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.

Answer: The Chinese character on the necklace means, "good fortune."

sarvate3

Question: When the Phantom takes Christine's engagement ring at the Masquerade ball, does she ever get it back, or is it the same ring he has proposed to her with?

Answer: In the movie, the ring that the Phantom gives Christine at the end of the movie is the same ring that he took from her at the ball and is the same one that he left at her grave (since she gave it back to him before she left).

Answer: The ring that Phantom gives to Christine is a different one. In the stage production, the Phantom never takes the ring.

No, its the same ring he proposed to her with, at least in the movie.

Question: Is there another version of the movie? Because when I saw it on TV some scenes were cut or changed. It wasn't to remove swearing or anything, it was completely random, for example they cut Dave asking Buddy if he can eat Fiddle Faddles, and they changed Chuck's line "That's a letter I'm writing to Geraldo Rivera" to "That's a letter I'm writing to my father." This version is the version they use on the website Subzin, a website for finding movie quotes. Can someone please explain this version? What it is, how it's different, where it's used, etc.

MikeH

Answer: It's really not uncommon for movies to remove bits and pieces when broadcast on TV. Movies aren't just cut for content, they're also cut for timing. (Ex. "Shanghai Knights" used to be absolutely butchered when shown on cable - there were entire scenes missing, which created glaring mistakes.) It's also not uncommon for TV versions or foreign releases to change or remove cultural references, or use alternate takes depending on the language used. Depending on where you live, it could very easily just be that the version you're seeing is one of these alternate versions that was then also trimmed down to fit a TV timeblock.

TedStixon

Question: OK, so I get nearly everything in the film except one thing. Who is the man in the hospital (60% of skin burnt) and how does he know the portrait of Keyzer Soze. Doesn't that mean he saw his face? Also they say there is another guy who escaped the fire unharmed. Who is that?

Answer: One of the Hungarians from the ship who survived the fire. He's the only person left in the world who's seen Keyser Soze's face. The unharmed guy is Verbal Kint.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Keyser Soze, being built up as the meticulous mastermind that he is, would not have gone through all that just to kill the wrong guy. The man he shoots in the head twice is the only man who can ID him. The cops found that body and identified it as the rat who named 50 criminals including Soze. The Hungarian with the burnt skin likely was one of the people buying this guy from the Argentinians. He was on the boat when it blew up and saw the true events of what happened that night (Verbal killing Keaton and presumably everyone else). Considering the fear and mystery shrouding Keyser, it's a pretty easy conclusion to make that the only man who survived, the man he witnessed kill everyone, was Keyser Soze. The Hungarian becomes the only man to be able to identify Soze (a mistake on Verbal's part for unknowingly leaving a witness), but by then it doesn't matter. Verbal/Soze said it himself; he wouldn't come this close to getting caught and then stick his neck out again. He's gone.

Answer: The man in the hospital is "The Man" the Hungarians were protecting...he is the man that knew and could ID Keyser Soze. Now back in the boat Keyser shoots twice in the head a man that was being protected. This was was a decoy. You find that out when they say they pulled a man from a drain pipe...the real one didn't speak English, only Hungarian, and he ran for it once the fight erupted.

The guy shot on the boat wasn't a decoy. It's the same guy we saw Keyser Sose let go in the flashback. The burnt guy was one of the soldiers who fought them, saw Keyser Sose's face, but didn't manage to escape the following explosion, although he survived.

