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: Why do they suddenly start singing about Manchester?

Answer: Because the character who is singing, Claude Hooper Bukowski, is from Manchester and came to the US when he 'dropped out'.

Claude is from Oklahoma, not Manchester. The song came from the play. In the stage version, Sheila was from Manchester.

Question: Does Sean really possess the spirit of Anna's dead husband, or does the little boy just read the letters he finds buried in the woods, become obsessed with Anna and pretend to be the reincarnation of her husband?

Answer: I would say that he was "in love" with her before reading the letters. Once he read them, he kinda became convinced that he was the reincarnated spirit of her husband. He clearly is not, since the original Sean was not really in love with her.

I think it was a grey area between the two...I think in life, we are exposed to and vulnerable to, sin. In our rebirth, sin is erased. We don't remember it. I think we remember love. I interpreted the boy as being the reincarnation of Anna's Sean, but only remembering the love he originally had for her, before it was tainted with lust and temptation.

Question: When Miguel is watching Tulio and the girl talking, he walks off looking annoyed. I didn't quite hear what Tulio was saying to the girl so I don't understand why Miguel was so upset. Can anyone help?

Answer: Miguel had just told Chief Tanni how loyal Tulio and he were to each other. Then he overheard Tulio saying to Chel that he wanted to go to Spain with her, ONLY with her "Forget Miguel." That's why Miguel was so upset, because Tulio excluded him from his plans and his life.

Question: Toward the end, when the island is closed off from the rest of Gotham and some of the poison has been vaporized and is drifting around, why isn't the little boy in red affected? Rachel and Gordon have been vaccinated, but everyone else is breathing the stuff in, and we see the some of the hallucinations that those others experience - why is the little boy immune?

Answer: They did show he was affected. Rachel was already immune. So the visual of Scarecrow when the horse was breathing fire and Crane had flames in his eyes was what the boy was seeing. He had no other perception of Batman because he wasn't afraid of him. He knew from earlier in the movie that Batman was good and had no reason to fear him.

Answer: I don't recall it ever being expressed that he is immune. I think it was an editorial decision on the director's/film editor's part just to not show us the effects of the drug on the little boy. It's similar to how they didn't show us Rachel's perspective of Batman while she was drugged. He's also being calmed by Rachel, which helps to minimise the effects.

Ariane Schultheis

Question: Why didn't Val Kilmer play Batman for this movie? Was he not offered the part? Did he not want it? What happened?

Answer: Kilmer wanted to reprise the role, but couldn't because he was already committed to The Saint (1997).

Cubs Fan

Answer: Some say the real reason is Val has a reputation for being difficult and arrogant. He alienated both cast and crew.

Question: How did Lecter know that there was something inserted into Fredrica Bimmels' throat? He had heard about Buffalo Bill in the papers but not much information about him.

Answer: Because he knew that the dead man in the storage unit had one in his throat. He guessed that Buffalo Bill was the former patient of his who had killed the dead man in the storage unit.

Guy

Answer: He didn't know until Clarice told him. After being told he asked "Was it a butterfly?'.

"Was it a butterfly?" means he did know. It's the kind of question that contains its own correct answer.

Sammo

Question: Was the huge monster McReady encounters, and subsequently blows up, the actual "default" form of the Thing? After all, the correspondent DVD chapter is titled "The Real Thing". Yes, they do say that the Thing could've imitated millions of different lifeforms, but it must've had a form to begin with.

Answer: At the end, the large creature presented itself as an amalgam of beings it had absorbed-part Blair, part dog, and various other beings with tentacles, insect-like legs, and a worm-like body. I don't believe that we really ever see what its true form is, if it has one.

Erik M.

Answer: In the book, it was vaguely humanoid with blue rubbery skin, a head of writhing tentacles, and 3 glowing red eyes. There is a picture of it in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials by Wayne Barlowe.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Why does Mr I so often say "showtime"? Is it a reference to another movie?

Answer: Many superheroes have catchphrases; "Showtime" is his.

Tailkinker

Question: Why would Henry do so many evil things to his own family?

Answer: Henry apparently has what is called a "conduct disorder" - the term used for kids below the age of 18 engaging in what would be (and most likely will become) a diagnosis of sociopathy/psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder) when he becomes an adult. He is "evil", highly manipulative, self-centered, without remorse or other true feelings, and probably incapable of forming loving or long-term attachments. Many sociopaths are believed to have above average intelligence and make good imposters, capable of fooling others because they come across as "charming."

KeyZOid

Answer: Because he's nuts!

Grumpy Scot

Question: I heard that Boromir, although he died in the first movie, appears in one of the scenes of the movie. If he is, can someone tell me which one of them he is seen?

Answer: In the theatrical version, I think he only appears extremely briefly (about a second) in a flash-back to his last battle. In the extended cut, a scene has been added where Denethor berates Faramir for letting Frodo leave with the Ring - in that scene, he hallucinates Boromir standing behind his brother.

Tailkinker

Question: Who is exactly in charge? In ANH it seemed that GM Tarkin was Darth Vader's superior, but in Episode III, Darth Vader seemed to be above Tarkin. Who has been mentioned to be a General at this time?

