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.

Season 1 generally

Question: What is the name of the china pattern used at the breakfast table? It is black and gold trimmed. Not the Royal Doulton and not the Royal Worster Avignon.

Answer: I have asked myself the same question for a long time. It is Rosina-Queen's fine bone china, pattern "Olde England." It's the china that appears most of the time in the series. The Royal Worchester double-glazed Avignon (for candle light suppers) is really Royal Doulton Avignon, pattern "The Moselle Collection." And the Royal Doulton with the hand painted periwinkles is in reality of course Royal Doulton Colclough, pattern "Braganza."

Question: How did Jo and her mercenaries know what cove to go to in the Philippines if Drake had just discovered it using the crosses that Chloe had brought with her from the helicopter? If Chloe didn't know about using the crosses and was faked out by the false coordinates then wouldn't we assume the mercenaries hadn't found the location yet either?

Answer: Jo and her mercenaries were at the wrong island, It's when they saw Drake go past them in a speed boat, and not to the island they were on, that's when they realised they had been tricked.

A Normal Amount of Rage - S1-E1

Question: Jen has concerns about Steve Rogers dying a virgin, and Bruce eventually caves in the credits sequence and says he lost his virginity in 1943 on the USO tour. But why doesn't he tell Jen that Steve had many happy years with Peggy Carter, courtesy of their timeline-jumping? Presumably that involved sex too. Does Bruce not know, or is that meant to be kept secret?

Answer: He probably knew and kept Steve's secret.

Rob245

Answer: 1. David probably lied to get Jen off his back. 2. She wanted to know if Steve ever had sex, not about his true love. 3. If he told her about Steve's time travel, it would open a can of worms. She would probably be curious and seek him out, the government might want him back for disobeying orders and not resuming his Captain America duties. 4. The government would want the secrets of time travel to change history or to go back and forced him to resume his Captain America duties to prevent the infiltration of Hydra into S.H.I.E.L.D.

Answer: It's not his story to tell.

DetectiveGadget85

Question: When Thomas and the others are trying to escape the station, they face a masked man as Thomas opens a door. Thomas shoots a stun gun at him. This masked man looks like he was going to save them. Who is this guy? (00:27:20 - 00:27:50)

Bunch Son

Answer: He is one of the guards that works in the facility.

Question: This 1978 comedy take on the Hound Of The Baskervilles featured a stellar cast of British comedy icons: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan, Kenneth Williams and Terry Thomas. Yet it was not remotely funny and was a box office bomb. Biographies of cast members say the film was a low point of their careers, their acting lacks conviction, as if they know it isn't funny. So, why did they keep making this film, since, even when it was half completed, everybody knew it would be a total flop?

Rob Halliday

Answer: The actors would have no control over whether a film should continue production, particularly just because they didn't like how it was progressing. They were under contract and paid to act in a movie, regardless of the quality and would be sued if they quit. Movies are financed by studios and investors who expect a monetary return on their investment. Even if the film's quality was considered poor, producers would base their decisions on making a profit or at least recouping the costs. Halting production would be an extreme last resort.

raywest

Thank you for your informative and interesting points. I read a biography of Peter Cook which said that when the film studio executives saw the finished film they realised it just was not funny or entertaining. There was reluctance to give it a cinema release, as it was thought it would not even recoup distribution costs. It was eventually given a limited release and it bombed. I saw the film once on television, even though I am a fan of many members of the cast, I was wholly unimpressed. I think most of the cast, too, were embarrassed by the film.

Rob Halliday

Answer: In the comics he was a tall, thin man with a large hook nose, sort of like "Sherlock Holmes." When the movie was cast, they thought of altering Alec Baldwin's face for the role, but decided that all those prosthetics would make him unrecognizable, so it was decided he would morph into the original character, when using his "Shadow" power. The same thing was decided when Warren Beatty was cast as "Dick Tracy."

Answer: Unlike most comic book superheroes, the Shadow character evolved from a series of pulp novels, and later a radio program, starting in the 1930s. The Shadow's true identity was initially unknown, and he had multiple aliases and many alter egos. Only later was he permanently known as rich playboy Lamont Cranston. As the Shadow, he used different disguises when combating villains. While in Asia, Lamont learned how to read minds and use hypnosis to cloud peoples' vision. The movie reflected his ability to alter his appearance when transforming into the crime-fighting Shadow.

raywest

Question: Did Sonny and Marty become a couple at the end? You see them both dancing together during the finale but for the rest of the film, there's no suggestion that they are a couple, so I was a bit confused.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: It's hinted throughout the movie that they were dating already. The Pink Ladies are the T-Birds counterparts and therefore they date within the groups. Putzie/Jan, Doody/Frenchy, Kenickie/Rizzo, Sonny/Marty. Zuko is the only one not with a Pink Lady.

Question: Why would the Sorting Hat want to put Harry into Slytherin? Although Harry has a few traits of a Slytherin, he doesn't have the other traits such as pride, ambition and self-preservation.

Answer: Spoiler alert: Harry has a piece of Voldemort's soul in himself which entered through the scar. The sorting hat was aware of that soul part when going through Harry's mind and Voldemort is typical Slytherin material, so the sorting hat put that into his consideration.

lionhead

Answer: I TOTALLY agree with lionhead's excellent answer, but dispute the assertions in the question that Harry lacked ambition, pride, or a sense of self-preservation. He would not otherwise have survived Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Apart from Voldemort's soul shard embedded within him, Harry was also naturally resourceful, determined, clever, achievement-oriented, and had a "certain disregard for rules." These were Slytherin traits which many exploited for Dark purposes, though not all Slytherins were evil.

raywest

Answer: According to Internet sources, Ultimate Spider-Man was cancelled after three seasons to make room for the new series, Marvel's Spider-Man.

raywest

Question: Maybe I missed something while watching the movie. In a couple of brief scenes, they showed the severely deformed face of a woman. What was that all about?

