Tailkinker

Question: How much time passed from the time Wolverine left the team in Africa till Silverfox was "killed"?

Answer: Six years.

Tailkinker

Question: Could someone please explain to me exactly how the Millennium Falcon is being flown. It appears to swoop in such a way like someone is steering it, but no one on board seems to be doing much more than pressing the odd button here or there. And it can't be autopilot because it seems to be doing exactly what those on board want. So does anyone know?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Han has the control board in front of him - he has everything he needs to fly the ship to hand. We never get a particularly good look at the console, so we don't know precisely what format the controls are presented in, but that's what he's using.

Tailkinker

Question: Why does Vader go and stand near the Emperor for a moment before deciding to kill him and save Luke? Earlier, the Emperor told Luke to kill Vader and take his place. It seems strange that Vader would remain loyal after his master just encouraged someone to kill him.

Answer: Vader's alone; for twenty years, he's had only the Emperor, a man who he hates for what he's become, but also the only person truly remaining in his life, having killed or otherwise burned his bridges with everybody else. He has nowhere else to go but to the side of the Emperor. He may well be angry at the Emperor for telling Luke to kill him, but it's exactly the same deal that he tried to make - it's the way of the Sith that the strong replace the weak. The Emperor needs an apprentice; with Luke dead, the Emperor may well punish Vader, but won't kill him, because he doesn't have a replacement. So he initially returns to his master's side, resigning himself to going on as he is, a bitter twisted half-machine in the thrall of a more powerful master. It's only when Luke reaches out to him through the pain that he decides that his son's life is worth more than his own and finally acts directly against the Emperor.

Tailkinker

I thought the reason Vader stood near the Emperor was that he wanted to save his son while the Emperor tortured Luke with lightning, but his loyalty to the Emperor got in the way.

Question: I don't know if there is an answer to this, but what did Dooku think was going to happen on the ship above Coruscant? It seems like he was supposed to kill Anakin and Obi-wan, but if he had managed to do that, there wouldn't have been a way for Palpatine to be "rescued" from him and Grievous. Was Dooku planning to let them escape eventually?

Answer: Dooku believed that the intent was that he would slay Kenobi, with the aim of provoking Anakin into enough of a rage that he would tap into the dark side of the Force - we see him goading his opponent during the duel with this in mind. Palpatine would then reveal himself as Sidious, stop the fight and turn Anakin to the Sith. Dooku would be "arrested" by Anakin and would then, after an appropriate time had passed, claim to have come to see the Republic's point of view, allowing him to later emerge from captivity to assist Sidious and Anakin in setting up the new Empire.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Jango Fett kill Zam Wesell with a Kamino saberdart? Surely a bounty hunter as experienced as Jango would have realised it would lead to the Kaminoans and eventually to himself? Instead, why not kill her with a well aimed laser blast?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: At the range we're talking about, even as good a shot as Fett couldn't guarantee a kill. But hit Wesell anywhere with the poisoned dart and it does the job. Kamino's been wiped from the Archives, there's no information on the dart there either, so he probably felt that it was pretty safe to use. He couldn't have anticipated that Kenobi would have had a contact who actually could identify one. Even if they do track him down, he's a bounty hunter, which is a legal profession. Somebody with his resources would have no problem faking documentation to show that he had been contracted to take Wesell out.

Tailkinker

Question: This goes along with the question someone submitted about Jedi reproducing. Isn't it also very likely that in a whole galaxy, there would be at least a few people born every year who are Force-sensitive, but aren't ever discovered by the Jedi? Couldn't the trait sometimes be passed down for a couple of generations before someone in the family is discovered by the Jedi? For example, it seems unlikely that either of Dooku's parents or Palpatine's parents were Jedi, since they both came from wealthy backgrounds.

Answer: Yes, extremely likely, particularly out on the Rim. There will always be people who either escape notice completely or, while recognised as being Force-sensitive, do not have the power level required to become a Jedi and thus would not be brought into the Order. In such cases, the Jedi would likely keep an eye on them, in case the trait manifested more strongly in any children who could then become Jedi.

Tailkinker

29th May 2009

Star Wars (1977)

Chosen answer: In reality terms, fight choreography was simply not as advanced in those days. From the story point of view, neither man is exactly at their prime any more. Vader is more machine than man and Kenobi is simply getting old and has not been practicing the Force regularly for nearly two decades. When the prequel trilogy was being put together, it was recognised that the story would be dealing with Jedi at the height of their abilities and thus the filmmakers developed a much more complex and detailed combat form for the Jedi characters to use.

