Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: At the dinner table in 1955, Marty's grandfather is there. It has always appeared to me that there is something off about his appearance. He seems to appear as if he was not actually there, and that he was spliced into the footage from another movie. The lighting on his face, his style of hair, the quality so to speak of him, just seems off from everyone else. He almost seems like he is from a black and white movie, spliced in and colorized a bit Is it supposed to be that he was to look this way, or did they actually take this actor's scene from another movie and splice it in?

oldbaldyone

Answer: I just pulled up this scene on YouTube, and I think it is just the lighting. The shadow from his wife's head is casting onto his right shoulder in a realistic way, which suggests the actor was there for filming. It would also be impractical logistically and economically to insert him after the fact, because they could simply hire another actor for the part if he was unavailable.

Phaneron

Question: Why did it take so long for Dr. Hoffman to become a vampire? I'm referring to at the very end when she was underwater and opened her eyes.

Bryanna Norris

Answer: It's unknown how long it took for her to become a vampire. She was tossed into the bay and sunk to the bottom, lying there unconscious for a period of time. She may have turned early on, but did not awaken until much later.

raywest

She had teeth when she was being bit by Barnabus. She had turned before he confronted her. He just drained her to a weakened state and she woke back up in the bay.

Question: When Kirill shoots Bourne from the bridge, he only fires once. Why doesn't he empty his gun and finish him? He has enough time before he the police arrive.

Answer: Bourne is a significant distance away from the bridge, and nearly round the corner by the time Kirill takes aim and fires. He was lucky to hit Bourne at all from that distance and angle, and with rapid fire from a handgun it would be almost impossible to get a subsequent hit, and Bourne would have ducked out of sight almost instantly. Also the police show up only five seconds after his shot, so he didn't have a lot of time.

Sierra1

These guys are professional killers/assassins. It's hard for me to believe that he couldn't get a deadeye shot there. But unless I missed something, it's the only explanation that can be made I guess.

Bourne and his fellow Treadstone agents were expert killers and assassins, there is no indication that Kirill, seemingly a regular FSB officer, possessed similar skills to that level - we don't see him fight, drive particularly well, and the long-distance sniper shot he takes in Goa hits the wrong person (Maree).

Sierra1

Question: What did Dr. Hirsch mean when he said to Alex how he witnessed "some form of mass neurosis in East Proctor"?

Joey221995

Answer: He was referring to the local residents that lived in the area who, unknown to the doctor, knew about and were terrorized by the werewolf that roamed the countryside during a full moon. The doctor thought they suffered from some type of mass mental illness.

raywest

Question: Ana gets in the bus to get Michael. He shows a chainsaw to her. Ana tells him that might be the most romantic thing anyone's ever shown her, then Michael says, "I'm trying here." Sorry for a silly question, but what does he mean by that? Try what? (01:20:45)

Bunch Son

Answer: He's returning her sarcastic comment about being romantic with a sarcastic apology. "I'm trying here", as in he's trying to be romantic and he's sorry it's not coming out the way he intended. He doesn't actually mean it, the two are simply trying to break the tension with humor. Their rapport is somewhat flirtatious throughout the film, they have an attraction that might have developed more naturally were the world not ending in a zombie apocalypse.

BaconIsMyBFF

I actually took it that Michael was saying he's just trying to do his best in general.

Question: A lot of fuss was made over the omission of the lunar flag planting in this movie. However, when I saw the movie in the theater, I distinctly remember seeing the flag on the moon, just not the actual planting. However, that particular shot seems to be missing in the home video release. Does anyone know the reason for this?

Answer: The home release includes a clear shot of the lunar lander with the American flag next to it.

Question: Who is married to the muffin man?

Answer: According to Lord Farquaad, she's the leader of the underground, who's helping the fairy tale creatures to safety.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Someone he wants to find, possibly a princess to marry himself or someone who can point him towards one. It's never specified. The whole muffin man thing is just a joke referring to the nursery rhyme of the Muffin man.

lionhead

Answer: Rhodey's first comment while said to Tony Stark, was also intended to be for the audience. It was a tongue in cheek 4th wall break. Basically "yes audience, we replaced Rhodey, it's done, get over it, and let's move on with the movie."

Answer: Rhodey is not annoyed with Tony specifically, he is annoyed that he has to testify before the Senator and that Tony was asking him questions as soon as he arrived. He also wants to play down his friendship with Tony so that he doesn't seem biased in favour of Tony maintaining control of Iron Man.

Answer: Having rewatched it recently I thought about this. At least partly it's because *at the time* some people felt it spent too long putting Avengers pieces in place, introducing Nick Fury more, Scarlet Widow, Tony's dad's history, etc. In hindsight however that aspect fits perfectly with the other films that came after it, so feels much less jarring now. I'd also say that Whiplash was somewhat underwhelming, and Sam Rockwell was criminally underused. Personally I'd rate Thor: The Dark World lower than this, but would also argue that the "worst" Marvel film is very much a relative term, as while some may be better than others, they've yet to really release a true stinker.

Jon Sandys

Answer: I absolutely love the MCU, and I consider this to be one of the weaker entries. Not because of world building and setting up future films, I never had a problem with that. I just personally find the story to be a little lackluster, and the villain to be rather bland (to be fair, I always thought Iron Man had a pretty weak rogues gallery anyway).

Phaneron

Question: After promotion, Captain Torrey (O-6) is offered his "lucky stars" (O-7) by 4-star Admiral Fonda. In subsequent shots Admiral Torrey is wearing 2 stars (O-8, of an upper half Rear Admiral) - jumping the lower half (1 star, O-7) admirals. When does this ever happen?

