lionhead

Show generally

Question: How do the "door transporters" outside Starfleet work? People just seem to walk straight into them and vanish, a) faster than normal transporters, and b) without any indication they're controlling where they're going. There's no sign saying where each door connects to, are people just hoping for the best?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: My guess is that they go to 1 place and they can't chose where to go. Like a highway without exits, you just end up where the highway stops.

lionhead

Answer: I assume they get sent directly from those 'Doors' to a Central Transporter hub, from there they can request to be beamed to their desired destination.

28th May 2009

Groundhog Day (1993)

Question: Toward the beginning of the movie, on Phil's first day at the bed and breakfast, he turns on the shower and it is very cold. He asks the lady in the hallway why there is no hot water. The lady answers "Oh no, there wouldn't be any today." Why not?

Answer: Old fashioned hotels have a single boiler for all the hotel rooms. Once the hot water reservoir is used up there won't be any more to use until the reservoir is refilled. This only happens once every few days.

lionhead

Answer: Likely because there are a lot of people staying there and using up the hot water.

Captain Defenestrator

2nd Feb 2020

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Question: Wouldn't Watson have noticed that Blackthorn's neck wasn't broken after he was 'hanged'?

Brian Katcher

Answer: There are two types of hanging - the long drop which is intended to break the neck causing a quick death, and a short drop which doesn't break the neck and causes slower death by asphyxiation. There is no reason to check for a broken neck, just whether the person is dead.

Answer: He didn't check the neck, he only checked the pulse.

lionhead

Question: If the clones believe Dooku is their leader, why are they against the droids, who are his allies?

Answer: The pilots didn't refuse to shoot down Dooku - they explain they have run out of rockets and they can't. The clone troopers have no idea that Dooku originally ordered for them to be made, only the Jedi council at that time know, which is explained earlier in the film.

Answer: The clones do not believe Dooku to be their leader. Dooku is the leader of the Separatists.

BaconIsMyBFF

But they believe he was one of the people who was helping with ordering them (which he was) and refused to shoot him down when Anakin asked.

No, they believe Sifo Dyas was the Jedi who ordered their creation. They do not refuse to shoot down Dooku, they tried and failed.

BaconIsMyBFF

They believe it was both. They used "we're out of rockets" as an excuse to not kill him as they knew he was one of their leaders. Some of the corrections even state it, and one of the answers does as well.

The Jedi and the Chancellor are their leaders, not Dooku. Dooku is the enemy. Dooku's plan was to gather the largest droid army in the galaxy to counter the republic so that the clone army would be deployed. For Palpatine the seperatists were only a distraction for the Jedi and an excuse to deploy the clones. The clones obeyed the Jedi and Republic until order 66. Dooku was led to believe he would become one of the leaders eventually, if he knew about order 66, but Palpatine had other plans.

lionhead

So are you saying the people who were saying that in the corrections and questions are wrong?

There's one correction I saw that says that, and yes, I believe that correction to be incorrect. There is nothing in the film to suggest that the clones were aware (either consciously or otherwise) that Dooku played any part in their creation and chose not to kill him. If that was the case and George Lucas wanted the audience to be aware, it would have been less subtle and more obvious. It's not even supposed to be obvious that Dooku and Darth Tyranus are the same person until the end of the movie but that reveal was ruined by pre-release marketing and merchandise.

BaconIsMyBFF

But you can see the rockets in the gunship when the clone pilot refuses to fire them at Dooku.

Plus, they could've also used lasers or etc. instead.

Plus, why wouldn't Dooku and Sidious have had this feature installed anyway if they knew they would've been against him otherwise?

Sidious already was the leader of the clone troops, as Chancellor of the republic. All he had to do was wait for the war to spread the Jedi out over the galaxy so they will be more vulnerable and then execute order 66 to take them out. Dooku or Grievous were never a part of that plan. This is proven by Sidious ordering Vader to go to the Mustafar system and kill the rest of the separatist leaders. If Grievous was still alive he would have been eliminated too. Sidious' new apprentice Vader had already killed Dooku by then anyway.

lionhead

That's not exactly the point though.

