Sierra1

14th May 2014

Speed (1994)

Question: What did Harry mean when he said to Jack "And I got shot... Another few inches and they would have given the medal to my wife." I still can't make complete sense of that line.

Chosen answer: Jack shot Harry in the upper leg, and Harry is presumably referring to the proximity of the femoral artery, a large and vital blood vessel in the thigh. If Jack's shot had hit him there, he would almost certainly have died within minutes, and they would have to give the bravery medal to his widow.

13th May 2014

The Sand Pebbles (1966)

Question: Why was the movie called "The Sand Pebbles?

Chosen answer: It's a pun on the name of the boat which features in the film: the fictional U. S. Navy ship USS San Pablo. The sailors on the San Pablo call themselves the sand pebbles.

6th May 2014

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Question: Can someone please explain why the uruk hai are being born through those mud sacs and why?

Answer: There is some contention about the origin of the orcs and the Uruk-hai, and it seems Tolkien was fairly vague on these points (are orcs corrupted elves, are the uruks half-orc/half-men?). Several web sources say that on the DVD commentary for Fellowship, Peter Jackson says that the Uruk-hai emerging from mud sacs was based on an early Tolkien line that orcs "worm their way out of the ground like maggots" - not sure where or when he said this, but it seems to be a movie-only notion.

6th May 2014

Zoey 101 (2005)

Question: In every shot that they have of them on the computer or when their phones ring, it rings the theme song of iCarly. If iCarly didn't start until 2007, then how is the theme song in Zoey 101?

Dakota Shea Gregory

Chosen answer: Zoey 101 and iCarly were both scored and composed by Michael Corcoran, so he may have written a short melody for the Zoey ringtone, and later re-used it for the song which was used as the iCarly theme.

6th May 2014

Frozen (2013)

Question: To date, Frozen is the highest grossing animated film of all time, beating Toy Story 3. I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me what animated film is highest if you account for inflation, or only count the number of tickets sold. For example, I know that Gone with the Wind out performed Avatar by ether criteria.

Answer: The website Box Office Mojo calculates inflation adjustment for box office grosses and worked out that the highest-grossing animated films was Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" from 1937.

6th May 2014

Blackadder (1986)

Plan D: Private Plane - S4-E4

Question: When Blackadder is imprisoned with Baldrick and notices the door has been left open, why doesn't he escape? Why does he want the door closed and locked?

Answer: The Baron tells Blackadder they will be sent to a convent school outside Heidelberg to spend the rest of the war teaching young girls home economics, which he sees as the ultimate humiliation. Blackadder, however, is delighted to be spending the rest of the war "teaching nuns how to boil eggs" rather than being shot at every day.

5th May 2014

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Question: Why does Saruman have the orcs cut down the trees to make the orcs, when it looks like the orcs are being "born" out of mud sacs...what's the significance of what the orcs are doing down in the hole in the ground?

Answer: In addition to "birthing" the Uruk-hai (the enhanced orc soldiers), Saruman's orcs were also forging armour and weapons for the army of Isengard, which is why they were cutting down the trees to use as fuel. They were underground as the Uruk-hai process seems to involve the earth or ground in some way.

1st May 2014

The Living Daylights (1987)

Question: In the hotel scene where Timothy Dalton meets Pushkin, why does he rip the girl's dress off?

Answer: Pushkin pushes a button on his watch to summon his bodyguard, but Bond sees him do it. He rips Ava's top off so the incoming guard will be "distracted" by her semi-nudity, allowing Bond to take him out.

29th Apr 2014

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Question: At the beginning of the film, when some of the monsters introduce themselves, what does the clown say after he takes his face off?

Answer: "I am the clown with the tear-away face, here in a flash and gone without a trace."

29th Apr 2014

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Question: What does Verbal Kint leave the police station with?

Answer: He had been arrested and was released on bail, so he was collecting his personal effects from the property officer, which were a gold watch, a gold lighter and packet of cigarettes.

