I know there may not be a standard answer for this, but, in general, are actors supposed to say lines exactly as written in the script? Or is there a lot of ad-libbing/improvising? I once read that Natalie Portman blamed her performance in the "Star Wars" movies partially on herself because she was not good at ad-libbing then.
kayelbe
27th Feb 2024
General questions
15th Feb 2024
Star Wars Rebels (2014)
Question: Why do the two-legged Imperial walkers in this movie look completely different than the ones in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return Of The Jedi"?
Answer: Are you referring to the AT-DP? Those are similar to the AT-ST, but have an entirely different mission use.
18th Sep 2023
Jarhead (2005)
Question: What was the reason why that one soldier's wife made a tape of her cheating on him with someone else and sending it to him? Did she suspect him of cheating on her, so she wanted to get revenge?
Answer: Nope. Some people are just evil like that. Most of the time, the service member marries young; immaturity on the part of the spouse, coupled with the resentment of the deployed person being away and "not taking care of their needs," results in the Jody scenario. Funny thing is, this is so common. Everybody in the military has heard of or knows someone this has happened to, almost exactly like the movie.
That makes sense. Another question was, do we ever learn of what happened? Did he divorce her upon returning back to the States after she left him for her neighbor?
20th Jul 2023
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Question: When Chewbacca tells Han that Luke is a Jedi Knight (or almost one), why does Han consider this a "delusion of grandeur"? He has known Luke for about four years now. Luke did some training with Obi-Wan in the Millennium Falcon, so Han knew what his goal was.
Answer: Han still believes the Force and Jedi are just fairy tales, magic. He doesn't really believe in them still.
Answer: The last time Han Solo had seen Luke was just after rescuing him from freezing to death after nearly getting eaten by an abominable snow creature. Having missed out on all the developments since then, Han still thinks of Luke as a plucky, immature kid. It'd be sort of like discovering someone you know of as an altar boy is now going around calling himself a bishop.
14th Jun 2023
General questions
Why do people in some movies/TV put a blob of sunscreen on their nose? In real life, I typically see people rub sunscreen into their skin, all over themselves.
Answer: The sunscreen you are asking about is likely zinc oxide. It sits on the surface of the skin and scatters the sun's rays. The sunscreen rubbed into the skin, as you describe, doesn't contain zinc oxide, but rather contains chemicals that absorb the solar radiation and converts that energy to heat, which is then released from the body.
Answer: From what I recall, older sunscreens were much weaker than what we have now. And it was common to apply extra to certain areas of the body, like the nose since it sticks out from your face and is more likely to get sun damage. And the extra sunscreen created the white "blob" around the nose. So it just sort-of became a visual shorthand in films and TV for showing that someone is wearing sunscreen. And since people became used to it, it stuck around. It's currently also a good way to show that a character is rigid, set in their ways or old-fashioned, since it's not something you see too much anymore.
22nd Jan 2021
Apollo 13 (1995)
Question: Since it was so cold on the return journey to Earth, why didn't the astronauts wear their full space suits they wore on lift-off to keep warm? The just seem to be wearing their lightweight flight overalls.
Answer: Because they need to be able to move quickly through the confined space of the module, and the full suits would be far too bulky in an emergency.
The older Apollo missions all splashed down with full suits and helmet on. Just the launch suits, not the much bulkier EVA (moon walk) suits.
Answer: According to Jim Lovell in a later interview about the mission, the crew considered putting on their space suits but in addition to them being too bulky, there was concern the suits would make them perspire too much, thus making them wet and even colder. It wasn't quite as cold as depicted in the movie, it was always above freezing, and there were no icy windows or frozen hot dogs.
According to Lovell in his book, there actually were frozen hot dogs.
Answer: In addition, since they have to leave the ship after landing, the suit filling with water would be very dangerous.
The launch abort mode was for an ocean landing, so they would have been just as vulnerable at the start of the mission. I get your line of thinking though.
Answer: Don't remember the source (the actual movie or one of many books) but I do remember there were only two moon suits on board (the CMP, Swigert, doesn't land on the moon). I believe they decided to suffer together. I misread the question, but the option for wearing the Lunar EVA suits was considered. IIRC, they did actually wear the boots at one point.
9th Nov 2022
The Truman Show (1998)
Question: What kind of logic is behind Christoph's urge to keep Truman in the show now that he's realised what it's all about? Did Christoph suggest Truman (and all the viewers too) would start faking a happy life as all the other cast? Wouldn't it nullify all the idea of the show?
