Question: Why did the Jackal shoot only one bullet through the sofa?
raywest
18th Mar 2012
The Jackal (1997)
22nd Nov 2021
The Jackal (1997)
Question: Through the movie we always see The Jackal interacting with his victims in a detached and efficient manner. But during his interaction with Valentina he's more impassioned and provocative. He even lifts off the mask he used during his assault, so she can see his face. Why did Valentina cause such a reaction in him?
Answer: He wanted her to see the expression on his face, smiling and gloating that he won. Using all her vast resources and knowledge, but she became the hunted.
Answer: I agree with the other answers but would add that the Jackal interacts with Valentina the same way he was shown to treat other women differently from men, acting softer, gentler, and even sexual. He also wants to keep her calm so she understands the message he wants her to convey to Mulqueen.
I agree, and Valentina seems unable to resist him. She appears equally terrified and smitten by him.
Answer: I think he thought of her as a kindred spirit. Tough, ruthless and fearless. She didn't get those scars sitting behind a desk.
26th Nov 2021
Titanic (1997)
Question: Pardon me for asking a "what if" question, but this confuses me: what did Rose intend to do *before* the ship sunk? She had changed her mind about Jack, choosing him instead of Cal. However, she and her mother needed the security from Cal. They were in debt. Jack was poor. If Rose married Jack, Cal and his family would be offended by the broken engagement. They would not help Rose's mother. Would Rose just marry Jack and abandon her financially-burdened mother in New York?
Answer: Rose was strong-minded and determined but was thinking "in the moment" and had no real plan or idea about what to do if she'd left with Jack, had he survived. It's unknown if they would have stayed together and married. Rose had only told Jack she was going with him. At some point she might reconnect with her mother. Cal Hoxley probably would be so humiliated by Rose deserting him for a penniless artist, that he would have hushed it up and invented some story about the broken engagement. He likely had already paid off the DeWitt Bukater debts to clean-up any lingering complications or embarrassments before marrying Rose. He probably would also have made some minimal financial arrangement for Ruth, not from compassion but for appearances sake. As we saw, Rose faired quite well on her own once she did escape Cal and her mother.
Answer: Due to historical times, the "love birds" may have lucked out (had they survived). They would not have known WWI would start in 1914 (two years after the Titanic sank), but they would have hoped that their financial situation improved. Women were needed in the labor force.
Answer: That was her plan, assuming she would have been able to follow through with it. This would have left her mother high and dry, but that didn't seem to be a very big concern for her. However, in reality, between Cal, Lovejoy, and Ruth, Rose would find it very hard to even see Jack, much less marry him, if the Titanic had made it to New York in one piece. Women had very few legal rights in 1912, so once the marriage was performed, Cal could pretty much keep her imprisoned, for all intents and purposes, and Jack could do nothing about it, even if he wasn't a penniless vagrant...which he was.
Your last statement about Cal pretty much being able to keep Rose imprisoned has no factual basis. Women still had many legal rights, and while some states had more liberal divorce laws, by 1915, 1 in 7 marriages ended in divorce. By the 1920's, it had risen to 15%. Not to mention that in 1917, New York had given women full suffrage.
"Imprisonment" might be too strong of a word to use, but cultural norms at the time (such as those regarding marriage, the role of the wife/ homemaker, and divorce - taboo) didn't give women much freedom. Divorce statistics are notoriously inaccurate and, depending on the method used to calculate the number, percent, or rate, different figures are derived. Instead of 15%, the RATE of divorce (per 1000 PEOPLE) was 1.7 in the 1920s. Women's suffrage is hardly an indication of freedom, rights, or equality. [Just think how "effective" the 14th Amendment (1868) was in granting equal legal and civil rights.].
Regardless of any restrictions on "married" women, Rose was not yet wed to Cal. They were only engaged, and he had no legal right to impose anything on her at that point. If Rose wanted to walk off the ship with Jack, there was nothing Cal or her mother could legally do to stop her. If they tried to interfere, Rose could have the ship's officers or the White Star Line's personnel intervene.
