Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Questions about the ring-wraiths: In the scene where the hobbits are hiding under the tree, Merry tosses his pack a few feet to distract the ring-wraith following them: we see that the ring-wraith is fast, so how can this possibly allow the hobbits time to escape? If the ring-wraiths can't be killed by any living man, why are they so scared of Aragorn that they run off from Weathertop and leave the ring that was nearly in their grasp? We see that ring-wraiths can go into water with their horses in the scene where they are chasing Arwen and Frodo, so why don't they follow the hobbits on the ferry?

Answer: (1) The Nazgul goes off to investigate the noise, giving the hobbits more than enough time to run in the other direction. Do bear in mind that the Nazgul doesn't actually know that they're there, so he's not going to be looking back - he's focused on whatever he heard elsewhere.(2) It's only the Witch-King who "no living man can kill", not the others. And even if they can't be completely destroyed by Aragorn, he can still injure them enough to immobilise them, leaving them stuck. Far better to escape and leave themselves with the possibility of catching up later, than getting badly injured and allowing the Ring to get away.(3) They don't follow the hobbits on the ferry because the Brandywine river is deep and they'd simply get swept away. When they're chasing Arwen, that particular river is very shallow at that point, allowing their horses to pass largely unhindered (at least until Arwen does her thing).

Tailkinker

Question: After Aragorn goes over the cliff during the warg attack, why don't Gimli and Legolas go down to look for him? Even if they thought it would be impossible for him to have survived, how could they live with not having made sure? Yes, more wargs would be coming soon, but surely these two brave warriors would not allow that to prevent them from possibly saving Aragorn's life.

Answer: They simply don't think he could have survived. Even if he did, they could hardly take the time to search for what could be miles downriver. Aragorn would want to make sure that the people of Rohan reached safety, so that's what they do, better to accompany the column to Helm's Deep, rather than abandon them in the face of possible further attacks. Also, King Theoden had given orders to leave the dead, and assuming that Aragon could not have survived such a fall, they were being ordered to leave him.

Tailkinker

Question: Why doesn't Leia see Yoda, Anakin, and Obi-Wan's ghosts at the end of the movie (if she does, she doesn't seem to have much of a reaction to it)? I know she hasn't been trained yet, but when Luke was on Hoth (in Episode V), he was able to see Obi-wan's ghost before he had any training, and he heard Obi-wan talking to him during the attack on the first Death Star.

Answer: The precise mechanism is somewhat unclear at this point, leaving us with no particularly good answer, but there are undoubtedly possibilities. Even in the first film, Luke has had a small amount of training with Obi-Wan; it's not much, but it could be enough to allow him to see them. Leia's had nothing at all, so possibly she's simply not capable of it. Alternatively, the 'ghosts' may simply have chosen to appear only to Luke for reasons of their own; two of them wouldn't be recognised by Leia anyway, making it a bit pointless to appear to her.

Tailkinker

She didn't really look TBH. She went over to Luke, hugged him, then brought Luke back to the Ewok party.

Answer: She doesn't see them. Her focus is on Luke staring off and daydreaming during a massive celebration.

Answer: Try to imagine what your reaction would be if you suddenly came upon three ghosts out of nowhere. Ghosts, mind you - glowing apparitions of dead people beyond the grave right there before your eyes! Regardless if you find such things scary or not, it would probably be quite a shock, require lots of explaining, and certainly kill the celebratory mood for the time being.

TonyPH

Question: When Towns finds the body that fell out, how come it's not in too bad condition after falling such a long way and onto dirt? Is the dirt what kept his body in pretty good condidtion after falling out? If so, please help me on this.

Answer: The person may have fallen on to a sanddune, in which case the landing would have been softened, but not to a point to prevent death.

Question: Is it true that the song "I Don't Dance" was specifically written for Corbin and Lucas because they both auditioned for the role of Ryan, but since Lucas was a better dancer, he got the part?

Answer: It is just a coincidence. Corbin's character is all about sports and feels that Ryan is not in the same league when it comes to baseball (pardon the pun). Ryan, on the other hand, wants to prove that dancing takes just as much athleticism and dedication as sports therefore the game and song are a showdown between two cliques you generally find in high school, the athletes and the drama club.

Question: In the prologue to the movie, Galadriel states that the ring has been forgotten, but Galadriel herself was around during the historic war against Sauron, and Elrond encouraged Isildur to throw it into the lava in Mount Doom, and there's even a mural in Rivendell of Isildur cutting the ring from Sauron's hand, so obviously the ring has not been forgotten. What gives? It can't be that "forgotten" means "believed now only to be a myth" ("History became legend; legend became myth") because Elrond and Galadriel (and countless other elves) would know that the ring wasn't a myth because they were a part of the earlier events. Nor can it be that Galadriel is referring to general history when she says, "For none now live who remember it," because she is not extemporizing on the nature of history, she is specifically referring to the ring: "For two and a half thousand years the ring passed out of all knowledge." Not just men's knowledge, or dwarves' knowledge, but all knowledge. Similarly, Gandalf has been in Middle-Earth for "300 lives of men", but Gandalf has to look up the story of the ring in historical papers; how did such an epic and giant war escape his notice?

