Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Rather than leaving Stackhouse behind in the area where the Serbians could find him, wouldn't it have made more sense for Burnette to pick Stackhouse up, and help him get up the hill?

Answer: Because in escape and evasion, as opposed to combat, you are taught to get away from where you have landed as fast as possible. And Stackhouse probably believed his pilot would be treated humanely under the Geneva Convention.

stiiggy

Answer: Stackhouse is badly hurt. Burnett would have known better than to move him. Plus, with the way he speaks to Stackhouse it's clear they weren't expecting company so quickly.

Ssiscool

So what if Stackhouse has an injured leg, why not just help in him walk? Soldiers in combat help their follow soldiers walk when they have injured legs.

Question: What did Walter mean by, "You're killing your father, Larry!"?

Answer: Generally, he means that the boy, Larry Sellers, is disgracing his family (Walter has huge respect for the boy's dad, but considers the kid a dunce). Specifically, Walter is blaming Larry for his father struggling to breathe; that's Larry's dad in an iron lung in the background. Walter and The Dude become louder, more insistent and more vulgar, but the kid still blankly refuses to answer, and all you can hear is the iron lung pumping in the background. Frustrated because the kid isn't intimidated, Walter lashes out: "You're killing your father, Larry!"

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Sir Hiss is secretly tasked with looking for Robin Hood, and hides in a balloon. Wouldn't he sufficate if the balloon was inflated?

Answer: Yes. He also wouldn't float. But it's a cartoon about a talking fox, so don't worry too much about realism.

Brian Katcher

Question: While there were various characters being held in a sort of "suspended animation" entwined in the "canker man's" roots/webs, only one was set free (the foster care agent), why? (01:20:35 - 01:24:25)

Answer: We only see her released, but the implication is that the others were, too.

TedStixon

Question: When the tanker ship is discovered in the middle of the Gobi desert they are led to it by - seemingly - Mongolian herdsmen on camel-back; the camels seem to be dromedaries, not bactrians as should be in that region. Are they Bactrian or Dromedary camels?

Answer: According to IMDb, they used dromedaries but the correct camels should have been bactrian.

raywest

Question: It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but I remember a scene in which the FBI gives a press conference urging users not to log on to the website, as they then become accessories to the murders. If that's the case, why not say that anyone who accesses the site to watch someone be killed will be charged as an accessory to murder since they can presumably identify the IP addresses of those who watch? It definitely would be a lot of people that would be charged and would cause its own separate and long investigation, but it could have deterred a lot of people from watching.

Phaneron

Answer: Most people who log onto a website know they can be traced through their IP address. Also, this is a movie, and plot details often are not logical or realistic.

raywest

For sure. But I guess to expand upon my question, is there any reason in particular in the real world why the FBI wouldn't threaten to charge people as accessories to murder? As in, are there any legal loopholes that would prohibit the FBI or any law enforcement agency in the U.S. from charging people if the extent of their involvement is driving up views which hasten the victims' deaths? I wanted to submit this as a mistake, but I didn't know if there were extenuating circumstances.

Phaneron

Question: At the beginning, President Picquery mentioned that they removed Grindelwald's tongue, but the tongue of Abernathy, who was disguised as Grindelwad, looks like a snake's. It doesn't look like it was cut off. Why is that?

Bunch Son

Answer: Grindelwald gave Abernathy the forked tongue after the escape sequence, as a reward for his loyal service and to replace the one Macusa had cut out.

Answer: Technopathy which is the ability to control certain electrical devices and Electrokinesis which is the ability to generate, manipulate and/or conduct electricity.

Question: Two questions. 1) Why does the Sultan pick on Iago all the time - force feeding him stale crackers and when he's on the magic carpet, chasing after him? 2) Why is the Sultan so rough with the magic carpet? When he goes for a ride on it after Aladdin shows up at the palace as Prince Ali, he rides it around the palace in such a reckless manner that when he's finished, the carpet can barely walk.

Answer: Iago to him is just a parrot, not a sentient being like we know. He genuinely thinks Iago likes the cookies. The magic carpet is the one being rough, being in control since he is just giving the Sultan a thrill ride. It's trying to make a good impression for Aladdin by giving the Sultan a great time.

lionhead

Answer: The Sultan is a goofy, clumsy guy who doesn't realise he's being rough.

Brian Katcher

Question: The penguins were left behind when the zoo closed. Who/what kept them alive? Oswald?

Answer: They fended for themselves. Like I wrote, they're large mutated penguins they would have no fear of dangerous predators. They hunt and defend the little ones. They use the Gotham sewers to forage for food.

Answer: It was most likely the four large mutated penguins that kept them alive, providing protection and feeding them. Being as large as they were they probably had no fear of dangerous predators.

So who kept the four large penguins alive?

Question: When the guy on bath salts realises the food is alive, what are the two white lumps that are out of focus that were used by him?

Answer: The two unfocused white lumps in the foreground were part of the toilet paper's eyes (as seen from behind). When the camera angle changes, we see the roll of toilet paper, bent in half. But if you're talking about what the 2 white things hanging off the toilet paper holder (next to the 2 blackish things hanging off the holder) it looks like empty balloons (but that's a guess and they weren't alive).

Bishop73

Question: Sirius was only dragging Ron by his trouser sleeve and not his leg, so how was his leg broken?

Answer: The tunnel was small and irregular. Ron's leg likely got caught on an exposed root or snagged on a rock, injuring it as he was being dragged through it.

raywest

Answer: Cap couldn't risk landing the plane without the weapons on board detonating. He crashed it into the Arctic so that no-one but himself would be killed or injured if the weapons did go off.

