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 Seibertron/Cybertron is an alien planet where the transformers originated from, why are some named after earth things, like Bumblebee? Are there earth insects there too? Bumblebee was called that even before he came to earth. Bonecrusher is another example, Transformers do not have what we call bones. Do they also listen to 'Jazz' music?

StreetHAWK76

Chosen answer: No definitive answer has ever been given, but it seems reasonable to conjecture that their "Earth" names are simply the closest available English translations of their true Cybertronian names.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: No reason for this has yet been disclosed.

Tailkinker

Question: The children in Teddy's hallucinations were bloody but they died by drowning. Is this just an inference to Andrew's guilt that his children's "blood is on his hands" because he didn't seek treatment for Dolores' mental illness? Or is it Scorsese being overly dramatic and adding a lot of blood where it doesn't belong? Also, how exactly did Andrew kill Dolores? Did he use his service revolver, even though we don't hear the shot?

MovieFan612

Chosen answer: I think the recurring blood comes from the blood of his wife when he killed her. there was a lot of blood you see, in his psychosis that means a lot and has taken over a large part of his hallucinations, just like Dachau camp. Yes, he did shoot his wife Dolores, in the belly. You can see it in the end of the movie.

lionhead

Show generally

Question: What is up with all of the random clips in the intro to the show? Only a select few appear in the show, and they all look like they were recorded using a camcorder which has been held up to a TV screen. Most have nothing to do with the show whatsoever. One involves some Japanese cartoon, another involves some kind of suit closing around someone's head, another shows someone skiing down a ski slope while on fire. Why?

EpicFishFingers

Chosen answer: Wikipedia has a list of all the references from the opening.Since children are more impressionable, they tend to remember certain aspects of different things. The bits you see may indicate the scattered thoughts of youth, and how things can go by in a quick flash, whilst only remembering significant parts (in this case, it seems to be violence-orientated).

Jeimi

Question: Were all Josie's class virgins? I get the impression that they were because in the sex education scene, where Anitie asks, "Are there any questions?" they all put their hands up.

Answer: Given that Anita isn't a real sex ed teacher the class was probably confused by her bizarre little 'sex talk' and had some questions to ask her regarding that.

Answer: It's quite likely that at least one or two people were not virgins. A non-virgin could still have questions that they want to ask an older adult, who has more sexual experience.

Utopia (1) - S3-E11

Question: When Professer Yana is beginning to realise who he really is, he hears the voices of previous Masters. Could someone tell me where these audio clips were taken from?

Josman

Chosen answer: "Destroy him! Then you will give your power to me! is Roger Delgado in "The Daemons" (1971). The other is Anthony Ainley laughing evilly, not sure where that was from.

Question: Why didn't Tracy's parents free her from school when they knew that she was going on audition? And why isn't Penny in detention? I don't think that her mother would free her from school.

Answer: Tracy's parents told Tracy not to audition. They were worried that she would be rejected, and not be able to cope with the heartbreak, as evidenced by her mothers' line, "They're gonna hurt her out there". Penny could have left school during her lunch period.

Answer: Yes, Tracy's parents should have signed her out for the audition. Penny has been getting away from her mother for awhile so her cutting school without trouble isn't new to her.

Question: Near the end of the movie, when the characters are seen reacting to Donnie's death,what is Kitty Farmer's hand resting on?

Answer: Her bed.

Question: This confuses me, so can someone please help? Kittridge thinks that Ethan is the mole because he was the only one left alive from the IM mission in Prague, but if Ethan really was the mole, he wouldn't have called Kittridge and told him that his team was dead; he would have done what the REAL mole did (go into hiding etc), so wouldn't Kittridge have realised early on that Ethan wasn't actually the mole, and that he had been set up?

Answer: You have to look at it from Kittridge's point of view, you know there's a mole, but you don't know who it is so you send them on a mission, where you can expose the mole - the team ends up dead apart from Ethan. The natural conclusion and all the evidence is that you've found the mole.

Plus Job put 120 grand in Ethan's parents account, according to Kittridge.

Answer: Think as a mole would think-you don't want to look like a mole, so you play innocent: that is the logic Kittridge uses to analyze Ethan.

Answer: Also if Ethan was the mole he wouldn't have known that Kittredge was mole hunting so he would have gone about it as any other mission if his team was killed.

Question: Can anyone clarify the limbo in the film please? At the almost fifth level of dream, the dreamers of limbo - Cobb and Saito, 1. Who has given a kick for them to come to reality as everyone has left the dreams long back? 2. All through the Movie, they used a link to enter other's dream, but what happened to that link when they went to Limbo, can they intersect each other without any link through their dreams?

Answer: Limbo appears to function somewhat differently from the upper dream levels. In the upper levels, the dreams are specifically constructed, the team uses a link system to tie themselves together in the dream and so forth. Limbo, the deepest level, doesn't appear to require this - it's simply a raw dreamstate automatically shared by those who venture into it. Cobb, Saito, Ariadne and Fischer are linked on all the prior dream levels, so they already exist in a shared dream state, thus they all cohabit the limbo level that lies beneath the constructed ones. As for Cobb and Saito, they provide the "kick" themselves, likely by using Cobb's pistol to commit suicide. As time travels so fast in the limbo state, almost no time has passed on the higher levels, despite the pair experiencing years in limbo. As such, they're able to ride the tail-end of the kicks used to extract the others, and eventually wake effectively simultaneously with the rest of the team in the plane.

