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: When the dad and his cop friend are heading to 666 Shadowbrook Road, they drive through Dracula's hearse, but in the next scene Dracula gets out of the hearse. So when did Dracula turn into a ghost?

Answer: Being able to turn into mist or dust is a an ability often attributed to vampires in fiction.

Grumpy Scot

Question: How did the bomb at MCU leave everyone else totally incapacitated, while the Joker was completely unharmed? I know he has remarkable tolerance for pain, but come on! Also, if he was wearing some kind of protective clothing, they would have discovered it. So how did all the cops get knocked out while the Joker just walked away?

Answer: Look where he's standing just before it goes off. The Joker's carefully positioned himself close to a set of heavy filing cabinets, which are between him and the blast, protecting his legs and almost all of his torso. As the bomb goes off, you can see him duck his head down, allowing the blast to pass him by almost completely. He gets to walk away unscathed because the blast never really hits him.

Tailkinker

Question: When Aramis is reading at the beginning, saying that bit about the storming of the Bastille and of records being found of the prisoner who was only known as "the man in the iron mask", was that actually true - about the prisoner number and/or the iron-masked man part?

Answer: It is partially true. Author Alexander Dumas based his character on records that were recovered about an unknown prisoner whose identity was kept secret by a black cloth that constantly covered his head. The facts gradually changed as a myth grew up around this account, and the cloth mask was eventually said to be iron. This person, who is believed to have been of high rank, was incarcerated in several prisons, including the Bastille. Dumas adapted the legend for his novel and made the unknown man the twin brother of King Louis XIV. However, the man's true identity has never been discovered. The movie has also distorted historical facts about the Bastille. It was originally built as a fortress during The Hundred Years War, and only later was it used as a prison. (It only held about 50 people.) When it was stormed by French peasants in 1789, there were only seven inmates, and it is believed the rioters were actually looking for ammunition rather than attempting to free prisoners.

raywest

Question: In FOTR, Bilbo says something like "There has always been a Baggins living at Bag End, and there always will be." Presumably he thinks Frodo, and Frodo's descendants, will always live there, but Frodo goes to the Undying Lands, leaving no heirs behind. In the book, Sam and Rosie move into Bag End, but this does not happen in the movie - at the end of ROTK, you can see that the hobbit hole Sam goes home to is not Bag End. My question is, why did the filmmakers change these 2 things? In other words, if Bilbo's line is supposed to make it important who ends up in Bag End, why not show who does end up there in ROTK? If it is not important who lives there (thus explaining why Sam and Rosie don't appear there), then why have Bilbo make a fuss over it in FOTR? I just don't understand what the point is.

Answer: Bilbo is simply stating the way things have always been. At that point, he has no reason to believe that Frodo and his descendants will not live in Bag End. As to Sam returning to 3 Bagshot Row instead of Bag End, having him go to Bag End would have caused some extra time to be added to the film. The film is long enough, and explaining that Frodo left Bag End to Sam and his family would've added too much unnecessary time.

Question: This applies to all 3 films. Wouldn't someone eventually see Spiderman coming out of Peter Parker's apartment and put 2 and 2 together? Doesn't this seem just a bit careless on Peter's part?

dablues7

Chosen answer: Answered in the comics: Peter's Spider-Sense tells him if someone is looking when he's about to enter/exit the apartment as Spider-Man.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: At the end they want the public to believe that Batman killed those people because they could see him as a villain since he is dark, etc., but why not say the Joker killed those people? The public would believe that for sure.

Answer: Harvey Dent dies after the Joker is finally in police custody, so the Joker couldn't have killed him. The only other people who could have killed him are Gordon or Batman. Blaming Gordon would be just as bad as saying Dent turned bad, so Batman took the blame. The film ends before anyone is officially blamed, so it's possible that the Joker could be blamed for some of the cops' deaths, but the death of Dent (which is the most symbolic) would still be blamed on Batman.

Madstunts

Question: This has been killing me since I saw the movie in theaters: in the final fight between Joker and Batman, Batman gets caught up in some netting in the room they're fighting in, and as Joker moves in he says, "All the old familiar places" as he begins attacking Batman. What does that mean? The only explanation I can think of is that it might be an allusion to Tim Burton's Batman in which Joker and Batman fight at the top of a building.

Answer: The Joker is actually referring to a old song from WW2: "I'll Be Seeing You". It goes, "I'll be seeing you/In all the old familiar places/That this heart of mine embraces/All day through". They were also in a similar position after the car chase, before Gordon stopped the Joker.

CCARNI

Question: The old man remarks that he was struck by lightning seven times. I recall him talking about six different times, does he ever talk about the seventh? Also, when were the times that he was struck?

Answer: Here are the "strikes": fixing a leaky roof,while checking the mail, milking the cow, driving his car, minding his own business in a field, taking a dog for a walk, and then at the end there was no "story", but he was by a fence (just before the credits). I believe these are correct.

CCARNI

No. 1) fixing roof 2) checking mail 3) field with cows 4) driving car 5) walking dog 6) standing by fence No #7.

Question: In the jail when its "Feeding time", what are the animals and where can i find pics?

Answer: They are dogs that were genetically enhanced. If you want to see them (briefly) goto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmAuIx35dYs at 1:43.

