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: Does anybody know the name of the theme that was playing at the last part of the trailer?

Answer: That is Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story composed by Randy Edelman.

hannisen

Chosen answer: 'Vampires' 1998, directed by John Carpenter.

ChiChi

Answer: Willy referred to an encounter he believed he had with actual aliens, while Wiggum thought he was referring to the arcade game.

Answer: The joke is that Willie was so addicted to Space Invaders that he believed it was reality: every time he played, he was actually defending the Earth from dangerous aliens. It's a surprise to him that it was actually a game.

Phoenix

Question: When Van Helsing is freeing Frankenstein's Monster from the roof, he can't unbuckle the restraints. He says, "This is going to hurt." and then yanks on something. What exactly does he do? It just looks like he's undone the straps.

Answer: VH says 'I can't loosen the bolts' - the straps have been bolted into the monster's flesh. You can see a small blood spurt if you look carefully off to the left of the screen as he pulls the strap.

Kaite13

Question: While Robin Williams is packing his things in his small room, he waves down out the window at whom I believe is the Latin teacher, walking along a snowy sidewalk. What is the teacher doing, exactly? It appears that he's giving a guided tour of the campus, but he's also muttering Latin words. It can't be a classroom exercise because there are only 4 or 5 people with him. Does anyone know what he's doing?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: It is a classroom exercise. He is being followed by pupils and is reinforcing their latin vocabulary by taking them on a tour of the garden and showing them the things that the words actually relate to (edificium = building, flora = flower etc.) This contrasts with his earlier behaviour when he simply had them mindlessly recite conjugations (amamo, amamas, amabat). The point is that this illustrates how the Latin Master has been affected by his contact with Keating and has become a better teacher as a result.

Oscar Bravo

Answer: I thought it was a punishment for the pupils involved in the scandal.

Question: How exactly did the chief justice taking "the long walk" help to keep the Janus project secret? They were worried Dredd's conviction would cause the media to dig, but he was convicted of murder regardless of his execution. Wouldn't the chief justice retiring over it make the media even MORE eager to dig?

Answer: It is explained in the movie that he takes the long walk to spare Judge Dredd's life. When he takes the long walk he gets a final wish. His was to spare Dredd. Therefore the meaning of his Long walk was for that. There was no mention of the Cheif resigning helping to cover up the Janus project though.

iceverything776

Question: When Jack and Rose make love in the car, why doesn't she get pregnant? There's no apparent sign that Jack had condoms and I doubt he could afford them.

Answer: Women don't automatically become pregnant every time they have sex - the conception time window is actually relatively small, which is why some couples try for years before successfully conceiving.

Tailkinker

In addition to your answer, I want to point out that condoms are not the only way to prevent pregnancy. The person who asked the question seems to think that Rose should have got pregnant without condoms. Withdrawal has long been a popular method (it's mentioned in Bible - Genesis 38:9), although it's not totally reliable.

Answer: Even if she had been ovulating and the egg had been fertilised, the stress of that night - which would have taken weeks for her body to recover from, would likely have temporarily disrupted her reproductive functioning, making it impossible for the fertilised egg to establish itself. That being said, there was a real-life, starstruck, unmarried couple on Titanic (though they were engaged to be married upon docking, with no rival suitors or pushy families). The man died and the woman survived. She gave birth exactly nine months after the sinking, meaning they possibly made secret, out-of-wedlock love on the ship.

Question: Why would they try to combine both The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned into one movie? They twisted the story line and left out some key characters and elements. What did Anne Rice think about this?

Answer: She disowned the movie completely. The situation was that if no movie had been made from her books by a particular date, then the rights would revert back to Anne Rice herself. In order to forestall this, Warner Brothers threw something together using the bits that they liked from two different books. The result was functional, barely, but was hardly a worthy companion to the books.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: Counting his role on Cheers, Kesley Grammar has played Fraiser for twenty years. Is this the record for the longest portrayal of a character by a TV actor?

Answer: It equals the record of James Arness of "Gunsmoke" for the actor who's played the same part on TV NOT in a soap opera. If you include soaps there are two main contenders - William Roache, who's been playing Ken Barlow in "Coronation Street" in the UK since 1960. Don Hastings has been playing Robert Hughes in US soap "As the World Turns" since 1960 as well.

Question: The whole story of Achilles being dipped in the River Styx, could it not be a part of the story? Achilles knows he's invincible so why would he wear armor?

Answer: Achilles himself made that comment. I think, for the purposes of this movie, the script was written supposing that all of the characters were merely human, and it was about how fame can create superhuman images of our 'heroes' that people will believe.

