Question: Doc Brown strongly believes that nobody should ever find out about their own future. With such a strong conviction, why would Doc tell Marty that his children going to prison is the one event that would ruin the whole McFly family?
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: Near the end of the movie, Obi-wan does not seem at all convinced that Darth Vader has any good left in him. But in "Return of the Jedi", Vader tells Luke that Obi-wan once thought as Luke does (regarding the possibility of Vader being redeemed). What was he referring to?
Question: I have always wondered how the movie crew and cast worked with Natasha Ryan, the actress who played young Sybil. There were scenes that were very frightening, dealing with terrible tortures. I always wondered if that was traumatic for the young girl? Or, if not, how was trauma avoided. More generally, does anyone know how movie productions deal with children on the set of films with frightening, traumatic and/or controversial themes?
Chosen answer: In these types of movies, where young actors are involved in intense scenes, every precaution is taken to ensure that they are never frightened or emotionally compromised. Child psychologists, acting coaches, and the director are on set and work closely with them. A child's parent or guardian is also always close by. Child Protective Services oversee how child actors are being utilized in films and TV shows and there are strict laws and regulations regarding how child actors are treated, how many hours per day they can work, etc. Scenes are also carefully filmed and edited in such a way that can appear to be very intense, but were not emotionally stressful to the child. Also, stand-ins can be used for certain shots.
Question: In the beginning where Anderton and his team are having trouble identifying the house where Mr. Marks kills his wife and lover, why didn't the houses have numbers on them? That would have made it easier than just looking for the only house whose door was open.
Chosen answer: The houses did have numbers, but the images from the precogs didn't include them. Part of the difficulty of their method is that they have to decipher the random, jumbled images the precogs send them.
Question: When Quentin is inside the Spike Room heading to the others, the lever on the other side of the room is being rotated. Was someone there doing it? If so, is it revealed who or what it was?
Answer: As Kazan crosses the room he catches the lever with his trouser leg and half turns it as he carries on walking. It then continues by it self to complete a full turn.
Question: How old are Dean and Sam in season 9?
Answer: There are 4 years between Sam and Dean so Dean was 4 or 4 1/2 when he took Sam out of the house. Sam was 6 months.
Answer: Dean is 33 and Sam is 29 around season 9.
Answer: Early 30's. The flashback shows them 22 years earlier when their dad says "Dean take your brother and go." Dean looks to be 5 and Sam is just a baby.
Question: I read that Jimmy was arrested and jailed for the murder of a man called Richard Eaton. Why not for the murder of Billy Batts, Morrie, any of the Lufthansa murders or any of his other many serious crimes? If it's because there wasn't enough evidence, how was there enough evidence to write a book and movie on it?
Answer: The level of evidence needed for a court of law is much higher than an author requires.
Question: Why was there blood on Travers Goff's shirt when he died? I thought he died of tuberculosis. And what was the knife for?
Question: What artist/band performs "deck the halls" played when Jason, Marie and Eamon are having dinner with the children at the farmhouse?
Question: At the start of the film, Danny is given the paper and told he has to hand it in the next morning. At the end, Danny is at school ready to hand it in. Does that mean that aside from the black-and-white flashback scenes, the movie took place over 24 hours? It's hard to believe so much happened in such a short amount of time.
Chosen answer: Yes, apart from the flashbacks the whole movie is set over 24 hours.
Question: In real life, when are cops allowed to shoot people? I find it hard to believe Samuel Gerard would have been allowed to shoot Richard repeatedly in the torso just for running away from him. I know the glass was bulletproof in that scene, but Gerard didn't know that.
Chosen answer: Richard is a convicted murderer on the run. A police officer would be justified in shooting him to prevent him from injuring anyone or taking a hostage.
Answer: The Supreme Court case Tennessee v. Garner affirmed that law enforcement officers have the right to kill fleeing felons if they have a reasonable belief that allowing the subject that they're pursuing to escape would possibly cause more harm to others.
