Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: When Harry and Sirius are being attacked by the Dementors at the lake, Harry sees a glowing stag across the water. When Harry wakes up in the infirmary he says that he saw his father. Since his parents were killed when he was just a baby, how could he have known that the stag was his fathers animagi?

Answer: This is better answered by the book. Apparently each person has a different animal or shape that appears when they use the patronas spell. Professor Lupin (maybe Sirius) told Harry in the book that his father's patronas or shape was the White Stag. When Harry and Sirius were being attacked by the Dementors, Harry thought the White Stag Patronas was his father come back to save them. He only realized later that his own patronas was also a White Stag like his father.

Mark English

Question: When Mrs. Clackett tells Flavia that the bed hasn't been aired, Flavia says, "I'll get a hot water bottle." What is the hot water bottle for?

Chanteuse66

Chosen answer: Hot water bottles were used to warm the sheets and take the "staleness" out of sheets that have not been used in a while.

Mark English

Question: Why did it take so long for the Alien to burst out of the Predator? One burst out of Adele almost immediately upon her waking but it took about half an hour for it to happen to the Predator.

Answer: As mentioned in another correction, the aliens were genetically engineered for fast "hatching" and growth, with a human host. It is not unthinkable that the predator's different anatomy/biochemistry made it harder for the chestburster to develop inside it.

Twotall

Question: I'm not sure if this could be a plot hole or not, but did Jonathan Rivers ever come under suspicion in any of the deaths that he happened to encounter?

Answer: The cop thought he was a suspect, Rivers knows this because when the officer asks him if he is going home whilst at the hospital, he replies with "I'm not leaving town, if that's what you're thinking."

Migster

Question: In the party scene there is a guy talking about a scream in a song which is actually a woman being murdered. Does anyone know the full story or any more details about this urban legend?

Hamster

Chosen answer: The song is 'Love Rollercoaster' by the Ohio Players. All the details on this story can be found at Snopes website http://www.snopes.com/music/hidden/roller.htm.

Xofer

Question: When Jet Li and his wife are in their house after he gets shot after meeting his alter ego that first time, they speak Chinese. what are they saying?

shortdanzr

Chosen answer: After he says he will go to the hospital, his wife says "ni shuo de" which simply means "you said so" (so now he has to do it).

tw_stuart

Show generally

Question: Why does the USAF pronounce the word 'lieutenant' as 'loo-tenant' whilst the RAF and RAAF pronounce it 'lef-tenant'? I realise there are different spellings between countries (aluminium and aluminum, for example) but the word lieutenant is spelled identically in the US and UK, yet still pronounced differently. What's the specific reason for the different pronunciation of this word?

Answer: No-one seems 100% sure. The closest we can get seems to be that the spelling and pronunciation evolved differently - the current spelling comes from the French - lieu tenant = place holder, ie. someone who acts in place of an absent superior. The pronunciation appears to have derived from English ears hearing the "w" sound in the French pronunciation as something closer to a V or F (certainly possible if older French pronunciation was anything like, say, modern German, where words such as "wunderbar" are pronounced "vunderbar"). This site (http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OLD-ENGLISH/2000-11/0973487763) quotes some examples from the 12th century onwards of English spelling, with the first syllable varying between "luff", "lieve", and "Leif". The French spelling seems to have eventually become the standard, but the mis-pronunciation remained, possibly as it was so widely used already. When America declared independence they made an effort to shed many effects of English influence (such as gradually switching to driving on the right). Noah Webster (of dictionary fame) encouraged the independent development of American English, and came up with the American Spelling Book, which pushed spellings and pronunciations in the US rapidly towards their current forms, including the more literal pronunciation of the word "lieutenant".

Jon Sandys

Show generally

Question: In the pilot episode, the pregnant girl looks over at the bald man and he opens his mouth to reveal something bright orange. What was that?

Answer: He was eating a peice of an orange with the skin still on.

XIII

Answer: No, it is maracuya. You will see Locke eating maracuya in the following episodes as well.

Question: Something I really don't understand about the ending. Riggs is looking over his former wife's grave when his beeper tells him that Lorna is expecting their baby. He races to the hospital and there she is about to give birth. So who drove Lorna to the hospital? Can't have been Riggs as he wouldn't have left at a time of need just to see his wife's grave. Doubtful that Lorna drove herself, and no relatives were there (as we see at the end). So what other explanation is there?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: She could have taken a taxi or an ambulance, or even driven herself. A neighbor or friend could have taken her who didn't stay after she was admitted. She might have already been at the hospital for any number of reasons - doctor's appointment, already admitted for bed rest prior to labor, etc. etc. etc.

Myridon

Question: If Donnie was supposed to die anyway, why did Frank call him out of his house at the beginning? Please don't say it was his schizophrenia and the fact that he is "prone to wander at night", because it IS Frank who calls him out, he doesn't get up on his own.

