Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: I don't quite understand why Dr. Manhattan had to kill Rorschach. That is, I don't quite get why that was the only solution. Rorschach was a valuable member of the Watchmen, and in the type of world they were in (chaos, corruption, murder, etc) one would think that they would want to keep as many of themselves banded together as possible. Couldn't some sort of negotiation or compromise have been reached/agreed to by Rorschach instead of him being killed?

Answer: He has spent years as a costumed vigilante despite the fact that it was illegal. He has a very strict idea of what is right ("never compromise") and has proven himself incapable of doing otherwise. So no, there was no real chance of negotiating with him - Rorschach himself made it clear he'd have to die if they wanted his silence.

Garlonuss

Death was not the only choice. Doc M could easily have teleported/banished Rorschach to Mars/anywhere secluded in an oxygen bubble. He could have spared his life and just made him mute or manipulate his brain chemistry/atoms to remove the memory of what happened. The point is Doc M is all powerful and could manipulate matter at his whim; death was just a plot device creating a chance of an emotive martyrdom/sacrificial ending.

Ethically speaking, exiling him to Mars or erasing his memory of the event can be considered just as cruel as killing him, because then his agency is being taken away from him. Rorshach's malcontent with the situation poses a problem for the other heroes, and since Dr. Manhattan isn't willing to let him tell the truth of what happened, he obliges Rorschach's demand that he kill him instead.

Phaneron

Question: James Harrison reports to general James Longstreet that the union Army of the Potomac is moving in their direction. If that is true, why didn't General Stuart report it? Stuart's mission was to report any movement by the union Army of the Potomac.

Answer: Stuart was away from the army at that critical moment. He had fallen into the trap of reading his own news press clippings about being a dashing cavalry general, and he was off trying to ride around the entire Union army in order to make headlines. His absence (and his cavalry's "eyes") kept General Robert E. Lee from making an informed decision about his army's disposition and set in motion a chain of events that probably helped lead to the Confederates defeat at Gettysburg.

Answer: As noted elsewhere here Jeannie is speaking Farsi.

What are the several things she says in Farsi? Please translate.

Answer: Regarding the three wishes, there was never any set-in-stone rule or belief. This appears to originate from "The Ridiculous Wishes" or "The Three Ridiculous Wishes" that is a French literary fairy tale written by Charles Perrault and was published in 1697. It sort of set the standard for genie rules that later appeared in other folk tales and then in movies and TV shows. Like vampire lore, common details can be changed by any author to suit their story.

raywest

Answer: She's speaking Persian. And there was never a 3 wish rule. When Tony freed her, he became her master, and she'd do anything for him (i.e. grant his every wish).

Bishop73

Question: Why did the shuttle craft only have room for two crew members when there are seven of them? The shuttle is mainly an escape vessel if the ship was in danger and their lives were at risk hence the stasis capsules, so there should have been accommodation for seven.

Answer: Considering "The Company" that owned the mining space ship was notoriously cheap (and corrupt) about providing their crew with necessities, it is hardly surprising they had inadequate safety equipment, like enough stasis capsules. Also, the company's real mission (known only to Ash) was to collect the alien creature at any cost while the crew was deemed "expendable," so no need to provide them with a viable escape method.

raywest

Question: The record shop girl gives Ethan a record. Where does it come from? The way her arm moves it's like she receives it from someone at her right.

Answer: She gets it from under the counter. It's hard to see the way the shot is framed, but you can just see her arm movements as she reaches under the counter, slides the record out, then rotates her arm (out of frame) to hand the record to Ethan.

Sierra1

Question: Just after Maverick gets put in jail he makes one of the officers hold up a tablet for them, showing the lawbreaking race. This doesn't seem likely at all to me: 1, wouldn't this encourage more lawbreaking? 2, surely an officer has better things to do than stand there holding a tablet. 3, I call this an objectification of the officer (reduced to a stand). 4, inmates making their officers doing what they want can't end up good. I'm not wrong here, or what?

Answer: In this instance he was a civilian in military prison. Notice he wore civilian clothes while his cellmate still had on garb. The rules process is different for civilians held in military prison so it is quite reasonable that would happen.

