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.

Question: What did Harry and his friends come across when they were trying to escape from Filch?

Answer: Presumably you are referring to when the trio come upon "Fluffy," the three-headed dog, that is kept in the restricted area of the castle. Inside the room there is a magical self-playing harp that keeps "Fluffy" asleep when it's playing. Hermione also noticed Fluffy was lying atop a floor hatch, which leads to where the Philosopher's Stone is hidden.

raywest

Answer: In addition to raywest I will add that at this point in the book, the Harp isn't playing and Fluffy is awake. It is also not known at this point that music puts Fluffy to sleep.

Ssiscool

True, although the question only relates to what the trio came across while evading Filch, not about knowing what any particular object is or does. (I just added an explanation as an aside.) However, I'm not sure now the harp had been installed yet when they first found Fluffy, so it was probably about the floor hatch.

raywest

Question: There's a scene where Al Pacino gets called away from dinner with friends to investigate a girl's murder... who is she? And what's the importance of that part of the story? She doesn't have the same hair as the prostitute Waingrow kills.

Answer: Waingrow is a serial killer. He is kills several young, black prostitutes in LA. Showing Waingrow attacking one and then the body of another is a clever trick to explain to the audience that there is more than one victim without having exposition directly stating this fact. Vincent is coincidentally asked to cover the homicide because his team is available that night and there are apparently no other detectives free.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When the kidnapper threatens to shoot Brad Garrett if he doesn't change the channel back, he then pulls the trigger but the gun doesn't go off. But when the gun is checked and empties, there are 6 bullets in the gun. Why did it not go off?

Rollie55

Answer: There were 5 live rounds ("bullets") and 1 empty shell. So the cylinder was positioned to shoot the spent round when the trigger was pulled.

Bishop73

Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister - S2-E7

Question: At the beginning, Eleven overhears Becky Ives call the police and talk about her. Becky wanted the police to come and take Eleven. Why would Becky betray Eleven all of a sudden? Earlier, she told Eleven to stay with her in the house while showing her own room. She even said she could get Eleven a real bed. Change of mind that soon?

Bunch Son

Answer: She said that to try to make her feel calm and "at home" in a way.

Question: When Malcolm leaves the bathroom after Big Momma gets in the shower, does the toilet or the shower make that weird noise? Also, what is he looking at that makes him vomit?

Answer: I think it's the toilet unclogging. Also, he was probably looking at the diarrhoea she left behind in the toilet bowl.

Answer: I looked all over Google and cannot find any references to Wahlberg bullying Reynor. Wahlberg mentioned that he would tease Reynor on set over silly things like his Irish accent, but all indications were that it was in more of a friendly way, kinda like how friends like to "bust each other's balls." Wahlberg also jokingly referred to Reynor as "an a**hole" in one interview, but almost immediately indicated he was just joking around and praised Reynor as an actor. Unless someone hears otherwise, it seems it wasn't a case of bullying so much as just friendly ribbing between a veteran actor and his younger co-star.

TedStixon

Question: Why did Palpatine ever want an apprentice? If I am correct, he always intended to dispose of Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Darth Vader when they were no longer useful to him. And probably Luke, if Luke had accepted his offer. Why not work alone?

Answer: Because an Apprentice does the emperor's bidding, dispatches orders, acts as an emissary, intimidates enemies, is a spy, and so on. Having minions at one's disposal is a show of power, and supreme leaders would not do those things themselves. It dilutes their authority, and they would look weak and ineffective. As you pointed out, when the current apprentice is no longer as useful or obedient or becomes too powerful and poses a threat, they are replaced.

raywest

That's the rule of two for the Sith, there's always a Master and an Apprentice. No more, no less. In order to remain a Sith Master, Sidious must have an apprentice.

Answer: Succumbing to the dark side comes with it a megalomania that has you wanting to display proof of your omnipotence by training a skilled and powerful apprentice who starts out THINKING he's going to kill you and take your place someday but in the end is forever your obedient slave (or so you think.) Likewise, Sith apprentices all have an unspoken desire to eventually pull the ultimate power move by killing their master and taking their place as head honcho when they least expect it (or so they think). This of course results in Sith relationships always becoming weird and twisted, vaguely BDSM-like mind games.

TonyPH

Question: Mr. Chagall, the man who told Madeline about Lisle, what was the deal with his eye? It twitched seemingly uncontrollably in his first scene, but then when he's giving his speech at the party it seems completely fine.

Answer: Like all zombies his body was falling apart. He was pushing it back into place.

Answer: The line he says in Russian is " Ё моё!" It's a Russian phrase of excitement, surprise, or disappointment. Literally it translates into "it's mine." But as a phrase, it really doesn't have an English translation. Some say it's equivalent to using the F-word while others say not really since it's not an obscene word.

Bishop73

Thanks. I thought he said You're my whore. My brain wouldn't accept that.

Question: Louis is arrested for theft, and ultimately also booked for PCP possession. Penelope pays his bail and gets him out so the plot can carry on, but the theft and drug charges never come up again. Why is all of that dropped? Do the Dukes just drop the charges?

Answer: It's likely that the Dukes dropped the charges. They initially were planning on bringing Winthorpe back into the company after conducting their little experiment, and only changed their minds after Winthorpe threatened them at the Christmas party.

Answer: Petty theft and first time drug possession wouldn't be impossible to have the charges reduced or dismissed. If found guilty it would most likely be a heavy fine and probation. Also, after the scandal with the Duke brothers and Bryon Beaks, the plot against Louis would have been uncovered.

