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?
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Question: Why does the man at the beginning want to buy the house so badly? The movie never explains it.
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.
Question: What horse actually won the race that Lonigan bets on Lucky Dan to win?
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.
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?
Chosen answer: His death happened between movies. We don't know how many times they intervened with each other before he finally was killed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Question: What is the name of the PDA/gadget used by Justin Long to hookup to SATCOM's network?
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).
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.
Why do they despise making Harry happy?
Because they despise the fact he and his parents are wizards.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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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 ★