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: Why does Violet's hair change color? Is it a mood indicator or something?

aNg3lx

Chosen answer: Her clothes also changes color, and so does the color of the clothes of the real XPD154. It's never fully explained, but it's probably a technological advancement from the future to change colors at will, whether it's bottled hair color or clothes.

Friso94

Show generally

Question: Is there any technology featured in Star Trek Voyager, or other Star Trek series for that part, that seemed futuristic in the late 20th century, but are now reality?

Answer: If you include the original Star Trek series (1966) then there are several. The communicators used in the original series were before (and said to inspire) mobile phones. We currently do have teleportation technology but it currently only works on things the size of a few molecules. A "Cloaking device" also exists; it's a fabric that bends light through it, though it currently only works in infra-red. The Hypospray is real and was patented in 1960 - six years before the original series aired - it's actually called the Jet Injector. Faster Than Light travel is still a few decades off, but there are several real-world theories that look promising, including one that is remarkably similar to the method used in the Star Trek Universe called the Alcubeierre Drive that involves manipulating spacetime ahead and behind the ship and the ship "riding" it. Medical techniques and technologies have also advanced considerably; prosthetics particularity and we routinely have robots performing surgeries where absolute precision is needed. The "Shield" used in the series have a few primitive versions around. The Phasers used in the series are used but are not very powerful (nor will they ever be as powerful as the Star Trek version the laws of physics gets in the way) but rail-guns (using magnets to spin then propel a projectile) and particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider have been around for a while. The Replicator would require a nuclear fusion reactor and a nuclear fission reactor in something the size of a large oven and the Holo-deck wouldn't work at all based on our current understanding of physics so those are both still science fiction at the moment, but who knows!

Sanguis

Question: Why was it so hard for Justin Hammer to get Vanko's bird to him from Russia? Was it because he just didn't care or because he was running a highly inefficient company that simply couldn't find the bird?

lionhead

Chosen answer: Hammer is impatient. he did not want to waste time and money to go find Vanko's bird. he just wanted Vanko to get the work done.

MasterOfAll

Answer: Couldn't get the bird from Russia as he couldn't be seen as being linked to him.

Question: When Fabrizio finds Jack, Rose and Tommy and the bottom of the main stairwell after they have been told they cannot get up that way, why when Jack is informed that "the boats are all gone" and then told by Fabrizio that there is an exit, why does Jack not go that way?

yaboo100

Chosen answer: Fabrizio says "There is niente this way." Meaning, there is nothing. He doesn't say there's an exit.

Jennifer30

Question: When Arnold is on the shore face down in the mud, the predator then hits the water. Shortly afterward it looks like his cloaking protection is short-circuiting when he is walking to shore. If it did, how could it use the cloaking device again later to cloak itself?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: Well, we don't know exactly what's going on. It may simply be that the cloaking device, for whatever reason, can't cope with water, so it cuts out. When it dries off again, normal function may simply return. Or, if it does actually short out, as opposed to simply shutting down, then some sort of auto-repair mechanism may come into play to restore the cloaking device back to a functional state. Either way it's a reasonable explanation as to why it still works.

Tailkinker

Question: When Doc and Ringo meet at the location by the trees, and have a showdown, Doc shoots Ringo then says to him, "Come on, come on!" What was that all about?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: It's a sadistic challenge to Ringo, because Holliday's shot was so precise and the fight was over too soon.

MovieFan612

Answer: Doc already viewed himself as a dead man, with nothing left to lose and believed that he was destined to 'die with his boots on'. I believe this was a challenge to Ringo to come ahead and kill him.

Answer: Doc was encouraging Ringo to breathe in order to prolong the glory of his victory.

Answer: Ringo wanted the Earp's and Doc spitting blood...Doc was urging Ringo to do the same.

Answer: There was much speculation at the time that Ringo died from a self inflicted wound. That scene was staged to show how he could have been shot by Doc but still end up in a position that it might look like suicide to those to found him. The urging him to walk forward was part of that.

Question: Where did Superman get the spaceship to go looking for remnants of his planet? And couldn't he have just flown there instead?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: The ship was likely created for him by the Fortress. As to flying there, yes, he probably could have done, but there are advantages to using the spacecraft. He can relax on the long flight, rather than having to focus on flying. He doesn't risk running low on energy light years from the recharging effects of an appropriate star. It's also possible that the ship is simply faster than he is - no comparative statistics are given for their relative speeds. Certainly it's not unreasonable that he would choose to use a ship rather than travel under his own power.

Tailkinker

Answer: Yes, he is. He can be seen wearing the same black t-shirt with a skull motif that his younger self wore in the first movie and Pixar have confirmed that the character's intended to be Sid.

Tailkinker

In addition, they are voiced by the same person.

Question: Does anyone know what the NASA employee says to Lev the cosmonaut the first time we see him? It sounds like "stasveecha"

LorgSkyegon

Chosen answer: It's close to "zdrasveetsya" phonetically, which is a colloquial greeting like: "how are you doing".

rswarrior

Question: Does anyone know why Marty takes a book of matches off of Biff's desk when Biff isn't looking? I know that the matches come in handy at the end of the film when he burns the sports almanac, but what was his original reason for swiping the matches? Unless he knew beforehand that he was going to have to burn the almanac.

