Questions about specific movies, TV and more

This page is for questions relating to a specific title. If you have a more general question, please check out the general movie questions section. Click the button below a question to answer it or click "edit" to correct a spelling mistake. Ask your questions here, and hopefully someone will answer soon. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: Does the junkyard cat actually belong to one of the actors or is that a whole different deal?

fukawa

Star Trek (2009)

Question: Why do the phasers have recoil (kick-back) when fired?

MistWalker

Chosen answer: Phasers fire nadion particle bursts or bolts, which are fictional but are presumably similar to photons, and would therefore have mass and kinetic energy - so depending on the power output of the phaser, it should impart a not insignificant momentum change.

Sierra1

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Question: What band is pictured on Rosie's shirt when she gets off the boat?

Tami Miller

Chosen answer: The Bangles.

Michael Albert

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)

Question: What is the name of the song that plays when Mia is inspecting the royal guard?

Chosen answer: Canon in D.

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Question: What kind of aircraft are Rusty and Isabel in at the end of the movie? It kind of looks like a Global Express.

Mike Boyer

Chosen answer: Gulfstream G5.

The Exorcist (1973)

Question: As far as I can tell, Damian visits his mother at her apartment and says she can't stay here on her own, but she says no, she's not leaving her home. Then we see the mother in hospital. But then Damian is told that his mother died in her home and wasn't found for a couple of days. But she was in hospital, wasn't she?

kh1616

Chosen answer: She was in a hospital but that does not mean she died there. She was likely discharged and, refusing to go into any type of assisted living situation, was sent home, where she later died. A person, unless declared legally incompetent, cannot be forced to go into a facility. Due to insurance regulations, a person can only stay in a hospital as long as they are being actively treated for a medical condition. Once their condition reaches a certain level, they are discharged-either to a rehab center, a nursing facility, or to their own home.

raywest

Downton Abbey (2010)

Episode #3.6 - S3-E6

Question: When Robert and Cora come to see the doctor at the end of the episode to hear his explanation about Cybil's death, who shows them into the room? It looks a lot like Bates, who hasn't been released from prison yet.

Chosen answer: Although this looks a bit like Bates, it is actually Lady Violet Crawley's butler, Spratt, who is showing them into the drawing room. They are meeting at Violet's house to talk with Dr. Clarkson about Sybil's death.

raywest

American Hustle (2013)

Question: Why does Jennifer Lawrence have a neck brace on?

Chosen answer: She wears a neck brace because she was in a car accident, she mentions the state of the car during the conversation.

The Brady Bunch (1969)

Show generally

Question: When you look at the front of the house, the 2nd story is to the left of the front door. The stairs and the bedrooms are on the right. Also, there has to be a very high cathedral ceiling to account for the stairs which isn't shown in the front of the house photo. Does anyone know what the house looks like where the show was filmed?

Chosen answer: There are a number of photos online of the Brady house's exterior of what it looked like when the show was being filmed and what it looks like today. Only the exterior shots were of a real house. The interior was a studio set and it did not exactly match the real home's floor plan. There are also some YouTube virtual tours of the house that explore the interior. If you Google "Brady Bunch House" you will find much information about this.

raywest

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Show generally

Question: Was Picard really speaking French for the entire show's run and he only made sense thanks to the universal translator?

thestablefanatic

Chosen answer: No. There are small instances on "Star Trek: TNG" where Picard speaks French on board the Enterprise, without the Universal Translator altering it. Were he always speaking French, the Universal Translator would make no distinction when he was speaking French as a matter of course, or speaking French for a particular effect. In the episode "Code of Honor", Data refers to French as an "archaic language" on Earth, to which Picard takes umbrage. I suspect Data would have known if Picard were actually speaking French at the time.

Michael Albert

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Question: I'm hoping this was addressed in the book. Solomon was allowed to work as a violinist and allowed to keep the money he earned, which he attempted to use as a bribe to get another character to send a letter on his behalf. Solomon was also sent into town on several occasions to purchase supplies. Why didn't he just buy and envelope with his own money and send it at the post office? Couldn't he have said it was a letter from his master once it was sealed? Couldn't he write it in code if he couldn't send it sealed? All he had to say was that Solomon Northup was a guest at the plantation and his wife could have alerted the authorities.

