Question: What does Claudia give the twin boys to keep their blood warm, and what does Lestat think it is?
Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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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.
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: 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.
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.
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.
Question: How exactly are those head band things that the precrime cops put on the "criminals" supposed to work.
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 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.
The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism First Church of Springfield.
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.
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: Right after Ted is dumped by Elaine, was that Harrison Ford that played the religious zealot he punched out?
Question: Was the original actor who portrayed O'Neill in the Stargate movie ever considered for the role for the TV show? Or was Richard Dean Anderson picked from the get-go? And if so, why?
Chosen answer: Anderson is one of the producers of the show, so I guess right from the start he wanted the role of Jack. (I believe he was instrumental in making the show happen) Nor do I see Kurt Russell wanting to do a weekly TV show.
Question: Where exactly was Dolittle when pearl harbor was being bombed?
Chosen answer: Probably in Washington. He rejoined active duty in 1940, was assigned to consult with industry re aircraft manufacture; also a trip to England on special mission to evaluate other countries' air power. He requested a return to flying status but was refused. He then was asked to assess feasablity of a air attack on Japan from carrier based planes, and when he asked to lead the mission his request was accepted.
Question: If you read the book version of Contact you know that the stuff about transcendental numbers and the Artist's Signature was left out of the movie. This makes no sense to me, since it's not only the real ending, it's the whole POINT of the story. Without this information, the story's fundamental question (does God exist?) is not answered in the movie. Does anyone know why this was left out?
Answer: If anything, I think the film's producers deliberately left godly topics unaddressed (and questions dangling, unanswered) because they didn't want to alienate any particular audience. However, we know the producers of "Contact" certainly did vilify religion through the sinister scenes with Joseph, the evangelical extremist. At the same time, the film created empathy for the president's glib theological adviser, Palmer Joss. So, I don't think the film was shying away from religious topics, and I think it was pretty fair to the religious viewpoint, for the most part. But this movie wasn't about religion; it was about a primitive, materialistic, self-centered and aggressive species (humanity) reluctantly acknowledging the existence of vastly more intelligent and even godlike entities throughout the cosmos. Even the first-contact entities, advanced as they are, acknowledge other entities much more ancient and much more advanced (the virtual architects of the space/time conduit). The implication was that we live in a universe that may be populated with many intelligent entities that answer every human criteria of godhood. Ellie's narrow-minded atheism was surely shaken to its foundation by her experience; and, while she didn't "convert" to archaic earthly religions, she was spiritually a different person upon her return. The film, however, is open-ended and fence-straddling and doesn't presume to definitively answer the question of the existence of god, leaving it up to the audience to decide.
Answer: The film chooses to focus on Ellie's personal journey and how she deals with and comes to terms with what happens - it doesn't really involve God at all, other than the inclusion of Palmer Joss as a religious advocate, choosing to restrict itself to the much less theologically controversial theme of a straight first contact scenario, without the religious overtones. Given the depth of feeling on religious matters in the US, it's hardly surprising that the filmmakers preferred to leave this particular hot topic out. While Carl Sagan died during production of the film, he both co-produced and was involved in the story process, so he was clearly not concerned about this change.
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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 ★