Best movie questions of 2009

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Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show picture

Question: They take a bunch of fireflies and put them in a jar with a lid to use it as a lamp, is this really possible? How many of them would be needed?

tipar

Answer: First, you'd have to figure out how much light production you would qualify as being sufficient to consider the fireflies in a jar a "lamp." Lights are often rated in footcandle, lumens, or lux. Without getting into what all that means, you could probably hike a path in the dark with just 25 lumens, which is a little less than 2.5 footcandles. (By comparison, a bedroom may have 20-50 footcandles but an outdoor parking area may only have 1-5 footcandles and street lighting may be 1-3 footcandles). With that in mind, it also depends on the species. The most common firefly in the US produces 1/40 a candle. So 40 fireflies for 1 footcandle and 100 to have a "lamp" to hike with. It should also be noted males light every 5 seconds and females light ever 2 seconds, so you would need more if they're not all lighting up at once.

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Chosen answer: Nothing specific, the carving of mystical symbols is just meant to be a means of furthering his power.

Purple_Girl

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop picture

Question: If Pahud thinks that Paul Blart is with his girlfriend, why does he make him his "homie"? Wouldn't he hate Paul for taking his girlfriend?

Answer: Paul explains to Pahud that it's a misunderstanding, and Pahud then makes Paul Blart his homie.

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Bruno picture

Question: Like Borat, Bruno was mostly unscripted, and most of the people were real people secretly filmed without their knowledge. So does that mean the sex scenes at the swinger party were unsimulated? If they were, how was the movie not rated NC-17?

MikeH

Chosen answer: The MPAA's rating guidelines are all over the place, and tone and context matter. The scene in question appears to be real, but there's not really anything explicit shown, and since it's all played for laughs, the MPAA was probably more lenient on it.

Phaneron

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Daybreakers picture

Question: Why didn't Chris want the cure to spread in the end?

Answer: Just like the humans, he had a fear of becoming extinct.

Answer: The vampires were now everywhere, with very few humans left in their blood farms. Their food supply was dwindling and it was getting to the point that they were facing extinction by starvation. The only way to keep life going was for the vampire disease to be cured and everybody to turn back human.

Quantom X

Then why didn't he want it to happen?

He successfully created a substitute.

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Angels & Demons picture

Question: When Langdon and the Italian cop are trapped inside the sealed room of the Vatican archive and the air is shut off, how long could they actually survive in a space that size? In the movie, they start to suffocate almost immediately. (There is no long time lapse because the movie's plot depends on defusing the bomb within a few hours).

raywest

Chosen answer: In reality, they would have perished from CO2 poisoning long before the room ran out of breathable oxygen causing them to simply suffocate. Without knowing the exact dimensions of the room it is impossible to give any time more specific than "several hours" for this to happen in a room as big as that one appeared to be.

Phixius

I just re-watched the movie, and as Langdon and Vittoria enter the room, it's mentioned to them that the oxygen levels are always kept at a bare minimum to protect the ancient tomes and documents stored there. That helps to answer my own question about why Langdon and the cop were so quickly affected when the power was shut off.

raywest

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Public Enemies picture

Question: I must have missed something, but when Dillinger and his accomplice (can't remember his name) are escaping from the lodge, they both hitch a ride with Baby Face Nelson on the dirt road. Later Purvis and his men run Nelson's car off the road and kill him and another guy. Then we see Dillinger and his wounded accomplice with a car in town getting medical supplies. How's that possible?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Baby Face Nelson doesn't pick up Dillinger. He picks up the characters played by Stephen Dorf and another associate. Dillinger and Hamilton escape through the woods and steal a car from an older man they come across in the forest. After the shootout, Dillinger and Nelson are never in the car together.

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Friday the 13th picture

Question: It appears Jason has upsized his shack in this version. He now lives in an abandoned house instead of a rundown shack we see in Part 2. Plus the house has an extensive tunnel system. Finally, where does the electric bill get sent?

Answer: It's the former summer camp. I would believe they had a generator or two.

Answer: It's possible that he has a generator.

newtrekkilover

Where did he get the generator from? Home Depot?

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The Blind Side picture

Question: Do the real Mr. and/or Mrs. Tuohy have a cameo in this film?

Answer: Just the photographs during the closing credits.

Phixius

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17 Again picture

Question: If Mike's ex-wife (Scarlet) recognizes him from when they were teenagers, wouldn't the coach remember him too? He was the star player.

Answer: I've not seen the movie, but an ex-wife would be closer to her ex-husband than a coach to his old student, no matter how good.

