Question: During the course of the movie, Magneto is shown to be using a form of flight in the presence of metal, such as the train and Statue of Liberty. Could he perhaps, be able to sustain flight without the presence of metal, such as manipulation via the Earth's magnetic field? Also, what are the limits of such flight?
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Question: Whats the deal with Michael Rosenbaum? Did he leave the show? I find it strange that he is nowhere to be seen in the show or in the opening credits. If that is the case, is it known why he left? Or is this just some plot device to build suspense?
Chosen answer: He simply chose to leave the show. He wanted to move on; seven years is a long time to devote to a single project, so he felt it was time to move his career onwards. As a result, the character of Lex, which they'd taken as far as they realistically could anyway, was written out of the show. It's certainly not out of the question that he could make a guest appearance in a future storyline, much as Kristin Kreuk, who also left the show at the end of season seven, did in the middle of season eight, but so far this has not occurred.
Question: I still don't understand the purpose of the little boy Armand has with all the bite marks.
Answer: Because his blood tastes really good. The vampires keep him around like a bottle of fine wine. They are careful not to kill him or turn him into a vampire. He must be treated very well in return as he is clearly loyal to Armand, rescuing him from the fire later.
Question: What is the actual likelihood that a decorated serviceman, with no prior criminal record (we know this because if Poe had any priors he wouldn't have been in the Army) would actually get prison time for killing two men who attacked himself and his girlfriend? Seeing as there were witnesses (said girlfriend and bartender) I find it hard to believe he would have gotten more than an extended period of probation. A prison term, even a year or two, seems severely harsh considering the circumstances.
Chosen answer: Zero. As you said, he was attacked and there are witnesses that he tried to avoid the fight and the killings were in self-defense. It is an extremely weak plot hammer to get Poe onto a plane full of criminals. It's foolish as well. The writers could have had Poe framed for a crime then exonerated and put in the same situation much more believably.
It's in Alabama. People are put in prison here for much less.
First, Poe is a federal prisoner, not subject to State laws or legal procedures. Secondly, he is not in Alabama. During a conversation with Billy Bedlam we hear that he is incarcerated in the "Q" - prison slang for San Quentin in California. It makes you wonder why a Federal prisoner is in a State prison, but that's another type of mistake.
Would it really be considered self-defense, though? After he beat the guys to the ground he could have just stopped and walked away, but he didn't. He kept beating them until they died.
He is defending his wife against two armed assailants, and use of lethal force is allowable. No DA in the United States would even think about pressing charges, knowing full well a grand jury would throw them out in a second.
Question: In the meeting at the beginning, after Padme is attacked, Mace says that their intelligence believes that angry spice-miners attacked her. Why do their intelligence people think that?
Answer: Presumably there's been some disquiet among the spice-miners for some reason - better working conditions, better pay, could be a lot of things. Apparently the intelligence services feel that things have got heated enough that the spice-miners might try open rebellion by attempting to assassinate their Senator.
Question: I never understood why the officer who is disrespectful to Vader in the meeting (on the Death Star) calls the Force an "ancient religion". If I remember correctly, at the moment, Vader only mentions the Force, not the Sith or Jedi. Since it has only been 19 or 20 years since the Jedi were defeated, wouldn't the Force still be something that a lot of people, around age 35 and older, could remember and have knowledge of?
Answer: Following the Force has been going on for millenia - "ancient" by any standards, so his description is hardly unreasonable. Yes, there will be plenty of people old enough to remember when the Jedi were around, but that doesn't mean that they're under any obligation to show respect for it, particularly as the public perception is that the Jedi died as traitors. Motti regards Vader with contempt, seeing him as a throwback, clinging to an ancient, outdated and reviled superstition. Hence his disrespectful and insulting attitude.
I believe Palpatine also took steps to discredit the idea of the Jedi as superhero with Force powers (pretty sure I read that at some point). If Motti had never seen a Jedi in action before, he might have bought into those ideas and not considered the Force to be a real thing, or at least not what it is was said to be.
Question: Why, near the end of the film, does Caleb start writing numbers which are supposed to be predictions of future events, when the world is going to end?
Answer: Great question. Probably writing predictions for the "new" world.
So did someone decode the list? Just for s* and giggles :).
Answer: I think Caleb started writing the numbers so he could tell his father the coordinates of the location he needed to take the children in a last ditch effort, since the girl whom originally wrote the numbers didn't complete them. He un-"knowing"-ly made the same mistake and interrupted him again.
Question: Instead of waiting for someone to inject liquid iron into themselves, could Magneto manipulate the small amounts of iron that are already present inside a person?
Chosen answer: It's unlikely. Most of the naturally occurring iron atoms in the human body are tied up as part of the hemoglobin molecule - it's unclear whether Magneto could affect it under those circumstances. The amount of iron is also extremely small, at most a couple of grams, which really isn't much to work with. Mystique's escape plan gives him a lot more to work with, in a much purer form.
Question: I haven't read the books, but at times, Charlie Swan's behavior seems to indicate that he knows something about the Cullens. Other than thinking they are a bit odd, does he know that they are vampires or that the Quileutes are wolves?
Chosen answer: According to the 4 books, Charlie does NOT know the Cullens are vampires. Spoiler alert! In the 4th book breaking dawn, Jacob tells Charlie he is a werewolf. Charlie is not made aware of the Cullens as vampires in any of the 4 books.
Answer: Charlie does know that the Quileutes have a prejudice against the Cullen's and that they stopped using the hospital that Carlisle works in. When Bella tells her father that the Cullen kids aren't very accepted at school he is defensive and gives a long speech about what a good family they are.
