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: If Van Helsing is the Left Hand of God, wouldn't he, the mighty archangel, be too powerful to be affected by a werewolf curse? And wouldn't he be able to crush Dracula without the extra powers?

Answer: He probably lost some powers and became more human (thus being affected by the curse), all of which will probably be explored in a sequel.

Xofer

Question: Is it true that Bill is responsible for the murder of Oren-Ishii's parents?

Answer: It has been speculated for years, including on this site, that the sword-wielding killer in the anime sequence was actually Bill, but with the recent release of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, it's now clear that that particular character is someone entirely different. Nothing in the movie suggests that Bill had anything to do with O-Ren's parents dying.

jshy7979

Answer: Yes, it's confirmed it in a post-release interview.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: That's just decorative. The gas pedal is always on the right and using the left foot would be quite awkward.

Grumpy Scot

Question: How did Donnie actually travel back in time, I just didn't understand this.

Answer: He returned to the place he started the film at. He somehow knew that that is the place he had to be to catch the wormhole express back in time.

Grumpy Scot

Question: What happened to Notary Hardenbrook? He just vanishes after the scene in the notary building where Ichabod finds the will, and there is no more mention of him in the film.

Answer: He hanged himself. It's mentioned in the kitchen scene where Baltus notices his wife's cut hand.

Grumpy Scot

Question: When Neo fights the Merovingian's lackeys in the hallway, is the person dressed in white male or female?

Answer: It was Tiger Chen. The man who trained Keanu for the Matrix trilogy.

Answer: I had a hard time with this too, but to answer your question the actor is indeed a male.

NoWhereMan

Question: Exactly how is Neo able to reach inside Trinity's body when he removes the bullet from her torso, and when he restarts her heart?

Answer: Neo is able to affect things in the Matrix at the code level - he's effectively altering the code that makes up Trinity's 'physical' body.

Tailkinker

Question: In Vietnam when Forrest is introducing the other men in his group telling their names and where they are from, all the soldiers names are names of cities. This was obviously done on purpose but why?

Answer: When people from different places are put togther into groups they usually giver eachother nicknames, this is particularly true in the military, and a lot of times your nickmane would just be where you are from, if you do not have some other characteristic, or your name does not rhyme or sound like some other word.

pross79

Answer: The nicknames are given to Forrest's troop mates are given in a racial way or by how they act although they are not from that city. For example Dallas had a farmers tan and always had a pack of smokes referencing to chuck Norris in one of his films taking place in the same time period and same helmet that was filmed just outside of Dallas and was also filmed there.

Question: I was wondering if anyone knows why the movie didn't follow the script? I read it and most of the lines are in the movie, but out of order. It seems if the movie followed the scripts it would have made much more sense.

Answer: Scripts generally have many, many versions before a final shooting script is produced, and even then, changes can be made during filming, and editing can also alter things.

Tailkinker

Question: If Barbossa is Jack's first mate before he and the rest of the pirates marooned Jack, then who is Barbossa's first mate after they commit a mutiny against Jack?

Answer: It's never mentioned.

Xofer

Answer: "Dry wall" is a US term for plasterboard-type boards used for making partition walls between rooms. Basically, she is telling him to go do some manual, physical "manly" work.

Eliza

Question: In the first battle (The Last Alliance) just before Sauron is destroyed, you see a close up of some solders, Men and Elves. One of them looks like Legolas, is that him in the battle?

Answer: Nope. Had Legolas been present, they would undoubtedly have given his character greater prominence than just one closeup. Tolkien never gave Legolas a specific date of birth, but the implication is that he was not born at the time. Peter Jackson has also mentioned an assumed age for Legolas that backs this up.

Tailkinker

Question: During the film's opening, when we see Rings of Power being given to the Nine, they all have characteristics that suggest that they were all leaders in the race of Men. This is continued later in Bree when Aragorn states that they were 'great kings of men'. Can someone explain what makes the Easterling, Khamul, a 'great king of men'?

Answer: Easterlings are men, and Khamul was presumably one of their kings. Simple.

Tailkinker

Question: During The Ride of the Rohirrim, after Gothmog (Pink Orc Captain) shouts "Fire at will", you can see a black haired and black bearded rider wearing a suit of chainmail with a long axe in the front of the shot (only for a second or so) I think this is Peter Jackson but I am not sure, does anybody know?

Answer: I can see who you mean, but I'm pretty certain that it's not Peter Jackson - the resemblance isn't really that close. Besides, I strongly suspect that the studio would be dead set against anything that put their director (scriptwriter/producer/etc) on a horse in the middle of a charge - I've never read anything to indicate that Jackson is an experienced rider, and there are risks in what's being portrayed in that scene.

Tailkinker

Answer: The frogs are saying Budweiser. One frog says "bud," the next one says "weis," and the final one says "er". This is a satire of a popular Budweiser television promotion that was going through America at the time.

Tobin OReilly

Answer: Then the 3 frogs were eaten by a big crocodile that says "Coors", Budweiser's biggest competitor.

stiiggy

Parallel Universe - S2-E6

Question: At The End of this episode Lister, Rimmer and the Cat are finding out whether Lister is pregnant or not. When Rimmer reads the pregnancy test he says "Oh excellent news, I'm going to be an uncle." Why does he say this if he is to of no relation with Lister? (as far as I know).

Answer: It's quite common for male friends of the family to be referred to as "uncle" by the children, even if they're not actually related in any way - I have at least three old friends of my parents who I refer to in these terms. Rimmer may be stretching the point with the 'friend' thing, but that's what he's referring to.

Tailkinker

Question: Does it seem strange to anyone else that these kids, including teenagers, can't help take care of themselves for two weeks? My family has six kids and we can function for a week or two when Mom and Dad go out of town. In a large family, parents usually raise their children to help out a lot more and be more responsible.

Answer: It seems that the fact the family can't take care of themselves is added to part of the humour of the film. 12 children is a lot, and think about all those rows and all that mess.

Hamster

It's not like they couldn't take care of themselves. As shown with the breakfast scene at the beginning, they seem to function pretty well when they all get along. Tom and Kate were just usually home more frequently than some other parents. It also didn't help that it was the first time that one of the parents was gone for an extended period and the parent that was left home (Tom) had never had to deal with all the kids on his own. Also, the only time we see complete chaos in the house is the first day that Kate has been gone. After that the kids are more behaved (at home).

Question: Do the head orc with the skin over his eyes and the orc with the skulls pile on top of his head have names?

Answer: The lead orc is Gothmog, a briefly mentioned character in the books (mentioned precisely once) - it's not even clear in the books which race he belongs to. The second orc, with the skulls, doesn't seem to have a name.

Tailkinker

Question: In the book it mentions that Gothmog, Lieutenant of Minas Morgul, assumed control of Sauron's army after the Witch-King was vanquished. Shouldn't Khamul, the second-in-command of the Nazgul, have assumed control of the army?

Answer: Not necessarily - the precise command hierarchy isn't established in the books and we don't know where the various Nazgul stand. Gothmog is the Witch-King's leftenant, so it would make sense that he would be second-in-command of any army led by his master.

Tailkinker

Question: This applies to the trilogy in general, both books and movies. Are elves vegetarian? It seems like they are too close to nature to kill animals for food.

Answer: It doesn't appear so. In many instances in the four books, the elves have a feast where some sort of meat is present.

RJR99SS