Question: Why is the film called Trainspotting? Is it meant to be a drug reference or something?
michael g
16th Feb 2004
Trainspotting (1996)
Answer: Train is sometimes used as another word for heroin.
25th Jun 2009
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Question: How exactly were the doctors able to reverse the effects and undo the Ludovico technique that Alex was subjected to?
Chosen answer: We're never given details. Possibly electroshock therapy or somehow purging his system of the Ludovico formula.
Answer: When Alex jumped out of the window, the shock of the fall snapped him out of the Ludovico technique.
He mentions later that he's been having dreams of someone picking through his brain. This is the government undoing the treatment.
21st Jan 2018
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Question: Why do Alex and his droogs go to beat up the writer and his wife? What did they do to him that made him want to choose them in particular?
Answer: They don't have a reason beyond wanting to commit crimes. Alex says as much. There's nothing special about the couple, it was just a crime of opportunity.
20th Oct 2009
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Question: Where exactly are Humungous and his men getting their gas from? Given the amount of vehicles they have, it would take a fair amount of fuel to run them. But there is no explanation as to where they are getting it.
Answer: The answer could be referenced to the first movie "Mad Max." In that film it shows some members of the outlaw gang, though not necessarily the ones in "Road Warrior" stealing gas from a tanker by jumping onto the back of it and filling cans; apparently the driver of the tanker unaware. "Road Warrior" was a continuation of "Mad Max."
24th Feb 2019
The Godfather (1972)
Question: Why was it necessary for Michael to kill Sollozzo and McClusky? Sonny knew where the meeting would take place. He could have sent in a team of assassins any time during the meal.
Answer: The plan was to make the murders look as if the Corleones were not involved and that Michael was falsely accused and forced to disappear to protect himself. If Sonny's men went in and just started blazing away, deliberately killing a police captain, the Corleones would have lost Mafia allies and political power. Michael was also the only person who could get close enough to kill Solozzo because he was not considered a threat. It was a tactical element of surprise. Sonny and Hagen also wanted to avoid a bloody gunfight that would have killed innocent bystanders, something all the Mafia families disdained. After enough time had passed, the Corleones bribed a condemned prisoner to "confess" to murdering Sollozzo and McClusky, offering him a large sum of money ensuring his family would be taken care of. Michael was then exonerated and returned to the USA.
Answer: Michael was used as bait to set up a meeting with Sollozzo and McClusky so that they could be set up for assassination. Michael was picked up in a neutral spot and driven to the cafe; if Michael wasn't there Sollozzo would have remained in hiding under protection.
8th Jan 2020
The Birds (1963)
Question: When the birds attack the town a gas station attendant is hit by a bird and drops the gas hose he is using to fill a car. The gasoline flows down the street and under a car; a man drops a match and lights the gas causing an explosion. Why didn't the gas pump shut off when the man dropped it?
Answer: The movie takes place in the 1960s, so presumably gas pumps worked a bit differently back then. This is also a small town and probably the gas station had not modernized. There may not have been automatic shut-offs, or if there was, it was faulty.
The automatic shut off is in the handle of the hose. When a person grips the handle they have to lift a levered switch to allow gas flow; the lever is spring loaded so that if it is released the gas will stop flowing. I have looked at older antique gas pumps and they are all the same; even the visible glass gravity flow ones. If that hose was dropped the the gas should have stopped flowing.
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.
Answer: Trainspotting is a hobby where participants try to spot and document as many different types of trains as they can, and as a group, reconstruct the routes and schedules of shipping and rail companies. It's a bit like bird-watching, but with trains. Irvine Welsh, who wrote the novel, has compared this hobby to heroin addiction, in that both seem pointless, confusing, and unpleasant to outsiders, but make perfect sense to enthusiasts.
They are called track marks, and heroin is called train. Train spotting, the needle marks that make tracks in your skin.