Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: When David is detained in that room, under armed guard, how exactly does he escape? You know, he found a tape recorder and tampered with that keypad entry system?

Answer: He got the door to open with the copied sounds off the tape recorder, then shorted out the door's entry system, walked out slowly while the guard was coming on to the nurse. David then got on the bus after certain NORAD employees who were not familiar with him mistook him for a tourist.

It's implausible at best that David would know exactly how to hook up the tape recorder to the door lock, especially without spending hours trying. But it's just a movie.

Gawdsmakk

Answer: The keypad that controlled the door used an analog tone-based system, much like old analog telephones. The control system for the door listens for which tone is produced by the button press, and if it hears the correct sequence of tones, the door opens. That's why David feigned having to use the restroom; he was running the tape recorder that was hooked up directly to the system in order to get the guard to input the correct code so that the correct tone sequence would be recorded, which he then played back, tricking the control system into thinking he had pressed the correct buttons on the outside.

Question: Why was Ralphie wearing his glasses at the Chinese restaurant? I thought he broke them when he shot himself.

Answer: He has another pair of glasses - his mom even says that he should just wear the other pair of glasses that he has with a little chip in them.

Answer: Like most people, (including kids) he had more than one pair of glasses.

raywest

Question: Did Lloyd get any money when he traded the van for the hog? He states he "traded the van for it, straight up" but in the previous scene Harry stated they didn't have enough money to get Aspen or get home. How were they still able to afford to get to Aspen?

Answer: Presumably the minibike (hog) would get better gas mileage, so the money they did have for gas would get them all the way to Aspen.

Bishop73

Question: At the Christmas dinner, what is the tree ornament behind Clark as he's cutting the turkey?

Answer: He says "henpecked by OPEC." OPEC is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Henpecked is an insult, usually about a man whose wife is constantly ordering him around and belittling of him, and implies the man is too weak to stand up to her. Cotton is saying Jimmy Carter was too weak to stand up against OPEC. Jimmy Carter often is blamed for the 1979 energy crisis.

Bishop73

Question: When George is in the alternate reality, what happened to Martini? Although an explanation is given for the other characters, there is no explanation for what became of him.

Answer: In a deleted or unfilmed scene, George finds the grave of Martini and his family who died in a house fire in their Potterville slum.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It's not mentioned in the film, but based on the storyline of the film, George most likely helped out Martini with money at some point to help him start a business (his bar). Without George being born (the alternate world), Martini most likely didn't have the funds now to start the business so Nick bought the bar instead and Martini either was unemployed or did something else with whatever money he had on his own.

Question: Kate says that Sam will always be a guy who sees what someone else ordered at a restaurant, and wishes he ordered that. What does she mean?

Answer: She means that he always doubts himself and the choices he makes.

raywest

Question: Does anyone know if ships actually have "rev limiters" as shown in the film? Phillips had to keep ringing down to the engine room whenever he wanted to throttle the engines up a notch. I was always under the impression that marine engines that are used on boats are designed to be at max revs all day long?

Answer: Ship engines are run at a maximum optimal speed. The engine could go faster, but by doing so, fuel consumption could increase unnecessarily and/or you may have too much cavitation as the water flow is greater than what the propeller is designed for. But in an emergency, the engineers could make it go a bit faster than the maximum setting allowed by bridge control.

Nauticalisimo

Question: When fighting Nick in the Crossrail, why didn't Ahmanet just stab Nick with the dagger? Now that the stone was inserted, she could have stabbed him and release Set.

Question: When Jimmy tells Ricky and Bobby to go home after the bar fight, they go to the limo with the Welshman. The 3 get in. Who drives?

Question: Would Claire's sushi, handed to her by her Dad in the morning, still be a fancy treat after sitting at room temperature for five hours?

Answer: It would probably be OK. It would depend on the type of ingredients, how cold the sushi was when it was handed to her, how it was wrapped and insulated, and how warm it was during the intervening time.

raywest

Answer: They were blamed for the death of Jake's foster brother, which was deemed a terrible accident, and they were sent to the reform school as a punishment. Presumably, when they had to leave the reform school given what happened, they were instead given community service as punishment.

TedStixon

Question: Why doesn't Roy ever kill Vic? The last we see of him, he is sitting in the back of the police car. It seems odd that the person who actually killed Roy's son is allowed to live. Granted he is in police custody so it would be difficult for Roy to get to him, but I'm sure the filmmakers could have come up with some creative way to make it happen.

