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: When Passepartout, Phileas Fogg and Monique are looking at a map to find a way of avoiding the British police, Phileas notes that they can't go to Singapore or Hong Kong because they're both British Colonies. Monique asks if England owns every country in Asia, Passepartout says they don't own China. Since Hong Kong is located in China, shouldn't England own that as well?

Answer: Hong Kong was indeed under British rule from 1841-1997. In short, it stems from the First Opium War where in the aftermath of the war, China ceded (gave up control of) Hong Kong to the British. After the war, with the cession of Hong Hong, it wasn't technically part of China any more and Britain didn't really seek to occupy more of China.

Bishop73

Question: Mr. B knew Nisi wasn't Lily's granddaughter because Lily never had children, but how did he know Lily never had children?

Answer: Since there's no definitive answer given in the movie, here's my guess as to how Mr. Blakemore knew that Lily never had children. The estate where Mr. B lives originally belonged to his parents/family. But his personal interest in creating a successful fabric business is due to his love for Lily, because she's the one who had dreams of becoming a clothing designer. He felt he owed everything to her. So at some point in the past, some years after his forced arranged marriage, and possibly after the passing of his parents/family members who separated him from Lily, Mr. B could have tried to locate Lily, then found out that she had died (childless) and he kept that painful information private, not telling his nephew, who was his last living relative. Mr. B tells Nisi that no fortune is worth the loss of a true love, some things are priceless.

Super Grover

Answer: It doesn't look as if Mola Ram is smiling at the trio, because they're standing to Mola Ram's upper right. The Little Maharaja is seated in front of the Thuggee high priest, but I don't think he's specifically looking downward, directly at the boy either. To me, it seems as if Mola Ram is smiling because while he's confident in his control of the Little Maharaja, it's the fact that he knows another human sacrifice is being brought out for the Kali sacrificial dark ritual.

Super Grover

Answer: The maharajah was now under the black sleep of Kali and Mola Ram realised he was now under his control. Probably easier to perform his sacrifices with him brainwashed and manipulated.

Zorz

Answer: Could you be more specific about which scene you're referring to?

raywest

The question gives the exact second.

Great, but I don't currently have a DVD player or have a copy or access to every movie someone asks a question about. If someone is asking a question, they shouldn't expect anyone to actually take the time to set up and watch the film in order to answer a question for them. Just give a brief description of the scene.

raywest

That's what the time stamp feature is used for. The question is asking what exactly Mola Ram is looking at in a specific second of time in the movie. Explaining the scene wouldn't help anyone answer the question. To answer, you will have to look at the movie and pay specific attention to that time stamp. If you can't do that then you can't answer the question and should just ignore.

BaconIsMyBFF

I get what you're saying, but I've been able to answer many questions without having to re-watch a movie because the question contained enough specific information so that I knew which scene they were referring to. Based on the information given in the question, I can check movie clips on YouTube or get the answer by reading online movie synopsis. Every little bit of info helps.

raywest

Tough luck I guess?

lionhead

Answer: Hermione was attempting to restrain him because she feared he'd try to rescue Scabbers, not knowing that he was really Peter Pettigrew disguised as Ron's pet rat.

raywest

Why would he try with a broken leg?

Hermione doesn't know if his leg is broken or not. Knowing how Ron tends to be emotional and reactive, she's just acting to ensure he remains calm and doesn't impulsively make the situation worse.

raywest

People can do extraordinary things when in a desperate state.

Ssiscool

Answer: Most of the races and cultures in Middle Earth do not use what we would call in a modern setting a "full name", that is a given name followed by a family name. The Hobbits are the only race that does this regularly (i.e. Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, etc). Most of the other races use the more medieval "son of" when stating a formal full name (i.e. Aragorn son of Arathorn, Gimli son of Gloin, etc). To answer the question directly, most of the characters that don't have last names don't have them because last names are not used in their culture.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: It has to do with cultural differences. Some cultures in Middle Earth, like the Hobbits, use a family name (Frodo Baggins), others use a single name, followed by where they're from (Legolas of the Woodland Realm). Still others use the name of the father (Aragorn, son of Arathorn/Gimli, son of Gloin). Finally there are characters that use only a single name because they are of such standing that no other identification is necessary (Gandalf, Sauron, Sauruman), etc. These characters generally follow the name with a particular characteristic (Gandalf the Grey), and frequently have multiple names in different regions (Gandalf is known by many names).

