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: Does anyone know the calls of a bosun's whistle? Does it mean "get on it" or are there certain tunes for certain calls, etc.

Answer: The boatswain's calls are to tell the crew what time it is, or what to do. So, there are different calls for different things. Two good pages to check out are http://www.btinternet.com/~fourthgill.seascouts/bosuncall.htm and http://home.usaa.net/~crowmax/bosun.htm.

Answer: Don Cheadle is uncredited despite having a major role. This is due to a dispute over his billing. Cheadle wanted above the title billing alongside George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt. When he was refused, he refused to be credited at all. Cheadle received above the title billing in Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).

Answer: He didn't want a credit for his part, he would prefer it was uncredited. As far as I know he has not given a reason.

Question: When Denzel and Ethan go to visit the Spanish gangsters towards the end and Denzel gives the presents, Is the money inside the blender for them to kill Ethan's character or simply he owed some money? If then the money wasn't for them to kill him what reason did they have to kill him?

Lummie

Chosen answer: The money to kill Hawke was in the kitchen appliance box.

Question: Is Mirage a super? If so, what is her power? She tells Mr. Incredible that, like him, she doesn't officially "exist" and her name sounds like a superhero name.

Answer: No, she isn't a super. She just works with Syndrome as his assistant.

Question: When the fat lady painting lets Harry and the others in after "breaking" the glass, she says something quite quietly to herself, possibly foregin. I can't make it out - does anyone know what she says? The subtitles don't say...

Hamster

Chosen answer: She calls them plebs - dates back to Roman times, relating to common people.

Super Grover

Question: Does anyone have any idea in what country Pai Mei's home and training facility are supposed to be?

Answer: Pai Mei's home and training facility are located in China, which is likely why he shows so much disdain for the Bride's talents in the Japanses art of the samurai.

Question: Does anyone know what the monster thing is at the end of the film? When the screw driver thing comes out of the ground.

Answer: He called himself the Underminer. Looks like the supers coming out of hiding has brought the super-villains back too.

Question: When Danny Glover was taking pictures of Cary Elwes home, didn't he wonder who the stranger was peering out from the window? And since he didn't know who the man was, why didn't he follow up or call the police? Also, how could photos from Glover's camera be so quickly developed, and then somehow put into the toilet in the sewer room?

Answer: The pictures found in the toilet were taken by Adam. They were probably taken from his dark room (where he developed pictures) when he was kidnapped. Glover doesn't know Zep, but Glover says something along the lines of, "Does he know someone's at home with his wife?" Meaning he may have thought that she was having an affair.

Question: At the end of the film just before Tom hanks dies, he lowers his oxygen mask and says to partner Banderas "I'm ready". Ready for what exactly? Ready to die? Ready for a bit of final smooching? Or ready (and this is just my assumption) for Banderas to pull the plug?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Ready to die.

Question: In the scene where they find their dream home, what are all the things Pumbaa said that sounded like "Hakuna Matata"?

Answer: Hot tuna frittata, The spinach armada, A spoon of ricotta, A wormy piccata, Kahuna colada, A blue enchilada, Legumes on a platter, This oughtta be hotter, I gotta lambada.

Question: What song is being played when Dick is driving the Batmobile through Gotham?

Answer: It's called "Smash it up" by The Offspring.

Question: Does anyone know how to build these type of ships, using traditional techniques? And any recommended books to read (i.e. rigging, boat building, etc.)?

Answer: Go to http://www.barkendeavour.com.au/endfox/page1.html and read how a full sized replica of Capt. Cook's ship was built from the original plans in Australia (and see this ship's connection with the movie). There are many such ships sailing the world's oceans. I spent 6 fantastic weeks in (crew sail "in" not "on") HM Barque Endeavour. We left Halifax, Nova Scotia in November, and sailed south to Barbados. So, yes, those people know how to build, and maintain a wooden ship that meets historic museum standards. They even do a certain rope whipping "wrong" because that's the way it was done on the original ship. I was reading the log of one crewmember while lying in his bunk. He described a hand hold he had affixed to the beam above his bunk to help in getting out of the bunk. I reached up, and there it was! Now THAT's attention to detail! Also check out Mystic Seaport to get you started.

