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 got the main roles in the musical?

Answer: The lead roles went to Gabriella and Troy with Sharpay and Ryan as their understudies.

Question: Wouldn't Shinzon have had to know where the enterprise is being assigned in order lure them to pick up B-4? Data's brain has a safeguard so his positronic energy signature cannot be tracked. And how did he know a different ship instead of the enterprise wouldn't come to Remus to pick up B-4?

Answer: Long range sensors can show the general location of specific ships (this is part of the reason Romulans and Klingons use cloaking devices). All Shinzon has to do is find a remote planet close enough to the Enterprise that would cause them to be the most prudent choice to investigate. It's definitely a gamble but not one that is made without calculation.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Is Lokar based on a real person?

Answer: No, he's a fictional character, but could be a composite of multiple people.

raywest

I don't what you mean by a composite of multiple people.

Taking plot-relevant characteristics, behaviour, roles, etc. of a few different real life people and putting them all into one new character. While technically fictional, he might share traits with real people.

Question: Did Eric Stoltz dye his hair blonde for this film? His natural hair colour is red, but it looks lighter in this film.

EK8829

Chosen answer: His hair is not blonde in this film. It is the lighting that makes it appear so.

MasterOfAll

Question: One of the crew members tells Worf that the Borg control decks 26 to 11, and stopped when they reached deck 11. Picard says, "We can't get to deflector control or a shuttle craft." I did some research, and the main shuttle bay is on deck 6. So why can't they get to a shuttlecraft? Would this be a plot hole?

Answer: The borg took control of specific areas of the ship as part of their plan. This included deflector control and the shuttle bay.

My mistake. The main shuttle bay is around decks 5 and 6. The Borg didn't take control of those decks until after the beacon was destroyed.

Answer: I don't think it's ever explained why Mac refused to tell Hawke where St. John is.

Question: When Channing Tatum fixes the chain on the gate in the time replay, why does he yank the West Virginia insignia off the gate? Where is it used? Does the film explain why this is important?

bikeloveny

Chosen answer: There was nothing wrong with the gate, he set the sign up to cover the laser sensor so the gate wouldn't open, this held them up and gave Logan time he needed to load the other bags. He yanked the chain to make it look like the chain was caught and causing the problem.

Question: Does the ending mean that the policewoman gives up on her hunch?

Answer: No, she didn't give up. When "Smith" called Detective Atwood, she realised that it was a different voice (Brooks) and that the police may have fingered the wrong person. She was not the type who would let this go.

raywest

Question: Why didn't the FBI ask Ben's father what type of car he owns like they would do in real life? They type of car Ben, Riley, and Abigail stole from Ben's father has an on star system that would allow the authorities to track them through satellite, and intercept them ruining any chance of escape for the them. So why didn't the FBI use the on star system to track them?

Answer: One of the agents, when they are interrogating Patrick at his house, mentions that the car that Patrick owns (although I don't know the brand) is missing, so they have asked. There is also a correction at some point about the on-star system (similar to your question) that shows that the on-star system could have been removed for any number of reasons.

It's a Cadillac Deville.

Question: Why did the Apollo 13 spacecraft need a parachute? They were landing on water not solid ground. It's easier to survive a fall when landing on water, so why would they need a parachute if they were landing on water?

Answer: Spacecraft re-enter Earth's atmosphere at extremely high velocity (thousands of miles per hour). Atmospheric friction slows the spacecraft descent somewhat; but, without parachutes, the Apollo spacecraft would still reach the surface traveling at hundreds of miles per hour. Landing in water at such high speed would be like hitting concrete, which would of course be instantly fatal. Hence the necessity of multiple parachutes. The Apollo program (and all early U.S. manned space programs) chose to land in the ocean for two reasons: 1) It was easier to track spacecraft re-entry from horizon-to-horizon at sea without visual and radar obstacles, and; 2) It was faster and easier to position several Navy vessels in the general splashdown location, then deploy helicopters to rapidly retrieve the astronauts and their spacecraft.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: If woody just wanted to go back to Andy's house to be with Andy again, and to prove his innocence why not just tell Buzz the truth about it instead of lying to him, and trying to trick him into going back to Andy? By telling lying to him about what he found and about his intentions, he only made things harder. So why not just tell Buzz that he wants to get back to Andy's house, and needs to take him Buzz with to prove to the other toys that he's innocent?

Answer: Because Woody knocked him flat out the window back at Andy's house earlier, and believing he's an actual space ranger, Buzz decided he would like to go separate ways, and let his guard down with Woody, ending the conflict between the two, and decides to continue the mission he believes he is on elsewhere. Going back with Woody is not an option for him. He says farewell to Woody, and Woody starts to see that Buzz is not interested, so tries to condone Buzz with a plan he knows Buzz would most likely fall for.

