Question: What brand of swimsuit does the water skier wear in the movie?
Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.
Question: Is there any symbolism or meaning to Otho's reading of the incantation from "The Handbook of The Recently Deceased" during the seance/exorcism scene? Even as a child, I found it seemed like it had more in-depth meaning of some kind.
Answer: There's no symbolism or meaning. It was just a way of getting Adam and Barbara to appear. Unknown to Otho, however, he was exorcising them both.
Question: Is it just me, or does Christian have a slight speech impediment in this film (such as when he asks Braxton to stop copying what he is saying) compared to the first one, where Ben Affleck was just using his regular voice?
Answer: I noticed that too. The first film did not have that speech pattern. Almost like someone told him autistic people have a different speech pattern, which is false. It bothered me so much.
Question: Voldemort's body was destroyed when he attempted to kill baby Harry. At the beginning of this movie, how does he have a small, frail body?
Answer: Adding to the other answers, after baby Harry destroyed Voldemort's body, his remaining soul shard fled to Albania. Voldemort possessed small animals and eventually attached himself to Professor Quirrell's head. After Quirrell's death, Voldemort, a disembodied spectral, again hid in the Albanian forest. Eventually, Pettigrew, in his Animagus rat form, discovered Voldemort's whereabouts from other rats. Pettigrew helped revive Voldemort, using dark magic and a potion to regain a weak, baby-like form. Voldemort was probably still possessing a small mammal, allowing him to drink the potion and transform.
Answer: It is described Voldemort had taken a dark potion that gave him a rudimentary body. The potion was made by Wormtail and was a blend of unicorn blood, Nagini's venom, and several dark spells invented by Voldemort. He had to drink from this potion every few hours to maintain his body or return back to spirit form. It is not made clear how Voldemort managed to drink the potion for the first time whilst still in spirit form though.
But how would drinking a potion be possible if he were only a spirit?
Answer: Going along with what Lionhead wrote: If I remember correctly from the books, after Voldemort was stopped by baby Harry, his spirit was still able to possess animals. Many of them couldn't survive being possessed for long, so he would move between animals. Wormtail found him in a forest before the events of "Goblet of Fire."
Question: Every Sith apprentice is supposed to eventually kill their master and become the new master, if I'm correct. Isn't this quite risky to the survival of the Sith Order? What if an apprentice defeats their master and decides not to continue?
Answer: They are not "supposed to" do that. In the Sith religion, there are no more than 2 Sith, a master and apprentice. Also, in the Sith religion is the embrace of greed, hatred, and selfishness. This basically encourages every apprentice to eventually kill their master, both convinced that they are more powerful than their master and no longer required, as well as wanting to become a master themselves and take on an apprentice, as part of their religious beliefs. It is a risky way to exist indeed, but that's what the Sith are all about, and it's better than before when there were a lot of them and they had devastating wars amongst themselves that indeed did almost manage to wipe them all out several times. Ironically, this system is better to maintain balance.
Question: What does Nick tell Danny at the party?
Answer: He is fired.
Question: Hartman compliments Pyle after his round of shooting at the range. How could Hartman possibly know how accurate Pyle was from that distance? There's no way he could see if Pyle had hit the target.
Answer: Hartman compliments Pyle based on what he *thinks* happened based on what he saw; this is the same with almost all shooting ranges. When drill sergeants are watching you at the range, they aren't just looking to see if they can see you hit a target; they are looking at your movements. How was your stance? How was your trigger control? How were you holding the weapon? How steady was your aim? Usually, if you're good at things like the aforementioned, they just assume it all worked together in harmony and you hit the target.
Answer: He wouldn't be able to, no. I think this comes under the class of "deliberate mistake", i.e. an inaccuracy that was a choice by Kubrick to advance the plot quickly (establishing Pyle's marksmanship/rifle skills) without an extended sequence showing all of the steps taken to verify how well he'd done.
Question: As I understand, Beetlejuice would come back to life if he successfully married Lydia. So why don't more deceased people marry a living person and come back? The handbook says that most of the living won't see the dead, not all.
Answer: Maybe the marriage requirement is for Beetlejuice in particular, just like him being released when someone says his name three times.
Answer: As you said, most living humans could not see or communicate with the dead. This appears to be a requirement for the deceased to return to the living world. Lydia had the rare ability to see and speak to the dead. Also, many departed souls may not want to return to the living world.
Question: Why are there a lot of recent internet jokes about Padmé being twice Anakin's age or them having a huge age difference? I thought she was only five or six years older. Of course, age 14-15 is a lot different than being 9-10, but they don't even see each other for another 10 years before they get married.
Answer: While their age difference was a minor consideration, fans had issues with other factors. Padmé was a sophisticated, high-born individual who served as queen and senator and was far more mature and worldly than Anakin, a former slave. Even ten years later, Anakin, barely beyond his teens, was emotionally immature, somewhat reckless, impulsive, self-centered, and demonstrated poor judgment. He had little real-world experience, being constantly constrained by Obi-Wan. Plot-wise, Padmé's eventual attraction seemed forced, illogical, and unrealistic given their differences in age, temperament, maturity, and status.
