Question: This has been an endless point of debate among my friends and I; how sensible is the placing of the pulse rifle's ammo counter? It seems to me that it'd be very problematic since, if the operator were right handed, they'd have to turn the weapon on its side to read how many bullets they had left.
lionhead
27th Jan 2011
Aliens (1986)
Answer: Yes you're right, the ammo counter is badly placed, but then again a seasoned marine wouldn't need to rely on it in the first place as they'd know through experience when they are about to run out.
Answer: In all honesty you really wouldn't need an ammo counter. Either you shoot until the weapon runs dry and then you have to reload or you shoot until the threat is gone in which case you would do a "tactical reload" where you remove the partial mag and insert a fresh mag to ensure you have max ammo again for the next firefight.
That is, if you have another mag to do a tactical reload with. Real life is not like in videogames where you reload and only count bullets, you gotta have magazines.
1st Jan 2018
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Question: Why do Borg always attack earth with only one single ship? We already know from ST: Voyager that Borg have so many ships in the delta-quadrant that they sometimes attack with 10 or more ships at the same time. Why don't they just send 2 or 3 of their cubes next time? Borg knows that the Federation needed their very last resources and a lot of luck to defeat the Borg Cube last time (Battle of Wolf359). So 2 ships at least should do the job this time. Instead they again send one cube and risk defeat.
Answer: The Borg think like machines. They have calculated that one cube is enough to conquer Earth so they send one cube. Both times they were defeated because of incalculable events. Both times they didn't have a reason to send more than one cube.
This is wrong. Borg do have a big reason to send more than one cube the second time. They know that Locutus (Picard) is there somewhere and can log-in into the Borg hive when Borg are near him. He received visions from the Borg shortly before battle and calculated with this information "unimportant" weak-spots which destroyed the second Borg cube. If someone knows your weak spots and this someone is nearby, then Borgs should be more precautious than last time.
The Enterprise was not at the battle, the Borg knew that, Picard went in against orders and intervened. This time the Borg took more than just a cube anyway, they took time travel with them. They probably had it as a contingency plan.
The contingency plan is even more brainless, explaining one plot hole with another one. There is absolutely no need to fly into the earths atmosphere to start their time machine. They could've done it even more safely before entering federation territory.
That doesn't make any sense. They didn't have to enter the atmosphere, I don't even think they did. The sphere escaped the exploding cube and almost immediately opened a vortex. Also, saying that they "could have done it even more safely before entering federation space" is nonsense since they needed to be in federation space for the contingency plan anyway. Nothing safer about it doing it outside of federation space, just takes more time.
Answer: The Borg don't care that much about Earth, or losing a single cube. They are mostly testing the water before fully expanding towards the Alpha Quadrant. Their space is in the Delta Quadrant and still a long way from expanding into the Alpha Quadrant.
Not entirely true because the Borg queen was on board the cube, and they had a contingency plan to go back in time, making their efforts quite elaborate. They have attacked Earth twice now, because they know about it from the Enterprise (and Q) and plan on conquering it and expand into the Alpha Quadrant. A cube is equivalent to an entire fleet of ships and Picard accurately calls this action by the Borg an invasion (the second one).
1st Jan 2018
Passengers (2016)
Question: If he can't afford more than crappy coffee and oatmeal, then how does he afford all the alcohol and fancy restaurants he goes to?
Answer: I think the breakfast is free, however the lower class doesn't get a fancy meal for free but a more basic type. The restaurants and bar on the other hand cost money.
Answer: Perhaps customers at the bar and restaurant are allowed to run a tab that doesn't have to be settled until they are leaving the Starship Avalon and about to go to Homestead II. (This could be risky given the different resources of the passengers.) Or maybe the bar and restaurant are included in the fee for some passengers and staff would typically be at the door to allow admission to these passengers; Jim - awake and roaming - may be assumed to be eligible to use the bar/restaurant when, under normal circumstances, he would not be permitted to enter.
Answer: I wondered about this, too. His lower-class passage limits his breakfast choice. However, it seems that any passenger should be able to upgrade their individual meals at anytime and order what they want, as he does in the multiple on-board restaurants. It may be that breakfast, for whatever reason, is exempt from that option.
Yeah but they simply push a button for the breakfast and actually order food from the restaurants. You might think he would just go ahead and go to one of the restaurants to get his breakfast, but maybe they aren't open yet at that time. The ship seems to be more of a cross between a luxurious cruise and boot-camp. The breakfast is perhaps standard ship protocol.
