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: Do you know how they filmed Jason getting hit in the face with the radio after Gretchen accidentally kicks it?

Answer: It was a real boom box - a guy that sat two seats away from "Jason" explained that it was on a wire rig and took 4 takes until the boom box broke.

Answer: The radio probably was very light and soft and made of rubber. Either that or Gretchen deliberately didn't kick it far enough for it to hit him, but from the angle it was filmed it looked like it did.

MikeH

Question: When the phantom disappears at the end why does he leave his mask behind? I mean does he get a new one or does he now live without it?

Answer: The abandoned mask is a symbol of the Phantom's continuing presence, despite his apparent physical absence. He has already been publicly unmasked, both physically and, to an extent, psychologically. He has conceded that he has lost Christine to Raoul whom he has freed. He has abandoned his lair. All that was his facade, he has either given up or has been taken from him. The mask is the final symbolic gesture of that facade being relinquished, leaving behind further mystery regarding his whereabouts. Does he now live without it? I guess that's left unclear. However, I don't think it's beyond reason to assume he has, or has created more than one copy of the mask - if for no other reason than anything in pure white must be difficult to keep clean, what with the dust all over the opera house, the dirt of the streets, the humidity of his cavern, and the occasional splatter of blood to contend with.

Michael Albert

Question: When Over's wife gets the call about her husband's plane having problems, there is a horse in bed with her and she tells the horse to let himself out. This is the only joke in the movie I didn't understand. Is there anybody out there who got the joke and can help me understand it?

Answer: This is a reference to The Godfather, where a character being intimidated by the Mafia wakes up with his prize racehorse's severed head next to him on the bed. For comedy purposes this is twisted by the movie as an implied sexual relationship, when the horse is revealed to be alive.

Answer: This is an inside joke that Mrs. Over is cheating on her husband with a horse.

Question: Is Briseis in the movie supposed to be a 'combination character' of Cryseis (a priestess), Cassandra (a princess) and Briseis (a slave girl) in the Iliad?

Answer: Briseis is indeed a combination character of Cryseis, Cassandra and Briseis with at least 3 very important features borrowed from each of them. There are also several ideas coming from Polyxena's story.

Season 4 generally

Question: From "The 4th Grade" onwards there's a new opening intro for the show. The final clip shows a live action scene from a guy jumping away from an explosion, where it that clip from?

Answer: It's from Bad Boys.

Chosen answer: This is the very reason my brother and I used to jokingly call the show, "Murder, She Caused." It's amazing she was ever on anyone's guest list for a party, given the likelihood someone would end up deceased. As to your question, most of the time, Jessica Fletcher would have had an air-tight alibi, as she was in a room full of people, or her whereabouts were accounted for when a murder occurred elsewhere. It also seems to me that there were episodes where she, purely with respect to opportunity, could have been a suspect. I believe she even acknowledged that as a logical possibility from time to time, even though she knew, of course, she was not the killer. However, the investigation would obviously rule out the possibility of her involvement, eventually.

Michael Albert

Question: What does the saying "Why don't you make like a tree, and get out of here", mean?

Answer: It's a way of saying "scram" or "get lost." But Biff is so dim, he doesn't realize he's saying it wrong; the expression is "make like a tree and leaf", with the joke being that "leaf" is meant to sound like "leave."

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: The song is called "Underground" by David Bowie. It is preceded by music listed on the soundtrack album simply as "Opening Titles."

Michael Albert

Question: Hey I haven't seen a few bits of the movie but does Humpty trick Puss with that bank? And How does the middle of the P that Puss cuts with his sword at the start of the movie stay in place?

Answer: The middle of the P stays in place because it's an animation. Humpty told Puss he owed people money and they were coming for him, but he really robbed a bank. The guards thought Puss was involved. They tried to arrest him, but Puss scratched one in self defence. He escaped on a wagon and the money accidentally fell off a bridge. He was on the run ever since.

MikeH

Question: What happened to Wolf Edmund? He was one of the dozen astronaut explorers that went into the wormhole to search for suitable planets. Anne Hathaway was in love with him. Did he die before she and Cooper reached Planet Edmund or was he still alive when Brand landed there?

raywest

Chosen answer: Per the novelization of the movie he was dead when they arrived. CASE and Brand gave him a burial.

