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.

Chosen answer: It was most likely Joss Whedon messing with the audience. It was intended to make people believe he wasn't really dead and he was coming back somehow. Also, they didn't want to give away that Wesley was joining the cast, which is how it concludes.

Question: There are many scenes where the film is "flipped". (You can usually tell because the brooch on the Elven cloaks is reversed.) Is there a reason why the brooch on Samwise's cloak is the reverse of everyone else's throughout the films?

Laurie Brown

Chosen answer: It is true to say that flipped shots are obvious for this "brooch" reason, but there is a much better explanation if Samwise's is like it for the whole film. It could be that the actor who plays him is left handed and therefore unlike the majority of the cast, he would put his on the other way round. Not a definitive answer, but a practical one.

David Mercier

Show generally

Question: When the show started they were in the 10th grade. They graduated from the 12th grade at the end of the 4th season. Did they stay in the same grade for more than a season/year?

Answer: In seasons 1 and 2 they are in 10th grade, season 3 they are in 11th and in season 4 they are in 12th.

Answer: Yes. This is commonly done in many shows.

Super Grover

Question: Samara made pictures while in the psychiatric ward (the tree, horse and person). Why is there a person with all of the hardware? And what is the relevance of the burning tree? I understand that Samara burned it into her wall, but how is it important?

Answer: The burning tree represents the sun going down behind that tree in the field near the cabin.

Timothy Cheseborough

Whisper - S3-E10

Question: In the episode, 'Whisper', there is a character that makes a very high pitched feedback like noise. Is this a character that was in the old comics and can anyone tell me how this guy does that noise?

Answer: No, there is no such character in the comics. He's a "meteor-freak" like all the other baddies on the show. The sound has something to do with him vibrating his vocal cords very fast to create a high-pitched squeal.

Question: Early in the movie Max finds an abandoned truck with graffiti on its side saying "The Vermin Have Inherited the Earth". Is this a reference to something?

Answer: Maybe the Judeo-Christian bible "The meek shall inherit the earth" (Matt 5:5). Not much of a stretch that someone in that environment would change meek to vermin.

Nikki

Question: What is the translation of what Wonka says, after getting off the boat, going into the testing room?

Answer: "My friends, please give me your attention. You have now come to the most interesting and, at the same time, the most secret room of my factory. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Inventing Room."

ChiChi

Question: What's the name of the song played in the background of the scene where Lester and Angela are admitting they want each other? It's when she says, "I hope you don't mind I put the stereo on."

Answer: The song is the Annie Lennox version of Neil Young's 'Don't Let It Bring You Down'. (It isn't on the American Beauty soundtrack unfortunately).

Question: Why does the guy in the prison have so many assistants, and live in complete royalty compared to the other inmates? I've watched it over and over but still can't understand why.

Answer: Because he is connected on the outside. Money and infulence can give you a much easier life in prison, though this movie greatly exaggerated the fact.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Does anyone have a translation as to what the Mullaram says during the human sacrifice scenes? He chants something like 'Cully-ma, Cully-ma, Cully-ma sha-ti-day.' Also, what does the human sacrifice say? It sounds like 'Oh num-shi-vye.'

Answer: He says "kali ma, shakti day". This is hindi and means (literally) "black mother, give me power/strength". "Ohm nama Shivaya" means "I bow to Shiva." Both are Hindi.

Question: Why did the film makers portray Sgt. Eversmann as the main character/hero of the story? I've read the book and his involvement was minimal.

Answer: The answer to this question is quite simple. Whenever any book is put on to the screen things must be glorified in order to catch the eye of a film goer. In movies like this one, heroes, brave men, and down right bad ass characters are what people need to see. If the movie was just like the book, there would be just a whole bunch of equally important characters, which is something very rarely seen in movies. So in short they made sgt Eversmann a main character simply because the movie needed one.

That makes sense but does anyone know why Eversmann was the specific soldier chosen as the focus for the movie?

Question: I have read that the ditzy blonde actress was based on Cameron Diaz. Does anyone know why Sophia Coppola would pick on her in particular?

Answer: Sofia Coppola has denied that character is based on Cameron Diaz in an article in Entertainment Weekly.

eileen

Question: When does Rachel realise if she shows the film to someone else she won't die? And if she knew, is that why she showed it to Noah, to kill him on purpose?

Answer: Rachel doesn't know that showing the film to someone else will cause you not to die until death skips her. She remembers that Samara wanted to be "heard". She never meant to kill Noah.

Ginger Painter

Answer: At the end of the movie, she is crying about why she wasn't killed and Noah was. She vocalizes "What did I do, that he didn't?" That's when she sees the copy she made. It wasn't that she just showed it to someone else. She made a copy and Aiden watched that copy. Aiden is why it skipped her.

Almost right. It's just the copy. Copying the video makes it skip you. That's why she has Aiden make a copy as well.

lionhead

You have to show the copy to someone else as well. That's why Aiden asks Rachel at the very end "What about the person we show it to? What happens to them?"