Answer: Louis became a millionaire again, and likely just hired a good attorney to get the charges dismissed.

Brian Katcher

Answer: The woman was just a random family friend or Geller relative invited to the rehearsal dinner. Because the woman was in a black outfit, Rachel mistook her for Chandler's dad (played by Kathleen Turner), who Monica had described as wearing a black dress. The character, named Amanda, is merely a plot device to set up a humorous bit where Rachel messes up and embarrasses herself.

raywest

Question: Can someone explain what the one Johnson agent meant to the other one when he said "it's like Saigon, ain't it slick?"

Answer: I don't remember the exact quote, verbatim, but using your wording, the proper punctuation would be "It's like Saigon! Ain't it, Slick?" The older Johnson is referring to Army Helo Ops in Vietnam. He's calling the younger Johnson "Slick", as a nickname. I believe the younger's response was something like "I was just a kid then" or something similar.

kayelbe

The younger one says "I was in junior high, dickhead". :-) Clearly not holding the older Johnson in especially high regard, or keen to make it clear he's not as old.

Answer: The elder Agent Johnson is a Viet Nam vet who excitedly says, "It's just like f***in' Saigon, eh Slick? The younger Johnson mockingly responds, "I was in Junior High, dickhead!" meaning he was too young to have served in that war. The older Johnson is comparing shooting at the terrorists (or just John McClane) atop the Nakatomi Tower to killing enemy soldiers from a helicopter in Nam. He is macho, has lost objectivity about the hostage situation, and is treating it like an arcade game. As pointed out in another answer, "Slick" is just a nickname, like calling someone "Dude."

raywest

Answer: "Like Saigon" could mean that under the circumstances, they were not likely to win or be successful in what they were trying to accomplish. Largely in the 1960s, the U.S. military was stationed in Saigon. While there, parts of the city were ruined or demolished by fighting. There was a lot of destruction in the Die Hard movie, and the situation seemed dire.

KeyZOid

Question: At the start it skips to Children's Clinic in Haddonfield and states 1 year later, then we see Jamie having an episode - then she mimics Myers movement as he wakes up and kills the man who looked after him. It's happening at the same time yet it said it was 1 year later - was Myers unconscious for all that time? Or have I got that totally wrong?

Answer: Don't know about being unconscious, however it's safe to assume the old man who found him kept him there and healed him. With all those bullets he took, no surprise it took a year to recover.

lartaker1975

Answer: Apparently that is true. The river current was stronger than anyone anticipated and Mortensen's heavy costume weighed him down so much that he was barely able to get out of the cold water.

raywest

Question: The man who goes into the bunkhouse to get a gun and gets shot in the stomach in the beginning is the same one in the gray suit acting drunk in the saloon fight big Jake has.

Question: In the scene before Billy finds the bodies, he cuts open a tree and starts drinking from it - what is he actually drinking because it doesn't look like water.

Answer: According to the script, it is water: it says Billy uses his knife to cut a thick vine and drinks the stream of water that pours out. The drops on his clothes look a bit cloudy so it could have been mixed with sap or some other organic substance.

Sierra1

You got it exactly right. Climbing "water vines" that grow on trees in tropical areas contain a substantial amount of fluid and are a reliable source of safe drinking water.

raywest

Question: Is there any particular reason why Jack Wade asks Bond if he likes gardening, or is it just random filler dialogue?

Phaneron

Answer: It's a reference to the rose tattoo he showed Bond moments prior.

Answer: It's unknown what happened to him, but the character named English had indicated to Morris that Wolf would be beaten up by him and his gang. Presumably they followed through.

raywest

Question: When Lawrence finds the note given to him by Jigsaw, what did the message mean that the cigarettes were harmless but smoking is poisonous only when it ends in bloodshed and that he didn't need a gun to kill Adam? Were the cigarettes really harmless and if they were, what did Jigsaw mean that Lawrence didn't need a gun to kill Adam?

Answer: The blood that jigsaw pours on the floor contains poison. By dipping the cigarette in there the poison is passed to Adam.

Ssiscool

Question: Matty introduces her friend as Mary Ann, but in the year book, the friend is actually Matty Tyler, and she is actually Mary Ann. Were both girls in on the scam? (00:31:22)

Answer: I noticed the problem of the introduction, also. It seemed like a major plot hole to me. There wasn't any material in the movie to support blackmail, etc by the real Matty. I hadn't thought of her possibly being in on the scam. If not, why wouldn't the real Matty have immediately blanched when hearing herself be introduced with the wrong name? So far, I agree with the OP's suggestion.

The real Maddy was at the house when Ned arrived. Presumably, she had already discovered what "Fake Maddy" was up to. It looked like Fake Maddy (Turner) gave the real Maddy a check, presumably a payoff to keep quiet. The real Maddy may or may not have known exactly what Fake Maddy was planning, but went along with being introduced as "Mary Ann." Also, the movie deliberately leaves details vague because it is a big plot twist at the end when Ned, and the audience, learns that Fake Maddy is really Mary Ann.

raywest

Answer: It appears that the real Matty Tyler was not initially in on the plan. It's confusing, and there're many plot holes, but it seems the fake "Matty" (Kathleen Turner) intended for the real Matty to eventually discover that her identity was being used (by Turner). The real Matty was then apparently blackmailing fake Matty to keep quiet. It appears that fake Matty intended to lure and then murder the real Matty, framing Ned Racine for her murder, as well as Edmund's. The real Matty's body was identified as being Edmond's wife through her dental records. Fake Matty probably intended for Ned to be killed in the explosion.

raywest

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.