Answer: Vader's military rank is unclear - it may be that he has no official rank and is therefore not technically part of the command structure. However, as the personal representative of the Emperor, he holds an enormous amount of personal power within the Empire and, as we see, can have military units assigned to do his bidding. Most officers will respect that power (plus his tendency to kill those who displease him) and will show him the proper subservience - just as we see the younger Tarkin show deference to the Emperor and Vader in Episode 3. By the time of Episode 4, however, Tarkin has advanced to become one of the most highly-ranked officers in the Empire, has acquired considerable personal power of his own and is held in high esteem by the Emperor himself. All of which serves to put him on the same sort of level as Vader himself, allowing him to skip the fawning and grovelling. In Episode 4, Vader is on the Death Star, Tarkin's command, so the Grand Moff has the ultimate say in what goes on there, although, as we see, he does follow Vader's suggestions, even when he has his own misgivings.

Tailkinker

Question: How can the Death Star be operational if the superstructure hasn't been completed yet?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: They already had gravity, lighting, plumbing, docking bays, life support etc. I assume the entire station is built around the power core and weapon. All the remaining sections were probably crew quarters, storage, more docking bays etc.

Soylent Purple

Answer: More than likely because they had blue and brown eyes, respectively, in real life.

Cubs Fan

Question: Why didn't Professor Broom want Hellboy to know that he was dying of cancer?

Answer: Most normal fathers would hardly be jumping with joy at the prospect of telling their son such a fact, and Hellboy and the Professor have a slightly more unique relationship than most fathers have with their sons. The Professor is the only family he's ever had.

Gary O'Reilly

Chosen answer: "San" is a japanese term of respect. Sort of like the english "Mr.", however "Sir" would be a little closer to what it means in japanese. They attach the "San" at the end of someone's name, rather than at the begining like english speakers do.

RJR99SS

Question: On Yahoo movies, the description of this film says "including a climactic stunt of immense insanity." Now I have seen the movie, but I can't figure out just what stunt was the "climactic one". They all seemed quite climactic and very insane, so I'm wondering if anyone actually knows what stunt they were talking about, or if anyone has a good idea of which one it was.

Answer: Yes, there is a very lengthy and intricate stunt done called the Perfect Ending or something like that. You have to view the extra features on the Jackass DVD to see it.

William Bergquist

Question: At the end, a tripod collapses after behaving erratically for an hour, because the aliens inside were dead or dying. If so, wouldn't the tripod just stop moving and stand there because the aliens were too sick to operate it?

Answer: Or they had a mental link with the tripods.

The tripods are a mech suit for the aliens.

Answer: Depends on exactly how the disease affected the aliens. They might have entered a state of dementia and started piloting erratically, or even just have muscle spasms that knocked the controls around inside the cockpit.

Gary O'Reilly

Answer: Remember, when the tripod is spotted acting erratically, a cloud of birds are seen swarming the vehicle (presumably feeding on the dead/dying aliens inside). We can speculate that, although the aliens inside were incapacitated by disease, the tripod itself was probably functioning on auto-pilot with no precise operator control. Vulnerable, the staggering tripod was then an easy target for the military rocket-propelled ordnance, which easily brought the tripod down.

Charles Austin Miller

The birds weren't feeding on the dead aliens. Ray noticed that they were landing on top of tripods, showing that the force fields that had protected the machines and were impenetrable to military weapons were no longer operable. The military could then destroy them.

raywest

In the original H.G.Wells story, it is plainly stated that the birds were feeding on the dead aliens. So, the aliens are already dead, even though some of the tripods were still staggering around on autopilot.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Its theorized the tripods are bio-mechanical (half organic half machine) and so the system itself can get infected.

Answer: In the original H.G.Wells story, it is plainly stated that the birds were feeding on the dead aliens. So, the aliens are already dead, even though the tripods are still staggering around on autopilot.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: It's a vehicle. If the driver dies or begins to die and is unable to control it properly, it's not going to be a smooth ride. Just like someone might drive erratically when sick or incapacitated, the tripods are going to movie a little "wonky" due to what's happening to the drivers.

Show generally

Question: What was the chronological order in which there were new male employees working at Gentleman's Department after others had left the show? Was it Mr. Grainger, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Tebbs, Mr. Spooner, in that order? Or was it another way and who where they replaced by?

Answer: The Gentleman's Department went as follows: Mr. Grainger left after series 5 and was replaced by Mr. Tebbs, who stayed until series 6. He was replaced by Mr. Goldberg for series 7. Meanwhile, Mr. Lucas also left in series 7. Mr. Goldberg left after series 7. Temporarily there were only two employees in the department. At the start of series 8 Mr. Spooner started working. The "third" position was filled first by Mr. Grossman then Mr. Klein. Incidentally, Young Mr. Grace stayed for the first 7 series, replaced by old Mr. Grace. Mr. Mash was on for the first 3 series, replaced by Mr. Harmon.

Jason Feng

Question: Anyone have any idea what kind of drink Budd was making in his trailer for him and Elle?

Answer: I believe he was attempting a frozen margarita.

Stacey Kotlarczyk

Question: I've tried to look for this in the books but I still don't get it. When future Harry and Hermione come back to the hospital wing after they went back in time and saved Sirius, then their selves should have just left again to do the same thing. What happens to them, since it was already done? Where do they go?

Answer: Time travel is very complex. They are going back to fix things, but from out point of view, they already have! But, if you consider when our Harry and Hermionie leave, the previous Harry and Hermionie would enter the room, it might start to make sense. Basically, an infinite number of Harry and Hermionie travel back to change the past, but we only follow one.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

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