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 thing that the five guys are saying in the plane before they make a toast to Billy?

Answer: The words of their chant are "Beware, beware, walk with care. Careful what you do. Or Mumbo Jumbo's gonna hoo-doo you. Mumbo Jumbo's gonna hoo-doo you. Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom!" This comes directly from a poem titled "The Congo" by poet Nicholas Vachel Lindsay ("The Congo and Other Poems"), specifically the lines at the end of part I.

Super Grover

Question: Was the ending a suicide or just an accident?

Answer: An accident. They were inexperienced pilots trying dangerous barnstorming stunts. A fitting end for two adventurers afraid of nothing.

Brian Katcher

Question: In the last scene a neighbor gets Terri settled on the couch and goes to leave. Why was there not a wheelchair or crutches available for Teri's use once the woman left?

Answer: As Terry is paralyzed, crutches would be useless. She would also be unable to get into a wheelchair by herself. The real reason is that this is a rather flimsy plot device. When Cary Grant arrives and sees Terrie on the couch, he is unaware of her condition. The whole point of the scene is that he is resentful and hurt because he mistakenly believed she rejected him six months earlier by not showing up at the Empire State Building. She hid her condition, not wanting his pity or for him to feel obligated to be with her. If a wheelchair was visible, he would have immediately known the truth, and that would have spoiled the way he finds out, his reaction to it, and the overly-sentimental ending.

raywest

Question: Besides being played for comedic effect, would getting the coin toss wrong have really mattered?

Answer: It really would have mattered. This was over time and the winner of the coin toss gets the ball first. In 2001, NFL overtime was sudden death where a field goal wins the game. So having the ball first is a huge advantage. The messed up coin toss seems to be a joke about the 1998 Thanksgiving game between the Lions and Steelers where the ref messed up the coin toss in overtime because he heard the Steeler's player's call wrong. The Lions ended up getting the ball and winning. Not to mention that many people who bet on football games also bet on the coin toss.

Bishop73

Question: How did the German U-boat know where the ship carrying the ark was? They completely lost track of it after the truck chase, so they should've had no clue as to where it was and where it was going.

Answer: True, but they had agents everywhere and could make an educated guess that Indy and Marion would try to smuggle it out of the country, so they would have been watching the ports and seen them board the ship.

Question: When Anna got back from Georgia, Christian seems so dark and brooding. What made him act like this right before he beat Anna with the belt. Was the phone call he got in Georgia after they went gliding that upset him?

Answer: He was upset that Anna was nagging him to be more open about his feelings and to try for a serious relationship. He was so upset he went to a dark place and gave her what she wanted. A true demonstration of his resolve, hoping it would convince her to accept the terms of the contract and become an obedient sub, like all the others. She was different from the others and making him feel vulnerable. It scared him, that's why he maintained a cold distance.

Answer: They may have quit because they experienced lingering fear and anxiety after eating the soup, regardless of whether they remembered anything. As everyone was only limited to one bowl of the soup, Vink fired anyone he caught trying to have more. Some employees may have quit out of frustration over the restriction. It also serves the plot to have different characters experiencing the effects of eating the soup.

raywest

Answer: Molly gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie's sister and the other orphans get adopted by other families while a reformed Miss Hannigan becomes a schoolteacher.

Answer: They are no longer at the orphanage since Miss Hannigan reformed and became a schoolteacher. So they are all adopted with Annie by "Daddy" Warbucks.

Answer: They're still staying at the orphanage, but it seems Mr. Warbucks is helping to fund them and Miss Hannigan has had a change of heart, so it's not so grim.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Annie and Molly both get adopted by Oliver Warbucks and become sisters ages 10 and 6 and live with the male family dog, Sandy and Oliver marries Grace Farrell and Grace becomes Annie and Molly's mom.

Answer: 10 year old Annie and six year old Molly and another orphan named Chloe get adopted by Oliver Warbucks and have the male family dog, Sandy and Oliver marries Grace Farrell and Grace becomes the girls' new mom.

A Normal Amount of Rage - S1-E1

Question: When talking about "geniuses in the family" at the start, Bruce says "there's also Ched", at least according to the subtitles. Is this another Banner cousin with Marvel ties, or just a random throwaway line?

Jon Sandys

Answer: This is answered in the second episode, where we meet Ched who's clearly not a genius. Given this first episode was originally written as the penultimate one of the series, and tweaked as the premiere later, it makes more sense why that line might be a throwaway by Bruce, given if it was episode 8 as intended the audience would already have met Ched and understand how he's not being remotely serious.

