Best drama movie questions of all time

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Enemy of the State picture

Question: What does the sequence with the fake Brill have to do with anything? I've watched this scene several times and can't find its significance in the film.

manthabeat

Chosen answer: The fake Brill is an undercover federal agent trying to find out what Will Smith knows about the video tape.

Mister Ed

Poor writing though as that character is never spoke of again.

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Florence Foster Jenkins picture

Question: Every time Florence would perform before a live audience, people would respond by either laughing at her or booing at her. With these kinds of reactions, how could Florence not realise that it was because nobody liked her singing and that they considered her a terrible singer?

Answer: People believe what they want to believe and can have an uncanny ability to filter out anything negative or unwanted. Eventually, she realised the truth.

raywest

Also, Florence's friends and supporters protected her and would do whatever they could at the concerts to suppress any audience member who reacted negatively.

raywest

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Answer: It's something done to one trooper in a unit who is not pulling his load, to let him know his teammates are tired of him making them look bad. It can range from a beating after lights out to scrubbing a soldier who won't shower with toilet brushes and Comet. (And yes, both of those are from my own military experience, though I wasn't the victim!) It's meant to give a warning and doesn't normally harm anything but the victim's pride. They are strongly against regulations in the past year or two as several soldiers were injured by their unit getting overzealous, just like in the movie.

Grumpy Scot

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Frequency picture

Question: Why did John's house suddenly alter so drastically when Jack's hand was blown off in the past? Did this one event somehow turn John into a better interior decorator?

quinnnmallory

Answer: Because the house is no longer John's. In this universe, his parents still live there.

Brian Katcher

Or he lives there and his wife redecorated.

I always took the scene at the end with Julia and Frank getting in a packed car with an older looking Elvis as them moving and leaving the house for John. And as I said above John's wife must have moved in and decorated.

Answer: The house changed because John's life changed, with both his parents alive to nurture and guide him, he became a different person. Different lifestyle and attitudes.

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Goodfellas picture

Question: In the scene where Tommy believes he is being made, right after he walks into the room you hear him say "Oh no!" right before he is shot. Tommy obviously realizes that he was set up. However, what is it that he sees in the room that tips him off?

Answer: He was expecting a crowded room full of friends congratulating him. Also it was common knowledge among the mafia that being walked into an empty room when you were due to be made meant you were about to be executed, so Tommy likely knew he'd met his end just moments before the shot.

William Bergquist

Answer: A man being 'made' is an event shrouded in ceremony. The top people in the family are there, among others to congratulate the new soldier. Tommy walked into an empty room.

Just as others have pointed out, the film implies Tommy realised something was wrong the moment he walked in and saw the place was empty...no other "made men" there for the ceremony. However, I always wondered why he hadn't caught on to what was happening when he saw there were only a couple vehicles parked out in the driveway.

Answer: Either the fact that the room was empty (being made is a big ceremonial event with many people) or he felt the gun pressed against the back of his head right before they shot him.

Answer: There should have been more people waiting for him.

Answer: Wasn't the floor covered with a plastic sheet? That would have given it away.

Or it was a floor with no carpet (tiled, I believe)...easier to mop up.

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Answer: It is never stated.

Answer: As the other response says, the number of years is never stated. Physically, I think he is supposed to look about twenty years old. Bill wants him to start a proper business. None of the adults seem to think that he should be in school.

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Memento picture

Question: I still don't understand why Leonard switches clothes with Jimmy and steals his car after he kills him. "I'd rather be mistaken for a dead guy than a killer." That makes absolutely no sense. Driving around in Jimmy's car and wearing his suit would make him the prime suspect in the investigation. He was much safer when he was just an anonymous guy driving around in a pickup truck.

