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: How come Doctor Dhalism turns bald at the end?

Answer: In his fight with the guard, Dhalsim gets knocked into some chemicals. This presumably changed him. This is also likely the explanation if he had to do any signature moves from the games, which thankfully, he doesn't.

Question: In the second film, the T-800 stated that Skynet launched the nuclear missiles in response to the government trying to shut it down. This is not the case here (as John states that Skynet has little-to-no-chance of being destroyed by conventional means). It just preps launching them as soon as it becomes active. It is not longer motivated by any clear threat to its existence. What, then, causes Skynet to identify humans as the enemy and initiate Judgement Day?

Answer: In this reality (which is subtly altered from the "original" Terminator timeline due to the changes made in T1 and T2) SkyNet became conscious quite a bit before T3 and eventually determined that it should be in control of the world. To pursue that goal, it launched the virus discussed throughout the film which was intended to trick the government into launching SkyNet world-wide. In other words, its new motivation was paternalism/global domination, and humanity (in its current form, anyway) gets in the way.

Question: After the bathroom scene, when Diaz is putting eye drops in her eye, Applegate says that she had just witnessed a "glory hole", or something sounding like that. What is a glory hole?

Answer: Without needing an "X" rating: A glory hole is most commonly found in men's restrooms, used for sexual purposes. A quick web search might provide more (yet too much) information.

Ral0618

Small Victories (2) - S4-E1

Question: The sound of the Russian submarine's engine at the beginning seems to subliminally mimic the steady tension-inducing beat of the replicators' theme music, and is occasionally overlaid with a variation of the two main higher notes that are usually played by horns but are played by strings in this instance. I wonder whether this use of the engine sound in place of the normal "replicator beat" was intentional - or perhaps just my imagination?

Answer: As there was no actual engine noise, (it's all added in post production), this was likely done deliberately.

Grumpy Scot

Question: In the bathtub sex scene with Alotta Fagina and Austin, why does Fagina kick her leg up into the air when Austin strips?

Answer: Cuz it's sexy. She's showing off her assets for him!

Grumpy Scot

Question: I don't understand parts of the scene where Lisa runs over the hit man. The hit man is just standing outside the door for some reason. After Lisa runs over him she runs inside the house and her father said he called the police already, why did he call them? The hit man was just standing outside waiting for the call, her father didn't know what was going on. Did he call the police because she drove into his house, even though there had only been a few seconds in between scenes?

Answer: Yes he called because she hit the guy and ran into his house. When 911 calls back they say that they had a call about somone being hit in front of the house and asks if they still need the police.

Answer: The show was originally cancelled because of poor ratings, but many people believe this is because although people *wanted* to watch the show, Fox kept changing its time slot so no one knew when it was on. However, new series are being made (and aired) right now due to the high sales figures of the DVDs.

Gary O'Reilly

Question: Why didn't Mani kill the healers daughter? When everyone was preparing to hunt the beast, they look at each other and then she kisses two guys that are right beside her. She was responsible for the fight where everyone was attacking Mani before it was stopped by Jean Francois, and later in the lair of the beast she helped the men kill Mani. It was obvious that she was evil so why didn't he kill her?

Answer: She wasn't really evil. The whole movie is a metaphor for the shockingly bloody French revolution. The fact that (at least towards the beginning) the beast usually only kills women and children is a nod in the direction of the countless innocent (women and children) who were put to death in its course. The healer's daughter is sort of an omnibus of the French peasants' lust for blood. She's not evil, she's just crazy - the mad child of revolution. Sorry for the lengthy explanation, but if one goes into it without knowing, it can be a bit confusing.

Show generally

Question: Does Leela have super strength? I've never seen it explicitly stated, but the are quite a few instances in which she is shown to be much stronger than the other characters, or where she'll do something that requires great strength.

Answer: No I wouldn't say she has super strength (besides the one episode where she actually does have super strength) but she is fit and adept in some form of martial arts. Besides the rest of the Planet Express crew are pretty pathetic, physically speaking.

Andreas[DK]

Question: What's the name of the piece of music that's playing during Mark's "confession" with the flashbacks about Anthony's death? Is it included in the official soundtrack?

Answer: Nanou 2 by Aphex Twin.

A vogue idea - S4-E17

Question: Why are the girls families never mentioned/they never mention them? I know Carrie talks about her father in series 4, episode 17, and I know Miranda's mum dies around then too, but what about Charlotte and Samantha? Where's all their family gone?

