Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Why wouldn't Dumbledore let Professor Snape teach Defense Against Dark Arts before this year? Snape says in the book that Dumbledore was afraid of him being tempted to relapse into his Death Eater ways, but he says this to Bellatrix and Narcissa, who falsely think that he is on their side. Also, he probably wouldn't feel tempted to become a Death Eater again after Voldemort killed Lily. And Dumbledore repeatedly insists that he completely trusts Snape.

Answer: While Dumbledore did trust Snape, he knew that his being immersed in teaching the Dark Arts could have an effect on him. Also, many years before, Voldemort had placed a curse on the position of the Dark Arts instructor after Dumbledore turned him down for it. After that, no instructor lasted more than one year. He didn't believe that Snape could last any longer than the others had, and he couldn't risk losing his strongest ally.

raywest

Question: The night when Harry is given to the Dursleys takes place in 1981. McGonagall and Dumbledore each say something about "for eleven years", so they are referring to the year 1970. What happened that year? I know from the sixth book that Voldemort had been around and gathering followers since way before then; he had some followers when he was 28 and he visited Hogwarts to apply for teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Answer: Although Voldemort had been gathering followers for decades, he had done so quietly, slowly building his Death Eater army. The "eleven years" being mentioned refers to the period during which the Dark Lord actively attempted to conquer the wizard world.

raywest

Question: Why did Alex have to wait until Valentine's Day 2008 to meet Kate? Even assuming for the sake of argument that the "time-traveling" letters stopped after Alex avoided the bus accident on "his" Valentine's Day 2006, Alex certainly knew how to find Kate at that time - and vice versa. The two-year gap where Kate had not known about Alex had closed by that time, and each knew about the other.

Answer: The movie is not about them trying to find ways to meet. They are not trying that hard to meet and the time distance is a metaphor. I think the movie misses the tension that she is trepidatious about meeting and he is trying to respect that. He gets killed the first time for trying to force it! This shows when the stack of letters is piling away. She is worried he is a coward who will not be able to handle real romance. This is shown in his retreat to build mass produced houses and has something to do with his mom/dad. She's the doctor, he's the architect: she saves people for a living and is hung up about her own father's death. It's only when it's life or death that she gets over it and he also figures himself out and stops trying to fix everything.

Answer: Kate asked him to wait, and come in 2008, so that's what he did. Likely they could have found each other before then, but it might not have even occurred to either of them.

They started communicating after he died in 2006 (her time) on his way to see her, but 2004 his time, neither of them knew he had died by this time so there was no way they could have met, my question is how did he know to go and meet her the first time if they hadn't started communicating yet?

They had been communicating for 2 years at that point - his time. Hence why he was going to meet her and got killed in the process.

Day 4: 1:00 A.M.-2:00 A.M. - S4-E19

Question: After the President is injured in the plane crash, VP Logan is made President. While hiding in the bunker he says "they could be coming for me next." If they did attack Logan and he was severely injured also, who would take over as President? No VP was appointed after Logan was "promoted" so who is next in line?

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: With no vice president, the Senate pro tempore would be next in the line of succession.

Cubs Fan

Question: If the pay phones are the only entrance/exit points in the matrix, why did the robots add it in?

Answer: Pay phones are not the only way in or out of the matrix. In fact, pay phones are only used twice in the film. The other times people are shown entering or leaving the matrix, they do so via a plain black rotary phone sitting on a table. Any hard-line (that is, physically connected to the system by wires) phone can be hacked to provide an entrance or exit. Several have been hacked already and, as the process takes time to complete, rather than begin a hack of the hard-line phone nearest to the operative, operatives are directed to the nearest previously hacked phone when a quick escape is required. The robots did not add this feature to the matrix, it is merely a manipulation of the code on the humans' part.

Phixius

Question: Whats the name of the song that's playing on the radio while Marty is asleep, just before Doc calls him to pick up the camcorder and head to the mall?

Answer: "Time Bomb Town" by Lindsey Buckingham.

The_Iceman

Question: Could the police really put the Lincoln back together perfectly and that quickly?

Answer: It's a different car of the same make and model that they swapped for the one they tore apart, and in which they hid the drugs in the same place as the original.

Question: When Rocky kisses Dianne, why is it a New Years dance if they are at summer camp?

Answer: It appears to be a party at camp. Lots of camps have special themed parties especially before the camp is over.

Question: Who plays the piano background music during the car scene after Chris was kicked out of his band, when Chris and Emily are talking and she's telling him maybe it's a sign to start writing your own songs?

Question: Has Samantha's birthday ever been officially said? She says she looks the same as she did that summer and all that shows is that she doesn't have a tan left. People are still wearing tank tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, etc. throughout the movie. It appears to be early to mid September but nobody says anything in the movie. Does anybody know?

Answer: Her birthdate is not mentioned. Regarding the weather and how the locals dress, it depends on where they live. California, for instance, has a fairly warm climate much of the year, so it would not be unusual to see the people there wearing summer-type clothing in early Autumn.

raywest

Answer: The brother is constantly wearing Chicago gear. I'd bet Chicago. You can lose your tan in one month. That's a long time to a kid back in school. Plus the dance they go to is called the New Faces dance which may be a beginning of the school year.