Question: Who are the two men that the Emperor talks to on the Death Star, after he tells Vader to send the fleet near the far side of Endor, and Vader leaves? I know that who they are is not said in the movie.
Answer: According to the Star Wars Databank, the pair are Sim Aloo and Janus Greejatus, two members of the Imperial Ruling Council, a large group numbering several hundred who act as advisors to Emperor Palpatine and are also sent on missions across the galaxy as his personal representatives. Both are Force-sensitive with some training in the Dark Side directly from Palpatine himself and, as their presence during the Emperor's discussion with Vader shows, are among his more trusted acolytes.
Question: In the song sequence "Marian the Librarian", anyone know what she says? This couple is on the wall, reaching out for each other, and then Marian yells something that sounds like "Toby!" or something. Can anyone verify what she says?
Answer: In the dance sequence (currently up on YouTube), it wasn't Marion calling out, it's Zaneeta Shin calling out to her boyfriend Tommy who is about to fall. She calls out his name, "TOMMY!!" It's a "looped" vocal and was added after the film, hence no lips are moving when she calls out his name.
Question: Do either of The Joker's "You wanna know how I got these scars" stories have a hint of truth to them? Also, why does he recount the stories to people?
Chosen answer: There's no way to tell - the Joker gets no backstory at all in the film, other than the two stories that he tells, which contradict each other anyway. In all likelihood, they're both lies, made up on the spot. As to why he tells them, it distracts people, puts them on edge, plus, most importantly, it amuses him to do so.
Question: During the Statue of Liberty scene, Magneto is clearly seen to be manipulating the copper inside the statue to bind and tie up the X-Men. How can this be? I thought magnetism wouldn't work on a non ferromagnetic metal.
Answer: Well if he can control ANY metal...why did he have to wait for the guard to be injected with iron? Couldn't he take iron out of food or water? Or even his own body?
The way he took iron out of the Guard, that seemed very painful and it looks like the guard did not survive. So, taking it out of his own body would not have been the smartest of decisions. He needed to wait for the guard to be injected so he could have enough iron to take out to then turn into a weapon, and transportation.
Question: On the train, how does Magneto know who Wolverine is?
Chosen answer: He and Xavier has been keeping track of mutants for years, in part by using Cerebro (as seen in X2: X-Men United). And as Logan is a very powerful mutant, as well as part of a government-funded project (which leaves a paper trail), they would definitely know of him and would have collected as much data as possible about him. When Magneto then detected his adamantium skeleton, it was easy to deduce Logan's identity.
Question: Why are certain areas of the Earth irradiated? What happened?
Chosen answer: It is residual radiation from atomic weapons used in an attempt to fight off the Psychlos.
Question: Why would Ivo Shandor and his followers possibly want to summon Gozer? For what reason?
Chosen answer: Because Shandor believed that human society was too sick to survive (to quote Egon). Gozer was supposed to destroy human civilization in the hope (apparently) that something better would rise to replace it.
Question: When Arthur steals Adam's power, why does he crumble to dust?
Chosen answer: Adam is hundreds of years old, and has been kept alive only through his regenerative powers. When that is taken away from him, the years catch up on him, and his body ages so rapidly that he is instantly mummified and crumbles to dust.
Question: I don't quite understand why Dr. Manhattan had to kill Rorschach. That is, I don't quite get why that was the only solution. Rorschach was a valuable member of the Watchmen, and in the type of world they were in (chaos, corruption, murder, etc) one would think that they would want to keep as many of themselves banded together as possible. Couldn't some sort of negotiation or compromise have been reached/agreed to by Rorschach instead of him being killed?
Answer: He has spent years as a costumed vigilante despite the fact that it was illegal. He has a very strict idea of what is right ("never compromise") and has proven himself incapable of doing otherwise. So no, there was no real chance of negotiating with him - Rorschach himself made it clear he'd have to die if they wanted his silence.
Death was not the only choice. Doc M could easily have teleported/banished Rorschach to Mars/anywhere secluded in an oxygen bubble. He could have spared his life and just made him mute or manipulate his brain chemistry/atoms to remove the memory of what happened. The point is Doc M is all powerful and could manipulate matter at his whim; death was just a plot device creating a chance of an emotive martyrdom/sacrificial ending.
Ethically speaking, exiling him to Mars or erasing his memory of the event can be considered just as cruel as killing him, because then his agency is being taken away from him. Rorshach's malcontent with the situation poses a problem for the other heroes, and since Dr. Manhattan isn't willing to let him tell the truth of what happened, he obliges Rorschach's demand that he kill him instead.
Question: What exactly is Edward? Is he some sort of android?
Chosen answer: Just like Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" we are not actually told how Edward is created. (Most have interpreted it to mean he was made of discarded body parts, though she never actually states that the body parts he stole were used in the monster, just in his "experiments".) In the end, we are left to believe that the inventor created a human-like person from some sort of scratch. Edward has blood, emotions, creativity, and the ability to heal his many wounds. Beyond that, we are told nothing.
Question: Why does the sniper target Stu? What's he done that is so bad?
Chosen answer: Stu is a pretty unpleasant character - he's arrogant, rude, untrustworthy, he's considering cheating on his wife, treats his assistant like crap and so forth. The sniper's intent is to force him to change his ways, to confess his sins to those around him and hopefully, by doing so, put himself on a path towards some sort of personal redemption.
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Chosen answer: It is never fully explained in the movie, however in the comics he is shown to be able to use Earth's magnetic field to engage in high speed flight.