Answer: Elves usually count themselves out of affairs like this, preferring to keep to themselves. It was a man who took the ring, so it is a man's tale until the elves choose to involve themselves again. And Gandalf is well aware of the war that saw the supposed defeat of Sauron. He's researching the historical documents looking for any clues, any seemingly irrelevant yet ultimately useful minutia, he may not yet be aware of.

Phixius

Your answer doesn't make any sense. She says has fallen out of all knowledge. Whether or not elves prefer to keep to themselves doesn't change that they have knowledge of the ring.

brianjr0412

The ring was deemed lost for good, eventually those that were there forgot it existed (or could still exist) untill the dark shadow over Mirkwood and later Mordor jolted their memories.

lionhead

Question: Is it known whether Darth Plagueous' power to "create life" worked on people that were already dead (other than himself)? I'm asking because Vader believes that he and Palpatine can figure out how to use the power, so it seems like he wouldn't be worried when he hears that Padme is dead.

Answer: The strong implication is that it doesn't. He's described as being able to "prevent those he loved from dying", which is a little different from actually bringing them back from the dead. There are also references to manipulating the midi-chlorians in order to create life, which appears to refer to the ability to create a new organism (as may possibly have been done with Anakin himself), rather than any form of resurrection.

Tailkinker

Question: Is it really possible for submarines and other naval vessels some distance away to hear the music coming from someone's headphones, as in the story the COB tells? I know water channels sound quite well, but this seems a stretch to me.

Answer: He was using the sub to play the music into the water, but listening to it through the headphones. So the sound emanated from the sub, not his headphones. Sub sonar is quite sensitive and if close enough sound can be heard through the hull.

JC Fernandez

Question: This continuity error is mentioned on the Star Wars Wikipedia, but I was wondering if anyone might have an answer. Anakin is 22 or 23 years old in this movie, and Obi-Wan says that no one has ever been on the Jedi Council at that age. However, Depa Billaba is seen on the council in Episode I. If Depa's master, Mace Windu, is 40 then and considers Depa to be like a daughter to him (according to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Depa_Billaba and the novel "Shatterpoint"), he is probably at least 17 or 18 years older than her. That would mean that she is in her early 20's in Episode I. Wouldn't Obi-Wan know that someone else before Anakin had already been on the Council at that age?

Answer: It's simply an error. While efforts are made to keep the expanded universe materials such as the books and comics consistent with the films, there is inevitably the possibility of inconsistencies creeping in. By Lucasfilm rules, the only inviolate canon are the movies themselves - information gleaned from other sources that contradicts the movies is automatically considered to be incorrect, even if it appeared prior to the film in question. The movies say that Anakin is the youngest ever to sit on the Council, so that's what's considered to be the canon. Billaba may appear on the council in Episode 1, but whatever information suggests that she is, in fact, younger than Anakin is to be considered incorrect.

Tailkinker

Question: Who does the voice of the droid towards the end, the one that tells Bail, Obi Wan and Yoda that Padme has lost the will to live? It sound like Jimmy Smits to me but I can't be sure.

Answer: That role was played by David Acord, assistant sound editor on the film.

Tailkinker

Question: When Darth Sidious tells the Neimoidians that he will make their next move legal (at the beginning of the movie), don't they think that comment is strange, unless they know that he is also Senator Palpatine? They don't seem to wonder how he can make something legal.

Answer: They know that he's a powerful individual with some serious connections. While they obviously don't know his true identity, they clearly feel that he's capable of manipulating the Senate to that extent. While a degree of curiosity as to how would be entirely understandable, a general unwillingness to look too closely into the doings of a Sith Lord is also entirely understandable. They'd undoubtedly be curious, but either none of them are brave enough to ask Sidious, or they've learned from experience not to do so.

Tailkinker

Question: Gollum knew that Bilbo had the ring, so why is he only now trying to get the ring back? Why didn't he try to recapture it from Bilbo?

Answer: His fear of the Sun kept him in hiding under the Misty Mountains for three years, and when he finally came out, he faced another problem: He did not know where the Shire was! He made his way towards it very slowly, piecing together Bilbo's story from what he overheard Men talk about, but was unable to resist the summons from Mordor, and turned Eastwards instead, wandering there for many years. This is when he met Shelob, and was captured and tortured by the Orcs. After his release, he started hunting for the Ring again, until he, to his surprise, discovered the Fellowship in Moria, and started following them.

