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: When Jack is drawing the portrait of Rose, she mentions Monet wouldn't blush after catching Jack blushing. He replies with "he only does landscapes." What does this mean? Is it a joke because I can recall them chuckling. If it is a joke, what was he inferring?

Answer: They laugh due to Jack pointing out that Monet, if he did not paint landscapes, most likely would blush if he was the one seeing Rose nude.

Question: At the end of the third chapter, Petunia hesitates as though she wants to say something to Harry before she leaves, but she apparently changes her mind. Has J.K. Rowling ever revealed what she almost said? (I know that the movie has a deleted scene where Petunia mentions Lily, but that may not be canon).

Answer: Rowling said she was going to wish him luck and acknowledge that her hatred of magic was based on jealousy.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Three questions:- 1) When the palace guards arrest Aladdin, why doesn't the head guard recognise Jasmine until she pulls the hood of her cloak down? 2) When Jasmine tells the head guard to release Aladdin, he tells her that his orders are from Jafar, but surely Jasmine's command would trump Jafar's since he and the guards work for the Sultan, which means they also work for Jasmine (as she's their employer's daughter), so why obey Jafar but not Jasmine? 3) Later on after Jasmine has told the Sultan what happened, why is only Jafar reprimanded? Surely the guards would get told off too for not obeying Jasmine earlier on.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: 1) Razoul would have no reason to think the princess was out of the palace and wandering the streets. At most, he would assume there was a resemblance. 2) Jafar gets his orders and power from the Sultan, who trumps Jasmine. As vizier, part of his job is to relay the Sultan's orders. 3) The guards were just following orders of Jafar.

Greg Dwyer

Hostage - S11-E14

Question: Were the two little girls at "the disappearing place" whom Violet referred to as "her sisters" supposed to be her 2 daughters to Tom (a.k.a. "Daddy")?

Trisha

Chosen answer: Yes. It's directly mentioned in the show.

Chosen answer: She sings while she is breaking into the palace, and that has the same effect on Rapunzel's hair as it did on the flower.

Friso94

Question: I would very much like to have all the people featured in the montage during the Elton John song at the very end identified.

Answer: Interspersed with scenes of vigils, marches, AIDS quilt panels, and ordinary adults and infants with AIDS, the following famous figures appear: The three men in the newspaper photo shown are Michael Callen of NY, Anthony Ferrera of Washington, DC, and Roger Lyon of San Francisco (who is quoted in the headline, "I came here today in the hope that my epitaph would not read that I died of red tape"). Bobbi Campbell was a San Francisco AIDS activist, most remembered for initially opposing the closing of bathhouses during the crisis. Next is a picture of Ryan White, the young hemophiliac notable for acquiring HIV via blood transfusion, and fighting to remain in school when he had developed AIDS. Next is Michael Jackson walking up to greet Ryan White's mother - Jackson had become friends with Ryan White's family during his struggle. Next is Rock Hudson, actor and one of the first (but less than eager to be so) public faces of AIDS. Anthony Perkins, actor most famous for his role in "Psycho." Tina Chow - fashion icon and jewelry designer. Ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev. Tennis player Arthur Ashe. The cast of "A Chorus Line" followed by its creator, Michael Bennett. Performance artist Liberace. Freddie Mercury of the band "Queen." Princess Diana of Wales, notable for her charitable works for people with AIDS. Elizabeth Taylor, actress and co-founder of the American Federation for AIDS research. Elizabeth Glaser, wife of actor and director Paul Michael Glaser, who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion while giving birth and then unknowingly passed the virus on to their daughter. Basketball player Magic Johnson. Larry Kramer, co-founder of ACT-UP and the Gay Men's Health Crisis. Arthur Ashe again. AIDS activist Allison Gertz. News reporter Max Robinson of Chicago. Fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known simply as "Halston." Fashion designer WIlli Smith (AIDS quilt panel). Fashion Designer Perry Ellis. Singer-songwriter Peter Allen. Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell. Artist Keith Haring. Congressman Stewart McKinney. Actor Denholm Elliott ("Raiders of the Lost Ark"). Actor Brad Davis ("Midnight Express"). Actress Amanda Blake ("Gunsmoke"). Actor Robert Reed ("The Brady Bunch"). Philosopher and author Michael Foucault (AIDS quilt panel only). Tom Waddell, athlete and founder of the "Gay Olympics" (later named "Gay Games" due to copyright issues).

Michael Albert

Thank you for posting this.

Thank you so much! Your time is much appreciated.

Answer: It is implied that Danny and Rizzo had a previous romantic relationship of some kind. When Jan says, "Did you guys get a look at Zuk this Morning? Looking pretty good this year, huh, Rizz?" Rizzo replies, "that's ancient history." Later, when Danny says, "you're looking good, Rizz, " her answer, "eat your heart out," also suggests some possible residual feelings on her part. I think that's why Rizzo enjoys tormenting Sandy and Danny by reintroducing them at Rydell at a moment that she knows Danny is going to save face around his friends.

Michael Albert

Answer: Yes.

Answer: Yes... after the reunion of Danny and Sandy and Danny playing cool and blowing her off, Rizzo stands back with a stupid grin on her face like she's proud of herself.

Yeah, I noticed that, too. Plus, at the beginning of the movie it's implied that she and Danny were a fling or at least flirting at some point. Could be she was mad at the ending of it if it wasn't her choice. Later, when he calls her Sloppy Seconds, that seems to really shock her, but I'm less sure it implies anything.

