Question: I've never understood why Annie was such a terrible driver in this film (driving test scene). She says in Speed that she had her licence revoked for speeding, which doesn't make her a bad driver, just fast. She managed to drive the bus fairly well.
BaconIsMyBFF
23rd Sep 2019
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
20th Sep 2019
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: I've been looking all over for this answer and can't find it. I know this has been asked, but it has not been properly answered to what I can find. At the end of "War of the Worlds", Tom Cruise saw the birds and realised the shields were down. How did the shields deactivate? I understand that the aliens got sick and died from bacteria, but there must have been something else. Even if there were designated aliens to control each tripod's forcefield, there is no way that every "Shield duty" alien died before the other members of their crew, leaving their tripod mobile and vulnerable... Were they getting low on resources because they had eradicated too many humans too quickly? Did they decide that since the majority of people died, that they could focus on using more of their "fuel" towards mobility and capturing instead of combat?
Answer: I believe its supposed to be the tripods work on the alien's biology, so its powered by the presence of a Martian inside. So if the martian is sick, the tripod is sick.
That's always what I believed. This is further evidenced by the fact the tripods themselves have actually been on earth for millions of years, but they get "sick" when the Martians do. It has to be tied to the Martian's own health for that to make any sense.
Answer: Bear in mind if memory serves we only see that one tripod with no shields - other than that we're just told another one "behaved erratically" then went down. So there's no evidence that all the shields on all the tripods went down by default. Could well just be that with the one we see the alien inside was seriously ill, flailing about and deactivated the shields by mistake not long before becoming completely incapacitated.
20th Sep 2019
Child's Play 3 (1991)
Question: At the beginning of the movie, the entire Good Guy factory is completely covered in dust and cobwebs because of not being used in eight years. What caused the factory to close for such a long time? Nobody believed Andy when he said that his Good Guy doll was possessed by Chucky. And even though Andy said Chucky was responsible for so many murders in his doll form, people most likely wrote it off as a child's overactive imagination and that wouldn't be enough to close down the factory.
Answer: The public believes that the Good Guy doll that committed the murders had simply malfunctioned, which caused great negative publicity for the company. The public does not believe Andy or his mother's claims that the doll was possessed by a serial killer and was actually alive. In Child's Play 2 the company finds and reassembles the doll to prove to shareholders that the Good Guy doll is safe. This backfires and the doll is re-possessed, which leads to additional murders in that film crippling the company for 8 years.
12th Sep 2019
The Faculty (1998)
Question: Why are the aliens in that town? If they come from a oceanic planet then why not go directly into one of our five or so oceans?
Answer: The aliens needed fresh water. All the infected were drinking bottled water. When the gang were examining the slug in the garage, it dried up and died from salt, like a snail.
Answer: Whales and dolphins also lack manipulating appendages and the ability to survive on land.
Answer: The aliens need to infect intelligent life to thrive. There is no intelligent life in our oceans.
Answer: Well if they need to stay hydrated whales and dolphins make more sense than inhabiting people.
Dolphins and whales are also far less numerous. With populations numbering fewer than 10 million total across all species versus nearly 6 billion at the time for humanity.
Answer: It could be the salt or pollution. The aliens were drinking nothing but pure bottled water.
Good answer. Dang all you guys on this site are pretty good at this. I enjoy these answers you give since hardly anybody ever listens to me.
5th Sep 2019
The Predator (2018)
Question: Why would the main character send the obviously dangerous and unstable alien tech to his house? I could see no other reason then to just simply get the plot to move along but it's obvious he doesn't have a consistent stable relationship with his son and wife - why send the tech there? And on top of that with no explanation to them as to what it is? On top of that he seemed like he was a respected member of the military - there was no reason for him to go against that and hide this information.
Answer: McKenna states that he assumed his estranged wife would just put the box with the rest of his stuff and leave it alone. He doesn't trust sending it to anyone else because they might open the box and have questions. As you suggest, it is indeed quite an egregious plot contrivance because why would his wife be any less prone to open his mail than anyone else? And in fact, Rory does open the box so the plan didn't even work. McKenna hides the tech from the military because he wants the credit for discovering alien life, and he also fears the government will try to cover up the discovery, which of course they do.