Question: (SPOILERS) I'm just curious where the cavalcade of money came from. Brian and Mia hit Rio all but broke, which is why they agree to the train heist job. Dom arrives not long after, fresh out of his orange jump suit. Possibly he had a nice stash of cash he could pick up, but no mention is made of this. Then it starts. They've double-crossed the heist and are tearing the car apart in a fully equipped garage. Apparently they know Rio very well to find such a facility, but someone would still want payment/rent. Then they escape with nothing but their clothes and the chip, but end up in an apartment where they can casually plan and sip cold beer. They decide on the super-heist and immediately transfer to an apartment-condo with a million-dollar view. As the crew shows up, they must be bringing some major investment funds with them. A gigantic warehouse-factory for a base of operations. Loads of high end computer surveillance gear. Sure, they steal or win the cars, but they use tons of components to reinforce them. They order a duplicate top-of-the-line vault for practicing on! (Maybe Amazon waives the delivery fee on such a purchase). It just starts to feel that if they divvied up all the seed money, they'd find they really didn't need to commit the robbery.

Answer: They end up in Rio where Vince is major player as shown with him telling his men to stand down. This means he's going to have access to a fully equipped garage and a home for rest and planning. They then decide on the super heist as you put it. This leads to the team meeting up in an abandoned warehouse. Plenty of those around. All the crew have their own talents and contacts. All they need to do is call in a few favours to get their equipment sent over. The even comments on this when he gets the new safe saying "we had a life before we met you." So the equipment isn't a problem.

Ssiscool

Question: How exactly did Tilly die? I know she got hit in the neck by Oddjob's razor-rimmed hat, but it doesn't make sense. Why didn't it cut her head off or at least cut her? There wasn't even a mark or blood. If it didn't even cut her, how did she die just from getting hit by it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: Oddjob's hat has a metal brim that's razor sharp under the cloth. It's possible for the hat to have hit her neck in a way that she didn't get cut (I've commented elsewhere about the number of factors that have to be just right to sever a head with a single blow), but the metal object hurled with Oddjob's strength was enough to snap her neck.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: What is the purpose or the story behind the little stuffed dog that appears in so many scenes? It's on the table when the guys are playing poker, it appears in the bowling scene too.

Answer: Presumably it's a favorite mascot of the group. There's likely no backstory per se, it's just something the filmmakers did to add to sense that these people have been together for a very long time.

Question: The movie ends without revealing what was the content of the memory card Snow found in the lighter. Does the movie tells it to us in some way?

Sgt_Malarkey

Chosen answer: Not really. Not exactly what it was. Just that it was secrets that he was trying to keep safe from the wrong hands. Most likely government secrets.

Quantom X

Question: When Shang finds out Mulan is a woman, Chi-fu (council guy) stops Yao, Ling and Chien from saving her from execution, and says "you know the law." Was there a certain rule back in Ancient China allowing women to get in the army, why was need for Mulan to be executed (almost executed), couldn't they just send her home, why was it a big deal?

Answer: While it was not common for women to serve in the military (depending on the dynasty), they were never put to death. Disney just made this is as a plot device to develop the love interest. The movie is partly based on the ancient poem, "The Ballad of Mulan" and in none of the ancient versions was she ever threatened with execution. In fact, the poem may be based on Fu Hao, a woman who not only served in the Chinese army, but was a military general.

Bishop73

I think that it was an issue, because according to what the emperor said, she basically stole an identity; she "deceived the captain" and "impersonated a soldier."

Left for Dead - S1-E10

Question: I don't know the episode, but didn't Mike Franks have a son who died, and the woman who was in the cab was holding a blonde baby boy? After that Mike Franks just had a daughter in law and a granddaughter.

Lori Field

Chosen answer: Season 4, Episode 8. "Iceman" is where Mike Frank's son Corporal O'Neill is introduced.

Question: What is the opera (in German perhaps?) that another group of performers is rehearsing on stage? I think it's the scene where Paul's grandfather comes up the trap door on to the stage, during the opera rehearsal.

Answer: The Drinking Song (Trinke Liebchen) from Johann Strauss' Der Fledermaus.

Question: When Daniel learns that Stu is allergic to pepper he sneaks into the kitchen and spikes his food. Later when Stu starts choking Daniel seems surprised. What did he think was going to happen?

Answer: Well when someone's allergies act up, typically people associate that with sneezing and coughing, etc. Daniel didn't think there'd be a much more serious reaction.

