Best mystery movie questions of all time

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Chosen answer: In the pub Danny demonstrates using a ketchup packet to simulate stabbing himself in the eye. Later in the film he returns Nicholas Angel's notebook, hiding a ketchup packet in it. He stabs the pocket with the notebook, causing the ketchup to leak and simulate blood.

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Scream VI picture

Question: The events of Scream VI take place around Halloween, but it doesn't specify what year. A news reporter said that the Woodsboro killings took place in 2022 as if they happened a year ago, and Scream VI was released in March of 2023. So, do the events of Scream VI take place on Halloween of 2022 or 7 months in the future after the film's release date?

Answer: I think this is more "trivia" than mistake. There's no error in a film taking place a bit further ahead in time than in its release date.

TonyPH

Answer: Using some conjecture, if the film states the last killings took place in 2022 and treats it like "last year," you can assume it takes place around Halloween 2023. Films are allowed to take place in the future. They don't have to be set around their release date. So how is this a mistake?

TedStixon

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Freelancers picture

Question: Who does Malo end up shooting when Baez forces him to shoot his friend or the girl? I think he shot the girl but I'm not 100% sure since his friend never resurfaced in the movie.

Answer: Well the girl is alive at the end so, he shot his friend.

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Chosen answer: He says "That's a pretty suit, chérie", chérie being French for dear. The film is set in Louisiana where French and Creole are spoken.

Sierra1

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Annabelle: Creation picture

Question: What is the background music playing when the kids first enter the Mullins house?

Answer: It's an original piece called 'A New Home' by Benjamin Wallfisch.

Ssiscool

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The Big Lebowski picture

Question: At the very end of the scene in which Walter and the Dude are spreading Donnie's ashes at the coast, a dark and unidentifiable figure appears for a few seconds in the upper right screen, apparently hiking a trail along the cliff. Was this an accidental walk-on by an actual hiker, or was it written into the script? With all the star-power in this film, I thought every bit of background action was supposed to be meticulously crafted.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: There's no way of knowing. If the hiker was that far away, it could have been someone who happened to stray into the scene by accident. The filmmakers may or may not have noticed, but if they did, may have felt it added to the realism. I did this myself during the filming of a street scene for the TV show, "Northern Exposure." Filming was underway before I realised I was in the midst of it. I just kept walking like I was supposed to be there.

raywest

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The Suicide Squad picture

Question: In the opening scene, after the bird is hit; did anyone else think the blood on the ball makes a crude Bat signal?

Bishop73

Answer: Yes, it did.

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Joe Dirt picture

Question: In the scene with Buffalo Bill and the well at his house, is that a spoof of Buffalo Bill in "Silence of the Lambs"?

Answer: Yes.

T Poston

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Mr. Brooks picture

Question: What were the last lines of the movie?

Answer: Marshall's line was, "Why do you fight it so hard, Earl?" Earl Brook's was, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time and enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is and not as I would have it, trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will, that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen."

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The Hole picture

Question: What is the music used when the police are arriving at the school in the beginning, when the kids try to open the door, and during the end credits? Anybody know where I can get hold of it?

Answer: The Hole, by Cliff Mansell. No idea where to get hold of it.

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Contact picture

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.

Charles Austin Miller

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.

Tailkinker

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Dial M for Murder picture

Question: After Margo was convicted, why did Tony move one of their beds into the living room?

Hobbes

Chosen answer: It's mostly so the audience can see more of Tony's underlying character. This is Margo's bed, and Tony wanted it separate from the bedroom that they shared as husband and wife. Tony is "emotionally divorcing" himself from Margo as he is about to start a new life as a single man. Leaving the bed in the bedroom would serve as a reminder of his guilt in framing his innocent wife for a murder she did not commit. The bed is likely parked there until he can get rid of it.

raywest

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The Nun picture

Question: At the beginning, what was the old nun trying to do with the cross key in the dark room with the door that says "God ends here"?

Bunch Son

Answer: The nun was trying to find the relic. The deceased nuns had no actual idea where it was. That's the whole reason Irene was summoned by the Vatican because she had visions about "Mary pointing the way" also the "ghost nuns" more than likely have something to do with her clairvoyance as well.

