Why, in almost any war movie (from Saving Private Ryan to Starship Troopers), do soldiers keep hitting their helmets with their ammo clips before they insert them? Is it for good luck, or does it have something to do with avoiding jamming?
Grumpy Scot
17th Mar 2007
General questions
17th Mar 2007
General questions
A common scene in action movies is a bad guy getting shot with a pistol, and flying backwards ten feet. I know this defies Newton's third law, "With every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." If the victim flies ten metres, the shooter would also be propelled ten metres. My question is, what would it take to create a handgun that is capable of flinging the shooter ten metres? Like, if the manafacturer had access to any thearetical alloy, of any strength and density, what would it take? How heavy would a bullet have to be, etc.?
Answer: You've answered your own question. It's NOT possible without violating the laws of physics. You'd need some super-futuristic device that stored kinetic energy in the bullet and then released it on impact or a weapon that manipulated gravity. Needless to say, you ain't gonna see it in your lifetime!
11th Mar 2007
General questions
I remember seeing a movie and I think it was by Stephen King, I'm not sure though. It was about these aliens and things turned green randomly in the movie. I remember this kid doing a magic show and under his table was a foot peddle that turned green. I also remember some kind of barn thing in some ones back yard where the aliens captured people and held them there and there was a green glow in and out of it. I think I remember these people at a store and one goes up to a vending machine and vaporizes. Please tell me what movie this is.
Answer: The Tommyknockers.
6th Mar 2007
General questions
I remember watching a movie, I don't quite remember when that was but it was about a little boy who wishes he would become older really fast. So he wakes up in the morning as an adult. His mum kicks him out for thinking he was someone else and he does this secret handshake with his friend so the friend will believe him. He and his friend do lots of fun things together. Could anyone tell me which movie this was? Thanks.
Answer: "Big" starring Tom Hanks.
6th Mar 2007
General questions
What is 'sweeps'? I've heard it mentioned in so many American films and TV programs, but I've never known what it is.
Answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweeps_Week#.22Sweeps.22.
4th Jan 2006
Lost (2004)
Question: At one point, Walt is reading out loud from a Green Lantern comic book in Spanish. The only two words I caught were "polar bear". What does the whole Spanish quote translate to in English?
Answer: Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and Wally West (the Flash) are in the arctic to recover an alien ship that was hidden there by the original Green Lantern and Flash. A polar bear rears up behind him and he scares it away with a ring created giant flaming monstrous Santa Claus. Just before he does it, he thinks "Won't Wally look smug when he finds out I wound up as polar bear food."
17th Jan 2007
Mortal Kombat (1995)
Question: What was the point of changing Sonya's outfit from her fighting gear to that dress when she is being held hostage?
Answer: It's a villain cliche. When they capture a pretty woman, they will always take her fighting clothes and put her in a sexy outfit.
Answer: It was to demoralize and humiliate her. Sonya is a strong fighter so taking away her fighting outfit and putting her in a sexy dress barefooted would play games with her mind.
26th Sep 2005
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
Question: The sound of the Russian submarine's engine at the beginning seems to subliminally mimic the steady tension-inducing beat of the replicators' theme music, and is occasionally overlaid with a variation of the two main higher notes that are usually played by horns but are played by strings in this instance. I wonder whether this use of the engine sound in place of the normal "replicator beat" was intentional - or perhaps just my imagination?
Answer: As there was no actual engine noise, (it's all added in post production), this was likely done deliberately.
13th Jun 2005
General questions
I saw on TV a long time ago (early 1980's) a scene where lobsters were crawling out of everyone's drains and chasing people. It was live action, not animated, but I don't know if this was a TV show or a movie. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Chosen answer: I believe this was a commercial for the Nickelodeon network.
17th Jan 2007
The A-Team (1983)
Question: What were the machine guns The A-Team used?
Answer: They never use an M14. The nearly always use a Ruger Mini 14, a totally different weapon.
Answer: The machine guns primarily used were M60's or M60D's. Although there were a lot of sub-machine guns used too, like the Mac-10. For some reason other answers are talking about rifles used in the show.
For the reason is because most people don't know the difference between an automatic rifle, a sub-machine gun, and a machine gun. I.e. Die Hard "Ho-ho-ho now we have a machine gun" - actually a HK MP5K. M60D's are for helicopter door gunners. I suspect you mean an M60E3, with the pistol foregrip.
You suspect wrong. I did mean M60D since they were seen being used as helicopter door guns.
Only in the stock footage in the intro though.
Yes, because the question was asking what machine guns were used, but didn't cite a specific episode or anything, so I was being thorough.
The question is what machine guns were used by the A-team. Not that one.
So you think the question was what machine gun was used by the A-Team but not by the A-Team?
No. The A-Team never used the M60D anywhere in the series, you only see it in the stock footage of the intro. And the question was what machine guns the A-team used.
Answer: Mostly M-14's. Occaisionally M-16's or Ingram Model 10's. http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg00-e.htm.
