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: So Tatum is running from Ghostface, she's running to do what exactly here? I'm confused why she didn't just try to open the garage then run to the beer and throw it at him and run out instead of going through the doggy door and dying like that. (01:06:57)

Answer: She panicked. And when someone is panicked they make stupid decisions.

lionhead

Answer: It is also known that Stu locked the door, so she couldn't escape.

Question: Why didn't Sandy immediately telephone Danny when she found out she and her family were not going back to Australia, and that she would be attending his high school?

Answer: Perhaps Sandy didn't know the high school she would be going was the same as Danny's, so she didn't think to call him already, but wanted to do it later. It's all very vague about where it all come from. The point is she never thought she would see Danny again, just like Danny thought he would never see her again. With that in mind they might indeed not have exchanged phone numbers anyway so no way to contact each other.

lionhead

Answer: Maybe they didn't exchange phone numbers.

I don't think exchanging phone numbers would have been common practice in the 1950s. If anything, Danny would have her number.

KeyZOid

I grew up in the period this movie was set in and, considering Sandy and Danny were dating, they would definitely have exchanged phone numbers.

That's a lousy answer, considering how much Sandy and Danny supposedly meant to each other. Having grown up in the years the movie was set in, I know those teenagers would have been calling back and forth to each other when they weren't together at the beach.

Answer: Being a Ladies' Man, Danny probably told her the same thing. He was only vacationing for the summer and would be returning home to another city and state.

Not a good answer. It requires you to ignore too much of the rest of the plot of the movie regarding Danny's strong feelings for Sandy.

Answer: Again, he had his reputation as a Ladies Man, he didn't want the gang to know, he was wimping out and had fall in love. Remember the song, "Summer Lovin" He told of scoring with a hot babe, while Sandy sang of true love.

Answer: Considering all the answers given so far to this question aren't believable, let me provide one that is: Perhaps Sandy had already tired of Danny by the end of the summer, and wanted to move on with her life and find a guy who wasn't a wimpy greaseball.

Answer: I had an exchange student LIVE in my parents house for a month when I was in high school in 1990. I liked her a lot. We were the same age. We got along. I did not have her phone number when she left. Why? Because there was no way my father was letting me call France "long distance" in 1990. In 1959, I'm going to say that calling long distance was probably not on their radar as a viable option. Not to mention - realistically, when you're 17, and you never think you're going to see each other again because you're separated by continent, what would be the point of exchanging numbers?

This was a nice story, but has nothing to with answering the question. Sandy didn't live with Danny, so they would have exchanged local numbers, or at least Danny would have given Sandy his number if she didn't know the number where she was staying so they could call each other during the summer. For your story to be slightly comparable, the exchange student would have had live somewhere else. In that scenario you certainly would have given her your number and she wouldn't give you her number in France but where she was staying.

Bishop73

Answer: More than likely, based on Sandy's demeanor and adherence to etiquette, she would not have exchanged her number with a boy. She even said to Rizzo at the lunch table that she went to the beach to see a boy she met so most likely she and Danny would have made plans in person to meet up like they did.

Question: When the tank was coming towards the cliff, why didn't Indy simply jump off the tank? If he jumped to the right or left his father and others wouldn't think that he died.

Answer: There's no way to really answer this because this is an intentionally crafted plot, designed to have characters act and react in a specific way. The movie is going for dramatic effect, making it appear the others think Indy is dead. When he reappears safe and sound, his father has an emotional reaction, showing how much he cares for his son.

raywest

Question: Why doesn't Lt. Schaffer shoot the radio operator with the silenced pistol instead of trying to sneak up behind him to kill him with a knife? Why didn't Mr. Eastwood or Mr. Burton point out the idiocy of that part of the plot to the director?

Answer: Because "silenced" pistols aren't silent. Hollywood has created this myth. Weapon sounds can be suppressed but never silenced.

stiiggy

Answer: This question has already been answered. There's no "idiocy" in choosing one method over another on how to kill someone in that type of situation. Obviously, it was decided that the knife was a better option. This is a movie, not reality. Choices about scenes are made for what works best dramatically for the plot, not about what someone would necessarily do in a real-life situation.

raywest

Question: In the morning after Bond and Paris slept together in the hotel, Paris leaves despite protests from Bond. When Bond gets back to the hotel she is lying dead on his bed having been murdered. How did she get back there?

