Question: When Ed and Shaun are at the Winchester before the zombies break out, Shaun tries to shoot down Ed's high opinion of the Winchester's owner by saying "he says dogs can't look up." Ed says this is true. This bit of trivia comes up several times in the movie and is never answered. So can dogs really look up?
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Answer: It's pigs that can't look up.
Question: Do the individual aliens have cloaking abilities? It seemed at that the dogs were reacting to something that the people could not see. Were they smelling cloaked aliens? Were they going crazy to protect their human owners and that was misinterpreted as an attack on the people? I thought they are walking around at least invisible at times to do their work without detection. I may be wrong on that.
Answer: The aliens were not cloaked, not invisible. They had a chameleon-like ability to change their appearance to match their background. Recall the alien's fingers turning plaid when he held the boy. They seem to be that green color when not camouflaged. The better senses of the dogs did allow them to detect the aliens. However, one of the effects of alien presence noted in the movie was a change in personality; that is what happened to the dogs.
Question: If it's such a hi-tech factory, why is Doris still using an old fashion typewriter when they wave to her?
Answer: Perhaps she prefers the old style typewriter. Besides, the film seems to be set in a parallel time where modern items and more antique items exist quite happily side by side.
This is further shown by the fact that there don't seem to be any phones.
Question: What is the name of the song played when the plane leaves the oil rig?
Answer: "Gimme Some Lovin'" by The Spencer Davis Group.
Question: First, let me say that the aliens being affected by only the "contaminants" in the tap water seems to be wrong. Two reason: 1)The Indian vet mentions that they don't like water, and 2) the aliens were avoiding areas with large bodies of water nearby. My question is this: wouldn't humans, who are over half water, be toxic to the aliens? Even if they processed the humans with different equipment and took precautions to avoid blood or body fluids, wouldn't carrying off a sweaty person burn the aliens? Seems like a dangerous harvest.
Answer: It could be that they are affected by the chlorine in the tap water (humans are affected by chlorine to, just look at Mustard Gas) to a greater extent then humans. The vet is only speculating about the landing sites. And while it is true that humans are mostly water, it is saline (i.e. salty like sweat) and has different chemical properties to pure H2O.
Well water does not contain chlorine.
Question: When Pippin and Merry collide with Frodo and Sam in the corn field they seem to be acquainted with Frodo but nothing more than that. Yet they still end up going with him on the journey. I didn't quite understand why they chose to do so, are they better friends in the books?
Answer: In the book, Frodo's departure is much less rushed - it takes him several months to depart rather than leaving the same night. Merry and Pippin, being among his closest friends, help him pack and so are with him right from the start of the journey. In the film, the timeframe has been considerably compressed for dramatic reasons, so things are much less organised - as such, it became necessary for Frodo and Sam to encounter Merry and Pippin along the way. They're still intended to be friends, but the depth of that friendship is less clear.
Question: What was the dance move announced by the DJ at the disco, that is an 80's dance move and not a 70's dance move, which has been added as a mistake, as the film was set in the 70's?
Answer: The dance move could quite easily have been a known move of the time which only gained popularity in the 1980's. The same thing happened with Michael Jackson's "Moonwalk" which had been performed by dancers and mime artists for decades before he made it popular and widely known.
Question: Donnie's purpose was to ensure that that the engine fell into the primary universe by sending his mother and sister on the plane. Why was it so important that his mother had to board the plane? Wouldn't it have gone down without her anyway?
Answer: No they didn't have to be on the plane and it would have gone down without her but Donnie and his sister had to have the party for the remaining events to work. In burning down Cunningham's house, Kitty would have to stay behind and help Cunningham. This would ensure Donnie's mother would therefore leave and the remaining events could occur.
Question: How do they know that Gretkov must be arrested?
Answer: Pamela Landy and her team both talked to the Russian Minister of the Interior and went to Moscow. Surely it didn't take the Russians long to figure out who Abbot and Conklin's associate was...assuming they didn't already know.
Question: When Peter is in JJJ's office, while he is naming Doctor Octupus, the reporter says, "I heard Spider-Man was there" and he looks up at Peter. Did he suspect Peter of being Spider-Man?
Answer: He might not suspect that Peter is Spider-Man, but he knows that somehow Peter always seems to be where Spider-Man is in order to get pictures.
Question: Why does the young red-headed nun, that doesn't sing very loud (can't remember her name), wear a different habit?
Answer: It is because she is not, technically, a nun yet. She is a novice, one who is in the "trial period" of becoming a nun, but who has not made the final vows to join the order.
She doesn't wear a white cap in the second movie either, and she did her vows.
It takes 9-12 years to become a nun, with many stages: discernment, aspirancy, postulancy, novitiate, temporary vows, and finally, solemn vows. The young nun may have moved up a step but would not yet have taken her solemn vows. The various stages would have differences in apparel, headdress, insignia, etc. that showed their rank. In addition, different nun orders wear different styles of habits.
Question: Why did Travis want to kill Sen. Charles Palantine?
Answer: To get the attention of Cybil Shephard's character.
Question: Why doesn't Isobel's dad ever find out about Iris being what she is?
Answer: Because she's put him under her spell without him realising.
Question: How does the zombie infection start?
Question: The appendix mentions Merry having a son, but no name is given in the family tree. Why is his son not included in the family tree when he is mentioned elsewhere in the text, and what was his name? Did Merry have any other children as well?
Answer: Tolkien never gives the name of Merry's son, which is probably why he's not on the family tree, nor does he tell us whether he had any other children. As to why he doesn't mention this, why should he? It's not as if they're important characters. There's a lot of information that Tolkien doesn't provide - understandable, given that he's produced a history of a fictional world that covers many thousands of years, that he wouldn't be able to include everything. Minor details, like the names of people who never actually appear in any of the stories (Merry's son, Aragorn and Arwen's daughters, Legolas' mother and so forth), were simply left out in favour of more important items.
Question: The writers made a very deliberate attempt not to refer to "Santa Claus" by ANY proper name (St. Nick, Father Christmas, etc.), does anyone know why?
Answer: In the Official Illustrated Movie Companion, it was stated that the presence of Father Christmas was very odd, and that they considered having Aslan give the Pevensies their presents. But since Andrew Adamson wanted to stay true to the story, they kept Father Christmas in there, but changed it so it was less blatant.
Question: In the scene where Shaun gave all the zombies 'the slip', David asks Shaun how he lost them. My question is, why does David act so suspicious towards Shaun when he asks him that?
Answer: Given that Shaun's plan to go to the pub has so far managed to expose them to a considerable degree of risk, it's not unreasonable that David might be rather skeptical when Shaun claims to have simply given the zombies the slip.
Question: Can anyone explain why, in the books, the chief of police is named Fenris Ulf, but in the movie (along with the 1988 BBC version) his name is Maugrim? Scarier sounding?
Answer: Of course they can, everything is up when you are the size of the average dog. They wouldn't have survived long as a species if they were unaware of anything more than a couple of feet off the ground.
Mad Ade
I always thought it meant they can't do it with just their eyes, like they can't roll them upward so they would tilt their head up to see up. But I have seen my dog's eyes peek upward so maybe some other explanation.