Good points. Five or six years is not an age difference (if both people are legal adults), in my opinion, but Anakin could seem "younger," considering that Jedi don't have "normal" lives.
Question: Can anyone translate what Mama and Jake are saying in Italian just after the Goonies enter the restaurant?
Answer: Jake wants to know who the boys are, and Ma says they're customers. Jake replies the place isn't a restaurant, with Ma telling him to shut up and that he doesn't understand anything. Jake finally understands, and after telling the boys to make themselves comfortable, he looks at Ma and tells her to throw them out.
Question: Joker says he "drew" fire watch. Do they draw for it, and he was the unlucky one, or is it on a rota and "drew it" is just his way of wording that it was his turn?
Answer: He's saying it was his turn, and it happened to fall on the last night of boot camp.
Question: What is the reference from Joker regarding John Wayne at the start of the movie? Was it related to what Gny Hartman was saying?
Answer: It was directly related to Gny. Sgt. Hartman. Joker was imitating John Wayne to mock Hartman for his over-the-top behaviour when addressing the recruits. He's implying that Hartman was acting like he was Wayne, a famous movie star known for playing tough, "gung ho" military heroes.
Question: Joker says he drew fire watch. What is fire watch? I assume it's that someone has to be on guard in case they come under fire, but I don't think that would happen at boot camp (which I get is an ironic thing to say given what happens a few minutes later in that scene!).
Answer: Fire watch is just an informal term for sentry duty (to stand watch). I think it is derived from the fact that he will be the only one awake, so he is the only one to warn if there is indeed a fire, even though that's not the main duty. But that's just a guess.
Answer: Would add that the term "fire watch" has a long-time origin and several meanings. A fire watch is someone responsible for observing hot work activity to spot any fires during work operations. It applied to watching for and reporting forest fires during the summer. Also, "signal" fires were once a communication or warning system over long distances that assigned watchers continuously monitored. In the Army, a "fire watch" refers to a security duty assigned to soldiers, particularly during basic training, to monitor the barracks, especially at night. The colloquial phrase, "putting out fires," has come to mean dealing with problems as they occur.
Question: In the episode "Demon", it was discovered that the silver blood was capable of mimicking biomatter. How is it in this episode that the silver blood was able to mimic Voyager and all the technology it had?
Answer: A 3D printer can make an exact copy of a working gun. But it can only be used temporarily as it would come apart. The same thing applies to Voyager. It was duplicated but was not structurally sound. That's why it came apart.
Except that Voyager wasn't made out of biomatter, so replicating it should be impossible.
Question: Elisabeth is a rich and famous TV celebrity and former Oscar-winning actress. How come she has to live in an apartment with a such working-class-looking lowlife creep like Oliver? Why does she even have neighbours? She must be a millionaire at a minimum.
Answer: M.C. Hammer amassed a multi-million dollar fortune, but within ten years he lost it all. She believed in her own hype. She believed she was on top forever. By the end of the 1980s, the whole fitness craze went the way of the dinosaur.
Answer: In addition to the other answers, it should also be reaffirmed that the movie isn't meant to be 100% realistic. It's purposely written to be very hyperbolic, cartoonish and almost like a "dark fairy tale." And one of the themes is the predatory way women in the entertainment industry (and the world at large) are treated. Even someone as famous as she being forced to stay in an apartment with a creepy, leering neighbour contributes to that theme… she can't escape predation, even at home. (I think it should also be noted that her apartment is fairly large and luxurious, especially for an expensive city like LA. The rent in a place like that is probably about 5X what I'd pay to rent an entire house in my city. So it's not like she has no money.)
Answer: There's a false belief that an Oscar winner automatically becomes a megastar, raking in millions and getting many movie offers. That's true for some, particularly established actors, but many find that their careers did not significantly improve and even diminished. Unfortunately, Oscar awards can be less about acting ability and more about Hollywood political wrangling, a popularity choice, a PC vote, personal bias, or a sympathy win. Some believe in an "Oscar Curse," where winning actually hurts an actor's career.
Question: In the Apollo vs Drago fight, is the arena set up so that the crowd only surrounds the ring on three sides? I've always gotten this impression, but it's hard to tell for certain when watching the movie. They never really give a good enough angle.
Answer: Yes, because the golden bull's head of which Apollo descended upon would have obstructed the view from people sitting behind it.
Question: Am I wrong? Didn't Sara write her name and number on the $5 bill and buy mints with it at the newsstand? Then, when she was on the airplane and saw the $5 bill again, it had Johnathan's name on it?
Answer: Jonathan was the one who wrote his name and number on the $5 bill Sara used to buy the mints and then got back later on the plane. Sara actually wrote her name and number in the front of a book she had on her, which she then sold to a bookseller, and Jonathan's fiancée bought it as a wedding gift for him, not realising that it happened to be the same copy Sara had written her details in.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Speedo.