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: When Kevin is shooting Buzz's Starting Lineup figures down the laundry shoot with the BB gun, who are the two figures left of the spatula? I know the one on the far right is Larry Bird, and I believe next to Bird is Walter Payton.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: Yes, Walter Payton. The other two are Babe Ruth and Steve Largent.

Bishop73

Answer: It was in Season 10, when the show was rebooted. Roseanne's pain pill abuse is first brought up in Episode 8, "Netflix and Pill." In the spin-off series, "The Conners", Roseanne's death was attributed to an opiate overdose.

raywest

Question: What did Daniel's wife die of?

Answer: It's never really specified, but most likely from a long illness. There was no reference to it being unexpected or a tragic accident.

Answer: A tree broke the wall of their enclosure at the zoo and they climbed it to freedom.

Answer: Two dogs, Old Jack and Dewey, do not survive.

raywest

Question: I remember seeing a scene at Clark's boss' house with lots of people having a big party when Cousin Eddie shows up to kidnap him. What happened to that scene in the version I bought on DVD?

Answer: Are you sure it was this movie? The boss was in his jammies when he was kidnapped and his wife was alone when she called the police.

Brian Katcher

This movie seems to have an awful lot of scenes people randomly remember, that are corroborated by other people, but that the official information on IMDB and other sources disprove. Remember that awesome Nelson Mandela cameo in it?

Sammo

This does seem unlikely. Having him abducted from a party would change the entire end of the film. As you say, he's in his pajamas, which would make no sense.

Answer: It's a group of Sith cultists known as the Sith Eternal. They have been based on Exegol for many years.

Question: How did Palpatine come back? Cloned? Or somehow survived the Death Star explosion, which seems unlikely.

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: According to the novelization, Palpatine sensed Vader's internal conflict and created a clone as a backup in the event that Vader betrayed him. When Vader threw him down the shaft, Palpatine transferred his consciousness into the clone's body.

Answer: It is not said exactly how he came back. He says that he had died before which presumably is him dying in ROTJ. The most we get is the reference to Sith ability that some consider unnatural.

It is not said how he came back, but I get the idea that he was using the Force to keep himself alive. At least that's the message I was getting when I saw that Palpatine's fingers were wilted away. And I thought that the power he was using was urging his life to go on, but his physical appearence was being dragged behind.

Answer: The line "The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural" is a direct reference to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in which Palpatine says the same line verbatim to Anakin. Recall that a major plot point to that prequel is that the Sith have long been rumored to have found a method to cheat death. This film strongly suggests that Palpatine had indeed discovered this method. The film doesn't go into specifics. My understanding is the novelization says his body is a clone. Going by his appearance in the film (blank eyes; body manipulated by machine), it suggests to me that he is a reanimated corpse.

TonyPH

Question: How did the monkeys get onto the space ship and why were they so aggressive?

Answer: On the way from the Moon to Mars, the Cepheus interplanetary vessel receives an automated distress signal from a Norwegian bio-medical space station (that studies and conducts experiments on Earth animals in the deep-space environment). Apparently, a couple of very powerful and temperamental adult baboons escaped from their cages and killed everyone aboard the space station, feeding on their bodies. When the Cepheus answers the distress signal and arrives at the space station, the baboons attack and try to eat Captain Tanner and Roy McBride, also.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: If Palpatine wanted Rey alive, as he says to her on Exegol, why did he repeatedly order Kylo to kill her earlier in the movie?

