Phixius

Question: Billy admits that he shot his wife and daughters to save them from a more horrible death at the hands of the vampires. Grieving, he says, "I tried to shoot myself, too, but the fucking gun jammed." But Billy is a deputy sheriff, and any competent law officer can resolve a jammed gun in a matter of seconds. Did Billy actually chicken-out of killing himself after murdering his family?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Perhaps Billy was not a competent law officer. Or maybe you were right he chickened out. Billy could have killed himself in other ways. Other ways more quiet than gunshot.

Alan Keddie

Exactly. How could he go on living after killing his whole family? A minor problem such as a gun jam shouldn't have prevented him from committing suicide. In fact, he couldn't become a law enforcement officer without demonstrating a proficiency with firearms, including the ability to field-service his weapon quickly in an emergency. The simple procedure for fixing a jammed firearm is at the top of the list of required skills.

Charles Austin Miller

Are we ignoring that he was obviously extremely distraught at this time? My take on this has always been that he pulled the trigger, the gun jammed, and he just gave up on everything. He literally didn't care enough about anything at that point to even bother taking his own life anymore. Let the vampires take him; or not. His family is gone, by his hand no less, nothing at all matters anymore. I didn't see it as an inability to clear the jam, I saw it as a psychological breakdown that resulted in complete and total apathy. The jam was nothing more than the straw that broke the camel's back.

Phixius

If he gave up on everything, why did he covertly signal Eben with a flashlight? If Billy had truly given up, why not just walk out into the street and be slaughtered by the vampires, rather than continuing to hide?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why did the exit randomly appear when the rooms converged? I much preferred the original's exit being a puzzle the characters had to solve, rather than just holding out, but perhaps there's a more clever solution that went over my head.

Answer: The nature of the original cube was a puzzle that needed solved to escape. This cube was more like a time trial you had to survive to the end of in order to escape. The appearance of the exit was not random however; the cube collapsed upon itself until it no longer existed in three-dimensional space, leaving the survivor standing in the area the cube had previously occupied.

Phixius

Answer: Most likely to emphasize the power of the ring to corrupt men. It shows that Faramir was actually the stronger brother, because he was able to resist its power.

You mean that Faramir should have joined the Fellowship? Because I think if he joins the Fellowship, he would be corrupted. Or Is Faramir more stronger than Boromir?

DFirst1

Boromir is most motivated by glory for Gondor, whereas Faramir is most motivated by honor. Boromir was therefore more susceptible to the Ring's corruptive influence than Faramir was as the Ring has great power which Boromir believes Gondor could use to defeat Sauron. Faramir understands that the Ring must be destroyed at all costs, any other course of action is futile, and therefore dishonorable. Hence, he is able to resist the Ring's influence.

Phixius

17th Feb 2018

Holes (2003)

Question: How is Camp Green Lake legal? Aren't there laws against forced child labor? Also, what would happen if Stanley refused to dig holes?

MikeH

Answer: It is illegal. That's why everyone in charge gets arrested at the end. It only lasted as long as it did because they were in the middle of nowhere with little to no oversight and no on knew what was really going on until Stanley's release.

Phixius

Wait then why did the judge know about it? Did he get arrested too?

There are a lot of kids at Green Lake, sentenced by various judges. The court system either was unaware of the conditions at the camp, or didn't care.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Stanley and his fellow prisoners are convicted criminals, and as such, the authorities are allowed to work them. The conditions in the movie are rather extreme, but what recourse do the boys have? The warden and her flunkies are brutal people, and it's likely Stanley would have been in a world of hurt had he refused to dig. All they'd have to say is Stanley attacked them and whatever force they used would have been justified. That's the penal system for you.

Brian Katcher

16th Jan 2018

Silent Hill (2006)

Question: How does the cop end up in the alternate Silent Hill? Alissa doesn't need her, and she shows up after Rose has already explored a little. I wouldn't expect Alissa to leave the opening to The dark Silent Hill open (not how you trap someone). Furthermore when it shifts from them and the spitting monster to the father and police, the police are already there, how did they not end up in the dark hill?

