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.

Question: This question is actually about all of the books. Is a "double" class twice as long as normal, or does it contain twice as many students?

Answer: "Double" classes are twice as long.

Cubs Fan

Question: Why does the Red October take the difficult way through the canyons? Is it faster/shorter? If so, how can the Dallas be at the end of the canyons and wait for Red October? The Dallas might be faster, but would it not have to take a considerable detour in order to avoid detection by the Red October?

Answer: It's red route 1: Almost all Soviet subs were detected by the SOSUS net between Greenland, Iceland and Norway. To break that contact they'd run through the canyon, too dangerous for US subs to follow. The catch is that after years of watching, US subs learned the exit to that route, and would run to the end and wait, hoping to pickup the contact again.

Answer: Red October is taking the deeper route ostensibly to deter pursuit, but in reality, it's so that once the plan goes through and they "scuttle the ship" it will be in waters too deep to make a search for the wreckage (that won't be there) practical.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: The Nokia 9300 is a Nokia Series 80 Symbian Smartphone introduced in 2004. It is used as a normal though bulky mobile phone in closed mode; when it is flipped open it can be used like a very small notebook computer with a 640 x 200 screen. The phone also has speakerphone functionally, which is activated automatically when the phone is flipped open. - Wikipedia.

Question: Why do the Dursleys try to stop Harry from going to Hogwarts? It seems as though they would be happy to get him out of their house (except for summers).

Answer: Petunia and Vernon despise wizards and swore they would 'squash the magic out of him' (which obviously can't happen) when they took him in. They would rather have Harry around all the time and for him not to be a wizard than to allow him to go to Hogwarts where he would learn magic and be happy (It says in the books that the two things that Vernon Dursley despises most if magic and making Harry happy).

kristenlouise3

Why don't the Dursleys try to get Harry back if they don't want him to be at Hogwarts?

Because on the other hand they are glad to be rid of him.

lionhead

Why do they despise making Harry happy?

Because they despise the fact he and his parents are wizards.

lionhead

Or as Petunia states in the book "as soon as they had you I knew you'd be like them. A freak" The Durselys are very middle class who consider themselves high class. The fancy car, expensive house, private school for Dudley etc. And being associated with an outcast would in their eyes seriously hurt their social standings.

Ssiscool

Answer: Vernon and Petunia are very concerned with appearances and maintaining a "proper" lifestyle. The books describe how they want a perfect lawn. Vernon judges men by the cars they drive. Petunia keeps the home very clean, etc. They hope to ignore the Wizard world and force Harry to live like a Muggle. In addition to that, Petunia was jealous of her sister. She wanted to separate herself from the Wizard world as much as possible. When Harry begins attending Hogwarts, she can no longer do that.

Question: I've been told that when Obi-Wan and Anakin walk into the bar and Obi-Wan says the line "Anakin, why do I get the feeling that you're going to be the death of me?", Ewan McGregor asked George Lucas if he could say that line so the fans would get the Episode 4 reference or something like that, and also that he asked Lucas if he could do the Jedi mind trick which he demonstrates on the 'death sticks' seller. Could anyone confirm if either of these statements are true, because I don't want to submit them as trivia if they're nothing but rumours.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: I think it's unlikely those lines and the mind trick were suggested by Ewan McGregor, as they are present in the second draft of the script, which was written before principal photography began in June 2000, which means they weren't ad-libbed or added as revisions to the final shooting script. There is no mention of this occurring on the DVD commentary either.

Sierra1

Question: When Lucius arrives at Hagrid's house, he says that he "called" the school and found out that Dumbledore was with Hagrid. Would Hogwarts have a telephone, seeing how a lot of Muggle technology is shunned in the wizarding world?

Answer: He did not mean that he called on a telephone. It is possible he used the floo network to communicate with the school, but in this instance, he means that he "called on" the school, or more precisely, called on Dumbledore to deliver bad news. To "call on" someone or something, means you go to see them in person.

raywest

Question: When Hagrid says that he went to Knockturn Alley for flesh-eating slug repellent (after Harry asks why he was there), he seems to hesitate first. Is he lying?

