Question: Who is the guy sitting alone on a picnic table in the school courtyard while the girls are singing "Summer Nights"?
Michael Albert
20th Jan 2018
Grease (1978)
Answer: The guy on the table that was just at looking out at the end of "Summer Nights" was John Travolta's brother he was just an extra.
Travolta has 2 older brothers, Sam and Joey, who are also actors and have been involved in the industry. The guy sitting on the table near the end of the song is neither Sam nor Joey.
Answer: I think a school teacher.
Answer: Danny.
Can't be Danny since he was also singing the same song on the bleachers with the guys.
It was John Travolta's brother he was just an extra.
11th Jul 2018
Grease (1978)
Question: Nurse Wilkins is a named character in the film, but the entirety of her role seems to be her saying that her castor oil was stolen in the scene where Sandy was at a reception. Did she appear again (eg. at the gym), and was the castor oil significant in any way?
Answer: Nurse Wilkins, played by Fannie Flagg, only appeared on camera once during "Grease." It was, as you point out, during the scene in the office when Sandy first arrives to register at Rydell High School. She may have been present in other scenes, but never appeared on camera. She may also have had other speaking parts which were sacrificed to the cutting room floor. There is no way of knowing that. Castor oil was used, historically, for a variety of medicinal purposes - most notably as a laxative and remedy for minor digestive problems. It has a distinctly unpleasant taste. Therefore, stealing it would probably be just a minor prank, without any other apparent significance. I suppose one could draw conclusions about other uses adolescent boys could find for an unctuous substance like castor oil, but that would probably be reading far too much into a throw-away line.
Nurse Wilkins is mentioned a classroom cut scene (available for flu jabs). Speculation, but maybe originally Sandy was originally going to be sick for the dance competition like the stage play (with Nurse Wilkins playing a role), but when ONJ's role got enhanced during filming, this scene was dropped.
8th Jul 2018
Grease (1978)
Question: At the drive-in, Kenickie confronts Rizzo about being pregnant, but she tells him not to worry because "it was someone else's mistake." What does she mean?
Answer: She says it to hurt him.
Absolutely, she said it, like she said a lot of things - out of malice. Kenickie is genuinely distressed, genuinely meant he would stick by her, even if the baby wasn't his.
Answer: The whole meaning behind it is that Rizzo really is pregnant with Kenickie's kid but Rizzo says it's someone else's: "someone else's problem," pretty much giving a chance for Kenickie to be off the hook as not being the father. But Kenickie obviously knows she is lying. And he's upset and says "thanks a lot kid" sarcastically.
Answer: Rizzo doesn't actually mean someone else got her pregnant. She is just letting Kenickie "off the hook," probably because she figures he wouldn't want to take responsibility, anyway, and she was probably going to have to handle this on her own. Kenickie is hurt by this, however, as we can tell by his expression when he replies, "thanks a lot, kid."
I always read it as an expression of relief when he says "Thanks a lot, kid".
It was not meant as an expression of off the hook. It was meant as in, "that's really a messed up thing to say!" He was hurt by her saying that he was someone else's mistake.
She didn't say he was someone else's mistake. I already said that in a different correction. She says "it was someone else's mistake." Meaning the baby isn't his.
Answer: Both Kenickie and Rizzo are upset and being sarcastic. The interpretations of his and her words are debatable, especially since there is no way of knowing if Rizzo did, in fact, sleep with someone else. However, there's no indication that Rizzo was with another boy/man, so it can be assumed Kenickie is the father and both know this is true. My interpretation was that Rizzo, by saying "it's someone else's mistake", was referring to herself - that she was stupid enough to even have sex with someone like Kenickie in the first place. (The second inferred meaning is that she will not hold him responsible because she knows he isn't interested in being a father/paying.) Kenickie's response, "thanks a lot, kid" was returning an insult - the "thanks a lot" part being sarcastic and "kid" meaning immature and not old enough to have even been given the chance or "be lucky enough" for him to (lower himself and) sleep with her, given all the other "better" girls - WOMEN - around from which to choose.
