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.

Answer: "I Could Have Danced All Night" from the musical "My Fair Lady".

Tailkinker

Question: In the beginning of the movie, why were the hijackers shaving their chests and genital areas? Is this some kind of religious ritual?

Answer: Muslims are supposed to remove their pubic and armpit hair at least every 40 days. It is part of being clean and they would want to be as clean as possible while committing an act on behalf of their religion.

Myridon

Question: Throughout the movie, there are a few times where we see Drake in a peculiar posture. One of his arms (I believe it's the left) is always held up at an angle. This is especially noticeable during the climax of the movie, where his armor is fitted to that posture, can anyone tell me why he might hold it up like that?

Answer: He'd have needed his armor made to allow his arm to raise up high enough to wrap around his victims, drawing them in for a bite. After so many eons of wearing that armor (which can't go all the way down since it's made to go higher) he just got used to holding his arm that way.

Phixius

Answer: To attempt to provoke Ethan to come out of hiding.

Tailkinker

Question: Much of the cinematography of this movie looks computer generated, even close-ups of faces. How much of it is unreal, and is there anything else contributing to this surreal look?

Answer: The only time that Brandon Routh's face is computer-generated is whenever he flies straight toward the screen at the end. This was CGI because it was never filmed during production but they later decided to put this in to match the old Christopher Reeve films.

Question: When McCord takes Lincoln and Jordan to the train station, it looked as if is said "Yucca" at the entrance, indicating that the cloning facility is outside of Yucca, Arizona. However, I checked Arizona in my road atlas (one from 1999, and I'm from Massachusetts, just so you know, and have never actually been to the Grand Canyon State). Was I confusing this for Yuma, Arizona, or is Yucca a real place?

Answer: It is a real place. http://www.roadsidethoughts.com/02/c02_7206400.htm.

pross79

Show generally

Question: What is the name of the theme song of Roswell? I think it's something called "Here I am", or "I am what I am".

Answer: It's called "Here With Me", performed by Dido. It can be found on her album "No Angel".

Tailkinker

Question: What is the make/model of the car that Biff wrecked, that is being towed into the McFly's driveway near the beginning of the film?

Answer: The car being towed into the driveway is a 1979 Chevrolet Nova.

Answer: It's based on a song called "Swingin' the Alphabet" featured in the Three Stooges episode "Violent is the Word for Curly". The song starts "B A Bay, B E Bee, B I Bicky By, B O Bo Bicky By Bo, B U Bu, Bicky By Bo Bu". The song then can be repeated for each consenant "C A Say, C E See, ...". At the end of the episode, "Three Blind Mice" is heard - the Three Stooges theme song.

Myridon

Answer: It's him singing (and dancing), as singing/dancing is what he was primarily known as doing before he began acting (usually backup singing). He is, for example, in Little Shop Of Horrors (for all of 2 seconds), singing backup. Danny actually re-recorded the song and released it as a single, which reached No. 17 in the UK charts.

Gary O'Reilly

Answer: He simply has an absurdly low tolerance for alcohol, and whiskey is not a wise choice if this is the case. It helps set up the joke when Marty asks the bartender, "How many has he had?", and he replies by telling Marty, "Just the one", as we are meant to think Doc has been in the bar all night drinking away his sorrows.

Jazetopher

Chosen answer: According to the legend of "The Spear", it is indestructible.

Nick Bylsma

Chosen answer: Yes you can. Quoting from Drugs.com: "Symptoms of a nicotine overdose include nausea; vomiting; watering mouth; diarrhea; abdominal pain; cold sweat; headache; dizziness; disturbed hearing and vision; confusion; weakness; weak, irregular heartbeats; chest pain; seizures; and death."

Kevin Hall

Chosen answer: Without talking to the producers, it's impossible to be sure, but it's possible he was gonna be killed off early, or only appear in a few episodes. As the show developed he developed into a more stable character and became a regular cast member.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Chosen answer: According to Wikipedia: "Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants made by combining two high explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, i.e. it is a double-base propellant. However, Cordite N, a triple-base propellant is also used. Cordite is classified as an explosive, but it is normally used as a propellant for guns and rockets." So yes, it works.

Twotall

Answer: Yes, cordite is classified a an explosive, but it's rarely used as such. It's a common propellant for artillery shells etc. Realistically, the Jackal would have used a plastic explosive such C4 or Semtex for a bomb. And the mercury fulminate tipped rounds are a fantasy, it's so unstable, it would explode before it had left the barrel.

stiiggy

Question: Is it true that there are acres of computers under the DoD? And that they scan for key words? Can anyone confirm that?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: If there are, it is kept secret. But there is ECHELON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON which is able to listen in on most forms of electronic communication.

Andreas[DK]

Question: Is it really true that when you use a silencer the bullet slows down and is not as strong as if you did not use a silencer?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: Sometimes. A suppressor, known commonly as a silencer, works by reducing the sound of firing by manipulating the escaping propellant gas, and sometimes by reducing the velocity of the bullet. It all depends on the type of suppressor that is used.

Jazetopher

Question: Why has the Subway logo been removed from Happy's T-shirt during parts of the concluding match? Note, I noticed this on the television version.

manthabeat

Chosen answer: Probably had to do with some sort of legal issue between the Subway Corporation and the television station the movie was airing on.

Phixius

Question: What is the name of the song/music playing on the jukebox at the beginning of the final segment "They're Creeping Up On You"?

Mister Ed

Chosen answer: The song you're hearing is the theme song to the movie of the same name: "Thoroughly Modern Mille".

CCARNI

Question: This is a very open-ended question which I doubt anyone could provide a definitive answer for, but isn't it extremely convenient for the plot that the author character (played by Dean Stockwell) is able to figure out more or less everything despite the absurdity of the situation?

enter_a_uh

Chosen answer: That's just it....if he had not been on the plane, then the story would not have evolved the way it did, and we would be given a different set of events. He writes mystery novels, and it is fairly realistic that he would have figured out most of the events as they unfolded, as he likely uses similar bizarre situations for his books, and is familiar with the strange and unusual.

Jazetopher

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