Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: In the scene where the nuns are singing 'How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria', one nun says 'I even heard her singing in the abbey.' This is used as though Maria was doing something bad, but throughout this song, aren't the nuns in the abbey, and aren't they singing? If it was so wrong for Maria to do this, why is it okay for them?

Answer: Postulants/Novices, such as Maria, were forbidden from singing in the Abbey. However, these rules did not necessarily apply to the sisters who are singing. In addition, it's a musical, and the nuns weren't "really" singing. Their complaints about Maria are simply put into a song.

Answer: Luke and Leia were born 19 years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). Solo was born 29 years BBY so Luke and Leia were 19 and Solo was 29.

Mister Ed

Question: At Omaha Beach, there were large metal things strewn along the water line (they sort of resembled gigantic jacks). First, what are those? Second, were they at the actual Omaha Beach on D-Day?

Answer: Nicknamed "Czech Hedgehogs", they're designed to damage incoming landing craft or to stop tanks making their way up the beach. They were indeed present on D-Day.

Tailkinker

Question: Why is trucking Coors beer south of Texas bootlegging?

Answer: It wasn't south of Texas - it was east of the Mississippi River. Coors was not licensed to be sold in the east at that time (it, of course, is different today). Anyone carrying more than what would be considered for personal consumption (about 24 beers) would be in violation of the registration and licensing law. During prohibition, bootlegging was applied to those that made their own alcohol for distribution or use. After prohibition, bootlegging has been used to describe those people violating the laws for registration and licensing of alcohol. So, in the vernacular of the time, carrying Coors beer east of the Mississippi River would be bootlegging. Coors (brewed in Colorado) could not be shipped East of the Mississippi because it was brewed without being pasteurized and with no added preservatives, so shipping it long distances was impossible due to spoilage.

Zwn Annwn

Question: Where can I get information about the mutant who clapped her hands, creating a blast of energy (I think her name was something like 'Arch light')? I've not come across her before and, though she was really under-used, she looked like an interesting character.

Answer: UncannyXmen.net is a great fan-run site with tons of information on almost all X-Men comics characters (not much on the movie ones though). Arclight's page is found here.

Xofer

Question: Did Angel know he could fly before he took off?

Answer: Yes.

Tailkinker

Question: Here's something I've wanted to know. I know that Gotham is a fictional city, as is Metropolis, but both are within the same universe (DC). So how is it that The Statue of Liberty resides in both Metropolis and Gotham? The Statue is in Metropolis Harbor in the Superman movies, but Two-face's chopper crashes into it in Gotham in Batman Forever.

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: Mainly because the filmmakers, who operated totally separately, weren't too worried about being consistent, either with each other or with the comic universe. In the comics, New York exists alongside Gotham and Metropolis, so the Statue of Liberty is found there. The filmmakers presumably decided that they wanted to have something recognisable appearing, so decided that the statue would be located in the city that they were dealing with.

Tailkinker

Question: Aside from puzzling the heck out of aliens who never invented the wheel, was the bicycle in the cellar bit perhaps a little directorial homage to ET?

Jean G

Chosen answer: This is probably a bit of a stretch. I have two old bicycles in my basement.

wizard_of_gore

Answer: I assumed that these were alien "toddlers", and were just "playing" and "exploring."

Question: Why did Bootstrap Bill join the dice game that Will played with Davy Jones? Will knew that Jones had the key to the chest on him, so just how did Bootstrap help him by also playing?

raywest

Chosen answer: Bootstrap did not want his son to lose and have to become an undead. By joining the game, he made it possible to save Will if it looked like Will was losing, by placing a ridiculously high bet himself. And as we can see, this is what happened. When Will was losing, and Davy Jones was about to call him a liar, Bootstrap makes his absurdly high claim, thereby sacrificing himself, but getting Will out of the game debt-free.

Twotall

Question: Was any explanation given as to why Anna Maria (Zoe Saldana) was eliminated from the Black Pearl's crew and also from the movie series? Female pirates weren't uncommon. I'd like to know why Disney deleted this interesting character.

raywest

Chosen answer: Without asking Disney directly, we may not know, but Zoe Saldana has made many films since the first Pirates movie, generally playing one of the lead roles - the most likely explanation is that she chose to focus on those projects and thus was unable to find a gap in her schedule to play a relatively minor character in Dead Man's Chest.

Tailkinker

Answer: The jar was to put Davy Jones heart in. He can't touch dirt ever again since he failed to keep up his duties which means he wouldn't be able to get his heart back.

