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: Near the beginning of the film, Capote is talking about a story involving a gay black man being in love with a Jew. Since all the rest of his anecdotes involve real people and/or works, does anyone know which book he's talking about?

Xofer

Chosen answer: He is talking about 'Giovanni's Room' a novel by James Baldwin.

Question: When Clemenza is explaining to Michael how to shoot Sollozzo and McCluskey, he says to take no chances and shoot them both twice in the head. I know he shoots McCluskey twice, but am I correct that he only shot Sollozzo once in the head? (I realize this was Michael's first murder and he was extremely antsy and nervous and may have forgotten and it doesn't really matter since Sollozzo died anyway.) I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing a shot.

Answer: He did shoot Sollozzo only once. This is explained in the book. After shooting Sollozzo, Michael instinctively knew the first shot was fatal, and he purposely ignored Clemenza's instructions and immediately turned his attention on McCluskey.

raywest

Question: How did those newspaper articles from the future get onto the stamp? Wasn't it possible only to see the future rather than actually travel through time?

Answer: No time travel is necessary. The machine is apparently able to show what ever the viewer wants to see, so Michael Jennings could simply have zoomed in on some newspapers in a newsstand or something and snapped a picture of them.

Andreas[DK]

Question: What was so important about the song lyrics in the letter Lindsay gave to Helen? What didn't Jenny get when she said that Helen's letter wasn't a letter and that it was just a bunch of nonsensical lyrics?

Answer: Helen's letter was actually the lyrics to the song "Whip It" by Devo. This is the same song that Helen gives to Lindsay for her birthday, along with the funny red hats from the music video. The song is obviously a shared memory between the two sisters, and one that Jenny never was a part of. The fact that Helen's letter was just song lyrics just shows how close the sisters really were.

Ral0618

Answer: It's the Billy Stewart version of "Summertime" from George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess".

nightline

Question: What's the name of the music being played in the bar during Bruce Willis' story when Jessica Alba runs over and kisses him? I've heard it before in trailers and whatnot.

Answer: Absurd by Fluke. Its on the Sin City soundtrack.

Andreas[DK]

Question: Anyone who's read 'Life, The Universe & Everything' will now why the bowl of petunias thought 'Oh no, not again' just before it plummeted towards Magrathea, but had Douglas Adams already conceived that backstory and just couldn't fit it in to the narrative at the time or was it something he only came up with when writing part 3?

Chimera

Chosen answer: Because it was a radio show originally, Douglas Adams would write broadcasts from show to show. He did not know where something would lead, which let the plot become random and funny. So ultimately it was originally created to be funny, then he found a way to link it back in later.

Question: When Blake is pointing his shotgun at the couple in bed, why are there sounds of splashing water?

Answer: The only logical explanation that I can think of is that the couple is on a waterbed.

Cubs Fan

Question: Out of the hundreds of people on the plane, not a single passenger or flight crew saw Jodi Foster's character bring her daughter onto the plane? Was everyone supposed to be in on it? That would just be too weird and next to impossible.

Answer: Firstly, the flight wasn't full. Secondly, there were already several children on board. Thirdly, 2 people did see her bring the child on board - both the hijackers. Fourthly, Jodie and her daughter were the very first people on the plane and were greeted by the female hijacker. Then her daughter was seated until going to sleep. No one had a chance to see her. If a person is able to remember the face of every single passenger on a plane, then they should be onstage with a memory act. On many flights I've been on, I couldn't even recall the people sitting around me, let alone the rest of the plane.

Soylent Purple

"Then her daughter was seated until going to sleep" Kyle fell asleep the moment her daughter fell asleep which means the hijackers would have had to somehow take Julia out of her seat in order to kidnap without waking Kyle up, and that would have been extremely difficult to do, if it could be done at all.

Question: Does anyone know how long lions can survive without food?

Answer: According to one website, a lion can gorge for 2-3 days on a kill, rest for 24 hours, and show little interest in hunting again until the sixth day.