Answer: Elliot Carver arranged it, he called Dr. Kaufman, who said, he is a specialist in arranging the perfect murder. His specialty is the celebrity suicide.

Question: Does Schofield throw away his canteen after he pours water over his eyes? In any event he has it again to fill with milk at the abandoned farm house.

Answer: He puts his canteen back after he poured water over his eyes. You can tell because after he gets up it's hanging on his side again.

lionhead

Answer: Brand didn't know specifically where the Goonies went, but he got on the bike and went searching. Viewers didn't get to see how many places Brand looked before he found them at the restaurant or how much time it took him, but he probably biked down the one road in town until he spotted their bikes and then looked nearby. The fact that Brand apparently found the Goonies within a short amount of time suggests that there were relatively few places that they could have gone, probably because they lived in a small town that was at least semi-rural. Other than old houses, there were only a few landmarks (including the restaurant and lighthouse). There may have been spots that kids tended to gravitate toward and Brand might have had a good idea as to where they most likely went.

KeyZOid

Question: How did Forrest change clothes on his cross-country but didn't take any with him?

Answer: He buys them, and/or people, such as those running with him, give him new clothes to replace his old ones. He's got plenty of money, no reason he can't have a debit or credit card on him to cover his expenses (like he says, he stops to eat, sleep, and so forth).

Question: Why was this movie a Universal Studios movie, when the others were DreamWorks?

Answer: Universal Pictures (which is owned by NBCUniversial) bought DreamWorks Animation in 2016. However, this film is still a DWA production, it was just now distributed by Universal Pictures. All films have been produced by DWA, but they all used different distribution companies.

Bishop73

Answer: It was Frank James, brother of Jesse. He didn't stand up as she approached. She was offended by his lack of manners.

Answer: Rooster Cogburn. She considered him a legendary lawman, like Wyatt Earp. She felt bad that he was reduced to being a sideshow attraction in a circus.

Answer: Since...always. Depends entirely on the balance of earnings / expenses in the couple. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-women-are-paying-alimonythat-includes-supporting-their-exs-porn-habit-2018-05-23.

Jon Sandys

Question: When the police show up to arrest Gustav, why did he say that he doesn't recognize their authority? He knows who they are and what they're going to do so why does he say he doesn't?

Answer: He's a rich man who believes he is above the law. They have no authority to arrest him.

Question: I may have forgotten this but how come in all the incarnations of Myers he never speaks? There some reason, maybe it was to make him seem less human, maybe seem even more spooky?

Rob245

Answer: In a meta "behind the scenes" context, Michael was more or less intended to basically be the pure, simple personification of evil. He's basically the closest thing there could be to a "real life boogeyman." Choosing not to have him speak was a way for the filmmakers to keep his evil "pure" and simple. He has no real personality or motivation - he simply does evil things for the sake of doing them. His actions speak for him, so to speak. It is also arguably frightening to imagine why someone who could speak would choose not to. In terms of the movies themselves, it's never really 100% explained. It's implied that he stopped speaking and basically lost all traces of humanity after killing his sister. The closest we get to any sort-of direct explanation is in the 2018 sequel that "Halloween" creator John Carpenter approved and produced, in which Dr. Sartain clarifies that Michael can speak, but simply chooses not to for reasons unknown.

TedStixon

Question: How did the Smokers track down the Mariners boat whilst they dived to the city? The Deacon shoots the Mariner and then when he notices that he's bleeding he says "Bring me the trackers " Whilst the Mariner and Helen are underwater, Enola sees something that looks like shark fins go under the boat.

Answer: It seems the Smokers have either trained or bred sharks for the purpose of tracking enemies by the scent of blood in the water.

LorgSkyegon

Question: Marty shows Doc in 1885 the image of the tombstone, and he says that he wished he'd paid Buford off. Why can't he just round up 80 dollars to give to Buford and apologise for not doing that in the first place?

