Question: In the very last scene of the movie, we see Christina Ricci and David Krumholtz sitting in the Addams Family graveyard, and Krumholtz is placing flowers at Debbie Jellinski's tombstone, when a full human arm (presumably the late Debbie's) shoots out of the grave and grabs his wrist, sending him into screaming fits. However, Debbie was completely cremated to ash by electricity a few minutes earlier in the film. Nothing left of her but ash, shoes and credit cards. So, whose arm reached out from Debbie's grave?
Charles Austin Miller
26th Mar 2018
Addams Family Values (1993)
Answer: It was a prank Wednesday was pulling on Joel. She mentions she would scare her husband to death and then smiles when Joel starts screaming.
Yes, she said she'd scare her husband to death. But it is a very animated human arm that reaches out of the grave, causing me to wonder WHO was in the grave to pull off the prank?
I mean, if it was just a hand coming out of the grave, I would be satisfied that it was "Thing" taking part in the prank. But it was a whole human forearm (which Thing does not have).
There's no evidence in the film to answer the question. They never show you who the arm belongs to, and with good reason. It would ruin the joke. This is just one of those questions that can't be definitively answered.
This is also a reference to the end scene of Carrie.
20th Mar 2018
Justice League (2017)
Question: What is the story behind the strange makeup blunders in Justice League? Early in the film, both Henry Cavill's and Ben Affleck's facial features seem oddly, almost creepily unrecognizable (in the smartphone sequence of Superman and in the private jet sequence with Bruce Wayne and Alfred). Also, Bruce Wayne's hair color seems to randomly change throughout the movie. As I understand it, between the directing upheaval and editing, many old scenes were deleted and new scenes added, requiring a lot of re-shooting. Is that the reason for the sloppy makeup continuity?
Answer: I don't know about the Ben Affleck portion of your question, but when the film was going back for reshoots, Henry Cavill had grown a mustache for his upcoming role in "Mission: Impossible Fallout" which he was contractually obligated to keep. The special effects crew had no choice but to digitally erase his mustache in post-production, which is why his mouth area looks so odd in some scenes (if you have seen the trailer for "Deadpool 2," Deadpool makes reference to this when he notes that the special effects for Cable's metal arm are not finished, and remarks that it's not like they are trying to remove a mustache). Interestingly, a person on YouTube posted a video of them removing Henry Cavill's mustache using a $500 computer, and it looks remarkably better than what this film did with a $300 million budget.
1st Mar 2018
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Question: At the very end of the film, Tony Stark informs Peter Parker that he is a now a member of the Avengers and reveals his new Spidey suit. Peter moves toward the camera, with Tony Stark plainly visible on the right side of the screen and Happy Hogan far in the background (all three are in this shot), as we hear a male voice in the foreground enthusiastically say, "Yeah! Give that a look!" Except that Tony Stark didn't say it, Peter Parker didn't say it, and Happy Hogan was much too far away to have said it. The dubbed voice obviously does not belong to Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr or Jon Favreau at all. So who said it?
Answer: Go back and watch the scene again. It looks like you just might be remembering it wrong. It's Tony during the tracking shot. He says "Yeah, give that a look!" in reference to the suit. He's actually not quite on camera when he says the line, hence you don't see him say it. But it's definitely Tony.
I re-watched the shot several times, Tony Stark does not visibly say anything, and the dubbed voice is not that of Robert Downey Jr.
I understand what you are saying. Tony isn't on screen during the line and the voice does sound different. The implication is that Tony is saying the line, without the line Tony is just standing there waiting for Peter to respond for a long time and it would be out of character for him to do so (he's an extremely talkative person). There isn't enough information available to determine whether or not Downey is actually the one who recorded the line, it could be him just recorded in post. But you are definitely correct, I listened to the scene with headphones on and there is a noticeable difference in the tone of voice for this one line and no others.
24th Jan 2018
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Question: After the Reliant ambushes the Enterprise, Kirk tricks Khan and hammers the Reliant into retreat. As Kirk turns to assess damage to the Enterprise, Scotty inexplicably appears on the bridge, carrying the charred body of Midshipman Peter Preston. Why on earth would Scotty bring the dying Preston to the bridge, rather than to SickBay with all the other injured? He had to deliberately bypass SickBay just to make an unnecessary appearance on the bridge.
