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 the technology in the original trilogy not look as good or as advanced as the technology of the prequel trilogy?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: The real reason is that our technology has advanced in the thirty years since the original movies were made, so better effects were possible. The "in-movie" reason is that he rebels are operating illegally, and therefore their equipment is all jury-rigged and pieced together from stolen or broken scrap, not manufactured like the devices featured in the prequels.

Phixius

Question: Throughout the movie it's suggested that Quaid/Hauser isn't experiencing anything at all and what he's experiencing is in fact a memory implant. My questions is, did the events actually happen or were they simply the memory implant Quaid purchased at Rekall?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Its left deliberately ambiguous for the viewer to make up their own mind about what's real and what's fake.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: Although left deliberately ambiguous, it should be noted that the director's intention was for it to be all part of a dream / delusion. Indeed, despite the ambiguity, more evidence exists to indicate that the story was imagined as opposed to reality.

Question: I've read that Anakin joined Palpatine because he felt remorse over the death of Windu and that he would have been expelled from the Jedi order for sure. Couldn't he have just lied and said that it was Palpatine that killed him and that he played no part in it?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: No, because it's wrong. Anakin joined Palpatine not out of remorse or fear of being expelled from the Jedi Order, but because he thinks that, with the Sith Lord's help, he can save Padme from dying. If he turns Palpatine in, he believes that she'll die and that's not an option for him.

Tailkinker

I don't disagree with the answer by Tailkinker, but I think Anakin was shocked by Windu's death. He realised that Palpatine's offer—to save Padme's life—would require him to make sacrifices.

Chosen answer: In the book, after Danny visits room 217 (237 for the movie) the ghost of the woman who killed herself in the bath chokes him.

Answer: In the 80s it was the old lady's ghost who hurt Danny. This was a repeat of the 20s when the actual old lady lured Danny in her room and tried to bite him and satisfy her hunger. (Given the lack of food due to snow storm).

I keep seeing things relating to the "20s version" and the "80s version " what is this about? I didn't even see them mention the 1920s until the picture at the end.

Throughout the movie there are flashes to the 20s which is seen as vision of what has already happened or as Jack's "psychotic break delusions." Since his soul is linked to the hotel, he returns time and time again (shown by the photo at the end of the movie). There are 2 versions, the 20s and the 80s. The 20s is when Jack and his family were at the hotel, snowed in and they resorted to cannibalism (the lady in the room 237), as seen in the photo. In the 80s version, his reincarnated soul is drawn to the hotel and we see bits of the 20s through flashbacks or delusions. For example, the ball is a delusion or reincarnated vision of him there before. It is more evident in the book when he hears voices of the hotel. As well, the blood vision in the hallway coming from the elevator is a reference to the 20s.

Chosen answer: Because the aliens have to undertake many preparations in order for their invasion/colonization to happen successfully. They have to develop the alien/human hybrid to use as a workforce, and the alien bounty hunters have to put down the alien rebels. Also, the syndicate, and new syndicate, have to battle Mulder and suppress public information of all this.

Chosen answer: Injuries sustained by having his TARDIS yanked out of the Time Vortex by The Rani.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: During Anakin's duel with Dooku, why did he cut that huge cable and why exactly did he open himself up by sticking his arm out, thus giving Dooku the opportunity to chop it off?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: He presumably cut it so he wouldn't trip over it. Dooku was a better fighter than him and Anakin was overconfident, but Dooku was one of the top duelists in the entire order. His style was meant for saber-to-saber combat, whereas Anakin's was meant to block blaster bolts. He lost his arm because he didn't think.

Show generally

Question: What exactly made Jack Harkness immortal? I know Rose brought him back to life, but how? The Doctor mentions something about him being a fixed point in time and space, but what exactly does that mean?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: In the series 1 episode 'The Parting on the Ways', Rose stared directly into the heart of the TARDIS which infused her with the time vortex. This power enabled her to disintegrate the Daleks and also allowed her to bring Jack back to life. However, Rose was not fully aware of how her powers worked and by bringing Jack back she also removed his ability to die. The Doctor referring to Jack as "a fixed point in space and time" refers to the fact that Jack cannot be removed from existance through death as a normal person could.

Chosen answer: There are two possibilities: Most likely, Jack's soul is forever linked to the hotel, and every once in a while, he is reborn into the world, only to return to it, and instigate more killings. Basically, he is constantly resuming his duties as the caretaker of the spirits in the Hotel. That, or every time someone dies at the hotel, their soul becomes linked to it, and the photo at the end changes to illustrate that link. However, if that theory were true, then the cook would also be in the photo.

The cook would not be in the photo, as he was not succumbing to the Hotel, he died fighting it, and therefore his soul does not "belong" to the Overlook.

Jack is never reincarnated. Period. The hotel decides that Jack will become the next caretaker in the afterlife when he attends the initial interview! Therefore, when he dies, he becomes part of the ghosts in the hotel and immortalized in the infamous group photo on the wall! And he will make his presence known to the next victim.

Answer: I always believed, as have others, that anyone who is "killed" by the hotel has their soul added to the hotel which materializes as them being added to the picture.