Chosen answer: Here's why, according to Northup in Twelve Years a Slave: "My great object always was to invent means of getting a letter secretly into the post-office, directed to some of my friends or family at the North. The difficulty of such an achievement cannot be comprehended by one unacquainted with the severe restrictions imposed upon me. In the first place, I was deprived of pen, ink, and paper. In the second place, a slave cannot leave his plantation without a pass, nor will a post-master mail a letter for one without written instructions from his owner."

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Question: In the final scene with the Lonely Mountain in view, is the sun rising or setting? Does either actually work with their location?

Chosen answer: The sun is rising. The sun is in the East which does make sense, but because Middle Earth is a fictional world it is possible for it to break the rules of our world. The important thing is that the sun remains more or less in the same location for the entire scene.

kristenlouise3

Frozen (2013)

Question: It becomes clear why Hans intends to kill Elsa. Here's what I don't understand though. One of the Duke's body guards tries to shoot Elsa with his crossbow, but Hans redirects the shot toward the chandler so to have it crash down on the Snow Queen. Why would Hans need to kill her that way? If he is eager to kill Elsa then why doesn't he just let the body guard kill her with an arrow?

Chosen answer: He didn't need to kill her a certain way. He needed her to reverse the winter first, that's why he tried to stop her from being killed.

Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Question: When Dom is contacting everyone about the job in London, what was the purpose of the whole spectacle when Han and Gisele get the call? Who were all those people? And how did Dom get in contact with them first? Is it explained outside of the film (interviews etc)?

Chosen answer: An assumption here, but since they are plain-clothes agents and law enforcement officers (one of them is actually listed in the credits as "Lead Chinese Agent"), it could be that Hobbs pulled some law muscle to track Han and Gisele (who may have gone incommunicado after the Rio heist) so Dom could talk to them on the phone.

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Question: When Mrs. Travers arrives at her hotel there are two pieces of luggage that she picks up and takes in the room herself, when she leaves she has those two pieces plus a large suitcase. Where did it come from?

Chosen answer: The large suitcase was most likely carrying the large Mickey mouse doll that she decided to keep. The size alone would require an extra case.

Gavin Jackson

The Big Bang Theory (2007)

Pilot - S1-E1

Question: Is it out of character for Sheldon to be willing to donate sperm just for money considering that he has no interest in sex?

luke f

Chosen answer: Sheldon believes himself to be superior to all other humans and therefore his lack of desire for sex is only superseded by his desire to create a superior sub-species of human. This concept is also seen later in the series when he and Amy consider having a baby together to make a super smart child (by invitro of course).

kristenlouise3

Made of Honor (2008)

Question: I am a pianist, and have played Debussy, Arabesque no.1, so often. I have seen the movie "Made of Honor" three times, and every time failed to locate the Arabesque in the soundtrack. It is mentioned in the credits. Please tell me at which time in the movie it plays.

mifrankdk

Answer: When Michelle and Tom meet up with the three bridesmaids at the hotel, while they're seated at the table we hear the Arabesque No. 1 performed on the harp as faint background music. (Approx. 00:34:05).

Super Grover

The Thing (2011)

Question: In the last part of the movie, how are they supposed to drive the snow vehicles? There is a scene before where they cut the wires of all the vehicles to disable them for the quarantine. Am I missing something?

Michele SoIntense Anghileri

Chosen answer: By disabling the snow vehicles, they are making sure that the creature can't use them to escape from the quarantine zone. Since the creature can assimilate anybody, it would probably know how to use one.

Titanic (1997)

Question: In the scene with the little boy in the flooding hallway, what language are he and his dad speaking?

Chosen answer: According to the script, it's Russian.

Sierra1

Answer: It's either Czech or Slovak.

Titanic (1997)

Question: In the scene with the little boy in the flooding hallway, what language are he and his dad speaking?

Chosen answer: According to the script, it's Russian.

Sierra1

Answer: It's either Czech or Slovak.

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