Question: Who is Maisey a clone of? I know her 'mother' died in a car crash but when she asked if her mother visited the park a long time ago, Lockwood answered with "a long time ago" and the camera pans out to a model of the original park.
Bishop73
30th Sep 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
29th Sep 2018
Freedom Fighters: The Ray (2017)
Question: If Overgirl is Supergirl from Earth X, and Supergirl gets her powers the same way that Superman does, from sunlight, then how is The Ray, whose powers are based on using yellow light, able to hurt her with his powers? Wouldn't his blasts help her?
Answer: My understanding is the Ray uses pure light for his powers while Superman and Supergirl get their power from the solar energy of a yellow sun, not yellow light.
I see. But if it was from pure light, wouldn't his powers have a white glow and not a yellow glow?
Most likely just a styling choice. I just know the basics details of his powers and not sure why it comes out yellow (or if it's even stated.) Perhaps for the the same reason the sun appears yellow, short wavelength light becomes scattered.
29th Sep 2018
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Question: In the US, can you really be taken to a police station for (presumably) making a phony phone call? To me it seems like a waste of resources since it is probably a common occurrence. Also Jeannie would have stuck to her story that it was true...as break-ins do happen all the time.
Answer: In the United States, phoning in a false report to police can be treated as either a misdemeanor or felony offense (depending on jurisdiction). A false report is considered obstructing law enforcement, which is pretty serious. A misdemeanor offense can result in jail time of a year or less, while a felony offense can result in more than a year's jail time and heavy fines. The important factor that makes it a crime is knowingly trying to mislead the police, not accidentally reporting false information. In "Ferris Beuller's Day Off," Jean was not trying to mislead the police; but, lacking evidence, the police assumed she was knowingly phoning in a false report, so they arrested her (probably on a misdemeanor).
Answer: Illinois law makes making a false report on 911 a form of disorderly conduct.
Answer: I think the main thing was Jeanie wasn't in school and was probably taken in for truancy as well as the supposedly phony call. But it's unlikely that they would have taken her to the police station if she was picked up at home.
23rd Sep 2018
Cast Away (2000)
Question: What is that green thing that Chuck tries to break open by throwing it against a rock wall, and then by hitting it with a rock? Is it really that difficult to break open?
Answer: They were coconuts. Coconuts come in a green shell which is their husk and they are hard to open up, especially when they get older. Most people use a machete or pick ax to get the husk off.
Is the shell as difficult to break open as shown in the movie?
The film does seem to accurately depict how hard it would be for someone who has never opened one before to get into a green coconut. I've never tried throwing one against a rock wall before though.
I was asking if the shell is as difficult to break open by hitting it with a rock as shown in the movie.
For someone who has never tried opening a green coconut, yes it would be.
The inner shell itself is not that difficult to open. Using a pointed rock, you can break through the round-shaped holes at the end to pour out of the liquid. By hitting the coconut's seam running lengthwise down the shell hard against a rock, it will completely split the shell in two around the circumference.
I'm talking about opening the outer shell, not the inner shell.
Answer: It sure is. You have to be gentle when you break it so all the water doesn't just go everywhere, like it would if you pounded it with say, a large rock.
25th Sep 2018
General questions
I just remembered a movie I saw a few years ago. I want to say it came out in the mid 00's but it might have been later or even earlier. I think it was about some kids living in an underground civilization in a city that was built to help them survive long enough for the nuclear waste lands that were now the Earth's surface to become inhabitable again. But for some reason they had stayed underground for thousands of years longer than they were supposed to and the city was starting to malfunction and becoming a danger. I seem to also remember giant mutant moles causing them problems also. And in the end of the film they get to the surface and are surprised to find that it's covered in green plant life and perfectly suitable for life now. What movie was this?
Chosen answer: "City of Ember", a 2008 film based on the 2003 book. Considered a box office flop.
23rd Sep 2018
King of the Hill (1997)
Question: Can someone explain to me what a red shirt means? I know in one episode when someone broke Bill's high school touchdown record that Hank mentioned that Bill was red shirted because Bill went into the army before he graduated thus compelled Bill to go back to high school and try and break the record again.
Answer: The main point of being red-shirted is that a student athlete only has 4-years of eligibility to play. By red-shirting as a freshman, a student is allowed to practice, to get better, bigger, etc and then still be able to play for 4 years (seasons).
21st Sep 2018
Peep Show (2003)
Question: At beginning of Peep Show, Mark and Jez approach one another. They look into a TV in shop. They are the wrong way around in the TV image. Is this a continuity error or a subtle joke I've missed?
Answer: There's no mistake or joke. The camera simply doesn't create a mirror image (otherwise the writing on the truck would be reversed). When we see Mark, he has a newspaper under his right arm (the viewer's left) and then Jeremy is to his left (the opposite side of the newspaper). In the TV, the newspaper is still under Mark's right arm (the viewer's left). If they were looking in a mirror or reflection, then Mark would be on the other side.