Twotall

Answer: There's no definitive answer to this one, however, the key to the bodily disappearance appears to be the training that Yoda refers to at the end of the film, when he makes reference to Qui-Gon having found his way back via the Force. There's no indication that anyone other than Yoda and Obi-Wan have ever studied this, so, in all likelihood, no, Windu's body didn't disappear.

Tailkinker

Question: Was there any significance to Wonka's 'half-room' aside from showing his eccentricity?

Answer: None at all. It isn't mentioned in the book and appears to simply be designed to show how unusual Wonka (and the factory) are.

Answer: Scrubs is filmed on location at North Hollywood Medical Center, a real decommissioned hospital located at 12629 Riverside Drive in the the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California; since 2007, the building is also the shooting location of semi-fictional medical series Diagnosis X. However, the location of Sacred Heart Hospital within the fictional world of Scrubs is left ambiguous. Cast and crew on the show refer to the location as "San DiFrangeles" - a portmanteau of San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles that is meant to encompass a large part of California.

www.translingua.com.mx

Answer: It's a question of appearance. Sidious needs to discredit the Jedi, make it appear as if they've turned against the Republic so that he can use their clone troops to eliminate them without major public outcry. He can't let the Seperatists take them out; it would have the potential effect of making them martyrs, plus it would effectively mean letting the Seperatists win the war, which would jeopardise his political position. Tyranus's public persona is the leader of the Seperatist movement, so he could hardly be used to lead the clone troops; the public would never accept a supposed change of heart of that nature. Nor could Tyranus simply eliminate the Jedi himself - he's powerful, but not powerful enough to single-handedly take them all out. Sidious ultimately needs an apprentice who can be seen to be loyal and who can lead the clone troops to eliminate the Jedi without awkward questions about said loyalty. Either way, Tyranus is out of the question; with Sidious' plan coming to fruition, Tyranus is no longer useful to him, except in that his death can be used to bring his successor closer to the Dark Side. Anakin, who fits the required role perfectly, is the one that Sidious has really been waiting for to help him finish the job.

Tailkinker

Question: Why doesn't it explain what happened to Angie or Jill V.? Also when Alice gets in to Umbrella at the end she says to the program " I met your sister, she was a real bitch." Is this ref. to the Angie program in the first movie and Alice said "I met your sister" does this mean that Angie had a sister the whole time we didn't know about?

Movieman123

Chosen answer: No, Angie was an only child, but Doctor Ashford created the Red Queen A.I. interface through his daughter's likeness. The most logical explanation for this is that Umbrella has a lot of underground facilities like the hive and therefore mass-produced The Queen in order to protect each installation. As far as Jill is concerned Sienna Guillory (who plays Jill) wasn't up to making another Resident Evil film, so the script went around her.

Jason Riley

Question: Why is it that every policeman in the state of Illinois is not alerted to the fact that an escaped serial killer is on the loose, and how would Laurie not know that she is related to the Myers, seeing as she was adopted to a family that only lived 3 houses away, wouldn't word of mouth leak that secret?

Answer: These are all answered in the movie. The institution didn't want people to panic and they knew it would be a huge embarrassment to them if everyone knew a psychopath was able to escape. As for Laurie not knowing. It is explained by the cop that when he responded to the 911 when Michael's mom killed herself he saw the baby and didn't want her to grow up with the stigma attached to the Myers family. He took her, made no record of her ever being there, and dropped her off at a hospital out of state. He then found out that the family adopted her, but I'm not sure they knew where she came from. No one knew she was Michael's sister. Had they known, she would probably have been hounded her whole life for being related to him, as her mom was. (It was mentioned that his mom was labeled Satan's mother because of Michael's actions).

It's always bothered me that Rob used such a stupid explanation for Laurie's backstory. She stays in the same town where Michael wiped out her entire family, then Michael returns 15 years later and happens to encounter his sister after Mr. Strode asks her to drop off mail to the very house she was recovered from after Michael's rampage? It's just way too coincidental. I love The RZ07 remake, but the plot is full of holes.

Answer: Sherriff Bracket explained that he took Laurie a few towns over and dropped her off at the hospital. He then hears from his friends the Strodes that they have adopted a baby not knowing she was Michael's sister.

Question: In the scene when we first see Tracy cutting herself, what was Mel's boyfriend doing in the flashback?

Answer: Pretty sure he was smoking crack on a pop/beer can.

Answer: He was doing drugs, most likely either cocaine or crystal meth.

Question: When Bourne is talking to Julia Stiles' character she insinuates that they have some kind of history together when she says something like "It's always been hard for me when it comes to you". Does anyone know what she means by this?

Answer: That's probably all it is: an insinuation that Webb and Parsons had some kind of relationship prior to or during his induction into Treadstone, whether romantic or otherwise. It's left deliberately vague.

Sierra1

Answer: Doesn't he ask who she is? When he's talking to Landy on the phone, he references the girl from. Berlin, was it? When he says it should be easy to find her because she's standing next to Landy.

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