Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: In the end scene when Simon Gruber has the automatic gun pointed at McClane, right before McClane shoots the gun off at the wire, why does he hesitate? He just has it pointed at McClane, but he doesn't start shooting until right before the helicopter crashes. Why does Gruber hesitate?

Answer: This looks more of a filmmakers decision rather than hesitation on the characters part. Its supposed to be that we see from McClane's point of view and that in a split second he sees Gruber and then the wire. While the shot is perhaps a little slow, it helps show the viewer what McClane is thinking, rather than it being Gruber just holding the gun.

Lummie

Question: When Marty came back to 1985 in the first movie, some things had changed. The name of the mall for example went from Twin Pines Mall to Lone Pine Mall. How come then when Biff comes back to 2015 after stealing the DeLorean, everything seems the same? Wouldn't they notice everything was different when they were flying over Hill Valley to go back, like Biff's casino perhaps?

Answer: When Marty returns to 1985, he leaves 1955 after those changes have been made, so he's now in a timeline where the effects of those changes exist. When old Biff went back, he simply gave his younger self the almanac, then returned to 2015 before the younger Biff did anything with it, i.e. before any changes had been made. Old Biff therefore returned to his original unchanged timeline - the timeline split caused by young Biff using the almanac came after his departure, so he didn't enter the altered timestream.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: I seem to remember in Season 1 when the show starts, Jack would say as he always does "The following takes place between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m." and then says "Events occur in real time." When season 2 started however, I haven't heard that last line since. Is there a reason known why this line is no longer said at the beginning of each episode?

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: This is because by the second series people were now well aware that the whole uniqueness was that the show was shown in real time, and therefore the line was no longer required.

Scrappy

Question: In the scenes that take place in Japan, they sometimes speak English and sometimes Japanese, sometimes even a line in English following a reply in Japanese or vice versa. It was made clear that The Bride can speak and understand Japanese, so why do they keep switching languages like that?

killin_kellit

Chosen answer: There is nothing to say exactly why its mixed up, but films using foreign languages can approach it in three different ways. Have it all in English and apply accents to the characters, which avoids subtitles. Make it more authentic by having it in the native language but subject people to subtitles (which is never a commerically popular decision) or mix the characters' speech with having the characters speak some English and some of the native language. This keeps some authenticity and avoids having the entire film in a foreign language. Films like The Godfather are examples of using both English and a foreign language.

Lummie

Question: This one applies to many gangster/action movies but, what is the idea of pulling the firing pin back manually when getting ready to fire your gun?

killin_kellit

Chosen answer: It depends what you mean. On a revolver, pulling the trigger will pullback the hammer and release it. But if you pull the hammer back manually, then only a small touch is needed on the trigger to fire that first shot. On an automatic, the first round must be chambered from the magazine (by manually pulling the slide back), each subsequent shot will do this automatically. On some weapons such as a Colt .45, the hammer MUST be pulled back (either manually, or from the previous shot). Generally speaking, they do it in films as a threat. For some reason film makers think this is more threatening then just having a loaded gun pointed in your face.

Soylent Purple

Question: If Mr. Orange had not been killed would have he had to face charges for shooting the woman in the car, despite being a cop on an infiltration job?

killin_kellit

Chosen answer: There would definitely have been an investigation. But it was also self defence and /or a reflex action of being shot himself. Also he could claim that Mr. White shot her.

Soylent Purple

Forensics would prove him wrong if he attempted to implicate Mr. White for the shooting.

Chosen answer: Esteban disfigured her as punishment for her trying to leave his employ.

Grumpy Scot

Question: With all the deaths there was a clue in the pictures that Wendy took, however I can't see the link in the picture of the two girls that got killed by the sunbeds. What was the clue in the pictures of them?

pierpp

Chosen answer: If you look at the picture when Wendy is at her computer you will see that the photo has a high exposure, as there is a red tint on the girls. This is a clue that they will die by fire. The inflatable palm tree that they are holding also represents the potted Palm tree plant that played a role in their deaths.

cameron davies

Question: Whistler introduces himself as 'Abraham Whistler'. Could there possibly be a connection to Abraham Van Helsing in the original Bran Stoker writings, who also fought vampires?

Answer: There could be but there doesn't really seem to be any information about where the name came from. The Whistler character was invented by Marvel for Blade's appearance in the Spider-Man cartoon show in 1996, but there he was simply called Whistler, the first name - Abraham - came with the Blade movie. Now there has been more than one character with the last name Van Helsing in the comic books and Abigail in Blade: Trinity was originally also a Van Helsing (until the producers found out about the Van Helsing movie). So yes they might have chosen Abraham as a subtle reference to Van Helsing.

Andreas[DK]

Question: Does anyone know what song Harry, Fred, George and Ginny were singing to Ron about Viktor Krum at the Quidditch World Cup and where I can find it to listen to? Thanks.

Answer: The song is not included on the soundtrack. It sounds like they are making up words to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean. You wont be able to find it anywhere.

