Question: Is it possible to shoot the pilot of an enemy bi-plane in mid-air with a handgun? I would have thought the high wind velocity would have blown the bullet sideways, but I'm hardly an expert.
Gavin Jackson
5th Oct 2010
Flyboys (2006)
5th Oct 2010
Chicken Run (2000)
Question: Why didn't Rocky simply tell Ginger at the start that he couldn't fly, instead of dragging everyone through that whole charade. I realise that it was crucial to the plot, but was there any other reason?
Chosen answer: Because he wanted them all to have something to look forward to, he didn't want to let them down. Plus Rocky is very bigheaded, it would no doubt be embarrassing for him to admit that he couldn't fly.
Answer: The exchange was he would teach them to fly so he could hide out from the circus and he didn't have anything else to offer them.
Answer: Because Rocky is a coward.
He's a rooster on a farm full of female chickens. Think about it.
19th Sep 2010
Short Time (1990)
Other mistake: If Burt honestly believes he only has days left to live, wouldn't he be wondering why he isn't displaying any symptoms of illness (coughing, fever, pain etc). Also why wasn't he prescribed any kind of medication by the doctor who gave him this prognosis. Kinda silly really.
12th Sep 2010
Presumed Innocent (1990)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film when Harrison Ford is working on the fence, it would have been at least a month since the murder took place. But when he discovers the murder weapon, the blood is still fresh and shows no signs of coagulation.
16th Jul 2010
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Question: When this film was being released, I read a rumour somewhere that Lucas originally wanted actor John Houseman to play Indy's father. Given that at the time Houseman was in his mid-80s and in poor health (He passed away when the film was in production), was there any truth to this story?
Chosen answer: Not at least according to the "making of" DVD included in the trilogy box set. According to Spielberg, he always wanted to direct a James Bond film. In Spielberg's thinking, a 1930s action hero could only have one father - James Bond, and also according to Spielberg, he thought only of Connery.
16th Jul 2010
I Am Legend (2007)
Question: Is the scene where Will smith recites all the movie dialogue while it is playing in the original Richard Matheson novel, or was it just a homage to The Omega man (where Charlton Heston does something similar)?
Chosen answer: It's an homage to the Omega Man.
25th May 2010
Avatar (2009)
Question: Why doesn't Jake show any kind of emotion when he watches his brother being cremated at the beginning? I realise that the brother was the higher achiever of the two, but to not show as much as a tear for him seems really odd to me.
7th May 2010
Creepshow 2 (1987)
Question: Not including the animation sequences, why did this film only have 3 live stories (unlike the original which had 5).
Chosen answer: Beacause the ones from the first ones are short, but the ones from this one are long. So they probly cut it to three to save the budget.
4th Apr 2010
No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)
Revealing mistake: When Jason is doing a two fingered push-up on the table in the park, a wire can be seen on his back lifting him up. The mistake has been fixed with proper framing in recent home video versions.
4th Mar 2010
S.W.A.T. (2003)
Question: Why did Mccabe turn against SWAT at the end?
Chosen answer: Because he was offered a lot of money. $100 million is a lot of money to turn down for someone on a policeman's salary.
4th Mar 2010
Mad Max (1979)
Question: Whatever happened to the 2 cops from the beginning that were in the March hare pursuit vehicle? We never see them again after the beginning. Did they die when their car overturned or what?
Chosen answer: Yes, they died. One of the other MFP officers says after the crash that "they're wasted".
11th Feb 2010
Family Ties (1982)
Question: Does anyone know which episode it was when Steven decided to grow a beard, or why he decided to grow one? I never watched the show in order and still can't figure out why he suddenly has one in the second half of the show's run.
Chosen answer: Steven Keaton (Michael Gross) did not grow the beard for an episode. He grew it between season 1 and season 2 as a character he was playing in an Off-Broadway play. When the show began taping for season 2, it was decided to have him keep it. It never was a plot point on the show.
11th Feb 2010
Cars (2006)
Question: Many people have observed this has virtually the same plot as the 1991 film Doc Hollywood. Did Warner Bros. ever have any comment on that?
Chosen answer: Nope, nothing official was ever said. There are very few truly original film storylines these days; a close examination of most films would allow one to swiftly note plot similarities to any one of a number of preceding movies. Both Cars and Doc Hollywood fit neatly in a very standard storyline of an outsider coming into an unfamiliar cultural group, which they learn to appreciate and benefit from, while their presence likewise benefits the group they encounter. While the two are unusually similar, no comment on the subject was ever made.
28th Jan 2010
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: Does anyone have any clue as to why the aliens are vapourising people when they first appear? They never seem to do it again after that one scene (instead opting to grab them and drain them). Any help would be appreciated.
Chosen answer: The aliens saw the humans as an immediate threat to their ship getting out from underground, so opted to vaporise anyone in the near vicinity so that it could leave the ground unimpeded.