Answer: One Star rank wasn't formalized until 1943. Rear Admiral lower and upper wore the same 2-stars.

Answer: After WWII, the one star was discontinued until recent years when the rear admiral lower half was formalized with one star.

Question: Why did Peter put part of his black symbiote suit on when going over to Harry's?

Answer: The longer Peter wore the symbiote, the more influence it had on him. It was effectively making Peter do things that he would never do and because Peter saw how much stronger it made him, he began to wear it more than his original suit.

Answer: He typically wears his suit underneath his regular clothes to begin with if he's not going out for sole purpose of being Spider-Man and patrolling the city.

Phaneron

Question: What happened to the step-mom?

Answer: If you mean Rya Kildstedt, her husband, Maxilliam Schell, said to his daughter on the beach. She went to be with her mother in the Midwest.

Question: Referring to Leo and Sarah: What parent would let their young daughter not go to the Ark when given the chance?

Answer: It was Sarah who decided she would not go to the Ark. She chose to stay with her parents.

raywest

Leo then decided not to go to the ark, either, went back and got Sarah and the baby.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Since the entire fight is focused on Liu Kang and Reptile, he could have possibly waited to see what the outcome of the fight was.

Answer: Wouldn't Johnny Cage want to go in to help his "mate", rather than stand their and watch? The question here (because Reptile is a secret character in MK1 and Raiden saying "In Outworld, you will find another guy") is that can Johnny Cage interfere with the fight, or is that against the rules in this tournament?

oobs

Not only is it against the rules, but Raiden never said they'd find another guy. What he said was, "You'll find another guide." The guide being Kitana.

That is indeed against the rules.

lionhead

Answer: Lucky is a mongrel mix. A mix of 2 breeds. A quick search suggests a possible terrier and lab mix.

Ssiscool

Question: When marshal Ney and his troops encounter Napoleon, he tells them if they want to kill their emperor, there he is, but instead of killing him, they defect to him despite being ordered to fire. Is this a work of fiction, or did it happen in real life?

Answer: This is decidedly fiction. The historical Ney already published a boastful proclamation (that Napoleon later said disgusted him), declaring the rule of the Bourbons to be over, before he met with Napoleon (March 15). The scene where Napoleon offered himself to be shot had happened several days earlier, with the 5th regiment of the line, before Napoleon even reached Grenoble. It's an entirely different event from Ney's defection.

Answer: I think the film's dramatisation of this particular incident, when the French army defected from the restored Bourbon royal family back to the Emperor Napoleon might owe something to the painting NAPOLEON RETURNED painted in 1818 by Charles Steuben (also called Charles De Steuben and Karl Steuben) a German who became a nationalised (and patriotic) Frenchman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Napoleon_returned.jpg.

Rob Halliday

Answer: Yes, that is pretty much what happened, so long as we allow for translation convention. (Napoleon and his armies spoke 19 century French, while the actors in the 1970 film speak 20 century English). After Napoleon's first abdication Marshall Ney submitted to the returning Bourbon monarch, Louis XVIII. When Napoleon returned to France, Marshall Ney was given command of an army to apprehend Napoleon The Emperor Napoleon with a small group of imperial guardsmen confronted Marshall Ney with a massively larger and better-equipped army. Many people expected a bloodbath. Instead, Napoleon waked out in front of his guard, confronted the French army and called out that if any soldier wished to shoot him, this would be the best chance they would ever have! The army simultaneously rushed to greet their emperor, Marshall Ney followed and submitted to Napoleon. This bit of the film is as historically accurate as can reasonably be expected and shows how Napoleon could electrify an army.

Rob Halliday

Answer: No, he is fictional. The joke is that, despite being handsome and charming, Larry Hemsworth is so overshadowed by his brothers that nobody else has heard of him and he feels like a failure.

Answer: Cause his mom and or dad made him do it.

Quantom X

Answer: Geno deliberately broke Mark's nose during the party after Mark made a snide remark. After the party, when Mark suggested a way to have John committed and still get their money, Geno had enough of Mark's ignorance and punched him in the nose again to add further insult to injury.

Question: Arnold said that when the T-1000 took the form of someone he would likely terminate the person being copied. Why didn't the T-1000 kill Sarah? He had been in physical contact and could mimic her voice. There was no reason to get her to call John at the end, he could have killed her immediately.

Answer: In addition, another deleted scene shows that the T-1000 was damaged by being frozen and thawed and was having difficulty maintaining form. He wanted to be sure he wouldn't mess it up.

LorgSkyegon

What's especially odd about the scene is that both examples we gave to help answer this question were actually deleted from the original release. When I first saw this movie in the theater when it was released I had the exact same question, it wasn't until I saw the Special Edition with the deleted scenes reinserted that it made sense.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: It comes down to the difficulty in impersonating someone John actually knows. The T-1000 had failed impersonating someone close to John when he got the name of the dog incorrect. A deleted scene (re-incorporated into the film in the Director's Cut) shows him checking the dog's tag afterwards, so he is aware exactly how he was outsmarted. Keeping Sarah alive is a way to avoid this sort of mistake. She is more useful to him at this point alive. He is not expecting her to endure his torture and he certainly isn't expecting her to be able to fight him afterwards.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: While the T-1000 can copy her appearance and her voice, he knows he can't quite copy the emotion and desperation conveyed in her real voice, at least not enough to be convincing to John. Of course, he tries anyway and almost succeeds until the real Sarah shows up.

Kyle G.

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