Question: How did Steve return the soul stone?
Phaneron
5th Jun 2019
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
21st May 2019
Untraceable (2008)
Question: It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but I remember a scene in which the FBI gives a press conference urging users not to log on to the website, as they then become accessories to the murders. If that's the case, why not say that anyone who accesses the site to watch someone be killed will be charged as an accessory to murder since they can presumably identify the IP addresses of those who watch? It definitely would be a lot of people that would be charged and would cause its own separate and long investigation, but it could have deterred a lot of people from watching.
Answer: Most people who log onto a website know they can be traced through their IP address. Also, this is a movie, and plot details often are not logical or realistic.
For sure. But I guess to expand upon my question, is there any reason in particular in the real world why the FBI wouldn't threaten to charge people as accessories to murder? As in, are there any legal loopholes that would prohibit the FBI or any law enforcement agency in the U.S. from charging people if the extent of their involvement is driving up views which hasten the victims' deaths? I wanted to submit this as a mistake, but I didn't know if there were extenuating circumstances.
5th May 2019
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: Is Palpatine's identity a spoiler? The Episode IV-VI movies never mention the Emperor's name. In Episodes I-III, we can guess that Darth Sidious will be the emperor, but what about Chancellor Palpatine? If the audience didn't know that he was Sidious, the impact of the reveal would be far different than if they did.
Answer: This can vary from viewer to viewer. Before "The Phantom Menace" came out, I already knew Emperor Palpatine's name because I had the Kenner action figure of him, plus I knew the same actor was playing both characters. Someone else who may not be an astute viewer might not have known, though I find it hard to believe they wouldn't put all the pieces together by the time "Revenge of the Sith" came out.
4th May 2019
X-Men 2 (2003)
Question: In one of the last scenes, when the students go into the room with Professor X, there was a moment when he stopped and looked back, then smiled. Why did he do this? (02:04:25)
4th May 2019
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Question: When Kevin was Lost In New York, why didn't he ever just talk to a police officer or go to a hospital so he could get back safe?
Answer: He told his mom he would go on his own vacation without any of them the night before they flew out, and since he had his dad's credit card, he saw this as an opportunity to have fun without any of them.
Answer: Kevin may have developed a negative impression of and attitude toward the police from his encounter with Harry the previous Christmas when he was "home alone." Harry impersonated a police office in Kevin's home town. Kevin may have questioned police trustworthiness, or lack thereof, in NYC. Besides, Kevin knew his family was still on a plane destined to France or, once they reached their destination, they were too far away (i.e, not readily available) to collect him.
30th Apr 2019
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Question: Spoiler! Given Gamora is brought to 2019 from 2014 with no ill effects, presumably just spinning off a new timeline with no Gamora in it (or Thanos for that matter, making that new timeline pretty peaceful), why can't the Avengers just go and "retrieve" alternate-timeline versions of the other people they've lost? They don't seem too worried about the timelines that have branched off due to their actions, eg. Cap going back in time (a whole other issue), Loki stealing the Tesseract, etc. They could hop back to a day earlier and basically get their friends back.
Answer: They actually do have some concern for the alternate/branched off timelines - that's the whole reason Hulk proposes returning the stones (after they're done with them) to the point they were stolen from, so that those branched off timelines won't be royally screwed with a stone (or 2) missing from their timeline (i.e. The Ancient One telling Hulk that the sorcerers need the stone in order to combat the forces of darkness). Granted, some of the changes they've made they can't do much about - not without spending more time and further interfering (Loki escaping with the Tesseract in the alternate 2012 timeline, or the alternate 2014 timeline's Thanos and co. Traveling to main-timeline 2023 - leaving alt-2014 without a Thanos, which as you say, may not be too bad). With all that in mind, I think they would be hesitant to 'steal' their friends from the past because think about what they were doing just a few days ago... trying to figure out how to unsnap the 50% of the universe that Thanos dusted. If they take their friends, who were pretty integral to figuring out how to/and carrying out the undoing of that, they would be dooming that new alternate 2023 timeline to failure in their endeavors.
Since Thanos coming from the past didn't change 2023, I don't think taking their friends from the past would change anything either. They are constantly creating new time lines/universes. However, the only people they lost were Black Widow and Vision, and Hulk tried to bring Black Widow back and failed with the stones whilst Vision lived on the mind stone, which is gone (brought back to it's own timeline). So bringing those 2 back isn't going to be happening. Who else did they lose?
