Question: During the fight scene with Dooku, Obi-Wan is knocked down and Anakin stops Dooku from delivering the fatal blow. My question is this: when Obi-Wan picks up his lightsaber and throws it to Anakin, Dooku is standing right over him, why not just reach up and stab Dooku and end it all right there? Is there any reason for him not to do this?
Tailkinker
13th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
13th Jun 2005
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Question: Is Keaton really as bad as Kujan says? Did he really kill all those people and set up all those deals? He didn't seem so bad to me.
Answer: What we're seeing in the film is a Keaton who's trying to reform, inspired by his relationship with Edie Finneran. Kujan has no particular reason to lie about Keaton's earlier exploits and it certainly seems from what's said in the film that Keaton was a major criminal in his time. True, many of these statements are taken from Verbal's tale, so they cannot be taken as being definitive, but they must contain a reasonable element of truth or Kujan, who is clearly familiar with Keaton's file, would have picked up on it.
Answer: While mostly accurate, there is one non-applicable element to the Chosen Answer on this one: everything Kujan says about Keaton is not part of Kint's fairy tale, as he is in the real world.
13th Jun 2005
Notting Hill (1999)
Question: In one scene, Hugh Grant and his crazy roommate are talking, the roommate says something about Pandora's Box. He then goes on, "I knew a girl called Pandora, never got to see her box." I understand the no seeing box joke but what is 'Pandora's Box'? I've heard it mentioned before.
Answer: It's a tale from mythology. Details can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora's_box.
13th Jun 2005
The Abyss (1989)
Question: Is there any truth to the breathing fluid used in the high pressure suit? Is that a technology actually used and is it really possible to breath and survive like that?
Answer: The technology does exist, yes. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_breathing for details.
12th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: What happens to the clone army between episodes III and IV? I assume they are not the same as the Imperial forces in the original Star Wars movies (unless they got new ships, uniforms, etc.).
Chosen answer: You assume incorrectly, I'm afraid, it's the same army. Their equipment has evolved over the twenty-year period between the films, as you would expect to happen. The main change to the ground forces is that the stormtroopers from episodes 4 to 6 are conventionally recruited troops rather than clones (which may account for their apparently decreased effectiveness) - very few, if any, of the original clone troopers would still be alive, given the levels of combat that they've seen and their accelerated aging process. The only faction where only the original clones remain is the 501st Legion, otherwise known as Vader's Fist. They were the clones who helped Anakin overthrow and destroy the Jedi Temple.
13th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: In the battle of Hoth, when Han and Leia are at the command center, we hear a voice saying "Imperial troops have entered the base" but this happens before General Veers has destroyed the power generator. How is it possible for them to enter when the shield is still up?
Chosen answer: The shield prevents ship from landing close to the base and stops any orbital bombardment; it's not designed to prevent actual entry to the base. As such, the Imperial Walkers were landed a long way out, then they simply walked in under the shield, much as the probe droid did earlier. The ground troops simply came in with the walkers, disembarked and entered the base - the shield wasn't in their way.
It got corrected on the 4K release.
13th Jun 2005
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: This question applies to all three Harry Potter movies. Why is no one allowed to say Voldemorts name?
Answer: There's no actual law preventing it, it's largely traditional, left over from when Voldemort was previously active. He was considered so terrifying that people were frightened simply by the power of his name, so it became the norm to use an alternate method of referring to him if it was necessary to do so. Despite his apparent fall, the tendency remains. Later on, when Voldemort rises to power once again and gets hold of the ministry, a taboo is placed upon his name. Meaning that those who speak the dark lords name will immediately be attacked by death eaters. Some speculate the taboo was placed so as to find Harry more easily, as after Dumbledores death he was the only one brave enough to speak the name.
13th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: Why didn't Luke just stay in the cave and wait until the next morning to contact the Rebel base? Isn't the cave just as adequate a shelter as what Han dug for him?
Chosen answer: There's still a very large and annoyed Wampa in there, and there could easily be others in the depths of the cave. Running out into the cold may not be the most sensible move in the world, but it's reasonably understandable.
13th Jun 2005
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Question: After Marie dies, why does Bourne burn the pictures of her as well as her possessions but keeps of picture of him and her?
Answer: It would be standard practice from his old career as an assassin - leave no evidence behind, don't carry anything with you that you don't have to, so he burns all the passports that were created for her and so on. It's only when he gets the photograph of the two of them together that he can't bring himself to burn it - after all, he loved her; she means too much to him to just discard it completely.
13th Jun 2005
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: At Minas Tirith when the Witch-King destroyed Gandalf's staff and was then distracted by the Rohan army. Why didn't he just quickly kill Gandalf before going off.
Answer: Even without his staff, Gandalf is not going to be a pushover - the Witch-King isn't going to be able to simply take Gandalf out by snapping his fingers. Better to simply inconvenience Gandalf by taking his staff out, then return to the battle, rather than taking on the risk of a serious one-on-one fight while the main battle below is still undecided, particularly as his opponents have just had some substantial reinforcements show up.