The point the clones did not refuse to fire on Dooku. Dooku is not protected against them. Not by Palpatine, not by himself as Tyrannus.

lionhead

The programming of the clone troopers has been explored extensively in additional canon materials outside of the films. There has never been any mention of specific programming put in place to keep the clones from killing Dooku and Sidious. The ship still having rockets after the clone says they are out is more likely to be a simple continuity error rather than a subtle hint (and if this theory is to be believed, the ONLY hint at all in any Star Wars media) that the clones were programmed to not kill Dooku.

BaconIsMyBFF

There's also the hint that he finished up the job with ordering them.

We can go on and on for pages but the fact of the matter is the clones were not what you expected them to be. Dooku never had any idea he would be in danger of being captured or killed by the clones as he was supposed to be coordinating the war on the background like Sidious.

lionhead

Question: Doesn't anybody think that when the Star Wars movies were released, that the name of the enemy, Darth Vader, would get George McFly a little suspicious? After all, he had to have remembered the name of the spirit that "came down to him from planet Vulcan" since it is on the cover of his book at the end.

Answer: Suspicious of what? He never finds out Doc Brown has a time machine or that Marty affected his past. It might make him believe in some sort of "The truth is hiding in plain sight" conspiracy theory. Oh and BTW, he'd see Star Trek in 1966 (with the Vulcan reference) before he sees Star Wars.

Grumpy Scot

Marty says that he is "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan", and unless George doesn't remember "meeting him", he might think back to it and be like "wait a minute..." Regardless of when Star Trek and Star Wars would come out, a nerd like him would be able to put two-and-two together and see that they don't add up, unless he thinks that it's just a coincidence.

Answer: I think it was mostly as a shock to him waking up like that with loud noises right in his ear. Disoriented and confused and already being kind of a jittery and craven person he just did what he was told. Doesn't matter at that point how unalien the encounter actually was. I mean the music was guitars, Vulcan is a common word, the "alien" spoke plain english and i'll bet people from the 50's have seen an environmental suit before (basically a diving suit with a gasmask).

lionhead

Answer: In a special "front page wrap" of USA Today for October 22, 2015, written by Michael Klastorin. The name of the alien is "Garth D'Vade." Obviously done as a joke, it does show that George may have not remembered the name and didn't associate it with Darth Vader, so there's nothing for him to be suspicious about. It's also possible he believes Darth Vader to be real and thinks Vader must have visited George Lucas.

Bishop73

I highly doubt George became a paranoid alien conspiracy theorist and a respected scifi author at the same time.

lionhead

Answer: Vulcan had long been used as the name of fictitious planets (when 19th century astronomers thought they'd discovered a planet closer to the sun than Mercury, they were going to name it 'Vulcan'). As for Vader, George wouldn't have heard the name again until more than 20 years after his 'dream, ' and either chalked it up to coincidence or misremembering what he heard.

Brian Katcher

25th Jan 2020

Star Wars (1977)

Question: Are lightsabers capable of cutting through any substance, or are there objects in the franchise (even if the examples are no longer canon) that have been specifically mentioned as being resistant?

Phaneron

Answer: There are several substances in canon and non-canon that are resistant to lightsabers. Beskar, also known as Mandalorian iron or Mandalorian steel was used to make armor and weapons by the Mandalorian people. Cortosis was an ore that, when heavily refined, stopped lightsaber blades and blaster bolts. Phrik was another metal, used in Darth Sidious' lightsabers and the electrostaffs used by Grievous' robot guards. Neuranium was a very, very dense and heavy metal that was partially resistant to lightsabers, but was more often used to shield from scanners. The species orbalisk and vonduun crab had carapaces that could withstand the blow of a lightsaber.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: The Force Awakens features stormtroopers using the "Z6 riot control baton", which they use to block the lightsaber when Finn uses it.

Jon Sandys

Is it the baton itself that is resistant, or the energy surge around it? Because I know Snoke's guards were able to block lightsabers with energized weapons as well.

Phaneron

Yes you see them in Episode III as well when fighting on the bridge of the chancellor's ship. My guess is the energy blocks the lightsaber. It's logical they would come up with some sort of technology to block lightsabers if materials that can block them are that rare.

lionhead

Answer: There are a handful of items, but I don't believe any have been mentioned or shown in the film series (other than another lightsaber itself). Mandalorian Iron (also known as Beskar) and Phrix are resistant to lightsaber attacks and have been mentioned in the TV show "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", but I don't recall if their resistance is specifically mentioned in the show.

