Question: After the raid on his farm and he has buried his wife and son, where did he get the ammunition (powder, caps and balls) to do all the practising with, as they would have burned up in the fire and the lead balls would have melted?
Charles Austin Miller
21st May 2016
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
13th May 2016
Fight Club (1999)
Question: What did Edward Norton mean when he said "My eyes are open" before he shot himself?
Chosen answer: He had been living in a deeply schizophrenic world, living two lives, but not remembering one of them. When he realised that he was actually TWO people, he realised that he could kill them both with one shot. So, his eyes were finally opened to the truth. As it happened, he didn't actually kill himself, but the dark side accepted that he had.
13th May 2016
The Thing (1982)
Question: When it's discovered that the malamute was assimilated by the alien, it gets incinerated. How then, was the alien able to assimilate Bennings or anybody else, since each time someone was discovered to be the alien they were burned to a crisp?
Answer: The Norwegian malamute freely ran around the American base for hours before the kennel incineration scene. Doc Blair even asked the dog-keeper, Clark, how long the malamute had roamed around the base that afternoon, and Clark couldn't give an exact amount of time. It was easily long enough to infect more than a couple of hosts, as there was no single point of infection. Also, even before the kennel scene, the Americans went to investigate the Norwegian base and recovered a half-mutated humanoid corpse, returning with it to the American base. After performing an autopsy and blood analysis, Doc Blair realised that the corpse wasn't completely dead. The animated goo from the mutated corpse is what assimilated Bennings.
Answer: Burning isn't always a guarantee it is dead. They just think it is. The only permanent solution is blowing a Thing to smithereens as it doesn't seem to be able to put itself back together after.
Mostly agree, but complete burning, thorough enough to disrupt every cell, is probably the only practical way to kill it. Exploding it would just scatter pieces of Thing all around. As we saw in the blood test scene, even small amounts of the Thing are motile, and they might be able to rejoin. If the pieces froze after being scattered they would just lie dormant until discovered and eaten by a scavenger, or were thawed and touched by a careless investigator.
6th May 2016
Die Hard (1988)
Question: My question is about radio chatter. Sometimes in the movie McClane talks on the radio and the bad guys hear him, and sometimes the bad guys talk and everybody hears. Now there are times that McClane is talking to the Sergeant and it appears only him and the Sergeant are listening - can everyone listen to them? Also when talking with Theo about the safe, can McClane hear their conversation?
Chosen answer: The gangster/terrorists were using a set of what are called "commercial" or business walkie-talkies which have special, dedicated channels so that they only communicate with other radios within the set. These are typically used by security and event-staff personnel, and they can't be monitored by general-purpose or citizens-band radios. Even the police wouldn't be able to monitor commercial radio traffic unless they had special tuning gear and scanners. The major mistake in "Die Hard" was that John used one of those commercial radios to contact a police dispatcher and then an individual police officer. No can do.
31st Mar 2016
Dark Shadows (2012)
Question: Why does Barnabas refuse to take Angelique's heart when she offers it?
Answer: Quite simply, it's because Barnabas hates Angelique and has hated her for almost 200 years. Back in the late 1700s, the witch Angelique and Barnabas had a brief romantic fling; as a result, Angelique fell madly in love with Barnabas. Unfortunately, Barnabas moved on and fell in love with another woman, Josette. In a fit of enraged jealousy, Angelique tortured Barnabas through witchcraft and eventually cursed him to become a vampire, which also precipitated Josette's suicide. So, Barnabas hates Angelique like poison and would never forgive her.
31st Mar 2016
Dark Shadows (2012)
Question: I don't understand why Victoria calls herself "Josette" at the end of the movie. Is she really Josette in a reincarnated body? Or does she want to pretend to be Josette?
Answer: In the original television series, it was implied that 18th Century Josette Dupres had reincarnated as either Maggie Evans or as Victoria Winters in the 20th Century (Barnabas pursued Maggie at first but then decided Victoria was Josette's reincarnation). However, Victoria then traveled back in time to the 18th Century and actually met Josette, which was confusing (the same soul in two unrelated bodies in the same timeline seems unlikely). Tim Burton sidestepped that confusion by omitting the time-travel part of the original storyline. In both the original series and the movie, though, the point is that Victoria and Josette share a soul. Toward the end of the film, Victoria finally accepted that she was Josette and that Barnabas was her long-lost love.
31st Mar 2016
Dark Shadows (2012)
Question: When Elizabeth is interviewing Victoria for the governess job, Victoria says that men would "become unmanageable" if there was gender equality. What does she mean by this?
