Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Answer: Don't know if it's confirmed but that's believed to be Heath Ledger's Dodge Dart that he had at the time.
Question: What kind of game are they playing? You have to buy it in shops but you meet other players on it, so it must be an Internet game.
Answer: They are playing an MMORPG (massivly multiplayer online role playing game). A game where a whole living breathing online world exists where hundereds or thousands of people can play and interact with each other. Games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft are MMORPGs. Only in Spy Kids 3-D, you can actually enter this game as if you're really there through some type of virtual reality.
Question: About how long would Annie's cab ride in the beginning of the movie have taken in real time?
Answer: From LAX to Downtown, about 40 minutes to an hour. Depending on the traffic getting out of the airport and heading to downtown.
Living in LA all my life, I can tell you the drive can be made in 20 minutes, without speeding. This is of course given light traffic conditions, which seems to be the case in the movie. Heavy traffic will add time of course, I'd say 45-50 mins at the most. (A quick Google Maps search just put the drive at 22 mins).
Question: Did the pair of Levi's used in the movie actually fit all of the actresses, or did they all have their own pair? If it fit them all, did they have multiple pairs?
Answer: It seems nearly impossible that one pair of pants would actually fit four actresses of such different heights and weights. One of the "magic" properites of the pants was that they did manage to fit all the girls in the story, so it's probably safe to assume that different pairs were actually used for filming.
Question: When the family are going out the door to go to the wedding rehearsal, Tess shouts 'Shotgun.'. What does "shotgun" mean? I'm sure I've heard it in other American films.
Answer: It is a claim to ride in the front passenger's seat, rather than in the back seat. On an American western stagecoach, the guard sat up top with the driver, carrying a shotgun, although that position was only referred to as "shotgun" in westerns, not at the actual time. See here for more info: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrideshotgun.html.
Question: What happened when Bond was fighting Zao in the Cuban clinic? He threw a bottle of flammable liquid at something on the wall, which seems to have activated a magnet of some sort. What was that system, and what is it intended for?
Answer: When the bottle hit the machine it hit the on button, so it activated the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (or also known as MRI for short) machine which scans your body using very powerful magnets.
Question: Why didn't the sheriff do anything about Packard's gang? Surely someone must have wanted to file a complaint at some point? And if the sheriff isn't doing his job, why doesn't the state police step in?
Answer: After the first race where Augie is killed the sheriff says "I've been waiting to catch you guys in the act. Been waiting and watching." So we can assume there were complaints made however the sheriff may not have had enough evidence to shut them down completly. As far as the state police, I'm not sure. May be a jurisdictional thing.
I agree with this answer. Packard was very careful not to flagrantly break any laws. He even said this to Loomis in the "paper doll" scene later in the movie - Packard says that the gang hadn't done anything except "bust the speed limit."
Question: On disc 1 of the series 2 DVD, there is a postcard showing Bubbles, however when you try to select it, you hear Carol say "DVD player says no" - any idea if this is intentional, or if the postcard leads to some special features which need to be unlocked?
Answer: If you keep clicking that card a photo gallery will eventually appear.
Question: How do I access commentaries on the Season 1 DVDs? I've been trying for months and can't seem to find them, but the DVD wrapper promises "commentary on every episode."
Answer: There are two ways to do this. On the main menus, you can find them in the Language Selection section of every episode. Or, upon playing the episode, press your audio button on your remote a few times and you should start hearing the commentary.
Question: Is it ever explained how vampires can have sex when it is stated pretty explicitly that they don't have blood flowing around their bodies? I mean, I've studied biology and I hear it's pretty important for guys.
Answer: It's also stated pretty explicitly that vampires are dead, yet they're walking and talking, controlled by a demon inside of them, which could also control their sexual parts.
Question: What is "priori incantatem"? I'm told it's explained in the books - what's the deal?
Chosen answer: In order to explain "Priori Incantatem" an explanation is first needed for "Priori Incantato." In the book Goblet of Fire, during the Death Eaters' rampage at the World Cup, Voldemort's Dark Mark appears in the sky. Amos Diggory uses the spell "Prior Incantato" to see the last spell that was cast by Harry's wand, which in the book is the wand that created that Dark Mark in the sky. That spell creates an image of the last spell cast by a wand, and it emerges from its tip; this is the "echo" of that original spell, and the echo is different depending on that spell. As for "Priori Incantatem," Harry's and Voldemort's wands share the same core - Fawkes' feathers (Dumbledore's phoenix), and when two wands that share the same core battle each other - as Harry and Voldemort in the cemetery, "Priori Incantatem" takes place. This is a reversal of the last spells cast, and the images of Voldemort's victims of the Avada Kedavra curse appear out of the tip of his wand, which include Cedric, Frank Bryce, Lily and James Potter.
Question: This is an odd question, but have any historians commented on the battle scenes? Aside from the heroes' fights (such as Legolas, Gimili and Aragorn defeating hundreds of orcs by themselves), how true to life are the battles compared to real medieval sieges / battles?
