Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: If the 21 game is still played in casinos, there could be hundreds of geniuses who can count and cheat the system as shown in the film. Is this a possibility, or have casinos adopted extra security measures or something?

Answer: Casinos have always looked out for people counting cards, even before the real events that inspired this movie.

pross79

Answer: Yes, most casinos have now upgraded to the automated card shufflers, which constantly shuffle the cards after each deal, so there is no way that counting cards would be possible.

Question: Why, in the opening scene, do Clarisse and the FBI have a huge chunk of dry ice in the SWAT van with them?

Answer: The panel van has no air conditioning. They're using dry ice as a field-expedient cooling system. The action takes place in the early summer in DC where it's hot.

Answer: They use it to fog up the truck's windows and conceal the team inside. One of the agents even pours water on it during the ride and we see the fog coming off it.

Question: When the Joker tells Batman that he'll have to break his one rule (not killing anyone) is he referring to the choice he'll have to make with Harvey and Rachel, or is he foreshadowing Harvey's death at the hands of Batman. Also on that note, since Batman did kill Harvey, does that mean the Joker did win over Batman?

Answer: He's obviously referring to the choice that Batman has to make - even the Joker, at that point, can't predict how things are going to turn out with Harvey. He's telling Batman that he's going to have to choose to let somebody die in order to save the other. Second part is kinda iffy - Bruce isn't intentionally choosing to kill Harvey, which was the point the Joker was making earlier, about forcing Bruce to consciously choose to let somebody die. He's doing what he has to to save Gordon's son; Harvey's death is a by-product of that, rather than a deliberate decision on Bruce's part. The fall that Harvey took wasn't so far that he couldn't potentially have survived - Bruce did what he had to do to save the boy and left Harvey, somewhat appropriately, in the hands of fate. Harvey's death leaves Bruce in a pretty dark place, but it's probably not reasonable to say that the Joker actually turned him to the dark side, as it were.

Tailkinker

Question: Why does General Purcell want Virgil to fail? It seems all he's trying to do is stop them from achieving their goal. He knows full well DESTINI stopped the core in the first place and is determined to fire it again with Virgil down there, knowing they will die. Why would he want Earth to die?

Brad

Chosen answer: The General does not want Virgil to fail. The main reason he wants to fire DESTINI is because they have just found out that the core is actually a lot thinner than they originally thought, which means, as Zimsky stated, the amount of explosives they brought in Virgil would not be enought for their original idea of one blast. Also stated by Zimsky, what happened with the core and DESTINI was just like a heart and an electric shock. If an electric shock can stop a heart and also restart a heart, then DESTINI has a chance of restarting what it stopped.

Chosen answer: Yes, she was.

Chosen answer: The film credits Hamilton Watches. Since Jason Statham uses a Officine Panerai Watch, I think, the villain uses a Hamilton. It's a nice watch, but I can't find that model on Hamilton's web site.

Question: Did the actress who dubbed the voice for Ursula Andress in Dr. No also dub for the Domino character in Thunderball? Also, who dubbed for Largo in Thunderball, and who else has he dubbed for in Bond movies?

Answer: Yes, Nikki Van der Zyl revoiced the roles of Honey (Ursula Andress) and Domino (Claudine Auger) in Dr. No and Thunderball respectively. Largo was revoiced by Robert Rietti, who also dubbed Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice and Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only.

Sierra1

Question: What kind of necktie knot does Bond use and how do you do one?

Answer: A Windsor Knot, and go here to see how: http://www.tie-a-tie.net/windsor.html.

GalahadFairlight

Question: When the Joker burns his half of the money, why didn't any of his own henchmen stop/subdue him and/or pillage the money for themselves? Piles of cash that high (even if it only consists of $1.00 Bills) shows that the cash amount would be substantially high (a few hundred million to say the least).

Answer: Given the Joker's tendency towards extreme and somewhat random violence, killing abruptly and on a whim, it would be a brave henchman who tried to interfere with his plans. It's also established that many of the Joker's henchmen are recruited from among the mentally unstable inmates of Arkham Asylum, so money may well be not as great a priority to them as it would be to your average mob henchman. Finally, as you mention in your submission, the Joker specifically states that he's only burning half of the money that he took from Lau. That still leaves plenty of money to go around among his crew - if the boss wants to burn his half share, that's his business.

Tailkinker

Someone stated on another question, and I believe it to be accurate - Joker is burning his half of the money...which is the bottom half of the money stack. The top half is the Mobs money, but that is obviously going to burn too and that is why the other mob leader objects. Joker says he doesn't need money, cause the things he likes are cheap. Still, I don't think any of the joker's henchmen are going to be brave enough to try and stop him.

oldbaldyone

Chosen answer: It's showing he's sexually adventurous, as he's using a cooking appliance as a sex toy.

Question: After Tess (Anna) is on the TV show, Ryan, Harry and Grandpa leave when they find that Tess has already left. When Anna (Tess) gets home to find Harry on the table, he and Grandpa are at home, so why is it that when Tess is riding home on the motorbike Ryan drives past, only to arrive home again?

