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 did Uncle Ben chastise Peter for standing up to Flash? Considering that Flash constantly bullied Peter, shouldn't Ben have been pleased that Peter finally stood up for himself?

Answer: If you're talking about after the dunk scene, Ben didn't see it as Peter standing up for himself. Instead, he says Peter humiliated Flash and then finds out he's the same one that punched Peter earlier. So in Ben's mind, this was retaliation or retribution, which is not OK.

Bishop73

Question: The beginning of the film shows that Clint is still on house arrest. Ant-Man and the Wasp showed that Scott's house arrest ended well before the Snap. Aside from being sentenced at a later time than Scott, is there any reason why Clint would be given a longer house arrest than Scott? Wouldn't his time working for S.H.I.E.L.D. make it more likely that he would have got a more lenient sentence?

Phaneron

Answer: Nothing was said about what Clint's sentence was, but we do know Scott took a plea bargain and therefore may have got a lighter sentence. And the fact that Clint worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. might have given him a longer sentence since he should have known the importance of following the Sokovia Accords. The out-of-universe answer is because the writers needed to show why Clint wasn't in Infinity Wars.

Bishop73

Question: It seems that going after the grail diary in Berlin was just a plot point. Henry obviously knew about the trials in the cave by heart. The search for the holy grail has been a hobby of his for 40 years or so. Am I right?

Answer: Henry says, in response to Indy asking if he remembered the details of the trials: "I wrote them down in my diary so that I wouldn't have to remember." So, obviously he did NOT know them by heart. Also, as the other answer says, they didn't want the diary to either be in the Nazis' possession or be burned.

Answer: Neither Henry or Indiana would want the diary to remain in German hands. The Nazis wanted the Grail to exploit its power. As Elsa was a German scientist, she'd already gleaned enough knowledge from Henry and Indy to utilize the information contained within the diary. The diary also contained considerable data about the Grail and its history that Henry had researched over the years and would not have memorized and wanted to retain. He would also want to pass it on to Indy.

raywest

Question: Why was Will starting to become a "fish person"? Davy Jones and his crew only turned into "fishes" because he neglected his duties. If Will is still undertaking his duties then he shouldn't start having growths such as the algae and the starfish (seen when Henry summons the Dutchman at the start of the film).

Answer: There was never an explanation and it was just glossed over. The first Pirates film was meant as a stand-alone movie. Due to its phenomenal success, the story line was reversed-engineered into a trilogy, with many implausible and/or inconsistent plot elements added. When the fourth and fifth films were made, there were even more inconsistencies, including that Will, who once broke the Dutchman curse, is now inexplicably cursed, along with the Flying Dutchman ship and crew. One explanation is that the curse was reactivated after Davy Jones was somehow resurrected. Then it was supposed to be that the only way to break all sea curses was by destroying Poseidon's trident. It was all badly muddled.

raywest

Question: When they're trying to escape the locker, Jack starts running on the deck of the ship whilst pretending to see something. Why didn't he just say "We need to roll the ship over, lets run from side to side to make it rock" instead of just leaving everybody guessing?

Answer: Well first of all it's comedy, but perhaps he felt like it was too hard to explain to some crew (who are not all that intelligent) so he just thinks up something that gets them to go along with it and get the desired result faster.

lionhead

Answer: To be fair, Jack is already a very strange, eccentric person - doing something like that rather than just explaining it is something he would do just by virtue of his character. He's also gone a bit nuts being stuck in the locker, and is a little weirder than normal throughout the film. And I also agree with the other answer - doing that might just be an easy way to get the crew to go along with him.

TedStixon

Starstruck - S3-E15

Question: When Tootie goes inside Jermaine's dressing room why did the bodyguard roughly manhandle Tootie and why was her bust of Jermaine destroyed?

Answer: The guards had no idea if Tootie was a deranged fan or if she had a bomb in her package. This wasn't very long after John Lennon was shot, after all.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Tootie was among the fan club girls sent complimentary concert tickets and allowed backstage. She thought Jackson personally invited only her and barged into the dressing room, believing she was expected. Security took action, not knowing who she was. The paper-mache' bust was screened for safety, getting destroyed in the process.

raywest

Answer: The Bust was destroyed by the bodyguards, to them it's another piece of junk among the millions he receives from his "Number One Fan."

No, the guard said he'd been running it under the sink and 'nothing was going to explode now.' They were making sure it wasn't a bomb.

Brian Katcher

Question: When the motorcycle went into the trees and was pulled out, was that in the script?

Answer: Also, those weren't stuntmen.

Answer: No but the accident was left in the film.

Question: Was Holly already aware that the aliens existed prior to Nada (Piper) abducting her and when did she decide to join the aliens' quest?

Answer: Yes, she was one of them all along, she was playing dumb, even when she showed up at the underground meeting, a double agent.

Question: When the group first meet up at the dock, just as they are about to set off in the helicopter, when Roger closes the door, he then looks out of the window - eventually he gives a smiling nod. This could simply be a nod to the other group but it seems as if it may have been unintentional possibly as if he thought that the camera had stopped rolling. Curious to see if anyone could clarify it. Maybe I'm just looking too much into the film.

Mikebbisgreat

Answer: One of the cops that was with Joe Plato (how much you have seen of them will depend on which version of the movie you, but I HIGHLY recommend the fan made/edited 'Extended Mall Hours' cut on YouTube) asked them for cigarettes. You'll notice that Roger and Fran lit up cigarettes as they were taking off, that's what Roger was laughing at.

