Question: Why did Spielberg make Temple of Doom a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark? I read somewhere that he didn't want to make the Nazis the villains again, but that wouldn't be a problem since the Nazis never went to India or China.
Chosen answer: It was actually George Lucas who wrote the story, made it a prequel, and has stated it was because he didn't want the Nazis to be the villains again. The idea most likely seems if it wasn't a prequel, the Nazis could still be after Jones, even in China or India. But alas, there is really no other insight as to Lucas' prequel decision.
Question: How exactly do both the Terminator and Kyle find addresses? We are led to believe that is the reason for the phone books, but none of the addresses in the phone books match up to the addresses where either the first Sarah is killed, nor the apartment of our Sarah.
Answer: Gonna be totally honest... that might just be nothing more than a simple continuity error. They accidentally made a phonebook prop that didn't match up with the locations where they shot, and assumed most people wouldn't notice or care. (And to be even more honest, I never noticed it until I saw this question today.)
Answer: My two cents: The T-800 Terminator does indeed, rip out the page of a phonebook for the address, but remember, he was looking for any and all Sarah Connors, not a specific address. He did not know which Sarah would give birth to John Connor, so by process of elimination he began terminating any woman with the name Sarah Connor. He did plug the first Sarah Connor (a housewife), then went to kill the other Sarah Connors in the phone book.
I already gave that answer, but apparently that's not what the question is asking.
Answer: Kyle, as we are shown, uses a police computer to find the addresses. The T800 just uses the phonebook as you mentioned. He rips the page out and takes it with him.
Except 2 of the addresses in the phone book don't match. So how does the Terminator find them using the phonebook?
The Terminator is just blindly killing everyone in the phone book whose name is Sarah Connor (apparently a common name). Process of elimination. So, the day he arrives, unrelated women named Sarah Connor start dropping like flies, and the police believe it's the work of a serial killer. Our heroine Sarah Connor barely escapes this sweeping extermination by sheer luck and Kyle's intervention.
You just described the plot. Were you trying to answer the question? Because the question still stands. (As it is, it's either a mistake or plot hole in the film).
Perhaps I'm not getting the question. What is meant by "none of the addresses in the phone books match up"? Match up to what, the murder scene addresses? I wasn't aware that the murder scene addresses were prominently displayed.
Exactly. The addresses seen don't match. Specifically the first Sarah Connor's house number is "14239", but in the phonebook it is listed as "1823." And the real Sarah Connor lives in an apartment but the phonebook doesn't list an apartment number.
Perhaps though this all doesn't matter because phone books can quickly become outdated, the phone book he found could be over a year old. Someone moves but can still be listed in the phone book with their old address. He could have gone to the addresses but found someone else living there and then asked where the previous owner might be, and he was told (or he forced them). This might be how he found all the Sarah Connors.
Are any of the Sarahs listed as living at 1823? I've not got access to the film right now to check.
The first is listed as "1823." The second is "2816." The 3rd is "309." Although after reviewing the scene and thinking about it, for "309" (which is supposedly our Sarah J Connor), the full address isn't actually seen and the apartment number could have been listed.
Reese never uses a police computer; that's the T-1000 in Terminator 2. He rips out the page from the phonebook. The T800 also uses the phonebook but is never shown ripping out a page.
No! Kyle and the T800 both use the phone book. The Terminator even pulls away a guy who was on the phone ("Hey man! You got a serious attitude problem!") Kyle rips out a page, not the T800. It's the T-1000 in T2 that uses a police computer.
Question: What is it likely that the stone (an emerald, I gather) was worth in 1984 US dollars?
Answer: Any emerald over 1 carat in that beautiful cut and condition would probably go for over 250 million. Real emeralds over 5 carats are rare and the price goes up exponentially after 2 or 3 carats. 305,000 per carat after 5. So yeah that one was probably like 800 or more carats.
Question: How exactly did they make the whole underwater fight scene work?
Chosen answer: The actors were weighted down with lead plates. Oxygen tanks were kept just out of picture, and the actors used them to breathe between takes. The takes were short enough to allow the actors to hold their breath through them. The short takes were then cut together to appear as one long fight. Sound effects were added post-production.
