Question: In Biff's casino Marty is escaping Biff and his goons - he goes into the stairwell and jumps from one stair to another. What I don't understand is how this stairwell works as it seems to be double, with 2 sets of stairs ending up on the same floor parallel to each other, one on one end and one at another but on the same floor. Does this even make sense? Can anyone tell me why a big building would have 2 sets of stairs in 1 stairwell going parallel and end up on the same floors? Any special name for this type of stairwell perhaps? I can't find anything on it.
lionhead
13th Jul 2019
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
8th Apr 2019
Shazam! (2019)
Question: What is the actual reason given why the police couldn't find Billy's mom? Just the fact his mom didn't want to find him and left doesn't mean the cops would stop looking. It's hard to imagine a 5 year old isn't able to tell the cops his address, where he goes to school or where he lives in general. Teachers, neighbours, his physician or dentist, classmates, all can tell where the mom is. Next to that isn't his dad in prison and thus easy to find?
Answer: He was a baby when he was abandoned - all he knew about his mother was her name, not her birth date or social security number. He didn't know anything about his father and his mother went back to her maiden name. In case you're wondering not everybody has their DNA taken.
He knew his full name. He's a legitimate son born in wedlock. They would have easily tracked down the father who is an inmate: that is on top of what the original poster mentioned, such as his home address or other minimal information. Lionhead, I believe this belongs in the Plot Holes section rather than simply the Questions section: I am not informed about Pennsylvania's laws for child abandonment, but I think it's rather unlikely that someone could just drop their kid in the middle of a crowd and get away with it entirely, especially when the kid knows his own full name.
I'm not too eager to put it in the plot holes section, because it is plausible I suppose that she disappeared willingly and they couldn't find her specifically. But you address the right point I was trying to make that the cops won't simply stop looking for his mother. It's a crime to abandon your child and they will look up and question a lot of people. And I mean a lot of people to find her. Even if there is literally no family besides mom and dad, the dad will be found since he is in prison. He won't be able to help much but contact will be maintained, even if he doesn't want it.
The thing is, they don't even have to question a lot of people since the kid is not a newborn left on the steps of a church or something: he was able to provide his own full name to the authorities. So it's absolutely straightforward for the police to see who his parents are - although it should be noted that he was born in a different state, I don't think it should be a particularly complicated research for the authorities.
2nd Apr 2019
Aquaman (2018)
Factual error: Aquaman lifts a submerged submarine towards the surface, which should start to sink again straight after releasing it, as its ballast tanks are still full of water. It shouldn't stay floating like that.
11th Oct 2018
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Question: Ted's friend Dom knows a guy who can find Mary for him. Later on it's revealed that Dom is also Woogie, Mary's old boyfriend who got weird on her and is still obsessed with her. However, if Dom knew Healy could find Mary why didn't he use him himself to find Mary and stalk her again?
4th May 2018
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)
Question: When McClane and his boss are in the van with the FBI agents and Gruber guesses who of the FBI is in the van there is a man sitting in the back. Who is he and why doesn't Gruber guess he is in the car as well?
Answer: He is actor Richard Russell Ramos and he's credited as FBI Chief. Simon does allude he's there because he uses the plural "FBI agents" and Jarvis is not from the FBI. However, it seems Simon's point is made that he knows who is in the van because he's watching them. There was just no need to identify everyone in the van.
15th Mar 2018
Speaker for the Dead
Plot hole: It took Ender only a few hours to unravel a mystery that 3 generations of highly educated and skilled xenologists and xenobiologists were unable to do. Pipo, of the first generation, was restricted by the rules imposed on him by the congress and he found out the truth but died because of it. After that Libo should have simply asked the piggies what happened and should have digged into the piggies' reproduction system, like he should have done in the first place as that is his job. Both Libo and Miro and Ouanda broke the rules so they shouldn't have had a problem with asking the right questions. They weren't afraid of the piggies either, loved them even. Libo would have had the answer to the reason for the death of his father and understood the piggies in a week, even though Novinha had hid the original data. If not him Miro and Ouanda would have had plenty of time to figure it out as well, just by asking questions. They would have learned a lot more about the descolada virus decades sooner as well, giving them more chance to combat it successfully.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: This entry first claims that it took three generations to find the solution, then states that individual in the first generation found it. If one xenologist can arrive at the solution from scratch, a literal genius like Ender can certainly rapidly come to the same conclusion using the data the next two generations compiled in the meantime.