Answer: He was being evasive rather than lying. Hagrid was there to legitimately buy the flesh-eating slug repellent, and he was alarmed to find Harry in such a dodgy place, but he was not above engaging in "under-the-table," business transactions, particularly when dealing with magical creatures. He'd previously come into possession of a dragon's egg, resulting in a hatchling that was illegal to own. Hagrid was also seen quickly covering up another one of his creatures (in Prisoner of Azkaban) when Dumbledore and Fudge arrived at his hut. It wasn't illegal to be in Knockturn Alley, but judging by Hagrid's reaction, he'd probably conducted some unknown business that he didn't want Harry or anyone else to know about.

raywest

Question: Do some Hogwarts students arrive at school before others? I ask because of the choir singing in this movie, on the first day of the term. Wouldn't they have needed at least a day to practice the song?

Answer: All the students arrive on the train, but it is feasible they took part or all of the afternoon on the train to practise. They also could have met a few times over the summer.

kristenlouise3

Question: Does anybody know why the name of the ED-209 was changed to ED-260 for the RoboCop cartoon (and, I believe, the toy line)?

Answer: According to Wikipedia the ED-260 is an upgradeable version of the ED-209.

Question: In the answer to another question here, it says that Dumbledore wanted the other teachers to keep Remus' werewolf condition a secret. Wouldn't Severus get into trouble for trying to teach the Defense Against Dark Arts class about werewolves?

Answer: Snape is clever enough to know how to circumvent getting into any serious trouble, though Dumbledore probably was displeased by what he did. Werewolves were a standard part of the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum, though, when subbing for Lupin, he decided to cover the subject weeks ahead of schedule in the hopes a student would recognize that Lupin was a werewolf without it being him directly giving away the secret. Of course, it was Hermione who figured it out, though she kept that knowledge to herself until it became necessary to reveal it.

raywest

Question: In the scene when The Beast first meets the mutant boy who is the "cure" what video game is the boy playing?

autumwitch

Chosen answer: It's not any particular game, just one the crew made up.

TRENCH117

Season 4 generally

Question: In the original timeline, when Fauxlivia and our Olivia are in their opposite universes, the thing that makes our Olivia remember her real life and try to escape is the memory of Peter. In the new timeline, he doesn't exist. When Walternate has found and synthesised the Cortexiphan, he says that our Olivia is no longer necessary and to kill her. How did she get back to our universe with no memories of Peter, and no alternate Broyles helping her to escape and being sent to us dead with one leg?

Sashamary

Answer: In the time line of Season 4, William Bell is trying to destroy both universes to create a new one, and he needs Olivia to power the collapse. So he helped her escape. But the real question is, if not in search of Peter, why Olivia has to travel to the alternate universe to be captured and replaced?

AmiSecured

Question: Joan wilder is a successful author with a nice apartment and is financially well off. So why wouldn't she pay Jack the $500 he originally wanted for his help? Given her situation, I didn't think it was too much to ask.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: She's lost in Columbia and doesn't have access to money beyond what she has with her. She doesn't want to give him everything she has because she doesn't know when she'll be able to get more.

Question: Is the "singing" by the monolith heard by the characters or just the movie audience?

Answer: As is the case with all non-diegetic sound in films, the characters do not hear it.

Answer: Aside from the piercing radio signal transmitted on the Moon, the Monolith makes no sounds or "singing" whatsoever. Intending this film to be as scientifically-accurate as possible, director Stanley Kubrick deliberately and correctly opted for total silence (no sound effects) in the vacuum of space. He knew, of course, that dead silence is a sure way to lose audience attention, so he commissioned an original musical soundtrack (but never used it). Instead, Kubrick chose to use an eclectic variety of classical symphonic and more modern choral compositions as his "guide music" during production and then as the actual soundtrack of the film. Interestingly, there's no music at all in scenes with dialogue, and no dialogue in scenes with music. As for the "singing" that you mention, you're probably thinking of composer György Ligeti's "Atmosphères" and "Lux Aeterna," which Kubrick used to achieve a mournful, eerie, otherworldly feeling in some scenes. To be clear, this music was not supposed to represent the Monolith "singing"; no characters in the film heard the musical soundtrack, as it was intended solely to set the mood for the audience.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Question: In Claire and Phil's house, what is the room behind the staircase that we never see? It wasn't there in the pilot episode but thereafter, it's got a window and supposedly a good amount of space, as it's in the front of the house, in front of the kitchen. Anybody have any idea?

MovieFan612

Chosen answer: There was a plain wall at the foot of the stairs in the pilot episode. Thereafter, there is a room, but we have never been shown what's in the room.

