Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: At the beginning of the movie when Lt. Kaffee and Lt. Weinberg are first being assigned to the case by "Division" they both have on 1st LT bars on their right collar. Shouldn't they be wearing Captain bars as the equivalent of Navy Lt is a Captain in all other branches? The Sr. officer in the room is a Captain in the Navy or Col. in other branches and wears the "full bird" on his collar.

Answer: No, as the Navy has two Lieutenant ranks. Lieutenant Junior Grade and Lieutenant. Lt. JG is equivalent to 1st Lieutenant in the other 3 branches. One silver bar is correct.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: A navy Captain is a higher rank than a Army, Marine, or Air Force Captain. In the Navy, "Captain" is pay grade O-6 - the sixth officer rank, and the last one before the Admiral ranks begin. In the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, the rank called "Captain" is pay grade O-3, the third officer rank. The O-6 rank for the other three services would be Colonel.

Chosen answer: Due to creative differences she has left The Class, with her last episode being that of Jan 8.

Boobra

Question: When Will goes looking for the key on the destroyed ship, a sailor falls in the foreground, and when Will approaches him he has no face whatsoever. Did the kraken do that? Why and how was he still alive?

Answer: Yes, the idea is that this poor soul got too close to one of the Kraken's tentacles and one of the suckers pulled his face off. Presumably he can still breathe in some fashion, something has been left that allows air access to the lungs, allowing him to still be alive, although it doesn't sound like he's long for this world, so presumably the damage is extensive.

Tailkinker

Question: I understand how Michael collects things to prompt certain actions after he gets "out", but how does the diamond ring work. Each item serves a purpose. to set off the sprinkler system, etc. but how does he know in advance, the kid would steal the ring? The items were placed in the envelope to "make" things happen (getting off the bus if memory serves me correctly was the point of having the ring stolen.) In the original time line as viewed on the machine, there wouldn't have been a ring for the kid steal it, so how does he know the kid will "take the bait"?

Answer: He has the ability to see what will happen if he changes certain things by looking back in time. He just kept making changes until he got the desired results. He could have added dozens of things until he found something would would force him to get off the bus.

pross79

Question: In the movie's opening credits, Christopher Lee's name is one of the first mentioned, even though he is only in the movie for a minute. In fact, Ian McDiarmid has a bigger role, but his name is mentioned after Lee's. Why are credits arranged this way?

Answer: It has to do with how well-known the actor is, rather than the size of the role they play. Christopher Lee is a bigger star than Ian McDiarmid, and therefore he is listed higher on the marquee. It is not unusual for an actor to have it negotiated into their contract where their name will appear in the credits.

raywest

Question: Who or what is Papa Midnite? He is obviously powerful and is neutral, so not an angel or a demon - so who is he?

Answer: In the comics, Midnite is a powerful human mage, born in the eighteenth century, who has been cursed with immortality. Without information to the contrary in the film, it can be assumed that the same applies to his cinematic incarnation.

Tailkinker

Answer: In the movie, they call him a shaman and a witch doctor. So he would still be a human mage.

Question: What kind of gun is Bond using in the simulator?

Answer: A 9mm Walther P99. It replaced his trademark Walther PPK in Tomorrow Never Dies. http://www.waltheramerica.com/firearms/p99qa.cfm.

Grumpy Scot

Question: What is the song playing at the funeral? The one that starts right after Liam Neeson says that his wife would like to say her last goodbye through song.

Answer: "Bye Bye Baby", by the Bay City Rollers.

Tailkinker

Question: Who sings the song Crazy (originally performed by Seal) in the scene with the photo shoot?

Answer: Alanis Morissette.

CocoCami

Question: How did the droid in the beginning of the film know that Qui-gon and Obi-wan were both Jedi?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: Because word had arrived that two Jedi were arriving to handle the peace negotiations. When the two delegates then arrive, and both of them are wearing the distinct Jedi robes, with lightsabers in their belts, it is not exactly a difficult conclusion to draw.

Twotall

Question: What is the relationship between the Trade Federation and the Senate? I mean I know that the Senate is supposed to be made up of representatives from planets in the Republic. But the TF also have representatives there. But the TF isn't just one planet is it? I thought that it was a company/organisation as such that encompassed lots of different planets (like the Federation in Star Trek)?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: The Trade Federation started out as a loose confederation of merchants and shipping providers who banded together to ensure that they had effective control over trade routes throughout the galaxy. Under the leadership of the Neimoidians, they took precautions to maintain that control, including a substantial military to protect their interests. This ultimately gave them enough political clout to achieve representation in the Senate at the same level as a member world.

