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.

Show generally

Question: In which episode did Jackie enter Roseanne's kitchen still dressed from traffic duty with white gloves on, then proceeded to do a hysterical, flippant routine about doing traffic duty, with sweeping hand movements, repeating something like "you must listen to the glove"? I laughed myself silly!

Answer: Season 3 Episode 2 "Friends and Relatives".

Question: Two questions: 1. Robbie joins the army to be released from prison. Does that mean he would be a "free man" if he had returned from the war? 2. Wouldn't Robbie, as a healthy young man, be conscripted into the army anyway sooner or later?

Answer: Remember that Robbie wanted to become a doctor, and had he been able to achieve that dream he most likely would not have been drafted into the army as a combatant.

Answer: 1. Yes he'd be free once the war has ended or if he's injured and hospitalized. Also, the release form might have specified the duration of service. 2. Yes he would have, but he was already in prison before the war was imminent.

Earthling

Question: At the end, the teacher makes Lulu write something on the black board 1000 times. It's difficult to make out, but what exactly is it she is writing?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: She writes "I'll never play hooky again."

Question: I'm wondering why Evan's necklace was never mentioned at all during the film? He wore it during every stage of his life, showing that it must have been very important to him, yet it was never talked about. I'm guessing it was a gift from his father before he was institutionalized, I just find it strange that they would leave something like that out.

modified-alien

Chosen answer: They expect you to make the connection on your own. His necklace is the necklace of Saint Christopher. A martyr who "the world gave a heavy burden" by carrying Christ across the river. Originally, Evan's name was going to be "Chris Treborn" aka Christ Reborn and was going to martyr himself in his mother's womb (this can be seen in the director's cut). Eventually, this all was changed, but the character still continues to carry the burden of the world on his shoulders like Saint Christopher.

St. Christopher is also the patron saint of travelers which is a good connection as well because he is traveling through time.

Question: I read somewhere that for Phil to be as good as he is on the piano in the jazz club scene he would have had been trapped in that day for about 10 years. Is it known anywhere (DVD, directors, actors) that say about how long Phil actually repeated the same day?

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: Harold Ramis, who wrote and directed the film, had said the in the original draft Phil spent a total of 10,000 years trapped in his timeloop. They ended up scaling that back quite a bit for the final version, but it's still in the ballpark of 100 to 1,000 years. Quite a broad window, I know, but the point is it's easily plenty of time for Phil to have become a master pianist along with all the other skills he appears to have mastered.

Phixius

Answer: Harold Ramis flat out said it was about 10 years. I think the final numbers calculated by some groups said it needed to be just over 8 years, to learn and do all the things he did. I'm not sure how they actually calculated it, but I'll go with the writer and directer of the movie for 10 years.

Question: So let me get this straight. After reading the questions and answers, and scratching my head for a while, I concluded this, after the corruption occurs and the jet engine enters it. The universes unravel because of the corruption. So to fix it these "time travelers" decide to give a reason for the engine to fall through the wormhole by making Donnie send it through, thus fixing the corruption. Is this even on track? I saw somebody say something cause and effect. So could this be simplified by saying they made it have a cause for the effect or vice versa in their universe to save it? I feel like there has to be some kind of time always has a flow and can't be interrupted kind of thing, but I'm really not smart enough to adequately understand that. Somebody also mentioned something about the events had to happen a certain way or they didn't happen at all. I may have misinterpreted what the person meant by that, but I would like to share my take on that. It's funny cause the only credibility to that is the film portrays the characters reacting oddly at the end (you know what instances I'm referring to). However, if this wouldn't happen then it would open up an infinitely large door of possibilities. Events like in this movie could occur everyday, but we don't remember. I could imagine, tons of scenarios and they all be credible and unprovable either way. I think it would have been cool to go in that direction cause you could have an infinite number of different Donnie Darko movies, but that's just my thoughts. If you get what I'm trying to say here. It's weird to think about cause it seems there's no purpose to think like that, but is there a purpose if your thinking about it in the first place? What is that purpose, that is the real question? I apologize in advance if this is too lengthy.

