Phaneron

12th Dec 2025

Fackham Hall (2025)

Question: The name of this movie, as pronounced by its English characters, sounds phonetically similar to "F*ck 'em all." I get that this is a joke for American audiences, but is this movie allowed to be promoted in the same manner in the UK, or do their censorship laws require its name in trailers and television spots to be pronounced more appropriately?

Phaneron

28th Oct 2025

Mission to Mars (2000)

Question: How, in the year 2000, did this film manage to secure a PG rating? The graphic violence of the final death shown during the vortex scene near the beginning was verging on R-rated.

Phaneron

Answer: There was no actual blood or graphic display.

No graphic display? A man is shown on camera being violently torn to several pieces by high G-forces, and there was indeed blood visible. There's also a scene later in the movie where shrapnel completely pierces the palm of a man's hand, complete with a zero-gravity blood spurt.

Phaneron

I remember watching it for the first time thinking it was a pretty graphic death scene for a PG rated film, but I think it's a stretch to say it was verging on R rated. There isn't that much blood, the guy is in a space suit, and it happens very fast. Studios can lobby the MPAA for what rating they feel the film deserves, and it is likely Disney argued for a lower rating than PG-13, and the MPAA agreed.

BaconIsMyBFF

Well, by "verging on R-rated," I meant that even in a PG-13 film, that scene would have been pushing the envelope. I would imagine there were a lot of parents at the time who took their young children to see the new Disney film about going to Mars and were not pleased with that scene.

Phaneron

A PG rating does not mean family friendly. A "Parental Guidance" rating warns there may be strong language, sexual content, violence, or graphic images. No one should expect a G-rated Disney film. I watched the "twister" clip on YouTube and wouldn't say it's gruesome. It's not a close-up shot of the rapidly spinning body being pulled apart; it's rather blurred, and there wasn't much blood. I realise it's a matter of opinion regarding what is considered too violent.

raywest

Yes, but you're also an adult, and you watched the clip having an idea of what you were about to see. If you read the comments on that clip, you'll see a lot of people saying that scene traumatized them as children. Violence like that from earlier PG films is why the PG-13 rating was later invented, and it just struck me as odd that that was able to get a PG rating in the year 2000.

Phaneron

My point is that parents were (or should have been) aware of the PG rating before taking their children to see it and that it might be unsuitable for younger audiences. It falls upon them to make sure they do not take their children to a film that could contain disturbing scenes. By 2000, movie violence had become far more graphic and mainstream.

raywest

15th Oct 2025

Predator (1987)

Question: Why does the audio sound so odd when Dutch screams "Get to the chopper!"? It almost sounds like he's shouting it into a tin can.

Phaneron

Answer: Being an editor myself for YouTube and other projects, and working with audio editing, to me this sounds like they tried to double layer the audio in that moment to make him sound a bit louder. But the syncing on the two layers was not perfect. That's an easy trick to get a robotic sound to a voice: to layer it twice and have the second layer slightly off and at a different pitch, but doubling it also makes it louder. That's just my guess based on my own editing experience.

Quantom X

7th Sep 2025

The Naked Gun (1988)

Question: Is there a name for the little dance move that Frank performs after calling the second strike, where he shuffles to his right while waving his hand?

Phaneron

Answer: Isn't that the classic "jazz hands" move?

Dangar

Answer: No, that is not an official dance move; he was just using the gesture to enhance his strike call for the crowd.

Answer: It looks like the dance moves are based on Michael Jackson's "Moonwalk" routine.

raywest

That move itself is part of Michael Jackson's moonwalk routine? I just want to be sure we're on the same page because the moonwalk itself is the dance move that Frank performs after calling the third strike.

Phaneron

29th Jul 2025

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

Question: Happy goes broke after Virginia dies because she, unknown to him, handled all of the family's finances. Wouldn't they have had one or more attorneys who would be aware of this situation and would have then stepped in to address the void in their accounting responsibilities?

Phaneron

Answer: Absolutely nothing in the film indicates it was "unknown to him." The voiceover simply says she "handled the finances" and he wasn't good at it without her around. But to answer your question, yes, more than likely an attorney would help in real life. But you also have to account that this isn't a realistic movie. It's a cartoonish comedy. Plus, Happy is very impulsive in both films. So he ends up penniless after a series of bad financial decisions... plus getting sued. (Although to be fair, it's also not unheard of in real life. Plenty of people with tons of money end up poor after bad financial decisions.)

TedStixon

1st Jun 2025

Congo (1995)

Question: What exactly does Richard die from? In a matter of seconds, he goes from running full-speed and screaming for help, only to suddenly fall over dead once he reaches Elliot. If it was from internal injuries, wouldn't it take longer for him to succumb to them, especially with how mobile he was shown to be?

