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: Where does Fred Astaire get his briefcase from, as he did not walk in with it? He walked in only carrying his suit and a bunch of flowers.

Answer: The briefcase arrived the same time the golf clubs did.

Answer: This is most likely a continuity error. The briefcase was accidentally left out of the arrival scene.

raywest

Question: Is removing hands, feet and teeth really sufficient to prevent the corpses being identified? What about DNA?

Answer: Even with head, hands and feet removed, a lot about a person's identity can be determined from body scars, tattoos, body tissue and blood samples, etc. Sex, age, height, weight, body-fat content, race, hair color, and pre-death physical health can all be determined rather easily through traditional means, even given only a torso for examination. Once investigators have a general idea of identity, they can compare their findings to a missing persons database and narrow it down further to likely matches. Then they can request DNA samples from the families of likely missing persons and compare it to the DNA of the corpse. Of course, if the corpse was never reported as missing, that would bring the investigation to a dead-end.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Identifying a body (or anyone for that matter) through DNA would only work if that person's DNA is already on file and you had something to compare it to (and getting a DNA match is an extensive process that doesn't happen over night despite what some TV shows suggest). I don't know about the UK, but in the US, federal DNA databases didn't really start until 1994. And only a few states started a felon DNA database in the 90's, so it's unlikely Hugo's DNA was on file. It's much more likely that a person's fingerprints or dental records were on file since they were much more common and not exclusive to felons. Again though, those records would have to be on file in order to compare to a body. I don't know if the feet removal was more for the dark comedy aspect or if they thought his feet print were on file and would be viable (i.e. prints taken when he was born in the hospital).

Bishop73

Answer: I'm the same person who asked this question. I discovered it was Molly Price whom I recognized from Third Watch.

Cathrine R

It should be noted Donna was Jim Fowkes‘ secretary. Donna killed Peter.

Bishop73

Question: How did the caller escape the room where his rifle was found?

Answer: He made it look like the pizza guy was the shooter so he could get away.

Answer: We, the audience, are quite simply never shown. So it is left up to our imaginations.

Alan Keddie

Answer: My guess which is a likely part is the pizza guy slit his own throat just before police arrived to avoid being caught. Meanwhile the caller I'm believing was in a completely different side of the booth (not in the same room as the rifle that was found). 2 reasons I believe this. 1. Stu gets shot in his right ear. No way where the sniper they found could he have shot Stu in the ear on the side he was shot from. 2 was because when Stu saw the caller, he had a suitcase with him, which presumably was the/a second sniper rifle. There's also another belief of mine that Stu dreamt the whole thing but unlikely.

Why would the pizza guy slit his own throat to avoid being caught? He didn't do anything bad?

Answer: He didn't, the caller did. Later when the caller goes to Stu in the ambulance he says "I feel bad about the pizza guy." The caller slit his throat and set it up so that the pizza guy was the caller.

Show generally

Question: During the black and white TV days I watched an episode, the name of which I can't remberer. People were going about their lives. In the last scene the lid of a box is lifted. People are looking down into the box. The people in the box look up at the people who open the lid. What is the name of this episode?

Answer: There's an episode called "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (s03e14). The 5 people aren't in a box but in what turns out to be a toy collection barrel. People outside the barrel are out and about town doing their errands. The 5 people are just dolls and a girl from the outside puts one of the escaped dolls back in the barrel. I think there's a shot of her looking down into it.

Bishop73

Question: I have a few questions about this movie. 1 - Who is the character played by Stephan Root? ie., what is his connection to the money? 2 - What is Woody Harrelson's job? What is his role? I presume a bounty hunter type person. 3 - Why did Anton kill the two men at the shootout scene? 4 - What were they to him and to the drug deal gone bad?

The_Iceman

Answer: 1. Stephen Root's exact identity is unknown, but the film establishes him as an agent of the "legitimate" business that acts as a front for the drug deal (and others like it), from which he and his business turn a profit. His exact role in the organization is unknown. 2. Carson Wells is a contract killer, same as Chigurh. 3. Chigurh kills the two men because they have seen his face and can identify him; he kills anyone with such knowledge (Carson Wells being the temporary exception). 4. They were strangers to him, simply operatives of the company that ran the deal sent, like Chigurh, to investigate the stolen money.

Question: Did Abberline use drugs to see visions after his wife and child died, or had he used them before?