JonTheRandom

Answer: It's also possible that the coach might have noticed a resemblance, but he would have simply written it off as an odd coincidence, much like Scarlet did earlier in the film.

zendaddy621

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Hotel for Dogs picture

Question: Wouldn't the city have found out that someone was using the hotel when there was electricity being used but no-one to pay for it?

Answer: Not until there's a 3 month period where the electricity usage is much higher than normal. Even then, it takes another few months to get it noticed, and another couple of months to send someone out to investigate it.

rswarrior

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Obsessed picture

Question: It seems whenever this movie is played on TV, the start of the scene where Sharon is yelling at Derek in the house edits out the part at the start where Sharon yells "What? WHAT!?" and throws and breaks a dish. Why is this edited out? It always starts at the line she says right after that.

Answer: There is no set format for a feature-length film's running time in theaters (some bodies state a minimum of 40 minutes, some 80). They are edited to fit TV scheduling. Scenes are often cut short or deleted entirely to eliminate objectionable content, but also so the film can begin and end on the hour or half hour (i.e. It starts precisely at 8:00 p.m. And ends at 10:00 pm) so that the next program can run. It also has to allow time for commercials and station breaks during the airing. This often leaves the original movie rather chopped-up. That is probably what happened with this particular film.

raywest

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Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever picture

Question: In the end of the first movie Paul is safe in the hospital, so why has he come back into the forest and gets hit by a truck in this movie?

Answer: Spoiler Alert: At the end of the first movie, Paul was not safe at the hospital. The doctors inform the sheriff that Paul needs to be transferred. We then see Deputy Winston take Paul, but instead of transferring him, Winston dumps Paul on the side of the creek. In the 2nd movie, Paul is alive, but just barely as he's badly infected. He's trying to get help and finally manages to make it to the highway, where he gets hit.

Bishop73

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Halloween 2 picture

Question: At the ending of the director's cut, it shows that Laurie, Michael, and Loomis are all dead. But, the following scene is the ending of the theatrical cut with Laure in the insane asylum. Could somebody clarify this?

Answer: When the movie was made there were two possible endings filmed with one being selected for the theatrical release. Filmmakers often pre-screen a film to a test audience to gauge their reaction. This can decide whether or not changes will be made to the finished film, including an alternate ending. The director's cut here is simply showing audiences both scenes that were filmed as an "extra" feature. Other movies have included this, as well as showing deleted scenes.

raywest

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra picture

Question: In the flashback scene of Rex entering the secret facility, what was he looking at on all of the computer screens and why would he use them later on after he faked his death?

Answer: He was seeing some of the first footage of experiments with the Nanobots by Dr. Mindbender. And the whole plot of the movie is about him using them weaponized and for replacing the president.

Quantom X

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State of Play picture

Question: In the pre climax Anne tells Cal that Sonia was sleeping with Stephen for $26,000 but later he comes to conclusion that Stephen knew this how? How did Anne know?

Answer: The assassin that Stephen hired to spy on Sonia found out and told Stephen. At some point off-screen, Stephen told Anne details about his affair with Sonia and accidentally told her that she was being paid to spy on and sleep with him for $26,000. Anne told Cal about the $26,000, and Cal realises that Stephen knows a lot more about Sonia's spying for Point Corp than he is letting on. If Stephen was completely innocent, there would be no way for him to know the amount was $26,000. Cal and his team of journalists never told Stephen the specific amount of money Sonia was getting.

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Chosen answer: Nothing has been said and no indications are given as to what is in the cooler.

Ssiscool

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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian picture

Question: At the end of the movie Amelia and Larry are saying their goodbyes - Larry tries to bring up what will happen to Amelia at sunrise, and Amelia says that she knows what will become of her. Is it implied that Amelia will not make it back to the Smithsonian before sunrise and turn to dust, or is it implied that she will make it back, but will not be able to come to life at night due to not having the tablet near her?

Jaredsmith09

Chosen answer: Amelia has no idea about the turning to dust at sunset consequence, but what she does know is she will disappear and not be found, as what happened to the real Amelia Earhart.

Scott215

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Race to Witch Mountain picture

Question: What's the name of the song the woman is singing at the restaurant in Stony Creek?

Answer: It was either Southern Night or Boogie Woogie Saturday Night.

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Chosen answer: John did not want Jill to KILL Hoffman. Instead he wanted to 'test' him, much like how Amanda was tested in the first film. Jill, however wanted to kill Hoffman, therefore leaving him to die.

Dra9onBorn117

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