Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: Just why doesn't Tony want his sister Gina to be married to his best friend?

Rob245

Answer: Tony is very protective of Gina because he views her as the only "pure" thing in his life; while Manny might be his best friend, Tony views Manny as "impure" since they are both heavily involved in criminal activity. Had Tony known before killing Manny that he and Gina were newlyweds late in the film, he probably would have respected their union even if he wasn't particularly happy about it since Manny had made Gina an "honest woman."

zendaddy621

Question: In the beginning, there are several shots of riots, seemingly stock footage. One shows a man hanging and people beat him really hard to death. It was short, but quite disturbing. Was this real footage? If so, what was the real incident?

Bunch Son

Answer: None of these shots are real footage; it was scripted and shot for the movie, made to look like newsreel/raw footage.

Question: I don't live in the US; is it normal for a gym to contact next of kin and offer condolences when someone is believed to have died? Or is it for plot convenience? Where I come from, any cancellations of memberships, etc, would all be done in writing.

Answer: The woman did not work for the YMCA. She and Laura took swimming lessons together there and were friendly. The woman therefore felt obliged to offer her condolences. It was also, as you say, a plot convenience. There had to be some way to tip off Martin that Laura might still be alive.

raywest

Question: What was the word that Delia spray painted on the wall and what does it mean?

Answer: "Mauve." It's a type of purple color. They were using spray paint to write what color to paint the walls.

Bishop73

Question: Since Hades guides souls into the underworld, who takes over after he goes down?

Rob245

Answer: I don't think Hades guides souls into the underworld - I think he rules over it. For instance, part of the mythology is that Charon ferries souls across the river - I don't think Hades was a part of this process but simply welcomes the souls at the end of their journey.

Answer: The implication is that Jeff will still be teaching at Greendale after Annie and Abed leave. As for who became vice dean? It's never shown, since it's not really important to the series.

TedStixon

Question: How did they get the RV out of the lake?

Answer: In the world of "make believe", they used "movie magic" to zap the RV out of the water and on to dry land - with no mechanical issues resulting from being submerged. In the real world, someone called a tow truck - perhaps AAA - and the RV was pulled out of the water and it suffered water damage and needed some repairs. This movie was presented as being "real life." Bob left on a bicycle to "try to find help." Near the end of the movie, Carl said that the RV "spent two days under water and they had to fish it out." He didn't say who "they" were. A fishing pole would not be strong enough to reel in a large RV, so I think it is safe to conclude that a tow truck was used to pull the RV out of the lake.

KeyZOid

It should be noted that "fish it out" is a common phrase to mean pull or take out, especially after searching. When people use the term, they're never taking about using a fishing pole. But often when people post questions like this, they're asking for an in-film explanation in case they missed (or didn't understand) something. If no in-film explanation was given, a reasonable speculation can be given. You don't need to remind people the movie is a movie. If the in/film explanation is uncharacteristic to real life, then one can point out that in real life it wouldn't happen that way.

Bishop73

It was meant to be ironic.

KeyZOid

There was no irony, but this isn't the forum for irony anyways.

Bishop73

I guess I failed miserably... but wasn't the original question rhetorical?

KeyZOid

Question: How would Markowski have known the details of a medal that only the First-Person Shooter would ever be able to obtain? As Calhoun says, their only job is to help the FPS reach the top, so they can get a medal. The NPCs never get it.

quinnnmallory

Answer: As NPCs in the game, they have knowledge of the game itself, like how NPCs in some games give out quests even though they don't go on the quest itself.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: No, it's just an extra.

LorgSkyegon

Question: When John Q and his wife were in the meeting discussing the surgery, Rebecca Payne mentions that they had a little over $1,000 in savings. At the beginning of the movie, his wife's car was repossessed because he couldn't make the payments. Why didn't they use the money in the savings to pay for the car loan to avoid repossession?

Answer: Using the $1000 would only delay their car being repossessed, and they may be much further behind than that in their payments. In that case, their savings would be completely depleted and they'd still have no car.

raywest

Question: When Jo and Bill are in the car with Melissa in the back, Melissa is confused as to why they're chasing another storm given Jo and Bill nearly got killed in the previous tornado. Yet wouldn't Melissa already know they were chasing another tornado given they were driving as part of a 'pack' and there was another Dorothy in back of the truck? (00:34:45)

Answer: She's confused, scared, and her thinking is unclear. She wrongly assumes she knows how Bill will react. She does not really know the person Bill is, as he had put his storm chasing life behind him. Once he is thrown back in his old environment with Jo, which is where he really wants to be, Bill reverts to his old self.

raywest

Question: Why wouldn't the self-destruct system have a stop button? Presumably if you wanted to abort the procedure it should be instant and not have to go through all the rigmarole of trying to shut it down.

Answer: The Nostromo is powered by a nuclear reactor. The self-destruct system simply shuts down the cooling towers, causing the reactor to gradually rise in temperature until it reaches critical mass. The cooling system can be turned back on within the first 5 minutes but after that, the reactor is so hot the cooling liquid will evaporate once it comes into contact with the system. Ripley tries turning the cooling towers back on, and she does so right before the 5 minute failsafe timer is up, but the system was still too hot to cool the reactor. This is why Ripley curses at MUTHUR, she made it back in time but a meltdown is still inevitable. Apparently the 5 minute failsafe timer is not exact to the second and Ripley actually had slightly less than 5 minutes.