Answer: At the time of the attack, most of Scotty's crew were attempting to flee a coolant leak caused by the damage. Cadet Preston (Scotty's nephew) remained at his post in the confusion, and was the reason the Enterprise was able to maintain minimal power with the energizers knocked out. Although he was wounded from the assault while rescuing another crew member, the coolant leak is what led to his ultimate demise, as the coolant was highly toxic. When Scotty brought him to the Bridge, he was himself quite disorientated from the events and was also devastated by his nephew's condition. Agreed it makes little to no sense, but Scotty didn't know what he was doing. His nephew was going to die, regardless of where he took him to. Going to sickbay would not have prevented it at this point. It seems like it was used as a mood breaker for the scene, crews celebrating their escape from death only to be confronted by it again in another form.
Answer: I believe Preston was already dead at that point. An earlier scene was edited out of the film that explained Preston was Scotty's nephew (his sister's son), and which may account for Scotty's rather odd reaction of first bringing him to the bridge.
Yet Preston is shown alive (still dying) in the SickBay moments later. Preston shares last words with Captain Kirk before he actually dies. So, this is a case of bad editing?
What was edited out of the film was an earlier explanation that Preston was Scotty's nephew-this was way before the Enterprise was attacked.
These scenes, which include several of Preston's lines which were cut, were restored in the 2002 Director's Edition. Curiously, when the film is aired on TV they still run the original video cut which has the scenes removed. The editing is really sloppy with the scenes cut out and the scenes establishing that Preston is Scotty's nephew add another emotional layer to the film. It makes Scotty's actions make so much more sense, he's overcome with grief over his nephew and anger at Khan. With the scenes cut what Scotty does makes very little sense.
In the novelization, I believe it is explained that the ship is badly damaged enough that Scotty reached the bridge while attempting to get to sickbay because the computer glitched.
11th Jan 2018
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Question: When the Enterprise recovers Chekov and Captain Terrell, they just accept Chekov's and Terrell's false explanation, even though McCoy is standing right there with a medical tricorder. Why didn't McCoy's medical tricorder pick up the Ceti eels lodged in the brains of Chekov and Captain Terrell?
12th Dec 2017
The Shape of Water (2017)
Question: Isn't this film blatantly derivative of Guillermo del Toro's earlier films, "HellBoy" and "HellBoy: The Golden Army"? It seems to me that the Asset in "The Shape of Water" is a direct knock-off Abe Sapien from the Hellboy films. The amphibious Asset is held at a top secret facility, as was Abe Sapien; the Asset is fed hard-boiled eggs, as was Abe Sapien; the Asset develops a love interest and romantic relationship with a female air-breather, as did Abe Sapien. To top it off, del Toro called in contortionist-actor Doug Jones to play the Asset in "The Shape of Water" (Doug Jones also played Abe Sapien in the HellBoy films). "Shape of Water" could almost be a spin-off the old HellBoy films, given Guillermo del Toro's involvement and recycling of familiar themes.
Answer: There are a lot of Hellboy fans who speculate this is an origin story of Abe, or at the very least the Asset is the same species, but del Torro has denied it. Abe is a copyrighted character that del Torro's Hellboy was based on, and he doesn't own the copyright. In addition, prior to The Shape of Water, del Torro was in talks with Universal about remaking "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", only making the movie center on the creature's (Gill-Man) perspective and getting together with Kay (the female lead). Del Torro has stated that the Amphibious Man is based on Gill-Man and this film is what he had pitched to Universal, but was turned down by them. Although, a creature developing a love interest in a human female isn't unique, nor is capturing a creature to study (both happen to Gill-Man, Abe, and Amphibious Man). But the fact that Doug Jones plays both Abe and the Amphibious Man only seems to strengthen theories of some connection to Hellboy, but at this point we only have del Torro's word that it's not and why he choose the creature to be so similar at this point would only be a guess.
24th Nov 2017
K-Pax (2001)
Question: Despite Dr. Mark Powell's certainty that "Prot" is a delusional man named Robert Porter who lost his mind and attempted suicide years earlier, no explanation is ever given for Prot's extraordinary resistance to powerful psychiatric drugs, his superhuman vision (into the Ultraviolet range), and his knowledge of deep-space astrophysics, which not only rivals but exceeds the knowledge of Earthly astrophysicists. Prot's enigmatic abilities are tested by experts, and the experts are left scratching their heads. The probability that Prot actually is an alien entity occupying a deeply-damaged and "discarded" human body seems confirmed on many levels, above and beyond the rantings of a mere mental patient. So, why does Dr. Powell consistently reject the hard evidence before his eyes?
