Sierra1

21st Jan 2014

Titanic (1997)

Question: In the scene with the little boy in the flooding hallway, what language are he and his dad speaking?

Answer: According to the script, it's Russian.

Sierra1

Answer: He is speaking in Czech.

Answer: It's either Czech or Slovak.

Question: Was any reason ever given as to why Gandalf chose Bilbo to go on this journey and not someone else?

Answer: In the film, Gandalf tells the dwarves he chose Bilbo because hobbits are light on their feet, and because Smaug would not recognise the scent of a hobbit as he would a dwarf. Also Bilbo is the most adventurous of the hobbits in the Shire. This reason is not in the book but is from the story "The Quest of Erebor" in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.

Sierra1

12th Jan 2014

Tombstone (1993)

Question: In the first scene in Tombstone the cowboys are in Mexico and the people are preparing a wedding feast. At one point bananas are being set on a table. Were bananas available in northern Mexico around 1880-81?

Chris Lind

Chosen answer: Yes, bananas were introduced to Mexico by Vasco de Quiroga in the 1550s. By the 1880s, there was massive banana production along the entire Caribbean coast from Columbia to Mexico.

Sierra1

2nd Jan 2014

Red Planet (2000)

Question: Originally all 6 crew members were initially going down to check on Mars oxygen level (including Carrie Ann Moss) but she had to stay behind to manually orbit the 5 guys out. How were they all planning to make it back to their spaceship if she had tagged along in the first place?

Answer: The ship (Mars-1) was hit by a solar flare that damaged several systems including the launch system (which is why Moss Bowman had to stay behind to launch the MEV [Mars Entry Vehicle.] manually). The MEV's guidance system was also damaged, causing it to crash and resulting in further damage. So all going well, Bowman and Santen would have piloted the MEV there and back, but due to the flare they had to find another way back to the ship.

Sierra1

Question: How did Jason know where Jarda, the last treadstone agent, lived? How do they know each other?

Answer: Either they trained together or just felt some comradeship as Treadstone assets. Jarda says "Word in the ether was you'd lost your memory" to which Bourne replies "You still should have moved", implying that prior to Bourne's amnesia he knew of the safehouse where Jarda lived. Also, in the first film, Bourne accessed the safehouse in Paris where Nicky Parsons managed Treadstone logistics, there could have been data on agent locations there.

Sierra1

11th Dec 2013

The Shining (1980)

Question: After saying that he would sell his soul for just one beer, Jack looks up and greets the barman Lloyd. Since this was Jack's first time at the hotel, how could he have known the barman's name?

Answer: In The Shining, both Jack and Danny experience psychic episodes and visions. Lloyd could be a product of Jack's (crazy) imagination, or he psychically knew Lloyd's name and that he's the best bartender from Timbuktu to Portland (Maine or Oregon). Or, as referenced in another question here, "Jack's soul is forever linked to the hotel, and every once in a while, he is reborn into the world, only to return to it and instigate more killings." So Lloyd's soul may be linked to the hotel in the same way that Jack's is, and they have always known each other just as Jack has "always been the caretaker."

Sierra1

Question: What does Professor Snape mean when he comments about three Gryffindors (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) being "inside on a day like this"? What day does he mean, and why should Gryffindors not be inside?

Answer: That usually means the weather is nice outside, so children should be playing outside rather than being inside. I don't think the fact they were Gryffindors was important, just that Snape was suspicious that they were inside on a nice day.

Sierra1

Question: What does Hirsch mean when he tells Vosen, "Just remember why we put Landy there." They talk about framing Landy for BlackBriar, but that never goes anywhere. What was their plan?

Brad

Chosen answer: In the next film, "The Bourne Legacy", we see Vosen testifying against Landy before a congressional committee. He implies that Blackbriar was solely an operation to capture a rogue Treadstone operative (Bourne), and that Landy was responsible for the program as she had aided Bourne.

Sierra1

13th Jan 2013

The Matrix (1999)

Question: In the scene in which Morpheus offers Neo the blue or red pill, what is the music that starts playing as Morpheus takes the pills out of his metal container and continues after they get up?

Answer: There was a bootleg version of the complete Don Davis score for the film going around - chronologically I would say this piece of music was part of the track titled "Down the Rabbit Hole."

Sierra1

18th Mar 2012

General questions

I am looking for the name of a movie about a grizzly bear trying to get honey for her cubs, and gets hit in the head by a rock and dies.

Answer: The Bear (1988) directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. The mother bear is burrowing on a mountainside and is killed by a large falling rock from a rockslide.