I agree the paid for bar and restaurant don't probably open until 'Evening time' on the ship (You don't want your workers getting drunk all day, Jim is work group). The ship has a day and night clock system as heard by the announcer. I suppose Jim could change his wake up and sleep time to get a decent breakfast in the Chinese, but then his dinner would be basic and he wouldn't be able to have a drink before bed. What would you choose? Basic breakfast, good evening meal with drinks or good breakfast, basic evening meal and no drinks.
11th Jan 2018
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
6th Jan 2018
Gladiator (2000)
2nd Jan 2018
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: We are told that Dave Jones and his crew were ‘fishified' (by Calypso?) because they stopped ferrying souls, because Davy Jones was mad when his girlfriend, Calypso, didn't show up after he had been ferrying souls for ten years. So was Davy Jones just pirating after that and always trying to staff up the ship? Why would he need to recruit if they were undead? And what was happening to the souls, before Will became Captain of the Flying Dutchman and fulfilled the duties?
Answer: The souls were just drifting around, not finding peace as we see when the black pearl sails away from Davey Jones locker. Davey Jones was just having fun killing shipwrecked people and recruiting anyone who feared death. The crews members don't stay on the ship indefinitely, some get off eventually and Davey needs to resupply the ranks.
1st Jan 2018
Monsters University (2013)
Question: Mike and Sulley are able to activate the door when stuck at the kids camp by harnessing enough screams to activate it. If laughter is 10 times more powerful than screams, then why wouldn't child laughter (especially if there is a Birthday party, etc.) not activate doors from the "human world" allowing kids to go into the factory (monster world) all the time?
Answer: Well a door first needs to be activated from the monster side. See the doors of the human world lack the receiver for the energy they need to open the doorway between worlds (the red light on top). That's why in the monster world they hook a door up to a machine to activate it allowing the passage between worlds before any scream or laugh is made. It costs power to activate a door to allow a monster in. Boo was able to activate doors because she was in the monster world and her screams and laughs triggered the devices on top of the doors, activating them automatically. This was the first time ever a human entered the monster world.
1st Jan 2018
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: After R2-D2 helps fix the escaping ship, Queen Amidala thanks the droid in front of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and her handmaidens, but Amidala's decoy refers to her handmaiden as Padme. Why doesn't she refer to her as Sabe? Doesn't everyone know that Queen Amidala's first name is Padme?
Answer: Padme was impersonating a handmaid, using her real name. Sabe was playing her role of Queen Amidala. This was unknown to Qui-Gon.
But the point is that using the queen's real name seems like it's giving the game away a bit.
20th Mar 2006
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Question: Just after Dumbledore announces the Triwizard Challenge, there's a short scene where Igor Karkaroff slips into the deserted Great Hall where the Goblet of Fire is kept. It wasn't Igor who put Harry's name in the goblet, and Viktor Krum submitted his own entry. Obviously the audience was being led to believe that Igor may have been involved in the plot against Harry (he wasn't), but what was the real reason he went in there?
Answer: It was Barty Crouch Jr. He used the polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Igor. I believe he did this because he was originally labelled as a Death Eater. As a result, Igor was put on trial and before he was sentenced, Igor gave the Ministry Barty Jr's name, so then he was sent to Azkaban. For revenge, Barty Jr used to potion to disguise himself as Igor so if he was caught messing with the goblet, he would be questioned, due to his past (seeing as what happens at the end). That way, Barty would be remained undetected and could carry on fleeing the Ministry.
I like this answer best. It makes sense.
Chosen answer: There is no reason. In the books this scene does not occur, so the idea behind putting it into the film is purely to mislead the audience.
Answer: Because Igor wanted Viktor to get into the tournament so he put Viktor's name in again so he could raise his chances of getting picked.
25th Dec 2017
Jumanji (1995)
22nd Dec 2017
Misery (1990)
22nd Dec 2017
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Question: This an odd question, but why are there no smartphones or smartphone-like devices in the SW universe? These are reasonably advanced pieces of technology that would be appropriate for such a time period. A few situations would also have been easier with phone communication. Smartphones were still very new when "Revenge of the Sith" was being filmed, so I understand why the original trilogy and prequels don't show them - the creators were not thinking about them.
