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 it ever stated in the movie what Marcellus' reason was for Butch to throw the fight?

Answer: Marcellus was fixing the fight. Marcellus paid Butch a large sum of money to throw the fight so that he and others could bet even more money on Floyd to win the fight. If Butch had done what he was paid to do it would have been a guaranteed win for Marcellus.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When Hitch is being set up at the zoo, how did the guy know to use Albert Brenneman's name? The only connection they had at that point was Vance. If they actually suspected Albert had help how did they not suspect Hitch already because of the art show tickets?

Answer: He should not have known. I think it is a plot hole.

Question: When the bell rings for the end of Indy's college class, what exactly is he pointing at?

Answer: He's not pointing at anything. When the bell rings, he makes a hand gesture that I interpret at "wait, class, one more thing before you go" (something I've done myself). From there, he's just moving his hands around as he speaks, which is a common thing for people to do.

Bishop73

Answer: He is way better than you and good looking.

Question: The Bandit and Buford come face to face in the diner. Buford orders a diablo sandwich, and then runs to the door and hollers at Jr and asks if he wants something - when Jr. orders, Buford's response was "We don't have time for that!" - then why even ask Jr to begin with, if that's going to be his answer?

ckbyers

Answer: Junior asks for hush puppies, which are basically deep-fried dough balls...they would probably take a couple of minutes to make. The diablo sandwich, on the other hand, seems to be prepared in advance, since the sheriff gets his seconds after asking for it. Still, hush puppies probably would have been ready by the time the sheriff finishes his conversation with the Bandit.

Answer: Depends what he ordered - if it was something more complicated than a diablo sandwich, they wouldn't have time. Or he's just being a jerk.

Answer: I think he said "Onion rings daddy" - but I guess it would depend on what consists of a Diablo sandwich that is easy to make as opposed to waiting to having the rings made (it's a trivial point, I know...but it's been bugging me).

ckbyers

He said hush puppies.

Question: Dr Evazan and Ponda Baba (the two that confront Ben Kenobi in the cantina in Star Wars) have a small cameo in the city of Jedha. Is the assumption that they made it out of the city before the empire destroys the city within the short time of their cameo?

Answer: Yes. They were on their way to the starport when they were encountered. They left the planet a short while later, before the Death Star attack.

Question: When Adam and Barbara start to age and die near the end of the movie, I don't get how they didn't "die" again. How did they end up completely fine at the end?

Answer: Otho is attempting to exorcise them (remember how the afterlife janitor said exorcism was death for the dead), but Beetlejuice interrupted the ceremony, restoring them.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It's not completely clear what was happening to them but it's somewhere along the lines of the ritual making them corporeal or even partially resurrecting them but the ritual wasn't done properly so their bodies started to decay. Beetlejuice reversed that process and turned them back into ghosts.

lionhead

Answer: Erin along with the child make it out alive however the fate of them both following the events of the film are unknown.

Ssiscool

Answer: The last we see of Erin, she's alive. And not so well. But she did survive. What we saw. But what would be left of her?

ChristmasJonesfan

Question: When Damian learns that he is the Antichrist, he is very upset about it. Later in the movie, why does he choose to embrace who he is and his destiny?

Answer: Having lived as a "normal" boy, Damien is initially shocked to learn his true identity. After having time to adjust and being surrounded and groomed by satanic supporters, he eventually embraces his true persona.

raywest

The answer is correct, and I'm just going a into a bit more detail. During the events of the first film, Damien is normal until Mrs Baylock entered his life. She started teaching him about who he was, but he was only five or six, which would have been far too young for him to understand. He started acting more malicious after this point. After the movie ended, it skips ahead to Damien living with his uncle, aunt, and cousin. During that time, it's conceivable that the forces surrounding him decided to give him a period of peace. He was raised by his aunt (secretly a Satanist), but she might have been instructed to give him a normal upbringing so he wouldn't call attention to himself. As a result, he probably forgot about it, and started to believe he wasn't any different. Once he learned of his unholy lineage he began to remember and eventually embrace it, especially since he had several followers (Buher, Neff, and many others he may not have met yet) to help and protect him.

dewinela

Question: Wasn't President Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech as heard in the movie given before Congress on January 6, 1941? The movie, or some of it, takes place December 6th/7th 1941.

Answer: FDR's Four Freedoms speech (which was his eighth State of the Union address) was originally given on January 6, 1941, some months before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The filmmakers appear to have deliberately compressed the two historical events to emphasize the dramatic change in the world. FDR gave the speech to gain public support for the U.S. aiding Britain and the other allied forces, even though it was not yet involved in the war.

raywest

Question: Why were the aliens abducting people and why did they bring them back?