Sierra1

Question: Has there ever been a backstory written for Jaws? I would love to know where he came from, and how he came to be, so I was wondering if there has ever been one written, and where I can find it.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Yes, there was a backstory for the character of Jaws in Christopher Wood's novelisation of the film "James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me", not to be confused with the Ian Fleming novel.

Sierra1

13th Oct 2011

Hannibal (2001)

Answer: In the book it says that Clarice had caught Buffalo Bill before he could. It said also that is why he hated her early in the book.

Answer: Starling says to Krendler "Paul, what is it with you? I told you to go home to your wife, that was wrong?", implying that he had made a pass at her and she had rejected him. He replies that it was a long time ago, and that he didn't hold it against her, but combined with Mason Verger's bribe this was most likely the cause of his antagonism towards Starling.

Sierra1

11th Dec 2010

General questions

Okay it is a 70's-80's movie where this one area has been contaminated with something and the animals that are there get really mutated. The only things I remember was a mutated bear was attacking some peoples tents, and that a woman became contaminated because she ate a fish.

toby1kenobi

Chosen answer: Prophecy (1979) directed by John Frankenheimer - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079758.

Sierra1

16th Mar 2010

Brazil (1985)

Question: What is the relevence of the time 8:49pm that appears at the start of the film?

Answer: I don't think the time is particularly relevant, except that its exactness is in stark contrast to the temporal and locational vagueness of the next statement which is "...Somewhere in the 20th century".

Sierra1

Question: When Bond ejects the guy, strangling him into the underside of the jet flying above, why exactly does the latter jet end up exploding?

DEvans

Chosen answer: According to the script, the other jet is hit by the two heat-seeking missiles it had previously fired, although that's not very clear in the film and it looks like it explodes when hit by the co-pilot.

Sierra1

31st Oct 2010

JAG (1995)

Chosen answer: When landing on an aircraft carrier, a pilot "calls the ball" by confirming to the landing signal officer (LSO) that they have the carrier, and more specifically its landing guidance systems in sight. Carriers use a Fresnel lens system which is a light only visible at a certain angle, so if a pilot sees the "ball" they are at the correct altitude and glide slope for landing.

Sierra1

5th Oct 2010

General questions

I have a very vague memory of what I think is an episode from a British TV show. One of the main characters is transporting a criminal of some sort, via car, to somewhere else. The criminal (I think) is a nice man, I think he's a con-man, and he's friendly to the main character. After a while the criminal guy finds out the main character is having some kind of relationship or other social problem, and helps them out. I'm pretty sure this happens on a motorway service station. The episode ends with the criminal guy escaping but leaving behind a note saying he's sorry that he had to. I also remember something about the criminal guy conning someone out of the proper amount of change after buying something from a shop. I'm positive this is a British TV show, and I'm almost positive it was a comedy. All I know is that it's not "The Detectives".

Gary O'Reilly

Chosen answer: This sounds like an episode of "The Bill" from 1999 called "On the Road". DC Duncan Lennox and DC Liz Rawton travel to Salisbury to transport a conman back to London. From what I remember all the events you mention took place in the episode: Lennox having a problem, a scam involving an amount of change and at the end he leaves a note apologising for absconding.

Sierra1

25th Jun 2009

The Matrix (1999)

Question: In order for Cypher to speak to Agent Smith he must first, for want of a better word, 'plug' into the Matrix in order to accomplish this. My question is, how was he able to achieve this without his crew members finding out or seeing him 'plug' in to the Matrix?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: In the scene when Neo can't sleep and talks to Cypher, Cypher appears startled and quickly switches off the monitors. This seems to imply he is setting up some kind of "automatic" Matrix connection that will allow him to jack into the Matrix without an operator while the rest of the crew sleep.

Sierra1

Chosen answer: Seraph previously worked for the Merovingian, but left him to protect the Oracle, thus the Merovingian considers that Seraph has betrayed him.

Sierra1

16th Jan 2009

Dr. No (1962)

Question: Did the actress who dubbed the voice for Ursula Andress in Dr. No also dub for the Domino character in Thunderball? Also, who dubbed for Largo in Thunderball, and who else has he dubbed for in Bond movies?

Answer: Yes, Nikki Van der Zyl revoiced the roles of Honey (Ursula Andress) and Domino (Claudine Auger) in Dr. No and Thunderball respectively. Largo was revoiced by Robert Rietti, who also dubbed Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice and Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only.

Sierra1

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