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: How exactly did Peabody and Sherman fix time by going into the future?

Answer: By travelling to the future, as it approached the speed of light, the WABAC machine generated a gravitational field equal and opposite to the rip in the space-time continuum and cancelled the rip out - a combination of the suggestions of Sherman, Da Vinci, Einstein and Newton.

Sierra1

Cutting It Close - S2-E1

Question: Did Jesse know they were going to cut his hair? Did he ask them to make an episode about him getting a haircut?

Answer: No.

Question: When Gordon (the dog) went through the window, did he voluntarily jump through it because he was startled, or did Jason throw him out?

Answer: You can see from the inside of the house Gordon jumping through the window by himself. It shows him jumping on the table then through the window.

lartaker1975

Question: When the dwarves are in Mirkwood, Thorin tells Balin he told Thranduil to... then a string of dwarvish. What does the dwarvish mean?

Annabel Keeley

Chosen answer: According to linguist David Salo who worked on the languages for the LOTR and Hobbit films, he says "îsh kakhfê ai-'d-dûr-rugnul" meaning "May my excrement be poured upon the naked-jawed (ones) " - the naked-jawed ones being the beardless elves.

Sierra1

Question: What is the music played just after Red is released for prison? The instrumental that plays while Red tries to figure out life on the outside?

Answer: The piece of music is an original composition for the film titled "So Was Red," and is available on the soundtrack album.

Michael Albert

Question: In the scene when Batman is kidnapping Lau, how does he vanish when getting shot at in the office?

Answer: Batman was trained as a ninja and can seemingly disappear at will. It isn't known where he goes when he dives behind the glass, just that he vanishes and then reappears behind Lau and the shooters to take them out.

Chosen answer: In the original novella it is revealed that Andy smuggled $500 into the prison inside of his rectum. During an interview in 2004 Robbins incorrectly quoted the amount as being $100. The narration up until Red's release is provided as Red writes his account of the events while still in prison, and employs the same method to smuggle the story out. But since the issue of Andy smuggling in $500 into the prison isn't addressed in the movie, we should assume that he smuggled it in. In addition to this, the wardens scams are described as "near slave labor." From this we can assume that it is possible the inmates are getting paid (an incredibly small) wage. Perhaps Andy, with his financial knowledge, knows how to haggle, barter and stretch a dollar. One last (but not as likely) scenario is that Red allows some sort of lay by system to inmates.

Answer: Otho says at the dinner table that "they say those who commit suicide are civil servants in the afterlife." Look at all the people in the afterlife who are working. Their deaths appear secondary to suicide (the janitor has ligature marks, the receptionist cut her wrists, the flat guy jumped in front of a semi truck, etc). Juno says Beetlejuice was her partner. Therefore, the inference can be made that he too must have committed suicide.

So Juno slit her own throat?

Or she was in her car when she killed herself.

Question: Would Phoenix have been capable of destroying all the sentinels in the future timeline?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Yes. But she was already dead in this film.

MasterOfAll

Answer: No, the house used in The Skeleton Key is not the same house used in Forrest Gump. The house used in Forrest Gump was a set built just for the movie in South Carolina. The house for The Skeleton Key was in Louisiana. The Forrest Gump home in Greenbow, Alabama (actually filmed in a parish in South Carolina) was torn down along with Jenny's house, which was also a set.

Question: There is an incredibly freaky but cool voice in the trailer that sounds like a woman screaming. Is this sound heard in the film (I've watched it heaps of times but never heard it) and how was the sound effect created?

Dra9onBorn117

Chosen answer: The "woman screaming" sound effect was created by an instrument called the water harp. And, no, the sound effect was never heard in the film.

Casual Person

Question: When Maria is killed by the snake and her father and the townsfolk find out, why do Maria's father and the townsfolk blame Manolo for her death?

John Ohman

Chosen answer: Manolo was the only person with Maria, and there wasn't any other person near by. The townsfolk had probably suspected that Manolo wasn't able to protect her from whatever danger there was, or that Manolo had killed her.

Question: Is the whole thing with truckers seeing "a black dog" when they have been on the road too long true, or made up purely for the film?

brianjr0412

Chosen answer: It's an old trucker's myth that has been around for a long time. There's no known origin for the story, but supposedly when truckers become drowsy, they can see a demon-like black canine of some sort running along the side of the road. This legend was incorporated into the movie.

raywest

Question: How did Will Smith hook up the radio? Did he use electricity? He can't have used a generator, that would have created too much noise. Also why is he on a dock? Wouldn't a higher place be more suitable? Is it just for effect?