16th Jul 2019
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Question: This movie shows Jason Voorhees didn't drown in Crystal Lake in the first movie because he's shown to be alive in this movie. It's a known fact that the kid Jason Voorhees can't swim, so how exactly did he avoid drowning in Crystal Lake?
Answer: This particular film does not address this, and seems to imply that Jason didn't drown and grew up living in the woods as a psychopath. Later sequels heavily imply (or outright state) that Jason was brought back as an un-dead creature by unknown supernatural means and cannot be killed in a conventional sense. As it stands it is best to view Jason in this film as un-dead, as the number of films that show him as supernatural far outweigh those that show him as a normal man. The character is generally remembered in popular culture as un-dead.
I think that the whole franchise didn't take much care of continuity (for example, in part 2 Jason is a woods-boy full of beard and hair, in the third he is taller and bald), but it's explainable to the fact that Jason managed to survive somehow, never told his mother he was alive (even because the camp was closed many times and Pamela never showed up frequently), watched her die and took her place for revenge. We always have the feeling that there's something supernatural in Jason, since he never dies he can be hit with axe, machete, fire and even hanged up, and he is still alive, but he definitely becomes something supernatural only from part 6 further. Yes, seeing as the story starts, it could be simpler to think Jason somehow returned as a ghost, as an Un-dead man, but in the first half of the franchise they gave a bit of reality to the thing.
What information in this sequel gives any indication that the kid Jason didn't drown in Crystal Lake?
The fact that he's a full-grown man instead of a young boy. The fan consensus, and the original intent of the filmmakers, is that Jason is a human being, albeit extremely tough and completely insane, in parts 2-4, and comes back as an undead being in part 6.
That's valid along with the small house in the woods, except that doesn't explain how a kid that can't swim didn't drown in Crystal Lake.
Luck, misinformation, etc. Yes it's vague, but a lack of explanation doesn't entirely constitute a mistake.
Answer: That is indeed a plot hole, and up to speculation. The best guess is that Jason somehow made his way ashore, and chose to hide in the woods rather than face further bullying from the rest of the kids.
26th Jul 2019
Furious 7 (2015)
23rd Aug 2019
3rd Rock from the Sun (1996)
Question: At the end of their audit, the Solomons are ordered by the IRS to pay back-taxes, some of which for years they weren't even on the planet. Can the IRS actually make people pay taxes for years in which they had no income?
Answer: No, the IRS cannot make you pay taxes during years in which you had no income but this family hasn't reported any income for years. You are still required to report your income every year, and if you fall below a certain threshold you don't pay federal income taxes. The IRS is assuming they are humans who have a house and careers but they have only filed taxes for a couple years (if at all). To the IRS it looks like simple tax evasion.
19th Aug 2019
Casino Royale (2006)
Question: If Vesper was a traitor from the start, why did she save Bond in the car? Wouldn't it be easier to let him die and let Le Chiffre win the game to save her husband?
Answer: Vesper had fallen for Bond and didn't want him to die. Later on she makes a deal with Mr. White to spare Bond's life when he comes for Le Chifre.
So she worked for Le Chiffre giving the location of the chip and the tic and then to Mr. White to save Bond's life?
She never actually worked for Le Chifre, per se. She worked for Quantum (the organization Mr. White worked for). It's just that Quantum wanted Vesper to help Le Chifre get the money because he was also working for them.
3rd Aug 2019
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
Question: When Gregory was singing beautifully for his audition, did he really sing that well, or did he lip-sync from someone else singing?
Answer: That was not him singing, that was another kid singing.
Answer: According to wiki.celebrity.fm and diaryofawimpykid.fandom.com, L.J. Benet provided the singing voice for Greg in the movie.
Answer: Where did you hear that? Because on IMDb, it says that everyone EXCEPT Greg did their own singing.
Answer: That was Zachary Gordon's actual singing voice.
