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: Why did Constantine not just destroy the Spear of Destiny, instead of hiding it?
Chosen answer: According to the legend of "The Spear", it is indestructible.
Question: Can you really overdose on nicotine patches?
Chosen answer: Yes you can. Quoting from Drugs.com: "Symptoms of a nicotine overdose include nausea; vomiting; watering mouth; diarrhea; abdominal pain; cold sweat; headache; dizziness; disturbed hearing and vision; confusion; weakness; weak, irregular heartbeats; chest pain; seizures; and death."
Question: Why was Carlos Bernard credited as a "Special Guest Star"?
Chosen answer: Without talking to the producers, it's impossible to be sure, but it's possible he was gonna be killed off early, or only appear in a few episodes. As the show developed he developed into a more stable character and became a regular cast member.
Question: What is cordite? And does it really work?
Chosen answer: According to Wikipedia: "Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants made by combining two high explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, i.e. it is a double-base propellant. However, Cordite N, a triple-base propellant is also used. Cordite is classified as an explosive, but it is normally used as a propellant for guns and rockets." So yes, it works.
Answer: Yes, cordite is classified a an explosive, but it's rarely used as such. It's a common propellant for artillery shells etc. Realistically, the Jackal would have used a plastic explosive such C4 or Semtex for a bomb. And the mercury fulminate tipped rounds are a fantasy, it's so unstable, it would explode before it had left the barrel.
Question: Is it true that there are acres of computers under the DoD? And that they scan for key words? Can anyone confirm that?
Chosen answer: If there are, it is kept secret. But there is ECHELON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON which is able to listen in on most forms of electronic communication.
Question: Is it really true that when you use a silencer the bullet slows down and is not as strong as if you did not use a silencer?
Chosen answer: Sometimes. A suppressor, known commonly as a silencer, works by reducing the sound of firing by manipulating the escaping propellant gas, and sometimes by reducing the velocity of the bullet. It all depends on the type of suppressor that is used.
Question: This is a very open-ended question which I doubt anyone could provide a definitive answer for, but isn't it extremely convenient for the plot that the author character (played by Dean Stockwell) is able to figure out more or less everything despite the absurdity of the situation?
Chosen answer: That's just it....if he had not been on the plane, then the story would not have evolved the way it did, and we would be given a different set of events. He writes mystery novels, and it is fairly realistic that he would have figured out most of the events as they unfolded, as he likely uses similar bizarre situations for his books, and is familiar with the strange and unusual.
Question: Can someone clarify where Richard Branson makes his cameo in the film? Despite knowing beforehand he was in it I could not spot him in the film. I know he played the shuttle engineer, but can anyone be more specific?
Chosen answer: He plays the co-pilot of the shuttle - if memory serves, he's sitting on the right side of the shuttle and is seen during the conversations between the NASA pilots and NASA command, prior to the plummet back to earth.
Question: What is so interesting about the number of times that Jack and Rose's names were said in the movie? Is there some meaning behind the numbers?
Answer: There's absolutely nothing interesting about it. Probably the only reason that this information appears anywhere is that they do say the names rather a lot - somebody, for reasons unknown, decided to count them.
Question: When everybody is wondering on how to escape the aliens, Fry asks Johns why he doesn't tell the group about the real reason Owens died. Was Johns in someway responsible for killing Owens? If so, then how?
Answer: She's not asking about why Owens died, she's asking why he had to die in agony when Johns had a secret stash of morphine that could have eased his pain.
Question: In this episode who are the hippies, and why are they so important? Their names were Michael & Jennifer, and when the team are going back to the future the hippies wanted to go also, but Jack started to tell them something and then stopped. I just want to know if they are someone from future episodes or something.
Chosen answer: Michael and Jennifer have never showed up past this episode. SG-1 led them to believe (with the help of a Zat gun) that they are aliens, they never told them they were actually from the future. They were simply a couple of nice people willing to help.
Timeslides - S3-E5
Question: At The End of 'Timeslides', even though all has returned to normal, Rimmer has altered history sufficiently so that he is now alive rather than a hologram. As the Dwarfers walk through the cargo decks Rimmer excitedly yells "I am alive.", The End of which is punctuated by an explosion that presumably kills him. The question is: What in God's name causes this explosion? And why do Lister and the Cat appear completely uninterested that one of their crewmates has just been killed?
Chosen answer: Rimmer pounds his fists on two large crates labelled "Explosives", which causes the explosion. The others had wandered off by the time Holly and Rimmer realised he was alive, so they heard Rimmer yelling followed by the explosion but didn't know Rimmer had been harmed, as they didn't know he was alive to start with.
Question: When Batman is at the docks, where all the drugs are being delivered, Batman somehow manages to take out the driver of Falcone's car, without Falcone seeing him. Could someone please tell me how this would be possible?
Answer: We see Falcone get out of the car before Bruce attacks the final group of men; a couple of seconds later, he's deep into the maze of cargo containers, so there's clearly been a jump in time. Bruce simply took out the driver shortly after Falcone got out, then went back to assault the rest of the henchmen. You have to factor in the time jump for it to work, but it does fit together.
Question: Can anyone tell me why the role of Jennifer was recast?
Answer: Claudia Wells, the actress who played Jennifer in the first film, dropped out of acting shortly after the film was made, apparently for unspecified medical reasons, only returning to acting in 1996. As such, she was simply not available to play the part.
Claudia Wells was unable to reprise her role because her mother had cancer.
Question: What happened to Tank? Every time he is spoken of it is as if he is dead. Well he survived The Matrix so how did he die?
Answer: Marcus Chong wanted a large salary increase to return as Tank. Since he was a fairly minor character, the producers refused and he was written out. Thus his character must have died between the Matrix and Reloaded.
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Answer: He simply has an absurdly low tolerance for alcohol, and whiskey is not a wise choice if this is the case. It helps set up the joke when Marty asks the bartender, "How many has he had?", and he replies by telling Marty, "Just the one", as we are meant to think Doc has been in the bar all night drinking away his sorrows.
Jazetopher