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: Aren't freight trains awfully loud in real life? Triple doesn't seem very loud in the movie.

Answer: Freight trains average 80db at 15 meters. This is loud enough to cause hearing damage over a period of time. As such, movie producers lowered the noise level so that a normal conversation could be heard.

Ssiscool

Answer: Yes, they are loud. However, the movie makers probably employed some artistic license to soften the sound so as not to distract from watching the story.

raywest

Question: Why did Alex kill Ellen's pet bunny and how did she get inside the house to boil it? Didn't Dan and Beth lock the door?

adamtrainman@aol.com

Answer: Because she is insane! And she picked the lock. By murdering the innocent pet bunny rabbit Alex was sending a message. She won't be ignored! She's just letting Dan know that she can get to him, or in this case his family (daughter's pet), anytime she wants to. He's not safe.

Alan Keddie

Question: Who was the real commander of the Serbian army when O'Grady was stranded behind enemy lines?

Answer: "Lokar" might be based on real-life Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, commander of Serb Volunteer Guard.

Question: Why were the British singing the Russian national anthem during the Christmas party scene?

Jasinslayer

Answer: As this story was set during the Cold War era, this was a deliberate mockery of the Soviet Union and its policies against holiday celebration and religious freedom. The entire story revolves around the prospect of a Russian Mole among the British Secret Service and Intelligence Community-at that moment, complete with a mocking Stalin Santa Claus, they were letting off steam against their reviled rivals.

Erik M.

Question: Would the kind of field trip the kids were going on in the movie ever be allowed in real life?

Answer: Absolutely. I went on a similar one when I was at school. They are planned in advance to avoid service lines etc and schedules may need to be adjusted but it is possible. It's just unfortunate for movie purposes this one almost ended in disaster.

The_Iceman

Question: What is the significance of the no. 1 seating number in which Terence Mann sits at Fenway?

Answer: This is speculation, but the No.1 seat possibly referred to Terence Mann being the number one reason the whole "Field of Dreams" story was set in motion. When Ray Kinsella was a child, his father (John Kinsella) had high hopes that Ray would become a professional baseball player; he encouraged Ray and they played ball constantly. At the age of 14, Ray read a book by Terence Mann that denounced the 1919 Chicago White Sox baseball team as criminals, and Ray posed that argument to his father (his father believed the White Sox were wrongly accused). Because of Terence Mann's book, Ray and his father had a heated argument that caused Ray to give up baseball, which created a lifelong rift between them that lasted right up to John Kinsella's death. Understandably, Ray always regretted that he never resolved the bad feelings with his father. So, Terence Mann was really the starting point, the No.1 catalyst behind everything in Ray's troubled personal life. The supernatural cornfield events that followed years later were mainly about Ray and his father healing old wounds, the accused members of the Chicago White Sox getting a second chance to play, and Terence Mann losing the bitterness that had filled his writing for decades.

Charles Austin Miller

Brilliant.

I'm guessing it's way simpler than that. When Terrence pretends not to see or hear the message about Moonlight Graham, Ray thinks it was a mistake to bring Terrence to the game and suggests they leave. Them having the two seats right next to the aisle makes it easier to show them just get up and walk away, rather than maneuvering through a row of spectators.

Answer: Terrence Mann wasn't sitting in seat number 1 anyway, Ray was. Terrence was sitting in seat 2.

Answer: There is no significance. Having their seats be right next to the aisle just makes it easier and quicker for them to stand up and leave, ending the scene.

Episode #2.2 - S2-E2

Question: Was there prohibition in England? If not, why was Alfie running an underground distillery using a bakery as a cover instead of just having a legit distillery?

Answer: There has never been prohibition in England. There are many reasons for running an underground distillery. It would be a way to avoid things like government regulations, safe distilling methods, alcohol content limits, taxation, fix pricing, and so on.

raywest

Question: Bunny says he needs track D-16 track cleared because there are students are going on a field trip on that track. What if a freight train had finished loading at the day the field trip was taking place, and they needed use track D-16 in order to reach its destination?

Answer: They will have chosen a track that is not overly busy for the field trip. Things like this are planned in advance to avoid the situation mentioned above.

Ssiscool

Question: Why did the U.S. Navy intend on killing the pirates? Why not just give the pirates their money in exchange for getting Phillips back, and let the pirates go back to Somalia?

Answer: If they pay the pirates, it encourages more to try the same thing. Shooting them would discourage anyone else from attempting to use a hostage to extort money.

Question: During the end of the statue of liberty scene, Cyclops is about to destroy the mutation machine, but shoots Magneto instead. Immediately after, Jean has a meaningful look on her face and I don't really know why. I suspect that Jean used her powers of telekinesis to make Cyclops shoot Magneto instead of the machine since shooting at the machine would kill Rogue and Wolverine. Can anyone tell me the meaning of that look on Jean's face?

Answer: It is a look of concern that Cyclops may harm Rogue, followed by a look of relief that she was fine.