Answer: It's never explained in the film, but in all likelihood, it's feasible that Alessa brought her into the "fog world" in order to help Rose with her goal. Especially as she likely senses that Cybill is protective of children, and thus would want to help find Sharon. Or she simply was pulled in somehow when she was pursuing Rose. It's difficult to say, since the "rules" for how the town works in the film adaptation are not as clear as the rules from the original video-game, and there are plenty of changes.

Answer: All three died in the wreck. This is how they were able to enter the purgatory version of Silent Hill and why Alessa and Rose returned to their own home to find it similarly deserted.

Phixius

Nobody died in the car-wreck. This is a fan-theory that got out of control and contradicts not only the sequel (where it's blatantly shown they are alive), but this film's internal logic (which operates on the idea of there being multiple realities/dimensions) and the logic of the video-game source material. (Which similarly operates on the idea of there being multiple realities).

Any word on why Alessa and Rose returned to a home that was shrouded in fog just like Silent Hill, and why they and Christopher could not see one another? They left Silent Hill but remained in the alternate dimension? I'm genuinely curious because this is the first I've heard that their deaths were just a fan theory. I know Alessa was in the sequel, but I just chalked that up to the sequel being a really, really bad film.

Phixius

The implication at the end of the movie seems to be that Sharon and Dark Alessa merged back together into one person, and she is purposely keeping herself and Rose in the fog-world. While the movie itself isn't clear about why, a common interpretation is that Alessa wants to be together with Rose forever, perhaps to have a mother figure. (Which is definitely keeping with the film's themes of motherhood and the repeated mantra about mother being god in the eyes of a child.) The sequel is admittedly really bad and ret-cons this. But neither film indicates that they died.

TedStixon

Question: I haven't read the books, but Aragorn was born 10 years before the events of "the Hobbit", and given the fact that he's therefore 70 in Lord of the Rings I'm assuming Middle Earth years are somewhat faster than years as we know them. So that means Aragorn is really about 5-6. And I know Legolas isn't meant to be there in the first place, but when Thranduil tells Legolas to seek out a ranger by the name of "Strider", surely that's a plot hole or something that has happened in the "future" in the books that they've added to the movie as an explanation as to how Legolas came to find Aragorn. Also the last we see of Saruman and Sauron is Saruman saying "leave Sauron to me " So... What happens? We're kinda left hanging, we don't know what happens between them or for that matter how Sauron ends up in Mordor. Loved the movie but unfortunately I have questions.

Answer: When Aragorn was 25 he left Rivendell to travel the world, having had his proposal to marry Arwen rejected by Elrond. Hence he is absent during the time period of the Hobbit, having gone to Rohan and then Gondor in disguise. During his travels he becomes very well known among the Elves, owing to Elrond raising him and Galadriel welcoming him to Lothlorien after he comes back from his long travels. Even before, he had served in the Rangers of the North as he was growing up, where he gained the nickname Strider. Legolas already knows Aragorn before LoTR, as Aragorn had initially left Gollum in the care of the wood-Elves before someone helped Gollum escape.

Answer: Aragon is 87 in LOTR: Two Towers (as mentioned in the extended edition). The Hobbit takes place about 60 years before that so Aragon is 27 at the time. Sauron is banished to Mordor in Battle of the 5 Armies. You see his "spirit" flee and the White Council, mention he went back to the east. Between Sauron and Sarumon, it's mentioned more in other LOTR books, but Sarumon (while still technically good) has been looking for the One Ring. He does not join Sauron as much as uses the alliance for his benefit hoping to find the ring first.

Answer: The years are not significantly different, Aragorn is simply descended from a race of very long-lived men.

Phixius

Answer: Yes. It was Isildur's by right, having been the one to shear it from Sauron's hand and thus defeat him in combat.

Phixius

22nd Aug 2017

Twilight (2008)

Question: These two questions apply to the entire Twilight saga. 1. Why do Rosalie and Emmet repeatedly marry each other? One time is enough. 2. Since the Cullens have been around for a very long time, why do Emmet, Rosalie, Jasper, Alice and Edward keep going to different schools and applying for colleges? Considering their immortality they're really just learning the same stuff they've learned years before, plus there's always the possibility of running into a human who chose to move to Forks from their past who might begin to question why they haven't aged.

