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: At the end, Orson Welles is wounded and flees up a ladder out onto the face of the church clock. The clock contains an automata of statues that move in front of the clock face. One statue holds a sword which impales Orson Welles. We have a distance shot in which the sword is sticking out of Orson Welles' back. Orson Welles presses against the statue to withdraw the sword and falls to his death. Is such an end feasible? Surely, for a sword to fully pierce a human body it would have to be very sharp and be driven with incredible force and speed. Would the statue be moving with anything remotely approaching such force and speed? And surely a statue on a clock would not carry a real sword, but a facsimile, meant to look like a weapon from a distance? And, if somebody was pierced completely through with a sword, could they press their body forward to fully withdraw the weapon? (01:34:45)

Rob Halliday

Answer: This is a fictional death, and it's unlikely a person could be killed in that manner. The sword might cause a severe wound, but it would take some force to completely impale a body that way. Movies often exaggerate reality to create drama.

raywest

Answer: At the start of the movie the only people who knew are Dooku and others close to Palpatine. It's possible Grievous knew too, but we never get a confirmation. By the end of the movie all the remaining Jedi know, as well as Senator Organa and all the clone troops. The Senate doesn't.

lionhead

It is said that in the film's official novelization, Grievous doesn't know Palpatine is Sidious.

DFirst1

Dooku, Maul, Maas Amedda, Sly Moore, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Ochi of Bestoon all knew.

Question: Something that puzzles me about the thee Omen films taken together. In the first film of the series the very young Damien is taken into a church. As the son of the Devil he has a great aversion to all things Christian, so he has a huge tantrum, and screams, struggles and resists going into the building. So how is it, that, as the series progresses, he can enter Christian buildings without any ill effects? (The denouement of the third and final Omen film is set in Fountains Abbey, a venerated Christian church in Yorkshire).

Rob Halliday

Answer: It may be similar to myths around vampires. In many variations, their fear of crucifixes is purely psychological. As a child, Damian may have feared the symbolism of the church, but as he grew he realised it had no actual power over him.

Answer: There's no clear-cut answer. The first film was intended as a stand-alone movie. When the later sequels were made, the plot details were changed or otherwise adapted to fit a new story line.

raywest

A quick addendum to this correction: There was indeed a general idea from the start that the Omen could spawn a trilogy of movies, though there weren't detailed plans, and the first film was written so that it could function fine as a stand-alone movie if they never got around to sequels.

TonyPH

Answer: That may be when he broke his hand on a bulletproof safety shield while filming.

raywest

Question: In this version the Phantom was a highly gifted composer, who, as a grown adult, was horribly disfigured in an accident. Much of the Hammer version centres on the performance of the Phantom's masterpiece, an opera about Joan Of Arc, segments of which are shown during the film. I am not an expert on opera, but it seemed to me that the Phantom's musical take on the Joan Of Arc legend was one of the dullest musical performances I have ever seen, consisting of perfectly ordinary (and uninspiring) dialogue, sung on a single (and rather monotonous) octave. (Imagine some people who can't sing very well singing the text of a second rate historical novel.) Did anybody else who saw this little known film of the classic horror story have any opinion on the Joan Of Arc opera?

Rob Halliday

Answer: This is a British low-budget version of the classic book. Due to its financial restraints, there was less concern about producing a factual or high-quality fictional opera. It is only a backdrop to the story.

raywest

Question: Vader tortured Han to lure Luke into a trap because he knows Luke will sense they are in danger and will come try to rescue them since they are his friends. How did Vader know Han, Leia, and Chewbacca were Luke's friends?

Answer: Vader would be able to piece together information from the time Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and Ben Kenobi were on the Death Star in Episode IV. Luke was Ben's apprentice, Luke escaped with Princess Leia and Han, so it's logical Vader would make the connection that they are friends and allies. Spies would also be feeding him information.

raywest

Question: At the end of the film Blondie, sitting on the horse, turns around, aims his rifle, fires, and severs the rope with a single shot. Lets face it, that rope would be a very small target, and difficult to hit with precision, even from ten or twenty feet, and Blondie is now so far from Tuco that he would no longer even be able to see the rope. Could anyone hit such a small target from such a distance with such incredible accuracy?

