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.

Show generally

Question: There is an episode where a travelling stage and it's owner get people to perform on the stage to an invisible audience (which cheers and applauds). The people then end up loving the stage and eventually get turned into puppets with strings coming out of the happy/sad faces at the top of the stage. Since most/all of the episodes of Courage are based on, or parodies of, famous tales, myths, stories and films, where is this one from? It sounds very familiar but I can't quite place it.

Gary O'Reilly

Chosen answer: The episode you are referring to is the finale to Season 1, "The Great Fusilli. The episode description is nearly identical to your description. However, I have not been able to find any source of this being a parody. Perhaps this episode was just an original?

MooCow

Question: I didn't quite get what happened at the end of the movie. Why exactly did Africa get pushed up so it would be safe from the tsunamis?

Answer: The continent of Africa was pushed up by the shifting tectonic plates.

Xofer

Chosen answer: He isn't. Time moves slowly in the show because they didn't want it to turn into "That '80's Show". In the first episode, he say's he's 17 but the second episode was his 17th birthday so he must have been 16. The first 12 episodes are set in 1976, the next 2 seasons are set in 1977, the next 3 seasons are set in 1978, and the remaining shows take place in 1979 with the final show on Dec 31, 1979 when Eric must be 20 as he turned 17 in 1976.

Myridon

Care - S1-E1

Question: The defendant in this episode has prior convictions for GBH and HBH. I can deduce that GBH means "Grievous Bodily Harm," however, have never heard of HBH and can't seem to find a definition of it online. Anyone know it?

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: You misheard ABH - Assault occasioning Actual Bodily Harm.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actual_bodily_harm.

Myridon

Question: I know everybody tells the truth, but why does everyone say what they are thinking? If you don't say what you are thinking it doesn't mean you are lying.

Answer: It's an imaginary world with its own logic. You could theorize that people were raised this way. Also, you could imagine that since they have to say bad things to answer most questions, why not say bad things all the time, i.e. if your wife asks if you like her dress, you have to say you hate it, so why wait to be asked.Really, the film makers did it because it's funny. If you made a movie where people only spoke when they had something nice to say, it would be very boring.

Myridon

Answer: It seems like in this world, people are not just incapable of lying, they also have no concept whatsoever of keeping things to themselves, and secrecy. Therefore, everyone says what they're thinking without the slightest hesitation.

Catwalk

Question: When Abbot is walking down the aisle at the wedding, everyone says "Good morrow Abbot", but one guys says "Hey Abbot!" and Abbot says "I hate that guy!" Is this a reference to something? I never got the joke.

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: The scene is an homage to the late, great comedy team, Abbott and Costello. Bud Abbott was the straight man and Lou Costello was the goofy laugh-getter. Part of their act was Costello getting frustrated trying to understand Abbott and yelling "hey Abbott" at him.

Guy

Question: Exactly how plausible was the jump from the skyscraper that Terry and Lara did with their suits? With those very small "wings" or whatever the proper name for those yellow extensions is that were attached to their suits, in reality wouldn't they have plummeted to the ground instead of gliding away?

Answer: Very plausible. The suits exist - they are called glide suits or wingsuits and lots more info can be found with a quick Google search.

Guy

Question: While Dr. Spooner was driving alone in the tunnel, he requested access to restricted files between Dr. Lanning and Lawrence Robertson. When Robertson was informed of this he seemed appalled. Shortly, two NS-5 trucks came and boxed Spooner in. Did Lawerence activate those trucks?

Starpluck

Chosen answer: No, VIKI did. Robertson is merely annoyed that Spooner is continuing to delve into company business. VIKI is the one who's actually behind the whole plot and is concerned enough about Spooner's meddling to try to take him out.

Tailkinker

Question: In the scene where Swagger and Memphis go to talk to the old man, why does the old man look at their hands? What is he looking for?

Answer: He's looking for callouses on the hands. Professional snipers end up getting hard skin inbetween the webbed part of the skin between the thumb and forefinger because of constant rubbing on the trigger guard. By checking the hands, he could tell whether or not he was talking to a proper sniper, and in particular Swagger.

GalahadFairlight

The webbing between the thumb and forefinger would rub on the stock or grip not the trigger guard.

Answer: Just to see if he's a working man with rough hands. Shooters get bad callouses on elbows, not so much hands.

Question: I don't know if this is true or just an urban legend, but did Michael Jackson body double (from the waist down) for the moonwalk/dance moves that Marty did during the scene where Mad Dog Tannen shot at his feet?