I did a little checking on the movie production. According to the Wikipedia entry for this film, "Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban communities of Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park, Illinois during the summer of 1983." The summers in this region are usually quite hot and humid which may account for why the cast was wearing lighter clothing throughout the film, even though it was supposedly taking place in Autumn.

raywest

Answer: It seems you likely answered your own question. Christine was her friend. The adrenaline borne of her concern for Christine likely overwhelmed any feelings of resentment or jealousy she might have felt, so that probably wasn't a factor. Maybe the better question would be why NOT Meg to lead the mob? She and Christine both grew up in the Opera House, and she was particularly familiar with the hallways and catacombs of the building. Being a woman at that time period works against the notion that she would lead a mob. But in this circumstance, she is just as logical a leader as anyone.

Michael Albert

Question: Throughout the movie we rarely see Clayton reload his gun. It looks like a twin barrel shotgun. During the final fight between Tarzan and Clayton how could he have fired more than 2 rounds without reloading it?

Chris Thomson

Chosen answer: Simply put he couldn't. It's a clear mistake.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: If all of the base DNA for the dinosaurs in the park was obtained from dino-blood inside mosquitoes, where did they get the DNA for the Mosasaurus from? A flying blood-sucking insect would not come into contact with a sea dwelling dinosaur, and there are no amber-equivalents in the ocean to trap any sea based blood suckers.

iRoN-RoK

Answer: And what about just digging for bones for the Mosasaurus? I think this was said somewhere-although I can't remember where so apologies if I'm wrong-but I think Dr. Wu mentioned something about it, so I'm sure they could've gotten DNA WITHOUT getting the blood from a mosquito. It sounds possible in my opinion.

Chosen answer: The scientific inaccuracy of the mosquitoes/DNA notwithstanding, at the end of the film the Mosasaurus surfaces at the edge of its pool in order to drag in the Indominus Rex. Assuming the Mosasaurus did the same thing to catch prey in its own time period, it's feasible a mosquito could have landed on its body and extracted some blood in that short amount of time, especially if the prey was putting up resistance.

Phaneron

And a mosquito would always be in that area and be keen on getting blood from that particular dinosaur? Plus, it didn't take much for the Indominus to be taken down since the Mosasaurus is kind of a big creature, so how hard would it be for other animals to be taken down as well? Added, the Mosasaurus was being fed a shark when we first meet it; it's not like it was hunting on its own in an enclosed area.

Mosquitoes are everywhere, so it's not a matter of convenience that one would be in the same area and being keen on going after that particular animal. Plus, I just pulled up the scene on YouTube and it takes close to 10 seconds for the Mosasaurus to drag the Indominous Rex to its doom, which is plenty of time for a mosquito to land on it and extract blood. And as I stated in the answer, the explanation of DNA being harvested from preserved mosquitoes is scientifically inaccurate anyway, so even a tenuous explanation of how a mosquito would get that animal's blood is no more tenuous than dinosaurs being brought back to life in the first place.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: It is the list of all the people he killed during his tenure as the "muscle". He promised the list to the detective if the detective agrees to protect his son.

Question: When the game is loading, sometimes there is a picture of a Pontiac Firebird but it is not a most wanted event, or a car you can use to beat races. Can you get the Firebird? And if so, how do you get it?

AdrianMC2002

Chosen answer: It's available only as downloadable content by buying the "Movie Legends Pack". It's the 1977 Firebird from Smokey and the Bandit film.

Bishop73

Chosen answer: Several possibilities: she could have been married, or divorced and had not changed back her last name; they could have been half-siblings with each of them having different fathers; they could have been step-siblings or one of them may have been adopted.

Phaneron

Question: In the last scene with the park ranger he is siting in his SUV completely motionless as if he is dead. The ranger does not even blink. The door is open, door alarm sounding and a ladder is leaning against the SUV instead of leaning against the fence or being on top of the SUV. What is wrong with the ranger?

Answer: He is completely stunned to have learned that there are many people, particularly ones like Ivy Walker who are ignorant of the 21st century, living inside the wildlife reserve. The reserve is completely fenced off and his job as a ranger is only to guard the perimeter of the area.

raywest

Answer: He's in shock.

Question: Outside of the castle, when you walk around the castle, to the waterfall there is an underwater hole. Can someone tell me where this hole leads to?

ryderpoints

Chosen answer: It doesn't lead anywhere - it is an exit from a bonus star level if you end up dying.

Question: SPOILER: When Scott invades the helicopter to stop Cross, Cross appears in the Yellowjacket armour. The Yellowjacket armour before this was placed inside glass casing and was miniaturised. My question here is, how exactly did Cross get the Yellowjacket armour to human size before putting it on?

Chosen answer: The suit was built human-size and then shrunk using Pym particles. The same technology can also be used to grow objects. Cross was shown to have a hand-held device earlier in the film capable of shrinking, so he either used this device, or activated the suit's built-in growing/shrinking technology.

Question: When Joy and Bing-Bong fall into the pit of forgotten memories, why doesn't Joy start to fade like Bing-Bong does?

Answer: Because Joy is an emotion, not a memory.

Greg Dwyer

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