Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Genie tells Aladdin he cannot kill, or make anyone fall in love, or bring people back from the dead. He also tells Aladdin he cannot wish for more wishes. Shouldn't that make four rules not three?

Answer: The three rules refer to what he could wish for, not how many. It's like a coupon that tells you both what it's good for and limit one per customer. The rules about distinct things that don't affect each other.

Brian Katcher

Answer: The Genie never actually says that he has "3 rules", he just numbers the three you mentioned as he is explaining them. He told Aladdin about the "no more wishes" rule before he sang "Never Had a Friend Like Me." He doesn't include "no more wishes" in his list of rules because Aladdin already knew about it.

BaconIsMyBFF

Yes of course it's a rule. What difference does it make?

lionhead

I meant yes it would make four rules.

He says there are a few "provisors", a few "quid pro quo's" (which doesn't make any sense) to the 3 wishes he can do. That's what he can't do because he is limited into doing them. However, the not getting more than 3 wishes is something the Genie himself won't do for him. The 3 limitations he sums up are about the wishes itself, the fact he can do only 3 is a separate rule the Genie himself won't do. So the wishes have only 3 official rules because the Genie can't do anything about them, and 1 particular wish the Genie simply won't grant.

lionhead

Answer: There is a difference between what he cannot do and won't do.

lionhead

You're going to going to need to be more specific.

Question: Deanna Troi states that they will get rid of poverty, disease, and war within next 50 years. How would they get rid of things like autism, ADHD, or dyslexia? Aren't those medical conditions that cannot be cured?

Answer: Troi says that future medical research is far more advanced and humanity has learned to work together and overcome many social problems without being specific. It's unknown how these conditions will be cured, but possibly through advanced gene therapy, new drugs, new surgical techniques, etc.

raywest

Answer: The things you listed are not diseases, they are conditions. It is more plausible that she was referring to things like cancer, diabetes, stroke, and other similar disorders which, at some point in time, there might be a cure.

Troi said poverty disease war would all be gone within the next 50 years. I thought she meant things like autism ADHD and dyslexia would be gone too not just disease.

No, that's why she said disease.

Well the movie tells us that all bad things on earth would be gone within the next 50 years. I thought that would have included conditions like autism dyslexia or ADHD as well as disease.

The movie doesn't say "all bad things." She specifically says "disease." In other words things that can be cured, get cured. No doubt some things will be curable that we currently can't cure, and some things will never be curable. You're overanalysing a line used simply to explain that humanity advances itself in a short space of time.

Jon Sandys

Question: I don't understand when Louie's finance was waiting at the police station for him to get released, a man sits down and asks about her purse - what was that all about?

Answer: It's about nothing. The man is not exactly normal, and he begins a nonsense conversation with a very prim, uptight woman who looks like she should be anywhere but there.

raywest

Answer: His leg was not healed enough to go with them and would have slowed them down. He was still laid up in bed when Harry and Hermione went back in time. Hermione even says, "Sorry, Ron, but seeing as you can't walk..."

raywest

Question: When speaking, why was a mixture of different languages used instead of Hebrew? Hebrew was a primary language back then so shouldn't it have been the only language used?

Answer: Hebrew would have been the main language for Jewish residents, especially in religious teachings. However, Aramaic was a common language in Judea and it's believed that Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. The land of Israel also had heavy Greek influences, and the Romans spoke Latin and Greek. The New Testament says the title Pilate wrote to put on the cross was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Bishop73

Question: At the very beginning, John and Louise stroll down a dock, get into a row-boat and start across the lake; but John dies of a heart attack half-way across, and Louise dumps his body into the water. Throughout this entire scene, John's transistor radio is warbling a rockabilly song that sounds Elvis-inspired (but it's not Elvis). What is the song and who sang it?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: "He's Caught" by Buddy Fowler and the Fads. It was an unreleased song used for the movie.

Bishop73

Question: Why does Dr Gordon decide to work with John? And why does he put himself, his daughter and wife in extreme danger?

laviiebelle

Answer: He, his wife and his daughter were abducted before he decided to work with Jigsaw. He didn't put them in danger. As for why he decided to work with Jigsaw following his ordeal, like other characters in the franchise, he either developed a level of Stockholm syndrome or he concluded that Jigsaw's methods were right, or a combination of both.

Phaneron

Answer: They did recognize each other (at one point he goes to her house without asking her address). After the divorce, Howard said that he wished they were strangers again. They literally behaved as if they never met each other before (even though Madeline is gently pushing to move past being strangers - for example, by guessing he's divorced).

Answer: Think of any manufacturing process. Samples of new products are frequently created and then immediately destroyed. Also, the new replicant would require processing, training, etc. It was simpler for him to just dispose of the test.

Answer: He was being violently petulant at the moment, angry that he couldn't create and control the birth that he just learned occurred with older-model replicants and seeing his new creation as "flawed" by design. Pretty villainous, he cares nothing for the replicants.

Erik M.

Twenty-something girls vs. thirty-something women - S2-E17

Question: I have a somewhat odd question for everyone that watches Sex and the city. I got into the show about 2 or 3 years after it started running but I remember watching the episode "Twenty-something girls vs. thirty-something women" which was the episode about Carrie and the girls going to the Hamptons and renting a house. Charlotte dates a younger guy that gives her crabs. There is commentary about comparing 20 year girls to 30 year old women and when I watched this episode originally I swear there was a different ending then what is what is shown now. I want to know if anyone else has seen this or am I absolutely insane. In the episode there is a girl that pukes on the beach - her friend holds her hair back and Carrie makes a commentary about "counting on 20 year old girls to hold your hair back." Later when Carrie sees Big with Natasha she runs to the beach and Miranda runs after her. Carrie throws up because she is upset and Miranda holds her hair back, but the version I saw changes the commentary/narration and says that you can "always count on a 30 something year old friend to hold your hair back." I haven't seen that version again. Has anyone else seen it or did I just dream this, because I swear I remember watching this when it first came out?

