BaconIsMyBFF

7th Apr 2018

The Green Mile (1999)

Question: Why did Paul and the other guards show concern for Percy after Wild Bill caused Percy to piss his pants?

Answer: They may not like him but they still want to make sure he's ok.

Greg Dwyer

Exactly. Plus having a guard killed by an inmate on their watch would reflect poorly on them, to say the least. And Percy had political connections as well.

BaconIsMyBFF

Because they are caring human beings, and feel some emotion towards someone in trouble, unlike Percy himself.

Question: In the very last scene of the movie, we see Christina Ricci and David Krumholtz sitting in the Addams Family graveyard, and Krumholtz is placing flowers at Debbie Jellinski's tombstone, when a full human arm (presumably the late Debbie's) shoots out of the grave and grabs his wrist, sending him into screaming fits. However, Debbie was completely cremated to ash by electricity a few minutes earlier in the film. Nothing left of her but ash, shoes and credit cards. So, whose arm reached out from Debbie's grave?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: We are never told whose arm it was that came out of the grave.

Answer: It was a prank Wednesday was pulling on Joel. She mentions she would scare her husband to death and then smiles when Joel starts screaming.

BaconIsMyBFF

Yes, she said she'd scare her husband to death. But it is a very animated human arm that reaches out of the grave, causing me to wonder WHO was in the grave to pull off the prank?

Charles Austin Miller

I mean, if it was just a hand coming out of the grave, I would be satisfied that it was "Thing" taking part in the prank. But it was a whole human forearm (which Thing does not have).

Charles Austin Miller

There's no evidence in the film to answer the question. They never show you who the arm belongs to, and with good reason. It would ruin the joke. This is just one of those questions that can't be definitively answered.

BaconIsMyBFF

This is also a reference to the end scene of Carrie.

Oliver Baum

Question: At the very end of the film, Tony Stark informs Peter Parker that he is a now a member of the Avengers and reveals his new Spidey suit. Peter moves toward the camera, with Tony Stark plainly visible on the right side of the screen and Happy Hogan far in the background (all three are in this shot), as we hear a male voice in the foreground enthusiastically say, "Yeah! Give that a look!" Except that Tony Stark didn't say it, Peter Parker didn't say it, and Happy Hogan was much too far away to have said it. The dubbed voice obviously does not belong to Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr or Jon Favreau at all. So who said it?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Go back and watch the scene again. It looks like you just might be remembering it wrong. It's Tony during the tracking shot. He says "Yeah, give that a look!" in reference to the suit. He's actually not quite on camera when he says the line, hence you don't see him say it. But it's definitely Tony.

I re-watched the shot several times, Tony Stark does not visibly say anything, and the dubbed voice is not that of Robert Downey Jr.

Charles Austin Miller

I understand what you are saying. Tony isn't on screen during the line and the voice does sound different. The implication is that Tony is saying the line, without the line Tony is just standing there waiting for Peter to respond for a long time and it would be out of character for him to do so (he's an extremely talkative person). There isn't enough information available to determine whether or not Downey is actually the one who recorded the line, it could be him just recorded in post. But you are definitely correct, I listened to the scene with headphones on and there is a noticeable difference in the tone of voice for this one line and no others.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Even though it's meant as a comedic moment, I've never really understood why Kirk would be so nervous about Saavik piloting the ship out of space dock. She's not actually flying the ship, so it's not like she's going to crash it into the wall or something. Plus, Sulu is an experienced pilot, so even if she said something stupid like "Warp speed!", he's unlikely to follow the order. Just something odd that I have always wondered about.

wizard_of_gore

Chosen answer: He's nervous because she's a trainee and had never done this maneuver before. Even if Sulu is there, she could still possibly make one small error that he would be unable to react to in time. As you point out, the scene is meant to be comedic, and it's being a little over-played strictly for that.

raywest

Again though, she is not actually piloting the ship, only giving orders.

wizard_of_gore

Even though Sulu is an experienced pilot, taking the ship out of space dock under power is still prohibited for a reason. If something were to go wrong and a quick decision had to be made, Savick would be the one giving orders to correct the problem. That's what makes Kirk nervous, not the piloting skill involved but the decision making required in an emergency.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Normally a ship is piloted out of spacedock using thrusters (see ST:TMP). Saavik ordered impulse power.

