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: Why did Clara go mental at Doc for saying he was from the future? He'd dropped a few hints! He'd told her he has an interest in science, he had a huge refrigerator in his building, he had another big thing covered up under a sheet, he said he read Jules Verne when he was a boy despite it only been recently published. Was she not even a little bit curious? Doc could have easily stopped her during her rant saying he can prove it but didn't.

Answer: Because she thought he didn't like her and was making a bizarre excuse to avoid her. Come on. 'I'm a man from the future, so we can't be together ' sounds like a pretty flimsy excuse.

Brian Katcher

Question: In the bonus feature extended scenes look carefully at the beginning of the movie and you'll see someone watching the explosion while wearing the goggle-rig. Can anyone explain why?

Matty Blast

Answer: Not a definitive answer, just an "allowable" excuse for this... The time surveillance team is testing their equipment and rigs and it's merely a coincidence that they happened to be in this area at this time.

The Jacket - S2-E3

Question: Does anyone know the actual price of the suede jacket? It's been bugging me all these years.

Answer: It was never revealed as part of the gag. Jerry admits to Kramer it was over $300 and seems to suggest it was over $400. But then Jerry stays silent when George starts to question him about the price and George leaves thinking The Jacket cost over $1,000. Whether or not Jerry remained silent to tease George or because he did in fact pay over $1,000 is also unknown.

Bishop73

Question: When the Cubs are playing the last game against the Mets, the last batter that Henry faces is Hedo. However, Henry has pitched three innings and only nine batters, so if you back up to the last batter Chet faced in the 6th inning, it wasn't Hedo. So how was he the 9th batter Henry faced?

Bigj0hns0n16

Answer: Since we never see Hedo on the field, it's certainly possible that he's kept solely as a pinch hitter.

LorgSkyegon

Question: Why is Claire upset with Franklin after he killed Dr. Wu?

Answer: He doesn't kill Dr. Wu, he tranquilizes him. And Zia was with him then, not Claire. Zia wasn't upset, just shocked.

lionhead

Question: Doc Brown's workshop at the beginning of the movie strikes me as highly reminiscent of the one belonging to Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, right down to the elaborate food-dispensing mechanisms. Potts also had a dog named Edison in that movie, just as Doc has one named Einstein. Were these similarities intended as a deliberate homage, or are they just similar expressions of the "mad scientist" trope?

Answer: It's definitely a deliberate homage. The similarities between the two characters don't end there...in fact, both share the line "I've finally invented something that works!"

Answer: Not to mention in both movies there is a flying car :).

Question: The final scene in the car at the red light in front of the Police station. They are discussing escaping to Mexico for the rest of their lives. They hold each other. The car doesn't move. Do they give themselves up to the police? Is that what the writer is implying?

Answer: Although Connie wanted them to go to Mexico and assume new identities, it is implied that Edward, who initially goes along with that idea, will likely turn himself into the police. However, there's no definitive ending given, so the audience is left to interpret the outcome.

raywest

An alternative ending was shot in which Edward says goodbye to Connie in the car and walks into the police station. The director discusses this on the commentary track. The alternate ending is on the DVD.

Answer: Connie wants to say she is guilty and asks her husband to forgive her.

Answer: I think that they had already decided that Edward would turn himself in after the school event. That's why the were so sad when they danced and why they engaged in an escape fantasy conversation at the red light. They knew that the police would soon figure it out and it was only a matter of time before Edward would be arrested. Rather than live in fear, they decided that it would be better for Edward to turn himself in. That's my answer but I have two other questions that I can not answer. 1. WHY did she do it? 2. How long did the affair last? I can't figure out the season but m y guess is between fall and the end of November but I can't be sure because the seasons don't seem to be correct. Is it sunny/warm enough to plant a garden in November in NY? I don't think so.

"Why did she do it?" I think that is the question she asked herself once she realised that she had made a terrible choice. Initially, it made her feel alive and young and excited. She had everything, but she began to feel invisible. Ultimately, her son will suffer the impact of her choice, and she will never have peace again.

Question: What song does the crew launch into immediately after Spanish Ladies?

