Question: If the infected can sense the uninfected due to the uninfected smelling clean and scented (deodorant/perfume), wouldn't the closest approximation be to just stop bathing or showering, and not wearing deodorants/perfumes? Wouldn't one rather be dirty than dead? Am I over-simplifying the situation? Do the infected sense the uninfected using some other method in conjunction with the above, thereby nullifying my hypothesis above?
Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: Madame Giry has history with the Phantom but she still seems to be frightened by him and wont let Meg go to his lair. Would the Phantom actually harm either of them?
Chosen answer: Mme Giry is afraid of him because while she is his friend and his willing means of communication with the outside world, she knows full well of what he's capable. But unless she betrayed him, it's unlikely he'd harm her as she's the only friend he's ever known. And he would have no more reason to hurt Meg than he would anyone else: if she doesn't get in the way of his plans, she's safe. If her mother prevents her from going to the lair, it only because of the violence that will take place there momentarily.
Answer: I have always thought it was because he has set many automatic traps along the passageway, which only he knows fully how to avoid. The "hand at the level of your eyes" warning was to prevent automated nooses from capturing you.
Question: When and how does Voldemort become aware of the prophecy and how does he know it is about Harry? Does he know that he caused it to become true by giving Harry is scar?
Chosen answer: Spoiler Alert! Voldemort learned about the prophecy from Severus Snape when he was still a Death Eater. Dumbledore reveals to Harry that shortly before Harry's birth, he interviewed Sybill Trelawney for the Divination teaching position at an inn in Hogsmeade village. Dumbledore felt that Trelawney lacked significant talent and had decided not to offer her the position when she suddenly fell into a trance and related the prophecy to him, although she had no memory of it. Snape was spying on them and overheard the prophecy's first half, although he was discovered and thrown out before hearing its entirety. According to Dumbledore, Voldemort deduced that Harry was "the chosen one" based on clues in the prophecy. It could also have been Neville Longbottom who fit the prophecy, but Harry being a half-blood like himself is probably why Voldemort chose to kill him, thus marking Harry (both literally and figuratively) as his equal when his killing curse failed. Dumbledore believed the prophecy was ultimately unimportant, but because Voldemort thought it was, he determined his and Harry's fate the night he murdered the Potters and gave Harry his scar.
Question: Is it true that near the end of the movie, Skeet Ulrich really cries out in pain (not acting), because Neve Campbell accidentally hit him in an area where he was once injured in real life?
Answer: This is according to IMDb: When Sidney comes out of the closet and stabs Billy with an umbrella, the stunt man was supposed to hit a pad on Skeet Ulrich's chest. The first hit got the pad but the second one slipped and hit him in the chest (you can see it in his reaction). Wes Craven kept it in because of its authenticity.
Answer: Yes, confirmed by Wes Craven in the DVD commentary as well. Skeet Ulrich had open-heart surgery when he was 10 and there's a stainless steel wire in his chest that causes excruciating pain when touched. The stuntwoman was wearing the mask, which impairs vision quite a bit, and the second time around she really hit that sweet spot that caused the reaction you see in the movie.
Question: Why can't Henry save his mother from being in the car crash? Couldn't he have warned her when they met on the subway?
Answer: He could have had Claire distract her long enough to delay her car ride and miss the accident.
Answer: Of course not. Why would she listen to him? He's a total stranger. And if he tells her he's her time-travelling son, she'll think he's a nutjob to boot. It's well-established in the book that he tried everything to save her but could never do so, which made him recognise a well-accepted convention of time-travelling lore: big past events can never be changed. Diana Gabaldon wrote an excellent and extensive essay on time-travelling laws, which is probably still available somewhere on the Internet.
Question: Is it ever implied what happened to the other Basterds? Obviously, Hugo and Wilhelm die in the Mexican standoff. Donnie and Omar die in the explosion. Aldo and Utivitch are seen at the end. But what of the missing Basterds?
Answer: The implication is only Aldo and Utivitch survived.
Answer: Hirschberg and one of the other unnamed Basterds were visible in the vet clinic when Bridget von Hammersmark was getting her leg attended to. Since the Basterds' next mission involved infiltrating the Nazi film premiere, some members may have been instructed to remain elsewhere so as not to risk arousing suspicion.
Question: Why was the platoon making such a big deal about wearing shirts during their exercises? I would think they would be better off wearing shirts so they would not get a sunburn. So what was the big deal?
