Question: Are there canonically any Jedi with lightsabers that are yellow, orange or just plain white? Mace Windu got a distinguishing purple one at Samuel L Jackson's request, and pink ones I suppose aren't viewed to be intimidating enough.
Jon Sandys
21st Sep 2020
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Answer: In Clone Wars we see Yellow (also in episode IX), Yellow-Green, Light Blue, Black and White. In the canon videogames you even see Orange, Cyan and Magenta.
6th Sep 2020
General questions
It seems some TV shows, especially in later seasons, will include a version of their own show or movie into the show itself. "Seinfeld" had "Jerry." "Stargate SG-1" had "Wormhole X-Treme." "Monk" had an episode where they were going to make a movie about Monk and the show "Crime Lab S.F." (but that's might have been more a parody of "CSI"?) And now "Lucifer" has "Diablo." What are other examples of TV shows doing this? And this is different then the normal show within a show trope, like "Home Improvement" having "Tool Time" or "Full House" having "Wake Up, San Francisco").
Answer: Supernatural famously had at least two instances of this. There's a running plotline through the series where they discover a series of "Supernatural" books based on their antics, which end up being written by God himself. Even more meta, in the episode The French Mistake they end up in an alternate reality on the set of a show called "Supernatural" where everyone starts referring to them by the real actors' names, their angel friend Castiel is now a goofy actor called Misha Collins (the real actor) and their demon foe Ruby is now actress Genevieve Padalecki, married to one of them (as she is in real life).
24th Jul 2020
General questions
There was a movie that had both Angie Harmon and Charlie Sheen. In the movie, Angie is friends with a woman who writes an advice column but, the friend doesn't really offer any useful advice. Charlie Sheen plays a guy, who after coming across the letters, decides to write some real advice using the woman's name and the advice he gives actually helps people.
Answer: "Good Advice" (2001). Angie plays the newspaper editor that hired Charlie's girlfriend, who writes an advice column. When his girlfriend leaves him for another man, he takes over without the editor knowing (since he needed a job). It's only when the girlfriend returns and wants her job back does it turn out she isn't as good as Charlie.
Answer: The film is "Good Advice" from 2001: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Advice.
14th Jul 2020
General questions
I'm trying to remember what movie it's from when the bad guy (I think) says "you find something that's important to them, and...you squeeze." Drawing a blank. Anyone know?
Chosen answer: "Mission Impossible." Kitteridge says it to his colleague, Barnes (when the Feds turn up at the place where Max and her team were, and find them gone) when describing how he's going to get Ethan to come out of hiding.
That's it! Fantastic, thank you. :-)
22nd Jan 2005
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Question: In the alternate 1985, there is an alternate Biff, Lorraine etc. Shouldn't there also be an alternate Marty and Doc?
Answer: Yep, and there is, but they're both elsewhere. Doc's been committed to an asylum somewhere. When Marty first meets the alternate Biff, Biff tells him that he's supposed to be in Switzerland at boarding school - that's where the alternate Marty is.
Wouldn't someone probably see Doc and report that he escaped from the asylum?
Maybe, but no way to be sure, and they're not around long enough for that to be an issue anyway.
Answer: Doc would most likely not have been seen by anyone, as the time he spent in the alternate 1985 was primarily inside the DeLorean, at a boarded-up library, graveyard, and his lab (and all at night too) so most likely not spotted by the public.
Even if someone had seen Doc, it could've been dismissed as someone who looks like him. Even if they did report his escape, someone would either call or go to the asylum and verify Doc was still there.
29th Jun 2020
Batman (1989)
Question: Given the Joker's been terrorizing the city and killing people why would anyone be stupid enough to show up for his parade regardless of money?
Answer: Well, given in 2020 there's a global pandemic with a highly contagious disease which is killing thousands, and some people are taking the suggestion / demand to wear a facemask as some sort of personal attack and gathering together to protest against the idea...don't ever underestimate the stupidity of some people. No doubt most of Gotham saw the parade as a dangerous/dreadful idea and stayed home, but there were plenty of idiots who couldn't see beyond their wallets.
Answer: Crime was running rampant in Gotham City and many business were shut down because of this. People were just barely scraping by and so when the Joker offered to drop money on the crowd for the festival, many people went into town out of desperation for some cash. Desperate people do desperate things.
21st Mar 2020
Dr. No (1962)
Question: Bond is the same character from this movie to Die Another Day, he doesn't age, but time still moves forward, Die Another Day is not set in the 60s. How do they explain that?
