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 the man was hanged on the fan, what exactly happened? It seems like he was cut by the fan, but then there's no blood or anything. How exactly did he die? And why did the fan suddenly stop when he hit it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: His neck was snapped by the whip getting caught in the fan. There isn't always blood with a hanging. Since the fan wasn't designed to hold a man's weight, the motor in it would have stopped or given out.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Why did McGonagall send all the Slytherins to the dungeon? It was only one Slytherin who wanted them to turn in Harry, and many times in the series people say not all Slytherins are bad.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Not all Slytherins were bad, but many were and they would fight against Harry. McGonagall did not have time to pick out which ones were allies or enemies. It was simply more efficient to lock them all up at once. Also, even though there were good Slytherins, they would know that taking sides against Voldemort and failing to fully support him could result in later retaliation against them or their families.

raywest

Question: Draco said in the previous book/movie that Voldemort would kill him if he didn't kill Dumbledore, so why didn't Voldemort kill him after he refused and Severus had to do it instead?

Answer: Draco didn't refuse outright, though he did not want to kill Dumbledore. Voldemort threatened to kill Draco's family if he failed. Draco did make attempts, but they were half-hearted ones that failed. Snape stepped in before Draco was forced into killing Dumbledore. Voldemort would have killed Draco eventually, but keeping him alive was useful in his controlling both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy (Draco's parents) and also Bellatrix Lestrange (Draco's aunt). Killing Draco early on would have turned them against him.

raywest

Question: Why would Falcone's assassin kill Chill in front of many cops? Why would she choose to go to jail just to protect one person who was already in jail? And if she was so intent on protecting him, why would she say "Falcone says hi"? That would just make Falcone even more indictable.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Falcone has the entire justice system of Gotham in his pocket. He'd believe he could beat any charge and probably convinced the assassin that he'd do the same for her.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Sake, or possibly Japanese Whiskey.

Answer: Reviewing the film long ago during my own drinking days... He was actually drinking Lord Calvert American blended whiskey.

Question: At the end of the Chamber of Secrets, Harry gives Lucius Malfoy the diary, showing him that he knows it was him. In the Half Blood Prince we see Dumbledore at his desk mulling over Tom Riddle's destroyed diary - is this an error, or have I missed something? Was it not given back to Malfoy at the end of Chamber of Secrets?

brdwyguy

Chosen answer: After Harry hands it to Lucius, Lucius hands it to Dobby to carry. After Dobby is freed by the hidden sock and protects Harry from Lucius, Lucius leaves it behind.

Greg Dwyer

Question: When Shang finds out Mulan is a woman, Chi-fu (council guy) stops Yao, Ling and Chien from saving her from execution, and says "you know the law." Was there a certain rule back in Ancient China allowing women to get in the army, why was need for Mulan to be executed (almost executed), couldn't they just send her home, why was it a big deal?

Answer: While it was not common for women to serve in the military (depending on the dynasty), they were never put to death. Disney just made this is as a plot device to develop the love interest. The movie is partly based on the ancient poem, "The Ballad of Mulan" and in none of the ancient versions was she ever threatened with execution. In fact, the poem may be based on Fu Hao, a woman who not only served in the Chinese army, but was a military general.

Bishop73

I think that it was an issue, because according to what the emperor said, she basically stole an identity; she "deceived the captain" and "impersonated a soldier."

Question: How does Bond know Dominic Greene's name? The first I recall hearing it was when Bond rescued Camille from the general's boat. She yells something that sounds like "Greene" (if anyone caught what she said, it would be appreciated) and then Bond automatically says "Dominic Greene?" Also, how can Bond track Greene and his crew with his cellphone? I don't recall him placing a tracker, unlike the one in Casino Royale. Finally, why does the CIA want to capture Bond so bad? It is because he is after Greene and the CIA is "protecting" him?

Answer: When Bond gets into Camille's car, she says "Dominic didn't give you any trouble, did he?" (as she thinks he is one of his henchmen). When he rescues her from the boat, she says "You're not one of Greene's!", and Bond pieces the name together from that. Bond followed them by tracking the cell phone of Greene's henchman, Elvis (remember he called the number on the Universal Exports business card in Haiti). Beams, the CIA section chief in South America had done a deal with Greene (to allow a coup in Bolivia in exchange for oil), and stopping Bond was part of the deal.