Chosen answer: There's really no reason that they couldn't. Probably an oversight by the writers. I think an easy fix could maybe have been the Ancient One or Doctor Strange warning the heroes that continually altering the space-time continuum could potentially lead to paradoxes that threaten the existence of the multiverse and it's better to just let sleeping dogs lie. It would have been somewhat of a cop-out, but it would have at least addressed it.
Answer: That would be kidnapping. Also, you would be killing someone else who would need to take their spot. Either way someone dies. Are you going to keep going back and saving a fallen comrade?
Not kidnapping if they agree to it.
You assume they would agree to it. Why would they agree to it?
Because of their imminent death in their own timeline. If they get told they're going to die if they stay, but hop over to our timeline where they can still do some good, that may well persuade people. And yes it makes their timeline more uncertain, it's not guaranteed they'd choose to leave, but they may well be willing to. Regardless, "kidnapping" is a stretch.
Gamora - she's not going to die in her own timeline. Her timeline's Thanos is dead. He's not going to be there to throw her off the cliff. Black Widow - you have to explain to her that her being alive can kill countless others. If you remove her from anytime line she doesn't do the good that she has in the last Avengers movies and as a Shield agent or Hawkeye (or another Avenger) has to take her place for the soul stone. That's counter to her sacrifice. Vision - You remove him, you remove the mind stone from that timeline. Which isn't good. If you remove them from their timeline without telling them all of this, yes that would amount to kidnapping.
25th Apr 2019
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Question: Spoiler! Time seems to be defined as somewhat linear, with alternate realities branching off rather than changing the past of any given timeline. But if that's the case, how can Steve go back in time and stay, which should branch off a new reality with him in it, but then "catch up" with "our" reality? Seems like if he stayed in the past he'll have made plenty of changes.
Answer: The Russo brothers have elaborated somewhat: "the old Cap at the end of the movie, he lived his married life in a different universe from the main one. He had to make another jump back to the main universe at the end to give the shield to Sam." They didn't explain his jump back, which leaves the door open for interdimensional travel. They certainly implied there's a bit more to the story which might get revealed in time. But thus far we know there's an alternate timeline where 2019 Cap was running around helping people (again, per Russo interviews), not interfering with "our" timeline.
Answer: He stayed behind but didn't reveal himself or change anything whilst there. That way the future isn't altered and stays "the same." This does mean that the timeline we have been following is the timeline where Cap stayed behind and there were basically 2 Steve Rogers at all times. That can theoretically work in a linear timeline idea.
True, I think that does mostly line up. Peggy told him she got married to someone he rescued, but that could easily have been a cover story so as not to tip him off about what happens too early.
He originally had the tools to go back return the stones and then return back to his timeline. Instead of returning back right away when the job was done he just hung around and lived his life. Then as an old man used the particle to return back to his original timeline effectively leaving the different timeline he had just been living in for the last however many years. He could always return back to the the original timeline at any point. He just decided to wait.
Yeah see I don't agre to this because if he had used the particles again to go back to the future after living his life in the past he would have ended up on the platform wouldn't he? I say he just grew old and waited for that moment of his younger self going to back to sit down on that bench.
That's not possible. (a) He was in the ice for 60 years. How would he know what not to do? (b) There's nothing he could do that wouldn't change the timeline. Anything he did means someone else didn't do it from the previous timeline. A house he rented, food he ate, places he went. Even whatever fake name he uses alters history as it wasn't there before.
The point is all those things did exist, but they didn't mess with the events that occurred in the movies. So not a different timeline than the one we have been following, but the same. This can only be done if the second Cap stays out of history. I'm not a fan of the butterfly effect, it doesn't have any basis, that's why I always explain timelines in this way. An extra spoon in the dishwasher or an extra tank of gasoline doesn't change the timeline so much that it can't be the one we were following anymore. So yes, he changed the timeline, but that's the timeline we have been following.