Answer: The short version is they don't, you just go with it. Suspension of disbelief, sure it's a "mistake", but also so in your face that nobody cares, because it's a deliberate choice. Q gets older, Bond doesn't, that's how the world works. One fan theory is that "James Bond" is just a codename allocated to the current 007, so as to mislead/confuse our enemies, with each one learning the history that has come before. Fun theory, but no way to prove/disprove it either way. Although No Time to Die features a new 007 because Bond has quit, so that will likely kill that theory once and for all. When Daniel Craig's term as Bond ends will be interesting, because the films to date have been the only Bond films with a clear continuous through line, including him getting older, more beaten up, more accumulated history, etc. That's harder to hand-wave away with a recasting - previous Bond films were all pretty much entirely standalone.
12th Feb 2020
Joker (2019)
Question: Regardless of any crossover or franchises, I know Joaquin Phoenix said he has no interest, I get that. My question is that regardless of all that, does this movie take place in the same universe as Robert Pattinson's "The Batman" or has it been denied or neither confirmed or denied as of right now?
Answer: No-one's saying anything at the moment. There's a rumour that The Batman is set in the 90s, which seems an odd choice unless they're specifically leaving the door open to tie the films' worlds together. That said given Robert Pattinson is 34 and Bruce in Joker was played by a then-9 year old, the ages don't quite line up for them being connected, even in the 90s.
25th Jan 2020
Star Wars (1977)
Question: Are lightsabers capable of cutting through any substance, or are there objects in the franchise (even if the examples are no longer canon) that have been specifically mentioned as being resistant?
Answer: There are several substances in canon and non-canon that are resistant to lightsabers. Beskar, also known as Mandalorian iron or Mandalorian steel was used to make armor and weapons by the Mandalorian people. Cortosis was an ore that, when heavily refined, stopped lightsaber blades and blaster bolts. Phrik was another metal, used in Darth Sidious' lightsabers and the electrostaffs used by Grievous' robot guards. Neuranium was a very, very dense and heavy metal that was partially resistant to lightsabers, but was more often used to shield from scanners. The species orbalisk and vonduun crab had carapaces that could withstand the blow of a lightsaber.
Answer: The Force Awakens features stormtroopers using the "Z6 riot control baton", which they use to block the lightsaber when Finn uses it.
Is it the baton itself that is resistant, or the energy surge around it? Because I know Snoke's guards were able to block lightsabers with energized weapons as well.
Yes you see them in Episode III as well when fighting on the bridge of the chancellor's ship. My guess is the energy blocks the lightsaber. It's logical they would come up with some sort of technology to block lightsabers if materials that can block them are that rare.
Answer: There are a handful of items, but I don't believe any have been mentioned or shown in the film series (other than another lightsaber itself). Mandalorian Iron (also known as Beskar) and Phrix are resistant to lightsaber attacks and have been mentioned in the TV show "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", but I don't recall if their resistance is specifically mentioned in the show.
10th Jan 2020
General questions
Which movie has the least amount of mistakes on this site?
Answer: Trouble is the database here has a LOT of films which have 0 mistakes (over 2000). But that of course doesn't mean they don't have any mistakes, just that nobody's submitted any yet. :-) And plenty of those are somewhat obscure titles which someone might have submitted a quote for or asked a question for. That said, a few mainstream titles leap out, based on the number of people who've visited the pages recently but the film *still* has no mistakes: Early Man, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Sleuth (2007), Rashomon, I Love You Man, Super Troopers 2, Black Water, Logan Lucky, The Lighthouse, Margin Call, Ghost in the Shell (2017), Hard Candy, The Babadook, Detective Pikachu, Six Degrees of Separation. And many others! But if anyone wants to start mistake hunting in those movies, go for it.
Answer: Just to expand on my answer, not counting short films and documentaries, it is estimated that there are over 500,000 feature-length movies in existence. For it to be determined which film has the least amount of mistakes, every film would have to be closely analyzed. Continuity mistakes are the most common and unavoidable type of mistake, and even older and extremely popular movies such as "Star Wars" still have newer continuity mistakes being discovered even to this day.
Answer: The movie with the least amount of mistakes? Easy, any movie with 0 mistakes! Can't have less than that. So, any movie not yet on this website is automatically 'the movie with the least amount of mistakes', until proven differently! I am kinda being facetious of course. This question is generally posed as "is there a perfect movie / a movie with no mistakes?" I think it's safe to say that the more complex a movie is, the more likely it is to have mistakes. Especially in term of editing, as the so called continuity mistakes are almost inevitable. I remember in particular a movie from Greek cinematographer Theo Angelopoulos, "The Suspended Step of the Stork." Angelopulous had a filming style based on long continuous shots, and he was extremely precise. Plus the movie was mostly shot in landscapes.The only mistake I ever found in that movie was simply a translation error in hard captions, so not really the cinematographer's fault. Hope you can find a 'perfect' movie too.
8th Jan 2020
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
13th Dec 2019
Die Hard (1988)
Question: They say the wires for the electromagnetic seal "can't be cut locally" - how is that possible? I mean at some point the electricity for them has to come into the building, surely?
