Phixius

Question: SPOILER: What exactly were Talia and Bane waiting for when they stalled the detonation of the bomb? Why would they need to plunge the city into chaos before destroying it, and then wait to the very last minute to actually blow it?

Friso94

Chosen answer: Same reason she wanted Batman alive when the bomb went off: to adequately and thoroughly punish the people of Gotham.

Phixius

29th Aug 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: After arguing with Merida about her behavior at the archery tournament, Elinor throws her bow into the fire place, and then Merida flees. Eventually, Merida returns to the castle, and then leaves while protecting her mother, who has turned into a bear. Merida also brings a bow with her that time. Is that the same bow her mother tried to burn or is that a different bow? (01:33:00)

Answer: Different bow. Merida's bow had decorative carvings on it, but this bow is plain.

Phixius

29th Aug 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: After being turned into a bear, Elinor finds her sons in Fergus' trophy room messing up his trophies. She forces them to put everything back to where it was and they obey. How did the boys know it was their mother before Merida told them? (01:33:00)

Answer: They're intuitive. A regular bear would not order them about. This bear's behavior reminded them of their mother, so they made the logical assumption that it must be her.

Phixius

29th Aug 2012

Titanic (1997)

Question: When Jack goes to the first class to have dinner, and Ruth and Cal are asking him questions about being in third class and being poor in general, what are they hoping to achieve from embarrassing him in front of all the people at their table? Even Molly doesn't seem too pleased with their line of questioning.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Molly is only recently wealthy, that's why she's not amused. Ruth and Cal are bad people, basically. They take pleasure from from humiliating Jack.

Phixius

As you say, Molly was "new money" - a person who had recently become wealthy. Those who were born into wealthy families - "old money" - sometimes acted superior to "new money" people. Molly seems to have more sympathy for Jack because of her background. Her life was not always comfortable.

25th Jul 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: What will happen once Fergus catches his sons stowing away on the lords' ships?

Answer: He'll gather them onto his own rowboat, probably chastise them all the way back to shore, then they'll likely run off completely unfazed as soon as they reach land. And that'll be an end of it.

Phixius

25th Jul 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: While the triplets distract Fergus and the lords with the dead frog they use to form a bear shadow, one of them also roars into a pot to imitate a bear. It that a reference to "A Bug's Life" (1998) when Dot screeches like a bird into a horn while she, Flick, and the girl scout ants fly the fake bird?

Answer: No, it's just a common method for increasing the volume of your voice.

Phixius

25th Jul 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: How did the witch know Merida is a princess? Somehow, I don't remember if Merida told the witch that she is a princess. If Merida did tell her, where did I miss it?

Answer: Her necklace has the clan crest on it. Plus the witch is a subject of the kingdom, not to mention she can do magic, it stands to reason she'd know who the royal family was.

Phixius

23rd Jul 2012

The Dark Knight (2008)

Question: How on Earth did the Joker know that Reese wasn't dead when he blew up the hospital? It seemed like he just guessed and blew it up anyway.

Brad

Chosen answer: Why not? That'd be Joker's style to blow up the hospital anyway, so it's very likely he didn't care whether Reese was dead or not.

Phixius

28th Jun 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: How exactly did Merida get her mother to transform back into a human? Did she do it with her tears or was it by mending the tapestry and putting it on her mother along with the sun to help break the spell? (01:33:00)

Answer: It wasn't her tears, exactly, but rather her genuinely heartfelt confession of love for her mother, admittance of guilt, and regret for her own behavior that broke the spell. But not until the dawn's light touched her.

Phixius

Answer: It was sewing the tapestry, for sure.

Sewing the tapestry was just a symbol of mending the bond (as the witch said "Fate be changed look inside, mend the bond torn by pride"). However, we see she sewed the tapestry and that didn't actually turn her mother back to human. It's not until Merida hugs her mother, apologizes, and says she loves her that the bond is mended. After that the tapestry magically seals and her mother turns back to human. Phixius is right.

11th Jul 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: After Hamish, Harris, and Hubert help distract Fergus and the lords as Merida helps Elinor, who has turned into a bear, escape, Merida offers her brothers to help themselves to anything in the kitchen. Why doesn't she warn them not to eat the cursed tart? (01:33:00)

Answer: She was rather preoccupied with getting her mother to safety. It didn't occur to her.

Phixius

11th Jul 2012

Brave (2012)

Question: As the triplets misguide Fergus and the lords through the castle with a dead frog on a stick they use as a bear's shadow, Fergus and the lords end up on top of a tower. Since they are locked out, they manage to climb down on their kilts, which they remove from themselves and tie together. Why couldn't they just break through the door to get back into the castle instead? (01:33:00)

Answer: They didn't want to destroy the door, probably.

