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: How is Elle able to keep Bruiser with her at Harvard? Last time I checked, pets are not allowed.

Answer: This is a fictional story and whatever the real rules may be at Harvard, they can be changed to fit the movie's plot. In the film, Elle is allowed to have Bruiser.

raywest

Question: After Emery has his fingers cut off and everyone is trapped in the room, Nick informs everyone that Kevin Bollinger hung himself in the Mirror Library after letting Emery's mother into the house. This would make him a ghost obviously, but this creates a problem. How has he been able to appear as a ghost for so long if he must have been alive to let Emery's mother into the house? Did I miss something?

Rosie John

Chosen answer: It was actually the bloated corpse of Kevin that let Emery's mother in, so he wasn't alive when letting her in.

Bishop73

Answer: Then Nick should have said he hung himself before letting Emery's mother in. Also, he turned into a bloated corpse pretty fast but the house has a way of playing tricks.

Question: I've read that The Godfather has gotten 270-280 million dollars at the box office. Now I though that Jaws was the first to get 100 million. Was this statistic just in the US or did the Godfather garner this number with a re-release?

Dra9onBorn117

Chosen answer: The Godfather's totals mentioned above include domestic + foreign + re-releases over the years. In its initial release (and re-release after the 1973 Academy awards) it earned $85.7 million domestically. Jaws received $123 million in its initial domestic release.

Question: An alien taking the form of a blonde guy from a video game tells the heroes that if they defeat Donkey Kong, the invasion will end. Who is the blonde guy anyway?

Answer: That's the character Max Headroom, who was a fictional AI who had his own TV program as well as made many other media appearances throughout the mid to late 1980s, even appearing in a series of TV ads for Coca-Cola in the US. He was portrayed by actor Matt Frewer, who reprised the role for this film; you can learn more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_ (character).

zendaddy621

Question: The aliens in the form of Hall and Oates tell the heroes that the rules have been violated and they will attack. How and why were they violated?

Answer: The rules were violated when Eddie used cheat codes during the "Pac-Man" round in order to have an unfair advantage over the aliens; this is similar to how Xbox achievements and/or PS3/4 trophies are disabled when cheat codes are active.

zendaddy621

Question: At the beginning of the movie, Alan grant is at a dig in Montana. They load what looks like a bullet into a chamber and fire it into the ground. What was it they fired underground and why did they do it?

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: They are using a ground penetrating sonar device. A shotgun shell is discharged into the earth. The resulting blast creates sound waves that bounce off any underlying object, like fossils, and are transmitted to a receiver and seen on a TV monitor as images to reveal what is buried underground.

raywest

Question: Just out of curiosity but in the scene with Nedry's encounter with the Dilophosaurus (or whatever), I was wondering, why would the Dilophosaurus wait until Dennis got inside the jeep to kill him? Why not kill him while he was passed out?

Answer: There is no way to realistically answer that because so little is known about dinosaur behavior. Any answer would be a guess with no way to verify its or any other dinosaur's behavior. From a movie standpoint, this is merely a means to keep the audience in suspense-will Nedry survive or won't he? Just when it appears he is safe, the dilophosaurus fatally attacks.

raywest

In the book, Nedry is killed before getting back in the car. This change was adapted for the film audience.

Answer: Also the producers probably wanted to keep the movie PG 13. If they showed the attack on Nedry it might have made the movie rated R.

Question: When trying to find a way to rescue the hostages, why pose as a film crew? Why not as a bunch of tourists?

Answer: A film crew is more credible than a group of tourists being involved in this type of activity. Tourists' behavior would be more limited and subject to being noticed by authorities if they acted in a unusual manner. A film crew would have access to more out-of-the-way locations, and if they acted suspiciously, could pass it off as it being part of making a movie.

raywest

Question: Why in Resident Evil 4 when Alice takes the robotic bug off of Claire's chest it takes her days to remember who she is but when Jill has the same thing done to her she knows who Alice is in under 5 minutes.

sunfox35

Chosen answer: Jill was unconscious at the time, while Claire was awake, therefore the loss of memory may differ by state of mind, or vary from person to person.

Chosen answer: Heimdall could definitely see where Loki is at any given time.

Question: Throughout Transformer history, has it ever been known who or what was responsible for the creation of the Autobots and Decepticons and for what purpose?

Answer: Primus created the original Thirteen Transformers, later known as the Thirteen Primes, to help him defeat his nemesis, Unicron. The Thirteen Primes were the start of the Cybertronian race, which eventually turned on itself when Megatron, formerly Megatronus, started the War and his Decepticon faction.

Question: Where did Harvey get the gun that he threatens Schiff with while interrogating him after Commissioner Loeb's funeral?

Brad

Chosen answer: I don't recall that it is specifically shown on film where Dent got the gun, but in the chaos of the shooting at memorial service and all of the police officers present it probably would not have been too difficult for Dent to find a gun, or take one from someone.

Answer: He's Gotham's DA, he would likely just carry a gun at all times for his own protection.

Question: If the pay phones are the only entrance/exit points in the matrix, why did the robots add it in?

Answer: Pay phones are not the only way in or out of the matrix. In fact, pay phones are only used twice in the film. The other times people are shown entering or leaving the matrix, they do so via a plain black rotary phone sitting on a table. Any hard-line (that is, physically connected to the system by wires) phone can be hacked to provide an entrance or exit. Several have been hacked already and, as the process takes time to complete, rather than begin a hack of the hard-line phone nearest to the operative, operatives are directed to the nearest previously hacked phone when a quick escape is required. The robots did not add this feature to the matrix, it is merely a manipulation of the code on the humans' part.