Answer: He rejects it for two main reasons. First, each of the items you mention have possible, even if unlikely, explanations. Some people have strange or no reaction to certain drugs (for example I have almost no response to any painkillers). People who have had their corneas replaced with artificial lens can see near ultraviolet (though nowhere near 300-400 angstroms). The sheriff described Porter as being very bright, and he was in to astronomy, so while a great stretch, not impossible he somehow formulated the information he presented. The second reason, building upon these, is Occam's razor. As a person in the sciences, Dr. Powell is driven to believe things have a reasonable explanation, even if we don't currently know what it is, and thinking Prot is just a bright and unusual human is a more reasonable belief to him than believing Prot is an alien possessing a human's body.
Just remarking, there's no comparison of painkillers and psychiatric drugs. Thorazine and Haloperidol (Haldol) are both powerful anti-psychotic drugs with numerous side effects. Prot is immune to Thorazine and Haloperidol (as well as alcohol), which is more than extraordinary, it's otherworldly.
23rd Nov 2017
The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)
Question: In the tavern, the dwarves emphatically tell the huntsman that dwarven females are so repulsive that dwarf reproduction only happens accidentally, in bad lighting and under the influence of drink. Which sounds quite repulsive. But, when the huntsman and male dwarves are later captured in the net trap, the female dwarves turn out to be perfectly lovely, even quite sexy. Then, even stranger, one of the male dwarves later apologizes for the appearance of a lovely female dwarf (who is standing right next to him in plain sight), claiming that she was hit in the face with a rock. So, what was the purpose of the male dwarves obsessively lying about the beauty of female dwarves? Or were the male dwarves blind to true beauty for some reason?
22nd Nov 2017
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Question: During the botched raid on the university campus, the troops move in too quickly (alerting Bruce Banner), and General Ross snarls, "I wanna know who jumped the gun!" Did General Ross ever find out who jumped the gun? Was it Emil Blonsky? If it was Blonsky, why did General Ross never reprimand him?
Answer: Since some time has passed probably between the Hulk taking Betty to safety and General Ross talking to Doc Sampson, there's a possibility that he was told who was responsible for alerting Bruce to their presence. When Bruce looks up, it isn't Blonsky he saw but another soldier.
28th Sep 2017
The Prestige (2006)
Question: At the beginning, Robert Angier (the Great Danton) travels to Colorado Springs to see Nikola Tesla. When Angier meets Tesla's assistant, Alley, it's obvious that his arrival was not expected. Angier then explains that Tesla had built a machine for Angier's colleague (and Angier wants to purchase the same or similar machine). However, when Alfred Borden gave Angier the "Tesla" clue, it was a complete ruse to waste Angier's time and money and throw him far off the much simpler secret of The Transported Man trick. Tesla had never built such a machine for Borden and had never attempted to build a teleportation device before. So, why did Tesla just agree to build the mysterious machine without questioning Angier's "colleague" remark? Was Tesla colluding with Alfred Borden? And why?
Chosen answer: Tesla was not colluding with anyone...he built Borden a simple machine that created lightning effects. So Borden thinks Tesla is just a red herring, and he has no idea Tesla can actually build a teleportation device. Tesla, however, takes on the challenge, and ends up inventing the cloning machine. He doesn't think anything of the remark about Borden because he did, in fact, build a machine for him...just not the one Angier is thinking of.
6th Sep 2017
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Question: Sean Connery took dancing lessons for 11 years in his youth, and he surely knew how to dance when he made this film in his 50s. So, why is his choreographed tango with Kim Basinger in this film so painfully, embarrassingly awkward and heavily edited? Is this perhaps due to the fact that Kim Basinger had virtually no dancing skills?
6th Sep 2017
Sin City (2005)
Question: While re-watching "Sin City" on HBO recently, I realised that the closed captioning for this film has been noticeably censored. While the audio track seems intact, every instance of the word "fag" results in that entire line of dialogue being omitted from closed captioning. Is this strangely selective closed captioning censorship featured on the original "Sin City" DVD, or is this HBO's own particular brand of censorship?
Chosen answer: The word "fag" is only used once in the entire movie, spoken by Becky who refers to a club called the Amigo as a "fag joint." The omission in the subtitles might just be an oversight. HBO is known for having original content that pushes the envelope of what people consider to be tasteful (such as "Game of Thrones" and "The Sopranos") so it's highly unlikely that they would be resorting to censorship.
