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: Is it me, or just before Hot Rod smashes through the barrier at the beginning of the movie, you see the Autobots who were building it run away to avoid being hit, isn't one of them Brawn?, but he died only minutes before the scene with Hot Rod.

Answer: A lot of people get confused by this, but the Transformer you see at the road block is actually Huffer, who is of a very similar design to Brawn.

Question: Are we ever told why Maggie's family cares so little about her? I can only assume it's because they think she's run off to California and left them (and returning later with lots of money doesn't help) but that's just my interpretation, unless I missed something.

Krista

Chosen answer: We might just call it an exaggerated portrayal of the "white trash" family. Part of what makes Maggie so endearing is that she struggled and made herself out of nothing, and to create this history, it is expected that her family is awful, and never expected anything out of her.

Question: I'm still not sure how Anna died, all I saw was the werewolf leaping on her. Then when we see her body I couldn't see any bite marks or wounds that would explain exactly how he killed her.

Answer: Could be one of a few things. The impact may have broken her neck. Or when the werewolf jumped and smashed her into a piece of furniture (or whatever it was) it's possible that she was crushed and was killed by it. Or even shock.

Oh yeah? What about one the bride throwing her on the walls with so much power that a car crush is nothing compared.

My thoughs exactly.

Question: Somebody said this movie is not about aliens at all, but in fact about Telly being schizophrenic. Can anybody tell me definitively, if this is true or not.

Answer: Not true, it is about aliens.

Question: Soundwave has two non-animal cassette robots, Rumble and Frenzy, but I'm getting confused on who is who, because in the guide to Transformers, the red and black one is said to be Rumble, but in the episode 'Desertion of the Dinobots part 1', Megatron calls the purple one Rumble, (and if you are wondering, I only have the season two part one DVD, so I don't know much about the T.V series), Can someone please tell me which is which?

Answer: The guide to Transformers (which I believe is known as Transformers: The Ultimate Guide) is based on the comics in terms of character profiles for the most part. In the Transformer comics, Rumble was red and black and had Piledriver arms, whilst Frenzy was purple and could use sonic screams. However, in the cartoon the character colours were reversed for no known reason (so Rumble is now purple and Frenzy is red and black) and both used pile driver arms.

Question: In the commentary the director remarks about how he hated working with an actor and he/she won't work again. Does anyone know who this might be?

Answer: The whole commentary is a joke - they decided to parody other Hollywood commentaries instead of giving a serious one. The actor he was talking about was Ben Stiller, who turns up late for the commentary then leaves early. (The rest of the film is then the commentary for "There's Something About Mary"). So Ben Stiller is the actor, but it's not meant to be taken seriously.

Question: How does Jill find out about the T-virus and its effects? I don't think they ever explained it in the movie.

Answer: The newspaper clippings we see in her apartment at the start refer to a 'mansion incident' - this in fact relates to the events of the first Resident Evil game, when Jill and other STARS members were trapped in a mansion overrun with the T-Virus. By the end of the game Jill knows exaclty what the T-Virus is and what its effects are.

Even though it mentions it in the newspaper clippings in the movie she wasn't even at the Mansion so therefore she wouldn't have known about the t-virus in the movie.

She was at the mansion prior to the events of Apocalypse, and one of the first ones to know about the virus before it hit Raccoon City.

Question: Is it really always Gwyneth Paltrow's beautiful body that we see during all the shots of the striptease? I think when it is showed turned around it is a stunt double.

Answer: A stunt double was used for the "body" shots in the film. Additionally, Gwyneth's body was digitally modified for the posters and DVD/VHS covers to make her a bit fuller figured.

Question: Where can i find a website showing the map of Middle Earth, and preferably one that shows the path of all the fellowship thoughout the movies?

Answer: The most popular and complete site I've seen is theonering.net. It contains detailed information about the books and films, and includes extensive material on Middle Earth. It also happens to be Peter Jackson's favorite fansite for the films.

Chosen answer: The literal translation is "Vilnius Principal", but that doesn't sound as imposing.

Schoolmaster is correct. Nastavnik means male teacher or instructor, i.e. a schoolmaster. It does not mean "Principal/Headmaster/Head Teacher."

