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: Obi-wan tells the Gungans that they are connected with the Naboo people, and that what happens to one will affect the other. How are the Gungans useful to the Naboo people?

Answer: Put simply, the two exist side-by-side on Naboo. Inevitably, choices made by one group will have an effect, major or minor, on the other, and if the two do not work together, this will invariably lead to friction between the races. While the details of what each group can bring to the arrangement remain unclear, what is undeniable is that the two races, and thus the planet itself, will be enhanced if the Naboo and the Gungans pool their efforts and collaborate.

Tailkinker

Question: Is it possible that the planets in star wars exist? i know it's science fiction, but it does take place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Answer: Sheer improbability aside, there's no reason we know of that they shouldn't.

Phixius

Question: Is Harry the New Goblin, Hobgoblin, or Goblin Jr? I've heard all of them used while people talked about Spider-Man 3.

Answer: The "official" full-length title is "New Green Goblin" but he is often referred to on licensed products simply as "New Goblin." In comic book continuity terms, he'd be Green Goblin II.

Phixius

Show generally

Question: How much do the friends make at their different jobs during the seasons? Could they afford the apartments they're living in?

Answer: Monica's apartment is rent controlled so she has no problem. Chandler has a regular job for most of the time he and Joey live together and it's clear that he pays for most of the apartment and related bills. Phoebe stays in various places where she doesn't have to pay and seems to end up in her grandmother's former apartment which may also be rent controlled (or owned by her grandmother and left to Phoebe). She is the only one whose income vs expenses doesn't really match up, although in later series she starts working at a professional massage parlour which may pay at least half decent money.

tw_stuart

Show generally

Question: Why is there a lot of talking and off screen watching of porn in this show? It's treated like it is very common to do so.

Answer: Eh, it is common but nobody likes to admit it. Porn is a huge industry in the US and worldwide so somebody must be watching.

tw_stuart

Answer: There is an apartment with 2 men who are mostly single, until Chandler and Monica get together in S5. When one of them spends most of their time at home as an out of work actor, it's bound to have a few jabs at the subject.

Question: When Hayley is doing her dance routine, does anyone know the name of the song that is playing?

Answer: "Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued" by Fall Out Boy.

Movieman123

Show generally

Question: When the show makes jokes about scenes from other shows or movies (such as when they show TIE Fighters from Star Wars, which sound just like the ones in the movies), do they have to get some kind of permission to do the scenes or use the sounds?

Answer: Not generally, no. As long as the use isn't too extended, copyrighted material can be used for the purposes of parody. This wouldn't necessarily exclude the makers asking out of courtesy, but there's no legal requirement to do so.

Tailkinker

Answer: Star Wars loved their jokes so much early on in the series they gave Family Guy staff exclusive rights to all the sounds so they could make the best parody possible.

Question: Both David Bowers and Jerome Blake play Mas Amedda in this movie. Are there any noticeable differences in appearance between each actor playing him?

Answer: No. The make-up required for the character is extremely comprehensive, covering the entire face in prosthetics. As such, any differences would be hidden by the make-up.

Tailkinker

Question: Why would High Chancellor Sutler blame Creedy if V was not captured by November the fifth and not one of the other members of the Regime.

Answer: Because Creedy is the head of the secret police and therefore he's the one with ultimate responsibility for catching V.

Tailkinker

Question: Couldn't Angier have kept the one clone alive and simply dropped him below stage each time he did the trick. Did he really have to keep killing them?

Answer: Yep. He's tried working with a double before, and it backfired on him badly. Plus there's the obvious danger of the secret of the trick being revealed if there are multiple copies of him running around - every time the trick is performed, another Angier is made, which becomes a delicate situation after the 4th or 5th performance. Besides, Angier himself would have to be the one dropping below the stage, leaving the clone, up on the balcony, to receive the adulation of the crowd - he hated that before and would be unlikely to want to repeat the experience. Plus the trick would be too easy - he believes firmly that Borden doesn't use a double and wants to have a trick that beats him; to simply work with a double wouldn't give him that satisfaction.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: There's a limit as to how much the shields can protect the ship. Depending on the force of the explosions, the ship still suffers some damage from any weapon blasts. Also, the shield only holds for so long and gradually loses it protectiveness with successive attacks, causing increasing damage to the ship.

raywest

Answer: The depiction of the shields in this movie is actually interesting because it seems they deliberately tried to show how the ship could plausibly take damage while the shields are up. Here the shields seem to be "on" the hull (or perhaps emanate from the hull itself) and their function seems specific to preventing hull breaches. In TNG and onwards the shields appear as a kind of energy bubble wrapped around the ship, and accordingly they seem to absorb much more impact.

TonyPH

Question: Recently I watched the movie with commentary of amongst others Carrie Fisher. I noticed that she didn't have any comment about the scene where Harrison Ford puts his hand on her breast. Did she ever made a comment about that in a magazine or in an interview? Did Harrison Ford?

Answer: Coincidentally, in the time since this question was first posted, Carrie Fisher revealed that she and Harrison Ford were having an affair. While this may not necessarily have anything to do with the incident asked in the question, it adds the possibility that mentioning it would have been too close to an uncomfortable subject she hadn't yet admitted.

TonyPH

Answer: I've never seen anything on the subject. Seriously, though, why would either of them comment on the incident? It was an on-set slip-up that made it into the film, nothing more than that and, to be blunt, hardly unusual. In all likelihood, neither really remembers the incident among the many slip-ups that both have undoubtedly experienced in their lengthy careers.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end, right at the beginning of the song "Hairspray" at the pageant, Amber turns to Link and whispers, "Look, there's the agents" and it cuts to a few suit-wearing people with clipboards. My mom and I noticed that one of the women among them looked like Ricki Lake. Is it her, in a cameo? It would seem to make sense since she was in the original movie.

