Question: I never really understood what the motive was when Clyde murdered his cellmate. Why did he do it? What did this act have to do with the plot of this movie?
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.
Untitled Griffin Family History - S4-E27
Question: When Peter talks about his ancestor that was a silent movie star he mentions that they called World War 1 International Civil War 2 or something like that - I don't remember the exact wording. What is the joke here?
Answer: The line was International Civil War 2. When WWI happened no one called it that (especially since they didn't know a 2nd one would happen), it was referred to as "The Great War". America had already fought their own Civil War and the joke is really just calling it Civil War II, only it was international.
Question: Why does Professor McGonagall give Lockhart the task of catching the monster? She and the other teachers don't like him or trust in his abilities.
Answer: Minerva told Lockhart to kill the basilisk because the teachers all know he's basically an incompetent fool and would most likely run or do something stupid which they can't afford at that time. So they wanted to get him occupied while they safely evacuate the students from Hogwarts by taunting him into seeking and killing the monster in the Chamber as she says, "That's got him out from under our feet." Most likely, they might have already known that he would run away as he obviously has a cowardly and pretentious character.
Question: At the beginning the driver is running trying to get back on the locomotive. Why did he not wait until the back of the engine came up, jump on, then go to the front?
Answer: Two reasons. Firstly, it was human instinct to try to get on the front. Secondly, he knows it will be nigh on impossible to get on the back then work his way forward on a train that was half a mile long.
The question asks about hopping onto the rear step of the engine. Ned probably didn't think about this when he was going for the front and by the time he fell off, the locos had passed.
Question: Do Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers actually punch each other full on at the end?
Answer: No. One or the other would have mentioned it in an interview by now. Likely, they stopped just short and posed so Leroy Neiman could paint them.
Question: When Nicky Shivers is being held hostage, De Niro is about to belt him in the face with a metal pipe and make him fall into a hole. This most likely would have been fatal. But De Niro has a change of heart and walks away. Then Nicky sardonically comments "Well geez, that was pretty painless." Given that he was just spared from a painful ending, why would he make such a smart-alec comment?
Chosen answer: That's how he dealt with facing certain death and then not being killed. Some would be silently grateful as you suggest, others wouldn't. Everyone reacts differently.
Question: What exactly did Shane do to Bernie?
Answer: If you're talking about in the past, he actually didn't do anything. Shane was going to tease/hurt Bernie with the stick, but Bernie grabbed it. Shane then lied to the zoo about Bernie attacking him which led to Bernie being moved. Although prior to Griffin kicking Shane's ass, Shane ended up cutting Bernie in the face.
No Country Club for Old Men - S11-E22
Question: Stewie says "Megs Benedict" after Carter pukes all over her. Why is it funny?
Question: Did the first lady compliment Gerard Butler's earring suggestion to wear the small classy ones for a classy lady but then wear the long dangling earrings as shown in the car scene?
Answer: Mike suggested the small classy ones, but the first lady opted for the long ones instead.
Question: Why doesn't the daughter just ask her mother who her real father is? Also, couldn't the mother just tell her daughter who her father is? I apologize if I'm missing something, but what is the mother or daughter's motive for not doing something that's common sense? I understand this is the point of the story, but still...
Answer: Her mother honestly doesn't know. She had a relationship with all three men around the same time, and it would take a blood test to know the truth.
Answer: When discussing her dad with her friends, Sophie states that everytime she'd ask, Donna would say it was a summer romance and he left before she even knew she was expecting him. Then most of the movie it's suppose to be a huge secret that Sophie knows it's one of the three and that she invited them. Then during the wedding scene, Donna states that Sopie's dad is also present. Sophie proceeds to admit she invited him. Donna asks how because she doesn't know which one he is. So it all builds up to the truth.
Question: Exactly how long has Mark Watney been alone on Mars during the course of the movie?
Answer: In the book, he's stranded on sol 6, and leaves on sol 549, making it 543 sols (554 days). In the movie, he's stranded on Sol 18 and leaves on sol 561, making it 542 sols.
Question: After Fredo gives away that he already knows Johnny, Michael gives the nod to his bodyguard to assassinate Roth. But he earlier told Fredo that he was going to kill Roth before the New Year, so he must have known that Fredo would warn Roth. So why make the attempt?
Chosen answer: Michael knows that Fredo will not warn Roth. Fredo is now running for his life, both terrified and horrified by what he'd done. He wants to hide from Michael's retribution. He had naively believed that there would never be an assassination attempt on Michael's life, and thought what he'd done was relatively minor and would only result in him earning a lot of money.
Question: I've got a question about the very end of the movie - since I have yet to read the graphic novel. Big Ben starts chiming midnight, and *then* Evey releases the cars in the tube to blow up Parliament. So, when Parliament is blown up, the calendar has changed. Is it then the 6th, or is it the 5th? It seems to me that if November 5th is the key date, then Parliament is destroyed on the 5th, but only seconds into. Just as the blowing up of the Old Bailey happens just seconds into the 5th of the prior year.
Answer: At the stroke of midnight, the date changed over to November 5th.
Question: Why would NASA decide to send a botanist on a mission to Mars? A planet where no plants can grow.
