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: If Rorschach's considered nuts then why kill him? Why kill the Comedian? Why wasn't he heavily guarded in prison once caught? Why not arrest Veidt?

Rob245

Answer: The Comedian discovered what Veidt was planning to do, so Veidt killed him to silence him. Rorschach isn't causing problems for the prison once he's in there. Every violent thing he does is in self-defense. There's no reason for him to be heavily guarded. He's killed because they can't risk anyone exposing what Veidt did and ruining the world peace that was achieved. Veidt is not arrested for the same reason.

Phaneron

Question: How did both Akeem and Semmi get a job at McDowell's without Akeem's parents noticing? Also, wouldn't Mr. McDowell have noticed in doing Akeem's pre-employment background checks who Akeem really was vs finding out when the parents arrived? (00:44:08 - 01:29:34)

jm1138

Answer: How would Akeem's parents know what they were up to? They think he's taking an American vacation, and in the pre social media days, it was hard to keep track of people. As for McDowell, what sort of background check did you expect him to do on a fast food employee in the 80s? McDowell seems like a guy who would cut corners anyway.

Brian Katcher

There aren't exactly a lot of people lining up to work at McDowell's, so Cleo gives the applications a once over and hires them on the spot. I'm in my 40's and I've had plenty of jobs that didn't even call my references, let alone perform a background check.

Answer: Most people start their journey at 10 years of age. However the age is 11 in the Alola region.

Ssiscool

I believe if we were to be more realistic, 10 would be the age a person could start learning how to use Pokemon, and could be allowed to battle within a controlled environment. But would have to be at least 18 to be allowed to battle outside of a controlled environment.

The reason I believe what the comment is saying is because if my local professor just "hey, here you go, here's your charmander, you can start your journey now" at the age of 10, I can guarantee that I would have accidentally burned down somebody's house.

Question: Was Niko Zoe's long lost father who wasn't actually dead?

Answer: No. Zoé's father was murdered by Victor. Nico was just a thief who was there to help her.

Bishop73

Question: Spoiler alert: this question gives away much of the first "Psycho" movie. In the original Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" we witness Norman Bates murdering Janet Leigh/Marion Crane and Martin Balsam/Milton Arbogast, and very narrowly missing killing Vera Miles/Lila Crane. At the end of the movie we discover that Norman Bates had murdered his mother and her lover ten years previously. We are also told that he had killed two female guests at Bates Motel. Norman Bates is therefore guilty of six murders and one attempted murder. In Psycho II we find out that, after his crimes were discovered, Norman Bates was placed in a secure psychiatric institution for the criminally insane. This does seem plausible. But with such a criminal record, would he ever be released from incarceration?

Rob Halliday

Answer: Norman was found "not guilty" by reason of insanity. Therefore, once he is deemed to be no longer a danger to himself, or to others, and is released from the mental institution, there is no crime he can be sent to jail for (i.e. he has no criminal record for the murders). I haven't done enough research to tell you if a serial killer in recent times has ever been found not guilty by reason of insanity and subsequently been released, but there are numerous accounts of people being released from mental institutions after committing murder that are then considered free.

Bishop73

Answer: When Pokemon evolve sometimes their personality changes. If a pokemon's will is strong enough they can keep their original personality but in most cases some traits of the personality become stronger, like stubbornness. I think the joke is that he has a short fuse, since he has a burning tail.

lionhead

Or it could be that Charmeleon's skill level exceeded that of Ash and thus did not respect him.

There is also another reason. Namely, Charmeleon are much more aggressive than Charmander in nature.

Question: When Katniss goes in for her individual assessment, Peeta is exiting the room after finishing his and he seems to be in a daze while walking out, almost seemingly pretending not to acknowledge Katniss walking in. Was that intentional as to not give any hints to Katniss about what he did (painting Rue) too early or to not raise any kind of suspicion to Plutarch et al watching?

Answer: There's no definitive answer to this. It appears that Peta is non-verbally signaling to Katniss that there is something ahead she might react to rather than pretending not to acknowledge her. There is no reason why he would not acknowledge her or be concerned about raising anyone's suspicions. He and Katniss are supposed to be engaged, so it would be expected that they would have this type of connection and communication.

raywest

Answer: The ending is purposely ambiguous and open to interpretation. The series creator once said: "There's more than one way of looking at the ending. That's all I'll say." He's also refused to outright explain what the ending meant.