Tailkinker

Answer: They had to hold their lightsaber props at a certain angle for the specific effect. Because of this, they couldn't move their props like in later movies.

29th May 2009

The Lion King (1994)

Question: Two part question. 1)Is Hakuna Matata a real phrase from another language, or is it one of Timon's and Pumba's originals? 2)Pumba says at one point of the movie, "They call me Mr. Pig!" Is this a reference to anything?

Answer: (1) It's a real phrase from the Swahili language and, as stated in the film, translates roughly to "no worries" (literally "there are no worries"). (2) The line is a reference to Sidney Poitier's detective character Virgil Tibbs from In The Heat Of The Night and his famous reply of "They call me Mister Tibbs" when asked what they call him back home. The film's sequel, focusing on Poitier's character, actually used the line as the title.

Tailkinker

29th May 2009

Heroes (2006)

Season 1 generally

Question: Throughout the first season, Sylar has been shown to survive a number of deadly situations, from being shot at in "One Giant Leap" and "Distractions" to falling from a great height in "Homecoming." My question is, how could he survive all of these incidences when he hadn't yet absorbed Claire's ability of regeneration?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: Telekinesis. Stop or deflect the bullets, slow his fall so that he'll survive. Very useful power.

Tailkinker

Both times he was shot, he didn't know it was coming so he couldn't have used telekinesis to stop the bullets.

29th May 2009

Heroes (2006)

Season 3 generally

Question: How exactly does Arthur Petrelli's ability of Power absorption work? How does he take powers and integrate them? Is there any chance of returning the stolen power/s to the original recipient? Also, after he absorbs an ability, what affect does it have on the person who's had their ability absorbed? Does the original recipient have any chance of regaining his/her original power?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: No explanation is ever given as to precisely how the process works. The subject is rendered powerless. If Arthur had the ability to return the ability if he wished to, it's certainly not shown in the show and it seems unlikely that he would have been interested in doing so. Later events suggest that the stolen power is not actually completely gone, as Peter Petrelli was able to use the power-serum to partially restore his own absorption ability, and Hiro's power is eventually partly revived by the infant Matt Parkman, suggesting that, in both cases, some vestiges of their original ability was still present.

Tailkinker

Question: Is it possible for someone to tell me, what was the music playing in the trailer? The one on this site I mean, from Trailier Addict. The song starts at :33 and I would really like to know what it is and if it's possible to get it somewhere.

Answer: The only listing of trailer music that I know of doesn't provide direct timecodes for when each track is used, but, looking at it, it seems likely to either be an unnamed piece composed specifically for the trailer by a group called "Brand X Music", in which case there's likely no chance of finding it, or a track entitled "Terms of Enchantment" by James Dooley. Dooley tends to write incidental pieces for use in trailers and so forth, which would probably make it very difficult to track down, although there have been collected albums of such tracks in the past. It may also be called "The World Waits" by Edmund Choi, from the soundtrack to the movie "The Dish".

Tailkinker

29th May 2009

Gladiator (2000)

Answer: They don't hate him, particularly, he's family and, in their own ways, they love him, but they certainly don't trust him. He's unstable, unpredictable, arrogant, power-hungry, prone to conspiracy and ruthless. In a potential Emperor, that is not a good mix of qualities, as far as they're concerned, so they keep a very close eye on him and, as we see, Marcus Aurelius chooses to elevate Maximus in his place, something that unfortunately pushes Commodus over the edge.

Tailkinker

28th May 2009

Heroes (2006)

Powerless - S2-E11

Question: I don't understand why Adam Monroe wanted to release The Shanti Virus? doesn't he realise the just how dangerous it would have been?

SockWearer

Chosen answer: Yes, of course he does. That's the point. He wants to do something to stop humanity going through the same cycle of death and destruction that gets played out every so often. By releasing the Shanti virus, he'll wipe out the vast majority of the human race, dropping the demand for Earth's diminishing resources to a manageable level and allowing the survivors to start over with a relatively clean slate.