Answer: Part of his job, aside from also being a mechanical engineer, was to use soil taken from Earth to Mars, mix it with Martian soil then grow seeds in it to see how Martian soil is for growing crops. This would be preparing for a longer term mission where growing full crops to feed the crew would be part of the mission.
Answer: Botanists going to mars can study the ground and the dirt so they could make life on mars. Botanists are also helpful due to oxygen in space, he grows plants on the spacecraft for the oxygen that they give off.
Question: At some point Ari asks to Vince: "You want to be Shaq or Kobe? Michael or Scotty? Damon or Affleck?" Who are "Michael or Scotty"? (The other pairs seem quite obvious in comparison).
Chosen answer: Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen of the Chicago Bulls.
Question: If the elders know the creatures are an invention they created/use and they know what the outside world is like, then why didn't one of the elders go grab the medicine? They literally create this utopia because of violence in their past, yet are willing to let two members possibly die to preserve what secret?
Answer: For one of the Elders to leave, would cause the younger generations to question the danger of 'those we do not speak of' and possibly embolden them to venture into the woods, and possibly finding the limits of their known world, destroying everything the Elders originally sacrificed everything for. The younger villagers are shown already pushing the boundaries of these creatures, so it is not a stretch of the imagination to believe if they witness an Elder going into the woods, that the creatures aren't nearly dangerous as told. This is why the Elders got so angry when August sent Ivy without their consent. Her knowledge of the fabrication risks jeopardizing everything.
Question: I've always wondered this even as a kid. I never read any of the novels associated with the movies so it might have been addressed there. If a computer system became self aware and a computer system is what launched all the nukes, then what created the first Terminator? I get how they're all made on an assembly line but someone or something had to make the machines and equipment that makes the Terminators.
Chosen answer: Skynet being an artificial intelligence, it could take control of existing machines to repurpose them. It doesn't become self aware until 1997, by which point robotic technology would be much more advanced than in 1984 (and it had already been somewhat self-reliant before that point, so presumably a degree of military fabrication was already set up to be controlled automatically). With its vastly accelerated rate of development and intelligence, it could use existing factories to create basic machines, use those to retool and create more complicated machines, etc. From what Kyle says the ultra-realistic Terminator model we see here is a relatively new development (he comes from 2029) so Skynet has had about 30 years to set up a series of self-improving machines and its own murderous infrastructure.
Question: In this episode, Chandler and Monica go on a small trip together. They have a fight because Chandler is too obsessed with watching a car-chase on TV and Monica keeps switching rooms. When they come home, they have a conversation in Monica's apartment where Chandler says "I guess it's over now", to which Monica replies "Why, exactly?" Chandler says " Cause we had a fight" and Monica's respond is "That's silly. If you were going to give up every time you had a fight with someone, you'd never be with anyone longer than...OH!" They both seem to realize something here. What is it??
Chosen answer: They both realise that one of the reasons Chandler hasn't had a long term relationship is because he assumes a fight means the end of things (together with his generally rocky attitude towards relationships!). Monica never realised that's how he thought, and Chandler never realised that was wrong.
Answer: Is that the entire answer? The way Monica responds makes it sound like she's finally understanding an incident that occurred many episodes or seasons before. Like they expect the audience to realise it's the punchline to a joke long-ago uttered.
Question: What did Raphael mean with the Josè Canseco joke? I've been wondering for over 20 years.
Answer: Canseco was a star in the 80s, so a bat with his name on it would have been very expensive. Raphael is basically calling him a thief, probably because he doesn't look like he can afford it.
Answer: Jose Canseco had one of the best baseball careers, so anything with his name became priceless but it all came to an end when it was revealed he used steroids.
Answer: The Oakland A's with Canseco on the team won the World Series the year before this movie came out, while the New York Yankees and Mets both posted abysmal seasons. As a proud New Yorker, Raph was surely disgusted that Casey Jones would carry merch bearing the name of another team's star player, especially right after they won a ring! That's the behavior of a band-wagon fan, after all. It seems Casey would agree with him as well, as his response to the insult is not to defend Canseco or the A's, but to shrug and say he got the bats on a 2-for-1 Sale.
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.
Answer: To make sure he was placed in solitary confinement. The warehouse that he owned and operated out of that was next to the prison also had a tunnel connected to every cell in the solitary wing. Clyde needed to be in one of the solitary cells so he could leave the prison whenever he needed to unnoticed, which also served to make it look like he had an accomplice on the outside.
Phaneron ★
When Nick is talking to a spook later in the movie, he is quoted as telling Nick: "That cell-mate that he killed, you think that was random? No. That's a pawn being moved off the board. Anyone who had anything to do with that case, he's gonna be coming after you." Just as all deaths played roles in Clydes game, as the audience we are led to believe this inmate played a role, but were never given any resolution as to what significance it was. Not a big deal in grand scheme of things, but unexplained.
I don't know if you just didn't read the answer thoroughly or if you didn't pay close attention to the movie, but Clyde killing his cellmate was far from being unexplained. He can't leave the prison if he's in a regular cell with the general population, so he kills the cellmate in order to get placed in the solitary wing, because every solitary cell is connected to the tunnel in his warehouse that is next to the prison, which allows him to leave whenever he needs to.
Phaneron ★