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: Why is the film called "Reservoir Dogs"? Is there any special significance to why Tarantino chose the title?

Answer: Both previous answers are technically correct, as Tarantino has offered both explanations as to the title's origin. Fact is, there have been so many explanations put out by both Tarantino and movie fans that we may never know.

Answer: When Tarantino worked in a video store, he once recommended to a customer "Au revoir les enfants". The customer screamed back that he "did not want any Reservoir Dogs!". Tarantino must have thought it sounded cool.

Twotall

Answer: The title for the film first came to Quentin Tarantino while visiting a production company and noticing that they had a pile of unsolicited scripts under the label "Reservoir dogs." All those scripts were fighting with each other for attention as dogs trapped in a reservoir tank. The name got stuck in his mind. That's what he first claimed after its release.

Question: I have the special edition widescreen on video, and still I have never spotted the stormtrooper who runs into a wall on the Death Star. This is supposed to be some kind of classic mistake, still I can't see it no matter how hard I try. Has it been deleted for the special edition? (Some claim that it hasn't, but I can't find it).

Answer: It was never taken out, but it can be hard to spot: the stormtrooper actually runs into the door of the control room where C-3P0 and R2-D2 are hiding. When they charge into the room, keep your eye on the door at all times; just before the camera starts to follow them to the left, you'll see the last one in bang his head.

Xofer

It also had sound added to it.

Day 2: 9:00 P.M.-10:00 P.M. - S2-E14

Question: At the end of this episode (when they find the bomb in the van) Jack calls for the 'bomb disarmer.' "N.E.S.T" is visible on the back of their jackets. Does this actually stand for something?

Answer: Nuclear Emergency Search Team.

Tailkinker

Answer: It's not clear. Given that they owed a lot of money to the Duke, he probably closed them down.

Tailkinker

Answer: He wallows in self-pity for a while, then eventually begins to write their story. There's no indication that he has any further links with the Moulin Rouge - it would probably be too painful for him. Christian actually states in the movie that the night Satine died was the last time he ever stepped foot in the Moulin Rouge.

Tailkinker

In what scene did he state that I'm curious.

When he talks about going back there to see if she still loves him. Right before he goes back there that last time.

When Christian sneaks back in after having been tossed out, he says he returned to the Moulin Rouge one last time.

Question: Could someone give me the following statistics about the Battle Of Pelennor Fields? How many Orcs were present? How many Gondorian soldiers were guarding Minas Tirith? How many Rohirrim came to Gondor's aid? How many Mumakil flanked the Rohirrim? How many Oathbreakers emerged from the Corsairs' ships?

Answer: There are no particularly precise figures anywhere - all that's available would be educated guesses based on watching the films, and you'd be just as qualified to do that as anybody.

Tailkinker

Question: Could someone give me the following statistics about the Battle For Helm's Deep? How many Rohan warriors were guarding the Hornburg? How many elves were present (both behind and on top of the Deeping Wall)? How many Rohirrim came with Gandalf? How many Huorns finished off the Uruk-hai?

Answer: There are no particularly precise figures anywhere - all that's available would be educated guesses based on watching the films, and you'd be just as qualified to do that as anybody.

Tailkinker

Question: Exactly why has the time of the elves come to an end? They are smarter and physically superior to humans. Is this ever explained in the books?

Answer: The elves were not supposed to be in Middle-Earth at all. While they awoke there, many thousands of years before the War of the Ring, the Valar (local deity equivalents) summoned them to Valinor, the Undying Lands, and the vast majority went willingly. When Melkor, the first Dark Lord, fled to Middle-Earth, taking the Silmarils (great jewels crafted by the elves) with him, a great host of the Elves returned to Middle-Earth in pursuit, against the wishes of the Valar. After the fall of Melkor, the elves remained in Middle-Earth, considered themselves in exile, although the Valar were content to allow them to return if they so wished. They also remained as a buffer against the return of evil - Sauron, Melkor's chief lieutenant, was still out there, as were many of Melkor's other allies - the Valar ensured that the elven magicks remained strong with this in mind. With the rise of humanity and the fall of Sauron, the elves are finally being called home by the Valar, going back to where they were always supposed to be, and leaving the lands of Middle-Earth to the younger races, as the Valar intended.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end of Fellowship, we seen that Boromir's body (along with his sword and shield) was sent over the Falls of Rauros on a boat and if you look closely will see that the boat toppled forward. Yet in Two Towers, as Faramir sees the boat sail by, the body appears to be unharmed (as well as the sword and shield). Shouldn't the plunge have scattered his weapons as well as the boat and the corpse?

