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: If Stryker hates and wants to kill all mutants, then why does he let Deathstrike work for him?

Answer: That was temporary. He later tries to kill all mutants with Dr. Xavier's power, so that would have included Deathstrike.

Answer: As we see in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Stryker has a long history of working with mutants. So, although he grew to hate them, he recognizes that they can serve a purpose for him, as he tells Xavier when giving Lady Deathstrike another dose of the mind control serum.

Phaneron

Question: When Castle infiltrates Jigsaw's lair, why did Frank kill the one guy who was smoking? He wasn't a part of Jigsaw's crew as he never had a weapon on him.

Question: How could Fred have been trapped in the jack-in-the-box for so long? He could make himself appear whenever he wanted and could always appear someplace else, so shouldn't he have been able to appear outside of the toy after it was covered in duct tape?

Answer: When she trapped Fred in the box, she was closing off the part of her imagination. The part of the brain that stops believing in fairy tales and decides to grow up.

Question: Other than plot convenience, why did Gennaro speak to Rogastno?

Answer: No other reason, except to provide exposition for the plot. It gives the audience information they otherwise would not have.

raywest

Question: If Zaltar founded Argo City, why would he need permission to use the Omegahedron? Shouldn't he be allowed to use it when he wants?

Answer: The Omegaahedron is the power source for the whole city. It supplies the air, the dome that protects them, the lights, and the machines they need to survive.

Question: Boggarts take on the physical form of whatever scares people. Neville is afraid of Snape, so the boggart turns into Snape. But, what would a boggart turn into if someone's fear has no physical form? For example, if someone was afraid of getting lost. What kind of form would the boggart take?

Answer: The boggarts seem to come up with some image that represents a non-physical fear. For example, in the fifth book, Molly Weasley finds a boggart that takes the form of her dead family members and Harry, since her biggest fear is losing them (She had begun to think of Harry as family).

A Day in the Life - S4-E15

Question: On the very last case, what were the list of charges that Dan was reading? He was speaking so fast I couldn't catch any of it.

Question: When Oliver crawls under the tables to escape from the workers, why were the other boys kicking Oliver?

Answer: Because they're cruel, ignorant bullies who were probably abused when they were younger, have an established pecking order, and pick on weaker victims to feel superior and for amusement.

raywest

One for the Road (1) - S11-E26

Question: Is it true they wanted to get Glenn Close to make a cameo as Vera Peterson in the last episode? I swear I saw photos in an entertainment mag of her filming a scene for the final episode, with the joke being Norm's long-insulted wife was actually very beautiful and classy.

Brian Katcher

Question: What is the significance of the Roman/Greek soldier statue in the opening credit sequence?

Answer: Most likely symbolic foreshadowing of James Bond becoming a "fallen warrior" at the end.

raywest

Question: Bond doesn't have actual proof that Matilde is his daughter, even though she has blonde hair and blue eyes like him. It could just be a coincidence. So why does Madeline tell him at the end that "she does have his eyes"? Did she tell him that simply to try to give him some peace in his final moments before his death?

Answer: Madeleine was being truthful that Matilde was his daughter, and Bond believes her. It was just a more poetic (and slightly corny) movie dialogue way to tell him that before he died.

raywest

Question: In the opening credit sequence, were the vines growing inside the statue of the woman supposed to hint at the fact that Bond's child was growing inside of Madeleine?

Answer: While it's open to individual interpretation, vines symbolically represent connections, strength, growth, and continuation. It could very well represent Bond's progeny. There was also some DNA symbolism/imagery in the opening sequence that further hints at that.

raywest

Question: Why was Bond too quick to conclude that Madeline had involvement in his attempted murder by SPECTRE? Did he think he could not trust Madeline all because his trusting of Vesper nearly got him killed, and so the past was coming back to haunt him?

Question: How was Bond able to get Madeleine pregnant after the sadistic torture he endured at the hands of Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, where that was supposed to disable his ability to procreate? Also, why did Madeleine insist that her child was not Bond's?

Answer: There's no explanation, but there is much Internet speculation that, without being too graphic, believes Bond's injuries were probably treatable and less extensive than was shown, leaving him fertile. Also, movies often change, minimize, or ignore previous plot points in order to fit the current narrative.

raywest

Question: I know that originally, Cal was supposed to kill Fabrizio with an oar, and this scene was even partially filmed, but it was abandoned. Why was it scrapped?

Answer: This was cut, and Fabrizio's death scene was re-edited because James Cameron felt Cal was turning into a cartoon villain by that point.

Ssiscool

Question: The guy who took the picture of Brian as a kid - was he an opportunist who sold the photo to the magazine? I have a hard time imagining they would be prescient enough to know to send one of their own photographers to the scene of the fire.

Question: Was there really someone named Irv Britzer in the 1972 games that cheated and cost the USA the gold medal? If not, what really happened in 1972? Because I am thinking that in the scene where he goes to the Alliance and says 'go ahead, disqualify me, banish me, do whatever you want, but do it to me', it seems that if they had, they would have still been disqualified because they would have been without a coach.

Answer: Irv Blitzer was a character created for the film. His real-life counterpart is Howard Siler, who was a successful U.S. Olympic bobsledder and coach and was the man who coached the Jamaican team. However, unlike Blitzer, Howard Siler did not cheat and leave the sport in disgrace. He coached the Jamaican team because he found them to be dedicated athletes and was annoyed by their representation in the film as happy-go-lucky goofballs. None of the characters in the film existed in real life, the film is loosely "inspired by" the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: At the end, at Paul's house, how was Clarice able to use the phone when the cord was cut off?

Question: What exactly was somatic reconditioning? What was supposed to happen to the rebellious Kryptonians during their "300 cycles of somatic reconditioning"? And why did the Council banish them to the Phantom Zone when Zod and his followers could have just died anyway from Krypton exploding?

Answer: From the context of the trial and sentencing, somatic reconditioning seems to be akin to forced rehabilitation. They would be held in custody while their brains would be subjected to treatments designed to reform them. I get the impression that 300 cycles is A LOT of reconditioning, probably bordering on punishment. The Council was still in denial about Krypton exploding and Zod posed an immediate threat, so they wanted to get him off Krypton as soon as possible.

A Closer Look - S7-E23

Question: In Dan's office, there's a framed picture of a woman (on the wall next to the window, seen when being interviewed). Who is she? Dan's mother was played by Jeannette Nolan in one episode, but I can't tell if that's a picture of her.

Bishop73

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