lionhead

Question: When Obi-Wan is told by Dooku that the republic is controlled by Darth Sidious, he does not immediately believe it. Later in the movie he mentions it to Yoda and Mace Windu and he remarks that it does not feel right. Why were the Jedi not able to connect the dots and figure out a pattern when Palpatine stayed in office longer than he should have? That should have been a red flag. Are the Jedi not clued in at all?

Answer: The influence of the dark side of the force clouds their judgements, it causes a disturb in the force so they can't see through it to discover the truth. Even at the end of the war all they feel is that the dark side of the force surrounds the chancellor but they can't figure out what that means.

lionhead

Question: I heard there was a scene where Ron and Hermione hug but it was cut. Does anyone know at what point in the movie this hug would have taken place?

Answer: Other than when Hermione turns to Ron and puts her arms around his shoulders after the Trio thinks they've just witnessed Buckbeak's execution, there does not appear to be any other time when she hugs or embraces Ron. All of the Azkaban deleted scenes are online or were included with the DVD and none contain this.

raywest

My understanding is that the specific scene where she put her arm around Ron was actually supposed to be a real hug but Emma Watson didn't feel comfortable doing it so they changed it to only an arm.

lionhead

It was more than just her arms, she had her face buried in his neck.

Question: Doc has always been firm about not wanting to create some sort of paradox. Was he not at all worried that eventually someone would go into his barn looking for him and find his giant refrigerator and his model railway with the car that said "TIME MACHINE" on it? I know he stayed behind after he rescued Clara so could have removed all that, but the original plan was he was going to hop into the DeLorean with Marty. We know he definitely left the model railway there as Clara picked the car up which prompted her to go after him.

Answer: Someone would go into his barn and do what? See a sign that says time machine and believe it and then use it? Seems highly unlikely.

lionhead

Answer: Well everyone in that town knows Doc's a pretty smart guy. Chances are he was doing some experimenting with time machines or something. The average person I'm sure would never figure it out anyways or think it was a crazy irrelevant project. Clara only figured it out because Doc told her about the time machine and time travel and thought Doc was lying to break up with her. The story sounded crazy until she saw the model, then saw the machine and realised he was telling her the truth. But the average person in that period knows nothing about the time machine, cars, or rime travel and even if they by some chance figured out Doc was from the future nobody would believe it nor could they prove it.

Question: After Elizabeth is brought to the Pearl, she threatens to drop the medallion overboard. Barbossa feigns disinterest but when Elizabeth pretends to drop it, the pirates gasp in panic. Why? So she drops it, big deal. They can't drown, the gold "calls to them" so what does it matter if she were to drop it?

Jacordx

Chosen answer: Because they'd have to find it. The gold may "call to them", but it obviously doesn't function as a millimetre perfect homing beacon or they'd never have missed the medallion years earlier when they attacked the ship carrying the young Will. Elizabeth drops it into the sea and they're going to have to spend what could be months trying to locate it - currents could take it well away from the dropping point. They've found the final missing piece; they're potentially just hours away from finally being cured. The last thing they want is to see it thrown into the sea.

Tailkinker

Well, if the crew was anxious to get the medallion then why did they act like they weren't interested in it before Elizabeth pretended to drop it?

Reverse psychology.

Ssiscool

What do you mean by reverse psychology?

By showing they are not interested in the medallion they are hoping Elizabeth will just drop it on the floor or chuck it to them as it's of no real value. However when she releases a bit of chain and the medallion drops, and the pirates lurch forward revealing that they really want the medallion and as such Elizabeth now has the upper hand in negotiations.

Ssiscool

I'm guessing Elizabeth wasn't fooled when the pirates showed disinterest in the medallion.

That's not called reverse psychology, which is used to encourage someone to change his or her mind. Doesn't work with a threat. They are feigning indifference to hide the importance of the object.

lionhead

They didn't want to give her an advantage over them. Pretending to not care about the coin would make Elizabeth think that the coin is worthless and cannot use it to barter a deal.

Question: Why do the Dursleys try to stop Harry from going to Hogwarts? It seems as though they would be happy to get him out of their house (except for summers).

Answer: Vernon and Petunia are very concerned with appearances and maintaining a "proper" lifestyle. The books describe how they want a perfect lawn. Vernon judges men by the cars they drive. Petunia keeps the home very clean, etc. They hope to ignore the Wizard world and force Harry to live like a Muggle. In addition to that, Petunia was jealous of her sister. She wanted to separate herself from the Wizard world as much as possible. When Harry begins attending Hogwarts, she can no longer do that.

Answer: Petunia and Vernon despise wizards and swore they would 'squash the magic out of him' (which obviously can't happen) when they took him in. They would rather have Harry around all the time and for him not to be a wizard than to allow him to go to Hogwarts where he would learn magic and be happy (It says in the books that the two things that Vernon Dursley despises most if magic and making Harry happy).

kristenlouise3

Why don't the Dursleys try to get Harry back if they don't want him to be at Hogwarts?

Because on the other hand they are glad to be rid of him.

lionhead

Why do they despise making Harry happy?

