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 are supers? Are they an offshoot of humanity, or an evolved breed of humanity?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It's never stated.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Veck plan to take the hostages with him to the Cayman Islands? If he had gotten the money, why would he have needed to take them?

Answer: As security against having his airplane shot from the sky by law enforcement. Once he was safely in the Caymans, he could release the hostages without fear of being apprehended by the United States law enforcement agencies.

MovieFan612

Question: When Myrtle is talking to the man who is selling puppies, she says that she wants one of those "police dogs". What breed of dog would be commonly referred to as a "police dog" (at least around this time)?

Answer: German shephards are referred to as police dogs.

ChiChi

Question: Does anyone know what the book is that Inman carries Ada's picture in?

Answer: Its short title is "Bartram's Travels". The complete name of the book is: Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions; Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians.

ChiChi

Question: What was on the translation note to make the bad guy say, "good luck"?

Answer: It actually did say "Good Luck". Bryan was trying to get the villain to say that phrase so he could be certain that it was him by matching the voice to the one on the tape.

wizard_of_gore

Answer: Bryan looked up the Albanian translation of "good luck", and wrote it down, from the English-Albanian dictionary he had purchased from the translator. He gave it to the kidnappers to read it back to him in English, so that he would be able to identify the speaker by voice. It was more plausible to create a story of needing something translated than to try to get one of the criminals to repeat "good luck" in English directly. The note is an implied office prank at Bryan's expense, since Bryan was pretending he was sent by French intelligence to shake down the criminals - his supposed "office staff" were wishing him "good luck" in Albanian. Bryan wrote the note himself, of course, but the criminals didn't know that, and chuckled about it.

Question: What happened during Alex's dream that people were playing around in his head? What does this actually mean?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It means they were altering his brain to somehow undo the Ludovico Treatment.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: While in the hospital recuperating from his burns, why were there restraints on Harvey Dent to keep him in his bed?

Answer: The restraints aren't to keep him in bed but to keep him from touching or scratching his burns in his sleep/unconciousness. Later, you see him remove his bandages himself. In real life, with burns that severe, it would result in immediate severe infections to expose raw muscle, tendon, etc. to the air.

Myridon

Question: Why would the Skynet base where Connor obtains intelligence in the beginning have human friendly computers - i.e., computers with keyboards? Skynet does not need to type and look at a monitor, but can just communicate computer to computer.

Answer: It cannot be ruled out that there might be a human element to Skynet. This is hinted towards the end of the movie where Kyle notices human like figures in a window overlooking the collection of captives at the Skynet camp. We may learn more in the following Terminator movies (if they are made).

XIII

Question: After killing "Wild Bill," Percy is lying on the ground "puking" out Melinda's brain tumor that John Coffey placed into him. While Percy's spitting that out, one of the guards keeps yelling "Oh no!" I see nobody's lips moving to say that, so is that an audio error, or was the person not on the screen? Anyway, it really bothers me, but who was it who yells that?

Tricky

Chosen answer: The camera is only on three individual people (Paul, Percy and the dead Wild Bill) when you hear Dean saying "Oh no, oh no."

MovieFan612

Question: What does Loki mean when he says that he's "heard a rant like this before"? What rant?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: He's saying that Lucifer made a speech much like this one, questioning God's judgement, before starting the war in Paradise.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Was Col. Frank Fitts really gay, or was he just testing Lester to see if he was gay? Also if he was gay, then how come he was so disgusted by it earlier in the film?

Answer: Frank was gay. As to why he was disgusted by it, he had probably been in complete denial about his true nature for years. Many gay people are torn over their sexual orientation. Adhering to a strict macho military image may have helped Frank mask his true feelings, and he probably considered gay people as being weak and loathsome, while denying he was one. When he acknowledged his own homosexuality, he, in effect, despised himself and considered his life a failure.

raywest

Question: Why did Vader stop Luke when he tried to strike at the Emperor with his lightsaber? I know he said earlier that he has to obey his master, but he keeps encouraging Luke to give in to the dark side. If he hadn't stopped Luke, Luke could have given in to his anger and killed the Emperor, and also rid Vader of the Emperor at the same time.

Answer: Because the Emperor probably wouldn't leave himself so open to attack without a trick up his sleeve (a personal shield, perhaps), and if Luke failed in this direct assault, as Vader is expecting him to do, he would have had to explain why he didn't do anything to defend the Emperor and would have been executed himself.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: It was still too early. While Luke was upset that the Rebels appeared to be losing, he was still relatively calm, and his attempt to strike the Emperor right then was still a rational choice made out of pragmatism, to bring him to justice. They need him to act on pure hatred so he can behold "the power" of the dark side, which they expect to be completely irresistible.

TonyPH

Death Has a Shadow - S1-E1

Question: Near the beginning of the show, when Peter catches Meg touching the thermostat and a couple of neighbors show up, why does one of the neighbors ask if his kid is there?

Answer: Peter said all fathers know when the thermostat is turned up, which is why all the neighbouring fathers arrived. The one just wants to know if it's his kid that touched it.

Xofer

Question: In "The Flesh Failures," they sing "life is around you and in you, except for Timothy Leary, deary". What does this mean?

Tingeling

Chosen answer: The word is "answer" not "except". "Life is around you and in you ... let the sunshine in" is an answer to Timothy Leary - probably to his "turn on, tune in, drop out".

Myridon

Chosen answer: The human body generates heat and a small degree of electricity. EKG and EEG machines for instance measure the electric activity in the heart and brain. It is thought that the energy generated by the human body could be harnessed to create power, obviously The Matrix is an evolution of that idea.

GalahadFairlight

Question: Was it on purpose that Strawberry Fields' death look similar to the one in Goldfinger?

Answer: Yes, they filmed it as a reference to Goldfinger.

Ssiscool

Answer: He doesn't have to, but he wants to. His adventures have left considerable scars on him, both physically and mentally. He could stay in the Shire, but he'd continue to suffer for the rest of his life. By going into the West with Gandalf and the Elves, he'll be able to live out his days peacefully, free from pain.

Tailkinker

Question: During the Battle of Hoth, why do the AT-AT Walkers have to land so far away? Couldn't a big ship just come right down close and destroy the base?

taylordan90

Chosen answer: They specifically had to come in under the deflector shield and destroy the generator before any ships could come in. That's why Vader doesn't show up until after the generator is taken out.

Garlonuss

Chosen answer: Because he's an idiot. From the story point of view, they needed the vault to actually be physically open so that the release of the virus would be a credible threat. Unfortunately, this required that Peter conveniently forget that he could simply walk through The Wall and use his telekinesis to tear the door open instead. Peter's increasingly large arsenal of abilities, where he ended up having pretty much any ability required for any situation, led to a situation where it became necessary to either have Peter apparently forget that he had a given power, as with the vault door scene, or become naively trusting, as with his refusal to scan Adam's mind to confirm his good intent. This problem, which simply made Peter look increasingly dumb as the show progressed, may well have been a key factor in the decision to severely reduce his ability during season three.

Tailkinker

Only The Good... - S8-E8

Question: If this wasn't supposed to be the last episode, was there any plan on how to explain Red Dwarf's survival, or were they just going to ignore the problem, like they do in "Back to Earth"?

Answer: The original idea was that they would do a feature film which would cover subsequent events, but, despite numerous attempts, they were never able to get it off the ground. By the time Back to Earth aired, years later, it was presumably decided that enough time had passed that it was no longer necessary to address the issue and instead focus on telling an entirely new story.

Tailkinker

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