They were all geniuses. The other 2 generations should have found out just a quickly or even quicker if they would have just simply done their jobs. It doesn't make sense.
But in Xenocide Miro's siblings like Ela, Olhado, Quarra and Grego are in the same league as Ender in intelligence, solving impossible questions without either Ender or Valentine even grasping it well enough to understand. Surely Miro isn't the only one lacking. They got that genius from their parents, the second generation xenologists Libo and Novinha who are both geniuses as well. At least the third generation should have figured it out long before Ender showed up. Mostly my point is they haven't actually done their job in all this time instead of them not being as smart as Ender to figure it out. Just ask the right questions like Ender did and voila. Its their job to ask questions but they didn't do it and their attitude towards the piggies is all wrong.
27th Jul 2017
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie when the guardians are getting ready to fight off an interdimensional being Rocket winks a couple of times at Starlord. Starlord then responds but is looking to his left at Rocket, whilst Rocket is on his right side. The scene is for no reason mirrored, proven by the big orange device behind him also switching from being on his left to on his right. (00:03:45)
18th Jul 2017
Preacher (2016)
Revealing mistake: The Amazing Ganesh gets sawed in half (for real) by a chainsaw but the blades separating the 2 halves and thus his body are already in place as seen when he pushes the two halves towards the audience. So the saw wasn't really cutting through anything. (00:11:40)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: That is exactly how magicians perform the trick. Once inside the box the victim folds up into 1 of the 2 boxes and the blades inserted. Then cut and shown to the audience to show they have been cut in half.
Except the great Ganesh actually saws himself in half. He never learns the trick normally, he just actually saws himself in half and kills himself, then respawns. That's the idea of the scenes.
18th Nov 2016
The Strain (2014)
Plot hole: The nuclear explosion is on Liberty Island, a small yield, but nonetheless big enough to move an enormous amount of water towards the coasts on all sides. When we see Sertrakian and the others at the harbor no water is heading their way - they should be washed away by it. (00:37:30 - 00:38:45)
14th Jul 2016
Band of Brothers (2001)
Replacements - S1-E4
Question: When members of Easy company spot Captain Sobel again one of the Replacements asks Bull "Who is he sarge?" and Bull replies "It's our first CO." Then the replacement asks "What happened?" and Bull replies with "He got promoted." I never understood that line. What was it about his promotion that made Bull say that? As I understand it Sobel was already a hated man before becoming Captain. So what did Bull mean?
Chosen answer: Col. Sink gave Sobol a promotion after the men came to him and said they wouldn't follow him into battle. It was a promotion that ensured he wouldn't see combat and took him away from the troops, so it was technically a punishment.
11th Jul 2016
Game of Thrones (2011)
Battle of the Bastards - S6-E9
Continuity mistake: When Jon Snow is all alone in the field drawing his sword to fight the incoming enemy cavalry, behind him we see an empty field. but seconds later as the enemy cavalry is near him they are met by Jon's own cavalry from behind. (00:37:30 - 00:38:20)
28th Mar 2016
Fail Safe (2000)
Factual error: Near the end of the film Colonel Cascio calls his mom in NYC to tell her to get out. However, there is absolutely no way they let someone inside the control room contact the outside world at this point giving out warnings or sensitive information about the situation. Any contact with the outside world is cut.
