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: Gaear gets the kidnapping job from his friend Shep. He can choose anybody he wants to help him do it. Why does he choose Carl, a person he obviously can't stand? They don't "fall out" - Gaear hates him from the get-go. And don't say that Gaear deliberately chose someone he disliked because he planned to kill him all along. Yeah, right... Planned to bring an axe to a gunfight. Great plan. Granted, it worked. But that was not planned. Anyway, Gaear is all ursine impulse, not organized forethought. So why Carl?

Answer: Gaear would choose who he thought was the best person to help him pull off the job, regardless of whether or not he likes him. He's not particularly intelligent, and Carl is the smarter of the two and that would be an asset. Gaear also appears to be very anti-social and it's doubtful he has any friends, or at least any that would participate in such a plot, and this may be the only person he knows of who will go along with it. His choice really has little to do with liking someone and everything to do with getting the job done. Gaear may very well have intended to kill him later to help eliminate any ties to the crime and to keep the money. It's easier to kill someone he doesn't like.

raywest

All good points! I might add Gaear was "mostly brawn." His limited intelligence ("dull normal" at best?) and lack of basic communication skills ["Where's pancakes house?"] would interfere with his ability to engage in constructive conversations with Jerry to arrange the kidnapping. He'd also have difficulty making a plan and following through on his own. Gaear wouldn't have any problem overpowering a person to be kidnapped, but needed someone like Carl to make the before and after plans.

KeyZOid

A - S4-E16

Question: Why was the fence down in the flashbacks with Hershel at the prison?

Answer: The walkers could have knocked them down more than once. There may have been another wave that knocked down the fence earlier and they're going to put it up again soon.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Is Gabby Johnson saying "Reverend" or "Rerand" during the church scene?

Seth Cain

Chosen answer: Reverend.

MasterOfAll

Question: In John Carpenter's version, Michael knew who his sister was because of some kind of evil power that enabled him to recognize her. In Rob Zombie's version, he is taken to a mental institution, apparently wasn't possessed by evil and hadn't seen her in years, so how was he able to recognize her?

Answer: John Carpenter's version never had the two of them as siblings. This wasn't the case until the sequel when the studio needed to add a plot twist to the film so they wouldn't be making the same exact film again. In Zombie's version, Laurie drops the mail off for her father at the Myers' house that has her address on it. That is how he begins stalking her because he goes and murders her adopted parents, but I'm not sure how he realizes they are brother and sister.

Question: At the fort they cover their cannons with sheepskin. Why?

Answer: During inclement weather, dry sheepskins were used to keep rain from entering the barrel. During battle, wet sheepskins were used to cool down the barrel to decrease the likelihood of the powder exploding prematurely.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Can someone please explain why the uruk hai are being born through those mud sacs and why?

Answer: There is some contention about the origin of the orcs and the Uruk-hai, and it seems Tolkien was fairly vague on these points (are orcs corrupted elves, are the uruks half-orc/half-men?). Several web sources say that on the DVD commentary for Fellowship, Peter Jackson says that the Uruk-hai emerging from mud sacs was based on an early Tolkien line that orcs "worm their way out of the ground like maggots" - not sure where or when he said this, but it seems to be a movie-only notion.

Sierra1

Question: When Pushkin wakes up after Bond pretends to kill him at the press conference, he apologises to his wife/girlfriend for putting her through the trauma. But since she was in the bathroom when Bond was there interrogating Pushkin (about Koskov etc.), wouldn't she have heard Bond and Pushkin discussing the staged assassination (after Pushkin says "Then I must die")?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: She could have been let go off screen once it was clear that Bond wasn't going to kill Pushkin, so they could formulate the plan in secret.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Is it common public knowledge, in the wizarding world, that Professor Snape used to be a Death Eater? It seems that a lot of parents might complain about him being allowed to teach at Hogwarts.

Answer: It is, but many Death Eaters used the "I was being controlled" defense and ended up getting away with their crimes.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: It shows in Jason's dream that he drowned as a kid, so how is it that he is now an adult? Also was he handicapped or just deformed?

Den Mitchell

Chosen answer: Jason survived due to his unique healing abilities, at the end of the original "Friday the 13th" he is shown coming out of the lake. He is deformed with some mental handicap.

MasterOfAll

Question: Did Wonka intend for those 5 kids to find the golden tickets? In other words, did he have Charlie in mind as the heir all along? It looked like the candy shop owner purposely gave Charlie the bar with the ticket in it. Also, Wonka treated Charlie kindly upon meeting him at the gate whereas he was sarcastic to everyone else-including Grandpa Joe, who didn't deserve the abrupt rudeness.

Answer: Yes, he did. Mel Stuart initially wanted to reveal that Willy Wonka had strategically placed the Golden Tickets in order to give the factory to Charlie. The idea was dropped, but the hints remained in the fact that Mr. Wilkerson conveniently showed up every time a ticket was uncovered.

