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: I've seen this movie many times, however I noticed something different when I was it on TV in the UK recently. In the cargo hold, Riggs is dodging in and out of cover behind shipping containers and shooting bad guys. In the TV version I saw, as Riggs breaks his cover and walks forward shooting we hear a voice-over from Riggs, repeating the names of those victims killed by the South Africans ending with Rika and Vicki. I have never noticed this before in any of the DVD / VHS releases. I checked my DVD and no voice-over. Am I going mad?

Answer: Prior to the 2010 Blu-Ray release; this scene was always heavily edited in the UK (in both the theatrical and all home video releases - including so the 'Director's Cut') thanks to the BBFC, to remove a lot of the violence. The voice over was still there but severely truncated as the corresponding footage had been removed. Some TV airings from 2000 onwards however used the original 'uncut' (i.e. No BBFC cuts) versions, which featured the violent footage and voice over in full. It's possible the version you saw on TV was the uncut version, while your VHS and DVD copies were the cut versions. Another indicator of which version you were watching is the scene right after Riggs emerges from the water having freed himself from his straitjacket and discovered Rika's body. If this scene was followed by Riggs climbing aboard the dock and taking out 2 South Africans in a violent rampage, you were watching the uncut version. If it cut straight to Riggs on the dock, 're-locating' his shoulder on the car (with noticeable soundtrack skip) ; you were watching the cut BBFC version.

wizard_of_gore

Question: It isn't that important to the plot but what does the back of the bus say? The second word looks like "rules" but I can't distinguish the "M" word.

Answer: The writing on the window of the bus says "Mongrels rule". That is the name of the school mascot statue, a mongrel.

Question: Shane tells Lulu a story about a family of elves that's a little obscure. Is it just meant to be another demonstration of Shane's obsession with military action, or is the story based on anything?

Answer: He is telling a story of one of his missions and just changes soldier to elf.

shortdanzr

Show generally

Question: There are many instances of these characters manipulating time (i.e. Chris comes back to change the future so Wyatt is good, and there's all that back and forth in the series finale to make things turn out the way they want). Is there ever any explanation given as to why they never manipulated time to go back and prevent Prue from dying? Obviously it was necessary for the production, since Shannen Dougherty left, but is it ever addressed by the characters, plot-wise?

Answer: The witches' time travel spells could never be specific enough. They had to rely on the Source to reverse time more accurately to save Piper and keep magic from being exposed. It's assumed that Chris has the knowledge to go back to the right time. In the series finale you see that Piper has trouble going to the right periods of time (Going back to when Patty was pregnant with Phoebe, going to the future where she's the grandmother when she wanted to get to grams etc.)

Maria Santos

Answer: If you take away Shannen Doherty's departure, it was Prue's time to die. Piper and Leo would have put off having a child. Which means Wyatt wouldn't have been born under the Equinox, the Witch's Sabbath and the Northern Lights, thus the prophecy of the twice blessed child being born.

Question: What island did they film the scenes in Greece?

Answer: According to the IMDb, filming occured on Santorini (also known as Thera or Thira), part of the Cyclades island group.

Tailkinker

Answer: Only in the sense that the writer wanted them to have very masculine names.

Question: Is the skin-peeling that Goldmember does a reference to something or is it just a running gag?

Answer: It is meant to be just a gross joke.

Answer: I think this is just a joke about how fair skinned Dutch folks are, i.e. they burn/peel easily. And very gross, yes.

Question: During the song "Poor Jerusalem" Christ says "Neither you Simon, nor Judas, nor the twelve". Simon and Judas ARE two of the twelve. Is this some sort of screw-up, or was it written this way for a purpose?

Answer: It's not a screw up, it was probably written that way so that we knew he was referring to the twelve apostles; is he had said "nor the ten", some people would have had no idea who he was talking about.

Blibbetyblip

Question: Does anyone know what Mr. Boy's power is?

Answer: I'm pretty sure he has super jumping as you can see when there was an explosion in the science lab and also when he catches Josie in the school gym at homecoming.

Answer: He doesn't have one. Like Will in the beginning, he was assigned as a sidekick because he didn't have a power.

Show generally

Question: I am a little curious about the filming techniques in the show. A lot of it is filmed in focus and out of focus to get different people's reactions. But in other shots they just pan to the people or move closer. Why do they use such a way of filming?

Movieman123

Chosen answer: They do this because the show is suppose to be a documentary, all the filming is suppose to be on the fly, so they are reacting to what is going on at that time. Sometimes that would mean moving the camera around fast, and capturing someone in the background.

pross79

Chosen answer: The episode is 'The Pit and the Pendulum' The first episode of series 4.

James Ransford

Answer: His name is Curt. He is a musician and travels a lot. Carrie and Curt are divorced.

Dedderbot

Question: I think there's some 100 years between this movie and "Alien", but is the little girl in the movie supposed to be young Ripley?

Answer: Given that Alien is set in 2122, I think it can be safely said that, no, it's not.

Tailkinker

Question: In the scene where the three officers (one of them being Martin Lawrence) went to the airport to check out the situation there, Mallone picks up a piece of the exhibit. Wouldn't the FBI run the prints on the items, and if so, Martin Lawrence's fingerprints would come up and reveal his true identity since he is in the system?

Answer: Yes, however Malone is not a real cop, only pretending to be one. Therefore it is safe to assume he would not know procedures of the police department and would not think his prints would be run by the FBI. He thinks he is safe because he is a cop. That's how big his ego is.

SAZOO1975

Yes, but the reason they don't worry about fingerprints is because they decided to immediately set up the sting operation, since they only had hours before the package was to be delivered in 3 hours. So, they had to hurry and make it there in time to do the bust.

Question: In the bonus feature extended scenes look carefully at the beginning of the movie and you'll see someone watching the explosion while wearing the goggle-rig. Can anyone explain why?

Matty Blast

Answer: Not a definitive answer, just an "allowable" excuse for this... The time surveillance team is testing their equipment and rigs and it's merely a coincidence that they happened to be in this area at this time.

Question: When Julius and David are in the White House on their way to meet the President, Julius is mentioning he should have worn a tie. He then said he looks like a "schlemiel". What did he mean by this? What is a schlemiel?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: Essentially a shlemiel is a clumsy bungler or an inept person according to the Yiddish on-line dictionary. It's saying since he is not wearing a tie, he looks inept or dopey in that situation.

Zwn Annwn

Question: On IMDB, the bio for actor Sean Kanan who played Mike Barnes, stated that he almost died during filming of this movie. However the trivia section states nothing about it. Does anybody out there know what happened that caused him to almost die?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: Kanan performed his own stunts, and during one of these he was injured with an internal bleeding, which was not discovered until later. When he took aspirin for the pain, combined with his injuries he went into hypovolemic shock and had to be rushed to the hospital.

Twotall

It was the scene where Mr. Miyagi threw him through the doors of the new Cobra Kai dojo. They did a large number of takes, and it tore his abdominal wall.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Emerge by Fischerspooner off their CD "1".

Question: Why, when the radar attack, the 7 of them attack it, but some men get blown up. Who are these people?

Answer: They aren't attacking the radar, technically, they are attacking the German machine gun nest guarding it. "Steamboat Willie" is the only surviving gunner.

Answer: The director and prodcucer of the show Greg Daniels was previously a writer for The Simpsons for which he won an Emmy. Its also the american counterpart for the monkey in the original UK version.

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