Answer: Victoria means that women traditionally manipulate men quite easily by using sex and sexy appearances. If true "gender equality" existed, then men would see and respect women as more than mere sex objects, which would undermine women's control over men.
8th Mar 2016
General questions
I am looking for a movie from late 80s or 90s. America. There is a girl and two brothers (maybe step-brothers). The girl is in relationship with one of the brothers. Girl lives in big house (kinda wealthy). She cheats on her boyfriend with her boyfriend's brother. I can remember some scenes: girl is dancing sensually in bar; one of the brothers goes in jail and when the girl visits him, she says "I want you inside me right now"; hotel scene at the end where the boyfriend finds out that the girl is cheating on him with his brother - there is also shooting in this scene. There are very many sex scenes in this movie. In the storyline there was some issue with the girl's family and at the end it's revealed that the girl had a plan and she played a game, and the brothers were somehow part of it. I hope somebody recognizes the movie and knows the name. Thanks.
Answer: That's "Feeling Minnesota" (1996), with Cameron Diaz, Keanu Reeves, and Vincent D'Onofrio. Diaz plays a beautiful ex-stripper who is reluctantly marrying one brother in order to pay off a mob debt, but she instantly falls in love with the other brother and runs off with him for a whirlwind affair, with the angry brother and mobsters in pursuit. The film becomes a sort of love-triangle/double-cross/crime-caper. Yes, a bundle of money is heisted, Diaz is shot and assumed dead, D'Onofrio and others are killed; but it turns out Diaz was running a double-cross, and she ends up reunited with Reeves. One of her most memorable lines in the movie was, "You wanna be inside me again, Jjaks?" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeling_Minnesota.
29th Mar 2016
Blade (1998)
Question: How is Blade able to catch his glaive (his bladed throwing-weapon, not his sword) without slicing his own hand and/or fingers in the process? As in this film and its sequels, the blades are still spinning rapidly just before he catches it.
Chosen answer: While all of the nocturnal vampires in the movies are far stronger and have incredible reflexes compared to humans, Blade is supposed to be an even stronger and faster vampire with special powers (he can travel in daylight, and his reflexes are super-fast even compared to other vampires). In short, Blade is so fast that he can safely snatch a whirling glaive out of the air as easily as catching a slow-pitch softball.
4th Mar 2016
Beetlejuice (1988)
Question: When the Maitlands return to their home after it's been altered by the new owners, Juno tells the Maitlands that they should be thankful that they didn't die in Italy. What did she mean by that?
Answer: Italy is the center of the Roman Catholic Church, which includes exorcisms as a real-life ritual. Presumably, ghosts in Italy are at greater risk of encountering trouble in Italy because of this reason.
Answer: It's in reference / added on to her previous statement about being quiet/peaceful: Italy, presumably, has a louder, more raucous group of the living.
Answer: Italy, is a trendsetter. There would be constant art-deco changes that conflict with the Maitland's personal taste. In comparison, the Deets' are pretty tamed.
Chosen answer: When the Maitlands first meet their case worker, Juno, they tell her how miffed they are with the new family that has moved into their home. Juno glances around the peaceful house and remarks, "Things seem quiet here. You should thank God you didn't die in Italy." The case worker's name, "Juno," is a traditional Italian girl's name; and we see (when she smokes a cigarette) that Juno's throat has been slashed open from side to side, implying that she died a very violent and grisly death. Based on her personal experience (probably being murdered in Italy), Juno is commenting that the Maitlands could have died a far worse death under far more horrific circumstances, and that they really have little reason to complain.
I'm Italian: there's literally not a single female being, girl or woman, who has (had or have) this name in this country. Let alone being "traditional." "J" is not even in our original alphabet, go figure. I also think it's about us Italians being noisy and the place being quiet, that's all.
You may be Italian, but you're not informed. While the formal Italian alphabet (derived of Latin) does not have a "J" character, the letter "J' is used in modern Italian writing every day. "Juno," in your limited world, would be spelled "Diuno," who was a Roman goddess (queen of the heavens). As this pertains to Beetlejuice, she is a Roman goddess in charge of organizing.
Juno slashed her own throat. It says earlier in the movie that people who commit suicide become civil servants, which is what Juno is as their case worker. The beauty queen at the desk implies the same when she talks about what happens to people when they die. She says "if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have had my little accident" holding up her slit wrists, implying that she wouldn't have committed suicide if she knew she'd become a civil servant (as a desk girl).
It's never stated or established that Juno committed suicide.
I really think she was supposed to have had a tracheotomy due to her smoking.
12th Feb 2016
General questions
Looking for 90's or early 2000s movie with two brothers home for a wedding or maybe a funeral. The good brother's fiance ends up cheating with the criminal brother at a hotel.
