Answered 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: When the staff become antiques after the last rose petal falls, do they die?

Answer: They will permanently turn into inanimate objects, so yes, their lives would effectively be ended.

raywest

Question: Early in the film, the Mangalore warrior Aknot mutters "Showtime" as he leads the attack on the Mondoshawan transport ship, destroying it. Shortly thereafter, at Zorg's factory, we see Aknot shape-shift between his human disguise and his natural Mangalore appearance. Much later in the film, we see Aknot in his same human disguise again aboard the Fhloston cruise ship, where Aknot again mutters "Showtime" before leading a murderous assault. So we recognize Aknot by his appearance and his mannerisms throughout the film. But wait: Presumably, Zorg killed the Mangalores who failed him (including Aknot) with a powerful explosive booby-trap at his factory, early in the film. So, how did Aknot appear much later aboard the Fhloston cruise ship? (There is no reason to assume that the Mangalores were capable of surviving the powerful blast at Zorg's factory, because we see Mangalores killed by smaller explosions and small firearms throughout the film).

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: Aknot wasn't killed, just injured in the explosion - he didn't seem to to be too close to the Mangalore whose weapon exploded. You see him later with several wounds, when he resolves to get the stones from Fhloston to get revenge on Zorg.

Sierra1

Answer: We are not shown how they got out of the tar.

Question: Why did Rigg discard his handgun after killing Art? I get that he was wounded, but it doesn't make much sense to just drop your gun.

Answer: He's just been shot, witnessed his friend Matthews die and is borderline delirious after all he's been through. Not to mention, he thinks everyone in the room is dead and the tape-player is playing a message addressed directly to him. He's just mentally and physically exhausted and starting to bleed out, so he drops it in favor of grabbing the much-lighter tape player and trying to crawl away.

Answer: It's most likely because he had just been shot about 2 minutes before, so he started losing blood, which is why you can see him clenching his wound.

Question: How did the police not locate the nerve gas house? Surely the police van Eric drives to the house is tracked by GPS. Even if Jigsaw and/or Amanda moved or destroyed the van, the police should still be able to find the vehicle and subsequently the nerve gas house via the GPS signal.

Answer: To add to the other answer, not every police vehicle is necessarily traceable even to this day. While many departments do have tracking beacons on their cars (such as GPS), there are some that don't. And given this film was released nearly 15 years ago before it became more commonplace, it's reasonable to assume that this is the case here. Also, even if the car was equipped with a lojack system (which would have been more likely at the time), those are pretty easy to block, since any radio-jammer (a device Jigsaw would almost certainly have around) will essentially make them "invisible" to trackers.

TedStixon

Answer: They probably should be able to track the van, but this is just a case of a film requiring "suspension of disbelief, " where we have to accept something that isn't necessarily realistic for the sake of enjoying the movie... Happens all the time in numerous films. We must assume that either the van didn't have a GPS tracker or that it somehow was disabled.

Question: When the team is twice under, I think, the bus, with all of them on it - the reality - is heading for water, it has been hit. But what I don't understand is how Cobb says, "When the van hits the water," how would he know this? He's dreaming, as they all are.

kh1616

Chosen answer: When the van hits the water it will suddenly stop, giving a kick to the passengers. Cobb knew because driving the van off the bridge was always the plan.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: How could the auctioneers verify that Kimmy was a "certified pure?"

Answer: By examining if her hymen had been broken. Although it is a misconception that the hymen is always broken once a female has intercourse for the first time it is still generally accepted that if the hymen is intact, the woman must be a virgin.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Even though not said outright, why would Inspector Aberline accuse Lawrence of the murder of his brother and the gypsies? He was with his theater troupe when his brother was killed and the gypsies were killed by Sir John as a werewolf. Not shot to death.

Answer: Aberline suspected Lawrence of murdering his brother and the gypsies because of his mental history and, as a Shakespearean actor, he often played mentally-disturbed characters. Aberline jumped to a conclusion that it might be a case of life imitating art.

raywest

Question: What does the term "grey dawn" mean?

Answer: There's no specific meaning. Metaphorically, it would mean that it is the beginning of something that is dismal, is going to be long and difficult to achieve, or may not end well. Basically, it's a "bad omen."

raywest

Question: Why did Elinor throw Merida's bow in the fireplace? What happened to the bow when it was fished from the fire?