2nd Aug 2019
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Yesterday's Enterprise - S3-E15
Question: The ever-popular gag in this episode is that Worf consumes prune juice for the first time and declares that it is a "warrior's drink," to Guinan's amusement. However, Worf was adopted as a child by human parents, he grew up on Earth, he was highly educated and graduated Star Fleet Academy on Earth. Given the reputation of prune juice as a natural laxative throughout human history, how could Worf not know what prune juice is, having lived most of his life on Earth?
Answer: There's nothing to indicate that Worf had never heard of prune juice before, just that he had never tried it before. He doesn't recognize the smell or taste of the drink as prune juice because he's never had it before. But that doesn't mean he has no idea what prune juice is, or that it is used as a natural laxative. In a later episode Guinan directly asks Worf's parents why he never had prune juice prior to her serving him the drink. They answer that as a child Worf refused to eat human food of any kind, everything he consumed had to be Klingon. Other episodes show that Klingons tend to despise human food in general for being bland. It stands to reason that someone who shows no outward interest in human food might not know what prune juice is usually used for. But then again, maybe he does know and he doesn't care because prune juice is delicious to him.
Thanks for reminding me about that later episode, although I think the later prune juice explanation from Worf's adoptive parents was scripted to address many fan questions along the same lines as my own.
30th Jul 2019
Bullitt (1968)
Question: How did the bad guy have a gun on the flight? He pulls a gun in the airfield chase scene so he had to have it on the plane as he jumped off it.
Answer: Airport security in the late 1960's was not nearly as thorough as it is in present day. Metal detectors didn't become commonplace at airports until the early 1970's.
30th Jul 2019
Game of Thrones (2011)
Question: Why does everyone argue over the best way to remove Cersei from power with minimal civilian casualties when they could have just sent Arya to assassinate Cersei? Given her training with the Faceless Men, she could easily infiltrate the Red Keep and get the job done. On top of that, Arya wants to kill Cersei.
Answer: Daenerys and her allies don't just want to kill Cersei, they want to claim King's Landing and free her people from Cersei's grip. The problem is the people of Essos viewed Daenerys as a liberator but the people of Westeros view her as an outsider and usurper. They would never follow Daenerys if she had Cersei assassinated. That is Daenerys' dilemma, she certainly has the ability to wipe Cersei out and obliterate her armies but doing so would make her a tyrant. Which as it turns out is exactly what happens.
But no-one has to know that Cersei was assassinated. Arya has the ability to impersonate anyone she kills, so she could pretend to be Cersei afterwards and profess to the citizens of King's Landing that she has yielded the throne to Danaerys and that she is going into exile.
That plan would be incredibly suspicious. Knowing what they know of Cersei it is highly unlikely the people of King's Landing would believe that she would accept defeat so easily and then voluntarily exile herself, never to be heard from again. In order for that to work, all of Cersei's advisers and closest allies would have to be similarly eliminated, or they would have to be on board with the exile plan. If they are all killed it sort of makes it obvious that something is amiss. There's no way they would be fooled by Cersei suddenly doing a 180 and completely changing her personality by accepting defeat without a fight. If any part of this plan goes wrong then Daenerys would look worse than just an assassin, she would also be deceitful to the people she hopes will willingly accept her rule.
26th Jul 2019
Furious 7 (2015)
Question: At Han's funeral Roman says "I can't do more funerals. First Han..." What about Gisele? She died before Han. Didn't he count her as part of their family or what?
Answer: Roman says "I can't do no more funerals", then Tej says "First Han...now Hobbs is laid up. We're being hunted." Roman was referring to funerals for Vince, Giselle, and Han. Tej was remarking that Shaw attacked Han first, then Hobbs and the rest of the team are probably next.
25th Feb 2019
The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
Twisted Sister / Cover Up - S2-E11
Question: After Buttercup loses her blanket a monster attacks Townsville, and Buttercup doesn't have the confidence to defeat it until Blossom goes to the house, comes back with her blanket, and gives it to her. Buttercup gets her confidence back and defeats the monster. But later Blossom tells Buttercup it's not her real blanket. It's just a fake blanket she found to get her through the fight. How would Blossom know if it was Buttercup's real blanket or not? It looks exactly like the real blanket.