Rob Halliday

Answer: There's a show called "Hollywood Weapons: Fact or Fiction" which dealt with this exact question (s01e03). Blondie is roughly 200 yds away. In the show the host didn't hit the rope, but only missed by an inch on his first attempt. I definitely think an expert Sharps Rifle shooter could make the shot. The issue however, is the bullet would most likely not actually slice the rope apart as seen in the film (they fired the Sharps at point blank and the rope remained partially intact still). They also tested shooting a hat off someone and (as expected) the bullet just goes right through the hat without lifting the hat at all.

Bishop73

That was another thing that puzzled me. On several occasions in this film, Tuco is suspended from a rope, and Blondie cuts the rope by firing a bullet at it, (I think Clint Eastwood repeated the trick in "The Outlaw Josey Wales"). But if you fired a bullet at a rope holding a (rather large) person like Tuco (or a similarly heavy weight), even at close range, would it really sever the rope? I will have to look out for "Hollywood Weapons Fact Or Fiction." I hope they only used a dummy or a model to re-create the shooting feats. I don't think I would have liked to have been hanging on a rope while somebody fired bullets at me to see if this would sever the rope, or to stand there while they fired bullets into my hat to see if they could lift it off my head.

Rob Halliday

Answer: Probably not, but remember...this is a movie, a western at that and they typically have over the top action to excite audiences. Kinda like how it's impossible to shoot someone's hat off without harming them. It's all for show.

Dra9onBorn117

Baby Fever - S3-E7

Question: What is the song played during Donna's pole dance. Is there somewhere we can download it?

Answer: It's just incidental music written for the show and wouldn't be available to download as a song.

Bishop73

Question: What chord does Miguel strum in De La Cruz's mausoleum after he steals his guitar?

Answer: G.

Answer: This was a reference to the previous movie, in which a scene showed Juni and Carmen able to read each other's minds. In this scene, Juni told Carmen, through reading minds, that her feet stink. She said it because he wanted to be told something only Carmen would say.

Casual Person

Answer: I've gone and looked over the entire episode. The first scene is of Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, Raj and Leslie playing paintball, and Penny is not present in the scene. The next scene is in the cafeteria in the university, and Penny is not present in this scene either. The next scene after that, they are at the apartment and Penny is present, but every time her feet are seen in the frame, she is wearing shoes. There is never a moment in which she does not have her shoes on. She also has her shoes on in every other scene she is present in. Is it possible you were referring to a different episode?

Casual Person

I'm referring to the one where Penny gets paint on Sheldon's spot.

Question: Why is there a scene where the fake detectives are trying to listen to Roy's conversation with his doc? They weren't really cops, the fake hospital room didn't need microphones, etc.

Answer: They needed to get the password for Roy's safety deposit box. They planted the camera and microphones so that they could listen in on the conversation and know what the password is.

Casual Person

Question: When Gerry and Segen are making their way to the airport, the helicopter they're supposed to take gets blown up. So they're without transportation. Yet suddenly, 20 seconds later, they're running onto the runway, boarding the Belarus plane. How did they get to the airport?

Answer: The likely answer is that they ran to the airport. Their journey to the airport was simply cut to save time and keep the movie going.

Casual Person

Question: Who plays that cover of "The Rose" which is background music during the conversation just before Electro is met?

Answer: The background song playing is not The Rose. The song that is actually playing is called Song for Zula by Phosphorescent.

Casual Person

Question: How come Alex's parents or any other character from the last movie don't make, at least, a small appearance in this movie? I know that Bernie Mac, who voiced Zuba, is dead, but can somebody explain Zuba and Florrie's fate?

Answer: They don't make an appearance because they were irrelevant to the story. The decision to go back home would have been made with or without any character introduced in the previous movie, so they were simply not included. Alex's parents would have continued to live in Africa after Alex and the others left.

Casual Person

That makes no sense though because (I know it's a kids movie) but the way they portray it, it makes it seem like Alex doesn't care about leaving his parents and what he just recently realised is his birth home. Like, it feels like there was some necessary dialogue there (probably not for the kids though).