BaconIsMyBFF

I believe she just barely misses the cutoff, rather than making it but still having it be ineffective. She curses Mother out of frustration, and perhaps fury at the computer's cold indifference to her fate.

Answer: It's pretty typical in movies that in a self-destruct situation, once it's started, it is impossible to stop, for whatever reason. It's about plotting and maintaining the tension to keep the audience on the edge of their seats to see if the hero can survive. Considering how corrupt the company was, they'd expend little effort into proper safety procedures.

raywest

Question: Andy overhears Hadley saying he got thirty-five thousand dollars from his brother, but has to pay taxes on it. Andy suggests that Hadley give the money to his wife if he wants to keep all of it. Andy says the IRS allows a one time gift only to your spouses for up to sixty thousand dollars without having to pay taxes. Is that actually true?

Answer: Nope...maybe in-universe it's true, but in our real world, it's just a bunch of fancy-sounding razzle-dazzle that Andy uses to dupe Hadley. Hadley would never have had to pay taxes on the money to begin with. Go to this website for a pretty detailed breakdown of just HOW untrue it actually is: https://hauntedcoconut.com/2019/04/16/the-shawshank-redemption-andy-dufresnes-questionable-tax-advice/.

Answer: Later in the film it's said B32 is a catalog code for the book "The Scarlet Letter", page 156. On that page was an underlined passage "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true..."

Bishop73

Question: Near the end of the movie, the grand duke calls the footman to bring him the glass slipper, so he can try it on Cinderella. But Lady Tremaine trips the footman, causing the slipper to fly and shatter. Then Cinderella reveals she has the other slipper. The grand duke tries it on her, and find that it fits. I have a problem with that because how did he know the glass slipper Cinderella had was the same size as the one that broke?

Answer: Cinderella's entire outfit was magically created by the Fairy Godmother. Not only was the spare shoe Cinderella had in her possession identical to the other one, it likely would be charmed so that she is the only one who can wear it. It's similar to young Arthur being the only person who could pull Excalibur from the stone because he was the true king. No other woman who attended the ball wore glass slippers. If they had, they'd be able to also produce the spare shoe as proof.

raywest

Answer: Add in that how many possible glass slippers could there possibly be? It would be an incredibly uncommon type of shoe that would be amazingly difficult to make.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Probably because it looked the same to him, and he had been handling it a lot for all the trying-ons, plus how many people have glass slippers in their closet? But you are right it heavily suggests she is the person, not proves it. But then again how many women's feet would it have already fit? He should have found many matches long before getting to Cinderella. Cinderella can't be the only woman in the kingdom with her size foot.

jimba

Question: Why do Adam and Barbara always hide when Otho, Charles and Delia enter the attic? The only person who can see them is Lydia.

Answer: Probably a combination of habit and uncertainty. They don't know what the rules are of being seen since at least one person can see them, so to be cautious in case something changes they still hide.

jimba

Question: When Casey's parents are coming up the front walkway, they talk about how great the plants look. Then Casey's mother says, "I said you could send it back." What is she talking about?

Answer: When they were talking about the flowers, Casey's dad said they had a strong smell. He probably complained about the smell (or something else) when they bought/planted them and she's just reminding him she told him they could take the flowers back to wherever they bought them from.

Bishop73

Question: At the end, the audience were all naked in the "Yes" seminar. Why did they attend it undressed?

Bunch Son

Answer: They had donated all their clothes to the clothing drive for the homeless. After all, they couldn't say no.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Because Nuclear Man is made from pure radioactivity, he only used Superman's DNA as a construct into a human form. Like a horse and a donkey mating and creating a mule.

Question: When Doc comes back at the end, it's to say goodbye to Marty, but what's stopping him from just staying in 1985 with Clara and their two sons? I mean, before Clara turned up at the train in 1885, Doc was all set to go to 1985 with Marty, and then when Clara showed up, Doc said that they'd have to bring her too because there wasn't much time left before the train ran out of track, and he couldn't just let her perish. So why doesn't he just stay in 1985 - that's where he was going to go before Clara turned up, and now that he has her, and a family, why not just settle down in 1985?

Heather Benton

Answer: Because like Doc Brown, Clara has a thirst for adventure. An Old West lady being offered the chance to go back and forth in time. Also, to go to the final frontier, outer space. Besides traveling for them is like a vacation. They could settle in 1985 anytime they wanted.

Answer: Doc was never content living in the modern world. Once he met Clara, he'd found a time and place where he fit in. Also, Clara and the two boys do not belong in the 1980s. They are people of the 19th century and likely want to stay there.

raywest

Answer: Doc actually explains in Back to the Future: The Game. I recommend playing that as it continues where part 3 left off. Doc actually tells Marty that he wanted him to live his life without the complications of time travel. So he left and moved to another time period. I don't want to spoil the rest of the game if you haven't played it but it gets into most of your question in the game definitely should give it a playthrough.

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