Answer: When Rizzo shimmies down the outside of Frenchie's house she first says "what's up Kenick?", and he replies "one guess", followed by Rizzo intimating "You got a lot to offer a girl..." She then turns to Danny saying "What say you Zuck?" This is a clear inference that she would have sex with both men - a threesome, basically. Zuko is uninterested because as he states sloppy-seconds "aren't my style." He jumps out of the car and Kenickie kicks the other T-BIRDS to the sidewalk. The two love-birds head off to the hills.

Chosen answer: They may be behind or built into the counters where we can't see via the Fourth Wall. Not all apartment buildings offer a dishwasher as a standard feature, though.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Yes that would be how she most likely was able to tell.

Question: How old is Charles Muntz when Carl and Russell encounter him? When Carl was a kid, Charles appeared to be an old man. But, with the rest of the movie showing Carl at the age of 78, that would make Charles well over 100. How is he still alive?

Answer: According to writer/director Pete Docter, Carl was 9 and Muntz was 23, so if Carl is 78 in the rest of the film, that would make Muntz about 92.

Sierra1

Question: The bomb Mugatu had turned out to be a glitter bomb once it exploded onto him. So, is he dead?

Answer: Mugatu was killed when the bomb was hurled back at him.

raywest

Question: Why does Kylo Ren kidnap Rey? Was it because of how good she was with a lightsaber, or did he do it so Han Solo, Poe and Finn would come looking for her? It just seemed to me that the two of them were having a lightsaber battle, and then he decided to knock her out and take her hostage. Have only seen this movie recently so might have missed something.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: She had seen the map that Ren is seeking the droid, BB-8, to acquire. He does not have BB-8, but he does have Rey. So he takes her to extract her memory of the map from her mind with the Force rather than continue spending time and resources attempting to acquire the droid.

Phixius

Question: Was there a specific reason Mark Hamill got 2nd billing (other than he's Luke Skywalker)? Was the billing order based on how much they each got paid? I don't recall seeing his picture on any The Force Awakens posters and it didn't seem like they needed to add hype to the movie by billing "big name" celebrities. Of course that leads to asking why Hamill reportedly got paid 7 figures for his "role" when the actual stars got less than half or a third of that. I know they're all in unions, so is it a union thing? Or just a better agent thing?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: The actors playing Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren were mostly unknown, while Mark Hamill is famous worldwide as both a screen actor and voice actor. The billing order was likely based on their fame and then on their new roles. It's not a union thing, minimum wage in the Screen Actor's Guild is far lower than what they were paid. It's a combination of bigger star, better agent, and the future of the series.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Watney digs up the plutonium and places it in the rover. Why is the rover so cold later after the HAB blows up?

Answer: He used the RTG to warm the rover on his trip to get Pathfinder. Once he returned he buried it again, since it posed a radiation hazard.

Grumpy Scot

I rechecked the book. He did NOT rebury it. In fact, he tore out extra insulation inside the rover so the interior would not get too warm during his upcoming trip to the other landing site. The RTG was, in fact, an integral part of his equipment for the journey. However, by tearing out an appropriate amount of insulation, he pointed out that the heat from the RTG would leak out some during regular operation. But sitting unoccupied for a while, enough heat might have leaked out to make it chilly.

Smokyoak

Answer: Is that mentioned in the book? Don't remember it being mentioned, but I can recheck.

Smokyoak

Question: In the movie, the stripped down capsule that Mark is in tumbles uncontrollably through space. Admittedly it was a non-standard launch, but since this was the standard return vehicle, how was it intended to rendezvous/dock with the mothership? Wouldn't there be maneuvering thrusters?

Answer: He removed the thrusters to save weight for the launch.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: Interstellar means travelling among the stars, no matter which galaxy you're in, which is what was going on. While intergalactic does mean travelling between galaxies, it's more indicative of being in the empty void of space between galaxies, not going from one galaxy to another. And since they travelled by wormhole, they were never really in the empty space.

Bishop73

Question: When Cary Lowell arrives at the religious compound run by Wayne Newton to "donate" money, they don't let her in at first. She begs and says "But I came all the way from Wichita Falls." Being from Wichita Falls, Texas (a city not real well known throughout the US since it's relatively small) I'm curious as to how this line got into the film. Does someone working on the film have some connection to Wichita Falls?

Answer: Just why they chose this city is not known. It was probably chosen for an inside reason, i.e. one of the writers or producers was from there, and they wanted to give a nod to their hometown.

raywest

Question: There are two prisoners wearing chains and only underpants inside the prison; they were dancing and the guitar was being played. Can someone please tell me how the men who have chains on their legs remove their trousers for washing, them and their trousers?

kh1616

Chosen answer: Either the guards removed the chains so the prisoners could take the pants off to wash them or this is a movie mistake.

raywest

Answer: In the novel, Donn Pearce gives quite a detailed description of the method that the chain wearing prisoners went through to remove their pants without removing the chains. It is a very difficult procedure to follow but it was probably true as his account is based on serving time on the chain gang depicted in the movie.

Question: Queen Victoria made Phileas realize that he won the wager because it was still day 79. If she knew that Phileas arrived a day early, how come everybody else in London, including Lord Kelvin, thought it was actually day 80 and that he lost the wager when the tower bells began to ring?

Answer: In reality, it would be impossible that so many people would make this mistake. However, it serves the movie's plot for the error to be discovered by one person at the last moment because it provides an unexpected upset to a perceived outcome. In this case, it was by Queen Victoria, which added an additional twist.

raywest

Chosen answer: There was no explanation about why she did not attend.

raywest

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.