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: I heard that the famous scene where Jim Carrey makes "the most annoying sound in the world" was an ad lib. Any truth to this?

Answer: Apparently yes, he ad-libbed that line. There were a few other instances in the film where he supposedly adlibbed including the man on the moon line, and when he eats the condiments after eating the chillis.

Lummie

Question: I was talking with a friend and we were trying to figure out why the little birds and black hawks took off from the base and arrived at the city in such a tight and uniform formation. Wouldn't this have been a clear sign from miles away the Americans were up to something?

Answer: While its minor, the militia does pick up that the Americans are up to something and they call each to warn everyone the Americans are heading their way. The best explanation as to why the helicopters and black hawks took off altogether was they wanted to give the militia as little time to organise an offense. The Americans' plan was to have helicopters land many of the troops on the ground to capture the prisoners and to give cover to the troops travelling by armored vehicles. As the film shows the Americans under-estimated the Somalians and their plans from the beginning were very questionable. In the film Tom Sizemore's character goes into detail after the briefing about all the problems including going in the day instead of night.

Lummie

Homer's Barbershop Quartet - S5-E1

Question: In the scene where the fans turn against Chief Wiggum in Moe's Cavern, Moe says something to the Be Sharps manager about paying girls to scream. When the manager says "I didn't pay any girls to scream" Moe has a shocked look on his face and then turns off the Cavern's neon light and drives away fast. I've tried very hard but cannot get this joke. Can anyone explain it to me?

Answer: Not as much a joke as it is Moe is so surprised that this small, unknown band is gaining that much support without needing to pay them to do so.

Lummie

Chosen answer: It is specifically not stated which three books he took with him, leaving it open to audience speculation.

Mobrien316

Answer: In 1917, James Filby has driven and parked facing in the wrong direction.

What does that have to do with the question?

Answer: I did hear that Patrick Stewart was on the short list of actors to play the role, but he was in demand of both stage and film. He may have been doing X2 at the time.

keith summers

Question: When Marty is playing "Johnny B. Goode", he is doing guitar moves from different performers. What performers is he imitating?

Answer: It seems to me that he is imitating the following: Chuck Berry (which makes sense), Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and Pete Townsend (the kicking the amp bit.)

Daniel Wilkie

Also Bruce Springsteen doing the full guitar circle, Angus Young crawling on the floor and Jimi Hendrix with the guitar solo.

Question: What did Dolarhyde mean in his letter to Lecter that if Lecter responds next time Dolarhyde will send him something wet?

Answer: It means he will send Lecter a fresh body part from one of his victims.

Sierra1

Question: How did Reese know that Sarah was at the Tech-Noir bar. Is there a deleted scene with Reese where he finds out where she is or was it luck.

Answer: It's all in the film - Reese tails Sarah from the moment that she leaves her apartment. He's waiting outside the bar that she's in when she sees the news report and follows her down the road when she leaves - she sees him and gets scared, which is when she ducks into Tech-Noir. He sees her go in, then walks past, before turning back and entering himself.

Tailkinker

Question: In real life, would Drago have faced criminal charges after killing Apollo in the ring? After all he did it on purpose.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Not really because he only intended on physically punishing Apollo, as do most fighters do when they are in a fight. In real life if Drago had pushed the ref aside like he did in the fight, it would have been stopped right then and there, and maybe Apollo would have lived.

Rollin Garcia Jr

During the press conference and long before the fight, a physical altercation almost happened, and although it was initially stopped, Drago had a look on his face that looked like he wanted to kill Apollo right there.

Chosen answer: Well, we don't know whether Yoda could have defeated Dooku or not, as Dooku resorted to trickery in order to get away - by trying to drop the column onto Anakin and Obi-Wan, then escaping while Yoda's attention was diverted. As such, the battle was inconclusive, although the fact that Dooku had to cheat in order to escape does seem to indicate that he himself doubted his ability to defeat the Jedi Master. As such, we can't really determine whether Anakin or Yoda had the higher power level from their respective battles with Dooku - a more telling indicator would be that Obi-Wan, who is, at best, on level terms with Yoda and is, to be honest, probably less powerful, was ultimately able to defeat Anakin.

Tailkinker

My Cake - S4-E6

Question: What exactly was the point of Cox taping Dan's head to the wall? It just seemed odd and random to me.

Answer: Dan was drinking beer and Cox feared that Dan might get so intoxicated he would fall asleep and drown in the tub.

Mortug

Question: I'd like to know who performed the stunt near the end of the movie where Gabe jumps from the cliff as he runs from Qualin in the helicopter, and then catches the ladder on the way down. I thought that looked incredible.

Answer: There are two stunt doubles for Mr Stallone on imdb.com, their names are Mark De Alessandro and Jeff O' Haco. The site doesn't specify who did what.

The-Immortal

Answer: It's a reference to the movie (and the book, technically) "Red Dragon," in which the serial killer holds a reporter captive and shows him slides of the people he has killed, repeating over and over, "Do you see?"

Question: Why do they sometimes put "La" in front of Carlotta's name? I'm sure it's something to do with the Italian/Spanish language but I took the class a long time ago.

Answer: It is a common practice to refer to an operatic diva as La , e.g. Leontyne Price as La Price and sometimes you'll even hear Barbra Streisand called "La Streisand".

Myridon

Question: In the scene where Bobby and Rogue meet in the classroom, what subject was Storm teaching?

Answer: The blackboard has "THE ROMAN EMPIRE" written at the top, so presumably it was a history class.

Sierra1

Question: What's the relative timeline of this movie? It's stated that it starts in the year 10,191 but there don't seem to be any other dates besides that.

Answer: The entire DUNE universe is much more complicated than any movie. For a relatively useful timeline, see www.smirnov.demon.co.uk/Arrakis/timeline.htm.

scwilliam

Question: The enemy is referred to as "tommies". Why do they call them that?

Answer: Tommy or Tommy Atkins is a term for a common soldier in the British Army. It is particularly associated with being used by the Germans during WWI, but may have been around as early as 1743 - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommies.

Myridon

Question: If Vader wants to kill the current Emperor, and become emperor himself, why does he not let Luke kill him? I am thinking he needs the Emperor to convert Luke to the dark side.

Answer: You are correct. Vader wanted to kill the Emperor but as a Sith he would need an apprentice. He wanted his son Luke to be his new apprentice, but he knew he needed Luke to kill the Emperor in order to completely turn to the Dark Side.

Mark English

Question: Why would they use real leeches? Isn't that a danger to the actors?

Answer: Leeches are not dangerous, just disgusting. While fairly easy to remove, leeches will fall off by themselves when they are full. They are not known to transmit any diseases though the wound can get infected just as any other scratch might.

Myridon

Spam - S2-E12

Question: In the courtroom scene, the first question Eric Idle asks Michael Palin is "You live at 46 Horton Terrace?", to which Palin replies in the affirmative. A few questions later, Idle says "You did say 46 Horton Terrace?", Palin says he did, and Idle says "Got him.", he bangs a small gong, and the courtroom (and the studio audience) laughs uproariously and applaudes. I do not get the joke here. The address is the same in both questions. I have watched this scene many many times and am still at a loss. Can someone help me?

Answer: Eric Idle bangs the gong because Michael Palin said 'Yes' - They're playing the 'yes-no' game, where the idea is to answer questions without using the words yes or no. At the time there was a quiz show called Take Your Pick, the first round of which was the 'yes-no' game - contestants had to answer questions for 60 seconds to pass through to the next round.

umathegreatstationarybear