5th Feb 2021
On a Very Special Episode... - S1-E5
Question: The intro sequence for this episode seems most closely based on Growing Pains, with a dash of Family Ties, but the painting being coloured in really reminds me of something else, I assume another TV show, but can't place it. Any inspiration?
Answer: I noticed that too and although I can't think of any sitcom starting like that it does remind me strongly of Bob Ross "The Joy of Painting" intro, which was from the 80's as well.
26th Jan 2021
Question: How did the T-800 figure out that John's foster parents were dead?
Answer: He tested the T-1000 by asking him about the barking dog. The dog's actual name is Max, so the T-800 asks "What's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking." When the T-1000 answers that "Wolfie is just fine", The T-800 knows that the T-1000 has killed Todd and Janelle. There's actually a deleted scene (reincorporated into the Director's Cut) where the T-1000 then goes outside, kills the dog, and checks the tag to find out if he was duped.
26th Jan 2021
Question: I understand that Sullivan killed Barrigan at the end of the movie because there needed to be someone dead other than Costigan that Sullivan could pin as the mole in order to evade being caught. But why couldn't Sullivan keep Barrigan alive and then both of them pin Trooper Brown, who Barrigan had killed just a second beforehand, as the mole?
Answer: It is unlikely that Trooper Brown would be believable as a member of the Irish Mob, considering the fact that he is African American.
21st Jan 2021
Question: I recently submitted a "mistake" which revealed my own misunderstanding. The package that Chuck eventually delivers to Bettina had been sent to her partner in Moscow, which COULD explain its presence on a westbound trans-Pacific flight. Still, would a package sent from Memphis to Moscow be routed through southeast Asia? It would be shorter, and therefore faster, would it not, to send it across the Atlantic?
Answer: There are two packages sent by Bettina Peterson. The first we see goes to Russia to a man also named Peterson. The second never reaches its destination but we don't know where exactly it was being sent. That second package must have been going somewhere that required it being routed through Malaysia.
Agree with your answer, but something else occurred to me. Bettina appears to be sending out packages via FedEx fairly regularly. She is an artist, and may sell her work internationally. While she does create large-scale wing sculptures, she may also do smaller types of metal artwork, jewelry, etc. We assume she was only mailing packages to her cheating husband, but she could have been sending something to a customer in Southeast Asia.
I found an earlier version of the script that explains this. After rescue, FedEx looked at the husband's records, which indicate he had moved from Russia to Kuala Lumpur. The package on the plane was being sent from the lady in Texas to there. The FedEx people could not locate a current address for the now ex-husband, so Tom returned it to the sender address in Texas.
22nd Jan 2021
14th Jan 2021
Question: In the first It, Pennywise was defeated by the Losers because they were no longer afraid of Pennywise, which weakened him. How was he able to become strong enough to return?
Answer: Simply put, the Losers incorrectly believed Pennywise would starve during his hibernation because he couldn't eat them. This is apparently not the case and in the 27 years he was sleeping, Pennywise gained enough strength to eat the wounded Adrian Mellon when he wakes. After claiming Adrian, Pennywise was strong enough to resume his normal activities. Overcoming their fears was only good enough to win the battle with Pennywise, but it wasn't enough to kill him. In the book the Losers have no idea whether or not they have killed Pennywise, and this coupled with the fact that they get lost in the sewers causes them all to panic. The fact that Pennywise sleeps for 27 years leads them to believe that he is dead over time and all but Mike forgets about him and the rest of the Losers entirely. The film is identical to the book in the regard that Pennywise awakens after 27 years with just enough strength to murder and eat Adrian Mellon.
11th Jan 2021
Question: Can a lifeguard legally throw a kid out of the pool like Wendy did to Squints after he kissed her?
Answer: Absolutely. In addition to having to administer life-saving measures, the lifeguard on duty at a public pool is also responsible for maintaining order. A kid purposefully diving into the deep end of the pool and pretending to drown just so he could kiss the lifeguard puts himself and others at risk. Anyone who doesn't abide by the pool rules can be kicked out by the lifeguard with no warning needed at all.
Answer: I would add to the other answer that inappropriately touching or kissing another person without their consent is an illegal act, giving the lifeguard the legal right to expel anyone.
I appreciate the answer, but the movie takes place in the 1960s. As much as I agree with you, that sadly wasn't the way things were then.
