Question: The early versions of the M16 had severe problems with jamming. There may have been several causes; instructions issued that the rifle was "self-cleaning", improper ammunition design, improper magazine design (therefore in a later stage 18 rounds instead of 20 were used in the mag). It is not necessarily a mistake, certainly not by the filmmaker, but there are several writers mentioning serious casualties amongst fighting troops specifically because of jamming M16 rifles. Why does this book/film not even include a hint of that problem which surely must have existed at that time and place?
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Answer: The M16's used in this battle were second generation M16A1's easily distinguished by the forward bolt assist on the right hand side of the rifle. The original M16 had no bolt assist and the jamming was caused by a different propellant that made the weapon very dirty.
Question: When Norman says the guy "that wrote that book he loves" (Shumway?) congratulated him on Spencer's Theorem, then Claire says "He didn't know your father was dead?" and Norman says "He knew". What does one thing have to do with the other? I've seen this movie at least 20 times and I can't figure out this conversation.
Chosen answer: Spencer's theorem was Norman's father's theorem. Norman wants to be greater than his father was, so to be accidentally complemented on something that his father did would be bad enough. To say that the guy knows that his father is dead is to imply that the guy probably insulted him intentionally.
Question: Does anyone know why there are armadillos running around inside Dracula's castle?
Answer: Pretty sure this qualifies as a mistake, just like the llamas in Troy. Armadillos only live in the Americas. Later on, they have opossums too! So the story about not wanting to show rats could very well be true. Nevetheless, if this isn't a mistake, I don't know what is.
Chosen answer: If memory serves, that version was filmed in Mexico and they used the same sets to film the Spanish version AT THE SAME TIME. English crew on days, Mexican crew at night. Being the desert there would be armadillos and I'm sure the crew thought they'd make good rats or something. Wouldn't you find some sort of exotic wildlife living in Castle Dracula?
Answer: Actually, in that time period, rats were deemed too "gross" to show so armadillos were substituted. I got this answer straight from David Skal, the noted horror film historian.
Question: Where could one obtain recordings of USA's 1980 Olympic hockey games in their entirety?
Chosen answer: You probably wont ever be able to get all the games in their entirety. The biggest obstacle with recorded events and games from the Olympics is the high price of licensing them so its near impossible to obtain entire matches on DVD or VHS and in many cases catching replays of the full game in the future. Many sports channels on cable tv will be your best bet including the US channel ESPN Classic. If you were looking for something to buy the closest you will probably get is a DVD or VHS called "Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team (2001)".
Question: After seeing this film, I have questions that need answering: 1) What are the differences between Fundamentalists, Conservatives, and Evangelicals? 2) What is a "mainline" church, as this is something I often hear from Evangelicals?
Chosen answer: No way to answer this without over simplifying or offending someone, but here goes... To characterize the three types by their one particular focus (and ignoring all other differences and similarities), Conservatives' main focus is for values/practices/whatever to stay the way that they have traditionally been. Fundamentalists want change from tradition to a stricter, more literal interpretation of the Bible. Evangelicals main focus is to be close to God to convert others to Christianity. Of course there are all sorts of combinations of all three as well. "Mainline" churches are the large, well-established, well-accepted mainstream denominations, e.g. Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian, etc. etc.
Question: Given that in the book she's lusting after Colin Firth, but the films star Colin Firth as someone else, does anyone know for sure what's being done? Is it someone acting the part of Colin Firth, or will it be another celebrity playing themselves? Given filming's probably finished by now, there must be a definitive answer...
Chosen answer: While there were rumours that a different celebrity was to be used - George Clooney was mooted - according to Renee Zellweger, that sequence is not in the film.
Question: In the movie and in early episodes when they travelled through the stargate they arrived on The Other Side nearly frozen. This no longer happens. I was just wondering if any explanation was ever given as to why this no longer happens, or did they just drop that plot point?
Answer: It's a side effect from stellar drift. Once they compensated for it, it goes away.
Question: Samara just wanted to be heard and killed everyone who didn't make a copy to show to someone else. But say that someone showed another person the same copy they had seen. Would she still kill that person?
Answer: Yes, there are two rules in order to be spared: make a copy and have someone else watch the copy you made. The day after watching the tape, Rachel shows it to Noah. He asks her to make him a copy so he can do research about its origins which she does almost immediately. When she visits Becca at the psych ward and touches her hand, she tells her she has 4 days left (Becca had seen Samara the night Katie died thus was affected by her presence and could tell how much time Rachel had left as a result). At this point, Rachel had already made a copy, but was still very much in danger because no-one else had watched it. It is not until Aidan watches the copy she made that her life is finally spared. Samara wants everyone to know about her story, so it makes sense that she would want as many tapes out there as possible for people to watch.
