Question: Nathan told Katsumo a story about the Greeks fighting a much smaller army and ended up losing the battle. Can anyone tell me the story or where to find the details on the web?
Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: What style hat does Indiana Jones wear?
Answer: The original Indiana Jones hat was custom-crafted by world-renowned hat maker Herbert Johnson of London, England. It was based on a style of wide-brimmed beaver hat called a "Poet" (this style had already been in production since the 1890s). Using Harrison Ford to model the hat as it was customized, Herbert Johnson deliberately made the crown much taller and more square than a conventional fedora, and they deliberately made the brim an oval shape, narrower on the sides, to accommodate the lighting in profile camera shots. Herbert Johnson made 45 identical customized Poet hats for the original Indiana Jones films, including hats for Harrison Ford's stand-ins and stunt-men. The Jones-style Poet hats became so popular that Swaine Adeney Brigg continues making them to order to this day. Http://www.swaineadeneybrigg.com/store/herbert-johnson/poet-hat/poet-hat.
Question: What does the Latin chant in "Oh What a Circus" translate to? (The "salve regina" bit?)
Answer: As I recall they sing the English right after the Latin, but, in any case, it's a variation of a well known Gregorian Chant. The English from the movie is: Hail, oh queen, mother of mercy / Our life, sweetness, and hope / Hail, hail, oh queen / To you we cry, exiled sons of Eve / To you we sigh, mourning and weeping / Oh clement, oh loving one.
Question: Okay, I don't get what happened to Victor exactly. Was he tortured? I get that his fingers were somehow used for fingerprints, but I don't get what else. And if he was (technically) still alive, why would all of those air fresheners seen in his room be necessary? What was done to him to make him be only technically alive? And - which victim was he and do we learn what exactly he'd done to earn the killer's malice?
Answer: John Doe simply strapped him to the bed for a very long time, keeping him alive while his body wasted away. Even though Victor isn't dead, the smell would probably be pretty horrendous - he won't have washed for a year and parts of him would start to decompose, hence the need for the air fresheners, to avoid the stench drawing unwelcome attention prematurely. The psychological effect on Victor would be horrific - trapped, unable to move, at the total mercy of a lunatic, fed only enough to keep him just above the point of death. There would have been no mental stimulation at all, except to wait in fear for Doe's next visit - Victor's mind would have snapped long before he was found. His body was alive, barely, but any capacity for rational thought would be long gone. Victor was the Sloth victim, hence the method of killing him by trapping him in a bed. His crimes were listed by Somerset (Freeman) once his prints are matched up. He's the drug dealer John Doe (Spacey) mentions in the car at the end.
Answer: Doe was forcing Sloth to continue his stagnant life, as attrition.
Answer: I believe that Doe had Victor drugged constantly as well, contributing to the mind-mushing.
Question: They use a pinch in this movie to cut the power. How does a pinch actually work? Why did they need one in this film?
Chosen answer: They needed to shut off the power in order to turn off the detectors in the lift-shaft. There was no way to do that locally, so shutting down the entire city was the only option, using an EMP, a massive wave of electromagnetic energy that disrupts electrical equipment. In real life, pinches are generally used to create high-intensity X-rays for scientific study, and they're very large - much larger than the one seen in the film. It is true that they cause electromagnetic interference when fired, but nothing like on the scale seen in the film. However, given that the only source of an EMP with the strength to really black out the whole place would be a nuclear explosion, it's understandable that the makers of the film decided to play around with the laws of physics a bit.
Question: Is David Lynch a Roy Orbison fan? He seems to use Orbison's songs in most of his films. If he's not a particularly avid fan, can anyone tell me why he uses the songs with such frequency?
Answer: He's a fan now, but David Lynch only first heard "Crying" by Roy Orbison just before shooting "Blue Velvet", and wanted it in that movie. However, he bought Orbison's Greatest Hits CD and liked the song "In Dreams" so much that he ditched "Crying" until Mulholland Drive.
Question: Why does Evelyn get a Purple Heart? As far as I understand, the only way to get it, is if you are wounded in combat.
Answer: From Dec 7, 1941 to Sept 22, 1943, the Purple Heart was also awarded for meritorious performance of duty. For wounds, "in combat" is much more restrictive than the actual requirements. Any injury caused directly or indirectly by a hostile foreign agency counts, including friendly fire if it was intended to hit an enemy.
Question: In the film, Jesus has several visions of Satan, beginning in Gethsemane with the snake scene. These visions are not chronicled in the Gospels. Is there another source, or should the visions be considered artistic license?
Answer: In addition to his own artistic license, Gibson actually uses several sources besides the Bible including St. Anne Catherine Emmerich's "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" and Mary of Agreda's "The Mystical City of God".
Question: Not long after MMPR first aired (Say, 1994-ish) I heard a rumour that two of the original cast members of the show (Amy-Jo Johnson, David Yost, Walter Jones, Austin St. John, Thuy Trang and possibly Jason Frank) had gotten married. Is this true? If so, can anyone tell me which two it was and whether they are still married?
Answer: Unless 2 of the guys are secretly married to each other, the answer is none of them ever married each other. Thuy never married and was killed in a car crash in 2001. Amy-Jo has not yet married.
Question: Whatever happened to the Twins that work for the Frenchman? They do not appear at all in "Revolutions," or at least not as major characters.
Answer: Well, they get defeated. They probably weren't killed, as they reverted to Ghost form (and were still alive when they did it, as they were screaming) which would repair any damage they sustained, but i can't imagine them being willing to go back to the French guy, if he's as powerful as he's made out to be. They're probably just in hiding somewhere.
Question: Anyone know when or if this film's released in the UK?
Answer: According to the IMDb, it's currently slated to be released here on December 17th.
Question: Why didn't Jack say I love you to Rose when she said it to him in the end? I thought they both loved each other.
Answer: They do - but saying I love you in a situation like that is almost like you're saying goodbye...Jack didn't want to say that he loved her because he didn't want to seem like he was giving up - presumably he thought he'd get the chance to say it many times in the future, rather than saying it on their death bed.
Question: Can anyone hear the (heavily slurred) words of the ending song in this episode - or is it just random garbage?
Chosen answer: Black Adder couldn't hold his beer. The art of boozing he's not mastered. And I, your merry balladeer, Am also well and truly plastered. Black Adder, Black Adder, a bit like Robin Hood. Black Adder, Black Adder, but nothing like as good. Black Ad(hic), Black Adder, I thought that he had died. Black Adder, Black Adder, our writers must have lied.
Question: Can someone please explain to me why Erica's vampire fangs are so much longer and sharper than anyone else's? (When Michael wakes up at the mansion and Erica is hanging off the ceiling, you can really see them). Even in full vampire mode, all the others' teeth seem to pale in comparison. Why is she so special?
Answer: Not all people have the same size teeth. Why should vampires be any different?
Question: Is there a reason the dumpster they threw B-Rad in was full of Wonderbread and nothing else?
Answer: "Wonderbread and whitebread" are derogatory terms used to describe a white man. It can be mean or good-natured, like most put-downs.
Question: In the scene where Taye Diggs is telling the guys at dinner about the course he was taking with his girlfriend (I believe it was tantric love making or something like that), can anyone tell me if what he was talking about is really true?
Chosen answer: Yes, there are many books and courses devoted to Tantric sex.
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Answer: The Battle of Thermopylae, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae for more info.
Myridon