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 could Tarzan's loin cloth possibly be made from? It doesn't look like anything that could be found in the jungle that isn't human made.

Eyexpress333

Chosen answer: It could be any number of things, including some man-made material that was left by hunters or explorers. It could also be animal skin, either from some beast that was hunted or a found carcass.

raywest

Question: At the end of the movie, when Bella and Edward walk into the prom building, the camera shows a shot of Victoria. She has her back turned, but the camera is on her long enough that there is no doubt it's her. Edward would know she is there because he can smell other vampires. Did they do that on purpose or is it a mistake? I can't find any online information about it.

Answer: The viewer is most certainly meant to see that it is Victoria. What the viewer is not meant to do is question her presence. In all honesty it was most likely a movie error by the writer. Although it is possible that Victoria knew this and somehow hid her smell because her ability pertains to hiding.

Yep. The viewers were supposed to see Victoria standing there and she can mask her scent to blend with others. But the thing is, Edward has a powerful mind reading ability, he should've heard or known that Victoria is nearby, especially given the strong feeling of revenge that Victoria was feeling at the moment.

Answer: There's never any answer given about this, but Victoria, knowing that Edward can smell other vampires, would have taken measures to cover her scent or positioned herself so he was unlikely to detect it. Also, if any of Edward's "siblings" also attended the prom, then their scent would be intermingled with Victoria's, helping to mask it. This is a large gathering and Edward is mostly focused on Bella. Other's individual thoughts and scents may simply go unnoticed.

raywest

Question: Just before Rose finds Mr. Andrews to ask him how to find Jack, who is under arrest, we see Andrews telling a woman to put on her life jacket and go up to the boats. As he is walking away we see that she goes back in her room. By the look on her face, it didn't really seem like she was going to obey. Assuming she didn't believe him, in general could there really be situations of people who were in shock of the situation and for whatever reason didn't get on a lifeboat, such as the example shown in a deleted scene showing the deaths of Jack's friend Cora and her parents who get trapped behind a locked gate (and the man who Rose tries to get to help her free Jack, but he keeps running down the hallway) as the ship is already close to breaking apart. Would they have really waited that long to go up to the deck on purpose? Because obviously they were all alone and the crew members locked the gate without knowing they were still in their room.

Answer: It was common back then to keep the three classes separated. Most didn't stay down below on purpose. They stayed because they had no choice. The procedure originally would have been to lower the lifeboats according to class. However, with Titanics situation, there wasn't enough boats and there wasn't enough time to carry out a full evacuation procedure in an orderly fashion.

Answer: The primary reason there were so many casualties with the sinking of the Titanic was due to the arrogance of those involved with building and sailing the ship and not having enough lifeboats for such a catastrophe -- they really and truly believed the ship could not be sunk. Many of the passengers felt the same way and failed to see the severity of the disaster until it was too late.

MovieFan612

Question: I haven't read the novel - is their servant British in the book (if his character appears in the book at all)? It seemed like an odd choice given that they are warring with England, but perhaps it was just a good accent for the comic relief?

Answer: The servant is definitely French in Alexander Dumas' novel.

raywest

Question: The three Cars films establish that all biological creatures are just variations of mechanical devices. Yet in Cars 2, there is mention of dinosaurs. What exactly are "dinosaurs" in the Cars world?

Vader47000

Chosen answer: If you're taking it to that level, one would have to believe that dinosaurs to these characters would be primitive forms of their devices, evolutionarily speaking.

MovieFan612

Answer: The "Cars On The Road" shorts reveal that there were indeed dinosaur-ified cars/trucks.

Answer: Probably dino cars. There was a Futurama episode where there was a robot dinosaur called the tricycle - tops probably something like that.

Answer: The Time Lords gave the Doctor a new regeneration cycle before the last crack in the universe was closed, in "The Time of the Doctor". (They've been shown to have the ability to do so before, as in "The Five Doctors," The Master was offered a new regeneration cycle if he rescued the Doctors).

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Because he misremembered. It was pretty high-stress moment and he blacked-out immediately. Not surprising he'd be a little hazy on the details.

Phixius

Question: This question also applies to a similar scene from Episode I. When the Rebel Forces are fleeing Hoth, why do they have to fly right in the path of the blockade? There didn't appear to be any resistance on the planet's northern and southern poles, and the lack of gravity in space shouldn't preclude them from flying their planes at a ninety degree angle once they escape the planet's gravitational pull, instead of having to fly in a path parallel to the blockade's position.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: The Empire's ships are faster and more maneuverable and don't suffer speed restrictions from the atmosphere of the planet. They could easily outrun/pick off the Rebel ships as they left the protection of the planetary shield. By going directly at the Star Destroyers, they give themselves the best chance in two ways. First, they present a smaller target coming head-on. Second, by going between the ships, the Imperials risk hitting their own ships if they fire. It would also take more time to set the courses for hyperspace because of all the maneuvering.

Question: SPOILERS. We learn that when Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are driving across the bridge, the vault that they are dragging is empty. If this is so, why didn't they both just disconnect and run instead of Vin driving back and causing a huge pile-up? They had the money and dragging an empty vault didn't solve anything.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Dom wanted Reyes dead, the only way that was going to happen was for the chase to be concluded, and for both Dom and Brian to be caught up by the Police who were in Reyes' pocket. Reyes naturally would think he was safe going near Dom and Brian because of the Police presence.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: Along with putting a stop to Reyes and all the dirty cops, they needed everyone (including Hobbs) to believe that was the real safe, so they could get the actual safe somewhere secure to be able to open it and quietly divvy up and go their own ways.

Answer: In the book it says that Clarice had caught Buffalo Bill before he could. It said also that is why he hated her early in the book.