Answer: I think he wanted to explore the angle of "Now that he knows, what happens next?"
Well, he already witnessed what happens when Truman finds out.
Question: Chewbacca says something to Han about Lando, and Han says, "That was a long time ago. I'm sure he's forgotten about that." Has it ever been revealed what Chewbacca mentioned?
Answer: At the time of the film, it was suggested that Lando was upset because he lost the Falcon to Han in a game of Sabaac. Later (now) non-canon materials offer up other reasons Lando would hold a grudge (Such as the time Han set Lando up with the Tonnika Sisters, twin siblings that conned Lando into thinking they were a single person).
1st Nov 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Question: How were the ones who crashed/ejected rescued if they were in dangerous enemy territory?
2nd Sep 2022
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Question: When Joker informs Hartman that Pyle loaded his rifle with live ammo, Hartman finally realises that Pyle has gone crazy and then tries to talk him down gently. When that failed, why did he start shouting at Pyle again? Couldn't he see that yelling at Pyle constantly is what pushed him over the edge?
Answer: I'm pretty sure Hartman realised he was a dead man, no matter what. Only thing left to do is be the drill instructor until the very end.
Answer: He spoke to Pyle in a (relatively) calm tone. Yes, he believed Pyle to be mentally challenged, but when the Private failed to respond to the nicer tone he went full-on Marine at him. He didn't necessarily believe he was God to the recruits, but to effectively train and adapt their motivation he must ingrain in them that he alone is in charge of them.
Answer: He didn't start talking to him calmly, he started talking to him slowly, emphasizing his commands to him, hoping he would understand, because he thinks Pyle is mentally deficient. Hartman is not a sensitive or patient man, not really in touch with reality either, thinking he is God within that compound. His mistake of course, was not realising where the danger was, for himself mostly.
28th Aug 2022
General questions
Trying to remember what product or service this 1990's infomercial was for. It started (in narration form) with a man about to board a plane in Chicago who then stops, changes his mind and walks away from getting on the plane - then the plane goes down in flames. Next was about a prediction from a woman that had to do with crying children in another part of the world. I forgot the rest of the commercial but does anyone remember it or remember what this was advertising for?
19th Aug 2007
Glory (1989)
Question: When the men finally get their shoes, they are just tossed a pair from the wagon and they automatically fit. Were military shoes back then one size fits all? How could they have shoes that automatically fit them?
Answer: To add to the answer, it's shown in the film in this scene as a soldier approaches a pile of shoes and places a pair on the pile and grabs another.
Chosen answer: The shoes would have been a mix of the most common sizes, and the men would have gone through them to find the right size...swapping when necessary. Keep in mind many of them were barefoot, so even shoes of the wrong size would have been a blessing.
18th Jul 2022
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Question: It's stated by Vader in the previous film how much he wanted to capture Luke for the Emperor by using the carbonite freezer. Boba Fett knew this. So why didn't Boba Fett take Luke into his custody to take him back to Vader instead of letting Jabba kill him with the sarlac pit?
Answer: Boba did attempt to grapple Luke with his whipcord.
Answer: Luke was a Jedi Master. He knew taking him wouldn't easy. Bobo Fett went after thugs, aliens he knew would be easy to catch. Besides, the bounty he received would have made him wealthy, plus he stayed with Jabba, which means he was on his payroll.
Answer: Doing this would require Boba Fett to either convince Jabba to give Luke to him (not likely) or he'd have to steal Luke from him and ruin their business relationship. Also Boba Fett and Darth Vader never appeared particularly chummy with each other and Fett has personally witnessed Vader totally screw Lando over in their own deal, so from multiple angles any operation to take Luke in for himself and claim a reward from the Empire is likely more trouble than it's worth.
10th Jul 2022
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Question: As Claire asks Bender "Are all these your girlfriends?" she thumbs through a small collection of ID-Cards. While it'd suit Bender to have nicked or even extorted someone's ID-Card to use it for himself, it wouldn't suggest a personal or even intimate relationship. So what are those cards and why would Bender have them? (01:00:00)
Answer: They're not ID cards. They're just wallet photos, apparently of the girls Bender has been with.
15th Jun 2022
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Question: Han says, "Crazy thing is, it's all true. The Force, the Jedi, all of it." Why does he consider this a "crazy" thing? He met Luke and Leia only nineteen years after the Jedi were killed, and he is about ten years older than them. The Jedi were still around during his childhood. And anyone older than him could still be talking about the Jedi, also. Why would he ever doubt that they were real?