Phaneron

But doesn't he have less than a day left by then? Hardly a time to relax, they need to make a terrible decision, quickly. I always had the idea making a copy was enough because of that.

lionhead

He watched the tape the morning of either Rachel's 4th or 5th day, so he should have at least 3 days left by this point. Though it appears the film was being inconsistent with the markings that Samara leaves on the tape's viewers, since Rachel noticed Samara's hand print on Aiden's arm and then his nose started bleeding. For Rachel, she got her nosebleed before receiving the mark on her arm.

Phaneron

Actually, you need to do both: make a copy and show it to someone else. This is further explained in The Ring 2. At the beginning, the guy had made a copy but since the girl covered her eyes and didn't watch the whole thing, he was still killed by Samara. So making a copy is not enough in itself to be spared if no-one else watches it. The same goes for Rachel. She made a copy on the 2nd day, but Becca tells her she only has 4 days left when she visits the psych ward indicating she hadn't been spared yet. It's only after Aidan watches the copy she made that death skips her for good.

Answer: No, it's wrong. Just making a copy won't save you; you need to show it to someone else, and then this someone else is cursed instead of you. The Japanese movie explains it well. Plus, in the official second movie, a man dies from Samara after making the copy because nobody watched it. Also, at the end of the 1st movie, Aiden asks from the copy, "What will happen to the one who will watch it?"

Habeas Corpses - S4-E8

Question: How come the entire staff at Wolfram & Hart are killed and come back as zombies, yet as revealed in "Home" only Lilah keeps her personality? All the other lawyers are flesh craving killers, Lilah is the only exception. Why?

Answer: A security feature of Wolfram & Hart is to turn most people in the building working there into zombies to try to prevent the killer/attacker from escaping. However some employees like Lilah have contracts that don't expire at death. These people are brought back effectively as ghosts to continue to do Wolfram & Hart's bidding. In the comics after the show ends we see Wesley come back as a ghost due to his contract with Wolfram & Hart. These ghosts retain all memory and traits of the physical person and are bound to the company forever.

Question: What exactly is "Middle Earth"? Does it refer to a specific area of land/continent, or a period in time, such as the Middle Ages (but obviously thousands of years earlier), or to something completely different?

Answer: Middle-earth is usually represented as a single continent, but Tolkien's writings (and more specifically his Letters) suggest that Middle-earth is typically defined as that part of the world inhabited by mortal beings. This would mean that it includes the lands of Arda except for Aman and, perhaps the Empty Lands. The name does not refer to a specific time period, although some scholars have argued that Middle-earth represents "our" Earth from a period long ago.

Phil C.

Question: After Wallace kills the lord that killed his wife, Hemish's father starts chanting something like, "McCoughlick, McCoughlick", then, "Wallace, Wallace", what exactly is the first thing he says?

Answer: In the script of the movie Braveheart (Section 9 http://www.macbraveheart.co.uk/movie/script.htm) the Scots are chanting "MacAulish, MacAulish, WALLACE, WALLACE!" The term "Mac" means "son of", and "Aulish" is intended to be a variation of the Medieval Gaelic name "Uallas" (later translated to the Anglican, "Wallace"). Where the writers got the spelling "Aulish" is anyone's guess. Perhaps they were just trying to simplify the name for literary purposes. At any rate, essentially the Scots are chanting "MacUallas!" or "Son of Wallace" which then morphs into "Wallace!"

Question: Private Joker asks the gunner on the chopper about how he is able to shoot women and children, and the gunner replies by saying 'it's easy, you just don't lead them so much'. Does anyone know what that means?

Answer: To lead means to aim ahead of a moving target. His statement means that women and children don't run as fast as men, so you don't need to aim as far in front of them to hit them.

jle

Show generally

Question: Who can use the holodecks at their discretion? I've never seen a holodeck numbered higher than five. Lieutenant Barclay can obviously use them whenever he likes, though he got in trouble for it. Are they just for officers? Does an ensign have to surrender a holodeck if a Commander want to use it?

Answer: I'm sure there are more than 5 holodecks. Also, judging from DS9, you generally would schedule use on a holodeck. Finally, though incredibly cool to us, that's pretty routine for the TNG crew. They read, play instruments, take fighting classes, dance lessons, put on plays, do personal research projects, etc to fill their off-duty time. Getting in holodeck time might be pretty easy! We never see average crewmen using the holodecks as the stories just aren't about them. I'm sure they use them too. I imagine the only way someone has to surrender a holodeck is if the officers need it for research (like the episode where the subspace aliens were kidnapping them or Geordi turned into one of those glowing blue aliens) or when using it in conflict with accepted StarFleet conduct (as Barclay did by using the crew in his fantasies).

Grumpy Scot

Question: It's established that the Elves are leaving Middle Earth to go across the sea, into the West. What/where exactly are they going? Is it to another continent that's just across the sea that maybe only Elves know how to get to, or to some otherworldly place?

Answer: They're going to a place called Valinor (which means "home of the vala". The Vala are sort of manifestations of some of the gods) - it is a real continent that is across the sea. There is, however, magic at work because only the elven boats can get there.

jle

Question: What are the Eagles' purpose and where did they come from?

Answer: The Eagles live in Middle-Earth, generally in the high mountains. They act as the emissaries of Manwe, leader of the Valar (the local deity equivalents), and will intercede in events at his behest, or at the request of one of the Maiar (a race of spirits that includes Gandalf, Saruman and Sauron among their number).

Tailkinker

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