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: Does anyone know if in the scene when Blain gets killed and the group is hosing down the jungle, if the actors were using live ammo or just blanks with pyro to take out the trees?

Answer: Its unclear but highly unlikely any studio would let actors fire such high powered weapons for real. Probably just squibs. At most, it may be live ammo being used to shoot the trees by people trained in gun fire when not on an actor's close up.

The_Iceman

Question: What drink was Bill drinking at the end, when Beatrix and he was talking? It was too small for me to make out since I have not seen the bottle myself or recognize some of the writings on it.

Answer: It looks like a bottle of Tres Generaciones AƱejo, a Mexican tequila.

Sierra1

A - S4-E16

Question: Why was the fence down in the flashbacks with Hershel at the prison?

Answer: The walkers could have knocked them down more than once. There may have been another wave that knocked down the fence earlier and they're going to put it up again soon.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Gaear gets the kidnapping job from his friend Shep. He can choose anybody he wants to help him do it. Why does he choose Carl, a person he obviously can't stand? They don't "fall out" - Gaear hates him from the get-go. And don't say that Gaear deliberately chose someone he disliked because he planned to kill him all along. Yeah, right... Planned to bring an axe to a gunfight. Great plan. Granted, it worked. But that was not planned. Anyway, Gaear is all ursine impulse, not organized forethought. So why Carl?

Answer: Gaear would choose who he thought was the best person to help him pull off the job, regardless of whether or not he likes him. He's not particularly intelligent, and Carl is the smarter of the two and that would be an asset. Gaear also appears to be very anti-social and it's doubtful he has any friends, or at least any that would participate in such a plot, and this may be the only person he knows of who will go along with it. His choice really has little to do with liking someone and everything to do with getting the job done. Gaear may very well have intended to kill him later to help eliminate any ties to the crime and to keep the money. It's easier to kill someone he doesn't like.

raywest

All good points! I might add Gaear was "mostly brawn." His limited intelligence ("dull normal" at best?) and lack of basic communication skills ["Where's pancakes house?"] would interfere with his ability to engage in constructive conversations with Jerry to arrange the kidnapping. He'd also have difficulty making a plan and following through on his own. Gaear wouldn't have any problem overpowering a person to be kidnapped, but needed someone like Carl to make the before and after plans.

KeyZOid

Answer: Regents park.

Show generally

Question: In different episodes a mug can be seen in the ice machine section on the outside of the fridge, which changes colors and patterns from episode to episode. Is there any significance to it?

Answer: Ice makers were a new invention, advertisement purposes.

Question: Is Gabby Johnson saying "Reverend" or "Rerand" during the church scene?

Seth Cain

Chosen answer: Reverend.

MasterOfAll

Question: How did John get away from killing Crow? I know it was a set up and perhaps he didn't willingly pull the trigger, but still it's a homicide.

Answer: The police are already conducting a manhunt to find him. As such they didn't attempt to decode the information from the pre-cogs so they don't know specifically where the crime will take place. John was originally decoding the information but when his name appeared he discarded the information and didn't tell the other police.

Answer: Based on what we were shown during the scene, it was clear that John did not kill Crow but Crow forcefully pulled the trigger on himself while the gun was still in John's hand. John said "Goodbye, Crow." as he was intending to leave the hotel room, not because he was saying goodbye to a man he was about to kill. Likewise, Crow said "Anderton, wait!" not because Crow was pleading for mercy but because Crow was asking John to "wait, don't leave yet, kill me first!" So it was not a homicide. John was innocent. Plus, Agatha was watching the whole thing. We can presume that she testified to the truth of what she saw - Crow pulling the trigger on himself. Furthermore, John was key in fighting for Agatha and the Twins' newfound freedom by bringing down the system. Likewise, it's only logical to assume that Agatha too helped and assured John's own.

Question: Is it common public knowledge, in the wizarding world, that Professor Snape used to be a Death Eater? It seems that a lot of parents might complain about him being allowed to teach at Hogwarts.

Answer: It is, but many Death Eaters used the "I was being controlled" defense and ended up getting away with their crimes.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Given that the Quarter Quell is held every 25 years, the first and second Quarter Quells would have killed off 23 of the previous 24 winners each time. Hence, even if Quarter Quell winners are still eligible (and still alive) for the subsequent ones, the maximum number of available contestants for the 3rd Quarter Quell rises to only 26, which is far too small to guarantee 2 contestants from each district, let alone exactly 1 of each sex. How can they get 24 contestants for the Quarter Quell games?

Answer: This is explained in the books, but not in the movie. Each Quarter Quell had a different twist. The first Quarter Quell, the citizens had to vote on who the tributes would be. The second Quarter Quell (which is actually the Hunger Games that Haymitch won), four tributes were reaped instead of the usual two.

Question: Can someone please explain why the uruk hai are being born through those mud sacs and why?

Answer: There is some contention about the origin of the orcs and the Uruk-hai, and it seems Tolkien was fairly vague on these points (are orcs corrupted elves, are the uruks half-orc/half-men?). Several web sources say that on the DVD commentary for Fellowship, Peter Jackson says that the Uruk-hai emerging from mud sacs was based on an early Tolkien line that orcs "worm their way out of the ground like maggots" - not sure where or when he said this, but it seems to be a movie-only notion.

