Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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The One With Rachel's Assistant - S7-E4

Question: A guy sits in the chair by the couch in Central Perk and Chandler just says "no no no no" and asks him to leave. Is it just some random extra, or someone from the cast/crew/a fan? Seems like a part they'd get someone "special" to play. [I get the point of the joke, I'm wondering specifically about the casting of this part!]

Answer: It was just a random extra, who auditioned who the part.

Question: I heard that originally the character of Lt. Ripley was supposed to be male, is this true?

Answer: Lt. Ripley stands as one of the first strong female lead characters in American science-fiction. In an early version of the script, writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett had written all of the roles as generic male ones with a note in the script explicitly stating "The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women." It was left to director Ridley Scott and the casting agents to choose the cast of any gender composition they wished.

Michael Albert

Day 6: 4:00 AM - 5:00 AM - S6-E23

Question: When VP Daniels and Tom are in the oval office talking about K Hayes and B Buchanan, as Tom leaves the room it cuts to a close up of VP Daniels. Just behind him is a photograph in a frame where the photo somehow moves? Was this intentional, as it caught my eye and I cannot explain it.

Chickenwrap

Answer: This is unintentional and a simple continuity mistake.

Ssiscool

Question: Are there differences between the theatrical, DVD, Blu-Ray, and TV versions of the movie?

jordan215

Chosen answer: No alternate versions of the movie have been released. The version you watch is the version everybody watches. It probably would be edited for free-to-air TV, but almost all movies are.

MikeH

Question: I've seen this movie a million times and I still can't figure out the whole "Peter having one testicle because another guy had a pencil in his back pocket because he was a lawyer while they were playing basketball" thing. I got that they were playing basketball but still, can someone please explain to me how Peter lost a testicle while playing a game? Thank you.

Answer: Peter was being boxed out by the other guy, so the other guy was putting his back against Peter's front. With a pencil sticking out of his back pocket, you can imagine how some damage might be done.

Greg Dwyer

Wasabi Forever - S3-E21

Question: In the end it seems like they were going to end the series, saying bye to Rudy and them leaving, being all upset. Why did they try to end it, then start it back up with a different dojo?

Answer: This was intended to be the series finale but it was so popular at the time that a fourth season was added after this episode was filmed. Adjustments had to be made to film the new season including a new set and compensating for missing cast members.

Answer: I think they must've thought Rudy was leaving town for a few years. Either that or they were originally ending the series.

Question: In the beginning of the movie when the guy is shot while sipping coffee in that outdoor little cafe, the assassin fires two rounds. #1 hits the young mother in the forehead, #2 kills the guy sitting at the little table, then the spy is shot. He only fires twice, so how did he kill 3 people?

Answer: I've watched the scene several times - the people at the cafe are the British spy Prideaux, his contact, the young mother, an old man behind them and two men to the right side. When Prideaux walks away, the waiter runs out and fires wildly, hitting the mother in the head. He then fires again and hits Prideaux in the back. No one else appears to have been hit, the other men at the cafe are just moving to get out of the way.

Sierra1

Question: When Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan arrive on Tatooine they feel a disturbance in the force. Is this due to The Sith Lord or Anakin?

Answer: Most likely it was Anakin's presence, as Darth Maul arrived on Tatooine after Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

Chosen answer: No, it's spelled correctly. It's written in cursive so it might just seem misspelled.

Bishop73

Answer: The Dwarrow Scholar website isn't sure, but suggests it sounds like "Ikhriyi zuzô'z!", meaning "Release the links [of the statue mould]."

Sierra1

Chosen answer: They likely thought that they'd be able to defeat him without having to make sure he didn't escape. Easily explained character mistakes all around.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Jade breaks up with Beck because he was hanging out with another girl, which she didn't like.

MattHellstrand

Question: How was Sara so sure that there was no engineer on the train, considering that she was not able to get to the front carriage to find out?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Most likely from the speed at which the train was going, a train is like driving any large vehicle. You have to maintain a certain pace, to stop at an instant, for the unexpected.

Chosen answer: "Absolutely Wasted" by Sporting Riff Raff. Sample lyric: "I wanna get rinsed / get off my face / wanna have a party now in this place / get plastered, pasted, absolutely wasted."

Michael Albert

Question: What is the significance of the wound and blood we see on the back of Ray Liotta when he takes off his coat for a minute? The camera focuses in, so it is important, but I have never figured that out. It almost seems just where the wound would be where he stabbed the cop who was driving his car.

Answer: It's the cop's clothes. He takes them after killing him so he wouldn't have to settle for wearing his own prison uniform while a fugitive.

Phaneron

Question: A nit-picky question, but why did Hermione tear out a book's page of information about the basilisk? I have read the novel and Professor McGonagall says that she was found *near* the library when petrified, not *in* it. So I am puzzled about why she would want to damage a book instead of borrowing it.

Answer: A number of books in the library were restricted - either they were off limits to students or they could be read but not checked out. This was probably such a book. Hermione loved books, and would not normally approve of damaging them, but this was too important to her, and she needed that specific information. Of course, it also serves the overall plot because Harry finds the page after she's been petrified, and he is able to glean clues from it.

raywest

Question: Why can't the video just be passed to inmates on death row?

Answer: Who says it can't?

MasterOfAll

Answer: There was a deleted subplot from the film involving Chris Cooper as a child murderer. Originally Rachel would show the copy of the tape that she had Aiden make to this character, in order to end the cycle started by her on someone deserving of death.

Phaneron

Answer: Maybe because we have something called a "humane death" which caused all the death sentences that involved pain to be banned, leaving only the lethal injection to be a humane death. I think being assaulted by a child ghost who will literally scare you to death isn't considerd a "humane death."

lionhead

This presents a paradox. Whether or not it is "cruel and unusual" to force a condemned inmate would be a matter for the Supreme Court. but in order for them to rule, they themselves would all have to view the tape (and perhaps the lawyer for the condemned and the Solicitor General as well), so at least 11+ "death surrogates" would have to be found just for a decision to ever be rendered. But, if it's true that the person has to watch the entirety of the tape for it to be lethal, perhaps they could divvy it up, so that every part of the tape could be watched by at least one justice.

Sam Donaldson

Question: How does Wahlberg realizes that the head of police is the man sleeping with the mayor's wife?

AnthonyA

Question: Several times near the end of the movie, there is a biker type man. He is wearing some Harley Davidson clothing and a black leather cap. He is one of the pilots. He stands out if he is just an extra. Is he anyone famous?

Answer: In the book of the same name, this man is called "Pig". He was a test pilot during the Vietnam War. He played a crucial role in training the new pilots.

Answer: He is just an extra, who just happens to be in more shots then the other extras. He is not more famous than the other extras.

lionhead

Question: So what are these tournaments called in China? I'm trying to find one similar to them but am having a hard time.

Answer: There are known as Wushu tournaments. Wushu means martial arts in Chinese.

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