Chosen answer: I took this to mean that cutting the lines themselves wouldn't open the safe. The safe is designed such that the physical locks could be destroyed but the electromagnetic lock wouldn't open unless the power to the entire building was shut off.
But my point is they've got control of the building, including the basement/anywhere else. General power has to enter the building from the street somewhere, and I don't see how they wouldn't be able to just cut through a main power cable and achieve exactly the same result as a switch being flipped by a city engineer.
The city engineer shuts down an entire city grid. I think that has something to do with it. It's not as simple as cutting a power line or flipping a switch.
I get that's the argument, I just don't see how. Because eventually it has to come down to the building being connected to the city grid via...something, and I don't see why the bad guys couldn't just interfere with that "something" themselves. There's either a technical reason or it's a plot hole, but I'm not really bothered about the mistake aspect, it's more just a query my brain can't let go of and I want the answer. :-).
Answer: There's no mention as to where the cables actually enter the building. They could come in via the basement, there could be a separate utility room that can only be accessed from outside or the cables could simply be inside a wall somewhere. They'd probably need to find the building blueprints to find out where the cables come into the building.
2nd Dec 2013
Frozen (2013)
Question: When the king and queen set off on their ship, where is their journey to and for what reason?
Answer: This is answered in the sequel - they were actually heading north across the Dark Sea, trying to find the source of Elsa's power, either to help her, "cure" her, or if nothing else understand things better.
Answer: The creators gave two reasons when asked, one stated they were going to Fantasy Land and another stated a wedding.
4th Dec 2019
Friends (1994)
The One With The Dirty Girl - S4-E6
Question: Monica: "I can cook and you can take care of the money." Phoebe: "Oh! It will be like I have a wife in the 50's!" What did Phoebe mean? (00:18:50)
Answer: Exactly as she said - in the 50s it was near-universal for husbands to work and be the sole breadwinner/handle finances, while their wives stayed home and managed the house, including cooking.
22nd Oct 2019
Downton Abbey (2019)
Question: The Lord of Downton in the movie states "The King and Queen are coming to Downton." Since they are British, wouldn't he have said, "Your Majesties are coming to Downton"? Also, isn't the wife of the monarch of the United Kingdom called the "King Consort" not the Queen? I know Prince Philip is not called "King", he is the Queen Consort.
Answer: Re the first part, it's just a matter of word choice, not a mistake, even if it might be "wrong" from an etiquette point of view. For the second question, no, the wife of the King is called the Queen, conventionally. Technically "Queen consort", to draw a distinction from the reigning monarch, in that she has the title of Queen but not the same political power. But the husband of a reigning Queen isn't called a King, or even a King consort, generally, because in the UK a King is viewed as a higher authority, so would imply a greater status than that of his wife, who's the actual monarch. Prince Philip isn't the Queen consort, he would be a Prince Consort, but doesn't have that title, hes a "Prince of the United Kingdom." The only husband of a Queen to have held the title of Prince Consort was Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria. It's largely a semantic/title difference and comes down to personal preference/the will of the reigning monarch.
16th Oct 2019
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: One thing I've never got is why Snape is so rude to Harry when he first meets him in Potions class in this movie. I get that he hates Harry because he looks like James, and James and his friends made fun of him when they were younger, and Lily chose James over him, but if his love for Lily is so strong that he's willing to protect Harry (along with the other teachers and other people throughout the movies and books) for her, then why is he so horrid to him?
Answer: I always figured it boils down to doing the right thing in terms of the big picture, but that doesn't mean he has to like it, or be nice about it.
Answer: Snape was a complicated and conflicted man. His hatred for James Potter was so irreparably deep, it made him uncivil to Harry. Harry's strong resemblance and similar personality and temperament to his father didn't help. When Snape looked at Harry, he saw James. It wasn't fair or right, but it was a personality flaw Snape never overcame. Snape's undying love for Lily and his commitment to defeating Voldemort propelled him to protect Harry. Also, Snape's hatred toward Harry may seem extreme, but it is used as a literary device to create conflict and tension within the story. If Snape had acted kindly to Harry, it could have revealed his true intent and allegiance. Readers are deliberately kept in the dark about his motives and anti-hero character until the end.
7th Oct 2019
Daredevil (2003)
Question: When Matt Murdock becomes blind his other senses are enhanced. Is this possible in reality?
Answer: Not to the extent in the show, of course, but it can absolutely happen to an extent: https://www.livescience.com/58373-blindness-heightened-senses.html. In short the brain is quite "plastic" and good at redirecting its resources where needed. Not being able to see can "free up" brain power and improve other areas. Only up to a point, of course.
