Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Exactly why has the time of the elves come to an end? They are smarter and physically superior to humans. Is this ever explained in the books?

Answer: The elves were not supposed to be in Middle-Earth at all. While they awoke there, many thousands of years before the War of the Ring, the Valar (local deity equivalents) summoned them to Valinor, the Undying Lands, and the vast majority went willingly. When Melkor, the first Dark Lord, fled to Middle-Earth, taking the Silmarils (great jewels crafted by the elves) with him, a great host of the Elves returned to Middle-Earth in pursuit, against the wishes of the Valar. After the fall of Melkor, the elves remained in Middle-Earth, considered themselves in exile, although the Valar were content to allow them to return if they so wished. They also remained as a buffer against the return of evil - Sauron, Melkor's chief lieutenant, was still out there, as were many of Melkor's other allies - the Valar ensured that the elven magicks remained strong with this in mind. With the rise of humanity and the fall of Sauron, the elves are finally being called home by the Valar, going back to where they were always supposed to be, and leaving the lands of Middle-Earth to the younger races, as the Valar intended.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end of Fellowship, we seen that Boromir's body (along with his sword and shield) was sent over the Falls of Rauros on a boat and if you look closely will see that the boat toppled forward. Yet in Two Towers, as Faramir sees the boat sail by, the body appears to be unharmed (as well as the sword and shield). Shouldn't the plunge have scattered his weapons as well as the boat and the corpse?

Answer: There is a supernatural element to Faramir seeing his brother's body; even the way it is filmed indicates this. The implication is that the Elven power bound up in the boat, and perhaps some other greater power, safeguarded Boromir; there is also the inference that what Faramir saw was a vision, and not literal reality; there are elements of legend in it, too. From the book: 'He floated by them, and slowly his boat departed... and then suddenly it vanished... the River had taken Boromir son of Denethor... But in Gondor of after-days it long was said that the elven-boat rode the falls and the foaming pool, and bore him down through Osgiliath, and past the many mouths of Anduin, out into the Great Sea at night under the stars.'

STP

Answer: Aragorn is 210 years old when he dies. Some of the early texts give his age at death as 190, but Tolkien eventually confirmed that 210 is the correct age.

Tailkinker

Answer: No difference at all - Oliphaunts and Mumakil are simply what the creatures are called in different languages - Oliphaunt being the term used in the western lands of Middle-Earth, while Mumakil is from the language of the Haradrim from the southern reaches. As a note, Mumakil is plural - an individual creature is a Mumak.

Tailkinker

Question: What role was N'Sync to have played in this film? (As I understand it, they were supposed to have made a "surprise" cameo, but their scenes were cut after the word got out.).

Answer: If the rumours are to be believed - and there's never been any official indication that there was the remotest grain of truth in this - they were to play Jedi in the arena battle.

Tailkinker

Question: Is the reanimation of dead people the purpose of the virus, or an unforeseen side effect? If it's a side effect, what was the original purpose of the T-Virus?

Answer: Actually the T-Virus was originally meant as a cure for a genetic disorder that Dr. Ashford and James Marcus daughters suffered from. The reanimation was a side effect and James Marcus was killed by Dr. Alexander Isaacs so he could take control of it and turn it into a bio-weapon.

lionhead

Answer: The original virus was a "Fountain of Youth" type of thing. Reviving dead cells so the host would stay young. It was so powerful that it reanimated the dead.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Wait, wasn't the original virus meant to control the scientists daughters genetic disease, not an eternal life serum.

Answer: As realistic as the sex scene is, it's very uncommon for actors to have sex for a film.

Chosen answer: Both married, on camera, in front of the entire film crew? I don't think so.

Grumpy Scot

Question: At the end of the movie when Walt is singing the song Summertime, is he lip syncing? If so, who is the singer? I know this song has been covered by any number of people over the years, but this particular rendition was popular in the 60's or 70's. Does anyone know who the singer was?

1gorilla

Chosen answer: Greg Kinnear is singing himself - DVD commentary.

nightline

Question: I read on movietome.com that Uma Thurman played a girl named Daphne in this movie. I have watched over and over and read the end credits and can't find her anywhere. Is she in this movie?

Answer: Wrong movie. She is in Where The Heart Is (1990), not Where The Heart Is (2000).

J I Cohen

Question: Why do both Dan Akroyd and Chevy Chase get in trouble for cheating on the exam (since Chevy is quite obviously the only one cheating)?

Answer: Dan Akroyd was giving Chevy Chase the answers to the test, KGB was one of them.

JamesP

Answer: Hedwig is a snowy owl.

