zendaddy621

19th Jul 2021

Lethal Weapon (1987)

Question: Who's the actor that played the jumper...? IMDB doesn't say... I thought I heard once that it's Mel Gibson's brother? He looks like the character "Johnny" in Mad Max.

Answer: The jumper's name was Len McCleary. He was played by Michael Shaner and is credited for the role in the film (and on IMDB).

Bishop73

Answer: Also, "Johnny The Boy" from the first Mad Max film was played by Tim Burns, according to Wikipedia; not only is he a completely different actor, but he is also obviously not Mel Gibson's brother.

zendaddy621

Question: When Marty arrives back in the alternate 1985, he's attacked by a black man when he unknowingly breaks into what he thought to be his home. Could this man be former mayor Goldie Wilson?

Answer: No, it's a different character and a different actor. Goldie Wilson is played by Donald Fullilove. The dad with the bat who chases Marty out of the house is played by Al White.

Sierra1

That doesn't necessarily mean that it's two different characters; George McFly, for example, was portrayed by both Crispin Glover using archived footage from the first film and Jeffrey Weissman in newly filmed footage. While the character played by Al White is credited simply as "Dad", there's no confirmation either way whether this was an alternate version of Goldie Wilson.

zendaddy621

The answer is correct, the Dad is not meant to be Goldie Wilson. In the novelization of the film, he's given the name "Lewis." And while some characters were recast, Donald Fullilove (the actor that played Goldie) himself already appears in "Back to the Future Part II", so it's not like they recast him.

Bishop73

Unless there's any indication it's the same charector, or at least a clue to point in that direction, then there's no reason at all to assume it "might" be.

The_Iceman

While there was no clear-cut answer on whether this was Goldie, I think it is safe to assume it is not him. This franchise has shown to make recurring characters very noticeable, even minor ones, such as the homeless man that Marty recognizes in 2 different timelines. Yes, sometimes actors get recast, as they did with George McFly and Jennifer Parker, but they made it quite clear they were playing the same character. I see absolutely nothing that would even suggest this was Goldie Wilson.

jshy7979

Jeffrey Weissman is credited as "George McFly", Crispin Glover is credited as "George McFly (archive footage) ", Donald Fullilove is uncredited but listed as "Goldie Wilson II" (on imdb). Al White being credited as "Dad" actually confirms to a T that he is not "Goldie Wilson" and nothing in that scene even remotely suggests that the family father portrayed by Al White might be Goldie Wilson from 1985-A (other than a viewer seeing a person of color and drawing conclusions). There also is no cause to question whether or not the "Dad" was supposed to be any other person of color seen in any of the 1985 timelines. (Not that another POC in that timeline would come to mind).

Glover is not credited the same way as Fullilove is since he's credited only as "archive footage" and Fullilove is uncredited. Glover doesn't physically appear in part 2 as Fullilove did.

Bishop73

I stand corrected and have edited my post. Thank you.

Answer: Also, the 1985 Goldie Wilson's picture was shown on a moving vehicle in part 1, and he looked very different from the father with the bat in part 2.

Answer: It could not be Goldie Wilson. In 1955, Goldie Wilson looks to be around in his early 20s in the cafe. This would put him to be early 50s in 1985. The father only looks to be in his 30s.

Answer: The breathing apparatus (similar to a respirator) built into Vader's suit was shorted out by an errant bolt of Force lightning when Vader picked up Emperor Palpatine and threw him down the shaft; watch closely during this scene and you'll see electricity arcing on Vader's torso. Removing Vader's mask had no effect since he was already dying; when Vader asked Luke to help remove the mask, Luke said, "But you'll die." to which Vader replied, "Nothing can stop that now." Vader simply wanted to look upon Luke with his own eyes rather than through the mask for once.

zendaddy621

While Vader is dying Luke said that he won't leave him he's got to save him. Vader said "you already have Luke". What did Vader mean by that?

