Question: I don't know if this is a urban myth or what, but didn't the real Rocky Dennis like Bruce Springsteen, but "The Boss" or his manager/lawyer, etc refused to allow the music to be used in the movie and that is why Bob Seger's tunes were used instead?
Tailkinker
15th Mar 2009
Mask (1985)
12th Mar 2009
Blade Runner (1982)
Question: Is Rick Dicker (from The Incredibles) supposed to be a parody of Rick Deckard? Thanks.
Answer: There doesn't appear to be any evidence for that. The names are vaguely similar, but, other than that, there's nothing to link the two.
20th Feb 2009
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Question: Jack's title of 'The Pumpkin King' always left me a tad perplexed. Is it in fact a legitimate title of authority, signifying he's the ruler of Halloween Town or of a sub-community of those who dwell within, or is it more of a stage name, referring to his status as the planner and main star of the Halloween holiday?
Answer: Jack is certainly the leader of the realm, with even the mayor deferring to him on important matters. Whether the "Pumpkin King" is actually an official title or simply an affectionate nickname given to him by the rest of the community is unrevealed.
19th Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: When the Joker is giving his speech to the people on the ferries, there is a shot of him in the Pruitt building. The camera is behind him and in the reflection on the glass you can see him reading his speech from a piece of paper. Why is he doing this? Is it to make sure he remembers his own plan? Or is there something else going on?
Answer: He's got a big speech to make - seems reasonable that he might have made some notes so that he didn't forget anything. Most people do that under such circumstances. There certainly aren't any indications in the film that it was anything else - while it might be a mistake, it fits the scene well enough that there's no way to tell either way.
His voice also definitely sounds like he is reading, in this scene and also when he calls into the talk show to threaten Coleman Reese. It does not sound like "off the cuff" dialogue. Apparently the Joker writes speeches like this down and reads directly from his notes.
10th Aug 2008
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Question: Any thoughts on whether or not General Glozelle actually killed his three men, like Miraz 'told' him to? He did attempt to follow Miraz's order to assassinate Caspian, but then hesitated to give the order to fire into the courtyard, didn't shoot Peter, and didn't stab Caspian. Maybe he told the three men to hide?
Answer: Without additional information, we have no way to tell. However, given the number of Miraz's supporters that were around at the time, it seems likely that he would have no option but to obey a direct order and kill his men. This may well have been the impetus for his subsequent dissatisfaction with Miraz.
16th Aug 2008
Bambi (1942)
Question: Is it true that Disney made this movie as a way to protest guns and/or hunting?
Answer: No. As with most Disney films, it's based on a book, in this case a 1923 Austrian book entitled Bambi: A Life in the Woods. There's no evidence that the book was chosen for any more than the quality of the story.
Question: More of a book question, but which sub-species of Hobbit are the four ones in the fellowship? I've heard that Sam is of a lesser species than the other three. I've also heard that either Pippin or Merry is a different species; how does that work with them being cousins?
Answer: To think of the three divisions of hobbits as separate species is incorrect, they are simply tribal variations, with none being any "lesser" than the others. The three types, the Fallohides, the Harfoots and the Stoors, hailed from different regions, but since all three sub-groups settled in the Shire, the hobbits have intermingled and intermarried over the centuries, making the differences considerably less clear, to the point where they can simply be considered one group, the Shire-Hobbits. Certain Hobbit families, however, do tend to retain a relatively strong blood link to a particular division - the Tooks and the Brandybucks, for example, tend to retain the height and the impetuous nature of the Fallohide hobbits. The Baggins family is of unclear bloodline, but Frodo would also carry a strong strain of Fallohide blood from his mother, Primula Brandybuck. The Gamgee family are likewise of uncertain bloodline, but Sam's relatively stocky build and affinity with the soil and agriculture would suggest Stoor-ish blood.
1st Feb 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: I have a 4 part question. 1. If Batman really represents what's good and true, then why does he allow Harvey keep his clean public image when Batman knows this isn't true? 2. Does Batman realize that this might have adverse effects? 3. Given that Batman has a better than average knowledge of the law, why doesn't he realize that he is essentially becoming an accessory after the fact (he knows that Dent killed several officers), or committing conspiracy to pervert the course of justice? 4. Finally does Batman think the people will be upset by the oh-so-shocking concept (note sarcasm) of a politician being involved in a scandal?
