Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Did anyone hear exactly what Gibbs said at the brethren court meeting? He explains why they didn't use the pieces of eight like they intended, but instead used pieces of junk.

Answer: They didn't use pieces of eight because they were all broke and didn't have any pieces of eight to use. In the end, they simply used whatever they had available at the time.

Tailkinker

Answer: No the guy sent in a picture of himself because he thought he looked like Al. So they brought him on the show as his brother.

Bowling255

Answer: According to imdb.com: Richard has only one sister. http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0439781/bio.

Rlvlk

Answer: It should also be noted, Richard Karn is his stage name as Karn is his middle name. His real name is Richard Wilson. Cal was played by Keith Lehman.

Bishop73

Question: I'm curious, when Beckett and his men first board The Dutchman, he says to Jones, 'This is no longer your world. The immaterial has become immaterial,' what's his meaning? Also straight after, we see a load of his men aiming their guns at Davy Jones' heart. What's that all about?

Answer: Beckett is saying that mythological beings like Jones, entities that he doesn't really consider to be part of the normal material world have become irrelevant, that they don't matter any more. Aiming the guns at the heart is purely a threat, telling Jones that if he doesn't do what they tell him to, they'll destroy the heart and him along with it.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end of the movie where Jack is looking at the map for the Fountain of Youth, I'm pretty sure I saw in faint red writing "To Jerry." And then there is some other writing. Possibly a signature? Jerry is the producer's first name. Did anyone else see this? It is on the left side of the map.

Answer: I could see it, but it's simply too faint to read what it actually says, although it bears a slight resemblance to those words. It's not inconceivable that it says that, however, as movie makers sometimes include hidden messages and/or graphics into their films, such as George Lucas inserting icons of C3PO and R2D2 into "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark".

raywest

Question: In the very last shot before the credits, the camera has pulled back to reveal a row of tanks containing dead Jackmans. Does this imply that not only did the Tesla machine replicate Angier, but also the tank? One assumes then that Angier has had the forethought to place a floor between where he materializes and the newly replicated tanks appear.

Answer: As we see when Borden goes down under the stage to try to learn how the trick is performed, the tank is already in place before the machine is activated. Angier is using a large number of identical tanks, which is probably one of the deciding factors in only performing the trick a limited number of times.

Tailkinker

Question: In the first scene of NORAD where the technicians first notice the incoming missiles, some of the people start saying sentences with the word "confidence" in it. What does "confidence" mean (in relataion to the military)? Does it mean like how sure they are of something?

Answer: The term "confidence" in this case is referring to a statistical element such as confidence interval and confidence level. The discussion of this element is beyond the scope of this answer. Suffice to say, the term "confidence is high" is a terse way of stating that the confidence level as a percentage is 95% or higher and the data sampled (in this case, computing a probability that the attack is real) is accurate.

Show generally

Question: Did anyone in the hospital ever find out it was one of J.D's interns that gave Ms. Wilk her fatal infection? I know it's unlikely but I had to ask anyway.

Answer: No, no one ever finds out that Cabbage was the one responsible for Mrs. Wilke's infection. This information is known only to the audience.

Answer: She wore a padded bra. However in the sequel she didn't wear any padding, and that's why her breasts are smaller in movie #2.

alex garrido

Question: Did Tia Dalma bring back Barbossa from the dead for the same reason as Captain Jack - because he was a pirate lord?

Answer: While not explicitly spelled out in the film, it does seem quite likely that that was at least part of her motives.

Tailkinker

Answer: It was also because he was in possession of one of the Piece of Eight required (or rather, knew where it was) for Tia Dalma to be released from her human form. Plus, she needed someone she had leverage over, to help her get the other Pirate Lords together so that all the Pieces of Eight could be gathered (and stolen by Barbossa). She needed Jack back because he took his Piece of Eight along with him to the Locker.

Question: Did Davey Jones corrupt his purpose? Is that why he turned out the way he did? His purpose was to ferry souls to the next world, was he not properly doing that?

Answer: Pretty much, yes. He carried out his duties faithfully for the first ten years, then returned to shore, to find Calypso missing. After that, he refused to continue, leading to his current state.

Tailkinker

Answer: Like all pirates, he double crossed her. He seduced and captured her in human form, by controlling her he could control the seas. She in turn double crossed him cursing him to the Flying Dutchman.

That's not what happened at all.

lionhead

It was the Brethern Court that did that I believe.

Question: How could Davy Jones walk on the beach when negotiating with Jack, Will, Elizabeth and Beckett? Was it part of his every 10 years deal?

