Is there a movie/show in which a male character says "Hey, it's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation"? I've watched a couple of Instagram videos that had this quote.
A nameless member
26th Mar 2023
General questions
21st Mar 2023
Last Action Hero (1993)
Question: Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed the Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. When Jack Slater is in a video store in the real world with Danny, why does the cardboard movie cutout for Terminator 2 show Sylvester Stallone as the Terminator?
Answer: I've never seen a scene with Jack and Danny in the real world at a video rental store. The video rental store scene takes places in the Jack Slater movie world. Since Slater is Schwarzenegger, Schwarzenegger doesn't exist in the movie world. So the Terminator is played by Stallone, who does exist in the movie world.
Answer: It's not the real world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6PBhdM9Ftg. Danny's in Slater's world and trying to find evidence of Arnold Schwarzenegger existing, but instead finds that Stallone has taken that role in this version of reality.
21st Mar 2023
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Question: Why is the Princess called Peach instead of Toadstool and why is the main villain called Bowser instead of King Koopa?
Answer: "Princess Toadstool" was used in the original English-language manual, but she was Peach in the original Japanese, and that name continued in later versions, being combined with Toadstool. Bowser was originally called "Kuppa", but presumably the English-language version resonated more with people, plus removed any confusion of "Kuppa, King of the Koopas", so the English version stuck.
17th Feb 2023
Blade Runner (1982)
Question: Why do people in the film refer to replicants as androids and machines when (just like normal humans) they seem to be made of flesh and blood and are not mechanical?
Answer: This could start getting metaphysical but ultimately it's semantics. An android is a humanoid robot. A robot is "a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically". A machine is "a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action". Note none of those definitions specify metal parts, or even being artificial. Human beings are machines, in the same way that human beings are animals, in literal terms, we're "just" biological machines, but we tend not to think of ourselves as such, because "human" is a more specific definition, and people like to feel that humanity confers a higher status of sorts. So it boils down to us vs. them, really - despite all of their many human traits, a lot of humans don't want to be conflated with replicants, so different terminology is used. There's also an argument to be made that as with a lot of dehumanising terms used in the present day, calling them machines helps to justify mistreatment, even though the replicants are just as capable of life and thought as humans are.
Answer: The replicants are indeed androids/machines; like Terminators, they are made to look human by adding human parts, such as skin and blood and even organs ("surrounded by living tissue", if you will). Unlike Terminators, however, they are not programmed simply to kill/destroy humans...they are simply "upgraded" versions of humans, who like all of us want to live with freedom and self-actualisation.
15th Oct 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Question: How are Captain America, Black Widow, and Black Panther talking to Proxima Midnight through the Wakandan cloaked shield? What's she looking at? Trees?
Answer: It's not a cloaking shield. It's a defensive barrier. There would be no need to have a cloaking shield within the city because anybody that's inside the city would seemingly already know that Wakanda is hidden.
The cloak is to hide the city. If Cap flew in and only saw trees...what is the Black Order looking at and talking to?
The cloaking shield is what hides the city from overhead view, so aircraft that fly over can't see that there's an advanced city hiding within what is believed to be a third-world country. The barrier around the palace is to prevent enemies from attacking. That's why the "space dogs" are being torn apart when they try to go through the shield. When it becomes apparent that they can get through the shield when they attempt to do so in large numbers, Black Panther orders a section of the shield to be opened in order to bottleneck the forces in so that they can't surround the palace and penetrate the shield from a side that's not as well guarded.
This wasn't an overhead view. They were flying low and in a straight line into trees that on the other side hid buildings that were the same height. They weren't looking down.
Irrelevant. The simple fact of the matter is the Wakandans build that shield, and they can do anything they want with it. Perhaps the cloaking part is discarded to boost the shield's defensive capabilities.
That's an illogical answer: they can do what they want. Perhaps? Where is that in the movie? These are guesses not answers.
Are you saying they don't have full control over their own shield that they designed and can manipulate very specifically, as seen in the movie?
