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: Is there any logical explanation for the lavish costumes used by the characters in the Shumacher films? For example, Poison Ivy always wears lavish outfits (ludicrous tights and heels and multi-thousand-dollar-looking outfits and robes); or Two-Face from "Forever" and his split suits). I know it is for the style, but is there any realistic explanation as to how this could happen?

Answer: You answered your own question. "Realistic". This is a movie trying to look like a comic book. Comic outfits are drawn on, no seams, no underwear/bras, etc. So live action costumes are just going to look odd.

Grumpy Scot

Show generally

Question: Doesn't it seem like the Wraith have been scaled down over the course of the season? In the beginning, they were beings with superhuman strength and speed who could heal bullet wounds (The Defiant One) and create illusions. Now they are only slightly faster/stronger than humans, and Ronon beats them on a regular basis, as does Sheppard. Doesn't it seem a bit too convenient?

Answer: Not necessarily. Atlantis has had several captured Wraith to study and they have been fighting them for years. They've clearly learned Wraith vulnerabilities. Sheppard also carries a much more powerful .45 instead of the 9mm M9 after the first season. Ronon never had much trouble beating a Wraith and he and Teyla have both been training Sheppard. Wraith darts create the illusions, not the Wraith themselves. And finally, the Wraith are slowly starving as they were awakened far too early and are correspondingly less powerful.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: It was very obvious that they nerfed the Wraith a lot during the course of the show. No question about that. Probably it had to do with the access to food was limited thanks to the Replicators, and also because they needed to give the humans a chance to beat them. But in universe it is explained that Wraith who feed at slow intervals are not that strong. And it makes sense when you think about the Wraith and how they survive.

Question: ***SPOILER WARNING*** I don't understanding the ending to this film. What was Mandy's reason for killing people? Is this a flawed character motivation, or did I miss something?

Answer: The reason for Mandy and Emmett killing off the characters is pretty much left open for interpretation, but it seems the reason they killed them was because before Mandy became "hot over the summer" (as Dylan says at the beginning), Emmett and Mandy were treated like outcasts, and after Dylan's death, Emmett probably took a lot of the blame. It's possible that Emmett and Mandy were tired of how the popular crowd had treated them before.At the end, they made a pact to kill themselves. But after finding out that Emmett is just like the others, Mandy backs out and decides not to, but Emmett doesn't take it very well and decides to kill her too. Mandy fights him off, and she saves Garth, who seems to be the only one at the ranch who saw her as a human being and treated her with respect. So any of these reasons may have been motivation (although their actions are extreme), but overall there seems to be no obvious reason.

Hamster

Answer: It's likely that Mandy developed a taste for murder subsequent to the Dylan incident, in which she evidently was more complicit than would seem at first glance.

Question: At the end of the movie, during the final feast, there is a teacher sitting next to Snape on the high table. It only shows her once or twice for a second, but I was just curious if anybody knew which teacher she was. Thanks ^^.

Answer: She's not identified, but it could be Madam Irma Pince (who is listed as a character on IMDb).

raywest

Question: What is the whole deal with the black guy who sleeps all the time? And Sydney was sneaking in changing the time on the clock. I can't quite get the gist of that. Please help and thanks in advance.

Answer: When Sydney arrives at the Vortex, she is told that Embele is a Nigerian transfer student, who is still jet lagged despite the fact that he has been in the U.S. for about three years already. She decides to take matters into her own hands to help him. Every single day she adjusts the time on his alarm clock, so each day he is a bit closer to the actual local time. Then after about a month or two, his body has slowly adjusted to the proper time, which allows him to function normally, instead of sleeping all the time.

Super Grover

Question: If characters such as Luke and Obi-Wan are human, how come they are in a galaxy far, far away?

Answer: Well, it's also a "long time ago", so it doesn't rule out the possibility that the human inhabitants of Earth travelled here from there. Could also be a simple case of parallel evolution and the filmmakers refer to the species as "human" for convenience, in the same way that the standard Star Wars language is represented as present-day English, despite the fact that it obviously wouldn't be.

Tailkinker

Answer: Why shouldn't humans be there? Maybe a god/gods created humans on multiple planets. Maybe humans have evolved and developed on multiple planets, multiple times. In the Battlestar Galactica series, it's established that "all of this has happened before" - the human race advances to a certain point, then they create the Cylons that destroy nearly all of them. The survivors find a place to start over and produce new generations, who will create Cylons again someday. You could imagine something similar about the Star Wars universe, or imagine any other explanation.

Answer: We don't know they're "human" as we understand it anyway, despite the use of the word which may be a translation, as mentioned already (their alphabet isn't Roman, for a start). Like The Doctor or any number of humanoid races in sci-fi who resemble us externally but aren't homo sapiens.

Question: The disagreement between Hunter and Ramsey centers on the interpretation of the message that got cut off - Hunter says it might be a recall order so it has to be verified before they launch missiles; Ramsey says it is meaningless because it got cut off, so they should proceed with their original orders. I do understand that the captain was working within a scary time limit (one hour till the Russians could fire their missiles), but I don't understand how anyone could justify not spending part of that hour trying to confirm the cut-off message. Naval command would hardly have radioed them again to say "Yes, we really want you to fire your missiles, we're just telling you again for emphasis," so that means it was not just possible but extremely likely that the cut-off message was a recall order. Given that, how could anyone in their right mind want to cause a nuclear holocaust without first trying to find out what the cut-off message really said?

