Question: The lady that plays Julia Stile's mother looks remarkably like Swoozie Kurtz. Any relation?
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: When the start credits are playing, is it Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor singing?
Answer: No; Holly Palmer and Michael Bublé.
Question: Does anyone speak Latin? If so, can anyone translate what Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo were saying to each other at the Oriental?
Answer: A translation can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100414083924/http://www.dacc.cc.il.us/~jeff/tombstone-latin.html.
Question: In the big family fight scene at Nomanisan Island, I never understood what Violet was doing with the force field. Could someone explain?
Answer: In that fight scene, two of the enemy blade-fliers are approaching from one side - Violet has set up her forcefield in their path to stop their cannon fire, buying time for her parents to deal with the other fliers first, before turning their attention to the ones that Violet is blocking, rather than having to focus on all the fliers at one time.
Question: Something that was bugging me, but maybe someone who knows more about guns can help: On Shang Tsung's ship, Sub-Zero freezes & breaks off the front of Sonya's gun. What good does this do? The firing mechanisms are towards the rear of the gun. She could have fired off a shot, just not a second one. Freezing the front only locks the slide, part of the barrel and return spring, right? A round must have been chambered, otherwise it would be really stupid for her to be wielding it the way she does. Sub-Zero was not far away, so the shorter barrel shouldn't be much problem. Sub-Zero wouldn't have been able to freeze the bullet, given how he couldn't' stop that icicle that kills him later.
Answer: Sonya's pistol looks to be a Glock, Model 17 or 19. It looks like the barrel was broken off up to about the front end of the trigger guard. If she fired it like that, the bullet would have significantly reduced muzzle velocity because the recoil spring is gone (it would be in the front part of the weapon that was frozen and broken off.) The remaining part of the slide wouldn't have any resistance working against it. Not only would that result in less pressure inside the chamber during firing, but it would also most likely send the slide back into Sonya's face if she pulled the trigger.
Grandma's Kisses / Squidville - S2-E9
Question: If all the other residents had an exact personality like Squidward, how come they never got bored after all the time in Tentacle Acres?
Answer: Squidward only got bored because he likes SpongeBob and his antics more than he cares to admit. Seeing the way SpongeBob acts makes him realize just how boring Tentacle Acres really is.
I wouldn't say he likes SpongeBob but he brings a level of excitement to Squidwards life that tentacle acres doesn't.
Question: Early in the movie, the cursed church is described as having been built in "5 A.D.," but the Christian religion didn't even start until close to 40 A.D. - is this a factual error, or part of the twisted plot line?
Answer: It was probably a pagan temple originally, then later converted to a Christian church.
Question: Is Vowellet - An Essay By Sarah Vowell on the UK DVD? On Disc One, on the index, it is listed in the Disc Two section but I can't find it anywhere on Disc Two.
Answer: No, despite its appearance on the Disc 1 index, it appears to be missing from the second disc. On the Region 1 DVDs, it appears as a menu item in the "Behind The Scenes" section, but it's been taken out on the Region 2 discs. The most likely explanation is that, for some reason, they were unable to include it on the Region 2 discs, but simply forget to take it off the disc 1 index.
Question: What are the differences in ages between the Friends? On the episode "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" Ross comments at the end that they are ALL thirty - but he and Monica are brother and sister. Surely they can't be the same age?
Answer: He means that they have all turned 30 by this point in the series - this episode flashes back to all the 30th birthday stories. Ross & Chandler were in the same college class and Joey states that he is 28 during the second season (TOW Joey Moves Out). Monica and Rachel were in the same high school class, and were seniors when Ross was a college freshman, implying a 1-2 year gap. The run from oldest to youngest is: Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Ross, Monica, Rachel.
Question: What's up with the predator's eyes glowing for a second while it's invisible, and does anyone know why the predators in the other movies don't do this?
Answer: In the shots where we can see what the Predator sees, sometimes when he is focusing on someone or something, we hear a kind of flash noise as he zooms in on the object. When we see the Predator's eyes flashing/glowing, that is when he is zooming in on what he's looking at.
Answer: They do add the flash eyes while cloaked effect in Alien vs Predator: Requiem and Predators. I think it's both when it uses zoom-in vision and maybe to intimidate by showing itself so close to its prey. "Those eyes, just appeared."
I think he did it to intimidate Mac and Dillion.
Answer: Its the old predator design. Look closely the optical silhouette, it doesn't match. Google early predator design.
Question: I don't know anything about football and the college drafting process, but isn't odd that the QB from the Odessa Panthers did not receive some kind of college scholarship? After all, he was theoretically the 2nd best QB in the state, as his team made it to the State playoff game, even if they ended up losing.
Answer: In the movie he was being recruited by the fake school, I forget the name something Kansas. And at the end it said that he played football for Baylor, so I think he did get a scholarship. But in many cases just because a player is on a good team does not mean he has what it takes to play at the next level, there is a big difference between high school and college. For instance you could be the starting QB on a State Championship team, but the team is mainly a running team, and almost never passes, or you are a running QB who almost never throws the ball, you might be really successful in High School, but not have any of the skills to play QB college.
