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 word "Happiness" in the title misspelled?

Answer: In an interview, the real-life Chris Gardiner, (played by Will Smith) explained that the deliberately misspelled word was written that way on the child daycare center's wall (representing how children can sometimes misspell words). Gardiner later interpreted it to personally mean that true happiness is not defined in just one way, there are many ways to be happy, and that was reflected in the alternate spelling.

raywest

Miniature - S4-E8

Question: At one point, we see a man getting his shoes shined. He is holding a magazine or newspaper close to his face and it seems to have a cut out in it so the man can hide his face but still see through the page. What's going on here? (00:14:00)

Gary55379

Answer: From everything I can tell, what you're seeing is part of an advertisement on the page that just appears as a dark box. While there isn't enough contrast, because of the show being in black and white, for me to tell what the ad says, if it was a hole, the man's head doesn't line with what you see and you should be able to see the window behind him, which I couldn't see.

Bishop73

He is holding it much too close to his face to read it, isn't he? You can see some detail in that rectangle. The story is how Charley is looking through the window of a miniature house. And here is a character that appears to me to be looking at Charlie through a "window", so to speak. I believe in the first frames after they cut from his mother eating, I believe you can see his shirt collar in the lower left of the cutout. Curious.

Gary55379

Question: When Doc is writing on the chalkboard he says the alternate 1985 is alternate to him, Marty, and Einstein, but reality to everyone else. What about Jennifer? Wouldn't it be alternate to her as well? That probably wasn't even her porch they left her on.

Carl Missouri

Answer: Yes, if she had woken up before they fixed everything, she would have been in the same position as Marty and Doc. In the heat of the moment, Doc just neglects to mention Jennifer...although Marty does ask about her just before they travel back to 1955, Doc insists that when they fix the past and re-establish the original 1985 timeline, it will transform around her and when she wakes up she won't notice anything amiss.

Answer: As response to the porch, that was the only known house to Marty that Jennifer lived at. If it was no longer her house, the people living there may not have looked outside to see her there. However, odds are that the same family lived there (as probably most cases there). Remember, the only reason for the different family living in Marty's house is because of the connection to Biff (he married Lorraine and shot George) so that house would have a different owner.

Answer: They were actually planning on using Jigsaw as the villain in the sequel until Thomas Jane and director Jonathan Hensleigh exited the project and the studio rebooted the character with Punisher: War Zone. They probably just wanted to show the Punisher's origin first, which would allow him to be fully established by the time a sequel came around, and they would have more to screen time to establish Jigsaw.

Phaneron

Question: Since when do they leave guns of the deceased at the scene of the crime? Castle comes back some time later after the massacre and picks up several from a case.

Rob245

Answer: I'm just guessing here, but since dozens of people were killed in what was determined to be a mob hit, and since there were no next of kin, everything was probably left there and boarded up since the entire area was a crime scene that was still under investigation.

Phaneron

Answer: Rebecca is from Los Angeles originally, and has just spent several days on the U.S. west coast on the private jet of wealthy businessman Robin Colcord, shopping and having a makeover in Beverly Hills. She is implying that Carla is making jokes about her because as an "East Coaster" (Carla is from Rhode Island and lives in Boston), Carla is bitter and jealous over how glamorous "West Coasters" like Rebecca are.

Sierra1

Question: What happened with DeNiro's lawyer at the end of the film? Was that a scam too?

Mirror Image - August 8, 1953 - S5-E22

Question: Why would Sam need to warn Beth that Al would return and that he was an MIA? During the Vietnam episode the Pulitzer prize journalist took a picture of Al as a prisoner, so she already knew he was a prisoner.

Answer: In the finale, Sam leaps back to the episode "M.I.A." which is set in 1969. Originally, he failed to stop Beth from remarrying. However, the episode you're talking about, "The Leap Home", takes place in 1970. At the end of that episode, Al tells Sam that Maggie, the woman who took the picture of Al, finally got her Pulitzer Prize posthumously. But there's no indication when the picture of Al becomes public, or if Beth even saw the picture. However, if Beth did see the picture, or is aware Al is a POW, she's already moved on.

Bishop73

Question: Where does the name Boolie derive from?

Question: Why did Will and "Emily" get divorced? Is the only hint her comment about "feeling lost when it comes to relationships", implying she wasn't very good at them?

Jon Sandys

Question: Does anyone know what kind of keyboard Matthew was using in his apartment?

Question: When Michael was visiting the church to "repent" he started to experience an anxiety attack and asked for juice and candy. How on earth did the person standing in the shadows get the juice and candy in under 5 seconds in that scene...pitcher full, a glass and candy on a platter?

Answer: I believe this happened in The Godfather: Part III (1990). Michael was diabetic (it was not an anxiety attack), and he may have requested in advance (without explaining why) that water, juice, candy, etc. be nearby in the event it was needed or else there may have been the usual refreshments set out. The one priest's actions was overly quick, though this was probably a movie choice to accommodate the scene's pacing. Michael's assistants would likely always bring a supply of candy and juice with them whenever Michael went somewhere. That is what diabetics are supposed to consume if they have a sudden attack.

raywest

Yes, I remember now he was diabetic and your answer makes sense. I re-watched the clip where he asks for it and he says it's his diabetes, when he's under stress sometimes it happens. However, I still think that once the Priest said, "what is it, what's the matter or whats wrong" that they didn't know in advance otherwise he would not have needed to ask but that his "assistants" (lol) would have had it with them instead. Either way, it doesn't take away from the film but I've watched this movie no less than 100 times and there is ALWAYS something that I didn't see or understand. This scene just stood out. Thanks for your reply.

