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 Helen and Madelin are fighting with the shovels, Helen whacks off the end of Madelin's shovel, and then Madelin throws the stick through Helen. How did they achieve this effect?

curiouskid

Chosen answer: CGI, just like any other difficult effect.

Grumpy Scot

Question: If the ship's artillery is only equipped with 5-inch starburst rounds (as stated more than once), how do they use the much larger guns to sink the submarine?

Answer: The smaller guns were only equipped with the Starburst rounds. The 16 Inch Cannons were still supplied with live ammo. None of the characters left to fight had experience with the 16 inch guns except for the Gunner's Mate, therefore none of them thought to use one of the 16 inch guns.

dablues7

Question: When Slugworth is trying to bribe Charlie into bringing him the Everlasting Gobstopper, he says that his reward will be "10,000 of these" as he shows Charlie a bunch of money. Does anyone know what "those" were and how much "they" were worth? They look too big to be American dollars.

Paul Pepiton

Chosen answer: The story itself is purposely set in a fictional European country (accordingly to the DVD's audio commentary), so no real town or city can be identified (keeping the cities anonymity). Coupled with the fact that Willy Wonka IS a fantasy, the money offered to Charlie by Slugworth is of a non-descript denominational currency used in that country. It can be safely assumed that it was a very large sum of money.

CCARNI

Question: Why is is Yoda is always seen stooped and hobbling around everywhere with a walking stick - but when it comes to fighting, with his duel against Count Dooku at the end of this movie for example - he all of a sudden practically becomes a ninja; jumping, spinning and battling with his lightsaber so spectacularly?

Answer: He must tap into the Force to perform these acrobatics. Without doing so, he is restricted in movement by his age and limp. He feels it would be squanderous, selfish, and unnecesary to use his abilities with the Force simply to get about.

Phixius

Except in the case of the scene where he's walking with Obi-Wan and Mace in the temple. Then he's using the force to float his chair.

Question: Who really killed the Comedian? I've always assumed it to be Veidt but after watching it again the other night, I saw that the assailant's mask is raised to show his face and it wasn't Adrian. The attacker seemed to have a salt and pepper mustache, but that might have been a trick of the lighting of the scene. (The Comedian's killer is shown in a series of flashbacks when Adrian explains everything to the other Watchmen while they are in Karnak.)

Answer: It was Adrian Veidt. Most likely, he was disguised in case anyone should see him entering or leaving Blake's apartment, or, in case he should not be able to defeat the Comedian.

Twotall

Answer: It could only have been Veidt, as Comedian was still at peak physical condition. To beat him would require superhuman (bullet catching) speed and strength.

Question: In Star Wars Battlefront II, if you're playing Galactic Conquest and move up on Endor, there is a big blue planet beside the moon. Which planet is that and how does the environment look there?

Answer: That is actually the planet Endor. It is a gas giant so the environment is probably just swirling masses of clouds and vapor. Check out http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Endor_(planet) for more information.

Question: At which point do you see Barbossa's hat and boots?

Answer: When Jack gives tia the monkey, she releases him and he runs away and lands on a pair of boots. Mostly likely Barbossa is lying in a bed, healing, hidden by a curtain and they are his boots.

Answer: The first shot of Jack the Monkey. He's sitting next to them.

Phixius

Question: I wonder, what was the point of having a gunfight with the armored man at the beginning of the film?

Answer: It was put in the film to introduce the concept of Rianne and Lorna being pregnant and to bring in the joke about the news article about Roger, not to mention giving the film an action-heavy opening.

Question: When the caravan that is moving the grain is captured by Robin Hood, he ties the men together and they are forced to walk back to the town ("17 miles" or so). Shouldn't they have used the metric system to state the distance they have to travel to the town? I thought stating the distance to be traveled in miles was just for the sake of the joke for American viewers.

nanderson

Chosen answer: A "mile" is not American in origin. The British adapted it from the ancient Roman term, "mille passuum," meaning one thousand paces or strides. Each pace was the length of five Roman feet, resulting in a mile that was approximately 5,000 feet long. This measurement fluctuated up until the Tudor era, when Parliament established the current measuring standard, though the metric system, which was developed by the French in the late 1700s, has since replaced it in Europe and elsewhere. Britain still uses mile as a standard measure of distance on road signs and for speed limits, etc.

raywest

Answer: The woman who wanted Monica's wedding dress from the blow-out sale retaliated by booking the Swing Kings for the same day as Monica and Chandler's wedding. She would only let Monica have the band if Monica agreed to give up the dress. Monica honored the agreement to ensure that Chandler got his favorite band for the reception - if she'd kept the dress after booking the band, the deplorable woman would have retaliated in some other way. Monica simply found another dress.

raywest

Answer: The first answer is 100% correct, but in S8 E1, the band they actually have at the wedding is called ‘Jungle Swing'.

If you haven't yet, you should totally submit this as a Mistake / Plot Inconsistency. Nice catch.

The End (2) - S6-E18

Question: I recently submitted a question about whether everyone died on the plane or on the island. The answer I got was unsatisfactory. The answer was they did not all die in the plane crash but on the island where the events in the show really did happen. If this is the case, everyone in purgatory at the end makes no sense. If they all died on the island, then where were other characters like Michael, Ecko, etc. Also how did Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Ben, etc. end up dead and in purgatory at the end of the series? Last we saw them they were still alive on the island. Are we to assume that everyone died at the end of last season when the bomb went off? I need more info here.

