Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Hagrid says "There isn't a wizard alive today who's not half-blood or less." But what about Ron, Draco, Neville, and several other characters who are described as purebloods?

Answer: Hagrid is speaking hyperbolically about the declining number of pureblood wizards.

Greg Dwyer

Answer: "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper; this scene directly mirrors a scene from "Dazed and Confused", music and all.

zendaddy621

Question: Why would the clones receive brains? Why not just leave them in a coma-like state? If you would replace the owner's brain, then the owner wouldn't be the same person, even if you'd rewrite it. You could say that you could replace part of the brain only, but even in that case, the clones could be kept in a drug-induced coma.

Answer: Merrick explains (albeit briefly) that the clones needed "human emotion...life" or the organs failed.

Friso94

Question: Robbie's soldier friend (I think his name was Nettle) was so calm and compassionate with him. He said that the hiding place was in reality the beach cottage and he protects Robbie from the angry soldiers. Did he do that because he saw how sick he is and probably knew, deep inside, that Robbie will not survive the night until the evacuation, and wanted to give him a peaceful end? Why does he take Robbie's letters and pictures with him?

Answer: I think he realizes that Robbie most likely won't make it. He takes the letters so that he can get them back to his loved ones. He probably knows that there is a last goodbye to someone (his girl/his mother) in them. And, if nothing else, even if his body doesn't make it back to them, they have a piece of him to cherish.

Question: Possible spoiler: is Robbie's fatal septicemia caused by the wound in his chest or the general lousy hygienic conditions during their march to the beach and on the beach itself?

Answer: Robbie's death is caused by the wound as it caused the septicemia. So yes.

Question: The scene in the factory in which the lady washes Robbie's feet, was this real? I know that the woman represents his mother. But does he confuse this unknown woman with his mother, or is the whole scene just a illusion?

Answer: It is an hallucination, most likely brought on from fever due to his wound becoming infected.

Question: If Truly Scrumptious' father is 'Lord Scrumptious', then as his daughter, why isn't she 'Lady Scrumptious?'. If I remember correctly, she is referred to as 'Miss Scrumptious'.

Lavender

Chosen answer: By rules of courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, Truly Scrumptious would inherit no title. Her parents being Lord and Lady Scrumptious, she would be simply Miss Truly Scrumptious. However, if her father were a baron, she would be called "The Honorable Miss Truly Scrumptious." Were her father an earl, duke or marquess, she would THEN be the "Lady Truly Scrumptious." But again, children of a lord and lady do not receive a title. When the lord dies, his oldest son inherits his father's title of lord. If there are no boys, it might pass to the eldest daughter. In this case, only upon her father's death would Truly become "Lady Truly Scrumptious."

Michael Albert

Question: When Sam meets the subway ghost, he is told that the subway ghost got pushed onto the tracks. As Sam leaves, he stops in front of a subway billboard for some kind of huge company. After he looks at it, he turns to where the subway ghost was with a shocked look on his face. What was on the billboard that made Sam react that way?

Answer: The poster is an ad for Market Security Bank & Trust, the bank that Sam (and Carl, who had him killed) worked for. Seeing the poster gave Sam an idea how to use Oda Mae and his knowledge of the bank to expose Carl's criminal activities.

Sierra1

But how is the subway ghost connected to the billboard?

The subway ghost has nothing to do with the poster.

Chosen answer: He "searched his feelings" as Vader instructed; he reached out with the Force and felt the truth of the statement.

Phixius

Answer: The vision Luke sees in the cave on Dagobah is a clue to this. Luke is realizing he has a lot more in common with Darth Vader than the idealized father he'd always imagined. When Vader tells him he's his father, Luke doesn't want to believe it, but he simply can't deny that it feels much more true that his father would be someone passionate and reckless like himself rather than someone who exemplifies a noble Jedi, which feels like an obvious myth in hindsight.

TonyPH

Question: True or False: once a missile has been fired at you it's locked on to hit you and no way that banking hard would evade an incoming missile, unless you use countermeasures of flare and or chaff?

TShep81

Chosen answer: False. Missiles are fast, but they are not as agile as most fighter jets. One of the problems the first Sidewinder missiles encountered was that the target planes could simply out turn them (which is explained as the purpose of Top Gun in the movie). Missiles have gotten better, but so have the planes. In close quarter combat, like shown in this movie, fighters could potentially turn away from a missile.

Friso94

Answer: To clarify, there are different types of missiles with different types of seekers. IR (infrared), also known as heat seeking - these are used in close range and track the target aircraft's heat from its engine. To defeat this, the targeted aircraft would use a combination of maneuver and flare (designed to be a hotter heat signature than the engine). SAR (semi active radar) - medium range, where the firing aircraft uses its own radar to lock the missile onto the target. Once the missile has enough tracking fidelity of its own, it takes over its own guidance and the firing aircraft can maneuver away from the target. To defeat, the targeted aircraft uses a combination of maneuver and chaff (metal particles designed to trick the incoming missile into thinking that is the airplane). AR (active radar) - medium to long range, the missile uses its own radar system to track, acquire, and seek. It's defeated the same as SAR missiles.

