Question: During the SEAL team raid on the rock, they are using two "decoy choppers" which fly towards Alcatraz. What is the point of this? Wouldn't it be easier to just have the transport chopper fly all the way to drop zone under radar coverage?
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: When McClane comes across the two terrorists in the luggage hold, what exactly are they doing? They finish the process before McLane calls out to them (one says, "We're ready to roll", or something similar). Any ideas?
Answer: Not too long after the special forces team arrives, one of them finds a device in the luggage area and said something like "Traced the signal. Found it in the luggage belt." They'd planted it there to listen to the tower chatter.
Question: Are the Clone Wars an excuse for Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to justify absolute power over the Republic?
Chosen answer: Absolutely correct. Similarly, the Episode I dispute between Naboo and the Trade Federation was an excuse for Palpatine to become Supreme Chancellor. And in Episode II, the separatist movement was an excuse for him to be given emergency powers, so he and Dooku could get the Clone Wars started.
Question: In two episodes I have seen an automobile license plate on a vehicle parked on Wisteria Lane that has on it the slogan "The Eagle State." I have looked this up on the Internet and the only state I can find that is "The Eagle State" is Mississippi. Surely Wisteria Lane is not in Mississippi. Is California also "The Eagle State"? Is there any explanation for this automobile license tag?
Chosen answer: The state is purposely left unsaid and only referred to as "The Eagle State" - this is done to imply that Wisteria Lane could be in any suburb in America. The vehicle could be from out of state.
Question: How did the Emperor know that the rebels were going to destroy the new and improved Death Star and that other rebels were going to Endor?
Answer: He has a galaxy-wide intelligence network, plus the insights gained through the Force. He's aware that the Rebels have obtained information about the new Death Star - he claimed to have leaked it himself as part of a trap, but it's possible that he was lying. Either way, he knows that the Rebellion can hardly pass up a chance to destroy the Death Star before it's completed, particularly as they believe that it's not yet operational. As for Endor, it's stated quite clearly that the Death Star is protected by a powerful force field projected from a shield generator on Endor. As no ships can get through the field, that generator has to be the initial target for the Rebels - unless it's taken out, the attack on the Death Star itself cannot proceed.
Question: Why didn't Neo kill the Architect before he left to save Trinity? The Architect seemed important to the machines.
Answer: The Architect, is the father and creator of the Matrix. Not only is he important to the machines, he is important to the Matrix itself. Killing him would most likely affect the Matrix in some way.
Question: Do any important events happen between the end of Episode III and the beginning of Episode IV?
Chosen answer: It depends on whether you choose to view the Expanded Universe (non-movie) stuff as part of the proper Star Wars "universe", but some important events include the start of the Rebellion, Han Solo rescuing Chewbacca from Imperial capture, Lando Calrissian losing the Millennium Falcon to Han, and of course, the capture of the Death Star plans by the Alliance. As of 2016 the events of Rogue One are documented on film, together with other new canonical novels, comics, TV series, etc., and the Expanded Universe has been disregarded.
Question: Where and/or when are we told that Rose has actually died at the end when she returns to the Titanic?
Answer: While its never confirmed she has died, it seems like she died in her sleep after throwing the necklace back into the ocean. After we see her in bed, she is on the Titanic and everyone who died is standing around implying she is now seeing all these people again now that she has died. This could also just be a dream.
Question: After the opening credits, during the short dialogue between Trinity and Tank, they talk about Neo and he says, "We're gonna kill him, understand that". Why are they going to kill him?
Answer: They're not going to kill him themselves, the statement is meant to refer to the fact that the course of action that they're going to take is likely to lead to his death - possibly because he's really too old to be freed, or because he'll do something stupid because he believes that he's the One, something that the rest of the crew seem less than convinced about.
Question: When Jack Crawford is explaining to his team about the Tooth Fairy's note to Lecktor, there is, very prominently in the foreground, what looks like a paperweight on his desk. What exactly is it, and why is it so important as to be in the foreground? (00:43:20)
Chosen answer: It's the plaster cast of the Tooth Fairy's teeth made from the bite impressions he left on past victims.
Question: What is a Balrog, why is it there, and how did it get into Moria?
Answer: Balrogs (or "Valaraukar") are demons of fire. In the really ancient times, shortly after the creation of Middle-earth, they were created as spirits of fire but were corrupted by Morgoth (the "Evil God" of Middle-Earth, if you will, Sauron's boss) and became evil. Most of them were destroyed in the wars between Morgoth and the other Vala, but some escaped into the mountains and went into hiding. The Balrog of Moria had hidden in slumber under the Misty Mountains for many years, until the dwarves dug to deep down and awoke it. It then destroyed the Dwarven settlement in Moria so utterly that no-one knew precisely what had caused it, it was just known as "Durin's Bane". Later, Balin attempted to create a new settlement, but were overrun by the Orcs of the mountains before they could figure out or send word about what "Durin's Bane" was.