Tailkinker

Question: When Zero shoots Wolverine's forehead in the lab, the bullet only penetrates the skin and not his skull, we can see his metal skull. In X-Men 2, the police shoot Wolverine's forehead and the bullet penetrate his skull. It's like the adamantium skull become can be penetrated. Well, it's different from X-Men Origin. Why?

Answer: It doesn't penetrate his skull in X-Men 2 - the bullet simply flattens against the adamantium and it takes his healing factor a few moments to heal the wound enough to force it out. When Zero shoots him, the bullet doesn't lodge in the wound, so we can see the metal through the hole.

Tailkinker

Question: Is Gobber's line about trolls being real ("They steal your socks! But only the left ones.") a reference to Lilo and Stitch? When describing Stitch, Jumba says "He will be irresistibly drawn to large cities, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe."?

Answer: No, left socks going missing is a long-running gag. Ren & Stimpy found the alternate dimension they disappear to in one episode of their show.

Phixius

Answer: No, it's actually because Gobber only has one foot. That's why he only has left socks to steal.

Chosen answer: Stewie thinks Brian is referring to the word "c**t", which is a vulgar slang term for a woman's vagina.

Cubs Fan

Answer: Since Stewie is known for being gay or bi, I always thought Stewie thought he meant c*ck.

Question: In one of the first dreams (Think it were the "test" dreams of Cobb and Ariadne) where we're supposed to see some french/Paris-inspired location , from bird's eye view, there can be seen a Mercedes car parking on the left with a German plate (M-IK nnnn, which is most probably assigned to "Sixt" car rental). Where were these scenes filmed? Should car plates be readable?

Answer: IMDB mentions that the filming location is Paris. Streets, monuments are identifiable (you can see the Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower and the Seine) and the French cars all have plates ending with 75 (indicating central Paris). The M on the German car indicates that it is registered in Munich. (Yes, German rental cars are registred in Munich).

Airborne60

Question: I've been wondering about this for a while: the teacher who befriends Carrie seems to care about her a great deal. Was Carrie just imagining that everyone (including the teacher) was laughing at her or was it real?

Answer: She was just imagining it. She had become so used to being ridiculed by many students, that she was unable to separate out those who actually were kind to her.

raywest

In the book, they were all laughing. Some did it intentionally, and some couldn't seem to help themselves, but it was not Carrie's imagination.

Question: When the Black Pearl arrives at Port Royal, and the two pirates, Ragetti and Pintel go after Elizabeth, she runs to her bedroom and throws fire on Ragetti's head. These pirates are cursed, and therefore cannot feel anything. Why then, does he yell as if he could feel the fire? Isn't that a mistake?

linita

Answer: Ragetti (amongst others) is indicating that the undead pirates do feel pain. In example Ragetti talks about his wooden eye and how it "splinters terribly". He also screams that the coal is hot and that it burns him. Another pirate screams in agony when being stabbed. As Barbossa states; they can't feel pleasure in any form but mentions nothing about pain. The curse is meant to punish the greedy who stole/steals the gold. What better punishment than let them suffer by not feeling what wealth can bring in form of pleasure by flesh and food but only take away that part and leave the "bad" feelings like pain?

Fairly logical - just one slight chink: At the end, when Jack and Barbossa fight, Jack stabs Barbossa right through the middle - if the curse is punishing them in this way, Barbossa should be feeling quite a lot of pain. Yet he just sighs, pulls the sword out, and stabs Jack with it.

When Barbossa is explaining the curse to Elizabeth he says, verbatim, "I feel nothing." Therefore, Ragetti can't feel that the coals are hot.

Chosen answer: No, this is not a mistake. Ragetti is just reacting to it in panic, believing that he really can feel pain, even though he cannot.

raywest

Chosen answer: That song is the 1933 song "Young and Healthy" by Harry Warren. It was sung originally by Bing Crosby. Goto: www.harrywarren.org/songs/0632.htm.

CCARNI

Show generally

Question: Can someone tell me who makes all the shirts for this show? Many of them are in the same type and bear nonsensical phrases like "Psycho Penguins" or "My Cheese, My Rules". If someone can tell me where to buy these shirts, I'd really appreciate it.

Brad

Chosen answer: They are made for the show. Dan Schnider, creator of the show, calls them "Penny Tees".

Answer: They're called penny tees.

Question: Is Tony really in danger when Pepper pulls out the copper ring? The screens behind him light up, and he acts like he is in danger, but his reaction once the process is complete leads one to believe that he may have just been messing with Pepper. Also, why does Tony go into cardiac arrest when the copper ring is pulled out? The magnet is keeping the shards out of his heart, not keeping his heart running, even though they state in the movie that it is powering his heart). Perhaps I am just confused about what is actually happening with the device.

oldbaldyone

Chosen answer: The movie interchangeably refer to the device as keeping the shrapnel out of his heart and keeping it beating. The latter is supported by both this scene and the comment by Dr. Yinsen that the arc reactor could "run (his) heart for fifty lifetimes. The opening exposition in the cave explaining the danger of the shrapnel explains that it takes "about a week" for it to kill its subjects. Given how fast he started dying both in the scene with the copper ring and when Obadiah forcibly removed the arc reactor, it's entirely possible that the system is also acting as an admittedly very fancy pacemaker.

Alex Montenegro

Question: One of the things I've never been able to figure out. When Roy's hand is clenching why does he shove the nail through it? Beyond the obvious reference to Christ, does the pain shock his nerves into working briefly again or what?

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: Exactly. His body is shutting down and he's trying to hold that off long enough to finish his battle with Deckard. His hand starts to freeze up, so he uses the pain from the spike to get it working again temporarily.

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