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: Why does Hugo Stiglitz kill the German officers in the first place? The film mentions his enlistment, but how is this related to his killings?

Answer: Based on his willingness to join the Basterds, we can assume he killed them because he didn't believe in what the Nazis were doing.

There is a cut of him being whipped during the bar scene. I think he was taking revenge for harsh and perhaps undeserved punishment.

No, the whipping is how it feels in his mind sitting next to that SS officer and having to pretend to like him and be a Nazi. He's ready to snap.

lionhead

Question: Where are Dave and Linda McFly in the alternate 1985? They don't seem to live with Biff and Lorraine, and they are too old to be packed off to boarding school (like Marty), so where exactly are they? Biff mentions them when threatening Lorraine into staying so its not like they've been rubbed out like George was.

Answer: If you have the Blu-ray or DVD, watch the movie using either trivia track or watch the deleted scene where Marty meets his brother Dave and turn the commentary on. Dave is a homeless drunk and Bob Gale states that Linda ended up becoming a hooker. However, since Wendie Jo Sperber was pregnant at the time and couldn't appear in this film, it was decided to cut both of them out.

Answer: It's never stated in the film where they are. Biff makes a reference to having Dave's probation revoked if Lorraine leaves him, so Dave has apparently run into trouble with the law. He does appear in a deleted scene, where he has become an alcoholic and appears to be homeless with little contact with his family, likely because of his dislike of Biff, as he appears pleased to see Marty. No scenes with Linda were filmed, as Wendy Jo Sperber was pregnant at the time of filming, although scriptwriter and producer Bob Gale has stated that, had they included Linda in the alternate 1985 scenes, she would likely have become a prostitute, which would tie into Biff's threat to have her thrown in jail.

Tailkinker

Question: There is a scene where Sarah Connor is pulling out bullets from the back of the T800. My question is how did they achieve this effect? Rubber pliers was my first thought, but you cannot see any bending at all as they are forced in and twisted, plus as the pliers go in, you can see quite a depression in the skin of the T800, it looks rather rubbery and flexible. So the body looks like a fake, but it's Arnie's head on top, but it's difficult to tell. I would love an answer or opinion on this as it has got me stumped.

kazara1001

Chosen answer: They've artificially built out Arnold's back. This allows them to press the pliers into holes the prosthetic and have plenty of room before hitting his back. If you look carefully at the base of his neck and around his shoulders, you can see where they've blended the prosthetic into his normal skin. A good job, but not 100% perfect.

Garlonuss

Question: Can someone please explain how each and every totem works? We understand that Cobb's will not stop spinning if it is a dream, but how does Arthur's and Ariadne's work?

Answer: No details are given within the film. However, Arthur's totem is a loaded dice, so it seems logical to assume that it will always come down on a specific side, one that only he knows. As for Ariadne's chess-piece, we only see her working on it, never using it. Probably it has some specific and unusual weighting built into it, allowing her to determine, in some unspecified manner, maybe by tipping it to a certain angle, or simply by feel, that it's the genuine article.

Tailkinker

Question: Why does Alice dance briefly at the end after returning to the regular world?

Sammi

Chosen answer: She is proving a point that she is not going to follow the boundaries of English society, the Mad Hatter futer-wagoned, that was where she got the moves. It also showed the crowd that she wasn't wearing stockings.

Question: There are two things I don't understand about the mask party. One, why go through all the ceremonial, quasi-religious rituals with mask and cape, priest, smoke, organ, etc? Why not just show up and have an orgy? Second, how did the masked woman know that Tom Cruise didn't belong there if he was masked himself?

Answer: The quasi-religious rituals are all part of the allure and mystique of the party. There are plenty of places people in power can go to just have an orgy, the ceremony implies a respectability to the whole affair. If the masked woman attends the parties regularly, she'd recognize a different body, even though the face is covered.

rswarrior

Answer: I believe they knew who he was before he entered the party and it was a hoax to scare him off as the wealthy dude said, and so they told the girl to tell him to get away. She was a girl who did experience with drugs as we seen in the beginning of the movie at the party.

Question: For Silk Spectre 2's boots during the prison fight scene, being an alternate universe with very different technology, could she be able to remove her heels from her boots to do the fight scene, then reattach them afterwards?

curiouskid

Chosen answer: Technically possible, however, with absolutely nothing in the film to support such a supposition, something that speculative could not realistically be considered a credible correction for the current mistake covering the topic.

Tailkinker

Question: When Old Biff arrives back in 2015, after going to 1955 to give his younger self the almanac, he is in pain due to being shot by Lorraine in the alternate past he created, which causes him in turn to fade from existence in 2015. But once Doc and Marty have changed the timeline back to the original 1985 etc, would Old Biff still exist in 2015, or was his fading from existence permanent when it happened?

Answer: He'd have come back into existance. The only reason Marty's fading in the first movie was so critical was because Marty himself was the only one who could fix the timeline. So if he faded before he fixed it he'd have stayed faded because there was no one else who would have been "in the know" to bring him back.

Phixius

Question: Where can I find out who the extras were in the movie? My uncle was one of the paratroopers at the beginning, I just want to know which one, and no I can't call him.

toby1kenobi

Chosen answer: I was one of the actual paratroopers in the movie. There were at least two different companies providing the extra's. The company that provided the actual paratroopers was Delta Productions, Inc. owned by John Early who owned the Parachute Center in Albuquerque, NM. John was a former Green Beret and professional soldier and was hired to be the technical adviser to the film. As far as I know, Delta Productions is no longer in business. The other company that hired extras provided the non-paratrooper extras. I do not have any information concerning that company but I do know that most were locals who lived in Las Vegas, NM. I know this because I met one of them in the Marine Corps years later. To answer your actual question, I have no knowledge if that information was kept other than those companies that hired them.

