Question: At the beginning of his experiment, Dr. Octavius is wearing goggles. One lens is brightly colored from the reflection of the fusion, and the other is dark. Is this supposed to foreshadow that he will soon have a split personality between his good side and his evil side?
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: Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, is a born and raised American, he writes books in English. Now why, in this movie, does the letter the children receive in the end contain the text "Groeten Uit Antwerpen" which is Dutch/Belgian? Maybe the answer is obvious if you've read the book, but I haven't.
Answer: The children receive a letter from their parents, who are on vacation in Europe (in this case Antwerp, Belgium - the phrase means "greetings from Antwerp"). They thought it was lost or never sent. It has nothing to do with the author.
Question: When Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts and what's left of the gang go to the museum, several people tell Willis how much they liked him in "that one movie". Then they add something like "I knew it when she didn't speak to you in the restaurant". Are they referring to an actual movie?
Answer: The Sixth Sense. They mean that they figured out the true nature of his character when his wife doesn't directly acknowledge his presence in a restaurant.
Question: In the UK Extended DVD, Aragorn's rousing speech at the black gate seems to finish a little differently. The line, 'This day we fight' sounds different to me from what I remember from the cinema and as I don't own the theatrical version I can't check. Can anyone confirm my suspicions and if so, why did they change it?
Answer: It's not different from the theatrical cut, but a significantly different take on the line was used in the trailer.
Question: What is the idea/situation behind the whole scene at the beginning of the film where the two 'Saints' walk up to the alter?
Answer: The priest thought they were trying to attack or assault the other priest, but since they Saints are very religious and the other priest knows it, he let them be. They kissed the statue to show respect.
Question: When Travis goes into his fitness phase, it shows him hovering his fist over the stove fire. Why is he doing this? What does that achieve?
Answer: It helps him create a tolerance for pain. As we see, he certainly gets a lot of that dished out to him.
Question: When Lupin is on the bridge with Harry, he talks about Lily as though he liked her. Is there any evidence in the book that supports this?
Answer: Lupin does like Lily (in purely friendly terms). They don't say this in the movie, but in the book when Lupin turned into a werewolf she was his only true friend. She was the only one in the school who didn't think he was evil. She believed in him, and that is why he didn't give up. He does say in the book that he is thankful for Lily.
Question: This applies to all three of the CSI shows. How accurate are the methods the forensic scientists use? Does Luminol function in real life like does on the show? Can the investigators actually zoom in on a picture, then press a button, and have it instantly upgrade in quality? (On a recent CSI: New York, they zoomed into the reflection of a ladies eyeball, and made out the t-shirt of a suspect)
Answer: On the surface, the scientific techniques they use in their case work are what are used in real life, but the results and what they interpret from the results, are nonsense. Perfect example: finding suspect fingerprints on doorknobs. Doorknobs are the worst place to get fingerprints because so many people touch them. I can also remember many cases where they will analyse something like petrol by GC-MS and they pretty much can tell which petrol station it came from: again, can't be done, you can sometimes get a general idea of where it came from, but not that accurate. Luminol does function to detect blood but you wouldn't spray it on all over the place like they do because you can't then analyse it for DNA, etc. The stuff with the digital pictures is possible with high resolution cameras. I haven't seen that CSI: NY episode but I can't imagine it being possible to pick up a reflection in someone's eye if the picture's good enough. Something else which the shows don't portray is how long these cases take: forensic labs run on a case work backlog of months, even up to a year. Technology these days is heading towards being able to analyse evidence at the crime scene to make things work faster, but at the moment most evidence goes to the lab and sits there until it gets to the front of the queue.
Question: On the some versions (TV), when Al walks in the lobby to check it out, right before he gets to the elevators and then leaves, the camera pans to the left and you see a terrorist with a machine gun waiting for him. On other versions (VHS) you don't see this terrorist. Why? NOTE: I've seen both on the same TV set.
