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: If Ripley was operated on and an alien removed a few days ago, how come they have a fully grown queen who is laying eggs, 8 to be precise as there are 8 people who have been ingested and turned into aliens? But later, when most of the crew have ejected successfully or been killed when a hand grenade was thrown into their escape pod along with an alien, one of the scientists says there are 12 more? How can that be?

kh1616

Chosen answer: Well firstly the queen was probably genetically engineered, like Ripley herself. A few days might be all the time they need to have a fully grown queen created. Secondly the 8 incubated victims were only the latest batch, they had been incubating people with xenomorphs for quite a time I suspect.

lionhead

With regards to the quick growth of the alien queen, it is standard for the xenomorph in nearly every film they appear (Aliens is the only exception, the only chestburster shown in the film is quickly killed by Apone) to grow to full size in around one day. Presumably the same is true for the queen.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why did all of the slaves have such beautiful teeth? The elderly woman slave who sang had a perfect set of white teeth. I can't imagine that slave owners took their "property" to the dentist on a regular basis. And how good was the dental work in the mid 1800's anyway?

Answer: Few slaves would have had healthy, straight white teeth or had access to professional dental care, which was not very advanced at that time and it was painful. This is a detail the filmmakers either deliberately chose to ignore or were careless in how they depicted the characters' conditions.

raywest

Question: Can you still get this film in 3D? I heard that it's only in 2D now, but does anyone actually know if there's a DVD that has it in 3D?

Hamster

Chosen answer: It's was finally released in 3D on DVD in 2009.

Answer: Friday the 13th Part III in 3D is also available on Blu-ray as part of a set of all the films from 1980 to the reboot. I know because I own it. There are two pairs of 3D glasses included in the tin.

Alan Keddie

Question: Hermione had to go to the hospital wing after partially transforming into a cat. How did she explain her condition to the hospital staff and/or teachers (if she had to miss classes), without revealing that she made the Polyjuice potion?

Answer: As there are lots of ways for young witches and wizards to get into various predicaments like this, Madam Pomfrey doesn't ask too many questions, she simply treats the students for whatever ailments they present with (this information comes from the books).

kristenlouise3

Question: If Voldemort is attached to Quirrell in this movie, then he heard Snape arguing with Quirrell and threatening him. Wouldn't he then become aware that Snape is actually loyal to Dumbledore? And wouldn't he be angry that Snape tried to protect Harry during the Quidditch game?

Answer: Voldemort believes that Snape is playing a role, not that he is actually loyal to Dumbledore.

Phixius

Question: I swear that I remember Bond, on his way to Baltimore made love to the co-pilot, and when M says "he's well on top", that was because he was on top of the co-pilot making out...am I hallucinating?

Answer: Pussy Galore was the pilot and he doesn't make out with her at that point. You may be thinking of Moonraker, where M asks Moneypenny if Bond is back from Africa, she replies "He's on the last leg of his journey," and it cuts to Bond romancing a woman in a plane.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Various reasons, but mainly to drive the Dukes out of Hazzard County because the family have been foiling his schemes since his and Uncle Jesse's bootlegging days.

Captain Defenestrator

A Christmas Carol - S6-E1

Question: When The Doctor shows young Kazran his future, older Kazran touches his younger self. He did this without an explosion, however, in 'Doctor Who' it has been said that 'if you touch your younger self, it will create an explosion'. How did the older Kazran, in this episode, touch himself without an explosion?

Shadow5

Chosen answer: It creates a paradox, which isn't always an explosion, but can be. And it doesn't do it in this case for the same reason that the controls no longer operate for Kazran: The Doctor's intervention in his life has caused him to not be the same man he was before.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: In both Saw II and III we learn that Amanda is working for Jigsaw, after her test in the first movie. However I don't see the reason why she had to be in a game again, in Saw II. I was hoping that to be explained in Saw III, but apparently, it wasn't. Please enlighten me.

