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: How did they manage to get inside Mike Tyson's house though they have come in the police car? Can't the security people understand that they are not real police because they don't have badges?

a_shyam41

Chosen answer: I don't think the security thought they were policemen. The guys must have broken into the house when there was no security there. When they return the tiger, Mike's bodyguard says they checked the CCTV footage when they noticed the tiger was missing, found the best man's jacket in the tiger cage, and tracked them back to the hotel. There is no mention of any other security personnel except the bodyguard. Even if security guards had seen the police car and assumed they were cops, when the 'policemen' started urinating in the pool and trying to steal the tiger, they would have given themselves away. The guys broke into an empty house.

Question: My mistake was corrected by "BocaDavie", but I would appreciate it if someone can clarify the correction on the following points:
1. The alienship is standing still over Area 51. How can it drift several miles away when it's going down?
2. Assuming that the main weapon is in the middle of the alienship, located over Area 51 and the ship is 15 miles in diameter you have about 7.5 miles to each side. Again: how far can the ship drift away?
3. Even if the alienship is half a mile above Area 51 (in the movie seems to be less), when it's going down it should maximally crash at the front of the mountains, but not in the middle of it. Please try to think of an airplane, or better a helicopter, when it's standing still in the air. The downcurve would never reach this far.
I hope I explained my points and they are valid, so a possible recorrection may follow for my mistake to be put back to the mistakes page. Thank you.

blackcab666

Chosen answer: Your mistake was corrected because you assume the alien ship would crash vertically (straight down) after the attack. Just because it's severely damaged, doesn't mean that the ship didn't still have some of its capabilities (propulsion, navigation). The ship may have attempted to go back into orbit or even *land*. Going to your helicopter example... wouldn't the pilot of a damaged or otherwise malfunctioning helicopter try to land the craft safely? Or the ship's propulsion systems were damaged and the aliens had no control of the craft. We simply don't know. Because of all the unknowns, there are too many other equally likely possibilities for the scenario to qualify your entry as a mistake.

JC Fernandez

Answer: The alien pilot probably either tried to land the ship on a safe place, or to fly back to the mother ship.

Question: Does anyone know how far Harry and Cho went when alone in the Room of Requirement? The book hints that they got further than mere kissing (half an hour passed and "Harry would take the secret of what happened in his grave").

Answer: They only snogged (made out). The snogging didn't take that long. Harry was in shock and had think for a long period of time about what happened before he was out of shock enough to go back to the common room. That's actually not what the book says, it says "Half of him wanted to tell them what had happened and the other half wanted to take the secret to his grave." The secret was that he snogged Cho which he ended up telling them because Hermione managed to guess it without him saying anything.

Question: After Dumbledore is killed, Snape, Draco and the other Death Eaters are leaving the castle from the Astronomy Tower, why/how is it that they end up exiting the Great Hall (then blasting the Auror and then exiting the castle)?

HulkObsessedChick

Chosen answer: There is a bit of a time lapse from when they leave the Astronomy Tower, but the Death Eaters are creating as much mayhem as possible within the castle. The movie tones this down, but in the book, there is an all-out battle between the Death Eaters and the Aurors, Hogwarts staff, and "Dumbledore's Army."

raywest

Question: Was Arcee killed during the final battle? Or did any/all of her survive?

Answer: Only two of the three Arcee units were hit during the final battle, Arcee and Flareup. Whether or not they survived is unable to decide from this movie alone. The only way we'll know for sure is to wait untill the next movie. However, I think the chances they survived are pretty high. Transformers have been known to survive much worse injuries. For example, Bumblebee getting his legs blown off in the first movie, or Jetfire getting his chest ripped out in this one.

Brad

Question: Ton Hanks spends 4 years on the island, subsisting on nothing more than rainwater, coconuts, and fish. It's not shown, but possibly he might have caught some birds, too. He lost weight on that diet, but wouldn't the lack of certain vitamins and nutrients given him scurvy, pellagra, beri-beri to the point of death? (Scurvy takes just a few weeks to set in.).

Answer: Scurvy is prevented by Vitamin C, middle aged coconuts have Vitamin C in them, so that's scurvy prevented. Pellagra is mainly caused by malnutrition, but a diet consisting of fish, water and coconuts would be enough to prevent that, because middle aged coconuts also have vitamins A and B. Beri Beri is a result of a lack of vitamin B and thiamin, Fish have vitamin B necessary to keep Beri Beri at bay.