Answer: Starling says to Krendler "Paul, what is it with you? I told you to go home to your wife, that was wrong?", implying that he had made a pass at her and she had rejected him. He replies that it was a long time ago, and that he didn't hold it against her, but combined with Mason Verger's bribe this was most likely the cause of his antagonism towards Starling.

Sierra1

Question: Of all the Transformers who die in this film, how many of them have died before in the Transformers canon? I'm looking for specific examples and how many times they've died.

Brad

Chosen answer: I can tell you that every single one of them died in the old animated series, eventually. They had to make room for new characters to sell toys of.

Phixius

Question: Was "caption howdy" the demon? Or did Regen make him up, the way some kids do?

Answer: It was indeed Pazuzu, he wanted Regan to believe he was some friendly entity to gain her trust. Thus the Captain Howdy facade.

Answer: The implication is that Captain Howdy was the name the demon gave itself while communicating with Regen prior to its possession of her.

Phixius

Question: Since Loki is the son of Laufey the Frost Giant, why doesn't he look like one?

Answer: When initially found by Odin, he does. Something then acts on him that causes him to mimic Odin's more human appearance, which he then keeps until his exposure to the frost giants during the events of the film, which tips him off to his true nature. Whether this was caused by some magic inherent in Loki even as a baby or whether Odin did something to disguise the child's true origin is unrevealed.

Tailkinker

Question: How did the Decepticons bring something as big as the Driller on Earth unnoticed? It's an earthworm the size of a building. Also, Megatron got here on purpose, Sentinel got here by accident, so did the original Seven Primes, so that would be an extreme number of coincidence. And even if that thing had been here for all these years, how did it manage to stay hidden? It's not like it can transform into something a little more subtle like a car.

Friso94

Chosen answer: Sentinel did not get here by accident. They stated out right that he was headed for Earth when he accidentally crashed on the moon. The Driller went unnoticed because it can tunnel underground; no one saw it. The Primes may have come by accident, but their arrival is the reason all the other Cybertronians keep coming here.

Phixius

Question: Jane tells the nurse that his name is "Thor". She instantly assumes that it is spelled T, H, O, R. Wouldn't it make more sense for her to assume that it is spelled T, H, A, W? That's a much more common word.

THGhost

Chosen answer: Thor sounds nothing like "thaw" (at least, not with Jane's accent). Also, "Thor" is not an uncommon name in Scandanavian countries, and even if she didn't assume he was from there, she probably just thought it was an odd name and left it at that.

Xofer

Question: When Padme goes to see Anakin, and he has his little fit, he says "It's all Obi Wan's fault! He's jealous" and then he goes on to say "He's holding me back". Why does Anakin think Obi Wan is jealous and that he's holding him back?

Answer: Anakin, much like a typical youth, is acting immature here and rebelling against Obi Wan's tight control over him. Obi Wan knows Anakin is still too impulsive and rash to become a full Jedi Knight, and prevents him from taking the final Jedi trial. Anakin just wants more independence.

raywest

Question: On the corrections page for this movie, someone stated that Henry was the father of both of Mary's children. How? Didn't he stop seeing her while she was still on bed rest during the pregnancy of their first child?

Answer: The information on the corrections page is inaccurate. Mary Boleyn married William Carey in 1520. Because her exact birth date is unknown, no one knows how old she was when she married. It was shortly after her wedding that she began her affair with Henry VIII. It is also unknown if either of the two children she bore during this time were fathered by Henry, though there was certainly a high probability that he sired one or both. However, Henry never publicly acknowledged either child, unlike the illegitimate son he had with another mistress. The events in the film and book are fictional, and they vary from the historical facts. It is never mentioned in the film that Mary had a second child, either by Henry or William Carey.

raywest

Question: After what seems like several hours of conversation between the crew and "Jerry", did the letters J and E occur in the text before the sentence "Don't call me Jerry" appeared and Dustin Hoffman realised the translation was wrong? I haven't watched the film a second time but surely we see words that contain J and E and still make perfect sense?

Answer: It's been a while, but as I remember it, this is explained better in the book. If I remember it correctly, since the translation program was made by Harry, he subconsciously added a section that simply mistranslated "Harry" to "Jerry". That doesn't mean every H became a J or anything like that. It only affected that word.

Garlonuss

Answer: I did not read the book but I will say from just watching the movie I believe Jerry was changed to Harry during the duration of the movie with the idea that Norman wanted to believe Harry was the cause of all the problems. That is why we do not see a random J in all the words that needed an H earlier in the move. Or it was a giant error on the directors part but there were a lot of unanswered questions in the move.

Answer: The "Harry" is "Jerry" has little to do with transposed letters. Norman is a psychiatrist, so by nature he likes to talk to discover new information. The entire conversation is Norman's subconscious thoughts being projected on the computer so that Norman can do his job of being the psychiatrist and talk to an entity. He has no other reason of being there. Norman is basically talking to himself. So in psychoanalysis Norman has to find a twist, which is My name is not Jerry. Ted and Harry didn't mess up the code they are too smart.

Question: Where exactly are the girl and her brother at the end of the movie?

bpospech

Chosen answer: After escaping from the house, the fake Carlos drives Regina and Paul into a dark tunnel. It is not explained what happens next, but it's implied they will be killed.

raywest

Question: Towards the end of the film, in the wedding/balcony scene, Charlie states that there are two Patricia's, one there at the wedding and one who he just remembered. Who's the second Patricia?

MGG fan xx

Chosen answer: The second Patricia is Charlie's cousin, who Sophia had mistaken as his former girlfriend, Patricia.

raywest

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