Bishop73

25th Jan 2020

Blade II (2002)

Answer: They are Oakley Square Wires. Oakley is the brand mostly worn throughout the Blade series as Wesley Snipes is allegedly a big fan.

lionhead

17th Jan 2020

Pokemon (1998)

Answer: I only know that they wasn't Ash's Pikachu because he is very powerful. I don't think it was ever said as to what Giovanni would do with Pikachu though. He may want the Pokémon for its powers kind of like how he had Mewtwo and used the armour to help him control his powers.

Answer: A quick google brings up a ton of results ranging from keeping Jesse, James and Meowth busy to Pikachu having extra powers. Feel free to read more from this article that provides many detailed answers https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/23383/why-does-team-rocket-always-try-to-catch-pikachu.

Ssiscool

Their goal is basically to capture pikachu so they can present him to their boss. Now I sort of have a problem with that because would their boss want pikachu?

A pikachu is rare.

lionhead

You really need to be more specific.

No I don't.

lionhead

Ash's pikachu has more power as a pikachu than a Raichu (his evolved form) as such, this particular Pikachu is of interest to Team Rocket (as stated on the link) However, Rockets reason for NEEDING a Pikachu with all that extra power is unknown.

Ssiscool

Team rocket seeks rare valuable, and powerful pokemon. Their objective is to steal rare, valuable, and powerful pokemon, and bring them to their boss so he can use them to take over the world. Pikachu is a rare, valuable, and pokemon. Of course in my opinion, if team rocket managed to steal pikachu and give him to their boss, it would probably make sense for him to sell pikachu for a high price because there would be no way pikachu would ever obey him.

17th Jan 2020

War of the Worlds (2005)

Question: So I know this was asked but I'm going to go a little deeper, How were the aliens killed by microbes/bacteria? They are so much more advanced then we are that they didn't think to protect themselves from this possible threat? They were ready for battle with the lasers how did they not think about what is in our environment?

Answer: I think the issue of they're more advanced than us therefore how would they not know about Earth's diseases is a bad assumption. Having knowledge of space travel and weaponry doesn't mean having knowledge of microbiology, even if we think it must because of our own advancements. We know when Europeans came to the Americas, the diseases they brought over were devastating to the indigenous people who had no immunity. There's a theory that the Americas never had such plagues or diseases because they didn't live in overcrowded cities like the Europeans. Had the indigenous people carried unique diseases that they were immune to, their diseases could have easily wiped out of the Europeans, despite being "more advanced." Mars may simply never had experience with plagues or diseases that required the concept of immunization or they may have thought they were protected.

Bishop73

Answer: They had never been to Earth and test out of the biological nature of the planet and its life. They just assumed to be protected in their machines from any hostility against them and never thought to protect themselves from the bacteria. They thought that if they would just destroy the life they wouldn't be affected by it.

lionhead

So you said they had never been to Earth, but how did the machines they are using get here? If they are so intelligent and have these fancy machines how did they not think to look more closely at the life on this planet first when they brought the machines?

They didn't bring them, they sent them. A long, long time ago too. Who knows why they didn't think of it? That's just the story. They want the planet and kill everything on it to gain it. Why study an inferior species?

lionhead

Answer: The aliens may have been aware there were biological hazards but underestimated how lethal that would be to their physiology. Their intent was to quickly and completely eradicate all Earth's flora and fauna, sterilizing the planet by reseeding it with their own alien biology.

raywest

8th Jan 2020

Aquaman (2018)

Question: Why didn't they move? Surely they could've hidden in one of the other states mainly a landlocked one like Iowa, Nebraska, or Kentucky, as in not near an ocean.

Rob245

Answer: Yes I mean as in his father and mother should've moved, not the Atlanteans.

Rob245

They both obviously love the ocean very much, and it might have been to hard for them to live away from it. Call it a false sense of security if you will.

Brian Katcher

Answer: If you are talking about the Atlanteans, their entire civilization sunk into the ocean. Instead of leaving it, all that history, culture and technology, they adapted instead. They didn't want to leave their home and be exiled forever. A lot did go and live in other areas of the ocean but by that time humans had taken over on land, and they didn't want to interfere, nor did they need to by that time.

lionhead

I think the question is asking why Arthur's parents didn't move. Why, knowing that people from Atlantis are hunting you, would you continue to live near the ocean?

