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.

Nobody Says Rat Fink Anymore - S8-E10

Question: Harry recognizes one of the defendants who used to bully him when they were both children. Harry says that he can't participate in the case because of this, and also because that would make it a conflict of interest. Wouldn't any cases where his father was brought before him also be considered a conflict of interest, and why would Harry be allowed to preside over his father's cases?

Answer: Harry's father only came to his court as a defendant once (about trying to start a mutiny on the ferry). Harry said he was going to recuse himself when Christine said the Dept. Of Transportation had already dropped the charges, so it was a moot point.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Harry recuses himself from the case because of his own conflict of interest, however, his father is usually brought in for simple public disturbances and with his mental health record, gets remanded to a mental facility for examination. In cases like those, the judge's task is little more than signing a form, so there's not really a question of impartiality to be considered.

Captain Defenestrator

The Cold - S6-E3

Question: Mitchell is watching the wedding video and suddenly he is shocked by what he saw on the video - Cam dancing with Lilly. I don't get it why he is shocked?

Answer: He has seen himself dancing, and is mortified at how bad he looks.

Question: There are two scenes on the boat after they have seen the shark and Brody has a panicked look, while in the background a shooting star passes right behind him. This happens twice, but it's in the day time. Was it real?

Answer: Although the 1995 documentary "The Making of Jaws" claims that the shooting star was real, the fact is that the shooting-star background effect is a Steven Spielberg trademark in most of his films (first noticed in "Jaws," but also appearing in "Close Encounters," "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Saving Private Ryan" and others). Spielberg has always had a fascination with shooting stars, dating back to his childhood, and he works them into almost every film. Http://americanprofile.com/articles/steven-spielberg-shooting-stars-movies/.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Since kryptonite obviously doesn't come from Earth, how can Earth elements be used to create a synthetic version? Like in "Man of Steel", when Jonathan says that the Krypton key wasn't made from anything on the periodic table, so it couldn't be from Earth.

JohnShel91

Chosen answer: Kryptonite is a compound created by irradiated fragments of Krypton rather than a pure element, Synthesizing it would then be a matter of analyzing the compound and finding Earth elements with similar properties. (Some, as you say, would be beyond the knowledge of human science, which is why Gus looked at his cigarette pack and decided to use tar in the place of the unknown elements).

Captain Defenestrator

Question: How exactly did Ynyr die? When he visits the Widow of the Web, he makes it safely to her without being attacked by the crystal spider. He even uses the sand from the hourglass to stop the spider from attacking him. But, when he makes his way back to where everyone's camping, he dies after telling Colwyn where the Black Fortress will appear.

Answer: Ynyr is told that the price of the information he gets is that his life will end when the sand runs out. It does after he reaches Colwyn.

Greg Dwyer

Question: When Gerry and Segen are making their way to the airport, the helicopter they're supposed to take gets blown up. So they're without transportation. Yet suddenly, 20 seconds later, they're running onto the runway, boarding the Belarus plane. How did they get to the airport?

Answer: The likely answer is that they ran to the airport. Their journey to the airport was simply cut to save time and keep the movie going.

Casual Person

Answer: Rey implies he's hiding behind the mask. He removes it to show he's not afraid of her seeing his face.

Question: What does Will Ferrell say to Mark Wahlberg in the scene at the fertility clinic, when Wahlberg first takes his pants down? Farrell makes a few remarks about the size of his genitals.

Answer: He says, "James and the Giant Peach."

Question: Watney leaves the Hab for the long trip to the Aries 4 site in the rover. Is there a restroom on board?

RICHXX

Chosen answer: No. The book answers this by stating that he uses a bucket for his waste.

MasterOfAll

Question: If the French kidnapped the Native American woman, then why were the natives trading the furs with them and saying that they needed horses to find the woman. Were the French hiding her?

Answer: The French were lying to the natives. They had kidnapped the woman and then sold them provisions to help the search for her. They benefited further from the Native Americans killing their rivals.

Question: At the end of the film the chief spares Glass in return for helping his daughter. How has the chief got to know that the unknown man in front of him is that very man who helped Powaqa?

EvgK

Chosen answer: She had plenty of time to tell him whilst watching the fight.

Question: Scott throws discs which enlarge/shrink whatever they hit, except when he throws them at Darren in Cassie's bedroom. Darren is able to bat them away. One hits an ant, the other the train engine, both of which enlarge. Why didn't Darren enlarge when he touched the discs?

