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.

3rd Rock from the Sun (1996)

A Nightmare on Dick Street (1) - S2-E25

Question: Don says if he nabs Karl Borsky he makes detective. (I'm pretty sure I've seen other shows where a cop says if he does something or brings someone in he'll make detective, or some rank). Is that how some police departments promoted officers to detective? I thought it just a matter of necessary years of experience and passing a test (and maybe having a vacancy) and not about having a certain number of high profile arrests or accomplishing a certain feat. Granted Don may be exaggerating, but taking what he said at face value, how true is it?

Bishop73

Answer: Being promoted within the police department is usually a result of time on the job, combined with demonstration of talent and ability. When a character "cracks the big case" or "nabs the bad guy" this means that their superiors will take notice and possibly promote them if possible. In Don's case, he may already have the required years of service, but has yet to show sufficient ability.

Bullitt (1968)

Question: How did Ross get Renick to go along with the identity switch?

Answer: Money. A whole lot, plus he likely double talked him into believing it was a con job. Ross saying, "I'm running from the I.R.S. or angry ex-wife wanting alimony and child support."

Broken Arrow (1996)

Question: Like the Wilhelm scream, is there a name to the scream Howie Long makes he falls? I've heard that in more than few other things.

Answer: To me it sounds a lot like a Tie Fighter flyby, also been used in a few movies for various different things.

ScottytooHotty

Answer: Funnily enough, it is actually often referred to as the "Howie Scream," in reference to this film, which famously used it. It's a stock sound effect that's been in use since at least 1980. It's also referred to as "Screams 3; Man, Gut-Wrenching Scream and Fall into Distance," which was presumably the title of the track in the music library it's from.

TedStixon

Scarface (1983)

Question: Just why doesn't Tony want his sister Gina to be married to his best friend?

Rob245

Answer: Tony is very protective of Gina because he views her as the only "pure" thing in his life; while Manny might be his best friend, Tony views Manny as "impure" since they are both heavily involved in criminal activity. Had Tony known before killing Manny that he and Gina were newlyweds late in the film, he probably would have respected their union even if he wasn't particularly happy about it since Manny had made Gina an "honest woman."

zendaddy621

28 Days Later (2002)

Question: In the beginning, there are several shots of riots, seemingly stock footage. One shows a man hanging and people beat him really hard to death. It was short, but quite disturbing. Was this real footage? If so, what was the real incident?

Bunch Son

Answer: None of these shots are real footage; it was scripted and shot for the movie, made to look like newsreel/raw footage.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Question: Why is the mob using that type of TV in order to do their video conference with Lau? Where is the camera?

Answer: It was a one way conversation. They could see Lau, but he couldn't see the mob. They had use retro television which is below the radar. They couldn't take the chance the Dark Knight had sophisticated equipment to trace the signal.

Not sure this answer is accurate. It is definitely a 2 way conversation, as Lau answers questions. Plus it looks like he is visually reacting to seeing the Joker walk in the room. None of which should be possible given that type of television that's being used, but that might be something for the mistakes section.

jshy7979

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

Question: I don't live in the US; is it normal for a gym to contact next of kin and offer condolences when someone is believed to have died? Or is it for plot convenience? Where I come from, any cancellations of memberships, etc, would all be done in writing.

Answer: The woman did not work for the YMCA. She and Laura took swimming lessons together there and were friendly. The woman therefore felt obliged to offer her condolences. It was also, as you say, a plot convenience. There had to be some way to tip off Martin that Laura might still be alive.

raywest ★

Undercover Blues (1993)

Question: What happened to the getaway driver after Jeff knocks him out? Where did his body go?

Beetlejuice (1988)

Question: What was the word that Delia spray painted on the wall and what does it mean?

Answer: "Mauve." It's a type of purple color. They were using spray paint to write what color to paint the walls.

Bishop73

Man on Fire (2004)

Question: Where did they get the $10 Million from if they were broke?

Answer: From kidnap and random insurance policy. That was the point. They claimed $10m. Kept $5m, paid the lawyer $2.5m and the kidnappers $2.5m, but it goes wrong when the police try steal it.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

Question: Professor Oberon (Bethany) is allergic to heat, sun, and sand. So why doesn't he die in the desert, like all the other characters do when they come in contact with their weaknesses?

Answer: He didn't die instantly because he didn't consume anything like Finbar did with the cake, his weakness to heat, sun, and sand is like the endurance he has and Finbar's strength and speed weakness it is simply a debuff on the character.

Answer: This is a question, not a plot hole. And Bethany wasn't Oberon until later. Fridge was Oberon.

Bishop73

The Ring Two (2005)

Question: When the camera pans out of Rachel's house, what was the point of the skies flickering with static and the ring symbol being shown at the ending? Did Rachel and Aidan truly survive and succeed at sealing Samara out of their lives?

Answer: Yes, they succeeded. The implication seems to just be that Samara is still "out there" somewhere. It's just a way to try and end of the movie on a creepy note.