Carol Lalonde

Question: After the robbery and once the dust settled (business was back-to-normal at the bank, etc.) why did the bank president not immediately go to open the safety deposit box and see what happened to its contents? He knew it was the target of the robbery. Reason would dictate that one of the first things he would have done would be to open the box and see what was there... Not leave it to the NYPD to open it and discover a mostly empty box except for the big ring, chewing gum and note.

Answer: The aforementioned answer fails to keep in mind he is the owner of the bank and could've have done this hours before the bank was opened and or hours after the bank was opened. Dalton spent 3 days behind the wall. Mr Case had a special fixer, and she had the mayor in her pocket. It is a reasonable assumption that a billionaire like Aruthur Case would be able to have the contents of his safety deposit box removed with little to no problem. One way is "yes Mr. Mayor I will be giving you a blank check for your reelection campaign." The issue is this was a major plot hole that almost ruined a otherwise great and well thought out movie.

Answer: Arthur Case did not want anyone to know about the safe deposit box or what was in it. In fact, the box's number had been left off the bank records. The police did not immediately know if anything had been stolen during the robbery. Case going to the bank to check on the box, would only have drawn attention to it. The contents, the diamonds, were a link to Case's criminal Nazi past that he wanted kept hidden. It was only by chance that Detective Frazier discovered the box and the clues that had been left inside it by Dalton Russell.

raywest

Question: The lone woman on the bridge. What was she saying?

Answer: She was listing some of the things that naturally kill people in the world, such as diseases and natural disasters, and said that this was her time to kill people, because the Founding Fathers gave her the right to Purge.

Question: Who was the woman at the end of the movie who hijacked the military convoy?

Answer: The woman is Letty, Dom's love interest from the first movie. She was believed to be killed in the fourth movie.

Michael James Lago

Question: Were the headphones that Evan Peters wore in the Pentagon escape scene available in 1973?

Answer: If you're referring to the behind-the-head headphones, NO! They were introduced in 1997: http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/history-of-headphones/.

Question: Even despite the extreme circumstances as presented in this movie, does any producer or director of any live show have any real control over whether a network goes to commercial or not?

Neil Jones

Chosen answer: Yes. Any live show can go to commercial at any time. It's a way to have a check against things going wrong.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Nothing very spoilery! The pool that Thor goes to with Erik Selvig - did I miss something, or was that just not explained much? It seems like he meets Erik, then they both go directly to a mystical lake in a cave that Thor just randomly happens to know about.

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: The pool allowed Thor to relive the vision that Scarlett Witch made him see. It's through the vision that he finds out that Loki's staff contained an infinity stone and it would be to dangerous to destroy. He also sees the creation of Vision. He also sees that Asgard is in trouble. Since Selvig is an expert (as much as one can be) in Asgard and Earth he would be the one to help Thor find the pool. Many of the scenes relating to the pool were cut and could appear in the home release.

Answer: It is not specifically explained in the film, and at the end Thor believes Vision is worthy, whilst Stark and Rogers debate whether it is because he is an android rather than being "alive" that he can wield it. One possible explanation is that Vision does not have any ill intentions, even saying that he is too naive to even know if he is a monster or not. Because of this he could be said to be "pure" and therefore worthy of using Mjolnir.

Question: How are Cecil and the other guys able to "come to life", in other words be able to do the stuff they were doing? Last time I checked, they aren't museum exhibits.

Answer: Even though they are human, they are able to enhance their abilities through the artifact they are stealing. It affects them the same way it does the museum exhibits.

raywest

Ahkmarah was not wax, he was actually a mummy who was given back his life and all his organs and strength as was his parents in last movie. So it would make sense that they would benefit from the magic to make them stronger when they were near the tablet.

Question: If Christof didn't want Truman to escape on his boat, rather than trying to kill him with huge waves, why didn't he just leave the water completely flat? With no wind Truman would not be able to reach the edge and leave, but he still would've lived.

Answer: He'd been hoping the waves would discourage Truman and make him turn back. It's a lot easier to agitate water than it is to calm it, so by the time he saw it wasn't working, even if he's thought of that, it would have been too late.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: When Mystique was disguised as a girl named "Grace" was this supposed to be her normal human side (except with a different name), or was she just transforming into someone else?

Answer: Just a random transformation.

MasterOfAll

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