plot to re-open the Chamber of Secrets, and tried to prevent Harry from returning to school. Harry refused to listen, so in an attempt to protect him, Dobby bewitched the Bludger to injure him severely enough that he would be forced to return home.

Cubs Fan

Question: Why did Nim think Edmund was part of the story about her mother?

Answer: The name of the ship is the Buccaneer, and when Jack told Nim the story "The Scientist and the Blue Whale", he said that buccaneers showed up and that was why the blue whale swallowed the scientist (Nim's mother).

Question: Why did Simon set up so many riddles for McClane? Wouldn't he expect McClane to be killed in Harlem? Simon later says to Zeus on the phone: "My only problem is that I went to some trouble preparing that game for McClane. You interfered with a well-laid plan." What exactly was the plan, if he didn't expect anyone (Zeus) to help, or any gangs, etc. to take offense and kill McClane?

Curtis Kicks

Chosen answer: Simon Gruber was deliberately seeking prolonged, torturous revenge against John McClane for killing Hans Gruber (Simon's brother) in the first movie. Gruber expected McClane to suffer through the Harlem humiliation and suffer through subsequent, carefully-orchestrated obstacles that McClane may or may not have survived. Gruber deviously intertwined his revenge plan with several spectacular bomb diversions across the city (drawing attention away from Gruber's gigantic gold heist). However, in the end, Gruber misjudged the full extent of McClane's tenacity and resourcefulness, just as his brother did.

Question: I always wondered about this. As a cop, McClane knew about weapons. While handing over the machine gun to Zeus, he explained how it worked. But he did not tell Zeus to switch the safety catch off. How on earth could McClane forget to tell something crucial like that? Zeus isn't even pissed about it later on, while it could have cost him his life.

Shibito

Answer: And Zeus mentions about brothers knowing how to shoot guns.

He said it was racist to assume that brothers know how to shoot guns. He admitted he didn't know how to use that model.

Chosen answer: A simple omission, in the heat of the moment he forgot to mention it. He may have thought, since he just took the gun off an enemy, that the safety was already off.

McClane probably did that intentionally as Zeus didn't know much about guns. In fact, you hear McClane say "Don't be a hero, you find him, you come get me."

Question: I've got two questions. 1. I still can't understand how the kick works. When the van was falling, why they didn't wake up from the hotel? When they fall they should wake up from the dream. 2. Why the loss of the gravity didn't affect the 3rd level, if the other factors, such as the music or kicks actually affect it?

Honza Požár

Chosen answer: 1. The sleeping ones in the hotel were in the third level and the kick wasn't strong enough to affect them all, and Arthur made the dream, which gives him some control of when it ends. 2. The lack of gravity in level 2 DID affect level 3 with the avalanche. The gravity change in two might have made them a bit lighter, but not catastrophically so. And the music and the kicks were on the previous level, so they could get through.

Chosen answer: Hermione was angry because Ron never made an effort to pursue her romantically. She was also jealous of and disgusted by Ron's girlfriend, Lavender Brown. Ron, confused by Hermione's behavior toward him and also jealous of her previous relationship with Viktor Krum (who she was still writing to), retaliated by being angry at her.

raywest

Question: How come it was Harry who was picked over Katie to be Gryffindor Quidditch captain after Angelina even though Katie had been on the team longer? This was similar to how Angelina was picked in the last book after Wood was gone.

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: The team captain would be chosen based on who has the best playing skills and leadership abilities. Just because someone is on the team longer does not mean they'd make the best captain. Harry was a better all-around choice. Katie may also not have wanted to be the captain.

raywest

Question: Why does Hermione seem annoyed when she finds out that Harry told Slughorn she is the best in the year? Or am I wrong?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: She isn't annoyed. She's slightly embarrassed at the attention.

Greg Dwyer

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