Answer: Adjusting for inflation, $80 back in 1885 is equivalent to about $2,143.65 today. Not something you can just conjure up easily, least of all back then. And Marty couldn't just take 1985 money back to 1885 and expect people to accept it.

Quantom X

Except that Doc was in 1885 and could have just gone to the bank and withdrew the $80's.

How? He arrives in 1885 and magically has the equivalent of $2,100 already in a bank account? He presumably borrowed it from Buford in the first place precisely because he didn't have that much cash available.

Doc didn't borrow money from Buford. He time-traveled with a briefcase filled with currencies from different time periods, including the 1800s. Doc had shoed Buford's horse for $5, for which Buford never paid him. When one shoe later came off later, causing Buford to be thrown, Buford shot the horse and demanded Doc pay him $75 for it and $5 for a broken bottle of whiskey.

raywest

Where would have get the $80 from? You're assuming he had the $80 available to him. The bank wouldn't just give out the money for free.

You can't take out $80 in 1985 money, and give it to someone in 1885. It would look like play money to them. U.S. currency looked a lot different back then.

Ray

Well he could technically get that amount worth in gold or silver.

lionhead

And, as stated, since Doc was in 1885, more specifically, eight months in 1885, he could have just taken the money out of the bank considering he had a job as a blacksmith.

In Back to the Future 2, Doc shows Marty a briefcase full of money from different time periods, including various mid-1800 currencies, that he carried with him in the DeLorean. (There are online screen shots of the contents.) Doc refused to pay Tannen the $80 because he never owed it to him. Tannen was extorting him.

raywest

Answer: Buford was a crazed gunfighter, even if they paid off the $80 that wouldn't have satisfied him. He loved to shoot and kill. He wanted a showdown to show people he is to be feared and not messed with.

Question: After defeating Mrs. Voorhees, why did Alice decide to sleep in a canoe? (I understand her being tired, but not why she slept there).

Answer: She was exhausted from fighting to stay alive. She collapsed in the boat.

Answer: Because she couldn't find a bed? So a canoe would be the next best thing.

ChristmasJonesfan

Question: Why didn't Clint Eastwood shoot the radio operator with the silenced pistol rather than trying to sneak up to him to stab him?

Answer: Contrary to popular belief, a gun silencer (also called a suppressor) is noisier than depicted in many movies, whereas a knife is completely silent, assuming the victim dies instantly and does not cry out while struggling.

raywest

Question: When he was looking through the seating chart, how did Frank know that Boothe was James Carney at the presidential dinner?

The_Iceman

Answer: Frank had reviewed and was familiar with the list of the attendees since he was concerned about an attempt, and when he looked at the faxed list of new bank accounts, the name Carney jumped out at him.

jimba

Answer: John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln.

Not the question. "Booth" is just a pseudonym used by Mitch Leary (John Malkovich) at the beginning of the film, until Frank and the FBI figure out his real identity. Your answer is right insofar as that's why Leary called himself "Booth." But the question is, how did he immediately connect Leary with the name James Carney on the seating chart.

When he spoke with Sandy Riggs, the organizer of the event, Sandy Riggs said, "Be right back, Mr. Carney." Then when he read the name James Carney on the guest list, he made the connection.

Answer: Most shows do flashbacks to show how things begin or what circumstances brought them to their current predicament. The modern episodes was to show how their legacies live on. Hercules changing his name to Kevin Sorbo and starring in a series about himself or Xena, her soul being reborn to continue her fight against evil.

Question: There is something I don't understand about Arthur. Why is he so reluctant to be king of the undersea nation of Atlantis?

Answer: I agree with the other answer but would add that suddenly becoming the ruler of such a huge and diverse kingdom that he'd been detached from growing up and to then assume such an immense responsibility would be daunting. Being king means sacrificing your personal freedom in the service of others.

raywest

Answer: Because he felt abandoned, by both his mother and his people. He was considered the bastard of a human and mermaid, and, like an interracial couple, it was considered illegal and immoral. Why rule when you're not wanted?

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.