Question: The events of Scream VI take place around Halloween, but it doesn't specify what year. A news reporter said that the Woodsboro killings took place in 2022 as if they happened a year ago, and Scream VI was released in March of 2023. So, do the events of Scream VI take place on Halloween of 2022 or 7 months in the future after the film's release date?
TedStixon
18th May 2023
Scream VI (2023)
Answer: Using some conjecture, if the film states the last killings took place in 2022 and treats it like "last year," you can assume it takes place around Halloween 2023. Films are allowed to take place in the future. They don't have to be set around their release date. So how is this a mistake?
3rd May 2023
Saw (2004)
Question: One thing I have never understood through the entire series is Dr Gordon's test. To pass his test, Dr Gordon has to kill Adam by 6 if not his family is killed and he is left to rot. At 6 Zep calls saying he failed his test. He then cuts his foot off, shoots and wounds Adam. The film end with him having crawled to get help and jigsaw shutting the door on Adam. In Saw 7 we see Jigsaw helped him and he became an accomplice. Why did jigsaw not kill him or leave him to die as he failed his test.
Answer: The movies don't directly address this. But in my personal opinion, even though he didn't do everything on time, Jigsaw recognized that Dr. Gordon ultimately was willing to make the sacrifices he had to in order to save his family. He also spent hours in the room listening to Gordon and Adam talking, and likely realised that Gordon was a good man despite his faults. So I personally believe that even though he didn't "pass his test" per se, Jigsaw had grown enough respect for Gordon that he saved him. (And indoctrinated him).
Is Hoffman dead or alive?
That's unknown at this point in time.
25th Apr 2023
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Question: This film will be a sequel to the first two Deadpool films, which were part of the Fox X-Men franchise, but will instead be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Is this the first time in history that a film is a sequel to another film, but is now part of a new franchise?
Answer: In addition to Bishop's answer, you could theoretically apply this to Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man characters. They both appeared in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which technically acts as a sequel to "Spider-Man 3," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home" - three distinct movie franchises. (And there are persistent rumors that Maguire and/or Garfield may make future MCU appearances).
To add to that (I ran out of room in my reply), with the creation of the multiverse, now any Sony or Fox franchise or universe can be considered as part of the MCU. So any Fantastic Four or X-Men sequel (although most likely any up coming film will be a reboot) can be part of the MCU.
I get what you're saying, but No Way Home was more of a crossover film that acknowledged characters coexisting in the multiverse, with those characters returning to their respective universes by the end, and Sony would still have control of those characters. Although we won't know for sure until Deadpool 3 comes out, Deadpool is meant to start as a character in a previously established film franchise and then occupy a different one moving forward.
But what film franchise would he be in? If he's in a Deadpool movie, he's in the Deadpool franchise. If they stop making Deadpool films and put him in another film, then he becomes part of another franchise. (Or more likely, just another crossover film).
This is where I would disagree with you about the MCU not being a franchise. I would contend that it is a franchise, and every series of films and TV shows within it are sub-franchises. So the Deadpool series of films would be a franchise unto itself, beginning in the larger Fox X-Men franchise and transitioning over to the MCU.
So what distinguishes one Marvel film from being in the MCU and another Marvel film not to be in it? Marvel Studios has been part of the production of a lot of films not included in the MCU, including the Blade, X-Men, and Deadpool films.
Any film made by Marvel themselves (or co-produced like the Tom Holland Spider-Man films). Marvel didn't begin making their own movies until the first Iron Man. All previous movies based on Marvel characters were made by other studios in association with Marvel, largely because Marvel licensed out their properties to avoid going bankrupt. The MCU itself is recognized as being the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.
Answer: It depends how you want to define a franchise. Are you talking production companies involved or the distribution company? And are you considering reboots? The reason Deadpool 3 would be "set" in the MCU is because Disney bought Fox and the filming rights returned to Marvel Studios, along with the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. When Sony rebooted Spider-Man with Tom Holland, Sony shared the rights with Marvel Studios. So Spider-Man was part of the MCU while still being part of the Sony Spider-man franchise. Venom 2's mid-credit scene is meant to make it part of the MCU while still being part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. That being said, there are a number of cross-over films that put sequels into another franchises. Such as Freddy vs Jason, Godzilla vs Kong, or Frankenstein meets the Wolf-Man.
I'm speaking strictly from a narrative point of view. Say, for instance, they made a new Alien movie, but it was now part of the Avatar franchise moving forward, while still being a sequel to the previous Alien movies, and not intended to be a brief crossover. I know the meta nature of the Deadpool character and movies makes it a different beast, but still.
