Best thriller movie questions of 1987

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Predator picture

Question: This bugged me for years, when Billy said there is something in the trees to Dutch and in the next shot it shows the trees, is the Predator there, as in visible onscreen?

ezorro

Chosen answer: Yes. The predator can be seen not in the immediate shot after, but the one a few seconds later as they are seen walking away.

XIII

Before or after Ramirez gets hit in the face with the branch?

About 3 seconds before. If you look VERY closely (probably needing to pause the screen around 00:40:55 - about a minute after Billy said, "There's something in the trees"), there appears to be a transparent image of The Predator in the background above the major's (Arnold's) right shoulder. If this is meant to be The Predator, its body is curved around a tree trunk and its arms are extended toward the right of the screen (near Arnold's right ear), camouflaged as green leaves.

KeyZOid

The Predator - in a recognizable form - really wasn't visible until another minute later @ 00:41:55 when it was on the ground approaching Hawkins and the woman.

KeyZOid

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Answer: It was Gustav Hasford's idea. It happened in the original book that the story is based on, "The Short Timers."

Captain Defenestrator

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Robocop picture

Question: When Robocop is about to arrest Jones, he suddenly feels his system malfunctioning. Jones then explains that Directive 4 is used to shut him down if he attempts to arrest a senior officer of OCP. Why did Jones put this directive into Robocop? At the time nobody knew he was working with Boddicker.

Answer: Because he knew he was doing illegal activities. Robocop was said to be highly efficient at his job and Jones did not want to risk him out on the streets without the insurance of shutting him down if Robo came after him.

MasterOfAll

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Flowers in the Attic picture

Question: Who laced the cookies that were given to the children with arsenic? It's never shown who applies it, only who takes the cookies to them.

Answer: When the children discover the cookies had been poisoned (revealed by the death of their pet mouse which ate part of one of the cookies), they suspect their grandmother. After all, she was the one who had been cruel to them all along. But eventually, they realise that it was in fact, their mother, Corinne, who was lacing the cookies with poison. She was doing so with the hope that the children would eventually die, seemingly from disease. In doing so, she would secure the family inheritance which was contingent upon her never having had children from her first marriage. They eventually confront their mother on the day of her second wedding, and a struggle ensues which ultimately leads to Corinne falling to her death from a balcony.

Michael Albert

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The Lost Boys picture

Question: Star tells Michael that she was supposed to be his first kill. I'm only speculating that it was on David's orders so, if he was, why did David change his mind and decide to make Michael a vampire instead?

Answer: Because the Head vampire, Max, had fallen in love with Michael's mom. At the end of the movie he said, "Boys need a mother and if I could get Michael and Sam into the family, you would have no choice but to join us."

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The Princess Bride picture

Question: When Buttercup confronts a masked Westley, she says that she loved more deeply than a killer like him ever dreamed. Westley's response is to raise a hand as if to hit her, but he stops and says that was a warning and that where he comes from, there are penalties when a woman lies. In what way was Buttercup lying?

Answer: Westley comes back from the sea, only to find that his one true love is engaged to another man. He feels her love for him wasn't true if she could even think of getting married again, at least so soon.

Brian Katcher

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The Running Man picture

Question: At the very beginning of the movie, Ben refuses to fire on anyone even though he was under orders to do so. I can understand him being court-martialed for this but, why would they alter the video to show him killing innocent people with orders not to? And why send him to prison for allegedly killing innocent civilians?

Answer: They needed a scapegoat, someone to blame. The government controlled the people through violence, but at the same time tried to convince the people the government was fair (i.e. Runners who made it through were given their freedom when in fact they never left the arena alive). The people at Bakersfield were still massacred (that part wasn't made up) by the government in order to control the riot, but just not by Ben. But people would just riot more if they knew the government ordered their killing, so the footage was faked to make people think Ben acted alone and against orders. And to continue the ruse, they convicted him to appease the people and prevent them from rioting.

Bishop73

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The Untouchables picture

Question: How accurate is the portrayal of the Untouchables, when it comes to names and numbers? Were there actually only four of them? Do Garcia, Connery and Smith play actual people or fictive ones?

