Heather Benton

31st Jan 2013

Skyfall (2012)

Question: Why did M send Bond back out into the field if he didn't pass all the tests? She stated he wasn't allowed unless he passed every test, so why did she say he could when the tests stated he's not fit enough?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Because she believes that people are more than just the sum of their test results. Regardless of what the tests show, she still believes that Bond is the best person for the task ahead, that his skill, experience and tenacity will allow him to rise above a few bad test scores and get the job done anyway.

Tailkinker

Factual error: When the Pirates and Darwin land in London, the Pirates disguise themselves as Girl Guides, but Robert Baden Powell didn't found the Girl Guides until 1910, over 70 years after the film is set.

Heather Benton

10th Dec 2012

General questions

This is for the Bond films as a whole. Bit of a stupid question, but in Licence to Kill, Della tries to give Bond her garter and he refuses because he doesn't want to marry again. And then Felix explains that Bond was married before a long time ago. My question is, in all the films, we see him getting off with various women, and since he was married a long time ago, shouldn't he have moved on by now? Or was Tracey the only woman he wanted to marry?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: James Bond is not the kind of man who would be interested in marrying and settling down with someone. Any woman that he that he would have married would be exceptional, and it is highly unlikely then that he would find another such person or consider taking any other woman as his wife.

raywest

22nd Nov 2012

Licence to Kill (1989)

Question: When Bond goes back to Felix's house and discovers Della's dead body, what exactly happened to her after Felix was taken and before Bond discovered her?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: She is found shot dead on the bed. It is also probable that Sanchez's men, lead by Dario, raped her - this is hinted at strongly when Dario says that he and his men will "give her a second honeymoon." However, this is left very vague, and nothing certain is ever said on the subject.

swordfish

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.

26th Aug 2012

Mystery Men (1999)

Question: Just interested, but when the Mystery Men are rescuing Captain Amazing, how did Amazing know the sequence for the release mechanism and where it was if he was unconscious when he was put there?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: In a previous scene with Casanova, Capt. Amazing and he have done this (capture & escape) a lot! So much so that Capt. Amazing would have been in that situation before enough times to already know the sequence code from previous times being captured (and escaping).

CCARNI

Question: When Indy gets to where the Grail is and meets the Knight, the Knight says that he is one of many brothers chosen to protect the grail, but if being in that cave with the Grail grants him immortality, what happened to his previous brothers?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: The other two brothers are the ones who left the tomb and traveled back to Europe. One of them is the knight Indy and Elsa find in the catacombs under Venice with the shield that has the second marker. The one left behind is the one the brothers determined to be the most worthy to guard the Grail.

Guy

Question: Just curious, but how does Indy's dad know what the trials to get to the Grail are if he's never done it and anyone who has hasn't survived past the first task?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: He states quite specifically in the movie that he found the details of the trials in the Chronicles of St Anselm. How the details got in there is anybody's guess - given what's seen to occur in the movies, divine inspiration is an entirely reasonable explanation.

Tailkinker

Of course, that begs the question... If the grail was not meant to be discovered, then why inspire Henry with the clues to get to it?

The Grail is meant to be discovered, but only by those who are worthy of locating it. In a Grail Quest, the hero has to overcome various challenges and seek out clues to be considered worthy of finding and wielding the Grail. You can't get the Grail if you're unworthy. The 3 Challenges in the temple specifically require traits like faith, wisdom, and bravery to pass. Only someone who understands what the Grail represents would be able to succeed. When divine inspiration is used in storytelling, the goal is to spur people on to want to make themselves better, or to fix something. There may be some divine inspiration that gave Henry the nudge to want to find the Grail, but he still has to put in the work and make himself worthy of it.

29th May 2012

Doctor Who (1963)

Show generally

Question: Throughout all the series, whenever the Doctor and his companion/s encounter aliens or planets, the Doctor knows who they are, where they're from etc. I mean I know he's pretty intelligent and knowledgeable, but what I'm wondering is, how does he know everything about every species in all the galaxies, even the ones in the future? Is it something he's learned/gathered throughout his travels?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Partially through that, I mean if you've spent hundereds of years, visiting millions of places and times, its not that wierd that you learn a lot, particually if you're one of a race of super geniuses, he's even a genius for his kind. There also the fact his race observe most events over most times, so he probably learned a lot doing that too.

Chosen answer: Because Kathy's supposed to be disguising her own voice to sound like Lina would if she could sing. The studio is trying to fool the public into believing that this is Lina's voice, even though she can't sing and sounds terrible when she speaks. Actress Jean Hagen, who played Lina, was a singer in real life, and she actually dubbed her own voice.

raywest

28th May 2012

Titanic (1997)

Question: Bit of a stupid question, but was just wondering. When Mr Andrews is talking to Rose, Cal and Ruth during the tour of the ship, Rose says that there are not enough boats for everyone on board, and Mr Andrews explains that he wanted more boats or something, and he was told that they would make the deck too cluttered so he was overruled, and the ship got the boats it does. But as Mr Andrews designed/ constructed the ship, surely it's up to him how many lifeboats there are etc, so why did he back down?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: It certainly was not up to him. Andrews was only the designer and an employee of the company, White Star Line. Whatever he may have wanted or recommended, the company had the power and the legal right to overrule him in favor of what they felt made the ship more profitable. They did not want their high-paying clientele's ocean view obstructed by too many lifeboats. Safety regulations were far more lax at this time, though many new ones were enacted following the tragedy, including more lifeboats.

raywest

Answer: Regulations at the time required ships over 10,000 tons to have 16 lifeboats on board, Titanic which was 40,000 tons had 20 so four more than required. In the 2 1/2 hours it took Titanic to sink they managed to get 18 of 20 boats off safely, collapsibles A and B were floated off and one was even capsized. It's quite possible that if Titanic had more lifeboats more lives would've been lost due to having to work around the extra boats they possibly would've got less boats away.

Revealing mistake: When the first fingernail drawing is attached to the guillotine with the knife, you can see the wire that was used to guide the knife attached to the end of it.

Heather Benton

Visible crew/equipment: When the guards are getting out of the carriage at the Bastille just after Camembert and Bidet have come back from England, you can see some crew reflected in the front of the carriage.

Heather Benton

Continuity mistake: Near the end, when Tito steers the trolley back down the bridge edge, Georgette looks neat and calm, but a little later on after Jenny hugs Oliver when he wakes up, it cuts to Georgette and her hair is all messed up and she looks petrified.

Heather Benton

14th Feb 2009

The Cable Guy (1996)

Answer: A $50 Bill.

Chosen answer: $247.19 and a coupon for free HBO.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: $1.

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