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: Why is Hermione wearing a bandage? I see no injury to her hand but when they travel back in time she has a bandage on her hand.

ForceSlytherin

Answer: You can see blood on Hermione's hand when Ron says "Scabbers has been in my family for..." before Sirius says "12 years"

Chosen answer: There's no reason given and it is not part of the story line. Most likely, at some point during the filming of this scene, Emma Watson suffered some minor injury and needed to wear a bandage.

raywest

Answer: She could have injured it while she was on the Whomping Willow.

Question: The largest sandstorms ever recorded are less than a mile high (reaching only about 5000 feet in altitude). Isn't 5000 feet considered low altitude for a Fairchild C-119G "Flying Boxcar," which could easily climb over such a storm in a matter of minutes?

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: This would most likely be a case of "pilot error." He didn't do what he should have and that led to the accident. If he had flown above the sand storm and didn't crash, then there'd be no movie to watch.

raywest

Question: At the very end of the scene in which Walter and the Dude are spreading Donnie's ashes at the coast, a dark and unidentifiable figure appears for a few seconds in the upper right screen, apparently hiking a trail along the cliff. Was this an accidental walk-on by an actual hiker, or was it written into the script? With all the star-power in this film, I thought every bit of background action was supposed to be meticulously crafted.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: There's no way of knowing. If the hiker was that far away, it could have been someone who happened to stray into the scene by accident. The filmmakers may or may not have noticed, but if they did, may have felt it added to the realism. I did this myself during the filming of a street scene for the TV show, "Northern Exposure." Filming was underway before I realised I was in the midst of it. I just kept walking like I was supposed to be there.

raywest

Question: Very last scene after they turn the car around and you see the back of their heads, to me it doesn't look like Cary Grant or Joan Fontaine? Is it them or their doubles?

Answer: It could have been body doubles, who are often used for filler scenes like this, but there's no way to know for sure.

raywest

Answer: Hitchcock had a different ending on the movie, but the studio and test audiences hated it. Grant ends up splitting up with Fontaine. Hitchcock was pressured into a happy ending, but weeks had passed since the end of filming and the two popular stars were off on other projects. Two actors were hired to as stand-ins for the added footage of the car turning around and the two going happily home together.

Question: I don't understand why Jenny left Forrest's house after having sex with him and saying that she loved him. Could someone please offer thoughts on this?

Answer: It seems more like Jenny realises that she is a screw up and doesn't deserve the love of Forrest. She left to get herself together in order to be worthy of him.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Forrest had mental issues. Jenny slept with him because she thought she loved him (and she realises later that she did), but didn't think that Forrest loved her back because he wasn't capable of understanding that kind of love (and she realises later that he did). She then remembered that her dad sexually abused her when she didn't understand what was going on, and she felt like she was behaving the way her dad did (remember Forrest's look of fear and discomfort?). Jenny then felt guilty and ran away because she didn't know how to deal with the guilt.

Answer: People who were abused often have issues with trust, and they can have difficulty forming healthy, stable relationships. They are often drawn to problematic relationships - for example, Jenny's boyfriend, Wesley - because these situations are familiar to them.

Answer: It's the type of person she is. She is unable to commit or settle down with one person, even if she loves them. She has a gypsy personality-someone who is always moving from one place to the next.

raywest

Chosen answer: Danny Masterson is the one who screams "hello Wisconsin".

Question: When Martel plays with the replacement players, he keeps throwing passes to the opposing team and keeps making his team either miss the ball entirely or gives the ball to another player causing them to be tackled. He then tells O'Neil that he can't play with a team like them. Is he deliberately doing all of this because he wants the replacements to lose? I find it hard to believe that he can't work with the team when it looked very obvious to me that what he was doing was intentional.

Answer: He is deliberately making them look bad. Purposely throwing interceptions, running plays that will not gain any yardage. He tells O'Neil he can't play with them because he is lying.

Question: Who is the voice of Mr. Shadow?

Answer: Nobody is credited with the voice of Mr. Shadow, nor with the voice of Korben Dallas' mother. There's only speculation.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: I bet money it was Tom Lister Jr. under voice altering. He plays the president in the movie.

A Shot in the Dark - S14-E9

Question: At one point when Brian says something, Stewie tells him to look into his pocket where he finds a paper reading what Brian just said. Then Brian says something about it and Stewie tells him to look into his other pocket, where he finds another paper reading what he just said. Then Stewie tells Brian to look into Chris' pocket, which has bottom cut off. Later in the episode Chris tells Brian to look into Meg's pocket, but Brian refuses. What was all this about?

Answer: So it started out with the fact that Stewie knew what Brian was going to say in this situation because Stewie sees Brian as predictable and pretentious while Brian thinks he's being deep and poignant. The Chris part was since the bottom of his pocket was cut out, Brian touched Chris' genitals. Later when they tell Brian to reach into Meg's pocket, he's didn't want to fall for the same gag and end up touching Meg's genitals.

Bishop73

Chosen answer: It is unknown whether Shelob survived. In the film she is severely wounded and flees the battle, never to be mentioned again. The description in the book is identical, she is said to have never been heard from again after that moment.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When Uncle Ben said that Peter's father believed if you could do good things for other people you would have a moral obligation to do those things, what did that mean? I know that it's a reference to "with great power comes great responsibility" but what did the words themselves mean?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: It means exactly what it sounds like: that if you can do good things, you should do them. And you should feel obligated to do them because it's for the greater good. It's not exactly the same message as "with great power comes great responsibility", but it's in the same sort-of ethical ballpark.