CUAviator

Chosen answer: The post credits scene from "X-Men: The Last Stand" showed that Xavier transferred his consciousness into another person (who was revealed to be his twin brother by the writers) and the final shot in the same film showed Magneto was gaining his powers back, indicating that the cure wasn't permanent.

Phaneron

Question: Could somebody tell me once and for all why every mutant in these films have nicknames?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Because just like in the comic books, all super heroes and villains have names that are a representation of either the abilities they possess, paraphernalia they use, their personalities, and/or the circumstances of their origin. Magneto is a much more compelling and memorable name for a character than simply calling him Erik. Presumably it also avoids confusion if there are several mutants with the same "regular" name, to have a unique nickname for each one.

Phaneron

Answer: In addition to what was said, the nicknames also provide the individual mutant a way to identity more closely with the fact that they are mutants. As Mystique said in "X-Men: The Last Stand" when addressed as Raven, "I don't answer to my slave name." Many mutants are rejected by their parents when they find out they're mutants, so the "nickname" serves as a way to distance themselves from those that rejected them. In addition, at times their nicknames are called "code names." In this case, it would be a way to address a mutant without using their real identity, in essence a secret identity that's common in almost all superheroes and super villains.

Bishop73

Question: When the Fat Lady portrait is found shredded (by Sirius) there is a baby crying. In the scene you can see a youngish girl holding a crying baby, off to the left in the screen. Why is there a baby at Hogwarts?

Hide Ledge

Chosen answer: It is not an actual mother and baby. Like the Fat Lady, they are one of the many moving portraits hanging on Hogwarts' walls. Look a little closer and you'll see the picture frame surrounding them.

raywest

Question: What are the lyrics for the song the women sang during their work; the recurring line is "We are the women of the forge." You can barely hear it during the time Ashitaka takes a turn pumping the bellows.

diddymuck

Question: Why does the man at the beginning want to buy the house so badly? The movie never explains it.

Loudomvis

Answer: No, that is not the answer and nothing to support that conclusion.

Answer: For its real estate value, the house has a reputation for being haunted and Dylan McDermott, a city boy wanting to be a farm, would fail.

Question: In the dark future where Sentinels rule all, Xavier and Magneto say that in 1973, Mystique assassinated Trask and was subsequently captured, tortured and presumably killed, leading to the Sentinels' creation. All fine and good, except in a world where Mystique has been dead for 50 years, how did the other X-Men movies happen? Mystique played a large part in those films, and when young Xavier reads Logan's mind, he sees the events of X-Men 3 almost uninterrupted.

Brad

Chosen answer: Evidently she wasn't killed. It took the manufacturers of the Sentinels decades to create Sentinels that could adapt to mutant powers. They likely wouldn't kill Mystique as she would be more useful to them alive, and she probably escaped.

Phaneron

Question: What horse actually won the race that Lonigan bets on Lucky Dan to win?

Speedway

Chosen answer: I watched this the other night and specifically listened for what horse won the race that Lucky Dan was running in. It is never revealed who the winner is, because while the fake announcer in the back room is calling the race, the F.B.I. agents raid the building. During the ensuing chaos, shouting, and gunfire, it is impossible to hear the broadcast over the noise.

raywest

Question: Why does Alex die before Clear? Wasn't she supposed to be next after Carter? I mean, Alex was supposed to die first but Carter intervened making death repeat the cycle according to the path of the explosion which included Carter dying first, then Clear second and finally Alex. Why didn't this happen?

filsch

Chosen answer: His death happened between movies. We don't know how many times they intervened with each other before he finally was killed.

lartaker1975

Answer: In the movie clear tells the others she and Alex saved each other countless times, however if you pause the movie and enlarge the scenes where it's flashing all the news paper articles it tells you that Alex was killed by a falling brick. I do believe Alex pushed clear out of the way of the brick.

Rachel Borden

Answer: Death works backwards now in this movie.

Question: I don't understand why Voldemort needed the prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. Doesn't he already know that Harry can possibly kill him, since Harry conquered him on the night of James and Lily's murders?

Answer: When Voldemort originally attacked Harry, he was acting on information provided to him by Snape. But Snape's information was not complete, ergo why Voldemort lost his powers. He wants the prophecy in order to hear it in its entirety, because he believes it will give him the information he needs to kill Harry.

Cubs Fan

Question: Why is it that Arthur Weasley doesn't die when Nagini bites him, but Severus Snape later dies after being bitten by her?

Answer: Arthur was quickly brought to the hospital after the attack, and it seems like it may have been cut short by Voldemort realizing Harry could sense Nagini and the intervention of the Order. Snape was bitten several times in the face and neck and left to die with no help around. Not only that, but Voldemort magically slits Snape's throat before setting Nagini onto him, which would have sped up his death considerably.

Greg Dwyer

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