Phoenix

14th Jun 2005

Fight Club (1999)

Question: What exactly is the significance of the narrator calling all the addresses that are in the information folders from his house after Tyler leaves? Was he trying to warn them of an impending danger?

Answer: After he realized Tyler's true nature at the hotel, Tyler made many phone calls. Jack called the same phone numbers and realized that they corresponded to the buildings mentioned on the Project Mayhem folders. He had to confirm this, so he called a couple different buildings. He tried to tell the building operators that something was up, but they're already assisting Project Mayhem and could not be dissuaded. In desperation Jack went to the police...

Phoenix

18th May 2005

The Terminator (1984)

Question: Why are they always naked when returning from the future?

Answer: Reese explains that only living things can come through the portal. This is why they can't bring any equipment, including clothing. The Terminator can come because it's covered in living skin.

Phoenix

21st Mar 2005

Donnie Darko (2001)

Question: What was the significance of Frank wearing the rabbit suit? Was it because the face was supposed to stick in Donnie's mind so he'd remember what he had to do? I can't think of any logical reason why he'd have to wear the suit to accomplish his mission.

Answer: According to the DVD special features, people who die in the alternate universe (the Manipulated Dead) have more power and self-awareness than those who live throughout. The supernatural force that appoints Donnie to end the alternate universe adopts Frank's face because a) he wants a form that Donnie can interact with and b) as a Manipulated Dead Frank has more understanding of what is going on and maybe wants to help. The costume is necessary because it's an essential part of Frank's character as a dead person - it's what he was wearing when he died - and also because it's so alien Donnie will understand that he's dealing with things beyond normal ken.

Phoenix

Question: Is it (or was it, as the case may be) really a common practice to put keys in the visor? (And why?)

Answer: It's not really "common" per se, but some surveys indicate that up to one in seventeen people in the US routinely leaves their keys in the car overnight. If you do so, it's only logical to put them in a place where they can't be easily seen yet you will be able to find them. It's just luck that it happens to work out for Arnold in this movie.

Phoenix

1st Mar 2005

X-Men 2 (2003)

Question: I understand that Jean Grey perishing to turn into Phoenix was part of the storyline, but there had to be another way to stop the oncoming water. Couldn't Bobby (Iceman) have tried to freeze the water? Or maybe that and a combination of Storm turning the weather very, very cold would've turned it into ice?

Answer: As mentioned elsewhere, Iceman is still in training and doesn't have enough control over his powers to turn the entire flood of water into motionless ice within the short time frame. Storm might have been able to lower the temperature, but dropping it enough to instantly freeze such a volume of water probably would have killed them all (we know from Cerebro 2 that she can't insulate people from the effects of her powers). It's just too much water too fast for these to be possible.

Phoenix

3rd Feb 2005

Donnie Darko (2001)

Question: If Donnie was supposed to die anyway, why did Frank call him out of his house at the beginning? Please don't say it was his schizophrenia and the fact that he is "prone to wander at night", because it IS Frank who calls him out, he doesn't get up on his own.

Answer: Frank calls Donnie out because the airplane engine has fallen through a portal into an alternate universe, and at some point during his sleepwalk Frank guides Donnie through another portal to move him to the alternate universe (from the movie theatre we know that Frank can make portals at will). Frank appoints Donnie to be the guardian of the engine and make sure it falls through the alternate universe's portal into the original universe. Donnie cannot be allowed to die until the engine is escorted into the second portal, but if he dies before then the engine never reaches the second portal and remains in the alternate universe, causing the original universe to unravel. Once he and the engine return, he must die because his experiences of the alternate universe predict the future, potentially causing paradoxes.

Phoenix

Question: Why doesn't the dogs senses dumb down with infection? Obviously human senses degrade when they turn into zombies, but the dogs keep their speed and ability to smell scents.

Answer: First, the T-virus affects humans and dogs differently - zombie dogs look like they've been skinned, but zombie humans just look dead. Second, there's little evidence that human senses have been dimmed, it's just that zombies are stupider without higher brain functions (explained in the first movie) and are slower because they conserve energy for actual attacks, not moving. Dogs are much more efficient predators than humans and don't need to slow down as much because a few bites will take down prey.

