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: Is it possible the king and queen could recognize Rapunzel as their long lost daughter, despite her short brown hair, when they knew she was born with long golden hair? If so, then how?

Answer: It's entirely possible. Rapunzel has a similar face appearance to her mother's, and you could also count the family bond of simply knowing. She also has green eyes, which are uncommon, so the parents probably knew that she was unlikely an impostor.

virtual-toast

Question: How did Ethan figure out that Krieger is Phelps' accomplice? The knife couldn't have been it, because there's probably thousands of knives of that model.

Incognito90

Chosen answer: It was the knife, combined with the fact that it was Clare who introduced Krieger to Ethan.

Show generally

Question: This has interested me for ages: Where does Smithers actually live? And how does he get to and from the power plant? I am asking because Smithers is at Mr Burns's mansion most of the time, which gives the impression he is sort of a live-in servant, but in other instances, he is shown to live in a house by himself e.g. Lisa vs Malibu Stacey. And in terms of his commute to and from work, he is seen to drive Mr. Burns around in Burns's car, like a chauffeur, but in the episode where Homer gets promoted and gets the executive spot, Smithers drives up in another car, and not Burns's, which is already there.

Answer: I'd say Smithers has his own house, where he keeps his Malibu Stacy collection, but Mr Burns doesn't let him leave a lot. Of course, being Smithers, he's more than happy to stay by his boss' side.

Answer: In the episode, "You Only Move Twice", Smithers walks out of a house saying that it's nice driving Mr. Burns to work, so he could live in said house.

Question: In the scene where Robert Muldon is about to engage the raptor in the jungle, he puts down his hat and sets up the shotgun. Then a second raptor appears over his left shoulder. He spins to attack but is too slow and the raptor jumps on him and begins to eat him. My question is: In the theater version of this movie, this kill scene with Muldon in the jungle is different. In the theater version, Muldon spins towards the raptor. After being jumped on and attacked, Muldon is able to hold the raptor back with his shotgun. Then he kicks the raptor back and begins to run down a field. Moments later the raptor jumps on his back and kills him. Why did they change this scene? I only remember this from when I was younger and after seeing it only in theaters. But after looking all over the internet and YouTube for someone else to agree with me that this scene did happen, I came across someone saying that in the book this scene took place, so why film it and remove it later on DVD? Also, does anyone have any idea where this scene can be viewed again? I looked on Jurassic Park DVD Special Features, and still nothing. It's like it was never filmed, but I remember that it was! Please help.

Oker

Chosen answer: I watched this movie 8 times in 6 weeks when it was released at the cinema. The cinematic version of the scene you just described never happened. IMO you have remembered the scene wrong. You may be thinking of the scene from The Lost World, where the Ingen group is being chased by Raptors, one jumps on a character's back.

GameBlade

Chosen answer: No reason really, its not uncommon for shows to use the same actor to play different characters.

Question: Why does Alice dance briefly at the end after returning to the regular world?

Sammi

Chosen answer: She is proving a point that she is not going to follow the boundaries of English society, the Mad Hatter futer-wagoned, that was where she got the moves. It also showed the crowd that she wasn't wearing stockings.

Question: Why did the crew of the Arcadia abandon ship?

Answer: Wesker needed to consume fresh DNA to help control the T-virus. He was eating people who had been captured. This scared the crew enough to abandon ship.

LorgSkyegon

Question: Why did death try to kill Wendy and Kevin during Frankie's death scene, when it wasn't their turn to die?

M0vi3

Chosen answer: It didn't exactly try to kill them. They were more like a part of Frankie's death. It was Kevin's car engine fan that killed Frankie. It was fate. In my opinion Death wanted Wendy and Kevin to witness Frankie's death.

Question: Who was the blonde woman who appeared in one of Umbrella's armed aerial transports that was heading for the Arcadia at the very end of the movie?

Answer: Jill Valentine, played by Sienna Guillory, from Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

THGhost

Question: Towards the end of the movie my husband thinks he saw braces or at least a retainer wire on the girl who plays the architect. Has this been seen by anyone?

Answer: No. She has no retainer or braces throughout the movie.

Chosen answer: Kyle assaulted HIM first when she jumped on top of him and scratched his face so technically she should be arrested.

rswarrior

Answer: Kyle assaulted the Arab man earlier in the film. At the point he threw her down, she was running at him in hysterics. He threw her down out of fear she would hurt him again.

Question: When he is kissing the old woman his hair flies off. Was this deliberate?

Answer: Yes. It shows his age and another portion of his life that he's covering up. He makes mention of his toupee later in the film.

Question: Why did HAL go berserk? I thought it was because HAL knew the real reason for the mission (as Dr. Floyd reveals in the pre-recorded briefing), and was suspicious or curious of whether or not Dave and Frank knew. So when Dave is showing his drawings to HAL, HAL uses this opportunity to discuss the "rumours" with Dave. HAL of course is thinking as a computer in a chess game, and assumes to know what Dave will say next. But Dave thinks HAL is doing some psychology report on the crew and asks HAL that question. HAL did not expect this response, and quickly responds, "Of course I am." Now HAL is caught in a lie and does not know what Dave's next question might be, so he diverts the conversation by creating the AE-35 unit crisis. This, of course, sends the astronauts down a path that he cannot control, and he ultimately must terminate the crew to protect himself. 2010, however, went down some other path that did not make any sense to me. Hence the question. I would love the opportunity to discuss.

mschiavi

Chosen answer: This is explained in the sequel, 2010. In that film, Doctor Chandra explains that Hal was given orders that directly contracted each other. He was informed about the monolith and instructed to complete the mission should the humans become unable to, but was also programmed not to deceive, and to relay information without distortion. This caused a "mental" breakdown in his programming. He decided the only course of action was to incapacitate/eliminate the crew and then complete the mission.