Question: Why do Rorschach and Night Owl go searching at Veidt Enterprises for further clues about Pyramid Deliveries? They go there after interrogating the guy at Happy Harry's about Roy Victor Chess. He tells them that Janey Slater had him give the sealed envelope (with the assasination orders) to Chess. So is this the link, that they know Slater is also working for Veidt Enterprises? Furthermore: Can it be assumed that Slater was in on the staged assassination on Adrian Veidt, as she was delivering the envelope? Or did she also not know what was in it?

Answer: They go to Veidt's place because they think he will have business contacts that will help them uncover more about what is going on at Pyramid Transnational. It's only once they look through Veidt's office that they learn that Pyramid Transnational is a subsidiary of Veidt's corporation. The man at the bar mentioned that Janey's job at Pyramid was to give work to ex-cons, so it's unlikely she was in on the red herring assassination attempt on Veidt. She would have just been doing her job to give assignments to people under her.

Phaneron

Question: How does Cassandra manage to find Brett's home address and track him down there? There's no suggestion he gives her any other information than his mobile number, which isn't enough to find an address.

swordfish

Chosen answer: It's possible to find someone's address using a reverse directory (using a cell or landline phone number to link to an address). I've found people's addresses by putting their name and/or phone number into a search engine.

raywest

Question: During the opening scene, where it explains the creation of the ring, Sméagol finding and Bilbo taking it, was the entire scene animated or were live actors used before switching to animation?

Answer: This is from Wikipedia: The (1978) film is notable for its extensive use of rotoscoping, a technique in which scenes are first shot in live-action (human actors), then traced onto animation cels. It uses a hybrid of traditional cel animation and rotoscoped live action footage.

raywest

Answer: Ray Park's film work has mostly been as a stunt double and not as a speaking actor. Peter Serafinowicz has extensive experience as both an actor and doing voice-over work. He was better able to vocalize the Darth Maul character. It's fairly common in films (particularly sci-fi and fantasy) for minor character's voices to be dubbed over by other actors. Many movie scenes are filmed without sound and the dialogue and sound effects are added in post-production. Many actors dub over their own voices for better sound quality.

raywest

Question: Why didn't Scully believe Mulder when he told her that he found the bomb and was trapped in the room?

Answer: She's used to Mulder's rather droll, off-beat sense of humor and thought he was just making a glib jest.

raywest

Question: What does Netty say when Wilma calls her after she discovered the turkey **** all over her sheets? Wilma says "I'm gonna get you and your stupid mutt" and Netty replies with something that sounds like a foreign language before finally talking English again and saying "He's a good dog".

Answer: She says "You don't dare. You stop bothering me and my Raider." (Raider being her dog).

Bishop73

Question: What spills onto the floor in the hotel fight when the toilet is broken? It looks like some form of insulation.

Answer: From what I could tell, at the beginning you see a smoky glass partition (or glass-like) by the toilets. I couldn't really tell what for, maybe a changing area. Before the toilet gets broken, this partition gets shot and shatters. That's what's on the floor. But I can't see how it could get around the toilet like it does without some mistake.

Bishop73

Question: Why did Uncle Ben chastise Peter for standing up to Flash? Considering that Flash constantly bullied Peter, shouldn't Ben have been pleased that Peter finally stood up for himself?

Answer: If you're talking about after the dunk scene, Ben didn't see it as Peter standing up for himself. Instead, he says Peter humiliated Flash and then finds out he's the same one that punched Peter earlier. So in Ben's mind, this was retaliation or retribution, which is not OK.

Bishop73

Question: Hannibal tricks three, "DNA-modified" dogs to chase him, dodging the dog's attack to send them crashing through the building's high-rise window. The result is the three dogs falling to their death on the street below (you hear terrified screams as the dogs make impact). Why did the dogs die though? Wouldn't a vampire, however infected or changed, survive a fall from a great height?

Answer: Vampires may be very resistant to a lot of trauma, but they aren't indestructible. If they fall from such a height the entire body will just explode and though they could theoretically regenerate (very far fetched) if their head is still attached, the dogs would be dead not much later anyway.

lionhead

Question: Without any actual eyes to study, how would anyone know that a T-Rex couldn't see anything unless it moves?