Tom Clegg

Answer: I believe it's called "The British Tars." Not to be confused with "A British Tar" by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Bishop73

Show generally

Question: Question about the franchise in general: would crowd funding be a viable method to finance new installments?

Answer: Series creator Sam Raimi has said that there are three new ideas to continue the franchise, but there's no other information available at this time. Crowd funding could possibly fund another film, sure. But it's such a well-known franchise that it likely wouldn't be necessary. All we really know for sure is that the series "Ash VS Evil Dead" can't return, as it is under partial ownership by Starz, and producer Robert Tapert stated in a Q&A that they weren't interested in selling off the rights to the series. So if more "Evil Dead" is made, it likely wouldn't be a direct continuation of the series.

TedStixon

Question: If Van Helsing is Gabriel "the archangel" then how did he become a "mere human" for 400 years? What did he do to have that happen? (03:00:00)

Answer: It's never explained in the movie. Presumably it would have been expanded on in one of the sequels that was planned but never made. The only thing we can do as the audience is speculate.

TedStixon

Question: What's the significance of the tattoo on the hands of the medjai? Not the medjai symbol but the 3 lines?

Answer: The tattoos they have are various symbols that mark them as Medjai. The sequel, "The Mummy Returns" confirms this.

TedStixon

Yes, I know, but the tattoos on the top of the hands are different from the one on the forehead and the cheeks. It makes me think of pyramids.

I believe it's just that seal of the Medjai. I don't think there's much significance beyond that.

TedStixon

Dick and Taxes - S4-E12

Question: At the end of their audit, the Solomons are ordered by the IRS to pay back-taxes, some of which for years they weren't even on the planet. Can the IRS actually make people pay taxes for years in which they had no income?

Phaneron

Answer: No, the IRS cannot make you pay taxes during years in which you had no income but this family hasn't reported any income for years. You are still required to report your income every year, and if you fall below a certain threshold you don't pay federal income taxes. The IRS is assuming they are humans who have a house and careers but they have only filed taxes for a couple years (if at all). To the IRS it looks like simple tax evasion.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: How come this game has so much swearing compared to other games of the same rating?

Answer: Perhaps due to the comical nature of the game, and that the violence wasn't too bad, the rating board overlooked it.

Dra9onBorn117

Answer: As long as the leg remains physically viable, even if it's impaired and not causing chronic pain, a reputable doctor would not amputate simply because a patient wants it removed.

raywest

Answer: This could be due to any number of reasons. Hospitals might not perform the operation so long after the accident especially since he is known to be working and living with the condition.

Ssiscool

Question: I'm watching on Netflix. Was this edited somehow from the original? In the Netflix version Brian enlists the help of Todd and Kiersten to rescue his brother. After escaping the dungeon, it shows them rearming themselves at the school. Then there's a cutscene where Maurice is in Ronnie's room and says "oh, Ronnie." Brian, Todd, and Kiersten are see walking into Boy's room a 2nd time, then all of the sudden Ronnie is there with the battery pack, and no-one seems surprised. In the original, was Ronnie recruited the first time around and then cut in the Netflix version? In the Netflix version Boy says the line "why lose 5 lives when you can gain 4?" when there's only 4 kids and not 5. So I feel like he must have been there. If Ronnie was edited out, why? Was it just to save the run time? If Ronnie wasn't edited out, who are the 5 lives Boy is talking about?"

Bishop73

Answer: I'd seen the movie a lot growing up and also just picked up the new Blu-Ray. As I remember seeing it when I was younger, and indeed in the new Blu-Ray, Ronnie is recruited on the group's second attempt to rescue Eric. He was never there the first time around. Admittedly, the line about "why lose five lives when you can gain four" is confusing given there's only four kids. But I always assumed he was referring to the four kids and Maurice, who he also has held captive.

TedStixon

Answer: You see Brian go down with Kiersten and Todd armed with their first set of flashlights. He then says this line because he wants to keep the four kids there and turn them into monsters. But he could kill them and my guess is maybe kill Maurice as well because he didn't succeed in turning Brian into one of them.

