Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Chosen answer: He says it specifically - he's offering his service in payment of what he sees as a debt to Denethor, in that Boromir gave his life to protect Pippin and Merry.

Tailkinker

Question: How does Smeagol over time becomes the hideous-looking Gollum? Did the One Ring radically changed his appearance? Also, what kind of Hobbit was Smeagol?

megamii

Chosen answer: Smeagol was believed to have been a Stoor, a branch of the hobbits known for being quite large and strong (by hobbit standards). His mutation is because of the Ring - precise reason unclear, but almost certainly related to the fact that it has prolonged his life far beyond a normal hobbit span (Gollum is around 580 years old when he dies, easily five times the normal lifespan)- note that Bilbo, who, while old, is still within a normal hobbit lifespan, looks physically normal. Smeagol, through use of the Ring, has been influenced by the wraithworld, in exactly the same manner that the kings of men who were given the nine rings ultimately became the Nazgul - in time, he would presumably have become a wraith-like being like them. Gollum's current appearance may be some intermediate stage.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: He wished to return to live in England with his family, so made an agreement that he would take a reduced role in the series.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: Whenever anyone wants to contact someone else from another part of the ship, they hit their badge and say (for example), "Picard to Engineering." In no episode ever is there an instance where we hear somebody call someone else who is not involved in the current scene. We should assume, therefore, that when communication like this is initiated, it is only heard by the recipient of the page. So the question is, how can the ship's communication system know ahead of time who the person is paging? In other words, if Picard says, "Picard to Engineering," what keeps sickbay from hearing his call? There can't be a time-delay (i.e., the computer does not make the page until it hears the entire page, and then directs it only to the intended recipient) because in many episodes we hear the reply right away. Can anyone explain this? Are we simply "lucky," in that we only hear pages made by or sent to people in the scene we're watching?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Enterprise's computer directs the call to the aforementioned department. It is then answered by the ranking member of the department. For instance, if Engineering was contacted, and Geordi was in sickbay or off duty, the call would be answered by whoever was "officer of the watch" in Engineering. Mainly, it wouldn't do much for the show to say, "Picard to engineering", "This is engineering, go ahead." "Yes, I'd like to speak to Geordi about some more phaser power, please", "One moment, I'll transfer you."

Grumpy Scot

There is a episode of Voyager where someone calls someone on their combadge and it gets rerouted to another station and someone else answers. Due to a communications error being fixed. The comm signal was rerouted.

Dan23

Question: Could someone please explain to me the different ranks onboard the ship? Like there were the men in uniform, the kids in uniform, then the other guys who had no uniform?

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: Traditionally aboard any type of Royal Navy sailing vessel you would have a heirarchy of officers. Beginning with the Captain (technincally not a real rank, Post Captain was the real rank. Post Captain meaning you had commanded a vessel three years or more and had shown yourself of distinction worthy of promotion), then going down through Lieutenants 1st through 5th. The younger boys were juinior officers, or non-commissioned officers, and thus had the lowest rank of any officer, Midshipman, meaning they had command authority in the event of the death of another officer or if it was bestowed upon them in the absence of a higher ranked officer. The non-officers seem to be a mix of ensigns and hired hands. There were also Marines aboard (guys in red and white uniforms), with their ranks usually including either a Lieutenant or Sergeant Major, his subordinates, and a number of infantry units, usually corporals or privates. The Marines were ususally at platoon strength or higher, meaning about 12-20 Marines. There were also what appeared to be Corpsmen (military doctors), but I couldn't really tell if the doctors on board were all civilians, or a mix of Corpsmen and civilians.

Question: I've got one question about Legolas' infamous jump on to the horse during the wolf-attack. Is it even possible to do something like that? How did they shoot that scene?

Answer: It's a computer-generated Legolas. While experienced riders are capable of some pretty amazing stuff, I'd imagine that what's seen would be impossible to do in reality - certainly not without throwing the horse off a lot more than seen here. But then, Legolas is an elf, so all bets are off on what he's capable of doing.

Tailkinker

Answer: He says "Hannon le" - it means "Thank you".

Tailkinker

Season 1 generally

Question: Does anybody know why the actress Anita Barone was replaced by Jane Sibbett as Carol Willick after episode 1.1? I know this kind of thing happens all the time, but I wondered if there was a particular reason.

Answer: From tvtome.com: Anita Barone had auditioned for one of the three female leads in the show, but didn't get the part. The producers then offered her the recurring role of Carol. However, after only one episode as Carol, Barone decided that she was looking for a more full-time role and left to look for other opportunities, being replaced by Jane Sibbett beginning in episode 9.

Question: It shows in Reloaded that the Architect's room has hundreds of TV's in which to "Watch over" the Matrix. Why didn't he notice Agent Smith "Multiplying" earlier on and put an end to it before it got so out of hand?