Answer: In the movie there are 3 different Tripods 1. Fighting Machine 2. Brute (Seen at the ferry coming out of the water) 3. Harvesters which take the humans.
Answer: My guess is that they are in search of a specific blood type needed for the growth of the vines that is why some people are harvested and other people with "useless" blood types are killed off.
18th Jan 2010
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: Why did Obi-wan say to Luke "You will go to the Dagobah system" as opposed to "You must go"? Was he simply giving him an order? Seems strange considering Luke was very close to freezing to death when he said it.
Chosen answer: Obi-wan's one with the Force at this point, so, given that the Force has been shown to grant precognitive visions, he may simply have seen that Luke survives and does go to Dagobah and is telling Luke that he will go there as a statement of fact. Or it could just be a bit poorly worded.
9th Jan 2010
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Factual error: One submission stated that when the Cuban hitman is killed with the arrow from Melina's crossbow, it goes in his back when it should have gone in his side. The corrector stated that we have no idea what angle she was firing from. Well, it is clear that she was standing at the left side of the pool (since we get a point of view shot from her) when he's about to dive in, and she shoots from there. She couldn't have got behind him that fast. So there is no way she could have got him squarely in the back.
18th Dec 2009
First Blood (1982)
Question: I actually have two questions about this film. Firstly, does Rambo actually kill anyone in this film? Dennehy doesn't die and he didn't kill Galt so was there anyone else? And secondly when Rambo arrives at the cliff face, why didn't he simply run to his right or left? The police were only coming at him from behind (and even if one of them came from the side, Rambo could have used his skills to get past him). So why did he feel that going down the cliff was his only option?
Chosen answer: No he doesn't kill anyone. He didn't know if he was surrounded or not and if he did encounter one from the side they might have shot him.
Rambo killed Galt, albeit indirectly and unintentionally. In the US, "manslaughter involves causing the death of another person in a manner less culpable than murder." Rambo was responsible for throwing a projectile that struck the helicopter, causing the pilot to lose control resulting in Galt falling to his death.
But if Galt had been buckled in, he'd have lived. He was behaving recklessly. Yes Rambo's rock was involved, but that's two steps removed from Galt's death. Rock thrown -> pilot overreacts -> Galt falls because he wasn't strapped in properly. Galt's own behaviour and the pilot's reaction are more at fault than Rambo. This isn't a court, by most reasonable standards Rambo didn't kill Galt.
25th Nov 2009
The Running Man (1987)
Plot hole: In the unedited video footage of the helicopter incident shown to the crowd, the last shot of Arnie getting knocked out is seen from his perspective and as such could never have been filmed by any camera.
9th Nov 2009
Casino Royale (2006)
Question: In this film Bond almost dies when he is poisoned and discovers that his portable defibrillator has a broken wire. My question is, has this been the only time in the entire bond series that a Bond gadget has had a fault and not worked properly, or have there been been other instances?
Answer: The defibrillator did not have a fault, due to the fact the Bond nearly falls unconscious he forgot to properly connect both cables to the main device.
Chosen answer: It isn't the first time a Bond gadget didn't work. Most notably, the machine guns mounted on a gyrocopter in You Only Live Twice, and a fake nipple (can't believe I just said that!). It should be noted though that this Bond gadget didn't have a fault, Bond just did not plug the two patches into the Defibrillator, which is what Vesper does when she runs up to the car, thus saving Bond's life.
Regarding the defibrillator - it should have been stored with the wires already attached firmly to prevent exactly this issue. It's different in a hospital / ambulance where the same device is used on multiple patients and thus has easily changeable pads / wires. So it's not broken, but the Q branch forgot to adapt it for the intended use.
Answer: In Never Say Never Again, Bond's explosive projectile-shooting pen fires at Fatima Blush, but the projectile that strikes her only explodes after an unexpected delay, leading both her and Bond to assume that it has malfunctioned.
9th Nov 2009
Backdraft (1991)
Question: Can someone please tell me why Kurt Russell is playing his own father in the flashback scenes. I just don't understand why.
Chosen answer: Why not? There's no reason why an actor couldn't play his own father at the same age - indeed, it can serve to emphasise a family resemblence between father and son. It can also serve as a swift way of letting the audience know that this is the father, rather than having a different actor come in and have to have the relationship established through dialogue.
Chosen answer: Biplanes were not very fast in flight. For instance a Sopwith Camel at about 5000 ft altitude had a cruise speed of approximately 100 mph. A Fokker had a cruise speed of about 95 mph. A typical WWI handgun could shoot 830 feet per second. With the distances between the planes as shown in the movie, a bullet could travel between the planes in less than half a second. The pilot would have to lead the target some, but he conceivably could hit the other pilot if close enough.
rswarrior