Question: The scene where Lucy is at the mental institution and she's drawn Henry a million times, did that actually happen?
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: In at least one scene of the NYC mayor's office/residence, the flag on the other side of her desk from the U.S. flag appears to be the flag of Mexico. Is this correct?
Chosen answer: That's the flag of New York City - see http://flagspot.net/flags/us-nyc.html. While it does look similar to Mexico, the Mexican flag is green, white, and red instead of blue, white, and red.
Question: Why did the treasure chest given to them at the end have "Deus Ex Machina" written on it?
Chosen answer: "Deus Ex Machina" means "God out of the machine." It's from Greek plays, wherein a god would appear at the end of the story to solve a problem. Nowadays it basically means that a totally new plot element appears out of nowhere and solves everything. It's an easy (and cheap) way out.
Question: When are heroes encounter the Merovingian in the club, what is it he says to them in french?
Answer: He says Quel Grand Surprise which translated means what a big surprise.
Question: I read that the character of Arwen is different in the film adaptation than from the books (including "Fellowship of the Ring"). In what ways? Second, did director/screenwriter Peter Jackson gave a reason why he expanded Arwen's presence in the film adaptation? Was it done for marketing purposes as some fans had claimed?
Chosen answer: Well, Arwen in the books really doesn't do a great deal - she's an extremely minor character. The first reason for increasing her role was simply to remove some of the myriad other characters from the book - for example, the elf Glorfindel, who, in the book, is the one who brings Frodo to Rivendell, then never appears again. Considering the sheer number of characters in the tale, it makes a certain sense to combine them occasionally. The second reason, and why they chose to use Arwen at this point, is that it fleshes out her character a bit, giving us a glimpse of her strength and power and allowing us to get a better glimpse at her relationship with Aragorn, making it clearer why he would love her. It has also given the tale another strong female character, which, yes, isn't bad for marketing purposes, but that consideration wasn't the primary reason for doing so.
Question: Lord Denethor is not the king of Gondor, but a steward, a caretaker of the throne according to Gandalf. Does this means that he is acting as a regent?
Chosen answer: Effectively, yes - the Stewards rule in the absence of the rightful King of Gondor. That being said, the Stewards have now ruled Gondor for 26 generations of their family and believe the bloodline of the King to be destroyed, so, as we see with Denethor, they pretty much consider themselves to be the true rulers of the kingdom these days. As such, while they are technically fulfilling the role of regent, they might not actually consider that to be the case any more.
Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo - S10-E23
Question: When the fish offers Bart 3 wishes, what is that a take off of?
Answer: Pretty much any fairy tale where somebody gets offered wishes by a genie or other similar character. It's always three wishes (and, nine times out of ten, the last one gets used to undo the damage caused by the first two).
Question: I read somewhere that Dolph Lundgren, who was Grace Jones' boyfriend at the time, has a small part in the film, however I can't spot him. Can anyone tell me who he is?
Answer: He plays a KGB agent helping General Gogol. It's real "blink-and-you-miss-him" stuff.
Question: Did any of the actors know how to play their instruments? Because sometimes Harry Shearer seems to know what he's doing on the bass, particularly during 'Big Bottom' but the two leads sometimes look as though they're playing air guitar.
Answer: The actors are all good musicians - it's them playing.
Question: Is there any more significance about the tree of Gondor other than what Pippin saw in a vision?