MFWills

Chosen answer: I can assume it was because they didn't attach, just touched.

Question: As Kurt is loading the hack to deactivate the laser grid, Paxton and his partner are banging on the van, demanding that Kurt and Dave come out. Just as the program finishes loading, the cops open the door and drag them out. If the van was locked, how did they open the door? If It wasn't locked, why did it take so long to just open the door?

MFWills

Chosen answer: They could have opened it with a crowbar or a Jaws of Life. (Likely the crowbar, since we didn't hear metal rending).

Captain Defenestrator

Question: At the end of the space battle in the latter half of the movie, the Resistance's X-Wings jump to hyperspace with their stabilizer foils still locked in attack position. Why?

Answer: The design could have advanced enough in the last 30 years that the S-foils no longer need to be closed to enter hyperspace.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Maybe I saw it wrong since it happened so fast, but wasn't Minnie shot in the face initially when she was behind the counter? If so, surely she wouldn't still be alive, yet she was still alive when seen a little later on the floor where she is shot again in the stomach/chest.

odelphi

Chosen answer: You are thinking of two different characters. Jody shoots Minnie in the head. Minnie has another lady working for her, who goes to get the jellybeans for Tim Roth. It is this other lady who was shot while getting the jelly beans, and then shot again while lying on the floor.

jshy7979

Question: I don't get it. When Arlo finally returns end at the end of the film, why does his mother initially mistake him as her husband, Henry, when she should know Henry is dead?

John Ohman

Chosen answer: It's a momentary emotional lapse. Arlo has come back changed, and his mother is seeing him differently now, as if he is his father.

raywest

Question: If the movie plot is over a 4th of July weekend, wouldn't offices be closed? It appears to be a regular non-holiday weekday with so many people working.

Answer: Government offices would definitely be closed, however, in a big city like DC, not everyone would have the weekend off, and between the people who still have to work and the ones going out of town for the holiday, traffic would be about the same if not worse.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: My question is regarding the first shot of the film. You see the back of a henchman holding a clown mask with a suitcase. Later you realize that this is the Joker, however he is in full make up. So does this mean he was standing out in broad daylight without a disguise on at the very beginning?

Answer: Yes. No reason not to. Nothing's happened yet and people in a big city like Gotham would just walk past the guy with the weird makeup and not think anything of it. (And since they wear masks in the holdup, nobody's going to think that the guy in the mask is in weird makeup under it).

Captain Defenestrator

Batman was shown a joker card in an evidence bag at the end of Batman Begins so would not at least some of the police be looking for him?

Bane91

This doesn't mean that the general public is on the lookout for a guy in makeup.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: How was Ethan successful in getting touch with Luther Stickell? Was it the from list Ethan was checking of the disavowed agents?

Shouvik Roy

Chosen answer: Yes, Ethan accesses the disavowed category of the IMF personnel database to recruit Stickell and Krieger. Even if their locations were not there, Ethan is shown to be very resourceful and could have worked out how to find or contact them.

Sierra1

Question: When Bourne interrogates Nikki (under duress) in the underground station, Nikki insists that Bourne had never worked in Berlin, much less completed his first mission there. But it is established that Bourne had killed the Neskis in Berlin on what is described by Conklin as his first mission. Assuming Nikki has no reason to lie and that she would have accurate information about Bourne's activities, what might explain that issue?

Dusibello

Chosen answer: Conklin ordered Bourne to kill the Neskis, telling him it was a training mission, when in fact it was an unofficial, off-the-books assignment to cover up his and Abbott's corrupt dealings with Gretkov, which Neski was about to expose. Nicky did not know about this Berlin mission as it was not an official Treadstone operation.

Sierra1

Conklin did not tell Bourne that it was a training mission. Conklin told Bourne "this is not a drill soldier...this is a live project, you're a go."

Partially correct. After Bourne eliminates the Neskis, Conklin says "Congratulations soldier, training is over." This implies that while the mission was real, Bourne was still an asset in training, and off the books.

By "not a drill" and "live project", Conklin is telling Bourne to actually kill the Neskis - like killing the hooded man for Hirsch, it's training him to do anything for Treadstone. It could be that the edit is out of chronological order, but the order of the scenes implies that after Bourne has done the job and returned to the car, Conklin says "Congratulations, soldier. Training is over."

Sierra1

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.