Question: How was Umbridge able to cast a patronus?
A nameless member
4th Jan 2023
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
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If these were the best of the best, going on a mission crucial to world peace, why were they in aircraft that were outdated and outgunned?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.
21st Mar 2022
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Question: I know that Sam Elliott, who played General Ross in 2003 Hulk, wanted to play him again in this movie. Why was he rejected and replaced with William Hurt?
Answer: Presumably because this movie was retooled into a reboot that wasn't meant to connect with the 2003 film. So bringing back main cast members might have been seen as being potentially too confusing at the time. (This was nearly 10 years prior to JK Simmons being cast again as J. Jonah Jameson, which proved audiences can go with the same actors being in reboots. But in 2008, it probably would have been viewed as being too risky).
I do think you're right, although it's worth pointing out that Judi Dench was recast as M in the rebooted 2006 Casino Royale after playing her in the Brosnan Bond films. Not sure if that was the first time that's happened.
That is true, although I'd consider it a slightly different circumstance because the Bond films are basically a singular linear film series following one main character, and it was made clear that "Casino Royale" was essentially a full-on reboot. Comparatively, the MCU is multiple different stand-alone "series" (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, etc.) that all tie together via crossovers, cameos and team-up films. They were probably worried that people would assume the 2003 movie was retroactively part of the MCU. (Which you could probably argue is now true given the establishment of the multiverse, and the implication that previous non-MCU Marvel movies are all canonical as part of the multiverse... but that wasn't part of the plan at the time this movie was made).
29th Jan 2011
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Question: When Clyde is about to die from the bomb, why didn't he just end the call on the phone he was calling from? He could have probably cancelled the detonation.
Chosen answer: Unfortunately, that wouldn't have done it. Once the phone on the bomb received the signal there was no going back.
Oh, and you know this how?
Because that's generally how cellphone bombs work. Nobody's on the other end to answer it, so it's not triggered by being answered. As soon as any call signal is received, game over.
3rd Jun 2004
Star Wars (1977)
Question: While perusing an art book on this movie I came across several foreign movie posters where the Death Star is shown with the laser dish in the southern hemisphere rather than the northern (almost as if it were upside down). Anyone know why this is?
Answer: Judging from the movies, the laser doesn't seem to have much of an aiming system so the whole Death Star might need to rotate so the dish faces its target and in some cases this could mean needing to be "upside down". Just a hunch.
Wouldn't an upside-down Death Star be problematic for the countless amount of Stormtroopers, Imperial officers etc. on it?
No more than for any other large planetary body. Either artificial gravity or it's large enough to create its own.
No, as demonstrated on the Millennium Falcon and star destroyers, the Star Wars universe has some form of artificial gravity.
It's space, there is no up direction.
When there is gravity, there is an up and down. I think in terms of spaceships north is usually taken as up and south as down, relative to an astronomical body. But only because most maps are made that way. Determining an up and down helps with a sense of direction.
20th Oct 2021
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Question: Why was John, just before his death, terrified when he saw T-800? The previous T-800 protected him and even there was a bond between them. So, when John saw another T-800, he should have been either sentimental or happy to see the T-800 alive as it should have reminded him of the previous T-800. Why was he scared to see it?
Answer: Because he's not an idiot. He knows Skynet still wants him dead, if it exists, and he knows "his" T-800 was destroyed. Which means if another one suddenly appears in his life, the overwhelming likelihood is that it's another attempt by Skynet to kill him.
12th Oct 2021
Die Hard (1988)
Question: Can someone explain what the one Johnson agent meant to the other one when he said "it's like Saigon, ain't it slick?"
Answer: I don't remember the exact quote, verbatim, but using your wording, the proper punctuation would be "It's like Saigon! Ain't it, Slick?" The older Johnson is referring to Army Helo Ops in Vietnam. He's calling the younger Johnson "Slick", as a nickname. I believe the younger's response was something like "I was just a kid then" or something similar.
The younger one says "I was in junior high, dickhead". :-) Clearly not holding the older Johnson in especially high regard, or keen to make it clear he's not as old.
Answer: The elder Agent Johnson is a Viet Nam vet who excitedly says, "It's just like f***in' Saigon, eh Slick? The younger Johnson mockingly responds, "I was in Junior High, dickhead!" meaning he was too young to have served in that war. The older Johnson is comparing shooting at the terrorists (or just John McClane) atop the Nakatomi Tower to killing enemy soldiers from a helicopter in Nam. He is macho, has lost objectivity about the hostage situation, and is treating it like an arcade game. As pointed out in another answer, "Slick" is just a nickname, like calling someone "Dude."
Answer: "Like Saigon" could mean that under the circumstances, they were not likely to win or be successful in what they were trying to accomplish. Largely in the 1960s, the U.S. military was stationed in Saigon. While there, parts of the city were ruined or demolished by fighting. There was a lot of destruction in the Die Hard movie, and the situation seemed dire.
19th Jul 2021
The Terminator (1984)
Question: Why would the terminator carry his weapon unloaded? It's shown loading the pistol prior to firing. A machine without care for injury would be loaded at all times.
Answer: Having watched the movie again, this can be explained by the previous scene where the Terminator kills Ginger and her boyfriend. It reloads the pistol but doesn't chamber a round before Sarah calls and leaves the message saying where she is. The Terminator then puts the pistol down and quickly rifles through Sarah's belongings before leaving so presumably it only thinks to finish readying its weapons once it's reached the Tech Noir bar and has Sarah in its sight. Either that, or it's actually doing a brass check (pull the slide back just enough to confirm there's a bullet in the chamber) before firing.
You mean such a sophisticated and advanced killing machine can't keep count of the bullets and has to check if the gun is loaded? I know the terminator runs out of bullets many times in the movie, it's great for entertainment but not for verisimilitude. Of course, if the perfect machine didn't make mistakes the movie would last 15 minutes and be extremely boring.
Answer: It does carry its pistol loaded: it merely pulls back the slide in the nightclub scene, priming the weapon. As an infiltration unit, the Terminator would try to prevent an accidental discharge, and thus avoid drawing attention to itself until it's reached its intended target.
Although I'd argue a perfect killing machine would never discharge its weapon accidentally, how could it?
The Terminators are shown time and again throughout the series NOT to be "perfect"; they make mistakes that are unaccounted for in their manufacture/programming. They are continually improved upon from film to film, indicating that they are BEING perfected, but not perfect. There is a world of difference, perhaps an insurmountable one, between the idea of a perfect anything, and the actual execution of that perfect thing.
5th Apr 2021
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.
raywest ★
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.
If I recall, At this point she's head of the Muggle-born Registration Committee. A powerful position in her mind and as Umbridge is all about power she would have been very happy indeed.
Ssiscool ★
"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.
raywest ★
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?