Answer: There appears to be purely an urban legend. While the repeated use of lower-body shots does suggest that Michael J Fox didn't perform the moves himself, there's no evidence that indicates that it was Jackson himself who stepped in. In the end, the moonwalk is not actually a particularly complicated dance move; if Fox didn't do it himself, it would not have been difficult for the production to locate somebody with a matching build who could do the steps.

Tailkinker

Answer: She was banished by her husband, Ozai, for High Treason. She planned and played a significant role in Ozai's seizure of the throne from Fire Lord Azulon. Without her aide, Ozai would have been forced to kill his son, Zuko. Ozai's elder brother, Iroh, would have taken the thrown upon Azulon's death. It is assumed, though never specified, that either she or Ozai killed Azulon to ensure Ozai could be crowned Fire Lord before Iroh's return from the failed siege of Ba Sing Se. In the comics it is revealed that she met a spirit and changed her face and mind so she couldn't remember her kids. She also reunites with her old love and has daughter. When Zuko first meets her he doesn't know who she is, but in the end she asks for her face and memory back. Its also revealed she killed Azulon with a colorless and untraceable poison.

Phixius

Question: Was there ever an explanation given for how the humans and the prawns learned each others languages? Both speak only their native dialects yet they're able to communicate with each other perfectly fine.

Answer: There's no specific explanation given, but it's not difficult to work out. A basic vocabulary could be worked out relatively easily simply by producing a series of items and learning the respective words for them. Over time, this vocabulary would build up until rudimentary communication was possible, which could then be refined over the decades since the prawns first arrived.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Why not? There's no reason why an actor couldn't play his own father at the same age - indeed, it can serve to emphasise a family resemblence between father and son. It can also serve as a swift way of letting the audience know that this is the father, rather than having a different actor come in and have to have the relationship established through dialogue.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: When they settle on New Caprica, is (roughly) 49,000 people sufficiently genetically diverse enough to ensure survival or would the colony start to run into trouble after a few generations?

Sanguis

Chosen answer: 100 breeding couples would be plenty with genetic screening, which Colonial tech seems easily capable of. 50,000 would be more than sufficient even with old-fashioned random pairings.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Where do the staff and crew of Jurassic Park go after the dinosaurs escape? I mean you see a staff member tending to the triceratops, there were many scientists in the dinosaur lab, and would assume that there would be many more people on the island but they are nowhere to be seen after the dinosaurs escape.

mitch_ando9

Chosen answer: They all left on the same boat Nedry was trying to get on with the embryos. You can hear Samuel L Jackson's character announce that the boat will be leaving at a specific time and everyone had to be there or be left behind.

Shannon Jackson

Question: During the curfew, if a human was seen acting dangerously, an NS5 would approach them and grab them by the neck saying "You have been deemed hazardous, will you comply?" This happened to Spooner and Farber. What would the outcome be if one did comply? What would the NS5 do?

Answer: Politely but firmly escort them to an area deemed suitable for temporarily holding "hazardous" individuals. Or, amusingly, compliance would perhaps convince the NS5 that they were no longer a hazard and leave them free to go.

Phixius

Question: When the Joker and Vicky are going up the cathedral, Vicky trips and loses her left shoe; the Joker kisses it and throws it over the railing. When they reach the top both her shoes are gone and she's barefoot. Where did her right shoe go?

curiouskid

Chosen answer: It's quite hard to walk properly with only one shoe on and the stairs they're climbing are not the most even surfaces in the world. It would make sense that she simply kicked the other one off so that she could walk evenly rather than risk tripping again.

Tailkinker

Nightmares and Daydreams - S3-E9

Question: In Aang's first dream, his hair, dress, and movements are supposed to resemble Naruto. In his second dream, he's looks like Vash from Trigun. However in the last dream (the one where Aang tells the Firelord that he is the one without pants), I can't quite place who he's supposed to look like. Any help?

Answer: Aang is meant to resemble Goku from Dragon Ball Z in the first nightmare. Though Naruto's and Goku's outfits are very similar, the hair is the clue here. In the final dream, Aang is a caricature of Jin from Samurai Champloo.

Phixius

Question: Did Patrick Stewart physically perform for this film as Charles Xavier, or was the scene with him either computer-generated or shot with a look-alike?

Answer: Yes, that was Patrick Stewart, digitally de-aged in post-production to look younger than he does in the later-set X-Men films.

Tailkinker

Question: Did Kim tell Edward she loved him, because she really did love him, or did she just feel sorry for him, and make him feel loved?

Answer: She really loved him.

Phixius

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.