Question: I've always wondered: why does Goldfinger release Bond during the laser scene? I've seen the scene a few times and I still cannot understand it.

Answer: Bond bluffed his way out. He convinced Goldfinger that if he did not report back to his superiors they would send another 00 Agent to replace him. And the agent would have information that could foil Goldfinger. By sparing Bond Goldfinger could force him to make reports as his captive. Bond would be his prisoner but no other 00 agents would come for him.

Question: When Buddy and Carolyn first meet at dinner, Buddy claims that his wife left him. At the motel (after Lester discovers Carolyn cheating with Buddy), Buddy says that he's "potentially facing a very expensive divorce." Why did he lie that his wife left him in the first place?

EK8829

Chosen answer: He wasn't lying that she'd left him. Sometimes when people break up, they don't initiate divorce proceedings right away, and some ex-couples don't bother going through divorce at all purely because it's too expensive. Sometimes, a reconciliation happens. He simply wasn't sure exactly what was going to be happening.

Purple_Girl

Question: When Peter saves the city from changing into Lizards, Connors saved him, but was he trying to save Peter or finish him off for himself given how aggressive he sounded?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: He was trying to save Peter. He's realised his plans are finished, and he's also been "cured", so he's starting to realise how big of a mistake he's made, and he feels bad about it. Hence, he saves Peter.

Chosen answer: She found out in the scene where they are talking on the balcony when Peter is visiting her at her apartment. Peter shoots a web at her to pull her back towards him as she walks away and realises that he is Spider-Man.

Casual Person

Question: Just out of curiosity but how did Quinn, (the one Blade nailed to the wall at the beginning of the movie), "heal" from being burned? I don't think there was ever an explanation and later on he was just fine; how is that possible and also, how did his hand/hands keep growing back and why was he so hard to kill before?

Answer: The vampires in the "Blade" movies can regenerate, especially when they feed with regularity. Also, he wasn't "hard to kill"... Blade just had a particular dislike for him and liked torturing him without killing him.

Question: Two questions; One, what is the language the vampires are always speaking? Was it made up or is it a real language? Two, if Blade was called Eric before, how did he "become" Blade, meaning how did he earn the name?

Answer: The vampire language is Esperanto, a real constructed language created in the late 1800's. To an English listener, the language sounds foreign yet vaguely familiar thus it works as a plausible "secret language" spoken by a secret society. It is never explained how Blade got his nickname, however his proficiency with bladed weapons seems to be a logical explanation. A deleted scene in Blade 2 shows Whistler interacting with Blade when he was young, telling him to "drop his blade".

BaconIsMyBFF

Apologies, but 'BaconIsMyBFF' is incorrect. The vampire language is definitively not Esperanto. Respected language expert and UCLA linguistics professor Victoria Fromkin was hired to create a fictional vampire language. For the second film, a new linguist, J. Matthew Pearson, was brought in to write new language excerpts due to prof. Fromkin's death in 2000. A thread discussing this fact can be found at - http://archives.conlang.info/bhe/qhuenphi/jhurphilwein.html.

Chosen answer: The main goal of the X-Men is to show the world that not all mutants are necessarily evil or to be feared. Showing kindness and giving hospitality to one of their biggest detractors helps their cause, and Senator Kelly admits to having a change of heart just before he dies.

Phaneron

Question: I have a few questions actually: 1) Who was Miranda Tate's father? They said Ra's al Ghul, which I thought to mean Liam Neeson. Which made sense as they showed Liam at some point as well in a vision to Bruce. But I just watched Batman Begins and Liam doesn't play Ra's al Ghul he plays some dude named Bucard. Ra's al Ghul is actually played by the guy who played Sato in Inception. Also, when you look at Liam's imdb page, it shows he did indeed play Ra's in The Dark Knight Rises, even though it shows him playing a different character in Batman Begins. Huh? 2) Smaller question but just before the plane crashes in the beginning Bane takes blood from Dr Pavel. There's no explanation of what that was about? 3) How does going on the ice kill you? Do we take this to mean at some point the ice cracks? 4) There was a suggestion at the end that there'll be another movie, not sure if with just Robin, or both Batman and Robin. Is that actually happening?

Answer: 1) Liam Neeson's casting as Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins was kept secret, including crediting him as playing Henri Ducard, the name he gives Bruce when they first meet. He isn't revealed as the actual Ra's Al Ghul until later in the film as a surprise to both Bruce and the audience. 2) Bane draws some of Dr. Pavel's blood and injects it into an already dead body in order to help fake Dr. Pavel's death. The plan was to make it look like he died in the plane crash. 3) The ice cracks under the weight and you sink into the freezing cold water and drown. This is specifically shown happening in the film. 4) The ending implies not that there will be a new film (Christopher Nolan planned the trilogy to have a definite end with this particular film), but that Gotham would always need a Batman. It implies that Blake will be the new hero Gotham needs as Bruce is retired.

BaconIsMyBFF

Chosen answer: The whole point was James was in possession of Peter's identity and it didn't matter how he has it. Joe also ignored the fact he's personally known Peter since moving in next door, so the picture didn't really matter. To Joe, James is Peter now, no matter what.

Bishop73

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