Phixius

18th Mar 2012

Inception (2010)

Question: Why does Fischer Jr. start to cry when he sees a pinwheel in his father's safe?

Answer: It represents a fond memory from his childhood and he is overcome with happiness to see his that father cherished it as well.

Phixius

Question: This is a question for all the films, what do wizard children who have lived with wizards and witches all their lives go to primary school because they must need to read and write?

Answer: They are typically taught "the basics" at home, as per Rowling.

Phixius

Question: After Snape escapes when Harry reveals himself to him in the Great Hall, Voldemort uses his powers to speak to everyone and tells them he wants Harry. Just before he speaks the room gets dark and a few students start to scream. Did they sense something was happening before anyone else and why wasn't anyone else screaming. I know that later when Voldemort summons Harry to the Dark Forest, Hermione covers her ears.

Answer: They scream because the room growing dark startled them. Hermione covers her ears in a vain attempt to muffle what Voldemort is saying; it's something she doesn't want to hear and in her highly stressed and fatigued state she resorts to ineffective measures to "hide" from what is happening.

Phixius

Question: When Charles goes to meet the CIA to explain about mutation and mutants, he speaks to Agent Stryker, who is the father of William Stryker. William Stryker gave Logan adamantium which increased his powers. If Charles met William Stryker's father at a young age then how did he meet Logan also at a young age ?

Answer: Logan is around 100 years old at this point. He aged at a normal rate to his peak maturity, then his healing power kept him from aging any further.

Phixius

Question: I'm no expert on apes so can someone tell me if the conversation in sign language that Caesar has with the orangutan is possible? We know that apes can be taught to sign and hereby communicate basic concepts and identify objects. But the orangutan, which has not had the benefit at this point in the film of the mind altering drug, communicates that humans do not like smart apes and, by extension, it has kept its ability to sign secret. This is complex behaviour that requires the ape to understand human motivations and decide to deceive its captors. Is this possible?

Answer: It's not necessarily a sign that the orangutan understands human motivations. It could be, and probably more likely *is*, a sign that the ape has shown its intelligence previously during its stay in the habitat, was abused by the humans as a direct or indirect result, and was subsequently conditioned to play dumb.

Phixius

Question: Was it just me or did the Earth not stand still in this film at all? And also can you explain the film's events to me.

Shadow5

Chosen answer: No, it sure didn't. It's just a figure of speech referring to everyone's attention being focused on the alien sphere. In the opening of the film, a man's genetic material is harvested in order to grow a body for a member of an alien race to inhabit. Many years later, this alien individual comes to Earth to warn the population that their violent nature has marked them for termination now that they have developed space travel and their violence poses a threat to the rest of the universe. They must stop immediately to avoid this fate. The alien ambassador is attacked before he can deliver this message, rather proving the point he came to make. His robotic guardian is provoked to the point of initiating the extinction sequence, and a small group of humans sets out to prove to him that the human race is worth saving before it is too late.

Phixius

Question: When Captain America is rescuing the POWs, he's asked if he can get them out and he replies, "No problem. I've knocked out Adolf Hitler 200 times". I found it odd that he gave such a specific number. Is it maybe a reference to something from the comics (not just the number of War Bond sales pitches he has given)?

Answer: No, it was just the number of performances he's done. The number was specific simply because the line was funnier that way.

Phixius

18th Nov 2011

1408 (2007)

Question: Do continuity mistakes really count for this film considering it is a haunted room and one could say that the room itself is moving things around or manipulating objects?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: There would have to be a point made within the movie of things being different from shot to shot. Otherwise it would have to be considered a mistake.

Phixius

Question: I understand that the Autobots conveniently landed in America, but why do they only side with the Americans in their missions? There's a scene where Optimus and Sideswipe go on a mission to the Middle East. I just thought that Optimus and the other Autobots would've considered who was the best country to side with, not just agree to go out with the Americans.

GabbyMac

Chosen answer: Because it's the Americans specifically who are helping them, so, as Optimus explains in the opening monologue, they help the Americans with their conflicts in return.

Phixius

11th Nov 2011

The Truman Show (1998)

Question: Why didn't they just bring Sylvia/Lauren Garland back on set, to stop him finding out about Truman's true nature? It was Sylvia that Truman wanted to go off and go to Fiji with.

Shadow5

Chosen answer: Because she would have revealed the truth to him. That's why she was removed from the set in the first place.