Sarah Hicks

Chosen answer: He's been in New York for a few years now since the break out, ample time to scavenge any radio broadcast stations for equipment and probably cannibalize them at his home. That or just set up a power source at a radio station and set it to broadcast. The details are not shown in the movie. And the dock is the most logical place for people to come to given the safety of the sea, as well as many ships were loaded with survivors that were to stay out for a while and then return. Likely to come to the docks. Or anybody else that was traveling across the nation might avoid a land route as it's safer to go by boat on water. And don't forget this is New York, most of the city is surrounded by water anyway.

Quantom X

Question: So if Frank is Elizabeth's boyfriend we can assume they've met before right? Does that mean when Frank takes off his mask during the Evil Dead screening Donnie recognises him? Does Donnie now know who Frank is, or does he believe he is just some random guy from the future?

Answer: Frank and Donnie have never met in the film. There were many near brushes where they could have ended up meeting, but as one of the Manipulated it was necessary for Donnie not to know who Frank was so that later on he would not hesitate to shoot Frank in the eye. This is complicated when you recognize that Donnie does see Frank in the movie theatre. But right before we meet the still-alive Frank, Donnie whispers "Deus ex machina" which is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. Donnie understands at that point what he has to do. If he had known before that Frank was Elizabeth's boyfriend, even this understanding might have caused him not to shoot, which in turn would have cause the Frank-ghost to disappear. That would have been detrimental to the film, since as the Manipulated Dead Frank-ghost had the job of pushing Donnie into doing what was needed to return to an intact timeline.

Question: This question is also related to Saw II: when Cecil Adams is in his trap, I have a question about that scene. In Saw 2, we see that John tries to commit suicide after he knows he has a brain tumor, but the point is that I really don't understand if that suicide scene happens before or after Cecil's death. Because if the suicide was before, I don't see why he would want to die if he's getting a son and if it's after, I don't find that he looks like someone who already 'killed' someone. Can you help me?

Answer: Stuff happens in the following order: Jill gets pregnant, Cecil makes her lose the baby, john and Jill break up because of it and his resulting change of character, John gets Cancer on top of all that, John tries to kill himself and survives, John vows to "rehabilitate" other people, he decides to start with Cecil.

Answer: John's suicide attempt happens far before the events of the films and even before Jill got pregnant. After he survived he now finds out that human life is a privilege and seeks to 'help' those who have disregard for their lives. Cecil was chosen because he was a patient at Jill's health clinic who frequently had outbursts and lashed out. John knows he had a perfect 'patient' and so began his first test.

Dra9onBorn117

Corazon - S6-E12

Question: In the scene near the beginning, Morgan and Hotchner are on video call with Garcia, she is away from the screen, Morgan calls for her and she comes running to the screen saying she is on. They ask her to research something and she replies like usual and Hotchner thanks her but I think instead of saying "Garcia" I think he called her "Kristin." Can anyone confirm?

Pa Tshia Vang

Chosen answer: I just double-checked, he does say Garcia.

Question: Gretchen and Frank are both manipulated dead, but why is it that other people can see Gretchen, yet no one can see Frank and he's known as Donnie's 'imaginary friend'?

Answer: According to Roberta Sparrow's book, Frank is an example of the Manipulated Dead. Apparently, those who die within the confines of the Tangent Universe are given some level of knowledge of the catastrophe to come and serve to some extent as the Chosen One's guide. There seems to be some variation in the level of understanding given to the Manipulated Dead; Gretchen, for example, the other Manipulated Dead, seems to have an inkling that something terrible is going to happen but doesn't have the detailed comprehension Frank does. Nor does Gretchen's spirit appear to Donnie behind any kind of watery barrier. Nor does she dress up in a bunny suit. (Taken directly from www.ftvstudy.com/page9/page33/page33.html).

Question: I was wondering if there were any unsimulated sex scenes in the film, because some of them look very real.

Dra9onBorn117

Chosen answer: No. While some NC-17, non-pornographic films do feature unsimulated sex (Nine Songs and Nymphomaniac, among others), it's normally explicitly (heh) clear that it's real, rather than just seeming realistic.

Chosen answer: Bourne arranged to meet Conklin at Pont Neuf, then planted a tracking device on the surveillance van, which he followed back to the Treadstone safehouse.

Sierra1

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