Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Another entry says "… his name is in the rip portion of the credits." What is the "rip portion of the credits"?

kh1616

Chosen answer: The closing credits for both Kill Bill moves included a short list of deceased directors, writers and actors, under the title "R.I.P.", meaning "Rest In Peace": Charles Bronson, Chang Cheh, Kinji Fukasaku, Lo Lieh, Shintaro Katsu, William Witney, Sergio Corbucci, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Leone, and Lee Van Cleef.

THGhost

Question: I have 2 questions. When Billy takes the mogwai to his science teacher to demonstrate how they multiply, is it Gizmo that he drips the water on? Or is it one of the first five? Also what happens to him when he changes into a gremlin? Is it safe to assume that he ended up joining with the others? I don't recall the movie ever explaining what happened to him when he escaped through the air vent.

Enchantress

Chosen answer: It is one of the first five. You can easily tell after he drops the water on it, the 2 gremlins are on either side of the box communicating with each other. They show them both and neither is Gizmo. As for what happened after it escaped in the air vent, it never shows so we assume it joined the others.

lartaker1975

Question: I've always wondered if Booth shot those hunters because he was pissed off at that one guy for shooting the duck; or because he felt it was the perfect time to test the effectiveness of his home made gun. Any thoughts on this?

Enchantress

Chosen answer: The two hunters had now seen his face so they had to be killed. If they reported Booth to the police as "a weirdo in the woods with a powerful gun" (or whatever) his face would become known to the authorities and his chances of getting anywhere near the president would be zero.

The_Iceman

Question: Has it ever been explained what happens to a wizard/witch if they don't repay a life debt? Harry should owe one to Snape after Snape rescues him from Quirrell's curse during the Quidditch game, but he never does throughout the series.

Answer: It does not appear that life debts automatically form whenever somebody saves somebody else - J K Rowling has, for example, stated that Ginny did not incur a life debt to Harry when he saved her in the Chamber of Secrets, although she said nothing about what circumstances need to occur for a debt to exist. In Snape's case, there would seem to be several possibilities. 1) A life debt simply didn't form. 2) Snape is protecting Harry because of his love for Lily and his failure to save her, so he may actually be paying off a debt of sorts himself by doing so. 3) Harry's father James saved Snape from almost certain death when Sirius tried to trick him into going into the Shrieking Shack when Remus Lupin was in his wolf form. As such, Sirius may have owed James a debt, which he paid off by saving Harry. 4) A life debt did form but, as Snape died before Harry could pay it off and, insofar as we know, had no relatives that the debt could pass to, Harry was let off the hook.

Tailkinker

Question: A while after the Yule ball scene, after Harry wakes up from a nightmare, Neville comes in. He says something like "I got in! Me!" What is he talking about? What did he get into?

Answer: What Neville means is that he's only just got back in from being at the Ball, despite it being extremely late at night. The "Me!" simply reflects that fact that even Neville is aware that of everyone in the dormitory, he is unquestionably the one you'd least expect to be the last one back. Exactly what Neville has been up to is an open question, but he certainly seems excited about it. Alternatively, since Neville has a reputation for forgetting the password to the Gryffindor common room, "I got in! Me!" probably means that he is marveling at the fact that he remembered the password and actually got in to the common room and dormitories without any help.

Tailkinker

Question: In the apartment scene where Nick is sitting awkwardly listening to Tom and Myrtle "do it", what is the dog eating on the plate? Because, at one point, the plate is empty and then you hear a plopping noise and there is more (food?) on the plate. What is it?

Answer: According to the script, it's a "soggy dog biscuit [dissolving] into a saucer of milk".

Sierra1

Question: When Blazcowicz wakes up after the head trauma, why is he in a mental institution and not a hospital? He wasn't crazy, merely injured from shrapnel that got stuck in his head.

Answer: The trauma left him in a fugue state. An ordinary hospital would not have been equipped for that kind of potentially lifelong care needed in the 1940s, so they would have had him committed.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Is there any other way that Hermione could have possibly protected her Muggle parents from Voldemort and his followers besides erasing their memories, like casting a protection spell over them similar to what was done with Harry for the past 17 years or taken them to the Burrow to be protected, or even Grimmauld Place?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Any of those options would provide some degree of protection, but, should Voldemort ultimately triumph, it's extremely likely that those measures would eventually be circumvented by his forces, leaving her parents entirely at his mercy. By erasing herself entirely from their memories, they cannot be used against her, as they cannot be linked to her (it's reasonable to assume that Hermione would also have arranged for any files linking her to them or that address to be destroyed or altered as well). Erasing their memories also has the side effect of sparing her parents from grief should she fall in the ensuing conflict.

