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 Bruce Wayne's penthouse was so safe, how did the Joker manage to bust into it during the fund-raising party? Also, if the penthouse was safe, why in the world did Alfred let the girlfriend just leave?

Answer: Wertz is shown at the door holding up his badge as the Joker bursts in. The implication (to the party guests and the audience at the time) is that Wertz was forced to use his police credentials to get past building security. We find out later that Wertz is dirty and probably was ordered by Maroni to help the Joker. Alfred lets Rachel leave because she insists that she is safe, since she was never the Joker's intended target.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: The Joker got in there during the chaos of a party; people are coming and going, guests, caterers, waiters - security is inevitably going to be compromised under such circumstances. Later on, when only Bruce and Alfred should be present, the place is much more secure. As for Alfred letting Rachel leave, what choice does he have? He can hardly keep her there against her will. Short of resorting to physical restraint, he can't stop her leaving and trying to do so, when she's already angry at Bruce for letting Harvey pretend to be Batman, would only annoy her further.

Tailkinker

Question: Batman talked about jumping out of an airplane to capture the money man in China. What happened to that scene? Did he do it off-screen, just to enter the country illegally?

Answer: Yes, just did it off-screen with the aim of entering the country illegally. Not really a terribly important thing to actually show - they mention how he intends to get in there, then we see him in Hong Kong, so we can assume that it went well. Showing it would just have slowed down the pace of the film.

Tailkinker

Question: I couldn't understand it while watching the film: is the "U" In Victor Krum's name pronounced as an "Ah" (Kram) or as an "OO" (Kroom)?

Answer: Closer to the latter. If you pronounce it to rhyme with "drum", you'll be pretty close.

Tailkinker

Question: The money the Joker burns - why did he get it? I thought he wants to have the money for killing Batman. And he has neither killed him nor unmasked him. So why did the Mob give him the money? They knew that Dent wasn't the real Batman.

Answer: He stole it. He took Lau from police custody, found out where he stashed all the mob money and simply took it.

Tailkinker

Question: In the scene where Wayne and Fox are looking at the new Batman stuff. Wayne ask Fox if the armor will stop and dog attack and Fox asks if its for a Rottweiler or Chihuahua. Fox then says it will stop a cat. So does that mean that Catwoman will be in the next movie?

Answer: No. It's an off-handed jokey comment by Fox, don't read anything more into it than that. It is, of course, possible that Catwoman could appear in a sequel, but the simple fact is that Christopher Nolan gave no thought to a possible sequel while putting this film together, preferring to focus on the job at hand, and has only recently started considering possible story ideas for a third film that, at this point, he's not even committed to making. If Catwoman serves the story that he decides that he wants to tell, he'll include her, otherwise, he won't. But there's no point in looking for foreshadowing in The Dark Knight, because there really isn't any.

Tailkinker

Question: When Inspector Gadget is lying on the table with the Claw watching over him, Gadget says that Claw will never get away with this. Then Claw says, "I think someone's been watching too many Saturday morning cartoons", and then everyone looks up at the camera confused/surprised. Can any one explain what the joke is here?

Answer: The joke is that he is referring to the "Inspector Gadget" cartoon, in which the Claw never got away with any of his schemes.

wizard_of_gore

Show generally

Question: What is the point of having different methods of firing the guns for ballistic analysis? They've got the one where they shoot into water, the one where they shoot it into a tub of rubber balls, and the one where they shoot it into some sort of Jell-o type material.

Answer: Different calliber guns fire at stronger trajectories. A smaller calibre gun will need less friction to stop it. The Jell is used for larger calibre guns.

Boobra

Question: One of my co-workers said the first line in the show was, "Michael Renee was sick the day the Earth stood still". Could you give me the exact first line and what it means?

Answer: The first line to the lyrics of 'Science Fiction/Double Feature' is "Michael Rennie was ill The Day the Earth Stood Still, but he told us where we stand." That line is a reference to the 1951 film classic 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', which stars Michael Rennie as Klaatu, the alien from outer-space, who is shot at the start of the film when he tries to convey a dire message of goodwill to the humans. The rest of the song lyrics refer to other science fiction films including 'The Invisible Man' starring Claude Rains, 'King Kong' starring Fay Wray, and 'Tarantula' starring Leo G. Carroll.

Super Grover

Question: When we're following Forest Whitaker he looks up at the "shooter building" right before the shot fires, and he keeps saying "No, you shouldn't be there." Does he know who it is? And who was it? From what I gathered there was no one in the building, and the gun was fired by remote.

Answer: He assumed by the movement of the curtains that there must be someone up there, which of course the Secret Service should have cleared to make sure there was no-one there.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: He just sees the outline of a person, who I take to be the SS Agent checking on Barnes' suspicions about the curtain.

throcko

Question: As far as I understand it (I haven't read the books, only seen the films), with the One Ring Sauron can rule and control all the other rings of power. But why didn't/don't the other ring-bearers just take off their rings so that Sauron cannot dominate them? Weren't the other rings of power made by Sauron, too? And of what use is the One Ring to Sauron without the other rings, except that it contains a part of him, thereby making him somehow indestructible?