Quantom X

Answer: Likely especially since Daniel was drunk, he didn't think it through, and the fact that Stu could die from his "prank."

Answer: He acts surprised so that everyone thinks he wasn't in on it, and he is just another person scared for Stu. If he didn't have a surprised face, or just a straight face, the gig would've been easier to notice.

Answer: Maybe just faking it as Mrs. Doubtfire to avoid being caught smiling to himself?

Question: Several people have mentioned that the film makes a point of showing how Belle is the only literate person in her village. If that's the case then how does the village bookseller manage to stay in business? He couldn't possibly afford his shop and the collection of books he has if Belle is his only customer.

Answer: There is no definite proof she is the only literate person in her town, but the people we do see are not as interested in books as Belle. There is no information as to how he keeps his book shop open, especially if he is willing to lend books to other people in the town.

kristenlouise3

It's not a "bookshop", it's a library. And it doesn't seem like he only lends books.

Answer: As KristenLouise3 said, there is nothing to indicate that only Belle is literate. Several men, at least, could probably read. The book seller could sell to them, sell at a market somewhere, and the village might have some amount of travelers who pass through.

Question: If Old Man Marley is actually a nice man (and not a "shovel slayer" as Buzz claims) then why does he always give Kevin that cold, creepy stare? After Kevin ran away the first time wouldn't he want to talk to Kevin the next time, to assure him that everything is okay?

Answer: Because he's understandably angry that Kevin's so unreasonably scared of him and assumes the worst in him without even getting a chance to know him. He never gets a chance to talk to him, because he always runs away too quickly. The first time he gives him that stare was when Kevin was watching him shovel from the window. Nobody would like to be stared at like that while doing a simple task.

MikeH

Answer: Marley appears that way mostly because the audience sees him from Kevin's point of view. Marley is miserable and sad because he is estranged from his family, but we see him as a crotchety, unpleasant person because that is what Kevin believes. Buzz had tainted Kevin's opinion of him by spreading the false stories that a gullible Kevin believed were true.

raywest

Question: Is this a continuity problem or something I am missing. I was wondering where Lev (the cosmonaut) would sit after leaving the RSS? After reading some questions I know that Lev would use one of the spare spacesuits, but where would he have been sitting during the 12G ride? For the ride home there was a seat for everyone. 3 members of Freedom died and 3 members from Independence survived, meaning there should be no spare seat for Lev.

Answer: Remember that the shuttles weren't built for this mission, they were built to land on Mars. They probably had extra seats because there were going to be many astronauts on that mission.

Greg Dwyer

Question: At the end of the credits, we hear Johnny Depp sing "mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread." Is there any reason for this, or a tie-in to the movie I missed?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: An additional reference to the full dominant personality takeover of Shooter, everything gravitates South Mississippi.

The Yoko Factor (1) - S4-E20

Question: At the last moment before leaving for good, Angel pauses to tell Buffy "I don't like him" [Riley], to which she replies with a large smile "Thank you." Why does she take this comment surprisingly well? From an ex boyfriend to her new boyfriend? It's not like it sounds like a friendly warning of any sort, nor a joke given the tense situation between the two guys in the episode. And the smile on Buffy's face does not make her response look ironic either, more like loving/caring. Is that a cross over reference to another dialogue in the Angel series?

AnthonyA

Chosen answer: Angel is saying that he is still jealous and Buffy recognizes that this is his way of saying he wishes that they could be together. That is why they both smile.

Question: I just read the third book, and in it, Lupin said that the Dementors take a wizard's powers away while he/she is in Azkaban. Did Bellatrix and her fellow escapees have them restored by Voldemort or something?

Answer: It's more that being around them is a power drain. Once they leave the vicinity of the dementors, their powers begin coming back.

Greg Dwyer

Question: What kind of car is the blue one that Jackie drove?

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.