13th Jul 2017
General questions
When did purely percussive movie and television soundtracks become popular? What landmark movie or TV soundtrack set this percussive precedent?
Answer: Probably in the late 1990s or around the turn of the century and it was probably gradual as these things go. Sometimes its easier to use a specific song to set a specific mood (this started probably more so in the 1980s) as opposed to creating a new one but that being said, its generally up to a composer and the style of the film in question as to whether they use a percussion style soundtrack or a more traditional sounding one and there are relatively recent films that sound like they could be old school.
The earliest percussive soundtrack that I recall debuted in James Cameron's first "Terminator" film. While it did have a mournful and melodic synthesized musical theme, the soundtrack was punctuated in several places with industrial banging and thumping (typically when the Terminator was onscreen). This percussive presence was amplified and expanded in the second Terminator film; and, by "Salvation," almost the entire soundtrack was industrial noise. But I'm not sure that Terminator alone ushered in the percussive soundtrack.
13th Jul 2017
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Question: The largest sandstorms ever recorded are less than a mile high (reaching only about 5000 feet in altitude). Isn't 5000 feet considered low altitude for a Fairchild C-119G "Flying Boxcar," which could easily climb over such a storm in a matter of minutes?
13th Jul 2017
The Big Lebowski (1998)
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.
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.
12th Jul 2017
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Question: As I always understood Ant-Man, he always retained the same mass, regardless of his physical size. When he reduces his size, he still retains about 160 lbs of mass, which makes him more formidable, like a 160 lb grain of sand. When he enlarges, even to gigantic size, he is still only 160 lbs. So, how can he kick vehicles around in the airport scene?
Chosen answer: We never get a specific explanation to what happens to him when he enlarges. Hank Pym explains to him that when he shrinks, it's the result of reducing the distance between atoms which is why he retains his original mass. However, being a giant with a mass and strength of only 160lbs would not be very advantageous in a fight, so they must have found a way for him to grow in size and strength in this situation. Ultimately, we just don't know - the movies and comics differ in a great many respects, so there's just not enough information to work with. Might technically qualify as a mistake, but it's something which could easy be solved with an in-universe answer, however scientifically dubious.
20th Jun 2017
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Question: Multi-part question regarding the actual brawl between Batman and Superman. Batman's first barrier is a sonic attack (lifted right out of Marvel's "Incredible Hulk," which Superman defeats the same way the Hulk did: Ripping apart an iron plate and destroying the sonic emitters with the two halves of iron). Why was Superman bending over, holding his head, when we know he has super-selective hearing? Superman could instantly block out a sonic attack without even blinking. Batman's second barrier was comprised of a couple of machine-cannons; again, Superman ducks and covers until he realises the cannons do not affect him. Why would Superman attempt to shield himself from conventional firearms? Did he suspect they were Kryptonite rounds? If so, why even bother shielding himself? If Superman suspected that Batman was using Kryptonite-based weaponry, why would he even walk into that scenario? After Superman strolls through Batman's first two deterrents, Batman then uses a third barrier, a smoke bomb that can, apparently, block Superman's X-ray vision. What was in the smoke? Was it lead-based smoke? Because Batman escapes while Superman seemingly can't see through the smoke. As far as I can tell, Superman doesn't realise that Batman is using Kryptonite-based weapons until Batman uses the Kryptonite gas mortars on Superman. So, why did the first three weapons even slow Superman down? Superman could have defeated Batman in a fraction of a second without killing him.
Chosen answer: The sonic emitters were constantly changing frequency making the sound impossible for Superman to "select" and block out. As for the cannons, Superman knows that Batman is resourceful and therefore assumed that he would not bother firing at him unless the rounds could do damage. Superman took cover as a precaution against this. There are also several elements which block x-rays and can be made into a gas.
Answer: We see Bruce working with lead to contain the Kryptonite gas in the grenade capsules, so we know he understands the interaction of lead and radiation. X-ray's are a form of radiation and if Luthor has a complete file in Superman's abilities the fact that he can see in the X-ray spectrum would be included, so Bruce would have planned accordingly but adding lead particles to his gas grenade should he need to escape. This is not covered in specific in the film; it requires you to add up several incidental pieces of information and make and informed assumption.
