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 did Ellie get hurt running from the raptor in the powerhouse?

Answer: After confronting a Raptor in the power shed, Ellie, amongst other things, Tries to climb a fence, falls over and kicks a fence with a Raptor on the other side. Ellie could have injured her leg/ankle/foot during any one of these physical activities. In my opinion, a scene where she is specifically seen injuring part of her left leg has been left out.

Question: What is the song the woman sings during the trailer?

Answer: 'Caramel' by Suzanne Vega.

Jane Doe

Question: One of the mistakes says there's a newspaper that Tom Cruise reads that has the same sentence written over and over. Is this a reference to the Shining by the production?

Answer: No. They needed to have an article for Cruise to read and, on the assumption that it wouldn't be readable by the viewers, they simply filled up the space required by repeating the same sentence over and over again. Another commonly used tactic is to steal text from a real article, leading to situations where the text of a newspaper article can be seen to have nothing to do with the actual headline.

Tailkinker

Question: At Minas Tirith when the Witch-King destroyed Gandalf's staff and was then distracted by the Rohan army. Why didn't he just quickly kill Gandalf before going off.

Answer: Even without his staff, Gandalf is not going to be a pushover - the Witch-King isn't going to be able to simply take Gandalf out by snapping his fingers. Better to simply inconvenience Gandalf by taking his staff out, then return to the battle, rather than taking on the risk of a serious one-on-one fight while the main battle below is still undecided, particularly as his opponents have just had some substantial reinforcements show up.

Tailkinker

Question: I heard that the penguin from Wallace and Gromit appears in the opening scene. Is this true? Could anyone point it out to me?

Answer: Yes, he is in the opening scene.

Question: I need some translation help here. Firstly when Marion is having the drinking contest and has drunken her final drink, she lowers the glass slowly making everyone think that she has lost. Then she shouts a word twice (Bistoti or something like that) and wins. What does that word mean? Also when Indy is mourning over Marion's "death", two guys in suits come over to him and tell him something in a foreign language. While I have a vague idea of what they said, I was wondering if anyone knew for sure.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: It's Russian, погоди or pogodi. In Russian meaning hold it.

Chosen answer: The two men say to Indy "Der Herr in der Bar mochte immer ihnen sprechen". This is translated as "The man in the bar wants to talk to you". The word in the bar that Marion says is "Pistole", which translated means "Hold it! or "Wait a minute!"

Question: Five ships survive the destruction of the Death Star: Vader in his custom TIE, Han and Chewie in the Millennium Falcon, Luke and Wedge in their X-Wings, and a Y-Wing. Who's in the Y-Wing?

Phoenix

Chosen answer: The "X-Wing" computer game implies that the pilot of the surviving Y-Wing is the game's lead character, Keyan Farlander.

Sierra1

Question: In this movie we see a shot of a mechanical arm placing Darth Vader's helmet onto his head. But in ROTJ, removing Vader's helmet & mask made him die according to Luke. Is this because in ROTJ it was his helmet *and* his mask being removed, while in ESB it was just his helmet?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Removing the mask alone would not make Darth Vader die. He stil had breathing help built into his suit. Vader was already dying when Luke took his mask and helment off in ROTJ, due to injuries sustained by Luke and the Emperor's force lightning. Anakin (Vader) just wanted to see his son Luke with his own eyes, before he died.

Mark English

Chosen answer: Obi-Wan told luke how his father was more machine than man now, and Luke knew Vader had a life support system, so he concluded that he would die without his mask, especialy given the weak state he was in.

Piemanmoo

Answer: It's almost certainly known - through Rebel intelligence gathering if nothing else - that Vader's suit functions as a life support system and the various details that go along with that.

TonyPH

Question: Something I wasn't quite sure of was about Padme's death. Now I know throughout the film Anakin senses that she will die and must rescue her, but was her death a certainty or more a result of Anakin's turn to the dark side? I ask because I know the Jedi can sense the future, and was wondering if it was meant to be a vision of what was going to happen with his descent to the dark side.

Lummie

Chosen answer: The future is not always set in place, according to Yoda, especially when clouded by the Dark Side. As Anakin's fears for Padme increase the more dependent he becomes on the Dark Side to try and stop the events of Padme's death in his dreams. What he didn't see was that he was indirectly responsible for causing her own death by turning to the Dark Side. Although Padme could have survived injuries caused by Anakin's force grip, her will to die rather than live without him is what caused her death.

