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: Who is the older gray haired man who takes over after Costner as bodyguard? I've heard rumours that he is an actual bodyguard and served with Reagan or similar?

Answer: He was actor Jim Mohlman.

Show generally

Question: What's the name of the episode where Drew, Oswald and Lewis are briefly playing the drums and maybe guitar, and singing "Honey, Honey, Honey" altogether?

Answer: "That Thing You Don't" (s03e10). The gang forms their old band again for a talent contest. Lewis is on drums, Drew is on trumpet, Oswald is on trombone, Kate is lead singer.

Bishop73

Answer: Despite what she may say otherwise, deep down she loves Thanos. She knows he's a genocidal madman that must be stopped at all costs, but it doesn't change the way she feels about him.

Phaneron

Answer: Still had feelings for him. Despite being a maniac he was still the closest thing she had a father.

Question: When Gilleese sees the brake hoses are disconnected, why doesn't he just connect them there and then?

Answer: For intra-yard movements the automatic air brakes are supposed to be disconnected. The independent brake is what Dewey applied and is what is shown slipping out moments after he exits the train.

BaconIsMyBFF

Canary - S10-E14

Question: Why did Khan close his eyes after giving McGee the numbers?

Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Sometimes these things get left in because it's simply the best take. (The child covering his ears before the gunshot in "North by Northwest," for example.) It could also be that John Landis cast the extra because he wanted someone with goofy expressions in the crowd. He simply could have told the extras "Ok, be excited that you're at a parade," and that's how this extra did it.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: How did Claire get into the closet where Bender was? Vernon locked the door when he left and Bender had to crawl through the ceiling to get out and back in. So how did Claire simply open the door?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The key may have been left in the door knob, Bender wouldn't have known that so he returned the same way he left. Real question is how did Claire know which closet he was locked in?

Answer: Perhaps she picked the lock.

Alan Keddie

Claire closed the door once she entered. Which means if she had picked it, then she would have locked herself in. I highly doubt she wanted to perform the ceiling crawl.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: Claire didn't have to pick a lock and the door doesn't lock automatically! It's plain to see: The storeroom door is closed behind Vernon and Bender. As Vernon leaves, he uses the doorhandle and then fumbles around on the outside, "locking" the door without a key. It very much looks as if Paul Gleason acts that there's a working lock. Inattentive viewers may then mistake the door from the next shot for that of the storeroom, but it states: Faculty Lounge. As for "how did she know"? *sigh* How about something so boring that wasn't worth filming it: When Bender returned, they asked what happened and he simply told them! The real question is: How scared must he have been after Vernon's bullying to crawl back through the ceiling (risking another fall) when Claire obviously managed to sneak out and meet him?

Answer: It's not explicitly said in the episode but a good guess would be that Cat used Rimmer's wardrobe as a toilet.

Question: During the "Angel of Music" scene, Christine sees the Phantom in the mirror. is the mirror a two way, and the Phantom is on the other side, watching her? or is it a hallucination? As well (related) the room that Christine is staying in after singing "Think of Me", is that her permanent room? Or is her bedroom the one in the cellar-type with wire beds? And the big, flower one is switched out for the lead? If it is her permanent room, the phantom has some explaining to do.

Answer: Erik can see her but she can't see him because usually it's not illuminated on the Phantom's side of the mirror. Christine is standing in the 'star's' dressing room which was Carlotta's up until Christine sang Think of Me-then she was considered the star of that particular show. (There's a poster on the wall that says Carlotta on it).

Answer: The dressing room which Christine is in after 'Think of Me' is the Prima Donna's (The main actress/performer) own dressing room for as long as they are the 'star' of the opera.

debbi.ee

Answer: Yes, it is a two-way mirror. Usually when the backs side of a two-way mirror (where The Phantom is) is dark absolutely nothing is visible other than the reflection but when you illuminate the back side, some of it is visible-like the Phantom is but not the rest of his background.

debbi.ee

Question: I get that 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 9's personalities came from the scientist. But I heavily doubt that 2's personality came from the scientist? What does 2 symbolize?

YellowBird

Answer: 2 represents the kindly old scientist's creative and genius side. He is fascinated by garbage and scrap and explores the wastelands searching for items to use for his inventions.

raywest

Question: Why were the dolls sent out after the scientist made them? Why didn't they stay with the scientist so he could explain everything?

YellowBird

Answer: They were sent out into the world to create a new world for themselves. Every time the scientist created a doll, he transferred part of his soul into the doll bringing it to life but leaving him weaker. After creating 9 and transferring the piece of his soul into 9, he died so they would never have found out what they were created for.

Question: When Richard Burton is holding his gun on all the people in the meeting and asks if one of the guards could come in and watch them, why doesn't the guard just shoot him?

Answer: When the guard comes in, Burton explains what's going on. Also he is dressed as a German officer so his explanation and actions are plausible.

Show generally

Question: So I'm not sure if I understand. Up until Leo was found to be a white lighter, Piper froze him several times. Sorry if this has been addressed before, but was Leo faking being frozen?

Answer: Only witches, or half/part witches eg. Chris, cannot be frozen (if I recall correctly) so, no, Leo was not faking. But that's just my opinion.

Alan Keddie

Answer: Piper can choose specifically not to freeze him if she is freezing other things.

Answer: I've been wondering this forever because he only freezes sometimes and I know she can control who gets frozen but he stopped freezing once they knew he is a white-lighter.