Answer: In Saw V, Jigsaw explains to Hoffman that Amanda's purpose in the second game was make sure the others followed the rules.

Phaneron

Answer: Amanda was in the Saw 2 game to mainly protect Daniel Eric's son from harm, so he could be alive for Eric's test during the police interrogation with Jigsaw. The whole game centered around Eric Matthews and simply included his framed victims. This was Amanda's choosing, so she was the reasonable choice to oversee it.

Answer: In Saw II, Amanda pretended to be one of the prisoners, so she could observe her fellow prisoners.

Question: Inigo shows Westley the sword his father made for the 6-fingered man ("I've never seen its equal"). How did Inigo acquire this sword? You would think that if Count Rugen was prepared to kill Domingo for the sword then he would have taken it with him.

Answer: When Inigo was a child, Count Rugen came to Inigos father and requested a sword be made for him. When the sword was finished, Count Rugen refused to pay the price he originally offered for the sword. Inigos father refused to hand the sword over so Count Rugen killed Inigos father. Outraged, Inigo took the sword his father made and tried to kill Count Rugen. He has kept the sword ever since so he could use it to kill Count Rugen.

Answer: In the book, Count Rugen told the outraged villagers that Domingo had tried to rob him and he killed Domingo in self-defense. He couldn't very well take Domingo's sword after that.

Brian Katcher

Question: Is there anything that explains what Fudge and Malfoy were doing in the hall before the hearing began?

Answer: According to the book, Malfoy was probably there to put the Imperius curse on Sturgis Podmore (a Ministry worker; part of the Order of the Phoenix; who was under an invisibility cloak), so as to make him get the prophecy out of the Department of Mysteries for him. Not to make himself look suspicious, Malfoy started up a conversation with Fudge regarding Harry's hearing when the latter was on his way to the court. Malfoy's main intention was to carry out the Dark Lord's instructions without arousing suspicion.

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know whether the coloured-in photos, which appear throughout the opening titles sequence, are real or made up for the show? If they ARE real, when George Wendt's name appears there's a shot of a man holding a newspaper with 'WE WIN' as the headline - does anybody know what this referred to?

Chimera

Answer: Here is the source of the "WE WIN" photo: http://www.oldnycphotos.com/nyny587ac.html Brooklyn, of all places.

Chosen answer: The pictures in the opening sequences are real pictures of people enjoying alcohol (from various dates), and are not meant to represent or include any of the cast members. The "we win" sign (most likely not a newspaper headline) is referring to the end of prohibition (1933) A fitting tribute to a show about drinking alcohol.

The word "Nazi" appears in the caption to a story underneath the headline. Maybe the headline refers to the Nazi surrender.

Chosen answer: As with most "he-said she-said" situations, we might never know. USA Network spokesman said the show was already planning on going a different direction with some characters. That said, Schram was trying to renegotiate her contract terms, but USA Network did not give in. For more of the story; here's an older news story http://www.today.com/id/5875714.

Chosen answer: Rick was purportedly sent to prison for deserting the French Foreign Legion. He was arrested after a bar fight, prompted by the pickpocketing of a certain Englishman.

Question: This is probably been asked over and over again, but please. Just why were these people stuck in a cube? Why them? Why not somebody else? Is this set in the future? Anybody with any details is helpful here.

