Beetlejuice

Question: At first, the football team doesn't realise that they died. So why do they think that Juno is their coach?

Answer: They are very confused and probably not the sharpest tools in the shed. Juno probably told them they should do what she says and they immediately associated that with a coach.

lionhead

Answer: Right before the Maitlands walk in, one of the football players asks, "coach, where's the men's room?" After which Juno finally loses her cool and dismisses the team out the door. After Juno's conversation with Adam and Barbara, one player comes back in and says, "Coach I don't think we survived the crash" suggesting they realised they were dead.

Question: When Barbara and Adam change their faces and are ready to go scare everyone, Barbara confesses to Adam that she doesn't want to go through with it. She says that she wants to be with Lydia. Why does she suddenly become infatuated with wanting to be with this girl whom she hardly even knows? It would make more sense if they both grew to love the whole family instead of just Lydia alone. Thus, her sudden change of heart seems kind of strange.

Answer: Lydia is a child, and Barbara and Adam both wanted to have children. Barbara's mother instincts just suddenly kicked in.

lionhead

Answer: I agree with the answer by Lionhead, and I would like to add: Lydia has already spoken to the ghosts more than her parents have. She has been more understanding and tolerant. To me, it makes perfect sense that Barbara has already connected with Lydia more than Lydia's parents.

Question: After Otho and the Deetz family are attacked by the Beetlejuice snake why do they stay in the house instead of fleeing immediately?

Answer: They're still convinced that they can make money off the house and ghosts that inhabit it. The promise of wealth can make people do strange things, including ignoring signs of clear danger. So they're remaining in the house in hopes that it can eventually make them a lot of dough.

TedStixon

Question: Otho says he was a paranormal researcher until "the bottom dropped out in '72." What does that mean - specifically, what happened in 1972?

Answer: He's probably referring to the 1960s Hippie counter-culture when people were into quasi-trends like the paranormal, séances, mysticism, occultism, ESP, astrology, Eastern philosophy, etc. Those fads faded by the early 70s, diminishing Otho's clientele.

raywest

Answer: In all probability, it has no relevance to the real world. In the world of the film, something unexplained happened in that year.

Answer: This is never revealed.

lionhead

Answer: It's been inferred that she died from a sickness.

Question: Was Jane lying when she said that she decorated the Maitland home (she wanted Lydia to mention this to her parents)?

Answer: Jane appears to be taking credit for what Barbara and Adam had done. At the beginning of the movie, the Maitlands are discussing the home projects they've been working on. Adam has been refinishing cabinetry while Barbara has chosen wallpaper, and they're spending their two-week vacation working on the house.

raywest

Answer: It's never answered in the film if she actually decorated the house for Adam and Barbara, but there isn't really any reason to doubt it.

My interpretation was that Jane was always chasing a buck. She aggressively pestered Adam and Barbara to sell the house just to earn a commission. She was hustling the Deetzes for her decorating services. Regarding Barbara and Adam, they just didn't want anyone in their beloved house, much less having it redecorated after all the work they did on it.

raywest

But if she actually did, then I wonder if they would care as much about the Deetzes remodeling the home?

This is a stretch, but maybe Jane wanted to keep the house as close to how Adam and Barbara had it, like a shrine. It's not uncommon for those who lost loved ones to try and keep things as close to what was possible.

What I meant was, why would Adam and Barbara, not Jane, be so upset about the remodeling if Jane did the decorating anyway? Granted, they apparently chose to live with it.

That was probably a comfort thing. They learned they were going to spend over a century in that house, and it would be one thing if it was closer to what they were comfortable with, but the Deetzes' style was too much for them.

Question: Whenever Beetlejuice is shown in the model cemetery that Adam made, does it mean that a "real" Beetlejuice is the real cemetery in the town?

Answer: No. It's not meant to be an exact replica of the town cemetery. Beetlejuice just inserted himself into it.

raywest

Revealing mistake: When Barbara and Adam are digging up Beetlejuice's grave, you can see that a piece of cardboard states "FRAGILE" or something in small print which is proportional to Barbara and Adam at that time. However, the lettering should be ten times larger if the cardboard was proportional to the actual model. (00:44:35)

More mistakes in Beetlejuice

Adam: Well, how is it that you can see us but nobody else can?
Lydia: Well, I read in that Handbook for the Recently Deceased. It says, "Live people ignore the strange and unusual." I, myself am strange and unusual.
Barbara: You look like a regular girl to me.

More quotes from Beetlejuice

Trivia: Even though Beetlejuice is the title character, he has only 17 and a half minutes of screen time.

More trivia for Beetlejuice

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.