Answer: Introducing too many family characters would have cluttered the storyline and detracted from the show's basic premise of the single life in NYC. The focus remained on the girls' friendship, their relationships, and female views about sex and love. However, in addition to the relatives you mentioned, we also met Charlotte's brother--who slept with Samantha.

raywest

Carrie mentions her father disappeared when she was 5, and she never saw him again. Samantha mentions working at a Dairy Queen as a teenager, but other than that, not much mention of family life.

Question: When Aunt Marge starts to inflate, Uncle Vernon starts kind of whining. He's supposed to be really tough, why doesn't he growl or yell instead? Or at least try to save his sister?

Answer: He is a big bully. He isn't tough at all, he just acts that way to Harry. When confronted by something scary, he wusses out!

Grumpy Scot

Season 3 generally

Question: In the episode "Birthday Fairies", Tootie gets Cosmo and Wanda for her birthday because she's having a bad time. But for the most part, Vicky is the one making her life miserable. It is even said that Vicky is scaring all the kids away from Tootie's birthday party, that's why she is crying. But Why didn't Tootie wish Vicky away?

Answer: In "Da Rules" book, you cannot wish a person in danger, or do any harm or anything to a person's life or relationship.

Question: In the movie "Batman", we discover that a young Jack Napier murdered Bruce's' parents and later became the Joker. So why in this movie did they change the killer to some low-life thug?

Answer: This is actually true to the comics, where a regular thug named Joe Chill was the killer of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne. There is no connection between this movie/series and Burton's "Batman"; they are separate takes on the same story, which is why things can be radically different. Burton chose to alter the storyline to give Batman an even greater reason to go after the Joker, that's his decision. Nolan chose otherwise in his presentation of the Batman legend, sticking to the original story.

Twotall

Chosen answer: I'm guessing it is because he bought a new car. At the end of the first Bean, he crashed the mini. You hear the crash and see his wheel bouncing down the road. Safe to assume it was a write-off.

Soylent Purple

Answer: Yeah he had a red Mini at the beginning but it ends up getting crashed at the end of the episode. And then in other episodes he has a green Mini.

Dan23

Answer: So you didn't see the end of the first episode when he crashed the old Mini and the wheel fell off? Plausible that he bought a new one afterwards.

Answer: I think it is because in the last episode his green car got smashed in the ceremony and he bought a red mini until he got a new green mini.

Chosen answer: One of them says "He had to go and do..." and Richard Donner sort of looks at him with understanding and nods his head. So I guess he had some other engagement. Something Lord of the Rings related perhaps?

Soylent Purple

Answer: Sean Astin had to leave halfway through recording DVD commentary for "The Goonies" because the recording session started late, and Sean had an earlier commitment to introduce friend Joe Pantoliano at a local theatre.

Question: If Det. Graham had already identified his brother's body at the crime scene, why would it have been necessary for his mother to have to do so at the morgue, especially since it was very traumatic for her?

Macalou

Chosen answer: Since he was directly involved with the investigation, to identify the body would have been a conflict of interest. Therefore he had to notify the next of kin beyond himself.

Question: Why are the implants called ZOE? Does it stand for something?

Answer: The movie provides no answer as to why the device was named "ZOE." However, one should note the word "Zoe" is actually a greek word for "life." Since the ZOE implant records someone's life, this sounds like the most logical answer to why it was named ZOE. On a side note: The first device to display moving images was called the "Zoetrope", the similar name could have had further influence as to why this implant was named ZOE.

Kelsey H.

Question: What was the real rock band Cameron Crowe based the fictional group Stillwater on?

raywest

Chosen answer: The film was loosely based on Cameron Crowe's experiences with The Allman Brothers Band.

Damian Torres

Answer: The film is based on Crowe's experiences touring with rock bands Poco, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

lizzylou

Question: Is it my imagination, or does the opening theme sound similar to the classical piece "The Planets - Mars" by Holst?

StevenJ

Chosen answer: There are certain similarities, yes. Whether any specific aspects of the piece were deliberately incorporated into the film's opening theme is an open question, but the overall feel is undoubtedly very similar.

Tailkinker

Answer: At one point Nicholas Meyer did indeed have the idea to incorporate "The Planets" into the score, but apparently the rights proved too expensive. I have no doubt Meyer asked composer Cliff Eidelmann to give the score a similar sound.

TonyPH

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.