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: As the guardian of the Soul Stone, the Red Skull presumably just showed Steve the spot where he needed to return it. As for how Steve got to Vormir in the first place, he could have either borrowed a spaceship from Asgard or had Heimdall teleport him there via the Bifrost after returning the Reality Stone.

Phaneron

Asgard doesn't exist at the time Steve would return the stone.

It did when they took it so its still there when he brings it back. It's shortly before the dark elves attack.

lionhead

Yes it does. Clint, Natasha, Rhodey and Nebula all traveled to Morag in 2014 when Quill took the Power Stone, at which point Clint and Natasha took the Guardians' ship and traveled to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone. Steve can travel to Asgard in 2014 and ask Heimdall to teleport him to both of those planets. Asgard wasn't destroyed until just before the events of Infinity War.

Phaneron

26th Oct 2009

The Matrix (1999)

Question: Morpheus says the "one" was born inside the matrix in film 1. What happens if you're born there? This seems like a flaw in the matrix. How can millions of people live in it for hundreds of years and not reproduce? The matrix is their mind world; if they reproduce there, does the mother get pregnant and have her baby in the real world even though she has no idea she's there? How can you be born inside the matrix? I don't understand.

modrique02

Chosen answer: None of the people jacked into the Matrix actually get pregnant. It's likely their bodies experience some of the "symptoms" of pregnancy. That's a real world phenomenon: a woman who sincerely thinks she is pregnant, or very strongly wishes to be pregnant, will start producing the same hormones and undergo the physical changes involved with pregnancy, up to a point. When someone becomes pregnant within the Matrix, another artifically grown human baby is jacked in and "assigned" to be their baby. The original "One" who was born inside the Matrix was like Sati in Matrix: Revolutions. The result of two programs, which were written outside the Matrix and then inserted into it, using bits of their own code to create an entirely new program within the Matrix. This individual had unique powers, having been "born" inside the Matrix rather than inserted into it, and woke up the first humans. The cycle perpetuated from there.

Phixius

I wondered about this too now I watched it again. Aren't the babies supposed to be actual offspring? I mean that's the poit of the fields of humans batteries, to make more and more right? But in order to do that they'd have to taken semen from the right man and artificially inseminate the right woman and then take the baby away and grow it seperately. But that would mean the baby growing inside the woman's belly in the matrix isn't real, so when does it become real? Do they simulate the birth too and then replace the fake baby with the jacked in baby that was grown seperately? That would make you wonder about many things. Or me in any case. It's a problem with that system.

lionhead

30th Dec 2019

The Truman Show (1998)

Question: How did Truman get out of his basement without anyone seeing him?

Answer: He deceived them into thinking he was still downstairs sleeping, but he snuck out through a hole he had made. The cameras aren't on everywhere, just where Truman is.

lionhead

I have a problem with the fact that Truman dug a hole to escape because wouldn't the camera watching him crew have heard the sound of him digging the hole?

Well their focus is on him, I think it's one of the major mistakes they made to keep all audio focussed on him sleeping instead of the entire room. That's why he was able to sneak around and then dig the hole without being noticed. They do switch cameras around but the audio stays on him.

lionhead

"He deceived them into thinking he was still downstairs sleeping," by placing a large inflatable snowman under the blanket?

Yes, exactly.

lionhead

Answer: If you mean why didn't Hermione freak out its been proven time and time again that Hermione is a lot more calm and in control of herself than Ron is. She was able to keep cool around him. Plus Ron was pretty hurt and probably in shock. If you mean why she didn't save Pettigrew its because she knows who he is and what he did, she finds him quite repulsive.

lionhead

What I meant was she didn't seem weirded out when Pettigrew was all "sweet girl, clever girl" and I wondered why.

Answer: Ron's still in a bit of physical and emotional shock. He was dragged into the Shrieking Shack by what he thought was a vicious animal (Sirius Black) that was going to kill him. His leg was injured when he was being pulled through the tunnel and he's in pain. The biggest issue is his learning that his "beloved" pet rat, Scabbers, was actually Pettigrew, who, for the past few years, was constantly with Ron, being held by him, sleeping in his bed... Ron was totally disgusted by finding out of the truth. That's why Hermione's reaction is different.

raywest

Answer: Ron's shoes that were taken off him when he was put into the bed. That's why they disappear when Harry and Hermione go back in time. If you play it in slowmo, you can see it when they disappear.

lionhead

Why were they taken off him? Pomfrey could still fix his leg if they were on.