Answer: It's been a while, but I thought the quote was: Kenickie: I don't run away from my mistakes Rizzo: Don't worry, you're someone else's mistake. I would agree with others that she's essentially letting him off the hook in the storyline (everybody knows it's his), but this particular quote is basically just a joke implying HE was HIS parents' mistake...as a way to lighten the mood.
She didn't say "you're someone else's mistake." She says "it was somebody else's mistake."
16th Apr 2018
Grease (1978)
Question: When Danny is talking to the coach about sports, the coach asks if he likes the rings. After that Danny says something snide about installing rings or something with a hidden meaning. What is he talking about?
Answer: Danny says "yeah I installed a set of rings a couple of weeks ago", rings are a piece on the piston to an engine, something a mechanic would install or fix on your car, Danny was trying to be funny when the coach meant the gymnastics rings.
In this case, would not the "hidden meaning" be an innuendo, such as penis rings? Either he used two rings at once or had sex two times a couple weeks ago (in the back seat of his car)? (This is in a high school setting when norms about pre-marital sex were much stricter and people didn't openly talk about sex toys and the like).
Answer: Coach Calhoun is actually not talking about Olympic Rings. He is talking about the men's gymnastics apparatus.
21st Mar 2018
Grease (1978)
Question: I heard somebody say that Danny and Sandy actually had sex at the beginning, something about how a shot of waves in movies alludes to sex. Is this true? I don't think it is, as it'd go against Sandy, but I'm curious.
Answer: No, they didn't have sex. While water and waves are often used as sexual symbolism, it is unlikely in this case - unless maybe the waves were used as a representation of sexual interest. But right at the end of that opening scene, Danny goes in for a passionate kiss, at which Sandy recoils and says, "Danny, don't spoil it." It's inconceivable that Sandy fears a passionate kiss would "spoil" the romance had they already had sex.
Answer: They did not have sex as one of the Pink Ladies says something like "you spent all that time together and he didn't even lay a hand on you." Rizzo then says he sounds like a creep.
Answer: They did have sex. In the song, "Tell Me More" Danny sings, "We got down in the sand." While gyrating his hips.
7th Sep 2017
Grease (1978)
Question: How do Danny and Cha Cha know each other? He acts different around her and when they first met she said 'Zucko, baby'?
Answer: Danny and Cha Cha did date. While at the drive-in Sandy says "I still think you went together." To "go together" back then meant going steady, as in they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Danny is trying to pass it off as something less serious but he does admit "We didn't go together, we just went together."
I just think he didn't know what to say he was confused so he said what Sandy said.
She means went together at the dance.
Answer: They didn't date, just hooked up.
Answer: No one knows what kind of relationship Danny had with her. We can tell they went out, Danny's words, but no-one knows how intimate it was.
22nd May 2017
Grease (1978)
Question: Why did Zuko get mad when Leo said "Pinks you punk! Pink slips! Ownership papers!"
Answer: The ownership papers of cars use to be pink. Whomever won the race would win the other persons car. They were playing for pinks and he did not want to lose their car.
Answer: Pink slips are ownership papers which means the winner gets the loser's car.
Answer: Because Zuko was being called a punk, and they other guy was from a rival gang and putting them down and being generally obnoxious. Plus, it's possible the word "pinks" was meant to be initially misunderstood as the "Pink Ladies."
Answer: Because Danny didn't understand right away what the guy meant by "pinks" and the guy tried to humiliate Danny by calling him a punk for not knowing the lingo - that he was too inexperienced and dumb to know what he was talking about.
28th Feb 2016
Grease (1978)
Question: Did Danny and Rizzo have a thing together, or did Rizzo have a crush on Danny?
Answer: It is implied that Danny and Rizzo had a previous romantic relationship of some kind. When Jan says, "Did you guys get a look at Zuk this Morning? Looking pretty good this year, huh, Rizz?" Rizzo replies, "that's ancient history." Later, when Danny says, "you're looking good, Rizz, " her answer, "eat your heart out," also suggests some possible residual feelings on her part. I think that's why Rizzo enjoys tormenting Sandy and Danny by reintroducing them at Rydell at a moment that she knows Danny is going to save face around his friends.
Answer: Yes.
Answer: Yes... after the reunion of Danny and Sandy and Danny playing cool and blowing her off, Rizzo stands back with a stupid grin on her face like she's proud of herself.