Answer: Since Cap was frozen for 70 years, he could potentially live out his life back in that time without risking interfering with his future self's actions which would allow him to arrive back to the same point where he left. It's not too dissimilar from the first two "Back to the Future" films where Marty arrives back in 1985 from 1955. As long as Marty takes no actions to prevent himself from going back in time in that moment, then he can arrive back to the same point he left without causing a major disruption in the space-time continuum. Consequently though, since Cap married Peggy when he went back, this would effectively erase the marriage she revealed having had in "The Winter Soldier," which could cause minor differences in the timeline.
This is the point though - it's made clear that they can't change the past, just branch off a new timeline. And given we know she got married in "our" timeline, him going back created a new one, one where she married him instead. And that's all well and good, but that leaves him stranded in timeline "B", with no way to jump back to "A." That said of course there's no real reason this couldn't be hand-waved away as using Dr. Strange or other tech to cross dimensions somehow, it's just mildly annoying they didn't clarify it. :-).
Well the way they did it makes it complicated I think. The Pym particles made a certain type of time travel possible I think, a different kind than the time gem for example can do. It's irreversible, but not linear. The linear timeline is what the ancient one explained about the gems. They had to be put back in their place in time in order for the fabric of the universe to stay in tact. Only that had to be restored, but not what Cap did, or even creating alternate timelines in general (which did happen with Loki disappearing).
I feel though that since two Caps were existing in the same timeline, one of which was frozen for several decades, then the Cap that went back to be with Peggy can still end up in the same spot as long as he doesn't interfere with himself or his fellow Avengers in their "future" missions. He might cause a slightly different timeline to happen, but as long as he lets his other self play out the events as they originally unfolded, it allows that other self to be in the same position to travel back to return the Infinity Stones and then be with Peggy, rendering any branching timeline to be inconsequential because he is putting himself in a time loop. Just like Marty in "Back to the Future." Marty's actions in the past create a slightly new timeline, but he is still traveling back to 1955 at the exact same point in this slightly different 1985.
Can't compare it to Back to the Future, there was always 1 Marty in Back to the Future since he goes back to a time before he was born. The changes to the timeline in Back to the Future should have butterflied a lot away. Not sure what you mean with "still end up in the same spot" if there are 2 Caps. The Cap that went back to be with Peggy didn't have to "end up in the same spot", just stay out of history until his past self goes back. Like you say, it's a loop for him.
By "end up in the same spot," I mean the Cap that coexists with the Cap that goes back in time is allowed to play out the events from "The Avengers," "The Winter Soldier," "Civil War," etc. without his alternate self interfering in matters, thus he is able to reach the same point in time where he goes back to return the Infinity Stones and then be with Peggy, which is what creates/continues his loop.
He wouldn't be stranded in "B" if he still had his TimeGPS device (which I imagine he would've held onto). That could have allowed him to make the jump back to the "A" timeline. That device is what links/keeps the time traveler tethered/able to return to their original timeline and not get stuck. Either he used it to make the jump back as he normally would have, or he could've employed some of the great minds of the alternate "B" timeline he was living in (i.e. Hank Pym, Howard Stark (if he prevented his assassination in the "B" timeline), Tony Stark, etc...) to use the GPS's 'tether' as a way to get back to "A"
Exactly. What people seem to miss is that throughout the movie, the time travelers are creating alternate timelines, but always return to their original one. That's the way time travel works in the MCU.
That's a good point - if they go to the battle of New York and make any change at all, that's a new timeline which they're technically in, but they can still return to their original one without any problem. That new one then carries on without them.
Answer: What's interesting is that during Civil War when Peggy dies and people are carrying her coffin, there is a white haired man of Steve's build carrying one side, but it never shows his face. I believe this is a little Easter egg to show he was there all along.
Answer: Remember Cap took three vials of Pym particles. One for himself and Tony and another for this reason.
Answer: Theory 1: The MCU as we know it is a product of Captain America going back in time and returning the stones. Theory 2: the older Captain America is from another timeline. That's how he got a new shield.
25th Apr 2019
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Question: How did Tony know where to find the Tesseract?
Answer: Both Tony and Steve knew that Howard Stark recovered the Tesseract in 1945. SHIELD were then conducting research on it. They knew it was likely stored in the secret shield facility in New Jersey. They weren't 100% certain, but it was their best chance of locating it and at the very least they could obtain additional Pym particles to try another time if necessary.