Chosen answer: The LOTR is a heavy interpolation of different times, civilizations, religions, and cultures. Mainly, strict European and no Greek or Roman influence. There are bits and pieces of Medieval era, but then it can shoot to pre-Rome eras, and then shoot to strict religious material. It bounces back and forth all over the place, between pieces based on historical fact. For example, based on the armor, aspects, weapons, and fighting styles, the Elves would be the Gauls and Britonnic, around the time of Julius Caesar. The Dwarves are the Goths (Germany, Austria), but they also are the Nordic tribes ("vikings"). The Orcs bear strong similarity to the Vandals and Khazars, and the Mumakil are the Mauretanians (Moors). The Hobbits, Elves, Ents, Gandalf, are strong nods to the Druidism religion (Gandalf, the Elves, and Saruman are Druid priests, the Ents are supernatural beings). The Dwarves, dragons, trolls, giant spiders, orcs and Sauron show heavy nods to Asatru (Odin, Thor, Freya faith). Man seems somewhere in the middle, with more Medieval Christian hints here and there every so often, but very rarely. Besides the giant wolves, eagles, and such obvious fiction, the battles can go from very realistic to utter fiction. But they keep close enough to real history to be identifiable with who they are based on. The elves seem to follow a Gaul and Britonnic style, copper and gold armor, momentum-based swordplay, and a single-man fighting style. Many of the elves ring close to the Britonnic "kluddargos", high class swordsmen. The trolls seem similar to the very early Goths and Brits, as well as the Nordic "sky-clad" warriors who did at times use clubs and maces while stark naked and whipped up into a powerful "mind-over-body" state. The orcs show some resemblance to the Vandal forces, as well as the Thracians and many Celtic tribes (orcs are based off African American miners by J.R.R. Initially, and the whole story has rings of racism mixed with Christian elements, but take it for what it is. It mostly is a story copied from various myths, lore, and some events of Europe before Rome conquered the tribes Game of Thrones is closer to historical facts, and is not really racist at all, but also bounces around with interpolation as bad as LOTR). The Rohirrim bear strong resemblance to the Iberian horsemen who fought alongside Hannibal against Rome, as well as Viriatus; they were Celtic-like natives of Portugal (before Rome took it over and dominated the ethnic look of the region). The orc warg riders are akin to Nordic and Vandal horsemen, Dwarf combat is very close to actual Nordic and Gothic combat, lots of momentum, speed, heavy blows, and strength. The Elves have some resemblance to Gaulish and Britonnic high class warrior combat, but at swordplay and shields. The archery, on the other hand, is copied from Roman archers, Greek archers, and Sudanese (Nubian) archers (who could quickly whip from bow to sword in combat). The trolls use a style somewhere between fiction, but also with the real religion-hyped warriors of the Pechts, Vandals, Goths, viking tribes and Gauls: naked men armed who jumped into battle in a frenzy. The Uruk-hai berserker bears more resemblance to the Asatru religion "Úlfhéðnar", or Norse berserker. The Uruk-hai show resemblance to Goths mixed with European tribal warriors who sided with Byzantine. The Dunedain are very medieval Europeans, primarily England. So, to answer your question. Are the fights factual? sometimes, and not always the entire fight. Are they medieval fights? Again, sometimes, but usually they are mimicry of pieces of history or tribes and states during the Roman era. The closest to mimicking facts, even more than so-called fact based movies, is the game Skyrim. Skyrim can be very close to mimicking historical facts.
Question: When Peter and Sylvia are in her dressing room, Peter tells her he was once married. I can't hear the rest of his one line. He says something like "My ex-wife had a" And she responds "That must have been quite an experience for you." What does he say his ex wife had?
Question: As Denethor has the funeral pyre prepared, he refers to the "heathen" kings of old. What sort of religion does Gondor have now that older kings could be "heathens"?
Chosen answer: In Denethor's time, Gondor follows the Vala, the good "gods" of the world, in the manner of the Elves, although religion really is not much of a point in Middle-Earth. The "heathen kings" Denethor speaks of were before Elendil founded Gondor, when descendants of Númenoreans lived in small fiefdoms as little kings in this area. Many of them worshipped Sauron and followed him, and may have used burning as a funeral rite.
Question: At the end we are left with the question of the pilot's intentions, and what happened. Is he going to help them, or pull an about-face and machine-gun them down thinking they're infected?
Answer: That question is actually answered. The pilot is speaking Finnish, and he says into the radio "lähetätkö helikopterin" which translates as "Can you please send a helicopter?" Looks like he was actually helping them after all, and there is still some civilization (or at least people with radios and helicopters).
Question: What is the significance of the seven word code used to activate David?
Answer: The seven word code was used to activate David's imprinting protocol which would make him recognize Monica as his mother.
Answer: Spielberg is Jewish, the seven word code relates to the Jewish legends of the Gollum, whereby reciting an enchantment can bring these dolls to life.
Answer: I think the significance is that there is no significance. David's manufacturers programmed him with these specific words because they are indeed very random. The chance of someone speaking these exact words, in that exact order, for any reason other than the intended purpose would never happen. Therefore, there would be no "accidental" programming.
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Answer: A 1964 Dodge Dart.
FordGuy