Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: The events of the trilogy take place during the end of the third age of Middle-Earth, but how long does an 'age' actually last?

Answer: It varies, as the ages are marked by significant events, rather than lasting any specific time period. The First Age, which began with the return of the elves to Middle-Earth and the awakening of man and finished with the defeat and banishment of Melkor (a.k.a. Morgoth), the first Dark Lord, lasted 583 years. The Second Age carries on from that point until the defeat of Sauron by the forces of the Last Alliance, as seen in the prologue to the films - this age lasted 3441 years. The Third Age, which runs up to the events of the War of the Ring and ends with the departure of the Ringbearers into the West, lasted 3021 years.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did they decide to go with an older looking Armand? I thought the rules about vampire children would have seemed more apparent if the audience could see that he was one, so why the change?

Answer: The first problem was finding a child actor capable of playing the role - Armand is an extraordinarily complex character and it's highly questionable that a child actor could have played him to the requirements of the script. Secondly, there are some extremely homosexual overtones in the relationship between Louis and Armand (and, for that matter, Louis and Lestat) - while the film just about manages to get away with the relationship between Louis and Claudia, it's extremely likely that there would have been major problems with the censors and critics at any attempt to portray the relationship between Louis and a child Armand. The requirements of the story dictated that Claudia needed to be a child, but there's nothing that insists the same for Armand - hence the eventual decision to up his age.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Vin Diesel pull out of the sequel? Why is the sequel called XXX: The State of the Union if it has nothing to do with XXX himself?

Answer: Vin Diesel chose to reject the sequel as he was being offered three different franchises, based on XXX, The Fast and the Furious concept and the character of Riddick (from Pitch Black) - he presumably felt that he couldn't commit to them all. In the end, he chose to go with the Riddick films and reject the others. The sequel is called XXX for the simple reason that the character is still present - they've just recast the role.

Tailkinker

Question: Throughout the movie Samara is about ten, but she comes out Noah's television as someone who is about twenty. Why the difference?

Answer: She is still in her 10's - the reason why she looks older is because her corpse is rotten.

Malaver

I've noticed that too. It is mentioned in IMDB that this scene was played by an uncredited stuntwoman and not the actress who played Samara. That actress probably was older.

Question: Is there a reason that Gollum's fingers-per hand constantly appears to change from six to five? I know that I am not seeing things, but one of the corrections says that this would never happen.

Answer: Given how Gollum was created, his fingers certainly should remain consistent throughout the films, and it's highly implausible that the SFX people would arbitrarily introduce another finger for certain scenes - it could serve no possible purpose and would detract from the reality of the character. The most likely conclusion is that the apparent change is illusionary - you yourself say that it 'appears to change', which lends itself strongly towards illusion as a possible reason. That being said, errors in rendering the character could result in such an error occuring, although it's an awfully specific thing to happen - rendering errors are usually much more random in nature - and it's surprising, considering the attention to detail required for such an important character, that nobody in the SFX department picked up on it, particularly if it happens on several occasions.

Tailkinker

Question: What does Claudia give the twin boys to keep their blood warm, and what does Lestat think it is?

Answer: She says that she gives them laudanum, an opium-based drug that was very popular at the time. She tells Lestat, however, that the two boys are merely completely drunk on brandy. After biting them and feeling the bad effects, he initially asks if she's fed them absinthe, an extremely strong (usually 60%, but can easily be as high as 75%) herbal liqueur with a flavour resembling licorice, before being told the truth.

Tailkinker

Question: I never would have picked Tom Cruise for that role, but he did a fabulous job. However, I was wondering who else the casting people considered, and what made them choose Tom Cruise?

Answer: Daniel Day Lewis was offered the part, but turned it down. There's also a rumour, that I've never seen confirmed, that Johnny Depp was approached - if true, he presumably said no. The studio wanted a good name in the role (Lewis was riding high in Hollywood after "The Last of the Mohicans", Depp was very much an up-and-coming actor at the time) so Cruise would have seemed like an obvious choice. He was initially cast against the wishes of Anne Rice (who created Lestat with Rutger Hauer in mind) - after seeing his performance, however, she made a public apology for doubting him.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the meaning of all of the images that Samara made in the hospital? The rocking horse, the hardware, the weird people, etc; and what is the significance of the spinning up-side-down chair in the video? I know she had a chair in her loft, but why is it spinning upside down?