MovieFan612

Answer: Could be two different reasons. One, she has shown not to care much for the orphans so she didn't care whether Annie knew or not. Two, at the very end it is shown she does have some care for the orphans, shown when she thinks Annie will be killed, so perhaps she had enough heart in her not to break Annie's hopes of her parents coming back to get her.

Answer: Although her parents were poor, they were trying to save up enough to bring Annie home. Her parents' belongings did not have a whole lot in them, but probably enough where Miss. Hannigan would have stolen it for herself along with whatever other small valuables she could hawk. The broken locket wouldn't sell at the pawnshops.

Question: Why does Professor McGonagall give Lockhart the task of catching the monster? She and the other teachers don't like him or trust in his abilities.

Answer: Minerva told Lockhart to kill the basilisk because the teachers all know he's basically an incompetent fool and would most likely run or do something stupid which they can't afford at that time. So they wanted to get him occupied while they safely evacuate the students from Hogwarts by taunting him into seeking and killing the monster in the Chamber as she says, "That's got him out from under our feet." Most likely, they might have already known that he would run away as he obviously has a cowardly and pretentious character.

Question: This is a two part question. When Zorin is flying over the mine in his zeppelin, he sees Mayday coming out of the mine with the bomb, and looks really shocked when it blows up, killing her in the process. But a few scenes before, he was quite happy to just leave her to drown in the flooding mine, so did he really love her and was just shocked that she had killed herself or was it shock because she removed the bomb from the mine and ruined his plan? I'm asking since Mayday tells Bond that Zorin told her he loved her (when they're both trying to escape from drowning in the flooding mine), so was Zorin lying to her or did he actually love her?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Zorin is a psychopath. He may have meant it when he told May Day he loved her, or he may have just been telling her what she wanted to hear. Either way, when he thinks she'll drown in the mine as well, he doesn't consider it worth scrapping the plan just to save her. Once she escapes and has the bomb, he looks shocked partially because she wasn't killed but mostly because she's chosen to sacrifice herself to thwart his plans, something that a self-interested psychotic personality can't comprehend.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: I know this question is somewhat subjective, due to unknowns such as location, but can anyone hazard a guess as to what kind of punishment/sentence Pitt would be likely to get after shooting Spacey? Bearing in mind the unusual situation and that he is otherwise a model citizen.

Answer: Based on my extensive legal training (that being watching just about every episode of "Law & Order" in syndication), I would say Brad Pitt, Detective David Mills, is guilty of manslaughter. It is clear that the execution of the defenseless John Doe without benefit of trial in a court of law is, by definition, illegal. If prosecutors were to proceed to indictment, it would likely not be for the crime of murder. More likely, the charge sought would be "voluntary manslaughter," defined as killing with intention to kill or to cause serious harm, but with mitigating circumstances that reduce culpability - in this case, extreme emotional distress. Given these particular circumstances, however, Detective Mills would have an excellent chance of being found either not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity at trial by a jury of his peers. It is also quite likely he would not even be prosecuted given the extreme circumstances under which the killing occurred. However, a State's Attorney or District Attorney should pursue charges, as a clear violation of the law has occurred, regardless of how sympathetic or understandable the context.

Michael Albert

The District Attorney has wide discretion and can refuse to prosecute. If the DA does not think there is sufficient evidence to get a conviction if the case were to go to trial (no prima facie case), the case will be dismissed. (That's how prosecutors are able to attain such high conviction rates.) This case would not be likely to be prosecuted, regardless of the evidence. However, IF the case went to trial, the defense attorney would probably start by asking for a dismissal. If that didn't work, the defense attorney would most likely assert that, under the circumstances of the case, it was an excusable or justifiable homicide and the defendant is therefore NOT GUILTY.

KeyZOid

Answer: According to the "letter of the law" Mills would be subject to a reasonably lengthy prison sentence. I'm thinking Murder 2 or Voluntarily Manslaughter. In an academic vacuum he should be looking at 25 years minimum. However, with the extreme nature of the circumstances I could definitely see a prosecutor (and general public) go very light on Mills as it's not exactly a difficult situation to imagine the stress Mills was under at the moment. Historically the legal system was a pretty forgiving when it comes to acts of revenge in cases of intimate offenses. In the real world the cops simply would have fixed the scene and Mills would have walked away scot-free and probably been back to work on Monday lol.

Question: After Anna tells Marshmallow that they won't come back, what does she cut the rope with?

Answer: She grabbed Kristoff's knife, as it was hanging from his back. Watch closely as they're being dragged up, and you'll see it hanging there.

Lily Harrison

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