TedStixon

Actually, the creator of the Sopranos accidentally revealed it to be a death scene in an interview: https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a32869286/sopranos-creator-accidentally-confirms-tony-death-series-finale/.

ctown28

Question: Did they use blue screens for this movie? I was watching it recently, and certain scenes looked like the distant background was fake, such as the nighttime scene when Captain Von Trapp confesses his love for Maria in the gazebo, the trees in the far background look superimposed, but I can't tell if that's because of the lighting.

Phaneron

Answer: Although bluescreen was used at the time, it was a photochemical process and not that reliable. For the scene you're describing, it was likely shot in a studio with a painted background. For more expansive night scenes, they shot them "day-for-night." They would be shot on location during the day with the image darkened and filtered to look like night.

Answer: In that era, movies didn't have computer-generated images and instead used a rear-projected screen of a previously filmed location. The actors would be in front of the screen to make it appear as if they were in some different location. The actors were posed in a way that the audience could not tell they were in front of the screen.

raywest

Answer: He was a drunken, careless and inconsiderate guy, who never took responsibility for anything. If that's the way he treated his girlfriend, how would he treat the baby.

Thank you I always wondered that.

Question: At first it seemed Cheyenne didn't know harmonica man, but later in the movie they help one another once to get the $5,000 from Cheyenne's bounty. Then Cheyenne rescues harmonica man from the train. And finally Cheyenne didn't want harmonica man to see him die they were leaving together I just think they knew each other and this was planned?

Answer: They formed an alliance, Cheyenne wanted to know why he was being framed for the massacre of an entire family by Henry Fonda and Harmonica seemed to know everything.

Show generally

Question: Is it really possible to get a fingerprint off the handle of a gun as seen on the show?

Answer: Yes. Fingerprints can be obtained from most places, including the inside of latex gloves. This makes getting a print off a gun child's play.

Ssiscool

Unlike the show, finding a fingerprint on a gun handle is rare. Most gun handles have textured surfaces that don't allow fingerprints to form.

Question: Why is it that Julie throws a drink in Michael's face? I thought she wanted a guy to say those things to her the night Michael was Dorothy.

Answer: What she said was a fantasy - big difference between saying that in conversation and actually having it said to her.

Thank you.

Question: Later on in the film, Matt says to Gabriel that it would take him months to download the data unless he eliminated the congestion and then realises that the fire sale was to do just that... Kick everyone off all the networks so that Gabriel can use all available bandwidth. But Gabriel hacked into the Government the night before, which triggered the servers at Woodlawn to download the data as a backup. If it would have taken months to download the data BEFORE the fire sale, why were the Woodlawn servers able to download the same data in less than a day?

Answer: In the film they mentioned that utilities, transportation systems, and communications were what was causing the congestion. Yes, Woodlawn already began the download process the night before when the FBI got hacked, but by the time Gabriel had began his download from Woodlawn, he was already in the process of eliminating the congestion causing the download to hasten. Once the Power station was blown up it gave plenty of time to free up an entire 1/3 of the country's bandwidth to complete to download. Also it was not less than a day. They visited Warlock the next night and the final events didn't happen until the proceeding day.

Question: Would it really be possible for an ape as large as Kong Kong to climb up the Empire State Building as shown in the movie?

Answer: I assume you mean, could the building take his weight, not whether an ape would really have the ability to climb a building (if that's what you mean, then it's definitely yes...apes are great climbers). Assuming Kong is proportionally as heavy as normal-sized gorillas, which tend to be in the area of 160kg (~350lbs), then he weighs over 80,000kg (89 tons, give or take). The average human weighs about 62kg, so that's about 1,300 humans, and the capacity of the ESB is over 13,000. So, assuming the building is mostly, or even half, empty while a giant gorilla scales it, the building could handle his weight.

Keep in mind, though, that the weight allowance for the building assumes people on the floors of the building, not climbing on the outside. The outer structure of a building isn't designed for massive creatures climbing on it. While the building as a whole would likely survive, there would be significant damage as Kong would be breaking windows and pulling stone off it as he made his way up.

