Question: In the 'Remembering Z-day' scene near the film's end, where Shaun is watching clips of the zombie-outbreak aftermath where soldiers run in and shoot all the zombies, one soldier can be seen taking cover behind a tree as if in a firefight. Why would he need to take cover when he's battling slow-moving, melee-only zombies?
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: What are cowl flaps? What is their purpose?
Answer: Cowl flaps are used to adjust to volume of air that passes over the cooling fins of an aircraft piston engine. Under takeoff and landing these flaps are open to allow maximum airflow and under normal flight they are closed to maintain normal engine temperature.
Question: During the song "Knights of the Round Table" they sing the line: "Between our quests we sequin vests". What does this mean? (English is not my mother tongue.)
Answer: Sequins are small, flat, shiny ornamentations that are attached to clothing to give the garment a metallic look. The nights are saying that between quests, they sit arround sewing these items onto vests.
Question: Why does the film involve two Queen songs, one in the pub ("Don't Stop Me Now") and one in the credits?
Answer: Is there some reason why it shouldn't? They presumably chose them because they liked them and thought that they fitted well.
Question: The film is listed as "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" on the Internet but on the DVD it is called "Quest for the Holy Grail". This is also the only title I've ever heard it referred by IRL. Why are there two titles out? Which one is the correct one? And how come they changed whichever title came first?
Answer: The actual Terry Gilliam illustration credit in the film uses the Quest for the Holy Grail title just after the groups talks to god around 25 minutes in. Maybe they used the art from the film for the DVD image?
Answer: I have searched several online DVD retailers and other online sources and not found any mentions of a DVD with "Quest for the Holy Grail" as the title. All are called "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". There is a computer game from 1996 called "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail" though.
Question: What was the point of putting Yen in a bag with a men's soccer team?
Answer: The bag with Yen in it got mixed up at the hotel. It was designed to sneak him in without anyone knowing he was there, but it backfired.
Answer: Police had a sketch of Yen as CZJ saw him and Danny when Rusty opened his hotel room door and they figured this was the best way to smuggle Yen out of the hotel. Police were shown sitting outside the hotel in a car on watch.
Question: On the DVD, there are two sets of subtitles. One follows what is being said closely and includes sound effects. The other follows the general idea of what the characters are saying, but the sentences are written differently. What is the purpose of the second one? Also, why do even the accurate subtitles show Lin as Rin, Zeniba as Zaneba and Kohaku River as Kalaku River?
Chosen answer: This is probably because one track follows a near direct translation from Japanese, while the other subtitle track follows Japanese more loosely but is one that a westerner can relate to better. A normal western person who never had any experience with Japanese would be puzzled why there are sound effects in the text, that is because Japanese has a lot of specific sound effects for many thing, like the sound of someone walking and makes a quick stop, the sound of someone becoming shy etc. And as with Lin and Rin, these are pronounced the same way in Japan.
Question: Was Captain Hook called Hook before he lost his hand, and had it replaced by a hook?
Chosen answer: No, he wasn't. To quote J.M. Barrie, "Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze", which rather implies that Hook was supposed to have been an important individual at some earlier point in his life. The only other clue to his history is that Barrie mentions that he attended Eton.
Question: The final showdown between Utah and Bodhi was shot at Bells Beach, but was the wave footage also shot there? I'm especially interested in the closeups. Waves of that size and strength are not commonplace, and no surfer (save Eddie Aikau) would even attempt to tackle such a monster set.
Chosen answer: No part of the film was shot anywhere near Bells Beach. It is not even Australia.
Question: It's been mentioned that Rachel attended college, but what exactly did she major in?
Chosen answer: Rachel attended college, but in one of the Thanksgiving flashback episodes she mentions that her major was psychology but there was no parking around the psychology building, so she switched majors. She never says what her new major was.
Question: How in the world did they get Kong onto the ship?
Chosen answer: Since it was not shown, there can only be speculation. However, I would assume they used an elaborate pulley system, possibly with one or more of the rocks taking the Kong weight. There seems to be plenty of room on the deck for him and, with a lot of the ships load jetissoned, it would be lighter. Then it would simply be a case of securing him and making sure he didn't wake up... no problem with the amount of chloroform on board.
Question: Does anyone know, or has anyone noticed if Peter Jackson makes a cameo in this film?