Answer: 1. They get married repeatedly for two reasons, one of which is the same reason they go through high school and college over and over again. The other reason is that they love each other very, very much, and are more than happy to speak their vows over and over. 2. They go through high school and college repeatedly because they look the age of people who'd be going to high school and then college; it's how they fit into society without raising any suspicion. They don't run into people from their pasts because they have several towns they cycle through, never moving back to the same place again until the people who lived there when the Cullen coven last called the place home have died of old age.

Phixius

Answer: The Matrix trilogy. John Wick focuses much more an gunplay vs hand-to-hand combat than The Matrix did, though both series featured both elements.

Phixius

Question: When Saruman declares war, why does Grima cry? He's a bad guy siding with Saruman.

Answer: He's a experiencing a moment of guilt, realizing that he has helped unleash a genocidal war machine on his own people.

Jukka Nurmi

Answer: The tear rolling down his cheek is the result of his overwhelming awe at the sheer size of Saruman's army.

Phixius

Question: When the crew are in the two cages hanging down and then start climbing up the side, Will is talking about getting to the black pearl. Someone in the other cage says something like, "actually it can be done with six", followed by "oh dear". All the men in both cages suddenly start climbing frantically. What was said exactly and what was the joke?

Answer: Will says that once they escape and get back to the Black Pearl, it will take all of them to sail the ship. Leech, the pirate in the other cage, corrects him, saying that, actually, a minimum of six men could crew it. Leech's, "Oh dear," comment is when he and everyone simultaneously realise that whoever escapes first will take control of the ship. Will, Gibbs, and the rest of Jack's crew know that Leech and the other pirates have no loyalty to Sparrow, and if they commandeer the Black Pearl, they'll strand everyone else on the island. It then becomes a race to reach the cliff top first.

raywest

Answer: Will says "we'll need all the men to launch the pearl" Leech corrects him saying they'd only need about six. Both cages realise that they only need one cage, and can leave the others to die. This is why Leech says "oh, dear." And why he tries to continue to climb up after the tribesmen appears on the bridge. Will, most likely wouldn't have left the others though.

MasterOfAll

Answer: Earlier, during the conversation between Will and Gibbs, Gibbs says "Jack's life will end when the drums stop." This is what Leech (the man who says "oh dear") is referring to, as the drums stop.

Answer: The joke is that it has now become a race to escape as either group can getaway without the other and will leave them behind.

Phixius

22nd Jul 2010

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Question: Why doesn't Stark like anyone to hand him things? Is it just a quirk or is there a reason behind it?

Answer: In the beginning of the first film, Tony has no problem being handed things. However, when he is kidnapped and his life is threatened and he realises that his weapons are being used for the wrong purposes, his mind starts to change. In his head, he believes that whenever he is handed something, terrible events happen. For example, when he was handed the documents to sign for his weapons in the beginning of the first film, he found out that they were being sold to the wrong people. Also, when the blonde reporter hands him photos, it's of a town being devastated because of his weapons, and he feels at fault. So he develops this small fear or dislike of being handed things because they do not end well and end up causing him pain.

Answer: Tony is merely antagonizing Agent Coulson.

Phixius

Question: How could the Erumpent the size of a whale escape out of Newt's case without Newt around, without his help (magic)? Can Erumpents shrink themselves like Occamies?

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: Erumpents cannot change their size, however the suitcase is itself enchanted to allow objects of any size to enter and exit its magically expanded interior. Newt's presence is not required for this.

Phixius

Answer: This might actually be a valid mistake. The exit of the suitcase is depicted as being inside a hut, at the ceiling. A savanna creature like that would not even consider that to be a route it might be able to take, because that requires (sorry for the pun) out-of-the-box thinking.

Doc

Perhaps that would be true for a non-magical creature; however, there are numerous references in the Wizarding World canon to magical creatures have human-like cognitive abilities (Kneazles are one prominent example), so perhaps Erumpents fall into the same category.