By rising up against Palpatine and saving Luke's life, Vader finally broke free from the dark side of the Force; though it cost him his life, Vader meant that Luke had ultimately helped him find redemption.

zendaddy621

Answer: Vader's entire suit is a life support system. As he was pretty much invincible for most of his appearances he has never been in danger. The Emperor is the first person on screen to actually damage the life support system itself, so Vader is dying as soon as he is zapped. Luke tells him he will die if the helmet is removed, but Vader says he is already dead, as we can see his cranial injuries and pale skin, plus he cannot even move his arms and legs which are cybernetic. He's pretty much a goner.

Answer: During the duel, the injuries Vader sustained from Palpatine's electrical bolts as he was being thrown into the shaft were a factor. Once Luke removed Vader's helmet as he requested, it sealed his fate as he could not survive without the life support system built into his damaged suit that kept him breathing and his body functioning.

raywest

25th Feb 2021

The Twilight Zone (1985)

Examination Day - S1-E14

Question: At the end of the episode, Dicky's parents are called and informed that the government has killed him? Why did they do this?

Answer: They live in a totalitarian state where people who are deemed too smart (and therefore a threat to the authorities) are done away with. That's the point of the test, to eliminate potential troublemakers.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It's the opposite - not smart but dumb. The voice said he failed to get a perfect score, less than one hundred percent.

Quote: "We regret to inform you that your son's intelligence quotient has EXCEEDED the government standard, according to section blah blah blah of the New Code." As in the original short story, they were eliminating intelligent people.

Brian Katcher

Where can I find the short story?

It's in the compilation "100 Great Science Fiction Short Stories" edited by Isaac Asimov.

Brian Katcher

It's by Henry Slesar and a quick Google search will show you some online copies. It's only two pages.

Brian Katcher

According to Wikipedia, it was first published in the February 1958 issue of Playboy magazine; it may have been reprinted elsewhere since then.

zendaddy621

21st Feb 2021

Mad Max 2 (1981)

Question: Did Max know the tanker was full of sand before it crashed?

Answer: No, Max even puts his hand under the stream of sand pouring out of the trailer as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Answer: No, because it was necessary for Max to believe he was hauling the tanker filled with fuel so that the ruse leading the marauders away from the settlers' compound could work. After Max drove the decoy tanker away with the marauders in pursuit, the settlers were able to smuggle the fuel away in oil drums concealed in other vehicles.

zendaddy621

18th Jan 2021

Timecop (1994)

Question: What song was Atwood listening to on his headset?

Answer: According to IMDb, the title is "Sleazebucket Pull", by Fudge Factory Inc.

zendaddy621

12th Jan 2021

Stir Crazy (1980)

Question: Why did all the bank patrons look annoyed when the bank robbers used the jingle that Harry and Skip used?

Answer: The robbers' performance was poorly done and unrehearsed as opposed to Skip and Harry's performance from earlier in the film, which was enjoyed and even applauded by the bank customers.

zendaddy621

Question: Is the T-1000 aware that the T-800 also travelled back in time? When Todd mentions a "big guy on a bike" looking for John the T-1000 gives a knowing look, but how would he know about the T-800?

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: He told the foster parents, "I wouldn't worry about him" (or something to that effect). It didn't really matter who the biker was - John (and his foster parents) were in danger from the T-1000 himself.

KeyZOid

Answer: It's never made clear within the film; however, the T-1000 may have been programmed to anticipate that the human resistance might send a reprogrammed T-800 back to the same point in time for unexplained reasons, such as surveillance by Skynet in the future, or Skynet could have simply anticipated such an action by the resistance, especially seeing as how the resistance had already sent Kyle Reese back in the first film.

zendaddy621

28th Oct 2020

Three's Company (1977)

Snow Job - S4-E4

Question: Lana Shields became a regular cast member then she disappeared from show without any explanation, why?

Answer: No official explanation was given for why the Lana Shields character was abruptly written out after a handful of episodes. Ann Wedgeworth, the actress who played Lana, said she was never given a reason, but according to Wedgeworth's daughter, her late mother was unhappy playing a one-dimensional character that had little development potential. The daughter said Wedgeworth and the Three's Company producers came to a mutual agreement for her to leave the show.

raywest

Answer: John Ritter also said in interviews that there was no way that Jack would continue to resist Lana's advances since she was attractive and Jack was notoriously sex-crazed, so that could have been a factor as well.

zendaddy621

25th Oct 2020

Scarface (1983)

Question: Just why doesn't Tony want his sister Gina to be married to his best friend?