Answer: It's about 50% truth and 50% fiction. Ness, Al Capone, and Frank Nitty are real, of course, but the characters played by Connery, Garcia, and Smith are fictional. Ness started out with 50 candidates for his 'Untouchables' force. This was whittled down to 15 finalists and from that he selected 9 agents (none of which has the same name as the characters played by Connery, Garcia, and Smith). It's true that Capone was convicted for tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but received an early release because he was in the last stages of syphilis. He died shortly after being released from prison.

raywest

Capone lived for 8 years upon his release from prison. The 8 years being slightly longer than the actual prison time he served, which was just over 7 years. He died, having the mental capabilities of a 12-year-old.

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Evil Dead II picture

Question: If this movie is a sequel to the first Evil Dead, how come it only shows Ash and Linda driving up to the cabin and not the other friends? Also, why does it show Ash playing the recording and not Scotty, like in the first film?

Answer: Sam Rami could not get the footage of Evil Dead to use in the sequel, so he remade the movie in a shortened form for the beginning. Since Linda was the only original character other than Ash to come back he included her in the recap but deleted the others as not to waste time. An in universe answer could be that trauma of losing his friends made Ash block them out and rewrite history in his head, except for Linda who comes back to haunt him in the movie so he is forced to deal with it.

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The Witches of Eastwick picture

Question: What's the deal with Darryl Van Horne; was he a warlock, the Devil himself, or something else?

Answer: He's the Devil.

Ral0618

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Fatal Attraction picture

Question: What is the significance of Glenn Close and the color white? I noticed that her apartment is white and with the exception of one scene when she's wearing the black leather coat, she is always wearing white. Any thoughts on this?

Enchantress

Chosen answer: With questions such as this, one can either speculate, or one can go directly to the source. So, using IMDb, I looked up the names of the crew on "Fatal Attraction." The costume designer is listed as Ellen Mirojnick. The set decoration was the responsibility of George DeTittas, Sr. I found Ellen Mirojnick on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ellenmirojnick/posts/263462080524551?comment_id=263621453841947&offset=0&total_comments=2¬if_t=feed_comment), and posed the question to her. This was the reply she gave: " (I)n our process there is always a purpose for a palette to tell a story dramatically. I chose white for her character because white is powerful and although not essentially a "color" it reflects all other colors, which would in turn reflect where we were in the story. I thought through her silhouettes and use of shades of whites, it would reflect her mood and not give away the demon she kept hidden. WHITE is powerful... As she was!" I have not yet been able to track down Mr. DeTittas for comment. But I have posed the additional question to Ms. Mirojnick regarding whether the color palette motif was a decision shared by different departments on the film. Ms. Mironjnick added the following comments: "she wears white to discuise (sic) her darkness, that somehow is revealed in certain places.. white is all things combined .. it radiatesits (sic) the confusion as if she was in an asylum, but her own."

Michael Albert

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Answer: When Bruce IV eats Mario Van Peebles, it also eats a device that they use to give it an electric shock by remote control. This makes it leap out of the water. The last time they do this, the long pole on the boat's bow impales it.

Grumpy Scot

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Lethal Weapon picture

Question: In the nightclub, Mel Gibson shoots a guy who says "Hey, what are you..." Was he a bad guy, or was he just a random citizen?

MikeH

Chosen answer: He was one of Hunsacker's men.

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The Living Daylights picture

Question: When Pushkin wakes up after Bond pretends to kill him at the press conference, he apologises to his wife/girlfriend for putting her through the trauma. But since she was in the bathroom when Bond was there interrogating Pushkin (about Koskov etc.), wouldn't she have heard Bond and Pushkin discussing the staged assassination (after Pushkin says "Then I must die")?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: She could have been let go off screen once it was clear that Bond wasn't going to kill Pushkin, so they could formulate the plan in secret.

Captain Defenestrator

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A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors picture

Question: I saw this movie for the first time in years the other night, and I did not remember that Nancy was killed in this one. Is this the last nightmare film that she was in (other than the one where Freddy came to the real world and everybody played real names)?

Answer: Yes it is the last one.

SAZOO1975

Answer: Technically she was also in New Nightmare, both as the "Nancy" character and as the actress Heather in various scenes.

Technically the author said other than the one where Freddy came to the real world and everybody played real names. So therefore the 1st answer was accurate.

lartaker1975

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