Answer: Saavik destroyed a simulated Enterprise during her Kobayashi Maru test, with Admiral Kirk chiding her afterwards. When Spock invites Saavik to take the real Enterprise out of space dock, Kirk is obviously nervous because he thinks Saavik is unready for command, as she destroyed the Enterprise earlier.

Charles Austin Miller

To my original point though, she is not actually touching any controls, only giving orders. The Enterprise was destroyed in the simulation during a Klingon attack, which is very different than guiding a ship out of spacedock. Not to mention the fact that the simulation is designed to make the cadet fail.

wizard_of_gore

The whole scene is about Spock taking a dig at Kirk's ego. Being the only cadet in Starfleet history to ever actually beat the Kobayashi Maru test (albeit by trickery), Kirk has an inflated standard for what constitutes "readiness for command," and it shows in his reaction. Knowing full well that it will raise Kirk's hackles, Spock deliberately invites Saavik to handle the simple space dock maneuver. McCoy also knows that Kirk will over-react, which is why he offers Kirk a tranquilizer.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: I know Hilary Clinton is on one of the denomination of the lunar money. But at the end, when Felix is in Pluto's new club, there's money sitting on a waitress' tray of a different denomination with someone else on it. Who is on that bill? If there were other bills seen (i.e. deleted scenes) who is on those?

Bishop73

Answer: You can't see any other bills and there are no deleted scenes that show the money either. The only money gag in the film is with Hilary Clinton.

BaconIsMyBFF

At 1:27:38 there's money on the waitress' tray that does not appear to be Clinton as the profile angle is different.

Bishop73

That's true but you cannot see it well enough to answer the question of who is on the bill.

BaconIsMyBFF

I couldn't tell either, or find it online. That's why I asked, hoping someone with knowledge of Pluto Nash props would know or perhaps it was mentioned in a DVD extra somewhere. It's clear that it's lunar money and time and effort went into making it, so someone has to know.

Bishop73

Question: After the Reliant ambushes the Enterprise, Kirk tricks Khan and hammers the Reliant into retreat. As Kirk turns to assess damage to the Enterprise, Scotty inexplicably appears on the bridge, carrying the charred body of Midshipman Peter Preston. Why on earth would Scotty bring the dying Preston to the bridge, rather than to SickBay with all the other injured? He had to deliberately bypass SickBay just to make an unnecessary appearance on the bridge.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: At the time of the attack, most of Scotty's crew were attempting to flee a coolant leak caused by the damage. Cadet Preston (Scotty's nephew) remained at his post in the confusion, and was the reason the Enterprise was able to maintain minimal power with the energizers knocked out. Although he was wounded from the assault while rescuing another crew member, the coolant leak is what led to his ultimate demise, as the coolant was highly toxic. When Scotty brought him to the Bridge, he was himself quite disorientated from the events and was also devastated by his nephew's condition. Agreed it makes little to no sense, but Scotty didn't know what he was doing. His nephew was going to die, regardless of where he took him to. Going to sickbay would not have prevented it at this point. It seems like it was used as a mood breaker for the scene, crews celebrating their escape from death only to be confronted by it again in another form.

Answer: I believe Preston was already dead at that point. An earlier scene was edited out of the film that explained Preston was Scotty's nephew (his sister's son), and which may account for Scotty's rather odd reaction of first bringing him to the bridge.

raywest

Yet Preston is shown alive (still dying) in the SickBay moments later. Preston shares last words with Captain Kirk before he actually dies. So, this is a case of bad editing?

Charles Austin Miller

What was edited out of the film was an earlier explanation that Preston was Scotty's nephew-this was way before the Enterprise was attacked.

raywest

These scenes, which include several of Preston's lines which were cut, were restored in the 2002 Director's Edition. Curiously, when the film is aired on TV they still run the original video cut which has the scenes removed. The editing is really sloppy with the scenes cut out and the scenes establishing that Preston is Scotty's nephew add another emotional layer to the film. It makes Scotty's actions make so much more sense, he's overcome with grief over his nephew and anger at Khan. With the scenes cut what Scotty does makes very little sense.

BaconIsMyBFF

In the novelization, I believe it is explained that the ship is badly damaged enough that Scotty reached the bridge while attempting to get to sickbay because the computer glitched.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.