Answer: It seemed more like a reflex action than a deliberate decision. Marty saw Biff's name on the matchbook cover, causing him to pick it up for a closer look, then just stuffed it into his pocket. As you pointed out, they came in handy later. That and when they changed the timeline in 1955 after burning the alamanac, it would also change back to "Biffs Auto Detailing." Gotta make sure you cover your bases when dealing with the future, make sure that everything changes back to normal.

raywest

Question: Why didn't Arnold and the rest of the commandos take thermal goggles or sensitive listening devices with them on the mission; wasn't the technology available?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: It's the jungle: thermal goggles would have too much interference due to the high ambient temperature and sensitive listening devices would have picked up too much ambient noise from the wildlife. When filming the movie they had to hose the area down with ice water just to cool it off enough to get the footage for the Predator's heat vision. Presumably, his technology is more advanced than our own, so the high jungle temps didn't interfere. Plus of course, their original mission was meant to be very straightforward, with no need for high-tech equipment.

Phixius

Answer: During the 1980's thermal googles worn on the face had not been produced. As far as the team wearing night vision goggles (infrared) that wouldn't have given them an advantage against the predators cloaking device. Infrared works off ambient light and they do not detect heat; there isn't much ambient light at night in triple canopy jungle and they are worthless during the day. The spectrum the predator used in the movie is thermal not infrared.

Infrared and ambient light are different. Night vision goggles use ambient light, amplifying whatever light there is, from the moon, stars, etc. Infrared and thermal are the same thing, working on heat rather than visible light.

Question: Instead of going under water and trying to poison Jaws in the shark cage, couldn't he have been harpooned with the poison from the boat just as easy?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: As mentioned in the movie, the posion was in the needle and the shark's hide was too tough for the needle to penetrate. Hooper had to go in the water so that he could get the needle into the shark's mouth, where the flesh was less tough.

Kevin Howard

Question: First, thank you to the individual that answered my question: "Why did they wear helmets in the first alien and not Aliens?" However, I am still puzzled though with my question: "How did the facehugger get through Kane's helmet?" The answer given was: "It secreted an acid that "burned" through the helmet." If this is true, wouldn't the acid still on the facehugger have burned Kane's face when it attached itself?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: The facehugger was apparently able to control how much acid it secreted, and it was just enough to penetrate the helmet without it touching Kane's face. It would need to protect its "host" in order to ensure that the embryo was able to fully develop before "hatching."

raywest

Answer: In the Alien novel it pushed its way into Kane's helmet using just brute force and not with acid.

The question was about the movie, not the novelization. And yes, in the movie the facehugger secretes acid: you can hear a sizzling sound as the creature latches onto Kane's helmet.

Jukka Nurmi

Sorry I was wrong about the Alien novel, it did indeed use acid to burn its way into Kane's helmet.

Question: If Charles was so smart, why didn't he think to make a bow with arrows to kill the bear instead of spears? They had the wood (the spears) and the rope (used in the trap).

mozeus5

Chosen answer: Bows have to be quite carefully constructed if they're going to be remotely effective - you can't just throw one together using a few bits of wood and some rope. Making spears may expose them to far more danger, but, given what they've got to work with, they represent the best chance of being effective against the bear.

Tailkinker

Question: Even though there was a rope ladder in the bear pit where Alec Baldwin impaled his leg, how could he have climbed the ladder, he was in great agony on the table in the cabin?

mozeus5

Chosen answer: Under extreme and dire circumstances, the body can produce excessive amounts of adrenalin, enabling a person to ignore pain and perform physical feats they would ordinarily be unable to do.

raywest

Question: How does Eli exit the room in Carnegie's tavern? The guard said he was there all night and didn't see or hear anything.

Answer: It seems to imply a miracle escape like Paul and Silas from prison in the bible.

Answer: The Guard must have fallen asleep. You see he even looks tired when approved.

Answer: Did you miss the scene where the guard was lured away from the door, causing him to lie about being there all night?

rswarrior

What scene was that?

Chosen answer: The Beat.

MasterOfAll

Question: I remember a couple of scenes that were not in the version I just watched. One was when the girl had to poop out of the car window. I remember her screaming at her dad instead of speaking calmly. I also kind of remember the highway girl showing her full front instead of just side-boob. I'm not positive about the second, but I distinctly remember the first. Was this deleted or am I just imagining it?

Knever

Chosen answer: You're imagining the frontal boobs. I have the DVD and none show this as a deleted scene or otherwise cut out of the movie.

maripikasaur

Answer: There was no full-frontal shot from the highway girl at all. Kimberly wasn't speaking to Randy calmly. She was angrily telling him she hated him because he wanted her to defecate out the window.

Answer: You were probably watching the movie on television. It's been formatted/edited to fit the usual two-hour time slot for the network. Kids might be watching it too.

Answer: The girl screaming at her father was in the version I saw, however.

Brian Katcher

Question: I remember Cobb saying that he spent time in Limbo for about fifty years. Was he referring to the time that he spent with Mal, or something else that we weren't shown?

Knever

Chosen answer: He's referring to the time spent there with Mal - remember that we see, towards the end of the film, a scene with the pair of them in their Limbo-built cityscape, both of them old-aged.

Tailkinker

Question: How did the Russian girl end up in the end, did she drown? And if so, why, if the compartments were sealed closed, how would water get into it and kill her, if it didn't kill the others on the other side of the compartment?

curiouskid

Chosen answer: The Russian girl drowned. The boarding gate was not closed properly as it was jammed, so water got in to some of the compartments and drowned the people in them.

How did the water pass through the first containment room into the second without drowning those in the first? Makes no sense.

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.