Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: This is for ALL THREE movies, how many of Arwen's scenes actually happen in the books?

Answer: Practically none of them. Arwen appears in about two scenes in the Fellowship of the Ring and is mentioned in a third - she has no dialogue at all. She is never mentioned in The Two Towers. She shows up at the end of the Return of the King to marry Aragorn. She then has one scene (the only one where she says anything), where she tells Frodo that he would be allowed to go in the West if he so desires and also gives him the jewel that, in the film, she gives to Aragorn. When the filmmakers said that they beefed her role up a bit, they really weren't kidding. One of the appendices to the book does contain a section called "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", which goes into those parts of their relationship that occur both before and after the events of the main storyline. For obvious reasons, she shows up in that rather a lot.

Tailkinker

Question: I've seen ROTK Extended and the disappearing horses at the Black Gates still has no logical explanation. Does anyone have a good explanation as to how or why the Host Of The West dismount?

Answer: Cavalry are most effective in situations where there's plenty of room to manoeuvre - in close combat, where the horses can't move too well, the riders can be pulled off their mounts relatively easily, which would put them at a enormous disadvantage until they could regain their feet (enough so that there would be an extremely high probability that they would be killed before they could manage this). Given the vast numerical superiority of the opposing forces and the fact that they were clearly going to be surrounded, it would make sense to dismount before the battle started. As to where the horses went, obviously the Host wouldn't want a lot of panicked horses getting in the way - they'd be extremely dangerous - so they would simply have designated a couple of riders to lead the riderless horses out of the combat zone before the army was surrounded.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: I know that Seth MacFarlane does many voices, such as those of Brian, Peter, Stewie and other generic sorts of voices for background characters. I just wondered if anyone knew which of these voices was his own, or the closest to his own. He seems to use the "Brian" voice the most.

Answer: The "Brian" voice is almost exactly like his own.

Xofer

Question: What exactly is the Mouth of Sauron?

Answer: In the books, a man, in the films, not particularly obvious, he holds a position of great power and importance in the land of Mordor, being the spokesperson of Sauron himself. Had Sauron defeated the forces of Middle-Earth, the Mouth (also known as the Leftenant of the Tower of Barad-Dur) would have ruled the western lands (in his master's name) from a reconstructed Isengard.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: "Bittersweet Symphony", by The Verve, from their album "Urban Hymns".

Shay

Question: Who is Shaggroth? I have heard his name mentioned, however he is not in the films, at least not that I recall.

Answer: In the film, the Uruk's name is Shagrat and he is played by Peter Tait. He and Gorbag, an Orc, fight for Frodo's mithril shirt up in the tower at Cirith Ungol.

Super Grover

Question: In the Extended Edition, Aragorn is looking into the Palantir and you see Arwen in it. Then the Evenstar on Aragorn smashes on the ground, does this really happen?

Answer: No, the Evenstar does not break. Aragorn wears it in later scenes, such as at the Black Gate. Sauron uses the Palantir to try to manipulate and scare Aragorn with the vision of Arwen dying. When the Evenstar, which represents Arwen UndÓmiel who is the Evenstar of her people, shatters, it adds to the emotional impact on Aragorn.

Super Grover

Question: At the end of the battle at Pellenor fields in the Extended Edition, you see Eomer weeping and holding someone dead. Who is it?

Answer: He holds Eowyn, his sister, who he believes to be dead, but she is not. Later, at the House of Healing Aragorn heals her, while Eomer sits nearby.

Super Grover

Question: What is the name of the song sung in the background, in the Extended DVD, at the houses of healing while Eowyn is being healed?

Answer: It's called Arwen's Song, Liv Tyler sings it. Here are the words: "With a sigh you turn away. With a deepening heart no more words to say. You will find that the world has changed forever. The trees are now turning from green to gold. The sun is now fading, I wish I could hold you closer."

Super Grover

Answer: Jaleel White played very nerdy, squeeky voiced Steve Urkle on a TV show Family Matters. He was a constant pain to neighbor Carl Winslow, a cop, and had a crush on Carl's daughter Laura. Because Steve Urkle was so clumsy, he always asked, "Did I do thaaat?"

Super Grover

Question: I may have missed this, but why does Frank tear the labels off bottles?

Answer: He was taking the labels off the bottles to make fake checks, using the logos as this is the one thing that he could not create on the checks. The MICR printer was only used to print the routing and account numbers and the emboss the checks.

Answer: He does it so he will have things in his wallet. As he has no identity of his own and steals or creates others, filling his wallet with labels is fulfilling a subconscious desire to be normal and have an identity.