Answer: If people only have one hope, you don't take it away from them. A martyr is a powerful symbol - if people believe that Harvey Dent died as a good man fighting against the forces of lawlessness and corruption, then he becomes a rallying point, a battle cry for those looking to carry on the fight in his name. It doesn't matter that it's not true - what matters is that people believe, and continue to believe, in Harvey Dent. If the truth, that Harvey died a deranged killer, came out, then everything that Harvey did will be tainted, morale would plummet and the city would be right back to square one. As for Bruce becoming an accessory after the fact, of course he knows, but do you really think he cares? Likewise representing "what's good and true" - most of what he does as Batman is completely illegal - assault, kidnapping, property damage, illicit surveillance, just in this film alone. But he does it for the good of the city. Same with covering up for Harvey. It's what's right - doesn't matter if it's legal, or even true, it's what needs to be done.
Plus as stated in the film, if Harvey is exposed, all the criminals he put away would be released. It doesn't matter if Harvey was good when he locked them up, him being exposed as a criminal would taint his reputation and the criminals could claim he falsified evidence, etc.
31st Jan 2009
Midsomer Murders (1997)
Question: I heard Orlando Bloom was in an episode of this show. Is it true?
Answer: Yes, he appeared in an episode called "Judgement Day", shown in 2000.
31st Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: How did the bomb at MCU leave everyone else totally incapacitated, while the Joker was completely unharmed? I know he has remarkable tolerance for pain, but come on! Also, if he was wearing some kind of protective clothing, they would have discovered it. So how did all the cops get knocked out while the Joker just walked away?
Answer: Look where he's standing just before it goes off. The Joker's carefully positioned himself close to a set of heavy filing cabinets, which are between him and the blast, protecting his legs and almost all of his torso. As the bomb goes off, you can see him duck his head down, allowing the blast to pass him by almost completely. He gets to walk away unscathed because the blast never really hits him.
21st Jan 2009
Wall-E (2008)
Question: What's the name of the song that is playing at the start of the credits, before it actually begins scrolling upwards?
Answer: "Down to Earth", by Peter Gabriel, composed specifically for the film.
17th Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: When the Joker tells Batman that he'll have to break his one rule (not killing anyone) is he referring to the choice he'll have to make with Harvey and Rachel, or is he foreshadowing Harvey's death at the hands of Batman. Also on that note, since Batman did kill Harvey, does that mean the Joker did win over Batman?
Answer: He's obviously referring to the choice that Batman has to make - even the Joker, at that point, can't predict how things are going to turn out with Harvey. He's telling Batman that he's going to have to choose to let somebody die in order to save the other. Second part is kinda iffy - Bruce isn't intentionally choosing to kill Harvey, which was the point the Joker was making earlier, about forcing Bruce to consciously choose to let somebody die. He's doing what he has to to save Gordon's son; Harvey's death is a by-product of that, rather than a deliberate decision on Bruce's part. The fall that Harvey took wasn't so far that he couldn't potentially have survived - Bruce did what he had to do to save the boy and left Harvey, somewhat appropriately, in the hands of fate. Harvey's death leaves Bruce in a pretty dark place, but it's probably not reasonable to say that the Joker actually turned him to the dark side, as it were.
15th Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: When the Joker burns his half of the money, why didn't any of his own henchmen stop/subdue him and/or pillage the money for themselves? Piles of cash that high (even if it only consists of $1.00 Bills) shows that the cash amount would be substantially high (a few hundred million to say the least).
Answer: Given the Joker's tendency towards extreme and somewhat random violence, killing abruptly and on a whim, it would be a brave henchman who tried to interfere with his plans. It's also established that many of the Joker's henchmen are recruited from among the mentally unstable inmates of Arkham Asylum, so money may well be not as great a priority to them as it would be to your average mob henchman. Finally, as you mention in your submission, the Joker specifically states that he's only burning half of the money that he took from Lau. That still leaves plenty of money to go around among his crew - if the boss wants to burn his half share, that's his business.
Someone stated on another question, and I believe it to be accurate - Joker is burning his half of the money...which is the bottom half of the money stack. The top half is the Mobs money, but that is obviously going to burn too and that is why the other mob leader objects. Joker says he doesn't need money, cause the things he likes are cheap. Still, I don't think any of the joker's henchmen are going to be brave enough to try and stop him.
13th Jan 2009
The Fugitive (1993)
Question: Originally, the plan was to kill Richard himself rather than his wife in order to keep him quiet about Provasic causing liver damage. But wouldn't Devlin MacGregor eventually have had to deal with the side effects anyway, especially when the wrongful death lawsuits began pouring in? I know some suspension of disbelief is required, but this still seems like a stretch.