17th Sep 2018
The Blind Side (2009)
Question: Why is Leanne driving on the wrong side of the car on her way to pick up Mike at the laundromat after he ran off?
Answer: Because you're seeing her in the reflection of the window and thus you see a reverse (or mirror) image (i.e. the camera is pointed toward the window and not the car).
16th Sep 2018
The Italian Job (2003)
10th Sep 2018
Family Guy (1999)
Question: Stewie tells Brian it took Peter a year to figure out Stuart Little - is there a joke I'm missing in there?
Answer: The idea being Peter is so dumb as to not understand Stuart Little was the name of the mouse, but Peter was still able to follow the plot of Brian's Play.
24th Feb 2006
M*A*S*H (1972)
Question: Why was the song "My Blue Heaven" used so much in the first season?
Answer: The copyright information provided in the answer is wrong. Although there's a lot more to it, works published before 1978 are protected for 95 years (28 years for the initial term and 67 for the renewal term). "My Blue Heaven"'s copyrights were renewed in 1953 and 1957. Works published after 1977 are protected for the life of the artist plus 70 years. It should be noted that the movie "My Blue Heaven", starring Betty Grable, came out in Dec 1950 in which the song was sung during the credits, which would have been during the Korean War (not that I'm saying that's the reason for its use).
Answer: My guess is because Fats Domino's version was #17 on Billboard's charts for 1957. It helps identify the time period. And, I think, at the time copyright laws only protected material for 25 years after release so the song was free to use. Now, material is protected for 75 years.
The Korean War was fought between 1950-53. The song didn't exist yet.
3rd Sep 2018
Alpha Dog (2006)
Question: There is something I don't get about the bad guys. Why would they kidnap a teenage boy?
Answer: If you're talking about why they kidnapped Zack, Zack is the younger brother of Jake. Jake still owed Johnny money, but when Johnny and his gang go look for Jake, they can't find him. They see Zack and kidnap him, essentially for ransom, until Jake fully pays Johnny back.
It's also important to remember that this is a film based on true events, the kidnapping and murder of Nicolas Markowitz. All the names in the film have been changed.
Why did they murder Nick?
Although this should be posted as a different question, in real life, Jesse (the one Nick's brother owed money to) had decided to let Nick go home. However, Jesse found out what kind of legal consequences he'd face for kidnapping Nick and decided to have Nick killed instead (obviously thinking he could get away with murder and deny any kidnapping allegations).
6th Jan 2005
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Answer: Probably, yes. From dialogue, Ferris is about to graduate, and he and Jean seem to be at the same school, so either she's actually the younger of the two (which seems unlikely - would parents give the younger child a car but not the older?) or they're in the same school year. On the assumption that they're in the same year, the most likely scenario is that, yes, they're twins. The only other possibility is that they were born less than a year apart (putting them in the same school year), with Jean probably being the older of the two.
Or Ferris had repeated a year of school sometime in the past and Jeanie had caught up. The gifted car vs computer is a key point of resentment for Ferris throughout the movie, suggesting that Ferris may not have been trusted with a car, and got the computer instead.
Answer: Twins (even fraternal twins) are usually much closer in temperament to each other. Jean, on the other hand, seems very uptight and even envious of Ferris. Could be that Jean is an adopted child, same age as Ferris. There is typically some friction with adopted kids.
30th Aug 2018
Cast Away (2000)
Question: I have a problem with the scene where Chuck makes a fire by rubbing sticks. While it is possible to make a fire by the rubbing sticks, don't you need to run the stick against bamboo for the trick to work?
Answer: The point of the scene is that he has no idea what he's doing.
Chuck is using the fire plough method. A very established method. This and the fire saw method probably resulted in early sailors bringing back stories of."natives rubbing sticks together" to create fire.
Answer: You can use any wood (although technically bamboo is a grass and not wood), it just should be very dry wood. He's employing the fire trench method where the friction is created by rubbing one stick at a 45° angle against a trench in a wood plank (his trench looks to have been created because the plank was slit).
Actually, I looked up how to make a fire by rubbing sticks because asking this question, and I misread it as suggesting using bamboo. It was actually suggesting using coconut wood.
30th Aug 2018
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: Is it really possible to keep a person warm by putting him inside the body of a large animal? That's what Han does with Luke in the movie.
Answer: There are real life stories of people using horse carcasses for warmth and shelter. There were even old stories of shepherds using their camels in the exact manner as Han does for Luke, although I can't attest to their validity. (DiCaprio does a similar thing in "The Revenant" with a horse). There is residual heat in these animals. Most large animals have an normal temperature over 100°F (a camel's temperature can rise to 104°F during the day). However, what is most likely keeping them relatively warm is using the carcass as a heavy blanket while at the same time blocking the cold winds (creating a small tent) and not using the guts to warm themselves up.
30th Aug 2018
Safe House (2012)
Question: After they escape the safe house, Weston calls the CIA and says "no chance of an SDR, I've picked up a tail." What does SDR stand for?