Answer: He appears as one of the biplane gunners in the closing sequence. Other cameos in this sequence include Rick Porras, Jackson's co-producer on The Lord of the Rings, and Frank Darabont, writer and director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, also both playing gunners, and Rick Baker, make-up artist extraordinaire who played Kong in the 1976 remake, appearing here as one of the pilots.
Question: If the wall around Skull island was built to keep Kong and presumably other creatures such as the dinosaurs in, why was the gate made large enough for them to get through?
Chosen answer: The original creator of King Kong, Merin C. Cooper, wrote a novel adaption of the movie in which it was explained that the gates were built by a earlier culture of islanders that were friends with the "Kong" race. The "Kongs" helped the original islanders to build their village and the wall (thus meaning the gate had to be big enough for the giant gorillas to walk through). By the time of the events of the movie, the original islanders have "died out" and their old village had been taken over by a race of more primitive natives who became enemies with the Kongs, and were trying to use the gates for safety.
Question: Originally this fourth "Crow" film was going to be called "The Crow: Lazarus" and be about a black wannabe rapper who is brought back by the crow after a drive-by shooting. Anyone know why this plot was dropped? Because it seemed to fit the material more than a movie about Satan and God.
Answer: As I understand it, it all had to do with a spat between the director of the original Crow movie (Alex Proyas, who had "approval" of all the subsequent Crow movies) the producer of the Crow movie franchise, Jeff Most, and Miramax. Miramax eventually caved in favor of the producer and it was made into a "non-Crow entity" when Miramax reportedly signed Eminem to play the bad guy.
Question: Who exactly is Gabriel Shear (John Travolta)? Is he a government agent or a criminal?
Answer: He works for a part of the government involved in counter terrorism. Basically, his group commits terror attacks in any country which commits acts of terror against Americans. So, as Gabriel says in the film, if a country shoots ten American tourists, Gabriel's gang blow up a city, in order to discourage terrorists from targeting the USA again in the future. So in answer, he is a government agent.
Question: Does Kiera Nightly's character ever split up with her husband and go to his best friend? They show her with the husband at the end of the movie, but it seemed to me that she really loved the best friend. I was sure she would choose him over her husband.
Answer: No, Keira Knightley's character is not in love with the best friend; her kiss is one of compassion and affection, not love. Richard Curtis mentions this on the DVD commentary - he says something about Juliet being the sort of girl who would be used to men falling for her and treating them gently and kindly, which is what she does here.
Question: In the beginning of the film, where Dracula is talking to Viktor vonFrankenstein, he slams the chest shut and begins yelling at him. Before this, Viktor was looking over his shoulder and his attention immediately snaps back to Dracula, but he then turns once more to look behind him before staring at Dracula again, can someone explain why he looks over his shoulder a second time?
Answer: During their conversation Dracula is able to move around the room without Viktor noticing it. Then Dracula is standing on top of the fireplace behind Viktor, that's why he turns his head the first time. When Dracula suddenly slams the chest Viktor is surprised to see Dracula suddenly standing in front of him so he instinctively turn his head to look at the fireplace to believe his own eyes.
Question: What shape is the mouth of Curdled Cave supposed to represent? It's too odd to be a coincidence, & the camera is focused on it quite a bit.
Answer: If you look carefully, you can see that it is an eye, which is an ongoing theme in the movie. It is mentioned in the audio commentary.
Question: I know it wouldn't make for a very dramatic ending, but is there no way to get from the centre field seats where Lindsay was in Fenway to Ben's seats along the first line? I mean, couldn't she have just ran along a main concourse?
Answer: At the stadiums that I've been to there are ushers posted at the top of the stairs that lead to seats closer to the field. You can't get down there without showing a ticket for that section. They also show her trying to get to that section and being told she can't go in that gate. Also, she sees through the binoculars that Ben is about to sell his tickets and she wants to create a diversion.
Question: A best of set(Best Buy exclusive) is being released. Are there any plans to release more signifigant DVD's for this?
Answer: Yes, Warner Bros. announced at the end of December that Season 1 will be out in the United States on April 24, 2007.
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Answer: Soldiers tend to fight like they train. It becomes almost instinctive to find cover before firing your weapon.
Grumpy Scot