Answer: The bullets from the machine gun may not be able to break his skin and injure him but that doesn't mean they don't have a physical effect on him or that he cannot feel them. In Man of Steel Clark takes a 50cal round while trying to fly out of the military's line of fire and it throws him into a building. The bullets might not injure him but he can still feel them and they still hit pretty hard, so I imagine he's just trying not to get shot in the eyes.
Regular bullets do not have any effect on Superman's body whatsoever as long as he has absorbed solar rays before. Anyone that suggests they do knows nothing about Superman. Superman can survive a megaton nuclear explosion without so much as a hair on his body harmed, as long as he has absorbed enough solar rays.
In the comics, yes. In the movies is completely different.
Not at all. Someone fires a gun right on his face and it bounces off his eye without a blink.
Answer: First you have to understand that Superman doesn't know what Kryptonite is. He's never seen it, never heard of it, never encountered it. So he isn't expecting anything like it. He cannot prepare for or even look for something he does not know exists. Superman says in Man of Steel that he can focus on what he wants to hear above other sounds but that doesn't mean that he doesn't hear anything else; it just means he's able to manage the influx of information. You can hold a conversation with a friend at a nightclub but that doesn't mean you stop hearing everything else - you just don't focus on it. The sonic devices are very loud, focused directly at Superman's head and emitting frequencies up and down the spectrum not to mention the actual physical effect as evidenced by the rainwater caught in the blast. It's a lot to deal with all at once.
6th Jun 2017
Midnight Special (2016)
Question: In the very last scene, we see Michael Shannon in shackles (presumably in a federal prison) with electroencephalographic sensors attached to his forehead and scalp, oddly gazing at the sunrise as two prison guards flank him. In the very last shot of the film, a closeup of his face, we see his eyes faintly glow for a split-second as he smiles a very slight smile. Question: Is the film implying that Alton is in otherworldly contact with his father, or that his father absorbed some of Alton's otherworldly power; or is it implying that, being the boy's biological father, he was the source of Alton's power? In any event, this may never be revealed, because the film barely made back one-third of its $18 million production budget, making the probability of a sequel highly unlikely.
Answer: I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I got the impression that he was communicating with Alton like he had done when Alton ran from the truck. I also thought his smile was perhaps in reaction to what Alton told him and/or the two were making fun of (mocking) the use of electrodes because they knew the electrodes would not have any effect on him.
P.S. Plenty of lousy movies have had sequels, so it is possible there could be a "Midnight Special 2".
Not necessarily holding my breath.
A sequel doesn't seem likely. Hope you weren't holding your breath waiting for an answer to your question.
5th Jun 2017
Fantastic Four (2015)
Question: I suppose this is more a request for an educated guess than anything. Why can't anyone seem to produce a working Fantastic 4 movie franchise? The first two movies and the first reboot were awful, simply put, and the poor box office returns made future sequels or reboots even less likely. Why can no one seem to get a grip on what makes Fantastic 4 tick?
Chosen answer: In a nutshell, 20th Century Fox and the people that worked on the respective films simply don't understand the comics and why fans like the source material. It's also worth noting that the 2015 film was made so that Fox could retain the rights, as they would have gone back to Marvel had they not begun production on it by a certain date in 2014. They weren't exactly making the film with the intention of it being great, rather as a rights grab and a money grab, though the film ended up being a major box office flop, so the latter didn't exactly pan out in their favor. There are many fans that would like to see the rights to Fantastic 4 revert back to Marvel Studios, as they would more than likely do the films justice.
24th May 2017
Jaws (1975)
Question: Here's a question that's never been answered. After Captain Quint addresses the Amity city council, he bids them good day and leaves, and a dog and a little guy wearing a cap obediently follow Quint down the hall. For a split-second, we also see this little guy's cap pass before the camera inside Quint's dock-front quarters. Who was this little guy, Quint's first mate? We don't know, because that little guy is never seen again after the dock quarters scene.
Answer: I believe you see the same person helping prepare the Orca before it starts setting out. He has Quint's M1 slung over his shoulder.
Chosen answer: The man is never identified. It is never stated in the movie that he is Quint's first mate or that he works for him. He could be or may just casually know Quint, and is probably also a local fisherman.
He is Quint's deckhand/first mate. The fellow who was cast was not an actor, just a local character, whose dog followed him everywhere (Spielberg got a kick out of him and cast him). This was clarified in a scene where he quits rather than go on the boat after Jaws, which was cut out of the film but can be found on YouTube.
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Answer: We are never told whose arm it was that came out of the grave.