11th Nov 2014
Horns (2013)
Deliberate mistake: During the entire movie nothing is mentioned about the rape of Merrin until the very end, even though it is quite obvious for a forensic investigator to determine she was raped, and something like that would be very important to help find a suspect. This is done deliberately to continue the plot as rape would make Iggy less of a suspect (being her boyfriend for years) and someone like Lee more (known by Iggy and others he had feelings for her).
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: Boyfriends (and even husbands), are routinely accused of and found guilty of raping their partner. Given that they were seen arguing and told by the waitress that she saw Ig dragging Merrin to his car, there's no reason to think the police wouldn't suspect Ig of rape. We don't see any of the proceedings and we are told only a little bit of information about how the characters got to where they are at the start in order to build suspense, it has nothing to do with continuing the plot.
24th Jun 2014
General questions
I'm looking for a movie, or short film about WWI. I remember a scene were they were in the trenches, a gas attack hits them, and one of the soldiers (a rather chubby one) couldn't find his gas mask. After panicking and trying to grab others masks he chokes. I think the movie starts with an old man grabbing a young guy at a store by the collar and starts talking about WWI, it also ends with the same man and boy again where the old man says "That, was my war." That's all I remember. It might be British made and from the 80's or 90's. I hope someone can help.
22nd Jun 2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Question: Who put Magneto in that plastic prison? Nixon and his cabinet don't seem know anything about mutants or see them as a threat (even after Cuba). Yet they put Magneto in a plastic prison as they know he can bend metal, so why wasn't anyone in the US government and most notably the President informed of this fact? It would have made Trask's appeals a lot more justified. Even likely sentinels would have been put into action a lot sooner rather then later.
Chosen answer: Government agents were previously aware of mutants - they are probably the same ones that imprisoned Magneto, and his attempt to prevent JFK's assassination was most likely covered up due to the revelation that Kennedy was a mutant. Magneto was already in prison by the time Trask pitched his Sentinel idea to the government, which is probably why the program wasn't instituted.
15th Mar 2014
The Last Days on Mars (2013)
Factual error: They inject the infected Brunel with antibiotics to fight the bacteria, however there is no pulse and that means the antibiotic can never spread through the body, as there is no blood circulation.
9th Jul 2013
White House Down (2013)
Factual error: Doesn't matter how good the programmer/hacker is you cannot override NORAD and launch its missiles remotely without authorization. Especially not on your own with just the presidential identification.
9th Jul 2013
White House Down (2013)
Factual error: An ICBM is not an AA missile, yet from NORAD the terrorists aim one to take down Air Force One. An ICBM cannot be told to take down a plane, it doesn't have the guidance or right detonation capabilities.
7th Jul 2013
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
Plot hole: Even if someone would make all nuclear powers launch their nuclear missiles and then destroy them you still wouldn't have a nuclear weapons free world as most of those nations have plenty of nuclear weapons in reserve. A lot would be even be armed and ready to go for a possible second strike. (01:24:10)
30th Dec 2012
Taken 2 (2012)
Question: Where did Kim learn how to drive stick-shift? Is her dad that paranoid to prepare her for driving a stick-shift car?
Chosen answer: Hardly paranoia, as such, more just giving Kim options. Kim has a noted interest in travelling abroad; cars in Europe are far more likely to be manual transmission than in the automatic-dominated US, and thus, by teaching her to drive a manual car, Mills may have made it easier for her to, say, drive a hire car on her travels. Manual transmission cars also tend to get better fuel mileage, are usually less expensive, certainly give you more control and are, in my opinion at least, more fun to drive, so there are some practicalities involved as well. Really the question is why wouldn't anybody at least learn how to drive a manual car, even if they usually end up driving an automatic.
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Chosen answer: Your assumption is pretty much correct. There are 2 staircases spiralling around each other like a double helix. It is a fairly common way of constructing fire evacuation staircases as it allows a greater number of people to use them at the same time.
I see, so it's purely for fire escape reasons or more to handle overflow capacity in general?
lionhead