22nd Nov 2021
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Question: Considering what happened with Old Biff and the Almanac in 2015, why did Doc not bother to ask Marty about the whereabouts of the DeLorean upon returning to 1985 in the train? Wouldn't he want to make sure it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands again? I mean he can see a bit of debris when he leans out the window, but that could have fallen off a passing scrap metal train or anything.
Answer: He's already been to the future, so it's possible (probable, even) that he spoke to Marty then and found out that the DeLorean had been destroyed in 1985.
Answer: Many people theorized that since Doc technically was the one that told Marty what time enter on the keypad as when they would arrive in 1985. It's plausible that Doc had planned the DeLorean to be destroyed by the train when they arrived. Remember the original plan was for Doc and Marty to go back together but then Clara showed up and complicated the plan (again). It's quite possible that when they arrived together in 1985 Doc would have warned Marty what was about to happen and they would exited the car long beforehand then to witness the DeLorean's destruction.
Answer: There was actually much debris (the entire car) around the track that Doc surveys as soon as he arrives with the time-travel train. He'd know better than anyone that it was the DeLorean, particularly as he planned his arrival for just a few minutes behind when Marty arrived back in 1985. Marty couldn't have done anything with the DeLorean in such a short amount of time.
18th Nov 2021
Firestarter (1984)
Question: At the end of the movie why does Charlie go to live with the older couple on the farm?
10th Nov 2021
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Question: Why did Roald Dahl hate this movie?
Answer: He hated it for a variety of reasons: the plot changes, what he considered to be sappy songs, and an over-emphasis on the Willy Wonka character rather than Charlie. He also disliked Gene Wilder being cast as Wonka and had wanted British actor/comedian Spike Milligan.
28th Oct 2021
Band of Brothers (2001)
Why We Fight - S1-E9
Question: Was the placement of the Opekta poster in the scene intentional? Opekta was the company that Otto Frank owned and it's headquarters on the Prisengracht in Amsterdam was the site of the "Secret Annexe" that housed Anne Frank and the others in hiding.
Answer: I did some Internet research on this. I didn't find anything specific, but considering how carefully historical movies usually are researched and the detailed way in which art directors create a set, it would be nearly impossible for this to have been coincidental. If I find any additional information, I'll update this.
5th Nov 2021
Hook (1991)
Question: How is it that Tootles still remembers everything about Neverland and Peter really being Peter Pan, but Peter completely forgets everything about it and his true identity?
Answer: It's not specifically explained, but it's implied this was subconsciously voluntary on Peter's part. After falling in love with Moira, Peter decided to leave Neverland forever to stay with her in the real world. As time passed, all memories of being Peter Pan were completely suppressed, probably so he would not be tempted to return. The memories had become so deeply buried that it took much encouragement from others for him to unlock them.
Answer: Tootles suffers from dementia, dementia turns old people back into children. The final scene is Tootles dying and going back to Neverland. Yes, it makes that scene infinitely harder to watch without crying.
Tootles did not die as everyone saw him flying back to Neverland after Peter gave him back his marbles.
1st Sep 2021
King of Kings (1961)
Question: Is there a scene involving Joseph violently hitting a soldier over the head during his escape to Egypt with Mary and Jesus? This would appear to be missing from all usual prints of the film though many attest to images of it being inside comic book versions of the film issued in cinemas when it was released.
Answer: I agree with the other answer. This could possibly be a scene in another movie from this era. Biblical films were quite popular and plentiful in the 1950s and early 60s. The Greatest Story Ever Told, Ben Hur, The Robe, Spartacus, The Bible, Quo Vadis, Demetrius and the Gladiator, are just a few. The movie you're thinking of could be one of those.
Answer: I've been watching "King of Kings" for decades, and I've never seen that scene.