Mortug

Question: The speeches that "Father" gives are emotional, in that they are intended to instill emotion in the listener. I understand that Father and presumably quite a few others of the head council are not taking the Prozium, but is there a reason they are still giving these rousing speeches to the masses that are supposedly devoid of emotion? Am I just missing some of the story?

Gary O'Reilly

Chosen answer: As I see it, the point of the speeches is not to evoke emotions in the listeners, but rather to show what emotions such as anger and jealousy lead to in the course of human history. So they use historic "evidence" to justify their actions (such as killing sense offenders) and to show what emotions can lead to.

Andreas[DK]

Sam I Am - S5-E9

Question: I don't get how Sam can be in this episode. He died in the episode P3 H2O and we see his spirit walk away with Patty yet here he is in this episode alive. Could someone explain for me.

Answer: He complains in the episode about how the Elders brought him back.

Maria Santos

Answer: Sam told the Phoebe and Piper that the elders made him a white-lighter again, and he screwed it up.

The Battle - S1-E9

Question: When Picard is preparing to use the Stargazer to attack the Enterprise, Data states that all its main systems are intact, and that only some minor damage was caused by fires during the earlier battle. If the Stargazer's in such good shape, why did Picard have to abandon it?

DaveJB

Chosen answer: The Stargazer was seriously damaged in the previous battle, which is why she had to be abandoned. When the Ferengi salvaged her, they repaired the damage to the major systems in order to get her functional, but didn't bother with the minor fire damage.

Tailkinker

Question: Anyone who's read 'Life, The Universe & Everything' will now why the bowl of petunias thought 'Oh no, not again' just before it plummeted towards Magrathea, but had Douglas Adams already conceived that backstory and just couldn't fit it in to the narrative at the time or was it something he only came up with when writing part 3?

Chimera

Chosen answer: Because it was a radio show originally, Douglas Adams would write broadcasts from show to show. He did not know where something would lead, which let the plot become random and funny. So ultimately it was originally created to be funny, then he found a way to link it back in later.

Question: How much time supposedly elapses between Roxie's arrest and her being acquitted of the murder charge? I have a hard time with the "fake pregnancy" element. We know Roxie was faking it, but if at least a few months had passed between her arrest and her announcement - much less between her trial and arrest - she was so thin that even a pregnancy of a few months (or lack thereof) would be noticeable to anyone who looked at her.

Kimberly Klaus

Chosen answer: Pregnancy or lack therof would have been noticeable you think, but I am a size 8(aust) and gave birth 8 weeks early, still wearing size 10 clothes - unless I told people I was 7 months pregant they did not know.

panda

Show generally

Question: I wasn't a regular viewer of the show, but there's a question that I really need answered: What does the chant "Donna Martin Graduates" mean? Did Donna do something that threatened her graduation from high school?

Answer: The students were told by the faculty that anyone found to be intoxicated at the Senior Prom would not be allowed to participate in graduation activities. Donna had a little too much champagne at Mel's house and in the limo and got drunk. At the Prom she spent most of the time in the bathroom, being sick. As the gang tried to discreetly usher her to the car, Donna fell and Mrs. Teasly questioned her and realized that she was drunk. "Donna Martin graduates" is what her classmates chanted after a walk-out on their final exams, in protest to the fact that the board was meeting inside to make the final decision of Donna's fate. Big surprise: Donna Martin graduated.

elleemann

Answer: When the captain angrily described the terrorist plans to Kyle as he deboarded, she put that together with everything else that happened.

James King III

Answer: House references Syd Barret, not Dave Gilmour, because Syd is a schitzophrenic, just like Socrates and Issac Newton were. House was talking about how some of the great people in history were schitzophrenics. The Socratic Method, defined, is "where questions (and only questions) are used to arouse curiosity and at the same time serve as a logical, incremental, step-wise guide that enables students to figure out about a complex topic or issue with their own thinking and insights."

Question: When Edward is at his party at the Ritz Gotham and is talking to Bruce Wayne, he gets out a pair of glasses and puts them on. They're not the same pair as the ones he had at the beginning; where did he get them from? He is too busy working on his invention (shrinking it down and selling it), building his lair on an island and making riddles to have had the time to change them.

Answer: He is trying to look like Bruce Wayne, so he has the same haircut and a fake mole, just like Val Kilmer's. All he had to do was tell one of his assistants to go and buy a pair of glasses the same as Bruce Wayne's.

Soylent Purple

Chosen answer: Since Andy helped Hadley with the tax-free gift, Hadley realized that Andy could be of future financial use, which he can take advantage of considering he's in prison for two life-terms. The sisters beating up Andy would interfere with that-consider that Andy was in the infirmary for a very long time after the last attack. Beating up on Boggs sent a message to the sisters to leave Andy alone...or else.

randomguy

Answer: Norton had Hadley beat up Boggs because he and the Sisters would have eventually killed Andy and Norton needed him and his banking skills to cover up his scams.

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