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 didn't Harry simply refuse to take part in the Tri-Wizard tournament? Even though his name came out of the goblet, he could have said no.
Answer: No, he had to participate because the goblet of fire forced him into a "magical contract." The goblet itself is probably partially sentient and would punish anyone who didn't participate after being selected by the goblet. How this works exactly is never explained, but the tournament judges were pretty clear that he had no choice but to participate.
What would have happened to Harry if he broke the contract?
Broken magical contracts usually resulted in death; a good deterrent for not breaking them. Keep in mind, however, Harry (in the book at least), like many students, very much wanted to compete in the tournament despite the danger, but initially couldn't because he was underage. He still wanted to compete, despite knowing the selection process was rigged.
It's never explained.
We're All Crazy Sometimes - S4-E11
Question: A woman is on a breathing tube and she is in a coma. She later undergoes an operation and wakes up due to a dopamine inflow. She is talking normally although she still has the breathing mechanism (albeit not connected by a hose) in her neck. How can she talk normally with that tube still in her?
Answer: That's a tracheal tube. Most people can talk perfectly normal with tracheal tubes. Check out Mattie Stepanek for one of the most famous examples. He had a tracheal tube for most of his life and never had problems with speech.
Got it. Many thanks.
Question: It is revealed at the end of the film that Gordon is in fact the true Fester. However, all the photos and Gomez's home movie show young Fester as being completely bald. Then how did Gordon manage to have a full head of hair which he had to shave off in order to initially pose as Fester?
Answer: Presumably when Fester was lost in the Bermuda Triangle, whatever supernatural forces caused him to lose his memory also made him grow hair. This gets reversed at the end of the movie when he's zapped by lightning, restoring his memories and destroying his hair follicles as well.
Answer: I guess we assume he always shaved his head.
Question: I've been told stargate Atlantis was cancelled because it was too expensive to make. Is this true?
Answer: True, and the reason is complicated. Production costs were rising and it was announced that Season 5 would be the last, but there was to be a direct-to-DVD movie after the series ended, with more movies to follow. The movie was never made, and while there were later discussions about a revived Season 6, the MGM studio was undergoing financial difficulties, eventually going bankrupt. The project, after numerous failed attempts to negotiate with other production companies, was eventually shelved.
Question: Why does Owen visit Nicky at the hotel where he stays with Jess? And why does Nicky get tensed as though they are strangers?
Answer: Because Owen is really Nicky's father, Owen. He was making sure he stayed focused on the con job, not his girlfriend. That's why Nicky was tense, like a stage play you're supposed to remain in character not matter the situation.
Question: When John sees a group of SWAT guys head to the building, why does he react by saying, "No, no, no!" Wasn't having the police come to help exactly what he wanted?
Answer: As you may have noticed in the immediate run-up to this, he has been trying to warn them against taking direct action. He has tried to tell them that they are fighting heavily armed and highly trained terrorists who are well-prepared to handle a small group of policemen overtly entering through the front door. So, he was saying that because he knew the SWAT men were about to get hurt, or worse, in their idiotic attempt to, as Dep. Chief Dwayne puts it, "kick ass."
Question: Why is Teasle so against allowing Rambo to come to town to get something to eat at the beginning? And what's with Galt being so harsh and brutal to Rambo when he's in prison, and then becoming obsessed with wanting to kill Rambo after he escapes? What is the character motivation for Galt hating Rambo so much?
Question: Why does Landa allow Shosanna to go free at the beginning instead of shooting her and killing her?
Answer: Because he's arrogant, and it's all a game to him. He figures he'll get another shot at capturing her, so he decides to let her go (maybe also out of recognition of her bravery), to continue the chase another time. Why not? She's one fugitive on the run, and he has time and the entire apparatus of the German state at his disposal.
Answer: It could be a compassionate act, though leaving her alive as the lone survivor after seeing her family killed is also cruel and inflicts life-long emotional pain. He may have also have had moral issues about killing a defenseless woman, even a Jewish one, or considered her too insignificant to bother with.