22nd Apr 2019
Thor (2011)
Question: Was Laufey aware it was his son who came to Jotunheim and offered to return the casket to him?
17th Apr 2019
Split (2016)
Question: What happened to him as a little boy when he was hunting with his Father and Uncle? Was he sexually molested?
Answer: If you are referring to the girl Casey, then yes, the movie is implying that her uncle had been molesting her.
17th Apr 2019
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Question: When going to kill the Killians, how did the Horseman know that Thomas was hiding under the floor? Thomas stayed completely still and didn't make a sound.
15th Apr 2019
X-Men 2 (2003)
Question: When Mystique is disguised as Senator Kelly, why did she tell the other politicians about Professor Xavier's school?
Answer: Stryker was trying to get permission from the President to raid the school on the grounds that it is a mutant training facility. Mystique interjects and claims it is a docile boarding school in an attempt to dissuade the President from granting Stryker's request, as she doesn't want the students at the school to be harmed.
15th Jun 2010
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: After the MCU explosion there is a scene where the Joker has his head sticking out of the back seat of a police car and police are chasing him. What is this? He can't drive from the back seat, so what exactly is happening?
Answer: This one always bugged me too. So, I guess the cop cars following were actual Gotham police? Or just additional henchmen? If they were police, how on earth could they have managed to lose the car the joker was in?
13th Mar 2019
Ghost Rider (2007)
Question: How long does Ghost Rider's penance stare work for?
Answer: The movie doesn't show how long the effects of the Penance Stare last. I have Morbius #1, in which Ghost Rider uses his Penance Stare on Morbius, who recovers from it relatively quickly. I don't know definitively because I haven't read very many Ghost Rider comics, but the duration of the effects could vary depending on how much remorse the person already felt for their past sins, or how much their own super powers allow them to recover from it. From what I understand, the Penance Stare doesn't work on the Punisher, as he feels no remorse for the people he's killed. It also had no effect on Deadpool, as his greatest victim is himself and it actually caused Ghost Rider to revert to his human form when he tried it on Deadpool.
Answer: It depends on the person. The penance stare is used to torture the victim into reliving every bit of mean and sinful behaviour in their life time. So if the victim is older and committed more sinful acts, it will last longer than say a 20 year old who hasn't committed that many acts.
23rd Feb 2019
X-Men (2000)
21st Feb 2019
Spider-Man (2002)
Question: What did the Green Goblin do to Aunt May?
Answer: Aside from a couple cuts and what appears to be a sprained wrist, she looks relatively unscathed, so he probably just hovered around her for a short while to terrify her. His goal is to make Spider-Man realise that he knows his secret identity, so he wouldn't risk any major bodily harm to Aunt May, as that could potentially kill her.
7th Feb 2019
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Question: When Marty suggests (in 1985A) that they go back to 2015 to stop Old Biff from taking the almanac in the first place, Doc says no because it'll be 2015A instead. When Old Biff went from 2015 to 1955 to give himself the almanac, when he came back to 2015 again, it was still the same one he left because Marty and Doc are just getting Jennifer out of the new McFly house when he returns. So what's the difference? If Biff can go from 1955 to 2015, without it becoming 2015A, then why can't Marty and Doc do it from 1985A?
Answer: There is a deleted scene on the DVD that answers this. You will notice that when Biff returns to 2015 it appears as if he is dying, on the deleted scene when Marty and Doc leave 2015 you see Biff vanish which suggests the "ripple effect" of Biff giving the Almanac to his younger self places everyone in an Alternate 2015 which Biff is no alive to see so is erased from existence. I have seen somewhere a suggestion Biff was shot in 1996, chances are with Biff gone by 2015 Hill Valley may have been a more peaceful city again. Hilldale was a run down suburb in the original 2015 and could have been the same in an Alternate 2015, we never saw inside any houses at that point to answer where Marty may have lived in an Alternative 2015 but perhaps in Switzerland.
Answer: The implication is that Biff returned to 2015 before the consequences of his younger self's actions took effect. Biff would have returned to 2015 immediately, as he wouldn't want to risk Marty and Doc discovering that he had stolen the DeLorean. By the time Marty and Doc travel back to 1985, the consequences of Biff's actions have solidified.
Answer: The reason Biff arrives like that is because Lorraine found out that he murdered George and shot him.
