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.

Show generally

Question: There is a noticeable change in the lighting in the first season compared to the rest of them, does anyone know why this is?

Answer: Normally first seasons of a show do not get the budget that established shows get. It is possible after the huge success of season 1, the show got a better budget and better lighting.

Mark English

Answer: Tenure: the status of holding one's position on a permanent basis without periodic contract renewals. It is frequently granted to professors at universities, and is a valued commodity as you then know you will continue to have your job as long as you like, unless you do something egregious. Escrow: monies put aside, into a third party's hands, to be delivered only upon fulfillment of specific conditions. It ordinarily comes up in the process of buying a house - you place money in escrow to show good faith and the ability to pay your mortgage, and the builder only gets it upon completion of the home.

Rooster of Doom

Question: Does anyone know what Lucy is saying when she is pretending that she doesn't speak English? This is the scene in the diner when Henry is trying to pick her up with the picture he drew of the fishermen on a boat.

Answer: She is speaking Chinese when this happens and is telling to him to go away using vulgar language.

Question: If Donnie was supposed to die anyway, why did Frank call him out of his house at the beginning? Please don't say it was his schizophrenia and the fact that he is "prone to wander at night", because it IS Frank who calls him out, he doesn't get up on his own.

Answer: Frank calls Donnie out because the airplane engine has fallen through a portal into an alternate universe, and at some point during his sleepwalk Frank guides Donnie through another portal to move him to the alternate universe (from the movie theatre we know that Frank can make portals at will). Frank appoints Donnie to be the guardian of the engine and make sure it falls through the alternate universe's portal into the original universe. Donnie cannot be allowed to die until the engine is escorted into the second portal, but if he dies before then the engine never reaches the second portal and remains in the alternate universe, causing the original universe to unravel. Once he and the engine return, he must die because his experiences of the alternate universe predict the future, potentially causing paradoxes.

Phoenix

Question: In the scene where Rolfe is throwing stones at the window, Captain von Trapp catches him and after trying to explain, Rolfe says Heil Hitler. I was just wondering why he says that seeing as all three there are Austrians (esp. von Trapp) and Germany hasn't taken over Austria yet.

Answer: Rolfe sees Max, who he knows is at least loosely involved with Nazi affairs, and then exclaims "heil Hitler." Being merely a child foot soldier for the Nazis, he wouldn't know the extent of Max's involvement with the Nazis, but knows enough to say "heil Hitler", just in case.

Answer: Some Austrians (such as Rolfe) had already been converted to the Nazi cause as a political/social/pseudo-religious movement rather than as an expression of German nationalism, just as you can live in a democracy and be a communist.

Myridon

Question: If no one is permitted to use magic outside of Hogwarts, then what is the point of teaching it?

Answer: Only underage wizards are not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts, much the same as underage people are not allowed to drink or smoke here. They aren't mature enough to do so, but once they come of age they can do it permitting no Muggles see them.

shorty30490

Question: When Lupin asks 'Can anyone take a guess as to what is inside' someone says 'That's a boggart that is.' who says this?

Answer: It's Dean Thomas that says that. He stands between Seamus and Harry, with Neville behind him.

Super Grover

Question: Is there a naked couple when Mufasa dies and Simba creates a cloud of dust?

Answer: No, but there is speculation about the cloud of dust/pollen that Simba kicks up when he flops down on the edge of a cliff (mid-movie, after Simba is grown). Some say they see letters that spell S-E-X, but Disney says it was S-F-X, in tribute to the special effects team.

Macalou

Adding to this, It is only on the original VHS tapes. They edited it for DVD release.

Question: What is the song played in the trailer for this movie at www.apple.com/trailers?

Answer: "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg.

Tailkinker

Question: When the police break into Tran's parents house-he mouths something to them, anyone read lips?

Answer: To me, it looked like either "What are you doing in my house?" or "Get out of my house!"

Ryan Andersen

Question: What was the name of the music piece during the final car chase, the one where Bourne smashed Karl Urban's car into the wall, killing him and is it on the soundtrack?

Answer: The final car-chase music is called 'Bim Bam Smash' and yes, it is on the soundtrack.

Shipper

Answer: They're cardboard cut-outs of two actresses from Joey and Chandler's favourite show, Baywatch, Pamela Anderson and Yasmin Bleeth. Monica and Rachel's heads were just placed over the faces.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Question: Why do we never see Gandalf praise Merry and Pippin for their taking part in the destruction of Isengard? He just doesn't seem to act very grateful.

Answer: When they initially arrive at Isengard, he's rather more concerned with his upcoming confrontation with Saruman. He presumably talked to them about it later, off camera.

Tailkinker

Question: What does Hu Li say in Chinese near the end, when she is holding the bomb that is about to blow up?

Answer: 两个王八蛋 (You two bastards), 你不就要我们死 (You wanted us to die), 现在我自己来,我来了! (Now I do it myself, I am here!) 我现在主动来了! 我来了!(I am doing this on my own now!).

Answer: She says 'we'll go together, inspector'.

Show generally

Question: I have a couple of questions about the part of the show where Kelso's dating Angie, Hyde's sister. Number one: How can Hyde's sister be black? And number two: How come she's even there? She moved to the same town?

Answer: In "Let's Spend the Night Together", Hyde discovers that the biological father he never met before is black. His father has other kid(s) with different mother(s). They could have been in town the whole time, it's just that Hyde never knew these people were related to him.

Myridon

Question: On the some versions (TV), when Al walks in the lobby to check it out, right before he gets to the elevators and then leaves, the camera pans to the left and you see a terrorist with a machine gun waiting for him. On other versions (VHS) you don't see this terrorist. Why? NOTE: I've seen both on the same TV set.

Answer: The most likely reason is that the two versions have been "panned and scanned" differently. In the original theater version, both things are on screen at the same time at opposite sides of the screen. In one version, the person who did the TV P&S (not someone associated with the making of the film) chose to move the view from one side of the original picture to the other, showing the terrorist, while the person who did the VHS P&S stayed focused on one side of the frame, only showing Al.

Myridon

Question: Is there any reason why the title of the movie was changed to "Suddenly 30" for the Australian release?

Answer: As I understand it, the film distributors were afraid the Australian audiences wouldn't know what "13 Going On 30" meant (possibly "going on" in that context was too American), so they changed it to something more understandable.

Cubs Fan

In Germany it's "30 über Nacht" 30 over night.

Question: What was that tune that Ray was playing on the piano just after he offered his 3 backup singers $30 a week?

Answer: Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.

ChiChi

Question: At the beginning of his experiment, Dr. Octavius is wearing goggles. One lens is brightly colored from the reflection of the fusion, and the other is dark. Is this supposed to foreshadow that he will soon have a split personality between his good side and his evil side?

Answer: Maybe, but a better explanation would be that only one of the goggle lenses was at the right angle to reflect the light.

Bruce Minnick

Question: When Travis goes into his fitness phase, it shows him hovering his fist over the stove fire. Why is he doing this? What does that achieve?

Answer: It helps him create a tolerance for pain. As we see, he certainly gets a lot of that dished out to him.

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