Answer: It isn't clear the extent to which Wonka had a hand in the selection of the five finalists. The scenario you outline would be more likely in the later "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) with Johnny Depp. In that version, and in the book, it is expressly stated that Grandpa Joe had once worked in the Wonka factory, making it more likely that, somehow, Wonka would have prior knowledge of the Bucket family. In the 1971 version, with Gene Wilder, Wonka has no explicit ties to the Buckets. That being said, it is quite coincidental that the faux "Mr. Slugworth" just happens to be everywhere a winning ticket is found moments later, which lends credence to your suggestion. Wilder's Wonka is portrayed as a highly eccentric and slightly dyspeptic candy mogul with a sardonic tone and a sadistic streak. His sarcasm to other characters is a reaction to the flaws which they openly display - and he really isn't even that rude, at that. In Charlie, Wonka recognizes a pure soul, to which he responds with kindness. The book and the 2005 film portray Willie Wonka as having a more childlike nature and being highly distrustful of adults, which would explain any wariness he might have regarding Grandpa Joe.

Michael Albert

Chosen answer: Zoey 101 and iCarly were both scored and composed by Michael Corcoran, so he may have written a short melody for the Zoey ringtone, and later re-used it for the song which was used as the iCarly theme.

Sierra1

Question: To date, Frozen is the highest grossing animated film of all time, beating Toy Story 3. I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me what animated film is highest if you account for inflation, or only count the number of tickets sold. For example, I know that Gone with the Wind out performed Avatar by ether criteria.

Answer: The website Box Office Mojo calculates inflation adjustment for box office grosses and worked out that the highest-grossing animated films was Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" from 1937.

Sierra1

Answer: The Baron tells Blackadder they will be sent to a convent school outside Heidelberg to spend the rest of the war teaching young girls home economics, which he sees as the ultimate humiliation. Blackadder, however, is delighted to be spending the rest of the war "teaching nuns how to boil eggs" rather than being shot at every day.

Sierra1

Chosen answer: Probably to broaden the scope of the show's plot and give the audience a chance to see the characters in a different setting, People act differently at home from the way they do at their workplace. By the ninth season, the characters would have become overly familiar and predictable. It gives the writers a chance to do something different with them.

raywest

Question: How old are Nick and Elizabeth? Hallie says that Nick's fiancee, Meredith, is young enough to be her sister. This would imply that Nick is at least sixteen years past Meredith's age, twenty-six. That would make him forty-two, so he was thirty or thirty-one at the time the girls were born. However, Meredith left Nick because they were "so young" and didn't get along. The early thirties years are not usually considered young ages for getting married and having children.

Answer: The marriage certificate at the very beginning of the film says he was 24 (in Jan 1986). Thus, in the summer of 1998 he would be about 36/37 (depending on when his birthday is), and so is about 10 years older than Meredith. An 11-year old would probably view this age difference as greater than adults would.

In addition to this, I don't think Meredith's age was as much of a problem as the girls made it out to be. They viewed her as an obstacle to their plans, and would do anything to try and end her relationship with their father.

Answer: It depends on your point-of-view. Youngsters often consider people in their 30s as being "old" while more mature adults over the age of 40, would consider someone in their early to mid thirties as still being very young. Everyone matures at a different rate, and some people in their early 30s still think and act like they're much younger.

raywest

Answer: Different people have different reactions to age gaps in relationships. I've met some who think a 7-year gap is noteworthy, while others don't care about 20 years. I myself am 14 years younger than my spouse. The majority of people don't care, while one or two people have raised eyebrows. Also, as another commenter suggested, a child would probably view 10 years as a bigger deal anyway.

Question: In the Vito Corleone funeral scene at the grave site, the family is sitting before the coffin, Fredo is absent, where is he?

Answer: Freddy had been sent to Las Vegas after the Don was shot, not only to learn the casino business but also because he was emotionally traumatized by the murder attempt. He was also severely affected by his brother Sonny's death. Attending his father's funeral would have been too much for him, becoming overwrought and making a scene. Michael, now head of the family, would not have wanted this.

raywest

Answer: Gandalf originally lived in Valinor in the West. He was sent to Middle Earth to aid those who opposed Sauron. While there he had no specific home. He returned to the Undying Lands after Sauron was defeated.

raywest

Question: Why does Saruman have the orcs cut down the trees to make the orcs, when it looks like the orcs are being "born" out of mud sacs...what's the significance of what the orcs are doing down in the hole in the ground?

Answer: In addition to "birthing" the Uruk-hai (the enhanced orc soldiers), Saruman's orcs were also forging armour and weapons for the army of Isengard, which is why they were cutting down the trees to use as fuel. They were underground as the Uruk-hai process seems to involve the earth or ground in some way.

Sierra1

Question: Why does Dolores give Professor Snape a hard time during her inspection of his teaching? Shouldn't she, like Lucius Malfoy, be under the impression that he is loyal to Voldemort (not knowing that he is actually pretending)?

Answer: Umbridge isn't working for Voldemort. She is truly just that evil and therefore would inspect Snape the same as any other teacher.

kristenlouise3

Question: Whilst on a ferry, Jack does a magic trick that involves him bending a spoon with "his mind". One of them figures out how he did the trick. The man takes out a spoon and knife from his pocket, meaning he managed to do the trick with the knife and spoon. How did he accomplish this trick with the spoon and knife? (00:04:55)

Chosen answer: The spoon that he finds in Jack's pocket is the one that was originally shown to the audience as a normal solid metal spoon, tapping it on the handrail and so forth, which he then pocketed. The "knife" is actually the snapped-off handle of a second spoon, which Jack used during the trick to show the spoon handle moving downwards by "the power of his mind", which he then palmed and tucked up his sleeve while revealing the third and final spoon, which he'd already bent before the trick, to his audience.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.