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: Why is the Alpha human population economy in shambles? The gargantuan Space Station Alpha resembles a fort in the outer fringes with brothels, military and Savages. Not a place of science, technology, cultural sharing.

Answer: During the movie it is told the humans have been in wars, its possible the economy is in shambles because of a recent war or the drag of a war from the past, perhaps even the war that destroyed planet Mul. Because of the failing economy there are more brothels, scavengers, crimes and it isn't the original space station that left Earth's orbit all those years ago.

lionhead

Question: Elinor at first didn't seem to care about burning Merida's bow, especially since she didn't approve of Fergus giving her the bow, and became furious after Merida shot for her own hand. What made Elinor rescue the bow from the fire?

Answer: Elinor tossed the bow into the fire in a fit of anger, then regretted what she did and rescued it.

raywest

To add to raywest's answer, she threw it in a fit of rage, yes. As a parent, you sometimes disagree with your children's passions, while you try to steer and guide them, they love what they love. She may have disagreed with Merida having the bow, but she also knew how important it was to her. Its hard to explain, but basically while she objected to Merida having it, she knew it was the one thing that made her happy... she loves her daughter and wants her to be happy. She destroyed it in a fit of rage, and then realised she destroyed, for lack of better words, her daughter's "happiness." Marrying her off was one thing, burning her only joy is another.

Question: When Commissioner Gordon is talking to the crowd about Harvey Dent, he takes out a speech and is about to read about what really happened to him but then chooses not to as he wants the people of Gotham City to remember Harvey as a hero who stood up for justice while letting everybody believe that Batman was a killer. Even though he never read his speech, why didn't he simply tell people that contrary to what many people believed in the second movie, that Batman was innocent and didn't kill anybody? Why not just blame everything on the Joker who was truly responsible for the murders of so many people?

Answer: He was about to admit Harvey Dent is responsible for multiple murders, but he realised that would end his career and probably bring back the old days with the mob and gangs running wild. Even though indirectly the Joker was responsible, the public would still see Dent as a murderer and still cause the system to collapse. Batman was able to be blamed for the murdering Dent and those other people instead of the Joker, who was already in custody and couldn't have killed Dent.

lionhead

This question is about why not just blame the Joker for all of the deaths. Not why he chose to never tell people that Harvey Dent began killing people.

Because it was easier to blame Batman for all the deaths, since he was being blamed for Dent's death already.

lionhead

Question: Why doesn't the teacher at Jake's school punish the bully for teasing Jake?

Answer: All the bully really did was take the book out of Jake's hand and Jake violently assaulted him in retaliation. Jake's action was much worse. Also, we are never actually shown what punishment the bully received, he very well could have been punished in some way that was never mentioned.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: If Jake's father died a year prior to the film, why would his mother remarry so fast? Also, why would she marry Lon if he's abusive to her son?

Answer: People unfortunately make bad choices.

Ssiscool

Answer: For the same reason Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were top billed in Superman. He was a bigger name and his agent was able to negotiate a better deal.

Answer: They almost share the same amount of screen time, but Jude Law is a tad younger and Joseph was coming off a very successful 'Shakespeare in Love' as well as 'Elizabeth'. He was a more marketable actor at the time.

Answer: No.

Question: If Kimberly and the officer created new life by bringing Kimberly back to life, why did the newspaper say they still end up dying at the ending of Final Destination 3?

Answer: As far as I am aware, that is only on the special feature version on DVD and not necessarily canon. I'm also sure they don't need to be on the list to die. They could end up dying for some reason that doesn't involve Death's actions. Like Ian said in this film "People just die."

Question: What happened to King Herod after his soldier falls to his death and both Thaddeus and Rufus reform?

Answer: He continued ruling with an iron fist. The prophecy of the blessed child was forgotten until Jesus came forth.

Question: What was the math problem on the blackboard behind Julia Roberts? I think the answer is wrong as x and y equals 3.

Answer: Yes, the solution given is wrong, it should be (x=-4, y=4). Glad I'm not the only one noticing that. Actually that's how I found this page :)

Answer: August says she's terrible at fractions, may be maths is not her strong point.