Leaping of the Shrew - September 27, 1956 - S5-E3

Question: Shortly after Sam throws some items off the life raft, Al appears and tells him that because of what Sam had done, neither he nor Vanessa would be saved for quite a while. If Sam had not done anything, both of them would have been rescued within an hour. I might be wrong about this next part so further verification will help. Al also said that because of Sam throwing stuff into the ocean, that somehow, instead if only being stranded in the lifeboat for a few minutes, four whole hours have passed. How could tossing anything into the ocean have made time move so rapidly?

Answer: Sam threw items off the raft to lighten the load, so it wouldn't sink, in doing so he made the raft less heavy. Which made easier to float with the currents, if it was heavy the raft would have moved slower and not moved so far.

Except that Al said that immediately after throwing stuff out of the boat four hours passed and it was shown that they didn't really move from where they were. They were still in the same spot. Forgot to ask this too. When Sam and Vanessa are stranded on the island, one of them, can't remember who, did something and when Al appears, he tells them that because of it, time had suddenly skipped several more hours and if the event hadn't been interrupted, they would have been rescued by a boat. So, what happened on the island that once again caused time to speed up? It seems kind of strange that time could move so quickly on the island, especially since it was still day time and it never showed any sort of changes like the sun or clouds moving.

Chosen answer: Because her house was smashed with a tree.

Answer: The Rabbits assumed that she would leave to be with Thomas.

Unlikely. Her house has just been smashed by a tree and would need to be repaired.

Ssiscool

By this point Thomas and Bea had broken up.

Answer: He didn't have the money to pay the diner bill, so he called the operator, in the phone booth, to call the diner number to test the line.

Question: Do we know that Michael is dead for sure? It seems way too abrupt, against character and anti-climactic for him to have died in the manner alluded to in the film. Or should we assume that not seeing his corpse or hearing 100% confirmation of his death means he might still be alive?

TedStixon

Chosen answer: Selena herself said, that Michael was dead. The actor who played him really didn't want to return to the role.

Answer: Dusty married Karen. Adrianna is Karen's daughter and the step-daughter of Dusty.

Bishop73

Question: What is the tattoo on Rick's right hand between his thumb and index finger, and its meaning?

Answer: This small tattoo in the first movie is the Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol bringing fortune, protection and good health. Just a good luck charm. It only appeared on Rick's hand in the first movie and was absent in the second movie, "The Mummy Returns." Apparently, the screenwriters wanted to expand the story of the tattoo, so they changed the symbol, its location and its meaning in the second movie: The new tattoo was that of the Medjai (a 3000-year-old cult of Egyptian royal guardians sworn to oppose the evil Imhotep). We learn that Rick got this tattoo when he was an orphan in Cairo. The screenwriters moved the tattoo to Rick's wrist (hidden by his leather wrist band) in the second movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: What is the purpose of the leather wrist band Rick wears on his right wrist?

Answer: The wrist band was not explained in this first movie. In the second movie, "The Mummy Returns," we learn that the leather band covers a tattoo of the Medjai, a 3000-year-old cult of Egyptian royal guardians whose purpose was to oppose the evil Imhotep. Rick was given this tattoo (or brand) when he was an orphan in Cairo.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Leather cuffs were also worn by gunfighters for protection and to stop sweat from running down onto your gun hand. So there's a practical reason for a gunfighter like Rick to have it, plus the all-important "Rule of Cool!"

Answer: The purpose of Rick's leather forearm cuff is protection. It's a common piece of 'armor' worn to protect the wrist and forearm from many kinds of harm. It can be used as a kind of brace or shield. You could block a blow with the back of your forearm and not be injured. Since Rick only wears one on his dominant arm I would guess this is what he mainly wears it for. It's just another piece of functional 'equipment' like his leather holster harness.

Question: At the bonfire Sandy says hi to Tom, who says something back to her and then Sandy I think says "fine". What did Tom say to Sandy?

Answer: "How are you?"

Question: Kyle poses at the hijacker and demands Carson to stay on the plane. Why would his cover be potentially blown if he refused?

Answer: Carson has to obey Kyle's demand because others are watching. The others believe Kyle is the hijacker, so Carson has to play along.

Answer: It was less about his cover being blown than Carson needing to stay aboard to try and salvage the situation and possibly kill Kyle. Kyle wanted him on the plane in order to expose his plan and to find her daughter.

raywest

Question: Cyrus faked his death to lure his nephew Arthur and his family to his house so Arthur could could sacrifice himself to become the thirteenth ghost. So that means Cyrus must've gone to the extra effort to put prosthetic make-up and fake blood on to make it look like he had his throat cut out. But why? So if Arthur and his family saw him wandering around the house, they'd just think he was another ghost? But by that point they would already be caught in the Rubik's cube of a house, and his plan set in motion, so why would he care if they found he wasn't really dead? Why go to all that extra effort to get made up like a corpse?

Answer: Because the family would have been confused, bewildered, curious and mad as to why did this and would fight or run away. Remember the book said, it needed a willing victim to sacrifice themselves.

Answer: It could simply be that his obsession with ghosts is the reason why he wants to be seen as a ghost by his nephew, as a fetish. Also he wanted to be witness to Arthur's sacrifice and Arthur thinking he was a ghost made it simpler if he was spotted.

lionhead

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