Answer: Undoubtedly he tried. During the Burly Brawl, for example, an agent appears, but is turned into a Smith. It appears he has very little control over rogue programmes.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Question: After that George (the Eminem wannabe) has been thrown out the window at the rap-club he and a friend of his walk past a parked car. Under the car you can see two feet sticking out. I don't think it's a crew member, I don't see any reason for a crew member to lie there. Is this any kind of joke or what? Why do someone lie there? Can someone please explain?

Answer: It's just in the random nature of the films to have a dead body's legs sticking out from underneath a car.

Piemanmoo

Answer: It's possible that the songs written for the character simply didn't suit his singing voice. There was an additional song written for the film, to be sung by Mufasa (called "To Be King") - this was eventually cut completely for a similar reason, namely that it didn't suit James Earl Jones' (very good) singing voice.

Tailkinker

Question: I'm curious as to why Paéz is the narrator in the beginning and end of the film, when the movie focuses mainly on Canessa and Parrada as main characters. Almost all of the boys are alive today, and even if they weren't it is not Páez himself who is being interviewed but John Malcovich as Páez. So I'm still curious as to why they chose Páez instead of Parrado or Canessa, as they are both alive today.

Answer: Keeping in mind that some parts of the audience were not familiar with the details of this story, using Paez as the narrator retains some of the suspense of Canessa and Parredo's journey across the Andes. If the audience is not told at the start that they survive, at least some viewers may have considered that one of them may die during their trek to civilization.

Chosen answer: It's a stage tradition. Mr. Darling and Captain Hook are ALWAYS played by the same actor.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: She played Sabe, the queen's handmaiden and double.

Xofer

Fool For Love - S5-E7

Question: In this episode we see some of Spike's history - when he's human there's a bit where he walks down a street tearing up his poetry and bumps past Angel and Darla. We don't see their faces, but it's obviously them. I remember an episode of Angel when we see a flashback of Spike still human - can anyone remember the episode, and am I right in thinking that the bit we see is exactly the same moment in history, but we're focusing on Angel and Darla instead?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: This would be the episode "Darla", and, yes, it's exactly the same moment - I'm pretty sure that the same shot is used. In a nice bit of coordination, Darla is Angel episode 2.7, which corresponds exactly to Fool For Love, which is Buffy episode 5.7. - at the time, I think, the two series were shown on the same night, one after the other, making the two episodes, in effect, a double-length history lesson on the vampires of this particular bloodline. In an even nicer bit of coordination, this particular scene occurs at about the same point in each episode (around the 15-minute mark).

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Most of the interior scenes were shot in a mall in Burlington, near Toronta.

Xofer

Question: Can anyone explain to me the game everyone is playing in the scene where Michael comes to pick Lanie up for their first date? He obviously understood it and made suggestions but I can't figure out what they are doing.

princesskelli

Chosen answer: It's a drinking game and can be played with just about any kind of list. You go in a circle and name off parts of the list, ie. in the movie they are naming Good Times plots. When it's your turn you have to name one or you have to do a shot of liquor.

Question: When the tour group is heading back to base camp, Richard Attenborough is complaining about how the tour was unsuccessful. Samuel L. Jackson says very seriously, "It could have been worse - a lot worse." Is he referring to the fact that the dinosaurs could have escaped, or that they knew the security was faulty? If this was a real possibility, why would they have sent the tour group out, especially the kids?

Krista

Chosen answer: I don't think they're thinking along that sort of lines - I think it's more that this is the first test of the tour systems with a 'real' tour group and they're concerned about technical difficulties. Hammond is complaining because it didn't all go perfectly - Arnold is merely reminding him that they had a lot of technical systems that worked fine. If they'd had problems as well, the tour could have been appalling. At this point, they wouldn't even be considering the possibility of a dinosaur breakout or security problem - they're worried about the technical aspects of the tour working properly.

Tailkinker

Question: What exactly is the deal with the handcuff/hand cutting scene at the end? Even though we see Clarice wince in pain, we see her with both her hands later. Are we to assume that Hannibal cut off his own hand and that's why he was wearing the arm sling on the plane?

Answer: That does appear to be the most likely interpretation of events, yes. The only other possibility, which seems considerably less probable, is that Lecter does know some way of disabling handcuffs with a hard strike - one that still caused significant damage to his wrist, resulting in the need to wear the sling.

Tailkinker

Answer: Hannibal being an accomplished surgeon could have wielded the cleaver to remove a finger or two thus enabling the handcuffs to be removed. He does mention "above the wrist or below" in the scene, thus below the wrist could mean fingers only.

Answer: Because Silent Bob is fat. Lunchbox refers to A. he eats a lot or B. he is shaped like one.

Grumpy Scot

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