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.

Answer: He knows that Professor Higgins is trying to pull a fast one by having Eliza pretend to be someone else, and he fancies himself as much of a linguistic expert as Higgins. He's correct that there's something going on; he just gets the wrong end of the stick and assumes she's "high born," thus proving Higgins right that he could "train" Eliza to pass as upper class.

Answer: Because he's a gullible foreigner.

raywest

Question: How could Carl know about Legion or Rev-9, considering that he originally came from a future where Skynet existed and Legion didn't appear until after he killed John?

Answer: Xavier can only control one person; Jean is controlling Toad. If he takes off the helmet, he can control Magneto, but he would lose control of Sabretooth, which would start an incident. As always, Xavier tries to resolve it peacefully.

lionhead

Answer: Magneto's helmet cannot be simply knocked off like a hat. It would have to be lifted off his head. It's possible that Xavier thought attempting to do so would lead to Magneto killing all of the police officers.

Phaneron

Question: Does anyone know why John Carpenter had one actor, Nick Castle, play Michael Myers in all the scenes where he's wearing a mask but had a different actor, Tony Moran, play Michael during that one scene at the end where he's briefly unmasked?

Answer: My understanding is that the film was so small-budgeted that Carpenter could only afford to pay Castle so much. And that was already the bare minimum. So, in order to cut costs in any way possible, they had to give this one blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot to a different actor.

ChristmasJonesfan

The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby - S1-E29

Question: When Martha was first looking around the antique shop, why did Mr. Appleby refuse to sell multiple items to her? He needed money, so why not sell any of those expensive items to someone who was interested?

Answer: It's because he considers the items in his shop as his personal treasured possessions rather than items to be sold for profit. That was why he murdered his wife for the insurance money rather than part with anything.

raywest

Question: Throughout the movie, why are there sprigs of tree branches on the floors of various places?

Answer: It was a typical practice and served multiple purposes. Castles were cold and the tree springs provided insulation. They also were fragrant and masked bad odors, thought to repel insects and other vermin, and absorbed various spilled liquids and food. The practice was also unsanitary, as the branches were infrequently replaced and actually attracted bugs, mice, etc.

raywest

Question: If Pollyanna were paralyzed and survived that fall, would a doctor loft her out of the bed? Carry her to the train? Wouldn't that be harmful?

Answer: Yes, it would have been dangerous. Even though not as much was known about spinal cord injuries in that time period, it's unlikely a patient would have been moved that way. However, this appears to be more of an artistic license for the purpose of the movie plotting. It avoids Pollyanna awkwardly being moved on a stretcher, loading her onto the train, how she is interacting with the townsfolk, etc. It just made for a smoother, quicker and more intimate movie ending.

raywest

Return - S1-E4

Question: Gus was shot in the same leg with two arrows. Why would he need to have both legs removed?

Answer: They didn't have antibiotics to prevent infections from setting in. No sterilized equipment. No clean rooms to work in. Everything was dirty.

Question: Why did they have to build a raft when doing the work to re-float the pirate ship? The small boat that came ashore to fill their water casks wasn't damaged and could have been used. (01:10:00)

Answer: A raft would provide a bigger, flatter and more stable surface area for transporting necessary equipment and people than a smaller rowboat.

raywest

Question: Considering how relatively small the island is and how big the bees are, what kind of plants and/or flowers would have enough pollen to supply the hive to produce the honey? (01:02:00)

Answer: Since that is never shown, any answer would be speculation.

raywest

Question: If the fake Mr Body couldn't get out of the house in the beginning, why did the fake butler open the door so fast to throw away the cabinet key? No pause, no master door key used to unlock.

Question: Where did the horse and cart come from? And what did the children do with them afterwards?

Question: I know it's based off the book, but when the big Urak-Hai is heading to the bombs to blow up the wall at Helms Deep, why is Aragorn only asking Legolas to kill him? Aragorn knew killing him was of great importance, which is why he was saying "Take him down, Legolas" and "Kill him, kill him." Wouldn't it make more sense to ask everyone to shoot at him or even take a shot at him himself?

Answer: I believe it was because supposedly Legolas was the best archer there. In the book, the other elves were not there like in the movie, so it does sort of play fast and loose with the logic around that fact. However, Aragorn knew Legolas's abilities and that over all the battle noise he could hear him when the humans could not. While the other elves could have helped, it was more of just an in-the-moment thing most likely.

Quantom X

Question: How can Barron be in present time so long without aging?

Question: Why do Miss Peregrine and the children wear the same outfits every day? Don't they have other clothes?

Answer: Most likely it's the movie's choice to avoid confusion and provide continuity. The premise is they are reliving the same day over and over. The characters changing clothes might cause to the audience to assume the time frame has changed.

raywest

Question: Why does the audio sound so odd when Dutch screams "Get to the chopper!"? It almost sounds like he's shouting it into a tin can.

Phaneron

Answer: Being an editor myself for YouTube and other projects, and working with audio editing, to me this sounds like they tried to double layer the audio in that moment to make him sound a bit louder. But the syncing on the two layers was not perfect. That's an easy trick to get a robotic sound to a voice: to layer it twice and have the second layer slightly off and at a different pitch, but doubling it also makes it louder. That's just my guess based on my own editing experience.

Quantom X

Question: Things are vastly different these days, obviously, but back when this movie was made, would a bank really have $30 mn in their vault like that and let him take $3 mn with him, or is this just for the movie?

The_Iceman

Answer: A bank would never have that much money on hand. Not only would it be poor asset management to keep millions in cash on hand instead of in some sort of investment, it would be a safety hazard as well. Even in modern day, most banks would have less than $50,000 in cash on hand.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: He murdered his wife for the insurance money, and it avoided splitting marital assets in a prolonged and expensive divorce.

raywest

Question: I actually have two questions. On the commentary for Back to the Future around when Doc breaks the clock tower ledge, Bob Gale mentions that the 4 on the clock is IV and not IIII. I just need a better understanding of how he is talking about it being a mistake. Is it really a mistake? Because I will submit it as a mistake. What kind of mistake would this fall under? Continuity, factorial error, plot hole, or other? If it's not a mistake, then I won't submit it.

Richie

Answer: Romans used both numerical styles for the number four. Romans used IIII for vertical lists, on stone columns, etc. It was supposedly easier to add the extra "I" rather than IV. For horizontal writing, the IV was used. Bob Gale is apparently referring to how old clock faces typically used the IIII instead of the more familiar IV. The clock tower in the movie was supposed to be 100 years old, so "IIII" is what should have been used in the 1800s instead of "IV," so that appears to be the mistake. As far as the type of mistake, probably "Factual Error."

raywest

Fun fact, my mom has a clock that uses Roman numerals, and the 4 is indeed IIII on it, not IV. If it is a mistake, it is one that is common and not unique to the movie. I think it is used in clocks traditionally since the Romans used to use it on their sundials.

lionhead

Most cuckoo clocks use Roman numerals and still have the IIII.

raywest