Phaneron

Answer: Seconds after he drops dead, an ape comes from where he'd been running from and throws a human brain at the living humans. This is Richard's brain, torn from his head. In the context of the film and employing a (fair) bit of suspension of disbelief, he must have had enough brain stem (where reflexes are governed) left to run and scream a bit before dropping dead. In reality, of course, this is an extremely unlikely if not impossible scenario, invented by the screenwriter for the purposes of a gruesome death. Perhaps inspired by stories like Mike the Headless Chicken, an animal which survived for months after having most of its head/brain chopped off.

That wasn't a brain that the gorilla threw; it was the head of one of the two porters with whom Richard remained outside the cave.

Phaneron

31st May 2025

Daredevil (2015)

.380 - S2-E11

Question: Why does the hospital administrator grill Claire about "unethically" bringing the 5 blood-drained patients into the hospital? Isn't it literally the job of healthcare workers to administer care to people in dire need of it? They later mention she didn't check in the patients, but that sounds more like a procedural issue and not an ethical one.

Phaneron

Question: Is it just me, or does Christian have a slight speech impediment in this film (such as when he asks Braxton to stop copying what he is saying) compared to the first one, where Ben Affleck was just using his regular voice?

Phaneron

Answer: I noticed that too. The first film did not have that speech pattern. Almost like someone told him autistic people have a different speech pattern, which is false. It bothered me so much.

Ajensen278

Answer: I also thought the same, but looking at it again, he's a loner; he barely speaks to anyone, and he has a short fuse but tries so hard to control that side of him. Considering how long ago the first part was released and how it ended, they tried to show that this has been his life all of those years - living alone, barely interacting with anyone and just doing his thing. And the older he grew, the fewer words he had to say.

Redbull

Question: How exactly did Zia become a paleoveterinarian if she had never even seen a dinosaur beforehand? Wouldn't she need some practical experience on a living subject?

Phaneron

Answer: Would add to the other answer that while "paleo-veterinarian" is not a formally recognized degree or specialization in veterinary medicine, it is a field of study and practice that involves applying veterinary knowledge to the study of extinct animals, especially dinosaurs. This includes understanding and theorizing how their anatomy, physiology, and diseases might have been, and applying this knowledge to modern animals. Though Zia apparently had no hands-on experience with living dinosaurs, she would have studied fossils and also birds and reptiles that had some relationship to extinct dinosaurs. She may also have had some access to InGen's scientific research, read their scientific publications, etc.

raywest

Answer: I think you could make a compelling argument that paleoveterinarians are probably held to a different standard than normal veterinarians because it's an extremely niche study. Being a paleoveterinarian is wildly specific, and having the chance for practical hands-on experience with dinosaurs would be rare and difficult to the point of being borderline impossible. Dinosaurs are only in a few specific locations, and there have been repeated incidents basically necessitating that people keep away outside of very rare exceptions. But you can't just not have them, so getting licensed is probably based more on study than experience.

TedStixon

Question: When the man at the stock exchange tells Bane that there is no money to steal, who are the "people" that Bane refers to when he responds with, "Then why are you people here?"

Phaneron

Answer: Bane is referring to all the stockbrokers there. He's basically calling the stockbrokers thieves and accusing them of stealing customers' money, or even stealing from the public.

Bishop73

8th Apr 2024

The First Omen (2024)

Question: In The Omen, it is stated that Damien's father is Satan and his mother was a jackal. However, in this film, it is shown that his mother is Maragaret Daino and she was impregnated by some demon-jackal hybrid. Am I missing something, or is this an inconsistency?

Phaneron

Answer: You're not missing anything. The original film was almost 50 years ago. The modern-day filmmakers just changed plot details to suit the prequel story and create the character and backstory of Damien's birth mother. This is not unusual for a film franchise or relaunch. It's different directors, writers, and producers who have a different vision or change things to fit a different time.

raywest

25th Dec 2023

Seinfeld (1990)

Answer: Possibly because he wasn't sure which Gwen he would get. The attractive or the unattractive one.

Kitty1019

15th Dec 2023

The Simpsons (1989)

Chosen answer: It's called a blackjack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_ (law_enforcement) #Blackjacks_and_saps.

Brian Katcher

30th Oct 2023

The Holdovers (2023)

Answer: The best information I read was from an online "People" magazine article. Actor Paul Giamatti says he is sworn to secrecy on how the lazy eye effect was achieved, other than to say it was "movie magic." I hope someone finds additional information and shares it here, as I'd like to know more.

raywest

According to a YouTube video from WhatCulture that I watched today, Giamatti recently revealed on the Howard Stern Show that he wore a big soft contact lens, which practically blinded him in that eye.