Answer: Are you talking about before she opens the door? She's just making the sign of the cross, but using the same hand she's holding the key in.

Bishop73

I'm asking about what she was going to do in the dark room, what her plan was, what the cross key was for.

Bunch Son

It was to open the chamber that kept the vial of the blood of Christ so they could try to send Valak back to Hell.

Bishop73

The gateway to the relic was near the state of Mary, and it wasn't located inside the chamber seeing that Burke and Irene found the relic before crossing the passage leading to the chamber with the sign "God ends here." If there's someone who must have known where the relic was, it has to be the abbess. Then, why didn't she take it if she was going to?

Bunch Son

From everything I understood, the cross key opened the chamber that had the blood of Christ. The room with the sign "God ends here" was not the chamber I was speaking about. I was only addressing the question about what the key was for.

Bishop73

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Death Warrant picture

Question: Why was Burke's arm bleeding when he was hiding on the vents near the ceiling of the record room?

Answer: In the scene before that he scraped and cut his arm on the file cabinet as he was closing it looking for information.

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Chosen answer: Her last line is "I wish you love".

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American Psycho picture

Question: Did Patrick really kill anybody or was it all in his mind? He killed a homeless man but there's no news report about it on TV. He murders Paul but is told Paul is in London. He severely beat and bloodied two prostitutes but no cops show up to arrest him. He murders Elizabeth and Christie but when he goes back to the apartment later, it is empty and put up for sale.

Answer: The situation is intentionally left vague. The homeless man being murdered wouldn't necessarily make the news in the time (there were over 4000 murders in 1989-90 when the book and movie are set). He and his friends are so alike that they continually mistake each other for others. The prostitutes would likely be loathe to call the police because they might be arrested themselves and he would likely get off with a much better lawyer.

Greg Dwyer

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Answer: She was posing as the mother of the little boy who lived adjacent to Andy and Tracy.

Alan Keddie

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Angels & Demons picture

Question: When Langdon and the Italian cop are trapped inside the sealed room of the Vatican archive and the air is shut off, how long could they actually survive in a space that size? In the movie, they start to suffocate almost immediately. (There is no long time lapse because the movie's plot depends on defusing the bomb within a few hours).

raywest

Chosen answer: In reality, they would have perished from CO2 poisoning long before the room ran out of breathable oxygen causing them to simply suffocate. Without knowing the exact dimensions of the room it is impossible to give any time more specific than "several hours" for this to happen in a room as big as that one appeared to be.

Phixius

I just re-watched the movie, and as Langdon and Vittoria enter the room, it's mentioned to them that the oxygen levels are always kept at a bare minimum to protect the ancient tomes and documents stored there. That helps to answer my own question about why Langdon and the cop were so quickly affected when the power was shut off.

raywest

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home picture

Question: What exactly was Scotty's reason as to why giving the Company boss the formula for the one inch glass wouldn't alter the future? He gave a brief response, but I honestly can't think of any reason why it wouldn't do any future damage.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: They only give him a schematic of the molecule. The man even says, "It would take years to decipher the matrix", or something like that.

Chosen answer: Scotty says "Why? How do you know he didn't invent the thing!" If the man was in fact the inventor, this would only cause a slight causality loop problem - he "invents" it because they gave it to him, but they only know it because he "invented" it. However, since Sulu said earlier in the movie that it was about 150 years too early for transparent aluminum, it would seem they do know this, so it wasn't a smart thing to do. Of course, the real flaw in the plot is that they need the tank to be transparent at all.

Myridon

Answer: The crew is resigned to the fact that their mission forces them to alter history in some fashion or another. McCoy just wants to acknowledge the gravity of their actions before they go ahead and do it, and Scotty's response is a cheeky way of reassuring him, "Hey, maybe it won't be that bad."

TonyPH

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Bubba Ho-Tep picture

Question: When Elvis trades places with Sebastian Haff, his limo plate is AZN-700. Later when he is driving Haff's car, the plate is the same. Obviously two cars with different owners can't have the same plates, so it's probably a reference of some sort. Anyone know if that's the case, and if so, what?

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: There's no significance I can find anywhere for the number "AZN-700" - it's just a fake plate they used twice due to the limited budget, and its repeated use is a mistake.

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