Alan Keddie

30th Jul 2018

The Jackal (1997)

Question: I know that nowadays, the F.B.I. does have operations abroad. However when this film was made 20 years ago showing the F.B.I. operating in Moscow... did the F.B.I. conduct operations outside of the country as depicted? I was under the impression that was the CIA's job.

Quantom X

Answer: It is stated that the FBI is working with their Russian equivalent, the MVD on a joint operation. The FBI primarily focuses on domestic issues but does on occasion engage in operations outside of the United States with the assistance and in the aid of foreign governments. The CIA would not be the appropriate government agency to handle the operation in the movie because that mission is a law enforcement operation. The CIA is strictly an intelligence gathering organization with no law enforcement authority.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Since 1940 (prior to the CIA being established), the FBI have been stationed in various foreign countries. Usually agent don't have the authority to make arrests, however, they can if Congress has granted the FBI extraterritorial jurisdiction and the host country agrees. The FBI establishes attaché offices, commonly known as legats, in foreign cities. In 1993 there were 21 of these offices and the new FBI director, Louis Freeh, wanted more and by 1997 there were 32. So, yes, 20 years ago the FBI conducted operations in foreign countries. I know currently there's a legat in Moscow, although I don't know when it was established. However, given the nature of the film, it's not unreasonable to think the FBI could quickly set up operations in Moscow, if they were not already established there, with no explanations needed since it's already something the FBI does.

Bishop73

Answer: It is the C.I.A's job to conduct foreign investigations. You're right in that respect. Why the FBI is involved is either unexplained or not mentioned.

Alan Keddie

30th Jul 2018

The Jackal (1997)

Question: When Major Koslova confronts Ghazzi in the club, he speaks first with a joke or line of some sort. "What, no kick back this week?" What is that supposed to mean? A google search revealed nothing to me. (00:05:55)

Quantom X

Answer: Kick back means bribe. He's insinuating that he can bribe anyone to look the other way whilst he continues his dealings.

Alan Keddie

Answer: A "kickback" (one word) could be considered a type of bribe, but more commonly it is an arranged pay-off for some type of business transaction. Someone does something to make money, either legally or illegally, and someone who aids or is in someway useful to them is paid a percentage of the profits.

raywest

Answer: Because Kreese never loses. Ever. Period. He's not a loser. Especially considering his opponent.

Alan Keddie

7th Sep 2017

Octopussy (1983)

Question: How did Bond win the game of backgammon, with Kamal Khan, when he didn't get all his chips off the board? Even the two sixes he rolled wouldn't have done it.

kh1616

Answer: Bond (taking over for the Major) had 1 piece on point 2, 1 piece on point 3, and 2 pieces on point 6. Rolling doubles in Backgammon means you get to make 4 moves instead of just 2, so he was able to remove all 4 pieces. If you have a piece on point 2, you don't have to roll a 2 to remove it. Anything higher than a 2 can be used to remove the piece. Kahn even says Bond has to roll a double 6 in order to win, which he does.

Bishop73

Answer: Not knowing anything about backgammon so this is perhaps wrong. But I thought that Bond didn't win. And the fact that he produced the Faberge egg is what ended the game. (I'm more than likely wrong tho).

Alan Keddie

2nd Jun 2008

Cloverfield (2008)

Question: I was wondering, and I've seen the movie, do Rob and Beth live? And will there be a number 2?

Answer: Whilst they have made a second film, 10 Cloverfield Lane, it does not have much, if anything at all, to do with the first film. So we aren't told what happened to Rob and Beth.

Alan Keddie

Answer: We will not know unless they make a sequel. Right now they are still deciding if they want to make a sequel or not.

SAZOO1975

Question: Why was Evan interviewed separately from the other "survivors"? Why is he so special; I thought all he did was win the lottery?

Answer: You thought correctly. He did only win the lottery. We only see Evan interviewed separately. It's just possible that he was last to be interviewed. Kimberly and the others were being babysat by Officer Burke, so it's likely they were interviewed before Evan. I think that all or any witness would be interviewed separately whatever the circumstances.

Alan Keddie

Answer: He was jealous that Molly was still alive and Candice was dead.

I think this was because Molly witnessed the killing, and he didn't want to go to jail.

Answer: I think that by this point Peter is too far gone to be thinking rationally or to be reasoned with. And as he says himself Molly witnessed the murdered of a federal agent, so she's got to die. And maybe Peter was just making damn sure that he was safe from Death. I mean, he's already murdered one innocent human being, so what's two more?