Chosen answer: Gunny Highway insisted that they all wear the same shirts as he himself was wearing. If they showed up in a different one, he made them go shirtless. The reasons for this were 1) to break through their rebellious attitudes and teach them to follow his orders, 2) to make them look and feel unified, and 3) to develop resourcefulness and adaptability in them.
To also display esprit de corp to other units gaining them respect from those units as well as command leadership.
Question: How much time does this movie cover? I ask because when Sykes is being interrogated, he says he was questioned about Helen Kimble's murder a year ago. And Nichols says that Lentz died last summer, but Richard saw him at the fundraiser the same night his wife died. Is this a mistake or is there something I'm missing?
Chosen answer: Murder investigations are not, as a rule, speedy processes; it's quite plausible that a year could have passed between Helen Kimble's murder and her husband's conviction for the crime. The police have to gather evidence, question witnesses, put their case together and so forth. The main body of the film, from Kimble's escape onwards, probably only covers at most a few weeks, but Helen Kimble would undoubtedly have died some considerable time prior to that. The time periods stated in the film are quite reasonable.
Answer: The timeline of events is Fundraiser, Emergency surgery, Helen killed, Richard arrested/held in jail for trial, Sykes questioned, Lentz dies in car crash, Richard convicted, Richard escapes. Lentz was alive when Helen was killed, he was killed while Richard was in prison which is why Richard doesn't realise until closer to the end that Lentz is dead. With Sykes saying he was interviewed about Helen's death over a year ago it leads us to believe the timeline of the movie is 12-18 months.
Answer: Sam Gerard and his team question the one armed man in his residence, they show him a picture of Richard Kimble and suspect him of murdering his wife. He replies, he went over this a year ago with the police.
Question: In the scene where Tommy believes he is being made, right after he walks into the room you hear him say "Oh no!" right before he is shot. Tommy obviously realizes that he was set up. However, what is it that he sees in the room that tips him off?
Answer: He was expecting a crowded room full of friends congratulating him. Also it was common knowledge among the mafia that being walked into an empty room when you were due to be made meant you were about to be executed, so Tommy likely knew he'd met his end just moments before the shot.
Answer: A man being 'made' is an event shrouded in ceremony. The top people in the family are there, among others to congratulate the new soldier. Tommy walked into an empty room.
Just as others have pointed out, the film implies Tommy realised something was wrong the moment he walked in and saw the place was empty...no other "made men" there for the ceremony. However, I always wondered why he hadn't caught on to what was happening when he saw there were only a couple vehicles parked out in the driveway.
Answer: Either the fact that the room was empty (being made is a big ceremonial event with many people) or he felt the gun pressed against the back of his head right before they shot him.
Answer: There should have been more people waiting for him.
Answer: Wasn't the floor covered with a plastic sheet? That would have given it away.
Or it was a floor with no carpet (tiled, I believe)...easier to mop up.
Question: How is Marty able to play a 1980s videotape on a 1950s television set? Is this just another example of Doc's ahead-of-his-time inventiveness?
Answer: The video camera was in the DeLorean. With the right kind of adapter, which was common enough in the 80s that Doc might've had it on the camera or been able to jury-rig something in the 50s, it would have been possible to connect it into the antenna screws in the back of the TV like an old Atari and play it directly from the camera.
TVs in the 50s had a two prong antennae connection (two screws in the back that you put a prong antennae into) TVs in the mid 80s also had this. The coax connection (the one wire that screws in) was starting to become common, but, the two prong connection would have been more likely on any given TV at the time, so, whatever wire they used to preview recordings probably had that. very convenient that Marty brought those cords with him.
An old Atari 2600 RF Adapter would be how one would link a video camera to an old-fashioned television. A simple-enough part that Doc could probably make one with 1950s technology.
Answer: Video tape system back then could output an NTSC video signal, just like broadcast at the time, and up to HD in the 2000s. Usually there was a switch on the video device to change the output frequency between channels 3 or 4. Depending on what was an open channel in your area.
Question: Throughout the film, Hugh Stamp's accent keeps changing, where exactly is he supposed to be from?
Answer: South Africa, although the actor is Australian.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers - S1-E4
Question: When the Monkees are locked in the downstairs bedroom and they are planning to escape, where does Mick get the lab coat and the chemical bottle from which he plans to use to scare the evil people into letting them all leave?
Answer: The Monkees TV series was very much a fantasy (this was the "groovy" psychedelic 60s, after all). Impossible things, such as items appearing out of nowhere, happened on their show without explanation all the time.
Question: Who voices Marty Moose?