Answer: Palpatine has been manipulating Rey and Kylo Ren from the very start, bringing the pair together and instigating fights between them. He is trying to make Rey stronger so that when he takes over her body, she will be powerful. Palpatine can partially see the future and knows that Kylo will not be successful in actually killing Rey, but that their constant fights will cause the two to grow more powerful. Because he can see part of the future, he knows that eventually Rey will triumph over Kylo and "kill" him, and then come to confront him directly. He doesn't count on Ben Solo coming back to face him which winds up being his undoing.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Not just earlier in the movie, but in the trilogy itself since he is technically also behind Snoke. Yeah I wondered the same. For that matter, why does he not clue her in of his whereabouts but just hopes (what a very Jedi thing to do!) she'll just find the thing that leads it to him? Feels like a plot hole but I didn't bother sending it because I am sure some answer for it will come in the expanded universe or whatever. Of course one could just say it's the Sith way and if Kylo managed to kill her it would completely erase the very last Jedi and erase anything good remaining in Kylo, making the victory of the Dark Side complete. And likewise, if Rey kills him (which she does, in a way!) that will make the Dark Side in her stronger. Curious enough, notice how Kylo wants them both to go to Palpatine, to kill him, instead, so Palpatine's order is meant to make him do something he does not want to.

Sammo

Answer: Emperor Palpatine is a lying bastard. Earlier he wanted her dead because he feared her power. Now that she's actually showed up in the flesh he's trying to flatter her to convince her to join with him (literally in this case). The Emperor is the Star Wars version of Satan/Lucifer; his word is worth less than nothing.

TonyPH

Question: I don't quite get how the Hoffa killing plays out. His son is there in the car, Frank and Jimmy go into the house, Frank shoots him, apparently not heard, then leaves the house...doesn't Chuckie Hoffa have questions? Like where his dad is for a start, let alone the gunshots he must have heard?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: First off his name was Chuckie O'Brian. Jimmy Hoffa wasn't his biological father, he was more in the nature of a foster father. Second, he probably knew what happened. What was Chuckie going to do? It was a sanctioned hit. And if he went to the police he would have ended up the same as Jimmy Hoffa. They put him in the middle of it to keep him quiet. If he goes after the people who did it, he's as good as dead. If he talks he could end up in jail with them, and the mafia will probably kill him anyway.

Answer: Well Dr. Strange used the time stone to see how they could fight him and they executed that plan, though as Strange knew they wouldn't win against him. Eventually Thanos did beat them but I suppose advanced technology and strength in numbers were a good advantage even if he had 4 stones. I think they intentionally went for speed and his mind as that's the 2 stones he was still missing.

lionhead

Answer: Since they are in possession of the Time Stone and Doctor Strange is hiding it with magic, he may have decided to refrain from killing all of them, otherwise locating the stone afterwards could prove a difficult task.

Phaneron

Answer: He could have, but Thanos sees himself as merciful and doing the right thing. He fights the Avengers and Guardians in order to stop them and gain the Infinity Stones. He has no particular interest in killing any of them.

Question: Why do Harry and Marv: 1. Go after Kevin when they should remember the misery he caused them before and 2. Be stupid enough to tell him what their plans are?

Rob245

Answer: Harry and Marv go after Kevin probably to even the score for a kid having outsmarted them once before. They tell him what their plans are because they're not particularly bright, believe it doesn't matter, and simply because it serves as a plot device. Kevin has to somehow learn their plan, otherwise he could not thwart them.

raywest

Answer: Marv and Harry say in one of the scenes that Kevin is not at his own home meaning "he doesn't have a house full of goodies" to hurt them with (quoted from the scene). So they felt like they were safe from any havoc because he didn't know where he was, of course they underestimated him.

Question: After Riot took over the little girl's body at the airport, what happens to her parents?

Trainman

Answer: The parents do not notice when the little girl leaves the bathroom and are never seen or heard from again. Presumably they believed their daughter to be missing and an investigation would be launched, but the girl would not be found until after Riot had switched bodies and she was killed.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Who started the rumor that children were toxic and harmful?

Answer: The movie doesn't say, but Waternoose's long history at the company implies that even if he isn't behind the story, he's been supporting it for a long time.

Question: Why would Agnes join Billy in his killing spree? She was a victim of him, losing an eye and her parents. She could've joined the sorority girls in stopping him.