Alan Keddie

17th Jul 2018

Phone Booth (2002)

Question: How did the caller escape the room where his rifle was found?

Answer: He made it look like the pizza guy was the shooter so he could get away.

Answer: We, the audience, are quite simply never shown. So it is left up to our imaginations.

Alan Keddie

Answer: My guess which is a likely part is the pizza guy slit his own throat just before police arrived to avoid being caught. Meanwhile the caller I'm believing was in a completely different side of the booth (not in the same room as the rifle that was found). 2 reasons I believe this. 1. Stu gets shot in his right ear. No way where the sniper they found could he have shot Stu in the ear on the side he was shot from. 2 was because when Stu saw the caller, he had a suitcase with him, which presumably was the/a second sniper rifle. There's also another belief of mine that Stu dreamt the whole thing but unlikely.

Why would the pizza guy slit his own throat to avoid being caught? He didn't do anything bad?

Answer: He didn't, the caller did. Later when the caller goes to Stu in the ambulance he says "I feel bad about the pizza guy." The caller slit his throat and set it up so that the pizza guy was the caller.

10th Sep 2007

Body Snatchers (1993)

Question: After Marti's father returns to her and Andy, they are driving through the base. Marti's father tells her not to show emotion because they can be fooled. She looks at him and realizes he is one of them. What was different about him that made Marti realize the truth? Her dad was acting normal and I could not see him giving anything away so what did I miss?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: I actually just watched this movie again today and I think it was because he was acting too calm and quiet. Marti might have got suspicious from the slight change in his personality. He also wasn't sweaty anymore and didn't have that white patch on his cheek that you can see in the previous scene when he picks up the phone in the doctor's office.

Answer: Before Steve ran off to find help the baddies were chasing them, when he reappeared the pod people just ignored them. Then he was driving someplace that was not an escape route, which, I believe, was what first tipped Marti off. And because he repeated the same exact line.

Alan Keddie

29th Jun 2009

Scream 2 (1997)

Question: What did Mrs.Loomis mean when she said she had a make over? Did she mean plastic surgery?

Socks1000

Answer: Sidney did eventually recognise Mrs Loomis. So it's also likely that she changed her hair. Style and or colour. She also could have put on weight or lost it accordingly. Plastic surgery is expensive so it's possible that she could not afford it. That being typed, a nose job is not entirely out of the question. Or any number of facial adjustments.

Alan Keddie

She is implied to have some kind of money, as Mickey says she paid for his college tuition.

Chosen answer: Yes, she had plastic surgery to disguise herself so she could get close to Sidney.

3rd Nov 2017

Scream (1996)

Question: At the party Randy receives a phone call saying the Principal has been killed, and everyone leaves to go see his body. Who would have called Randy to say this? Most of his friends are at the party, and even if some of them aren't, no one is hanging around school at 7pm, and the cops definitely didn't call him, so who did?

Answer: This has already been asked. Copying the answer from the previous submission: Billy came to the party late, presumably because he was hanging the body. The school seems pretty deserted when the principal gets killed (he goes into the corridor and only the cleaner is there, presumably cleaning after school is out) so it's reasonable to assume no one would have missed him yet.

Answer: Well first, you said "most of his friends " so some of Randy's friends definitely aren't at the party. Also, news travels fast in a small town, especially things that are serious like murders/accidents/etc. In addition, given the subtle implication that the principal was attacked and strung up on display on purpose to make the kids leave the party to go check it out (thinning the heard so to speak), it's entirely possible one of the killers might have tipped someone off about the body so it'd be found, or that it was left wide out in the open where a student or groundskeeper or someone driving by might have seen it. Either way, it's a very plausible scene.

TedStixon

Answer: Roman Bridger, director. And brother. Well, half brother.

Alan Keddie

Answer: Maybe "the killer"?

tipar

14th Jul 2018

Sister Act (1992)

Answer: It appears to be just baked beans, likely without meat or spices. Nuns will often eat a very bland diet, especially a poor order dedicated to contemplation.

Answer: It looked to me like a stew of some sort.

Michael Albert

Folks, the food is visible. It's literally just beans.

Answer: Possibly gruel.

Alan Keddie

As I said above, the food is visible and there is no ambiguity. It's literally just beans.

16th Jul 2018

Conspiracy Theory (1997)

Question: In the end of the movie when Jerry is shot, why is he airlifted to another hospital, doesn't the mental hospital have a trauma center?

