Question: What is the name of the song that the band plays at the beginning of the announcement of Hat McCullough's release from prison? It's a pretty common song used in films and television, but I've never heard its name. I tried to use the Shazam app on my phone to identify it, but no luck.
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: It's known that the newspaper Janet holds over her head is the Cleveland Plain Dealer, but why that paper, especially considering the movie was filmed in England?
Answer: The setting of Richard O'Brien's original Rocky Horror story was in and around the fictional town of Denton, Ohio. For the movie, the geographic location was more vague; O'Brien claimed many years later that the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" was used merely for recognition purposes so as to appeal to American audiences. But, actually, set designer Brian Thompson chose the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" as a tip-of-the-hat to the story's original setting in Ohio. Also, when we briefly see the Criminologist's map of Brad and Janet's fateful journey, it's a map of southeast Ohio.
Question: Are there any deleted scenes?
Answer: While I can't find any definitive scenes that have been deleted prior to theatrical release, there was supposed to be a scene involving Kevin having a similar experience with the aftershave as in the first film. Although I can't find a definitive reason to why. There is also an edited version for TV where the scene from the World Trade Centre is removed following the infamous terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001.
Question: What is the reason Phil's in this time loop? Just to force him to be nice or be stuck for eternity like that?
Answer: No explanation is given in the film. In an early draft of the script it is revealed a spurned lover cursed him, but that concept was dropped. The writer and directer felt it was more interesting to have the reason left a mystery.
Question: Three questions here: Why does Jenny insist Forrest touch her chest, why does she go all the way with him then leave, and wouldn't this be considered a crime on her part as he's only got an IQ of 75?
Answer: Jenny loves Forrest and cares about him deeply. She knows he's in love with her, so she gives him that "gift" before leaving. They were both consenting adults, so unless there was a third party who insisted Forrest couldn't give consent there wouldn't be a legal issue.
Question: Did they ever give a reason why Shelley Hack left?
Answer: Hack, who was best known as the "Charlie" perfume model, was brought in after Kate Jackson was let go following numerous disputes she'd had with producers over script quality. At the same time, ratings for the show had been falling. Hack, Tiffany Welles, was supposed to add more glamour and a mystique intrigue to the show. While there was an initial spike in the ratings, they soon declined again. Hack was let go after one season and replaced by Tanya Roberts, who also failed to improve ratings, leading to the show's cancellation.
Thanks. Still let's face, the novelty had worn off and it was just a T and A show. I mean, anyone hear of anything worth watching starring any of them outside of this say a few things like Sheena?
Farrah Fawcett probably had the more notable post-Charlie career. She left a silly hit show to pursue more serious work. She received good reviews for such movies as The Burning Bed, Extremities, etc.
Teachers' Union/Head Poet's Anxiety - S3-E7
Question: Because Lucy got to be the youngest person to perform at the Royal Woods Theater, does that mean Luan lost her dream?
Answer: Yes.
Question: If the Zurg from the previous movie was the one transported to the daycare at the credits, what happened to the Buzz that decided to stay with him at the end of that movie?
Answer: We are never told that it was the same Zurg toy. If it was then perhaps the other Buzz toy was kept by the person who owned him.
Question: When Robert was talking to Anna and he got angry and smashed the plate, was it because he really was saving the bacon (which is what he told Anna) or I think it was because he had been broadcasting for survivors for YEARS and had come to believe he was the last being on earth and he had just killed his only companion, then this woman just shows up and is talking about an entire community of survivors. What is the reason for his anger?
Answer: It's all of those things basically, but mostly the loss of Sam. He has been alone for very long and couldn't handle the sudden changes, all of them, the biggest one losing his companion.
Answer: He was angry because he kept feeding Sam vegetables not the bacon. Now some stranger cooked the bacon after Sam's death.
Question: Why didn't Little Bill just dump his wife? Throw her out? Why kill her instead?
Answer: His wife's constant infidelity finally reached its tipping point for him, so in what was likely a moment of temporary insanity, he decided to punish her and her lover by shooting them. His subsequent suicide could just as well be from the sudden realization of what he just did.
Question: At the start of the film when the facehugger tries to get into Newt's cryotube, why does it use brute force instead of acid to gain entry?
Answer: It does use acid, but it has acid for blood so it needs to harm itself first to produce the acid.
In the first Alien, didn't the facehugger use acid to get into Kane's helmet? It wasn't bleeding acid.
It actually isn't shown exactly how the acid was used to get into Kane's helmet. The creature jumps on his helmet and Kane falls over with the creature on the outside and next we see, the creature has melted its way into the helmet. So it could be it cut itself, just as the creature does in Alien 3.
Question: Has there ever been any sort of canonical discussion about the morality of droid treatment in any Star Wars titles? They're intelligent/sentient, are treated well by most people, even like friends/pets by some. And yet they also seem to casually get their minds wiped, or if they're destroyed many people shrug rather than mourn. Tools to some, valued comrades to others, it's just a bit all over the place. Idle thought really.
Answer: Lucas has gone on record as to the treatment of droids in Star Wars being a thought-provoking allegory for the way people treat minorities. I've never heard him specifically talk about how it's almost never commented-upon in-universe, but intentionally or not, I'm of the opinion that it's more compelling this way. Why doesn't anybody do anything about the way droids are treated? Well, go around asking people why they don't do anything about the way other people are treated and you'll quickly find out.
Answer: Not in the films, but several of the books removed from canon by Disney mentioned a "droids' rights movement" that decried memory wipes and other dismissals of sentience. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Droid_rights_ (movement).
