Brian Katcher

23rd Jan 2017

National Treasure (2004)

Question: Who found the first treasure?

Answer: There was no treasure - it was a fake room in case anyone got that far, without a way to get into the real treasure room.

Bowling255

Then what was that stuff they found near the end of the movie if there was no treasure?

They were referring to the first empty room that looked looted. There was never anything there, it was a red herring.

Brian Katcher

21st May 2021

King of the Hill (1997)

Show generally

Question: How can Dale be so oblivious to the fact that Joseph isn't his biological son or that Nancy cheated on him with John Redcorn considering in one episode Dale actually caught them both in bed together.

Answer: In addition to Brian Katcher's response: it's supposed to be a joke that Dale is always suspicious about conspiracy theories, mysteries, etc, but he is "clueless" about his own wife having an affair. Of course, as Brian wrote, many fans think that Dale is pretending to be clueless because he doesn't want Nancy to leave him.

Answer: That's the shtick. Everyone in town knows that Dale's wife is seeing John behind his back and that Joseph is obviously really John's son, but Dale is completely oblivious (he's not that smart of a man). In one episode, Dale even says he's not homophobic because 'John Redcorn is gay, and he's one of my closest friends.' Of course there is a fan theory that Dale is completely aware of what's going on but chooses to ignore it out of fear of his marriage ending.

Brian Katcher

Also, if Dale *does* know about the affair, what choice does he have anyway? Explain to everyone he meets that Nancy is his wife, and Joseph is her son from her boyfriend? If he wants to stay with Nancy, then raising Joseph as his own child is slightly less awkward. Especially while Joseph is younger. I know of one man who did this. It was obvious that his wife had an affair, and "his" younger daughter had been fathered by someone of a different race. An "elephant in the room" situation.

20th May 2021

Shrek 2 (2004)

Question: When the doves are released as Fiona and Shrek step out of the onion carriage the guy releasing them has very odd eyes - is there any reason behind this? (00:15:00 - 00:20:00)

Answer: He's a parody of the wall-eyed actor Marty Feldman, perhaps best known for his role as Igor in 'Young Frankenstein.'.

Brian Katcher

7th May 2021

Problem Child 2 (1991)

Question: How did Lawanda get rabies if she was never bitten by her dog?

Answer: She didn't. Junior deliberately contaminated her blood sample with the rabid dog blood he swiped from the vets.

Brian Katcher

Answer: The scene was never shown on TV or on video either but at some point Junior was able to get a sample of blood from a rabid dog that was in the back of a van that belonged to the two vets, but we never saw it happen.

7th May 2021

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Question: Is the kitchen ghost woman the mother of gunshot boy?

Answer: Multiple ghosts just gravitated to where Cole was. It didn't have anything to do with the spirits having any relationship with one another. They actually seem oblivious to other ghosts.

raywest

Answer: Highly unlikely. The ghosts are there because they have unfinished business regarding their deaths. The woman you see is raging about having a lousy husband, she was probably abused and possibly killed by him. That has nothing to do with the boy that shot himself.

lionhead

She killed herself. Remember, she shows her slit writs and says 'Look what you made me do!'

Brian Katcher

Question: How did Quicksilver manage to get the arcade game, the table tennis and what looks like a sound system in the basement? They are very heavy and even with his speed would be impossible to move.

Answer: There could be a basement door, so he wouldn't need the stairs, and with a hand truck, even the heavier objects would be easy to move.

Brian Katcher

He's able to move several people out of the Mansion when it is destroyed, so perhaps his powers allow him to move things that big quickly. He can also push a cart or trolley at speed, remember.

Answer: He doesn't have to steal the actual heavy items, he can steal money and buy the heavy items and have them delivered. His mother is a single parent so it wouldn't be very difficult for him to arrange delivery of items while she is working. Mom also appears to be completely aware of Peter's crimes and doesn't really seem all that concerned.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: He could have just hired a moving company to do it all for him.

Phaneron

And his mother wouldn't have found that suspicious? Or the movers? He's a teenager.

Brian Katcher

His mother seemingly already knows that he steals stuff. It's her house after all. She thinks the heroes are the police when they first show up to talk to him, and she visits him in the basement in the next film, and would have seen all the stuff he has down there. As for the movers, I used to work for a moving company, and not once did we ever ask a customer where they acquired something we were moving. They would be there to do a job.

