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: What does Flynn think will happen if he lets Rapunzel heal him? Why couldn't he wait till after he has healed to cut her hair?

Bob Smith

Chosen answer: Rapunzel had already promised Mother Gothel that she would stay in the tower with her if she let Rapunzel heal Flynn. Rapunzel also said earlier in the film that "When I promise something, I never, ever break that promise. EV-er!" So, since she already made a sacrificial and conditional promise to Gothel, she would not have broken it, so Flynn had to disable Rapunzel from healing him before she was stuck with Gothel for eternity.

She still would have disappeared if he cut Rapunzel's hair after.

If Gothel did not allow the hair to be cut after the healing, it would have been a dead end for Rapunzel. Eugene used the first chance he got.

Flynn didn't want Rapunzel to heal him because he knew that it would kill her. Earlier on she healed his hand with her hair, and he knew that this used some of her life. Furthermore, within this scene Flynn says that she will die if she heals him (obvious hint).

Healing does not use up parts of her life. When she heals Eugene's hand it does not appear as though she is getting hurt. Eugene refers to her being locked in the tower by Gothel as her death.

Question: Why was Oz considered a con man? He was simply doing magic tricks, which everyone should know aren't real.

MikeH

Chosen answer: I believe you are taking a very modern day perspective. In our era of technology, scientific advancement, and general skepticism about everything, we are pretty jaded and cynical about things like magic and paranormal phenomena. At that time and place, audiences were far more willing to accept the possibility of true magic and sorcery, and weren't as prone to disbelieving what their eyes tell them. A "con" (short for "confidence") man is one who attempts to gain the trust of another, subsequently using deception, fraud and/or trickery for their own personal gain. I don't think it's unfair to label Oz this way, particularly at the beginning of the film.

Michael Albert

Question: Isn't Judas' reference to Muhammad an historical inaccuracy? Muhammad lived from 570 AD to 632 AD.

Answer: In the song "Jesus Christ, Superstar, " Judas highlights several anachronisms. He makes comparison to Buddha, about whom he likely would have known little to nothing. He references Muhammad, not yet born. He even brings up the concept of mass communication, also unheard of in the ancient world. However, this number is meant to take place in a spiritual realm, out of place and time, where past and present have no actual meaning. Judas is shown to be eternally struggling with Jesus, his message, his methods, and whether or not he is truly divine. But also, let's face it...like its contemporary, "Godspell, " the entire film is pretty much an anachronism. For starters, it's a rock operetta which puts just about everything in modern terms in its language ("what's the buzz") and its cinematography (Judas being chased down by tanks, for example). If you are looking for temporal realism, there are many options for that. This film is far more allegorical than it is historical.

Michael Albert

The ghost of Judas is speaking from a modern perspective. Consider the lyric "If you'd have come today you would have reached a whole nation, Israel in 4BC had no mass communication." He is in the here and now, not in the times Jesus was alive.

Question: How did the movie win Best Picture? I thought there was a separate category for foreign films.

MikeH

Chosen answer: There's a separate section just for foreign films to highlight them and give a wider selection recognition, similar to animated movies, but they're not excluded from the best picture category, which is open to every feature.

Question: I have always wondered how the movie crew and cast worked with Natasha Ryan, the actress who played young Sybil. There were scenes that were very frightening, dealing with terrible tortures. I always wondered if that was traumatic for the young girl? Or, if not, how was trauma avoided. More generally, does anyone know how movie productions deal with children on the set of films with frightening, traumatic and/or controversial themes?

Michael Albert

Chosen answer: In these types of movies, where young actors are involved in intense scenes, every precaution is taken to ensure that they are never frightened or emotionally compromised. Child psychologists, acting coaches, and the director are on set and work closely with them. A child's parent or guardian is also always close by. Child Protective Services oversee how child actors are being utilized in films and TV shows and there are strict laws and regulations regarding how child actors are treated, how many hours per day they can work, etc. Scenes are also carefully filmed and edited in such a way that can appear to be very intense, but were not emotionally stressful to the child. Also, stand-ins can be used for certain shots.

raywest

The Good News - S4-E3

Question: Did no one get surprised at the price of the Call Girl at the end of the episode? For spending a whole evening and night at Draper's house, the call girl charges $25, about $190 in modern money. Isn't that weirdly low?

AnthonyA

Chosen answer: At that time, call girls did not command the same amount of money as they do today. By that standard, the $25 would be considered a high rate. Today's upper-level prostitutes can demand far more for their services.

raywest

Question: Tolkien has made it clear in his letters that sailing to the Undying Lands does not make a mortal immortal. But this is what I'm curious about: is it possible to give up immortality in the Undying Lands? For instance, if Arwen had remained immortal and sailed there, would she still be able to choose a mortal life? (Not that she would do that, I'm just using her as an example).

Answer: Arwen could have, yes, but only because she specifically has the race of Men in her ancestral lineage.

Phixius

Answer: The Dwarrow Scholar website isn't sure, but suggests it sounds like "Ikhriyi zuzô'z!", meaning "Release the links [of the statue mould]."

Sierra1

Question: If no one on PK's planet communicated using voices, then why did he have vocal cords in the first place?

Yashbhatt

Chosen answer: This would be a complex speculation question. But first off, it's not the vocal chords that allow humans to speak as we do, other animals have vocal chords, yet can't speak. It's about our mouths and muscle structure that allows us to "shape" sounds into words. Given the humanoid figure of PK (i.e. small, non protruding mouth and neck length), we can assume PK's species developed the ability to speak and then evolved past that, but maintained the needed structure for speaking for whatever reason, such as eating.

