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 is the name of the children's book Dr Erik Selving takes off the cart, and the one that Jane is reading when Thor brings Selving to the camper drunk?

Answer: It was manufactured specifically for the movie. It doesn't exist.

Brad

Question: What was that thing that Mole picked off Milo's finger to examine with his binoculars?

Answer: Just a piece of dirt.

Brad

Question: Who is the lad in the Wreck Room that almost fights Stanley? His name is not mentioned at all.

Macca

Answer: His name was Lump.

Chosen answer: In the book, his name isn't mentioned either. Also in the book, Stanley mistakes the man for Caveman when they say, "Nobody messes with the Caveman", because this was the first time Stanley had heard the nickname.

Brad

Answer: His name is Lump.

Question: Why does the Resurrection stone only allow Harry to see his parents, Remus, and Sirius? Why not Alastor, Tonks, Snape, Cedric, Fred, and others?

Answer: The resurrection stone allows you to see people you love the most. His parents and Sirius are there for obvious reasons as they were his family. Remus was also just like family to Harry. He was one of his father's best friends, the father of Harry's godson (who was orphaned in the war just like Harry), and the closest thing to a father figure Harry had after Sirius died. The others while there's no doubt they held a place in Harry's heart, Harry was not as close with them as he was with the others. Therefore, they would not appear to him with the stone.

He practically grew up with Fred. I would think he would be there as well.

lartaker1975

Chosen answer: It means he drank a lot - he's implying that Martin's golf club was hollowed out and filled with alcohol.

Sierra1

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know the year and number of the episode in which Homer tries to teach Bart how to get extra stuff at the Kwik-E-Mart by putting it on a doughnut, then when confronted by Apu, telling him that's the way he found it?

Peter Mataichuk

Chosen answer: In episode number 160, "Lisa's Date with Density" from 1996, Homer tries to pass off lots of candy as sprinkles on a donut, but Bart wasn't with him.

Sierra1

Question: In the Director's Cut, was the conversation that Lawrence had with the old man a dream or did it really happen? Lawrence dropped his wallet then put it in his bag and the old man offered to give Lawrence his cane, but he politely declines. After waking up, the old man is gone but his cane is there, and Lawrence's wallet is back on the floor on the same spot.

Answer: It really happened. The discrepancies are meant to show Lawrence's mental state.

Question: The bride has been in a coma for 4 years, during this time the muscles in her legs have atrophied, yet miraculously the same has not happened to the muscles in her arms. Surely it would not only affect her legs?

Answer: There's a difference between being able to walk and being able to move. All of her muscles have atrophied, but mostly it just means she's much weaker. For her legs it means she can't walk.

Chosen answer: For scenes like when Bill Murray is covered with it and it gets in his mouth, it's gelatin mixed with food coloring. For other scenes it's various plastics.

Question: Just something that has interested me for a while. Did all the people in the town grow up with Truman (eg. his classmates) or are they all different actors? Also do all the actors live on set or do they have lives outside the show?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Clearly, in his media interviews, Truman's best friend, Marion, indicates that he did, indeed, grow up with Truman since they met in elementary school. One could extrapolate that his classmates did, as well. A sudden change of actor from one day to the next would be too much of tip-off to Truman. As actors leave the show, there is a story along with it. His father is presumed to have died, and returns later. I'm sure others move away. The main characters (Truman's wife, parents, close co-workers, and other key figures in his life) also appear to live "in world" and have devoted their entire lives to the Truman project. It is not made clear about the extras, though.

Michael Albert

It's kinda hard to believe though that a little boy (Marion) is faking it all so well for all these years since his childhood without raising any suspicion.

He probably didn't get to know it until a late age. In the bus, a little girl was confused and almost tell her mum that there was Truman, so a kid can't keep up the secret. I'm pretty sure they don't know it. But on the other hand, when he says he wants to be an explorer all the classmates freak out, as if they knew it would put in danger the show. So maybe the classmates and even the best friend had been selected after making sure they wouldn't mess up and reveal the secret.

Answer: In a deleted scene, "Marlon" explained that he didn't realise he was auditioning for the show. Only that his mother was the casting director and told him that he would be in this class with Truman and that he would be known as Marlon from then on. In regards to the classmates, they weren't freaking out, they were laughing at the prospect of Truman wanting to be an explorer. With the other actors, only his family, Marlon, and a few close friends/co-workers would live on set. If they want to have a break to visit their friends/family on the outside I'm sure they would have been allowed to. Just come up with a story of why you are leaving for X time and Truman would buy it.

Question: Did Kelly Van Ryan really love Sam Lombardo or was she trying to use him to get her mom's money? Or both?

Answer: Kelly loved Sam and hated her mom. She wanted the money that was left to her by her grandfather and this was the only way to get it without her mom dying.