Question: In the tavern, the dwarves emphatically tell the huntsman that dwarven females are so repulsive that dwarf reproduction only happens accidentally, in bad lighting and under the influence of drink. Which sounds quite repulsive. But, when the huntsman and male dwarves are later captured in the net trap, the female dwarves turn out to be perfectly lovely, even quite sexy. Then, even stranger, one of the male dwarves later apologizes for the appearance of a lovely female dwarf (who is standing right next to him in plain sight), claiming that she was hit in the face with a rock. So, what was the purpose of the male dwarves obsessively lying about the beauty of female dwarves? Or were the male dwarves blind to true beauty for some reason?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Most likely it was to protect dwarf females by deterring other males' interest in them with tales of their ugliness. Men are less likely to pursue unattractive women.

raywest

Question: Why did everyone at the park have to leave? It doesn't make much sense that no one would be there to tale care of everything (i.e. dinosaurs, security etc). I can understand having to leave when things became chaotic, but they were leaving before that even happened; John couldn't handle all this on his own.

Answer: It didn't make any sense that everyone would be evacuated off the island and leave the animals and the systems unattended because of a storm. A facility such as that would have to be built to withstand hurricanes, which in that part of the world, would happen every year. Non-essential staff might leave, but not the caretakers.

raywest

Not everybody left, the essential personnel like Arnold and Muldoon stayed. Probably more stayed and were evacuated later when the animals escaped. The island was evacuated because of a hurricane and no boats would be present to take people to safety, they would have been stuck on the island.

lionhead

Question: In the Rogue Cut, when Rogue arrives where Kitty and the rest are why does Rogue just stare at her for a bit?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: In X-Men: The Last Stand, Bobby (Iceman) and Rogue were romantically involved. Now Kitty and Bobby are in a relationship.

Question: During the botched raid on the university campus, the troops move in too quickly (alerting Bruce Banner), and General Ross snarls, "I wanna know who jumped the gun!" Did General Ross ever find out who jumped the gun? Was it Emil Blonsky? If it was Blonsky, why did General Ross never reprimand him?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Since some time has passed probably between the Hulk taking Betty to safety and General Ross talking to Doc Sampson, there's a possibility that he was told who was responsible for alerting Bruce to their presence. When Bruce looks up, it isn't Blonsky he saw but another soldier.

Answer: In the original stage play by J.M. Barrie, he was a bank clerk. I don't think what he did for work was brought up in the 1953 film.

Bishop73

Question: At the beginning of the song, "I want it now", did Veruca say she wanted a "big feast" or a "bean feast"? If it's the latter, what exactly is it?

Answer: A "bean-feast", which is typically a British word, was a large, annual dinner given by employers to the workers. It later became a term for any lively celebration or outing with a big meal. The term may have come from the Feast of the Twelfth Night where a bean was baked into a cake and whoever got the bean became the "bean king."

Bishop73

Answer: She does indeed say "bean feast," and it isn't really a thing. It's just her making an exaggerated demand for something, and expecting it immediately. She says "bean feast" just to see if her father will object in any way, or agree as he always does.

Question: Wouldn't the police have eventually known that Stu didn't shoot and kill Leon after their investigation? Surely the caller would have known that too? If so, why would the caller even frame Stu in the first place? Surely he wasn't going to let the police take Stu away for murder, since he intends to teach him a lesson.

Answer: He needed them to believe it long enough for him to escape.

Question: The news reporter on the TV of Hoffman's hideout said there were 7 survivors from William Easton's "test." I counted 6; the diabetic family woman, the 2 women from the carousel trap, the widow mother and her son, and William's sister. Was there another survivor that I did not account for, and if so, who is it?

Answer: There are only 6 survivors.

Ssiscool

Question: In the opening scenes when Poirot confronts the rabbi, priest, and imam - the priest is Catholic / Western Rite. But from the setting of their dispute in Jerusalem, shouldn't the priest be Orthodox / Eastern Rite?

Answer: Not necessarily. Jerusalem is a meeting place of many religions and faiths - and there's nothing to suggest that the Catholic priest isn't there on holiday.

Except it's stated that priest was negotiating market use (with the imam and rabbi). He was a local.

Brian Katcher

Question: How did Kowalski and Ryan cause the tether rope to break? It takes more than 220 Gs of force to cause the type of tether NASA has to break - they're specifically made of a material designed to absorb a lot of shock.

Answer: There are three possible answers: 1) The tether became damaged during the start of the cascade and was hanging by threads. 2) The tether encountered a jagged edge. 3) The script said "the tether breaks" and it did because "movie logic." Remember at the start of the movie "Cliffhanger", where a climbing aid breaks out of the blue? Remember that the maker of that harness (Black Diamond) then won a millionary lawsuit for defamation against TriStar and Carolco Pictures?

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