4th Nov 2021
The Incredibles (2004)
28th Oct 2021
The X-Files (1993)
Question: While following Tooms, Mulder specifically says that he can't find his Norwegian Elkhound named Heinrick, who he goes moose-hunting with. I know that he is lying about owning a dog, but why the odd details? Am I missing a joke?
Answer: Mulder is not supposed to be watching Tooms. He is making up details on the spur of the moment, so he can pretend that he has a legitimate reason for talking to a dog-catcher.
25th Oct 2021
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Question: At the end after the dinosaurs had escaped it was stated that it would become a 'Jurassic world'. There were no more dinosaurs than the US military could handle. So why so dramatic?
Answer: The dinosaurs were scattering all over the country and could nest a dozen eggs at a time. They're not dumb they know how to fight, hide and protect themselves. "Life finds a way."
The relatively small number of escaped dinosaurs could not scatter all over the country quickly, if at all. Dinosaurs have small brains and are incapable of understanding the modern world. Their size makes it impossible to hide while roaming. The military could easily find and destroy them. They are also females, and many are only one individual of their own species, and unable to breed. Although in 'Jurassic Park' it showed one species had supposedly changed sex and laid fertile eggs, that was an exception, was spurious science, would be rare, and it would take time to produce any significant numbers. There is also the lysine contingency plan. In Jurassic Park it was explained the dinos were genetically engineered to lack the enzyme lysine. If not added to their diet, they die. Actually, the dinos left on the other island should all be dead.
25th Oct 2021
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Question: At the very end we see several surfers and in the wave is a dinosaur (mosasaurus?) about to attack. How did it get there? Was it a foreshadowing?
Answer: It's the same mosasaurus from the Jurassic World park. The mercenaries in the mini-sub that collected the Indoraptor bone at the bottom of the mosasaurus tank, entered through an underwater gate connected to the ocean. The sub team, who were killed, had left the gate open and the mososaurus just swam through, free to roam wherever it wanted.
25th Oct 2021
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Question: Why the fear of extinction because of the volcanic eruption? Weren't there still dinosaurs on Isla Sorna?
Answer: It wasn't about saving species from extinction as there was the technology to create more dinosaurs. It was a humanitarian effort to save the animals' lives. However, there were divided opinions on whether it was morally right to expend the money and resources to save and house animals that nature had already selected to become extinct and no longer had a place in the modern world.
22nd Oct 2021
Dark Shadows (2012)
Question: Why does Angelique curse Barnabas and kill his parents and Josette?
24th Oct 2021
General questions
I saw a movie that partially involved a doctor having performed an abortion on a teenager/young woman. She had been raped by her father/stepfather. Her mother was dead or had left home. I think her hair was blonde. The story seemed to take place in the '60s or earlier. The movie could have been made in the '80s or earlier.
Answer: This sounds like the 1957 film, "Peyton Place" starring Lana Turner. Hope Lange played Selena Cross, the girl raped by her step-father, who then suffered a miscarriage. Her mother committed suicide, and Selena was secretly treated by the town doctor to protect her from scandal. It was based on the best-selling Grace Metallious novel, and later spawned the 1960s TV show.
That is the movie. Thank you.
22nd Oct 2021
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
12th Oct 2021
Predator (1987)
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.
18th Oct 2021
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
Question: Why does Benji have to enter the facility at the same time Ethan is switching the security profile? It's more dramatic that way, but couldn't Benji have waited to enter until after he knew the profiles were switched?
Answer: He most likely could have waited, but as you pointed out, it's more dramatic that way. This is a movie and the action is choreographed for maximum dramatic and visual effect, timing, tension, continuity, audience attention, and character interaction. We're not supposed to overthink it.
18th Oct 2021
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
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.
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.
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.
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Answer: The Jackal is a precise killer, as seen when he takes his sweet time lining up his shot on The First Lady near the end of the film. He only needed one shot for Koslova.