Probably because it's simply more comfortable. Odds are good he would be spending the night in the hospital wing, so he wouldn't wear them to sleep.

LorgSkyegon

Question: If Harry's relatives hate him, then why are they against him going to Hogwarts to study magic? Why wouldn't they be excited to be rid of him most of the time?

Rob245

Answer: Because they know of his wizard heritage and they hate it. They think he and his parents were freaks.

lionhead

Good answer, but I'd add they also knew it was something Harry would very much want, and they would always deny him simply to be as mean-spirited as possible.

raywest

Not to mention one of Vernon and Petunia's overriding motivations is to appear normal to their neighbors, and the more magic Harry knows, the less likely they are to achieve that. It could presumably also be dangerous for them, as future books/movies confirm.

1. They were constantly being barraged with letters from Hogwarts in an increasingly disruptive manner. Eventually, this would be noticed as something weird by their neighbors, which is something they REALLY don't want: anyone to know about Petunia's magical relations. 2. They were flat out threatened by Hagrid and terrified on both him and Dumbledore Better to let him go there then have to spend their entire lives on the run without it even working.

LorgSkyegon

They were against it long before the barrage of letters or Hagrid showing up. They knew about the school, Petunia's sister went there and she told Vernon. They don't want to seem weird to the neighbors in general, they aren't afraid people around them will think they have a wizard in their family because nobody believes in wizards.

lionhead

Question: During the arena battle, while Mace is retrieving his lightsaber, why doesn't Jango just shoot him there while he's disarmed and steady, instead of trying to steal it?

Answer: Because Mace Windu is a Jedi and if he gets his lightsaber he'll be able to deflect Jango's blaster shots with ease. If Jango is able to grab the lightsaber before Mace can get it, then he stands a much better chance of winning.

BaconIsMyBFF

But if he shoots him before he got his lightsaber he can't deflect the shot.

lionhead

Not saying it was either smart or prudent, but that was obviously his thinking. In his mind if he grabs that lightsaber before Windu can get it he's won.

BaconIsMyBFF

Villains in movies don't have a lot of logic.

29th Dec 2019

The Truman Show (1998)

Question: Why did Christof not get rid of Sylvia earlier when it's seen that Truman fancies her? He could just have taken her off the set and had the other actors tell Truman she "transferred" to another school, so as not to have her be alone with Truman and attempt to tell him what was going on. Also how could Sylvia predict that Truman would fancy her, thereby making it easier for her to tell him about Seahaven being fake?

Answer: They fell for each other, the feelings were hidden enough for the show makers not to notice until it was already "too late." I don't think they minded Truman looking at other women or female actors flirting with Truman, as long as they held to the script and understood who Truman was supposed to end up with. Sylvia broke those rules, because of her feelings and only made the decision to tell him the truth after she realised she was going to be removed and never see him again (in person I mean). It wasn't her plan to fall in love with him, nor to tell him his life was a lie (although that could theoretically be true, but not the falling in love part).

lionhead

29th Dec 2019

Jurassic Park III (2001)

Question: If the Spinosaurus was a fish eater, why would it go after the group?

Aidanfox

Answer: Basically, this is a fictional version of the Spinosaurus. Simply because scientists didn't know the Spinosaurus was a fish eater when this movie was made so the movie makers made the Spinosaurus a land hunter. It's possible that the Spinosaurus in this movie hunts for mammals because it doesn't have access to the sea to hunt for fish, or doesn't know how to because it was bred that way.

lionhead

11th Dec 2019

Batman and Robin (1997)

Question: How does Ivy get Nora's snowflake necklace without getting her costume soaked in the cyro fluid or whatever it is?

Rob245

Answer: Maybe she drained the cryo-tube first? Maybe she did get wet but had dried off by the time we see her again? Maybe Bane did it for her? Pick whatever answer works best for you. It's a really small, insignificant detail in the film with plenty of potential answers.

TedStixon

Thanks though keep in mind she wouldn't have a clue as to how it works since she's a botanist not a scientist in cyro genetics.

Rob245

She pulled the plug on the thing so Nora died and the tank drained (either automatically or Ivy did it). She just took the necklace off the body.

lionhead

Answer: She most likely used her mind control potion on someone and had them do it for her.

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