Phixius

Question: I just watched this movie for the first time and I have three questions that are really confusing me. When Alice is in the cabin and that dead girl comes through the window, (I forgot her name), how did that girl die? All I saw was blood and ropes on her so I was wondering what happened. When Mrs. Voorhees is with Alice just before she tries to kill her, we see her repeat "Kill her mommy. Kill her", so I was wondering if Jason was possessing her or not? When Jason, as a kid, comes through the water and grabs Alice in her dream, he's disfigured and burnt. How could that be if all he did was drown? If anybody can explain all my questions with great details, I would really appreciate it.

Answer: 1. She was most likely hanged. 2. Mrs. Voorhees wasn't possessed by Jason. She simply went insane when Jason drowned and wanted revenge. 3. He's not burnt, only disfigured.

Answer: Brenda was her name. And I think that she was stabbed. Or strangled. Or beaten to death. However as her murder was offscreen we will probably never know. What we do know is that she screamed before she died. Bow and arrow? (She was last seen at the archery range).

Alan Keddie

Answer: It seems you likely answered your own question. Christine was her friend. The adrenaline borne of her concern for Christine likely overwhelmed any feelings of resentment or jealousy she might have felt, so that probably wasn't a factor. Maybe the better question would be why NOT Meg to lead the mob? She and Christine both grew up in the Opera House, and she was particularly familiar with the hallways and catacombs of the building. Being a woman at that time period works against the notion that she would lead a mob. But in this circumstance, she is just as logical a leader as anyone.

Michael Albert

Question: Possible spoiler: is Robbie's fatal septicemia caused by the wound in his chest or the general lousy hygienic conditions during their march to the beach and on the beach itself?

Answer: Robbie's death is caused by the wound as it caused the septicemia. So yes.

Question: Is there a point for Danny's singing voice to keep changing throughout the movie? In Summer Nights and Oh, Sandy, he sounded normal but in Greased Lightnin' and the song he sang while dancing with Sandy, (when she asked if he wanted to sing professionally), his voice is deeper. Just out of curiosity.

Answer: I think your answer can be found in the type of song being sung, and the function of each song in the story. "Summer Nights" and "Sandy" are narrative songs. They tell a story, and are written with a melodic structure reminiscent of the 1950's crooners. "Greased Lightnin', " is a rock 'n' roll song, in the style of someone like Elvis Presley. It is a song all about posturing machismo, and the fetishization of a car as a symbol of phallic virility. So, the style of the vocals require a different kind of quality. It is also in a lower key with deeper notes. The song he sang while dancing with Sandy in the gym is called "Those Magic Changes." When Sandy suggests he might be talented enough to sing professionally, Danny starts to show off, and unintentionally ends up sounding absurd and out of tune. That is just a bit of silliness for the sake of humor. Keep in mind, Danny isn't the only character whose vocal style changes according to song: Rizzo sings "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" in a nasal, sarcastic tone, while "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" is sung as a yearning torch song. Sandy's songs, like "Hopelessly Devoted" and the reprise of "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" are sweet and wistful, whereas "You're the One That I Want" is harsher, to fit her new, provocative persona.

Michael Albert

Show generally

Question: The crew takes a private jet to most locations but always have the same black S.U.V.s. How do the vehicles get there as fast as the crew?

RGW

Chosen answer: Black SUVs are common police, military and dignitary vehicles around the world. It is not too much to assume they could be rented or owned by the police forces in the areas.

kristenlouise3

Other people have explained it but fore more information, federal cars would most likely be brought to the airport from the nearest agency, so they can drive out to their locations especially in rural situations.

Answer: There is only one BAU (or that's the impression the show gives, in reality there's 5 teams within the BAU), and they're based out of Quantico. However, the FBI has 56 field offices, each with their own vehicles leased from the over 200,000 vehicles that make up the Federal motor fleet. There are long term leases to federal agencies on these cars, in addition to there always being vehicles being made available to lease on an ad hoc basis for assignments. Plus, local and state police likely also have their own unmarked fleets, but due to the vehicles being mostly the same make/model/color in most episodes, they'd likely be borrowed from the nearest field office or other local federal office or ad hoc leased from the fleet for the assignment.

Question: The tour guide, Mary Beth, is revealed to be La Muerte and the elderly security guard is revealed to be Xibalba. The museum scene appears to take place in the United States while the story, the majority of the film, obviously takes place in Mexico. If the museum is in the United States, then why would La Muerte and Xibalba go to such a country and disguise themselves as U.S. Citizens?

John Ohman

Chosen answer: Probably their goal is to tell as many people around the world as possible about Manolo and co.'s story so that they will continue to be remembered.

Answer: Maybe they just wanted to share the story and have people remember the heroes of San Angel.

Question: When Cedric makes the $10,000 bet, shouldn't he still have won the money even though Zeke moved the chips since not only was he not the person who placed the bet, but he also moved them after the host of the table surely called out no more bets?

Answer: The money was actually removed before the host said "no more bets". Verbal bets aren't taken in American roulette, so even though he said $10,000 on Black 15, since only one chip was there when he said no more bets, that was the final bet. In real life though, there were various other issues that most high end casinos wouldn't have allowed in the first place, so the scene is just a plot device to make them become strippers. Plus, it would make for a boring movie if they showed the pit boss coming in and reviewing the situation.

Bishop73

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