Where did you get that from please?
That info is reported to be from the audio commentary to a deleted scene, published on the official DVD. Since the scene has been filmed, it might even be considered canonical (as opposed to ideas from the drafting stage of the script which, ultimately, were abandoned).
Are those tidbits of information, such as this DVD commentary track, considered canonical?
26th Jan 2019
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Question: This gets described as a reboot rather than a sequel, but why? Nothing directly contradicts the original, as far as I'm aware, the only real change is the title character being recast - hardly unusual for a franchise.
Chosen answer: I haven't seen this movie in several years, but one contradiction I distinctly remember is the Punisher having a deceased daughter in this film, whereas in the 2004 film, he only had a son. The 2004 film had the Punisher's wife and son (named Will here) murdered in Puerto Rico and buried and Tampa. This film takes place in New York, and the cemetery the Punisher goes to has a gravestone for his wife, daughter and son (named Frank, Jr. here). There is also a brief flashback in this scene of the Punisher sitting on a picnic blanket with his dead family around him, which is closer to the comics origin where his family were collateral damage in a gang crossfire. The 2004 film depicted his family as being the deliberate targets of a mob hit and were run over by a truck on a pier.
26th Jan 2019
Zodiac (2007)
Question: Why didn't they make a composite drawing of the suspect?
Answer: Leigh Allen. Mike Mageau was the only one who had seen him and was still alive. He recognised him at the end of the movie.
This is what I read online: "In 1991, Mike Mageau identified Arthur Leigh Allen as being the shooter. This identification was the result of Mageau being shown a photo lineup by George Bawart of the Vallejo Police Department. When Bawart asked Mageau why he had never identified Allen in the 20 years Allen had been the top suspect, Mageau said that he had never been shown any pictures of suspects and he had only been asked if he recognized certain names. If Mageau's statement is true, it's probably the biggest law-enforcement blunder of modern times." This would suggest that the police also never made a composite sketch based on Mageau's testimony.
Answer: Which suspect are you referring to? Several men were suspected of being the Zodiac Killer. The film even cast different actors for different scenes to account for the discrepancies in individual eyewitness accounts. Additionally, this film is based on the real-life case files as well as Robert Graysmith's book, and there does exist a composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer (you can Google it). So if there is a certain suspect whose sketch isn't shown, it could be either that it wasn't shown in the film or it doesn't exist in real life.
25th Jan 2019
Inception (2010)
Question: Why didn't Mal use the totem to prove to herself she was back in reality instead of killing herself? Or why didn't Cobb spin the Totem in front of her to prove they were back in reality?
Answer: When Cobb used inception on Mal, the idea that her world isn't real and she needed to kill herself took over her mind. Mal made an error in telling Cobb how her totem worked before they ever went into limbo. Cobb was able to use her totem specifically to implant the idea in her head. Since he knows how her totem works, it can't work as a totem anymore. Spinning the top in front of her and having it fall over would not prove that she wasn't dreaming anymore. Ironically, Cobb makes the exact same mistake as he continues to use the totem even after he tells Ariadne how it works. As an important note, the spinning top itself is a poor choice for a totem, since the thing that makes it special (it never stops spinning in the dream world) can be easily observed by anyone else. The entire point is to have you, and only you, know what makes the totem special. Arthur's loaded die is a better choice because only he notices how the weight is uneven in his hand. Ariadne's totem is not described but it seems to have similar properties to Arthur's in that she has altered its balance in a specific way.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: As the guardian of the Soul Stone, the Red Skull presumably just showed Steve the spot where he needed to return it. As for how Steve got to Vormir in the first place, he could have either borrowed a spaceship from Asgard or had Heimdall teleport him there via the Bifrost after returning the Reality Stone.
Phaneron ★
Asgard doesn't exist at the time Steve would return the stone.
It did when they took it so its still there when he brings it back. It's shortly before the dark elves attack.
lionhead
Yes it does. Clint, Natasha, Rhodey and Nebula all traveled to Morag in 2014 when Quill took the Power Stone, at which point Clint and Natasha took the Guardians' ship and traveled to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone. Steve can travel to Asgard in 2014 and ask Heimdall to teleport him to both of those planets. Asgard wasn't destroyed until just before the events of Infinity War.
Phaneron ★