Question: Just watched "Die Hard 2" for the ten-thousandth time. Finally occurred to me, WHY would a pilot use a burning plane crash as a landing light? "Oh, there's a burning plane crash down there! Must be a good place to land!" As far as I know, all air traffic is diverted to other airports when an aircraft crashes.
Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: I have never understood the scene where Kevin questions the store clerk about the toothbrush (whether the brush is approved by the American Dental Association). It just seems odd for him to be concerned with this. Am I missing something?
Answer: It has nothing to do with the plot. This is just a humorous bit that shows Kevin's quirky personality and thought process. He focuses on small, odd details that most kids his age would never notice. It shows how he is able to devise the rather unique plan to combat the would-be robbers. Even Kevin's father comments about what a funny (as in peculiar) kid he is.
Question: I was wondering what does NS stand for? And also, I've noticed that there seem to be two different kinds of robots apart from NS-5. Their torso looks different. Are these just different NS-4 modifications, or are they even older versions, like NS-3 or NS-2?
Chosen answer: With Isaac Asimov's robots its short for a common name. In the case of NS its short for Nestor, though in the movie the robot is called "Sonny" which switches the NS. In the books though its short for Nestor. Another example is the RB type robot (not in the movie), short for Robbie. It's safe to assume there are older models of the robots and that NS-3 and NS-2 are probably around.
Question: What is the name of the Christmas Tree farm they went to to get their tree?
Answer: They didn't go to a Christmas tree farm. He took them to a huge forest to get one most likely because it would be easier to get one free then to pay for one.
They went to a tree farm. After running off the road and jumping the snowbank the wagon crashes through a sign that says "Trees." Clark then says, "We're here...and we made good time too." The humor is Clark forgoes a normal "farmed" tree for the "wild" monster he takes home.
False. They may have run over the tree farm sign, but they absolutely did not harvest a tree from the tree farm.
Answer: They never went to a tree farm. Even though there is a sign that says "Trees", there is no employee there to greet them or even discuss how much the tress cost. Plus, trees on a tree farm are usually smaller and are always lined up in a row. The trees seen by the Griswold's are extremely large and are scattered about like what would be seen in a regular forest which is where they went.
They are never shown in the "store" area of the tree farm, so you can't say that there is nobody working there. They jump the snowbank, it shows them gathering themselves in the car, and the next scene is in the wilderness. It's a small, rundown tree farm, but it is a tree farm business, with a plowed parking lot, garbage cans, lights, other customers, etc. These tree farms usually had pre-cut trees for purchase, but you could also walk out and cut down your own for the "experience" if you wanted to. As someone who has walked a couple miles to get a Christmas tree in December in Minnesota, I can say with absolute certainty that this is accurate.
Answer: It was a tree farm (the car literally flies through a sign that says "Christmas Trees"). There's a deleted scene after they crash and walk to find a tree. Realizing that they didn't have a saw to cut the tree, the family walks to the lot attendant (an odd man, reclining in a lawn chair, wearing a Santa jacket and hat) to ask to borrow a saw. There is a conversation between them where Clark is told that they don't supply saws, but he gave him a shovel. THIS explains how the tree got dug out of the ground. You can actually see a picture of this scene on an old DVD cover.
Question: When Peter is asleep on the subway, a man puts a glass of water on his head which causes a small drop of water to slide down. When the drop of water gets close to his forehead, his Spider-sense immediately alerts him and he wakes up before the water touches him. Peters' Spider-sense alerts him when he is near danger but, why would it activate when a harmless drop of water is about to touch him?
Answer: "Spidey sense" is more than anticipating danger; it's an overall heightened awareness of the environment around him. In the other "Spider-Man" movie, for example, when the bully is taking swings at Peter, the action slows down and he actually marvels at the ability to observe the action as if it were in slow motion.
Question: Does anyone know why Piney wears a jean vest instead of leather like the others?
Chosen answer: The First 9 wore these, as can be seen on old pictures. They later switched to leather, but Piney just never did.
Question: What was the liquid in the big containers that Harley Quinn and Joker jumped in?
Answer: The same unknown acid/chemical combination that created the Joker in the first place.
Question: In the first movie, Kevin was seen being digitized and sent into the Grid. What caused Sam to be sent into the Grid?
Answer: Same exact thing. He used the same machine that digitized him in the 1st movie. You can see the same machine in his secret computer lab.
In the first movie, a laser shot out and digitized Kevin so why didn't it happen again when Sam got digitized?
Well, it's been 28 years since Flynn first visited the Grid, so he's either updated the machine so it's safer or it's a simple visual deviation from the filmmakers.
Answer: Sam and all the other familiar faces were just programs that looked like people we knew. Flynn was the only user actually in the computer world.
