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.

Show generally

Question: In a vast majority of the episodes, whenever Mulder and Scully investigate some mysterious or paranormal phenomenon, Mulder believes that some unknown force is responsible but Scully always has a rational explanation for what is happening. In other episodes, when Scully herself is caught up in something mysterious, she is the believer but Mulder is the skeptic. In those episodes, why would Mulder be skeptical about an unexplained phenomenon considering that he a was witness to his own sisters abduction and he saw many strange things that defied explanation while working for the F.B.I.?

Answer: As he stated many times throughout the series, Mulder needed Scully to be sober and skeptical. Whenever Scully's skepticism wavered and she started questioning her own rationality, Mulder would try to restore her sense of skepticism, because he needed her to be clear-thinking.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: A variety of reasons. Just because Scully saw something unusual does not mean that it was. Mulder always needs concrete proof before he'll believe there's some otherworldly explanation for unexplained phenomena. He's too experienced to take a novice's explanation as fact. It is also a plot by device by the writers to switch the tables on the characters to make it more interesting and to let viewers see another side of their relationship.

Question: How did Carson convince the captain Kyle was a hijacker without showing any evidence of Kyle being a hijacker?

Answer: Basically, Carson used his role as an air marshal to mislead everyone. In matters of security, the captain would assume the marshal was the expert and he would follow his recommendations.

raywest

Well a plot hole says just Carson is an Air Marshal does not mean the captain would trust him. The captain would know Air Marshals break the law too.

The captain had no reason to distrust him. He's busy flying the plane and Carson is acting exactly the way an air marshal would.

raywest

You would have to read the entire plot hole.

The captain has no reason at all to distrust an air marshal at that point. First of all, he was suspicious of her from the beginning and was angry for disrupting the flight which was the whole point of removing all evidence of the daughter, which was also the point have the morgue director sending a fake certificate that Julia died. They were going to use the "daughter's disappearance" as a credible excuse for "Kyle" to enter the hold and retrieve the explosives. The real plot hole is not that Carson has no evidence of as a hijacker, but why the airline accepts the "hijacker's" request to wire the money without talking to them or having a background identity.

Question: I'm confused with the start of the movie where he goes to the waterhole, but he doesn't drink the water. Why is that?

Answer: As he goes to drink the water, he smells it and realises it is not safe to drink.

Question: While questioning the doctor on the witness stand, Kaffee asks him if a heart condition could have caused the fatal lactic acidosis rather than a mysterious poison on the rag stuffed in his mouth. Under the circumstances of the Marine's death, wouldn't a complete autopsy have been performed to positively determine the cause of death? And if an autopsy were performed, wouldn't the heart condition have easily been discovered?

Answer: An autopsy can show what physically caused a death, but not necessarily what led up to it. Kaffee is trying to prove that there could be more than one reason for the marine's death.

Question: I get that Meg is in trouble for hitting Veronica in the face with a basketball, but why isn't Veronica in trouble for leaving a mean note on Meg's locker and calling her brother crazy?

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: Could be a matter of severity. Hitting someone in the face with a basketball could result in someone being permanently injured or disfigured, possibly even blinded. Leaving mean notes and calling someone crazy is far less serious and might not warrant being punished other than a mild reprimand.

raywest

Question: At the beginning of the movie, it was stated that Van Helsing planned to use the amulet to send every monster to limbo but that him and his team blew it. How exactly did they blow it?

Answer: It is shown that Dracula's servants were successful in protecting their master. Dracula escapes while Van Helsing himself is sucked into limbo.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: I know Elizabeth can't live on the ship and William can't be on land except every 10 years. Why can't they meet in the ocean whenever they want to? She can swim... she swam to the island when Barbossa stranded Jack and her... and it's not land so William can be there... so why don't they think of that?

Answer: To fulfill his purpose of ferrying souls to the "other side" William must remain in the underworld, allowed to leave it only once every ten years to step on land (in the living world). Davy Jones had abandoned this role and returned to the living world. As a consequence, he and his crew were cursed and began transforming into the hideous monsters.

raywest

Question: Even if Carson was exposed as the hijacker, how would the US, and Canada charge him? The crime was committed outside of both of those nations.

Answer: They can still arrest him, regardless of where the crime was committed. He'd likely be extradited to the appropriate place to be charged. Also, the crime was occurring while the plane was on Canadian soil. There would also be matters of violating international law.

raywest

Question: I don't understand the scene where Candy and Billy go into a room to have sex. McMurphy tells Chief that they will leave for Canada when Candy and Billy are done. Why did they stay there all night and fall asleep? Why did Candy stay in the room with Billy?

