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: How come Scott didn't fly out of the sled like Toy Santa did when the sleigh hit the stairs? Toy Santa probably weighs more than Scott.

Answer: Because he put his foot out on the sled to brace himself.

Question: Why does Freddy use Alice to gain access to new victims?

Answer: As Kristin was being burned to death in the boiler, she passed her ability to pull other people into her dreams to Alice. This enabled Freddy to get new victims.

Answer: He'd killed her friends in the previous movie, remember? When he came back she'd had time to recover and make new friends.

Rob245

That was Kristen, not Alice. Alice gives the answer to this question herself, while talking to Dan in the diner. She says that Kristen was the last of the children of the people who killed Freddy, and "maybe Freddy can't get to the new kids unless there's someone to bring them to him."

Question: I never understood the joke about the scene where Bridget was wearing the black dress and white undies. Everything looked fine to me, but she looked all embarrassed in front of the guy she was with when the two were fooling around. What joke did I miss?

Answer: The knickers are almost like spanx or the ones that try to hold everything in and appear skinny. Never particularly sexy! I think that's the joke is she wasn't in anything lacy as she didn't think anyone would be seeing them.

Answer: The type of underwear she was wearing was larger than he expected a young woman to wear. They appeared to be what one might call "granny panties."

Bishop73

Question: When Michael was visiting the church to "repent" he started to experience an anxiety attack and asked for juice and candy. How on earth did the person standing in the shadows get the juice and candy in under 5 seconds in that scene...pitcher full, a glass and candy on a platter?

Answer: I believe this happened in The Godfather: Part III (1990). Michael was diabetic (it was not an anxiety attack), and he may have requested in advance (without explaining why) that water, juice, candy, etc. be nearby in the event it was needed or else there may have been the usual refreshments set out. The one priest's actions was overly quick, though this was probably a movie choice to accommodate the scene's pacing. Michael's assistants would likely always bring a supply of candy and juice with them whenever Michael went somewhere. That is what diabetics are supposed to consume if they have a sudden attack.

raywest

Yes, I remember now he was diabetic and your answer makes sense. I re-watched the clip where he asks for it and he says it's his diabetes, when he's under stress sometimes it happens. However, I still think that once the Priest said, "what is it, what's the matter or whats wrong" that they didn't know in advance otherwise he would not have needed to ask but that his "assistants" (lol) would have had it with them instead. Either way, it doesn't take away from the film but I've watched this movie no less than 100 times and there is ALWAYS something that I didn't see or understand. This scene just stood out. Thanks for your reply.

You're welcome.

raywest

Question: Why did the nuke fridge scene cause so much controversy?

Answer: People felt it was ridiculous and cartoonish, even by Indiana Jones standards. Even if it was possible to survive a nuclear blast via the lead lining of a fridge (it's not), or that the fridge would simply be thrown away rather than be melted/torn apart like everything else in the vicinity (it wouldn't), the impact of being flung what appears to be a mile or so through the air, then violently crashing into and rolling over the ground, would certainly kill anything inside. The controversy arose because usually, in "classic" Indy films, the fantastical elements were exactly that: fantastic, magical, and/or supernatural. This was presented as taking place in our reality, with no "power of God" or magic spells, and for many, that was just too much disbelief to suspend.

Answer: Another problem is that people couldn't articulate what they didn't like about the film, and point to the "Nuke the Fridge" scene as a quick example of what they think is bad about it. In the realm of Indy, it's really no more outlandish than jumping out of a plane in an inflatable raft like in Temple of Doom.

It's considerably more outlandish. The raft scene was recreated/reviewed by Mythbusters, and they found that the raft floated down at a mere 22 mph. It would be hard/impossible in real life to stay on the raft, sure, but if you buy that bit of movie cheekiness, it would definitely slow their descent enough to survive, especially since they land a) on a slope and b) on soft snow. The fridge scene, however, has no such saving grace... it's completely ridiculous and unrealistic in every detail.

Question: What were other children singing/chanting when young Freddy used hammer to kill the hamster?

Answer: "Son of a hundred maniacs." Freddy was conceived when his mother, Amanda, was accidentally locked in a ward of violent mental patients and gang raped.

Brian Katcher

Question: Why was the zombie twitching in the fountain and couldn't get out when he was only shot in the shoulder?

Answer: The bullet severed part of the spinal cord.

Question: Trying to find the name of the actress who played Tommy's date in the scene where she and Henry's mistress were talking about Sammy Davis Jr, and she (Tommy's date) says "You can see how a white girl could fall for him", and Tommy of course, overreacts.

Answer: Elizabeth Whitcraft. She's credited as "Tommy's Girlfriend at the Copa."

Question: At the dance, who is the actor in the yellow shirt that stands near Ali after Johnny and the others trip over themselves while chasing Daniel? He looks so familiar.

Answer: I believe that was the "Chicken Boy" who threw the eggs earlier in the scene. He now took his head covering off. He was played by Todd Lookinland - brother of Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady of "The Brady Bunch). They somewhat resemble each other.

Answer: They are released by Jessie and James to defend a group of young Ekans and Koffings from a poacher.

lionhead

I don't think anyone knows where they are now since they haven't been seen since or heard from since they were released.

Question: Why didn't the terminator obey Kate at their first meeting, when she told the Terminator to let her go?

