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: What's the deal with the card that Bruce has when he hacks the Russian's phone? It seems it has a scorpion image on it. Why did he hand it over to the bartender? Does it have anything to do with the hacking? Was it the same card the Russian dropped during the previous fight?

ricardoglez22

Answer: The card was the Russian mercenary's calling card. He recognized Bruce Wayne at the fight and dropped the card to see if Bruce was interested in acquiring his services. Bruce picked up the card and gave it to the bartender, which showed the mercenary that Bruce was indeed interested in meeting him.

But how would giving the card to a bartender in front of the mercenary (who is already there) show any interest in his services?

ricardoglez22

The scene takes place in a fight club and the paper was a betting slip. When Bruce hands the card over the bartender gives him a look and Bruce comments, "The house treats luck like an insult." It has nothing to do with mercenaries or intermediaries.

Answer: Probably because the bartender acts as an intermediary for the mercenary.

Question: Why are the officers wearing dress blues in the beginning of the movie? The replacement commander of the 110th has a chest full of ribbons...The black military police officer at the command center. Everyday military officers would be wearing Class A's or fatigues.

Answer: Although it's technically a mistake, it is common in films to show military officers in dress uniforms with medals and ribbons to show that particular soldiers are important. A layperson may not know military uniform protocols but they can certainly tell that dress uniforms with a lot of medals signifies high rank at a glance.

Answer: If all the actors and hands know their roles well enough they could perform the play reasonably well even without a director.

BaconIsMyBFF

The Icarus Factor - S2-E14

Question: When Riker and his father are doing anbo-jyutsu, what do the Japanese characters on the armor and around the ring say or mean? I read what the spoken Japanese lines meant (or at least why they attempted to say, I understand their pronunciation was bad), but couldn't find the writing.

Bishop73

Answer: According to the Star Trek wiki (memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Anbo-jyutsu), the characters around the ring are a reference to animated series Urusei Yatsura: The large character in the center is "Hoshi", the words next that are "ramu" and "ataru", names of the main characters of that series. The phrases "Urusai" and "Yatsura" are written in the back corner. The characters on the uniforms are references to The Book of Five Rings: "chi", "mizu", and "hi" (ground, water, and fire respectively) is on Will Riker's uniform while "sora" (sky) is on Kyle's uniform in addition to "mizu" and "hi." "Yuri" (lily) and "nintai" (perseverance) are written on banners around the ring.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: How is it possible for everybody from other countries to know about the wager that Phileas made when the only ones who knew about were the members of the Academy of Science?

Answer: In order to stop Fogg from completing the journey, his rivals at the Academy wired (telegraphed) details to confederates in the countries he visited with instructions to waylay him.

Question: Why doesn't Barbossa use Blackbeard's sword to control his and Salazar's ship in battle? It isn't broken because he brings back the Pearl.

Answer: The sword only controls Blackbeard's ship. Not the Pearl or Salazar's ship.

In On Stranger Tides Barbossa said that the Pearl turned against them, the rigging had come to life because of Blackbeard.

Question: In the beginning of the movie, just prior to Vince's introduction to Max, what was Vincent doing in Annie's office building? He actually passes Annie (his 5th target) on the up/down escalators. Why not just kill her first?

Answer: He was likely scoping out the building and determining where specifically Annie worked. He couldn't just kill her in public with people around. He had a systematic plan on how and when each victim would be killed.

raywest

Answer: Plus it sets up the 5th victim surprise.

Question: Why did Scrimgeour think it would matter if Harry worked at the ministry? How does that help people's belief as that's what's important?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: He wanted Harry to work there to make it look like he supported Scimgeour and the ministry. He wanted to dispel the image that Harry was completely loyal to Dumbledore.

raywest

Answer: Since Harry was hanging out with Neville more (lack of Ron around), it sounds as if Neville had been driving Harry a bit up the wall, with Neville's nonstop comments about things he was finding/doing. So when Neville exclaimed aloud, "Amazing, amazing," Harry told him, "Neville, you're doing it again."

Super Grover

Answer: Neville had a habit of talking out loud and at length about whatever he was thinking, regardless of whether anyone around him knew the context.

raywest

Show generally

Question: What is the green and white striped American looking flag in the commissioner's office?

Answer: It's the New York Police Department flag, created in 1919. The stripes represent the 5 boroughs and the stars the different towns that made up New York (including New York City itself).

Bishop73

What about the other flag that is not the U.S. flag?

Please be more specific. Are you talking about the New York City flag?