Question: Is the healing technique that Mr. Miyagi uses where he rubs his hands together real, or just something made up for the movie?

Krista

Chosen answer: That's debatable. Some Chinese people believe that they can heal injuries with the power of their hands, but it has yet to be proved by science. They added it into the movie to make Mr Miyagi seem powerful and mysterious.

Answer: The rubbing of the hands is to get Miyagi's chi flowing - the Eastern cultures believe this to be inner energy of the spirit. A Western perspective would be to say Miyagi did this to warm his hands. The heat generated would help massage Daniel's injury (think of a hot stone massage). He then focuses on the pressure points and eases the knots in Daniel's body (or in the leg injury scene, his pain). He didn't 'heal' Daniel; he simply numbed the pain, which is why Daniel was still limping.

Question: How much of a difference is there between the David Lynch version of this film and the Allen Smithee one?

Answer: A lot. The Allen Smithee version is nearly twice as long, the intro scene is completely different, narrated by a man and containing stills of artist renditions of events. The version contains many new scenes, additional dialog and extensions of existing scenes and some minor plot changes. The most famous scene only found in the Allen Smithee version is one of the Fremen making the water of life.

Question: Why aren't Nyssa and the other vampire fried by the big UV grenade? Sure, they dove underwater, but light doesn't diffuse THAT much underwater. I'm using the logic from an entry's correction that the UV light bounced around the corners is still enough to kill reapers, so it ought to kill them too.

Answer: In Blade I we saw that with sunscreen and the avoidance of direct exposure Deacon Frost and his lackeys could go out by day. The reapers are probably two or three times more sensitive than normal vampires so the exposure was probably not long or direct enough to kill the regular vampires.

Question: How could Dracula's werewolf antidote work on regular werewolves? I thought it could only work the first night they became a werewolf, and it had to be before the twelfth chime of midnight? Or did I miss something?

Answer: There is a lot of confusion about Dracula's control of werewolves and the antidote. After the twelfth stroke of midnight, a werewolf is under the complete control of Dracula. This is why Velkan couldn't kill Dracula: He knew a werewolf could kill him, even tried telling this to his sister, but couldn't consciously kill Dracula. Dracula keeps the antidote as a safety measure: If any werewolf summons enough will to get out of his control, he can make them human again.

Question: Was there a deleted scene on what happened to Nick? He seems to disappear and reappear out of nowhere.

Answer: No, there wasn't. I thought so too, but, no. In the original script I read there was, but they took it out for time reasons and never filmed it. Therefore, if it was never filmed, then it is not possible to be a deleted scene.

Question: During the opening credits, a song by Johnny Cash is played called, 'When the Man Comes to Town', or something like that. Is it the original song (i.e. not changed at all for the purposes of the film)? Also, can anyone tell me what Bible passage is recited at the end of it? Thanks.

Answer: The song is called "The Man Comes Around" and it is the original song that Johnny Cash sang - there is no changes to the song for the movie. The Bible passage is from Revelations when the passage speaks of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Show generally

Question: I was told that all songs in the Monty Python series/movies were written and composed by either Eric Idle or Neil MacInnes. Is this true? If not, who else wrote or co-wrote songs?

Answer: "The Lumberjack Song" and "Spam" were written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin. "If I Were Not in the C.I.D." was written primarily by John Cleese. Other than those, and "Jerusalem," all songs for visual media were written by Eric Idle and Neil Innes (not MacInnes). Mind you, they all wrote more songs that appear on the albums.

Answer: He did in the film, but for the soundtrack she recorded the song with Jesse McCartney. In an interview he admitted to being a little nervous about the singing.

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