Grumpy Scot

Question: I am completely confused about the ending of this film. I mean, the camera-geiger counter starts clicking showing the nuclear weapons are on the boat, but they are not, they are still being moved. And the weapons do get onto the yacht, but both parts of it explode right at the end. Wouldn't that destroy the bombs as well, eg. massive atomic explosion? It is probably just me, I am known to be slow, but can someone explain?

KingofallSamurai

Chosen answer: Geiger counters show when radiation, even faint traces, are present. Therefore, if nuclear weapons were there recently, it will register. The scientist told Domino he threw the detonators overboard so the bombs could not explode. Also, nukes are surprisingly durable. Being in a large explosion will not detonate the core, only a specific chain reaction will.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Answer: Yep he's right.

Question: Why does Carrie stand in front of her mirror and use her powers to break it? I just don't understand why she does this. Does she intentionally break the mirror?

Hamster

Chosen answer: She believes that she is ugly and unwanted. So her power subconsciously acts accordingly so she won't have to look at herself.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: It's just something the kid came up with. He is not quite all there. It's just something that illustrates how odd the kid is.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: My guess is that they are characters of the Christmas story.

Question: If Gondor's royal line of succession was broken, how was it re-established from Isildur to Aragorn?

Answer: This'll be a complex answer - sorry in advance. When Elendil, Isildur and co returned to Middle-Earth after the Fall of Numenor, they set up two kingdoms, Arnor in the north, ruled directly by Elendil (as High King of both kingdoms) and Gondor in the south (ruled jointly by Isildur and his brother Anarion in their father's name). Elendil and Anarion both died in the War of the Last Alliance, and Isildur fell shortly after, leaving Isildur's youngest son Valandil (his other sons died with Isildur) ruling Arnor and Anarion's son Meneldil ruling Gondor. Valandil, as the direct heir of Elendil, should have been proclaimed High King over both kingdoms, but Meneldil refused to recognise his authority over Gondor - the two kingdoms effectively became entirely seperate at this point. Meneldil's line ruled Gondor for two thousand years before the last King, answering a challenge from the Witch-King, entered Minas Morgul, never to be seen again, leaving the Stewards in control of Gondor. Arnor, in the meantime, lasted nine hundred years before splitting into three kingdoms, each ruled by one of the three sons of the last king of Arnor. The land of Arthedain, ruled by the eldest son, lasted slightly more than one thousand years before falling to the forces of Angmar - the people vanished into the wilderness, becoming the Dunedain rangers, with the son of the last king becoming their chieftain, a role that was handed down from father to son until, another thousand years later, Aragorn was given the position. So Aragorn can trace his ancestry directly back to Elendil, the last High King of the two Kingdoms, allowing him to legitimately claim the throne of Gondor. Phew...

Tailkinker

Question: Why didn't wolverine simply retract his claws when the cops showed up at the front of bobby's house? Might have saved him from being shot.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: They're ordering him to drop them, to put them somewhere where he doesn't have access to them. Obviously he can't do that, however, retracting them isn't going to satisfy them - indeed, if he suddenly retracted them, the shock might actually prompt them to shoot. His best bet is to keep them in view, but make it plain that he's not taking any hostile action with them. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

Tailkinker

Question: How come the Mouth of Sauron was never sent into battle?

Answer: He's not a warrior - he's Sauron's spokesman. The attacks on Gondor and Rohan are intended to wipe those societies out - Sauron's not interesting in accepting any sort of surrender, so there's no point in sending his spokesman in with the troops.

Tailkinker

Question: How was the "brain-scene" filmed?

Answer: It was filmed using a animatronic robot in some places, then using CGI on the top of Ray Liotta's head (some behind the scenes footage shows him with a green skull cap), so he could be shown moving and talking.

BillyBlake

Question: Why, at the beginning of the movie, is there a ton of smoke hovering over the table where the young boys are playing the game? I know they are not smoking cigarettes. The mother is obviously not smoking. Where is the all the smoke coming from? It isn't incense either.

William Bergquist

Chosen answer: They actually are smoking and there are cigarettes on the table.

Mike K

Answer: It didn't show anyone smoking but there is a lit and burning cigarette on the table.

Answer: They're definitely not smoking but there is a lot of smoke. You can see an actual flame at one point so I'm guessing incense.

Answer: There also is a can of insecticide AND air freshener. Years ago they were used to mask the smell of smoke. The mother was too busy and addled to notice them smoking.

Question: In the "Fan Credits" section, I noticed that Sean Astin's (Samwise Gamgee) name appear on it. Are there other actors whose names appear on the fan credits?

Onesimos

Chosen answer: Yes, there are quite a lot of them, but I wouldn't want to deny you the pleasure of looking for them yourself. I'll give you Dominic Monaghan, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee - see how many others you can spot.

Tailkinker

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