Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Show generally

Question: Jack and Andie are brother and sister in the same grade...but does the show ever explain how that came to be? Are they twins or was Andie moved up because she is so smart?

Answer: It's only explained once in the series. Jack says to Andie "I tried to start kindergarten without you", meaning Andie was smart enough to start school early.

Answer: They are not twins (Jack is older than Andie). It is possible due to when birthdays fall in the school calender for non-twin siblings to end up in the same grade. Say that you have to be 5 on Sept 1 to start Kindergarten, you are born on Sept 2, 2000 and your little sister on Aug 30, 2001. Sept 1, 2005, you are 4 years and 364 days and can't start. So Sept 1, 2006, you are 5 years and 364 days and your sister is 5 years and 1 day, and, voila!, you're both in the same grade.

Answer: The writers have said they are not twins and Jack is older. Although they were both born in 1983. In some states, like Massachusetts, it's a district decision when a child under 6-8 can start kindergarten, so there's no age deadline. In January 1988, Jack and Andie would both be 4, turning 5, and the district then allowed Andie to start kindergarten with her brother. It has nothing to do with Andie being smarter or moved up a grade, a point she alludes to in response to Jack saying he tried to start kindergarten without her (s04e04). As a side note, there was talk among the writers about whether to make Jack older or younger and they ultimately decided to make him older. The writers put in an inside joke about that when Andie says she is "definitely the older sibling in this relationship" (s04e04). It's also an inside joke to the fact that Meredith Monroe (Andie) was almost 2.5 years older than Kerr Smith (Jack). Monroe was 18, turning 19, in 1988.

Bishop73

Question: How do the devices Preston uses to shoot guns and magazines from his coat sleeves work? Do they actually exist in real life?

Answer: Wrist holsters do exist for smaller pistols, although I don't know of any current devices that actually bring the weapon forward into the hand. However, somewhat bizarrely, a toy gun back in about 1960 did come with a wrist holster that had this feature - it was referred to as using a "wrist-flick" action. Precisely how Preston's more advanced devices work isn't clear - it most probably involves some specific muscle contraction, which the device can 'read' to bring the gun into play or retract it. The reloading probably has some sort of signal sent from the gun to the device (using something along the lines of today's Bluetooth system), to inform it that a reload is necessary - again, a specific muscle movement (i.e. that required to put the gun into a position where the reload can occur) could be used to trigger the event.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: What is Jerry's last name? When Brian signs his name he signs 'Jerry St. Clair', but in the hospital the nurse says 'Mr. Digman', and the plaque above the door of the Phoenix Club says both names. What is going on?

Answer: His name is Jerry St. Clair Dignan. He presumably prefers to go by Jerry St. Clair, hence Brian calling him that - hospital records, on the other hand, would have his full name, hence the nurse calling him Mr Dignan.

Tailkinker

Answer: It stands for either National Intelligence Department, or National Intelligence Division, although it's never expressly stated on the show.

Answer: Fun fact: The producers were originally going to call the NID the "NRD" for "Not a Real Department", but changed it so they could make it mean something sensible if they ever needed to.

Question: I was wondering if anyone knows why the movie didn't follow the script? I read it and most of the lines are in the movie, but out of order. It seems if the movie followed the scripts it would have made much more sense.

Answer: Scripts generally have many, many versions before a final shooting script is produced, and even then, changes can be made during filming, and editing can also alter things.

Tailkinker

Answer: That's just decorative. The gas pedal is always on the right and using the left foot would be quite awkward.

Grumpy Scot

Who Shot Mr. Burns? (1) - S6-E25

Question: When Lisa goes up to turn on the oil pump for the first time, there is a sound between Skinner saying, "Here's our top student, Lisa Simpson", and Lisa actually getting to the pump. It sounds like someone straining. What is it?

Answer: It's a student yelling, "Nerd!" at Lisa.

Deidra Goins

Question: When are heroes encounter the Merovingian in the club, what is it he says to them in french?

Answer: He says Quel Grand Surprise which translated means what a big surprise.

Question: If Barbossa is Jack's first mate before he and the rest of the pirates marooned Jack, then who is Barbossa's first mate after they commit a mutiny against Jack?

Answer: It's never mentioned.

Xofer

Question: Do the head orc with the skin over his eyes and the orc with the skulls pile on top of his head have names?

Answer: The lead orc is Gothmog, a briefly mentioned character in the books (mentioned precisely once) - it's not even clear in the books which race he belongs to. The second orc, with the skulls, doesn't seem to have a name.

Tailkinker

Question: Is there any historical information about what happened to the Piano player in the band? His last scene in the movie is when he stands beside the other members with no instrument, he's even the one that pulls the chair outside for the band, But then he's gone from the rest of the movie.