Answer: "Surveillance Detection Route." It's what you do when you think you're being followed (drive a specific route to detect if you're under surveillance or not). Weston says "I think I might have picked up a tail", so he was unsure if he was actually being followed or not, but had no time to try and determine if he actually is being tailed or not.
30th Aug 2018
Kangaroo Jack (2003)
Question: Who is the actress playing the flight attendant that listens to the guys in the bathroom with disgust?
Answer: Lara Cox is not the flight attendant. "Cute Girl on Plane" was the 2nd girl to enter the scene and overhear the boys in the bathroom. I was unable to find who played the flight attendant and she may have just been a featured extra. I suspect Lara Cox is a member of S.A.G. and that's how she got a credited role and the other lady is not a member and was just hired as a background actor, which is why she's not credited (most extras are not credited).
Answer: If I'm able to figure out who the correct person is by the IMDb listings, I think she's credited as Cute Girl On Plane, with the actress playing her being Lara Cox. That's the closest thing I could find in the IMDb listings to a flight attendant, as I don't think customs officer counts.
26th Aug 2018
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Question: At the end of the film Blondie, sitting on the horse, turns around, aims his rifle, fires, and severs the rope with a single shot. Lets face it, that rope would be a very small target, and difficult to hit with precision, even from ten or twenty feet, and Blondie is now so far from Tuco that he would no longer even be able to see the rope. Could anyone hit such a small target from such a distance with such incredible accuracy?
Answer: There's a show called "Hollywood Weapons: Fact or Fiction" which dealt with this exact question (s01e03). Blondie is roughly 200 yds away. In the show the host didn't hit the rope, but only missed by an inch on his first attempt. I definitely think an expert Sharps Rifle shooter could make the shot. The issue however, is the bullet would most likely not actually slice the rope apart as seen in the film (they fired the Sharps at point blank and the rope remained partially intact still). They also tested shooting a hat off someone and (as expected) the bullet just goes right through the hat without lifting the hat at all.
That was another thing that puzzled me. On several occasions in this film, Tuco is suspended from a rope, and Blondie cuts the rope by firing a bullet at it, (I think Clint Eastwood repeated the trick in "The Outlaw Josey Wales"). But if you fired a bullet at a rope holding a (rather large) person like Tuco (or a similarly heavy weight), even at close range, would it really sever the rope? I will have to look out for "Hollywood Weapons Fact Or Fiction." I hope they only used a dummy or a model to re-create the shooting feats. I don't think I would have liked to have been hanging on a rope while somebody fired bullets at me to see if this would sever the rope, or to stand there while they fired bullets into my hat to see if they could lift it off my head.
Answer: Probably not, but remember...this is a movie, a western at that and they typically have over the top action to excite audiences. Kinda like how it's impossible to shoot someone's hat off without harming them. It's all for show.
15th Oct 2017
That '70s Show (1998)
Baby Fever - S3-E7
Question: What is the song played during Donna's pole dance. Is there somewhere we can download it?
Answer: It's just incidental music written for the show and wouldn't be available to download as a song.
23rd Aug 2018
Final Destination 3 (2006)
Question: During the movie when a viewer can make decisions, I chose to honk the horn twice which saved Frankie's life. Later in the film, Frankie is being arrested by two officers. The scene pauses and a question appears asking if it was right to save his life. I chose "yes" and because of this he is seen being taken away. If I had chosen "no", what would have happened to Frankie?
Answer: The movie just continues without showing any additional clips.
Answer: In the choose their fate version, it shows clips from Frankie's camera diary.
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Answer: Masie is a clone of Benjamin Lockwood's daughter. Benjamin's daughter did die in a car accident and when that happened, he wanted to clone her. But John Hammond was against the idea of cloning humans (which is why the partnership broke up). Once John Hammond died, Benjamin went ahead and cloned his daughter. Only, because of the amount of time that passed and his age, Benjamin tells people Masie is his granddaughter and the cover story is Masie's mother died in a car accident, which is why he's raising her. However, I do not know if Benjamin's actual daughter was also named Masie or if that's a new name. I got the impression that Benjamin's actual daughter died at a young age, and since he wanted to clone her right away, he kept the fact that his young daughter died a secret. So as far as most people knew, Benjamin's daughter grew up and had a child and then Benjamin tells people his (adult) daughter died in a car accident.
Bishop73
I think what they mean is if she was a character from the original movies somehow.
His daughter was not an earlier character in the other films. Lockwood is just reflecting on his late daughter, who he loved and misses. Like John Hammond's grandchildren, Lockwood's daughter likely visited the park at some point. His glancing at the original Jurassic Park model seems to be a reference to the cloning procedure that produced Maisie.
raywest ★
In the original movies, no, she's not a character (at least what I can recall). Benjamin Lockwood doesn't even appear in any of the original Jurassic Park trilogy films (I'm not familiar with the books enough to know if any Lockwoods appear in those stories though). In "Fallen Kingdom" it's implied Lockwood's daughter visited the island where Jurassic Park was built, meaning she would have done so prior to the events of the first "Jurassic Park" film.
Bishop73