Yeah, I noticed that, too. Plus, at the beginning of the movie it's implied that she and Danny were a fling or at least flirting at some point. Could be she was mad at the ending of it if it wasn't her choice. Later, when he calls her Sloppy Seconds, that seems to really shock her, but I'm less sure it implies anything.
Answer: When Rizzo shimmies down the outside of Frenchie's house she first says "what's up Kenick?", and he replies "one guess", followed by Rizzo intimating "You got a lot to offer a girl..." She then turns to Danny saying "What say you Zuck?" This is a clear inference that she would have sex with both men - a threesome, basically. Zuko is uninterested because as he states sloppy-seconds "aren't my style." He jumps out of the car and Kenickie kicks the other T-BIRDS to the sidewalk. The two love-birds head off to the hills.
29th Oct 2015
Grease (1978)
Question: Why did Sandy randomly put the notebook paper in the little plastic kiddie pool?
Answer: Sandy had asked to borrow a piece of Marty's stationery (which Marty scented with a spritz of her perfume). She was writing a pining love letter to Danny, simultaneously expressed by the song, "Hopelessly Devoted." Once the letter was written, and her feelings expressed, she realized she wasn't actually going to be able to give it to him - too much vulnerability for one love-sick young "adolescent." Instead, Sandy placed it in the pool where she imagined seeing Danny's reflection, and swirled it around to remove the vision.
28th Jul 2015
Grease (1978)
Question: Is there a point for Danny's singing voice to keep changing throughout the movie? In Summer Nights and Oh, Sandy, he sounded normal but in Greased Lightnin' and the song he sang while dancing with Sandy, (when she asked if he wanted to sing professionally), his voice is deeper. Just out of curiosity.
Answer: I think your answer can be found in the type of song being sung, and the function of each song in the story. "Summer Nights" and "Sandy" are narrative songs. They tell a story, and are written with a melodic structure reminiscent of the 1950's crooners. "Greased Lightnin', " is a rock 'n' roll song, in the style of someone like Elvis Presley. It is a song all about posturing machismo, and the fetishization of a car as a symbol of phallic virility. So, the style of the vocals require a different kind of quality. It is also in a lower key with deeper notes. The song he sang while dancing with Sandy in the gym is called "Those Magic Changes." When Sandy suggests he might be talented enough to sing professionally, Danny starts to show off, and unintentionally ends up sounding absurd and out of tune. That is just a bit of silliness for the sake of humor. Keep in mind, Danny isn't the only character whose vocal style changes according to song: Rizzo sings "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" in a nasal, sarcastic tone, while "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" is sung as a yearning torch song. Sandy's songs, like "Hopelessly Devoted" and the reprise of "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" are sweet and wistful, whereas "You're the One That I Want" is harsher, to fit her new, provocative persona.
15th Mar 2014
Grease (1978)
Question: At the dance competition the camera dwells on a random drunk guy with his tie round his neck for several seconds. He also partly invades the dance floor to dance with Cha Cha during the routine with JT. Who is he or what is his purpose / role?
Chosen answer: He is just an extra. They show him once, looking momentarily concerned, as Sandy brushes past him when she storms out of the gym. They show him in the center of the frame again a short time later hamming it up and enjoying himself. And he does partly invade the dance floor and dance in front of Cha Cha, for no apparent reason other than a moment of being noticed. But he has no actual purpose other than adding his ebullience to the background of the scene.
Answer: It was Sonny or one of the T-birds did that because he was drunk.
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Answer: This man is the high school's kitchen staff. He's wearing a blue shirt, beige trousers, and a white apron. All during this lunch scene we can see him in the background in a few shots, while he's collecting students' trays, etc., even before they start singing "Summer Nights." (00:11:15).
Super Grover ★
Thank you SO much for this answer! I have recently gone back and looked at the scene, and sure enough - he's a cafeteria worker. What he's doing sitting on the table in the "thinker" pose at the end of "Summer Nights" is another question, altogether. But at least you've answered my question as to who the heck is.
Michael Albert
The Summer Nights scene shows the progression of their lunch - at the end everyone has gone except the pink ladies + classmates. He's probably waiting for them to go so he can clear up, you see him resume work as the girls leave.