Answer: The 'victims' are put into the cube for different reasons... Some are death row inmates. Others are ex-employees or contractors and some are people who may 'know too much' and present a risk to the secrecy of the whole operation. Then there's the lab rats (Kazan in particular) who seem to be some kind of experimental test subjects (either for science or some sick fetish). Simon was put in there to hunt and kill an ex-employee of IZON. Sasha chose to go in to escape IZON. Kate works for IZON and was sent in to the hypercube to retrieve information and find a way out. As for whether it's set in the future or not is hard to say as there are not many clear references to to time period or location that don't seem a little contradictory, as if to say 'it doesn't matter where or when you are if you're in the cube'. The clothing worn by the characters in Hypercube is suggestive of modern fashion so it seems relatively present day, but having said that, the 'variable time-speed rooms' seem to be able to allow huge amounts of time to pass reasonably quickly (relative only to the subject who is affected). For example, Simon ages a good 20 years in 5 minutes, while Sasha and Kate (who didn't enter any variable time-speed rooms) seem unaffected by comparison. Poor Jerry is even made to have multiple failed attempts at the cube in a 'repeating time loop' that seems to follow him rather than being a feature of the cube itself. Cube Zero (the prequel) has technology and decor in the monitoring room reminiscent of the '50s but then has computers that surpass modern units, also, the technology behind the hatches, to traps and lighting seems advanced enough to be modern day. '50s clothing, modern lingo. It seems that time and location outside the cube has no relevance whatsoever to those inside it anyway. I think one of the reasons this trilogy is hugely popular is that it poses way more questions than it even bothers to try and answer. Hypercube in particular as it takes the concept of linear time-space, turns it inside out then doesn't even tell you why.

Question: How did the big hole get made? Is this a literal plot hole?

Answer: The fallen tree that Ivy finds after she has managed to climb out of the hole is the cause of it. Clearly, from what dried up roots remain exposed above the ground at the base - it was huge - leaving a vast root system to rot in the ground; that then created the sinkhole. We see that the roots are so big Ivy hangs her bag on one and she uses it as a landmark in her mind - which we know is later beneficial.

Question: For the scene where Joker burns the money, he says he is only burning his half. However, with Gambol already dead, the Russian and Lau about to be killed and Maroni in absentia, is he actually burning all (or nearly all) the money? It seems to mirror the bank job (systematically eliminating the equal share) and in general the Joker's twisted sensibilities.

Answer: The Joker was only burning his "half", which was the bottom half of the money pyramid (where he had the gasoline poured). The top half was the mob's, with Lau on top - in true Joker style, even though he only burned his "half", the mob's half also gets burned since it is on top (which is why the mob boss was pretty pissed off). It is but another joke of the Joker!

Question: When Angier tries out the machine in Tesla's burning lab, he creates a double of himself. One of them shoots the other, but who is the one who dies? I've seen this movie several times but still can't figure who is left standing - the copy or the original?

Answer: It is impossible to know for sure if the machine creates a clone away from the machine or if it creates a clone in the machine while teleporting the original away from the machine. Even Angier himself could never know for sure, as the clone - having only just been created - would share Angier's memories up to that point of creation. Both the man in the machine and the man away from the machine have the EXACT same memories up until that point, so both could realistically claim to be the original. Tesla himself thought the machine not to work, until Angier stumbled upon the hats. The creator of the machine barely understood its function, so we never get clarification as to its specific workings. Angier points out in the end how he understood that by sharing the memories of the clone up until the moment of its creation, he (and thus we) could never know for sure if he would be the man in the box or the prestige.

Question: This has baffled me for ages. Instead of tolerating John Bender, why doesn't Richard Vernon simply get him expelled? Vernon must have realised that Bender was not only uncontrollable and a potential threat to him, but also someone who didn't care about his education and was disruptive to others. So why didn't he take the simpler option of getting him out of the school, as opposed to giving him countless detentions?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Vernon secretly cares about the kids. Pay attention to the scene where he talks to the janitor. He would rather see Bender stay in school and learn something instead of ending up in prison.

Question: Near the beginning of the film when Edward Norton and Meatloaf are hugging Edward's character says something along the lines of "things like this make me grow a big rubbery one". What does he mean by this, exactly?

Answer: Sharing of feelings and hugs and crying are the antithesis of arousal. While something erotic or bad-ass might cause him to have an erection, this scene causes the opposite: a rubbery one would be a flaccid, unexcited penis, flopping around like rubber (not stiff). A mood killer.

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