Sierra1

Question: Was Bailey still insane when they released him from the asylum? Or was it all a trick to get their trust?

Chosen answer: Insane in the sense that he wasn't completely mentally capable? Yes. Insane in that he wanted to blow them up? No. He was heavily medicated while in care and so his ramblings and confusion are supposed to be perceived as genuine. Once he starts commenting that he is beginning to remember his past, we then assume that he realizes what his original intentions were and somehow manages to contact the other agency.

But Bailey states before he kills Katja that he was responsible for leaking the post online that Marvin saw which started the whole thing. He said he took a guard's phone to do it. I believe he was very aware and was just "playing" everyone.

Question: This actually applies to the whole trilogy: Does anyone know why Tolkien named it after the leading villain, especially when the third part's subtitle refers to Aragorn, and Sauron's return had taken place in the first movie?

Answer: The title doesn't refer to any person, it refers specifically to the ring itself. "Lord of the RingS" 'rings' is plural, so it refers to the one ring that was forged to rule over the other rings. "One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them."

Answer: The title refers to the struggle middle-earth undergoes when Sauron is defeated and his ring is taken by someone else. Instead of destroying it and thus destroying Sauron, Isildur took it as his own, becoming the new lord of the ring. The problem of Sauron returning was caused by Isildur's greed and the one ring's attempts to return to its true lord. So the title refers to the ring itself and whoever masters it, not Sauron specifically.

lionhead

Question: What movie are they watching when he starts to have a seizure?

Crump87

Chosen answer: The 1979 Steve Martin film "The Jerk".

Sierra1

Question: How long would it take for some of the bigger dinosaurs to reach their size? Was there any indication (movie or book) how long the Jurassic Park project was going on before everyone came to the island? It seems many of the larger ones were adults and that it would take decades to get that size, yet the park wasn't fully ready (Hammond mentions rides coming on 6-12 months) after all that time?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: The breeding and growing of the animals, as explained in the second movie, took place on a different island. It's never mentioned how long it takes for the larger specimens to full grow, but it could indeed take a decade but I'm sure they used all kinds of genetic manipulation to accelerate the growth, or else Hammond would not witness it all in his lifetime. The Island with the park was only later utilised for that purpose, long after most of their animals had already fully grown. Also told in the second movie Hammond experimented with different ideas for a park before, like building an amphitheater in San Diego. So the park was fairly new.

lionhead

Answer: The park project was initiated about 4-5 years before Grant and the others visited the island. All the dinosaurs were genetically modified with increased growth and development hormones. It took most species 3-4 years to mature. Roughly 0.1% of specimens survived. There were roughly 280 dinosaurs on the island. 238 were accounted for by the system. Source: Novel.

Question: Why is Sean happy that Will rejected the job interview to go to California? I know he thinks love is important, but his goal was to stop Will from wasting his potential.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Will is not wasting his potential. Sean knows that Will has overcome many of his emotional difficulties and with his exceptional abilities, there will be many other job opportunities, regardless of where he lives. Sean believes it is far more important for Will to pursue a lasting relationship with a woman for the first time in his life.

raywest

Will had multiple job offers - someone of his intelligence could pick up any job he wanted hence he wasn't disappointed.

Question: Why did Will lie about having twelve brothers? What did he think it would achieve? And why would someone as smart as Skylar believe it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: It's just part of his personality. He had become used to keeping people at a distance and made up stories so they didn't know what he was actually like. There's no reason for Skylar not to believe him at first. Large families with ten or more children are not unheard of, particularly if the parents have been married more than once.

raywest

Answer: The judge pointed out that Will "went through several foster homes." Whether the foster parents had their own biological children and/or other foster kids, Will could have easily had twelve "brothers" who were the functional equivalent of biological brothers. Using his own operational definition of "brother", Will had twelve, so was not lying. However, using a more common definition of "brother", Will was not exactly telling the truth. Will can be said to have told her a "white lie" - only telling her what he wanted to and omitting the details. This can be a type of defense mechanism, giving her the impression that he - like almost everyone else - grew up in a family with his siblings. In a way, he was protecting himself by hiding the way in which he was raised. Because it wasn't typical for Will to become attached to whatever girl he was seeing, he saw no need to reveal his past (although, unknown to him at the time, this relationship would turn out differently than previous ones).