Chosen answer: According to Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ched is a relative of Bruce Banner and Jennifer Walters. There is a character profile but with no additional information provided yet, nor is there much info online available elsewhere. This appears to be a new character that has yet to appear.

raywest

Show generally

Question: One episode has a very short scene with Rachel + Phoebe in Central Perk, just them, sitting near the door (not sofa). Rachel has a problem, Phoebe is solving, while Rachel eats cake. While chatting, but not mentioned at all, Phoebe tries to get Rachel's cake. End of scene, Phoebe succeeds and Rachel has gained advice but lost cake. Cake is not referred to at all in the dialogue or plot, making it pretty tricky to search for. Anyone know the episode?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: It sounds like you're describing a scene in S6 E3 "The One With Ross's Denial", with Phoebe and Ross when they're sitting at a table. Ross has a cookie and a coffee. Phoebe is telling Ross he's still in love with Rachel and Ross is denying it. While they talk, Phoebe grabs Ross' coffee at one point and Ross takes it right back. Then she does the same with his cookie and Ross again takes it back. At the very end of the conversation and scene, she grabs a magazine that Ross is also reading, and when he grabs the magazine back from her, she then grabs both the coffee and the muffin and starts eating the muffin.

Question: What's the music the German band are playing at the end when U96 returns to port?

Answer: It's the 'Erzherzog Albrecht Marsch', composed 1887.

Question: When Johnny takes Baby up to do the final dance, Baby's dad is obviously pretty angry about it and tries to stop him. However, after the dance all is forgiven? All just from the magic of their beautiful dancing?

Answer: It would be improper to cause a scene, plus Robbie admitted to getting Penny pregnant and insulting her, especially it's what made get an abortion and medical complications.

Answer: While he probably was still angry with Johnny for sleeping with Baby, he can see how hard she must have worked to dance so well. Anger is often hard to release. Being a loving father, he is proud of Baby "in the moment" and was more disappointed with her than mad. He likely also grudgingly admires Johnny for having the courage to stand up for her.

raywest

Question: At the end we are left with the question of the pilot's intentions, and what happened. Is he going to help them, or pull an about-face and machine-gun them down thinking they're infected?

Answer: That question is actually answered. The pilot is speaking Finnish, and he says into the radio "lähetätkö helikopterin" which translates as "Can you please send a helicopter?" Looks like he was actually helping them after all, and there is still some civilization (or at least people with radios and helicopters).

Season 1 generally

Question: Would it actually be possible for someone as young as Harrison was to remember seeing his mother being murdered? I think he was around a year old at the time.

Phaneron

Answer: Around 1 year old is very unlikely. However, there are numerous reports and articles online of kids as young as 4 telling people "daddy hurt mummy" or vice versa when witnessing a murder.

Ssiscool

Answer: Missy doesn't hate Sheldon per se. She resents all the attention that he gets and all the special treatment due to his intellect.

Ssiscool

Question: After the crew and passengers were killed both during the party and in the empty swimming pool, what happened to their remains? Their skeletons and clothing would still be there, right?

Answer: No reasonable explanation is given as to what happens to them but considering what the ship and its ghosts can do, it's not unreasonable to assume they discarded everything at some point.

Ssiscool

Question: Does Frank Darner's father get killed?

Answer: No Nikki is the only one that is killed.

Season 1 generally

Question: What is the name of the china pattern used at the breakfast table? It is black and gold trimmed. Not the Royal Doulton and not the Royal Worster Avignon.

Answer: I have asked myself the same question for a long time. It is Rosina-Queen's fine bone china, pattern "Olde England." It's the china that appears most of the time in the series. The Royal Worchester double-glazed Avignon (for candle light suppers) is really Royal Doulton Avignon, pattern "The Moselle Collection." And the Royal Doulton with the hand painted periwinkles is in reality of course Royal Doulton Colclough, pattern "Braganza."

Question: How did Jo and her mercenaries know what cove to go to in the Philippines if Drake had just discovered it using the crosses that Chloe had brought with her from the helicopter? If Chloe didn't know about using the crosses and was faked out by the false coordinates then wouldn't we assume the mercenaries hadn't found the location yet either?

Answer: Jo and her mercenaries were at the wrong island, It's when they saw Drake go past them in a speed boat, and not to the island they were on, that's when they realised they had been tricked.

A Normal Amount of Rage - S1-E1

Question: Jen has concerns about Steve Rogers dying a virgin, and Bruce eventually caves in the credits sequence and says he lost his virginity in 1943 on the USO tour. But why doesn't he tell Jen that Steve had many happy years with Peggy Carter, courtesy of their timeline-jumping? Presumably that involved sex too. Does Bruce not know, or is that meant to be kept secret?

Answer: He probably knew and kept Steve's secret.

Rob245

Answer: 1. David probably lied to get Jen off his back. 2. She wanted to know if Steve ever had sex, not about his true love. 3. If he told her about Steve's time travel, it would open a can of worms. She would probably be curious and seek him out, the government might want him back for disobeying orders and not resuming his Captain America duties. 4. The government would want the secrets of time travel to change history or to go back and forced him to resume his Captain America duties to prevent the infiltration of Hydra into S.H.I.E.L.D.

Answer: It's not his story to tell.

DetectiveGadget85

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.