Even though it was the 1960s, it would still be illegal to touch, grope, or kiss someone without their permission. It would be considered a technical physical assault. Unfortunately, in that era, it was taken less seriously than it is now and the consequences were minor (i.e. a stern warning) to non-existent. The lifeguard was in the position of power at the pool, however, and she had the authority to eject anyone for that type of behavior.
Not in the 1960s. It was just a kiss from a little kid. It was embarrassing, not illegal.
23rd Dec 2020
Question: If the guy at the reception desk knew that the only ones left in the building were on the 30th floor, why did he tell John to use the screen?
Answer: Most large companies, particularly hi-tech or multinational ones, require visitors to check-in, especially afterhours. By having John search for Holly's name, it can be verified that he actually knows someone who works there, that there is an actual employee with that name, and otherwise assess whether John is a legitimate visitor. This scene's real purpose, however, is for plot exposition. John learns from the monitor that Holly now goes by her maiden name (Gennero) rather than her married surname. We see John's annoyed reaction to learning this, which sets up a later confrontation between him and Holly over their troubled marriage.
Answer: Any answer is speculation; but a simple explanation is he may have forgotten the only people left were there for the Xmas party until John mentioned the 30th floor. The guard also seems fairly proud of their new high-tech touchscreen system so he might have just had John use it to show off how nice the building is.
Answer: Most likely he just wanted to showcase a nifty (by 80s standards) piece of technology to a visitor.
Answer: The party was on the 30th floor and John was asking for a specific employee, his wife. He had no idea where she was exactly.
23rd Dec 2020
Question: Why did John send the elevator down to floor 31 and then floor 30 with the body inside it? Wouldn't it have been better to send it straight to floor 30?
Answer: He sent the elevator down and stopped it halfway between floors so he could get on the top of the car. Once he's on top of the car, he won't be able to hit the button for the 30th floor, so he has to hit both buttons before he gets on top of the car.
Answer: I always thought of it more of a last resort thing. His plan was to get on top of it, but if he ran into issues he had time to get out. If he sent it to floor 30 and found out he couldn't stop it or anything to climb up on top, the baddies would have got hold of him. By sending it to 31 and then 30, if he found out he couldn't stop it then he'd just be able to get out on floor 31 instead meaning the baddies wouldn't catch him.
18th Dec 2020
Every Witch Way but Loose - S5-E1
Question: Did Salem take Mr. Kraft's life? The last we see of Sabina's vice principal (and royal pain in the butt) is when Salem hits him with Sabrina's car. It's used as a laugh, but you never see Mr. Kraft again. Did Salem really take his life?
Answer: This is a family TV show so it is safe to assume Salem did not murder Mr. Kraft in cold blood.
18th Dec 2020
Question: Why did Wendy smile and waved at Squints after she threw him out of the pool?
Answer: Although she was initially offended that Squints grabbed her and kissed her, after she had a moment to think about it she likely found his actions brave and kind of sweet.
Answer: She does like him a little bit. They ended up getting married, after all.
18th Dec 2020
Question: Is the real life Walter O'Brien the mastermind the show makes him out to be?
Answer: The background of the real-life Walter O'Brien is a continuing source of controversy. Many of O'Brien's claims about his history, intelligence, and his crime-fighting remain unsubstantiated. Even the actor who plays O'Brien on the show said he finds many of the stories impossible to believe. Most, if not all, of the claims of O'Brien's exploits come from O'Brien himself and the CBS network and have not been verified. For example, O'Brien claims he scored 197 on an IQ test as a child but did not keep the paperwork proving this claim. O'Brien also states that he cannot discuss certain exploits in detail because he is bound by non-disclosure agreements, which his critics say is convenient because even that cannot be verified.
17th Dec 2020
Question: What mental illness does Arthur's mother suffer from, if any? That, and why claim Arthur was Wayne's son if he wasn't?
Answer: It isn't exactly specified in the film what illness she suffers from but she definitely appears to be schizophrenic. This would also explain why she claimed Arthur was Wayne's son.
13th Dec 2020
Question: Since one male from each family in her village is required to report for training to serve the emperor, how is it that no-one recognizes Mulan - especially when she gives in to her chi?