Yeah, but it seems kinda weird he is in the middle of the picture with everyone around him even though he was added last. And the ghost calling him "the caretaker" suggest he is the caretaker in that picture too, so the same person as the original one who was caretaker all that time ago.

lionhead

Answer: The point of the picture at the end is to show Jack has indeed been at the hotel before. This explains the deja vu he feels upon entering the hotel. Notice none of the other ghosts, such as Delbert, the twins, Mrs Massey, etc. are visible in the photo. That's because they were at the hotel after 1921. The answer that says his soul has been around a long time is correct.

Chosen answer: In the book, she is Mrs. Massey, an older woman who is seducing a man much younger than her, until late one night he leaves in the car they arrived in, and doesn't return. Distraught, Mrs. Massey kills herself with liquor and sleeping pills while taking a bath. However, since none of this is in the actual film, fan theories have sprung up regarding her importance to the movie. One theory is that she is in fact Grady's wife, and 237 is where he murdered his family.

I don't think this is quite as true because the twins are Grady's children and they are seen to be killed in the hallway in a vision of Danny's when he was riding the bike through the hotel. Therefore, the movie version could be the wife of Grady in room 237 however the children were not there and not killed there at the time. However, why would she have been staying in room 237 if there is the apartment for the caretaker?

Answer: Her significance to the story is that she is one of the most powerful spirits that resides in the hotel. When Jack enters her room, she appears to him as a young and beautiful woman at first. This symbolizes his embracing the evil of the hotel, while Danny sees the hotel for what it really is. The aftermath of his visit to room 237 shows that the hotel has Jack in its grasp, as he lies to Wendy about not seeing anything in the room. He knows Wendy would want to leave, whereas he wants to stay.

Answer: The old woman in room 237 could have been a sex-worker. The shining parallel story shows Jack going in and having sexual advances with her (before they cut it with her current rotten version). Until one day, she lures Danny in her room and bit him out of hunger. That's when Jack goes in the room and kills the old lady.

Chosen answer: No, it was the result of the Cybermen's draining Earth of energy to their world, that also affected the Doctor, draining his energy as well, causing him to regenerate.

Also In the episode it's said that his body was wearing thin.

Dan23

Chosen answer: The Ghosts want Jack to kill Danny because the shining is what gives the Hotel power. The only way Danny's shine would stay permanently at the Hotel would be for him to die there. The only reason Jack was chosen was because he was the weakest link to get to Danny.

Chosen answer: Scout ships exploring the area detected the gold on the planet and sent a report back to the nearest base or to the Psychlos' homeworld.

Phixius

If they knew there was gold there, they would have been there centuries ago and been easier to take control.

Question: I've always wondered, what's the significance of the kid pointing a wooden gun and making 'pew pew' noises at Reese when he enters the human hideout? Is it meant to be purely a bit of comical play between the two, or a subtle inference that mankind will never be able to abolish its inherent desire to destroy itself, even in the face of total extinction?

Answer: Its simply a child being a child and playing, but more than anything, showing the innocence of the children that inspite of the near death of the human race all around them, there's still time to play and be... human.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: I think it refers more to the irony fact the kids innocently playing soldiers, would soon become real soldiers in a fight for their lives.

Answer: I've always thought it was to show that these children didn't know anything else. They hadn't had a childhood due to the war against the machines and all they knew was to shoot guns because that's all they've seen people do.

The_Iceman

Answer: I agree with the playing and innocence aspects, as well as some comic relief. Toddlers/children prepare for possible future roles in life by mimicking adults' behaviors. What the child lacks is a sense of danger, showing no fear (or guilt) "shooting" a much larger person who knows how to kill. The child also lacks an understanding of consequences of behavior and meaning/permanence of death.

KeyZOid

Question: How come Boston was relatively intact with no signs of destruction?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: The Martians hadn't gotten that far yet.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: It's a galaxy. Given the distance that the fleet would have to be away from it in order to see the whole thing like that, it seem unlikely that it's intended to be the galaxy that the saga takes place in, but another one that's relatively close to it.

Tailkinker

Answer: It is the Star Wars galaxy. Haven was the codename of the Rebel Alliance's predetermined rendezvous point far beyond the Galactic Rim, where the Alliance Fleet regrouped after the Rebellion's defeat at the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY. The rendezvous point lay near the coordinates 2.427 by 3.886 by 673.52 above the galactic plane.

Answer: Robbie said that he only wanted to watch it happen, and not interact. He most likely ran off somehow and hid from the aliens before you saw the burning Humvee indicating the death of the military squadrons flying/driving in.

Chosen answer: Dumb luck? A soldier chased him off from the fighting? Who knows?

Grumpy Scot

Robbie's survival is a movie all on its own.

Chosen answer: I think that looking into the Untempered Schism shows the young Time Lords infinity. It shows them everything, and it is like a test. If they can resist the urge to grab it and take it all for themselves, then they are worthy to be a Time Lord.

Question: If the piece of the All Spark is still locked up where Mikaela works, why don't the Decepticons go after it? It seems easier to obtain.

Answer: That's exactly what Wheelie (the small remote controlled truck) was doing. He was caught by Mikaela and didn't get word to the Decepticons that there was another shard they could use. After she captured him and threw him in the metal box he was more concerned with his own survival than letting the Decepticons know there was another shard of the All Spark.

dablues7

Question: What makes Taylor think they're on a planet in the constellation of Orion some 320 light years from Earth? How did he come to this conclusion?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Because that's where the ship was originally headed. Some sort of malfunction made it turn around and return to Earth.

Grumpy Scot

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