21st Apr 2014

General questions

There was an animated movie in the 80's or 90's about a small girl being chased by werewolves. If I remember, they want to turn her into a werewolf as well. She is helped by a talking toad and with his help she manages to escape.

Answer: This sounds like "The Talking Parcel", a 1978 animated TV film made by Cosgrove Hall based on a book by Gerald Durrell.

21st Apr 2014

The Simpsons (1989)

Question: Which episode has Maggie in a crib, rattling a cup against the bars like a prisoner?

Answer: The episode was "Homer Alone".

15th Apr 2014

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Question: Chased by agents, Trinity chooses to jump out the window. With no reason to think she can be rescued, the fall will kill her. Why would she do that?

Answer: The script just says "With no choice left, Trinity dives through the window." I think she was pretty resigned to the fact she was going to die and just wanted to go out fighting as long as possible, with the very small possibility that she would survive the fall somehow.

15th Apr 2014

General questions

I am looking for a made for television movie that came out years ago. The movie is about a family with 2 young sons. The father favors the youngest son and is cold to the other. One day both boys went for a boat ride. The youngest boy accidentally falls off the boat and starts to drown. The older son tries to save him but he hesitates at first. The young boy drowns. The older son is under suspicion and might go to court. The father blames his older son for what happened. I believe that the mother separates from the father and supports her son and the father doesn't support him. That's the plot does anyone know the name? Thanks.

Answer: This is "Family Sins", a CBS TV movie from 1987.

15th Apr 2014

Seinfeld (1990)

Question: Who was the girl who could not swing her arms?

Answer: Elaine's co-worker Sam, played by Molly Shannon, in the episode "The Summer of George". Raquel Welch does this too in the same episode.

9th Apr 2014

Casino Royale (2006)

Question: Why is Vesper upset when she learns Bond used her name as the password?

Melissa Giacchetti

Chosen answer: It revealed that Bond was likely falling in love with her, so either they were "tears of joy" and she was emotional at this revelation, or she was actually quite upset as she had feelings for him too and was about to betray him by stealing the money for Quantum.

Answer: Or she didn't need him for the password after all. Which means she could have kept him out of the whole thing.

1st Apr 2014

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

Question: How many people are maimed or killed in the fight with the 88, from the bathroom to the death of O-Ren?

Answer: There are several answers to this question floating around the net which are supposedly based on an freeze-frame analysis of the film conducted by "Jonathan R. From Bouncing Ferret Films": 67 killed, 12 maimed, 1 killed by an axe thrown by somebody else, one possibly killed, one spanked. +1 for O-Ren I guess, so around 70 killed, 12 maimed. A few less than 88, but perhaps they were elsewhere, were killed previously or died in the club but were not shown.

They state there really aren't 88 they just call themselves that because it's cool.

1st Apr 2014

Love Actually (2003)

Question: Who is the actress we only see as photographs or slides in her funeral that played Liam Neeson's wife and Sam's mother?

Answer: The photos of Joanna (Daniel's wife and Sam's mother) were of documentary filmmaker Rebecca Frayn.

24th Mar 2014

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Question: How did Moira, Charles and the others get away from the island? They did not have someone who can teleport them away, the jet is broken and they had no possibility to communicate with the others. You can hardly expect the Russians or the Americans, who wanted to kill them a few minutes ago, to suddenly want to help them.

Answer: They do have the ability to communicate with the other mutants, via the powerful telepath Charles Xavier. He could also use mind control on the navy captains to make them rescue them, or any number of other possibilities.

18th Mar 2014

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Question: When George Clooney and Matt Damon are going to break into the vault they have two small silver round disks that they slide towards the guards. You see these disks pop open but don't see any type of gas or vapor emerge. Any idea what those things were?

Answer: According to the script, they are gas pellets. Most gases are invisible, but a lot of movies show visible vapour for theatrical effect.