Question: I'm unclear about the mother of the young girl who died. Did she intentionally kill her daughter or was it accidental? That is, was this supposed to be a Munchhausen by Proxy Disorder situation where the mother only intended to keep her daughter sick enough so she was under constant medical supervision?
scwilliam
13th Jun 2005
The Sixth Sense (1999)
23rd Jun 2004
Dune (1984)
Question: What's the relative timeline of this movie? It's stated that it starts in the year 10,191 but there don't seem to be any other dates besides that.
Answer: The entire DUNE universe is much more complicated than any movie. For a relatively useful timeline, see www.smirnov.demon.co.uk/Arrakis/timeline.htm.
13th Jun 2005
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: Exactly how powerful is a Balrog? Could it defeat a Nazgul or a Witch-king?
Answer: It depends on whose Balrog you're talking about. The Balrog were never more than a few in number, since they were Maia, just as Gandalf and Sauron were. Although the movie Balrog (Durin's Bane) was huge and fearsome, Tolkien's were much more man-like, although exuding fire and darkness, spreading terror among Melkor's enemies. It is unlikely that a Nazgul, even their leader, the Witch-King of Angmar, could have defeated a Balrog, although Gandalf did.
1st Jun 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
18th May 2005
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: At the Last Alliance battle, how did the Men and Elves get into Mordor?
Answer: The Black Gates across Cirith Gorgol had been destroyed and repaired at several times in the 2nd and 3rd Ages. The Army of Men and Elves (and other creatures) marched past the Gates into Mordor and beseiged Sauron at Barad-dur.
9th May 2005
Bullitt (1968)
Question: Just after (the real) Ross has been shot at the airport, you hear the babble of bystanders' voices. At one point you apparently hear this exchange: Person 1: "I heard he shot someone" Person 2: "He's a c**t, that's what he is". Is this part of the script, a mischievous foul-mouthed extra or my bad hearing?
Answer: The line is "He's a cop..."
1st May 2005
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: In the Return of the King movie, after Arwen has a vision of her unborn son, she rides back to Rivendell to ask her father whether he saw a son in her future. He explains that he saw death. She argues that that is not a certainty and then asks him to reforge Narsil (Isildur's Sword) for Aragorn. She then sits down and drops the book she was holding. What book was she holding and what is its significance?
Answer: The book contained the exact information about the legend that she was pointing out to Elrond. When he balked, she sat dejectedly and let the book fall from weakened fingers.
29th Apr 2005
The Bourne Identity (2002)
17th Apr 2005
Finding Neverland (2004)
Question: What did Sylvia actually die of? I didn't catch it in the movie, if it was there.
Answer: Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her husband died of cancer within a few years of each other (although he was actually alive during Barrie's relationship with his family).
7th Mar 2005
The Forgotten (2004)
Question: The Alien asked why is the main character so special. Well, why is she so special? Why is she the only one to not forget her child when obviously other parents have forgotten theirs. It can't be the mother/child bond since others have forgotten.
Answer: She is special since she apparently is the only one not to have forgotten.
1st Mar 2005
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: Why did Mordor attack Middle Earth at this specific time? .Why did the battles and fighting all start at a certain time in middle earth. Since their world has been going on for thousands of years you'd think that something specific happened to make them fight.
28th Feb 2005
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Question: What does the term "Fire in the hole" mean? It is used in this and many other military films.
Answer: It was originally a mining term. A hole was drilled in a seam and then dynamite pushed into it. As an explosion in a mine is always dangerous, the other miners were warned that there was "fire in the hole". It's since been adopted for most other situations involving explosives.
22nd Jan 2005
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Question: I don't understand the significance of the monolith or the starbaby. Can someone explain it to me?