Answer: The notion that tyrannosauruses' vision was based on movement, or was otherwise poor, is a complete fabrication of the film (and possibly the book it is based upon). They were apex predators and thus likely had excellent vision, as do apex predators of today. But just for the sake of argument, studying the brain cases of extant skeletons and comparing them to those of living species, as well as extrapolating knowledge of the brain functions and visual acuity of comparable species, could allow for the hypothesis that the vision of the T-Rex was movement-based. (And in reality, it was by this method that scientists came to the exact opposite consensus).

Answer: In the book, they find out about T. Rex's visual acuity only later when Dr. Grant was actually knocked out of his car and was injured when it attacked him. I believe he then stood up and had the T. Rex right in front of him and stayed absolutely still because he was frozen in terror, not being able to move. The T. Rex then couldn't find him and started roaring as to scare him to get him to move or run because it lost sight of him. He didn't realize this fact only until when he slept in the trees with Lex and Tim when some other herbivore dinosaur, not a Brachiosaurus, was eating the leaves around him. Startled waking up to it, he moved which scared the dinosaur, but then he stopped moving so the dinosaur couldn't see him anymore and began to graze again. He realized this finally and connected the dots that it was because of the amphibian DNA. He knew frogs' visual acuity is only based on movement, and so all the dinosaurs had that trait. I hate from the beginning in the movie he just somehow knows.

Question: The beginning of the film shows that Clint is still on house arrest. Ant-Man and the Wasp showed that Scott's house arrest ended well before the Snap. Aside from being sentenced at a later time than Scott, is there any reason why Clint would be given a longer house arrest than Scott? Wouldn't his time working for S.H.I.E.L.D. make it more likely that he would have got a more lenient sentence?

Phaneron

Answer: Nothing was said about what Clint's sentence was, but we do know Scott took a plea bargain and therefore may have got a lighter sentence. And the fact that Clint worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. might have given him a longer sentence since he should have known the importance of following the Sokovia Accords. The out-of-universe answer is because the writers needed to show why Clint wasn't in Infinity Wars.

Bishop73

Question: It seems that going after the grail diary in Berlin was just a plot point. Henry obviously knew about the trials in the cave by heart. The search for the holy grail has been a hobby of his for 40 years or so. Am I right?

Answer: Henry says, in response to Indy asking if he remembered the details of the trials: "I wrote them down in my diary so that I wouldn't have to remember." So, obviously he did NOT know them by heart. Also, as the other answer says, they didn't want the diary to either be in the Nazis' possession or be burned.

Answer: Neither Henry or Indiana would want the diary to remain in German hands. The Nazis wanted the Grail to exploit its power. As Elsa was a German scientist, she'd already gleaned enough knowledge from Henry and Indy to utilize the information contained within the diary. The diary also contained considerable data about the Grail and its history that Henry had researched over the years and would not have memorized and wanted to retain. He would also want to pass it on to Indy.

raywest

Question: Does anyone know the specific setting at the end where Jude Law dies. I know the general settings but would love to know this specific trail. It's beautiful and I'd love to hike it.

Dshipley

Answer: The movie is set in North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountains, but it was mostly filmed in Romania and the Carpathian Mountains, so the trail may be located there, making it harder to pinpoint. Cold Mountain and the surrounding Shining Rock Wilderness are part of Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. I suggest checking for a Pisgah web site that might have info and also North Carolina's state website for tourist info. There may be a NC government office that markets the state to the movie industry that can help. However, I suspect the trail is probably in Romania. - P.S. Here's a link that might help: http://movie-locations.com/movies/c/Cold-Mountain.php.

raywest

Starstruck - S3-E15

Question: When Tootie goes inside Jermaine's dressing room why did the bodyguard roughly manhandle Tootie and why was her bust of Jermaine destroyed?

Answer: The guards had no idea if Tootie was a deranged fan or if she had a bomb in her package. This wasn't very long after John Lennon was shot, after all.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Tootie was among the fan club girls sent complimentary concert tickets and allowed backstage. She thought Jackson personally invited only her and barged into the dressing room, believing she was expected. Security took action, not knowing who she was. The paper-mache' bust was screened for safety, getting destroyed in the process.

raywest

Answer: The Bust was destroyed by the bodyguards, to them it's another piece of junk among the millions he receives from his "Number One Fan."

No, the guard said he'd been running it under the sink and 'nothing was going to explode now.' They were making sure it wasn't a bomb.

Brian Katcher

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