Because they despise the fact he and his parents are wizards.

lionhead

Or as Petunia states in the book "as soon as they had you I knew you'd be like them. A freak" The Durselys are very middle class who consider themselves high class. The fancy car, expensive house, private school for Dudley etc. And being associated with an outcast would in their eyes seriously hurt their social standings.

Ssiscool

Question: How did Luke and Leia know that Rey was Palpatine's granddaughter?

Answer: They felt it through the force. It's kinda like a signature. They feel each other's powers and recognize it. Both have met the Emperor and they felt similar powers inside Rey.

lionhead

When did Leia meet the Emperor?

She was a senator and her father (Bail Organa) introduced her to him when she was younger.

lionhead

Answer: Off screen between Episode 3 and Rogue One.

Question: Considering how big the Basilisk is, how is it able to travel through the pipes in Hogwarts since so many of them are small?

Answer: It was traveling through the pipes that it could fit into.

raywest

So how was it able to get into the girls restroom and kill Moaning Myrtle many years ago? All of those pipes in the restroom aren't large enough.

The girls' bathroom is the entrance to the chamber of secrets. She was in there when Tom Riddle opened it and let the snake out.

lionhead

Answer: Perhaps the basilisk is a magical creature and can change size at any given time to fit into those tiny pipes.

Yes like the Occamy in fantastic beasts and where to find them.

Answer: The tunnel that leads into the Chamber of Secrets is really big. The basilisk could have made its way up into it.

Yes but the general pipes in the castle are not that size. The entrance tunnel was that big for a reason.

Ssiscool

Question: When Marty suggests (in 1985A) that they go back to 2015 to stop Old Biff from taking the almanac in the first place, Doc says no because it'll be 2015A instead. When Old Biff went from 2015 to 1955 to give himself the almanac, when he came back to 2015 again, it was still the same one he left because Marty and Doc are just getting Jennifer out of the new McFly house when he returns. So what's the difference? If Biff can go from 1955 to 2015, without it becoming 2015A, then why can't Marty and Doc do it from 1985A?

Answer: There is a deleted scene on the DVD that answers this. You will notice that when Biff returns to 2015 it appears as if he is dying, on the deleted scene when Marty and Doc leave 2015 you see Biff vanish which suggests the "ripple effect" of Biff giving the Almanac to his younger self places everyone in an Alternate 2015 which Biff is no alive to see so is erased from existence. I have seen somewhere a suggestion Biff was shot in 1996, chances are with Biff gone by 2015 Hill Valley may have been a more peaceful city again. Hilldale was a run down suburb in the original 2015 and could have been the same in an Alternate 2015, we never saw inside any houses at that point to answer where Marty may have lived in an Alternative 2015 but perhaps in Switzerland.

Answer: The implication is that Biff returned to 2015 before the consequences of his younger self's actions took effect. Biff would have returned to 2015 immediately, as he wouldn't want to risk Marty and Doc discovering that he had stolen the DeLorean. By the time Marty and Doc travel back to 1985, the consequences of Biff's actions have solidified.

Phaneron

True, because young Biff from 1955 has to wait for his 21st birthday in 1958 to legally gamble, as explained by the newspaper Doc and Marty inspect in the bad alternative of 1985.

Answer: The reason Biff arrives like that is because Lorraine found out that he murdered George and shot him.

Where did you get that from please?

lionhead

If you have the DVD or Blu-Ray, watch the deleted scene of Biff vanishing and turn the commentary on. Bob Gale confirms that Lorraine had discovered that Biff murdered George and kills Biff in retaliation.

That info is reported to be from the audio commentary to a deleted scene, published on the official DVD. Since the scene has been filmed, it might even be considered canonical (as opposed to ideas from the drafting stage of the script which, ultimately, were abandoned).

Are those tidbits of information, such as this DVD commentary track, considered canonical?

Chosen answer: She thought she saw herself, which would have been impossible, if not for the Timeturner that Prof. McGonigall gave her. She saw a flash of the scene as it appears when she and Harry revisit that moment in time.

MovieFan612

I have watched it several times and cannot see any part of Hermione behind the tree. What part did she see?

As we see later in the film, Hermione #2 is looking around the tree and a twig snaps, causing Hermione #1 to quickly turn around and catch a glimpse of Hermione #2 before she gets her body behind the tree. By the time the camera is showing that portion of the forest Hermione #2 is fully behind the tree so we don't see anything at that time, which is on purpose since the audience isn't supposed to know the movie's later events yet.

jimba

But when Hermione #1 turns around, what part of Hermione #2 does she see?

We don't see her, she saw herself.

lionhead

But what part of herself did she see?

Most likely her bushy hair as that will stand out in the darkness of the forest.

Ssiscool

Is it possible to notice that if I watched that scene?

As Jimba said, by the time the camera gets there, she's behind the tree. Hence why I stated it's probably her hair as we simply don't know.

Ssiscool

Question: Can anyone explain why Calypso caused the maelstrom to appear? Other than provide really cool visual effects for the movie, it didn't serve a purpose. I would have thought she'd do something against Davy Jones and/or his ship in particular for betraying her in the first place.