Rob245

Answer: Tony is very protective of Gina because he views her as the only "pure" thing in his life; while Manny might be his best friend, Tony views Manny as "impure" since they are both heavily involved in criminal activity. Had Tony known before killing Manny that he and Gina were newlyweds late in the film, he probably would have respected their union even if he wasn't particularly happy about it since Manny had made Gina an "honest woman."

zendaddy621

21st Oct 2020

Quantum Leap (1989)

Star-Crossed - June 15, 1972 - S1-E3

Question: Al tells Sam that he's there to prevent the professor and his undergraduate student from having a shotgun wedding and ruining both their lives. That implies she got pregnant. Sam succeeds in keeping them apart. Um, does that mean he prevented someone from being born?

Brian Katcher

Answer: He means he's there to prevent there ever being the need for a shotgun wedding-that is, to stop the affair before there is a possibility of the girl getting pregnant.

raywest

Which would erase the child from history. That's my point.

Brian Katcher

Not if there was never any pregnancy to begin with. There was only the chance of one.

raywest

Answer: Not necessarily; it could also mean that someone such as Jamie Lee's (the student) father discovered that the professor was having a sexual relationship with her and coerced the two into getting married.

zendaddy621

This doesn't answer the question. You just described what a shotgun wedding is.

Bishop73

I think their point is that the "shotgun" aspect might not be due to a pregnancy, simply a forced attempt to legitimise an otherwise scandalous relationship.

My point was that a "shotgun wedding" doesn't always happen because an unmarried girl becomes pregnant; it can also happen because someone "stole her virtue", i.e had sex with her without being married or at least engaged to her. There's no reason to believe that Jamie Lee was, or would become, pregnant as a result of the affair or subsequent marriage.

zendaddy621

The term "shotgun wedding" means a forced marriage due to unexpected pregnancy. It's sometimes even used when the woman is pregnant but it's planned or the wedding isn't "forced." In common colloquialism (especially in the 80's when the script was written), it doesn't refer to a force marriage just because of premarital sex (which the term "make an honest woman" is used for).

Bishop73

No, in the 1926 Sinclair Lewis novel 'Elmer Gantry', they talk about shotgun weddings, when a groom is forced to marry a woman because he took her virginity. Obviously, the term usually refers to a pregnant bride, but I see zendaddys point.

Brian Katcher

Question: Why does Doc send Marty back to September 2nd? Doc gets shot on the 7th, so this is a very short timetable to work with.

Answer: The letter that Marty received in 1955 was dated September 1st, 1885; sending Marty back any earlier than that date could potentially cause a time paradox, which was something Doc took great care to avoid throughout the majority of the film trilogy.

zendaddy621

Marty can go back anytime in the 8 months and tell Doc that he will be murdered and to send a letter that was dated September 1st.

Answer: No one expected that the DeLorean's fuel tank would end up becoming damaged. If it weren't for that, Doc and Marty would had been able to return back to 1985 immediately.

Rassdyt

11th Sep 2020

American Dad (2005)

Show generally

Question: Why would the CIA be after Roger? They handle foreign problems. The FBI looks into alien and UFO sightings.

Rob245

Answer: This series is hardly an accurate depiction of the real CIA (or FBI, for that matter); for example, Avery Bullock would never be deputy director given his mental instability, and Stan would have been fired many times over for his incompetence.

zendaddy621

Answer: I always thought it was a play on words. They're harboring an alien, which could mean someone who isn't a citizen. But Roger is an outer space alien.

9th Aug 2020

Family Guy (1999)

I Dream of Jesus - S7-E2

Question: Brian is noted as not believing in God. How could Brian not believe in God when, in this episode, he has dinner with Jesus who is the son of God?