Question: How did Hannibal manage to make it onto a commercial airplane at the end of the movie? Even if he had a fake ID, wouldn't being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list make it virtually impossible for him to get through a high security place like an airport, where the feds would likely instruct security staff to stop anyone that even remotely resembles him? The fact that he cut off his own hand at the end of the film would make him easier to spot, as the FBI would definitely share that new detail about him.

Phaneron

Answer: As seen in the first film and in this one, Lecter demonstrates an almost supernatural ability for eluding the law and seemingly being in two places at once. This film was made in the year 2000, before airport security became extremely tight in late 2001. At that time (before 9/11), it was still possible to enter an airport's main concourse through the baggage claim or even from the tarmac without passing through rigorous security. As ingenious as Lecter was, he could have accessed the airport in a number of ways back then. Relieving another passenger of his boarding pass and identification would be no problem for Lecter, either (simply leave the passenger's body in an airport toilet and assume his identity). For the most part, it was Lecter's calm, self-confident charm that allowed him to slither through society always ten steps ahead of the law.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Perhaps he bribed his way through security onto the plane. Or maybe he murdered anyone who even remotely challenged him. He was probably wearing a disguise. It's possible that he had been planning this whole thing for an unspecified amount of time. And don't forget: he is a genius. And determined. He wouldn't let a little thing like protocol get in the way of his escape.

Alan Keddie

Answer: There is an assumption that he cut his hand off in the end. Ask yourself this for a very graphic movie why did they not show the chopped of hand. You just hear the chop but no sound from Lecter and only an emotional reaction from Starling. It is only alluded to and even if he did happen to chop it off he would be in so much pain as he acknowledged this was going to hurt he would not have been able to escape without help from Starling.

Question: Trivial perhaps, but this is a court drama. Isn't the pronunciation of "Oh yez" by the court deputy, announcing the judge, actually pronounced "Oh yay"? In the movie, the deputy uses a strange pronunciation of "O yee", which I've never heard. My late husband was a court deputy, and he was corrected his first day in court. (He pronounced it, wrongly, "O yez" (rhyming with Pez, the candy). We're from the South, and the movie is a Southern court drama. Thoughts?

Moviewatcher

Answer: I would classify it as a "character mistake." The court deputy (or the actor playing him) just pronounces it differently and wrongly.

raywest

Thank you, I think I would have to classify it, then, as a directorial mistake, and interesting that no one else, cast or crew, noticed it.

Moviewatcher

Question: After returning to Rome upon completion of the knights mission to rescue Alecto why did the little boy remove the ring from Marius' hand?

Answer: I believe he did it to remember him. I believe we are to assume after rescuing the boy and when he took care of him, he became a father figure to him.

Answer: He took the ring from Dagonet's hand, not Marius. Dagonet pulled the boy from the pit he was in at the dungeons of Marius' estate and protected him thereafter. Any articles of Marius would belong to his son, Alecto.

Question: I first saw the movie in a cinema when it was first released. I'm quite sure I saw a scene which was later edited out, perhaps to accommodate the ratio of television screens. Before the attack various soldiers stop to listen to a strange sound echoing over the hills - "like a train" someone says. After we hear the sound twice my memory is that the movie cut to a panoramic view of thousands of Zulu warriors running across the veld, banging their shields with their spears, on their way to Rorke's Drift. This is what was causing the "train" sound, a phenomenon that is not explained subsequently anywhere in the edited version of the film. The dramatic effect of the shot, panning across what looks like thousands of armed Zulus, was riveting and served to emphasise the impossible odds faced by the British. Am I the only one who recalls this scene?

Answer: Absolutely correct. This exact scene is in my DVD of Zulu. They may have changes when the TV version aired, but this definitely in the original.

stiiggy

Question: In the original film, the Discovery's onboard computer states: "I am a HAL 9000 Computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January, 1992." So, "HAL" was a manufacturer identification prefix (standing for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computers), "9000" was its model number, and "No.3" was its production lineage. In this sequel, however, Dr. Chandra is chatting with one of HAL's earth-based twin computers which has a feminine voice and is called "SAL"; but how can they arbitrarily change its manufacturer identification prefix? Being produced by the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, and being identical to the computer aboard the Discovery, the twin's name should have a different production number, but it should still be called "HAL," should it not?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: The most likely reason the name was changed was probably a literary one. It makes it easier for the audience to differentiate SAL from HAL, showing how they are two distinct computers playing different roles in the film. It may also just be a feminine nickname being that SAL has a female voice.

raywest

I thought perhaps "SAL" was a nickname, also, until I saw that the computer's maker nameplate reads "SAL 9000" (visible in close-ups of SAL's glowing eye).

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why did Pinocchio kick Rumpelstiltskin out of the library when Rumpelstiltskin offers to make him a real boy?

Answer: He knew that Rumpelstiltskin wasn't actually going to make him a real boy which made him angry so he threw him out.

Question: In the very end of the movie Will Turner's father is on the black Pearl. How did he end up there when just a few minutes before that he was steering the Flying Dutchman for his son?

Stevie Knudsen

Answer: Bootstrap Bill Turner was not back on the Black Pearl at the end. He is only on the Flying Dutchman. It appears you're confusing him with another actor in the ending scene who bears a slight resemblance to Stellan Skarsgard, the actor who portrays Bootstrap.

raywest

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