Xofer

Question: Frodo, Bilbo, and eventually Sam and Gimli, travel to the Undying Lands in the West. Do they become immortal once they are there?

Answer: No. Tolkien was very specific about this - mortals who travel to the Undying Lands remain mortal and will live out their normal lifespan.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Mr Kotter was the teacher on a popular 70s sitcom "Welcome Back Kotter". He was known for his afro.

Ral0618

Question: When 'Jack' gets the call from the arson detective, in the background of the guy's office, on the notice board, is a sticker of a monkey's head. The sticker is the same colour as the subliminal images of Tyler (dominantly red) and half of the brain area of the skull is faded white. I was wondering if anyone knew if this was symbolic of Tyler taking over 'Jack' or was put there on purpose and what it serves as in those shots?

Answer: On the DVD commentary, the director implies that this is a symbol of the Space Monkeys, Tyler's army. It shows that the Space Monkeys are beginning to infiltrate even the police station, as seen later.

Phoenix

Question: While perusing an art book on this movie I came across several foreign movie posters where the Death Star is shown with the laser dish in the southern hemisphere rather than the northern (almost as if it were upside down). Anyone know why this is?

Answer: Judging from the movies, the laser doesn't seem to have much of an aiming system so the whole Death Star might need to rotate so the dish faces its target and in some cases this could mean needing to be "upside down". Just a hunch.

Phil Watts

Wouldn't an upside-down Death Star be problematic for the countless amount of Stormtroopers, Imperial officers etc. on it?

No more than for any other large planetary body. Either artificial gravity or it's large enough to create its own.

No, as demonstrated on the Millennium Falcon and star destroyers, the Star Wars universe has some form of artificial gravity.

David George

It's space, there is no up direction.

When there is gravity, there is an up and down. I think in terms of spaceships north is usually taken as up and south as down, relative to an astronomical body. But only because most maps are made that way. Determining an up and down helps with a sense of direction.

lionhead

Question: In the House of Blue Leaves, why does the lady manager switch off the lights during the fight between the Bride and the Crazy 88?

Answer: From what I understand the reason for the lights being off is the same reason for why the previous scene was done in black and white; to decrease the amount of 'graphic violence' in the movie in an attempt to keep an 'R' rating. I would assume that they had him shut off the lights for that scene as just another method to accomplish that task.

I believe the original question was asking why was it done within the context of the film (i.e. why did the character shut off the lights) not why was it done in reality. My best guess is that the manager switched off the lights thinking the 88 had a better chance of killing the bride if she couldn't see. True, they couldn't see either but there were so many of them one could possibly have gotten to her.

Question: Can anyone tell me who the person is that is conducting the choir at Hogwarts? I thought it was Flitwick but he had long silvery hair in the first 2 films and the person conducting has short black hair.

Answer: The new director, Alfonso Cuaron, changed Flitwick's look to make him look "younger." Now, instead of long grayish hair he has short, dark black hair.

Question: The answer for another question made me wonder. If Imothep was alive when put in his sarcophagus, how can there be jars with his internal organs elsewhere? Wouldn't they still be in his body in order for him to be alive?

Answer: If you're referring to the only jars that are used in the movie, those are Anck Su Namun's organs. Not his. Near as I can tell, his organs were not taken, hence him being alive.

Nikki

They are his body parts; remember that he had to get the body parts from each of the adventurers to complete his resurrection (he left one guy without eyes or a tongue and sucked the life out of him).

No, they are Anck Su Namun's. The mummy steals the man's eyes and tongue because he's been decomposing and his own have rotted off. It's part of his regeneration process. He simply didn't have time to fully "suck him dry," as the movie puts it before Evie stumbles onto him.

TedStixon

Answer: He was buried alive as part of his punishment so they can't be his. They are Anck su Namun's. He needs them for when he resurrects her. He gets organs when he fulfills the curse by taking them from the men that opened the chest.

His organs were probably eaten by the bugs, if they weren't they probably decayed, hence why he needs to replace them with the organs of others.

The priests cut off his tongue as he was being linen wrapped, but I doubt it was placed in a canopic jar. But it kept him from doing invocations or screaming even though a wordless scream is possible with no tongue.

Question: In the scene where Amanda Peet loses her shoe, what's the name of the song playing and the band who performs it?

Answer: Foo Fighters - 'All my life'.

Hamster

Question: What is the song thats being played when Charlize Theron is driving to work, and who's singing it? It starts with something like "I came, I saw, I kicked some...".

Answer: 'The Wreckoning' by Boomkat.

MoonFaery

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