Answer: It is a matter of interpretation, but I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that Donnie or anyone is causing the jet engine to time travel - he causes his mother and sister to be on the plane, but not the storm or wormhole. Rather, he is simply experiencing the time loop and eventually understanding that it will end in his death.

Question: Why did Kurt Russell sound the alarm when the thing was attacking the dogs? He was nowhere near the area and could not see what was going on. Also before he pulled the alarm, the sound he would hear was too faint to think something was wrong.

lartaker1975

Answer: Remember that he'd just spent the whole day investigating how something mysterious and horrible destroyed the Norwegian camp, so he's already in a spooked state of mind. Hearing the dogs screaming at night is already unusual on its own, and also reminds him how this whole episode all started with a crazed Norwegian trying to kill a dog. Deep down he knows whatever happened to the Norwegians is now starting at their own camp.

TonyPH

Chosen answer: He sensed something was wrong and wanted as much help from the others as possible.

Answer: Having investigated the Norwegian camp, he could have conceived that the use of fire would be helpful. As such, he would need fire extinguishers after combating whatever the thing might be with the flamethrowers. It could have been foresight on his part that by ringing the fire alarms, somebody was more likely to bring fire extinguishers with them, thus allowing better control of the fire.

Chosen answer: In season 11 episode 7 "Friends Without Benefits", it was revealed Meg's heart was literally born in the wrong place and ended up in her head and her heart beats were shown beating on her head. Meg just wears the hat to cover it up. As for Chris, it's pretty much just a simple character decision. The real explanation is most likely that's it's a lot easier to animate characters with a near-permanent appearance.

Casual Person

The One with All the Poker - S1-E18

Question: After playing poker for the second time and winning over the girls, the guys say something like "Thanks for teaching us cross-eyed Mary." I assume it is a poker technique, however as a poker player, I've never heard about it. Is anyone familiar with it?

denisg

Chosen answer: I've been unable to locate any information about an actual poker game or technique called "cross-eyed Mary." The only reference I can find to "Cross-Eyed Mary" is a track on the 1971 Jethro Tull album "Aqualung." It's unlikely Joey is referring to the song, so I am guessing it's just something the show creators made up, possibly implying that Monica's aunt taught them a new variation/technique/trick so they could win and they still ended up losing, teaching it to the guys in the process.

Michael Albert

Answer: It is largely believed that a player's eyes can give away a good or bad hand and that good poker players need to have a "poker face" - not moving eyes or making facial gestures. If a poker player has cross-eyes, the implication is that other players will not be able to "read" that person's face or be able to discern if the player has a good hand or is bluffing.

KeyZOid

Question: After the Shoulder Angel appears on Lulu's stick and says that she's playing hooky, and it's a bad sign, the Shoulder Demon then appears and says some snarky remarks to the Angel. I have listened to that part over and over again trying to catch it, but I can't quite make out what the demon says, and the DVD does not have subtitles. To the best I can tell, it sounds like the shoulder demon appears and says "Naaaa! Take a powder, sister! Fishin’s for fishes, hairline." But that doesn't make any sense. Can someone tell me what she actually says? And then after the angel tells Lulu that if she doesn't go to school, she will grow up to be a mule, the demon says another line I can't quite make out, but sounds like she says "Ahhh! your brother's mustache!" as she pulls the Angel's halo down over her. What does she actually say there?

Quantom X

Question: I get that the story is played out through a father and child's imagination, but there's three questions about that. 1. The film's first scene takes place eight-and-a-half years before Emmet's story began and presumably right before Finn was born. How was that played out when Finn wasn't even around back then? 2. When Emmet ends up in our world, he tries to and fails to talk to Finn and his father, sees everything they do, and struggles to move on his own until Finn notices him on the floor. How is that all that possible? 3. Why is the dad referred to as "The Man Upstairs" when he just wants to glue his stuff and Finn just wants to play? Vitruvius said that "The Man Upstairs" chose Emmet to be the hero. So, shouldn't Finn be the one known as "The Man Upstairs"?