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: None of the main characters died in the plane crash. Many died on the island after the crash (Jack, Charlie, Sun, Jin, Daniel, Juliet, others), some lived on the island for an apparently long time after the crash (Hurley, Ben, Bernard, Rose) but some lived lives off the island after the crash (Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, Aplert, and Lapidus). Remember that Christian tells Jack that "time has no meaning here," (in Purgatory). When everyone meets at the church, they are at the end of their lives however long that may have been and will now "move on" together. They look like they did on the island because that is the way they best remember each other.

Guy

That has to be the clearest explanation of the ending I've ever read.

Ssiscool

Question: An interesting wind-up lute-type musical instrument is played at one point. Would such an instrument have existed at that time?

Answer: By "Wind-up lute", I assume you mean the hurdy-gurdy. Certainly, instruments fitting the description of the hurdy-gurdy were around in the time when Robin Hood was set.

Madstunts

Question: What exactly is that stuff that Blane is chewing in the chopper when they're on their way to be dropped which he claims will make him a "sexual Tyrannosaurus"?

Answer: My guess is that it's chewing tobacco, which is ideal when you can't smoke cigarettes for whatever reason. It's either that or a very unpleasant snack.

Craig Thompson

It is chewing tobacco. Red Man to be exact. You can pause the movie and see the red and green lettering on the pouch itself.

Question: Can anyone explain why Crispin Glover was almost completely edited out of this film? True, his character wasn't that important, but even in 2015 (when he was hanging upside down after throwing out his back), his character was played by another actor.

Answer: Crispin Glover is not in the BTTF sequels (except where footage from the first film was recycled). There are some contradictions as to the whys depending on who you talk to (salary dispute, Glover uninterested in reprising the role, Zemeckis uninterested in working with Glover again, etc.).

JC Fernandez

Answer: To be honest Glover didn't like the end of part I because the McFlys were rich and love was a better reward, however he complained about not getting as much money as Christopher Lloyd and the others, even Fox. He then sued Universal for using unlicensed footage of him.

His lawsuit was for violating his right of publicity, not for using footage of him. Prosthetics were applied to Jeffery Weissman using an old mold of Crispin Glover to make Weissman look like Glover.

Bishop73

Question: I know the storyline is not the most important part of this film, but why is Face making the final plan for the climax at the LA harbour and not Hannibal?

Answer: Throughout the movie, Face has shown to be impulsive, and constantly deviating away from Hannibal's plan, in fact Face several times screws up because he hasn't followed the plan. Come the end of the movie however, and Face proves to Hannibal that he can tone down the impulsiveness, come up with a plan, stick to it, and see success, and Hannibal's comment to Face after he makes that plan are along the lines of "Good work kid".

GalahadFairlight

Question: When they are all in Davy Jones' Locker, Tia Dalma says to Jack something along the lines of "Don't pretend you didn't enjoy it at the time." What did she mean by this?

Answer: This is never explained, and it can be interpreted any number of ways. It's mostly just meant to be a funny piece of dialogue, as well as hinting that there is a prior sexual relationship between the two that didn't end so well. Although Tia apparently tried to kill Jack, probably in a very unusual way, she still seems attracted to him.

raywest

Question: Can some one explain a couple things about this movie for me? I was confused to if the events really happen or are they just in the kids mind? Also, how long is he gone for because it seems it should be days because of what happens, but when he gets home it seems only hours have passed.

Awesomo

Chosen answer: In the book it was just his imagination; he was gone for years in his mind but only a an hour or so in real life. It is presumably the same basic idea in the movie.

Phixius

Question: How and when did Thomas Craven get poisoned? He was already sick before he got tasered, kidnapped and taken to the Northmoor facility.

BF

Chosen answer: Possibly from getting his daughter's blood on him, when he accepted a drink from the Northmoor executive, or from handling his daughter's radioactive belongings. Given the depth of the coverup, they may have even anticipated that she'd come to him and broken into his house and poisoned him before the story even began.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: After Harry gets Slughorn's memory, he watches it with Dumbledore. Dumbledore says "This is beyond anything I imagined" after the viewing. But then he goes on to say that he's been hunting for the horcruxes. I don't understand his remark when he's been finding and destroying them, since he must know what they are. How else can you look for something if you don't know what it is? (01:50:20)

Knever

Chosen answer: Dumbledore did not know that Tom Riddle was planning to create seven Horcruxes, which was more than he expected.

Super Grover

Question: One of the lines in "Without Love" states that "Without love, life is Doris Day at the Apollo". What does that mean?

Answer: First I need to explain that the Apollo Theater, an amazing music venue, is in upper Manhattan (NYC), in the predominantly black neighborhood of Harlem. The movie 'Hairspray' takes place in 1962, and at that point in time very few white musical artists had performed at the Apollo (between 1950s and early 60s), and those who did were famous rock-and-roll musicians, such as Buddy Holly and the Crickets (1957). Now as for Doris Day, by 1962 she was a lovely popular American actress/singer, who, as the saying goes, was "as white as white bread", and to imagine someone like Doris Day appearing on stage at the Apollo Theater is an amusing incongruity and just not quite right. So the words "without love, life is Doris Day at the Apollo," means life would just not be right at all without love.

Super Grover

Thank you. My director is making our cast look up stuff we don't know. So as Penny I felt like I needed to know so thank you for cleaning that up for me.

I hope you have fun playing Penny, and that your entire cast and crew enjoy putting on your stage production of Hairspray. Break a leg, sweetie.

Super Grover

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