And this is what's up for debate, but to me, the MCU isn't a franchise. It's made up of the various franchises; Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc. where they exist in the same universe. So when crossover films occur, it's two or more franchises now existing in the same universe. Even the Avenger films can be considered crossovers. Which is why people were wonder if Spider-Man was part of the MCU or the Sony universe. Deadpool is still part of the Deadpool franchise, but now part of the MCU.
12th Apr 2023
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: What happened to Dack to take him out of commission during the assault on Hoth? He was rendered unconscious or dead before being able to fire the tow cable.
Answer: The back of their ship was struck by a laser-blast, which killed Dak. You hear the sound of a laser blast, see it for a split-second through the window, and then Dak's console explodes and he slumps over. (It's slightly unclear what exactly killed him, but it appears that either some of the energy from the blast hit him and/or he was killed by his equipment shorting out).
8th Apr 2023
The Nutty Professor (1996)
Question: Why is Sherman Klump still eating if he wants to lose weight so bad? It would gain a lot more weight if he keeps eating even though he was upset after being embarrassed and humiliated by Reggie at the club that night.
Answer: Sherman is having a binge-eating episode due to being sad and embarrassed about what happened. Often, when people have unhealthy relationships with certain substances (whether it be food, alcohol, drugs, etc.), they will rely on those substances to feel better when they're down, and may go on binges where they consume large portions of them. Especially if something bad has happened to them. I myself have struggled with multiple addiction issues in the past, and I've done exactly the same with food, alcohol and drugs. (Eating an entire pizza, downing an entire bottle of rum in a short span of time, etc. when I was feeling down.) It may not seem logical... Because it's not. You just want the bad feelings to go away, so you binge the things that make you feel better. That's exactly what Sherman is doing after being insulted by Reggie... Notice how over-the-top his eating is. He's literally pouring candy into his mouth and eating ice cream in a sloppy way. It's played for comedy, but it's actually not unrealistic at all.
2nd Apr 2023
Mask (1985)
Question: How did Rocky die? Was it because of his condition?
Answer: His official cause of death was listed as "sudden arrhythmic death syndrome," which is basically just when someone dies unexpectedly, usually during sleep. It's widely believed that it was caused by his disorder, as his disorder often causes early death, but to my knowledge it was never definitively proven.
1st Mar 2023
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Question: When Dr Connor (Lizard Man) is planning to turn everyone in the city into lizards, what are people going to do when they're lizards? Are they still going to continue their lifestyle, still eat human food, and do other hobbies and activities that humans do?
Answer: Connors believes that humans are too weak and flawed, and that if he transforms them all, he'll create a better, smarter and more powerful species. Presumably, given his motivations are to "improve" humanity, he also believes that society itself will also evolve into something "better" (even possibly utopian) once everyone has transformed. As for all the minutiae like what people will eat, hobbies, etc.? I don't think Connors has really thought about that. His obsession is very surface level, and basically starts and ends at "If I turn people into powerful hybrid beings, everything will be better!" Realistically? There'd probably just be a lot of panic and chaos, a lot of people might hurt or kill themselves when they realise they've changed into another species, and society would probably collapse for a while before slowly rebuilding itself over the course of years.
26th Feb 2023
Anger Management (2003)
Question: Why did Linda think Dave had anger issues? During the incident on the plane, he remained calm and never raised his voice.
Answer: It's been a few years since I've seen this film, but if I recall correctly, the entire movie is revealed to have been a setup to make Dave learn about how he has to stand up for himself, since he's too nervous ands bottles up his emotions. She doesn't necessarily think he has "anger issues." She's just in on the whole scheme to teach David his lesson since she loves him and wants to help him.
17th Feb 2023
Die Hard (1988)
Question: When Hans is interrogating Takagi, why would he remove a silencer to fire the weapon indoors without hearing protection? Wouldn't it be more menacing to put a silencer on in that situation?
Answer: I think he's just subtly showing Takagi that he's in control of the situation - there's no need to hide behind a silencer, which they were using earlier. They've taken over and can do whatever they want, including loudly executing people. It's a very subtle power-play.
Answer: They used guns with silencers to access the building and take control swiftly and quietly. Now that they no longer need to do that he takes off the silencer. A silencer affects the gun's accuracy. It is also highly likely he wanted the people in the other room to hear the shot.
17th Feb 2023
Scream (1996)
Question: I think I can recall seeing a shot from Scream, maybe during a trailer or a promotional image with Ghostface swinging from a rope by his hands and smashing through a glass window, it seemed to be set in an industrial factory or something. Obviously I have never seen this scene again. Was it ever filmed or is this just a false memory?
