Question: Why did Burt Reynolds not reprise his roll as Bandit in this film?
Question: It's clear from the film that the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance is a ballet-only or ballet-heavy institution. So why would Alex, with no ballet training (sorry, but you can't "wing it" when dancing en pointe) and whose dance audition is nothing like ballet, even audition there? And why on earth would any dance company take someone whose dancing ability, great though it might be, doesn't match their style? Philadelphia and New York have plenty of dance institutions more suited to Alex's dancing style - why doesn't she go there to audition?
Answer: It states early in the film that Alex went to the ballet and was enchanted by it and started her love of dancing. Her girlhood dream was always to be a part of the conservatory and dance the ballet's one day. Her going to the conservatory was to LEARN that building on her knowledge. Besides, normally she wouldn't have gotten an audition with her lack of Point training, but for Nick's intervening.
Question: Near the end, Cochrane wants to kill Murphy. Why do it in the air? Even if Cochrane did wipe him out, the only way he would have to do that was to destroy the helicopter completely when he had the chance; instead, he injured Murphy and disabled the cannon somewhat, which is painful to watch and understandable, for fear of collatoral damage or simply because he did not want to blast it out of the sky and foot the bill. But the helicopter costs '$5 million', and even if Cochrane had the money, it would have been cheaper to take Murphy out on land instead of in public and in broad daylight.
Chosen answer: Murphy has been deemed a threat to the public at large by the authorities, having "snapped" and stolen an armed helicopter. Cochrane is using that determination as cover to finally kill Murphy, whom he's long despised. Killing Murphy on the ground would be harder to get away with. He would not be responsible for paying for the helicopter anymore than the Air Force or the other police helicopter crews would be had they sucessfully knocked Blue Thunder down.
Question: Did Lana actually like Joel or not? She said that the night on the train was not simply a diversion while Guido and Vicki raided his house. However, she was still involved with them, after claiming that she was done working for Guido. She and Vicki "quit" when he first appeared at Joel's house.
Answer: Lana liked him, but was not in love with him. The whole Guido house raid was his way of getting what's owed to him, when Joel stole all his business. At the end of the movie, Lana and Joel walked and talked about him going away to college, with no expectations about one another continuing their relationship.
Question: Although "Dirty Harry" successfully stopped an armed robber in Santa Cruz, wouldn't he face criminal charges himself?
Question: When the girls are drinking together in a bedroom, one of them comments about her mother saying that she was "born with a silver spoon" in her mouth. She jokes that the spoon is actually in her nose. What does she mean?
Answer: That she uses cocaine.
Question: Fee tells Mary she has two deceased sons. She tells her this before the deaths of Stuart and Hal. I don't remember any other of the Cleary children dying in the novel, what two sons is she referring to?
Answer: When Fee was very young, she had an affair with a man and became pregnant. To avoid a scandal, she was quickly married off to Paddy Cleary, a good and honest man, but someone far below Fee in social class. The eldest son (from Fee's previous relationship) never felt that he fit into the family, and both he and the second eldest son left home early on and met premature deaths. Neither character appears in the TV series, they are only mentioned. Stu and Hal are killed later in the story.
Answer: A little obvious: the second film was a box office disaster, so Burt bowed out.