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.

Show generally

Question: From the Bruces' philosophers song, what do they mean when they say "There's nothing Neecha couldn't teach ya about the raising of the wrist"?

Answer: Well, the whole song is about drinking, so it's pretty clear that "the raising of the wrist" refers to the movement made while drinking. "Neecha" is, in fact, "Nietzsche", as in Friedrich Nietzsche, a nineteenth century German philosopher. So the line's suggesting that Nietzsche was a heavy drinker - that there was nothing that he didn't know about it.

Tailkinker

Answer: Yes. He loves messing around with customised cars like that - throwing in some of the red colour is a nod to that. Plus it stops him flying around in a gold-coloured suit, which even he considers a bit over the top.

Tailkinker

Question: In the scene where Bartleby and Loki are in the Mooby HQ, Bartleby whispers the boss's secret into his ear, then Loki says, "And you're his father. You sick f*ck!" Does anybody know what the secret actually is?

Answer: The logical assumption is that he is molesting his son.

pross79

Question: Would the gas station still be called Shell and not the French word? Also, do they drive on the same side of car and street in France?

Answer: Shell is a Dutch petroleum company that may be better known in Europe than in America - its logo is the same worldwide. French cars have the steering wheel on the left, and you drive on the right in France.

Sereenie

Question: Why does Daphney still have Scooby snacks in her handbag when she hasn't needed Scooby and Shaggy to do anything for several years and she doesn't eat them herself?

Answer: It's just to show that Daphne and the rest of the gang have never really moved on from the rest. Daphne keeps the Scooby snacks to remind her of Scooby.

Brad

Question: In the scene where Joker is talking with Cowboy, what does he mean by "I think that Leonard is a section-A" and pretty much the rest of the conversation about Cowboy's sister?

Answer: What he says is "Section 8," the category for a psychological discharge from the US military. Since they don't care one way or another, the conversation shifts to how much Joker wants to do Cowboy's sister.

Captain Defenestrator

Brian Does Hollywood (2) - S3-E2

Question: I saw this episode on one of the channels where it is syndicated. The part at the beginning (during the action films parody), where Meg tells Lois that Peter isn't going to come out of the coma, was taken out. Does anyone know why?

Answer: Usually syndicated shows run a few seconds shorter than the originals, so they cut out things to make them fit.

pross79

Question: In some theaters, the film is shown in 3-D. When the film is released on home video, will it also be in 3-D?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Yep. The DVD comes in 3-D and 2-D versions. The 3-D versions come with (if I remember correctly) four pairs of 3-D glasses.

Cubs Fan

Question: It becomes clear that V gives his victims Scarlet Carson roses in memory of Valerie, but how does Delia work out that the murderer is V from the roses? Surely she didn't know that Valerie had written to V mentioning them. Also, are we ever told what V was originally imprisoned for?

Answer: Nothing is ever revealed about V's history before Larkhill so we don't know why he was there. As for the roses, in the original comic book, in order to keep him compliant during his time in captivity, V was allowed to tend a small garden while his health was monitored. It was during that time that he first grew the Scarlet Carson roses and also surreptitiously obtained the chemicals that he would use to destroy Larkhill and make his escape. Whether this can be considered consistent with the film storyline is an open question - certainly nothing in the film actively appears to contradict it.

Tailkinker

Answer: He's weary of the world from his journey and giving up the ring, so he never seeks love in The Shire, instead going into The West with the Elves.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: What was Sean's mother reacting to? She turned with a puzzled look before Dracula's car ever came near the house.

Answer: She heard the tires squealing and just had a reaction to that like anybody else would.

SAZOO1975

Answer: If you remember, the mother lit a candle and told Phoebe it would keep the house safe from monsters and lightning. The sound she reacted to was the candle blowing out, indicating the house was no longer protected.

She turned around in reaction at the same time the tires squealed.

lartaker1975

No, she is NOT reacting to the tires. When the scene begins, the candle is in the lower right corner of the screen. It blows out and she reacts to the sound. I've been having this debate since 1989.

Question: What's the reason why Rafterman doesn't chase after the guy who steals his camera and Joker replies with his own set of "karate moves"?

Answer: Because he knows he cannot possibly catch him. The "karate moves" just shows his frustration.

raywest

Answer: Because it's basically a government camera. It's not his personal camera. He'll just go back and report that someone stole his camera and they'll issue him a new one. Not a big deal for that type of equipment, considering they're in a war zone. If they stole his rifle, it probably would have been a bigger deal, but it's just a camera.

Rain King - S6-E8

Question: I didn't understand why Darryl's rain business had been working (before the agents arrived). If Holt was the one who had been changing the weather, and he didn't like Darryl, why was he creating rain and allowing Darryl's business to be successful?

Answer: The rain were Holt's tears, not his happiness. Whenever Darryl did his rain dance, Shelia was in his corner, like a cheerleader, praising him. He caused a tornado, when she confessed her attraction to Agent Mulder.

Answer: Because Darryl's success makes Sheila happy. Holt loves Sheila and is happy when she is happy. Ergo, Holt makes Darryl successful.

Grumpy Scot

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

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.