Greg Dwyer

Question: I noticed that Harry's scar hurts when he comes close to Professor Quirrell, but why is this not happening when he meets him for the first time in Diagon Alley? Wasn't Voldemort on his head yet?

Loesjuh1985

Chosen answer: Voldemort is not on his head in Diagon Alley as explained in the books. He attaches himself to Quirrell when he learns that Quirrell was unsuccessful in getting the Philosopher's Stone from the vault, in attempt to keep an eye on him.

But in the movie when they met in Diagon Alley, Quirrel refused a handshake because it would kill him.

It's never explained in the movie that that is why he doesn't shake hands. In the books, hagrid says that Quirrel hasn't been right since he met a few vampires in the black forest.

Ssiscool

Question: If I understand correctly, Lily Potter's "love" protection no longer keeps Harry safe after the graveyard ritual, due to Voldemort getting some of Harry's blood. Why, then, doesn't Voldemort attack Harry at the Dursleys' house in the summer?

Answer: Voldemort's spell undid the Sacrificial Protection that Lily bestowed on Harry, but the Bond of Blood is a separate protection bestowed if the person sacrificing their lives is a relative. THAT spell is still renewed as long as Harry keeps returning to the Dursleys until age seventeen. Voldemort has removed one protection, but a second is still in place.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: What kind of aircraft are Rusty and Isabel in at the end of the movie? It kind of looks like a Global Express.

Mike Boyer

Chosen answer: Gulfstream G5.

Question: Why did the coach act so paranoid about safe sex if he was actually sleeping with a student?

Answer: Precisely because he was sleeping with a student. Getting her pregnant would bring their affair out into the open and create a scandal for the whole nation to know what he was up to. Therefore safe sex was really important to him.

The_Iceman

True, but since he was spending time with her, he could make sure that birth control was being used (i.e. him using a condom). I think he was trying to appear "uptight" about sex, so he could be the least likely suspect.

Answer: He wanted to appear to be strict and "uptight" about sex, so people would be less likely to believe any rumors about him.

Question: Gabe's wife in the movie is called T.K. or Mrs.Law. On Wikipedia and other places I look, I only see her listed as T.K. Law. Anybody know what here full name actually is? What the T.K. stands for?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: TK's full name is unknown. It's quite common that minor fictional character's full names are not given. It simply isn't important to the overall plot. This is such an example.

raywest

Answer: Obi-Wan is Kenobi's real first name. It is explained in the Clone Wars television series that Satine Kryze, a Mandalorian Duchess whom Obi-Wan once saved the life of, had an affair with him after Kenobi became a Jedi Knight. Their relationship did not last, but her pet name for him was "Ben" and he adopted the name in tribute.

Darius Angel

Answer: It is explained that the ever watchful Sidious/Palpatine had his eye on Dooku as a potential apprentice even before the events of The Phantom Menace. Indeed, Palpatine's own master Darth Plagueis was also familiar with Dooku and had actually met him twenty years prior to TPM (though he did not reveal himself as a Sith Lord). It is stated that Plagueis introduced Dooku to Palpatine during this time (again, with their public faces) and the latter two had a friendly relationship thereafter. Palpatine approached Dooku shortly after Qui-Gon Jinn's death, revealed himself as a Sith Lord and finally took Dooku as his apprentice (after many years of careful cultivation).

Darius Angel

Question: When Aragorn confronts the King of the Dead with Anduril (the reforged sword), The King of the Dead says, "That *something* was broken!" I am almost sure he says, "Blade" (referring to the reforged sword), but the subtitles on my Region 4 disc say, "Line" (presumably referring to Aragorn's ancestry). What does he really say? Do the subtitles on discs of a different region say otherwise?

Blibbetyblip

Chosen answer: The King of the Dead says, "That line was broken." Aragorn replies, "It has been remade." Their comments are referring to Aragorn's royal lineage that was believed to have died out. The reforged sword symboilizes Aragorn's return as king. There is a video clip of this scene on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfh9Ypgfp7Q.

raywest

Question: At the beginning of the movie, Peter asks Voldemort if they can perform the ritual without Harry. Why? Does he now feel bad for betraying Harry's parents?

Answer: There are several reasons here. Peter Pettigrew regretted betraying the Potters and knows he is a lowly coward for having done so and for obeying Voldemort out of fear. He also knows that Harry spared his life during the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack (in Prisoner of Azkaban) when Lupin and Sirius were about to kill him. Because of Harry's mercy, Pettigrew is now magically bound to Harry with a life debt. In the books, this will later cost Pettigrew his life when he hesitates to kill Harry (in Deathly Hallows) and his silver hand instead fatally strangles him for defying Lord Voldemort.

raywest

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