10th May 2022
Black Hawk Down (2001)
3rd Mar 2022
Somewhere In Time (1980)
Question: Before Old Arthur leaves the room, why did he get the feeling that him and Richard met before?
Answer: Because they had met before. When Richard went back in time to 1912, Arthur was a five-year-old boy. Old Arthur remembers, or at least recognizes, Richard from that time.
Except that Richard hadn't travelled into the past yet.
Like all time-travel fiction, if he will, then he already did. The portrait he saw in the gallery of Jane Seymour is another example: He brought the smile to her face and IIRC, she changed her pose upon seeing him.
Exactly right. Time-travel films rarely make sense plot-wise. They employ a "suspension of disbelief" where the audience just accepts the premise so the story can be told, regardless of whether or not everything makes sense. As I recall, Jane Seymour's "old character" told Richard to "come back to her," meaning she wanted him to go back in time to when she was young.
Time Travel movies and shows do this sort of thing often. This movie actually keeps to the premise of time travel pretty well.
Answer: He already did, when the elder Elise approached him and said, "Come back to me." When he visited her home and listened to the music box and replied. "That's my favorite song." He found his name in the old hotel register in the storage room. At the end of the movie, when he returned to the future, Elise was holding his pocket watch, which she returned to him when she was old. All that concludes he did time travel, he just hadn't done it yet.
Thanks. Time travel movies sure are confusing.
26th Aug 2021
Young Guns (1988)
Question: What was Dirty Steve's horse's name? Was he calling it Dog because that's its name or because he was high on peyote?
Answer: When Billy shoots McCloskey, and they are all skinning out. Steve says real quietly "Common Dog."
Answer: His horse was called dog, there are other scenes in the movie when he talks to his horse, but otherwise, he seems like the sort of guy to do it.
Answer: Most likely it was the horse's name. Dirty Steve just seemed like the kind of guy who would name a horse "Dog."
25th Oct 2021
Groundhog Day (1993)
Question: Phil asks the landlady at the hotel if there is any hot water, and she laughs and says there wouldn't be any today. Why wouldn't there be any hot water? Wouldn't the hotel have boilers?
Answer: In a lot of old hotels those days used water heaters instead of boilers. A water heater has a limited amount of water heated, stored in a tank. So at the end of the week and every guest showering and using hot water during that week, the hot water will be gone before they refill the water heater at a specific day.
That's not how hot water heaters work. The water temperature is maintained by a thermostat. Once empty, it would take time to heat the refilled tank-but it's not heated on a specific day. The other answer is more correct.
Answer: Her laughter seems to imply that the rooms never have hot water when it's as cold as it was that day; maybe the pipes freeze, or her boiler just isn't very good. This isn't a five-star hotel, it's a small B&B run, it seems, solely by Mrs. Lancaster. Maybe she hasn't gotten around to fixing/arranging to fix whatever is wrong with the hot water, or it's just not something she sees as a big problem.
12th Oct 2021
Die Hard (1988)
Question: Can someone explain what the one Johnson agent meant to the other one when he said "it's like Saigon, ain't it slick?"
Answer: I don't remember the exact quote, verbatim, but using your wording, the proper punctuation would be "It's like Saigon! Ain't it, Slick?" The older Johnson is referring to Army Helo Ops in Vietnam. He's calling the younger Johnson "Slick", as a nickname. I believe the younger's response was something like "I was just a kid then" or something similar.
The younger one says "I was in junior high, dickhead". :-) Clearly not holding the older Johnson in especially high regard, or keen to make it clear he's not as old.
Answer: The elder Agent Johnson is a Viet Nam vet who excitedly says, "It's just like f***in' Saigon, eh Slick? The younger Johnson mockingly responds, "I was in Junior High, dickhead!" meaning he was too young to have served in that war. The older Johnson is comparing shooting at the terrorists (or just John McClane) atop the Nakatomi Tower to killing enemy soldiers from a helicopter in Nam. He is macho, has lost objectivity about the hostage situation, and is treating it like an arcade game. As pointed out in another answer, "Slick" is just a nickname, like calling someone "Dude."
Answer: "Like Saigon" could mean that under the circumstances, they were not likely to win or be successful in what they were trying to accomplish. Largely in the 1960s, the U.S. military was stationed in Saigon. While there, parts of the city were ruined or demolished by fighting. There was a lot of destruction in the Die Hard movie, and the situation seemed dire.
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Answer: It really boils down to the director whether the actors are allowed to improvise or must perform to the script verbatim (or anywhere in between).
kayelbe