"Perhaps" or "Maybe" generally don't cut it. They usually denote attempts to justify a mistake. In the movie Erumpets aren't displaying any intelligence beyond that of a bull or rhinoceros.

Doc

I agree under normal circumstances the creature wouldn't try to escape. However, as Newt pointed out, this creature was in mating season and was looking for a partner; which is why she went to the zoo as there were the closest creatures she sensed to herself. Animals going out of their natural habitat when they sense a potential mating partner is a natural survival instinct real animals do. As real animals do this, it makes sense this creature would do the same thing as a real animal.

As said elsewhere, the exit is depicted as in the ceiling. Erumpets aren't displaying any intelligence beyond that of a bull or rhinoceros. Climbing out through a roof hatch is not in their behavioral patterns, mating season or not. A bull won't climb a ladder, no matter how many cows are on the roof.

Doc

18th Jul 2017

Cars (2006)

Question: Can someone explain the mechanics (and physics) of how Doc's advice to "Turn right to go left" helps with McQueen's drifting?

Answer: Instead of sliding on all four tires, he's only sliding on the back two. The front two tires are turned to align with the direction of travel, allowing the car to maintain greater control of the drift. The slow-motion scene when McQueen first accomplishes this shows what's happening.

Phixius

27th Jun 2017

Rango (2011)

Question: Priscilla tells Rango that Rattlesnake Jake never comes to Dirt due to his fear of the hawk, and much later after Rango kills the bird, Jake shows up. Shouldn't Jake have known that the shadow of the hawk wasn't the real thing since it was dead?

Answer: There's more than one hawk in the world.

Phixius

Answer: He also may not have known. He doesn't seem to fear or respect Rango at first so if he had known that Rango had killed the hawk he might have acted differently.

Question: Multi-part question regarding the actual brawl between Batman and Superman. Batman's first barrier is a sonic attack (lifted right out of Marvel's "Incredible Hulk," which Superman defeats the same way the Hulk did: Ripping apart an iron plate and destroying the sonic emitters with the two halves of iron). Why was Superman bending over, holding his head, when we know he has super-selective hearing? Superman could instantly block out a sonic attack without even blinking. Batman's second barrier was comprised of a couple of machine-cannons; again, Superman ducks and covers until he realises the cannons do not affect him. Why would Superman attempt to shield himself from conventional firearms? Did he suspect they were Kryptonite rounds? If so, why even bother shielding himself? If Superman suspected that Batman was using Kryptonite-based weaponry, why would he even walk into that scenario? After Superman strolls through Batman's first two deterrents, Batman then uses a third barrier, a smoke bomb that can, apparently, block Superman's X-ray vision. What was in the smoke? Was it lead-based smoke? Because Batman escapes while Superman seemingly can't see through the smoke. As far as I can tell, Superman doesn't realise that Batman is using Kryptonite-based weapons until Batman uses the Kryptonite gas mortars on Superman. So, why did the first three weapons even slow Superman down? Superman could have defeated Batman in a fraction of a second without killing him.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: The sonic emitters were constantly changing frequency making the sound impossible for Superman to "select" and block out. As for the cannons, Superman knows that Batman is resourceful and therefore assumed that he would not bother firing at him unless the rounds could do damage. Superman took cover as a precaution against this. There are also several elements which block x-rays and can be made into a gas.

Phixius

Answer: We see Bruce working with lead to contain the Kryptonite gas in the grenade capsules, so we know he understands the interaction of lead and radiation. X-ray's are a form of radiation and if Luthor has a complete file in Superman's abilities the fact that he can see in the X-ray spectrum would be included, so Bruce would have planned accordingly but adding lead particles to his gas grenade should he need to escape. This is not covered in specific in the film; it requires you to add up several incidental pieces of information and make and informed assumption.

Answer: The bullets from the machine gun may not be able to break his skin and injure him but that doesn't mean they don't have a physical effect on him or that he cannot feel them. In Man of Steel Clark takes a 50cal round while trying to fly out of the military's line of fire and it throws him into a building. The bullets might not injure him but he can still feel them and they still hit pretty hard, so I imagine he's just trying not to get shot in the eyes.