Question: Where can I find out who the extras were in the movie? My uncle was one of the paratroopers at the beginning, I just want to know which one, and no I can't call him.
Chosen answer: I was one of the actual paratroopers in the movie. There were at least two different companies providing the extra's. The company that provided the actual paratroopers was Delta Productions, Inc. owned by John Early who owned the Parachute Center in Albuquerque, NM. John was a former Green Beret and professional soldier and was hired to be the technical adviser to the film. As far as I know, Delta Productions is no longer in business. The other company that hired extras provided the non-paratrooper extras. I do not have any information concerning that company but I do know that most were locals who lived in Las Vegas, NM. I know this because I met one of them in the Marine Corps years later. To answer your actual question, I have no knowledge if that information was kept other than those companies that hired them.
Question: When Commander Morrow responds to Kirk's protests he says "Jim, the Enterprise is twenty years old. We feel her day's over." In ST: TMP, Decker said "This is an almost totally new Enterprise." If the Enterprise was, for all intents and purposes, totally rebuilt from the original, with more space, better engines, etc., how could it be twenty years old?
Chosen answer: The Enterprise may have been extensively refurbished, but that does not mean it is entirely new. The ship is still 20 years old. Also, that was Decker's comment, and it may have been an over-exaggeration. Newer ships were being designed and built in the meantime, so even if the Enterprise was still mechanically sound, the technology may have advanced so much that it was not possible or it wasn't economically feasible to continually retrofit older vessels.
Question: Did they ever consider Eddie Murphy, you know, sort of like a SNL trio since they had Murray and Aykroyd?
Answer: The part of Winston was written for Murphy. He was unavailable because he was filming Beverly Hills Cop. The director and writer are on record as saying had Murphy accepted the part, Winston would have had a much larger role in the film.
Question: If Zaltar founded Argo City, why would he need permission to use the Omegahedron? Shouldn't he be allowed to use it when he wants?
Answer: The Omegaahedron is the power source for the whole city. It supplies the air, the dome that protects them, the lights, and the machines they need to survive.
The question was why would Zoltar need permission to use the Omegahedron, not what it could do.
Question: Why did the bus do a 180? You never saw the semi truck in that shot, so why did it make an insane turn like that when the truck had nothing at all to do with it?
Answer: There might be a deleted scene showing an extended chase scene, but as it is, it seems out of place. From what I can tell, the road was slick, like something oily was spilt on the road during the chase. I don't think it's from the fruit and vegetable truck either. The bus looks like it's breaking suddenly (perhaps to avoid an unseen wreck) and skidded out and the driver over compensated, spinning the bus out. In fairness, a licensed bus driver would probably be able to control the bus in that situation, so it was exaggerated for the film. It probably should have been cut, but I'm guessing someone liked it and kept it in for more action.
Question: Why exactly did David Lynch have his name removed from the TV version?
Answer: Because it was edited in a way he didn't approve of. The film was actually over 3 hours long, and it was trimmed by about an hour for the cinema version, and then a certain amount of pick and mix went on to come up with the video version.
Question: What kind of car is the yellow one the two ladies drive after they ditch the Mercedes? The one where the top comes comes up to let people in.
Chosen answer: It's called a "Nova" (but not as in the Chevy Nova). It's a kit car, in the U.S. and for the film, it was made by the Sterling Sports Car company. Although the Nova kit car originated with the English company Automotive Design and Development Ltd.
Answer: This is conjecture, but it seems the general function of setting Temple of Doom before Raiders of the Lost Ark is that it helps set audience expectations that the two movies are self-contained episodes. For instance, Karen Allen has said she wasn't disappointed about not being asked to return because she'd already been told that the next installment was being set in the past before her character is reunited with Indy. Conversely, since we're already aware Raiders makes no mention of the events of Temple of Doom, we know we shouldn't necessarily expect any further installments to continue directly from prior movies' storylines regardless if they are set forward in time.
TonyPH