Answer: I found good historical information on the 8 members of the band and more specifically what they played including the lead player Wallace Henry Hartley. The pianist depicted in the movie is most likely Mr. W. Theodore Brailey [Pianist] of Notting Hill. It is not mentioned specifically how he died but all of the band members perished and one can assume he went into the freezing water with the rest of the ships passangers and froze to death. Of note: The eight members of the ship's orchestra were employed by Messers C.W. and F.N. Black of 14 Castle Street, Liverpool. The men boarded as Second-Class passengers on a joint ticket (#250654) and had their quarters towards the stern on E-Deck with a separate room for their instruments. More can be found at (http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/song1.htm#Band).

iceverything776

Question: The Bride leaves Elle Driver in Budd's truck, completely blind but alive. What would have happened to her? Would the Black Mamba snake finished her off?

Answer: She could have died either from bleeding out from losing her eye, the black mamba could have got her or most likely Elle could have died from the exposure to the elements of being out in the middle of nowhere without the possibility of calling for help and not knowing how much food and water Budd had in his trailer. Since there was no way for her to drive off and being out in the desert, she most likely would have died a slow agonizing death through the process of dehydration.

Tobin OReilly

Answer: Tarantino has said that if he gets the chance to make Kill Bill Vol. 3, it will be about a blind Elle Driver training Vernita Green's daughter to kill Beatrice.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: During the end credits for Kill Bill Vol. 2, the characters names were crossed out, but Elle's name had a question mark. It's unknown what happened to her. It's been rumored for years that there would be a third movie with Elle returning for revenge. Blind, but with heightened senses.

Show generally

Question: In the movie the Stargate shook and in an episode tells us that they put dampeners on the gate. Off world stargates don't have dampeners so how come they don't shake? Is this because they're controlled by DHDs?

Answer: The off world stargates have a DHD, the Earth stargate had to adapt a computer to dial the gate. It is explained in the first season that this is the reason the gate shook as the dialing computer could not compensate for the stellar drift that the DHD could. Thus they had to add vibration dampers to compensate.

Question: In the book it mentions that Gothmog, Lieutenant of Minas Morgul, assumed control of Sauron's army after the Witch-King was vanquished. Shouldn't Khamul, the second-in-command of the Nazgul, have assumed control of the army?

Answer: Not necessarily - the precise command hierarchy isn't established in the books and we don't know where the various Nazgul stand. Gothmog is the Witch-King's leftenant, so it would make sense that he would be second-in-command of any army led by his master.

Tailkinker

Question: Is there any significant reason why Forrest Gump wears blue in almost every scene (when he's not in uniform)?

Answer: Maybe it was Forrest's favorite color? Or sometimes the director of a movie does that to set a mood throughout.

Answer: I believe that in addition to mild mental impairment Forrest also suffers from a degree of autism. Autistic individuals frequently have ingrained mannerisms, such as only wanting to wear a paricular type or color of clothing. Other examples that might point to autism are his mindless devotion to mowing and running.

Question: What is supposed to be in those biohazard tanks that makes them explode so violently when shot. Considering what is stored inside them that seems like a stupid way of storing dangerous things.

Answer: The contents are either some sort of flammable material (i.e. magnesium hydride) or some sort of material that would ignite a flammable material upon contact (i.e. hydrogen peroxide) that would easily explode violently when ignited (i.e. with a bullet.) The containers are actually decent as they can withstand falls, but they are definitely not bulletproof. After all, one doesn't expect someone to come into a laboratory and shoot chemical storage containers.

Question: When Neo fights the Merovingian's lackeys in the hallway, is the person dressed in white male or female?

Answer: It was Tiger Chen. The man who trained Keanu for the Matrix trilogy.

Answer: I had a hard time with this too, but to answer your question the actor is indeed a male.

NoWhereMan

Question: Why didn't Gandalf get Gwaihir the wind lord (The giant eagle) to ride Frodo to Mount Doom? It would have saved the heroes from fighting, saved some of them from dying, and would have especially saved Rohan and Gondor from the near destruction they suffered.

Answer: They had to do this in secret. If they were to just fly into mordor on a giant eagle, they would attract the full attention of sauron, the nazgul, and all of sauron's army.

RJR99SS

Question: The scene where Lucy is at the mental institution and she's drawn Henry a million times, did that actually happen?

Answer: Yes, it did happen: right as it did in the movie. Henry was on the boat, thought that Lucy remembered him, turned around, went into the hospital, and saw the paintings. But the movie then skipped many years into the future and showed Lucy and Henry about, maybe 5 years later on the boat in Alaska. It was shown like this so you would know how they got back together, but they also wanted you to see how they ended up. Hope this helps, it took me a while to figure this out anyway!

Question: Does anyone know why they changed the position of the fat lady (the entrance to the Gryffindor tower) in this film? She's along a deserted corridor in the previous films, but she's in the main stairwell in POA.

Answer: Cuaron changed the locations of a lot of things. See: Whomping Willow, Hagrid's Hut among others. Why? It's his film, he did things his way, as he had every right to.

angi

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