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: When the three men decide to try to stop Sylvia from boarding the plane to London they go to the airport and are able to go through security right up to the gate to try to locate Sylvia and Mary. Was this actually possible for an international flight in 1987 when this movie was made? Could you go past airport security without a ticket and passport in 1987 for an international flight?

Blair Howden

Answer: Yes. Before 9-11-2001, non-passengers were allowed to go into airports and go to any of the gates. A lot of times, people would accompany friends or family members to their gate or be there for their arrival. And you wouldn't need a passport just to go to a gate with an international flight. In fact, one time I went to pick up a friend (pre cell phone days) and didn't see her come out and was afraid I missed her or didn't see her. So I asked one of the airline employees if she could check the manifest list to see if my friend was even on the flight, which she did to help me out. Things were much "simpler" back then.

Bishop73

Question: What was in the package that Ace was carrying at the very beginning of the movie when he deliberately breaks it?

Trainman

Answer: We're never told. Nothing important since it was just a ruse to snatch the dog.

Brian Katcher

Question: When Sebastian and Mia were about to kiss in the theater, the lights suddenly turned on and the movie stopped. Why? (00:54:10 - 00:54:33)

Bunch Son

Answer: The projector broke. The lights came on so that the staff could come in and tell everyone what happened.

Casual Person

Question: After the party, the visitors line up to get their own car keys. An employee was checking the keys to return them. And Mia in the line, desperately asks Sebastian to grab her keys instead. Why couldn't she just go get her keys herself if Sebastian can right away? And why would they keep all the keys in there in the first place? That looked weird to me. Is it common in the United States? (00:30:30 - 00:31:13)

Bunch Son

Question: At the pool, a band takes song requests from a crowd. Mia requests a song titled "I Ran." It seems like Sebastian got offended by that. He even complains about it to Mia after the performance. I don't know about the song. What's wrong with that song? I'm curious.

Bunch Son

Answer: He was mainly deflecting. When they first met, Sebastian ran away from Mia. So when she requested "I Ran", she was teasing him. He was already playing in an 80's cover band, knew the song, and was playing a keytar, which is a very 80's synth pop instrument. The band A Flock of Seagulls (who sang "I Ran") were an 80's synth pop band. She was saying how rude he was when they first met and he was trying to come up with something to say she was being rude about.

Bishop73

Answer: Sebastian views himself as a "serious musician" whose real passion in life is playing jazz, and thinks that that form of music is dying out. He doesn't take joy in playing mainstream, well known 80s pop songs; they're not his preferred style and probably doesn't consider them to be "real music" (Kind of like how Martin Scorsese said Marvel movies weren't "real cinema").

Casual Person

Question: In the director's cut (which seems to be the most widely available version these days), what's the deal with all the backflips in the opening fight? The editing is very awkward. Fasil goes from running, to doing backflips, then back to running, then back to doing backflips several times, seemingly between shots, during a short section of the fight. Is it just bad editing? Or is the movie trying to suggest that it's a different person doing the flips? Or... what? It's so confusingly edited.

TedStixon

Answer: The Director, Russell Mulcahy, started his career making music videos. He was known for using fast cuts and tracking shots.

Answer: I always felt the idea was given he was trying to move very rapidly whilst also being silent. In a garage with those shoes on your footsteps are very loud. Perhaps he was trying to confuse MacLeod as to where he was.

lionhead

I'm not asking why he's doing backflips. I'm asking why the editing is so confusing, since he goes from doing backflips, to running somewhere completely else, then back to backflips at the first location between edits. (Look up the clip "The Highlander (1986) 1080p : Underground parking Fight Scene. Epic!" on YouTube and pay attention around 4:20.) He also loses his sword whenever we see him doing backflips, even though he's carrying it when he's running. The editing makes absolutely no sense.

TedStixon

I know the scene. As I said, it's supposed to look like Fasil is confusing MacLeod by moving around a lot. Him losing his sword as he does it is already a corrected entry.

lionhead

Ah, got ya. Sorry, misunderstood what you mean. It just seemed very awkwardly edited to me.

TedStixon

Show generally

Question: Are the official canonical comic book sequels (Buffy season 8, 9, etc./Angel: After the Fall, etc.) available for purchase digitally anywhere? I checked Amazon and didn't see them. Unfortunately, the trade paperbacks and collections are prohibitively expensive, since some of them seem to be out-of-print.

TedStixon

Question: Several people from Lawson eventually realise the truth that Peter isn't really Luke. Bob knew from the beginning. Adele suspected that Peter wasn't really Luke and Emmet knew because Luke loved classical music. Since they knew that Peter wasn't really Luke, why didn't they tell people the truth? For that matter, why didn't they tell Peter the truth? Why did they let him continue thinking he is Luke?