Answer: They don't appear because Zuba's voice actor, Bernie Mac, passed away and their absence was done out of respect for him.

Question: Loki (as Odin) quotes a conversation that occurred between Thor and Odin. This conversation happened after Loki let go of the handle Thor offered to keep him from falling off the bi-frost. How does Loki know what Odin tells Thor when he's supposedly headed to Midgard (Earth) as they speak? Can Loki read minds? If so, I don't recall any movies he comes out in mentioning mind reading.

Answer: Loki has been shown to exhibit numerous powers in the movies that can explain how he knew about this conversation. In all the movies, he has been shown to appear in hologram-like forms in different locations. For example, in The Avengers, he uses this power to meet up with The Other who is in the middle of space, whilst he is on Earth. In the end credits scene for Thor, he was able to watch over Selvig and Nick Fury's conversation despite not being there. In Thor: Ragnarok, he was able to see into Valkyrie's past through touching her head (though this power was not established until Thor: Ragnarok). Any of these powers could have been used to find out about this conversation between Thor and Odin.

Casual Person

Question: Why was Beatrix so shocked to hear Elle killed Pai Mei?

MikeH

Answer: When Beatrix trained with Pai Mei we see that if you listen to him and respect him then he has a lot to teach. She wasn't so much shocked that Elle killed him...she is shocked at the lack of respect Elle showed in killing him.

oddy knocky

Question: During the movie when a viewer can make decisions, I chose to honk the horn twice which saved Frankie's life. Later in the film, Frankie is being arrested by two officers. The scene pauses and a question appears asking if it was right to save his life. I chose "yes" and because of this he is seen being taken away. If I had chosen "no", what would have happened to Frankie?

Answer: The movie just continues without showing any additional clips.

Bishop73

Answer: In the choose their fate version, it shows clips from Frankie's camera diary.

Question: Why did the writers decide to have Snoke killed just like that? Fans have spent the last two years wondering about so many theories about who he is, so was it really wise to kill him that early on without even the slightest hint as to who he really is?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: According to reports, JJ Abrams had different ideas for each characters' story arcs while he was directing "The Force Awakens"; when Rian Johnson signed on as director for "Last Jedi", he basically decided to ignore Abrams' ideas and create his own direction for every major character, including Snoke. Since there is still one more film left in the current trilogy, though, we may learn more about Snoke's true nature in Episode IX; the possibility also exists that he may return as a Force ghost or in a cloned body, at least according to fan theories.

zendaddy621

Answer: I know this caused quite the uproar with a lot of the fans, but looking back at the original trilogy, how much information was known about Emperor Palpatine when he was killed off? None of this was addressed until the prequel trilogy many years later.

ctown28

Exactly. I have made this same argument so many times. Back when the original trilogy came out, none of us were running around complaining that we never found out the Emperor's backstory.

wizard_of_gore

I was merely asking why they decided to kill off Snoke this early.

To be more to the point of your question, it seems that Rian Johnson believed (in my opinion, correctly) that the Snoke character added very little to the story and his death would be shocking to the audience. As a virtual copy of Palpatine in almost every way, the audience expected Snoke to fill a similar role in this story and last well into the third film. By killing Snoke so early, you get rid of a pretty useless character and also shock your audience, leaving them with no idea what direction the story will take going forward.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why did heat seeking missiles go after the fireball created by fuel instead of the fighter jet? I thought heat seeking missiles went after specific infrared frequencies, and specific temperatures.

Answer: Modern heat seekers are indeed designed to go after certain frequencies in order to better bypass countermeasures. It is still a pretty common Hollywood convention that heat seekers go after the hottest heat source in the area. Part of this is due to audience expectation, as the average viewer might not be aware of modern missile technology and would wonder the opposite of your question: why a heat seeker wouldn't go after a huge explosion that is hotter than a jet. It must also be noted that no system is perfect and in real world situations heat seeking missiles are still prone to be pulled off course by countermeasures, so it isn't entirely unrealistic.

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.