Answer: He is standing in a barrel of sea water, so technically not on the ground.

Ioreth

Question: Why did the lady Calipso blow up into crabs?

Answer: There's no definitive explanation, although Calypso seems to have a particular fondness for the crustaceans, as can be seen after she sends the crabs to retrieve the Black Pearl when they're in Davy Jones' Locker. She is seen affectionately holding one that has scurried back to her. When she's released from her human prison, her spirit disperses into crabs and returns to the sea.

raywest

Question: I am a little puzzled by one of Mr. Finch's last investigations towards the end of the movie. As he meets with Dominic to ask him "the question" about the release of the viruses, the two of them also research files of the final three missing involved members, one of whom was Rokewood. Yet after they leave the meeting in the dark with "Rokewood" and are again in the office, Finch states to the man on the phone that Rokewood has indeed been dead twenty years. If Rokewood had been dead already, wouldn't Finch have known that he was being stood up by V (playing the part of "Rokewood") earlier as they met?

Answer: Finch isn't telling the man on the phone that Rokewood is dead, he's simply repeating what the man on the other end of the phone is saying.

Matt Lynch

Answer: It's never made clear. The only rough indication of time is that, when discussing which system to hide out in, Han comments that Bespin is a long way but that he thinks they can make it, which suggests a flight of considerable duration. Given that we're talking about two different star systems (Anoat and Bespin), even if those stars are unusually close together, without the hyperdrive operational, the flight must be reckoned of the order of some months. This would also tie in with Yoda apparently having taught Luke a considerable amount despite considering him too old and too set in his ways to learn properly.

Tailkinker

Question: Where was the opening filmed? It looks like somewhere with snow, but must be a desert?

Answer: White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.

Twotall

Question: Was Christopher Bale's character a twin or a "clone" made by Telsa's machine? (Because Bale's keyword for his diary is "TESLA" and when Hugh Jackman's character actually goes to see Tesla, he states that he knows he made a similar machine for his competitor. Bale?)

Answer: They were twins. Tesla didn't make a matching machine for Borden - all he made for the twins was a machine that made some light and noise to enhance their trick. The Borden brothers sent Angier off to see Tesla on what they thought would be a wild goose chase, just to get him out of the way for a while - they would never actually give away the real secret to their trick. They never anticipated that Tesla could actually have built the machine in question.

Tailkinker

Question: When Davy Jones stabs Will, Jack looks absolutely devastated. Does he really care about Will, or is it because his plan didn't work, that he was considering becoming the new captain?

Answer: Because he knows that, in order for Will to live, he has to give up his chance at immortality. And the hidden part of him that's a decent man knows that he can't just let Will die. He's seeing his dream of sailing the oceans for eternity die in front of him.

Tailkinker

He is a good man, the Wicked Wench became the Black Pearl after Beckett sunk the ship as Sparrow let the slaves go and didn't hand them over, this is when he made a deal with Davy Jones to resurrect the ship.

But remember that Will, before he got stabbed by Davy Jones, reminded Jack that he "has to do the duty" by this he mean so.

That he'll have to ferry the souls over to the afterlife, so I believe that Jack did care for Will and didn't want him to die when Elizabeth and him just got married and were expecting a future.

Question: With the little boy hanging in the beginning, did it have anything to do with the story line, or were they just showing how they would kill anyone that was associated with pirates?

Answer: Beckett needed the song to be sung to summon the Brethren Court, making it possible for him to destroy them. As a result, they simply started hanging anybody who had any links to pirates, until somebody started the song.

Tailkinker

Question: Maybe I'm missing something, but why can't Elizabeth just live on Will's boat at the end? Someone suggested it was because she cannot go into Davy Jones' Locker, but she has been there and got out before so why not again? Also, Will's father isn't dead but he can travel with Will, so why couldn't Elizabeth just join his crew?

Answer: From the point of view of the Dutchman, Bootstrap is dead enough to serve on the ship. The idea is that Jones rescues people who would otherwise simply have drowned and makes them serve on his ship in lieu of death; as such, they can be considered technically deceased. Elizabeth has been into the Locker, yes, but with the demise of Jones, the Locker may not even exist any more. Will's task is to escort the dead into the afterlife, not the Locker - while Elizabeth survived the Locker, the afterlife may be something entirely different. The rules regarding the Dutchman and the duties of her crew are never spelled out, but it seems that, no, Elizabeth cannot live on her.

Tailkinker

Question: Why is Jack the monkey no longer undead?

Answer: Monkey Jack is still cursed. Note when he was shot out of the cannon he was in flames and still survived unharmed.

Super Grover

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