Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: The whole line of events leading to Gollum's capture by Faramir seems a bit out of place. 1. Where was Gollum when the hobbits were captured? 2. Wouldn't he be wondering where they are instead of fishing and singing carelessly? Did he know what had happened to them? 3. When Frodo finally appears, Gollum - suddenly - becomes suspicious. How so?

Answer: 1. Gollum ran off as soon as he heard the Rangers coming. He did not want to get caught, as he figured the Rangers would kill him. 2. Gollum was certainly curious, but he still has to eat. He wouldn't pass up a pool full of fish. He also suspected that the Rangers had taken them. 3. Gollum is suspicious of Frodo showing up randomly. He didn't expect him to be there, and he found it strange that Frodo would want them to leave right at that moment.

Question: Why does Salim sit in a bathtub surrounded by rupee notes of various denominations before shooting at the mob boss and getting shot in return?

Answer: People have said that it may possibly be a metaphor in that the rupees he is surrounded by is actually "blood money" that the mob bosses had amounted, and he was intent on staining the notes with his own blood. But there is no correct answer to this - it's something that you need to interpret for yourself.

Hamster

Question: Near the beginning of the movie, at Isolde's mother's funeral, what does she mean when she says that her mother's heart killed her?

Answer: Isolde's mother was forced into an arranged marriage and it tore her apart because she really hated her husband. Isolde's mother believed in true love and was depressed. Even though you can't die from unhappiness that's what it seems like - especially to little Isolde.

Question: During the scene where the soldiers are running away from the fighting or "the Mogadishu mile" there is a soldier carrying a SAW who appears in many of the shots during this scene, but never throughout the rest of the movie. He is seen at the lead of the group just before and when they emerge from the fog and are greeted by the African children. He appears to be too tall and broad shouldered to be Twombly or Waddell. Who is this soldier?

Answer: This soldier is Dale "Adonis" Sizemore, played by British actor Matthew Marsden. It was documented that he grabbed a SAW to enter the battle with Struecker's column of Humvees when they made their 2nd trip into the battle of Mogadishu. He was shown in several other scenes of the movie - he was the soldier who cut off his cast.

Death of a Propane Salesman (2) - S3-E1

Question: Why does Kahn act so emotional about Buckley (especially when he criticizes Luanne for not crying)? Even though he says that he sought Buckley out and got to know him, there haven't been any signs of him befriending Buckley until now.

Answer: Because Kahn doesn't like Hank and Buckley annoyed Hank so much.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Mainly, Kahn wants to annoy Hank by praising Buckley, because Hank did not like Buckley. Also, when a person dies (or some other tragedy happens), there are often people who "use" the incident to get attention for themselves. They act like they are more involved/close than they really are. At least in my experience.

Question: Does anyone know if makeup/cosmetics or other beauty practices, such as women plucking eyebrows and facial hair, existed during this time period? I know that this is just a movie and the actresses are supposed to look attractive, but I'm curious if it would have really been around back then.

Answer: For Dark Age beauty hints look at the website of historical novelist Octavia Randolph, on https://octavia.net/ Your question is brilliantly answered in the section https://octavia.net/early-cosmetics/ The Pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons and Vikings were buried with grave goods, items they used in everyday life. Archaeologists often uncover burials of men and women who were buried with elaborately carved combs for hair care, tweezers for plucking out surplus hair, ear scoops and small wash basins. There is good evidence that people processed herbs and flowers as cosmetics and make-up.

Rob Halliday

Answer: The historical sources from the time in question are scant - it's not called "the dark age" for nothing. Having said that, beauty practices like plucking eyebrows and make-up have existed since ancient times. We can safely assume that there were certain ideals of beauty, and ladies of all times strove to meet them. These ideals have changed frequently over the times, so plucked eyebrows may or may not have been the fashion in early medieaval Britain.

Ioreth

Show generally

Question: I read on a nursing website that two characters on ER started as nurses and then trained to be doctors. Obviously one is Abby Lockhart but who is the other? Thanks.

Answer: Carol Hathaway--she took pre-med exams and did well on them, but elected to remain a nurse.

Chanteuse66

Question: What's the name of the song that is playing at the start of the credits, before it actually begins scrolling upwards?