Phixius

11th Nov 2011

The Skeleton Key (2005)

Question: What was the deal with the mirrors? Are there spirits in the mirrors? Or can Violet (or whoever's body happens to be inhabited) see her "true self" in the mirror? When Caroline first spends the night, a figure, like Mama Cecile, can be seen in her little mirror. If the spirit is in the body (Violet's), why would it be wandering around? So, the mirrors expose their true identity, correct?

RareJewel

Chosen answer: Yes.

Phixius

11th Nov 2011

The Prestige (2006)

Question: When Borden and Fallon are in the same scene, is someone else playing Fallon? Or does Christian Bale play both, the same way Arnie Hammer did on Social Network?

Answer: It's Bale, at least whenever you can see Fallon's face. The same way they do twins played by the same person in any other film.

Phixius

11th Nov 2011

Pocahontas (1995)

Question: Why was Pocahontas angry and upset when Tomas killed Kocoum? Kocoum tried to kill John, and he would have killed him if Tomas hadn't been there. He saved John's life.

Answer: She didn't exactly hate Kocoum though. She loved John, sure, but Kocoum was someone she'd known her whole life. It's not unreasonable she'd be upset over his death, whatever the circumstances.

Phixius

Question: A few things; first, why is it Davy Jones and his crew, in some scenes towards the end, seem to work along the EIC so readily (for example, Davy Jones launching himself over Mercer to protect him)? I would think it would have been more of a 'following orders grudgingly, because they were forced to'. Also, related to the aforementioned scene, why didn't Jones just order the Dutchman to be taken underwater at the time, then take the chest back? They wouldn't have been able to fire their cannons or shoot guns with wet powder. Finally, was Jones really 'against' the Brethren Court? If he hadn't been fighting for the East India Company, would he have just kinda ignored the whole battle, still perhaps fighting on one side or the other to fulfill his own motives, or maybe even go so far as to fight with the Brethren?

Answer: Jones must keep Mercer alive likely because the soldiers have standing orders to destroy the heart if he comes to any harm. Jones does not submerge the ship because that takes time and it would be immediately apparent what he was doing. At any point before the cannons were submerged the soldiers could destroy the heart. If Jones were not at the mercy of the EIC, he most certainly would have been fighting against the brethren as they sought to free Calypso; something Jones very much did NOT want to happen.

Phixius

Answer: I don't think the ship can sink with living people on it. When Will was aboard the Flying Duchman in "Dead Mans Chest" it never sunk. And *spoiler* in "Dead Men Tell No Tales" the ship immediately rises as soon as Henry sets foot on deck.

11th Nov 2011

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Question: At the end of the movie, Fungus is seen amongst the employees promoting doing fun stuff, but since he is seen assisting Randall, and generally helping him and Waternoose with the scream machine earlier on, shouldn't he have been banished (like Randall) or hauled off by the CDA (like Waternoose) when the whole plan came to the CDA's attention?

Answer: Fungus was an unwilling lackey, not a co-conspirator.

Phixius

11th Nov 2011

The Mask (1994)

Question: In a scene towards the end of the movie, where Tina asks Dorian to give her one last kiss before the time bomb blows up the Coco Bongo, Eddy (one of Dorian's men) wants to turn off the bomb. Why would Eddy suddenly want to change his mind and turn the bomb off if he's taking part in blowing up the Coco Bongo in the first place?

zackman

Chosen answer: Because they're lingering longer than he's comfortable with. He's not having second thoughts, he just wants to stop the timer temporarily until they're finally finished.

Phixius

11th Nov 2011

Inception (2010)

Chosen answer: He was going to tell her that he was the one who planted the idea (performed an inception) on Mal's head that "this world isn't real." Which ultimately was the reason she became obsessive and killed herself.

Phixius

Chosen answer: Because he misremembered. It was pretty high-stress moment and he blacked-out immediately. Not surprising he'd be a little hazy on the details.

Phixius

Question: Of all the Transformers who die in this film, how many of them have died before in the Transformers canon? I'm looking for specific examples and how many times they've died.

Brad

Chosen answer: I can tell you that every single one of them died in the old animated series, eventually. They had to make room for new characters to sell toys of.

Phixius

13th Oct 2011

The Exorcist (1973)

Question: Was "caption howdy" the demon? Or did Regen make him up, the way some kids do?

Answer: It was indeed Pazuzu, he wanted Regan to believe he was some friendly entity to gain her trust. Thus the Captain Howdy facade.

Answer: The implication is that Captain Howdy was the name the demon gave itself while communicating with Regen prior to its possession of her.

Phixius

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