Question: A tape recorded by John directed toward agent Perez states that her partner would soon take the life of an innocent man. How did John know that agent Strahm would kill Jeff? For all he knows, Strahm could have followed Rigg through the factory rather than Jeff. The "if you're good at anticipating the human mind, it leaves nothing to chance" excuse doesn't work here. The only reason Strahm followed Jeff was because he heard Jeff hit a ceiling light with a crowbar.
Question: What has ended up with Max? Billy promised to go back and release him, but we never see that happen, and no explanation is given for that in the Epilogue. Is Max a real figure? If he is, what has happened to him? Did he manage to escape, or did he die in prison?
Answer: Max WAS a real character, and a Dutchman in real life, rather than an English one as portrayed in the movie. He eventually got paroled and later treatment for a severe drug addiction he had too.
Answer: It's never stated what happened to Max. The film was a heavily fictionalized version of Billy Hayes' book, and the Max character appears to be fictional as well or at least a composite of other real-life imprisoned Westerners that Hayes met while in a Turkish prison.
Question: If Old Man Marley is actually a nice man (and not a "shovel slayer" as Buzz claims) then why does he always give Kevin that cold, creepy stare? After Kevin ran away the first time wouldn't he want to talk to Kevin the next time, to assure him that everything is okay?
Answer: Because he's understandably angry that Kevin's so unreasonably scared of him and assumes the worst in him without even getting a chance to know him. He never gets a chance to talk to him, because he always runs away too quickly. The first time he gives him that stare was when Kevin was watching him shovel from the window. Nobody would like to be stared at like that while doing a simple task.
Answer: Marley appears that way mostly because the audience sees him from Kevin's point of view. Marley is miserable and sad because he is estranged from his family, but we see him as a crotchety, unpleasant person because that is what Kevin believes. Buzz had tainted Kevin's opinion of him by spreading the false stories that a gullible Kevin believed were true.
Question: In the scene just before the party at Brad Wesley's house, Dalton is reading a book by the window in his room. What is the name of the book he's reading?
Chosen answer: Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison.
Question: Why does Norton lie and say that he "has company" and then make De Niro wait longer during the robbery? Sure, Norton double crosses him later, but wouldn't making his partner wait put both of them in danger of getting caught since it delays them and increases their chances of getting caught?
Answer: Norton already has an advance plan to prevent himself from getting caught. The delay is both to fluster DeNiro, and to prevent him from having enough time at the moment of the double-cross to come up with an alternate to handing over the prize without getting caught himself.
Question: What is the name of the song that comes on when Ben Affleck wakes up and turns on the radio?
Answer: Hang on, by Seether.
Question: I was wondering why the man and woman in the last trap didn't use the woman from the bathtub to give the pints of blood? They could have carried her into the room because the door stayed open for about forty seconds.
Chosen answer: Assuming the woman in the bathtub was able to be moved safely the amount of blood gained from her, while still being helpful, would probably not be enough to save the final two survivors from self harm. Without the heart pumping blood you would only get the blood that was in her arm at the moment. You would have to lift her or raise her so gravity would get other blood moving to get enough. Which the final two possibly could have done, but stress of the situation clouded their judgement.
Question: I remember seeing this movie multiple times years back, and i distinctly remember the restaurant being Taco Bell, why the sudden badly dubbed pizza hut in the new television version?
Answer: A number of the European releases of the film replaced Taco Bell with Pizza Hut, as Pizza Hut has a significant international presence, whereas Taco Bell is relatively unknown outside the US, with very few restaurants. While most versions around these days keep the US original dialogue, the altered versions do occasionally crop up, particularly on television.
Answer: In South Africa we also had a version that called the restaurant Burger King. I just always assumed that they changed the name when a franchise offered them more money for product placement.
Question: What does Harriet say to the Russian sailors as they walk past?
Answer: Real Russian, here. Sailor #1 says "she's a little thin." Sailor #2 says* "she looks really good to me." Harriet says "Yes. Very good." Sailor #1 says "Damn, she understands Russian." Harriet says "See you later, boys." (*Очень даже ничего is an idiom.) Мальчики or "malchiki" is "boys."
Answer: They are saying she is too tall and too skinny, but one says she's still pretty good looking. She sarcastically says "Thanks a lot," or something to that effect. One of the guys says "Oh, she understands Russian." And Harriet replies, "Yes, I do. You fellas have a nice evening."
Answer: I don't know the entire conversation, but it definitely wasn't just "have a good night fellas" she said "malchik gei", which means gay boy in Russian so she was probably insulting them right back.
Malchiki is boys. She says "See you later, boys." Ну пока, мальчики.
Question: We see something going on between the corrupt skinhead and the Hispanic criminal inside the prison, and it makes Vinyard leave that gang. What exactly was the arrangement by the skinheads to 'protect' Vinyard?