Answer: Her life was in immediate danger and his primary duty was to protect her. If her command to him jeopardized his mission (which it did), he would prioritize and override her commands until she was out of danger. Stated differently, he did not have to obey her if doing so interfered with his ability to protect her.

KeyZOid

Answer: Maybe her future self gave the terminator specific instruction on when to obey her and when not to, particularly regarding her own safety.

lionhead

Question: Why does Percy like to bully Delacroix so much? Does he hate foreigners?

Answer: No. Percy is just a typical bully who abuses his power and enjoys picking on people he thinks are weak plus, as a guard, he can do it all he wants without facing any form of punishment.

Answer: Percy was also struggling with the homosexual tendencies of Delacroix. Further evident when Wild Bill grabs him and says some nasty things to him.

MovieFan612

Question: Maddy pulls up to the house in her dead husband's Cadillac right around the time Ned was supposed to be at the boat house. Why would she be driving his car when at that point in time, she is supposed to be Mary Ann Simpson, her real identity? Ned was supposed to be dead at that point. The boat house could have blown up as she arrived and the fire dept. called by a neighbor would be on its way?

Answer: Maddie (who was the real Mary Ann Simpson) was deliberately being careless, dropping clues, and creating inconsistencies, like leaving Edmund's eyeglasses behind at the house when they moved his body. It was the same with Edmund's car. She was framing Ned as being the sole murderer who killed both (the real) Maddie and Edmund. She had specifically targeted Ned as her accomplice, knowing he was an incompetent lawyer who was careless about details.

raywest

Answer: It was all part of the plan to frame Ned, she purposely left clues behind as Ned would become suspicious of her. In the end, the dead body of the real Mary Ann Simpson was already in the houseboat. Thus everyone would think she's was dead when in fact she in sunning on a tropical beach.

Answer: Spock is also half-human and does not entirely look like a typical Vulcan. Mudd likely noticed that.

raywest

2001 - S5-E10

Question: Sam says a stargate's range is roughly 300,000 light years, yet, in the movie, Earth connects to Abydos "on The Other Side of the known universe." Why the discrepancy?

Answer: For an out-of-universe explanation (that is to say in real life), when the TV series was created, the idea was there were thousands of other Stargates out there that the original film didn't account for, so they just wanted to have everything happen in the Milky Way galaxy. In s01e01, Daniel finds the star charts on Abydos and they (the writers) had to explain why the Stargate on Earth didn't connect to any other Stargate except for the one on Abydos. In-universe, this is because of stellar drift but Abydos was so close that there wasn't enough stellar drift to affect the connection (meaning it is in fact located in the Milky Way). In the film "Abydos" was said to be located in the Kaliam galaxy and an in-universe explanation (though never stated outright) is they initially got their calculation wrong when determining where the planet was. Later in the series, Vala makes a reference to the Kaliam galaxy as a nod to the original film.

Bishop73

Answer: It is absolutely true. This is from Wikipedia: "The children's television show Sesame Street...was the first show of its kind that utilized a detailed and comprehensive educational curriculum, with specific educational goals, in its content. Its goals were garnered from in-house formative research and independent summative evaluations, and its first curriculum was created in a series of five seminars in 1968."

raywest

That is how they created the show. By talking to researchers on child development.

Question: Why is this movie so full of mistakes and plot holes? Was it created by incompetent crew?

Answer: It was made on a very low budget. Golen - Golbus productions bought the rights to Superman. They were mostly known for B-Movies with not so big name stars. It was there attempt to play with the big studios. Plus at least 45 minutes of scenes were cut out, with major subplots.

In addition to budget cuts, they kept shortening the runtime, meaning scenes needed to be cut. The comic book adaptation has the uncut scenes and makes much more sense.

Answer: It should also be noted that the film was originally slated to have a budget of $32 million, which is in roughly the same range as the budget for "Superman III" and movies like Tim Burton's original "Batman." However, shortly before shooting began, the budget was cut by nearly 50%, all the way down to $17 million. As a result, the production was very patchy and rushed. This had an adverse effect on everything.

TedStixon

Question: What was wrong with Martin? We see him in a place, and he appears to be frozen in a special chamber but why? Was he sick?

Answer: Martin had some type of a rare (non-specified) disease, which would have been fatal. He was placed into suspended animation until a cure could be found, which it later was.

raywest

Question: When Splinter is being held captive by Shredder how was he able to survive? He seems to be held by him for quite some time so shouldn't he have been dead?

Answer: Meditation, by putting themselves in a deep mental state, they could go days without food or sleep. It's said, that some hardcore mystics can actually stop their own hearts.

Question: When Ana's car is vandalized, shouldn't there be cameras in the parking garage to show who did it and how they got in to the garage?

Answer: Considering that this is a private residential garage and not a public pay-to-park one, it would be reasonable to assume that there should be multiple security cameras throughout. Christian Grey is a particularly high-profile person who is always heavily guarded. There should be cameras aimed at where his vehicles are parked.

raywest

Answer: I ran a parking garage located at city hall and there was only one camera present, which was pointed at the booth/exit gate. There were never cameras in the garage to see accidents or vandalism. Plus, the recordings were never saved for more than 24 hours unless someone requested the recording be pulled before there were deleted.

Bishop73

Answer: Unless the cameras were down when the incident occured.

Christian was always closely guarded and a camera going down anywhere on his property or areas he frequented would not only be suspicious, but also immediately checked and attended to by his security team.

raywest

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.