It is made very clear that Sam is also a user. He bleeds for one, which programs do not do. He doesn't have the same power as Kevin, but he is a user all the same.
Question: When Alan meets with Sam, he tells him of a pager number coming from the arcade Kevin had but, the number hasn't been used in twenty years. Who activated the number and why?
Answer: CLU activated the number to draw Alan, or Sam, into looking for Flynn, where they'd discover the computer and reopen the gate, so that CLU could escape into the real world.
Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson - S4-E20
Question: Quon Le wants to be sworn in as an American Citizen before the birth of her first child. Wouldn't being married to Mac already make her an American citizen?
Answer: Marrying an American does not automatically make one a citizen as well. If a legal alien married a U.S. citizen, and they also wish to become an American, then they must go through the legal process of being a naturalized citizen. Not everyone wishes to change their citizenship, nor are they required to give that up when marrying someone of a different nationality.
Question: Why would Forrest be drafted into the military? Wouldn't his low I.Q. cause him to be rejected?
Answer: As we see earlier in the film, his mother "persuades" the school principal to increase Forrest's test results to the minimum required to attend school. At that point he was on record as having a normal I.Q.
Answer: He also wasn't drafted, he enlisted.
Question: What does the potion that Snape made for Lupin actually do? I know it doesn't stop him from being a werewolf forever or stop him from being a werewolf the night of the full moon.
Chosen answer: The potion allows a werewolf to retain their own mind during the transformation period, rendering them harmless. Professor Lupin usually spent the night peacefully sleeping in his office. In the book, before the potion was invented, while Lupin was a Hogwarts student, each full moon he was confined inside the Shrieking Shack. It had been specially used for that purpose.
Question: How did Professor Umbridge get enough power to fire teachers and punish students that she believed were misbehaving?
Answer: Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge is scared of Dumbledore and him being right about Voldemort being back. As such he passed Education Decree number 23 stating if Hogwarts can't find a suitable teacher, one will be appointed by the Ministry. As such, Umbridge is instated to help keep an eye on Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Other teachers are not happy with this spying and set out to make life as hard as possible for Umbridge. Due to this, Umbridge is given powers to inspect and remove sub standard teachers or teachers who have a close allegiance to Dumbledore and the Order.
Question: Is the Fallen the only Prime that can only be killed by another Prime? If not, how was Megatron able to kill Optimus Prime?
Answer: It's not so much that only a Prime can kill a Prime by rule, it's just that a Prime is incredibly powerful. Megatron is roughly as powerful as a Prime. Otherwise Optimus would have killed him long ago.
Question: When it's discovered that Dolarhyde and Lecter have been secretly communicating with each other, a letter that was intercepted from Lecter was for Graham's house address. Since the FBI was able to retrieve the letter before it got to Dolarhyde, then how did he find out where Graham lived?
Answer: To answer the second part of your question. He found out how Graham lived by telephoning the fbi agency and reaching Crawford's assistant and pretending to be someone important who needed to send Graham something at his home address. (This is from the book).
Question: Was there any specific reason that Dolarhyde chose his victims other than through home movies? Was there anything about the families that made him want to kill them?
Answer: His choices had to do with the layout of peoples' property. At his job, he studied customers' family video tapes that contained scenes of their homes and yards. He looked for seclusion around the properties, easy-access back entrances, whether there was a family dog that would bark, and so on.
But what was his reason for killing them? Was it because he saw a happy family and he was angry because he never had one or because he saw a life that he would never have?
He chose the houses that had big backyards. During the Edward Norton/Lecter interaction, Lector says something about how blood looks in the moonlight.
Answer: "Because it made him a god" as it was put early in the film.
Question: Charles Xavier knew about Erik Lehnsherr's past, but did he know about those three people he killed at the bar?
Chosen answer: Xavier can read minds, so it's assumed he knows about the murders.
Question: Why was Charles Xavier so against Erik Lehnsherr killing Sebastian Shaw?
Chosen answer: Charles wants Erik to use his powers for good, but if he kills Sebastian Shaw, this may lead him down a darker path (which ultimately ends up happening).
Question: If the two waterspouts were swirling closely around the pickup truck, how come they weren't able to pick it up?
Chosen answer: A tornado would have to be at least an F3 to be able to pick up a truck. The waterspouts were very small.
The Fujita Scale is incorrectly portrayed as being used to describe the size of a tornado. It's actually used to describe the amount of a damage it has caused AFTER it has passed.
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Chosen answer: The trail of fire from McClane lighting the jet fuel creates a visual marker that the pilots can aim for. Not the best situation, however, considering that they're low on fuel and that one other plane has crashed that evening already, the pilots decided to settle for the less-than-ideal method of guiding their planes in.
Captain Defenestrator