Question: When Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn are leaving the troops to go summon that ghost army in the mountain, all of the troops and even Eowyn think he is abandoning them. Why does he not explain where he is going? If he would have told them that he was going to summon a great army to help it would have done a lot for their morale. What does the book say about this?

rstill

Chosen answer: The Dead who live under the mountain are feared and hated by pretty much everyone - note Aragorn's reaction when Elrond first suggests recruiting them. The Rohirrim will be well aware of all the tales - if Aragorn were to tell them what his mission was, they'd likely consider him to be insane. Better for them to think that one of their leaders has to go on some unspecified mission than for them to think that he's actually nuts. Besides, Aragorn has no idea whether the Dead will actually choose to fight - he seems reasonably convinced at first that they won't, and he's not likely to be alone in that opinion - most of the Rohirrim would probably consider him to be a fool for even contemplating it - also not exactly great for morale.

Tailkinker

Answer: In the comics, Krypto is a dog from Krypton who was used as the passenger in a test launch by Jor-El, Superman's father, before he launched the actual rocket taking his infant son to Earth. Krypto's capsule was involved in a mishap, sending it out of Kryptonian orbit and eventually found its way to Earth where he linked up with the young Clark Kent. Like any native of Krypton, Krypto has superpowers on Earth. In Smallville, the dog is a standard Earth dog who has been experimentally injected with kryptonite, giving him super-strength for a limited period of time, who escapes and links up with Clark (who suggests the name Krypto, ostensibly because of the dog's cryptic origins). It doesn't take too long for the dog's strength to fade, and the Kents decide to keep him, although they ultimately name him Shelby, after a dog that Martha Kent had in childhood.

Tailkinker

Question: The number 1138 gets referenced in many later Lucas-related projects. What, if any, is the original significance of the number?

Answer: It's been widely suggested that Lucas based the title on his telephone number at the time. The first three digits corresponded to T,H and X on the keypad - the last four were 1138.

Tailkinker

Answer: It's when Dewey and Randy are talking about the movie Stab. Randy says to him "At least you get played by David Schwimmer, I get the guy who rode the stage coach through one episode of Dr Quinn".

Migster

Question: Just two things I was curious about whilst watching. Does anyone know how they trained the boy who plays Little Jack to do the hand signals and cry on cue etc.? I imagine it would be quite difficult to teach a toddler all of that. Also, how did they get a boy who looks so much like Ben Stiller for the part of Jorge? Is he related in any way or is it just luck that they found a boy like that?

Answer: Little Jack is played by twins so both twins did not necessarily have to learn all of the "tricks". Ray Santiago is not related to Ben Stiller and there are quite a lot of make-up effects applied to his face especially around the nose, ears and eyebrows.

Myridon

Answer: The boy was already taught to sign by his parents before he was discovered.

lartaker1975

Question: How do the hovercraft work? I know the glowing pads contribute to the hovering ability, but is that based on any real technology? And why don't the sentinels have the hover-pads?

Nick N.

Chosen answer: The hover pads work by electro-magnetic repulsion much like the mag-lev trains we have today only much more so. They would not leave a trace of propellant to be followed/tracked/traced nor would they be especially hotter than ambient temperature like jet engines etc. The sentinals do not care if they are tracked, but it is not clear if they use a more advanced form of this technology or something else. Remember that the Zion people have to start over from scratch every so often while the machine culture is constantly advancing so the humans' technology would not necessarily be as advanced.

Myridon

Question: Isn't the whole premise for this movie dead wrong? There is no precedent for an assassination of a president ELECT. He is not president so therefore anyone could become president. The Constitution does not apply to "elects" What does happen?

Answer: According to the Constitution, the Vice-President elect is actually elected separately by the Electoral College, i.e. they are really not a package deal, the death of one doesn't negate the election of the other. The Vice-President elect would indeed become the President.

Myridon

Question: Why did Mordor attack Middle Earth at this specific time? .Why did the battles and fighting all start at a certain time in middle earth. Since their world has been going on for thousands of years you'd think that something specific happened to make them fight.

Answer: Sauron has been probing for weaknesses for hundreds of years. But Denethor's emotional unbalance, the addition of Saruman as an ally, the distraction of Theoden of Rohan, and the increase in the number of Mordor orcs seemed to be a winning combination.

scwilliam

Question: When we first meet Jody with all her piercings, she tells Vincent her tongue piercing helps "fellatio". what does this mean, or do I really want to know?

Answer: Fellatio is an oral sexual act. A quick search in Google will give you many examples.

Jane Doe

Question: JCS is called a rock opera, and not a musical. What would be the difference?

Answer: There are very few (if any) speaking parts in an opera, i.e. all of the text is sung and/or accompanied by music. A musical is more like a play interrupted by songs.

Myridon

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