Weeny Post

Answer: I'm a long-time fan of the show, having re-watched it many times, and I definitely remember slightly different dialogue at the end of that episode than what's on my DVD. I'm afraid I have no idea why this change might have been made or any other info, but you're not insane.

Purple_Girl

Question: When Elliot Spenser is being transformed into Pinhead, who was cutting lines into his face and head and driving nails into him?

Answer: All we can see (in abstract closeup) is serpent-like tendrils cutting him and driving the pins into his head. As someone else said, it's likely another cenobite, although alternately it could also be the same "contraption" that turns Channard into a cenobite late in the film, given the tendrils are similar to the ones he sprouts.

Answer: Presumably another cenobite/cenobites. The choice not to show them makes for a better scene, as that moment is all about him, becoming the iconic Pinhead; the cenobites who made him that way are of no consequence to the story, and their own grotesque appearance would have distracted from his transformation.

Question: While in the future, Simon Phoenix was about to kill what I believe is a priest. Just before he does, the priest says something like, "Isn't there something you should be doing right now?" After the priest says this, why did Simon let him go and run off?

Answer: The man was Dr. Raymond Cocteau, mayor of San Angeles. He was the one who was ultimately responsible for re-programming Simon. He also programmed Simon to kill Edgar Friendly, who was the leader of the resistant group that was rebelling against Cocteau and his established way of life. Simon was also programmed to be unable to kill Cocteau (which is why he also "missed" when he first shot at him). No sense in waking up and letting loose a well trained psychopathic killer if he's also ends up killing you too.

Bishop73

Question: At the beginning of the film where were the bodies of the people that Simon killed? John said he searched the whole building but couldn't find anything so, how did the bodies appear after the building was destroyed? And why was John placed in cryogenic suspension? It seems a bit harsh to punish somebody especially since he was able to catch Simon.

Answer: Simon killed the bus passengers before John arrived, but kept their dead bodies in the building. John said he did a thermo search and only saw 8 people (Simon's gang), but that's because the dead bus passengers didn't show up on the thermo scan. John wasn't suppose to go after Simon alone, wasn't suppose to be there, and violated police procedures. John was convicted (because of Simon framing him) with 30 counts of involuntary manslaughter because it was presumed the passengers were in fact still alive and in the building, but died in the explosion that wouldn't have happened if John was trying to apprehend Simon alone. Simon was also convicted for the murders though.

Bishop73

Question: When Van Pelt makes his first appearance, what type of gun was he using to shoot at Alan?

Answer: According to the Internet Movie Firearms Database (imfdb.org), it's a modified Winchester 1901 shotgun. It has been modified to look like an elephant gun with various fake parts (namely the box magazine, stock, and barrel).

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Giry had known the Phantom since they were children, knew what his life was like then, and she has great pity for him (and great admiration, as a lover of the arts herself.) She deliberately distances herself from his wrong doings until Raul convinces her to speak up. She also understood the Phantom didn't intend to harm Christine.

Purple_Girl

Question: When Alan has reached Jumanji, why were the bullet and rifle pulled into the game? They weren't from the game, but purchased by Van Pelt from a gun store.

Answer: The game is essentially "resetting reality" back to the point Alan was first sucked into the game. So it is undoing everything that has been done - including taking away the gun and bullets Van Pelt had purchased.

Answer: The gun and bullets may have been from the real world but they were Van Pelt's property. He purchased them at the gun store. Apparently the game pulls in Van Pelt and anything of his he was using to hunt Alan. It makes sense that the game would do this because Alan defeats Van Pelt by following the rules of the game. Having Van Pelt be able to simply purchase a gun in the real world and kill a player with it even after they've completed the game would be a huge cheat.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: What did Jezelle mean at the police station about the creeper saying "I think it's eaten too many hearts for its own to ever stop."

Answer: Since the Creeper needs various body parts i.e. eyes to see, lungs to breathe, it would also need to eat the hearts of its victims for its own heart to keep beating. Or she could mean that the Creeper is essentially devoid of all emotions as it keeps attacking anybody that has the body parts that it needs to extend its own life.

Question: Why did Paul and the other guards show concern for Percy after Wild Bill caused Percy to piss his pants?

Answer: They may not like him but they still want to make sure he's ok.

Greg Dwyer

Exactly. Plus having a guard killed by an inmate on their watch would reflect poorly on them, to say the least. And Percy had political connections as well.

BaconIsMyBFF

Because they are caring human beings, and feel some emotion towards someone in trouble, unlike Percy himself.

Question: How long did it take for Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey to get to the kingdom of Far Far Away?

Answer: Roughly 2000 "are we there yet?" questions away. Which to Fiona and Shrek must have felt like 10,000 years. But seriously, they come across signs for "away" and "far away" adding up to 900 miles distance, so I'd say "far far away" is about 3000 miles from the swamp. By carriage that's about 21 days if they keep going day and night and at the same, slow pace (6 miles per hour?) they were going.

lionhead

The curious thing though is where they would get food while traveling to far far away.

The 21 days I said for calculation purposes, obviously they had stops to eat and drink (pee).

lionhead

Question: In the scene in Florence with the two fighting Italians, does one of them die? In one shot he is still moving his jaw, in another shot he seems rather motionless.

Answer: It's unknown if he survived or not, nor is it important to the film's plot. The scene is about how witnessing a violent act affects Lucy. The entire trip to Italy has a powerful effect on her personality, opening her to new emotions and sensations that she's never experienced before, having lived a rather pleasant though constricted and conventional life in England.

raywest

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