Grumpy Scot

Question: Is the movie supposed to have any connection with the Avengers? Is Xandar one of the nine realms? Does the orb have anything to do with the power of the Tesseract?

dhavami

Chosen answer: Each realm is actually more of a dimension than a single world. So Xandar would be part of Midgard. The orb is the housing for one of the Infinity Gems. The Tesseract is also an Infinity Gem. The stone in Loki's scepter and the Aether from Thor: The Dark world are two others. All 6 gems can be combined on the Infinity Gauntlet which enables the user to do whatever he wishes just by thinking about it. Wielded by Thanos, among others, in the comics.

Grumpy Scot

3rd Dec 2014

Star Trek (2009)

Question: When Kirk and Sulu land on the drilling platform, none of the combatants deploy their shooting weapons as the first option, choosing instead their hand-to-hand weapons. Why?

Answer: 1. Ranged weapons can be difficult to use at close range. Look how often Kirk gets his phaser smacked out of his hand on the Narada. 2. Presumably Nero's crew don't want to damage the drill with energy weapon fire.

Grumpy Scot

Question: With Peter being such a coward, why did he actually go and find Voldemort?

Answer: Because he is far more afraid of what would happen to him if Voldemort returned and Peter hadn't assisted in it.

Grumpy Scot

29th Jul 2014

General questions

I'm looking for a movie that I'm 99.9% positive was aired on TV in the 1980's. I want to say that it involved a search and rescue team that went looking for people who were stranded while climbing during a storm. One of the main characters (an older man) who was also one of the rescuers, died after getting trapped in a crevice and having to survive the night in the perilous conditions. I remember very distinctly that one of the last scenes was, in the morning, after weather conditions allowed, they found this man's body, and his body was flown by helicopter back to headquarters. It was a real tearjerker.

Answer: High Ice (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080869). On YouTube there's a trailer for it and it has the old guy stuck in the rock pocket yelling at his radio.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Why is there a derelict battleship beneath the bridge? It is easily identifiable as one because of its 2 front main cannons. No battleships are in service any more with any navy in the world.

Answer: There are many mothballed and museum warships in harbors all over the US and a few still have operable engines. People would try to flee major cities infected with the plague by any means. Or even if the engines were out maybe a tugboat was pulling a derelict full of refugees and the Navy destroyed it to maintain quarantine or it was cut loose and sank.

Grumpy Scot

15th Jun 2014

Lone Survivor (2013)

Question: Why do all the SEALS have scruffy beards? Usually they are clean shaved, right? I was just wondering if it's maybe for the mission that they are on, but I see all the SEALS there have a bunch of facial hair. Can someone confirm this?

Answer: SEALs are allowed to have 'modified grooming standards'. They are often undercover in other countries and it helps them to blend in, as beards are far more common in the Middle East.

Grumpy Scot

16th Jan 2014

Oblivion (2013)

Question: I am curious why there is no lag whatsoever in communications between the Odyssey and Ground Control. We are told that the Tet is initially pretty far out in space, and even fairly close in to Earth there would still be noticeable delays. This instantaneous communication would seem to require some sort of faster-than-light system, which physics says is impossible. So, is there an explanation or is this a mistake? Seems odd to me given the care taken to design the drones and bubble craft.

Answer: There are theories to beat FTL communication, (if not travel) the fact that they are doing it in this film means they must have implemented a solution. Otherwise it has to be put down to either an oversight, or the director traded realism for drama. A long delay would probably irritate the audience.

Grumpy Scot

10th Sep 2013

Blade Runner (1982)

Chosen answer: File this under 'Who shot first' and 'Is Childs a Thing'. There are a bazillion arguments for and against. Draw your own conclusion.

Grumpy Scot

17th Jan 2013

The Mummy Returns (2001)

Question: In the opening to the movie, when the Army of Anubis first appears, you see a man fall headless and Anubis himself (or at least what appears to be the Army's leader) steps on the body, sweeps his weapon over it, and howls into the air. What is that weapon? Is it real or invented for the movie? The same character wields the same weapon later when the Army faces the Magi, and Imhotep wields the same weapon against Rick O'Connell's dual axes in their fight before the Scorpion King shows up. Any idea? I gotta know what that weapon is. (00:03:50 - 01:45:55)

Answer: It's an Egyptian Fan Axe. As far as I know, they did exist.

Answer: It's called a 'khopesh'.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: Because though he is really bad at it, SpongeBob has been giving it everything he has for years to get a license. Patrick can barely walk and remember to breathe at the same time, and gets his on the first try.

Grumpy Scot

Question: This isn't technically a mistake per se, but it involves Spock's funeral. Several Enterprise crewmembers are killed during the battle with Khan, and yet only Spock gets a funeral. Perhaps there was a smaller memorial for the others, and Spock got a full funeral due to his status as captain, but why is Kirk only sending Spock's body to the Genesis planet? I imagine he sent only Spocks's body there since in ST3 there aren't dozens of little regenerated human babies crawling around down there.

Vader47000

Chosen answer: I imagine there was a memorial service for everyone killed. Starfleet's policy on corpses is probably to return them to Starfleet HQ where their families can collect them for whatever services or ceremonies they want unless the crewman had left instructions specifying otherwise. There's no telling why Kirk sent Spock's body to Genesis. Based on Sarek's reactions in ST3 he almost certainly went against Spock's wishes, unless of course, Spock left no recorded instructions and Kirk did what he thought would please Spock based on his being highest ranking officer and Spock's closest friend. It also seems very out of character for Spock to just assume that whoever he transferred his katra to would be able to handle it and carry out his wishes (McCoy certainly couldn't!). Ultimately it seems we have to chalk it up to a plot device to base the sequel on.