Show generally

Question: Is Cersei Lannister based on Lady MacBeth and Agrippina the Younger? Both were ruthless and ambitious with Agrippina being the mother of Nero. Cersei, mother of Tommen Baratheon. She, on the show, pushed for her son to become king as did Agrippina, so was inspiration drawn from her and Lady MacBeth?

Rob245

Answer: Thank you.

Rob245

Answer: She appears to be a composite of many historical queens and fictional characters, including Lady MacBeth and also Queen Margaret of Anjou, who was married to King Henry VI of England.

raywest

Question: This is actually a question to all of the books and movies, Why did Voldemort wait for the end of the school year to attack Harry Potter? Except, of course, in this movie, where Harry drops out of Hogwarts.

DFirst1

Answer: I agree with the other answer, but it is also a matter of plotting. Rowling has carefully structured each book to cover one school year at Hogwarts, usually starting with the summer break ending and the students preparing to return to school. The ensuing events cover the next nine months, with the story building up to the end-of-the-year climax, just before students part ways to return home for another summer. This formula allows for a continual timeline with only short breaks in-between major events. Otherwise, the story's momentum would slow down and much exposition would be needed to fill in gaps.

raywest

So basically, it's plot armor. Besides the main antagonist of the story is Voldemort so therefore he should be in the climax where it deals around him except in the third film/book. This answer makes me think that Voldemort really cares for Harry's education. ;-)

DFirst1

Answer: He didn't plan all these attacks except for the Goblet of Fire one. It took so long for Quirrel to get the stone, it took Voldemort's soul in the diary that long to influence Ginny and take control of her, it required the triwizard tournament finals to attack Harry. All these things just took till the end of the school year to happen.

lionhead

What about in Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince?

DFirst1

In Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince he was gathering strength, both personally and his army. In Order of the Phoenix the story is more about trying to convince the wizarding world that Voldemort is back and Voldemort trying for as long as possible to not draw attention to himself so it's easier to recruit, get stronger, etc. He is also busy with the prophecy, trying to get to it without exposing himself (thus using Harry to do it), knowing it is the key to his survival. In Half-Blood Prince Voldemort wants Dumbledore dead before he goes further with any other planning. Initially Draco is ordered to do it but he takes almost the entire schoolyear to do it, until he eventually manages to get deatheaters enter the school. It's not planned by the villain, but makes sense to have an entire year at Hogwarts continue each and every time. Until eventually Voldemort starts his coup.

lionhead

In Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort didn't want to reveal himself as most of the Wizarding world didn't believe he was back. As such he used his Death Eaters to try and take the prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. He only arrived at the Ministry late on as it was an optimal chance to kill Harry, Fudge seeing him wasn't intended. In the Half Blood Prince, Voldemort was afraid of fighting Dumbledore and the only way he could duel him personally would be to attack Hogwarts which would be unwise. Again, he used his Death Eaters or in this case Draco Malfoy to try and assassinate Dumbledore.

Voldemort wasn't afraid to fight Dumbldore in Half-Blood Prince, he was trying to kill Dumbledore whilst Dumbledore was protected by Hogwarts, he couldn't get to him. So he had Draco do it.

lionhead

He assigned Draco to do it as a consequence of what his father failed to retrieve, which is the prophecy.

DFirst1

Answer: Jennifer Lawrence was actually allergic to the makeup that was used on her in First Class. For the next two films, she wore a body suit instead. For Dark Phoenix, since they were just going to kill her character off anyway, I think they just decided to be lazy and went with a more minimal approach with her appearance, and didn't care that it looked different. I mean, the scene of Jean Grey being taken over by the Phoenix Force at the beginning of Dark Phoenix directly contradicts her having the Phoenix power at the end of Apocalypse, so it's not like the filmmakers cared too much about overall continuity in the series.

Phaneron

Wilson - S5-E6

Question: What exactly did Wilson die of? Was it because of the many dollops he did or was it a mystery?

Answer: It's not explained fully, but its shown that he is quite sick as he has been taking many dollops and that they were liquid (sorry for the graphic description but its explained in the show). Given those circumstances we can safely assume that Wilson has got some severe problems.

Ssiscool

Answer: It's a healthy, plant-based smoothie. Tony is drinking them in several MCU films.

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