Bishop73

It is the Iowa State flag. At least in the episode from 1/22/21.

It wouldn't be the Iowa State flag. Plus the Iowa State flag is blue, white, and red. The flag I think they're talking about is blue, white, and orange.

Bishop73

Answer: The Trojan War itself was a decade long, followed by Odysseus' ten-year journey home to Ithaca, so all told he was gone roughly twenty years.

Question: What was the purpose of the scene after the credits? Who was holding the camera to take the pictures?

Answer: I have seen this stuff in other media. I think the purpose is to make room for a sequel. And holding the camera, I think it was just lazy on the film makers part.

Question: Whose blood is used to write the messages on the wall?

Answer: It was written in chicken blood.

raywest

Question: What is the letter of Argus about?

Answer: The movie glossed over this. Argus Filch was a squib (a non-magical person born into a wizard family). In the hope of somehow developing magical powers, he'd sent for a home correspondence course on learning magic spells. Filch was embarrassed when Harry happened to pick up his dropped letter, realizing that this probably revealed what he was, though almost every student knew this about him.

raywest

Show generally

Question: Why was Columbo never promoted, given that across the whole show he solves all the murders in such a spectacular fashion?

Answer: In the show, he was already a Lieutenant. A promotion would put him in the next rank up, which for the L.A.P.D. would be Captain. However, some of a Captain's duties would be overseeing other officers and ensuring they're compliant with policies, regulations, and standards. It would also most likely take him out of the field. This is something Columbo has no desire for as he rarely goes to police HQ's. Nor does he show interest in compliance and standards (for example, not going to his semi-annual evaluation at the firing range). However, he could still be assigned to a higher pay grade based on expertise, which is a form of promotion that does not include rank advancement. This would be going from Lieutenant I to Lieutenant II. I don't believe in the show it's ever started what his pay grade is. Although, in s02e01 (I believe) he mentions making $11K a year. Whether or not this was a true statement on his part, if you could find pay scale information for an LAPD Lieutenant in the 70's, it could give you an idea of his pay grade.

Bishop73

Question: When Remy is stuck in a cage, chef Gusteau tells Remy he never did. Remy never did what?

Answer: Remy tells the imaginary Gusteau that he's given up, and Gusteau replies that Remy is only as free as he imagines himself to be. Remy counters that he's "sick of pretending" to be a rat for his father and to be a human through Linguini. He then adds that he even pretends Gusteau actually exists, just so he can have somebody to talk to, and that all of Gusteau's responses are what he himself already knows to be true. So when Remy asks, "Why do I need to pretend?" that's when Gusteau tells him, "But you don't Remy. You never did." Which basically means Remy is both a rat, and an extraordinary cook.

Super Grover

Question: What exactly happens to Rosalie (before and after)?

Answer: Maybe you could be a little more specific with details? What do you mean by "before and after"?

raywest

Answer: Probably with the change of behavior she has with Bella. Rosallie seems to welcome Bella in the family as one of them and after the baby is born she is taken over by a mommy feeling.

Anastasios Anastasatos

Question: When Melody escapes the castle she swims beneath that giant wall, through a hole and pulls out one of the metal bars that's there. Later on when she escapes the castle after arguing with Ariel, she happens to freely walk outside and pulls a boat and the sea's there. What happened to the hole?

Answer: She would only be going through that hole when she's swimming, but since she was walking on land there was no need for it. She could've gotten the boat and brought it to shore another way.

Question: Since North is guardian of wonder, Tooth the guardian of memories, Bunnymund the guardian of hope, and Sandy the guardian of dreams, what does Jack become the guardian of?

Roman Curiel

Answer: Jack is the guardian of fun. It's stated in the film.

Show generally

Question: Were people able to "lock" the Holodeck doors so that others couldn't just walk in on them? I don't recall an episode where the doors were locked that wasn't because of some malfunction. It seems like Lieutenant Barclay, for example, would either lock the doors during his "fantasies" or have some "fail-safe" that shuts the program off when being walked in on. Otherwise, it's just a really dumb thing to do (for him or anyone playing out a fantasy) knowing they could easily be caught.

Bishop73

Answer: Yes. The doors to the holodecks can be locked when in use by anyone aboard the Enterprise so they couldn't be disturbed. However, high ranking officers like Captain Picard could override the doors as it's seen that overrides are in use even for the crews quarters. Even Barclay, when he's indulging in one of his fantasies could have the doors to the holodeck unlocked by an override code.

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.