Question: How did Billy survive a bullet in the mouth?
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Question: What made Sao Feng assume that Elizabeth was Calypso? Nobody told him who she was or at least what her human form was/looked like. Did I miss something?
Answer: Sao Feng simply made a mistake. While Barbossa is bargaining with Sao Fen, he tells him that Calypso is bound in human female form and that she is aboard the ship with them. Sao Feng, who appeared to be attracted to Elizabeth's beauty, quickly jumped to a wrong conclusion by assuming that she was the female he was referring to.
Question: Why does Henry freak out when he realises that Opposite Piper and Henry's dad are going to be eliminated? When the opposites are eliminated, does that mean that the real versions will be eliminated too?
Answer: No.
Question: In the beginning sequence when Riggs is in the cube with water pouring in, it is leaking through the bottom. Why does he just not pull the rubber gasket from around his neck and allow the water to flow out?
Question: How did it end, because I missed that part in the movie. Does Sarah die or did her sister die in the forest?
Answer: Sara spends much of the convoluted ending of this film in the midst of vivid hallucinations. Eventually, Sara dies, accidentally, at her own hands. She cuts her own wrists during a delusion where she believes she is cutting away the grasping fingers of her father's ghost. As she is dying, her body is dragged under the forest floor by Japanese "yurei." (ghosts). Her spirit remains to haunt the forest, lunging at Michi, the search party's forest guide, in the final frames of the film. Meanwhile her sister, Jess, has been rescued alive.
Question: Dogs are immune to the disease being airborne, how did they ever get infected then? Did the infected humans bite the dogs? Seems an odd thing to do as that would likely mean the lions and deer would also be infected. 2. Why did the head mutant allow Will Smith to live (alternate ending)? Once he's got his mate back why didn't he just kill them? Was it a sign of mutual respect? Why don't they show that compassion when they first appeared? Smith takes the head mutant's mate, so in return the head mutant kills his dog and best friend, trashes his lab and destroys his research and stops any progress of a cure that Smith had made. Why not go the extra mile and just kill him, as they basically made humans extinct by doing that? The Darkseekers are smart as we know (setting traps and so on) so why not kill them now, as the next night the Darkseekers are going to search for him again and he doesn't have that big defence anymore. Seems rather pointless to let him live another day.
Chosen answer: 1) the cure was probably tested on animals before being let out into the public. 2) torture, they killed his dog and any possibility of curing the virus. Killing him would have stopped the suffering.
Question: Where does Frankenstein go / what happens to Frankenstein at the end? He just seems to go off into the middle of the ocean on a tiny raft.
Answer: It's unknown where he's going but it's plausible he's going to find a place he can live alone and as far away as possible from people who would judge and fear him.
Answer: In the original novel by Mary Shelley, "Frankenstein," The Creature leaves Europe and settles in the Arctic. Not saying that that's what happens in the "Van Helsing" universe for sure, but I think the raft certainly nods in that direction.
Question: Two things in this make me think they have some meaning behind them. At the cemetery, after the memorial for Billy's mom. Costigan is standing by the grave when everyone's gone already and looks up to the flowers sent by Costello. The note signed by Costello has been shot twice (it switched to Costigan in between). And if you look closely the signature and the picture of Mary changes, as if it would be two completely different notes. And I have no idea why Scorsese would do that. The second shot that bothers me takes place in Sullivan's apartment, while Colin is unpacking Madelyn's boxes. Right before he picks out Madelyn's graduate certificate there's a very short clip where television showing a woman's hand reaching for a phone is filmed. What's that?
Answer: While I love this film (and anything Scorsese touches for that matter), there are many continuity issues throughout the whole movie. It's easy to think that there is meaning behind every shot in a film, but sometimes it is simply sloppy continuity (which doesn't necessarily reflect on Scorsese). Jack Nicholson's scenes in particular seem to always have glaring continuity issues - this probably has something to do with his acting style. At the end of the day, the movie rocks. And that's all that really matters.
Question: Why does the Station Inspector chase children who are on their own and threaten to send them to an Orphanage? Is that what it was like in the 1930s?
Answer: He's not making it a point to chase down random children - he's like a security officer at an airport. It's his job to apprehend thieves and troublemakers and keep the station safe, and he only threatens to send children to the orphanage if they don't have parents for him to return them to. Also, it's implied once he finally apprehends Hugo that his particular harshness toward orphans (and most of his character flaws in general) is due to apparently having been one himself. He spells out the kinds of lessons he was forced to learn by growing up without a family, explaining how he became so cold, bitter, and antisocial.
Chosen answer: It is more than likely an early form of our modern day child protection. Just as today if children are found to be at risk, they can be and are taken away by social services and put into foster care. In the film, orphans may have been seen as a plague in an area that attracts posh looking people in stark contrast to urchins in rags eating out of bins. Most European orphanages/care homes/hospices/whatever you want to call them at that time were no better than anything depicted in Charles Dickens 50 years previously.
Question: This film tells a little about different clans and how some Predators hunt others (smaller ones, how they ever came to be and are not extinct I'd beyond me). But is it every mentioned anywhere just how Predators are created/born? The films never give an indication towards there being any female Predators. We know Aliens have the Face-Huggers and they spawn Aliens from Humans. What about Predators? Is it ever noted if they do something similar, mate like Humans do or are created using some kind of technology? Always been curious about this, thanks for any answer.