Question: At the end, Henry goes back to the meadow. Alba is there, now 9 yrs old, and the Gomez kids are there also. Henry says that they've gotten so big. Alba sends them to go tell Claire that he's back, but Claire is young again, so how are Gomez's kids there? Alba and Henry time travel yes, but Claire is young again, so how are the other kids there as well? I'm confused or just not seeing it right.

Answer: Not sure what you mean by Claire being "young again." Henry dies when Alba is five years old. His younger time-traveling self reappears when she is nine, so that is only four years later. Claire would barely have aged in that short amount of time. The young Gomez children, however, would have grown quite a bit in four years.

raywest

And Then There Were Fewer - S9-E1

Question: Near the end, Angela, Peter's boss, states that she killed Muriel after she noticed Angela place Priscilla in Tom's room, which still doesn't explain what happen when Muriel disappeared during a blackout. What happened to her? Because before she casually walks by when she notices Angela.

Answer: Because she pretended to be the killer, in order for her and Stewie to find out who the real killer was, who turns out to be Peter's boss, Angela.

Ryan187

This is incorrect. Angela was not even in the episode. The killer was originally thought to be Tom Tucker until Lois discovered it was Diane at the end of the episode.

ctown28

Question: If John is so concerned about how the Terminator kill humans, why he didn't add "don't kill anyone" to its directives before sending it back in time?

Dangar

Answer: Because only young John Connor is concerned about that, not the future John Connor that sent the terminator back. Future John Connor wants the terminator to do everything it can to protect his younger self.

lionhead

Answer: Older John Connor lives in a universe where most of humanity is dead but the survivors are all united against Skynet. He likely knew that humans in the past might even side against the Terminator, so he did not reprogram it not to kill, as saving his past self is priority. The T-1000 was also a human infiltrator so the T-800 had to get ready to kill something that looked human. Also, according to side canon the T-800 was sent back immediately after the T-1000 was sent as Tech Com finally defeated Skynet, so there might not have been time to fully reprogram the T-800 beyond its mission.

Question: What started the zombie apocalypse and is it just in Centerville or the entire world?

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: It's most likely because of Rappo's connection with the deaths, plus how vocal he was about hating the army and blaming it for his disability. No official charge could be made against his name, but between what was witnessed, and Rappo's own claims, it's likely the military authority simply found it inappropriate to rest his body there.

Purple_Girl

Answer: He knew he was fated to meet him. You can't change destiny.

But if Clyde never opened the door, Havez would have lived.

Question: Why didn't the crew cut the pipe before the blowout occurred?

Answer: Simple answer: They couldn't. Long Answer: On Deepwater Horizon, after they screwed up completing the well and it started flowing uncontrollably, they tried the blind rams, then the pipe rams, and then the shear rams. None of them worked. The shear rams didn't work. Thus, they had a total, uncontrolled blowout and no way to stop the well from flowing.

Ssiscool

Question: How did Ray survive the explosion at the end?

Answer: It's unlikely he could have survived in real life, or if he did, he'd be far more injured and/or permanently maimed, but this is a comedy movie, and reality is often ignored.

raywest

Question: What character did the actor John Aprea play in the movie? The credits at the end lists him as 'The Killer', but who did he kill? He wasn't one of the two hit men at the hotel.

Answer: Notice: Aprea is credited as "Killer", not "The Killer." I think this confuses reviewers, as they assume he must be one of the hit men. However, the hit men are credited as "Phil" (Bill Hickman) and "Mike" (Paul Genge). Genge is much older than Aprea and Aprea does not look like the grey-haired hit man, as another contributor has pointed out already. There is no other killer in the plot. Perhaps Aprea's scenes were cut.

Answer: The doctor that alerts Bullitt that the grey-haired hitman is in the hospital looks like Aprea. He calls himself Dr. Kenner, and that character is uncredited. Maybe "Killer" was supposed to be "Kenner" in the credits?

Answer: Aprea portrays the Organization hood who shoots wildly at Johnny Ross as Ross' car careens out of the parking lot into and down the alley during his getaway in Chicago.

Answer: In a Bullitt movie clip on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) website, it identifies John Aprea as the killer who goes to the hospital to murder the witness. Bullitt chases him to the basement toward the end of the film.

raywest

The killer that Bullitt chases is Paul gange (listed in the credits in the role of "Mike") despite the TCM website. Aprea is listed in the movie's credits as the killer, but also lists gange as Mike. Look the name up on IMDB and you can see from his photo that he is the guy Bullitt chases. Why John Aprea - at least 20 years younger than the killer in the movie - is credited as the killer, I have no idea. And I have no idea where in the movie Aprea really appeara.

Question: At the end of the movie, after Steven tackles Jason in order to save Jessica, Jason starts brutalizing Steven. Why didn't Jason simply kill him right away? He could have quickly killed Steven in various ways, like crushing his head, punching through his body, snapping his neck etc. Why was he brutalizing him instead of trying to kill him as soon as possible?

Answer: The honest answer is "because it's better for the movie/narrative that he doesn't try to kill him right away." But I suppose you could also argue that Jason is just toying with him and prolonging his death out of fury.

TedStixon

Question: After the incident at Roger's, where an officer was shot, both Jake and Alonzo are back out on the street in a very short time. One would think they'd be tied up giving started m statements, etc, for the rest of the day, and put onto leave after such a dramatic situation. How is it that they are back in action such a short time after an incident of that magnitude?

applejackson

Answer: Maybe your point (which is an interesting one) should be transformed into a "common movie mistake"? Police officers, undercover officers, etc. spend little, if any, on-screen time writing reports (arrests, evidence seized, etc.), but report writing and other paperwork consumes a lot of the officers' time in real life. Also, they should be given desk-jobs after killing a suspect but are right back on the street.

KeyZOid

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.