Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: In the dark future where Sentinels rule all, Xavier and Magneto say that in 1973, Mystique assassinated Trask and was subsequently captured, tortured and presumably killed, leading to the Sentinels' creation. All fine and good, except in a world where Mystique has been dead for 50 years, how did the other X-Men movies happen? Mystique played a large part in those films, and when young Xavier reads Logan's mind, he sees the events of X-Men 3 almost uninterrupted.

Brad

Chosen answer: Evidently she wasn't killed. It took the manufacturers of the Sentinels decades to create Sentinels that could adapt to mutant powers. They likely wouldn't kill Mystique as she would be more useful to them alive, and she probably escaped.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: The post credits scene from "X-Men: The Last Stand" showed that Xavier transferred his consciousness into another person (who was revealed to be his twin brother by the writers) and the final shot in the same film showed Magneto was gaining his powers back, indicating that the cure wasn't permanent.

Phaneron

Question: Could somebody tell me once and for all why every mutant in these films have nicknames?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Because just like in the comic books, all super heroes and villains have names that are a representation of either the abilities they possess, paraphernalia they use, their personalities, and/or the circumstances of their origin. Magneto is a much more compelling and memorable name for a character than simply calling him Erik. Presumably it also avoids confusion if there are several mutants with the same "regular" name, to have a unique nickname for each one.

Phaneron

Answer: In addition to what was said, the nicknames also provide the individual mutant a way to identity more closely with the fact that they are mutants. As Mystique said in "X-Men: The Last Stand" when addressed as Raven, "I don't answer to my slave name." Many mutants are rejected by their parents when they find out they're mutants, so the "nickname" serves as a way to distance themselves from those that rejected them. In addition, at times their nicknames are called "code names." In this case, it would be a way to address a mutant without using their real identity, in essence a secret identity that's common in almost all superheroes and super villains.

Bishop73

Question: Why is it that Arthur Weasley doesn't die when Nagini bites him, but Severus Snape later dies after being bitten by her?

Answer: Arthur was quickly brought to the hospital after the attack, and it seems like it may have been cut short by Voldemort realizing Harry could sense Nagini and the intervention of the Order. Snape was bitten several times in the face and neck and left to die with no help around. Not only that, but Voldemort magically slits Snape's throat before setting Nagini onto him, which would have sped up his death considerably.

Greg Dwyer

Question: This question is actually about all of the books. Is a "double" class twice as long as normal, or does it contain twice as many students?

Answer: "Double" classes are twice as long.

Cubs Fan

Question: I don't understand why Voldemort needed the prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. Doesn't he already know that Harry can possibly kill him, since Harry conquered him on the night of James and Lily's murders?

Answer: When Voldemort originally attacked Harry, he was acting on information provided to him by Snape. But Snape's information was not complete, ergo why Voldemort lost his powers. He wants the prophecy in order to hear it in its entirety, because he believes it will give him the information he needs to kill Harry.

Cubs Fan

Question: Can someone explain me what are the waves in the edge of the rooms? Sometimes it's like something changed but we see still the same room. I also wonder what are the sounds that we hear in some rooms of people talking at a strange way.

Loesjuh1985

Chosen answer: If by speaking strange you're referring to Max and Julia, then it is because they are in different timed rooms, Julia is in a fast speaking time room whereas Max is in a slow speaking time room, hence the strange speaking.

Question: How did they film the shot with the different colour medicines coming out of the same bottle?

Answer: Most likely a variation on the "inexhaustible bottle" magic trick which has existed in various forms for hundreds of years - it relies on different chambers holding different liquids, and air holes in the bottle being covered or not change the pressure and allow the desired liquid to flow out. As the scene is one continuous shot with the entire bottle visible, this seems most likely - the air holes could be on the side away from the camera, with Julie Andrews repositioning her thumb for each colour. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inexhaustible_bottle.

Jon Sandys

Question: Why do the Dursleys try to stop Harry from going to Hogwarts? It seems as though they would be happy to get him out of their house (except for summers).

Answer: Petunia and Vernon despise wizards and swore they would 'squash the magic out of him' (which obviously can't happen) when they took him in. They would rather have Harry around all the time and for him not to be a wizard than to allow him to go to Hogwarts where he would learn magic and be happy (It says in the books that the two things that Vernon Dursley despises most if magic and making Harry happy).

kristenlouise3

Why don't the Dursleys try to get Harry back if they don't want him to be at Hogwarts?

Because on the other hand they are glad to be rid of him.

lionhead

Why do they despise making Harry happy?

Because they despise the fact he and his parents are wizards.

lionhead

Or as Petunia states in the book "as soon as they had you I knew you'd be like them. A freak" The Durselys are very middle class who consider themselves high class. The fancy car, expensive house, private school for Dudley etc. And being associated with an outcast would in their eyes seriously hurt their social standings.

Ssiscool

Answer: Vernon and Petunia are very concerned with appearances and maintaining a "proper" lifestyle. The books describe how they want a perfect lawn. Vernon judges men by the cars they drive. Petunia keeps the home very clean, etc. They hope to ignore the Wizard world and force Harry to live like a Muggle. In addition to that, Petunia was jealous of her sister. She wanted to separate herself from the Wizard world as much as possible. When Harry begins attending Hogwarts, she can no longer do that.