16th Jul 2019
Species II (1998)
Question: After an examination, Patrick, Anne and Dennis are told that as part of the quarantine, they can't have sex for ten days. Why? Excluding the fact that Patrick and Anne had been infected, what would happen to all three if they had sex before the quarantine was up?
Answer: Nothing would happen to them. The restriction on sexual activity was to keep them from spreading any potential contaminants through bodily fluids. It's nonsense because there are plenty of ways to spread bodily fluids that don't involve sexual contact and 10 days seems arbitrary, but it fits with the overall erotic themes of the film series to have the quarantine specify no sexual intercourse.
16th Jul 2019
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Question: Here are a couple of questions: 1) Let's say Anakin let Mace Windu slay Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious. If that happened, would Anakin have been kicked off the Jedi Council because Windu told Anakin to wait at the Jedi Temple and not interfere? 2) Would Anakin have been promoted to Jedi Master if he stayed behind and let Windu kill Palpatine? You would think that because prior to that Windu tells Anakin, "you will have gained my trust."
Answer: 1) It is unlikely given the situation that had Windu killed Palpatine, Anakin would be punished at all for defying Windu. It would only have helped Windu's case that he wasn't assassinating Palpatine because Anakin was now a witness. 2) Likely he would have been promoted, the darkness that surrounded Anakin and his unusual relationship with Palpatine is all that kept him from achieving the rank.
6th May 2019
Road Trip (2000)
Question: Why didn't Beth or Josh report Jacob to the faculty for everything he was doing in terms of bothering Beth? Jacob tells Josh to back off because Beth is "spoken for", he tries to win Beth at EL's party, but gets ignored by EL after Josh can't outbid him anymore, so Josh ends up winning, and he even tries to get Josh expelled from Ithaca University by pretending to be his Ancient Philosophy teacher and telling him that he can take his exam at a later date when Josh phones him from a payphone whilst on the road trip to Austin.
Answer: It's funnier if Jacob constantly bothers the characters and gets away with it, and receives his comeuppance in the end in an over the top manner (he forms a suicide cult but is the only member that actually kills himself).
29th Oct 2017
The Deuce (2017)
Question: When talking to Alston, the police captain said he sought out a black officer who hasn't made rank because he's "got no rabbi" and therefore is likely "on the outside enough to be trusted"- what does the phrase "got no rabbi" mean?
Answer: "Rabbi" is old police slang for a superior, experienced officer who mentors a younger officer. "Got no rabbi" in this context is saying Alston hasn't been on the job long enough to have been fully taken into the fold by the other officers, and would thus be a good choice for the Captain's plan of recruiting an un-corrupted officer.
1st Jul 2019
Back to the Future (1985)
Question: I was watching the documentary on the trilogy. What exactly does Robert Zemeckis mean by "the ending with them going to the future was a joke?" What exactly is so funny about Marty and Jennifer going to the future and helping out their future kids from getting into trouble?
Answer: The original film was not written with sequels in mind. The sequels were only created after the overwhelming box office success and popularity of the first film. The ending is a "joke" because of how much more absurd the story has become, and the fact the audience doesn't actually see the future. Of course the joke is ruined somewhat because sequels were eventually produced and we did actually see the future, Marty and Jennifer as older adults, and their kids. When viewed in the context of a stand-alone film (and in the four years audiences had to wait until the sequel was released) this ending was indeed quite funny at the time.
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Answer: Annie is a reckless driver. The way she drives during her test certainly fits with the description she gives in the first film of why her license was revoked. She only says "speeding" when asked why her license was revoked but excessive speeding and reckless driving go hand in hand. It is doubtful that anyone who has had their license revoked for speeding tickets would be an otherwise safe and responsible driver.
BaconIsMyBFF
Not everyone that speeds is reckless. The driving scene in Speed 2 is excessively bad.