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: Could somebody answer why Shanti's look was changed, not to mention her personality?

Answer: New animators had a different idea of how she should look and act; it is the same in almost every Disney sequel.

Disney-Freak

Question: I don't understand why the people kill themselves. I mean I understand that the neurotoxin removes their self-preservation instincts, but wouldn't that just make them not care if they live or die and take unnecessary risks, not actively seek out ways to kill themselves?

Answer: If such an event were to actually occur in the real world, that would be the most likely scenario. The mass suicide is just how M. Night Shamylan chose to portray the event in his film.

Answer: I just thought, that because of the toxin's way of making your thoughts and actions move backwards, it might mean that it also switched the human way of wanting to survive. The opposite of surviving is, of course, dying.

Question: If Tim Roth is on loan from the SAS and is British, why does he wear US uniforms including the US flag (visible on the helicopter before they land in New York for the final battle)?

Answer: Likely it is because he is meant to blend in with his US counterparts. Wearing a British uniform might be misconstrued as representing the British armed forces, which he is not. It may not be exactly with the rules of the military, but the army might not have wanted to attract notice that they had to get outside help.

Show generally

Question: I know this show is from the time period when a lot of couples had two beds in their room. Just out of curiosity, when did it become acceptable to show a couple's bedroom with a single bed on TV?

Answer: According to Snopes.com, there is no definitive answer, but the mid-1960s is the most verifiable date with "The Munsters" being cited as the first, although others claim "The Brady Bunch" showed the first couple seen in a double bed. An early TV show from the late 1940s titled, "Mary Kay and Johnny" is also thought to have shown the married couple's bedroom as having a double bed, although probably not with them in it. However, this was when TV was aired live, and there are no surviving episodes, only anecdotal accounts.

raywest

Something that is funny is that in the movie "A Christmas Story," they show the parents having two twin beds in their bedroom. In a real situation, they should have shown them having a double bed. Lucy and Ricky had twin beds pushed together in an early episode, which would have been pushing television boundaries in that time.

Question: When Marty is in the bar on the morning of the showdown, Seamus shows up saying something told him that he should be there, as if his future depended on it. Was he right? Did what happened that morning affect Seamus' future?

Paul Pepiton

Chosen answer: Seeing as how Seamus is one of Marty's ancestors and something significant to Seamus' future DID happen that day (Marty didn't get killed), Seamus was definitely right.

Guy

Nothing will affect Seamus' future. If anything happens to Marty, it doesn't affect the 1885 McFly family.

Marty is Seamus' future, so his statement is correct.

Question: Does anyone know the approximate timeline of the movie? I noticed shortly after Tony kills Frank (I think it was the scene when he meets with his lawyer), he and Manny walk near a billboard advertising the "all-new 1984 Corvette". The '84 Corvette went into production in March 1983, so I don't want to call it a mistake in case it is factually correct.

Answer: Early 80's is about right. That billboard wouldn't constitute a mistake either way. That same billboard could still be visible years after the car was released.

Phixius

Answer: They only have 45 minutes in any given episode, so they chose to limit the storyline to those events that the Doctor was directly involved in in the present day. We see that many of the events still unfold as before, just with less pleasant consequences - the Sontarans are still defeated, albeit at the cost of the Torchwood team, the hospital where Martha worked is still returned to Earth, but after everybody dies this time, after Sarah Jane Smith intervenes. Events shown in the historical episodes were presumably also resolved in some less effective manner, but well enough not to affect the present-day timeline to any great degree.

Tailkinker

Question: Anybody think that Tim Roth's character aping his way up the inside of the stairwell may have been inspired from his appearance as a chimpanzee in the Tim Roth version of "Planet of the Apes?"

Answer: Very likely, as Roth trained with the same trainer as he did for Planet of the Apes.

Tailkinker

Question: This pertains to the special 2-disk dvd that has the alternate ending. In the alternate ending, Neville and Anna are driving on a bridge in his SUV. Didn't all the bridges get destroyed 3 years ago? Seems like a mistake to me.

Answer: Since the scene was deleted from the film, it can't be considered a mistake. It's an extra feature on the DVD, not part of the film itself.

johnrosa

Question: In "Last Crusade," there is meant to be this guy called Gestapo. I was wondering, who is Gestapo? I am interested as he is played by Pat Roach who played henchmen in the other films.