Mark English

Question: What happens to the clone army between episodes III and IV? I assume they are not the same as the Imperial forces in the original Star Wars movies (unless they got new ships, uniforms, etc.).

killin_kellit

Chosen answer: You assume incorrectly, I'm afraid, it's the same army. Their equipment has evolved over the twenty-year period between the films, as you would expect to happen. The main change to the ground forces is that the stormtroopers from episodes 4 to 6 are conventionally recruited troops rather than clones (which may account for their apparently decreased effectiveness) - very few, if any, of the original clone troopers would still be alive, given the levels of combat that they've seen and their accelerated aging process. The only faction where only the original clones remain is the 501st Legion, otherwise known as Vader's Fist. They were the clones who helped Anakin overthrow and destroy the Jedi Temple.

Tailkinker

Question: During the film, Padme mentions that "the Queen" of Naboo must be asked to approve something, implying that she is no longer Queen herself. So given that her mother was no longer a Queen, and her original past had to be hidden anyway - why was Leia a Princess?

Moose

Chosen answer: This was because when Senator Bail Organa (Leia's adopted father) returns to Alderaan following the Clone Wars, he becomes the Viceroy and First Chairman of Alderaan, and his family thereby become the Royal Family of Alderaan. Incidentally, Padme finished her term(s) as Queen of Naboo sometime prior to Episode II and later becomes a senator of Naboo, which is the position she holds throughout Episode III as well. Since Leia was adopted by the Organas, however, this change in Padme's status (from Queen to non-Queen) became irrelevant as Leia took on the social titles of the Organas and was really no longer connected to her mother.

Ryan Grubb

Also, the Queen of Naboo is not a family thing. Naboo elects its King and Queen, usually young women. Therefore, if the Queen had any children, they would not necessarily be given royal titles. Being the Queen of Naboo would be more like being President of the United States than the Queen of England.

oldbaldyone

The Stranded - S3-E10

Question: When Jerry and Elaine are at the party, Elaine is talking to a woman who keeps saying she cant find her fiance. Then Elaine, in response to the woman saying, "I cant find my baby," says to her, "maybe the dingo ate your baby." Can anyone explain this phrase?

Answer: It's a reference to the 1988 movie "A Cry in the Dark" starring Meryl Streep (who uses an New Zealand/Australian accent, as this movie was based on a true story). Elaine is paraphrasing a line from The Movie.

Ingabritzen

Question: Why was the film banned in Ireland?

Answer: Both "Child's Play" and its sequels were banned in several European countries after the murder of 2-year old James Bulger in Liverpool in 1993 by two ten-year olds. Some people felt that the killing was done in a way very similar to how Chucky is disposed of in "Child's Play 3", and blamed the whole thing on violent movies, causing bans from several governments. Interestingly enough, the UK never officially banned these movies, but most video rentals refused to carry it.

Twotall

Question: What is the theme that is played at the end and during the credits?

Answer: It is called "Manifest Destiny" and was done by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn. It is on the soundtrack.

Show generally

Question: Did Joey ever mention moving to L.A. or did he just move and not tell anyone? Moving to the other side of the country is pretty much bigger than anyone else's reason for splitting up the group, surely?

Answer: We never saw what happened after the last episode of friends, we do not know how much time passed between that last episode and Joey's move. I assume at some point after the last episode of friends he decided to move to LA, and I am sure he told everyone at some point. If you remember he was kind of depressed that all of his friends where married and starting families, I am sure this helped him decide to move.

pross79

Question: Did Dinah ever disappear after they flew through the rip? I am just wondering this because everyone who was awake was supposed to disappear, and Dinah wasn't awake, but she was never sleeping either.

Answer: They don't show this in the film, but in the novella Dinah's body does disappear.

Question: What is the name of the song that is playing during the opening credits?

Answer: It's called Boomshakalaka, by Apache Indian.

don_corleone

Question: When someone becomes a Sith, they take a different name, i.e. Palpatine becomes Darth Sidious, Count Dooku becomes Darth Tyranus, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. Does anyone know Darth Maul's non-Sith name?

Answer: No. According to the official sources, Maul was trained in the Sith ways from a very early age - it's quite likely that he himself doesn't remember his original name. Even if he does remember it, it would mean nothing to him any more - the Sith and their ways are his life - and he certainly wouldn't answer to it. According to the non-canon novel "Darth Plagueis", Darth Maul was named "Maul" by his mother before she turned him over to a young Palpatine. He didn't take a new name when he got the title "Darth."

Tailkinker

Question: Why is it that the clone troopers are good by working for the Jedi, yet there original host, Jengo Fett, is purely evil, working for Dooku?

Answer: Jango isn't inherently evil - he's simply a bounty hunter, doing the jobs that he's hired to do. Dooku recruited him to act as the clone template by paying him lots of money to do so (in addition to the creation of Boba). Neither are the clone troopers inherently good - they follow orders, as soldiers tend to. The Jedi are assigned as their leaders by the Republic, thus they follow them; when the leader of the Republic orders them to eliminate the Jedi, they do so; they're simply following orders, not shifting between good and evil.

Tailkinker

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.