Answer: Although it isn't said (in either this film or the animated original), she reports to a different camp than anyone else in her village. Otherwise, the men would not only recognize her physically but they would know beforehand that Hua Zhou never had a son so the ruse would never work. How she knows nobody from her village will be at that particular camp is never explained in either film.
15th Nov 2020
Question: Near the beginning of the movie, the man in charge of the WOPR is explaining to the President's advisor that the WOPR has already fought WW3, as a game, many times over. Why wouldn't the WOPR have already learned that Global Thermonuclear War would be unwinnable, as it learned near the end of the movie?
Answer: WOPR had not yet learned the concept of a no-win scenario until it was ordered to play Tic Tac Toe against itself at the climax of the film. Once WOPR understood that there existed certain games that literally could not be won, it then understood that nuclear war was one of those un-winnable situations after running a sufficient number of scenarios with this new concept in mind.
18th Nov 2020
Question: Why did John Travolta have his gun drawn while talking to the guy in the car who he accidentally shoots?
Answer: He is careless with it, and doesn't think about if it might accidentally fire. There are safety protocols when dealing with guns for a reason. Gangsters just chose to ignore them.
22nd Nov 2020
Question: Can someone please put to bed a question that has been raised and not answered...why would the terrorists try to blow McClane up with grenades that have enough of a delay to make a quick coffee in?
Answer: There is no in-universe explanation...they didn't go to an arms dealer and say, "Give us your longest-fused grenades, we want to give our target a sporting chance." There is no deleted scene where Col. Stuart wonders aloud why those grenades took so long to explode, while making himself a coffee. This-the hero in a deadly situation and escaping in the nick of time, regardless of how long grenades actually take to explode in the real world-is an action movie trope and nothing more, in a film that is chock full of them. It would be a pretty sad movie, not to mention a bad one, if McClane got blown to bits by grenades, and the bad guys won.
But surely they could have filmed this scene in slo-mo to stretch out the 7 second delay to whatever it becomes, OR edited it in such a way it appears to take longer when it actually doesn't?
The grenade fuse time is deliberately lengthened so the audience can process what is happening. The audience has to see the danger of the grenades, understand that McClane must get out of the cockpit without the bad guys shooting him, see McClane think of the ejector seat plan, and then execute that plan. It's ridiculously unrealistic but McClane is meant to be clever and resourceful so the audience has to see him work out the problem. If you used slo-mo it would make it seem like McClane instantly figured out a solution, which would make him look superhuman.
Answer: It's worth noting that they wouldn't have to pull the pins out of all the grenades, just one. That one would cause the others to explode as well.
28th Nov 2020
Dead Freight - S5-E5
Question: How did the train conductors not hear the water pump Walt was using to pump water into the tanker? They were only around 800 feet away in open land, so it should have been audible.
Answer: For one thing the engine running the pump isn't that loud. The characters have conversations at a normal volume without having to scream at each other. Even if the conductors could hear it, there is no reason they should care or be suspicious. It just sounds like an engine running in the distance and they don't care enough to look for what is making the noise. At that very moment there is also a kid riding a dirt bike in the area. Engine noises are a very common thing.
6th Nov 2020
Question: Is it just me or is Philips on the verge of tears after Ham says he plays ball like a girl?
Answer: Yes, he is on the verge of tears. His voice cracks as well. This is a joke, telling a boy they play like a girl is insulting and the film exaggerates this for a good laugh.
2nd Nov 2020
Question: Near the end of the movie Optimus wants Sam to put the cube in his chest before Sam instead puts the cube in Megatron's chest. Why did Optimus want that?
Answer: Putting the Allspark into Optimus' chest would have killed him and destroyed the Allspark (though apparently not completely considering the direct sequel). Optimus would not have fought Sam and would willingly have sacrificed himself to achieve this goal. Without the Allspark, Megatron cannot create more Decepticons (again, this idea is ruined by the sequels which show this not to be the case). Trying to kill Megatron with the Allspark was a huge risk, if Megatron had seen the attack coming he would have easily killed Sam and taken the Allspark since Optimus was momentarily incapacitated.
Chosen answer: The living painting is taken straight from the Family Ties intro.
BaconIsMyBFF
Ah, that makes sense - I first saw this one on Youtube, which at a guess was the first season or an early version? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRdtO6UKD0. But yeah, this is exactly right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip1szfz9nZ8.
Jon Sandys ★