Bishop73

Answer: It is my opinion that you should absolutely watch Breaking Bad first. If you did not know, Better Call Saul takes place before the events of Breaking Bad. At the time I am posting this, BCS is mid-way through season 5, with season 6 on the way perhaps in a year. So if you binge Better Call Saul now, you would not be able to "flow" right into Breaking Bad. To me, it's better to watch in the order that they came out. Breaking Bad was a phenomenal show, and now watching Better Call Saul, it is fun to watch the events unfold and start to lead up to what we saw in BB. Enjoy.

jshy7979

Answer: Now that it's ended, this question can be fully answered. Better Call Saul includes events after the conclusion of Breaking Bad, as well as references to and descriptions of major events from the latter. Not only would Breaking Bad be spoiled for you by watching Better Call Saul first, but there's a lot that wouldn't be understood.

Chosen answer: So far the show has been about Saul's struggles as a lawyer long before the Breaking Bad timeline (Spoiler Alert: It starts out for the most part at a time when he didn't even go by the name Saul).

Bishop73

Question: How does Hermione know so much about magic and the wizard world already, more than Harry, if she and Harry were both raised by Muggle families?

Answer: After learning she was a witch and purchasing all her school textbooks, she learned them all by heart. She also read as much as she could about the magical world, presumably in order to help her ease the transition into her new surroundings.

Cubs Fan

Question: How is Hugo Stiglitz not recognised in the coffee scene? Earlier in the movie, a soldier tells Aldo Raine that "everybody in the German Army knows Hugo Stiglitz." So how come the SS officer or even the other German soldiers do not recognise him?

touliou

Chosen answer: Everyone in the German army knows who Stiglitz is, that doesn't mean they all know what he looks like and can identify him on sight.

Question: If Callaghan knew that his daughter was dead because of project silent sparrow, how did he attended the SFIT students showcase happily? And after the fire at SFIT, everyone presumed that Callaghan was dead. So when did Callaghan visit the project silent sparrow to know that his daughter was dead, before or after the fire?

PRiYaM

Chosen answer: The Silent Sparrow incident took place long before the events of the film. He had been plotting his revenge for some time, part of which was using the fire to steal the microbots.

Answer: I think the fire was his original revenge plot but the microbots provided a chance for an even more satisfying end to Krei. Likely Abigail disappeared a year or two before (judging by how the men hardly aged) and Krei had to rebuild his company's image therefore creating the event. The comeback would have been hard on Callaghan and may have caused him to plan the fire and his death in the explosion assuming KreiTech couldn't recover from both, perhaps even would have taken Krei with him. But then he the microbots changed everything.

Question: When Cage dies the day resets - but in the scene where Cage was run over by the truck they cut back to Sergeant Farell who says something like "well look at that" - so when exactly does the day reset?

Answer: The day resets from the moment Cage dies to the moment he wakes up at the base. Presumably being hit by the truck mortally wounded him, but he didn't die for a few seconds.

Question: Why does Sanchez leave Felix back at his house? I get that he might have thought Felix was dead, but why bring him back to his house? Why not cremate him or something? Hell, why not leave him in the shark tank to drown or get eaten some more?

Answer: That message wasn't for Bond. It was for everyone in law enforcement, to show what happens when you tangle with him. No one is safe from his wrath.

Answer: He apparently wanted to "stage the scene" in order to send a message, particularly to Bond. It's doubtful he expected Felix to still be alive.

raywest

That doesn't make any sense - Sanchez didn't even know who Bond was at that point. Even if he did and Killifer had tipped him off why did Sanchez not recognise Bond when Bond turns up at his casino?

Question: Do the numbers on the Hogwarts train, 5972, have any meaning?

Answer: It has no meaning to the story. The locomotive used for the Hogwarts Express is the GWR No. 5972 "Olton Hall." It was built in 1937 and was in service in the U.K. until 1963. It was to be sold for scrap, but it was bought by the National Railway Museum and has been on display there in Shildon.

raywest

Question: What is the name of the bar they are in at the end of the movie?

Answer: Napoleon House.

Question: I thought the old vampire told Vlad that if he drank blood during the 3 days, the old guy would be released from the cave and Vlad would take his place there forever. So how come at the end, after Vlad gave in and drank blood, becoming a vampire forever, he didn't have to stay in that cave?

Aerinah

Chosen answer: Actually, what the master vampire told Vlad is that he will return to mortal after three days if there is no feeding. If Vlad does feed, he will become a new vessel for the dark power, a new offering to the dark. Nothing was said that Vlad would be trapped in the cave but rather a scourge on the Earth. It is true that if Vlad feeds, the master vampire would be set free. After that, the master vampire can take revenge on the one who turned him. A new game of revenge would then be played between him and Vlad.

That's kind of weird because I remember the Master Vampire saying the same thing about Vlad staying in the cave forever too.

Question: I read that Jimmy was arrested and jailed for the murder of a man called Richard Eaton. Why not for the murder of Billy Batts, Morrie, any of the Lufthansa murders or any of his other many serious crimes? If it's because there wasn't enough evidence, how was there enough evidence to write a book and movie on it?

Answer: The level of evidence needed for a court of law is much higher than an author requires.

Question: Several times near the end of the movie, there is a biker type man. He is wearing some Harley Davidson clothing and a black leather cap. He is one of the pilots. He stands out if he is just an extra. Is he anyone famous?

Answer: In the book of the same name, this man is called "Pig". He was a test pilot during the Vietnam War. He played a crucial role in training the new pilots.

Answer: He is just an extra, who just happens to be in more shots then the other extras. He is not more famous than the other extras.

lionhead

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