Answer: There is a supernatural element to Faramir seeing his brother's body; even the way it is filmed indicates this. The implication is that the Elven power bound up in the boat, and perhaps some other greater power, safeguarded Boromir; there is also the inference that what Faramir saw was a vision, and not literal reality; there are elements of legend in it, too. From the book: 'He floated by them, and slowly his boat departed... and then suddenly it vanished... the River had taken Boromir son of Denethor... But in Gondor of after-days it long was said that the elven-boat rode the falls and the foaming pool, and bore him down through Osgiliath, and past the many mouths of Anduin, out into the Great Sea at night under the stars.'

STP

Answer: Aragorn is 210 years old when he dies. Some of the early texts give his age at death as 190, but Tolkien eventually confirmed that 210 is the correct age.

Tailkinker

Answer: No difference at all - Oliphaunts and Mumakil are simply what the creatures are called in different languages - Oliphaunt being the term used in the western lands of Middle-Earth, while Mumakil is from the language of the Haradrim from the southern reaches. As a note, Mumakil is plural - an individual creature is a Mumak.

Tailkinker

Question: What role was N'Sync to have played in this film? (As I understand it, they were supposed to have made a "surprise" cameo, but their scenes were cut after the word got out.).

Answer: If the rumours are to be believed - and there's never been any official indication that there was the remotest grain of truth in this - they were to play Jedi in the arena battle.

Tailkinker

Question: Is the reanimation of dead people the purpose of the virus, or an unforeseen side effect? If it's a side effect, what was the original purpose of the T-Virus?

Answer: Actually the T-Virus was originally meant as a cure for a genetic disorder that Dr. Ashford and James Marcus daughters suffered from. The reanimation was a side effect and James Marcus was killed by Dr. Alexander Isaacs so he could take control of it and turn it into a bio-weapon.

lionhead

Answer: The original virus was a "Fountain of Youth" type of thing. Reviving dead cells so the host would stay young. It was so powerful that it reanimated the dead.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Wait, wasn't the original virus meant to control the scientists daughters genetic disease, not an eternal life serum.

Answer: As realistic as the sex scene is, it's very uncommon for actors to have sex for a film.

Chosen answer: Both married, on camera, in front of the entire film crew? I don't think so.

Grumpy Scot

Question: At the end of the movie when Walt is singing the song Summertime, is he lip syncing? If so, who is the singer? I know this song has been covered by any number of people over the years, but this particular rendition was popular in the 60's or 70's. Does anyone know who the singer was?

1gorilla

Chosen answer: Greg Kinnear is singing himself - DVD commentary.

nightline

Question: I read on movietome.com that Uma Thurman played a girl named Daphne in this movie. I have watched over and over and read the end credits and can't find her anywhere. Is she in this movie?

Answer: Wrong movie. She is in Where The Heart Is (1990), not Where The Heart Is (2000).

J I Cohen

Question: Why do both Dan Akroyd and Chevy Chase get in trouble for cheating on the exam (since Chevy is quite obviously the only one cheating)?

Answer: Dan Akroyd was giving Chevy Chase the answers to the test, KGB was one of them.

JamesP

Answer: Hedwig is a snowy owl.

Xofer

Question: Frodo, Bilbo, and eventually Sam and Gimli, travel to the Undying Lands in the West. Do they become immortal once they are there?

Answer: No. Tolkien was very specific about this - mortals who travel to the Undying Lands remain mortal and will live out their normal lifespan.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Mr Kotter was the teacher on a popular 70s sitcom "Welcome Back Kotter". He was known for his afro.

Ral0618

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