Phoenix

3rd Feb 2005

Donnie Darko (2001)

Question: Why does Frank have Donnie burn the guy's house down, when at the end, Donnie goes back in time, dies, and therefore cannot burn the guy's house down?

Answer: Frank tells Donnie to burn down Cunningham's house because then Cunningham's kiddie porn dungeon will be discovered and he will be put on trial. If he's on trial, Kitty must be at his arraignment and cannot escort the dance team to Los Angeles, so Rose goes with them instead. Rose chooses to come home with the team on a different flight than Kitty would have chosen, and if they hadn't been on that flight the flight wouldn't have occurred (we don't know why not, but if it happened anyway Donnie wouldn't be necessary, and he obviously is or Frank wouldn't have called upon him). Because Rose takes the flight, the airplane engine passes through the portal and falls into Donnie's bedroom back in the original universe, closing the time loop.

Phoenix

22nd Jan 2005

Donnie Darko (2001)

Question: Why was it the end of the world? what caused it to be the end of the world, and why did it change simply because donnie changed it so he died when he should have? how did the actions caused by him being alive amount to the end of the world?

Answer: The "end of the world" refers to the end of the alternate universe Donnie enters when Frank summons him out of bed at the beginning of the movie. The alternative universe will only last until the airplane engine is returned to the normal universe and Donnie dies. Donnie sets in motion events that lead to the airplane engine falling through a portal to the normal universe, and when it finally returns he defaults to his place at the exact point when Frank summoned him out of there to guard the engine.

Phoenix

6th Jan 2005

Donnie Darko (2001)

Question: Why does Frank go back in time anyway, if it will result in him dying(saving Donnie) and how did HE time-travel? And why does he urge Donnie to do all those violent things?

Answer: Frank never goes back in time. In a special feature on the DVD called The Philosophy of Time Travel, there is an extensive discussion of what happens when an object slips out of the proper time continuum through randomly occurring portals. Forces exist to ensure that the object has a human guardian, whose responsibility it is to return the object to a portal in time that will send it back to the proper continuum, often sacrificing the life of the guardian. Frank, in the movie, is both a rather unimportant human figure and the adopted face of the force guiding Donnie to his destiny (returning the airplane engine) that exists outside of either time continuum and can speak to the inhabitants at will. The only thing he directly tells Donnie to do is to burn down Cunningham's house, which results in Cunningham's trial and causes Rose to take Kitty's place escorting the dance team to LA, and Rose chooses to take an earlier flight home. This is the only way the airplane engine would have been in the portal to be returned to the proper continuum. The other violent things Donnie did were merely satisfying his own issues with school, his girlfriend, and her death.

Phoenix

6th Jan 2005

Hero (2002)

Answer: It's mostly about Nameless' assassination attempt, but there is a subplot in the different flashbacks developing the relationship between Snow and Sword. Not much of an arc to that one, though.

Phoenix

Question: In the part where Frank falls through the glass roof, you see Jack use his pick to stop them.where does he stick his pick into if it is all glass? He couldn't have stuck it into ice because you see him wipe away just snow to see Frank.

Answer: The roof isn't one continuous piece of glass, it's many pieces fit together and separated by metal framing. The flat end of the pick can fit into the crack in the frame between two pieces of glass.

Phoenix

Show generally

Question: I haven't seen the majority of all the BtVS episodes, so I could have missed something, but in the last episode Giles states that there are other Hellmouths' if that's true, and there is only one slayer (before Buffy had all the potentials powers unlocked) then are all the other people that live on them screwed? What keeps vampires from running rampant and killing everyone?

Azureth

Chosen answer: Several factors restrict the demons besides the Slayer. The Watchers' Council is obviously much larger than it would need to be to simply guide the Slayer; much of their energy is directed toward gathering information for their own use against the demons. They have elite teams (seen in season 3) for Special Forces-style offensives. There are also innumerable witches and warlocks around the world, some of whom fight for good (like Giles' coven from the end of season 6) and all of whom would be attracted to the energies of the Hellmouth. Some demons like Whistler (end of season 2) exist to balance the forces of darkness with the forces of good and would handle their share as well. The existence of The Initiative (season 4) shows that the world's powerful elite are aware of the demon world to some extent and take measures to address it. Lastly, there are always some civilians who take part in the battle because they become aware of the existence of demons, like Kain from "Phases", Gunn's gang from Angel, and Wood from season 7. Obviously, there's a whole lot more than just the Slayer defending the world, but no one else can really match her firepower.