StevenJ

Question: How did Bruce Wayne determine that Stickley's suicide was a "computer-generated forgery" so quickly? Just because he discovered that Edward Nygma is the Riddler doesn't mean that Stickley was murdered. Is there perhaps something I missed?

Answer: It's a bit of a leap, but it's not entirely unreasonable. He knows that Nygma and Stickley were at odds over Nygma's experiments, and he was suspicious of Stickley's apparent suicide right from the beginning. As such, when it becomes apparent that Nygma's one of the bad guys, it's not much of a stretch to conclude that Nygma killed Stickley, then faked the tape to show a suicide.

Tailkinker

Question: If Padmé is Queen Amidala's name, shouldn't all security forces know that it was her instead of the decoy? Wouldn't it be better to hide that name too?

Answer: It's safe to say that all her security staff will be aware of the decoy procedure - otherwise, they wouldn't know who to protect if things really went wrong. As for outsiders, Queen (later Senator) Amidala is her formal name and would be the one that everyone was familiar with; her birth name of Padme Naberrie is unlikely to be generally known.

Tailkinker

Question: What was the deal with the spices that smelled fresh in Michael's house?

Answer: It proved that someone had been in the house after the last residents moved out, and quite recently, too. It is just another hint to the "contestants" that the show's producers have set up the whole thing.

Twotall

Answer: Or Best Offer. Frequently seen in want ads to mean the price is not firm. I'll take $10 or the best other price of all the people who make a bid.

Myridon

Question: When Mace Windu deflected the sith lightning, did Palpatine fake being weak or in agony? Was it a test to see if Anakin would save him? If so, what did he mean when he shouted unlimited power?

Answer: It may not have been entirely faked, although it does seem somewhat unlikely that a Sith Lord would be affected in any serious way by his own Force lightning, but Palpatine was certainly not remotely as endangered as he made out. It does seem that it was a test, designed to finally ensnare Anakin in the Sith web, by forcing him to turn on another Jedi. His shout of 'unlimited power' seems to have been a final taunt to the suddenly helpless Mace Windu.

Tailkinker

Answer: At first they were just wrestling and horsing around. However, underlying tensions and frustrations over their impossible situation, and Ennis' reluctance to commit to Jack, causes their anger (particularly Jack's) to overtake them, and it erupts into a full-blown fight.

raywest

Question: Was Ian Holm using contact lenses, or did they do something with his eyes in post production? From the scene where Abberline asks about the Free Masons and onwards his eyes are considerably darker (a deliberate effect I take it).

Answer: His eyes are not just darker, his entire eyes are completely black. This was done by CGI effects to show that the murderous Ripper side to Gull's persona is taking over and is in control.

Twotall

Question: When Bond saves Tracey in the beginning and she drives off he comments "This never happened to the other fellow". I know this is a joking reference to Sean Connery, but what is Bond supposed to mean within the context of the film? Connery references aside, why would he be saying this?

Answer: It's an entirely intentional aside to the audience, the one occasion in the entire Bond series where the so-called 'fourth wall' (i.e. the cinema screen itself) is broken. As such, within the context of the film itself, it doesn't really have much of a meaning.

Tailkinker

Question: What does Teddy mean when he says to Vern "did your mother have any kids who lived?"

Answer: Teddy's making a joking but also insulting remark to Vern. He has a rather low opinion of his capabilities and intelligence.

raywest

Question: During the battle of Geonosis, how come the droidekas don't activate their shield generators, like they did in TPM and ROTS? Wouldn't it be better since they are noted to be feared by the Jedi?

Answer: Some of the droidekas have sheild generators and some don't. Recall that when Obi-wan and Qui-gon first encountered them in Ep. 1, Obi-wan said "Master! Destroyers!" A few seconds later he pointed out that they had shield generators, to emphasize that that was the type of droidekas they were.

Matty Blast

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