Tailkinker

In the book, in addition to erasing their memories, Hermione also sent her parents to live in Australia, further removing them from danger. She not only erased their memories to prevent them from being tortured and divulging any information, but if she was killed, they would not grieve the loss of their only child for the rest of their lives.

raywest

Question: Can students arrive at Hogwarts without riding on the train first? Surely some of the Hogsmeade residents have children, and it doesn't make sense for them to go to London and get on a train just to go right back to the Hogsmeade/Hogwarts area.

Answer: Children from anywhere but Hogsmeade must take the train.

Roomies - S7-E8

Question: In this episode, Samantha moves out of her too noisy dorm room and into a professor's empty house along with an engaged couple, Beth and Benjamin. Benjamin is played by Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on Friends. My question is whether this is the role used to create the Chandler character, because they are so similar.

stormy602

Chosen answer: Most likely this is a type of character he excels at playing and when Friends was being cast he fit the part.

raywest

Question: Since Harry told Cho that Cedric knew "this stuff", and Cedric was a sixth or seventh year student when he died, I guess older students are taught the Patronus Charm in school. Why, then, does the Ministry of Magic bother using Dementors when so many magical people have learned how to escape them?

Answer: As mentioned in Prisoner of Azkaban, it is a very difficult charm to cast. Even Hermione has a great deal of trouble with it. It requires concentration on a very happy memory. JK Rowling has stated that it is near impossible for dark wizards to cast it (Snape was the only Death Eater who could). Add in that it requires a wand, and they are excellent guardians of wandless prisoners of Azkaban.

Greg Dwyer

Question: When Ripley is climbing into the escape shuttle with Jones in the box, in the background is loads of fire being blasted. It's certainly not coming from Ripley's flamethrower. What's going on here?

Chosen answer: Ripley has initiated the destruct sequence and systems are failing and malfunctioning as the ship prepares to explode. The flames are mostly for visual effect, however, allowing the audience to see what is happening and to heighten the sense of drama and suspense.

raywest

Chosen answer: Lapdance by N.E.R.D.

Answer: To mess with him. A lot of the "regular" soldiers didn't respect or even like Webster early on because he was a college boy. That dislike and lack of respect was deepened when Webster took what they perceived to be an extended stay in hospital after being wounded when many of their other comrades - Popeye for example - left hospital early to get back with their friends to fight.

He couldn't leave hospital early because he was in England. The wound in Band of Brothers was perceived a lot less serious than it was, and a lot of easy men were happy to have him back, especially Luz.

Question: At the end Jigsaw says Adam isn't ungrateful to be alive anymore, but why does he lock Adam in the bathroom and say "game over" instead of helping him?

Answer: He does help him technically. He tells him the key to the lock is in the bathtub (we saw it disappear down the plughole when Adam woke up at the beginning). In Jigsaw's sick, twisted mind he feels he is giving Adam a chance to prove he wants to live by getting the key. To prove he is grateful, he needs to find out how to get the key back. Which is technically impossible for Adam to do, leaving only one fate for him to remain.

The_Iceman

Getting the key back has nothing to do with how grateful he is or isn't, as the key wasn't meant to go down the drain.

Question: What is it likely that the stone (an emerald, I gather) was worth in 1984 US dollars?

Answer: Any emerald over 1 carat in that beautiful cut and condition would probably go for over 250 million. Real emeralds over 5 carats are rare and the price goes up exponentially after 2 or 3 carats. 305,000 per carat after 5. So yeah that one was probably like 800 or more carats.

Answer: In a car crash.

Greg Dwyer

Question: Can someone please tell me how Chris Nolan was chosen to direct this film? He had only done 3 movies before and they weren't that big, so why did WB trust him with rebooting a series that hadn't had an entry in 7 years?

TRENCH117

Chosen answer: At the time Nolan was just coming off the double-whammy of Memento and Insomnia, both of which, while not huge blockbusters, attracted considerable critical acclaim and did reasonable box office, so his star was very much on the rise. He approached Warner Bros with his proposal for a reboot of the series - they were impressed by his grounded approach to the material and gave him the green light to proceed.

Tailkinker

Question: Dr. Claw's claw has a red light built into it. During the film it is shown to be flashing. I've just always wanted to know what this means?

Answer: Probably just a common trope seen in movies to indicate something is on or working. It adds a hint of in-movie realism. While it's shown that the claw can be operated manually or through will, it isn't implied the light does anything or tells us anything.

Question: After Margo was convicted, why did Tony move one of their beds into the living room?

Hobbes

Chosen answer: It's mostly so the audience can see more of Tony's underlying character. This is Margo's bed, and Tony wanted it separate from the bedroom that they shared as husband and wife. Tony is "emotionally divorcing" himself from Margo as he is about to start a new life as a single man. Leaving the bed in the bedroom would serve as a reminder of his guilt in framing his innocent wife for a murder she did not commit. The bed is likely parked there until he can get rid of it.

raywest

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