Answer: Johnny Depp said in an interview that Abberline was a hypersensitive guy and had a lot of demons and a dark history. He probably start doing drugs to feel numb against the pain that he lost his wife and child since he desperately wanted a family.

Answer: It's not known if Abberline used Absinth before his wife died. But I doubt that he would have used Absinth or any other form of drugs when he was married.

Answer: The real-life Abberline didn't use opium or absinthe or anything else, and he wasn't psychic, and he and his two wives never lost any children nor had any children. Aside from the very few facts regarding the Ripper murders, everything in the movie is fictional, fake. Therefore, irrelevant.

Charles Austin Miller

I think those questions are meant for the fictional movie not the real story of Abberline.

Question: As a vampire, Max wasn't allowed in the house until Michael invited him. How were David and his friends allowed inside since they were never invited? Also, how was Star, even though she was only half-vampire able to get into the house? She asked for permission but Michael said no.

Answer: In the film, being invited in isn't a requirement to enter. It's simply a way for the vampire to render you powerless (i.e. the tests the boys performed on Max).

Answer: As stated Star was half vampire, she has some of their powers not all. Max said, "Once you invite a vampire into your home, it renders you powerless." Which is why the holy water and garlic worked. They were not invited, they crashed in.

Answer: It's not that they can't "get in." Its that once you invite them.it renders you "powerless" (according to Max). Lets not forget that David and his friends were all killed. Max was stronger and probably would have won if Grandpa didn't crash into the house and impale him. Basically they can enter anytime...but being invited in gives them an advantage.

Gavin Jackson

Except they weren't invited in. Only Max was.

Answer: Obviously, they were all invited in, one after another.

Charles Austin Miller

Only Max was invited in. Nowhere in the movie does it show David and the others being invited. And again, how did Star get into the house when she wasn't invited either?

Star and the others didn't need an invitation to enter any house, and they do not lose their powers once inside. If someone invites a vampire in, then they give the vampire an additional advantage, i.e. holy water won't burn them, they are unaffected by garlic, a mirror shows their reflection, etc. It is the inviter who loses all power against a vampire.

raywest

Question: Look at how powerful the blast is when Kyle detonates the explosives. Wouldn't a blast as powerful as depicted kill both Kyle and Carson in real life?

Answer: Most likely, in real life, the blast would kill them, but this is a movie, and as the Mythbusters proved many times on their TV show, Hollywood does not always adhere to scientific fact when it serves the purpose of telling the story. This is called 'suspension of disbelief'.

raywest

Question: How did the poor street magicians manage to execute their final magic trick in NYC? If Tressler had paid in advance for the gimmicks, wouldn't he have seen to it that the trick infrastructure was dismantled after the New Orleans trick?

Answer: Thaddeus met up with Tressler in a bar after the New Orleans performance and convinced him to let the next performance to go ahead. The two make a deal that if the New York performance will go ahead, Thaddeus will debunk their tricks to expose and destroy them.

Casual Person

Question: In the end of the movie when Jerry is shot, why is he airlifted to another hospital, doesn't the mental hospital have a trauma center?

Answer: Yes, that hospital may have had a trauma unit, but the NSA team, if they were NSA, led by Lowery / Hatcher (the guy who Alice 'knocked out') wanted to get Jerry away from Alice ASAP so that she would no longer be in any danger. The chopper then flew him, offscreen, to get patched up. Also we don't know that Jerry was airlifted to another hospital. But we can assume. An NSA controlled hospital. Or private government facility. A place where no questions would be asked.

Alan Keddie

Question: Why not live underground most of the time and only emerge when necessary?

Answer: That's essentially what the family is trying to do. They come up for supplies and to use the radio to try and reach the outside world. They built the basement area and used what supplies they had for soundproofing.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why is water flooding into the basement?

Answer: During the attack on the compound while the baby is being delivered one of the creatures breaks a water pipe and it begins flooding into the basement.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Couldn't Dewey have just stopped the train, backed it up, and then changed the switch instead of hopping out of the cab?

Answer: He would have been able to, although he would have lost a considerable amount of time in doing so. However, the film was based on a true story where the engineer of CSX 888 noticed a misaligned switch and saw he wouldn't be able to stop in time, so he decided to get out of the cab to align the switch. He thought he set the locomotive up properly to make it safe to get out and back in, thus avoiding the need fully to stop and then back up. So it's not really a matter of what Dewy could have done differently since they were just following events has they had already occurred.