Sierra1

Question: Did Wonka intend for those 5 kids to find the golden tickets? In other words, did he have Charlie in mind as the heir all along? It looked like the candy shop owner purposely gave Charlie the bar with the ticket in it. Also, Wonka treated Charlie kindly upon meeting him at the gate whereas he was sarcastic to everyone else-including Grandpa Joe, who didn't deserve the abrupt rudeness.

Answer: Yes, he did. Mel Stuart initially wanted to reveal that Willy Wonka had strategically placed the Golden Tickets in order to give the factory to Charlie. The idea was dropped, but the hints remained in the fact that Mr. Wilkerson conveniently showed up every time a ticket was uncovered.

Answer: It isn't clear the extent to which Wonka had a hand in the selection of the five finalists. The scenario you outline would be more likely in the later "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) with Johnny Depp. In that version, and in the book, it is expressly stated that Grandpa Joe had once worked in the Wonka factory, making it more likely that, somehow, Wonka would have prior knowledge of the Bucket family. In the 1971 version, with Gene Wilder, Wonka has no explicit ties to the Buckets. That being said, it is quite coincidental that the faux "Mr. Slugworth" just happens to be everywhere a winning ticket is found moments later, which lends credence to your suggestion. Wilder's Wonka is portrayed as a highly eccentric and slightly dyspeptic candy mogul with a sardonic tone and a sadistic streak. His sarcasm to other characters is a reaction to the flaws which they openly display - and he really isn't even that rude, at that. In Charlie, Wonka recognizes a pure soul, to which he responds with kindness. The book and the 2005 film portray Willie Wonka as having a more childlike nature and being highly distrustful of adults, which would explain any wariness he might have regarding Grandpa Joe.

Michael Albert

Answer: The Baron tells Blackadder they will be sent to a convent school outside Heidelberg to spend the rest of the war teaching young girls home economics, which he sees as the ultimate humiliation. Blackadder, however, is delighted to be spending the rest of the war "teaching nuns how to boil eggs" rather than being shot at every day.

Sierra1

Question: Voldemort asks the Death Eaters why they never came to his aid during the past thirteen years. But wasn't Lucius Malfoy working for him when he gave Ginny the horcrux diary in "Chamber of Secrets"?

Answer: Voldemort believes that his most loyal followers are in Azkaban, those that denied him or believed him dead are the ones still free. The followers that showed up that night either didn't look for him due to believing him dead, believing he lacked any true power, or due to them playing the innocents that were mind controlled into following him. Lucius was not working for Voldemort when he gave Ginny the journal, he wasn't even aware of what the journal truly was. Dumbledore stated to Harry that he believed that he was simply trying to get rid of a dark magic item that he had lying around and he gave it to Ginny due to his hatred of the Weasley's, specifically of Arthur. Dumbledore states that if Lucius had known what the journal truly was that he never would have given it to Ginny.

Question: To date, Frozen is the highest grossing animated film of all time, beating Toy Story 3. I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me what animated film is highest if you account for inflation, or only count the number of tickets sold. For example, I know that Gone with the Wind out performed Avatar by ether criteria.

Answer: The website Box Office Mojo calculates inflation adjustment for box office grosses and worked out that the highest-grossing animated films was Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" from 1937.

Sierra1

Question: The airport scene where Alex is talking to the ticket attendant she says something about his arrival being the same as his birthday? Please explain?

Den Mitchell

Chosen answer: Alex's birthday is 9-25-82. The arrival time is 9:25.

Answer: Wrong. He was born on September 25 and the departure time was 9:25.

Question: When there in airport there's a Indian or Buddhist guy handing out brochures. He tries to give one to Alex and Alex looks at him weird. Why? And what does the brochure say?

Den Mitchell

Chosen answer: He says that the world is ending which sounds kind of strange to Alex. The brochure was for Hare Krishna so he may have also found the brochure to be kind of strange as well.

Question: In John Carpenter's version, Michael knew who his sister was because of some kind of evil power that enabled him to recognize her. In Rob Zombie's version, he is taken to a mental institution, apparently wasn't possessed by evil and hadn't seen her in years, so how was he able to recognize her?

Answer: John Carpenter's version never had the two of them as siblings. This wasn't the case until the sequel when the studio needed to add a plot twist to the film so they wouldn't be making the same exact film again. In Zombie's version, Laurie drops the mail off for her father at the Myers' house that has her address on it. That is how he begins stalking her because he goes and murders her adopted parents, but I'm not sure how he realizes they are brother and sister.

Question: The scene where Needy is trying to find an outfit to wear to the bar, you see scars - does the movie explain how she got them?

Den Mitchell

Answer: No.

Question: It shows in Jason's dream that he drowned as a kid, so how is it that he is now an adult? Also was he handicapped or just deformed?

Den Mitchell

Chosen answer: Jason survived due to his unique healing abilities, at the end of the original "Friday the 13th" he is shown coming out of the lake. He is deformed with some mental handicap.

MasterOfAll

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.