Grumpy Scot

According to the novelization, Kirk's intentions were to send Spock's remains into the Genesis sun. Lieutenant Saavik altered the trajectory of the torpedo beforehand, due to Spock's desire to see the Genesis effect for himself. The torpedo casing was expected to incinerate when entering the atmosphere. As pointed out by David Marcus in STIII when the pod was detected on the scanners, the gravitational fields were in flux at the time, and the pod had obviously soft-landed on the surface.

18th Mar 2012

General questions

I can't remember the name of a film I watched some years ago. It was on TV, very late at night, I think it started on a boat where the woman and man were having a nice time, they go to sleep and when the woman wakes up the man is gone. She looks around on the boat for him but can't find him, on the deck there are bloody footprint leading to the edge of the boat. She assumes he gone overboard. The police question her but believe she killed the man. I remember the man isn't actually dead and she tracks him down and finds him and I think they had a daughter that he took with him when he disappeared.

Answer: That's the movie "Double Jeopardy" starring Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones.

Grumpy Scot

18th Mar 2012

Vegas Vacation (1997)

Question: I submitted a mistake about the road sign at the end of the film that shows how many miles to Chicago and that there would not be such a sign in Vegas. My question is what was the point of adding that into film? And also I think it is safe to assume that the Griswolds booked a flight back to Chicago (round trip). If they did it doesn't seem like they would've had time to cancel it since they didn't know until the end that Rusty won the 4 cars. So wouldn't they have lost more money that way as well?

Answer: Clark sold the plane tickets to continue gambling.

Answer: A sign saying how many miles home is a common film making technique. It's not meant to be realistic. Considering the Griswolds won enough at keno to recover their losses and at least $120,000 worth of cars, I can't see them getting too upset over the airfare which is likely less than a thousand dollars.

Grumpy Scot

So they did turn in the ticket and got the money? I know they drove off in the cars Russ won.

Answer: They live in Chicago. I think it was just a nod to the number of miles and who knows what could happen to them on the way home.

Answer: Don't forget that Clark gambled away their plane tickets. He needs to drive the 4 new cars Rusty won to Chicago.

Chosen answer: Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law) uses a 7.62 x 54mm Mosin-Nagant M91/30 rifle with a PU scope. Major König (Ed Harris) used a 7.92 x57mm Mauser Karabiner 98 K with scope. Law's scope was wrong as the model used in the film wasn't available until after the Battle of Stalingrad.

Grumpy Scot

2nd Feb 2012

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Question: Are there any actual restaurants like Jack Rabbit Slim's out there, where booths are done up like cars? I know the restaurant they filmed in was torn down afterwards and I can't find anything online, so any help would be appreciated.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Disney World has one.

Grumpy Scot

11th Nov 2011

General questions

This has been driving me crazy! I want to watch a movie that I saw about 10 years ago, but don't remember the title or actors. Briefly, a man's wife and child have just been murdered, and the murderer commits suicide right after. During his grieving the man stumbles upon a home video of his child taping his wife driving. The man that murders his family is shown on tape jumping out in front of the car and saves them from an accident. Turns out that the man who killed his wife and child had gotten the ability to see when people were about to die, and they would be shown with a bright aura around them. However, anyone he saves from death becomes demonic and starts killing people. When the man realizes this he goes back and kills everyone he's saved, thus explaining why he murdered his wife and child. Sound familiar to anyone? I really hope so 'cause this has been driving me insane.

chinothe1285

Chosen answer: White Noise 2.

Grumpy Scot

Question: At the end of the movie where they lower The Terminator to its death, how come it has stopped obeying John's orders? John orders it not to go, yet it only replies that it now knows why humans cry. It also actually gave John an order, telling him to run earlier in the movie. How can it be able to do these things if it's programmed to listen to John's command?

marcusforsberg

Chosen answer: There are a couple of possibilities. One, he has "a neural net processor, a learning computer" He become able to resist that programming (a feature he demonstrates again in T3 when he shuts down rather than kill John). Also, his overriding mission is to protect John's past self. Telling John to run while he delays the T1000 and destroying himself to avert Judgment Day both fall under this.

Grumpy Scot

16th Jun 2011

General questions

I am looking for a movie from the 80's or 90's that I believe is set in Australia. It features a boy in a mining town that has a legend of a beast living in a lake or deserted and flooded quarry. At the end of the movie we learn the beast is actually an old, sunken mining back hoe or other large piece of mining equipment.

Answer: The Quest (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091810/combined)

Grumpy Scot

20th Apr 2011

Moonraker (1979)

Question: What happened to the Space Marines and Draxites who were fighting outside the space station? We have a great big shootout and then they're not even mentioned or seen when the station explodes. And there's no mention that anyone was recovered afterwards. (Just Jaws and Dolly).

John.G

Chosen answer: One of the Marines is heard to say to return to the shuttle after Bond gets in. The Draxites must have returned to the station.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: There is a very brief scene of the Marines' shuttle undocking from the space station.

4th Mar 2011

General questions

I've been trying to find the title to this film for ages. It has a huge structure that rises from a dirty lake when a young boy visits the lake and then sinks back under the water when he goes. I was only young when I watched it so not sure if it was classed as a horror. Can you help me?

Answer: The Quest (1986) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091810/combined.

Grumpy Scot

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