Kaite13

Question: If Dracula and his Brides only took 2 or 3 people a month from the village (which both the town people and Dracula commented on when Van Helsing killed a Bride), what or whom did all those other Vampires at the Masquerade Party eat?

Answer: They hunted people in Budapest (where the scene takes place), or in Budapest's surrounding areas.

Twotall

Pet Cemetery - S5-E5

Question: Frank found a small amount of money with his metal detector at the end. He left saying he would buy a "yoohoo". Does anyone know what that is?

Answer: The original Yoo-hoo is a chocolate flavored drink in a bottle, but there are other flavors, most popular being Double Fudge Yoo-hoo and Strawberry Yoo-hoo.

Super Grover

Question: Are the pizza delivery guy and The Caller two different characters? I was always under the impression that they were one and the same.

Answer: The pizza man is intended by the Caller to be a decoy so he can get away. The Caller sends the pizza man to the phone booth so that Stu will identify him later in the apartment, giving the police a convenient answer to the mystery while the real Caller escapes. In fact, at the end of the movie, the Caller comes to visit Stu - obviously he's not the dead pizza delivery man.

Phoenix

Question: During the medley at the beginning of the film, does anyone know what the first song is that Deloris begins to sing? It sounds like it starts off "Starlight..."

Craig Bryant

Chosen answer: The first song is "Love Child" by Diana Ross and the Supremes. The first words in the medley are "I started life".

Shaun Ewing

Question: In the middle of the movie, one of the doctors tells the others of John Merrick, aka The Elephant Man. They show him for a few seconds Disrobed.. What is the point of showing Merrick in the movie? This scene seems totally isolated from the rest of the plot. It almost feels like they had an extra minute to kill and decided to add it in.

Answer: In the original book, Merrick's appearance is used to show William Gull's education, expertise as an anatomist and that he recognises and respects cultural diversity - Gull assures Merrick that, had he been born in India, he would be worshipped as a descendant of the elephant-headed god, Ganesa. In this spirit, Gull even offers the victim of his first Ripper slaying to Ganesa as a sacrifice, as Indians make a sacrifice to Ganesa at the beginning of an important enterprise. Merrick is present as a vehicle to establish the rich nature of Gull's character. When it comes to the film, however, this subtlety is completely lost - it seems very much that the scriptwriter noted Merrick's appearance in the book and felt that it would be cool to include the character in his script. As such, as you point out, it does feel that Merrick's presence, stripped of the subtleties of the book, is almost entirely pointless.

Tailkinker

Question: How did Doc power the Flux Capacitor on his new time-traveling train?

Answer: Steam, the whole thing is steam powered. He has just modified the train itself, probably making it much more efficient.

David Mercier

Question: Was Neo ever really The One? In the first film, Morpheus stated that the prophecy said The One would destroy the Matrix, and and all humans would be free; but Neo never destroyed the Matrix. So was he The One, and changed 'fate'; or was he not the true One, but just really powerful?

Answer: Neo was the One. Prophecy is not always 100% correct on all the details. And he did destroy the illusion of the Matrix and granted freedom to those who desired it. So he did end up fulfilling the prophecy in a way. It's much like Anakin Skywalker bringing "balance to the force" by annhilating the Jedi and allowing a new order to spring forth. Not exactly what you would expect.

Grumpy Scot

Question: When Smith tries to infect Bane and then Neo, they don't seem to be in a lot of pain when Smith plunges his hand into them. (They look more startled than anything else. Also, we are shown that the rebels' digital selves can suffer pain, remember when Trinity got shot?) Wouldn't it hurt if someone pushed his fingers into them, breaking their breastbone/sternum?

Answer: It's not explained in the film but it looks like Smith doesn't physically punch through the sternum; since it is just a digital world his hand melds with the persons body when he punches, and then proceeds to infect. He can control the matrix in some aspects this way.

Nick N.

Question: I've always been a little confused by Luke's "failure in the cave." What exactly should Luke have done to actually pass this test? And why did his face appear inside the mask of the image of Darth Vader?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Luke failed the test before he even entered the cave - Yoda tells him to leave his weapons behind, but Luke takes them anyway. Seeing his face within Vader's mask is a warning that, if he embraces the path of violence (as he has by taking his weapons into the cave with him) then he could end up falling to the Dark Side as Vader did.

Tailkinker

Question: In one of the trailers Harry is looking into a photo. Does anyone know who is in it?

Answer: His parents, James and Lily Potter.

cullothiel

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