Answer: Every image that Samara created was made with her mind and was relevant to everything that happened with her time with the Morgans. All of the objects are odd and disfigured thus the spinning chair. The hardware was there because of Mr. Morgans constant use of hammers etc. in and around the farmhouse.

Question: Is is a coincidence that Claudia wears blue dresses so frequently? I was wondering if it is because blue is a color that Louis loves so much.

Answer: Given that Claudia is very fond of Louis, I suspect that you've hit the nail on the head with your suggestion.

Tailkinker

Question: Why was that one guy walking around with a knife in his back? Were some of the other Necromongers that way too?

Answer: In the novelization they say that Irgun received the wound but because the knife was so near the spine it would require major surgery to remove it. He opted to leave it in.

Question: What is Sauron's army chanting as they approach Minas Tirith? Not the Grond bit, earlier than that. It sounds like four syllables being repeated.

Answer: It is just an orc war chant. I'm not sure that anybody knows quite what it means.

Question: When Riddick says that the monsters can track them because the girl is bleeding, and Jack is revealed to be a girl, is it her period that he is talking about? Did Riddick smell it, too?

Answer: Yes, it is her period. Considering that he lived in darkness for years, it's possible that he smells it too. It's also equally likely he realized she was a girl and that the creatures were all riled up and put two and two together. But the first explanation fits Riddick's character better.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Is there evidence that Peter Jackson was influenced by the 1996 PC game "Warcraft II" in how the soldiers of Gondor and the Orcs dress? The armored uniforms of the Gondorians resembled those of the humans in Warcraft.

megamii

Chosen answer: For practical armouring, there are only so many possibilities that you can go with - inevitably some of these will resemble each other. The Gondorian armour is described to a reasonable degree within the books - the designs would have been based on those descriptions, rather than any non-Tolkien influences.

Tailkinker

Question: How exactly are those head band things that the precrime cops put on the "criminals" supposed to work.

NoWhereMan

Chosen answer: I think they probably pulse a form of an electric current into the temples, which puts them into a state of deep sleep. Don't get too uptight, though, it's set in the future.

Question: Why is the game series this is based on known as 'Resident Evil' in some countries but in others it's called 'Biohazard'? Does the name swap also apply to the film?

Answer: The game was originally called 'BioHazard' in Japan, but because of copyright problems with the band Biohazard, was named 'Resident Evil' in the US and Europe. However most hard-core gamers call it 'BioHazard' no matter where they live. For more info, check out http://faqs.ign.com/articles/378/378719p1.html.

Question: What does Eowyn say to Aragorn as she hands him the cup in Meduseld near the beginning of the film?

Answer: She says in the language of the Rohirrim: 'Westu Aragorn hál', which means 'Be thou Aragorn well'.

Show generally

Question: What religion are the Simpsons? I know they're Christians, but what branch (e.g. Catholic? Protestant?).

Answer: Since Reverend Lovejoy is both married and referred to as 'Reverend', they must be Protestants. They never name the exact protestant denomination.

J I Cohen

The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism First Church of Springfield.

Show generally

Question: Throughout the series, people mutate fairly soon after their exposure to kryptonite. Is it ever explained how Lana has managed to wear a piece of kryptonite around her neck for 12 years and not change?

Answer: The kryptonite only creates mutations when it reacts with the environment and an individual. Remember, the FDA and several environmental groups did check out Smallville after the meteor shower, but found no danger in the rocks. Obviously they're not always emitting mutating rays, or all the flora and fauna of the surrounding area would be horribly mutated.

Phoenix

Question: What is the significance of the third judge being Chuck Norris? The thing is that everybody in the theater laughed when it showed it and he gave the thumbs up, I'm just wondering what it's all about.

Answer: There were many celebrity cameos throughout the film. It's just kind of strange that Chuck Norris would do this.

Question: What's the difference between a "normal" guitar and a bass guitar?

Answer: A guitar has normally got 6 strings while a bass has got 4. Also the bass guitar got thicker strings to sound "deeper" hence the name bass.

Mortug

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