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: Tony Stark has a socket in his chest that is dead centre. What on earth must his rib cage be like? Surely the chap who helped him out in the cave didn't cut out his rib cage to fit the socket in?

Answer: Without seeing X-rays of Tony Stark's chest its impossible to determine. Most likely, a large portion of his ribcage was removed (possibly a portion that was damaged by the shrapnel), and the remainder of the ribcage was secured to the elctromagnet's outer shell, built into Stark's sternum. How his ribcage is able to expand and contract with a large chunk of steel lodged into it I have no idea.

Question: What happened to people who were shipped to the Americas?

Answer: They would have become indentured servants - basically their debt be bought by someone in the Americas and they would be forced to work for the buyer until the debt had been worked off.

Question: After Batman crashes the Batpod and the Joker comes over to do whatever it was he had in mind to Batman, there are two of his thugs waiting for him, one rolling Batman over and one whom you briefly see on the far left edge of the screen (you can see his mask). One of the thugs gets electrocuted and is incapacitated, but what happened to the other one? He apparently didn't see or make any attempt to stop Gordon, who by the way is the only cop around for a few blocks (save the other guy in the police van who was presumably still guarding Dent). Gordon couldn't have incapacitated him since he approached the Joker from behind, when the Joker was facing the second henchman.

Answer: The henchman has probably left the area. The Joker has just attacked the other henchman. Would you have stayed?

Show generally

Question: I'm confused with season 4, Bruce Bennett seems to be a good guy and bailed out Michael and Linc and brought them to Sarah, yet in season 1 he tried to have Sarah murdered, am I wrong about that?

Answer: I think you are referring to the scene where Sara calls Bruce from the payphone and immediately there's an attempt to kill Sara. It is completely plausible that The Company had been tracking Bruce's cell phone (he was very close to Frank Tancredi).

Question: What is the name of the song which plays over the end credits? And is it available to download anywhere?

Answer: It is "And When I Die" performed by Joe 90, based on the Blood Sweat and Tears song. It's available in iTunes.

Answer: Yes. It was retrieved from the Lucasfilm Archives specifically for use in the film. It also appeared alongside George Lucas in a promotional photoshoot for the film.

Question: What is that on Camille's back? The first time we see her, it looks like a bit of sand, but then it's still there in later scenes. Is it intentional, as I don't believe that the actress has that on her back?

Answer: They are scars. She got them when she was trapped in the burning building with her dead family.

Twotall

Answer: Olga Kurylenko had laser surgery performed just prior to filming to remove a tattoo. It was worked into the film as being caused by the general, years earlier, when her parents had been killed.

Question: How is it that the heroes are able to "broadcast their pirate signal and hack into the matrix", but the machines are unable to hack the "codes to Zion's mainframe computer"?

Answer: It's a range issue. It's specifically mentioned that, in order to tap into the Matrix, the ships have to rise to "broadcast depth". Zion's too far down for signals to reach it, so the machines can't hack their systems.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: I don't remember which episode this is but it's the one where at the end Iroh gets out a picture of his son and some incense and tells his deceased son happy birthday. Then at the end, where it's over in the top right-hand corner of the screen, it reads, "In Memory Of Mako" or something along those lines. Who's Mako? I thought his son was Lu Ten.

Answer: Mako Iwamatsu, often credited simply as "Mako" was the actor who voiced Iroh during the first two season of the show - he died of cancer in July 2006.

Tailkinker

Question: Was any explanation ever given for why V's signature flower was changed to the Scarlet Carson for the movie when in the graphic novel it's the Violet Carson (keeping in tone with his obsession with the letter V)? It doesn't seem to serve any plot significance so I'm rather puzzled why they felt a modification was necessary.

Answer: The Violet Carson is an uncommon rose, and the requirement to frequently require a rose in a state of perfect bloom meant that production crew were required to purchase hundreds of roses during the course of production. As such, they chose to go with a more common rose, the Grand Prix, which they renamed to the fictional Scarlet Carson to tie the name in to the original. There's also the point that the Violet Carson is named after a real person, a British actress who passed away in 1983. Her family might well not appreciate having her name prominently associated with a serial killer anti-hero in a major Hollywood movie.

Tailkinker

Question: Has there ever been an explanation given as to what purpose the fire belching towers seen in the initial opening scene of Los Angeles serve?

Answer: The suggestion in the future Bladerunner universe is that the planet is so over populated, that you have living areas and industry all in the same areas, hence the towers with fire.

GalahadFairlight

Question: Why did Keyser Söze (Verbal Kint) plot to kill/eliminate all the 'Usual Suspects'?

Answer: Each of them has unknowingly crossed him in some manner. So he pulls them together into a group, uses them as pawns to help him eliminate the man who can identify him, then, once that's done, he cleans up the loose ends by taking them out.

