Question: Why is it that when the Trojans invade the shores at daybreak to initiate the second battle, it is quite obvious that Brad Pitt was playing the role of Patroclus only until his throat was cut? First, you can see Pitt's face in Achilles' helmet in the close-up shots when he is about to start fighting with Hector. Second, you can see the significant change in Patroclus' physique before and after Hector cut his throat.
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Question: Where did Agamemnon get the horses for his chariot? Did he bring them with the ship? Because I can't imagine having a horse on a ship.
Chosen answer: Difficult as it might be to imagine, they did indeed transport the horses by ship. Historical evidence indicates that ships of the period could have specific modifications made to their decks in order to carry horses safely. As such, while Agamemnon would not have had them on board his personal ship that we see in the film, it's reasonable to assume that he had a modified "horse carrier" among his fleet.
Question: There is one part of the film I didn't quite understand. The whole war at the end of the movie was to stop the humans to bomb the Tree of Souls. However, wasn't that tree already destroyed by the dozers the morning after they "mate for life"? Also, how was Jake with the tree praying before the war when it was destroyed?
Answer: I was confused about that too, when I saw the flim, but it's actually the tree of voices that is destroyed, not the tree of souls. They look almost identical, the tree of souls is never destroyed. That's what Jake is praying to before the war.
Question: The terrorist group is called the ten rings. Does that refer to The Mandarin whose power in the cartoon came from his ten rings?
Chosen answer: It's intended as a subtle nod to the character, yes. It's been suggested that the Mandarin might be the villain in a future third film, so using the name "The Ten Rings" was a bit of foreshadowing that there might be a greater power behind the terrorist group.
Question: This question might sound odd, but how has La Carlotta become so successful if a lot of people don't like her voice very much (as seen when she sings "Think of Me" before Christine tries)?
Answer: The fact that the "in the know" people don't like her doesn't mean that she doesn't have a huge public and make a killing at the box office. On top of that, she was their "Diva." She may not have necessarily had many fans (in some versions they comment that there were no refunds, with Christine singing). Therefore, it can be assumed that given that she was the Diva if she didn't get her way, things would be bad on their end. Likely why her husband (who also did not sing well, due to his deep accent) was another main role in all the operas. They may have also thought there was nobody else who could handle the main roles. It takes a strong person to take on so many lines. And you need to project your voice, which heaven knows she had a loud one.
Question: Why did Obi-wan say to Luke "You will go to the Dagobah system" as opposed to "You must go"? Was he simply giving him an order? Seems strange considering Luke was very close to freezing to death when he said it.
Chosen answer: Obi-wan's one with the Force at this point, so, given that the Force has been shown to grant precognitive visions, he may simply have seen that Luke survives and does go to Dagobah and is telling Luke that he will go there as a statement of fact. Or it could just be a bit poorly worded.
Question: How does being magnetised give you the power to delete tape footage? Wouldn't that work for DVDs, but not for VHS? Also I noticed in the scene where Jerry walks into the video store magnetised, the screen on the tv got all staticky every time I watched it. Was the static intentional?
Answer: VHS is data magnetically encoded on tape. A magnet will wipe them out. DVD/CD's are data encoded in plastic with a laser. Magnets won't hurt them in the slightest. Yes, the static was intentional, magnets can interfere with televisions.
Question: Why would Skynet want to kill Kyle Reese? If he doesn't go back, he won't destroy the first Terminator, and that arm will not end up becoming Miles Dyson's inspiration for creating Skynet (as stated in T2), and if Skynet isn't created at that point, they will never exist in the future. Surely the machines would work this out, and make sure the loop is completed (i.e, not killing Kyle so Connor can send him back?
Answer: No because the timestream clearly has some flex in it for changes, but Judgment Day is inevitable. The arm and chip were destroyed, yet Skynet was still built in T3. In all the timelines, Skynet is built and John Connor beats it. So killing Kyle or John is Skynet's only real option.
Question: Is it really likely that a main governing body on Earth wouldn't have a say in whether or not humans eradicate a whole species, not just on Earth, but on another planet, and a humanoid species at that? It just seems odd that a mining company owner has the final say on whether a scientifically significant race lives or dies.
Answer: Earth is six years away. The company can do whatever the hell they like, partly because there's nobody there to stop them, but mostly because ultimately what people really care about is results. If they keep up a steady flow of unobtanium, whatever methods they took to get it will be largely ignored. And with nobody around to say otherwise, painting the Na'vi as the aggressors in the situation would be relatively easy, allowing them to claim that they were merely defending themselves and that the Na'vi brought it on themselves by their hostile actions.
Question: I was wondering, at the beginning when the cop is about to shave him, why does he freak out about the knife but can kill people with his own knife?
Chosen answer: Because it's a knife that someone else is holding and can use against him. It's common for people in dangerous professions to regard their weapons as tools. For example, police officers who commit suicide by handgun rarely use their service weapon, but rather a personal firearm.