"Perhaps the cloaking part is discarded to boost the shield's defensive capabilities." - where is that in the movie? This website would not exist if every response was "they can do whatever they want".
It is when we are talking about future technology in advanced civilizations. This entry is also a question, not a mistake. There is a simple explanation for it, so that is the answer.
This is a theory not an explanation. An explanation would be backed up by facts from the movie.
There isn't an in-film "explanation", but that's a distinction without a difference. If in a movie we see someone in one place and then several scenes later we're shown them somewhere else, there isn't an "explanation" for how they've got there, but there might be plenty of perfectly reasonable theories about how - drove themselves, got a ride, took the bus, etc. This is a wholly fictional technology and the "facts from the movie" are that people can talk through it, just like they can choose to open specific narrow sections. So we take at face value that it's possible, because there's no in-film reason to assume it isn't possible.
12th Jan 2023
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Question: During training, Maverick says "The faster you navigate this canyon, the harder it will be to stay under the radar of these enemy SAMs." This doesn't make sense, shouldn't it be the other way around? (00:49:42)
Answer: I see your point, but he likely means that higher speeds mean they're more likely to gain height accidentally and be seen on radar. Basically flying faster makes precision harder.
7th Jan 2023
General questions
I watch a lot of 80s and 90s shows. I've noticed that when two characters sit on a couch, they often sit close beside each other, in the couch's center. It's not so unrealistic for a dating/married couple, a parent and young child, or times when a character needs to hug and comfort another. But in real life, if there is plenty of room on a couch, many teens and adults don't choose to sit so close together. Is this done for a filming reason? Or is my real-life experience odd?
Answer: It's usually done that way for framing/composition reasons, since it looks more aesthetically pleasing to the eye to see two people beside each other than on opposite ends of a couch. Things that may seem more natural, like sitting on opposite ends of a couch, just don't often look good on camera. Plus, it subtly indicates that they are close in some way, making it a good storytelling shorthand. (It's kinda similar to how in TV shows, if a scene is set during the morning, there's usually a giant, ornate breakfast out on the table that nobody actually touches, save for maybe grabbing something before they run out the door. Totally unrealistic, but it looks good on camera and is a visual shorthand to indicate it's the morning).
I'd imagine with older 4:3 ratio TV screens if people were at opposite ends of a couch the camera would have to be quite far back to see them both (easier on 16:9 widescreens), so it's easier to have them in the middle with a bit of space either side to make it symmetrical.
4th Jan 2023
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Question: How was Umbridge able to cast a patronus?
Answer: She casts it like any other witch or wizard by using her wand and saying "Expecto Patronum". It is considered advanced magic, but most magical people can learn how to do this. When Harry (disguised as Runcorn) entered her courtroom, she had already cast her cat patronus to keep the Dementors at a distance.
Casting a patronus requires a very happy memory, though. And considering that she seems to be very angry and never felt that she was given enough power, she must have never had a happy memory.
"Must" is total conjecture. Perfectly possible for an angry resentful person to have one happy memory to call on.
Villains still have personalities. Depending on what specifically makes Umbridge happy, she could easily have a lot of happy memories.
Umbridge seemed quite happy while torturing Harry with the punishment pen, when she was ejecting Trelawney from Hogwarts, when she ousted Dumbledore as Headmaster, happy in her devotion to Voldemort, and so on. Happiness is an individual thing. Her sense of happiness was quite perverse.
Only those who are pure of heart are capable of producing a Patronus. Those who aren't would be devoured by maggots that shoot out of the caster's wand. Umbridge wasn't pure of heart because of all of the horrible things she did, so shouldn't she have been eaten by maggots?
11th Dec 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Question: If these were the best of the best, going on a mission crucial to world peace, why were they in aircraft that were outdated and outgunned? It mentioned several times they would never stand a chance against the dreaded "5th generation" enemy fighters. Why not use the F-35?