Question: Why does the Red October take the difficult way through the canyons? Is it faster/shorter? If so, how can the Dallas be at the end of the canyons and wait for Red October? The Dallas might be faster, but would it not have to take a considerable detour in order to avoid detection by the Red October?

Answer: It's red route 1: Almost all Soviet subs were detected by the SOSUS net between Greenland, Iceland and Norway. To break that contact they'd run through the canyon, too dangerous for US subs to follow. The catch is that after years of watching, US subs learned the exit to that route, and would run to the end and wait, hoping to pickup the contact again.

Answer: Red October is taking the deeper route ostensibly to deter pursuit, but in reality, it's so that once the plan goes through and they "scuttle the ship" it will be in waters too deep to make a search for the wreckage (that won't be there) practical.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Do some Hogwarts students arrive at school before others? I ask because of the choir singing in this movie, on the first day of the term. Wouldn't they have needed at least a day to practice the song?

Answer: All the students arrive on the train, but it is feasible they took part or all of the afternoon on the train to practise. They also could have met a few times over the summer.

kristenlouise3

Question: When Lucius arrives at Hagrid's house, he says that he "called" the school and found out that Dumbledore was with Hagrid. Would Hogwarts have a telephone, seeing how a lot of Muggle technology is shunned in the wizarding world?

Answer: He did not mean that he called on a telephone. It is possible he used the floo network to communicate with the school, but in this instance, he means that he "called on" the school, or more precisely, called on Dumbledore to deliver bad news. To "call on" someone or something, means you go to see them in person.

raywest

Answer: Her dad's name is James, and her mom's name is Ann.

Question: Does anybody know why the name of the ED-209 was changed to ED-260 for the RoboCop cartoon (and, I believe, the toy line)?

Answer: According to Wikipedia the ED-260 is an upgradeable version of the ED-209.

Question: In the answer to another question here, it says that Dumbledore wanted the other teachers to keep Remus' werewolf condition a secret. Wouldn't Severus get into trouble for trying to teach the Defense Against Dark Arts class about werewolves?

Answer: Snape is clever enough to know how to circumvent getting into any serious trouble, though Dumbledore probably was displeased by what he did. Werewolves were a standard part of the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum, though, when subbing for Lupin, he decided to cover the subject weeks ahead of schedule in the hopes a student would recognize that Lupin was a werewolf without it being him directly giving away the secret. Of course, it was Hermione who figured it out, though she kept that knowledge to herself until it became necessary to reveal it.

raywest

Chosen answer: When looking for clues to the identity of the killer, he comes across a code with the numbers, 903 472 568. He quickly realizes that Noone is the killer because in the code there is "No one".

Question: Joan wilder is a successful author with a nice apartment and is financially well off. So why wouldn't she pay Jack the $500 he originally wanted for his help? Given her situation, I didn't think it was too much to ask.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: She's lost in Columbia and doesn't have access to money beyond what she has with her. She doesn't want to give him everything she has because she doesn't know when she'll be able to get more.

Answer: Could be two different reasons. One, she has shown not to care much for the orphans so she didn't care whether Annie knew or not. Two, at the very end it is shown she does have some care for the orphans, shown when she thinks Annie will be killed, so perhaps she had enough heart in her not to break Annie's hopes of her parents coming back to get her.

Answer: Although her parents were poor, they were trying to save up enough to bring Annie home. Her parents' belongings did not have a whole lot in them, but probably enough where Miss. Hannigan would have stolen it for herself along with whatever other small valuables she could hawk. The broken locket wouldn't sell at the pawnshops.

Question: Given that the Quarter Quell is held every 25 years, the first and second Quarter Quells would have killed off 23 of the previous 24 winners each time. Hence, even if Quarter Quell winners are still eligible (and still alive) for the subsequent ones, the maximum number of available contestants for the 3rd Quarter Quell rises to only 26, which is far too small to guarantee 2 contestants from each district, let alone exactly 1 of each sex. How can they get 24 contestants for the Quarter Quell games?

Answer: This is explained in the books, but not in the movie. Each Quarter Quell had a different twist. The first Quarter Quell, the citizens had to vote on who the tributes would be. The second Quarter Quell (which is actually the Hunger Games that Haymitch won), four tributes were reaped instead of the usual two.

Question: This is a two part question. When Zorin is flying over the mine in his zeppelin, he sees Mayday coming out of the mine with the bomb, and looks really shocked when it blows up, killing her in the process. But a few scenes before, he was quite happy to just leave her to drown in the flooding mine, so did he really love her and was just shocked that she had killed herself or was it shock because she removed the bomb from the mine and ruined his plan? I'm asking since Mayday tells Bond that Zorin told her he loved her (when they're both trying to escape from drowning in the flooding mine), so was Zorin lying to her or did he actually love her?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Zorin is a psychopath. He may have meant it when he told May Day he loved her, or he may have just been telling her what she wanted to hear. Either way, when he thinks she'll drown in the mine as well, he doesn't consider it worth scrapping the plan just to save her. Once she escapes and has the bomb, he looks shocked partially because she wasn't killed but mostly because she's chosen to sacrifice herself to thwart his plans, something that a self-interested psychotic personality can't comprehend.

Captain Defenestrator

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