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: At the beginning of the film, Simon gives Mal an injection in the sick bay. What is this for?

Brad

Chosen answer: Answering my own question: In the script, Mall specifies that it is an inoculation for the planet's atmosphere.

Brad

Question: The cave paintings found in the Isle of Skye are reckoned to be 35,000 years old. Is this possible? Would not Skye have been under several metres of ice 35,000 years ago?

Answer: While the dating given in the movie does put it during the last major glacial period, which lasted from about 100,000BC to around 10,000BC, that period saw a number of advances and retreats by the ice, with the maximum ice coverage only occurring around eighteen thousand years ago, a considerable number of millennia after the dating given for the paintings. As such, it's certainly plausible that Skye was inhabitable during the time frame stated by the movie.

Tailkinker

Question: I couldn't understand what Young MacGuffin said. Is that because he only speaks the Scottish language? Can someone please translate what he said? (01:33:00)

Answer: MacGuffin isn't speaking gibberish - it's a dialect called Doric. Doric is used in the Aberdeenshire area - including Elgin, when Kevin McKidd (who voices MacGuffin) is from. Quine means girl - basically he's saying there's no use marrying a girl who doesn't want to be married.

Question: How exactly did Merida get her mother to transform back into a human? Did she do it with her tears or was it by mending the tapestry and putting it on her mother along with the sun to help break the spell? (01:33:00)

Answer: It wasn't her tears, exactly, but rather her genuinely heartfelt confession of love for her mother, admittance of guilt, and regret for her own behavior that broke the spell. But not until the dawn's light touched her.

Phixius

Answer: It was sewing the tapestry, for sure.

Sewing the tapestry was just a symbol of mending the bond (as the witch said "Fate be changed look inside, mend the bond torn by pride"). However, we see she sewed the tapestry and that didn't actually turn her mother back to human. It's not until Merida hugs her mother, apologizes, and says she loves her that the bond is mended. After that the tapestry magically seals and her mother turns back to human. Phixius is right.

Question: Barbossa tells Sao Feng about Calypso to win him over to their side. Feng, mistakenly believing that Elizabeth is Calypso, wants Calypso for himself. Barbossa knows that Elizabeth isn't Calypso, so why does he allow her to be handed over to Feng? And what assurance does he have that Elizabeth won't spill the beans that she's not Calypso? Surely, that would just get Feng mad at Barbossa and wouldn't help matters in the slightest.

Brad

Chosen answer: They need Feng on their side. Elizabeth and Barbossa are both willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. If Feng is willing to help because he's smitten with Elizabeth, believing her to be Calypso, then that's how they'll play it.

Phixius

Question: When Merida is first seen riding her horse, we hear a song. Is that Merida's voice singing, or is that supposed to be a different voice? (01:33:00)

Answer: The singer is Julie Fowlis, a Scottish folk singer. Merida is voice-acted by Kelly MacDonald. Because the movie isn't in the same vein as other Disney movies like "Aladdin" or "Pocahontas" with characters singing part of the soundtrack, it would be reasonable to presume they're considered separate entities. The songs here are more to establish the atmosphere than to serve as "voices" for the characters.

Question: How come there was no blood coming from Kirby's mouth when she was stabbed?

Answer: A person generally spits up blood from internal injuries to the lungs, sometimes the stomach. Kirby was stabbed below both organs.

LorgSkyegon

Question: What did General Ross mean when he told Betty that she couldn't see things?

Answer: Maybe that she is blind from her love for Bruce and she couldn't see that Hulk is a monster that can devastate a whole city in minutes.

Anastasios Anastasatos

The way I've always seen it, General Ross is the one who can't see things, considering he wants to use the Hulk as a weapon.

Chosen answer: Poker. They have been playing that this whole time, once a week with everyone who was invited that lived on the Lane.

Question: At the beginning of the movie, the elderly woman is being looked after in the house. How is this so when her son hasn't bought the house yet?

Leprechaun

Chosen answer: The scenes showing her son buying the house later in the movie are flashbacks showing the viewers how they came to live there. The timeline of the movie goes back and forth several times.

Purple_Girl

Answer: "Give me money or I won't drive. Pay me, pay me, pay me" and "now you're speaking my language."

Answer: No. Each is a progression of several weeks or years.

Captain Defenestrator

Show generally

Question: Why is it that Hurley's winning amount keeps on changing throughout the whole show? In one episode he says he won 114 million, in another he says he won 150, and another 164 million. Why does it always change?

kokoman

Chosen answer: He won 114 millions, but the other amounts he refers to ($150-$164 million) are how much he is worth after his investments, most likely.

Anastasios Anastasatos

Show generally

Question: In the majority of the episodes, whenever one of Howard's friends, or he himself, knocks on his front door his mother yells out, "Is that a sex criminal" or something along those lines. Is that referencing anything in particular?

Russel

Chosen answer: I can only recall one episode where this happens more than once. Perhaps there are others episodes where this line is spoken but this does not occur enough times to be a specific reference or a regular on-going theme.

XIII

Question: How in the world did McClane manage to track Simon Gruber through an aspirin bottle? I know the North of the Border name was on it, but how would anyone know that was Gruber's CORRECT future meeting place?

Eyexpress333

Chosen answer: Simon and his crew had to get in/out the country somehow. He knew about the FBI was watching out for him. Flying was out of the question. The bottle from the pharmacy there gave him a clue on how they came in. THEN he needed to move a load of 13 (McClane drowned one) great big dump-trucks. He knows there is a large port there. John put 2 and 2 together. If they came in that way, probably was a good bet that they'd leave that way.

XIII

Answer: The pole was removed after the first six episodes, when the series was renewed.

MovieFan612

Didn't this pole make a return in the episode when Monica hurt Ben, and Ross ran into it while mocking her for the incident?

Question: How does his father know what their final destination is?

Answer: He read their airline tickets and probably the plan for their final destination is packed together with it.

Show generally

Question: Plo Koon always has some kind of covering/bandage on the middle finger of each hand. What is the reason behind it?

Answer: Plo Koon has the ability of a forbidden Force technique called Electric Judgment. To many Jedi, this seemed to be too close to the Force lightning used by Sith Lords. He therefore wears talons over his fingertips in order to boost his Force powers.

THGhost

Question: When K is killed in the past, why is it that nobody remembers K (beyond '69 that is) but J remembers everything as it once was?

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: This is answered in the movie by the character that gives J the time traveling device. The character tells J that he can still remember K because he was involved in the events. The young black child at Cape Canaveral was a young agent J. So he was there and at least passively involved.

Answer: He meant that adult J already time traveled. In the 1960 's, K met J for the first time, when K met Detective James Edwards that was the second time, which is why he had him apply for MIB.

Question: Is there any particular reason that Leaven refers to the Z coordinate as "zed?" I know that it would be used to differentiate between similar sounding letters, but since spacial coordinates only use X, Y, and Z, (to my knowledge) it doesn't really seem necessary. I'm guessing it's a mathematics thing that I just don't know, but if anybody can answer, it would be greatly appreciated.

Knever

Chosen answer: Cube is a Canadian film. In Canada, the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced "zed" rather than "zee".

Phixius

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