Answer: 1. The eight years earlier mention could be just part of Finn's back story for his game. 2. Though the story is set to the imagination of Finn, this scene shows that the characters are real. Think Toy Story. 3. The dad is called "The Man Upstairs" because he is literally upstairs when we first hear him. And because he's the one who built their world.

MasterOfAll

Question: Why does Jack insist that his pint of bitter be in a THIN glass? I've tried doing some Google research on the question and haven't come up with a satisfactory answer. One person says it's a Northerners vs Southerners custom, one says it's in case he needs to use the glass as a weapon, another says he's just being a jerk to the barman as he'd already started to pull it, and a fourth says it's just because that's how Carter ordered it in the novel. Nobody seems to know for certain, though. I'm hoping that maybe someone's seen an interview with Michael Caine or Ted Lewis and has the real answer.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: It's a show of sophistication. Working class men in pubs and clubs (north, south, and London) typically drank from beer mugs. By insisting on a thin glass Jack is making a public display, of socially distancing himself from the average beer drinking peers, showing he has refined himself from his working class roots.

This is 180° wrong. Thick pint pots with handles were just becoming fashionable when this was made, by ordering a straight "thin" glass he is opting for traditional over trendy.

This is 100% rubbish. The new design of the dimpled mug glass in the 70s was a continuation of the fluted mugs of the 1920s. Northerners, particularly Yorkshire, preferred their beer in jugs, not straight glasses.

Not true at all: everyone I knew in the 70's and 80's always preferred their beer in a normal "thin" pint glass, not the thick, chunky dimpled things. Rightly or wrongly, we always felt it tasted better from a proper glass.

Chosen answer: Its the northerners V southerners for that time period - northerners drank from jugs (the pint glass with the handle) and southerners drank from tall pint glasses that are more commonly used today. Jack, being from London, wanted it in a tall glass.

Answer: Absolutely not. This is gangster. Carter knows if he has a thin straight glass he can tap it on the bar and he has a makeshift weapon. You can't do that with a dimpled 'glass' with a handle, which is a mug by the way.

Nobody smashes a glass on the bar first - the face or head is used to "glass" someone. Agreed, it's not called a jug, but a mug usually has a hot beverage, although alcohol can be served in a beer mug, tankard, or dimpled beer glass. The handled glass would most likely knock you out before breaking on your head! I think it's more likely the North/South divide rather than cutting your hand breaking it on the bar.

Answer: The reason is to imply that he wants a full pint of beer, "in a thin glass" wasn't in the script, it was Michael Caine's addition and just reinforces the character's image of an 'alpha male'.

It's still gonna be a 568ml (British) pint regardless of the shape of the glass! Northerners generally preferred more of a head of froth than anyone South of Watford, and I believe that "bitter" or "heavy" laterally came in a glass with a handle and lager more commonly in a straight glass. Personally, I'd be reluctant to take the time to break a pint glass on the bar, possibly cutting my hand in the process, while your opponent has already broken theirs over your head and followed up in your face.

Answer: Jugs can survive being chipped on the rim and difficult to spot, any chip on a thin glass would produce an obvious crack and not be used, so you could cut your mouth on a chipped jug. Nothing to do with class, just thickness of glass.

Question: When Melody escapes the castle she swims beneath that giant wall, through a hole and pulls out one of the metal bars that's there. Later on when she escapes the castle after arguing with Ariel, she happens to freely walk outside and pulls a boat and the sea's there. What happened to the hole?

Answer: She would only be going through that hole when she's swimming, but since she was walking on land there was no need for it. She could've gotten the boat and brought it to shore another way.

Question: At the end when the evil Alpha dragon runs away, you see that Drago Blood Fist was still on the dragon. The large dragon retreated, going underwater and is not seen again. So did that kill Blood Fist? did he drown?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: That's kind of left in the middle, so that Hiccup can have his revenge without having to flat-out murder someone.