Answer: To my knowledge, there isn't a scene like that in this film. It almost sounds like a shot from the movie "Saw 3D," where the Billy doll (whose face looks ever-so-slightly looks like the Ghostface mask) crashes through a window in an industrial-like setting in a cage attached to a wire. But at the same time, this isn't exactly an uncommon thing to see in movies. People swinging through windows from ropes and/or crashing through windows is very common, so it's probably just a false memory or your brain combining details from different movies.
17th Feb 2023
Gremlins (1984)
Question: Why does Billy not tell anyone about his teacher's attack?
Answer: Gremlins have hatched and are about to start attacking the town and he's trying to stop them. Reporting a corpse is relatively low-priority in comparison to that.
The gremlins didn't start attacking the town until late at night but Mr. Hanson's murder occurred during the daytime. There would still be plenty of time to call the police and inform them of Hanson's death.
Again, it's low-priority, and there is definitely not "plenty of time." Billy realises that the cocoons have hatched and has to rush home to save his mom, and then Stripe immediately escapes, so he has to follow Stripe and try to stop him... and then Stripe multiplies and Billy realises the town is about to be overrun. Reporting a corpse can wait. Would you stop and take the large amount of time needed to report a dead body when your mother is in mortal danger or the town is about to be overrun?
11th Feb 2023
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Question: I just watched for the second time on Netflix and I have a question, How does Danny survive at the end of the film when the old man shoots Angel with a shotgun and Danny jumps in front of him to save his life? After the whole building blows up we see Danny lying on the bricks almost dying and in the next scene (a year later) he is fine. I have the feeling that there's a scene missing (like Netflix cut it out or something) otherwise I can't understand it.
Answer: There's no missing scene. He just managed to survive the gunshot. Simple as that. It's a comedy movie that's having some fun with action-film cliches. Character surviving gunshots and explosions that should have killed them fits right in with that theme. (Not to mention, even beyond the movie, it's not uncommon at all for people to survive gunshots like that in real life).
2nd Jan 2022
Looper (2012)
Question: When present-day Seth is being tortured, it ends up affecting future Seth (which I get). They carve the address, and it appears. They cut off fingers, and then his fingers disappear. My question is why wouldn't all these scars and missing body parts appear all at once for future Seth? Especially since the injuries aren't appearing in real time for future Seth, they've already healed into scars. It seems like a plot hole unless I missed an in-film explanation or Rian Johnson explained this.
Answer: It's been a while since I've seen the film, so take this with a grain of salt. This is hard to explain, but the way I always took it was that when Seth failed to kill his future self, it began to continually alter time/the timeline. Thus, time has to sort-of "catch up" to the older Seth. Which would explain why his wounds appear in "real time" based on what's happening in the present... time is "catching up" to him as the timeline is further altered. If I recall correctly, something similar begins to happen with OId Joe where he begins to remember Young Joe's actions as he performs them.
14th Sep 2021
Annabelle (2014)
Question: At the beginning of the movie we see little Annabelle Mullins die. Later we met Janice who became possessed and at the end of the film she introduces herself as Annabelle Higgins (because she was adopted). She grew up, kills her parents and kills herself... but at the beginning of The Conjuring we heard that Annabelle Higgins was a little girl who died when she had 7 years old. What's going on?
Answer: Honestly... they just decided to slightly rework the backstory of the doll in the "Annabelle" spin-off movies, leading to a minor discrepancy with the name. There are actually a few other minor discrepancies between the beginning of "The Conjuring" and the "Annabelle" movies. It's what you'd call a "ret-con" - a storytelling device where established continuity is altered in a subsequent work. It's as simple as that.
14th Oct 2021
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
Question: Is this true that, when working on this movie, Mark Wahlberg relentlessly bullied Jack Reynor? And, if he did, then what caused him to bully Reynor?
Answer: I looked all over Google and cannot find any references to Wahlberg bullying Reynor. Wahlberg mentioned that he would tease Reynor on set over silly things like his Irish accent, but all indications were that it was in more of a friendly way, kinda like how friends like to "bust each other's balls." Wahlberg also jokingly referred to Reynor as "an a**hole" in one interview, but almost immediately indicated he was just joking around and praised Reynor as an actor. Unless someone hears otherwise, it seems it wasn't a case of bullying so much as just friendly ribbing between a veteran actor and his younger co-star.