Answer: The real-world answer is that F-35s only come in single-seat configuration, so there was no way to put the actors in one seat for filming while pilots flew the plane. It would also make for less of an "underdog" feel of going up against overwhelming odds. The in-universe answer is that F-18s are better suited for the kind of mission it is.
Answer: Just my observation, but I got the sense that the F-35 was too fast to make the adjustment to do the steep climb out, and as much as the plane needed to be fast, but it was more important it be capable to throttle lower enough to maneuver through the course, and make the climb...and that the F-35 could do one or the other...just my guess, but that's how I understood it from Maverick's initial analysis, from when he was called in to "Teach".
16th Oct 2022
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Question: How come that Miles and Gwen meet each other before the accident at the alchemax? Theoretically Gwen shouldn't be there since Spider-Man hasn't been "put" in the collider yet.
Answer: She explains that she arrived in his dimension a week ago: "I was blown into last week, literally". Clearly dimension-jumping can affect time too.
18th Aug 2022
She-Hulk (2022)
A Normal Amount of Rage - S1-E1
Question: When talking about "geniuses in the family" at the start, Bruce says "there's also Ched", at least according to the subtitles. Is this another Banner cousin with Marvel ties, or just a random throwaway line?
Answer: This is answered in the second episode, where we meet Ched who's clearly not a genius. Given this first episode was originally written as the penultimate one of the series, and tweaked as the premiere later, it makes more sense why that line might be a throwaway by Bruce, given if it was episode 8 as intended the audience would already have met Ched and understand how he's not being remotely serious.
Chosen answer: According to Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ched is a relative of Bruce Banner and Jennifer Walters. There is a character profile but with no additional information provided yet, nor is there much info online available elsewhere. This appears to be a new character that has yet to appear.
27th Dec 2005
28 Days Later (2002)
Question: At the end we are left with the question of the pilot's intentions, and what happened. Is he going to help them, or pull an about-face and machine-gun them down thinking they're infected?
Answer: That question is actually answered. The pilot is speaking Finnish, and he says into the radio "lähetätkö helikopterin" which translates as "Can you please send a helicopter?" Looks like he was actually helping them after all, and there is still some civilization (or at least people with radios and helicopters).
8th Aug 2022
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Question: If the Vishanti bracelets stop prisoners from using their powers how was America able to punch through her cage?
Answer: This suggests her powers are stronger than the bracelets.
Or that the bracelets may only be able to constrain powers from Earth-838, and don't work as well on people from other earths.
20th Jul 2022
Air Force One (1997)
Question: When Melanie Mitchell is talking with Gary Oldman before takeoff, she says that the plane is bullet resistant. If so, how is it so easily shot up when the MiGs attack?
Answer: It's bullet resistant to small arms fire (eg. 9mm), so Secret Service agents can fire within the aircraft without causing depressurisation. Fighter jet weapons are significantly more powerful - 23mm or even 30mm shells.
7th Jul 2022
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Question: When we first see Alan Grant, he and his team are excavating old dinosaur bones. Given that this is a time when Dinosaurs roam freely on earth, why is he even bothering? He could learn far more from simply studying a live dinosaur than its bones. And secondly, given that dinosaurs are alive and free, who is gonna have the slightest interest in bones that are millions of years old. I considered this a goof, but I'm opened to any explanations.
Answer: The live dinosaurs are genetically tweaked recreations, they're not the "pure" dinosaurs of the past, which would still be of great interest. Plus just like any other archaeology or historical study, there's always more to be learned about the past, and a great many people are interested in what the past has to teach us.
Answer: Agree with the other answer but would add that while to date about 1000 species of dinosaurs have been identified, it is believed there are at least 1,000 more types that existed and are still to be discovered and studied. Only a tiny fraction of the known species were cloned by In-Gen and Biosyn, and, as noted in the other answer, they are not genetically pure. Also, there is much to learn about dinosaurs' habitat, range, species evolution and decline, mating habits, health and diet, the existing climate at the time, and so on. That would be why paleontologists like Alan Grant continue digging.