Answer: I think you answered your own question - Vic was in police custody. A regular coroner is likely not going to be able to kill someone who is being held for murder. Additionally, in a more meta behind-the-scenes sense, I would assume they also didn't show Vic getting killed because it could potentially be too much of a hint/hat-tip towards the killer's identity. We already saw the Roy the coroner disturbed by Joey's body, so having Joey's killer get murdered would probably give away the twist that Roy was the killer.

TedStixon

Question: It's been stated that the wand chooses the wizard. Why then, is Voldemort able to use Lucius' wand if the wand chose Lucius as his wizard?

Answer: A wizard can use any wand, but it will not perform as well as one that "chose" them. For example, although Voldemort could use Dumbledore's "Elder Wand", it resisted his commands because it was unknowingly (to Voldemort) aligned to another wizard after Dumbledore's death (first Draco and then Harry). By contrast, when Harry captured Draco's wand, it changed its allegiance to him and performed well. If Draco had merely been given his wand back, it would not have worked as well for him as before.

raywest

Question: After Shorty frees himself from the shackles, he's climbing up the ladder with the guard following. He's got something in his mouth on the way up, which he puts back in his mouth before pushing the ladder. What's he biting down on?

Answer: During Short Round's escape he's carrying Indiana's bundled belongings with the whip wrapped around it. Short Round is holding the bundle at his back by the whip handle, and when he needs both his hands free he puts the narrow part of the whip in his mouth, so he doesn't lose Indiana's gear. After Short Round pushes the ladder, when he climbs the rope and reaches the overhead cave, the whip becomes even more visible.

Super Grover

Question: Why did the paperboy keep saying "two dollars" every time he showed up?

Answer: The family owed him two dollars for their newspaper subscription. He's obsessed with collecting it and the family, for some reason, won't just pay him.

Brian Katcher

Answer: He wants payment for delivering the newspaper to their house. Paper carriers not only deliver the daily paper, but also collect the monthly fee. Every time he shows up asking for the two dollars, he is blown off.

raywest

Thanks. I never got a chance to see the whole movie so that always confused me.

Question: How come there are jugs beside all the beds in the hospital wing?

Answer: Presumably, the jugs are for the patients. Many of them will come into the hospital wing with injuries or fevers and will have to stay for a period of time, so the jugs are put there so they can stay hydrated while recovering.

Casual Person

Answer: They are water pitchers that can be filled whenever a patient is in the bed. It's just a convenience to have drinking water handy when needed. It's fairly typical in most hospitals.

raywest

It's also handy for Madam Pomfrey to simply use the water charm to fill it quickly if it's on hand as suggested.

Ssiscool

Question: Picard kills crew members who have only just been assimilated and justifies it by saying something along the lines of they will be better off dead and inferring that they will be put out of their misery. Yet Picard himself was assimilated and returned to normal and survived. Why is it different for Picard?

Answer: The Borg left Picard sentient to utilize his Starfleet knowledge, to communicate with the Borg queen, and act as the liaison with the Enterprise. Seeing and interacting with their captain as a Borg would have a debilitating effect on the crew. The less-valuable crew members were turned into fully compliant drones. Also, the Enterprise crew were not in their own time and were actively fighting the Borg for their survival and to save the future of humanity. The Borg had infiltrated the Enterprise, so there was no time, opportunity, or means to try and save any assimilated crew.

raywest

Hug - S1-E11

Question: Ignoring the meteor metahuman powers, couldn't Jonathan Kent say the signature was a forgery, and he didn't sign it? It didn't seem to be notarized. He doesn't remember signing it or know what Rickman said to him to get him to sign it, so what would the courts or a lawyer say if Kent just said that's not his signature, or he didn't sign it? And how ironclad could the contract be without the date filled out?"Twentieth" day is typed out, but the month and year is blank.

Bishop73

Asylum - S3-E9

Question: How realistic is Lana's physical therapy scene? She says she broke her leg in 4 places and hasn't walked in a month. She's seen struggling to walk using the metal bars to support herself, which Adam seems to suggest she could do "another lap" but that she quit. But then after struggling to walk, she's given her crutches and the therapist leaves, leaving her to walk on her own with crutches. If she struggled with the bars, could she use crutches? Or would she be in a wheelchair?

Bishop73

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