Answer: "Feeling Minnesota" (1996) with Cameron Diaz, Keanu Reeves and Vincent D'Onofrio. A beautiful ex-stripper is reluctantly marrying one brother, but she's in love with the other brother, and she runs off with him on her wedding day. http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0116289/.
12th Feb 2016
Jaws (1975)
Question: In the pond scene, after the shark attacks the poor man on the paddle boat, why didn't he go after Michael too? He just swam past him, sparing him.
Answer: In addition, the original scene called for Michael to be in the arms of the man, with the man in the jaws of the shark. Michael is carried across the water and the released by the man just before the shark takes him under. Spielberg ultimately felt that this was over the top gruesome and changed the scene.
Chosen answer: The horror of "Jaws" was not so much the physical trauma of being eaten alive as it was the terror of not knowing who would be next. So, we see the panicking pier fisherman spared although the shark could have easily taken him; we see the shark randomly select the Kintner boy while sparing hundreds of other terrified people in the water at Amity's public beach; and we see the shark just barely spare Michael after eating the man in the pond. Although he wasn't physically harmed, Michael was hospitalized in shock after the encounter with the shark; so, he obviously suffered unimaginable terror. It's that "almost eaten" factor that sells the film. Captain Quint's story of the USS Indianapolis drives home the point that waiting to be eaten is as terrifying as actually being eaten, and that's what film maker Steven Spielberg very successfully conveyed all throughout the movie.
Answer: Excellent answers, and just to add one more point: the shark in the movie is not a normal one. He doesn't act just out of hunger, but also out of sheer malevolence: in fact, just like in the novel, it's implied there's *something* about him, something almost supernatural. He may have spared Michael because he had just secured a meal, to escape the gathering humans before they can harm him... or because killing the boy wouldn't have entertained him sufficiently.
3rd Feb 2016
Jaws (1975)
Question: There are two scenes on the boat after they have seen the shark and Brody has a panicked look, while in the background a shooting star passes right behind him. This happens twice, but it's in the day time. Was it real?
Answer: Although the 1995 documentary "The Making of Jaws" claims that the shooting star was real, the fact is that the shooting-star background effect is a Steven Spielberg trademark in most of his films (first noticed in "Jaws," but also appearing in "Close Encounters," "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Saving Private Ryan" and others). Spielberg has always had a fascination with shooting stars, dating back to his childhood, and he works them into almost every film. Http://americanprofile.com/articles/steven-spielberg-shooting-stars-movies/.
25th May 2015
Watchmen (2009)
Question: Why did Adrian Veidt also have to infect Moloch with cancer? The comedian mentions to Moloch that Moloch's name was on a list together with Janey Slater's (and others?), who were presumably the ones Veidt infected with cancer. So why Moloch, too? In order to make Dr. Manhattan and the world think that Dr. Manhattan was causing cancer? He had already infected Janey Slater and Wally Weaver who had more contact with Dr. Manhattan. I would think, Moloch and Dr. Manhattan only had brief contact with each other when Moloch was captured.
Answer: Moloch knowingly worked for Adrian at one time, installing carcinogenic gas canisters in ventilation ducts to give people cancer at the high-energy research facility. That's how Moloch developed terminal cancer; but Adrian killed Moloch with a bullet between the eyes before Moloch could reveal any more information to Rorschach. Adrian then set-up Rorschach for murdering Moloch. Anyone who worked "on the inside" of Adrian's plans or who might be an obstacle to those plans was a target for assassination. Adrian murdered his super-associates (The Comedian and Moloch, and he later attempted to kill Dr. Manhattan), he murdered his own hit-man, and he murdered his entire staff of scientists in order to protect his secret plans.
19th Oct 2015
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
Question: What does Admiral Nelson have in his left shirt pocket?
Answer: Admiral Nelson is puffing on cigars in a few scenes, and his cigars are even a source of dialogue in the film. Specifically, when his quarters catch on fire, the blaze is initially blamed on a lit cigar, to which Nelson angrily replies that he ran out of cigars before the fire ever occurred. So it's a pretty good bet that Nelson was carrying a cigar (or cigars) in his shirt pocket.
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Answer: At first, the story advances very rapidly, essentially giving the audience a primer lesson on Josey's angry motivation; so, many minute details aren't explored, such as where he acquired his ammunition. We might conjecture that Josey had a separate out-building, called a "powder house" (which was common in that era) where gunpowder and shot was kept for safety reasons. If he did, that raises the question of why the raiders didn't ransack and burn his powder house as well.
Charles Austin Miller