Bishop73

Question: How was Elijah getting out of his room in the first place? I know he has free roam of the facility after killing the guard and taking his keycard, but I don't recall the movie explaining how he was getting out earlier in the movie?

Phaneron

Answer: He's picking the locks on the doors, bypassing the keycards.

Answer: At one point, Elijah's mother mentions that he caught a glimpse of and instantly memorized a blueprint of the psychiatric hospital when he was first committed, and he used that knowledge to short-out the hospital's electrical system one time (before they started heavily sedating him). It seems likely that Elijah was able to somehow hotwire electronic door locks, using his knowledge of the hospital's electrical system. Later, he used a master keycard taken from the guard.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Not only that but, it was shown in the first movie that Elijah was very good at manipulating people so he could have convinced somebody to let him out.

Answer: The movie doesn't explain. But given what we know about Elijah from "Unbreakable" and this film, it's really no surprise he managed to find a way out - he's psychotic, but he's also a genius.

TedStixon

Question: What's the name of the city where this movie takes place? I know it was obviously shot in Sydney, Australia but it's never said that it takes place there and everyone has American accents.

Answer: As in the TV series, The film takes place in the fictional town of Angel Grove, California.

Ssiscool

Chosen answer: Since there is no way any of them could have opened the curtain I would say it is a mistake.

Bowling255

I think it's the monkey! Maybe they cut them out of that episode and forgot about the curtain part.

Question: The mechanic tells Biff the price of Biff's car is $300. Does that include the damage Biff caused to the truck he hit if the first film and also the price of the horse manure that had to be hauled away? I know Biff goes into a store across the street for a few seconds so we don't hear part of the argument. Wouldn't Biff have to pay more than $300, or was the $300 just for the car itself?

Answer: It was the cost of the damage to his car. Later on in the film, Biff tells Marty "you caused 300 bucks in damage to my car, and I'm gonna take it out of your ass".

Answer: Remember that Biff's car was going very slowly and hit side on to the back of a much larger truck. It didn't damage the truck, it only caused the manure to come out.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: The mechanic does mention the horse manure in the dialog of the $300 but truck is not mentioned so it's unknown.

Question: Given that the entire McFly family's circumstances have changed at the end of the movie due to Marty altering the past, shouldn't Marty's whole life have gone down a completely different path from childhood on? What are the odds that he even still knows Doc and Jennifer in the revised 1985 (let alone has the exact same date planned with Jennifer for the very same evening), given that everything else has changed?

Answer: The suggestion is given that he was the only "normal" person in the family and when he changed the past his parents and siblings became more "normal" people as well whilst he stayed as he was, despitegrowingup with different parents and siblings, since he was "normal" anyway. This totally ignores the linear timeline idea given during the entire movie, but it's obvious that was the idea.

lionhead

You're absolutely right about Marty being the only "normal" one in the family, but that doesn't ignore the linear timeline idea. There are two different Marty McFly's by the end of this movie. There's the one we follow, who grew up with unhappy parents, and then there's the other Marty McFly who grew up with cool parents. We see the 2nd Marty go back to 1955 when Marty gets back to the Twin Pines mall. The idea isn't to ignore the linear timeline idea, but rather to imply that unhappy parents or not Marty will still always be Marty.

BaconIsMyBFF

Except for the fact Marty kept being in danger of disappearing if his parents wouldn't get together. If his old self would disappear from his parents not getting together then so he should if his entire life is different and he would be a different Marty just like his siblings. Even if it's only memories rather than an entire personality.

lionhead

Answer: It's definitely a paradox. Marty actually goes back to the life of 2nd Marty, but if that's the case then original Marty should have still faded away since he created a new timeline when he gave George confidence. Original Marty shouldn't exist anymore at all, he should have faded completely away on the stage. I've said it before and I'll say it again: time travel movies are a mess.

BaconIsMyBFF

The new Marty isn't a different person entirely; he's just the same guy who was raised in a slightly different environment to the original timeline. Marty's actions in 1955 have ensured that his parents will have three children, and he will be one of them. His existence is completely secured in the timeline.

Question: The warden tells Frank Morris he is not permitted to have newspapers, or magazines carrying news. Why not?

Answer: In part, to break inmates. Alcatraz was notoriously tough on inmates, psychologically (although they did relax some of the strict rules by the 50s). In general, inmates had very little contact with the outside world, and many even had little contact with other inmates. In the film, the warden tells Frank the only news inmates get is what the warden tells them is the news.

Bishop73

Question: Are we ever given any suggestion as to what offence Lorraine's brother was incarcerated for?

Answer: Not in any official, canon source. In the Back to the Future comic books published by IDW he is an aspiring member of Biff's gang and gets arrested breaking into the home of Doc Brown's mother in an attempt to steal a large sum of money. It must be reiterated that the comics are non-canon and this should be taken with a grain of salt.

BaconIsMyBFF

The comic books are so skewed from the movie events, they cannot be considered canon. "Jailbird Joey" was only a baby in a playpen when Biff and his gang were seniors in highschool. Unless Biff and his highschool buddies were still recruiting gang members into their mid-30s, there is no way Jailbird Joey would be trying to join their gang.

Charles Austin Miller

While the answer does state the comics aren't cannon, it's the only place that really delves into Uncle Joey's criminal history since the film's didn't need to spend time discussing the exact nature of his crimes. However, it would not be unreasonable (or even unheard of) for Biff to be recruiting members for his "gang" at 35. Plus, Joey wanting to be part of Biff's gang wouldn't necessarily require Biff or his high school buddies to be personally involved in recruiting young Joey.

Bishop73

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