You're welcome.

raywest

Chapter 13: The Jedi - S2-E5

Question: Ahsoka's "head-tails" (called Lekku, technically) seem to have creases in them. Are these meant to be scars from battles, or are they just folds in whatever material was used to make the prosthetics? With all the high production values elsewhere, this would seem to be a fairly ropey oversight if so.

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: They could be just like wrinkles from age, like the elderly Togruta in the Zygerrian slaver arc in The Clone Wars series, as Ahsoka is considerably older than her animated appearances. I think there is probably a character design/stylisation aspect to it as well - the other Togruta we've seen in live action, Shaak Ti, has four segments or folds in her lekku that were not visible in her Clone Wars appearances, so it would seem the character design in Clone Wars and Rebels reduces such features.

Sierra1

Question: I never understood the joke about the scene where Bridget was wearing the black dress and white undies. Everything looked fine to me, but she looked all embarrassed in front of the guy she was with when the two were fooling around. What joke did I miss?

Answer: The knickers are almost like spanx or the ones that try to hold everything in and appear skinny. Never particularly sexy! I think that's the joke is she wasn't in anything lacy as she didn't think anyone would be seeing them.

Answer: The type of underwear she was wearing was larger than he expected a young woman to wear. They appeared to be what one might call "granny panties."

Bishop73

Question: Why did the nuke fridge scene cause so much controversy?

Answer: People felt it was ridiculous and cartoonish, even by Indiana Jones standards. Even if it was possible to survive a nuclear blast via the lead lining of a fridge (it's not), or that the fridge would simply be thrown away rather than be melted/torn apart like everything else in the vicinity (it wouldn't), the impact of being flung what appears to be a mile or so through the air, then violently crashing into and rolling over the ground, would certainly kill anything inside. The controversy arose because usually, in "classic" Indy films, the fantastical elements were exactly that: fantastic, magical, and/or supernatural. This was presented as taking place in our reality, with no "power of God" or magic spells, and for many, that was just too much disbelief to suspend.

Answer: Another problem is that people couldn't articulate what they didn't like about the film, and point to the "Nuke the Fridge" scene as a quick example of what they think is bad about it. In the realm of Indy, it's really no more outlandish than jumping out of a plane in an inflatable raft like in Temple of Doom.

It's considerably more outlandish. The raft scene was recreated/reviewed by Mythbusters, and they found that the raft floated down at a mere 22 mph. It would be hard/impossible in real life to stay on the raft, sure, but if you buy that bit of movie cheekiness, it would definitely slow their descent enough to survive, especially since they land a) on a slope and b) on soft snow. The fridge scene, however, has no such saving grace... it's completely ridiculous and unrealistic in every detail.

Dead Freight - S5-E5

Question: How did the train conductors not hear the water pump Walt was using to pump water into the tanker? They were only around 800 feet away in open land, so it should have been audible.

Phaneron

Answer: For one thing the engine running the pump isn't that loud. The characters have conversations at a normal volume without having to scream at each other. Even if the conductors could hear it, there is no reason they should care or be suspicious. It just sounds like an engine running in the distance and they don't care enough to look for what is making the noise. At that very moment there is also a kid riding a dirt bike in the area. Engine noises are a very common thing.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: What were other children singing/chanting when young Freddy used hammer to kill the hamster?

Answer: "Son of a hundred maniacs." Freddy was conceived when his mother, Amanda, was accidentally locked in a ward of violent mental patients and gang raped.

Brian Katcher

Question: Why does Freddy use Alice to gain access to new victims?

Answer: As Kristin was being burned to death in the boiler, she passed her ability to pull other people into her dreams to Alice. This enabled Freddy to get new victims.

Answer: He'd killed her friends in the previous movie, remember? When he came back she'd had time to recover and make new friends.

Rob245

That was Kristen, not Alice. Alice gives the answer to this question herself, while talking to Dan in the diner. She says that Kristen was the last of the children of the people who killed Freddy, and "maybe Freddy can't get to the new kids unless there's someone to bring them to him."

Answer: They are vacationing on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. How else are the supposed to dress. Daphne is all about style and fashion. Everyone else is dressed differently.

Question: Maddy pulls up to the house in her dead husband's Cadillac right around the time Ned was supposed to be at the boat house. Why would she be driving his car when at that point in time, she is supposed to be Mary Ann Simpson, her real identity? Ned was supposed to be dead at that point. The boat house could have blown up as she arrived and the fire dept. called by a neighbor would be on its way?

Answer: Maddie (who was the real Mary Ann Simpson) was deliberately being careless, dropping clues, and creating inconsistencies, like leaving Edmund's eyeglasses behind at the house when they moved his body. It was the same with Edmund's car. She was framing Ned as being the sole murderer who killed both (the real) Maddie and Edmund. She had specifically targeted Ned as her accomplice, knowing he was an incompetent lawyer who was careless about details.

raywest

Answer: It was all part of the plan to frame Ned, she purposely left clues behind as Ned would become suspicious of her. In the end, the dead body of the real Mary Ann Simpson was already in the houseboat. Thus everyone would think she's was dead when in fact she in sunning on a tropical beach.

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