Answer: The Hobbits use family groupings and thus last names. Frodo uses the surname Underhill in Bree and is instantly asked about Underhills in the Shire. Humans use a variety of names but not surnames - Aragorn is the son of Arathorn and Theoden is just called Theoden son of Thengel, and noble people like Denethor and Boromir are said to be "of the House of Voronwe or House of Hurin" Elves are immortal and thus do not need family names. Dwarves use the same naming convention as Men. Even Smaug uses one name.

Question: Is it understood or implied that the old woman at the beginning is Anton Ego's mother? It comes together when he flashes back to his boyhood; literally the way mother used to make?

dizzyd

Answer: It is his mother. It's not that Remy made it exactly like his mother did. It's along the lines that as a food critic in Paris, he's used to eating only very high quality haute cuisine. A dish as simple as ratatouille is something that he loves from childhood but probably hasn't had in decades.

LorgSkyegon

Question: How did the "once famous racing car" ended up in a scrap man's garage? Why didn't the owners simply take it back themselves? After all you wouldn't see Lewis Hamilton's crashed F1 car with kids playing in it.

Answer: It is possible the owner of the car had so much invested in the car that he lost everything when it crashed and burned. Needing money, the owner would have sold the destroyed vehicle to the person offering the most money for the wreckage. It is also possible this car was not the only car of the owner so maybe he somehow scraped together more money and continued with his racing career but with a different race car. The movie does not tell that story, though. Finally, many historical vehicles and artifacts have been abandoned and/or lost to history, never to be found or discovered in a barn, attic, garage, or a junkyard.

Scott215

Question: When Griswald knocks the helmet off Hawkins and it appears his head is knocked off, you can actually see a face in the helmet on the ground. But why? Hawkins is supposed to be hiding his head in the armor. So why did the filmmaker put a face in the helmet after it was knocked off?

Answer: I watched the clip on YouTube, stopping and rewinding it, but I cannot see what looks like a face inside the helmet. Maybe it's just the way light and shadows are reflecting on the metal.

raywest

Answer: There is an episode "MyPods and Broomsticks" (s20e07) where Bart befriends a Muslim kid, Bashir bin Laden, but Homer ends up thinking the bin Ladens are terrorists and offends them at dinner.

Bishop73

Question: How does K holding the galaxy and calling Zed to let the Arquillians know they have it prevent them from destroying Earth?

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: The Arquillians are prepared to destroy Earth so that the Bug doesn't escape with the galaxy. MiB having it isn't a concern.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Presumably the Arquillians consider the galaxy to be in safe hands at this point and agree to hold off their attack provided the Men in Black deliver the galaxy to them.

Phaneron

Show generally

Question: How is it that Stevie is so old when Nancy gets out of prison? He was an infant when she went in and she did 3 years.

Answer: It's not uncommon for TV shows to suddenly "age up" baby/toddler characters in order for them to have more narrative purpose. Other examples of shows I can think of that did this are "Step by Step," "Last Man Standing," "Boy Meets World," and possibly "Dexter."

Phaneron

Question: *Spoiler* After Tony died, why didn't anyone just use the time stone to bring him back? We saw Thanos do this with Vision in Infinity War so not sure what was stopping anyone from doing the same.

Answer: Vision was killed by Wanda, and Thanos just rewound that "bubble" of time so he was alive. Tony on the other hand was killed due to his internal injuries, caused by using the gauntlet. Rewind time to just before he died, and he'd still die again, because of the damage. Rewind it to before he even used the gauntlet...and he wouldn't have used the gauntlet, leaving Thanos and his army alive and kicking. That's of course assuming that the time stone can even alter events which have been caused by all 6 stones combined.

