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: How did the droid in the beginning of the film know that Qui-gon and Obi-wan were both Jedi?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: Because word had arrived that two Jedi were arriving to handle the peace negotiations. When the two delegates then arrive, and both of them are wearing the distinct Jedi robes, with lightsabers in their belts, it is not exactly a difficult conclusion to draw.

Twotall

Question: What is the relationship between the Trade Federation and the Senate? I mean I know that the Senate is supposed to be made up of representatives from planets in the Republic. But the TF also have representatives there. But the TF isn't just one planet is it? I thought that it was a company/organisation as such that encompassed lots of different planets (like the Federation in Star Trek)?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: The Trade Federation started out as a loose confederation of merchants and shipping providers who banded together to ensure that they had effective control over trade routes throughout the galaxy. Under the leadership of the Neimoidians, they took precautions to maintain that control, including a substantial military to protect their interests. This ultimately gave them enough political clout to achieve representation in the Senate at the same level as a member world.

Tailkinker

Question: Is it known why the TF followed the orders of Palpatine (when he looks like the emperor)? I believe that they set-up the blockade and invasion to try to get Amadala to sign the treaty to joint he TF. But still why would they do it just on his orders?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: Palpatine (or Darth Sideous as the TF call him) is a master of using people to further his plans. The leaders of the TF are greedy and unscrupulous. Palpatine needs to destabalise the workings of the Senate enough to maneuver his way into being elected as Chancellor, so he presents the TF with a chance to make a lot of money by exploiting Naboo, knowing that the resulting conflict will generate sympathy for him in the senate, as a Naboo.

roboc

Question: Is Senator Palpatine the Senator of Naboo? If he is is he a native born 'Naboo-ian' as such?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: He is indeed the Senator from Naboo and according to the official Star Wars databank, was born there.

Tailkinker

Question: I have read that this film was not received well among SW fans. I first saw this in the cinema and thought it was great and even now I still consider it a really good film and I love all of the films as a whole. I am just wondering why it is considered not as good as the rest?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: A lot of people felt that the more political nature of the film was inferior to the more swashbuckling feel of the original trilogy - after all, a trade dispute isn't inherently as entertaining as a rebellion against an evil Empire. They felt that the dialogue was rather clunky and delivered in a somewhat wooden fashion, which is in many ways a not unfair point, although the scripting accusation applies equally to the original trilogy (Lucas simply isn't a good writer of dialogue). In the end, the main problem was that, over the years, the original trilogy have gained an almost mythical status and have a substantial nostalgia factor, to the extent that a number of fans at the time were quoted as saying that the release of a new Star Wars film was to be a defining moment in their lives. The expectation levels were so high that it would have been impossible for any film, no matter how good, to live up to them - disappointment was inevitable.

Tailkinker

Question: How did Jarda, the last treadstone agent (besides Bourne) set off the silent alarm in his house?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: While it's not explicitly spelled out, it's suggested that he was suspicious from the moment he entered the house (which is why he quickly goes for the gun in the fridge), so what he entered on the alarm keypad when he came in was not a disarm code, but was instead some sort of emergency code which called for backup.

Tailkinker

Question: Does Sodium Pentothal really erase memories of events that happened during and after you take it?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: It doesn't exactly erase your memories, rather it causes a form of apnea and drowsiness, causing you to be semi-concious or not fully awake, similar to blacking out. This causes you to not remember events that took place during your dosage and during the course of time it is in your bloodstream. Since it puts you in a physical and mental state where the easiest things to do are all you can manage the mental strength to do, it is used as a truth serum, since lying is much more complicated than telling the truth. Because of these properties the drug possesses, higher doses can also be used for Euthanasia, Medical Induced Comas, and even Lethal Injections.

Jazetopher

Question: In the scene where the dad tells Annie, pretending to be Hallie, that he is going to marry Meredith, Hallie yells a bunch of stuff in French. Does anyone know what she was saying?

Answer: I hope that you are joking, Meredith is not the girl for you. But it is possible that I am dreaming that this is so.

Stephen Edmonds 1

Answer: She actually said, "Marry her?! That's insane! How can you marry a woman young enough to be my big sister?!"

Answer: Not really but I think she was saying you're kidding.

Show generally

Question: How is Naruto able to easily create dozens of shadow clones when he needs to, but will sometimes struggle to create just a few.

Answer: In-character, he's not very good at Bunshin No Jutsu, so it's unreliable. Out-of-character, it's a classic plot device shared by hundreds of anime that people who're not generally too great can do spectacularly well when it really matters.

Moose

Question: In the scene where the bad guys catch Rita and Roddy on her boat, her ruby falls from her pocket. Shouldn't it have broken down or at least have some scratches?

Answer: Not really, when you consider it's a fake so it probably very light, and only falls an inch or two (given the height of the average rat).

Question: Near the beginning, what does Wayne mean when he says "Nothing like the smell of 2-part apoxy resin"?

Answer: Epoxy resin is sometimes sold in two seperate tubes. You have to mix the contents of both for the epoxy to harden into plastic. It also shows how weird he is, as epoxy tends to smell pretty foul.

