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: Are Blaster and Soundwave in any way related like Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are? They transform into tape-playing devices, they both have cassette robots and so on, so does any one know the answer?

Answer: Alpha Trion seems to have created these two robots with special abilities concerning sound. As all Transformers received new Transformation Forms from the arc after their "sleep", it might have been intentionally from the arc to give them Transformation forms similar to their abilities. However it is not mentioned in the series.

Christoph Galuschka

Question: Was Commodus and Lucilla half brother and sister? Wondering because of Commodus' attraction for Lucilla. Was incest normal at that time?

Mortug

Chosen answer: No, they are full brother and sister. They both had the same mother and father. Incest was not exactly normal at that time, but it stretches back within the imperial families as far as Caligula and possibly earlier. There is no evidence to suggest that the real Commodus was attracted to his sister, it was probably just included in the film in order to make the character seem more disturbed, and also as another reason why he would be Maximus' enemy (Maximus and Lucilla were, after all, once lovers).

The Doctor

Season 1 generally

Question: During a restaurant scene Drea deMatteo plays a hostess. She seats the Sopranos, but does not seem to know them. Was she picked to play Adriana after this episode?

Answer: Yup, just like Nicholas Lea was chosen to play Alex Krycek on the X-files after showing up on 1 episode as a different character.

Grumpy Scot

Question: SPOILER: Blade is shown to be driving towards another battle during the end credits. Does this mean that the virus only killed the vampires in the building? Wasn't it supposed to destroy all the vampires in the world?

Answer: No, the amount was only enough to destroy the vampires in the immediate vicinity.

Chaz1003

Question: Why wasn't this movie titled 'Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind'? It involved abduction of humans by aliens.

Answer: At the time the film was made a close encounter of the third kind covered all contact between humans and aliens. The terminology has changed and it was only in the early eighties that it was decided to introduce a new level and abduction was the fourth kind.

pierpp

Answer: Also I would consider that "abduction" has a negative connotation and "contact" is less threatening.

Question: When Will is on the boat with Viola, he begins a speech "Love knows nothing of rank or riverbank." Is this from one of Shakespeare's actual plays, or was it just written for the movie?

Answer: It was just written for the movie.

Tailkinker

Question: During the film Eugene grabs a gun and tries to Kill himself, this did not work as explained in the film it was not his time to die, So how could Kimberley kill herself as it was not her turn to die, due to the fact the officer saved her at the beginning putting her at the back of the queue to die, so the officer would need to die first for Kimberley to kill herself. Is this an oversight in the film or did I miss something?

Answer: Given that Death not only lets Kimberly die but actively helps her (by stopping the cop from getting to her in time), my best guess is that when Kimberly pulled him to the ground a few seconds earlier to avoid the gurney flying from the explosion, it was counted as her saving him and thus made him skip to the back of the queue.

Shay

Chosen answer: He did. At one point he says amusingly to Starling, "Anthrax Island, that was a nice touch, yours?" indicating he knew the deal wasn't real. That didn't matter to him since he was planning to escape, and the deal gave him an opportunity to do so.

RJR99SS

Answer: The "nice touch" comment came only after Dr. Chilton revealed the fraud. But the part about escaping is very good.

Answer: The anthrax island, nice touch part seems like an in joke, like his anagrams but never worked out what it is?

Question: There was a mistake about a crew member's hand being visible when a woman is trying to shut the fridge door, but I can't see it. Can anyone tell me if it is at the top, middle or the bottom of the fridge?

Answer: It's reflected in the window, opposite the fridge - it's a hand pushing at the fridge door.

Hamster

Question: What was the relationship between Dr. Lanning and Dr. Calvin?

Answer: Mentor and protege.

Tailkinker

Answer: Due to his scheduling on Family Ties, Michael J. Fox was not originally available, so they went with their second choice of Eric Stoltz. The studio, however, permitted Fox to film the movie only if it didn't interfere with his obligations to them. So, he filmed Back to the Future at night and on days he wasn't needed at the Family Ties set.

Macalou

Show generally

Question: I've just got the soundtrack, and there's a great song by a band called Vast, called "Touched". I've definitely heard it in the series somewhere, but have no idea where/when it actually gets played - can anyone help?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: This song features in the season one episode "Lonely Hearts", during the montage where Angel and Kate are both looking for the killer.

pinkwafer

Question: When they let the German who shot Wade walk away blindfolded, why on earth did they not handcuff him as well? They did not assure that he was picked up by the allied, and he could easily remove the blindfold. After all it was bad judgment as he was the one who killed Capt. Miller.

Answer: Why not tie up him and put him in a ditch? There's a million things he could have done. One reason he just made him walk away blindfolded was to scare him into thinking he was going to be executed. Its not really shown whether they even had handcuffs, so it's hard to determine if they could have done something like that. Their main concern was with the mission, not what would happen to him. Last thing with letting him go, Miller could have been shot by any one of those German soldiers so it's more just ironic that he killed him.

Lummie

Answer: There are varying interpretations of Bruce's memory in the comics. The most common one is that Bruce has vague memories of what happens while he is the Hulk (i.e. fear, hunger, images), but because the Hulk's brain is less "evolved" he can't remember specific information, like where he went or what he did. The converse is also true: The Hulk has vague memories of Bruce's life as well...he recognizes people that Bruce knows but doesn't know anything about them.

Question: I don't understand why we hear a very high pitched ringing sound sometimes (like when the detectives find the bodies in the attic, or when Karen sees what really happened in the house).

Answer: That ringing sound is the sound the girl makes when she is getting ready to kill someone.

Question: Does Greit say yes when Peiter asks her to marry him? I couldn't work this out.

Answer: Obviously, since she married him in the end.

Question: Why is the very first scene, before the audience is introduced to any of the four main characters, included? If it was just to show the creepy guys Cassie believes are chasing her, why not just keep it at the gothic rave?

Answer: I believe it's both a red herring (Oh, another slasher teen horror) and an attempt at making it more believeable that there are these killers chasing Cassie throughout her 'dream'.

Question: Is it ever revealed what Frankie's secret is? Why is he estranged from his daughter and looking for forgiveness?

Answer: No, the cause of conflict between Frankie and his daughter is never revealed - we only know that she returns his weekly letters, and it has been some time since they have had contact.

Answer: No, he destroyed the statue. The spirit of the guardian survived, but now had no way to manifest itself physically. Presumably, once a new statue was created, the guardian would be able to embody it and come to life.

Answer: No. One theory is that Mulan is the "Great Dragon", as the dragon represents protection, etc, and she protected her family. If you look closely, you can find the Great Stone Dragon watching over Mulan in a few scenes (like in the sword she used to cut her hair).

Question: When Dr. Octavius is out cold in the hospital, he has bandages covering his eyes. Since his eyes were protected during his demonstration and when he took them off to see his wife had been hit by debris, why would he need the bandages? His eyes were never damaged.

Answer: As the surgeons were going to be using metal cutting equipment, it makes sense they don't want bits falling into his eyes - the surgeons themselves all have protective goggles on. His eyes were also arguably damaged from the light of the artificial sun, despite the protective coverings. It's why he's wearing sunglasses for the rest of the film. It's also noted in the comics that Doc Ock's eyes were damaged during his accident, thus making him sensitive to bright light.

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