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: Maybe like him she's also mentally ill, getting it from their mother. Maybe she feels doing this will bring them together.

Rob245

Question: I have seen a version where when the lights finally come on, an attic scene shows snow being melted into the attic from all the holes Clark punched into his roof. Where did I see this? I am so sure I have seen this scene somewhere in time, as I watch this movie every Christmas.

Question: When Kimble is in the hospital with the boy he changes the diagnosis to what? I have tried to look but it cuts away as he's writing it down on the boy's file.

Answer: When Richard changes the diagnosis, the first thing he writes down is "AO" which is medical shorthand for aorta. Many people who have medical degrees and saw the movie speculate that Joel had an aortic tear. This would cause blood to flow into the chest cavity making it difficult to breathe and with the impact from the crash it could have caused the fatal injury. An aortic tear requires immediate surgery and by changing Joel's diagnosis, Kimble was able to save his life.

Answer: Kimble is watching as the doctor, Al, looks at the chest film and states "possible fractured sternum, he's stable," and we can see Kimble's bothered by that. Then Kimble is told to take the boy to observation room 2. When Kimble questions the boy and looks at the chest film, Kimble ignores what he was told, and instead heads directly for the surgical OR. In the elevator he draws a line over the incorrect essential diagnosis: "depress chest w/ poss fr" (possible fracture), and begins to write "Ao," then he scribbles a signature on the Patient of Dr line. The essential diagnosis Kimble writes is presumably an Aortic trauma, which is a life-threatening critical injury and requires immediate attention. So when Kimble brings the boy to the OR (instead of observation room 2) for the emergency medical procedure, he tells the doctor the boy was sent up from downstairs. The child is then taken to operating room 4, STAT, saving the child's life.

Super Grover

Its a pneumothorax, is air trapped between the lung and the ribcage and it's very common.

Answer: The presumption is the boy was misdiagnosed and he changed the chart to the correct diagnosis. The doctor says later that he saved the boy's life. Most likely he changed the charge to order specific tests.

Answer: It's never specified what he changed the orders to, nor is it important to know. This was done only add to the plot where the other doctor noticed him looking at the X-ray, arousing her suspicion, then creating suspense as Kimble barely escapes from the hospital.

raywest

We know it isn't important know, it's just a point of curiosity.

True and if you notice that's the always reliable Julianne Moore as the other doctor. This was the first movie that she did that was lampooned in Mad magazine, the next would be Mocking Jay Part 1.

Rob245

"The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "Hannibal" were both lampooned by Mad before "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1."

Bishop73

I totally get that you're curious about it. Just saying that filmmakers usually aren't concerned with showing small details like that. They use broader strokes to tell the story.

raywest

A lot of film makers do put in small details into their work. Yes, some are lazy, for example, repeating 1 or 2 paragraphs in a news article too look like they whole page is filled. Others take time to have the whole thing filled out, even adding funny things for the viewer who paused the video to read. This is why there's a lot of trivia entries and questions about what something small was or meant. A casual viewer wouldn't know if what they saw meant something or was the film makers being lazy.

Bishop73

Question: If she can destroy Ares with her hands then why does she even need a sword and shield? Perhaps for merchandise?

Rob245

Answer: For the majority of the movie, Diana believes the sword to be the only weapon capable of killing Ares. She doesn't realise until she fights him that the sword is just an ordinary weapon and thus, useless against a god. She carries the shield because it is useful. She uses it in combat most prominently to block gunfire.

BaconIsMyBFF

Show generally

Question: Why did they keep changing female ADA's? I personally think Wolf may have been a bad boy and most of them didn't want to play his game.

Rob245

Answer: It was an open secret that Jack McCoy slept with his female assistants. It's reasonable to assume that as he tired of them or they moved on in life, he found a new assistant. In the case of Serena, she became a lesbian and was eventually fired for being too emotionally involved with defendants.

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.