Answer: It is never explicitly given. The most Leonard says on the subject is: "I'd rather be mistaken for a dead guy than a killer." Speculations include (you can make up your own motives as well) : (1) The clothes and car are so much nicer than his. If you are willing to kill someone: stealing is not really a "crime." Why not take the nicer objects? (2) It could be part of his "routine": Kill a man, take his clothes and car. The clothes he had on and the truck may be from the man he killed a year ago. (3) It could be that he wants to make the killer of his wife suffer even more, and takes his clothes as a way of humiliating him. Leonard takes the man's life-his clothes and car, which are wrapped up in his identity-just as the man took his. This idea seems to work with a theme in Memento about "Identity" (especially mistaken identity). Natalie thinks Leonard is Jimmy, then thinks he is Teddy, then learns he is Leonard. Teddy is "mistaken" for the second killer, Jimmy is "mistaken" for the 2nd killer. Sammy's story as a part of Leonard's story, etc. (4) It could "simply" be explained as a "plot device": Leonard has to do it, otherwise he won't find the note in "his pocket" and meet Natalie. (5) Leonard doesn't want to admit he's a murderer. He's lying to himself. If he's the victim, then he cannot be the murderer. (6) Leonard takes Jimmy's clothing as part of his routine of killing J.G.'s he becomes another person, he's the victim not the killer, thus "I'd rather be mistaken for a dead guy than a killer." and that's why he also takes his car, so he has to, once again, find his wife's killer and kill him.

Answer: Leonard's only goal in life was to find his wife's killer, and he thought he had just achieved that. With nothing more to live for, the clothes would attract the attention of Jimmy's associates - a method of suicide as indirect as his eventual approach to killing Teddy.

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300 (2006)

300 picture

Question: Could someone please explain the goat in Xerxes' 'sex room' (for lack of a better word). The scene before Xerxes offers the hunchback Ephialtes everything, this scene begins with a shot of a goat with human hands playing an instrument and (I believe) smoking something. Does Xerxes have a goat fetish or something? Could someone kindly explain this for me.

Answer: The scene is meant to show that Xerxes has exotic creatures/slaves from every corner of the world. In the reality of the film, a goat-headed musician would certainly qualify.

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Quadrophenia picture

Question: Is the uncredited actor who plays the post office van driver who "kills" Jimmy's scooter Derek Martin (Charlie Slater in Eastenders)?

eric 64

Answer: Yes.

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Casino picture

Question: Sam and Nicky both refer to "back home" but they do not explain where it is . I thought it was Kansas City because that is where the bosses are, but it's revealed that they are only there because "its as close as they could get to Vegas without being arrested". Does anyone know where in America Sam and Nicky are originally from?

Answer: Frank Rosenthal (the basis for Sam Rothstein) and Tony Spilotro (the basis for Nicky Santoro) were both from Chicago, so that is likely "back home".

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 picture

Question: Can vampires and werewolves be killed or injured by anything other than vampires and werewolves?

MikeH

Answer: Aro also makes the argument that for the first time in our history humans pose a threat to our kind with their weapons that can destroy us. Theoretically any weapons that can tear apart and/or burn the vampires would work. So, yes, things other than vampires and werewolves can kill the vampires and werewolves.

Answer: Sure. The problem is that these films portray vampires and werewolves as having super-human abilities, so it'd be significantly harder for a regular person to kill one. But nothing about the films seems to indicate it's overtly impossible.

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Schindler's List picture

Question: Does anyone know the name of the song which is playing on the radio in the beginning of the movie, when Schindler is getting dressed for the party?

Answer: "Gloomy Sunday".

Kimberly Klaus

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The Final Countdown picture

Question: After going through the first storm they lose track of the incoming plane they set the barricade up for. The after a minute the plane lands and the pilot is brought in by stretcher. The commander looks at the young inexperienced pilot like something was wrong. Why did the director choose to do that? I think the pilot aged but they took it out of the movie for time or something else. Any ideas?

Answer: First, he had a look of concern for the young pilot under his command. Second, he is also confused as to what exactly happened. They believe it was a first strike weapon, that the world was ending.

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Taxi Driver picture

Question: When Travis goes into his fitness phase, it shows him hovering his fist over the stove fire. Why is he doing this? What does that achieve?

Answer: It helps him create a tolerance for pain. As we see, he certainly gets a lot of that dished out to him.

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Heat picture

Question: In the scene right before the big bank heist, a detective comes into the situation room informing the team that a CI Hugh Benny had a tip about Neil McCauley looking at Far East National Bank. How the heck did Waingro (working for Benny and VanZandt) even know about this score? McCauley hadn't even discussed it with Kelso when Waingro took down the armored car.

Answer: Waingro helped Van Zandt track down Trejo. Waingro then tortured Trejo and threatened his family if he didn't give up McCauley. With his back to the wall, Trejo gave Waingro and Hugh Benny the details of the bank heist, but Waingro killed Trejo's family anyway and beat Trejo almost to death. Benny then gives the tip to the police on Van Zandt's order.