Tailkinker

Question: Is it known why the TF followed the orders of Palpatine (when he looks like the emperor)? I believe that they set-up the blockade and invasion to try to get Amadala to sign the treaty to joint he TF. But still why would they do it just on his orders?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: Palpatine (or Darth Sideous as the TF call him) is a master of using people to further his plans. The leaders of the TF are greedy and unscrupulous. Palpatine needs to destabalise the workings of the Senate enough to maneuver his way into being elected as Chancellor, so he presents the TF with a chance to make a lot of money by exploiting Naboo, knowing that the resulting conflict will generate sympathy for him in the senate, as a Naboo.

roboc

Question: Is Senator Palpatine the Senator of Naboo? If he is is he a native born 'Naboo-ian' as such?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: He is indeed the Senator from Naboo and according to the official Star Wars databank, was born there.

Tailkinker

Question: I have read that this film was not received well among SW fans. I first saw this in the cinema and thought it was great and even now I still consider it a really good film and I love all of the films as a whole. I am just wondering why it is considered not as good as the rest?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: A lot of people felt that the more political nature of the film was inferior to the more swashbuckling feel of the original trilogy - after all, a trade dispute isn't inherently as entertaining as a rebellion against an evil Empire. They felt that the dialogue was rather clunky and delivered in a somewhat wooden fashion, which is in many ways a not unfair point, although the scripting accusation applies equally to the original trilogy (Lucas simply isn't a good writer of dialogue). In the end, the main problem was that, over the years, the original trilogy have gained an almost mythical status and have a substantial nostalgia factor, to the extent that a number of fans at the time were quoted as saying that the release of a new Star Wars film was to be a defining moment in their lives. The expectation levels were so high that it would have been impossible for any film, no matter how good, to live up to them - disappointment was inevitable.

Tailkinker

Question: How did Jarda, the last treadstone agent (besides Bourne) set off the silent alarm in his house?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: While it's not explicitly spelled out, it's suggested that he was suspicious from the moment he entered the house (which is why he quickly goes for the gun in the fridge), so what he entered on the alarm keypad when he came in was not a disarm code, but was instead some sort of emergency code which called for backup.

Tailkinker

Question: Does Sodium Pentothal really erase memories of events that happened during and after you take it?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: It doesn't exactly erase your memories, rather it causes a form of apnea and drowsiness, causing you to be semi-concious or not fully awake, similar to blacking out. This causes you to not remember events that took place during your dosage and during the course of time it is in your bloodstream. Since it puts you in a physical and mental state where the easiest things to do are all you can manage the mental strength to do, it is used as a truth serum, since lying is much more complicated than telling the truth. Because of these properties the drug possesses, higher doses can also be used for Euthanasia, Medical Induced Comas, and even Lethal Injections.

Jazetopher

Question: In the scene where the dad tells Annie, pretending to be Hallie, that he is going to marry Meredith, Hallie yells a bunch of stuff in French. Does anyone know what she was saying?

Answer: I hope that you are joking, Meredith is not the girl for you. But it is possible that I am dreaming that this is so.

Stephen Edmonds 1

Answer: She actually said, "Marry her?! That's insane! How can you marry a woman young enough to be my big sister?!"

Answer: Not really but I think she was saying you're kidding.

Show generally

Question: How is Naruto able to easily create dozens of shadow clones when he needs to, but will sometimes struggle to create just a few.

Answer: In-character, he's not very good at Bunshin No Jutsu, so it's unreliable. Out-of-character, it's a classic plot device shared by hundreds of anime that people who're not generally too great can do spectacularly well when it really matters.

Moose

Question: In the scene where the bad guys catch Rita and Roddy on her boat, her ruby falls from her pocket. Shouldn't it have broken down or at least have some scratches?

Answer: Not really, when you consider it's a fake so it probably very light, and only falls an inch or two (given the height of the average rat).

Question: Near the beginning, what does Wayne mean when he says "Nothing like the smell of 2-part apoxy resin"?

Answer: Epoxy resin is sometimes sold in two seperate tubes. You have to mix the contents of both for the epoxy to harden into plastic. It also shows how weird he is, as epoxy tends to smell pretty foul.

Grumpy Scot

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