Answer: Not really. If anybody raises a wrongful death lawsuit against them, Devlin MacGregor's high-priced lawyers can just point to their battery of "successful" test results to show that no side-effects occurred during their comprehensive testing. If they then dig deeper into the case, then, lo and behold, it's revealed that the tests were all faked, with the fake results signed off on by Dr Alexander Lentz, who was, rather conveniently, tragically killed in a car accident. It would be easy to cast Lentz as the villain, faking the test results for his own reasons, which gets Devlin MacGregor off the hook. In all probability, the original idea was to frame Kimble for the fraudulent testing - with Kimble killed in a "burglary gone wrong", he could easily be used as a scapegoat. When things went awry and Kimble's wife was killed instead, this gave them the perfect angle to completely discredit Kimble, taking him out of the equation, and they switched to a replacement plan of using Lentz as their scapegoat, forging his signature on the test results and arranging the car accident that killed him.
12th Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: In the hospital scene, where the Joker has the gun to his head and Harvey Dent flips the coin, apparently it was heads because the Joker didn't get killed. But what if it landed on tails? Would the Joker just let himself get killed?
Answer: Yep. He's betting everything, including his own life, on the flip of a coin. He's already won, he's already dragged Harvey down from being Gotham City's great white hope for justice to being a man who's willing to kill on the flip of a coin. The Joker puts the gun in Harvey's hand and places it against his own forehead where he couldn't possibly get away if Harvey chose to pull the trigger - he knows full well what he's risking. But he's already proved his point, that anybody can fall from grace - if it takes his own death to push Harvey deeper into madness, then that's fine with him, because he's already won. If he lives, so much the better, but he's prepared to put his fate in the hands of random probability, into the hands of the chaos that he worships. That said...he's also holding the hammer back on the revolver, so even if the trigger was pulled the gun wouldn't fire. So he's not risking that much...
12th Jan 2009
And the Band Played On (1993)
Question: Don gets a call from the French verifying that the blind samples Don sent confirming their virus and the AIDS virus were the same. Don goes around the CDC office and tells everybody that the French also had the AIDS virus. This causes everybody to cheer. Why would the French having the virus make everybody cheer?
Chosen answer: It represents a breakthrough in the case - a lead to the original source of the virus, as many of the patients being treated in France were either African or had spent time there. Up until that point, the origin of the virus was a mystery - with the knowledge that the French were treating the same virus, it gave them vital information in backtracking where the virus originated. It also proved that AIDS was a worldwide phenomenon of epidemic proportions, something that a number of agencies had been reluctant to accept up to that point.
This is not an accurate answer. When they say the French had the virus, they don't mean patients with the virus. They mean the French successfully found the virus in blood, which is a necessary step in determining that aids is caused by an infectious agent and the first step in coming up with medication. The French had patients with the virus since about the same time as the us.
8th Jan 2009
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Question: Who is Scarlett? She appears to live with Charles, but not share a bed with him; IMDb refers to her as Charles' sister, but her, er, style of talking is so out of kilter with Charles and indeed all the others that it seems unlikely that she's related.
Answer: According to a deleted scene, she was found passed out drunk under the kitchen table after a party that Charles hosted and never got around to leaving. She's now his lodger, presumably paying rent and a share of the bills.
6th Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: Why does Maroni know where the Joker will be "this afternoon"? He tells Gordon in the hospital as Gordon visits Dent. And why comes the Chechen visit the Joker in the warehouse? From who does HE know where the Joker is? Did the Joker tell them where he keeps the money? And if he did so: why did he tell them where it was if he just wants to burn it?
5th Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: Did Harvey Dent die? I've heard theories that he did die, but I've heard that he didn't die but they told everyone that he did because they didn't want people to know that he became a villain. I was just wondering which one is true.
Answer: According to Aaron Eckhart, he has been told specifically by director Christopher Nolan that Harvey was killed in the fall, so he would not be back in any potential follow-up film.
3rd Jan 2009
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: In the scene where Batman shows Lucius his giant sonar thing, why is he talking in his big scary voice? Lucius knows who he is, so why does he bother disguising his voice?
Answer: It's habit, and a sensible one at that. When he's in the mask, when he's being Batman, he uses the voice, even if the person he's with knows who he is. If he drops back to his normal voice with some people, it sets the precedent for using it while wearing the cowl, which means that he's more likely to slip up and use it around people who don't know, potentially revealing his true identity. If he sticks rigidly to using the voice when kitted up as Batman, regardless of situation, it minimises that possibility.
Answer: At the bottom of his cowl Batman has devices designed to keep his voice at that level. The director revealed it, of you look at the right screenshots you can see speakers.
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Answer: According to the IMDb, so take with a degree of scepticism, Rocky's favourite music was indeed Springsteen and the Boss himself was happy for it to be used, but, at the time of the original release, an agreement regarding royalty rates could not be reached with the rights owner. A director's cut was released a while later with seven minute of additional footage and the Springsteen songs used instead, after Springsteen pushed for an agreement to be made.
Tailkinker ★