GalahadFairlight

Question: How did the emergency operator start the car when Matt tells them to start? And why did Matt do so when McClane was ready to start the car with just the wires?

a_shyam41

Chosen answer: The on-board assistance system that Matt was using to contact the operator is specifically designed to allow for emergency usage in just such a way. They usually require a password to verify the user, which is exactly what Matt was trying to BS his way around. However, even though McClane is willing to hotwire the car, there are two problems with this. First, cars in recent years have become much harder to hotwire. Second, even if McClane was able to do it, the on-board assistance would have been triggered and it would assume (rightly so) that the car was being stolen and authorities would be alerted. With a likely GPS in the system, it'd be hard to get away from that one. By using and fooling the system, they now have the ability to get around unencumbered.

Garlonuss

Also, the airbags wouldn't have deployed when he hit the bumper with a trash can. They're designed to go off only when the vehicle is in motion thanks to a vehicle speed sensor that arms the system over a certain speed to avoid costly repairs in the event you just bump something or vandals just wanna be vandals. I remember a funny commercial with an elderly woman using her purse to hit a car bumper when the driver honked at her as she slowly crossed the street. Hilarious, but not accurate.

Question: After Other Wybie frees Coraline from the mirror and is helping her escape, he takes off his glove and blows away his hand. Is something happening to him?

HulkObsessedChick

Chosen answer: Coraline urges Other Wybie to escape with her. He shows her that he can't - he is not a person, just another puppet of the Other Mother. What is blowing away is the sawdust Other Mother fills her puppets with.

Ioreth

He's just a temporary distraction.

Answer: It's because the other Wybie isn't real, he is just one of the other mother's creations. The other world is full of magic, so if he tries to go to the normal world he will turn into sawdust or sand because the normal world has no magic.

Question: Palpatine killed Plagueis in his sleep. Is there any book/information that tells if Palpatine took precautions to avoid possibly being killed this way (by an apprentice of his own)?

Answer: In one of the books I've read, it mentions that Palpatine doesn't sleep. He meditates so he is always aware of his surroundings.

Question: Would a Korean war veteran be allowed to keep his Garand rifle? I assume that the film wants to depict the rifle and the Colt pistol as being the very ones he had in Korea. Wouldn't that be like a lot of guys stowing M16s in their old footlockers?

Answer: Well, a lot of veterans actually buy their weapons once they have retired, since they have the constitutional right to keep and bear those weapons. However, I don't think it is said in the movie that those arms were exactly the ones Kowalsky used during the war.

Actually, yes he did say that it was the one he carried. When Tao asked what it was like to kill a man, Walt says I shot the kid in the face with that rifle you were holding earlier.

Question: We all assume, as I did when watching the movie, that the opening scene really was intended to be the Malmedy massacre. Could it have been that they were just hinting towards that, and that the opening scene (with the array of mixed Wehrmacht and SS, 101st Airborne and other which is historically not matching Malmedy) was simply another incident? Did the director ever intend to create a grossly false Malmedy scene? There were quite a lot more atrocities in that area and time, with executions of prisoners by both sides.

Answer: The massacre was intended to be Malmedy. Artistic license was taken with the participants but what happened is a possible version of events that caused the massacre.

AdmRose

Chosen answer: Yes, it is the same group, although the circumstances of his encounter with them have never been revealed.

Tailkinker

Question: Someone proposes an initial blood serum test (before Macready's heat sensitivity test), but the crew find the blood sabotaged before they can get to it. How could "The Thing" have gotten to the blood so fast, and more importantly, Garry and the Doc are the only ones said to have access to the blood. BOTH are proved by the Mac's test to be "Thing-free" - the Doc's blood is tested even though he is dead; Garry is the last man tested. How can this be?

npe1jar

Answer: Keys were dropped by Windows during Benning's transformation. You hear them drop to the floor. They could have been retrieved by anyone.

Chosen answer: The Thing is a shape shifter. It doesn't just take the form of what it assimilates, it can change its shape (eg. dog and head spider). It could easily form a thin tentacle to open a door from the inside. It's also shown to have the sheer strength to bust out.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Gary and the Doc may have been overconfident in their being able to keep the key safe; someone or something may have taken it, done the deed while everyone was distracted, and placed it back with none being the wiser.

Erik M.

Question: When asked if he had any family, Colonel Sharp replies that he has "2 girls" although there is no mention of a wife. Are there any clues to what happened to his wife in the rest of the film?

reedsangel

Chosen answer: No.