Answer: The existing answers are good. In the movie, Alan Grant actually asked, "Why do we dig?" and answered his question, "Because paleontology is science [fossil animals and plants], and science is about the truth. And there is truth in these rocks." [00:20:52].
26th Aug 2013
Trainspotting (1996)
Question: I've seen this movie over 100 times and I know every single word, but when I watched it a few days ago on Netflix I noticed straight away that the talking sounded completely different and some words where changed, in the cold turkey scene Renton was supposed to say "i don't feel the sickness yet but it's in the POST, that's for sure", but on the Netflix version he says "I don't feel the sickness yet but its in the MAIL, that's for sure", why was this changed and did all the actors have to re-do the whole film in audio?
Chosen answer: I can only assume it would have been done for the benefit of international audiences. To Brits, 'post' is commonly used as a noun describing any item received that was posted in the mail system, rather than just as a verb to describe the act of sending something in the mail. Typical small changes of word meanings that makes perfect sense to someone in Britain may easily confuse a viewer from another country.
Is this for real they don't think people are smart enough to know the post is the mail? Like we have post offices it's not like it's so far out there we couldn't figure it out my god.
Bear in mind "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was retitled entirely to "Sorcerer's Stone" in the USA. Movie studios are desperate to avoid audiences being confused, whether that's warranted or not.
27th May 2022
West Side Story (2021)
Question: Does Maria die at the end of West Side Story?
Answer: No, she doesn't, but Tony is shot and killed.
27th May 2022
West Side Story (1961)
Question: Does Maria die at the end of West Side Story?
Answer: No, she doesn't, but Tony is shot and killed.
6th Nov 2008
Star Wars (1977)
Question: If characters such as Luke and Obi-Wan are human, how come they are in a galaxy far, far away?
Answer: Well, it's also a "long time ago", so it doesn't rule out the possibility that the human inhabitants of Earth travelled here from there. Could also be a simple case of parallel evolution and the filmmakers refer to the species as "human" for convenience, in the same way that the standard Star Wars language is represented as present-day English, despite the fact that it obviously wouldn't be.
Answer: Why shouldn't humans be there? Maybe a god/gods created humans on multiple planets. Maybe humans have evolved and developed on multiple planets, multiple times. In the Battlestar Galactica series, it's established that "all of this has happened before" - the human race advances to a certain point, then they create the Cylons that destroy nearly all of them. The survivors find a place to start over and produce new generations, who will create Cylons again someday. You could imagine something similar about the Star Wars universe, or imagine any other explanation.
Answer: We don't know they're "human" as we understand it anyway, despite the use of the word which may be a translation, as mentioned already (their alphabet isn't Roman, for a start). Like The Doctor or any number of humanoid races in sci-fi who resemble us externally but aren't homo sapiens.
12th May 2022
Speed (1994)
Question: Why did Jack think the only option available with the gap in the freeway was to jump it? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to at least try to ring Payne and explain what was happening? A simple "We've ran out of road, could you disable the bomb whilst we turn round" - Payne could still detonate it remotely so it's not like they could use that opportunity to unload the passengers.
Answer: I'm curious why you think Payne would do anything to make it easier for Jack? He's set a bomb with the express intention of killing people if his demands aren't met...why would he give Jack even the slightest chance of escaping that? And even if he was willing to, just because Payne can detonate the bomb remotely doesn't mean he can disarm it temporarily, then turn it back on.
Because the odds of the bus making that jump intact were incredibly small - if the bus blows up because of an infrastructure issue, Payne gets nothing.
Answer: Payne is a raging psychopath. As long as he's alive, he can make more bombs.
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Answer: It's a common trope, taking various forms. Seemingly the first occurrence of this specific type of voiceover/flashback is from Sunset Boulevard (1950), starting with someone dead in a pool, and the dead character is the one who takes us back to show us what led to that situation.
Yep. Various films start with something similar, like start of the movie Ratatouille (2007), the movie Holes (2003), The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Spiderman (2002) and most episode intros of My name is Earl (2005-2009). None actually use that exact sentence though.
lionhead