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.

Answer: It was one of the hoses connected to the engine, nothing specific, but to indicate that Al tampered with the vehicle.

Question: What's the rush to get back to the public library?

Answer: The North American storm was approaching and freezing Manhattan solid. They had to reach safety before being frozen to death.

raywest

Question: How fast do the satellite readings say the temperature is dropping?

Answer: I think the question is asking how fast is the temperature dropping as reported by the satellites. I did not review the data from the computer screens shown in the various scenes, but the dialog indicates that the temperature was dropping unusually fast and at a rate without historical precedent.

Answer: Most weather satellites are in geosynchronous orbits, about 25,000 miles above the earth and use infrared cameras to detect temperature changes. The satellite detects these changes almost instantaneously, but then has to transmit this information to the ground. Taking into account receiver, processor, and transmission delays, the satellite would report that the temperature is dropping in about a quarter second.

Question: What attacks the teens aboard the ship?

Answer: Wolves that had escaped from the Central Park Zoo.

raywest

Question: What are Sam and his friends looking for on the ship?

Answer: They are looking for penicillin to treat Laura's injury.

raywest

Question: It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so I could be forgetting something. But why do Maurice and Brian say a sad good-bye at the end of the film? Sure, Brian can't go down to the monster world any more, but there's theoretically nothing stopping Maurice from coming up to visit him in the future pretty much whenever he wants. Does Maurice just think he shouldn't see Brian any more or something?

TedStixon

Answer: It was time for Brian to grow up, to stop believing in childish things, like monsters under the bed. When you don't believe, it isn't real and anything that isn't real can't hurt you.

There's a big problem with this answer. The movie has shown that monsters are totally and objectively real. How exactly can Brian "stop believing" in something he knows to be 100% true.

Answer: It was not meant to be literal, like pretending your toys are real or having an imaginary friend, you block it out and become an adult. "Christopher Robin." That movie had him growing up and believing his friends were imaginary. Same thing with, "Hook"

I, Mudd - S2-E8

Question: When Kirk and crew neutralized all the androids on the planet, what happened to the androids on the Enterprise running the ship?

Answer: After causing Norman to overload, all of the other androids shut down. The same could be said for the androids on the Enterprise.

Answer: If all the humans beamed down and only Androids were on the ship as Larry Mudd said then how did they get back aboard the Enterprise if all the robots were shut down.

I, Mudd - S2-E8

Question: Mr Sulu appears in the beginning, but disappears throughout the rest of the show, where to?

Answer: It's not explained. If a character is not integral to the plot, there's no reason for them to reappear.

raywest

Answer: It's a recurring theme on the show. Characters come and go depending on the storyline. General Cochrane, Tyler Richmond, Abe Leonard, etc.

Answer: Apparently the characters were eliminated due to cost-cutting measures by Netflix and after salary negotiations with the actors failed.

raywest

Oh. That makes the most sense. I also forgot to mention Kirkman's brother.

Show generally

Question: Over several episodes we see Captain Holt in competition with other Captains for the position of Commissioner. However, we have seen several Deputy Commissioners on the show. Is Commissioner a position that only Captains are eligible for? Are Deputy Commissioners ineligible? How realistic is this?

Answer: In reality, the Commissioner is a civilian administrator, appointed by the mayor of New York City. He (as of this writing, the role has always been filled by a man; the show gets that part right) is usually someone who has risen through the ranks of the NYPD, but upon becoming Commissioner, is no longer a sworn member of the force (the highest sworn rank is that of Chief). Since Commissioners are appointed, technically anyone can serve in the position, including Deputy Commissioners (who are appointed, in turn, by the Commissioner himself).

Update: On 1 January 2022, Keechant Sewell became the first ever female commissioner of the NYPD.

Question: When Max met Flexi, Flexi tells his guys "if he messes up kill him". Apparently the last target wasn't killed and Flexi's guy recognized Max as Vincent, then why didn't his guys kill him?

Answer: Vincent killed Felix's guys during the club shooting scene. One of them even had his red dot sight on Max before Vincent gunned him down.

Invader_Gir

Answer: I watched the clip. Hermione does not appear to be smiling, though if she is, she is probably reacting to Ron's usual hyperbolic reaction to many situations. Hermione had said his leg looked "painful," so Ron then exaggerates, saying they might have to "chop it," as a means to elicit more sympathy. Both know the injury is not that serious.

raywest

Answer: Based on the way Hermoine's head is positioned in the shot, it's kind of hard to tell. Though a closer look will show that she does smile a bit after Ron says "They might chop it", just before the shot cuts. She likely found Ron's belief that he might lose his leg to be somewhat amusing. In the following shot, when Harry approaches Sirius, Hermoine can be heard off-screen saying "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will fix it in a heartbeat", so she must have thought he was worrying about it too much.