Answer: It wasn't definitively answered, but it appears the aliens took people in order to learn more about humans. It's unclear if all those who were returned had originally gone willingly, but the intent was not to keep them indefinitely or harm them, and they were returned to Earth, albeit many decades later. At the end, after the aliens had made contact, a new group of humans, including Roy, went with them voluntarily.

raywest

Question: Spoiler! Given Gamora is brought to 2019 from 2014 with no ill effects, presumably just spinning off a new timeline with no Gamora in it (or Thanos for that matter, making that new timeline pretty peaceful), why can't the Avengers just go and "retrieve" alternate-timeline versions of the other people they've lost? They don't seem too worried about the timelines that have branched off due to their actions, eg. Cap going back in time (a whole other issue), Loki stealing the Tesseract, etc. They could hop back to a day earlier and basically get their friends back.

Jon Sandys

Answer: They actually do have some concern for the alternate/branched off timelines - that's the whole reason Hulk proposes returning the stones (after they're done with them) to the point they were stolen from, so that those branched off timelines won't be royally screwed with a stone (or 2) missing from their timeline (i.e. The Ancient One telling Hulk that the sorcerers need the stone in order to combat the forces of darkness). Granted, some of the changes they've made they can't do much about - not without spending more time and further interfering (Loki escaping with the Tesseract in the alternate 2012 timeline, or the alternate 2014 timeline's Thanos and co. Traveling to main-timeline 2023 - leaving alt-2014 without a Thanos, which as you say, may not be too bad). With all that in mind, I think they would be hesitant to 'steal' their friends from the past because think about what they were doing just a few days ago... trying to figure out how to unsnap the 50% of the universe that Thanos dusted. If they take their friends, who were pretty integral to figuring out how to/and carrying out the undoing of that, they would be dooming that new alternate 2023 timeline to failure in their endeavors.

Since Thanos coming from the past didn't change 2023, I don't think taking their friends from the past would change anything either. They are constantly creating new time lines/universes. However, the only people they lost were Black Widow and Vision, and Hulk tried to bring Black Widow back and failed with the stones whilst Vision lived on the mind stone, which is gone (brought back to it's own timeline). So bringing those 2 back isn't going to be happening. Who else did they lose?

lionhead

Chosen answer: There's really no reason that they couldn't. Probably an oversight by the writers. I think an easy fix could maybe have been the Ancient One or Doctor Strange warning the heroes that continually altering the space-time continuum could potentially lead to paradoxes that threaten the existence of the multiverse and it's better to just let sleeping dogs lie. It would have been somewhat of a cop-out, but it would have at least addressed it.

Phaneron

Answer: That would be kidnapping. Also, you would be killing someone else who would need to take their spot. Either way someone dies. Are you going to keep going back and saving a fallen comrade?

DetectiveGadget85

Not kidnapping if they agree to it.

You assume they would agree to it. Why would they agree to it?

DetectiveGadget85

Because of their imminent death in their own timeline. If they get told they're going to die if they stay, but hop over to our timeline where they can still do some good, that may well persuade people. And yes it makes their timeline more uncertain, it's not guaranteed they'd choose to leave, but they may well be willing to. Regardless, "kidnapping" is a stretch.

Gamora - she's not going to die in her own timeline. Her timeline's Thanos is dead. He's not going to be there to throw her off the cliff. Black Widow - you have to explain to her that her being alive can kill countless others. If you remove her from anytime line she doesn't do the good that she has in the last Avengers movies and as a Shield agent or Hawkeye (or another Avenger) has to take her place for the soul stone. That's counter to her sacrifice. Vision - You remove him, you remove the mind stone from that timeline. Which isn't good. If you remove them from their timeline without telling them all of this, yes that would amount to kidnapping.

DetectiveGadget85

Answer: Because without the pigs they wouldn't get the money for the tractor. Without that they wouldn't get the harvest and would end up losing the farm. Not to mention that the piglets were prize pigs and would sell for lots of money.

Question: I can't understand why Sonny hauled Sandy off the dance floor during the dance finale. Sure Sonny was a bit of a jerk, but he idolized Danny and would never disrespect him. Also there was nothing to suggest that he and Cha-Cha were friends. I never truly understood.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: Watched that scene again now and I just think it was poor writing (in what's still a classic film regardless). How none of the judges noticed that Cha Cha took another girl's (Sandy's) place even after she'd already been "tapped out" is another huge plot hole. Plus a lot of people in America were watching the dance on TV and it's not mentioned by anyone after this scene. 35 years later and that scene still bugs me (haha).

Answer: I agree it plays a bit strange, but I always chalked it up to Sonny wanting Danny to win the dance competition and Sandy, although not bad, admits she's not on Danny's level, while Cha-cha is "the best dancer at St. Bernadette."

Also, he was drinking and upset so not thinking.

Answer: He's fall-down drunk, that's why. He's drinking during the entire dance.

Krista

Answer: It was because they were going to moon the cameras, they didn't want to embarrass Sandy since she would've been offended if it happened when she and Danny were dancing.

