Myridon

3rd Nov 2005

Gladiator (2000)

Question: After seeing 'Gladiator' I looked up a few pictures of Tommy Flanagan (Cicero, Maximus' friend) and in all of them he has a noticeable mark on the side of his face. Is this a scar or a birth mark or something? Could someone please tell me?

Answer: He received that scar when he was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant outside a pub.

Myridon

Answer: Military Assault Command Operations. The shark on their patches is presumably a mako shark.

Myridon

Answer: Yes, try searching eBay for Oscar Goldman million. There are 6 on sale as I'm typing this.

Myridon

Question: If the ring was trying to make it's way back to Sauron, then why didn't it do shortly after being discovered by Bilbo as was witnessed at the start of the first movie or by Smeagol at the start of the third movie?

Answer: Smeagol found the Ring about the year 2463 of the Third Age (the first movie starts in 3017). Sauron was still very weak, practically dead at that time. Then Smeagol was hiding in the caves underneath the mountains where the Ring couldn't even be sensed for almost 500 years until Bilbo found it in 2941. Bilbo took the Ring back to the Shire which was farther away from Sauron so that Sauron had to grow quite a bit stronger before he was able to "reach out" for the Ring.

Myridon

2nd Sep 2005

American Beauty (1999)

Question: What variety of rose was used in the film throughout the house as arrangements, petals and the plantings in the Burnham yard? It doesn't look like American Beauty as that rose is pink and a climber.

Answer: The American Beauty rose has several cultivars, both bush and climbing and several colors including red and white.

Myridon

2nd Sep 2005

Peter Pan (2003)

Question: If Peter Pan says that the Lost Boys fell out of their prams and weren't claimed in 7 days so they were sent to Neverland. This would make them infants. Why then are they like 7-12 years old if Neverland doesn't make you age?

Answer: It's not that you never age, it's that you never grow up, i.e. pass into puberty and become an adult.

Myridon

Question: What species is Darth Maul? Is he just a human severely disfigured by the dark side? Is that just make up to make himself look scary? Or is he some strange type of being?

Answer: He is a Zabrak, a alien species. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Maul.

Myridon

Question: I have seen on many posters that the tagline for this film is " Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit". Did I read the poster incorrectly, or is there a translation for this?

Answer: "Lorem Ipsum Dolor..." is the beginning of a piece of nonsense text that typesetters often use to hold the place where the actual text will be when it is written. You have either vastly misread the posters or seen a lot of pre-production posters.

Myridon

Question: People have said that Maggie has the right to refuse the breathing tube. But wouldn't that kill her? That would be suicide and suicide is illegal. Isn't that why Frankie needs to help her? Surely the doctors know if you cut off her breathing source that would be suicide and she doesn't have the right to do that. But I don't know very much about this issue either.

Answer: Refusing medical treatment is not considered suicide. Anyway, suicide's not illegal: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040326.html.

Myridon

15th Aug 2005

Friends (1994)

Answer: Monica just said "You guys haven't gotten your presents yet? Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, what are you gonna do?" It's a reference to the sappy dialog in all those Rankin/Bass claymation Christmas specials. Google "claymation" if you're after a description of the technical side.

Myridon

5th Aug 2005

General questions

There is a very old movie I saw as a kid. It is about a robotic grandmother who is delivered to this family to help them out. The biggest scene I remember is her shooting milk from her fingers. Anyone know what movie this is?

Answer: Probably "The Electric Grandmother" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083876/ or some other movie or TV episode based on Ray Bradbury's short story "I Sing the Body Electric". A Twilight Zone episode was called that.

Myridon

3rd Aug 2005

House, M.D. (2004)

Answer: Medicinae Doctor in Latin which is Doctor of Medicine in English.

Myridon

24th Jul 2005

Saw (2004)

Question: After Zep is killed and before Lawrence leaves the room to get help, why doesn't he take Zep's gun to shoot Adam's chains? They probably didn't know how many bullets were left on the gun, so it's possible that there would have been at least one bullet left?

Answer: Shooting at anything solid like chains or a wall with a gun is never a very good idea. First, it is very unlikely to work, and secondly, the bullet is bound to ricochet seriously injuring one or both of them while leaving the chains untouched.

Myridon

24th Jul 2005

Gilmore Girls (2000)

Answer: Daughters of the American Revolution is an organization for women. Part of the membership requirements is that you have to prove that one of your ancestors was a "Patriot of the American Revolution", i.e. in America back in the 1770's and working on the American side. Stereotypically (not true but assumed), the membership are upper-class snobs like Emily.

Myridon

27th Jul 2005

Fantastic Four (2005)

Question: What is the significance of Latveria? It is referenced to a few times in the movie.

Answer: Latveria, in the comics, is a small country in the Balkans that Dr. Doom took over and became king of, see http://www.ffplaza.com/commcenter/articles/Latveria.shtml.

Myridon

25th Jul 2005

General questions

There is a Mary Chapin Carpenter song called "10,000 miles" that was used in a movie, maybe as the theme song? It has been driving me nuts, as I keep hearing the song on a CD we have at the office and I can't place the movie. It is a very plaintive song that starts off "Fare thee well, my own true love."

Answer: MCC's song "10,000 Miles" appears in the soundtrack of the movie "Fly Away Home".

Myridon

24th Jul 2005

Fantastic Four (2005)

Question: Can someone tell me the significance of Thing's girlfriend? Is she some kind of superhero?

Answer: In the comic books, Thing's girlfried, Alicia Masters, was blinded by an explosion of radioactive clay made by her father, the Puppetmaster. She has no super powers, but being blind, she can "see" past Ben Grimm's monstrous exterior.

Myridon

22nd Jul 2005

Meet the Fockers (2004)

Question: I probably missed this, but why does Dina keep saying, "muskrat" to Jack?

Answer: Muskrat is a "code word" they use to remind Jack to keep his temper under control.

Myridon

6th Jul 2005

General questions

If you ever aim a video camera at a TV screen or a computer monitor, you can easily notice how the screen is refreshing itself. But in almost any show or movie I watch, you don't see this effect. My question is: how are TVs/monitors filmed so that the refresh rates don't show up?

Answer: You have to use some way of synching the camera to the monitor's refresh rate. See: http://www.filmmaking.net/faq/answers/faq107.asp?catid=2.

Myridon

Question: When one of the characters shoots an arrow and then says, "We're from Georgia", what does he mean?

Answer: Will Scarlet says, "My whole name is Will Scarlet O'Hara. We're from Georgia." Scarlet O'Hara is a character from "Gone with the Wind" which is set in Georgia.

Myridon

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