Question: Why does it take Taylor so long for him to figure out he's really still on Earth? Shouldn't the fact that the apes all speak perfect English be a dead giveaway?
Answer: This is an issue with the "Planet of the Apes" films. The astronauts never question why the apes speak English, why all animals (like horses) are identical to ones on Earth, the vegetation is the same, the star constellations have not changed, etc. You really just have to attribute it to a "suspension of disbelief" where we are expected to accept the premise that the main character does not work out the truth until the big "reveal" at the end of the film.
Answer: At the time, it was a standard film convention to have the characters speak the language of the country that produces the film. Sure, they could all speak "ape", but that would have been an added layer of complexity (and pre-production) that just wasn't done in Hollywood at that time. Even most WWII films had the Germans, French, etc, all speak English. But to give an in-film explanation: he's on a planet where apes evolved from humans just like him, so maybe he just assumed that English had evolved there, as well. In a universe as vast as ours, it's actually a statistical certainty that English has independently arisen on another planet.
Question: TV Tropes says there's an episode where multiple tornadoes come down on Earl's hometown, one after another - anybody know what that episode was?
Answer: Sounds like s04e11, "Nature's Game Show."
Question: Watson gets absorbed into the Darkness, becoming a part of it, so how was he able to appear and open the attic window to let Sara and Eddie escape?
Answer: The Darkness was so focused on Sara and Eddie that Watson used his few seconds of freedom to help them.
Question: How did Hank's wife Janet survive all those years in the quantum realm?
Answer: Hank asks Janet a question about the energy from her hands, and she hints that the quantum realm changes you: not just adaptation but evolution (or mutation!) which gave her certain abilities which may have helped her survive. It's also hinted that she was involved with/accepted into a civilization which existed in the quantum realm and you see a city in the distance as they depart.
Question: Has David Lynch ever explained why the beings in the lodge talk funny?
Answer: The answer to pretty much any question beginning with "Has David Lynch ever explained _______?" is: no.
Question: How does Jake survive despite being seen eaten by the shark?
Answer: We never see Jake "eaten", he is merely shown being dragged underwater by the shark. Off screen, the shark simply let go of Jake and didn't kill him. In a movie full of factual errors and plot holes, this bit is actually somewhat realistic. Sharks typically do not eat humans, but will maul people on occasion and let go, presumably because they don't like the taste. How Jake survives underwater for minutes on end is not addressed. Originally, Jake was meant to be killed by the shark but for whatever reason, it was decided that Jake should survive and make a surprise appearance after the shark has been killed.
Question: Why did Gene Hackman quit acting after appearing in this movie?
Answer: His decision to retire wasn't related to this film; it just happened to be his last. He was working on other projects (mostly writing), and wanted to focus on those. He didn't "officially" announce his retirement from acting until 2008.
Answer: It was said, that he got tired of doing movies where everything and everyone explodes and dies a bloody death.
Question: Why was Jake Cherry replaced by Skyler Gisondo as Nick Daley?
Question: Is this film accurate to how rabid dogs behave in real life?
Answer: Not really. Rabies has a wide range of behavioural symptoms, and it's rare for a rabid dog to display what's called "furious rabies," whereby they become more aggressive. And even then, they wouldn't become single-mindedly determined to terrorise two people in a car. It's much more common for a rabid dog to get slower/lethargic as paralysis sets in, eventually leading to coma and death. You can find more info here: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/rabies-in-dogs.
Question: What's making the birds go insane and attack people?
Answer: It is never explained, probably because it would ruin the mystery of the film to spell it out.
If you are a Hitchcock fan, you pay attention to dialogue. They mention quite often that it started Melanie's arrival, of which she brought 2 caged birds. The rest is implied.
Answer: None of the characters knew why the birds attacked, or the reason it was confined to the one town of Bodega Bay. The incident was so isolated that the outside news media was barely aware it was occurring or knew its severity, so there was no investigation into it at the time. Alfred Hitchc0ck's explanation was that the birds were rising up against humans to punish them for taking nature for granted.
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Answer: After publicly disagreeing with the producers' decision to fire Richard Donner, they reduced her role to nothing more than a cameo.
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