Chosen answer: Davy Jones cannot set foot on land for ten more years. The jar of dirt is to represent land. Jack carries it with him so that he always has land with him so Davy Jones won't be able to get near him, or so Jack is supposed to believe.

Dedderbot

Question: During the climax, as Charlie is walking down the hall, he is saying something that sounds like quiet chanting. This is after he has finished singing 'Daddy's gonna buy you a Mockingbird'. Does anyone know what he's saying?

Answer: He keeps singing "mockingbird" over and over, but it is more of a mumbling by this point. Turn on the subtitles and you can see this.

EMTurbo

Chosen answer: I saw the play some years ago in London, and I seem to remember she gets run over by a car.

Ioreth

Question: Why did Professor X have a shot at Logan in the lab after Jean took off? He said something like 'I warned you'. As far as I can see, all Logan did wrong was brush Jean's cheek - and Xavier never told him not to.

Answer: Logan was upset with Charles for using mind control on Jean. When Jean escapes, Charles tells Logan this because now she is going to wreak havoc, proving the mind control was a necessary step after all.

Phixius

Question: I collected comics for years and read every Mutant title related to the X-men that there was. As I understood Kitty Pryde's power was to phase through objects, her molecules as well as anything she touched/carried would pass through and around the molecules of the object. The molecules of the object weren't displaced or shifted out of time or anything like that. If she therefore left anything/anybody in an object their molecules would now be grafted into the object for lack of a better way of saying it. So a person/Juggernaut left from say stomach down in a floor would be killed by such a massive shock to the system. Have things changed that I've missed or did no-one catch this at all?

Answer: In the comics, yes, Juggernaut would probably have been in a world of hurt at that point, from the intermingling of the molecules, although given his invulnerability, the precise result cannot really be determined. However, the filmmakers aren't under any actual obligation to follow the comic rules. In their version, Juggernaut survived the experience unscathed; whether this is because of his abilities or differences in hers from the comic version is open to debate.

Tailkinker

Question: Has anyone verified that Christopher Guest has six fingers on his right hand in every scene? There are a few shots (other than the one showing off all the fingers) where his right hand is visible, but the black gloves make a finger count difficult.

Answer: Not meaning to shoot down your idea, but since he is wearing gloves, even if the gloves only had five fingers, it would still not be a mistake as he could easily tuck his two smallest fingers into one of the glove's fingers. I would guess that this is why he wears gloves throughout the film, as the director would surely not have gone to the trouble of making 6-fingered gloves, and the actor does not really have 6 fingers.

Jazetopher

They did make a six fingered glove. It's visible when Count Rugen knocks Westley out with his sword. Just before that Westley observes "You have 6 fingers on your right hand. Someone was looking for you."

Question: What is all this about "Muscrat" or something like that? Dina keeps saying "Muscrat" when Jack is a bit rude to Greg, but I don't understand the whole point of that.

Answer: It's a "safety signal", a word they have agreed she should say to remind Jack to keep his cool. Like most such words, they have chosen one that will not come up in a normal conversation, as it would then not have the impact needed to remind Jack to calm down. One can only guess as to where they picked up this technique, but it does not seem unlikely that Jack has had to have some anger management courses.

Twotall

Question: When Crane tells Falcone that there is a lady in the D.A's office (Rachel) who is getting suspicious about what he (Crane) is doing with the convicted criminals, Falcone offers to get rid of her, to which Crane tells him that it is not necessary. Why does he turn down Falcone's offer?

Answer: No, first Falcone suggests to bribe her to which Crane replies that it won't be possible (as Rachel would never take a bribe). Then Falcone says "Well, there's an answer to that too" and Crane replies "I don't want to know", meaning that he knows Falcone will then get rid of her but he doesn't want to know how as he's meant to be an upstanding member of society so should keep his distance. Later in the movie, Falcone's thugs try to carry out his orders but are stopped by Batman.

Andreas[DK]

Question: The writers made a very deliberate attempt not to refer to "Santa Claus" by ANY proper name (St. Nick, Father Christmas, etc.), does anyone know why?

Answer: In the Official Illustrated Movie Companion, it was stated that the presence of Father Christmas was very odd, and that they considered having Aslan give the Pevensies their presents. But since Andrew Adamson wanted to stay true to the story, they kept Father Christmas in there, but changed it so it was less blatant.

Question: Where is the school that Daniel was seen riding his bike to, and is the school real and/or still there?

Answer: It's the Charles Evans Hughes Jr High School in CA and it still stands.

ChiChi

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