26th Apr 2022
Scream (2022)
Question: Why can Liv McKenzie not go to see Tara Carpenter, her co-worker/close friend after her near-murder attack? Her absence is done to draw suspicion on her, but as she is later revealed to not be the killer, the question is left unanswered in the film. (00:15:45)
Answer: To try to throw them off the scent and add suspicion to make us think maybe possibly they're the killer(s).
This answer is literally part of the question. The question mentions that this was done to make the character seem suspicious. The question was asking why, in the context of the film, can't Liv go to see Tara. Not why in a behind-the-scenes sense.
Answer: It's never explained in the film, so any answer would be pure speculation. As you said, it was obviously done to draw suspicion onto her by the filmmakers, but there's any number of reasons she might not be able to, so really it's a case of picking your poison. (Perhaps she had a previous appointment she couldn't miss, perhaps she has a family matter to attend to, etc).
4th Jan 2023
Beetlejuice (1988)
Question: After Otho and the Deetz family are attacked by the Beetlejuice snake why do they stay in the house instead of fleeing immediately?
Answer: They're still convinced that they can make money off the house and ghosts that inhabit it. The promise of wealth can make people do strange things, including ignoring signs of clear danger. So they're remaining in the house in hopes that it can eventually make them a lot of dough.
10th Jul 2022
Batman: The Animated Series (1992)
Question: How is it possible the doctors at Arkham can keep being fooled by the likes of Poison Ivy, Two Face, The Riddler, etc., who're only pretending to be cured? Surely they could tell when they're faking.
Answer: The problem is that you're trying to force real-world logic into a series with heavy sci-fi/fantasy elements and broad storytelling. Would a real-world psychologist be able to tell when someone is faking? Possibly. But that doesn't make for fun storytelling, especially for a fantasy-heavy series aimed predominately at children. This is one of those cases where the audience is merely expected to suspend their disbelief for the sake of entertainment. And I can tell you that as a kid who watched this show when it first aired in the 90's, I personally never even thought about it.
5th Feb 2023
General questions
How can I get better at spotting movie mistakes on my own? Especially the revealing mistakes and visible camera crew and equipment type ones?
Answer: Honestly, what made me start to notice revealing mistakes/visible crew was just learning about those types of mistakes on this very website and figuring out what to look for. Watching behind-the-scenes materials and learning how movies are made also helps. If I'm specifically going through a movie or show looking for mistakes, which I do sometimes for fun, I usually load up a Blu-Ray copy or the streaming service I'm using, and just scan through every shot, frequently rewinding and looking at all the little details. It can be subtle, so you may have to watch the same few shots 3, 4, 5+ times before you notice things. And even then, I'm sure I miss a lot of them.
Answer: First, it's imperative you watch a film or show with the ability to rewind (DVD, On Demand, Streaming, etc). Second, you should be familiar with the different types of filming techniques and procedures so you can visualize how the scene is being shot and where equipment and crew might be that could accidentally get in the shot. A lot of wide shots are going to expose revealing mistake, often time just briefly. While a continuous shot (where the camera doesn't cut) isn't going to have continuity issues. When the camera angle changes, that's when you can pick up mistakes. Finally, you can't be a passive viewer, if you're texting or looking at your phone, you're going to miss mistakes. And if you're really out to find mistakes, you'll probably miss the show (so it's best to look for mistake on your 2nd or 3rd viewing).
27th Jan 2023
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Question: Does anyone know the reason why Tarantino decided to show the events in this film out of order, with the sequence of Jules and Vincent trying to get the stolen briefcase back to Marcellus and the many mishaps they run across along the way shown at the end, even though chronologically that actually happens before Vincent takes Mia out for her birthday dinner, and before Butch's story where he tries to escape town with his father's watch?
Answer: Expanding upon the other answer, the scene in the diner between Vincent, Jules, Ringo, and Yolanda is the clear emotional and thematic climax of the film. Therefore, shuffling the linear progression of the film to put it at the end makes sense from a storytelling point of view. Ending it with Butch and Fabienne escaping (chronologically, the last event in the narrative) would not have worked as a final scene.
Answer: Tarantino felt that telling the stories in a nonlinear structure would make the narrative more engaging since it would keep the viewer on their toes. Basically because you have to really pay attention to what's happening and put it together in your head like a puzzle. I'd also personally elaborate that it changes the way you view certain scenes because it leaps back and forth in time. Ex. We eventually learn that Vincent is destined to die, so the way his scenes later in the film play out hits you in a different way then they would have if the film followed a traditional linear structure.
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Answer: I think this is more "trivia" than mistake. There's no error in a film taking place a bit further ahead in time than in its release date.
TonyPH