Answer: Frank calls Donnie out because the airplane engine has fallen through a portal into an alternate universe, and at some point during his sleepwalk Frank guides Donnie through another portal to move him to the alternate universe (from the movie theatre we know that Frank can make portals at will). Frank appoints Donnie to be the guardian of the engine and make sure it falls through the alternate universe's portal into the original universe. Donnie cannot be allowed to die until the engine is escorted into the second portal, but if he dies before then the engine never reaches the second portal and remains in the alternate universe, causing the original universe to unravel. Once he and the engine return, he must die because his experiences of the alternate universe predict the future, potentially causing paradoxes.

Phoenix

Question: In the scene where Steve & Jimmy are being chased by the 2 alien fighters, Jimmy says "I'm gonna try something" and his plane rises up. Steve shouts "Jimmy, you cant fake at that speed". Jimmy's plane begins to turn to the left and drift sideways before he eventually gets shot down. What maneuver was Jimmy trying to do & why did he start to have trouble breathing when he attempted this?

Answer: He doesn't say you can't "fake" at that speed. He says you can't "bank" at that speed. Steve and Jimmy are flying at close to the speed of sound. At that speed, banking an F/A-18 would cause very bad things to happen to the pilot and airplane, including incredibly high g-forces which would make it difficult for Jimmy to breathe.

Guy

Question: Why would Del Spooner have to exercise his left arm at the beginning of the day, does it need physiotherapy?

Answer: YES! Because his left arm is not quite human and has not been used for some time while he slept, he has to keep the electrical parts flowing (being connected to his fleshly nerves) for it to fully function.

keith summers

Question: What was the total worldwide gross of Predator 1, and then Predator 2? Sorry but imdb doesn't have worldwide takings for either.

Answer: Worldwide Gross for Predator 1 is $190,534,137, and Worldwide Gross for Predator 2 is $57,169,413.

The-Immortal

Question: Was this movie released theatrically? I know "Tremors 3" and "Tremors 4" were not, but what about this one? Also, is there plans to release "Tremors: The Series" on DVD?

Answer: According to IMDb it was released directly to video. According to Tremors fan sites, SciFi channel currently doesn't plan to release the series on DVD.

Andreas[DK]

Question: Can somebody please tell me all of the celebrity cameos throughout the film and where?

Answer: David Hasselhoff plays the coach of the German dodgeball team. William Shatner plays the host of the game. Chuck Norris plays the third judge. Lance Armstrong plays himself, and he was actually afflicted by cancer in the way he describes. I believe he says in the film he won the Tour de France 5 times since - that's now increased to six. A real dodgeball player, Tobias 'Sniper' McKinney played for the German Blitzkreig team.

Gavin Jackson

Question: I wonder, in what year is the movie set?

Answer: According to the opening text, the initial battle takes place in the winter of 180AD.

Tailkinker

Question: Is there any story as to why the overall quality of this production was much less than the first Mortal Kombat? For example, the computer-animated creatures and morph effects seemed much worse than the first movies, and certainly worse than any other movie of the year. Also, the costumes and sets were of a lower quality than the first movie. Everything seemed to be a step down from Mortal Kombat 1. You would think that the sequel would have a bigger budget, but it seemed just the opposite with this movie.

Answer: Mortal Kombat 2 was given a budget around the same as the first one probably indicating that New Line (makers of the film) were not convinced the film would not be as much an success as the original was. The buget of 30 million is not too high of a risk for a major film studio. The original was more built on the novelty of the video game and the interest of how it would translate to the screen so a sequel was always going to be tough. While it's hard to find out why the quality was unimpressive, this can just be more from different film crews from the first or just tougher f/x to try and create for the film in the time available. Take The Mummy Returns for example. The Scorpion King near the end looked far too computer generated. This was despite a massive budget and impressive CGI for both films.

Lummie

Answer: From what I've gathered about the film, the entire production was rushed by the studio and producers, as they wanted to capitalize on the first film's success. Pre-production was troubled at best. Funds weren't allocated to the right places. The film was often being re-written on the fly on set, so large chunks of the movie were being changed at the last minute. It also had a first-time director at the helm who supposedly had a very bad time making the movie due to how hectic it was. And finally, the studio forced them to release the film before it was completely finished, hence the effects and editing were never finalized. So basically, it was a perfect storm of a rushed production without a finished script, an overwhelmed first-time director, and a studio that wouldn't let the producers properly "complete" the movie. Hence, the entire film was a complete mess and was very low-quality.

TedStixon

Question: What is going on in the room where the professor left the little boy after he found the dead body and 'karen' goes into the room and all you hear is a thumping sound?

Answer: Its the thumping of the husband's legs against the wall from hanging himself.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Question: In an earlier question someone asked about Brego and said it was Eomund's horse. Eowyn says that it was her cousin's horse. I thought Theodred was her cousin not Eomund. Is that true?

Answer: You're correct - Theodred, who rode Brego before his death, is Eowyn's cousin. Eomund is her late father, who married Theodwyn, King Theoden's sister.

Tailkinker

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