13th Jun 2005
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
13th Jun 2005
Star Wars (1977)
Question: How is it that Princess Leia, in the hologram, knows who Obi-Wan is? And yet Luke doesn't. How could she possibly know who he is when, in Episode III, the only time she "sees" Obi-Wan is when she is an infant.
Answer: She's never met him, but has been told about him by her adoptive father, Bail Organa, who gave her the mission to go and collect Obi-Wan.
4th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Question: Why is it that the clone troopers are good by working for the Jedi, yet there original host, Jengo Fett, is purely evil, working for Dooku?
Answer: Jango isn't inherently evil - he's simply a bounty hunter, doing the jobs that he's hired to do. Dooku recruited him to act as the clone template by paying him lots of money to do so (in addition to the creation of Boba). Neither are the clone troopers inherently good - they follow orders, as soldiers tend to. The Jedi are assigned as their leaders by the Republic, thus they follow them; when the leader of the Republic orders them to eliminate the Jedi, they do so; they're simply following orders, not shifting between good and evil.
4th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Question: Do we ever find out who deleted information from the archives? My theory is it was Sifo-Dyas, and that he is actually Darth Plagus.
Answer: Sifo-Dyas wasn't a Sith, he was a disaffected Jedi who was manipulated by Dooku prior to the latter leaving the Jedi Order. Dooku persuaded Sifo-Dyas to place the order for the clone army, then killed him to prevent anyone from finding out. Dooku also deleted the information on Kamino from the database for the same reason.
4th Jun 2005
X-Men 2 (2003)
Question: How did the X-Men get into the Oval Office at the end of the movie?
Answer: Xavier just mentally froze everyone in the building, including the President, then Kurt teleported them in. He then released the President for the length of their conversation, then immobilised him again until after Kurt got them safely out of the building.
4th Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: When someone becomes a Sith, they take a different name, i.e. Palpatine becomes Darth Sidious, Count Dooku becomes Darth Tyranus, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. Does anyone know Darth Maul's non-Sith name?
Answer: No. According to the official sources, Maul was trained in the Sith ways from a very early age - it's quite likely that he himself doesn't remember his original name. Even if he does remember it, it would mean nothing to him any more - the Sith and their ways are his life - and he certainly wouldn't answer to it. According to the non-canon novel "Darth Plagueis", Darth Maul was named "Maul" by his mother before she turned him over to a young Palpatine. He didn't take a new name when he got the title "Darth."
2nd Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: How do Han Solo and Chewbacca end up together?
Answer: After the end of the Clone Wars and the creation of the Empire, the Wookies were enslaved, ostensibly as punishment for helping Jedi fugitives. Chewbacca worked as a slave for some years, before being rescued by Han Solo, at the time a cadet at the Imperial Academy and acting entirely against his orders. Solo was kicked out of the Academy and vanished into the life of a smuggler, accompanied by Chewbacca, who had sworn a life-debt to his rescuer.
2nd Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: How long is there between Episodes II and III? There were ten years between I and II, and around 20 between III and IV, but the entire Clone Wars saga happens between II and III, so how long was between them?
Answer: Approximately three years.
30th May 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: If Luke Skywalker's identity is to be kept secret, why is he left on Anakin Skywalker's home planet with people Anakin knew and is distantly related to, and with Anakin's surname, which is not the same as Owen and Beru, the couple who take Luke in? Wouldn't it be possible, however remote, that Vader (Anakin) might figure out his son is alive? Is this ever explained?
Answer: The simple answer is that there's no way that Anakin would ever figure it out, not that he would ever have it drawn to his attention in the first place. Firstly, he believes that he killed Padme on Mustafar, making the survival of their children impossible, as she was nowhere near any form of medical facility that might have saved the babies. Secondly, he's hardly going to be dropping in for family visits - he pretty much cut off all ties with his past when he became a Sith Lord. Anakin's not going to be paying attention to the doings of his stepbrother (who, to the best of our knowledge, he only met once, at a painful time that Anakin's not going to be particularly interested in revisiting) who runs a small farm on a backwater planet. Imperial Intelligence aren't going to pay any attention either - there's no indication that Owen and Beru lead anything other than quiet lives, and the appearance of an adopted child isn't going to raise any eyebrows. Even the surname's not going to attract attention - Vader's previous identity of Anakin Skywalker from Tatooine is not going to be common knowledge, so nobody's going to make the connection. Besides, Vader and his master have other priorities; they have an Empire to run and a resistance movement to deal with - it's highly unlikely that Anakin ever gave his stepbrother another thought.
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Answer: What, you don't think that Dooku would sense that coming? He's a powerful Sith Lord, considerably above either Anakin or Obi-Wan in power at that time - he'd easily be able to sense it coming and deflect it. Obi-Wan would know that - better to give his lightsabre to Anakin to give his uninjured cohort a more formidable attack.
Tailkinker ★