Best mystery movie questions of 1998

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The X-Files Movie picture

Question: If the "cold drink" vending machine was unplugged and the buttons were unresponsive, WHY did the saboteurs deliberately illuminate the front of the machine? Wouldn't this ATTRACT people to the machine, only to subsequently arouse curiosity when it failed to function (as it did with Mulder)? The more logical approach would be to disable the vending machine (including the illumination) and tape an "out of order" sign on it. People would then just ignore the machine, arousing no suspicion. The illuminated vending machine gimmick looks like an illogical contrivance to advance the plot.

Charles Miller

Chosen answer: If they had put an "Out of Order" sign, or left it unilluminated, someone in charge might try to have it fixed or replaced, or could have checked to see if it's plugged in, etc. By leaving it illuminated, it doesn't look out of place and simply not taking money wouldn't arouse too much suspicion. In my own life, when I've come across a seemingly working vending machine that won't take my money or dispense drinks (but gives my money back), I just find another one instead of calling someone or reporting it. But yes, it is very convenient to the plot that Mulder just happens to try and use this particular machine.

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The Faculty picture

Question: In the scene where the main characters are talking about their peculiar behaviours i.e.- "Stokely, since when did you start liking boys" and "What, Delilah, you haven't gone without hairspray and contacts since birth". Can anyone please tell me what Delilah means when she says to Casey- "And Casey, since when did you become Sigourney Weaver?" I have never understood what it means but I think it might have some reference to the movie "Alien".

Answer: That's exactly right. Weaver fought aliens in all the "Alien" movies.

Krista

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The Big Lebowski picture

Question: At the very end of the scene in which Walter and the Dude are spreading Donnie's ashes at the coast, a dark and unidentifiable figure appears for a few seconds in the upper right screen, apparently hiking a trail along the cliff. Was this an accidental walk-on by an actual hiker, or was it written into the script? With all the star-power in this film, I thought every bit of background action was supposed to be meticulously crafted.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: There's no way of knowing. If the hiker was that far away, it could have been someone who happened to stray into the scene by accident. The filmmakers may or may not have noticed, but if they did, may have felt it added to the realism. I did this myself during the filming of a street scene for the TV show, "Northern Exposure." Filming was underway before I realised I was in the midst of it. I just kept walking like I was supposed to be there.

raywest

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Wild Things picture

Question: Did Kelly Van Ryan really love Sam Lombardo or was she trying to use him to get her mom's money? Or both?

Answer: Kelly loved Sam and hated her mom. She wanted the money that was left to her by her grandfather and this was the only way to get it without her mom dying.

Greg Dwyer

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Meet Joe Black picture

Question: Where is the birthday party for Bill held? On whose estate?

Answer: The script calls it the "Parrish country estate", so it belongs to Bill Parrish and his family.

Sierra1

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Sphere picture

Question: After what seems like several hours of conversation between the crew and "Jerry", did the letters J and E occur in the text before the sentence "Don't call me Jerry" appeared and Dustin Hoffman realised the translation was wrong? I haven't watched the film a second time but surely we see words that contain J and E and still make perfect sense?

Answer: It's been a while, but as I remember it, this is explained better in the book. If I remember it correctly, since the translation program was made by Harry, he subconsciously added a section that simply mistranslated "Harry" to "Jerry". That doesn't mean every H became a J or anything like that. It only affected that word.

Garlonuss

Answer: I did not read the book but I will say from just watching the movie I believe Jerry was changed to Harry during the duration of the movie with the idea that Norman wanted to believe Harry was the cause of all the problems. That is why we do not see a random J in all the words that needed an H earlier in the move. Or it was a giant error on the directors part but there were a lot of unanswered questions in the move.

Answer: The "Harry" is "Jerry" has little to do with transposed letters. Norman is a psychiatrist, so by nature he likes to talk to discover new information. The entire conversation is Norman's subconscious thoughts being projected on the computer so that Norman can do his job of being the psychiatrist and talk to an entity. He has no other reason of being there. Norman is basically talking to himself. So in psychoanalysis Norman has to find a twist, which is My name is not Jerry. Ted and Harry didn't mess up the code they are too smart.

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Ringu picture

Question: There is a scene in Sadako's video (ie. the death tape) which features some people crawling backwards. I have watched this film millions of times and cannot work out what it means. Does anyone know what it means or if relates to anything in the film? Does it even have a meaning?

Answer: The other answer is not correct, although you could take it that way if you wanted. The novel upon which "Ring 0" is based was not even out at the time, nor was the prequel even planned at the time this movie came out. So that's not really the answer, although you could retroactively try to connect the two. As for the actual question: the crawling figures are typically viewed as being representations of the victims of the volcanic eruption that Shizuko (Sadako's mother) predicted. Especially as they appear right after words like "eruption" appear onscreen. Or they can be viewed somewhat more nebulously as representations of Sadako's pain, or the pain her victim's feel.

TedStixon

Answer: It may relate to a scene in Ringu 0, which goes a bit more into Sadako's origins; in that film, Sadako is a normal girl trying to hold back the evil spirit within her. A large group of people chase Sadako past the well, but the evil spirit breaks out and Sadako kills them all; the crawling people could be them as they were dying.

Moose

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Urban Legend picture

Question: When Reese finds Sasha's body, you can hear Sasha's voice saying something over and over again, as if on a loop. Does anyone know a) what she's saying and b) what's causing it?

Shay

Chosen answer: She is saying "I'm not stuck, he is!" which was what the caller was saying when she was disconnected.

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Answer: Russian Beer Roulette. The scene is meant to be a recreation/tribute of "The Deer Hunter", where they slapped a lot. Instead of a revolver with one round in the chamber, one beer can is shaken up and put in with unshaken up ones so that the "loser" gets sprayed when opening the wrong one.

Bishop73

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I Still Know What You Did Last Summer picture

Question: Was there any indication or hints that Will was actually Ben Willis' son before the reveal at the end?

Joey221995

Answer: I believe it was supposed to be a surprise plot twist, I don't remember there being any indication that Will was setting them up.

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The Negotiator picture

Question: The ending apparently had to be reshot, because the original ending leaked out. What was this original ending?

Answer: The original ending features a huge shoot-em-up, involving more than 150 cops, but it was changed to a shoot-em-up on a much smaller scale that involves only Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Rifkin.

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Practical Magic picture

Question: Near the end when Sally is in the circle with Gilly, there is a series of flashbacks. There is a shot of a woman with curly shoulder length hair surrounded by white. Who is she? She's not their mother as she has long straight hair.

Answer: She is the one from the opening sequence, their "great, great, great" grandmother who started the whole "curse" thing.

Bruce Minnick

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Psycho picture

Question: When private investigator Milton Arbogast is attacked on the stairway, this film inserts two non sequitur pieces of footage right in the middle of the attack sequence: Just as Arbogast's face is slashed twice, a shot of a virtually-nude woman wearing a sleep-mask is inserted for a split-second, followed a moment later by a split-second insert of what appears to be a small calf standing in the middle of a road in a rainstorm. What is the meaning of those two inserts?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: I'm sorry. There are no answers to your question. Or. The inserts were added to make the movie, which I liked, even more horrible.

ChristmasJonesfan

Answer: His life flashing before his eyes? Snapshots of Norman's fractured psyche? The director's vision?

Alan Keddie

Those are just more questions.

Charles Austin Miller

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