TedStixon

Grounded for Life (2001)

Jimmy Was Kung-Fu Fighting - S1-E12

Question: How can Sister Helen give Lily detention when she sees Lily's tongue ring? She is at the Finnerty's house. Piercings are often a violation of school dress codes, but Sister Helen has not seen the piercing while at school.

Answer: It happens. One of my middle school/junior high classmates was suspended for fighting another classmate during the weekend, at a location nowhere near the school. Also, after Jimmy and Lily created the fake image of Sister Helen, it's easier for Sister Helen to get away with assigning an unfair detention.

Primal Fear (1996)

Answer: Later in the film it's said B32 is a catalog code for the book "The Scarlet Letter", page 156. On that page was an underlined passage "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true..."

Bishop73

Community (2009)

Answer: The implication is that Jeff will still be teaching at Greendale after Annie and Abed leave. As for who became vice dean? It's never shown, since it's not really important to the series.

TedStixon

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Question: Andy overhears Hadley saying he got thirty-five thousand dollars from his brother, but has to pay taxes on it. Andy suggests that Hadley give the money to his wife if he wants to keep all of it. Andy says the IRS allows a one time gift only to your spouses for up to sixty thousand dollars without having to pay taxes. Is that actually true?

Answer: Nope...maybe in-universe it's true, but in our real world, it's just a bunch of fancy-sounding razzle-dazzle that Andy uses to dupe Hadley. Hadley would never have had to pay taxes on the money to begin with. Go to this website for a pretty detailed breakdown of just HOW untrue it actually is: https://hauntedcoconut.com/2019/04/16/the-shawshank-redemption-andy-dufresnes-questionable-tax-advice/.

Cinderella (1950)

Question: Near the end of the movie, the grand duke calls the footman to bring him the glass slipper, so he can try it on Cinderella. But Lady Tremaine trips the footman, causing the slipper to fly and shatter. Then Cinderella reveals she has the other slipper. The grand duke tries it on her, and find that it fits. I have a problem with that because how did he know the glass slipper Cinderella had was the same size as the one that broke?

Answer: Cinderella's entire outfit was magically created by the Fairy Godmother. Not only was the spare shoe Cinderella had in her possession identical to the other one, it likely would be charmed so that she is the only one who can wear it. It's similar to young Arthur being the only person who could pull Excalibur from the stone because he was the true king. No other woman who attended the ball wore glass slippers. If they had, they'd be able to also produce the spare shoe as proof.

raywest ★

Answer: Add in that how many possible glass slippers could there possibly be? It would be an incredibly uncommon type of shoe that would be amazingly difficult to make.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Probably because it looked the same to him, and he had been handling it a lot for all the trying-ons, plus how many people have glass slippers in their closet? But you are right it heavily suggests she is the person, not proves it. But then again how many women's feet would it have already fit? He should have found many matches long before getting to Cinderella. Cinderella can't be the only woman in the kingdom with her size foot.

jimba

Alien (1979)

Question: Why wouldn't the self-destruct system have a stop button? Presumably if you wanted to abort the procedure it should be instant and not have to go through all the rigmarole of trying to shut it down.

Answer: The Nostromo is powered by a nuclear reactor. The self-destruct system simply shuts down the cooling towers, causing the reactor to gradually rise in temperature until it reaches critical mass. The cooling system can be turned back on within the first 5 minutes but after that, the reactor is so hot the cooling liquid will evaporate once it comes into contact with the system. Ripley tries turning the cooling towers back on, and she does so right before the 5 minute failsafe timer is up, but the system was still too hot to cool the reactor. This is why Ripley curses at MUTHUR, she made it back in time but a meltdown is still inevitable. Apparently the 5 minute failsafe timer is not exact to the second and Ripley actually had slightly less than 5 minutes.

BaconIsMyBFF

I believe she just barely misses the cutoff, rather than making it but still having it be ineffective. She curses Mother out of frustration, and perhaps fury at the computer's cold indifference to her fate.

Answer: It's pretty typical in movies that in a self-destruct situation, once it's started, it is impossible to stop, for whatever reason. It's about plotting and maintaining the tension to keep the audience on the edge of their seats to see if the hero can survive. Considering how corrupt the company was, they'd expend little effort into proper safety procedures.

raywest ★

Ghostbusters 2 (1989)

Answer: No, it's just an extra.

LorgSkyegon

John Q (2002)

Question: When John Q and his wife were in the meeting discussing the surgery, Rebecca Payne mentions that they had a little over $1,000 in savings. At the beginning of the movie, his wife's car was repossessed because he couldn't make the payments. Why didn't they use the money in the savings to pay for the car loan to avoid repossession?

Answer: Using the $1000 would only delay their car being repossessed, and they may be much further behind than that in their payments. In that case, their savings would be completely depleted and they'd still have no car.

raywest ★

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.