Answer: Samuel Gerard was not a police officer. He was a U.S. Marshal, and they are not governed by the same rules as police. Also being a U.S. Marshal Gerard would surely have known that any glass in any government building would be bulletproof for just such an occasion.
Question: The DNA test is a match, but later in the 2-3rd season we discover that Harry (foster father) had an affair with the real mother. Is Harry the real father and takes him but not his brother in because of that or not?
Answer: No, Harry is not the real father. While he did have an affair with Dexter's biological mother (Laura Moser), this was when she was his C.I. Dexter was already born at that point.
Question: At the end we discover the kid survived unscathed in the explosion, which makes one believe Ginny survived too. So what happened to her? Did the kid murder her?
Chosen answer: If we say Ginny did not survive, we assume two scenarios: 1.) Each key represents the personality that was killed off in Malcolm's psyche. So, all in all 10 personalities have died. 2.) Ginny was the sixth one to be killed. This means that she has key #5 with her - remember that we are counting the killings in descending order. However, it was not shown anywhere in the movie how Ginny was killed by Timmy. So, it can also be said that aside from Timmy (who was seen walking away from the car explosion), Ginny (whose body was never found after the explosion) also remained alive. Ginny's state is inconclusive.
No she does die. At the end of the movie they show her being suffocated by Timmy.
Nope, that's Timmy's mother that's being suffocated.
No. Timmy suffocated his mother in the bed.
That was his mother, not Ginny.
Answer: Since Timmy is the killer here, it would be correct to assume that he blew up the car and took Ginny away during the commotion and killed her in some way that isn't shown in film. Or else blowing up of the car becomes completely pointless and a classic like this won't show a scene that doesn't have a significance. So blowing up the car was actually a part of the plot to kill Ginny.
Question: Throughout all the movies, there are a few times when people are shown using magic without a wand, so what is the point of taking away someone's wand (Hagrid) or casting the "Expelliarmus" spell?
Answer: Only the most skilled wizards (as well as some basic instinctive magic) can do magic without a wand. A wand is also necessary for a number of different spells. Notice how even Voldemort always uses both a wand and the incantation when casting the Killing Curse.
Question: How could the conspirators possibly imagine that their plot would work? Their confidence that none of over 400 passengers might happen at some point to fix on Kyle and her daughter, perhaps even have a whole conversation with them, either at the gate or on the plane, seems unwarranted. They had to have been awfully sure that no one would notice them boarding at the call for passengers with small children. They had to assume that once the plane had leveled off that the girl wouldn't spend half an hour traipsing tirelessly up and down the aisle dragging her bear along and saying hi to everyone. And then there's the coffin. When Kyle did open the coffin, it made no sense that she did! So how in the blazing sun would the plotters have expected that she would do that at some point?
Answer: They most likely would have had contingency plans in place. For example, if the conspirators saw someone talking to Kyle, they'd interrupt to distract that person. Or initiate their plan earlier if the daughter started getting noticed. Of course, since the script didn't call for any of these contingency plans, we can only speculate. And they basically manipulated Kyle into opening the coffin.
Question: How could people sneak into the show? It's in a large dome, and I assume there's lots of security.
Chosen answer: A motivated individual can find a way. One could get hired as an extra, or as a crew member. And one could certainly simply elude security. The larger the operation, the easier it is to find holes in the system. We have certainly seen many instances of that in real life, in museums, theme parks, celebrity residences, national landmarks, etc. Why not in a fictional, dome-enclosed town?
Question: It is revealed at the start of the film that Vanessa was a Fembot the entire time. When Austin tells Basil Exposition this, he replies that they knew all along. If they knew all along, why didn't they tell him? Am I missing something here, or is it just a very poor excuse for Austin to become single again and act the way he does?
Chosen answer: It's just a random joke and an easy way for them to write out Elizabeth Hurley and bring in Heather Graham.
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Answer: At the end of the first film, Doc says, "what the hell" in response to the letter Marty gave him. So this shows it is not that strong a conviction, especially in the face of definite knowledge about something bad happening. It is also a way for Doc to repay Marty.
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