Tailkinker

Answer: We cannot assume that the suspects crossed Keyser in any way as we cannot assume any of the story is true, therefore it could be because they crossed him or simply because they know his face.

Answer: When a vampire consumes human blood, their irises turn varying shades of red. The more blood consumed, and the more recent since it was drunk, the brighter the shade of red. When a vampire consumes animal blood, their irises turn to a topaz color which varies in shade similarly to the irises of a human-blood drinker. In either case, when a vampire goes for extended periods without feeding, their eyes turn darker and darker until they appear black.

Phixius

Question: Whats the name of the piece of music playing at the end where the camera is going through the graveyard and ends up at Jim's grave?

Answer: According to Wikipedia, the piece is "Adagio in G minor" by Remo Giazotto.

Cubs Fan

The One With The Halloween Party - S8-E6

Question: I don't get Joey at the party. I understand that he's dressed as Chandler with the preppy jumper and jeans but what I don't understand is the 'I'm Chandler blaaaaaargh' or 'I don't sound like that blarrrrrrrrgh'. Why is he 'blargh'ing?

Answer: He's imitating Chandler (not brilliantly) who makes noises like that, most often (and most similar to that one) when disgusted by something. For example, he does that when he realises Joey isn't wearing any underwear under all his clothes during "The One Where No-one's Ready."

raywest

Question: How was Greene at the end found with 2 bullets in the back of his head? He was in the middle of the desert. He couldn't have shot himself twice, right?

Answer: As he was shot in the back of the head, it is clear that somebody tracked him down and shot him.

pinkwafer

Question: Is that a real opera? If so, what is it?

Answer: Tosca, by Puccini.

Tailkinker

Question: I have some doubts about this movie and Casino Royale: What was the exact relation between Le Chiffre and Greene? For what I understood, Mollaka, the airport guy (I think his name is Carlos) and Dimitrios all worked for Le Chiffre, right? So, Le Chiffre owed money to Mr. White's organization (Quantum) and Mr. White killed him. I think this is it, although I'm not sure. Any explanation would be appreciated.

Answer: I think you've got it pretty much right. Greene is one of the members of Quantum, along with Mr White and numerous others. Le Chiffre appears to have been his own man, working as a private banker for various organisations, including Quantum, who, in addition to using his services, would introduce him to potential new clients. Mollaka and Carlos were both freelance operatives employed by Le Chiffre through his associate Dimitrios to take down the prototype aircraft as part of his efforts to manipulate the stock market. When Le Chiffre lost the money through taking too many risks with it, Quantum came to the conclusion that he couldn't be trusted, so Mr White took him out of play.

Tailkinker

Question: When Apollo 13 launches, there is a lot of white stuff that look like shingles (I don't know how else to describe it) that fall off the space craft as it is rising. What is it?

Answer: It's ice that condensed on the side of the rocket. The fuel has to be kept at low temperature, leading to the rocket being extremely cold.

Tailkinker

I get it. The fuel needs to be kept at low temperatures. Otherwise the rocket would overheat, and explode.

The fuel does not have to be kept at low temperatures. The ice "shingles" form on the outside skin of the Saturn V that surrounds the oxidiser tanks. The oxidiser is liquid oxygen, which liquefies at −182.96 °C, cold enough to freeze atmospheric water vapour into ice.

The answer to the question states that the fuel has to be kept at a low temperature.

Then the answer is wrong. The fuel of the Saturn V (kerosene) was kept at ambient temperature whereas the oxidiser (liquid oxygen) was kept at near cryogenic temperatures. Look, this isn't rocket science! No, wait, yes it is.

Then why is the ice there?

It forms the skin of the Saturn V that encloses the oxidiser tanks. The liquid oxygen in the tanks is so cold (−182.96 °C) that atmospheric water freezes into ice and is dislodged when the Saturn V is launched.

Ever noticed a wet can or glass of a cold drink in the summer? That's humidity from the air condensing on the cold surface of the glass. Now imagine if that can or glass were about 300° BELOW 0. That same humidity would condense and freeze. It being Florida in July, very humid, lots of condensation turning to ice. It didn't happen to the Space Shuttle because the tank was covered in that brown foam to insulate it like a styrofoam cooler.

Question: The original Hostel film had 3 different prices (can't remember them exactly but it was one price for local, slightly more expensive for Asian and very expensive for American). However this film sends pictures to clients' phones and starts an auction. Anyone know why this one is different when it's supposed to be the same operation?

Answer: Since the events of the first film, there were some changes in the operation....enhanced security, etc. It can be presumed that the auction is simply one of those changes.

wizard_of_gore

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.