Casual Person

Answer: That was the irony of it all, by sheer coincidence the twins were never seen together by Freddie due to unforeseen circumstances.

Question: In the scene, where Lenny informs Homer that they're giving away free donuts at the shop and that they're going very fast, why didn't Homer ask Lenny to save him some? If he did and Lenny agreed, Homer wouldn't have to hurry up nor dump silo in the lake, thus the dome situation could have been avoided.

Answer: Homer has been known not to make the smartest decisions, and the decisions he does make, he makes without fully thinking them through. Clearly he wanted to get some donuts as quickly as possible without thinking of any other ways, so he decided to ditch the silo in the lake as it would be the fastest way of getting it off his back, even if it's not the smartest. Also, putting that aside, he likely wanted his own pick of the donuts rather than have Lenny guess what he wanted.

Casual Person

Question: If Magneto didn't kill Shaw, what would they have done? It seems like killing him was the only possible way to stop him.

MikeH

Answer: Charles wanted to incapacitate Shaw and all he needed to do this was to get the helmet off. Once the helmet is off Charles could freeze Shaw and they could figure out a way to hold him. With no helmet Shaw is very little threat (if at all) to Charles. Erik kills a defenseless man unnecessarily.

BaconIsMyBFF

Actually Xavier says that he can only control this man for so long. Meaning he was struggling keeping him frozen like that. They didn't have forever. An option for Xavier could have been to release Shaw once he knew what Erik was going to do but that could cause Shaw to go nuclear on the spot and kill everyone.

lionhead

Yes, he could only hold him for so long but instead of taking the opportunity to incapacitate/capture him, Erik steals the helmet, gloats, and then slowly pushes a coin through his head.

BaconIsMyBFF

I'm not sure what the actual plan was. Charles freezing was the only thing preventing Shaw from killing everyone. Even if Erik manages to wrap Shaw into something, as soon as his mind is free he will be able to use his abilities. He killed him slowly, which was unnecessary, but killing him was the only option IMHO.

lionhead

Question: When Yosemite Sam flies out of Toon Town and lands in front of Lt. Santino and Eddie, does he say, "Great Horny Toads" or "Green Horny Toads"?

Answer: He says "great." That's one of his catch phrases from the Looney Tunes cartoons.

Question: Who could they return the money to? The guy who paid Vincent was killed.

Rob245

Answer: The money would be returned to the police and used as evidence. Even though Beetroot is dead the police still need to do an investigation to close the case. Since the $4 million was used in a felony (conspiracy and theft), the money would be impounded by the city.

BaconIsMyBFF

Show generally

Question: In the third episode of the first series the family visit the farm for Karen's birthday treat. This means that her birthday must be September, being so the evenings still seem light. But jump to the fifth series when Karen starts comprehensive (year 7), it is often mentioned that she is 11. If her birthday is in September, shouldn't she have turned 12 already?

Answer: Acording to all online sources, her birthday is 30th August 2001. It's also documented that in Season 5 she is in year 7 and 11 years old. If her birthday is 30th August, she will start year 7, 2 days after her 11th Birthday so this is correct.

Ssiscool

Question: Does anyone else think it was cheating for Jester to go below the hard deck after he was out-maneuvered by Maverick? He knew that it would be against the rules for Maverick to engage after he dropped below 10,000 ft.

Answer: Jester called "no joy" which ends the engagement. After that he can go below the hard deck, Maverick can't be credited with a kill that's below the hard deck and after the call of no joy.

stiiggy

In reality Jester's "No joy" ("I can't see you!") call would've been followed by Maverick's "Continue" ("I see you (and I'm about to shoot you down!")) and after that if Jester still would've gone under the hard deck the fight would've ended with a maneuver kill for Maverick. (enemy crashed into the ground). Only a "Knock it off" call would've ended the fight there and then.

"Continue" is not in the NATO Brevity Codes, therefore you answer is invalid.

stiiggy

Yes it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiservice_tactical_brevity_code.

Well, don't I look silly. Thanks for the correction sir :).

stiiggy

Your answer is basically just explaining what Jester was trying to achieve, but didn't address the question of motive. Jester's claim was that due to an unsafe condition he needed to terminate the engagement, while Maverick believed he was doing it to avoid getting caught in a disadvantageous situation where he could be "hit." The movie makes it appear Maverick was right so Jester doing it was cheating. It would be like an athlete who is behind claiming an injury to end a match without anyone yet winning in order to avoid losing.

Question: In the beginning of the movie, a car passes the school bus. The car had a huge cockroach on it. What kind of person would put a cockroach on their own car? It can't be just an accessory. Is there anyone who knows about that? What exactly is that for?

Bunch Son

Answer: The truck belongs to an exterminator. The big cockroach would just be a way to get noticed while driving around. It's the same truck the 3 kids find later.

Bishop73

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.