Answer: Yes because Rachel watched the same copy as Katie, (her niece) and she received a phone call just like the others. She wasn't killed because she copied the tape before her 7 days were up. I don't think it makes any difference, as long as you see the tape.
Answer: No, as long as you show someone else the tape and they watch the entire thing, your life is spared. Whenever Rachel realises she made a copy, she is really just realizing she was spared because she showed the tape to someone else. Making a copy isn't a bad idea though, because if the original would somehow get destroyed, the viewer would be out of luck.
Question: Why did Sarah Michelle Gellar leave the show?
Answer: She wanted to devote more time to her movie career and her new husband Freddie Prinze Jr.
Question: I know that some shows/films changed their cityscape shots between scenes after September the 11th but did Friends? I noticed in an old episode from series 6 the Trade Center Towers are still standing. I thought they might have changed it for the later episodes, but are there any plans to go back and edit episodes featuring shots of the Twin Towers?
Answer: No I don't think so. Earlier episodes show the Trade Center Towers in some of their shots but after 9/11 Friends started using new cityscape shots, which makes sense.
Question: At the end of the scene in Brodie's comic book shop, Brodie says "cue the music." What song are Brody, Jay, and Silent Bob imitating?
Answer: Apparently it was a song that was improvised by Jason Lee and Jason Mewes. Stated on the commentary.
Question: Before Cale starts to rebuild the ship so he can pursue Corso, he says, "Good, 'cause we launch yesterday." I have no idea what he meant by that statement.
Question: What happens in the end, is the French captain dead? And why does Jack Aubrey decide not to sail to the Galapagos but follow Acheron?
Answer: The French captain is most likely the man who claimed to be the doctor or any other man. Aubrey realizes that the captain is not dead and could engineer a coup, so he turns his ship to chase the Acheron.
Question: After the massive battle on Endor the Rebels try to make it look like the stormtroopers have won so the ones inside the shield generator will come out. What I don't understand is who's the Imperial guy that appears on the monitor telling them it's over and they need reinforcements? Aren't all the Imperials outside meant to be dead at this point?
Answer: Look close, it's Han Solo with his hand covering his mouth with the radio so as to not give away his identity. You can even recognize his voice. Apparently, he got inside the walker that Chewie highjacked, took an imperial officers uniform from somewhere, then radioed to the base to get them to come out so he could ambush them.
And a few seconds later, he had the time to go out of the AT-ST, remove his uniform and be on the ground for the ambush?
It's only a few seconds of screen time. Within the film itself, several troops gathered to meet them at the door, which could have taken a couple minutes. That's plenty of time for Han to have removed the helmet and gloves (only his head and hand are visible, so he likely didn't put the full uniform on) and the climbed back down to the ground.
You only see his head. It doesn't take long to remove a helmet.
It wasn't an entire uniform, just the jacket helmet and glove. And more than a few seconds had passed as the troops inside needed to be assembled and then exit the bunker.
If you look closely, you can see it's about a half-second of footage on a loop. Where they got it is another question.
Question: Why is it Norringtons initial response to Jack saving Elizabeth to kill him?
Answer: Because Jack is a pirate and Norrington hates pirates.
Question: When Lightning is crushed by the statue at the end of the movie, he sends out dozens of bolts of energy before he dies. The final wisp of electricity forms a Chinese character. Does anyone know what it means?
Answer: It's the symbol for "carpenter" after the director John Carpenter.
Question: In the episode with burn's bear bobo, homer trips down the stairs and discoveres bobo behind the fish tank. With the music and the lighting, is the way this was done supposed to represent something, or is it copied from somewhere, or was it just an interesting thing the writers came up with?
Answer: I thought perhaps it was a parody of a scene from Baz Luhrman's 'Romeo Juliet' when the two title characters see one another through an aquarium. I'm not 100% sure, though.
Question: In the song "Into the West," what is silver glass?
Answer: The surface of the water colored by "the pale moon..."
Question: What tune is being played during the mall scene, and again when Cab Calloway introduces Jake and Elwood on stage? (I've heard it many times before, most recently in promos for the 2004 Major League All-State Game.).
Answer: It's 'Can't Turn You Loose,' often refered to as the Blues Brothers Theme.
Also done much earlier by Otis Redding.
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Chosen answer: There is no definitive information on this topic, and although factually accurate, a technical problem with a weapon was probably not enough to build an entire sub-plot, and would not hold the interest of the moviegoer. There were enough casualties without having to take into consideration weapon malfunction.
Macalou