They are not M-14s, that is a full automatic military rifle used during the early part of the Vietnam War as a replacement for the M1 Garand. It has much the same appearance as the M1 except with a magazine instead of a top-loading en-bloc 8 rd clip. The rifles used by the team are Ruger Mini-14s, chambered for .223. An M-14 is NATO 5.56.
3rd Mar 2007
General questions
I remember seeing a film as a girl and remember only one scene where a woman is at a party and is hiding or sneaking around, and by accident gets her dress shredded by standing above the shredder. Does anyone know what film I'm talking about?
Chosen answer: Jumping Jack Flash.
1st Mar 2007
A Few Good Men (1992)
Question: At the beginning of the movie when Lt. Kaffee and Lt. Weinberg are first being assigned to the case by "Division" they both have on 1st LT bars on their right collar. Shouldn't they be wearing Captain bars as the equivalent of Navy Lt is a Captain in all other branches? The Sr. officer in the room is a Captain in the Navy or Col. in other branches and wears the "full bird" on his collar.
Answer: No, as the Navy has two Lieutenant ranks. Lieutenant Junior Grade and Lieutenant. Lt. JG is equivalent to 1st Lieutenant in the other 3 branches. One silver bar is correct.
Answer: A navy Captain is a higher rank than a Army, Marine, or Air Force Captain. In the Navy, "Captain" is pay grade O-6 - the sixth officer rank, and the last one before the Admiral ranks begin. In the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, the rank called "Captain" is pay grade O-3, the third officer rank. The O-6 rank for the other three services would be Colonel.
27th Feb 2007
Die Another Day (2002)
Question: What kind of gun is Bond using in the simulator?
Answer: A 9mm Walther P99. It replaced his trademark Walther PPK in Tomorrow Never Dies. http://www.waltheramerica.com/firearms/p99qa.cfm.
12th Feb 2007
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)
Question: Near the beginning, what does Wayne mean when he says "Nothing like the smell of 2-part apoxy resin"?
Answer: Epoxy resin is sometimes sold in two seperate tubes. You have to mix the contents of both for the epoxy to harden into plastic. It also shows how weird he is, as epoxy tends to smell pretty foul.
12th Feb 2007
National Treasure (2004)
Question: I recently saw a photo of the Liberty Bell, and the Independence Hall tower is visible through a large picture window right behind the bell. Wouldn't Ben have been directly in Ian's sight when he (Ian) was facing the Liberty Bell? Wouldn't a man running across the roof next door have drawn his (and others') attention?
Answer: Not really. Ian was concentrating on the Bell, trying to figure out the riddle. He could easily have missed Ben (or assumed he was some kind of maintenance worker) under the circumstances.
18th Nov 2006
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Question: Does anyone know what is the order of replacement for the captain on the Bridge? All I know is that Riker is the first, but is it the captain's choice after that?
Answer: According to rank and seniority, the chain of command is: Picard, Riker, Data, LaForge, Troi and Worf as of the series finale. Troi was added when she took command school, Tasha Yar would have been between Geordi and Worf, and Wesley or Ro Laren would have been after Worf had they not left the Enterprise.
This has changed over the series but it all depends on who is available and rank has little to do with it. When Worf became the Security chief after Tasha died, he essentially became the fourth in Command (with some exceptions IE: Commander Shelby in The Best of Both Worlds) from then on. Even though Crusher, Geordi, and Troi all outrank him, Worf is a Bridge Officer, so that apparently elevates him in the chain of command over higher ranking Officers.
25th Oct 2006
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Question: Tim Russ' (brief appearance) is listed on IMDB as "Enterprise-B Tactical Lieutenant". I'm not enough of a Trekkie to know - would it be feasible for him to be Tuvok? How long is it supposed to be in the Star Trek universe between this film and Voyager? Do Vulcans live that long?
Answer: Vulcans do live that long (300+ years), but it is not Tuvok. For one, his ears and eyebrows are human, not Vulcan, for another, Voyager tells us he left Starfleet for over 40 years shortly after the Khitomer conference, which was before Enterprise-B entered service.
30th Apr 2005
Judge Dredd (1995)
Question: When Hershey opens the door of the floating red car, what is the song that is playing?
Answer: Its "Super-Charger Heaven" by White Zombie.
4th Sep 2006
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
Question: In this episode who are the hippies, and why are they so important? Their names were Michael & Jennifer, and when the team are going back to the future the hippies wanted to go also, but Jack started to tell them something and then stopped. I just want to know if they are someone from future episodes or something.
Chosen answer: Michael and Jennifer have never showed up past this episode. SG-1 led them to believe (with the help of a Zat gun) that they are aliens, they never told them they were actually from the future. They were simply a couple of nice people willing to help.
31st Aug 2006
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Question: What happened to Tank? Every time he is spoken of it is as if he is dead. Well he survived The Matrix so how did he die?
Answer: Marcus Chong wanted a large salary increase to return as Tank. Since he was a fairly minor character, the producers refused and he was written out. Thus his character must have died between the Matrix and Reloaded.
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Answer: It makes sure all the rounds in a magazine are properly seated to reduce the chances of jamming. And if you are wondering, soldiers really do it and it really does help.
Grumpy Scot