Regular bullets do not have any effect on Superman's body whatsoever as long as he has absorbed solar rays before. Anyone that suggests they do knows nothing about Superman. Superman can survive a megaton nuclear explosion without so much as a hair on his body harmed, as long as he has absorbed enough solar rays.

lionhead

In the comics, yes. In the movies is completely different.

Not at all. Someone fires a gun right on his face and it bounces off his eye without a blink.

lionhead

Answer: First you have to understand that Superman doesn't know what Kryptonite is. He's never seen it, never heard of it, never encountered it. So he isn't expecting anything like it. He cannot prepare for or even look for something he does not know exists. Superman says in Man of Steel that he can focus on what he wants to hear above other sounds but that doesn't mean that he doesn't hear anything else; it just means he's able to manage the influx of information. You can hold a conversation with a friend at a nightclub but that doesn't mean you stop hearing everything else - you just don't focus on it. The sonic devices are very loud, focused directly at Superman's head and emitting frequencies up and down the spectrum not to mention the actual physical effect as evidenced by the rainwater caught in the blast. It's a lot to deal with all at once.

Question: Jacob Kowalski kicks open the door of Graves' office at MACUSA. How could he just open it easily? Before he opens it, Queenie used the unlocking spell on the door, which didn't work.

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: The door was magically locked, not magically sealed. Jacob, being a muggle who hasn't relied on magic his entire life, knew he could simply break the lock when he kicked the door.

Phixius

28th Apr 2017

Moana (2016)

Question: Does Maui need to eat and drink to survive? If so, how did he survive for so long on a desert island; especially when there's no signs he had any tools for fishing or a way of creating fresh water? If not, why did he seek out food when Moana showed up? Also, it's heavily implied that Maui urinates, which probably means that he drank something, but why would he if he doesn't need food or water?

Plausible_Reptile

Chosen answer: There's a sign he had tools for sculpting a statue of himself from solid stone, though we never see the sculpting tools. Given the fact that he wants food and isn't dead, it's safe to assume he also had some tools available for fishing.

Phixius

22nd Feb 2017

Alien 3 (1992)

Question: Is it the same facehugger for Ripley and the dog/ox, or were there two different ones?

Answer: It was a special type of facehugger known as a "Royal facehugger", which carries two embryos. One is a queen embryo, the other is a drone to protect the queen.

Answer: Two different facehuggers. They die after implanting the xenomorph embryo in the host.

Phixius

There was only one egg on the ship.

One egg but not necessarily one Facehugger. One already emerged from an egg could have attached to the Queen on the planet (and flattened against her body making it practically invisible) then scurried away out of sight during the fight with the PowerLoader. Dislodged as a result then hidden away, ready to strike later.

We only SEE one, doesn't mean another one wasn't on board somewhere.

Question: Got a few questions. First Question. When the emperor is killed in ROTJ, doesn't that mark the end of the Galactic Empire? If so, wouldn't the establishment of the New Republic mean that The First Order is at this point just an extremist group trying to throw a coup? Second Question: Whether or not the first question is a yes or a no, wouldn't the New Republic have knowledge of Starkiller Base being constructed? Third Question: Is there any influence as to why Kylo Ren basically gets temper tantrums? An example being when Rey escaped or when he found out the droid escaped Jakku Last Question: Kylo Ren stopped a strong laser bolt and has to ability to freeze people. How was he so easily beaten by Rey with no jedi training?

Answer: Yes to the first. Not necessarily to the second, as they undoubtedly worked very hard to keep it secret. For the third question, the dark side of the force feeds on and enhances anger, rage, hatred. Ren is full of these emotions. As for the last question, remember that Ren took a shot to the guts from Chewbacca's bowcaster, a weapon that blows everyone it hits back several meters, killing them instantly. Ren took a knee for a moment then got right back up. He is using the bulk of his concentration on using his Force powers to survive and heal that wound and manage the pain. That's why he keeps beating his abdomen with his fist during his fight with Rey. Rey is also abnormally strong with the Force. These two factors combined to make their first fight evenly matched.

Phixius

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