Answer: The girls who sneaked into the ward had brought alcohol and everyone was partying before McMurphy and Chief were to escape. Everyone got drunk while waiting for Candy and Billy to finish, eventually passing out. Candy and Billy probably just assumed McMurphy and Chief had already left or they'd fallen asleep.

raywest

Question: What does Fee-lie say to the elf lady when he's leaving her to go to the Lonely Mountain? He tells her he's something and she says she doesn't know what that means.

Answer: He speaks the Tolkien created language of Dwarvish and says amrâlimê, which I'm told translates to "My Love", or "I Love You" depending on interpretation. I personally don't speak Dwarvish though, so use at your own risk.

jimba

Question: They try to stop the runaway train by deploying another train in front of it and continuously braking. Instead of having a man come in from a helicopter, why not just have a man jump from the train in front onto the runaway train? (00:40:00 - 00:45:00)

Answer: It would be a lot more dangerous trying to jump from one train to another, and there'd probably be only one chance for success or else die trying. The helicopter allows for a little more maneuvering.

raywest

Question: In the tower where Lucius and another guy were watching, the guy told him he is a good friend and hopes he wasn't seen. What did he mean by that? Or was he just thanking him for being out there with him? Just wondering if there was more to it.

Redivy22

Answer: It appeared that he was thanking Lucius for sneaking out after late-night hours (probably breaking the village curfew) to join him in the tower.

raywest

Question: Does Bruce kill the militants' leader at the end of the movie? I know that he turns into the Hulk, but what happens to all of the militants, including the leader? Do they die?

Answer: We don't know since the movie ends then and there. It's ultimately up to the viewer's imagination what happens next.

Phaneron

Question: What happened with Paul at the end and why did the police just kill everybody instead of getting help?

Answer: Paul returns briefly in the sequel, where he is hit and killed by a bus. The local doctor's office did not have the resources to take care of the virus, so rather than take any infected survivors to the county hospital, the police decided to make an attempt to contain and end the outbreak by killing them instead.

Phaneron

Answer: There were a number of concerns. Firstly, that the knowledge of a hostile alien race would lead to a mass panic amongst the population. Additionally, other nations would want to be involved and would be angry at the US military gaining advanced alien technology. This is seen as a valid concern in later seasons, when the IOA was set up.

Answer: He doesn't have time for him.

Question: So what happens to the past you when you're sent back from the future? If 30 years ago you were sitting at the dinner table with your family would you just poof away and disappear? I'm stuck on these two dimensions and being alive in both scenarios. Another example it's 2000 and I'm 10 it's 2030 and I'm 30 if I was sent back to be killed when 30 what happens to 10 year old me at that point in life?

Answer: Nothing will happen to your 10 year old self or past you. He/she would live their life as your grown self would remember it. They would do whatever you did that instigated your trip to the past, provided you do not interfere with your younger self. Going to the past does not inherently alter the timeline.

Question: Doc is a scientist right? The DeLorean had a ruptured fuel line and needed gas which, as Doc pointed out, was unavailable at the time. Surely he knew how to distill booze to make ethanol? (There was plenty of whiskey around at the time). I mean, they've used it to power cars in Mexico for ages. Why didn't Doc suggest this?

Bodragon

Answer: They did try it. Doc ran the engine with the strongest thing the bartender could find them and it blew out the engine. It takes all the power a heavy car like a DeLorean has to get up to 88 MPH. It wouldn't be able to get that much power running on ethanol, in addition to the damage caused to the engine.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Why did Dillon really want Dutch and his team to go to Val Verde? He says it was to locate a helicopter that was shot down and to look for Hopper but, after the successful raid, Dillon is seen looking through some papers, so he wanted Dutch there for some other reason.

Answer: He wanted Dutch and his team to help him retrieve the intelligence documents he was rooting through. The Soviet officer shot by Dutch ("Knock knock!") was also looking at the same documents and was planning on moving them out of the country. The story goes a CIA operative was carrying intelligence and was shot down over Val Verde by the guerrillas who are aided by the Soviets. Dillon sent Jim Hopper and his Green Beret unit there to rescue his men and retrieve the intelligence but they were ambushed and killed by the Predator. Believing Hopper and his men were killed by the guerrillas, Dillon felt he had no option left but to hire the best rescue team he knew to complete the mission. Dillon knew Dutch didn't do this sort of black ops work so he lied to him and made up the story about rescuing a cabinet minister.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Since Voldemort didn't know house elves could have apparated in and of the cave, why did he need Kreacher to test the defences? Why not just have Regulus?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: As you have pointed out, Voldemort didn't know Kreacher could apparate in and out of the cave because house elves have their own magic that wizards do not. Voldemort's arrogance led him to many oversights, this being one of them. Because Voldemort considers house elves to be nothing more than vermin, he would rather sacrifice them instead of a (to his knowledge) loyal death eater who could potentially aid him in the future.

Answer: In The Half-Blood Prince, we learned that only one wizard could cross in the boat. Kreacher is not a wizard, and Regulus is.

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.