Answer: "Down to Earth", by Peter Gabriel, composed specifically for the film.

Tailkinker

Question: After Fletcher gets his son to try to unwish the "No lying" wish, he tests to see if it works. He gets slapped in the face. When his son asks "Did it work?", Fletcher says, "Not as well as I had hoped." What did he mean by that?

Answer: As you said, he was testing to see if the wish was broken--by going up to an attractive woman and talking to her. While we don't hear what happens, he apparently said something a little too "forward" to her (probably more forward than he would have done otherwise, hence the "not as well as I had hoped"), and got slapped, so he knew that he was still under the wish's effects.

Chanteuse66

But I want to know what he said to the woman.

It's deliberately made unclear what he specifically said, because him getting slapped in the face is the gag that shows the audience that he's still under the spell. If we heard what he said, then we would know right away the new wish wouldn't have worked. It's ultimately up to the viewer's imagination to decide what he told the woman.

Phaneron

Question: Was the whale in the night scene in the raft an illusion? I only ask because it faded away instead of going under the water. Is this intentional or just bad special effects? Thanks.

Answer: I noticed this too. He is really seeing a whale. This scene shows what is coming as a whale wakes him up in time to see the ship. As for the special effects, that is still up in the air.

manthabeat

The whale is he's guided salvation to being rescued when the cargo ship goes past waking him up with water sprays.

Answer: Eagle Eye is based on an original idea by Steven Spielberg who had been inspired by Isaac Asimov's sci-fi novel "All the Troubles of the World." The idea is original, the inspiration for that idea came from the novel, so yes, he really did come up with the idea.

manthabeat

Question: Why aren't Rosalie and Jasper surnamed Cullen? I can't understand why they are Hale and not Cullen.

Answer: Rosalie refuses to give up her human last name - per Stephenie Meyer. She holds on to as much of her past life as she can. Since she and Jasper look enough alike, they pose as brother and sister, therefore Jasper takes the name Hale. They do this to try to fit in with humans - making the story whatever humans will easily believe - the less they have to explain the better. They also take the name Hale to avoid there being confusion or at worst perception of incest with the couples having the same last names, it would raise even more questions about something that's already frowned upon.

Answer: He means the TV dinner turned off during a lighting storm, as if it were an actual TV. Awful, awful joke.

My Occurrence (1) - S1-E22

Question: What's the name of the song that's played just before JD gives Ben the bad news at the end of the episode? It's when he's having a flashback about retesting Ben's sample.

Answer: I believe it is Hold on Hope. The only artist I have seen for it is Guided by Voices. but you may find Various Artists as the artist title. It is on the Scrubs soundtrack.

Answer: Her raven's name is Diablo.

raywest

Question: When the Joker is giving his speech to the people on the ferries, there is a shot of him in the Pruitt building. The camera is behind him and in the reflection on the glass you can see him reading his speech from a piece of paper. Why is he doing this? Is it to make sure he remembers his own plan? Or is there something else going on?

Answer: He's got a big speech to make - seems reasonable that he might have made some notes so that he didn't forget anything. Most people do that under such circumstances. There certainly aren't any indications in the film that it was anything else - while it might be a mistake, it fits the scene well enough that there's no way to tell either way.

Tailkinker

His voice also definitely sounds like he is reading, in this scene and also when he calls into the talk show to threaten Coleman Reese. It does not sound like "off the cuff" dialogue. Apparently the Joker writes speeches like this down and reads directly from his notes.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: I read about an unused scene where Vader walks into a room in the Jedi temple, where Shaak Ti is meditating, and stabs her with his lightsaber. Was this actually filmed (I know the deleted scene included on the DVD is the one of Shaak being killed by General Grievous)?

Answer: Yes it was filmed as there are pictures of that scene on the internet but there aren't any video segments of it anywere.

Question: Near the beginning of the movie, Fletcher can't lie and tries saying the word that sounds like "sight-ull". Why can't he say "Settle"? Just saying "Settle!" is a command or suggestion. It isn't telling a lie about something.

Answer: Because the underlying reason the parties would settle is a lie. He knows that settling the case is not really the right thing to do.

wizard_of_gore

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.

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