Answer: It's quite simple: He was one of them, a fellow skinhead. In prison different groups stick together for mutual protection and comradeship, and as neo-nazis/skinheads would be fairly unpopular with the colored inmates, all the more reason for them to protect each other.
Question: At the beginning, when Batman breaks through the helicopter's window with his head, he tells Two-Face, 'Give it up, Harvey. You need help' or something like that. But this voice is totally not what Val Kilmer sounds like. The best I can come up with is that it's a stunt double or something like that. If anybody out there knows the real reason, I'd be happy to hear it.
Chosen answer: Batman talks like that because if he talks like Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer's voice) his voice might be recognized, leading to Batman's identity being revealed.
Answer: I have noticed that as well. It doesn't seem like his voice is wrong, it just sounds like he says "give it up" twice at once or something. Maybe an issue in post-production.
Question: On the DVD (UK, not sure about anywhere else) there is a feature called 'the secret of esrever', which tells you to look for very subliminal hidden images in the film - I have looked so many times and there is still one I can't find - does anyone know where the 'water' one is? The only thing I can see is what looks like an owl's head made out of the trees in the scene where the woman is drowning a baby in the lake. If this is it how does it relate to the film? Also is there a message in the images? There are a few words but I can't make a sentence out of them.
Answer: In the scene where the baby is submerged in the water, watch the lower right-hand side of the screen. You'll see the shadow of a stickman emerge and come higher into the frame.
Question: I don't understand why Alex waits until Mrs. Alexander has unchained the opened front door and fully opened it, before he and his droogs break in. I'm sure the four of them could easily have broken the chain off with a bit of force. Is it simply part of Alex's nature to be invited in, before he starts his attack?
Chosen answer: It's part of the "fun element" of the crime to get the victim to open the door themselves.
Question: If Eric and Shelley were fighting tenant eviction, why did T-Bird and his crew show up with a list of complaints about the conditions of the building?
Answer: Top Dollar (the main villain played by Michael Wincott) sent them over there to talk them. He sorta explained at the end. He 'believed' that he owned the building. I think he said something along the lines of: "Hell, nothing in this area happens without my say so." I guess Eric and Shelly's complaints were going to attract attention with the authorities and Top Dollar did not want that.
Question: How did Snake lose his eye?
Chosen answer: During a mission known as the "Leningrad Ruse." He and his flight squadron were sent unknowingly on a suicide mission. During it, his goggles cracked and let in a poisonous gas, paralyzing his iris. He has to wear the patch because his eye can't focus against bright light, causing pain. This is mentioned in the novelization.
Question: Is George's Oscar Wilde quotation, "We won't have to look for work, and it won't have to look for us," genuine? (Never trust a criminal, I know).
Answer: I did an Internet search for this quote, including checking best-quotations.com, and the only reference of it I can find is tied to the movie. I do not think this is an Oscar Wilde quote. If I find something, I'll update this, as it's possibly a line from one of his plays or novels that just doesn't happen to be online. Someone else might know.
Question: Toward the beginning of the movie, on Phil's first day at the bed and breakfast, he turns on the shower and it is very cold. He asks the lady in the hallway why there is no hot water. The lady answers "Oh no, there wouldn't be any today." Why not?
Answer: Old fashioned hotels have a single boiler for all the hotel rooms. Once the hot water reservoir is used up there won't be any more to use until the reservoir is refilled. This only happens once every few days.
Answer: Likely because there are a lot of people staying there and using up the hot water.
Question: How can Michael recognize Laurie as his younger sister since he wouldn't have seen her since she was only two years old?
Answer: There is a scene where Laurie dreams about meeting Michael as a young teen. It's unknown whether this is an actual memory of real events, but since nothing indicates otherwise, we could assume the he saw her at an older age when she looked closer to her 17-year-old self.
Question: How did Bishop end up with 2 guns during the robbery of Quiles? I'm assuming they edited out of the part where Bishop probably took Quiles' gun from behind the counter. He was holding the 2nd gun in his left hand when they were hiding from being seen by the cops in the store. What do you think?
Answer: Bishop held his second gun when Bishop found Quiles' gun in his convenience store (when Quiles pulled his gun while Bishop and Radames' gang first altercation scene).
Question: What is Lynn's connection to the Nite Owl killings?
Answer: She doesn't really have one - not directly, anyway. The only link is that Susan Lefferts died at the Night Owl, and Bud saw Lynn with Lefferts when he was buying the alcohol for the party. Lefferts had the bandage on her nose at the time, which sparked Bud's curiosity and prompted him to seek out Lynn after Lefferts was murdered.
Answer: Realistically there is no way he could have known. The writers were just working backwards from the plot point on this one.
Phaneron ★