Answer: It is not a person's name, but an identification of what the character is. The Gestapo were Adolf Hitler's secret police in Nazi Germany. Pat Roach plays an un-named Gestapo officer.

raywest

Show generally

Question: Across the whole show, how come whenever Cartman uses the word authority, he says it as if it was spelled authoritAY?

Answer: He's doing a mock impression of a southern USA sheriff.

johnrosa

Question: Who is Sparky? Trixie's constant presence already means the future family model is pretty weird, but, why is Speed's "operator" living as part of the family? Is he an employee of Racer Motors, or what?

Answer: They're a close-knit team. Sparky's a close family friend as well as an employee. It's rather like Race Bannon living with the the Quests as part of the family, even though he is employed by Dr. Quest.

Phixius

Show generally

Question: I've just started watching X-Files re-runs on TV. Years ago (when the show was still running), I saw a trailer/teaser for an episode that seemed to be about a woman who was jealous of a male character spending so much time with Scully. I thought perhaps she was Mulder's wife, but I've looked online and can't find anything about him having a wife. I think there was a scene of a woman answering the front door of a house and looking annoyed when she saw Scully there. Can anyone tell me what episode this preview might have been for?

Answer: There was a double episode called Dreamland parts 1 and 2, where Mulder switched bodies with a man named Morris Fletcher, after a time and space anomaly. Mulder has to live in Morris' home while Morris takes on Mulder's life. Nobody believes Mulder that while he looks like Morris, he isn't really. He mentions Scully and Morris' wife, believing Mulder to be her husband, becomes very jealous, more so when Scully comes to the house. This was in season 6, I believe.

Question: At the end of the film there are a bunch of people in the lost city of gold. If the devices were busted up and didn't work any longer, how did they get the water out? Also, if there's not really a way in any more, how did they all get in?

Answer: You can see the hoses and pumps that were used to pump the water out. Now that the location is known, even though the entrance was blocked, they could gain entrance by drilling/blasting/tunneling/etc.

Phixius

Question: Although some of Bruce Banner's blood falls into one of the soda bottles when he's working in the factory, the movie never explains what happens to that specific bottle. Can we assume that it gets exported to the United States and someone eventually drinks it? Will this tie into the plot for the sequel?

Answer: This is explained in the movie, and it's where Stan Lee's cameo comes in. He is the person who drinks the contaminated soda, triggering a "gamma sickness" incident.

wizard_of_gore

Question: Why was Alejandro referred to as "de la Vega"? This was Elena's surname and it would seem unlikely that Alejandro would have taken his wife's name rather than her taking his.

Lauren Capper

Chosen answer: If I remember correctly, he took the name from Diego de la Vega in the first film, when Diego passed the Zorro identity on to him.

Cubs Fan

Question: At the train station, when Peter says "It's been a year. How long does he expect us to wait," is the pronoun "he" referring to Aslan?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Yes.

Disney-Freak

Question: I was watching the movie and something occured to me: shouldn't Mary's daughter (the one who answered the door at the end) also be a jumper? I'm not going to ask about jumper genetics because I know that's not fair, but I was just curious. Thanks.

Brad

Chosen answer: It's certainly not out of the question. That being said, Sophie is only David's half-sister, as they have different fathers, so if the jumper traits came from David's father, or from some genetic combination of his parents, then Sophie would not share his abilities.

Tailkinker

Question: Technically, these people would not die from the neurotoxin directly, so do you think it could have eventually worn off? That is, of course, if the people didn't kill themselves first. The government could have sent in troops with gas masks and everyone put in straight jackets and padded rooms so not to get hurt until the toxin wore off. That could have worked; what do you think?

Jason Riley

Chosen answer: If it would/could wear off would be debatable. As far as sending troops in wearing gas masks: The masks are simply filters that block molecules of certain sizes. If the neurotoxin molecular structure was small enough, it could pass through the filters. And then there is, if you really wanted to die, you will find a way regardless of the situation.

Rlvlk

Question: In the scene where little Jess is playing at the swing, right after she walks away from it, aren't there blood stains (or something just as reddish) on the swing's wooden seat?

Answer: It appears so. M. Night often uses the color red in his movies as a visual clue that something emotional or violent is about to take place. If there was blood on the swing, it could be a forewarning to the audience that the house in question is more dangerous to the main characters than originally assessed.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.