Solo, which is canon, features a subplot about droid's rights. So not everything has been scrubbed regarding this topic.
Chosen answer: Nobody in the Star Wars universe, except on rare occasions, has shown sympathy towards a droid or any AI. Even though these robots learn, they don't really evolve beyond their programming so they aren't considered "alive" (unlike in other fiction like Wall-E), not even by the most sentimental of people. Organic beings develop attachments to droids, but mostly towards their usefulness, not because they like their personality, not even Luke Skywalker towards R2 or Poe towards BB-8. If they are destroyed, too bad. Memory wiping doesn't remove the droid's original programming either, and their way of talking and manners stay.
In Episode 2, Obi-Wan makes the offhanded comment "Well, if droids could think there'd be none of us here", implying that droids do not actually possess artificial intelligence. R2-D2 seems to be a particularly unusual droid in that he is uncommonly resilient and steadfast, which makes his allies quite fond of him. Poe and BB-8 appear to have a bond that goes beyond simply being attached to the droid's usefulness, but like you say that appears to be a unique case.
Just because he said that doesn't mean they didn't have AI. They think for themselves, so they have AI. Just not as advanced as in other fiction.
The point is raised again later in the film when the cloners state that unlike droids, clones can think for themselves.
Question: The whole plot of this movie makes no sense. What was the purpose of having all the soldiers "brainwashed' when they just used one to carry out what they wanted? Plus, why go to the trouble of doing all this when they could have just hired an assassin? Plus, how did they know, in 1952, that this man would be chosen to be the Vice-President?
Answer: The entire platoon was brainwashed because they were to act as witnesses and verify the fabricated story that Raymond was a "war hero." Raymond was unknowingly (by him) selected to become a sleeper agent within the U.S. government, mentally programmed to be used when needed by the Russians or Chinese. Raymond's monstrous mother, Eleanor Iselin, was married to a ruthless and ambitious U.S. Senator that she was propelling into being their party's presidential candidate. She had contacted Communists to request an assassin kill her husband's political rival so he would become the party's nominee. However, she was unaware at first that her son would be the assassin. Raymond, having been brainwashed, never realised he was a programmed assassin who would have no memory after executing his assignments. He apparently had been recruited because of his step-father's political connections. It is a rather incredible plot, to say the least.
Question: How does the blue core memory end up in the dump?
Answer: Because Riley didn't want to remember it.
Question: Assuming the mother's not arrested despite assaulting the teacher, shouldn't her son be removed from her home given how horrible a drunkard she is and could abuse him?
Answer: Whether or not she was arrested, the court could order an evaluation regarding her fitness as a parent, require counseling, anger management courses, alcohol rehab and AA meetings, be under CPS supervision, etc.
Question: When the Xenomorph is mere inches from Ripley, how was it able to know there was a queen inside of her?
Answer: Most likely by smell or other sensory perception. We already know that the aliens inside the hosts adapt and take on DNA and characteristics from them, like most being humanoid from the humans or the one in Alien 3 being more canine since it came from a dog. It's likely that the creatures inside also alter the host's body chemically to better suit their growth in such a short amount of time. This would also be necessary in other situations where the aliens are catching humans or the humans are being exposed to eggs, and the aliens wouldn't kill them or take them again knowing they already have a young one inside them. Now in Alien 3, it's not necessarily the case that the alien knew that it was actually a Queen inside Ripley, but at the very least, it knew one of its own kind was already inside her and knew not to harm her.
Question: Why do they steal the actual NOC list instead of just giving Max another fake one to make sure the names didn't get out?
Answer: They need to prove to her that they have access to the genuine list. A list of names that can easily be proven fake is of no value to her, and would not entice her to help them. Ethan needs her in order to identify Job, so he can determine why the mission in Prague went wrong.
Answer: Presumably, both halves of the NOC list will interact with and match with each other perfectly in a way that won't work otherwise should one half be a fake. Think of it as two puzzle pieces, and if the computer tried to match up the wrong puzzle piece with the authentic first half of the NOC list, it would notify the user.
Question: Why hasn't Ash's pikachu evolved into raichu?
Answer: I don't think so. Pikachu needs a thunderstone to evolve and I think in that episode Pikachu said it was happy the way it was.
Answer: He refused to! He is also not the only Pokemon in the series to have done that, the first time in episode 14 fighting a Raichu, and then other times in the series (episode 540 comes to mind). Pokemon have their own free will (for being a bunch of critters locked in tiny balls...) and some are so happy with themselves that they prefer not to turn into their evolved version. Which usually is way less cute, incidentally.
Isn't there an episode where Pikachu is actively trying not to evolve?
Unlike most Pokemon which evolve as they gain levels, Pikachu can't evolve into Raichu unless it uses a Thunder Stone. In Indigo League episode "Electric Shock Showdown", Pikachu explicitly refuses to evolve, wanting to win its rematch with Lt. Surge's Raichu itself. Pikachu again refused to evolve in the Diamond and Pearl episode "Pika and Goliath!", simply resolving to train harder.
What I heard is that pikachu is the mascot of the franchise, and evolving it into raichu the anime would enrage a lot of pokemon fans.
Even if Pikachu had evolved into raichu, wouldn't there be a risk that it would decrease the number of the show's viewers?
Question: What was so important about the pipe?
Answer: The pipe, a hand-carved meerschaum pipe, was a clue (the stem contained a riddle carved into it) that led to the next clue, the Declaration of Independence. The pipe was also a key that when inserted into the wall niche in the underground cavern, opened the treasure chamber.
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.
Chosen answer: "Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa.
Bishop73