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: Were the MS-5 faces modeled after an actual person?

Answer: They all look vaguely like Alan Tudyk to me, who did the voice of Sonny.

Phoenix

Question: One trivia entry says "Look at the title Final Destination 2. Wouldn't that be kind of an oxymoron." What exactly does this mean?

Answer: If it's the "final" destination, then it is, by definition, the last one, so you couldn't have a second one after that.

Xofer

Question: Who are Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?, I haven't read the books yet, so I don't know if there's anything about them in the books.

Answer: They're the nicknames of Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and James Potter. Lupin is "Mooney" because he's a werewolf (full moon, get it?), Pettigrew is Wormtail because he's a rat, Black is Padfoot because he's a dog, and Potter is prongs because he's a stag (with antlers).

Krista

Question: In the scene with Buffalo Bill and the well at his house, is that a spoof of Buffalo Bill in "Silence of the Lambs"?

Answer: Yes.

T Poston

Question: When Peter is saving the child from the burning building, he attempts to leap the gap which appears, but does not make it. Why can't he still use his Spidey powers to leap the gap or web sling his way over it? We have seen how his powers have become inconsistent, but not non-exsistent.

Answer: He hadn't gotten his confidence back. Plus with all the fire and smoke aroung he would have found it difficult to concentrate. He had enough trouble concentrating in the alleyway let alone a burning building.

XIII

Question: Why does Mr. White snap his fingers when trying to light his cigarette lighter?

Answer: It's a way of lighting a zippo lighter. If you snap your fingers close to it, your middle finger will strike the wheel and light it.

Nick N.

Question: When the boat is sinking and everyone is in the cage, what does Grant say to Ellie on the satellite phone and how does she know what it means and which island to go to out of the five?

Answer: He says "The River, Site B." Obvisouly there is only one main river on Site B (the island). Ellie was smart enough to figure it out.

XIII

But how does she get a US navy battle group to turn up? Previously the US embassy wouldn't send anyone for a missing child, but a fleet for an old man off a very garbled phone call? As far as I remember, she had a fairly ordinary job/life in a suburb of the America.

Ellie's husband is Mark Degler, who works at the State Department, and it's with his connections that the rescue gets underway. Early in the movie Ellie told Grant he's bad about asking for help, and he should ask her anything anytime. Near the end, before their phone line was cut off, Ellie had heard the dinosaur roar and screams, so she knew Grant was in trouble.

Super Grover

I think it has something to do with what her husband does for a living.

Answer: Ellie's husband is in treaties and diplomatic relations and would be able to get a rescue group sent.

Question: I remember hearing that The Lion King was the first Disney movie with no human characters, is there any truth to this?

Answer: It's actually the third, the first two being Robin Hood and Bambi (no human is ever seen, only heard in Bambi).

Nick N.

Chosen answer: Most likely? Charlie. He probably knows that there is something between the two and lets her know which explains the following scene where Charlie walks into the bar he is at.

shortdanzr

Question: During the Greece scene, there is a line strung at the end of the covered area (behind Marie) with several things hanging on it that look like seaweed, pennants, or something. What could that be?

scwilliam

Chosen answer: They are octopii hung up to dry in the sun. A common sight at Greek islands. If you search Google, there are pictures of them. They are humorously mentioned at http://www.thevisualrecord.com/dbphotopages/photopage.php?photo_id=80.

Question: I know about Peter Jackson's kids appearing as extras several times in the films, but there are other people who are used as extras several times. Like the old woman in the caves at Helm's Deep and in the streets of Minas Tirith. Since a lot of the extras are crew members or relatives of people involved in the films, I was wondering if anyone knows who the recurring extras are.

Answer: There are far too many crew and family members appearing in the three films to list here. A few examples - and this really is only a few - include conceptual artist Alan Lee, who played one of the nine kings of men as seen in the prologue of FOTR (second king from the right if I remember correctly) and who also appeared as a Rohirrim peasant in TTT, when swords are being handed out in Helm's Deep. Right next to Alan Lee in that same scene is supervising art director Dan Hennah. Liv Tyler's riding double, Jane Abbott, appears as an elf during the wedding scene at the end of ROTK. Viggo Mortensen's son Henry appeared in TTT, standing behind the boy Haleth whose sword Aragorn examines. And of course, Peter Jackson himself appeared in all three films: in FOTR as a dirty Breelander the hobbits pass on their way to the Prancing Pony; in TTT as a Rohirrim soldier who throws a spear at the invading orcs from above the top of the ramp to Helm's Deep; and in ROTK as a Corsair of Umbar, seen standing on one of the black ships. There are many, many, many other cameos as well.