Answer: The guy said that she had been removed from the building, the dialogue never said she'd gone home. In the very next scene you see her in the coffee shop where Jake works...so by the time that Ryan sees her on the back of the bike he could have taken Grandpa and Harry home and then gone out for some other reason.

Question: Originally, the plan was to kill Richard himself rather than his wife in order to keep him quiet about Provasic causing liver damage. But wouldn't Devlin MacGregor eventually have had to deal with the side effects anyway, especially when the wrongful death lawsuits began pouring in? I know some suspension of disbelief is required, but this still seems like a stretch.

Answer: Not really. If anybody raises a wrongful death lawsuit against them, Devlin MacGregor's high-priced lawyers can just point to their battery of "successful" test results to show that no side-effects occurred during their comprehensive testing. If they then dig deeper into the case, then, lo and behold, it's revealed that the tests were all faked, with the fake results signed off on by Dr Alexander Lentz, who was, rather conveniently, tragically killed in a car accident. It would be easy to cast Lentz as the villain, faking the test results for his own reasons, which gets Devlin MacGregor off the hook. In all probability, the original idea was to frame Kimble for the fraudulent testing - with Kimble killed in a "burglary gone wrong", he could easily be used as a scapegoat. When things went awry and Kimble's wife was killed instead, this gave them the perfect angle to completely discredit Kimble, taking him out of the equation, and they switched to a replacement plan of using Lentz as their scapegoat, forging his signature on the test results and arranging the car accident that killed him.

Tailkinker

Question: Jigsaw needed Daniel to get through the game safe and sound so that he could put him in a safe and later present him to his father. Amanda was also included in the plan. How could Jigsaw be sure that the boy or Amanda wouldn't die from the gas? Or did they already have an antidote?

Answer: Notice how Amanda doesn't cough up blood or have a bloody nose. She clearly had some kind of antidote other then the needles. As for the second question, look when Eric is in the room with the safe and notices the needle on the floor. Amanda gave that to Daniel.

Answer: So Jigsaw doesn't really want to kill Daniel?

No. He used Daniel as bait to get Eric to stay there with him. Daniel was also the key to everyone in the game being linked.

Ssiscool

Answer: I figured either those two were given an antidote, or because he says an odourless gas, I figured they shot the other ones up with something that will work in 2 hours.

Question: In what parts in the movie do each of the songs appear ?

Answer: I'm assuming you mean the soundtrack rather than the score, though I have that too. This is in order of appearance rather than track listing. 1) Full Moon by The Black Ghosts - this plays after the scene with the deer, showing Bella's journey from Phoenix and arrival in Forks. 2) Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation - when Bella wants to confront Edward before school3)Tremble for My Beloved by Collective Soul - starts playing when Edward has just saved Bella from the van.4)I Caught Myself by Paramore - playing in the background while Bella watches Jess and Angela try on dresses5)Never Think by Rob Pattinson - as Edward and Bella have dinner in the restaurant6) Bella's Lullaby by Carter Burwell - when Edward plays the piano for Bella7) Spotlight by Mute Math - the Ray-Ban scene when they arrive at school.8)Supermassive Black Hole by Muse - as they play baseball.9) Let Me Sign by Rob Pattinson - this isn't included on the CD but it plays as Edward sucks the venom out of Bella's wrist.10) Go All the Way by Perry Farrell - the song that plays as they enter the prom.11) Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine - as Bella and Edward slowdance outside and she asks to be made a vampire.12) 15 Step by Radiohead - not on CD, but the first credit song, played from when Victoria is shown to be watching. 13) Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park - second credit song. 14) Decode by Paramore- third credit song.

Question: What type of gun does the Joker use in the bank robbery?

Answer: It's a Glock 17, converted to fire full auto. None of the close-up shots show the fire selector switch on the left side of the slide which is a unique feature on the Glock 18 (and Glock 18c). This is also consistent with the Joker's anarchic nature - a modification like that would be dangerous to the user if not performed by a professional gunsmith, but the Joker probably wouldn't care.

Question: In the hospital scene, where the Joker has the gun to his head and Harvey Dent flips the coin, apparently it was heads because the Joker didn't get killed. But what if it landed on tails? Would the Joker just let himself get killed?

Answer: Yep. He's betting everything, including his own life, on the flip of a coin. He's already won, he's already dragged Harvey down from being Gotham City's great white hope for justice to being a man who's willing to kill on the flip of a coin. The Joker puts the gun in Harvey's hand and places it against his own forehead where he couldn't possibly get away if Harvey chose to pull the trigger - he knows full well what he's risking. But he's already proved his point, that anybody can fall from grace - if it takes his own death to push Harvey deeper into madness, then that's fine with him, because he's already won. If he lives, so much the better, but he's prepared to put his fate in the hands of random probability, into the hands of the chaos that he worships. That said...he's also holding the hammer back on the revolver, so even if the trigger was pulled the gun wouldn't fire. So he's not risking that much...