Answer: The most likely reason is that the two versions have been "panned and scanned" differently. In the original theater version, both things are on screen at the same time at opposite sides of the screen. In one version, the person who did the TV P&S (not someone associated with the making of the film) chose to move the view from one side of the original picture to the other, showing the terrorist, while the person who did the VHS P&S stayed focused on one side of the frame, only showing Al.
Question: Does anyone have an idea how the Klingons - quite human-looking in the original series - have got their forehead furrows for which they are now famous (and easily recognizable)? I've heard rumors so far that the whole issue would be explained in the current 'Enterprise' series, but so far I haven't caught the clue.
Answer: It was discussed in "Enterprise". The Klingons try to make augments (super-klingons), but to do so they used the human augments DNA. This caused the Klingons whom were tested to look partly human (hence the lack of forehead ridges). It then turned into a virus which spread to many of the Klingon population. Causing them to look 'human-like'.
Question: Where exactly did the Spear of Osiris come from? Did Rick/Evy find it with their loot in "Mummy one", or did they get it elsewhere?
Answer: At some point he says the spear is "all he has left" of the treasure from Hamunaptra.
Answer: If you look closely at the end of "The Mummy" as they are leaving with the camels, the camera focuses on one of the bags and the spear is peaking out.
Question: Is there any reason why the title of the movie was changed to "Suddenly 30" for the Australian release?
Answer: As I understand it, the film distributors were afraid the Australian audiences wouldn't know what "13 Going On 30" meant (possibly "going on" in that context was too American), so they changed it to something more understandable.
In Germany it's "30 über Nacht" 30 over night.
Question: What does the 'Not Alone' that was cut into Mirandas arm mean?
Answer: At first, we think it means that Rachel was 'not alone' in being the victim, but we learn later that it means that there was more than one killer.
Question: How much did this film gross overall? And how much did the film cost to make? From what I understand, the film was a total flop and didn't make enough money to even pay it off.
Answer: Try here - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327554/business. You can find out about most movies' budget and box office on the IMDb.
Question: When the police break into Tran's parents house-he mouths something to them, anyone read lips?
Answer: To me, it looked like either "What are you doing in my house?" or "Get out of my house!"
Question: When George is killed by the hoodlums in the middle of the night one of them appears to be wearing a hat similar to the one worn previously by the prejudice guy in the restaurant. Are they supposed to be one and the same?
Answer: Correct: it is the same group of bigots, who has tracked them down in order to beat them.
Question: Beatrix has been in a coma due to a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Is it even possible to give birth to a child in this condition? I'd guess it wouldn't survive after the gunshot trauma.
Answer: There have been a number of well-documented cases of women giving birth while in a coma after serious accidents - in rare cases, the birth has even been natural rather than by Caesarian section.
Answer: Something else to consider is that when Beatrix is shot she says its Bill's baby and it shocks him and throws him off his game. So he didn't blow a chunk out of her head, just grazed her perfectly to put her in a coma. So she lived...barely...and the baby was delivered by caesarean.
Question: Is there a naked couple when Mufasa dies and Simba creates a cloud of dust?
Answer: No, but there is speculation about the cloud of dust/pollen that Simba kicks up when he flops down on the edge of a cliff (mid-movie, after Simba is grown). Some say they see letters that spell S-E-X, but Disney says it was S-F-X, in tribute to the special effects team.
Adding to this, It is only on the original VHS tapes. They edited it for DVD release.
The One With Rachel's Inadvertent Kiss - S5-E17
Question: Monica and Rachel pretend to be watching Ross being stupid at his window, but really it is cardboard cut-outs of Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox but they refer to them as Pammy and Yasmin (Baywatch). This sounds funny, but I understand the joke but don't think it's funny cause it's obviously the actresses (Jenn and Courtney) so are they just poking fun?
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Maybe, but a better explanation would be that only one of the goggle lenses was at the right angle to reflect the light.
Bruce Minnick