Question: During the bank heist, where did the three men's large weapons come from? They could have tucked them in their suits as they did while leaving after the robbery, but the weapons would have been very visible. Where did they come from?
Answer: The CAR-15 type rifles the bank robbers have can be fitted with telescopic stocks. With the stock collapsed and a 11.5 inch barrel (which is what it looked like DeNiro had when he used his rifle to shoot through the windshield of the car he was in) it is relatively easy to conceal the rifle beneath a normal suit jacket. The only thing visible may have been the flash suppressor at the end of the barrel, but most people wouldn't recognize that anyway.
Answer: No, that's a mistake. A carbine style rifle with an 11.5" barrel still has too much length, even once the stock is collapsed. See imagine here: https://c5.staticflickr.com/2/1649/25492440284_c3ba0c97cf_k.jpg It's a long, heavy piece of machinery that would easily profile under a sport coat.
Question: Is "Captain Antilles" (the officer whom Senator Organa orders to wipe C3PO's memory) the character "Wedge Antilles" in the original trilogy, or is he Wedge's father?
Answer: He's definitely not Wedge and most likely not his father. According to George Lucas "Antilles" is like the "Smith" of the Star Wars universe, it's very common. The interesting this is that in A New Hope C-3P0 says that his last master was Captain Antilles. This is most likely the man that we saw. He is also captain of the same model ship as the one that C-3P0 and R2-D2 escape from in A New Hope. It's probably the same ship, the Tantive IV.
Question: Spoiler: If I remember correctly, in "Return of the Jedi" when Luke asks Leia if she remembers her mother, she says she does and that she was very beautiful but very sad. The assumption is that she is speaking of her birth mother and Luke's mother as well. How is that possible if Padme dies in childbirth? Was she talking about Bail Organa's wife?
Answer: The question is not answered in the movies. Leia is either mistaken (possibly remembering her adoptive mother) or, Jedi heritage that she has, she is remembering things from visions of the past: things she did not participate in.
Question: Obviously there's some background on the Sith Lords that isn't explained in the movie. There is the implication that they ruled before the Republic was established. Is there more to this backstory?
Chosen answer: The best place for this is the official Star Wars Databank: http://www.starwars.com/databank/organization/thesith/index.html. There's also a lot of information in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sith.
Question: I heard this movie was banned in the U.S. Is this true?
Chosen answer: This is untrue. Read the reason at http://www.battleroyalefilm.net/movie/banned.html.
Question: In the Attack of the Clones DVD commentary, Lucas promised that in this third movie we would finally find out who Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas is, and how he managed to place the order for the clone army without the Council's authorization. I didn't notice any explanation at all - was there one given?
Chosen answer: There was no explanation in the film. An explanation appears in the (authorised) book called, I think, Labyrinth of Evil, which was released shortly before the film and deals with events leading up to the events of the film. To sum it up, Sifo-Dyas was a respected Jedi who had become disaffected with the policies of the Jedi Council. Encouraged by his colleague, Count Dooku (by then secretly studying the Sith arts), he placed the order for the clone army before being killed by Dooku to prevent anyone from finding out about it.
Question: Don't the impregnated hosts have to be alive in order to incubate the aliens to term? Lex kills the impregnated Italian guy to prevent him have the Alien rip out of his chest, which would imply that the Alien needs to be in a living environment to survive. Not the case with the Alien/Predator hybrid that emerges at the end of the movie, when it's clear that the Predator had died some time ago . . .
Answer: Killing the host doesn't necessarily kill the Alien. Its like human fetuses - if it is far enough along in its development, it can survive even if the host (mother) dies.
Question: In the film, at the theater house, everyone was watching "Faust or the Devil's Bargain." What was the deal that Faust made with the devil?
Answer: 1. To serve Dr. Faustus for as long as he should live, 2. To provide Dr. Faustus with whatever information he might request, 3. Never to utter an untruth to Dr. Faustus. The Devil agreed to these particulars, on the condition that Dr. Faustus would promise that after twenty-four years to surrender his body and soul to the Devil, to confirm the pact with a signature written in his own blood, and to renounce his Christian faith.
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Chosen answer: Alcatraz is small enough and out in the middle of the bay that any lookout in a high point could see and hear a chopper, no matter where it approached from. The idea of the decoys was to split any enemy fire received. The whole insertion of SEALS was absurd, in a real situation like that, the SEALS would have been inserted by submarine or used dive motors to pull themselves to the island.
Grumpy Scot