MikeH

28th Jul 2015

The Dark Knight (2008)

Question: A few questions about all the deaths being blamed on Batman. Why couldn't they blame it on The Joker or one of his henchmen? What would they have said Batman's motives were? And who would've told everyone, and how? If it was Gordon, he'd have to say he was an eye witness, because there was no evidence, and wouldn't people think it was weird he didn't do anything about it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: The Joker was already being arrested by a large number of officers at the time of the incident with Dent. The Batman, already a wanted criminal, was the easy choice for them to make. He could take the blame whilst allowing Dent to die as a hero, implementing new laws to bring down organised crime.

Alternatively, it was done this way so that the title of the movie made more sense.

27th Jul 2015

Dolphin Tale (2011)

Revealing mistake: We see a girl in a wheelchair missing her right leg, but we can briefly see her foot tucked under her left leg.

MikeH

21st Jun 2015

Clueless (1995)

Continuity mistake: When Cher's driving instructor tells her she failed her test, the instructor is sitting next to her, then we see a brief shot of Cher crying, then we see the instructor out of the car and at the front of it. The camera wasn't off him long enough for him to get out of the car and walk that far, and we didn't hear a door opening or closing.

MikeH

2nd Jun 2015

Spider-Man (2002)

Question: What exactly did Mary Jane's father say to her when he was yelling at her at home?

MikeH

Chosen answer: "You're trash! You're always gonna be trash, just like her!" - He says this presumably in reference to Mary Jane's mother.

19th Apr 2015

The Matrix (1999)

Question: If none of the cops knew about Trinity's abilities, why did they send so many cops to smash her door and hold her at gunpoint like she was a terrorist? To them she was just a hacker, which doesn't put anyone in physical danger, so wouldn't just one officer have been enough?

MikeH

Chosen answer: Trinity was a known associate of Morpheus, considered "the most dangerous man alive", so the police would have taken some precautions - even a hacker could be armed in any case. At least four units would be sensible for any kind of raid, regardless of how harmless they assumed the suspect was. However, the lieutenant only sent two units into the hotel to detain her so he didn't think it was that big a deal, and there were two more outside.

Sierra1

Other mistake: In the first Twilight, vampires bones break like normal humans, as demonstrated when Alice breaks James's neck. In New Moon, they break like concrete, as the man whose head the Volturi ripped off has a grey stump. In Eclipse, lots of vampires lose bodyparts in the big battle, and they all break like ice, as they have white shiny stumps. In Breaking Dawn Part 2, lots of vampires lose bodyparts in the imagined battle, and they break like china, as they have brown stumps.

MikeH

Continuity mistake: When the assassin's head is about to hit the fan, in the first shot of him going up, his head is very close to it, but in the next shot, it's further away.

MikeH

Continuity mistake: When Indy is shot in the arm in the car, there's no blood on the windscreen at first, but in the very next shot there is.

MikeH

Continuity mistake: When the guy at the start who betrayed Indy is shown stabbed by many spears, in the shot when Indy says "adios", he stays with him the entire shot. However, in the next shot, he's far away from him.

MikeH

Trivia: The ending was originally different. After the scene where Derek is crying over Danny, it cut to Henry being arrested, then his family in the kitchen mourning him and saying he was a good boy, and then Derek shaving his head again while smiling. When Edward Norton read the script, he said "I thought the movie was supposed to be anti-Nazi." So the ending was soon changed.

MikeH

Question: How did Sweeney know Derek got raped? How and why would Derek ask for his old history teacher to come visit him instead of anyone else, like his family?

MikeH

Chosen answer: Someone would have told Sweeney what happened (guard, nurse etc.). Derek would have called Sweeney down because he did not want his family to know that he got raped, because it might make him look helpless and destroy his image. Sweeney was really the only person he knew that wasn't a skin-head.

Dra9onBorn117

Answer: It's heavily implied that Sweeney, through his gang outreach initiatives which are mentioned in the police station scene, had a relationship with Derek in which he tried to get him out of the skinhead lifestyle. With the sexual assault and betrayal from his fellow skinheads being the catalyst for his skinhead "deprogramming", he called Sweeney because he knew that he wouldn't judge him and that he could talk to him about how his feelings about skinhead life had changed.

2nd Apr 2015

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Question: Crowe thinks his wife resents him for putting his work before her. But since nobody but Cole can see him, what work does he have?

MikeH

Chosen answer: Child psychologist - or so he thinks. Remember that Bruce Willis' character doesn't comprehend that he is actually dead, and certainly doesn't grasp the fact that Cole is the only person who can see him. Dr. Crowe's perception is that life goes on as does his professional role as a therapist for children. When he is around his wife, he misinterprets her melancholia and somber expressions as evidence that she resents his priority on his work, and that she is behaving coldly towards him as a result. In fact, she is in mourning for Malcolm, her dead husband - something he doesn't realize until the film's end.