Answer: Merida had rebelled against her traditional female role and defied her mother by slicing the tapestry with a sword. As retaliation, Elinor angrily threw Merida's bow into the fire. The bow was fished out before any substantial damage was done to it, and Merida was still able to use it. Historically, wooden weapons (bows, spears, etc.) were often crafted with a process called "fire hardening" to dry out the moisture and make the wood stronger. The flames may have had this affect on Merida's bow.

raywest

Question: Are we to assume that it was the mysterious caller who double-crossed the pizza delivery man and slit his throat?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Yes. He'd paid for the pizza, so the pizza man would either have seen his face or accepted his credit card. Either way, he's a loose end that has to go.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: What is the plot of this movie exactly? Sorry, but once they discussed Immobliare, I was confused as to what the movie was about.

Answer: Michael is trying to divest the family of all ties to organized crime. Internazionale Immobiliare is an international real estate concern and owning it would legitimize the family, making them respectable landowners. Michael is attempting to buy out the Vatican's 25% of the shares in it to gain controlling interest, but the other families either want in on the deal or want to steal it out from under him, forcing him back into his old criminal ways.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: If the beach house is in the Hamptons, why is the sunrise from the west?

Answer: It's probably just a movie inaccuracy. For whatever reason, probably technical, economical, or for artistic considerations, the scene could have been staged and shot during sunset rather than sunrise. Oftentimes, scenes are not actually filmed when and where they are supposedly set. Locations are often substituted for ones that are more private, more scenic, have easier physical access, are in a less expensive economic region (such as Canada), and so on.

raywest

Question: Near the end, Dr Shaw is seen lowering something to the ground. It looks like a body - is it, or what is it?

Answer: Shaw is lowering David's android body from the alien craft to the ground. She is taking it with her to find the Engineers. David's detached head is stowed inside her utility bag. Presumably she will reassemble him during the journey.

raywest

Question: Has Samantha's birthday ever been officially said? She says she looks the same as she did that summer and all that shows is that she doesn't have a tan left. People are still wearing tank tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, etc. throughout the movie. It appears to be early to mid September but nobody says anything in the movie. Does anybody know?

Answer: Her birthdate is not mentioned. Regarding the weather and how the locals dress, it depends on where they live. California, for instance, has a fairly warm climate much of the year, so it would not be unusual to see the people there wearing summer-type clothing in early Autumn.

raywest

Answer: The brother is constantly wearing Chicago gear. I'd bet Chicago. You can lose your tan in one month. That's a long time to a kid back in school. Plus the dance they go to is called the New Faces dance which may be a beginning of the school year.

I did a little checking on the movie production. According to the Wikipedia entry for this film, "Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban communities of Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park, Illinois during the summer of 1983." The summers in this region are usually quite hot and humid which may account for why the cast was wearing lighter clothing throughout the film, even though it was supposedly taking place in Autumn.

raywest

Question: When Nikki came to see Terri, he laid his hat and coat in the chair - no package. Later, he went to the chair and got the package that contained the scarf. Was the package placed there at a later time?

Answer: This sounds like a movie mistake rather than there being a reason in the plot for it to happen.

raywest

Show generally

Question: I'm trying to find out in which episode this happens. Reed and Malloy are driving when they get a call to be on the lookout for a red convertible. In the rear window of their squad car you see the exact car described in the radio call. It passes them, then is seen in front, but neither of them comment on it and it's not referenced later. Not sure if it was a poor choice of stock footage or a gag, but what episode does it happen in?

Answer: This is from Season 1, "The Long Walk." After Malloy and Reed responded to a "211 in progress", the partners later search the area and question a man walking his dogs, and it's this man who tells them the young guy they're looking for drove off in a red convertible, so Reed radios in the added information and clears them. Later, when the partners are driving along, Reed brings up the topic of the criminal's convertible, and while they're discussing it we can see through the squad car's rear window that a red convertible with its black top up changes lanes, and in Malloy's closeup just as they're talking about how the criminal's convertible was likely stolen, we see the red convertible passing Malloy to his left. That's all we see of this red convertible.

Super Grover

Question: Does anyone know where I can find pictures of Meatball the husky cat, preferably in his red hoodie, eating the crab cakes?

Krista

Chosen answer: Links to pics and video can be found: here and here.

Super Grover

Answer: It was never specified how long the curse had been in effect.

raywest

Question: Why are the eyebrows on Cassius, the master of ceremonies, so weird looking? Poking out and stuff.

Answer: It was part of his makeup. As the "ringmaster" or "M.C." of the games, he wanted to stand out and be noticed and remembered. The gladiatorial games were an extravagant entertainment spectacle that included participants who were similar to rodeo clowns, in addition to the gladiators themselves. Cassius was doing his part to be part of the show and maintain the spectator's attention.

Scott215

Answer: They're not a feature of the character; they are David Hemmings' natural eyebrows. Perhaps he likes them, since they seem to be styled with some flair in and out of the movie.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.