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: How did Nicolas Cage manage to keep his job for so long? You'd think he'd get fired for coming to work drunk the first time.

MikeH

Chosen answer: On the contrary, the social contacts at work typically tolerate, sympathize with, and even enable alcoholics and other substance abusers, because many of the other employees are also similarly (and secretly) engaged in addictive behavior of their own to varying degrees. Usually, no action is taken until the addictive behavior starts affecting company income, insurance and morale. So, some substance abusers can lead lengthy careers within a company before the hammer falls.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Most workplaces I know have to try and help the employee to an extent, especially with mental health or addiction, even giving three chances. This, of course, might have been different in the time this movie was set, however.

Question: Is Joker's girlfriend the same girl who is with Cruz in the car when he gets attacked?

Answer: No.

Question: To find south why not look at the sun. East to West?

Answer: That would only work when the sun is visible. In Alaska there are frequent rainy and overcast days where the sun is completely blocked by heavy clouds, making a precise directional determination difficult, if not impossible.

raywest

They could see the sun; it was a sunny day after the crash, and the next day they were able to see the North Star. To begin with, they had great visibility, and it seemed easy enough to find a mountain peak or pass to use as a quick reference.

The Corbomite Maneuver - S1-E11

Question: In this episode, the navigator, Mr. Bailey, has an earpiece only for the length of time it takes to notify the crew of the message coming in over the navigation beam. Why is it that no time before, or since, that anyone at the conn or navigation positions never had one?

Movie Nut

Chosen answer: This was an early episode and TV shows often make small changes to set design, props, equipment, and so on as the program progresses. Most likely it was felt that this particular prop was not effective and the producers decided to eliminate it.

raywest

Answer: That they are bitter rivals, the gung ho general didn't like the young know it all kid telling him what to do and what he was doing wrong.

Question: In the post-credit scene, The Tank gang are seen still trapped in their now algae-covered plastic bags as they reach California. Since this movie takes place a year after "Finding Nemo" (2003), how did these fish survive without eating anything for a whole year?

Answer: Algae on the inside of the bag?

dizzyd

Then what about being able to breathe or not being eaten?

Answer: Cooper's CIA superior, Ross, learns that Cooper is attempting to oust him by making false accusations so he can become the CIA director. Ross devises his own plan to fool Cooper into believing that someone who can exonerate him is arriving at the airport. Ross sends one of his agents to the airport to randomly chose a man to appear to be the person that Ross is expecting. The agent selects Richard Drew because he is wearing mismatched shoes, the result of a trick a friend played on him. Cooper, who had bugged Ross' house, overheard the fake conversation and fell for the bait. He sends his own agent to the airport, who spots Ross' man with Richard and begins trailing him. Of course, Richard has no idea what is happening.

raywest

Season 5 generally

Question: In the one episode Gabriel attempted to kill Lucifer with his archangel blade. Even though he didn't succeed, why didn't they attempt to do use one before? Couldn't Cas have given them one, or gotten one if an archangel's blade is different then an angel blade (I'm not sure), or would it have even killed Lucifer, because he is an angel after all?

Yeahoksure

Answer: Angel blades come from angels. It's their angelic magic that makes it special. Therefore, an archangel blade is made magical with the powers of an archangel. They couldn't have just created one or used one, as none of them are archangels.

Question: Who is the girl in the beginning in the helmet?

Answer: Her name is Alison Faulk. She was one of the movie's choreographers.

Question: How does Jack hypnotise Merritt's twin brother when he is suppose to be doing a street show?

Answer: The entire sequence in London was all a montage. It is never really established if all of the scenes that took place there were coinciding with each other. The scene where Jack hypnotises Chase could have easily taken place after he had finished the street show.

Casual Person

Answer: Also, the reason why Jack was told to leave early was because when the fbi found out jack was performing, they sent their crew. So Jack finished first, got to the location by the time the third performance was still running, the third performance ended faster than the second performance, the second performance was ended by either Merritt or Jack's "he is hypnotized" call.

Question: Who killed the young girl, or did she hang herself?

Answer: In her flashback, the killers catch her as she was trying to run away and hang her.

lartaker1975

Question: Why was Travis labeled a hero at the end and not arrested? He murdered several people.

MikeH

Chosen answer: One theory about the end of the film is that it is Travis' dying thoughts, but this is not the view of Scorsese or writer Paul Schrader...they intended the ending to be ambiguous and an ironic critique of the media's, and the public's, reaction to and interpretation of violence (Travis is hailed as a hero for rescuing Iris, but we can imagine a very different reaction had he followed his original plan of assassinating a senator). Interestingly, when the film was originally shown on television, the following "disclaimer" of sorts accompanied the closing credits: "In the aftermath of violence, the distinction between hero and villain is sometimes a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation of facts. 'Taxi Driver' suggests that tragic errors can be made. The Filmmakers."

Question: What does it mean to call someone a "bubble-butt" boyfriend, as a girl refers to Billy when Sidney is in a bathroom stall?

Answer: "Bubble butt" is, in some areas, a slang term for a nice-looking rear end. The comment is a reference to Billy being perfect, as Sidney herself and Tatum describe him at other times in the movie.

Question: I know this isn't very important to the movie but when Magneto says Charles always wanted to build bridges was he making fun of Charles or making a reference to how he's moving the bridge.

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: A little bit of both. Although he wasn't really making fun of Charles, but pointing out that Charles only talked about doing something (building bridges in a figurative way) while Magneto was actually doing something to accomplish his goals, by literally moving the bridge.

Bishop73

Chosen answer: It is an implication that Carrie White is not really dead.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: It's most likely just a metaphor for the terrible memories that those who survived the prom massacre must have in their minds forever. The memory of Carrie White haunts them.

Chosen answer: There is no clear answer as to her fate, only that J reminds K in the second MIB movie that K's wife left him, which K answered with a punch to J's face.

Scott215

Question: When the lady knocks on the door and says "House keeping" which causes some monster wind thing, If you look on the right side of the screen, what's inside the room?

Cloude2

Chosen answer: It's not known what it is. It is left to the audience's imagination of what exactly is in the room or what some witch or wizard was doing in there. This is only meant to be a humorous bit and is unrelated to the plot. It didn't happen in the book.

raywest

Question: After Alex translates the hieroglyphs as "This way to Scorpion King," Jonathan quietly responds by saying "It's just my work." What exactly did he mean by that? He's not a translator of ancient Egyptian like his sister Evie, so I don't think he literally meant "work" as his profession.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: He says, "this just might work" meaning he and Alex trying to bring Evie back using the book of the dead.

Question: What was the girl in the well trying to do with the bone and the bucket?

Answer: She was trying to attract the dog with the bone, then pull it into the pit with the bucket (and she succeeded).

Brian Katcher

Question: What does Kylo Ren mean when he tells Rey "Don't be afraid. I feel it, too"? I thought he meant the Force, but Rey has seen him use the Force by now, so it would be strange to for him to inform her that he can feel it.

Answer: Kylo Ren is referring to an unexpected connection through the Force between them. He thinks this will make it easier for him to read Rey's mind, but it actually allows her to block him and read his mind.

Sierra1

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