Answer: You basically answered your own question. The Star Wars universe is in the future and its a future without any smart phones. It would be kind of weird if out of nowhere smart phones would pop up everywhere in the universe as if its a new invention, whilst its supposed to be an old invention. They simply have different ways to communicate with each other, more advanced ways are needed. For example distances between people is a lot larger, across the galaxy, so you'd need a lot more that just a smartphone to communicate with people, they use other devices on board starships and bases so the smartphone disappears as having both feels like overdoing it.
It is not set in the future, hence the very first words on the screen of each movie. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. Now as far as the cell phones go, they do just fine with their communication. Making interplanetary calls on cell phones is not needed.
You're right, I always forget that part.
20th Dec 2017
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
27th Jun 2017
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Question: There is a scene that shows nothing but blackness and two people are speaking, one says, "Hoist the colors..." the other says, "Dead men tell no tales." The scene plays right after the crew of the Black Pearl and Sao Feng's crew fall over the waterfall in Sao Feng's ship. What does it mean?
Answer: The first sentence is a part of the sea shanty "hoist the colours", sung at the beginning of the movie and reminds about the brethren court and the reason they are trying to find Jack. The second sentence is a line from the famous Disney ride, which was later used as a subtitle for the 5th film.
Answer: It is the transition into Davey Jones' locker. Just a creepy, fantastical way of showing how the place can mess with your mentality.
9th Dec 2017
Alien 3 (1992)
9th Dec 2017
Alien Resurrection (1997)
28th Nov 2017
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Question: At the climax of the movie when Malcolm talks to his wife while she was sleeping, a ring from her has fallen down to the floor, what does it mean? Is his wife married to another man?
Answer: It's his own wedding ring. He recognizes it and sees she is still wearing hers and he isn't wearing his own, so at that point he realises he is dead.
Answer: The ring was Malcolm's - she kept it after he died. When it falls Malcolm realises that he hasn't been wearing it even though he sees it on his hand.
23rd Nov 2017
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Question: Why is the Alpha human population economy in shambles? The gargantuan Space Station Alpha resembles a fort in the outer fringes with brothels, military and Savages. Not a place of science, technology, cultural sharing.
Answer: During the movie it is told the humans have been in wars, its possible the economy is in shambles because of a recent war or the drag of a war from the past, perhaps even the war that destroyed planet Mul. Because of the failing economy there are more brothels, scavengers, crimes and it isn't the original space station that left Earth's orbit all those years ago.
23rd Nov 2017
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Question: When Commissioner Gordon is talking to the crowd about Harvey Dent, he takes out a speech and is about to read about what really happened to him but then chooses not to as he wants the people of Gotham City to remember Harvey as a hero who stood up for justice while letting everybody believe that Batman was a killer. Even though he never read his speech, why didn't he simply tell people that contrary to what many people believed in the second movie, that Batman was innocent and didn't kill anybody? Why not just blame everything on the Joker who was truly responsible for the murders of so many people?
Answer: He was about to admit Harvey Dent is responsible for multiple murders, but he realised that would end his career and probably bring back the old days with the mob and gangs running wild. Even though indirectly the Joker was responsible, the public would still see Dent as a murderer and still cause the system to collapse. Batman was able to be blamed for the murdering Dent and those other people instead of the Joker, who was already in custody and couldn't have killed Dent.
22nd Nov 2017
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: Why did everyone at the park have to leave? It doesn't make much sense that no one would be there to tale care of everything (i.e. dinosaurs, security etc). I can understand having to leave when things became chaotic, but they were leaving before that even happened; John couldn't handle all this on his own.
Answer: It didn't make any sense that everyone would be evacuated off the island and leave the animals and the systems unattended because of a storm. A facility such as that would have to be built to withstand hurricanes, which in that part of the world, would happen every year. Non-essential staff might leave, but not the caretakers.
Not everybody left, the essential personnel like Arnold and Muldoon stayed. Probably more stayed and were evacuated later when the animals escaped. The island was evacuated because of a hurricane and no boats would be present to take people to safety, they would have been stuck on the island.
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Answer: A digital ammo counter, like the ammo indicators on magazines, wouldn't be useful in the heat of battle. However, it would be very useful while not in battle. For example, with a real firearm, you would need to remove the magazine to check how many rounds remained in it. With a digital display, you could simply look. The larger issue, of course, is that with a display on the gun, your enemy would also know how many rounds you had left.
If you had the counter on the top of the weapon facing you, you could immediately see how many rounds you had left and the enemy could only see it if he were behind you.