Answer: Yes, that is Ricki Lake, the original Tracy Turnblad, in a cameo appearance!

Movie_Freak 1

Question: This question was asked and answered but the answer was unsatisfactory so I am asking the question again. It was asked if it was common for the President and General Grey not to know about area 51 and the answer was given that because of plausible deniability, the President would not need to know about area 51 until the aliens arrive. This answers the question for in the movie but what about in real life? Wouldn't the 2 most powerful people in charge of the military (The President and The General) in real life be made aware of area 51? I can understand if the president is not made aware but I find it hard to believe the General wouldn't know about it.

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: General Grey is listed as being Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which does not make him the second-in-command of the military - that position rests with the Secretary of Defense, who, as we see in the film, does know about Area 51. Grey, as Whitmore's primary advisor on all matters (not to be confused with the President's Security Advisor, who, in all likelihood, would be aware of the installation's existence as it would fall directly under his area of concern), would need to be covered by plausible deniability just as much as his boss would. As such, Grey holds what is very much a need-to-know position - with regard to Area 51, he doesn't need to know.

Tailkinker

Question: Why was Simon allowed a damn at the joy joy feeling machine thingy while John was fined for one while talking to his friend?

Answer: I'm assuming you're referring to when Simon says "Damn, I'm possessed!" He was hacking the machine when he said it, perhaps he'd corrupted the program or shut off the microphone as a side effect?

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Note that when Spartan is fined for swearing, the machine uses his full name. When Phoenix is fined, the machine only refers to him as "You" ("You are fined 1 credit...") as he isn't recognised because he doesn't have a chip. Presumably he's expected to take the ticket and pay the fine even if the machine didn't automatically know it was him.

Also notable is that when Lenina swore she was fined only one half a credit instead of a full credit. Probably because she is a cop.

lionhead

No, I think she got fined only a half credit because it was a *sotto voce* violation (under her breath).

Strange, I can swear somebody already mentioned that once before.

lionhead

Wait a minute, is that trivia?

lionhead

Answer: Phoenix has no sub-dermal microchip in his hand. Per Huxley, all transactions are done with this chip. That would mean fines are also generated per person based on this chip too.

Except when Simon is trying to get a gun, he keeps swearing at the booth which constantly fines him.

Question: After Xavier threw Amanda in the syringe pit, and Amanda finds the key for the next door, WHICH CAME WITH AN ANTIDOTE. Even though, they couldn't open the door. why didn't ANYONE USED THE ANTIDOTE?

Answer: I don't think it was an antidote. It looked more like the neon fluid you find in a glow stick to make the key stand out in the needle pit more.

Phaneron

Answer: Could be a numer of things. Noone may have noticed, People might have thought it's not an antidote as they needed the key to GET TO the antidote or even they might not have thought to try it.

Ssiscool

Answer: I think it said the antidote was behind the door, not an exit.

Question: Is it just me or do both of the Patil twins appear to be wearing Griffindor uniforms? one of them (Padma) should be wearing Ravenclaw colours.

Answer: In the books, the Patil sisters are identical twins, but they were sorted into different Hogwarts' Houses (Gryffindor and Ravenclaw). In the movies, they are fraternal twins, and both are in Gryffindor.

raywest

Question: One of the mistakes listed for this film says that Lovell's daughter Barbara slams a copy of the not-yet-released Beatles album "Let It Be" into her rack. How can you tell what album she's holding in that scene, when you only get a split-second glimpse of it? Without using slow-motion or freeze-frame (which is not permitted for mistake submissions), it doesn't seem possible to conclusively identify the album in question. Or is the background music for that scene a song from that particular Beatles album?

Answer: "Let It Be" has a very distinctive cover. If you look at the cover, and then re-watch that scene, you should recognize that it is indeed that album.

Cubs Fan

Question: What was the first song that played in the credits?

Answer: Hi there, can't give you a name as it's been a long long time since I watched Cabin Fever. However, amazon.com has the listing for the soundtrack and you can listen to samples so hopefully it will help you find what you are looking for - http://www.amazon.com/Cabin-Fever-Various-Artists/dp/samples/B0000C3ICN/ref=dp_tracks_all_1/103-5216138-1263057#disc_1.

Aulara

Question: So on the newspaper clipping you can see the it said Jill Valentine got suspended for her partners death, Leon Kennedy. But was this supposed to happen because you play as Leon in Resident Evil 4 and Wesker says that he survived Raccoon City outbreak. So why wasn't he in this movie?

Movieman123

Chosen answer: The films, while incorporating elements of the game plots, are under no obligation to maintain any continuity with them. They can tell the story in the way that they want to, without having to worry about the game storylines. If they didn't want to use a given character, they're entirely within their rights to kill them off or ignore them completely.

Tailkinker

Answer: I've played all the games in from a game standpoint Jill Leon Claire and Chris were protagonist of the first three sets of games for actually but the movies didn't even make Jill a protagonist which turned out pretty well considering Alice. The protagonist character Alice was a very good incorporation I believe to the entire movie timeline. But I don't believe in the events that took place in between the movies like they were unexplained. And I would have been at least made Leon Moore Manor character doing later and I would have been at least made Leon a main character during the later movies instead of just making him a side character that you see for about 5 minutes and then he disappears.

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.