Answer: They went back to rescue Brian's younger brother Eric. Ronnie was there after Maurice went and got him to come and help. So the five lives refers to the four kids and the one that he stole which was Eric.

That's why I'm wondering why it was edited on Netflix because Ronnie isn't there when Boy says the line. In the Netflix version, Ronnie is recruited after Boy's line.

Bishop73

Question: What time of year is this film set? One day it's warm enough to swim outdoors in central Spain, the next day it's ski season in northern Italy.

Answer: The time setting is vague, but both Italy and Spain have Mediterranean climates (mild wet winters, hot dry summers). However, climate also varies by altitude, and, at certain times of the year, it could conceivably be cold enough in the Italian Alps for skiing while it is warmer in Spain for outdoor swimming. Also, movies tend to ignore reality for the sake of storytelling.

raywest

Question: Back in 1885 why doesn't Doc change the letter he sent to Marty, asking him to bring a can of gas?

Answer: When Marty received the letter from Doc in 1955, as seen in the second movie, Doc wrote down that he didn't want Marty to go to 1885 to rescue him because he was happy living in the past. Instead, he wanted Marty to take the Delorean straight back to 1985 and then destroy it so it could never be used for personal gain again.

But once Marty appears in the past Doc could easily change the letter, changing things such that Marty would bring gas with him.

That wouldn't really work with Marty already there. Since Marty and Doc are occupying the same timeline, changing the letter wouldn't do anything until Marty traveled back into the future, at which point the altered letter would be unnecessary since they had found a way for Marty to return.

Phaneron

Changing the letter wouldn't have made a difference. When Doc decides to leave 1885, Marty tells Doc that he ripped the fuel line so, with the fuel line damaged and no gas available, bringing a can of gas wouldn't have helped.

Answer: This would create a different timeline, not the timeline they are in.

Answer: That would not be possible as in 1885, Doc sent the letter on September 1st, and 1955 Doc sent Marty to 1885 on September 2nd so it was a day later and on the 1st, Doc was not expecting Marty to turn up. However, one CAN ask why Marty and Doc didn't go to the local Western Union office and change it (or write a new one) there since it was in their possession per the gentleman in part 2.

Changing the letter while Marty is in 1885 with Doc would accomplish nothing, because it doesn't it instantly travel to the future. Marty at the end of Part II, for his part, may receive the letter almost immediately, but the letter itself had to wait 70 years to be delivered to him.

Phaneron

I mean, there's no solid rules to time traveling, but just for argument's sake it seems like the letter idea could work... in the franchise, when something is set in motion, the effects usually take place immediately. Take for instance when George and Lorraine kissed at the dance in Part 1. The picture of Marty and his siblings went right back to normal, even though the kids had not been born yet. Doc and Marty changing the Western Union letter "could" have had an immediate effect and a gas can could have materialized in the Delorean, much like we've seen newspaper headlines change before our very eyes, disappearing gravestones, etc.

jshy7979

In your examples, the changes occur to future events. The items that changes, like the picture and newspaper, are from the future themselves. They can't change the past by changing events in the future (like they do in Bill and Ted's). This is why Doc and Marty couldn't go back to 2015 to stop old Biff from taking the DeLorean.

Bishop73

Question: Regarding the flipped shot early in the film when Indy has a bloody face, is there any practical reason for this (or for any movie that flips shots for that matter)? This isn't like some ordinary continuity error that the director, script supervisor and editors overlook. This is something that has to be done deliberately in the editing process.

Phaneron

Answer: Usually it is an issue of continuity. If two people are talking to each other, one should be on left side of the screen looking screen right and the other person on the right side looking screen left. Otherwise the cuts will be confusing. Sometimes a mistake is made when setting up a shot. Sometimes something was cut from the scene and there is no acceptable shot to cover it, so they have to modify a shot that is close.

Vote for Brady - S1-E11

Question: There's a scene in this episode I haven't seen in over 30 years (edited out in more recent years) where the 4 kids upstairs are arguing (boys vs girls) and the kids continuously stamp their feet on the floor and then Alice is shown downstairs watching her cake in the oven. Periodically with all the stomping from upstairs, the cake gets flatter until very flat the end of the scene. Question is does anyone remember this scene and why does the cake in the oven get flatter every time a kid stomps from upstairs?