Answer: Harold Ramis voiced Marty Moose.
Question: On what Dumbledore thought when he said that the labyrinth has no dragon or sea creatures, but there is something much more dangerous: he didn't know it would be Voldemort in the maze, did he?
Chosen answer: Dumbledore did not know that Voldemort set a trap inside the maze. Unlike the book, there are no magical creatures or riddles to overcome inside the maze. What Dumbledore is referring to is a test of courage. The four champions must overcome their individual fears in order to successfully navigate the maze and win the tournament.
Question: Who killed Frank Bryce? I doubt that was Voldemort, because he doesn't have a body at that moment.
Chosen answer: Oh, but it IS Voldemort. He is small like a hairless, feeble child, but he has a body nonetheless. When Nagini tells Voldemort, who is sitting in the chair (beside Barty Crouch Jr), that Frank Bryce is in the corridor, he tells Wormtail to step aside before he himself performs the Avada Kedavra with his own wand. We see Voldemort's entire body as Wormtail drops him into the cauldron with the 'rebirthing potion', which gives him the new adult form.
But who killed Cedric? Is it still Voldemort or Wormtail. I know Voldemort gives the order but Wormtail has the wand.
Yeah that's always very confusing but the idea is that since Wormtail did it on orders by Voldemort, it was with Voldemort's wand and that Wormtail basically was a slave of Voldemort so Voldemort killed Cedric. Womrtail hasn't really got a will of his own anymore, including the point he is choked to death with the magical hand Voldemort gave him (in the books).
Wormtail did it on Voldemort's orders, so technically it was him.
Question: At the end of the movie we find out that it was really soy sauce that was injected into Nick's arm. Wouldn't injecting soy sauce directly into your blood stream still kill you, or at least have some sort of ill side effects?
Answer: Soy sauce is mostly soy protein and salt in water- it might raise your blood pressure for a while, but assuming you're in reasonably good health, and presuming it wasn't a ridiculously large amount, your liver will filter it out after a short while.
This is incorrect, there are several variables in this but given the syringe size I'm guessing that he injected approx 50ml. Now 50ml injected intravenously would almost certainly cause sepsis and he would die from septic shock within a day or so. The reason for this is that soy sauce is a fermented product full of several different types of bacteria in large quantities which would be quite friendly in the gut but disastrous in the blood stream. Also the sodium and yeasts and funghi in the sauce would not be good either. If however the injection was subcutaneous but not intravenous then it may not be fatal but it would certainly give him a very nasty infected cyst that would have the potential to be fatal if not treated correctly.
Question: Throughout the movie, Ash does a few weird things, such as that jogging motion that he makes in the cockpit and the "poor baby" expression he gives Ripley just before he attacks her. Aside from driving home the fact that he's an android, do these actions have any meaning? (Unless he's being sarcastic, the expression doesn't seem fitting, since he doesn't seem to feel any particular empathy toward humans.) Also, what causes him to suddenly start bleeding? And finally, why does he try to stuff a rolled-up magazine down Ripley's throat? My interpretation is that he's trying to implant her with an embryo, since he also starts making weird gagging noises at the same time; but if that's the case, where/when did he get it?
Answer: I can't speak to the running motion exactly. I've always wondered about that myself. Maybe it was a quick systems check of sorts. Beyond that, the 'poor baby' expression and odd noises he makes are because he is damaged. There is a quick, light scuffle with Ripley before he starts bleeding where she throws him against the wall twice, and that's where the 'blood' comes from. After that, he's trying to kill her with the magazine in the throat. As Bishop points out in Aliens, that model has always been 'a bit twitchy'. He's trying to protect the mission by any means necessary, and she was in the way.
Just before he runs on the spot. Ash put on a flight suit and blows into his hands. The gesture suggests to me that he is old and is trying to warm him self up. The running on the spot action could be to get warm or to ensure the flight suit doesn't restrict his movement. It's a very nice bit of foreshadowing. If you play the alien isolation game, the working joe androids do that when they are 'bored'.
The running motion could also just be to humanise Ash. His character does come off as a little cold and robotic, maybe Ridley thought some people might see the twist coming.
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Answer: I suspect that it's really not that simple. Remember that in the first film, Jim was lying alone in a hospital bed for some considerable time before waking to the deserted London. He would certainly not have smelt clean and fresh, yet he was still clearly detectable as prey by the infected. While being nice and clean makes it easy for them, it seems clear that it's not the sole indicator that triggers an attack.
Tailkinker ★