Question: Have the filmmakers offered any explanation as to why they used CGI for Wolverine's claws in the bathroom scene? As has been pointed out numerous times, the CGI is very poor. Given that the previous three X-Men films used practical claws that looked just fine, this seemed like a very impractical thing to do, especially considering the extra time and money going with CGI would require.
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: Has there ever been an explanation as to why the number "57" appears throughout the film? The number appears specifically three times: Ripley was floating in space for 57 years, the sentry guns have a model number of 571, and 157 colonists were killed. It just seems like the number comes up too many times to be a coincidence.
Answer: I have done some research looking into this, and I can't find anything about it. Only stuff talking about her being asleep for 57 years. I believe the other two occurrences are in fact coincidence. If it was meant to signify anything, it would likely have appeared more and as its own number of 57. Not part of 571 or 157.
Question: In the scene with the hotel clerk, where someone (presumably Linus) calls and informs him that Julia Roberts is coming, why does the clerk roll his eyes and say "we are happy she would consider us again", or something to that effect, and then announces in Italian to the other two clerks that "Julia Roberts is coming" Is this a reference to another movie Julia was in or did she have an incident in Rome in the past?
Answer: It had always been a rumour that Julia Roberts likes to have a big deal made of her being somewhere. It is actually the opposite, so they poked fun at it.
Question: If the Wolf, the Ape, and the Croc were all exposed to the chemical around the same time, then why is it that the Croc grew to almost triple the size of the other two by the time they hit the city? The ape is bigger than the croc at normal sizes and the wolf is more or less the same size. So why did the croc get that much bigger than the other two?
Answer: Perhaps the chemical has different effects on the animals that it is being exposed to, and the crocodile was mutated into a much bigger size than the gorilla and wolf. I don't think the movie is really expecting anyone to question this, but is really just done to give the protagonists an opponent to face.
Question: Tory, and the other guys working with him pop most of the balloons, and release only a few. Why not release the entire bunch of balloons they made?
Question: What exactly did that Police Officer mean when he said to Miss Hannigan "Look what I found under a paving stone"?
Answer: Paving stone is just a description of the City's street pavement, like the Lower East Side's Belgian block pavers or even cobblestones. It's pretty much similar to saying "Look what I found under a rock" and both are uncomplimentary to Annie.
Question: Why was Evan interviewed separately from the other "survivors"? Why is he so special; I thought all he did was win the lottery?
Answer: You thought correctly. He did only win the lottery. We only see Evan interviewed separately. It's just possible that he was last to be interviewed. Kimberly and the others were being babysat by Officer Burke, so it's likely they were interviewed before Evan. I think that all or any witness would be interviewed separately whatever the circumstances.
Barney and the Governor - S3-E15
Question: Who was the young man standing in courthouse with the governor when he shook Barney's hand?
Answer: In the shot inside the courthouse, when Governor Ed shakes Barney's hand, it's presumed the young man with the Governor is his aide or personal assistant. The young man is carrying an attache case which likely belongs to the Governor, and earlier the Governor told Andy that he had some business in the vicinity. Note, at the start of the scene, right before Barney and Andy walk into the courthouse to meet Governor Ed, his chauffeur (played by Rance Howard, who is Ron Howard's real-life dad) is standing beside the Governor's car.
Question: Why does Peter try to kill Molly and Sam at the end when he already took the life of agent Block and is safe from Death?
Answer: I think that by this point Peter is too far gone to be thinking rationally or to be reasoned with. And as he says himself Molly witnessed the murdered of a federal agent, so she's got to die. And maybe Peter was just making damn sure that he was safe from Death. I mean, he's already murdered one innocent human being, so what's two more?
Question: Why does Laurie drop off mail (that her father gave her) to the Myers house, which is abandoned? Why bring mail to an abandoned house?
Answer: Laurie's father, Mason Strode, is a realtor who owns Strode Real Estate, and there's a realty sign post in the front yard of the old Myers house. Mason tells Laurie, "They're coming by to look at it later," so we know he's talking about people interested in buying the old property. When Michael sniffs the envelope we see the Strode Real Estate logo, and it presumably contains realtor's paperwork which is pertinent to the sale of the house, and is meant for the people who will be coming by later.
Question: When the guys are getting ready to go into town, one of them says about the sarge "as short as he is he's out of here in 30 days." Someone also said "anyone as short as Brownie shouldn't have been out there". What do they mean by short?
Answer: "Short" in this context is military slang for someone whose tour of duty is coming close to an end. It's a derivative of "short-timer."
Question: Wisconsin has no land border with Canada. The nearest crossings from a fictional town near Sheboygan would be Sault Ste Marie, MI or Grand Portage, MN, both of which would take well over a day round trip, so just exactly where did the boys go to Canada from?
Answer: The show's universe actually has Point Place as a suburb of Green Bay, which is further north than Sheboygan. Still, quite a drive, roughly eight hours, to the nearest Canadian land border (as you rightly say, it would be in Grand Portage). Obviously the show's creators were hoping no one would check...the border crossing the boys use is left deliberately vague, and is just a plot device rather than a faithful depiction of Wisconsin geography.
I live in Sault Ste Marie, MI it about 5 hours to Green Bay, one way. Totally doable in half a day round trip.
Answer: It should be noted that while a trip across the Canadian border from Wisconsin would take a while, it certainly wouldn't take more than 12 hours to get there. From Green Bay to Sault Ste Marie, one is less than 300 miles away and would take less than 6 hours to get there. However, as stated, where in Canada they are is never said and very vague. In fact, when you see them at the border, there's a sign behind them with different cities and their distances (Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Sault Ste Marie). However, the distances don't seem to match any border crossing and Sault Ste Marie is 780 km away, which would put them at a Saskatchewan/Montana border crossing.
