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: In a movie where a person is waterboarded, is the actor literally waterboarded? Or is there a type of trick or method that directors use?

Answer: Some water might have been used, but actually waterboarding an actor would be a safety hazard. Most likely some special effects are involved.

raywest

Question: Does anyone know what Jessica's maiden name was before she married Roger? Does she even have one?

Answer: An earlier version of the script (which may or may not be canon) gave her maiden name as "Krupnick".

Question: When Adaline gets arrested is it because she is she is suspected of being a communist or something else entirely?

Darth Crucible

Chosen answer: It was because she had used so many fake I.D. the F.B.I. had become suspicious, possibly believing she was involved in some type of criminal activity, which is often why people assume different identities.

raywest

Question: Why did the scourging of the Shire never take place in the film?

DFirst1

Chosen answer: The film was already quite long and the plot was complicated with many characters. Adding the Shire scourge would be nearly impossible to incorporate without completely bogging down the story and the pacing. It was implied in one scene as a shadowy premonition that this could happen to the Shire if Sauron wasn't defeated.

raywest

Question: Is there a reason why Tom Hagen "can't give a straight answer anymore," in all of his conversations with Michael?

Answer: Michael only wants people to tell him what he wants to hear, rather than giving truthful advice, which sometimes makes him angry. Tom often has to skirt around issues to get his point across, otherwise Michael will react negatively, or even retaliate in some way. Michael expects Tom's complete loyalty even though he had demoted Tom from being Consigliori. An element of trust and understanding was lost between them.

raywest

Question: What did Harry ask Mary Jane to do when he kidnapped her just before she asked Peter out to meet her on the bridge? Did Harry asked Mary Jane to break up with Peter or else he will kill/harm Peter?

Answer: In a nutshell, yes. Harry wants revenge against Peter/Spider-Man because he incorrectly believes he killed Harry's father. He wants to make Peter suffer, and he knows making Mary Jane break up with him will be devastating.

Phaneron

Question: Why did Darby rape and kill Clyde's wife and daughter? Seems pointless, given that Darby and Ames were only there to rob the house.

EK8829

Chosen answer: Maybe Ames was only there for the robbery, but given how quickly Darby decided to commit rape, it may be something he has done before and decided to take advantage of once he saw that there was a woman home that he could have his way with.

Phaneron

Question: When Cal and Lovejoy frame Jack for stealing the necklace, at one point during the scene Cal says something to the effective of two things dear to him having disappeared, one being the necklace obviously. So then was Rose the other "thing" he was referring to?

Answer: Yes, he meant Rose. He basically viewed her as a possession.

Purple_Girl

Question: Clyde says to Darby, "Now, what we don't want is you swallowing your tongue, so bear with me" and then inserts some kind of mouthpiece into Darby's mouth. What does it do, and why does he not want Darby swallowing his tongue?

EK8829

Chosen answer: The devices he places in Darby's mouth is to keep his tongue in place. He doesn't want Darby to swallow his tongue (i.e. choke) because he wants him to be awake and alert for the duration of his torture. This is also why he gives him an adrenaline IV to keep him from passing out as well as tourniquets for his severed limbs to prevent him from bleeding to death.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: Ruby quartz. In the comics and various adaptations, ruby quartz is the only substance that can hold his eye beams at bay. There is a scene in "X-Men: Apocalypse" where Hank gives Scott some glasses made out of ruby quartz, along with an explanation of why they will work.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: Théoden was intent on killing Grima out of revenge for what he had done. Since Aragorn is a very noble man, he would have felt that Théoden killing Grima for that reason would not have been a noble decision, especially for a king, to make.

Casual Person

Question: Who is the 2nd in command of Sauron? Is it the Witch King or the Mouth of Sauron?

DFirst1

Chosen answer: The Witch-king of Angmar is Sauron's second in command. The Mouth of Sauron serves more as an ambassador and messenger to Sauron.

Casual Person

Question: Where were the Wally World scenes shot?

Answer: The Wally World scenes were shot in two locations. At Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. The parking lot scene was filmed in Santa Anita Park's large parking lot, whilst the scenes taking place inside Wally World were shot at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Casual Person

Question: Why does Xavier want to kill everybody and not tell them anything about the numbers behind their head?

Answer: He's only looking out for himself. He doesn't care if anyone else dies.

Phaneron

Answer: All of the games included a limited amount of antidotes, he was being selfish.

Answer: Yeah, there was only one antidote in the safe.

Question: When the baby pulls Manny's nose hairs out, there were white things at the ends. Not to sound gross but I've done it in my nostrils and my armpits, and I wanted to ask what those white ends are?

Answer: The roots, most likely. In hair follicles, it's where one's DNA coding is stored.

Cubs Fan

Question: What is the reference to the limo drivers at Clair's funeral about. Who is the extra person?

Answer: The guy who killed Claire was the fifth guy. If you go back and look, you'll see he was dressed as a driver at the funeral.

Why would he be present at the funeral?

Answer: Criminals are known to go and revisit their crime victims.

Question: What was the bill, if passed, going to do? The one Long kept trying to pass and convince (The Senate I believe) the other congressmen to pass.

Answer: With it, Long would have been able to destroy the land, create another dam and get more houses built. However, like the first dam, he would have cut corners which would cause the new dam to eventually break.

They were members of the house of representatives.

Question: I have been trying to ID the blade used by the sentry at the church; also by the special ops commander to cut the throat of the "new guy" radio operator.

martea

Chosen answer: It's by Jack Crain, called the Die Hard 2 fighter. See http://www.jackcrainknives.com/movieknives2.htm.

Chosen answer: Because Juni told her that her feet stunk so she wanted to see if it was true.

Question: Why doesn't Stark like anyone to hand him things? Is it just a quirk or is there a reason behind it?

Answer: In the beginning of the first film, Tony has no problem being handed things. However, when he is kidnapped and his life is threatened and he realises that his weapons are being used for the wrong purposes, his mind starts to change. In his head, he believes that whenever he is handed something, terrible events happen. For example, when he was handed the documents to sign for his weapons in the beginning of the first film, he found out that they were being sold to the wrong people. Also, when the blonde reporter hands him photos, it's of a town being devastated because of his weapons, and he feels at fault. So he develops this small fear or dislike of being handed things because they do not end well and end up causing him pain.

Answer: Tony is merely antagonizing Agent Coulson.

Phixius

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