Answer: No, that's not him. Robert Mitchum has no part in this movie.

Mortug

Question: Does anyone know how to access the easter egg on the DVD? There is a sign in the lower left corner that says "Keep Out" but I haven't figured out how to access it. Thanks for any help.

MovieFan612

Chosen answer: On the selection bar at the top, move the highlight all the way to the left so that "Play" is highlighted. Press the down arrow. "Keep Out" is now highlighted. Press the Enter or Select key (or whatever it's called on your remote).

Question: One thing I don't understand about the movie is why kryptonite is so harmful (almost making him drown in a pool), yet he was born there and he didn't die. Kryptonite did come from his home planet, Krypton, right? How come he didn't die when he was born?

Answer: When Krypton exploded, the resulting debris was chemically altered through nuclear fusion, converting it into kryptonite. Bits traveled through space, some eventually ending up on Earth, where it is now lethal to anyone who was from that planet.

raywest

Pieces of Krypton that exploded in the Red Sun were made radioactive, and the Red Sun is one of the weaknesses of the Kryptonians.

I thought the Red Sun was poisonous to Kryptonians and caused the remnants of the planet Krypton to become radioactive and also absorb some of the solar energy from the Red Sun. I was under that impression, maybe I'm mistaken.

Question: At the end of the movie, Kim says that she wants Edward to remember her as she was. She obviously didn't turn into an elderly woman overnight, though. Couldn't she have secretly gone to his house if she wanted to?

Answer: I think that visiting Edward would be problematic. Kim could most likely visit the property once - however, she and Edward love each other, and both would be tempted to spend more time together. The longer that she continued to see him, the greater the risk of her being found out by someone. If the town knew that Edward was still alive, they would want to persecute him. Aside from that, I could imagine long-term complications if Kim ever wanted to attend college, pursue a certain career, etc. while hiding her association with Edward.

Answer: Maybe she didn't visit him to avoid the town realizing he was still alive after she told them Jim killed him.

Answer: Probably, but she apparently never has.

Phixius

Answer: Maybe she didn't visit him to avoid the town realising he was still alive after she told them Jim killed him. And she wanted Edward to remember her as she was in her youth.

Question: As far as I know, there were no plans for another trilogy after the first one released over 30 years ago. My question is, did Episode V always appear during the opening credits or was that added later in the special addition? If it was always apart of the credits, didn't people wonder why it was called episode V when it was the second movie? Would seem confusing.

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: "Episode V" was in place right from the beginning, and the "Episode IV" tag was added to Star Wars in a re-release the following year. By this point, Lucas was already talking about doing a prequel trilogy covering the rise of the Empire at some future point, with allusions to a possible sequel trilogy consisting of Episodes VII though IX to follow.

Tailkinker

Question: Is the mouse supposed to be the re-incarnation of the dead man that left the mansion to the brothers?

Answer: No, it's just an intelligent and precocious mouse.

LorgSkyegon

Question: In the scene where Quint and Hooper were drunk and comparing scars, at the end of the scene Chief Brody lifts his shirt to reveal a scar. The significance of the scar was not revealed in the movie. What was the scar from?

Bailey

Chosen answer: It's an appendix scar, from when he had it removed. It's of no great significance other than a jokey moment where Brody realises that he doesn't have any stories to tell the others about any scars he has, other than one he received through a fairly common operation.

Manky

Answer: It is a scar from a gun shot wound he received whilst on service for NYPD. He doesn't want to talk about it. It could explain the whole reason he moved to Amity from NY.

Answer: The chief was going to show the scar from his gunshot wound that he got as a police officer while working in New York.

Question: When Harry finds the Sword of Godric Gryffindor in the frozen lake, why doesn't he just use the Wingardium Leviosa spell to levitate it out of the lake instead of diving in to get it himself? I assume that this is how J.K. Rowling wrote it in the book, but does this still count as a mistake?

THGhost

Chosen answer: It is not a mistake. Harry does attempt to summon the sword with a spell, but like the locket horcrux in the sea cave in (in HP and the Half-blood Prince), all the horcruxes, as well as other particularly strong magical objects (like the three Deathly Hallows), are impervious to all types of summoning charms. They therefore must be retrieved by other means.

raywest

Chosen answer: There's no particular reason to suggest that there was any plagiarism or idea-sharing going on. Both films simply take the idea of an underdog coming to the fore in a particular field, doing well and learning some truths about themselves in the process. Very much an archetypal story and one that many, many films share. While a few factors can be considered similar, none of them are unique to these two films and thus the suggestion that ideas were either shared or "stolen" cannot be realistically accepted.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: Buffy supposedly killing Angel in Season 2, in the episode "Becoming part 2", when she impales him with a sword shortly after he gets his soul back. However, in BtVS you can only kill a vampire via wooden stakes, direct sunlight, holy water, and decapitation. Is this ever fully explained?

Answer: She's not "dusting" killing him. She's killing him in the sense that since it was his blood that opened Acathela's portal, it needs to be his blood that closes it, as well.

Cubs Fan

Question: In the scene where 777 is curving on the viaduct, is that the crew, with the video equipment and stuff?

AWVR777

Chosen answer: Yes, for the news crew they used the filming crew.

blonddude207

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