Arnold's Hat/Stoop Kid - S1-E3
Question: Did Harold already know that the Stoop Kid had just left his stoop the first time? He would have known that a while ago due to a large crowd in the city or even in the newspaper.
Answer: No, he did not. He is seen getting off the bus with a suitcase, so he must have not been home for a few days so there is no way he could have known.
Question: Was I the only person to be struck quite forcefully (metaphorically speaking) by the contrast between Julie Andrews' portrayal of Mary Poppins, as the ever-smiling, cheerful, friendly, vivacious character, who melts everybody with her charm, which seemed wholly at odds with PL Travers' portrayal of Mary Poppins as acerbic, dour, and cynical, who always seems to get her way by utter, overwhelming arrogance?
Answer: Travers, herself, was pretty much the model for the original Mary Poppins: an inflexible authoritarian who insisted on advising and reviewing nearly every aspect of the film's production. Which is why Disney had such a hell of a time securing the rights and molding Travers' story into a lighthearted romp.
Mary Poppins may somewhat resemble P.L. Travers, but her great-aunt, Helen Morehead, is largely considered to be the inspiration for the character. Travers' mother moved in with her aunts after P.L.'s father died when she was a young girl. The aunt would often say, "Spit spot, into bed."
Some aspects of Mary Poppins were based on Travers' great-aunt (the more positive aspects that Travers remembered from childhood) ; but the overall character was Travers herself.
Answer: No doubt many fans of the books and P.L. Travers agreed with your assessment. However, it was 1964 and Travers' book was heavily "Disneyfied," meaning they imprinted their particular syrupy, family-oriented wholesome stamp on the project, watering down Poppins' dour personality. Travers was appalled by it and would never allow another of her books to be made into a movie. There is a remake in the works, and, hopefully, the current Disney heads will give it a darker tone.
Question: While the chip that Walter recovered from the Horsemen was presumably fake (as the Horsemen discovered earlier in the film), why then did they alert the FBI to that chip?
Answer: The only ones who knew the chip was fake were the Horsemen, no one else did. Walter did not know the chip was fake. The plan was to convince Walter that the chip was real so that they could lure him out of hiding with Walter attempting to kidnap and later kill them, and expose Walter to the public in doing so. They told the crowd after exposing Walter about the chip, because while it was a fake, they still had plans with it assuming it was real. If by "alert the FBI", you were referring to when Dylan gave the FBI director the evidence on Walter and Tressler, that was not the chip he gave to her, that was a hard drive containing all of Walter and Tressler's past dealings.
Question: Why didn't Ethan just give Nyah one of his guns after she infected herself? She could have easily killed Ambrose and others with a surprise attack since they were more interested in keeping her alive and she wanted Ethan to kill her anyway. She had better odds of surviving that way than the impossible plot that followed. She could have killed everyone but Ambrose and he may have let it happen in order to still have a chance at selling the virus.
Answer: Ethan did not want her to kill herself. Giving her a gun would allow her to do so.
Question: How does Jigsaw make the puppet move and talk? And what did Zep do wrong to make Jigsaw put him in a game?
Answer: The puppet is an animatronic, so he programmed its mouth to move with the dialogue on the tapes. Zep is shown earlier in the film to get personally attached/involved with patients at the hospital, so the implication is that he is inserted into the game in a role where he is too personally involved with the dilemmas of strangers.
Answer: Found online: We don't know exactly what Zep has done wrong to call Jigsaw's wrath upon himself, only that he was an orderly at the same hospital where Dr Gordon works and he was an attendant to John Kramer. Dr Gordon hints to the fact that Zep shows too little professional detachment in forming "very special bonds with the patients." On Zep's tape, Jigsaw says "Will you murder a mother and her child to save yourself?" Perhaps this means Zep's sin is that he is always too involved in the lives of complete strangers, neglecting his own life. He has to put his own life over the lives of two strangers in order to win the game.
Question: How did Bobby beat his second opponent in the tournament? I'm talking about the match that was right before the one between Tommy and Daniel.
Answer: The fight isn't shown in it's entirety but the final point is won when Bobby takes his opponent down and hits him with a back fist across the chest.
Question: Francisco 'Pancho' Villa was photographed on many occasions, and always had a full head of hair (as well as a moustache). Yet the film cast Telly Savalas as Pancho Villa, who shaved his head, and was always very proud of and conscious of being a Greek-American. The year after Pancho Villa was released Telly Savalas began to play the titular character of the police drama series, 'Kojak', which transformed him into the world's most recognisable Greek. So, my question is, given a film about Pancho Villa was made in Spain, where the producer and director had an unlimited number of actors of Hispanic ancestry to call on, why cast one of the world's most famous bald, Greek actors (sporting an unconvincing moustache) to play the hirsute Mexican Pancho Villa?
Answer: Hollywood, especially in that era, frequently would cast white actors to play people of color The studio knew Savalas would bring in a lot of viewers, while an unknown from Spain might not.
Chosen answer: While it's not a definitive answer, the practical claws were still dangerous and several stunt people, and Hugh Jackman himself, have been injured during filming of the X-Men films. I don't know if they simply wanted to try to be safer or if there was a request made. Plus, the other films still used CGI claws for certain scenes, so perhaps they thought they could pull it off. It should be noted that Hugh Jackman went back to practical claws during filming of The Wolverine.
Bishop73