Question: During Rex Harrison's entire performance as Julius Caesar his arms and legs are covered by garments underneath his military garb and robes, even while in Egypt. The other Romans as would be expected have bare legs and arms. Was Harrison suffering from some skin condition or was he too shy or embarrassed of his limbs to show them in the film?

Answer: The people of higher rank would usually have more or better armor so in his case that would probably be extra armor for his legs and arms.

Show generally

Question: In the episode with burn's bear bobo, homer trips down the stairs and discoveres bobo behind the fish tank. With the music and the lighting, is the way this was done supposed to represent something, or is it copied from somewhere, or was it just an interesting thing the writers came up with?

Answer: I thought perhaps it was a parody of a scene from Baz Luhrman's 'Romeo Juliet' when the two title characters see one another through an aquarium. I'm not 100% sure, though.

Question: Anyone who has the Cube DVD, is it really true that if you put the DVD disc upside down in your player, that there is another film on it?

Hamster

Chosen answer: Having just tried it with my copy (Region 1), no, it doesn't appear to be true.

Tailkinker

Answer: I have heard that you can often have a short film by the same director on the other side of the DVD.

Simple way to tell is if there's printing on top. For a DVD to be double sided, both sides will have the same blank shiny surface. Any writing, like the name of the film, etc. will render the top level unreadable.

Answer: Yes, he has played the flute since childhood.

Question: Why, being there so many sequences of nudity in the film, the woman in the funeral car Max brings for Noodles after he is released from jail has her breasts blurred?, why would this scene be conceived like that?.

Answer: You have a censored version. The American R1 version has no such censoring.

Question: Near the end of the movie, Edward Gracey says to Ramsley that the letter is written in Elizabeth's hand. If Mr. Gracey knew what Elizabeth's writing looks like, wouldn't he have realized that the fake letter Ramsley wrote was in fact fake and not from Elizabeth?

Emily

Chosen answer: Considering Ramsley's intelligence, he would have been able to make "couterfeit" handwriting.

Question: When the fellowship enters the Mines of Moria, they see all of the dead Dwarfs on the ground, and Legolas says "Goblins", and draws an arrow. What are Goblins, and why are they never shown in the movie?

rstill

Chosen answer: Actually they are shown in the movie. Goblins is simply a term used for the smaller breeds of Orc that tend to inhabit the subterranean places like Moria. They tend to be somewhat more intelligent and cunning than their larger siblings, to compensate for their lesser strength - a trait that Saruman and Sauron took advantage of when creating their warrior Orc breeds, the ones referred to as Uruk-Hai. Despite their physical and intellectual differences, all three, Orcs, Uruk-Hai and Goblins, are the same species.

Tailkinker

Question: What does the title have to do with the story, other than the reference to a work of art? I know many people think that the real Mona Lisa has a mysterious smile, but does that have anything to do with the film?

Krista

Chosen answer: There is a short discussion (I believe between Kirsten Dunst and Julia Roberts) about things not always being what they seem. They are speaking about the girls' lives, but it also is symbolic of the Mona Lisa smile. Whether she is really smiling is left up to the person viewing the portrait: is she smiling because she is happy? Is she trying to cover up grief/sorrow? Is she smiling at all?

Macalou

Question: Might be a classical one, but I'm still clueless :) The story includes the imprisonment of humans because of the energy they produce. It's clear though that the human body cannot give back more energy that it requires to stay alive. Employing humans for that matter is simply a waste of energy. Maybe the humans there have this as an "urban legend" and the machines keep humans in this form for some other reason?

Answer: Remember Morpheus mentions a type of fusion as well, which nicely blurs any power analysis we can do based just on body energy. The theory I've heard and quite like is that while power considerations are part of the reason, connecting billions of human brains together would also make for a hugely powerful parallel processing system, capable of all the computing power the machines need for both running the matrix and their own needs.

Jon Sandys

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