Winchell never received a scholarship despite setting records at Permian. He was known for choking up in tight games, which could be the reason he never got recruited. He played at Baylor his freshman year but was not successful. He's the best QB Permian ever had and maybe west Texas.
Answer: Winchell also choked up the last game against Lee and three four consecutive incomplete passes to win.
Question: How did the police officers questioning Sarah know about the foster parents' murder so quickly? First answer is the deleted scene of T-1000 searching John's room (extends time passed). But that won't explain how the police discovered the murder and then told the two officers so fast. In the special edition cut, the police talk to Sarah in between T-800 explaining the T-1000 and when John learns the T-800 does what John says. Not a lot of time, because those two guys the T-800 beats up also have to hang around (they pull up in a car before T-800 & John make the phone call). All I could think of was the T-1000 could have reported it. This might make the police look for John and the T-800, making the T-1000's job easier. He also might have anticipated the police talking to Sarah, he just didn't arrive in time to interview her. However, I'm not sure if the machine is that creative. Anyone else want to take a crack at this?
Answer: The best explanation is that the time passed between scenes isn't minute by minute. In the scene between the detectives and Sarah the detective says "Look I've just sat here and told you that you son is missing..", which would suggest that the scene was taking place a little while after John and T-800 made the phone call. Being that the scenes don't make mention of the time between scenes it could have been any length of time after the phone call that they interviewed Sarah. As for how the police found out, neighbours could have heard the commotion from the dog and reported it to the police and upon inspection of the property found the dead parents. This could have happened pretty quickly if a patrol car was in the area.
Answer: Since John is in the foster system and is a known troublemaker with an arrest record, we could assume that he and the foster parents have pretty regular contact with a social worker or probation officer, or someone of that nature. Could be that the social worker stopped by for a check after not hearing from anyone and found the dead foster parents.
Question: Shouldn't Doc have been severely electrocuted because he touched the lighting bolt when he connected the wires?
Answer: He probably got a good shock, but there have been recorded instances of people being struck by lighting and lived with little or no injuries.
Answer: Electricity always travels the path of least resistance. The wire cable is a perfect conductor and you can even see the electricity arch between the two cables while Doc is connecting the plugs, so most of the "1.21 gigawatts" passed by him and his gloves might have also protected him. In reality, a much smaller electric shock across the chest could have stopped his heart and, with no-one around to save him, would've left him dead.
Answer: He wasn't really shocked because he's wearing gloves when reattaching the wire after removing it from the fallen tree.
Question: Andy Dufrense sent the accounting ledger to the Portland Daily Bugle, this is how they found out about the fraud schemes, but how did they find out about the murder of Tommy Williams? It was in the headline "Corruption, Murder at Shawshank"
Answer: The information about Tommy's death was in the letter that Andy sent along with the ledger. In it, he explained everything that was happening at Shawshank. He sent the accounting ledger as well because he knew that: a)without proof, the letter would be ignored and: b)that the fraud and corruption would be the only thing that would actually get the warden and Hadley arrested as there was no proof of Tommy's murder.
Question: What exactly is Bob's job at the start of the film? I know it's something about insurance.
Answer: Bob works in the claims department, dealing with clients who are making a claim on their insurance policy, deciding whether their claims are valid and paying out (or not) accordingly.
Question: Can anyone explain to me the scene in which Wayne is pulled over by a cop and shown a picture? I know it's supposed to be funny, but I don't get the joke.
Answer: You presumably haven't seen Terminator 2. The actor playing the cop is Robert Patrick, who played the shape-shifting T-1000 in that movie, who masqueraded as a policeman for most of the film. The T-1000's mission was to track down and terminate a boy - hence the "have you seen this boy" line that he says to Wayne.
Question: Why do Wolverine's previously healed wounds open again after he 'lends' his power to Rouge to save her life, and why don't all the injuries he has sustained throughout his life open up again?
Answer: These are the wounds that he's sustained during his fight with Sabretooth - while his healing power has closed them up, they're not fully healed yet. As such, when the power goes to Rogue, they're able to open back up. Earlier wounds have had the time to completely heal, so they don't reappear.
Question: Why did they change the geography of Hogwarts (Hagrid's hut, Whomping Willow, etc.) if it would just annoy people?
Answer: They didn't do it with the assumption that it would annoy people; like anything, they knew some people would like it and others wouldn't. But that was one of the things they decided could be changed when Alfonso Cuaron took over as director. His vision was different from that of Chris Columbus, and it was now Cuaron's movie.
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Answer: I can not find any reference to Joan Brandwyn's mother. I do not remember seeing her. Perhaps you are thinking of Mrs. Warren, Kirsten Dunst's mother in the film. She is played by Donna Mitchell. I have been unable to find a connection between the two.