Answer: Emmett was the only person that knew for sure. And he answers your question in the movie. "The town needed you to be Luke." He knew, but he did not want to rain on everyone's joy. Adele also eludes to the fact that she was pretty much fooling herself because she wanted to believe it. Bob also kept quiet for a similar reason to Emmett. He did not want to take away from the town's joy. Especially after so much loss and heartbreak everyone had been through. He was willing to put his dislike for Peter to the side for the time being.

jshy7979

Answer: The towns people felt sorry for Luke, He was widowed and had only one child. You 've seen the images on the news today, of entire families breaking down and crying when the sons, brothers, fathers and husbands returning from active duty. They wanted Luke to have some happiness in his life after so much sorrow.

Question: In the movie the vending machine appears to have 5 rows of C4 stacked with 10 blocks each. Wouldn't that much C4 actually level the entire block instead of just part of the building?

Answer: No. C4 is a simple compound explosive, not a nuclear weapon.

stiiggy

Question: Just where did the militia get the money for all their weapons and gear? The only rogue who's got good money is The Penguin, and he doesn't seem capable of necessarily funding a whole army.

Rob245

Answer: All the villains financed the Arkham Knight: Penguin, Two Face, Harley, Scarecrow. This is why Two-Face and Penguin stayed in Gotham and risked getting gassed to rob banks and run guns; they'd dangerously low on funds.

Answer: The Arkham Knight is behind the whole thing. He probably financed it somehow. Given who he turns out to be, probably from stolen drug money.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Near the end of the film Jim makes a makeshift solar surfer using a piece of wood from a damaged mast and an engine. Where did the engine come from?

Answer: The damaged energy cannon that the mast crushed.

Friso94

Question: I remember seeing an extra scene where they discovered that the Klingon sniper was in fact a human, since he didn't have Klingon blood. Was this only for TV release, because that's the only place that I saw it?

Answer: In the original theatrical release, the character Colonel West, played by Rene Auberjonois (who played Odo in DS9), never appeared as his scenes were cut. The home release special edition version included these scenes, including where he is disguised as a Klingon in the assassination attempt.

Bishop73

Answer: That scene was included in all the VHS and DVD releases of the film up until 2009 when the Blu-ray (and possibly subsequent DVD reissues) stuck to the theatrical cut. It also might have been edited out of some TV airings due to the big pool of blood.

TonyPH

Answer: According to Internet info, Dr. No's prosthetic hands were robotic implants, giving him superior strength with limited mobility.

raywest

Question: Is this true that David Thewlis initially wanted to play professor Quirrell in this film before being cast as Lupin in the later movies?

Answer: Thewlis was one of several actors who auditioned for the role of Quirrell, but lost out to Ian Hart. Thewlis, of course, went on to play Professor Remus Lupin.

raywest

Question: Why did Knuckles say "wait, that wasn't the deal" after noticing Robotnik trying to steal the master emerald?

Answer: Because Robotnik was betraying him. Dr. Robotnik promised to help Knuckles get the Master Emerald, so they could use it to defeat Sonic. But Robotnik was using him all along because he wanted the Master Emerald for himself... he never actually cared about Knuckles and never intended to help him get the Emerald. Thus, Knuckles is shocked and says that Robotnik taking the Emerald for himself was not part of their deal.

TedStixon

Question: Why didn't Mid Size Sedan age sooner since he was there longer than the others?

Answer: I submitted this answer previously, but it was deleted for maybe appearing to be inappropriate. The reason for his slower aging is addressed in the film when he says "Black don't crack." Black people tend to age better than other people in real life, due to having a higher production of melanin and other factors.

Phaneron

Answer: Guests with medical conditions were given drugs in their drinks, and so they didn't age as fast as the others did.

The drugs had nothing to do with aging. The whole point was that they aged fast.

Answer: He probably traced the high frequency (that only Superman and dogs could hear) waves Lex spoke to him on when Superman was standing in the street listening to Lex. This guided him to the signal where he was underground.

Question: Why does Obi-Wan want to watch over Luke, but nobody needs to watch Leia?

Answer: Leia was placed into the care of a very wealthy family, and would be given protection 24/7. Luke, on the other hand, was placed into the care of a very secluded home and a poor family, with almost little to no protection from outside dangers. Luke would have been more at risk if the Empire found out who he was.

Casual Person

Answer: Incidentally, this question is kind of being addressed in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Bishop73

Question: Why was Vitaly initially harsh and hostile towards Alex and his friends?

Question: What song is everyone whistling while they're carrying the giant egg?

Answer: The music playing while they are carrying the giant egg is from, "The Bridge on the River Kwai." It's a classic World War II movie, soldiers marching into a Japanese prison camp are whistling that tune.

Answer: The song being played is "Colonel Bogey March", which has the whistling in it. No one carrying the egg were whistling themselves though. Although in one shot I did see a character breathing out (something people do when lifting or carrying heavy things) which might look like he's whistling.

Bishop73

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