Additionally, I believe it is made clear during that scene that Rambo had previously been tortured at some point, and one of the tools used was a knife. So the combination of being restrained and having someone approach with a knife caused him to basically have extreme PTSD and so he attempts to escape.
Question: Two questions: In the bar, Obi Wan's lightsaber is purple, not blue. Is there any particular reason for this? Also, the trivia section for this movie mentions a scene with Han Solo and Jabba the Hut that I have never seen before in the movie. Can somebody explain where the scene is and what happens in it?
Answer: The different color is likely due to the lighting of the cantina. The scene with Jabba is in the remastered version of the film and takes place as Han and Chewie are preparing the Falcon for takeoff. Han tells Jabba that he'll have the money to repay him as soon as he gets back from the job of taking Luke and Obi-Wan to Alderaan and Jabba tells him that if he doesn't, he's going to have to send Boba Fett after him.
Lucas filmed the scene during the production of Star Wars but dropped it because he didn't have the technology at the time to replace the stand-in with Jabba the way he wanted. Later during the remaster, now equipped with the right technology, they added Jabba and included the scene in the film.
Question: Why does the Comedian say, "I'm sorry, Mother," in the movie? He says this as he is dying and also when he visits Moloch. Could "Mother" be a reference to the two mothers of his children - the Asian one that he killed as well as Laurie's mom whom he raped? If this is not the case, then I just don't get it.
Question: Do the creators ever plan on making a sequel? The ending is such a good cliff-hanger that I assumed it would return, although it has been over six years since the film's release that it looks doubtful.
Chosen answer: The film was critically panned and a commercial failure. While the possibility of a franchise would obviously have been considered, the poor box office returns would have put paid to any studio interest in a sequel.
Question: Are the Na'Vi aware or at least able to sense if one of their kind is an Avatar? They don't seem all that surprised when they encounter one of their own kind wearing army clothing and wielding a human weapon (they actually go so far as to dub Jake a 'dreamwalker,' which I took to be their term for a Na'vi body being remotely controlled by another being), yet later on when Jake and co.'s true status as impersonators is revealed, Tsu'Tey makes a huge uproar of disgust about it.
Answer: The Avatars have five fingers while the Na'vi only have four - the avatars' eyes are larger and they have eyebrows and avatar noses are more humanlike vs the na'vi's more catlike noses; the Na'vi simply tolerate the avatars (remember Neytiri tried to kill Jake). Tsu'Tey isn't angry that they are actually human, he's angry that their ulterior motive is trying to get them to leave their home.
Question: One burning question: Why do the machines need to capture the humans? What do they need them for? Surely a neurotoxin introduced to the atmosphere or water table would eradicate all non-mechanical life?
Answer: The new T-800 model that Skynet's working on is the first to use real human tissue. The humans are being captured for use in experiments related to that. It is also stated in T1 that some humans were kept to work in the camps.
Question: I never understood the "shave and a haircut" trick that Doom uses to lure out Roger. Why does Roger burst through the wall and yell "Two bits!" just to get caught? I never got it and its never explained.
Question: When Eddie is fighting Doom at the end he spots a box with a singing sword in it. He whips it out and sure enough, the sword starts singing. My question is, why would there even be a singing sword? Is this a reference to something else?
Answer: Valiant also shares his name with Arthurian comic strip hero Prince Valiant, who wields a singing sword, Flamberge.
Chosen answer: One of the legends of Excalibur says that the sword sang when Arthur pulled it from the stone. Bugs Bunny went on a quest for the singing sword in a cartoon once, so there's historical AND cartoon precedence for singing swords.
Answer: It's likely just meant to be a nonsensical gag. Notice how Eddie and Doom both give the sword a questionable look, like they're also confused as to why such a thing even exists.
Answer: This is also a gag factory where such things like that would be made for cartoons.
Question: Is it true that part of the scenes in which Mrs. Doubtfire are in is shot with a real english lady who looks like Mrs. Doubtfire?
Chosen answer: No.
Question: In the scene where Kirk boards the shuttle and bangs his head, is this by any chance a homage to the infamous Stormtrooper blooper in Star Wars?
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Chosen answer: Watching the scene carefully, I would say that Garrett Hedlund plays the character throughout. Hedlund does bear a notable resemblence to Pitt - he was undoubtedly cast as Patroclus for that reason, both because their characters are cousins and because of the requirement to successfully pull off the masquerade as Achilles during the scene - and thus could readily be mistaken for him, given that his face is rarely seen clearly throughout the scene. However, it's not unreasonable that they might have used Pitt in a couple of key shots, in order to preserve the illusion that this really is Achilles fighting, to bring the audience along in making the same mistake that the Greek army have. As for the physique, it can be seen in their introductory sword-fighting scene that Hedlund and Pitt have roughly similar builds - any perceived change in physique is most likely an illusion caused by the shift between standing in a fighting stance and lying limply on the ground.
Tailkinker ★