Answer: In a war situation, the Captain is absolutely NOT allowed to try and contact anyone, lest it gives their position away, which is why he was unable to question or confirm the order.

GalahadFairlight

Question: During the end credits it says "Dedicated to Ryan Mone." Who was he and what happened to this man?

Answer: Ryan Mone was a young hockey player from Martha's Vineyard, who died in a car accident at the age of just seventeen. The Farrelly brothers are long-term friends of the Mone family and chose to dedicate their film to Ryan as their tribute to his memory.

Tailkinker

Question: We're only told about two males in the pride, Mufasa and Scar. Who was Nala's father? It can't be Mufasa because then she and Simba would either be siblings or half-siblings and they wouldn't have got together. And it can't be Scar because she called him by his name, not Dad, and she and Simba would still have been cousins.

Answer: Lions are not like humans, even though Disney tends to make them that way. It's rare for more than one or two full grown lions to be in a pride. Other males are in "bachelor prides" until they win a pride of their own. It's likely that Scar or Mufasa sired Nala.

Brenda Elzin

Answer: It is possible that Nala is older than Simba and her mother was pregnant when a male, Mufasa, took over and she avoided getting killed. She could be the daughter of the previous male that Mufasa conquered as he opened the Pride Lands for him and his brother. Then, Simba was born a little while after Nala.

Question: V was incarcerated in a concentration camp for homosexuals, and has an obvious affection for Evy, as demonstrated by V's reaction when she leaves - breaking of the mirror with the mask. V also speaks with a voice which would pass but seems soft for a male. This was probably deliberately left ambiguous, but still - is V male or female?

Answer: Other "undesirables" were kept in the concentration camp as well: Jews, blacks, political dissenters, etc. V is biologically male, since he's referred to as "The Man in Room Five," but what he was in the camp for is unknown.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: The joke is that Reeves is a "wooden" actor.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Was this the first PG-13 film to use the F word? If not, what movie was the first?

Answer: Hardly. The word "fuck" has been allowed, subject to certain conditions, in PG-13-rated films ever since the rating was introduced in July 1984. Prior to that (and even occasionally afterwards), it was not unheard of for a film rated as low as PG to get away with using the word, with the first use in a PG-rated film being in All The President's Men in 1976.

Tailkinker

Question: Who is the band on the big screen during Mardi Gras and what is the song? It's the goth music video which Dracula describes as "brilliant."

Answer: "Heads Explode" by Monster Magnet.

OneHappyHusky

Question: If dates in the Star Wars universe are based on when events took place in relation to the Battle of Yavin, what date system was used up to and during the battle?

Answer: The Galactic Standard Calendar has been used consistently in the Star Wars universe for thousands of years and is, from its alternate name of the Coruscant Standard Calendar, probably based on the Coruscanti year length. Each new regime that has ruled the Star Wars galaxy has tended to reset the clock, as it were, so the Empire tended to count years from when Palpatine declared himself Emperor in 19BBY, during the events of Episode III. The Old Republic started their count thousands of years earlier, when it was founded. When the Empire fell to make way for the New Republic, they chose to start their calendar from the year of the Battle of Yavin, the year when they struck their first huge blow against the Empire.

Tailkinker

Question: When the gang is discussing how to steal the gold in transit, when Charlie says, "We'll do it like The Italian Job", was he referring to the their Italian heist in Venice or to the original Italian Job movie, where the gang creates a chaotic traffic jam in Turin?

Answer: He's referring to their Italian heist where they have the item they're stealing drop through the ground. There's no indication that the original film is supposed to exist in the universe of the remake.

Tailkinker

What were your sources? I agree with you.

The original film is on a TV in the background.

Question: What was the type of jet that Tony Stark used to travel to Afghanistan in? Is this an actual jet or a movie mock-up?

Answer: It's a CGI mockup. Originally a Boeing 737 Business Jet, it was decided during production that a regular jet wasn't nearly sexy enough for Stark, leading to everything from the wings back being replaced with a digital model that looked cooler.

Tailkinker

Question: Obi-Wan says that it's impossible for anyone to alter the information in the star system library. How, then, could it be possible that a Jedi erased this information, as Yoda says?

Answer: What Obi-wan says is "Who could empty information from the archives? That's impossible, isn't it?" It's a question, not a statement. He's heard that it's supposed to be impossible, but the fact of the missing information clearly contradicts that. Yoda puts him straight, telling him that only a Jedi (i.e. somebody on the inside) could have done it.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: "Policing your brass", means to pick up your expended shell casings, after firing your rifle, or pistol.

pross79

Question: When B-rabbit, Future, Cheddar Bomb and Sol George park in some kind of parking structure and join in on a freestyle circle, right after B-rabbit finishes his freestyle, Sol George breaks into a song and sings, "Now I'm the dashiki smoking that ling lingy, 10 freaky girls inside the chin chingy, girl when you see me ya better believe me..." Is that a real song or did they just freestyle that?

Answer: They were just freestyling, that is not a real song.

Question: One thing that keeps bugging me every time I see this movie is why Sophie and Sky don't get married. Sophie says to Sky in the chapel that "You never wanted this." What he didn't want was a huge expensive wedding, not no wedding at all. But all of the money is spent, everyone is there, including the priest. So why not just go through with it?

Answer: A wedding is important to people. If he didn't want the big expensive wedding then he probably woulden't want to get married.

Ssiscool

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.