Answer: It's actually a boy named Ruben. It's alluded to him being disfigured due to being the product of incest. In the context of the movie, Ruben is supposed to be an "oracle" who comes up with sacred scriptures, runes, etc. From what I understand, due to his deformities and cognitive disabilities, he's considered to be less "constrained" by typical mental/emotional limitations, and thus more open-minded spiritually. (Basically, they believe that because he's so simple-minded and childlike, he's open-minded enough to able to communicate with higher powers).

TedStixon

The House That Peg Lost - S3-E16

Question: After Al and Peggy snoop through the Rhoades' safe, Al wonders if Steve knows that the house is only in Marcy's name. If Steve thinks the house is also in his name, wouldn't he have signed mortgage paperwork at some point?

Answer: If you recall, Marcy worked in a bank. Perhaps she told Steve she'd taken care of all the paperwork. And the Rhodes were somewhat well-to-do, maybe they paid cash for their home or borrowed money from family.

Brian Katcher

Question: What's that sound when the witch's broom dives into Far Far Away?

Answer: You have to be more specific, there are a lot of sounds. Do you mean what song or what sound effects?

lionhead

Answer: It sounds like a stuka dive bomber in reverse.

Question: At the Lunar-Max prison, Boris asks the guard to cut the cake for them. But then the guard proceeds to just shove his finger into the center of it why? Was he going to crudely cut the cake with his finger? Is he further checking it? Is he just being a jerk and trying to ruin the cake?

immortal eskimo

Answer: The last one. He is bullying Boris by ruining his cake.

lionhead

Question: I know there's a few different releases of this film with different scenes. Has it ever been revealed how the Aliens managed to get inside the complex? Ripley states they must have missed an entrance to which Hudson replies they didn't miss anything. Is there a deleted scene, director's cut etc that shows how the aliens got in?

Answer: It's shown in the film (both versions) that the Aliens use the space in the drop ceiling to get into the complex. The drop ceiling doesn't show on the blueprints so Ripley and the Marines didn't think about it. When Ripley wonders if they missed anything Hicks replies "We didn't miss anything." Hicks is technically correct, but Ripley then says "Something not on the blueprints, I don't know." They did not account for the fact the ceiling grates aren't the actual top of the room because they made their plans based on the blueprints.

BaconIsMyBFF

The aliens used the space above the drop ceilings to move around the complex once inside, but it is never revealed how they actually got in from outside.

Alien: Resurrection shows the aliens are happy to sacrifice one of their own to use their blood to help them escape captivity - possible something similar happened here if they knew it was worth them getting inside.

Jon Sandys

Answer: It's implied that Steve filed for divorce since in s04e16, "You Gotta Know When to Hold 'Em", Marcy says that Steve is suing for alimony. Alimony is something that has to be requested when filing for divorce. Although the show doesn't spend time on the actual legal proceedings of their divorce.

Bishop73

Question: If the Vishanti bracelets stop prisoners from using their powers how was America able to punch through her cage?

sunfox35

Answer: This suggests her powers are stronger than the bracelets.

lionhead

Or that the bracelets may only be able to constrain powers from Earth-838, and don't work as well on people from other earths.

Answer: She went to her mother's for at least the weekend, possibly for the entire time their children were at camp.

Question: Didn't the Snowflake virus also infect other life besides humanity, such as animals and plants?

Trainman

Answer: Many viruses are specific to certain types of species and do not cross over and infect others. The Snowflake virus was a programmable super virus that apparently was genetically engineered for a particular target.

raywest

Show generally

Question: In the pilot episode, Helen says to Stanley that he's now going to have to get a job (assuming to afford living in this pricey townhome), but throughout the entire two-season series, Stanley is shown never getting a job and sits around at home all the time. How did they never run out of money?

Answer: Assuming they made enough income from rentals fees, Helen may have wanted Stanley to find a job solely to get him out of the house and out of her hair. Many women dislike having their husbands home all the time, and, if they're retired, encourage them to find some work or activity outside of the house.

raywest

That's possible, though a bit doubtful since they lived in their old apartment building (the Three's Company one) for 14 years. That was 14 years of Stanley being at home without Helen wanting him to get a job "away from home."

She also isn't shown telling him to get a job for any reason after the pilot episode. Rather than continually nagging him, Helen apparently accepted that he wasn't going to get one. Also, it's a TV show. Writers continually change character dynamics, plot lines, running gags, etc. as the show progresses, which can create either deliberate or unintentional inconsistencies. It was probably something the writers saw no reason to pursue.

raywest

Answer: He owned the entire apartment complex in "Three's Company." Even the sales prices back in the 1970's were in the millions.

But if that's the case, why would Helen tell Stanley he'd have to get a job when they first moved to their new place? Even Stanley gave a worried look when he was questioned that. If they had all money, that scene would not have taken place and Helen never would have brought that up.

Question: In the comic books, animated series, etc, was there a passage connecting the facility to the bat cave like there was in the game? I thought that the bat cave was further away, like under Wayne Manor.

Answer: It's not the actual Batcave, it's a secondary location Batman set up in case of emergency. Oracle actually makes a comment along those lines the first time you access it.

Answer: To add to the answer, Batman tells Oracle that he found the cave after saving an inmate from committing suicide and had secretly been moving supplies to the cave after discovering its location.

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