Phaneron

That totally doesn't make any sense. The idea is that he stole these items. Would he call a moving company to steal an arcade game out of an arcade hall? How does he get the arcade game in the first place? Does he leave it on the curb of the arcade hall (or shop) so they can pick it up and drop it off at his house?

lionhead

He most likely stole money and legit bought all those things. He likely helps his mother with the bills and stuff, so she doesn't ask him how he does it. Pietro is not known to be some master criminal with bad character, so he likely doesn't steal from ordinary people. The way he broke Magneto out of the prison, it seems he knows his way around a vault.

How he gets the arcade game is another question entirely. Maybe he stole it from a gas station or a restaurant that was near an apartment complex, but was still far from his home, and arranged to have it picked up at the apartment complex, so it would look like he lived there and was moving it to a new place. Alternatively, he could have had friends help him load it onto a truck.

Phaneron

27th Apr 2021

The Facts of Life (1979)

Starstruck - S3-E15

Question: When Tootie goes inside Jermaine's dressing room why did the bodyguard roughly manhandle Tootie and why was her bust of Jermaine destroyed?

Answer: The guards had no idea if Tootie was a deranged fan or if she had a bomb in her package. This wasn't very long after John Lennon was shot, after all.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Tootie was among the fan club girls sent complimentary concert tickets and allowed backstage. She thought Jackson personally invited only her and barged into the dressing room, believing she was expected. Security took action, not knowing who she was. The paper-mache' bust was screened for safety, getting destroyed in the process.

raywest

Answer: The Bust was destroyed by the bodyguards, to them it's another piece of junk among the millions he receives from his "Number One Fan."

No, the guard said he'd been running it under the sink and 'nothing was going to explode now.' They were making sure it wasn't a bomb.

Brian Katcher

27th Jun 2011

Time Bandits (1981)

Question: Evil tells of his assistants, "tell me about computers". And he later says, "show me subscriber trunk dialing". Why does such a powerful entity have an interest in technology? (01:30:45 - 01:31:35)

Chosen answer: This technology may pose a threat, as a counter, to Evil's magic, or it could be used to enhance his own powers.

Phixius

Answer: Remember his whole speech about technology being his version of the universe, while the Supreme Being concentrated on nature?

Brian Katcher

9th Apr 2021

Jason X (2001)

Question: Why do characters in this movie have such a strange names, like Azrael, Brodski, Kinsa, Stoney, Gecko and others?

Answer: It's set nearly 500 years in the future. Naming conventions change.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Actually internet names of friends of Todd Farmers.

9th Apr 2021

Monk (2002)

Answer: It seems like a good lawyer could tear that to shreds. "When I said I'd never seen her before, I meant up close, in the same room. Look, a teenager had just falsely accused me of rape, you can't blame me for panicking a little bit."

Brian Katcher

Answer: Entrapment in and of itself is not legal. Entrapment entails the police (or agents of the police/government) forcing or tricking an otherwise law-abiding citizen into committing a crime; the person would lack the necessary intent to be convicted. However, merely providing (an already willing) person with the opportunity to commit a crime is not entrapment. Without knowing the specifics of the case you are referring to, it is impossible to know if there was entrapment. At the same time, the police know what does and does not constitute true "entrapment", so are not likely to try entrapping anyone - they would lose the case, defeating their efforts.

KeyZOid

22nd Mar 2021

Monk (2002)

Answer: Because there was nothing suspicious about it. These things just happen and Monk is smart enough to know it was just one of those things.

Brian Katcher

Answer: In addition to the in-universe answer, an out-of universe answer (i.e. real life), since Stanley Kamel died in real life, it wouldn't be possible to film him in flashback scenes, like Monk's "here's what happened" summation. So setting an episode around solving his death, would be somewhat limited or require a stand-in.

Bishop73

16th Mar 2021

The Addams Family (1991)

Question: It is revealed at the end of the film that Gordon is in fact the true Fester. However, all the photos and Gomez's home movie show young Fester as being completely bald. Then how did Gordon manage to have a full head of hair which he had to shave off in order to initially pose as Fester?

Answer: Presumably when Fester was lost in the Bermuda Triangle, whatever supernatural forces caused him to lose his memory also made him grow hair. This gets reversed at the end of the movie when he's zapped by lightning, restoring his memories and destroying his hair follicles as well.

Answer: I guess we assume he always shaved his head.

Brian Katcher

25th Feb 2021

The Twilight Zone (1985)

Examination Day - S1-E14

Question: At the end of the episode, Dicky's parents are called and informed that the government has killed him? Why did they do this?

Answer: They live in a totalitarian state where people who are deemed too smart (and therefore a threat to the authorities) are done away with. That's the point of the test, to eliminate potential troublemakers.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It's the opposite - not smart but dumb. The voice said he failed to get a perfect score, less than one hundred percent.