Tailkinker

Question: Why is Rosie carrying what looks like a big stick at the beginning of the movie and again on the little raft? Also, what do they say right before they announce Super Trooper?

Answer: Do not know about the big stick, but before "Super Trooper" they say, "Ladies and no gentlemen! Presenting for one night and one night only-" then Rosie interrupts by saying, "Because we haven't got the breath for another!" Donna then carries on with, "The world's first girl-power band...Donna and the Dynamos!"

Answer: I think it's the microphones for their performance.

Answer: I believe you're asking about the boat's tiller. It's the lever that controls the rudder to steer the boat.

Bishop73

Question: When the little girl in the read coat goes inside to hide during the liquidation of the ghetto, she goes under a bed. Why isn't her coat red anymore?

Answer: It's open to interpretation because it was a directorial decision. But the technique was a way to direct the audience's eye towards what Schindler was observing during the chaotic outdoor scenes. Once the girl's inside, the shot is no longer from his perspective since Schindler can't see her anymore, so the red was no longer necessary.

JC Fernandez

Question: At the end when the pick-up truck drives away, there is an angel on the back flap of it, similar to the angel in the garden of the house where Tom Hanks delivers the parcel. Are we to assume that the parcel belongs to the woman in the pick-up, and that this is significant in some way?

Answer: It's a little complicated. The angel wings are a plot device to show that the parcel Tom Hanks just delivered to the ranch belongs to the woman (who is an artist) in the truck, which also has the wings painted on the tailgate. There are also metal wing wind sculptures in her yard. The wings are her artist's "logo." As Hanks stands in the crossroads deciding which way he will go, his looking back in the direction that she just drove off implies he will go back to her house, probably to let her know that she had given him hope while he was on the island that he could someday deliver that package, and possibly to restart his life with her (she is pretty, after all). She was married to the guy in Russia who she was sending packages to, but he was cheating on her. If you notice the gateway over the entrance to her property where another package was delivered at the beginning of the movie, both her name and her husband's was on the overhead ironwork, as well as the angel wings. At the end, his name has since been removed, indicating that she is now single.

raywest

Wow, you are extremely observant. Thank you, I was totally confused at the end.

You're welcome.

raywest

Also, the artist would have been on the island with him just like Kelly was in the watch.

Answer: The Angel wings are an important symbolic thread that run throughout the move. They appear in several scenes. They represent love/hope/salvation. We first see them in a seemingly unrelated scene at the pretty redhead artist's ranch when she is still married to the cheater dude. She sends him the wings on a package but the package is not important. Rather the Wings on the package are important. She intended the wings to go to her cheating husband but instead they went to Chuck. Chuck preserves the wings. He caresses the wings. Later we see that he has drawn dozens of the same wings on the inside of his cave wall. On the raft, he takes only Wilson and the Wings which he carefully wraps in leaves. When finally delivering them home, Chuck writes "this package saved my life" when he means hope/love/salvation have saved his life. The wings have make the exact same journey as Chuck. They have finally returned to the redhead and bought Chuck with them.

I agree with your assessment, though the wings also serve as a practical plot device. It helps the audience to recognize and track the package as it moves through the story and for Chuck to link it to the woman's truck at the end, which also had the wings painted on the tailgate.

raywest

Nailed it! My thoughts exactly I just needed confirmation that all of this was reasonable to assume. Thank you.

Answer: The package that Mrs. Peterson sends to her husband in Russia contains divorce papers. The winged package that Tom Hanks' character saves as an unfinished task represents his desire to eventually deliver. He opens all the other packages and finds a few useful items. And the package sent by Mrs. Peterson, he uses to motivate himself to make that delivery. He only took bare essentials on the raft when he leaves the island. This package is essential to him. For some reason, he does not deliver the package to the destination to which it was addressed, but instead takes it back to the original sender. It helps close the loop in a way that could not have been done if he just delivered to the original destination 5 years late.

Question: Don gets a call from the French verifying that the blind samples Don sent confirming their virus and the AIDS virus were the same. Don goes around the CDC office and tells everybody that the French also had the AIDS virus. This causes everybody to cheer. Why would the French having the virus make everybody cheer?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: It represents a breakthrough in the case - a lead to the original source of the virus, as many of the patients being treated in France were either African or had spent time there. Up until that point, the origin of the virus was a mystery - with the knowledge that the French were treating the same virus, it gave them vital information in backtracking where the virus originated. It also proved that AIDS was a worldwide phenomenon of epidemic proportions, something that a number of agencies had been reluctant to accept up to that point.

Tailkinker

This is not an accurate answer. When they say the French had the virus, they don't mean patients with the virus. They mean the French successfully found the virus in blood, which is a necessary step in determining that aids is caused by an infectious agent and the first step in coming up with medication. The French had patients with the virus since about the same time as the us.

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