Grumpy Scot

Question: When the suitcase enters the water and starts to float away, I thought I saw an arm (from about the elbow) and hand outstretched toward the water and suitcase, as if someone was laying down and mostly hidden behind some of the building debris. I noticed during both viewings I attended, but it is fast. I thought maybe it was a crewarm, then later thought it might have belonged to Mr. White. Or maybe just some bad guy trying to grab it without success. Or maybe it wasn't an arm at all.

Answer: It's the bad guy with the black eye patch reaching for it.

Mortug

Question: I don't understand the scene where Alice and Dan break up at the end, and why Alice says that she "would have" loved Dan forever. Did she do this because he tried to trick her into revealing that she slept with Larry, when he knew about it all along?

Answer: When Dan breaks it off with Alice as she cries she tells him the truth. She tells him that it's normally the other way. That she is the one that is supposed to break it off with him. So when they get back together she finally has her chance. Before she was the one that left broken. This time she knew she just wouldn't be. She would be able to walk away and not feel it. Alice doesn't seem like she truly needs anyone. And she lies about herself because she wants the control. Dan had the control over her.

She leaves Dan because she wants him to not care. For it to not be about his ego.

Answer: I think that 'Alice' is at odds with who she really is. Her identity crisis plays out in the way she constantly reinvents herself by changing her appearance. She can not sustain a real relationship with Dan, because she constantly role-plays. I think this is the significance of her lying about her real name. In a moment of truth with Larry, she reveals that she is "Plain Jane", implying that she can only feel special and lovable, and 'in love', when she is playing a role. Dan's narcissistic need to know whether or not she really slept with Larry prompted her regular pattern of breaking off all of her relationships when they get too real.

Answer: In a nutshell Alice broke up with Dan because she knew Dan wouldn't be able to get over the situation with her sleeping with Larry. The statement about loving him forever was more that she loved him but his insistency on knowing the real truth was never going to change. It didn't really have anything to do with tricking her as she had already revealed she didn't want to be with Dan. The fact that he had had to hear it from her probably confirmed her feelings he wouldn't be able to get past the affair.

Lummie

He said to her something like he wanted her to lie to him.

No, it was Anna he wanted to lie, about having slept with Larry to get him to sign the divorce papers. This was the scene at the theater/opera, whatever it was. He says "try lying for a change it's the currency of the world."

Question: I recently saw a photo of the Liberty Bell, and the Independence Hall tower is visible through a large picture window right behind the bell. Wouldn't Ben have been directly in Ian's sight when he (Ian) was facing the Liberty Bell? Wouldn't a man running across the roof next door have drawn his (and others') attention?

Answer: Not really. Ian was concentrating on the Bell, trying to figure out the riddle. He could easily have missed Ben (or assumed he was some kind of maintenance worker) under the circumstances.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Does the sniper on the roof that Nemesis blows up with the rocket launcher have a name?

Answer: No, he is not referred to anyone from the video games, nor does anyone call him by his name. He is just known as "the sniper".

Jason Riley

Question: What significance do the melted hats have on the field outside scientist's lab?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: They weren't melted. They were duplicated hats and they were there because the transportation machine Tesla was working on worked more like a fax machine instead of a mere transporter, creating a duplicate in another location.

Phixius

Chosen answer: No. I'm sure something similar could be created, but it would not have the same properties as shown in the film.

Phixius

Season 6 generally

Question: If Jack and Graem are brothers, why has there never been any mention of their relationship before, even in passing? And I'm talking beside the fact the producers didn't make them brothers until season 6.

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: There really wasn't any need for us to know he had a brother before - for all we know, he could have more than one brother but the need for us to know isn't there...just like there isn't any mention of his mother - who, for all we know, could be the mastermind criminal behind everything. Bear in mind over the near 10 years in the show's time that have elapsed over the 6 seasons, we've only spent 6 days in Jack's company - no reason his brother would have come up.

Sam Johnson

Question: This is pertaining to the dice game where the crew were betting their years as part of Davey Jones's ship. Did anybody understand how the game worked. What was the purpose? What was the deal with the numbers they were calling out?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: This is a real game called Liar's Dice, specifically the Common Hand variation. The idea is to predict, or pretend to predict, what will appear when the dice are finally revealed; for example, a call of "six fives" is a claim that, when the dice are revealed, there'll be six (or more) fives showing. Each player, however, can only see their own set of dice, so must guess what the other players have, based on what bids they make. The game proceeds with each player having the choice to either raise the bid to a higher level, or challenge the preceding player's claim. Once a challenge is made, the dice are revealed; if the challenged bid is shown to be correct, the challenger loses; if it's shown to be false, then whoever made that bid loses.

Tailkinker

Question: What's the title of the song Casey was using when she was already performing the rink? It doesn't seem to appear in the credits, and I tried searching OSTs online, and none of the songs' lyrics match the song Casey used.

Answer: Reachin' for Heaven", performed by Diana DeGarmo.

Stephen Edmonds 1

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