Quote: "We regret to inform you that your son's intelligence quotient has EXCEEDED the government standard, according to section blah blah blah of the New Code." As in the original short story, they were eliminating intelligent people.

Brian Katcher

Where can I find the short story?

It's in the compilation "100 Great Science Fiction Short Stories" edited by Isaac Asimov.

Brian Katcher

It's by Henry Slesar and a quick Google search will show you some online copies. It's only two pages.

Brian Katcher

According to Wikipedia, it was first published in the February 1958 issue of Playboy magazine; it may have been reprinted elsewhere since then.

zendaddy621

6th Mar 2021

The Lion King (1994)

Question: Why didn't Scar just kill Simba himself right after Mufasa died?

Answer: That would have been a little too suspicious, if both Simba and Mufasa died in the same stampede and Scar, who's made no secret of his desire to rule, declared himself king. It helped him solidify his claim to have Simba go into exile, seemingly renouncing his own right to Mufasa's throne, clearing the way for Scar, as Mufasa's brother, to take it for himself. Making Simba the scapegoat for Mufasa's death didn't hurt, either.

Answer: It would look too suspicious.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Scar didn't tell them Simba killed his father and went into exile. He blamed the stampede for both deaths. Hence, when Simba returns Scar brings up Simba's role in Mufasa's death.

24th Feb 2021

Wrong Turn (2003)

Question: Why did Chris insist on the group stealing the cannibals' truck? Wouldn't it have made more sense to hide out somewhere until they leave, then try to get one of the other cars running? Looks like most of them only had flat tires, could have taken 1 tire off 4 cars to get one functioning car. I doubt very much they drained the fuel out of them, older ones could have been hotwired and if they had flat batteries, nothing a bump start couldn't solve.

Answer: Whilst hiding and waiting for them to leave would have been better in the short term, there was no guarantee that any of the cars were runners. This was potentially the only opportunity they had to secure a running vehicle. Plus, even if by some miracle they did manage to get one of those cars started. The mutants could have chased them down, run them off the road etc. with their truck.

Answer: They were planning to try to get one of the cars started. Chris says "Maybe one of them still runs, look for keys". But of course the cannibals turn up, meaning they don't have time to look for a working car.

Answer: How long would it take you to change four tires? Now how long would it take you if you had no tools, if you didn't have the key to the trunk to get the jack, if you had to do it under the cover of dark, and if anyone found you, you'd be killed?

Brian Katcher

8th Jan 2021

Hitch (2005)

Answer: Sleazy Vance seduced Sara's friend Casey and claimed he used Hitch's services to meet her, even though Hitch had refused to work with him. Sara thought Hitch was a predator who helped men prey on vulnerable woman and dumped him.

Brian Katcher

19th Feb 2021

The Fugitive (1993)

Question: Right after Richard shaves his beard off, he runs into a cop who shows him his own photo, and he asks if Richard ever saw that face. Richard then says, "Every time I look in a mirror. Except the beard." Why would Richard say that? Isn't that him practically confessing he's the guy they're looking for?

Answer: He's being flagrant, so he'll be the last person the cop suspects. The officer is assuming his man will be nervous and would run like hell when he saw a cop. By being friendly and playing up his resemblance to the suspect, Richard looks like a guy who has no reason to be afraid.

Brian Katcher

18th Feb 2021

Cast Away (2000)

Question: How come Wilson never deflates from the time Chuck opens the parcel to the time it falls off the raft and is swept away? A normal ball would go flat after a period of time, but 4 years on and Wilson is fully pumped. Does Chuck have a pump?

Paulspurs

Answer: Look closely. In the later scenes, Wilson's entire top is gone, now filled with dirt and grass to give him the illusion of hair.

Brian Katcher

Thanks Brian.

Paulspurs

18th Feb 2021

Big (1988)

Question: When Josh is giving his presentation to everybody, why did Paul say he doesn't get it? Was he mocking Josh? If so, why?

Answer: When Josh started at the toy company, he torpedoed Paul's skyscraper transformer by saying 'I don't get it.' Paul is returning the favor.

Brian Katcher

14th Jan 2021

King of the Hill (1997)

Answer: I thought it was he deliberately lied about Weird Al so Bobby wouldn't look up to and try to imitate him.

Answer: Hank is out of touch with pop culture and Yankovic had kind of faded from the public view in 1997. Hank's just confusing him with some other obscure singer.

Brian Katcher

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