Question: Is it me, or is Carrie's mother smiling when she gets stabbed multiple times by Carrie?
Jack Vaughan
3rd Jul 2013
Carrie (1976)
Answer: She was also crucified, which makes her feel connected to Jesus.
Answer: I think for somebody as repressed as Carrie's mother even something like physical pain is a kind of release (her moans sound sexual to me). Also, remember the mother talking about enjoying Carrie's father touching her? "Hands all over me", there could be a parallel there.
I agree – it almost seemed like she was having an orgasm, or close to it, during her death throes.
14th Jul 2022
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972)
Question: Why did Klaus Kinski try to kill one of the crewmen with a sword prop?
Answer: Kinski suffered from mental illness for most of his life. He was given to bouts of unprovoked outbursts and violence. He was eventually diagnosed with psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder). On movie sets, he was notorious for being physically and verbally abusive to the crew, who generally hated him. The sword incident was just one of many. On the production of this film, director Werner Herzog carried a gun on him in the event he had to protect himself or others. It was only because Herzog was a long-time friend that he hired Kinski for acting jobs. Kinski was flat-out crazy. He was eventually unable to get any work as an actor.
Agreed. I forget what film set it was but Kinski also once fired a rifle at a bunch of crew members and blew a guy's finger off. He was unstable.
It was also Aguirre, The Wrath Of God. Kinski was irritated by the noises from a hut where cast and crew were playing cards and, out of anger, repeatedly fired a Winchester rifle into it. One of the bullets took the tip of an unknown extra's finger off.
19th Aug 2009
Alien (1979)
Question: Throughout the movie, Ash does a few weird things, such as that jogging motion that he makes in the cockpit and the "poor baby" expression he gives Ripley just before he attacks her. Aside from driving home the fact that he's an android, do these actions have any meaning? (Unless he's being sarcastic, the expression doesn't seem fitting, since he doesn't seem to feel any particular empathy toward humans.) Also, what causes him to suddenly start bleeding? And finally, why does he try to stuff a rolled-up magazine down Ripley's throat? My interpretation is that he's trying to implant her with an embryo, since he also starts making weird gagging noises at the same time; but if that's the case, where/when did he get it?
Answer: I can't speak to the running motion exactly. I've always wondered about that myself. Maybe it was a quick systems check of sorts. Beyond that, the 'poor baby' expression and odd noises he makes are because he is damaged. There is a quick, light scuffle with Ripley before he starts bleeding where she throws him against the wall twice, and that's where the 'blood' comes from. After that, he's trying to kill her with the magazine in the throat. As Bishop points out in Aliens, that model has always been 'a bit twitchy'. He's trying to protect the mission by any means necessary, and she was in the way.
Just before he runs on the spot. Ash put on a flight suit and blows into his hands. The gesture suggests to me that he is old and is trying to warm him self up. The running on the spot action could be to get warm or to ensure the flight suit doesn't restrict his movement. It's a very nice bit of foreshadowing. If you play the alien isolation game, the working joe androids do that when they are 'bored'.
The running motion could also just be to humanise Ash. His character does come off as a little cold and robotic, maybe Ridley thought some people might see the twist coming.
30th Aug 2018
Alien (1979)
Question: A bit puzzled as to why Ash tried to kill Ripley by stuffing a rolled up magazine in her mouth when he could have strangled her in seconds.
Answer: This is just one possibility among many, but Ridley Scott suggested Ash may have been developing latent sexuality that he was not equipped to handle through his programming, and perhaps not physically either; his use of a rolled-up magazine may have come about because he was not constructed with a penis (I had to stop myself from making a pun about "hardware").
I always wondered about this. It always struck me as a little Freudian. Also, notice the picture of the topless lady on the wall - an interesting detail when combined with the phallic paper.
1st Sep 2020
Toy Story (1995)
Question: If the Toys always freeze around when humans present, then why they didn't freeze around animals like Scud or even Buster in the sequel?
Answer: The reason the toys stay still in the presence of humans is because they need to keep their existence a secret from them. Animals cannot speak to humans, so the toys don't have anything to worry about when it comes to keeping their existence a secret.
Answer: The film was made for children and to make them think that their toys are real and care about them, I don't think the animals really factor in.
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Answer: My feeling is that being so fundamentally religious that she was almost happy to finally die, and meet God as she believed.