Answer: Brian was skeptical that Jesus was who he said he was throughout the episode; this even after Jesus performed the "miracles" of turning people's food into hot fudge sundaes and enlarging Lois' breasts. Being atheist, Brian would also probably not believe that Jesus was the son of God; some Biblical scholars question whether or not the "real" Jesus actually claimed to be the son of God.

zendaddy621

Question: How did the inmates on rooftops manage to get their hands on beer?

Answer: It was given to them by the guards.

lionhead

But isn't beer banned in prisons?

Guards can be bribed to bring in contraband.

raywest

Part of Andy's agreement with Hadley for helping him with his taxes is that the prisoners working on the roof are given some beer as a reward.

Phaneron

Andy gives Hadley (the head guard) financial advice on how to keep a large sum of money, which he (Hadley) received as an inheritance. Andy, being an accountant, offers to do all the necessary tax work, in exchange for three beers apiece for his fellow inmates. Hadley agrees, and arranges for the beer to be delivered and given to them. (All of this is shown in the scene immediately prior to that in which the inmates are drinking beer).

Answer: Under all but rare circumstances, alcoholic beverages are not allowed in US prisons, which was also the case in 1949, when this scene takes place; the significance of this scene is to establish that Andy began to enjoy special privileges while incarcerated, which is also how he eventually got the warden to allow him to establish the prison library.

zendaddy621

10th Jun 2020

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Question: Why wouldn't Harry have told the police and the newspapers that he believed Spider-Man killed Norman? If he did, why wouldn't Jameson write about it? And why would everyone love him? And why wouldn't the police want to question him?

MikeH

Answer: Throughout this film as well as the previous film in this trilogy, Harry wants to exact revenge upon Spider-Man personally, so involving the police could complicate things; if Spider-Man were to be arrested and taken into custody, then Harry would have a much harder time killing Spider-Man himself.

zendaddy621

10th Jun 2020

V for Vendetta (2005)

Question: Throughout the whole movie Sutler is being very tyrannical. When Sutler is captured and brought to Creedy, why is he suddenly terrified? I would have thought that he would scream at Creedy for betraying him.

Answer: Simply put, Sutler is much like many villainous characters in fiction: ruthless and cruel when giving orders from a place of safety, but cowardly when he loses the security that he's used to.

zendaddy621

5th Jun 2020

Batman (1989)

Question: Batman states Joker killed his parents, Joker acts confused. Then after being told he made Batman he says he was a kid when he did it. My question is did he remember, or was he humoring Batman?

Rob245

Answer: Thank you.

Rob245

Answer: The Joker most likely did recall the specific killing by that point, especially when Bruce confronted the Joker at Vicki Vale's apartment earlier in the film and told him the story of "a kid I once knew" followed by the physical confrontation in which the Joker "killed" Bruce. The Joker had enough time to put two and two together by the time of the climax at the clock tower; when Batman repeated the Joker's "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" line from earlier, everything fell in place within the Joker's memory.

zendaddy621

23rd May 2020

South Park (1997)

Show generally

Question: Whenever a character enters or calls City Wok, Tuong Lu Kim says "Can I take order, pree?" I get the show is playing with the stereotype of Asians mixing up their L's with R's, but why does he say "pree" instead of "prease?"

Phaneron

Chosen answer: City Wok is a real-world Chinese restaurant that happens to be a favorite of series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone; Mr. Kim's speech peculiarities are taken from his real-life counterpart, which is also why he says "Sh*tty Wok' rather than "City Wok" when he answers the phone.

zendaddy621

17th Mar 2020

The Warriors (1979)

Question: Why would the Riffs instantly believe that The Warriors did it? Wouldn't it have made sense, especially with the sheer numbers of The Riffs, that they search Cleon and anyone still there who they can get hold of?

Swan90EFC

Answer: The Riffs were informed of the Warriors' innocence of wrongdoing by a member of another gang who had no reason to lie on behalf of the Warriors or to frame Luther (the actual culprit). Apparently Luther had a reputation for dishonesty, among other things, whereas the Warriors were considered to be among the city's more "honorable" gangs.

zendaddy621

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