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 kind of dirt bikes are they riding in the opening scene of Easy Rider? Is it Harley?

Answer: Hopper is riding something British, Triumph or BSA. Hard to tell them apart and both were real common at the time.

Question: How did Jack save Sally and Santa Claus in Oogie Boogie's lair by transporting them from the lava pit to the Iron Maiden? Wouldn't they be killed by the Iron Maiden?

Answer: Except they're a reanimated corpse and a skeleton. They are either already dead (or undead), or, given how things seem to work, the normal natural laws don't apply to Halloweentown.

Greg Dwyer

But how did Santa survive the Iron Maiden? Especially with how big he is, he certainly would have been killed.

You're trying to apply the rules of the real world to fictional magical beings.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: He was hiding behind Sally.

sabrinafan17

Chosen answer: The darker one is darkness, the lighter one is ghost.

Answer: The smoke floats a few feet away from Twilight and close to the camera so you might think that the smoke is right in her face.

Lily Harrison

Question: SPOILER: It's shown in the movie that Hiro was sad about Tadashi's death for few weeks, and Abagail (Pr. Callahan's daughter) was lost in the second dimension before the fire in the science fair, so how is Abagail still alive after all that time?

Answer: Baymax said that 'the patient' was put into 'hyper sleep' which is almost like a coma.

Answer: They are referring to the killer they are searching for. It's an amalgamation of "Unknown Subject."

Cubs Fan

Question: Why did he ask Murphy through binary to ask him to stay in the past? What good would he do if he stayed on earth? Murphy wouldn't be able to crack the solution of the fifth dimension if it wasn't for future Cooper's Morse code on the watch.

Answer: Cooper does this before he talks to Trask and realises where he is and why he is there.

Answer: As an emotional being, Cooper reacts to getting away from his daughter, which at the point he believes is for the last time. In that moment, Cooper is of the view that Plan A could never have worked. That coupled with the fact that his only motive to get on the Endurance mission was to somehow bring Plan A to fruition, is the reason he is emotionally compelled to ask her daughter to ask him to stay. Rational reason works but an emotionally charged moment trumps it all the time.

Question: How exactly is the artificial gravity created on the Endurance? If it is due to the centripetal force created by the rotation, then isn't the gravitational force supposed to make them stand normal to the edge of the circle, considering the outward direction of the centripetal force?

Answer: Firstly, it's not centripetal that's pointed outwards, it's centrifugal. Secondly, what you say is precisely what happens aboard the endurance. The crew having docked ranger, moves to the ring module (the outer circle). Cooper initiates the rotation of the ring module and as such the centrifugal force pushes them outward onto the relative floor of their module. Most of the scenes that we witness are crew based in the ring module, and not aboard any of ranger or lander.

Question: Why didn't Charles make any attempt to rescue Wolverine at the end? With Cerebro's help he wouldn't have had any trouble finding him.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Who's to say he didn't later attempt to find him? Wolverine was flung quite a distance away from where Charles was and he didn't have Cerebro with him to immediately locate him.

Phaneron

Question: When the crew gets struck by the gigantic wave on the Miller's planet, CASE is shown to be able to morph into a wheel-like form, and rescue Amelia. If CASE is actually that fast, and that "versatile" to hold things while running, why can't he actually just move around the surface, and survey the wreckage of Miller's ship. That would have saved a lot of time, wouldn't it?

Answer: The robots are very helpful in this movie, yes, but the movie also makes a point that exploration is done by humans and not by the robotic helpers. Compare this to the docking scene, where the robots initially thought that the maneuver was impossible. Relying on the robots might actually hamper the exploration.

t-6

Question: Near the end while Mike is in the car talking to Chrissie, why does the cell phone on the console show a call from Claire if Claire is not conspiring with Mike and is ignorant of his deception?

Answer: It wasn't his cell. He took Chrissie's cell.

Question: SPOILER ALERT: What exactly happens in the end, does Cooper actually die and the Tesseract and the Cooper station were just parts of his dream? Please let me know if I might have missed something because the explanation that he travels back through the wormhole to Saturn does not make sense to me. He must have been sucked inside the Gargantua and died, surely?

Answer: What actually happens in a black hole is not fully understood and mostly theorized by science at this time, so in the context of the movie Cooper could have survived.

t-6

Answer: Check Kip Thorne's The Science of Interstellar, for the correct answer to this question. Short answer: Cooper does not actually enter the black hole.

Chosen answer: FOX wasn't always so sure M*A*S*H would turn out well. It was years before it achieved such success in syndication. As such, some of the earlier prints and negatives aren't in such great condition.

Greg Dwyer

Question: With Peter being such a coward, why did he actually go and find Voldemort?

Answer: Because he is far more afraid of what would happen to him if Voldemort returned and Peter hadn't assisted in it.

Grumpy Scot

Show generally

Question: Whose baby pictures and a couple of older kids pictures are on the refrigerator in Doug and Carrie's kitchen? Can't be Deacon and Kelly's of course and there's no one else on the show for nieces and nephews since they took off Carrie's sister! So who are they?

Answer: There's actually an episode of KoQ (2-9) where Doug asks Carrie the same thing. As both have no clue themselves. Doug tells Carrie to throw the photos out. Carrie says no, as friends might visit and notice they're taken down. This scene was added into the show, after similar questions from fans. Most likely, the photos are of kids of the writers, producers and/or relatives of the cast.

Answer: Carrie's the one who wanted to throw the pic out but Doug said no. She agreed, reluctantly, so she covered it with a magnet.

A Day in May - S8-E23

Question: Beyond the obvious (he hasn't gotten over it or is still upset about it) is there a reason Martin didn't want to say anything at the parole hearing? And what was the point of showing this?

Answer: While he hasn't gotten over it, he also took into account what the shooter's mother said. He refused to make a statement either for or against him. He can't forgive the shooter, but he's gotten past the anger.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Were the sharks in this movie animated? It shows the whole shark without showing a machine controlling it.

Answer: Yes, when the sharks were shown swimming in the water they were computer-generated. Where they interacted with the actors or other parts of the environment, animatronic sharks were used.

Sierra1

Question: In the end credits it lists the Batman theme in the music soundtrack. When exactly was the theme played in the movie?

Answer: It is used after Greg tells Rodrick that Heather has accepted loded diper.

Show generally

Question: In this show and in the 90's movies, the Turtles absolutely love pizza. Though this was not hit on in the 00's show. Was their love of pizza created for the 80's show, or did they have that in the original comics as well?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: The Turtles' pizza obsession was not in the original comics, which were far more adult in the violence and language they contained. Peter Laird, one of the comic's creators was critical of this aspect on his blog in 2012, saying if he had control over the 80s cartoon's creative direction, the Turtles "would not have been so ridiculously obsessed with pizza".

Sierra1

Chosen answer: Dave and the First Lady snuck out of the White House via a secret underground route which Dave, inexplicably, knew about but the First Lady didn't. The passage led them from inside the White House to an outside location, nearby where Duane of Dave's secret service detail had left a car for them to use. It's still implausible that they could circumvent the remaining Secret Service in making their sojourn, but that is the disbelief that we, the audience, are asked to suspend for the sake of advancing the plot. Upon returning, the couple drive up to the entry gate, where the guard, seeing whom he believes to be the President and First Lady, lets them return to the house. Their only explanation?"The President wanted some ice cream." The MORE implausible question would be how the guard simply trusts that two look-alikes driving up to the White House unattended in a non-government car with a lame excuse would simply let the two pass without consulting the secret service, who should have informed him of the President's comings and goings?

Michael Albert

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