KeyZOid

Why would she think that he was making up something like how many brothers he has? Not only did Will go through the names of his twelve "brothers", he was able to convincingly repeat the twelve names after she asked him to. IF he had not been able to quickly repeat a sequence of twelve boys' names, it would have been a giveaway that he was lying. Common sense was more significant than intelligence in discerning whether or not Will was telling the truth. (But common sense often does not match reality).

KeyZOid

Question: On the beach, Mr Scroggins carves Anna's name - Anna Muir - on the end of the wrong end of a wooden "fence" (it faces inland; so how on earth could captains at sea see her name as they pass by?) and what is the purpose of the wooden "fence"?

kh1616

Chosen answer: The scene takes place at a public beach where Anna and her mother go swimming and the fence may be connected to that. Anna is a small child and Mr. Scroggins carves her name where she can always easily see it, and it is far away from the water's edge. Of course, for the purpose of the movie, it was placed in such a way to be seen by the audience as a way to gauge the amount of time that is passing. It becomes worn and deteriorated over the years.

raywest

Answer: Whether or not the carving was placed inland as a convenience for the audience to see it, it is still a mistake with regard to the dialogue indicating that persons at sea being able to read Anna's name on the post. To avoid the mistake, the scene should begun showing Mr. Scroggins on the seaward side of the post carving and the for the camera to pan around to show that he is carving the name "Anna Muir." The sea could still be in the background and the dialogue would then make sense.

agenthunter

Question: If Kreacher could belong to Sirius even though Sirius was disowned by his family, then shouldn't he have gone to Andromeda, who was also disowned, before going to Andromeda's younger sister, Narcissa?

Answer: Even though Sirius' family had "disowned" him, he still inherited the family's entire estate after his brother's death (he was the sole heir). Siris, who was Harry's godfather, had drawn a will leaving all his property to Harry. That is why Kreacher became Harry's legal possession.

raywest

Question: Daniel mentioned "You know the folks in Cartagena and..." somewhere else? I have located Cartagena in the northern region of Colombia, SA What was the second location Daniel referenced? It sounded like "cuta cahn".

barbL

Chosen answer: Culiacán, in northwestern Mexico.

Sierra1

Question: When Chakal demands Joaquin to relinquish the medal of eternal life, he merely says to him, "Give me that medal right now." Maria then removes Joaquin's medal sashes, sees the medal of eternal life, and realizes that is what Chakal is after. How does she know which medal Chakal is referring to?

John Ohman

Chosen answer: Maria had already seen the medal of eternal life and Joaquin had already talked about all of his medals. He told Maria about how he got all of his medals but not the medal of eternal life.

Answer: She saw the medal, realised that it was different from all of the others, and that he didn't want to talk about it either, so that probably made her realise that it was special or different.

Question: Why does Michael Moore give special thanks to Ken Starr in the credits? Did they have a good relationship in the 90's? From what I know of Moore, it would seem that Starr would be a guy he blames and hates. Yet the special thanks doesn't seem to be sarcastic since everyone else listed seemed to deserve the thanks.

Bishop73

Chosen answer: Michael Moore's disdain for Ken Starr is clear, and continues. As recently as May of 2013, Mr. Moore referred to Ken Starr on Twitter in a negative light ("'Bring Back Ken Starr' And you said Bill Keller couldn't write anything stupider than his column backing the Iraq war"). As such, I suspect his acknowledgement of Mr. Starr is both sarcastic and genuine. He isn't showing respect for or gratitude to the man as much as he is acknowledging the fodder Ken Starr, his politics and his tactics provide to the concept of a film like "Canadian Bacon."

Michael Albert

Question: How do these legendary figures like Jack Skellington and Santa Claus travel to the normal parts like "throughout England and France" while they live in their own holiday towns? Asking cause it seems that there's no door to Earth and the sun in Halloween Town is a carved pumpkin!

Answer: The main thing that Jack Skellington, Santa Claus, and the other legendary figures do is travel from their towns to the Earth for holiday activities. It stands to reason that they would be able to get in and out of their own towns at will; both Jack and Santa Claus can do so by simply flying into the sky. Obviously, though, heads of towns can get in and out of other towns as well, once they know about them. Jack returns from Christmastown on a snowmobile, Santa Claus leaves Oogie Boogie's lair by touching his nose and flying out, and guides his sleigh over Halloweentown shortly after.

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.