20th Sep 2019
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: I've been looking all over for this answer and can't find it. I know this has been asked, but it has not been properly answered to what I can find. At the end of "War of the Worlds", Tom Cruise saw the birds and realised the shields were down. How did the shields deactivate? I understand that the aliens got sick and died from bacteria, but there must have been something else. Even if there were designated aliens to control each tripod's forcefield, there is no way that every "Shield duty" alien died before the other members of their crew, leaving their tripod mobile and vulnerable... Were they getting low on resources because they had eradicated too many humans too quickly? Did they decide that since the majority of people died, that they could focus on using more of their "fuel" towards mobility and capturing instead of combat?
Answer: I believe its supposed to be the tripods work on the alien's biology, so its powered by the presence of a Martian inside. So if the martian is sick, the tripod is sick.
That's always what I believed. This is further evidenced by the fact the tripods themselves have actually been on earth for millions of years, but they get "sick" when the Martians do. It has to be tied to the Martian's own health for that to make any sense.
Answer: Bear in mind if memory serves we only see that one tripod with no shields - other than that we're just told another one "behaved erratically" then went down. So there's no evidence that all the shields on all the tripods went down by default. Could well just be that with the one we see the alien inside was seriously ill, flailing about and deactivated the shields by mistake not long before becoming completely incapacitated.
27th Aug 2001
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Question: How does he fold the Monet in half to fit into the briefcase? Originally I thought he'd separated it from the wooden frame (ie. just a canvas), but when he takes it out back at his house he holds it up, and the wooden frame's still in one piece. Also, surely folding it in half would crack the paint, but despite the painting being twice the width of the briefcase (it fits snugly when the case is open), he then shuts the case down to a "normal" size. Any ideas?
Answer: I believe that the Monet that Crown hides in his study is not the one that was stolen, it is a copy that he already had prepared. He can enjoy the copy knowing that the original (with the broken spreader bars) is also in his possession. The stolen original then goes to the forger who repairs the broken spreader bars, and then paints another painting (using water soluble paint) over the Monet, so he can "return" it to the museum 3 days later. It gets more complicated when he discovers that Russo is on to him so he has a second forgery made (even the edges forged to match) over the top of "Dogs Playing Poker." He doesn't know if it will be necessary, but given his research into his new adversary, he concocts this contingency. It is likely that he has many contingencies in place, but the "Monet with a ghost underneath" is the only one we get to see. Of course for my theory to hold water, there must be (or have been) that earlier forgery - unless it has been destroyed.
Answer: The only explanation I can come up with is that the inner part of the frame is precut. With the frame cut that way it would allow the picture to fold, but when unfolded it would be fairly rigid with the exception of bending it forward at that point. When he pulls the painting out, it still holds the square shape of the frame. Best I can come up with.
Answer: He doesn't fold it. The frame is solid. It's just movie editing to make the viewer think he put it in her briefcase. You can't fold a Monet.
He absolutely folds it. We see him put it in the case and him then shut the case, folding it in half.
19th Jun 2019
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Question: *Spoiler* After Tony died, why didn't anyone just use the time stone to bring him back? We saw Thanos do this with Vision in Infinity War so not sure what was stopping anyone from doing the same.
Answer: Vision was killed by Wanda, and Thanos just rewound that "bubble" of time so he was alive. Tony on the other hand was killed due to his internal injuries, caused by using the gauntlet. Rewind time to just before he died, and he'd still die again, because of the damage. Rewind it to before he even used the gauntlet...and he wouldn't have used the gauntlet, leaving Thanos and his army alive and kicking. That's of course assuming that the time stone can even alter events which have been caused by all 6 stones combined.
I have a further to this question however. The keeper of the Time Stone is Dr. Strange, and has been shown to have adept knowledge in it's usage since he first acquired it. They do have to return the stones back to the timelines where they originally got them to keep the time lines from really getting screwed up, meaning the stones in their time would still have been destroyed by Thanos 5 years prior. However, what exactly would keep Dr. Strange, someone that powerful and knowledgeable of the Time Stone, from using it to reverse Tony at that point? As demonstrated in his solo movie, he can manipulate time around a single object... i.e. the apple he makes rot/eaten/and whole again without affecting anything else around it. So why can he not do the same for Tony, unless undoing that would make it so he never snapped, but that would only be in that little bubble like you said. It could create a paradox possibly, but this question brings up this issue as well.
The snap caused his death. If he reverses time, he dies again. If he goes back further, he undoes the snap. There isn't a little bubble. The time stone can't be that powerful to undo the ramifications of the snap.
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Answer: Ahsoka Tano uses white lightsabers later in life: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ahsoka_Tano%27s_white_lightsabers, reflecting her choice not to affiliate with the Jedi or Sith. While yet to be confirmed, Rosario Dawson is strongly rumoured to be playing the character in season 2 of The Mandalorian, and we may well see her with white lightsabers in live action then.
Jon Sandys ★