Answer: It's suggested that, as she's pretty much equally annoyed at the pirates (for originally imprisoning her, even if it wasn't specifically those pirates) and at Davy Jones (for showing them how to do it), that she creates the maelstrom to make it an even fight - effectively telling them that she no longer cares for either side. The conditions within the maelstrom hamper the Black Pearl, the turbulence making it difficult to bring her superior speed into play, but the angle and extremely damp conditions also make it harder for the Flying Dutchman to bring her superior firepower to bear.

Tailkinker

Wrong. As the Black Pearl was meant for speed, she would have a lighter weight than the Dutchman, and would require a pushing force to stay even. Furthermore, she was not hampered by the wind-she was aided, as Gibbs stated, "The wind's on our side, boys!"

Don't think weight had anything to do with it. The Pearl was heavier than the Interceptor, but had no issue catching up with it. The maelstrom took the Pearl's superior speed out of play because they were forced to circle one another. There was no advantage to be gained by outspeeding the Dutchman around the whirlpool, and coming up on its rear. Remember, the Pearl had no forward cannons.

The other side thought they had a favorable wind as well. All the air was being pulled toward the maelstrom in the middle so both sides thought it was at their back allowing them to control the engagement.

Both sides did have favourable winds but for a different reason. It's mentioned in Dead Man's Chest that against the wind the Dutchman is faster but with the wind the Pearl is faster. The Pearl had a favourable wind because it was blowing her sails from the back whilst the Dutchman had a favourable wind because she is faster against it.

The Dutchman is faster against wind because it uses oars to row. They menton to go deeper into the maelstrom to get into faster waters. Thats how they outran the Dutchman and got broadside. It's got nothing to do with the wind.

lionhead

No, the Dutchman doesn't use any oars, you are thinking back to the first film when the Pearl is chasing the Interceptor and they use oars to go faster. Neither ship is fitted with a diesel engine so it has EVERYTHING to do with the wind.

Oh, you're right. I got confused in the 2. Not sure about the diesel engine though. May have one hidden in the back.

lionhead

Question: Gaston sings that he ate eggs to help him get large. Why didn't he say meat? Was he vegetarian? Was Disney deliberately supporting vegetarianism/respecting vegetarians? Are there any historical circumstances that I'm not aware of? Or am I just overanalyzing this matter?

Rassdyt

Answer: In addition to eating meat, eggs would be a more readily available and cheap protein source in the village.

raywest

Answer: Eggs are full of protein. Eating a lot of eggs is an excellent way to bulk up and build muscle mass.

BaconIsMyBFF

Eggs are not good for you if you eat too many of them.

To quote Stephen Fry: "Well of course too much is bad for you, that's what "too much" means. If you had too much water it would be bad for you, wouldn't it? "Too much" precisely means that quantity which is excessive, that's what it means. Could you ever say "too much water is good for you"? I mean if it's too much it's too much. Too much of anything is too much. Obviously." That aside, while it used to be believed that the cholesterol content of eggs was a health risk, more recent studies have shown that dietary cholesterol doesn't affect blood cholesterol levels for most people. As such there's no real maximum limit on egg consumption beyond the aforementioned "too much of anything is too much".

I don't think Gaston cares much about his cholesterol.

BaconIsMyBFF

They didn't even know the word.

lionhead

Answer: While I was waiting for this question to be accepted, I found the answer to one of my questions myself. Gaston is indeed not vegetarian, considering he mentions his hunting trophies during the aforementioned song and earlier in the movie, he tells Belle to imagine him roasting his kill on the fire place.

Rassdyt

12th Feb 2020

Joker (2019)

Question: My question's twofold: 1. Why does he do that dance down the stairs, for fun maybe? 2. When he speaks about comedy being subjective is this a knock on modern comedians and their controversial jokes and skits?

Rob245

Answer: 1 - Why does he dance a bunch of times in the movie? It's kinda his thing! You can see that Murray himself does little goofy dances all the time during his show and Arthur sorta seems to have taken that trait from him. 2 - I have heard that "comedy is subjective" for years and years. It is sort of a truism but it does fit, some people like a certain kind of humor that can fall completely flat for others. I am not sure if you should read some specificity about it in this movie, except for the fact that obviously he's using it to justify his own actions to the point of considering 'funny' to commit murder in the context of the perspective change when he starts considering his tragic life a whole big joke with no punchline. I don't really see in this movie a satire of show business or shock comedy, since it seems to focus on other themes (mental illness, emargination, etcetera).

Sammo

Answer: 1. It's supposed to be a highly emotional moment for him, the first time he takes control of his own life. He basically celebrates that. 2. I think he is referring to Murray, or at least something in-universe. This is all of course speculative.

lionhead

Answer: He mentioned in an interview that a lot of characters were going to die. Recently on the Graham Norton Show he revealed that he had his phone on and was live streaming the premiere of the movie towards all his followers, by accident. Only for 10 minutes or something and only audio.

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