Answer: As author Arthur C. Clarke explained it, the first Monolith (the one seen at the beginning of the film and then buried on the Moon) was a space probe from an incomprehensibly more advanced alien intelligence that resided inside a star elsewhere in the cosmos. The Monolith's objective was to seek out lifeforms that had potential and "tweak" their neural evolution, causing them to evolve toward intelligence. In the case of Mankind on Earth, once the modification was made, the Monolith probe retreated to the Moon and waited 4 million years for Mankind to reach it. When Mankind reached the Moon, the Monolith sent a signal to the next phase of the experiment, which was another Monolith in orbit of Jupiter. When Mankind reached the Jupiter Monolith in a matter of months, the Monolith acted as an interdimensional portal to the other side of the universe, transporting the evolved human specimen to its creator (that resided within a star). The creator intelligence found the specimen (Dave Bowman) to be of acceptable quality and rapidly evolved him to the next level, a Star Child. The Star Child is a "godly" evolution of Mankind. The Star Child chooses to instantaneously return to its home planet (Earth), where it stops a nuclear war.
Answer: The monolith is a monitor placed by the aliens to track the progress of developing civilizations. When humanity found the monolith on the Moon, that signaled a certain level of technological advancement. The starbaby is the evolution of the astronaut, as the symbol of humanity, from "Earth-bound" to a true child of the universe, turning his back on the Earth and looking toward the stars.
In both the Arthur C. Clarke story and in the movie, the Star Child does not "turn his back on Earth"; quite the contrary, as soon as Bowman transforms into the Star Child, his first impulse is to instantaneously return to Earth, which he does just in time to stop a nuclear war. In essence, Bowman becomes the guardian of Earth.
Answer: In 3001: The Final Odyssey, Clarke makes clear what many already suspected: The Monolith was malfunctioning by the time it tweaked human evolution. It increased human aggression in order to assure human survival, but this was a hasty move, which saddled humanity with a never ending series of destructive conflicts. Kubrick also hinted at this in a later movie. The Monolith appears in Full Metal Jacket, presumably inspiring the soldiers in the Vietnamese War to solve their problems by killing, just as it had inspired the fighting hominids millions of years before.
The monolith from 2001 does not appear in Full Metal Jacket. There is a tall burning building in the background during Cowboy's death scene but it takes a hell of a stretch of the imagination to see it as a monolith. It's just a ruined building. Kubrick himself confirmed this in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine - it's combination of coincidence and wishful thinking.
6th Jan 2005
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Question: The request "Fire for effect." is used in this and many other war films when calling in artillery support. What is the meaning of this term?
Answer: After a series of individual rounds are fired to insure that the artillery is on target, the entire battery then fires as many rounds as possible to have the greatest effect on the enemy.
13th Dec 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
3rd Sep 2004
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Question: Bourne did not kill the men at the deal in the beginning of the film, so who did? Matt Damon is definitely playing the killer, as we see his face for brief moments in between shadows, etc. in order for us to think it is him. Was it Kirill, Karl Urban's character? Or the former Treadstone agent?
Answer: It was Kiril, in the pay of the Russian businessman.
19th Jul 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
15th Jul 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: In the song "Into the West," what is silver glass?
Answer: The surface of the water colored by "the pale moon..."
6th Jul 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: This question is more about the book, but I'll ask it here anyway. Are Elladan and Elrohir, the Sons of Elrond, men or elves? The timeline in the appendix of the book says they were born at the beginning of the Third Age, 3000 years before the Ring was destroyed, and yet they fought in the war. However, the book implied that Legolas was the only elf to travel the Paths of the Dead with Aragorn and the Grey Company, which the Sons of Elrond were a part of.
Answer: Elladan and Elrohir were twins, and half-elven like their father. They returned to Rivendell after the War of the Rings, and were given the choice of going into the west or staying and becoming mortal. It is not known which choice they made.
Answer: Since Elrond had chosen to be of Elven kind when given the choice by the Valar, his children were of Elven kind too. But they were given the choice of either and leaving Middle-earth with him, or remaining and becoming mortal. "Elladan and Elrohir remained in Imladris well into the Fourth Age, and since they did not accompany Elrond over Sea they seem to have chosen to become Mortal." Robert Foster, "Complete Guide to Middle-Earth" (2nd edition p. 144).
27th May 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
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Answer: At best, it was Munchhausen by Proxy. However, it could have been a well-planned murder of one, and then the other child. But the mother's reaction when everyone is looking at her seems a little more mental than criminal.
scwilliam
"But the mother's reaction when everyone is looking at her seems a little more mental than criminal." This is personal opinion. I've never interpreted her expression that way. I've seen it as someone who intentionally killed the child having the first realisation that she's been found out.