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 the pages of the magazine go missing? It did not seem like he switched to Shooter in between.

Answer: Mort removed the pages without realizing it. He believed Shooter had somehow got hold of the package, opened it, and tore out the pages before he picked it up at the post office. It wasn't shown on-camera that it was Mort who did that, as that would have spoiled the "big reveal" at the end of the movie. The audience is seeing it from Mort's perspective.

raywest

Question: Why did Chuck stand up and then spend ages looking at the part of the toilet that had washed up?

Answer: By that time, Chuck had been on the island for four years and was becoming somewhat mentally unstable. When he first sees the toilet wall section washed up against the rocks, he approaches defensively, spear in hand, as if it's something dangerous. He seems to snap back to reality and gradually surmises it is not only benign, but potentially useful. His mind then begins working out he can adapt it as a sail to escape the island.

raywest

Answer: He couldn't believe it, of all the things to wash ashore it was a toilet. So far everything else he found could be used in a certain way, but a toilet. I didn't see the movie at the theaters but I bet the audiences were roaring with laughter.

I saw it in the theater and no-one laughed...it wasn't funny. Chuck is seeing the first man-made object he's seen in years, and he's stunned...and maybe he's getting the idea of using it as a sail.

Brian Katcher

It wasn't the actual toilet. It was just the partial wall section of the plastic enclosure for an outdoor portable toilet.

raywest

Question: Why did Jennifer Jones (actress who played Lisolette) quit acting after appearing in this movie?

Answer: It had nothing to do with the film, and she was already mostly retired anyway, having not appeared in a film since 1969 and in only three throughout the 1960s. However, what probably led to her permanent retirement came in 1976 when her daughter died by suicide; after this, Jones-a survivor of a suicide attempt herself-devoted her life to mental health causes, founding the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health and Education and working to remove the stigma surrounding mental health.

Question: What was the point of temporarily shutting down every electrical system in the command module?

Answer: To save the re-entry batteries.

David George

Answer: No, you didn't miss anything. The writers never say who got tenure. (Although, as a side note, the entire process of getting tenure for the characters is entirely wrong in real life and none of them would have got it).

Bishop73

Question: Is the Spanish flag seen on the building in Huelva the accurate one used during Franco's regime or the modern one?

Question: The "Rings" were the phone, Ayden's drawings of Samara, the condensation rings, the top of the well and anything else?

Answer: It was the cursed video tape. That's a ring too.

Question: I wanted to know what Dorothy means when she tells Campbell "don't worry about it" when they're lying in bed? Is she referring to him not having a gift for her at the time or something sexual? That part always confuses me.

Answer: Campbell couldn't get it up when they tried having sexual intercourse. Probably because his mind is mainly focused on getting all of her money in her trust fund.

Answer: I think he wasn't really attracted to Dorothy and was just using her for a place to stay perhaps and try to take her money.

He couldn't perform and she forgave him.

The Harassed - S10-E12

Question: There is a laugh track sound about the mention of Julia's book, "Day-Trade Your Way Out of Debt." I've heard of day-trading but don't really understand it. What is funny about the book title?

Answer: Day trading is a risky form of speculation where one can lose a lot of money, and is not a good plan to get out of debt.

Brian Katcher

Question: After Jason ripped off Freddy's arm, why didn't Freddy simply regenerate his limb? He regenerated both of his arms during their first fight.

Answer: Freddy was able to do that only because his powers work in the dream world, not in the real world.

Rob245

Show generally

Question: What was the episode where Rebecca and Michelle learn that Jesse's real name is Hermes?

Answer: S05e06, "The Legend of Ranger Joe." DJ calls Jesse's mom and she told her his real name.

Bishop73

Answer: Kinski suffered from mental illness for most of his life. He was given to bouts of unprovoked outbursts and violence. He was eventually diagnosed with psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder). On movie sets, he was notorious for being physically and verbally abusive to the crew, who generally hated him. The sword incident was just one of many. On the production of this film, director Werner Herzog carried a gun on him in the event he had to protect himself or others. It was only because Herzog was a long-time friend that he hired Kinski for acting jobs. Kinski was flat-out crazy. He was eventually unable to get any work as an actor.

raywest

Agreed. I forget what film set it was but Kinski also once fired a rifle at a bunch of crew members and blew a guy's finger off. He was unstable.

Jack Vaughan

It was also Aguirre, The Wrath Of God. Kinski was irritated by the noises from a hut where cast and crew were playing cards and, out of anger, repeatedly fired a Winchester rifle into it. One of the bullets took the tip of an unknown extra's finger off.

Question: Didn't the little girl who saw Ironhide out of the pool report what she saw to her parents or anybody?

Trainman

Answer: Thieves, vandals, drunk teens take your pick. They would believe any of that, before they'd believe a giant alien robot.

Answer: It's unknown if she did but if she had, being a little girl, her parents or other people would have either thought of it as being nothing more than a child's playful imagination, or her just having a strange dream.

What about the damages to the pool and the property?

Trainman

Question: How is it that when Ackers falls in the large body of water (assumingly boiling) in the funnel, he dies - yet Mr. Rogo jumping in to try to help is submerged for many seconds underwater and then climbs out alive and overall, not burned?

Answer: Because he doesn't boil, there's no suggestion that the water is that hot. After Ackers falls in, and while Rogo tries to save him, there are two large explosions in the shaft; we can presume that, while Rogo was able to escape, Ackers was injured/trapped/otherwise incapacitated below the surface, and drowned.

Question: How did they catch Nils Nelbrook in the hospital? They say he was in a car accident and Simon Pegg was driving the other car, but what happened?

Question: During the shaving the heads scene at the start of the film, I've spotted Pyle, Joker, and Cowboy with their heads getting shaved, but not Snowball. Which one is Snowball in the scene?

Answer: Snowball doesn't appear in the sequence.

Question: Why did Shanti lure Mowgli into the village at the end? What was her reason for doing so?

Answer: She was a young girl who was instantly smitten by Mowgli (and he with her) and encouraged him to come into the village, hoping he'd stay. It shows that Mowgli has made the decision to live with humans.

raywest

Question: Why didn't the people going through the cave on the way in, experience the same mental effect as when they tried to leave?

Answer: It's just like the difference between swimming downstream and swimming upstream. It's tough to bring yourself out against the gradient.

Question: What was the point of Jack going to NY? What did he actually achieve? They would have sent helicopters to look for survivors anyway...?

Answer: He was a father searching for his only son. What parent wouldn't do that. Besides, the government decided to evacuate all the southwest of the country, leaving the others to fend for themselves. Like the General said, in the conference room, as in war, we save only the ones we can save. When the cold burst hit everywhere, it was assumed everyone else in the country died. It was only after survivors were found in New York that they discovered all the others.

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