BaconIsMyBFF

I wonder how Trejo was tracked, I don't remember his name being revealed during Waingro's time with the crew, or any other information.

Well, we never see the crew prior to their first heist. Trejo could have given Waingro his name during the planning of that heist.

BaconIsMyBFF

Waingro met this crew only once. How would he know who Trejo is or where he lives? Right before the heist, Trejo is asked to mislead police away from the heist.

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Uncle Buck picture

Question: When Uncle Buck is going to the party to get Bug, he is stopped at a red light and there are two parents in the car next to him. The father says, "don't go in there with that hat on, they'll kill you". Why would someone be killed for wearing a hat?

Chosen answer: He's being sarcastic, as Buck says in the beginning some of his hats anger a lot of people, which probably connects to when his hat gets taken by one of the teenagers at the party.

Buck is actually referring to his aviator style hat in the earlier scene about people being angered by it. He's wearing the fedora style hat in the scene en route to the party. But I agree the guy was being sarcastic about teenagers.

The black purse bedside to the possible 'pile of bunched-up blankets' looks like Chanice's from later scenes; suggesting the writers or Hughes changed the script after the bedroom scene was shot to Buck's simpler but delightfully funny half-conversation with her on the phone.

Answer: The Uncle Buck movie was made in the late 80s, near the end of the Cold War. And Because the hat resembles the Russian ushanka worn by Russian soldiers in that time, it can be said that wearing it might anger some, especially young Americans opposed to world events at the time.

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Sherlock Holmes picture

Question: Just before Sherlock attacks somebody, he determines what areas to strike to incapacitate someone and determine how long it would take someone to recover from both physical and psychological trauma. Granted that he could figure out a person's physical recovery but, could he actually figure out a person's pyshological recovery? He noted that it would take six months if I remember for a guy to recover psychologically but, to me, Sherlock is just taking a wild guess. Especially, if the guy recovered in half the time.

Answer: I believe that particular line was him making a joke to himself about the man's pride.

Quantom X

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Once Upon a Time in the West picture

Question: In the scene where Cheyenne visits Jill at the McBain's residence for the first time, he asks her whether she knows something about a man with a harmonica, although the three of them (Cheyenne, Harmonica and Jill) met earlier in the movie when Cheyenne tells Harmonica to "watch those false notes." Why doesn't Cheyenne just ask her for the man whom she probably still remembers from this event?

Answer: The movie was filmed at multiple locations in Spain and Italy, and also in Utah. Chances are they filmed out of sequence and made minor changes to the script later in the movie. There are many things left unclear in the movie, for example the same scene at the cantina/store, just after Cheyenne's crew shows up, he refers to Harmonica by his name when no-one said his name up until that point.

Answer: Cheyenne is obviously highly preoccupied with Harmonica in the saloon where they first meet (very tense situation). Perhaps Cheyenne didn't actually notice Jill's presence, or forgot she was there?

Answer: He meant what does she know about him personally. What's his real name, where does he come from and why is he so interested in everything.

Then he should have asked "do you know something about THE man with THE harmonica?" instead of "do you know something about A man going around playing A harmonica?" (time stamp 01:05:25 for the restored version) or am I missing something? He already knows that she has seen him because he was there so he could just ask "do you know something about the guy with the harmonica we met at the bar earlier?" I just don't understand why Cheyenne is using an indefinite article because he and Jill both know who he is referring to.

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Black Dog picture

Question: Why did Jack pull into the weigh station when Earl told him not to?

Answer: It would have been suspicious if he didn't do it.

Answer: Drive by an inspection station that is open and let me know how far you got before being stopped. Unless you have preclearance you must go through scale.

Answer: At this point in the movie, Jack did not know who was giving Red their location. He suspected it to be Earl, so he went the opposite way that Earl told him because he assumed they would have run into Red if he took 85 like Earl said.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley picture

Question: Maybe I missed a major plot point, but why exactly does Tom kill his lover at the very end?

Krista

Chosen answer: Tom & his lover are travelling on a boat. The rich girl, who knows Tom as Dickie is also on the boat. If they were to meet, Tom's false identity would have been revealed, and the lover would have been able to figure out that Tom actually murdered Dickie.

marfbody

Answer: He had to kill him. Tom couldn't kill Meredith because she wasn't alone and Peter was.

ChristmasJonesfan

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