Friso94

Question: When Cage wakes up the last time after killing the Omega, he arrives in London before his first meeting with Brigham to find the war is over, but he did not destroy the Omega in Paris until the night after he met Brigham and got busted to private. How is this timeline explained?

Answer: Because they don't destroy the Omega the night after Cage meets with the General, they destroy it that night of the day Cage meets the General. Cage wakes up, visits Rita, visits the Dr., then goes back to the General, wakes up later that day in the hospital with powers gone, escapes and gets J squad, goes to the Louvre and destroys the Omega. This is all done before the large battle that was to take place the morning after Cage meets the General. This is shown by the fact that while lining up to go to the war, Sergeant Farell says "Where is J squad?!?" So when Cage dies after destroying the Omega, he wakes up at the moment when he began the day, which was on the helicopter.

Scott Benham

Question: When Jasmine works out that Prince Ali is Aladdin (the boy from the market), why does she get angry at him? Shouldn't she be happy that he's actually alive, considering Jafar told her earlier on that Aladdin had been sentenced to death and killed?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: She's upset because she thinks Aladdin lied to her twice about everything - first by pretending he was Aladdin, then by lying in the guise of Ali.

Greg Dwyer

Question: When Jules and Vincent go to the students' flat at the beginning of the movie, Jules asks the guy on the couch to tell him where the briefcase is. He begins by saying "You. A flock of seagulls. Where is it?" What does he mean by calling him "a flock of seagulls"?

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: It's a reference to his hairstyle; A Flock Of Seagulls was a new wave band from the early 1980s who were as well known for their frontman's unusual hairstyle as their sound. You can learn more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Flock_of_Seagulls.

zendaddy621

Question: I have looked all over online trying to find the names of the songs in this games' soundtrack. Putting the disk of the game in my computer, I can get the songs on my media players, but it just lists them as track 2, track 3, track 4, so on and so forth, track 1 just being data and not music. So does any body know and can list the names of the songs in this game in the order they are on the disk? There are 18 songs listed on there from numbers 2 to 19. And this is in the Titanium Edition of the game. I don't know how the songs are in the normal edition. I also have a similar problem with the normal version of Mech Warrior 3 but it just has 2 songs.

Quantom X

Question: I am struggling to figure out what the title of the movie, Watership Down, has to do with the movie itself at all. Can someone please explain what the title refers to?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: Watership Down is the name of a real hill in Hampshire. In the context of the film and the book, it is the location where Fiver and the other rabbits set up their new warren after leaving Sandleford.

Sierra1

Question: Is there a way to know what was going on in the TV footage that Forest is in? For example when He shows Johnson his wound and Johnson walks away laughing, or when he has the confrontation with Kennedy, what was going on with the actual footage they used?

lartaker1975

Chosen answer: (1) The effects artists involved in "Forrest Gump" used footage of President Lyndon Johnson giving an award to Sammy Davis Jr., and superimposed Hanks over Davis to make it look like the president was giving Gump a medal. (2) Forrest appears with John Lennon on "The Dick Cavett Show." This was morphed with footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s first appearance with Mr. Cavett, which aired September 11, 1971. They were the only guests on the show that evening. But In the film, Forrest Gump's image is superimposed over Yoko Ono’s (original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78L_v3_ufQ0). In the "Forrest Gump" film, Cavett plays himself, made up to look younger. (3) I believe the archival footage of President John F. Kennedy is actual footage of Kennedy honoring a championship football team, with Tom Hanks digitally inserted. But I do not know which team nor the year. In all instances, when Forrest Gump is digitally composited into historic events, the special effects team recreated that archival footage with actor Tom Hanks. They combined their new work with the actual clip via CGI and clever editing. Finally, in post-production, they modified mouth movements of the historical figures so that they appear to be saying the new dialogue.

Michael Albert

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.