Phixius

Question: Barbossa tells Sao Feng about Calypso to win him over to their side. Feng, mistakenly believing that Elizabeth is Calypso, wants Calypso for himself. Barbossa knows that Elizabeth isn't Calypso, so why does he allow her to be handed over to Feng? And what assurance does he have that Elizabeth won't spill the beans that she's not Calypso? Surely, that would just get Feng mad at Barbossa and wouldn't help matters in the slightest.

Brad

Chosen answer: They need Feng on their side. Elizabeth and Barbossa are both willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. If Feng is willing to help because he's smitten with Elizabeth, believing her to be Calypso, then that's how they'll play it.

Phixius

11th Jun 2012

Cube (1997)

Question: Is there any particular reason that Leaven refers to the Z coordinate as "zed?" I know that it would be used to differentiate between similar sounding letters, but since spacial coordinates only use X, Y, and Z, (to my knowledge) it doesn't really seem necessary. I'm guessing it's a mathematics thing that I just don't know, but if anybody can answer, it would be greatly appreciated.

Knever

Chosen answer: Cube is a Canadian film. In Canada, the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced "zed" rather than "zee".

Phixius

25th Mar 2012

The Hunger Games (2012)

Question: When Katniss is attacked by Clove after she takes the bag, why didn't she grab the knife she had (the one she cut the tracker-jacker nest's branch with) and use that instead of trying to fight her bare-handed?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: In the book, she left it with Peeta in case he was discovered while she was away. Apparently she was meant to have done this in the film as well, they just neglected to show it, causing some confusion.

Phixius

Answer: She shows little to no competence with a knife. Katniss' ideal weapon is a bow, and she would not learn much on how to use a knife in the training time, especially as we have seen her do various other things in training. Though she could be able to cut off a still branch that in and of itself can't fight back, here she is dealing with a moving, killing opponent. She just might not know how to fight with a knife, or not be confident enough to do so.

Question: In the film 'Jesus Christ Superstar', in the song 'Peter's denial', Peter sings: "You've got the wrong man, lady, [.], and I wasn't where" etc. All the websites with lyrics say the line after the word 'lady' is: "I don't know him", but that is not at all what I hear on the CD of the film version. I know some things changed when the show was turned into a film, and I suppose this is one of them. Can someone help? I am an English teacher and I would like to use these songs for an English lesson before Easter.

Answer: Just looked this song up on YouTube, from several versions including the 1973 film, and the lines are always performed as the lyric sites say.

Phixius

Question: This question pertains to New Moon and Eclipse: When Billy is telling the story of the Quileutes and the "cold ones", he says the cold ones can only be destroyed completely by fire. We've seen James and Victoria be destroyed that way, but Laurent and Riley were killed by the wolves. Was fire not necessary in their deaths (there was no evidence that the female vampire in the story was further destroyed by fire) or is it really not the only way vampires can be destroyed completely (according to Stephaine Meyer at least)? It seems unlikely Jacob and the rest of the pack would have matches or lighters with their clothes every time they remembered not to phase with them on.

Answer: In the books, fire is the only way and the parts of the vampires are gathered together after the battles and burned. In the films, a mere beheading seems to do the trick, so while Billy's story in the film stays faithful to the books, in actual practice the films do not.

Phixius

Question: When the animals go to tell the dwarves about the witch trying to kill Snow White, why is Grumpy all of a sudden concerned about her? He's the first one to say that they have to go rescue her and then is leading them back to the cottage, although up to that point he hasn't liked her at all.

Answer: He's oppositional, sure, but that's just who he is. It doesn't mean he doesn't like her.

Phixius

18th Mar 2012

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Question: In the last scene where Bond has finished confronting Vespers ex-boyfriend, what is Bond implying when he tells M "Congratulations you were right about Vesper". What about Vesper does Bond now see that he didn't before and M did?

jford

Chosen answer: That she really loved Bond, though he had previously refused to accept it, believing it to have been a ruse in order to acquire the money.

Phixius

18th Mar 2012

Mulan (1998)

Question: Shang's voice actor B.D. Wong is an accomplished singer, why was Donny Osmond brought in to sing Shang's song instead?

Purple_Girl

Chosen answer: Name recognition. Donny Osmond's popularity had recently resurged at the time this film was produced, and Disney wanted to cash in.

Phixius

18th Mar 2012

Inception (2010)

Question: During the snow scene, someone says, "Have we missed the kick?" (I can't remember who said it) What are they talking about?

Answer: "The kick" is what wakes them up from the current dream; they are wondering if it failed to wake them up.

Phixius

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