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: Heres something I never quite understood. Back in One-eyed Willie's day it seems they were Spanish speaking. What with the Spanish Armada and all. So why is it that the Treasure Map is written in Spanish, but rhymes in English?

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: Well, his ship is hidden in America where the people spoke english, so perhaps it was done for the benefit of those who were most likely to find the map. Must have been his idea of a joke.Actually though, I'm betting it was the result of the filmmakers not thinking that through.

Phixius

Question: If Matthew and his partner are paid so little, how does he afford the high-tech equipment in his apartment? I doubt that whoever made his sleeping-pod thing would have accepted sports equipment in payment.

Julie Wegner

Chosen answer: They accept whatever payment their poorer clients can offer. That doesn't mean they *don't* get clients who can pay the going rate for legal representation.

Phixius

Question: When the Brian and Roman are telling each other to shut up, in the scene by Verone's pool, Monica comes over and as she sits down, she mouths something to Brian. What does she say?

Answer: It looks like she says "Hi" but she says it so quietly it is not picked up by a microphone. Also, if you turn the volume up, you can sort of make out, "Hi" as her lips move.

Thomas Ryder

Chosen answer: Yes you can. Quoting from Drugs.com: "Symptoms of a nicotine overdose include nausea; vomiting; watering mouth; diarrhea; abdominal pain; cold sweat; headache; dizziness; disturbed hearing and vision; confusion; weakness; weak, irregular heartbeats; chest pain; seizures; and death."

Kevin Hall

Question: Tim Russ' (brief appearance) is listed on IMDB as "Enterprise-B Tactical Lieutenant". I'm not enough of a Trekkie to know - would it be feasible for him to be Tuvok? How long is it supposed to be in the Star Trek universe between this film and Voyager? Do Vulcans live that long?

Answer: Vulcans do live that long (300+ years), but it is not Tuvok. For one, his ears and eyebrows are human, not Vulcan, for another, Voyager tells us he left Starfleet for over 40 years shortly after the Khitomer conference, which was before Enterprise-B entered service.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: To attempt to provoke Ethan to come out of hiding.

Tailkinker

Question: In the scene where Goldie Hawn nearly gets her head run over by the car, how do they get that effect? It just looks far too dangerous to be an actual stunt, but it looks too real to be a bluescreen / split screen effect either.

Gary O'Reilly

Chosen answer: It is a composite shot, with the actor's head added to the scene. They just did a particularly good job on the scene.

Chosen answer: According to Wikipedia: "Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants made by combining two high explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, i.e. it is a double-base propellant. However, Cordite N, a triple-base propellant is also used. Cordite is classified as an explosive, but it is normally used as a propellant for guns and rockets." So yes, it works.

Twotall

Answer: Yes, cordite is classified a an explosive, but it's rarely used as such. It's a common propellant for artillery shells etc. Realistically, the Jackal would have used a plastic explosive such C4 or Semtex for a bomb. And the mercury fulminate tipped rounds are a fantasy, it's so unstable, it would explode before it had left the barrel.

stiiggy

Answer: It's him singing (and dancing), as singing/dancing is what he was primarily known as doing before he began acting (usually backup singing). He is, for example, in Little Shop Of Horrors (for all of 2 seconds), singing backup. Danny actually re-recorded the song and released it as a single, which reached No. 17 in the UK charts.

Gary O'Reilly

Show generally

Question: One of the other questions about season seven mentions Sarah Michelle Gellar leaving the show, so they had to change the storyline and not look at Dawn's key-ness, or lack of. Was Sarah Michelle Gellar's leaving the reason they had to end it at season 7 or was there only 7 seasons planned? If it was ended prematurely, how many more seasons were they planning/hoping for?

Answer: Sarah leaving the show was one of many reasons it finished at the end of season seven, Joss did want to carry on with one of the other characters kind of like a spin off but he has as yet unable to get funding for it. Season 8 is going to be released but in comic book form, the title and date of release is not available yet but Joss is writing it.

Vianna7uk

Question: Why doesn't the King enjoy seeing his nephew (the Prince's cousin) when he arrives near the beginning of the film to congratulate the Prince?

Answer: For the same reason everyone else is unhappy to see him: He's getting on their nerves!

Ioreth

Question: In the beginning of the movie, why were the hijackers shaving their chests and genital areas? Is this some kind of religious ritual?

Answer: Muslims are supposed to remove their pubic and armpit hair at least every 40 days. It is part of being clean and they would want to be as clean as possible while committing an act on behalf of their religion.

Myridon

Question: Is there such thing as "Baby Sign Language" in real life or was it made just for the film?

Answer: There is definitely such a thing. There is a theory that teaching babies and toddlers sign language, allows them to communicate their needs, which they cannot do verbally. This allows them to be less frustrated and, hopefully, less cranky.

wizard_of_gore

Answer: The baby in this movie was selected because his parents had taught him to sign. Therefore it was useful to the movie.

lartaker1975

Answer: It's based on a song called "Swingin' the Alphabet" featured in the Three Stooges episode "Violent is the Word for Curly". The song starts "B A Bay, B E Bee, B I Bicky By, B O Bo Bicky By Bo, B U Bu, Bicky By Bo Bu". The song then can be repeated for each consenant "C A Say, C E See, ...". At the end of the episode, "Three Blind Mice" is heard - the Three Stooges theme song.

Myridon

Answer: He simply has an absurdly low tolerance for alcohol, and whiskey is not a wise choice if this is the case. It helps set up the joke when Marty asks the bartender, "How many has he had?", and he replies by telling Marty, "Just the one", as we are meant to think Doc has been in the bar all night drinking away his sorrows.

Jazetopher

Question: Is it true that there are acres of computers under the DoD? And that they scan for key words? Can anyone confirm that?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: If there are, it is kept secret. But there is ECHELON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON which is able to listen in on most forms of electronic communication.

Andreas[DK]

Question: What song is that in the beginning? mainly piano music, I'm sure i have heard it in another movie somewhere but my mother says she's never heard it anywhere before.

Answer: It's a song by Nina Simone entitled "Sinnerman". It was also used in an episode of Scrubs and (in a remixed form) in the film Cellular.

Tailkinker

Answer: The music at the beginning, mostly piano, is by Bill Conti and is called Glider. It is used again during the Glider flying scene later in the movie.

Show generally

Question: What is the name of the theme song of Roswell? I think it's something called "Here I am", or "I am what I am".

Answer: It's called "Here With Me", performed by Dido. It can be found on her album "No Angel".

Tailkinker

Question: What is the song called that Marty plays in the "Enchantment under the sea" dance?

Answer: "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry, hence the bit where the lead singer Marvin Berry phones up his cousin Chuck during the song.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Without talking to the producers, it's impossible to be sure, but it's possible he was gonna be killed off early, or only appear in a few episodes. As the show developed he developed into a more stable character and became a regular cast member.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

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