Jon Sandys

I have a further to this question however. The keeper of the Time Stone is Dr. Strange, and has been shown to have adept knowledge in it's usage since he first acquired it. They do have to return the stones back to the timelines where they originally got them to keep the time lines from really getting screwed up, meaning the stones in their time would still have been destroyed by Thanos 5 years prior. However, what exactly would keep Dr. Strange, someone that powerful and knowledgeable of the Time Stone, from using it to reverse Tony at that point? As demonstrated in his solo movie, he can manipulate time around a single object... i.e. the apple he makes rot/eaten/and whole again without affecting anything else around it. So why can he not do the same for Tony, unless undoing that would make it so he never snapped, but that would only be in that little bubble like you said. It could create a paradox possibly, but this question brings up this issue as well.

Quantom X

The snap caused his death. If he reverses time, he dies again. If he goes back further, he undoes the snap. There isn't a little bubble. The time stone can't be that powerful to undo the ramifications of the snap.

Question: In the magazine, Spellbound which Queenie brought to Newt's house in London, the headline reads "Newt Towed." What does towed mean?

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: It's a simple misread, since the letters are so close together. It reads "Newt to wed," announcing his "engagement" to Leta.

Cubs Fan

Question: I don't understand the timing in the third act. When the launch pad says "four minutes to launch" in the scene with Jarra, J comes to Laura's rescue in what feels like longer than four minutes. Also, even though J and K bring Laura to her ship so she can leave, how much time was there left before Earth and Zartha would've been destroyed?

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: The fight lasted for about 3 minutes, of course there are cuts towards the worms so the fighting isn't fully shown on camera, but since the countdown did say 4 minutes when the fight starts, that's how long it took. As for how much time was left for Laura to enter the pod; The pod came down and would lift up again with or without a cargo, so when the pod went up the time was up.

lionhead

Answer: As they show in the film, a small part of her survived, and was able to regenerate.

Answer: There's a lot of sight gags in the show, something ridiculous or impossible happening for a laugh. This is just one of them.

Bishop73

Question: How come Julia wasn't listed on the flight manifest?

Answer: It is never explained. Stephanie, the flight attendant who was in on the conspiracy, claimed that only Kyle's name was on the manifest and the seat next to her was unoccupied. Whether she somehow manipulated the manifest or someone else in on the plot was able to remove Julia's name, is unknown.

raywest

There is probably no way she could have manipulated the flight manifest since you can't access it from on board a plane.

Julia's name would have been deleted before Stephanie boarded the plane.

raywest

Wait a minute, I thought a passenger's name wasn't put on the flight manifest until he or she boards the plane.

It's possible someone off the plane hacked into the flight manifest sometime after Kyle, and Julia boarded.

Question: When Ben starts flipping through the book about the history of Derry, he begins seeing the same page being repeated several times. While this is happening, some children's voices can be heard singing. What exactly were they saying?

Answer: They are singing a little rhyme called Oranges and Lemons.

Question: Why was Vince Dicola chosen to score this film instead of the usual Bill Conti?

Answer: According to Wikipedia: "Rocky IV is the only film in the series not to feature original music by Bill Conti, who was replaced by DiCola; however, it does feature arrangements of themes composed by Conti from previous films in the series, such as "The Final Bell." Conti, who was too busy with the first two Karate Kid films at the time, would return for Rocky V and Rocky Balboa. Conti's famous piece of music from the Rocky series, "Gonna Fly Now", does not appear at all in Rocky IV (the first time in the series this happened), though a few bars of it are incorporated into DiCola's training montage instrumental."

raywest

Question: Whose picture did Dodge salute in his cabin when he said "live to fight another day"?

Answer: Dodge says "We live to fight another day, Captain." suggesting that the photo is of the previous captain of the Stingray.

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