Phoenix

8th Nov 2004

The Matrix (1999)

Question: How do the agents get the police and swat team to work for them? Do they pose as FBI or something like that?

Answer: Sure. Agents are perfectly equipped to hand the local police force any kind of identification whatsoever to prove that the Agents are federal officers and the locals would be compelled to assist.

Phoenix

Question: In the Ultimate Edition DVD, after the T-1000 has 'regrouped' after the liquid nitrogen death, his hands and feet take on the pattern of whatever he touches, for example to yellow and black stripes on the rail or the floor pattern. Why does happen and why was it left out of the movie? It's actually the reason John recognises the fake Sarah as an illusion.

Answer: It's one of several things that were cut from the original theatrical release for time reasons; James Cameron likes longer movies than studios like to release. The constant morphing indicates that whatever computer mechanism controls the T-1000 has been damaged: it is no longer able to choose what it copies but copies everything it samples to some extent. From a critic's point of view, this isn't necessary for John to recognize his mother because it's more interesting and intuitive if he "just knows".

Phoenix

27th Oct 2004

Star Wars (1977)

Question: It's obviously simple to build a robot that can understand and speak English. Even droids working as short order cooks can speak English, as far back as Episode 2. So why can't R2 talk? He's a friggin' mechanic, he needs to be able to speak with the humans he works for. I know his primary function isn't communication but if 90% of the droids in Star Wars have a speech function surely R2 could have one.

Answer: R2's job is astromech droid and in-flight mechanic, which means that he's supposed to be locked into a fighter most of the time. When that is the case, he can communicate with the pilot through the computer (as seen in Empire Strikes Back, I believe). Since the builders didn't anticipate how much wandering around he would be doing, they didn't see a need to build in a speech function and instead spent that space on extra tools and repair programming. How many astromechs do you see wandering around the Star Wars universe and interacting with people?

Phoenix

27th Oct 2004

Resident Evil (2002)

Question: Why was the choice made to create an original story rather than base the movie directly on the game? While there are game references and little details, much of the story was original material. Almost everyone I know is very angry that the games were disregarded so much.

Answer: It was original for two reasons. 1) there are so many games - RE, RE2, RE: Nemesis, RE 0, RE Code Veronica - that it would be impossible to pick one game to base the movie on that all the players of the series would approve of. Theoretically, making it original prevented gamers from complaining that they picked a bad storyline. The constant references to the different games were supposed to placate your friends. 2) the director naturally wants to add some of his own style to the movie, not just copy what was already done in a game.

Phoenix

Question: If the Predators are so big on honor and the hunt, why do they always fight with the cloaking devices, wouldn't it be more honorable to meet an enemy head on?

Answer: It's almost always a single Predator against hordes of armed enemies without backup of any kind; there's nothing in the honor code that says that a Predator should be suicidal. Even with prey exempted from the code (pregnant mothers and ill or disabled prey), they are honorably killable if they become a threat to the Predator.

Phoenix

18th Oct 2004

Logan's Run (1976)

Question: Why were the enforcers called sandmen?

Answer: In popular American lore, the Sandman is responsible for putting sand over your eyes to make you go to sleep. In this context the "sleep" is a euphemism for death, and the enforcers are responsible for making sure that everyone dies on time.

Phoenix

18th Oct 2004

The Fifth Element (1997)

Question: I still don't know whether Leeloo is human or an alien. Can anyone explain her story for me?

Answer: Leeloo was originally human in some form; the Supreme Being label indicates that she's just an extremely advanced human. Her essence has resided on Earth for many thousands of years, but the Mondoshawans (aliens) remove her for safekeeping. She is reconstructed from the few cells remaining in the statue from the alien wreckage.

Phoenix

Answer: She's a supreme being who isn't so much alien but more of an evolved hybrid of divine and human. She protects not just Earth but the whole universe. She is also a weapon who seems to be within the Mondeshewans control and care, as shown in the first Egypt scene, and they are alien. She is also linked to Earth, meaning she is meant to 'go off' on Earth in the temple specifically thus is created in our likeness.

Nikita Moon

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