Answer: Yes, that hospital may have had a trauma unit, but the NSA team, if they were NSA, led by Lowery / Hatcher (the guy who Alice 'knocked out') wanted to get Jerry away from Alice ASAP so that she would no longer be in any danger. The chopper then flew him, offscreen, to get patched up. Also we don't know that Jerry was airlifted to another hospital. But we can assume. An NSA controlled hospital. Or private government facility. A place where no questions would be asked.

Alan Keddie

24th Apr 2018

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Answer: Mystique got through to him. And his loyalty to Charles overrode any and all false allegiance he had with Apocalypse. Blood being thicker than water and all that. He had all that history with Charles.

Alan Keddie

Answer: He realised the mutants he was helping Apocalypse fight against had always been there for him.

Phaneron

Question: Billy admits that he shot his wife and daughters to save them from a more horrible death at the hands of the vampires. Grieving, he says, "I tried to shoot myself, too, but the fucking gun jammed." But Billy is a deputy sheriff, and any competent law officer can resolve a jammed gun in a matter of seconds. Did Billy actually chicken-out of killing himself after murdering his family?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Perhaps Billy was not a competent law officer. Or maybe you were right he chickened out. Billy could have killed himself in other ways. Other ways more quiet than gunshot.

Alan Keddie

Exactly. How could he go on living after killing his whole family? A minor problem such as a gun jam shouldn't have prevented him from committing suicide. In fact, he couldn't become a law enforcement officer without demonstrating a proficiency with firearms, including the ability to field-service his weapon quickly in an emergency. The simple procedure for fixing a jammed firearm is at the top of the list of required skills.

Charles Austin Miller

Are we ignoring that he was obviously extremely distraught at this time? My take on this has always been that he pulled the trigger, the gun jammed, and he just gave up on everything. He literally didn't care enough about anything at that point to even bother taking his own life anymore. Let the vampires take him; or not. His family is gone, by his hand no less, nothing at all matters anymore. I didn't see it as an inability to clear the jam, I saw it as a psychological breakdown that resulted in complete and total apathy. The jam was nothing more than the straw that broke the camel's back.

Phixius

If he gave up on everything, why did he covertly signal Eben with a flashlight? If Billy had truly given up, why not just walk out into the street and be slaughtered by the vampires, rather than continuing to hide?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why did Alex kill Ellen's pet bunny and how did she get inside the house to boil it? Didn't Dan and Beth lock the door?

adamtrainman@aol.com

Answer: Because she is insane! And she picked the lock. By murdering the innocent pet bunny rabbit Alex was sending a message. She won't be ignored! She's just letting Dan know that she can get to him, or in this case his family (daughter's pet), anytime she wants to. He's not safe.

Alan Keddie

Answer: So her parents (especially her father) would go through hell, not knowing where she was or if she was safe.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Because she's unhinged! And she wants Dan to know that she can get to him, or in this case his daughter, anytime she wants. And she's angry that Dan had an affair with her then went back to his wife.

Alan Keddie

Answer: The plane does in fact hit one of the towers. It strikes the tower, then crashes to the ground.

Answer: The plane does not hit one of the twin towers. Start video at 1:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkU1LFgKS9Y. The towers are on the far left, and then when it strikes the building, that is not what the external view of the twin towers look like. Then, when it shows the video of the escape pod, the building that it hit was the same height as a lot of the buildings surrounding it.

posty

Answer: Whilst not explicitly shown onscreen, at least in the dvd I own, the plane is shown heading straight for the twins. The crash also is never seen, due to budgetary reasons.

Alan Keddie

Question: Why did the nurse drown Kimberly in her dream? What connection do the baby, nurse and Kimberly have?

Answer: Dr Kallarjian (I think that's the correct spelling) looks as though she is attempting to murder Kimberly in her premonition. Kimberly herself says a nurse was trying to choke her. As we later see, the medical professional is just trying to resuscitate Kimberly, she just has a bizarre look on her face, like she wants to murder Kimberly. As to your second question, only new life (Isabella's baby) can defeat death.

Alan Keddie

9th Jun 2018

Charmed (1998)

Show generally

Question: So I'm not sure if I understand. Up until Leo was found to be a white lighter, Piper froze him several times. Sorry if this has been addressed before, but was Leo faking being frozen?

Answer: Only witches, or half/part witches eg. Chris, cannot be frozen (if I recall correctly) so, no, Leo was not faking. But that's just my opinion.

Alan Keddie

Answer: Piper can choose specifically not to freeze him if she is freezing other things.

Answer: I've been wondering this forever because he only freezes sometimes and I know she can control who gets frozen but he stopped freezing once they knew he is a white-lighter.

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