Michael Albert

29th Mar 2015

La Confidential (1997)

Chosen answer: Possibly. Smith mentions that Exley's father was a straight cop, much to Exley's wish. Smith, being as corrupt as he is, may have killed Exley's father.

Answer: No he did not. Rollo Tomasi was a term only Vincennes knew, so that would lead Exley to conclude that Smith was with Vincennes when he was killed. Rollo Tomasi was also an idea, someone who got away with crime, and that was what Smith was.

23rd Mar 2015

Men in Black 3 (2012)

Chosen answer: The gold saucer crashed in middle of the street was the ship Boris stole to get to earth. While they are in the restaurant Kay gets a call that tells him a ship was taken from lunar max and it was Boris who took it.

16th Mar 2015

La Confidential (1997)

Question: Why did Exley appear so traumatised after killing the man in the elevator? He is, after all, a police officer in homicide, and he killed people before that. Also, did he kill him intentionally?

MikeH

Chosen answer: A 12g shotgun blast at that range would cause an incredibly bloody death, especially as there is a good chance it hit the man in the face. Exley has killed a person in the line of duty before this, but not in such a spectacular way. And while he may not have meant to kill him he chose to shoot over letting the man escape.

Grumpy Scot

16th Mar 2015

Batman Begins (2005)

Question: Why would Falcone's assassin kill Chill in front of many cops? Why would she choose to go to jail just to protect one person who was already in jail? And if she was so intent on protecting him, why would she say "Falcone says hi"? That would just make Falcone even more indictable.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Falcone has the entire justice system of Gotham in his pocket. He'd believe he could beat any charge and probably convinced the assassin that he'd do the same for her.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: When the man was hanged on the fan, what exactly happened? It seems like he was cut by the fan, but then there's no blood or anything. How exactly did he die? And why did the fan suddenly stop when he hit it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: His neck was snapped by the whip getting caught in the fan. There isn't always blood with a hanging. Since the fan wasn't designed to hold a man's weight, the motor in it would have stopped or given out.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Why did McGonagall send all the Slytherins to the dungeon? It was only one Slytherin who wanted them to turn in Harry, and many times in the series people say not all Slytherins are bad.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Not all Slytherins were bad, but many were and they would fight against Harry. McGonagall did not have time to pick out which ones were allies or enemies. It was simply more efficient to lock them all up at once. Also, even though there were good Slytherins, they would know that taking sides against Voldemort and failing to fully support him could result in later retaliation against them or their families.

raywest

16th Mar 2015

The Truman Show (1998)

Question: How does Christof talk to the actors? They don't look like they have earpieces, and if they do, why didn't that make Truman suspicious earlier?

MikeH

Answer: They do have earpieces, just minuscule ones that can't be seen unless you are looking directly into a persons ear. As shown in the scene with Marlon on the beach, he is being fed his lines by such an earpiece. They are also present when Truman is in his car and he picks up the signal they are using to show where he is at the given time. Also, even though you can hear what someone is saying, you can't talk back to them which is why Meryl and Marlon had to talk to a camera when requesting help/confirming Truman wasn't there.

Yep, that's it. Also, the earpieces might not even be that small but Truman isn't looking for them and thus doesn't see them.

lionhead

Chosen answer: It appears that Christof and the control team in the moon did not, in fact, have contact with the actors very often. It is more likely he had contact with people on the ground who could make things happen per his instructions. But there were inconsistencies. For example, how could he create instantaneous traffic jams at a moment's notice, and set up a hazardous spill scene on the outskirts of town to prevent Truman from leaving Seahaven, but he couldn't get anyone to interrupt or vary the cycle of movements by extras that Truman watched in his rear view mirror when he was trying to convince his wife something in their town was amiss - even when he was talking aloud, anticipating the next extra's move before it happened? Christof could arrange for a road race to happen by and to have people almost instantaneously hustle Truman's father onto a bus when he showed up in town as a homeless man, but it took quite some time to get Sylvia's father onto the beach to whisk her away to Fiji, even though Christof knew exactly where they were headed. And when Truman and Meryl were having their major argument in their kitchen, Christof could engineer Marlon to show up with a six pack of beer, but he couldn't communicate with Meryl to provide her advice on how to handle the situation, and she ended up screaming for help into a camera. I think Christof did place some sort of communication/listening device on some actors at critical times. We saw that in a couple of instances (e.g. When Marlon went into Truman's basement looking for an already disappeared Truman, Christof was feeding him direct instructions). But I don't think it was routinely done. And when it was, Christof's surely would have had the technical know-how to create a supremely inconspicuous piece of equipment.

Michael Albert

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