Chosen answer: Female predators (or Yautja) do not hunt, and are therefore rarely seen off their home world. Predators do have a mating season and females choose their mates based on how accomplished a hunter they are.
Question: Why do the Predators care about the PredAlien so much? I know it wiped out a few of them and is a monstrosity of a hybrid. However, why did they have it locked up on the ship? There is no way it got to full size (taking a few months I assume) or crawled around as a baby without a single Predator noticing. It must have been locked up, but if it's so bad, why keep it alive?
Answer: They were not keeping it alive. Once it birthed it went somewhere to hide until it grew to full size. Much like in every other Alien film, the predalien grows to full size remarkably fast. It usually takes less than a day in most situations. Once it grew to full size it began slaughtering the Predators and proved to be more than a match for the average Predator. They were most certainly not keeping the predalien alive purposefully, they had no idea it even existed until it began killing them.
Chosen answer: The predalien, like all other alien species, is a trophy. They were probably keeping it alive so they could hunt it later.
Question: Was the Predator in this film dishonorable at some stage in its life? Its pincer (not sure the actual name) things on its face, one is half gone and he has scars. Is this because he's experienced (hence why he's there) or does he do it because he needs to earn honor back for something (again, hence why he's sent on a suicide mission)?
Chosen answer: Although not proven, the injuries and the wide array of trophies and equipment may imply a long life of hunting. Further as it is receiving official distress signals from what may have been the home world, it is possible it plays the role of 'clean up crew' to mitigate exposure of Predator activity and lost equipment to prey species.
According to the directors, the injuries were a direct homage to Broken Tusk, the primary Predator character in the original Alien vs. Predator comic book.
Question: Why didn't the Predator who gets attacked by the face-hugger know? He must have known what had happened to him when he woke up, shouldn't he have killed himself? Or at least let his fellow Predators know before resuming the mission? I understand he needed to stop the Aliens reaching the surface, but surely he should have known or done something.
Chosen answer: The predators are proud creatures, and stubborn. He probably knew but couldn't be 100% sure. He only just killed an alien and marked himself with this trophy, making him victorious in his quest. Killing himself or telling his mates he is incubated right after that achievement is not in a predator's nature.
Additionally I think he would have told the other predators if he hadn't been killed by the alien queen. Before reaching the surface he was probably not in a position to remove the creature from his own chest. Maybe he thought that he would make it to the surface and get it dealt with when he is back in the ship. Instead things took another turn and the alien queen killed him before telling the adults. To be fair, scanning any surviving warriors left after battle, knowing what these creatures do to reproduce, would be a good standard procedure for the predator race in my opinion. But they apparently don't.
Question: What are the three curses Mad-Eye Moody taught (or you can say Barty Crouch Junior)? Cruciatus and avada kedavara - what's the third?
Answer: The three curses are the Unforgivable Curses. The Cruciatus Curse (crucio) causes intense pain. The Imperius Curse (imperio) puts someone under mental control. The Killing Curse (avada kedavra) kills instantly.
Question: Is it normal to bleed when playing drums?
Chosen answer: No, it is not normal to bleed while playing drums, as callouses develop on a drummer's hands through constant practising and playing. But, if a drummer plays hard enough and fast enough using the same drum sticks, friction between wood and skin can develop and rupture toughened skin. In the context of the film, the drummer is being pushed beyond his limits by the music conductor. Additionally, he is pushing himself to be better, so the bleeding is a consequence of that drive for excellence.
Question: Is there a significance to Jane choosing Alice Ayer's name? As on the plaque she died to save 3 lives. Is this meant to draw another parallel comparison of her saving these 3 characters (Anna, Larry, Dan)?
Answer: A possible parallel is that she sensed a chance to "save" Dan from his life, which he seemed to be bored with at the time. Overall, though, she probably looked for a female name and chose one at random. She preferred keeping some secrets from Dan, never trusting him fully.
Answer: She chose the first name she remembered when Dan asks her name. She did not say her real name because she wants to be somebody else, possibly because Jane came from NY to escape a life she had there and wanted to reinvent herself.
The question is about why she chose that particular name, not why she is hiding her real name.
Question: Why didn't Buttercup leave Humperdinck's castle and search for Westley? When Westley and her are surrounded in the woods by Humperdinck, Rugen and the soldiers, she only agrees to return with Humperdinck if they spare Westley's life and asks that they return him to his ship etc, and then after Humperdinck tells her he's going to send a messenger out to look for Westley, she asks him each day if they've heard word, to which he says no. So couldn't Buttercup have just left and looked for Westley herself? She is shown to be able to look out for herself, think on her feet and if she really wanted to find Westley again, she would have done everything in her power to search for him.
Chosen answer: Even if Buttercup was able to leave the castle (she was probably under house arrest at the time), she wouldn't have much luck finding him. She has no money, no tracking or survival skills, and no experience beyond the castle and her farm. Besides all that, she's the typical storybook "damsel in distress", waiting for Westley to save her.
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Chosen answer: Tommy doesn't actually shoot him...he's viciously pistol-whipping him and at the end of the beating does aim the gun at Billy's mouth and say he's going to shoot him, but Jimmy, pulling him off, says "We're done." Tommy then winds up and gives Billy a final whack, so hard the chamber dislodges and the bullets spray out. The noise that sounds like a gunshot is the chamber slamming into the hardwood floor.