Answer: I think I remember that episode - but, more importantly, my mother always told me (and my siblings) to stop jumping/ stomping, running in the kitchen, and opening the oven door when a cake was baking... because these could make the cake fall. I believed my mother... and I, as a child, also caused a few "fallen cakes" because I didn't quite always listen (right away, anyway). I'm sure Alice's fallen cake episode was exaggerated, but cakes really CAN fall from stomps and opening the oven door too soon. Usually, it has something to do with the baking powder and how the air bubbles change during the baking process. Doing something that might cause the oven and cake inside to move/shake can suddenly change the air bubbles inside the cake and cause a collapse. I don't know all factors that have to occur for a cake to fall (collapse in the middle), but I've seen fallen cakes during my adulthood and... well... caused at least a few myself. Regarding Alice's cake falling each time one of the Brady kids stomped upstairs, I'm not sure if a series of falls could occur. IF it is possible, I think there would have to be way too much baking powder in the batter or some other inaccurate combination of ingredients that alter the chemical process during baking.

KeyZOid

Answer: Realistically, a cake would not deflate in that way. There are some desserts, like delicate, airy souffles, that can deflate during and after baking, and that must be served almost immediately from the oven. The scene, broadly played for humor, is merely meant to show the argument's growing intensity gauged against the rate of the deflating cake.

raywest

Answer: I haven't come across a scene like that, but maybe over time what you remember got mixed up with episodes of other shows, so this is just a suggested episode. "Try, Try Again." In the episode, Mike is preparing a gourmet meal for Saturday. Jan is practicing tap dancing in the kitchen and his soufflé that he had spent 3 days preparing is knocked to the floor. While it is true soufflés can "fall" (meaning deflate), it's because the cooking time was wrong (or opening the oven door too soon) or the structure of the egg whites is too weak. Noises don't make them collapse.

Bishop73

This was not from "Try, Try Again" (though I do remember that scene too). That was in a later season when the kids were older. The one I was talking about was during the first season when all the kids were young. I know the scene in question were the 4 youngest kids and the scene started by each the boys and girls arguing that Greg/Marcia (running for student body president) doesn't stand a chance against him/her to win (boys for Greg, girls for Marcia).

That's "Vote for Brady", s01e11. I watched it and for some reason Carol tells Mike to be careful, after he makes too much noise, indicating noise will ruin the cake. Alice does keep checking on the cake with the oven light every time the kids make too much noise. However, the cake is always fine, and in fact getting bigger. Then, realizing the cake is fine, Alice is relieved and leans against the counter, knocking over the cutting board. The cutting board crashes to the ground, which this time does cause the cake to flatten. It seems like an exaggerated prop, I've never see a cake rise like that, it looks like how a muffin might rise. Then it's somehow deflated, as if it was hollow, like a puffed pastry, or too raw. If it was too raw, it shouldn't flatten in the oven. But the look of the cake doesn't remind me of any puffed pasty, which is made from a dough, not a batter and the cake looks like a batter cake to me. So, it just deflates for irony or comedy of error reasons.

Bishop73

Question: Is there anywhere I could find behind the scenes of Buckbeak's execution? From before they went back in time? If so, can I please have a link?

Answer: Buckbeak was never executed. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had mistakenly believed he was because from their vantage point on the hill, they could not see that Buckbeak had already disappeared. What they initially saw was the executioner swinging his ax in frustration because Buckbeak was gone. We learn later that the "alternate" Harry and Hermione had already rescued him before the execution. Therefore, there are no scenes filmed showing this.

raywest

I know that. I meant are there any behind the scenes videos for that scene at all.

There is this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR8stMyZWq0.

raywest

Thank you. Please let me know if there's more.

Why would they film scenes that would never make it into the movie?

Happens all the time - they often end up on DVD. They're removed for editing or pacing reasons, or an alternative scene is filmed.

The request was for behind the scenes footage, not unused footage.

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