Tailkinker

28th May 2009

Angels & Demons (2009)

Question: SPOILER ALERTS! Does anyone know why they changed the final symbol to the keys instead of the one in the book? Also why they left out that the Pope was Ewan McGregor's father?

shortdanzr

Chosen answer: In the book, the location of the antimatter bomb is only revealed after the Camerlengo pretends to have a "vision from God" on the steps of the Vatican. By changing the symbol to one that actually provides a clue to the location, it allows Langdon to work out where the bomb is, to actually play some part in proceedings rather than passively stand by until the villain just takes everybody there as part of his plan. As for the Pope being the Camerlengo's biological father, this is a fairly late revelation in the book and requires a substantial amount of exposition, which would only serve to abruptly slow the film to a crawl during the climax. The Camerlengo's motives, his hatred for the church's indulgence of science, are strong enough to explain his actions without the additional detail of his parentage being necessary, thus it could be safely left out to keep the film's momentum going.

Tailkinker

Question: After Palpatine orders the clone troopers to execute order 66, they are shown killing the Jedi. When Palpatine gave the order to the clones, several of them were in the midst of a raging battle. After they killed the Jedi, what happened to the clones? Did the battles continue uninterrupted? Were they killed also?

SeekerOfAnswers

Chosen answer: The battles continued. Some clones would undoubtedly have been killed, many survived to fight on until the cease-fire order came in after Vader slew the Separatist leadership on Mustafar.

Tailkinker

Question: When they discover they have no gasoline for the DeLorean, they go through all sorts of trouble to get it up to 88mph. Now it's obvious things fade away and into existence in this movie, as it did with the newspapers and matchbook. Wouldn't it have made more sense to go to the mine where the time machine was buried and write on the wood, "Bring can of gas"? Wouldn't a can of gas then materialize in the trunk of the DeLorean and they could go home?

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: There's already been enough meddling with the timeline without deliberately resorting to that sort of thing. If they can get the car up to speed with the stuff they've got available to them in that time period, it's the safest option to take.

Tailkinker

Question: Just wondering out loud. Since Marty showed Doc the drawing of a flux capacitor in 1955, I think this would have caused some infinite loop in the universe. I'll explain it better. Wouldn't Marty have destroyed the universe because he showed Doc the time machine in 1955, meaning Doc wouldn't have had the machine tested out in 1985 because the design was already "completed" in 1955? Meaning Marty never would have gone back in time in the first place to show Doc the time machine, meaning that Doc would test it out in 1985. Meaning that Marty would have gone back to 1955 and showed Doc the time machine, meaning Doc wouldn't have tested it out in 1985, meaning Marty wouldn't have gone back in time and showed Doc the time machine, etc.

Answer: Jeez, take a deep breath already. Yes, as a result of Marty's jaunt back in time, Doc now knows more about the design of the time machine, but that doesn't mean that he has the capability to build it in 1955. He needs all sorts of high-tech equipment, plus, let's not forget, some plutonium from somewhere. Regardless of his additional knowledge of the systems, it may simply be impossible to build until 1985. You also have to consider that Doc's not stupid - he knows that he completes the time machine in 1985, starting the whole thing off. He's not going to risk a temporal disruption by completing it early.

Tailkinker

9th May 2009

Heroes (2006)

Powerless - S2-E11

Question: At the end of the episode, Sylar injected himself with a cure to rid himself of the Shanti virus. Upon injecting himself he used his telekinesis to summon a tin can to him. My question is, how was he able to retain his telekinesis when the Shanti virus completely removed all of his acquired powers?

TheOccasionalMetalHead

Chosen answer: Sylar is supposed to be able to copy powers through empathic mimicry, as we see him do with Elle's electrical abilities. If he does that, then it appears that the powers genuinely become innate to him, as if they were his from the start, whereas if he takes them in his usual way, they don't - he has access to them, but they don't become innate and thus can be erased by the Shanti virus. When Gabriel killed Brian Davis to take his telekinetic ability, he felt terrible guilt over having done so and thus his empathic mimicry kicked in, making the telekinesis an ability which the Shanti virus couldn't remove. This is also why the Company could only detect his telekinesis when examining him, despite the fact that he possessed many other abilities at the time.

Tailkinker

9th May 2009

Heroes (2006)

Chosen answer: Basically, yes. Using others to further his agenda and ultimately restore his health and allow him to establish a powerbase.

Tailkinker

9th May 2009

Heroes (2006)

Season 3 generally

Question: Maury objects quite heavily at the idea of Arthur giving the order to murder his son, Matt. Why is this? In season 2, Maury is shown to use his telepathy on Matt in a harmful way, not to mention the fact he abandoned him when he was quite young.

TheOccasionalMetalHead

Chosen answer: There's something of a difference between Maury using his powers against Matt to take him out of the equation and actually killing him. Maury is prepared to work against his son if necessary, but doesn't want to see him dead.

Tailkinker

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