Tailkinker

As an addition to there being no mention, stating he has two girls could imply he also has a wife.

Not necessarily. He could be a widower.

Question: How is a memory retrieved from the bowl of liquid and returned to its vial after it is viewed? Does it say in the book?

Albany

Chosen answer: First, someone removes a memory from their own mind using a wand. The memory is a silvery mist that attaches itself to the wand's tip and is extracted from a person's head. To save the memory, it is often stored in a flask or vial until it can be poured into a magical bowl called a pensieve. The memory can be viewed at anytime by peering into the pensieve, although in the movie it appears that one must actually submerge their head into the liquid. A memory can also be removed from the penseive with a wand and transferred to a storage flask or another pensieve.

raywest

Question: In a flashback scene, we see Carlisle about to transform the then-dying Edward to a vampire. Shortly before Carlisle bites, he whispers something to Edward's ear. What could he have told him?

Allister Cooper, 2011

Chosen answer: He says "I'm sorry" - found out by looking at backstage videos and things like that.

Answer: Carlisle says "I'm sorry"to Edward because Carlisle knows how painful is to be a vampire and how hard it is to control the thirst of blood.

Question: When they are in the garage, before they split up to throw off James, Edward tells Alice to "Please keep your thoughts to yourself". I've read the book and I'm pretty sure it explains this but I can't remember. What is Alice thinking?

Answer: Alice can see the future (She can not read minds, thoughts and intentions). She has foreseen that Bella will become a vampire and Edward does not want her to tell Bella that.

Jazaray

Answer: If Alice tells Bella that she will be a vampire she will be scared and shocked.

Bella wouldn't be shocked or scared by knowing that. Bella wants to become a vampire. Edward does not wish this for her, believing it is a cursed life. If Alice tells Bella that she foresees her becoming a vampire, Edward knows this will only encourage Bella to pressure him to change her.

raywest

Answer: I thought Alice was thinking about how tasty Bella smells because they had to wear her belongings to confuse Victoria and lead her off Bella's actual scent. If not please do reply as I am curious about this.

Question: When Batman rescues Harvey in the warehouse, Rachel says something but is cut off when the bomb explodes. "Harvey I have to tell you something. Som..." Does anyone know what is said? This is driving me crazy.

bam57bam

Chosen answer: Don't know what version of the film you were watching, but in the one I have, their final conversation runs like this. Rachel: "Harvey, just in case, I want to tell you something, okay?" Harvey: "Don't think like that, they're coming." Rachel: "I know they are, but I don't want them to. I don't want to live without you and I do have an answer for you. My answer is yes." Bruce then arrives and drags Harvey from the room and Rachel's final words are "Harvey, it's okay. It's alright. Listen. Som..." and then the bomb detonates. What Rachel tells Harvey is a reply to his proposal earlier in the film, telling him that she will marry him, something that she says quite successfully before she's killed. What she may have gone on to say is unknown, but she certainly got out what she had to tell him. As she speaks after discovering that someone's come to rescue Harvey, it seems likely she's about to say "someone will come for me too" or similar.

Tailkinker

Question: In Horace Slughorn's house, what was that dragon blood dripping on the ceiling about? He has a dragon?

Answer: Slughorn knew Dumbledore was on his way and what he wanted. He made the house a "disaster" area in hoped it would fool Dumbledore into thinking Deatheaters were there. He put the dragon blood there hoping Dumbledore believed someone had been killed and would leave. But when Dumbledore realized it was dragon's blood, not human, he knew what Slughorn was up to.

lartaker1975

Question: Okay, so the three astronauts are on the run but only James Brolin makes good his escape. What happened to the other two? They're shown as being caught, but what happened after? Anybody know?

CCARNI

Chosen answer: It's never stated in the film, however, as the astronauts have been declared officially dead and therefore cannot ever be allowed to contact anybody, they were most likely executed as soon as they were captured.

Tailkinker

Answer: How were they able to fire their flares, then?

Dave Messer

They both had just enough time to fire their flares when they realised they were about to be captured and that there was no chance of escaping.

raywest

Answer: O.J. Simpson would have had time to shoot his flare to show he was caught. With Waterson harder to believe, he had climbed the side of the mountain and was just coming to the top with the planes coming into view. Either he would have been dropped and died on way down, not getting the chance to shoot the flare, or he was grabbed from the edge. Unlikely to have time also to shoot the flare before being intercepted.

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