Phaneron

Question: When Gandalf remarks that there are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world, is he referring specifically to the Balrog? If not, what are some other monsters he could be referring to?

Phaneron

Answer: Yes, he is referring to the Balrog. Though, he doesn't know for sure, he has been suspicious that there was a Balrog awakened in Moria.

lionhead

24th Jul 2023

Oppenheimer (2023)

Answer: The black and white scenes are shown from the perspective of Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), whereas the scenes in colour are shown from Oppenheimer's perspective.

Casual Person

Dick and Taxes - S4-E12

Question: When Mary asks Dick what he expected for not paying his taxes when he learns he owes thousands to the IRS, he responds with, "I certainly didn't expect my girlfriend to wear my ass as a snowshoe!" I'm not sure I have ever understood this joke. What is the meaning behind it?

Phaneron

Answer: The writers often have Dick respond to Mary with a retort that he thinks is in the common vernacular but makes a mistake in wording that is often funny. Dick seems to be imputing a criticism from Mary and responds with a corruption of the more common "I'm going to wear your ass like a hat!" I doubt it has anything to do with owing taxes. Probably just one of the writers assuming a common regional phrase would be universally recognized.

That makes total sense. I always interpreted it as perhaps snowshoes are an expensive item, and given that he was blaming Mary for his newfound financial woes, he was equating her living off his generosity and used snowshoeing as a metaphor.

Phaneron

Question: Maybe I missed some dialogue, but why exactly did Voller think the fissure they were flying towards would take him to his desired date in 1939? I get that the dial detects fissures in time, but why would he think that particular fissure was the one he needed to travel through?

Phaneron

Answer: There is a bit of dialogue en route to the airport when Voller sets the instrument that says, "the first hand sets the destination," as in the time you want to travel back to. This would make the device completely absurd in principle if true (that's why I wanted to mark it as a plot hole/stupidity). Since it's supposed not to open portals but just detect them, it can't be that there are infinite portals for every moment in time you can choose to go back to (and they even close). The sky, while vast, is not infinite. We then find out that it is a trick since it is set to actually bring you to just one destination, but they don't know it yet.

Sammo

Answer: We're supposed to accept that the dials are pointing to the rift in the sky, which is what makes this plot decision so ridiculous. There's no common reference point (magnetism wouldn't be discovered until and used in compasses for another 2,000 years), and the dial is 2-dimensional. Thus, you could turn your body 90 degrees and aim it down, and there's no indication from the movie that the dial would in any way turn to face the previous rift.

I think, technically, the fact that there's no common reference point is addressed when Voller mentions that the coordinates given are 'Alexandrine coordinates'... which I think might be another anachronism since all I can think it means is the ones used by Ptolemy in his Geography, which was hundreds of years after Archimedes' time. The dial is 2-dimensional, but there are 3 hands. It can be argued that when all 3 align, it does show that the direction you are headed is definitely correct, including the height you are pointing at. I definitely think it's entirely implausible, but the way the unknown mechanism works, attuned to something that does not exist such as time rifts, is kind of a lesser problem. Even if it is supposed to work by some mathematical principle, and then acts as some dowser rod.

Sammo

Not true. The Chinese were using compasses around 200 BC, and Vikings are believed to have had them as well.

Answer: As they approach the rift, all three of the dial's hands are suddenly pointing towards it. If that is no clear indicator, then what is?

Daniel4646

The dial pointing towards it only indicates that they are heading towards the fissure. How does that give Voller any certainty that this is the exact fissure he needs to travel through in order to reach his desired destination, especially considering it ended up not being the one he needed? Were there coordinates in Basil's diary that indicated where the exact fissure would open? I only recall the date of August 20 (?), 1939 being written down.

Phaneron

Only the time is written in the diary (the date you mention is next to August 20, 1969, which would be then supposedly when the finale of the movie takes place). For the coordinates, you need to have the device, which, apparently, allows you also to input with firsthand your desired destination. Voller couldn't know that to concoct his plan, though, since he did not have the diaries at the beginning of the movie.

Sammo

6th May 2023

General questions

I once caught a scene from either a movie or TV show in the early-to-mid 90's. A mother and daughter were driving along a cliff and having an argument. The daughter got so fed up with the mother that she grabbed the steering wheel and forced the car off the cliff. Anyone know what this was from?

Phaneron

1st May 2023

The Fan (1996)

Question: Primo has the number 11 in a shield branded on his shoulder. Is this something he did himself because the number always meant something to him, or was it done to him, and he decided to wear number 11 in response to it?

Phaneron