Answer: The HAL 9000 was designed to replicate almost every aspect of human mental processes, faster and with perfect recall. It was, essentially, artificial intelligence, but not nearly as complex as human intelligence (because nothing is as complex as human intelligence, that we know of). In carrying out the Jupiter Mission, HAL was instructed to deceive the standing crew (Frank Poole and Dave Bowman) regarding the mission objectives; however, HAL was not so sophisticated that it knew how to deceive. As it turned out, HAL was "human" enough that it felt guilt and even paranoia for deliberately lying to Frank and Dave. But HAL had no contingency for guilt or paranoia responses, and it drove the machine quite mad. Homicidally insane.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the original ending, Mrs. Vorheese opens her eyes and smiles. People say that this would indicate that Jason had killed Paul. How would that indicate that he had killed Paul?

Answer: Simple, it was her response to how Ginny was screaming for Paul, indicating that Jason fufilled her will and disposed of him.

discoduderock

Question: When Lex reboots the phones and Grant rings the bunker, how does Hammond immediately know it was Grant? Wouldn't it be more likely it was Ellie on the phone, or even Arnold?

eldeem

Chosen answer: He was hoping it was Grant. He didn't want it to be Arnold or Ellie, who went to reset the breakers. He wanted it to be Grant - the one who was taking care of his grandchildren. He wanted to know they were OK.

LorgSkyegon

Show generally

Question: Are there more than three Star Fleet uniform colors? In the episode where Dr. Crusher is pulled into an alternate dimension aboard the Enterprise, there is an older science officer (not a recurring character) who is wearing a green uniform. When he is next to Dr. Crusher in her blue uniform, the difference is quite noticeable. Red is command, blue is sciences and medical, and gold is engineering, security, and ship services. What would green be for? I've only seen it in this one episode.

raywest

Chosen answer: The colors of the uniforms (like the models of the uniforms) change a lot. In the time frame of the original series for example the command color was gold/yellow and red was engineering. In TNG these colors are switched and altered. Also, the blue color for science has been more greenish in other periods of (Star Trek) time. And finally, uniform alterations are, to some extend, accepted (Troy often wears more casual clothing on duty and Worf adds cultural decorations to his uniform. To conclude: the green uniform might be a character's choice or an older type of uniform.

Cetan

Question: When this film was being released, I read a rumour somewhere that Lucas originally wanted actor John Houseman to play Indy's father. Given that at the time Houseman was in his mid-80s and in poor health (He passed away when the film was in production), was there any truth to this story?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Not at least according to the "making of" DVD included in the trilogy box set. According to Spielberg, he always wanted to direct a James Bond film. In Spielberg's thinking, a 1930s action hero could only have one father - James Bond, and also according to Spielberg, he thought only of Connery.

The Cincinnati Kids - S5-E11

Question: Two part question: Mike throughout the series is someone depicted as a person of intelligence. So when he puts both of his sketches into one cylinder and puts Jan's Yogi Bear poster in the now empty identical cylinder, why does he place them right next to each other under the table? More importantly why doesn't he check to see if he has the correct one when he leaves for the meeting? When he returns to the Manager's office to inform them he hasn't found the sketches, why does he carry the cylinder with the poster with him?

jairodrigue

Chosen answer: Intelligence does not necessarily correlate to wisdom or common sense. He simply doesn't think to do these things.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Robert Reed, the actor playing Mike Brady, frequently complained to the writer (Sherwood Schwartz) that the "slapstick comedy" in many episodes was ridiculous and he could NOT perform some of the behaviors in a scene because of its absurdity. Reed was under contract, so ended up reluctantly playing his role against his better judgment (until the last episode when he was written out of the scene at the last minute because of his complaints and requests to change the script to something reasonable). In the movie "Growing Up Brady", the ongoing disputes between Reed and Sherwood were portrayed, as well as six-year-old Susan's ("Cindy") meeting with Sherwood when she asked him why Cindy had to be so stupid and how Cindy could forget her favorite sandwich was peanut butter and jelly. Susan said the kids at school were teasing her over this and asked Sherwood why Cindy could not be smart and funny. The basic answer to your questions is because the writer, Sherwood, thought the slapstick comedy was very funny and believed it was one factor that made "The Brady Bunch" a popular TV show that ran for many seasons. Mike Brady (Robert Reed) was merely following the script that he had no control over. Also in "Growing Up Brady", when Barry ("Greg") went for his audition/interview with Sherwood, he told him he loved "Gilligan's Island." Guess who wrote "Gilligan's Island"?

KeyZOid

Question: This is a question regarding the scene where Ali tells Dr. Gordon over the phone to not believe Adam's lies. How does Ali know about Adam in the first place? From what you gather, it is only Detective Tapp that knows Adam since he was the one who paid Adam in secret to follow and take pictures of Dr. Gordon. So, was it Zep that told Ali about Adam? If so, how did Zep know about Adam? From Jigsaw? Any further details would be appreciated. Thanks.

mrbench71

Chosen answer: Yes. You pretty much guessed correctly. We can assume that Jigsaw told Zep to tell Ali to tell Dr Gordon, "do not believe Adam's lies..." Don't forget that Jigsaw spends hours planning his tests so it would be safe to say that he had planned it all in the beginning.

Question: What was the heinous metal contraption placed on Wade's head, prior to him being sprayed with hot wax, supposed to insinuate? The needle-like probes did not appear to puncture him. Was it simply for effect?

Answer: It is simply a contraption to keep Wade in place so he doesn't move and the wax can be applied. It's also used to keep the wax out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

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.