Answer: The Rings of Power were made by the elves of Eregion, guided by Sauron, posing as a mysterious and highly knowledgeable craftsman named Annatar. Each, however, had their own hidden agenda. Sauron's, obviously, was to make the Rings subservient to his own Ruling Ring, to give him great influence over the wearers while giving them power. Part of the magics of the Rings, however, was that that influence would not be perceived by the wearer, so they would simply accept the gifts, lured by the temptation of the power that it would grant them. The Elves, for their part, secretly made three more Rings using both Annatar's techniques and their own magics, resulting in three more powerful Rings. As Annatar's methods were used, these Rings were still slaves to the One Ring, but the additional magics meant that the bearers of the Three Rings became aware of Sauron's betrayal and removed them before his influence could take hold. Enraged at this treachery, Sauron launched a military strike on Eregion, obliterating the realm and taking the remaining Rings, giving seven to the Dwarves, whose nature proved resistant to the magics of the Rings, which did little more than increase their innate lust for gold, and nine to Men, whose desire for power led to them falling completely under his influence, ultimately becoming the Nazgul. Without the other Rings, the One Ring has no purpose - it was specifically created as part of Sauron's plan to covertly dominate Middle-Earth, by bringing the wearers of the Rings of Power under his control.

Tailkinker

Question: It is said that when a vampire drinks human blood, its eyes turn red. How come Edward's eyes did not turn red after drinking Bella's blood?

Answer: Edward was sucking out the venom James injected into her, not feeding on her blood. He did not take in enough of it to have affected his eyes.

raywest

Chosen answer: It's a Blackjack term. A "Five Card Charlie" is when the player Hits 3 times and doesn't meet or go over 21, thus having 5 cards in front of them. It's extremely rare, so there is a bigger payoff for the player than simply beating the dealer's hand. (It's also at the House's discretion whether or not to allow them as a win, thus the sign advertised that whatever gambling establishment it was taken from DID consider it a big win with appropriate payout.)

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Why on the plane, when Barry calls for Vanessa, does he say "24bee," not just Bee?

Answer: He says, "Will the passenger in Seat 24B...", the seat where Vanessa is sitting.

Brenda Elzin

Question: Can someone please explain why all this happened more than 100 years after Megatron crash landed on Earth? Why didn't the Transformers come sooner?

Answer: Because the Decepticons didn't know where Megatron ended up for the last 100 years. Bumblebee arrived on Earth as a scout to check out for any clues, found the glasses on Ebay, signalled the other Autobots, which prompted Blackout and Frenzy to investigate the base in Qatar, which lead to Blackout downloading the base computers and Frenzy hacking the computers aboard the aircraft later leading to the discovery of Megatron's whereabouts.

GalahadFairlight

Question: After the opening race, Lightening has to make the obligatory appearance in the Rusteeze tent. When the spotlight comes up on him, there is about 5sec of silence and then you hear one of the cars yell something out that sounds like "free bird". What is he actually saying?

Answer: "Freebird" is exactly what he is saying. "Freebird" is the name of a song by the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, that was recorded on their first album in the early '70s. By the mid-'70s that song title took on a life of its own, and since then people began shouting "Freebird" at not only the Skynyrd concerts, but also at other concerts, sporting events and any other live performances.

Super Grover

Question: When Wall-E and Eve are in the repair ward, and Wall-E is misinterpreting Eve's cleaning as torture, what is the second "scene" supposed to be? I understand that the first one looks like Eve is having her arm ripped off and the third looks like Eve is having her head chopped off, but I can't figure out what the second one with the malfunctioning umbrella is supposed to be.

Answer: It's a combination of what WALL-E sees happening to EVE, with her circuitry lighting up and her head bobbing up and down as she laughs, with the noise of the umbrella as the diagnostic arms try to force it down. All WALL-E can hear is something that resembles a mechanical screech, along with EVE reacting - he thinks that she's being electrocuted and is in pain.

Tailkinker

Question: Sarah Michelle Gellar's cameo appearance in the cafeteria seems pretty random. Was she intended to have any more scenes, that were perhaps deleted from the final cut of the movie?

Answer: The appearance was a cameo only. It was not that random though, as the scene was shot at a location also used for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Sarah Michelle Gellar's husband appears in the movie.

pinkwafer

Answer: The song playing in this scene is A Bad Dream by Keane.

pinkwafer

Question: The game they play near the start (the knock on wood game) seems pretty interesting. Is the point of it not to get caught moving or is there another goal? Also, can someone help me with the Spanish translation? I can't hear what the Spanish for Knock on Wood is. Thanks.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Chosen answer: It's a Spanish version of Red Light, Green Light where you'd try not to get caught moving. I haven't watched the film in a while but I believe she says "Uno, dos, tres, toca la pared". Hope that helps!

Angela Brown

Homebodies - S4-E3

Question: OK, I don't get it. Who killed Suzanna? Was it the same guy that raped her? And how were the two cases interlinked?

Answer: As I understand the episode, yes the man that raped Suzanna then killed her. She makes the comment during the line up that "he already knows it's me" and I guess you are to assume that he tied up the loose end by killing her since she didn't pick him in the line up and he was set free. And I believe they get fingerprint results that confirm that Kelly James was also responsible for the first crime scene.

Angela Brown

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