Bishop73

Question: The captain of the first Icarus is insane, burned worse than Freddy Krueger, and his crew has been dead conceivably for 7 years. How is he even alive still without medical care, let alone able to attack and murder members of the second Icarus crew? Insanity doesn't bar one from infection or organ failure.

Answer: Actually, there is a perfectly logical explanation for Pinbacker being on the Icarus II: he went through the airlock while the team was searching the ship and sabotaged the connection from there.

Friso94

Wouldn't the Icarus II immediately sense his presence though? As soon as Capa and Mace reach the airlock, the ship acknowledges that they are there.

Phaneron

Answer: It is implied that Pinbacker's dedication to his mission to destroy humanity allows him to ignore his injuries. It must also be pointed out that Pinbacker was intentionally designed by director Danny Boyle to break the "realism" of the film. His survival is intended to be almost supernatural. Note that there is no possible way Pinbacker could have made it from Icarus I to Icarus II, but he does somehow and it's never explained.

BaconIsMyBFF

Show generally

Question: What's the name of the episode where Charlie and Alan are hiding in the Toilet and Alan says "Charlie" and then Charlie says "I told you it might take a while"?

Answer: That would be "Corey's Been Dead For an Hour" in season 4, episode 9.

Super Grover

Question: Why are the audience members at Don Juan shocked at the "provocative" nature of the performance? I get people were more conservative during those times, but didn't the audience members choose to go to that play? Were people just excited to see a new play and did not expect to the performance to be provocative?

lala831

Answer: I do not think that the audience was shocked by the 'provocative' performance but the music being played. (I think that because of the conductor's reaction and whatever) But I do have an answer for as to why the audience reacted in a certain way.I suppose they are used to the kind of music that the Opera performed. I think that The Phantom purposely wrote the music in with that specific vibe and whatnot and it might be because he wanted Christine (and perhaps himself as well) to be the only performers with beautiful lyrics and music.

debbi.ee

Question: Who laced the cookies that were given to the children with arsenic? It's never shown who applies it, only who takes the cookies to them.

Answer: When the children discover the cookies had been poisoned (revealed by the death of their pet mouse which ate part of one of the cookies), they suspect their grandmother. After all, she was the one who had been cruel to them all along. But eventually, they realise that it was in fact, their mother, Corinne, who was lacing the cookies with poison. She was doing so with the hope that the children would eventually die, seemingly from disease. In doing so, she would secure the family inheritance which was contingent upon her never having had children from her first marriage. They eventually confront their mother on the day of her second wedding, and a struggle ensues which ultimately leads to Corinne falling to her death from a balcony.

Michael Albert

Question: Can someone be shot through the side and just duct tape the entry and exit holes? (Wouldn't the bullet have mushroomed in the body and not exited anyway?) If there were a real gunshot wound like that, how long until he bleeds out?

Answer: Duct taping the wounds may seal the injury and hold the bleeding, but it may not be effective. If something along the lines of this would happen in real life, it would be best to tend to the wounds properly in case of infection. Whether or not the bullet would get stuck inside the body depends on if whether or not the bullet hits something, that would cause it to get stuck inside the body. How long until someone would bleed out in real life depends on the severity of the gunshot wound and whether or not something major was hit.

Casual Person

Question: It was discovered that Chucky was able to transfer his soul into Andy's Good Guy in the first movie by not only saying a chant but also using a magic amulet. So why, in the other three movies, when he is starting the chant does he not need the amulet to transfer his soul out of the doll into someone else, but in this movie, he needs to use it if he wants to return to his own body?

Answer: There's two possible explanations. First, and the most likely, is that this is simply what's referred to as a "retcon." (Short for "Retroactive Continuity") A term to describe new information/rules/backstory/etc. that are introduced in order to alter the path of a story, or impose new ideas into a narrative. In this case, the series creator and writer Don Mancini needed a reason for the characters to go on a road-trip, hence he created this new idea for an amulet that Chucky need to obtain. And basically, Mancini himself has admitted that he will often change the rules for the series as needed from film to film based on the story he wants to tell, which makes this the more plausible explanation. The second possible explanation is that you could argue that the amulet will allow Chucky to transfer his soul regardless of how long he's been in the doll's body, surpassing the time limit imposed in previous films. But in all seriousness, the former is the more likely explanation. They just needed a new story-element to justify the road-trip aspect of the story.

TedStixon

Both answers work for me. Thank you.

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