The Gold Rush - S1-E18

Question: In this episode, Hogan and company used gold bars disguised as bricks to replace the destroyed wooden steps. However, the next episode, "Hello Zolle", the steps are back to wood. Is this considered a Continuity mistake or was it cost a cost cutting measure?

Movie Nut

Chosen answer: It was neither of those. In earlier TV shows, it was typical that each episode was a self-contained story, and the plots and non-regular characters were rarely carried over from previous shows to the next. Any problems or situations were resolved at the end, even if some plot threads were illogically left unexplained. This allowed episodes to be aired in any random order. Today's TV series usually have ongoing linear timelines and continuous plots that are played out over multiple seasons.

raywest

Question: Did the Morehead state game against Marshall in 1971 happen as shown in the movie? How did Morehead state score their touchdowns in the actual game?

Answer: According to Wikipedia: "For the season opener, the team visited the Morehead State Eagles for the I-64 Rivalry. Despite losing 29-6, the [Thundering] Herd (Marshall's team nickname) managed to score late in the game with Reggie Oliver's touchdown pass to Tom Smyth, prompting a standing ovation from the crowd." I have been unable to find a play-by-play account of the Morehead State touchdowns.

Michael Albert

Question: How did the throttle lever slip from idle to full power? Throttle are notched, and built to require significant force to move to prevent that from happening.

Answer: The throttle lever didn't shift from idle to full throttle. When Connie asked Dewey about the throttle, he acknowledged that he set the throttle to full to get the long train to move. It was the brake lever that moved out of position.

Answer: It's a complicated answer that the movie somewhat glosses over but in the real life incident this film is based on, the engineer purposefully set the throttle at 100% believing that the dynamic braking system would slow the train. The dynamic brake was not properly set, however and this coupled with the fact the automatic air brake was not applied caused the train to slowly accelerate out of control. To read more, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_8888_incident.

BaconIsMyBFF

Dynamic does not work at the speed they were going in the yard.

It's possible that the throttle lever in the movie had a design flaw that allowed it slip.

Question: Throughout the film, Coach Bolton says that the championship game is in two weeks but the decathlon is in a week. How do they happen on the same day?

Answer: It is because in the movie Sharpay got the decathlon rescheduled and the callbacks to be on the same day as the championship game so that Troy and Gabriella can't make the callbacks.

Answer: The decathlon was most likely rescheduled.

Chosen answer: Because both of them are former Death Eaters who have the Dark Mark branded on their arm. Karkaroff's was getting stronger, so he kept trying to talk to Snape to get information if he had any, as he was convinced that Snape was still a Death Eater (as we saw in the book in the trial scene). Karkaroff was terrified of the prospect of returning to Voldemort, as he had betrayed several Death Eaters to the law when he was caught.

Question: Why is the cartridge for Donkey Kong 64 yellow instead of grey?

Answer: It's the color of bananas, which feature prominently in the Donkey Kong Country franchise.

Phaneron

Question: How did Sauron take the form of a fiery eye? Isn't he powerless without the ring?

Answer: Most of Sauron's power was poured into the One Ring, but not all of it. Sauron cannot take a true physical form until the ring is returned to him but he can still use his power to form the eye to keep watch over Middle Earth.

BaconIsMyBFF

Is the eye actually his true form?

If by "true form" you mean the form he originally took when he was created, it is unlikely. Sauron was a good, just, and respected being prior to being corrupted and likely wouldn't have such an evil appearance in his original form. It is important to note, however that the Eye of Sauron takes on a much more physical form in Peter Jackson's film that it does in the books. In the books, the eye is a red light hovering over the tower that has the vague appearance of an eye. The films makes the eye look like an actual, literal eyeball that moves and seems to have a personality.

BaconIsMyBFF

I meant has the eye been his true form ever since he lost the ring?

Sort of, yes. Sauron's spirit existed in a non-corporeal form and eventually built enough strength to form the eye.

BaconIsMyBFF

No, his true form is seen at the beginning of the film.

Question: Sid eats a lotus berry and becomes paralyzed. Would he suffer bad effects other than being paralyzed? He doesn't appear to be suffering any other ill effects.

Answer: No. Lotus berries won't cause paralyzing, but sleepiness. They are narcotic, not poisonous.

Triviani

But Diego said that the berry would paralyze him.

Diego was probably unaware of its real effects.

Question: Who organized and ordered the killing of all the dons at the meeting where only a few come out unharmed. And why?

Answer: Don Altobello was behind the plot to assassinate the other Dons. The motive had to do with the Immobiliare deal that Michael had attempted to keep free of any Mafia involvement.

raywest

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