Answer: When he's pulling Sandy away he is also yelling to Danny "Go! Go! Go!" So I was also wondering like if Cha-Cha told him to do that and they just failed to add that into the scene.

Chosen answer: It's so Cha-Cha can go with Danny. You can see Cha-Cha giving Danny the eye. So Sonny took Sandy away for Cha-Cha's benefit.

Answer: Because in real life Olivia was late for work, as a result Annette had to take Olivia's place because she was her understudy.

Answer: He is so upset about Marty liking Ed Byrnes, he just drinks all night.

Answer: I think it was because Sonny was drunk and wanted Sandy to talk to Marty for him since she dumped him for Vince Fontaine at the beginning of the dance.

Answer: It's a terrible moment in the story because it exposes Danny as being thoughtless. After already burning Sandy once (at the pep rally) you'd think he'd be mindful of not doing it again. This time, though, he humiliates her in front of the entire school, as well as on television. Unsure how Sandy's sitting with him in the next scene at the drive-in only slightly miffed. Imagine how this plays as a story to their children: "Hey, kids, did I ever tell you about how your dad embarrassed me in front of everybody?" I guess it's meant to be partly motivation for Sandy to change her image and outlook in order to keep Danny, but it's a terrible message (even back then). She's nothing but thoughtful and considerate, and Danny repeatedly treats her badly, but she decides she needs to reinvent herself. (Danny's makeover doesn't count given it lasts about three minutes.) It would've been better had Danny and Sandy came second because of Sandy's dancing, and that could've played on her mind.

Answer: Well my theory is maybe since Sonny wants a girl, Cha-Cha promised him a date with a girl if he agreed to her plan.

Question: Why are they transporting entire missiles instead of just detaching the warheads (which are air portable)?

Answer: Because detaching them and reattaching them would have taken time, which they didn't have.

But, after the crash, they remove the warheads and transport them by helicopter and leave the boosters behind, as they only need the warheads.

Question: Does the death of Bruce's parents and the arrival of Superman happen after the death of Barry's mom? If not, then how could Barry saving his mom change what happened in the past?

Answer: These events did happen before Barry Allen's mom died. Flash even asks Professor Zoom how events that happened before his mother's death could have changed when he saved her. Zoom says "Break the sound barrier and there's a sonic boom. You broke the time barrier, Flash. Time boom. Ripples of distortion radiated out through that point of impact...shifting everything just a tiny bit. But enough. Enough for events to happen slightly differently." So these ripples did affect the past (events that happened before Barry's mother's death).

Bishop73

Such Sweet Sorrow: Part 2 - S2-E14

Question: Jumping to the future to preserve the sphere data was meant to be so that Control couldn't get hold of it. But Control is neutralised before the jump, drones all dead in the water, it's utterly destroyed. So what's the threat? Why jump at all?

Jon Sandys

Answer: Perhaps they didn't want to take the risk that Control - a tactical and strategic analysis program - would choose to place its entire core programming into a single fragile human body (Leland), despite previously demonstrating the ability to decentralise, duplicate and transfer itself to numerous computer, cybernetic and organic systems. If any trace of the Control program still existed, it could make another attempt to seize the sphere data.

Sierra1

Question: While recognizing that this film is entirely fictitious, how likely is it that an IT firm in 1999 would have allowed a former employee access to the premises after being laid off, never mind continue to send him a paycheck as with Milton Waddams? I myself was fired the following year and got the walk of shame treatment ("you have 5 minutes to clear your desk - the taxi's waiting outside") which at the time already seemed pretty standard.

Answer: Simply because he is basically invisible to them. Anyone can walk into that place, no guard outside, no key-card required. Nobody cared. At least you got a taxi.

lionhead

Exactly. These things can happen. It depends on the place and how they operate. As recently as January 2024, I read about one young woman who went into a Kroger grocery store and worked for six hours, as an experiment. She has also done this at Target and Walmart. She wears clothes that look like a real employee's.

Answer: They never told Milton he was fired, they just cruelly cut off his paycheck, figuring he'd eventually get fed up and leave (he'd actually been laid off years ago, but a payroll glitch kept him getting a paycheck). The management is hoping if they're cruel enough, he'll stop showing up.

Brian Katcher

This is actually the reverse of what happened. The glitch caused him to continue to receive a paycheck, even though he'd been laid off. The "Bobs" corrected the glitch, so he would no longer receive a paycheck. In an effort to avoid confrontation, they chose not to say anything to him, hoping he'd realise it and leave on his own.

Question: How does Ma spend seven years with 'old Nick' and never catch his real name? She must call him something to his face.

Answer: Old Nick keeps Joy completely isolated from the outside world. He never has any reason to mention his real name to her and she certainly is in no position to force him to do so. What she calls him to his face, if anything, is never addressed.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: They checked whether her hymen had been broken.

BaconIsMyBFF

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.