CCARNI

Question: When Marty is exploring 2015, who is the man who talks about the Cubs winning the World Series? He looks like a younger actor wearing 'older' make-up, suggesting that he has played another character somewhere within the trilogy.

Answer: He's an older version of Terry, the auto mechanic who fixed Biff's car in 1955 (and charges him "300 bucks"). Originally the scene with old Terry was longer and made his appearance more relevant, but the scene was trimmed for time.

Madstunts

Question: I can't help noticing that in every scene on Earth the terrain is bathed in brilliant sunlight yet the entire planet is meant to be permanently covered in thick (presumably toxic) clouds. Is this at all possible?

Answer: Earth is meant to be uninhabitable -- not necessarily due to "thick ... clouds". Earth's environment is inhospitable to humans in many ways, including trash and air quality and presumably water quality. No specific mention of "thick clouds."

Brenda Elzin

Question: I was wondering if the blue diamond necklace that Rose had in the movie is/was an actual necklace?

Answer: The diamond necklace in the film, known as the "Heart of the Ocean," is fictitious, although it is believed to be based on the legendary Hope diamond. However, after "Titanic" became such a huge hit, several jewelers crafted their own versions of the movie diamond. According to Wikipedia, jewelers Asprey & Garrard created a 170 carat heart-shaped sapphire necklace containing 65 diamonds. Celine Dion wore it during her performance of "My Heart Will Go On," at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony. The necklace was later auction off for charity, fetching $2.2 million. It was bought by Céline Dion's husband, René Angélil, and it is now at the National Shipwreck Museum in Charlestown, Cornwall. Also, actress Gloria Stuart, who played the old Rose in the movie, wore a $20 million dollar blue-diamond necklace that is also called "Heart of the Ocean." Designed by jeweler Harry Winston, it was inspired by the movie.

raywest

Answer: Miss Kate Florence Phillips was gifted this necklace by Henry Samuel Morley as a token of his love which looks very much like the fictional Heart of the Ocean. Https://www.facebook.com/titanictheexhibition/photos/a.423469769891/10159008486209892/?type=3&eid=ARDjJfVyVH8FF8E0ML5Bm3N5QZKHtA_kcHjZzy7TsBod6KCtRjlwa_vOP5zqjJhAJwGzrZvT6HRoiOcy.

-=Kate=-

Question: How exactly is Dent responsible for the death of Rachel? I can see how Gordon is (he didn't fight corrupt cops earlier) and how Batman is to some degree (he rescued Dent instead of Rachel). But seriously, Dent was tied up and bound to a similar fate as Rachel (getting blown up) and had no part in her death. Any thoughts?

Answer: Dent feels respondsible because he went along with Batman and Gordon's plan. He let Gordon and Batman do it their way without doing much more than doing a little complaining. He knew Gordon had corrupt cops in his unit but in the end he chose not to fight with Gordon over that detail. So in a way, he felt that if he had done and fought more(or not gotten involved at all) that in some way he might have been able to prevent Rachel's death.

dablues7

Question: I don't see how killing Grievous could've ended the entire war. He was commander of the droid armies, yes, but what about the leaders of the Trade Federation, the Banking Clan, and the Commerce Guild? They could create more droids and simply promote someone else to Grievous' position. Don't you think the Jedi would've made destroying the Sepratists their highest priority?

Brad

Chosen answer: Grievous is a highly dangerous individual. Through his leadership, the droid armies are scoring a lot of victories they wouldn't have otherwise had. Added to that the fact that Grievous is hunting down and killing Jedi, and he becomes a high priority target for the republic. Get rid of him and the seperatists have lost their greatest general and a highly dangerous combatant.

Gary O'Reilly

Question: Why does Salim sit in a bathtub surrounded by rupee notes of various denominations before shooting at the mob boss and getting shot in return?

Answer: People have said that it may possibly be a metaphor in that the rupees he is surrounded by is actually "blood money" that the mob bosses had amounted, and he was intent on staining the notes with his own blood. But there is no correct answer to this - it's something that you need to interpret for yourself.

Hamster

Chosen answer: Apollo 440 - Stop The Rock.

Question: What is the song that is playing when the students are building the ramp, skateboarding, etc. (right after the "what do you want to learn" sequence)?

Answer: It's Holiday, by Green Day.

Question: This has been bugging me for a while. When Koda asks the spirits to change Kenai back into a human, they don't show up to change him until the next day. Why do they wait so long? (Other than to give Kenai time to chase after Koda and get the whole end of the movie going.)

Brad

Chosen answer: Probably for just that reason - they were waiting for the right moment to change Kenai back.

Season 6 generally

Question: It is mentioned that 14 months prior to Day 6, Abu Fayed was detained by CTU Seattle, and his release was signed by Bill Buchanan. Considering the 20-month jump between seasons five and six and no mention of Buchanan ever being reassigned, the math doesn't add up; it seems to me that Buchanan would still have been at CTU Los Angeles. Can someone help me out?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: It is stated in season 4 somewhere around the 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm time frame that Buchanan worked at CTU Seattle before being transfered to Los Angeles. Michelle Dessler worked with him there while Tony was in prison between seasons 3 and 4.

Question: In the first film, the scene where Dr. Evil shushes Scott was improvised by the two actors. Was the "zip it" scene in this film also improvised?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Yes.

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