Chosen answer: Quite a lot of significance, yes. Okay, deep breath, here goes. Back before the First Age, there was a time referred to as "The Years of the Trees". At this time, before the sun and the moon, the domain of the Valar (local godlikes) was lit by the radiance of two revered and mystical trees. The elder tree, called Telperion, was known as the White Tree. Destroyed by Melkor, the first Dark Lord, shortly before the beginning of the First Age, its image was preserved by the Valar in a second tree, Galathilion, in the elven city of Tirion (and Telpirion's last flower was set in the sky, the light now known as the moon). Seedlings of Galathilion was the source of many trees throughout the kingdoms of men and elves. One of the most famous of these was the tree Nimloth that grew in the royal courts in the prosperous human kingdom of Numenor. Sauron's influence ultimately allowed him to take control of Numenor's government, and he had Nimloth burnt, seeing it as a link to the Valar, his enemies. However, Isildur saved one of the fruits of the tree and took it with him to Middle-Earth after the fall of Numenor. He planted it there, in the Gondorian citadel of Minas Ithil (later to fall to the Nazgul and become Minas Morgul). Seedlings from that tree was planted in Minas Tirith, and, since that time, a White Tree has always grown there. So the Gondorians see the tree as a link to their founders, to the fabled kingdom of Numenor and ultimately to the Valar themselves.
Question: What is the difference from Hobbiton and The Shire? Is The Shire a village, and Hobbiton the region where the Hobbits live?
Chosen answer: Actually, it's the other way around. The region is called Shire, the village Hobbiton. There are several other villages in the Shire, for example Buckland.
Question: Admittedly the sound on my copy of this movie is lacking somewhat but when Paul is researching Arrakis and Gurney et all enter I swear I can hear the trailer for the movie playing in the background. Am I correct on this?
Answer: No. At least, not on the DVD I have. It does play the title tune in the background, though.
Answer: The beginning narration is playing softly, as if it's coming from whatever computer Paul was doing research on. Like he was watching a movie about the world he is living in, which is sort of odd.
Question: One of the trivia points is that the etch-a-sketch in Joey's apartment always has a picture on it linked to the show. Are there any examples of this?
Answer: Some of the things shown on the MAGNA-DOODLE are shown on this website http://members.home.nl/rody.klaassen2/STUFF/magnadoodle.html. Reportedly, they were drawn by Paul Swain, the best boy (a crew member), and though some of them had something to do with the show, some were inside jokes for the crew.
Question: How did Steve and Janet end up with the Walsh house? I know that Steve was living there with Brandon once the Walshes moved to Japan, but once Brandon left, did they sell the house to Steve?
Chosen answer: I'm sure something like that happened. Brandon (always being the good and concientious friend) probably passed on the title so Steve could live in the house legally and if anything happened like a fire, would be there to take charge.
Question: It says during the final credits that several scenes from Billy Elliot were show throughout the movie. I don't remember seeing these scenes. When are they shown?
Who Shot Mr. Burns? (1) - S6-E25
Question: When Lisa goes up to turn on the oil pump for the first time, there is a sound between Skinner saying, "Here's our top student, Lisa Simpson", and Lisa actually getting to the pump. It sounds like someone straining. What is it?
Answer: It's a student yelling, "Nerd!" at Lisa.
Question: Is there any historical information about what happened to the Piano player in the band? His last scene in the movie is when he stands beside the other members with no instrument, he's even the one that pulls the chair outside for the band, But then he's gone from the rest of the movie.
Answer: I found good historical information on the 8 members of the band and more specifically what they played including the lead player Wallace Henry Hartley. The pianist depicted in the movie is most likely Mr. W. Theodore Brailey [Pianist] of Notting Hill. It is not mentioned specifically how he died but all of the band members perished and one can assume he went into the freezing water with the rest of the ships passangers and froze to death. Of note: The eight members of the ship's orchestra were employed by Messers C.W. and F.N. Black of 14 Castle Street, Liverpool. The men boarded as Second-Class passengers on a joint ticket (#250654) and had their quarters towards the stern on E-Deck with a separate room for their instruments. More can be found at (http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/song1.htm#Band).
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Yes, it did happen: right as it did in the movie. Henry was on the boat, thought that Lucy remembered him, turned around, went into the hospital, and saw the paintings. But the movie then skipped many years into the future and showed Lucy and Henry about, maybe 5 years later on the boat in Alaska. It was shown like this so you would know how they got back together, but they also wanted you to see how they ended up. Hope this helps, it took me a while to figure this out anyway!