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: What happened to the Grandma's finger?

Answer: Helga, the grandmother, lost her finger in an encounter with a witch when she was a young girl.

raywest

Answer: It's never stated what happened to the Grandma's finger.

Question: How exactly does Crouch Sr. Recognize his son disguised as Moody after the second task? Was it a scar or other facial blemish?

Answer: Crouch Jr. had a particular habit of flicking his tongue in an unusual way when speaking. When the fake Mad Eye Moody (Crouch Jr) did that, Crouch Sr noticed it and became suspicious. This is actually an overused plot device where a character has some odd manner or trait that gives away their true identity.

raywest

Answer: Plus the fake Moody said to Crouch, "not trying to lure Potter into a ministry internship are we? The last boy who went into the department of mysteries never came out."

Question: This is a two-part question: 1. How does Winona Ryder get hold of the journal of Sandler's uncle? 2. Why'd she dye her hair?

Rob245

Answer: Babe Bennett stole Preston Blake's journal from Longfellow Deeds. As for why she dyed her hair, it was probably part of her disguise. She was a TV journalist pretending to be someone else (as Pam Dawson) so she could get a story on Longfellow.

raywest

Answer: According to Christine's tombstone, she was about 63-years-old when she died. The Phantom could still be alive, though he would probably be in his late 70s or early 80s.

raywest

Answer: Your guess is correct. Lawrence stated she was done with the franchise after "X-Men: Apocalypse." She jokingly told Simon Kinberg she would return for this film if he directed it, and to her surprise, he was serious about it and held her to it. Fans weren't very keen on her appearances either, because she was definitely phoning it in for the third film, so that may have factored into killing her off early as well.

Phaneron

More than one actress had played Mystique. Just because Jennifer Lawrence did not want to continue playing that role is not a reason the character would be killed off. They could easily recast another notable actress in the part. I would not be surprised if Mystique is miraculously "resurrected" in a future X-Men film with a new actress.

raywest

Aside from Deadpool, any new X-Men film would be a complete overhaul of the franchise since the characters will be part of the MCU now. You're not wrong about an actor wanting out to not really be a reason to kill off a character, but it doesn't preclude them from doing so either. They might have decided it wouldn't be worth the hassle of recasting the role with all the negative baggage that would come with it.

Phaneron

Here are some candidates I think could do it: Amanda Seyfried, Shailene Woodley, Chloe Grace Moretz. Heck maybe even Milla Jovovich-Anderson should be given an audition, what say you guys?

Rob245

Question: What kind of school is Horace Green Prep School? What kinds of student go there?

Answer: Also, the students tend to come from wealthy (privileged) backgrounds - sons and daughters of the elite - because tuition is usually quite high or beyond the means of "average" families.

KeyZOid

Answer: A college preparatory school (prep school) prepares middle and high school-level students for higher education through a more rigorous academic program. Students intending careers in law, medicine, science, engineering, etc. are often steered into these types of schools.

raywest

Question: Why doesn't the Feral Kid ever talk?

Answer: If he grew up feral and was not around other humans, he would not have learned how to speak. Some functions, like language, have to be learned at an early age when the brain is at a critical development stage.

raywest

Answer: SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the film we learn that the narrator is in fact the feral child as an adult, and that he grew up to become the leader of the tribe. The feral child may have known how to speak, but chosen not to, or may have not yet mastered speech. Either way, he did eventually speak.

Show generally

Question: Does it seem like this show took from LOST in the sense that a phenomenal event starting with a plane crash changed people's lives?

Rob245

Answer: Only superficially. Manifest doesn't even begin with a plane crash, but rather a plane disappearing for 5 years with the assumption that it crashed, which turns out not to be true.

BaconIsMyBFF

In the particulars it seems different, but the overall plot is the same. A seemingly random group on an airplane experience a weird event and spend years trying to figure out what happened. Let's hope the reveal in the final episode is not as disappointing as "LOST" - they're actually all dead.

Answer: Yes, I see the larger connection. There are a lot of movies and shows where people come back from somewhere like car, train, and bus crashes, or even space, war, or who knows where, then try to figure out why. We probably should consider a new genre for plots where the departed or missing return and try to figure out why. Needs a name though. Maybe "Come-back Conundrums" or "Put-back Puzzlers"?

Answer: "The major" is a major general, no major general would go by a title implying a lower rank. Her official DOD photo shows her (and a bunch of other women in uniform) with long loose hair below their collar. Women's hair has to be above the collar or put up, until VERY recently, and if this show is set in 2018 the hair is out of regulations. No major general would have an official photo with hair out of regs.

Answer: What exactly are you asking? Does he literally eat everything? No. Will he eat anything? Perhaps. Has he eaten weird things, including stuff that wasn't food? Yes, a lot of times. Through the long history of "Sesame Street", Cookie Monster has been seen eating a lot of non-food items. He'll do this for a number of reasons, generally because he's trying to get to some cookies, he's out of cookies, or he's still hungry. For example, he ate a safe that Kermit had put cookies in (in a failed attempt to keep the cookies away from Cookie Monster). He ate a plate when everyone else ate all the cookies, leaving him with none. And he ate a full size pickup truck a genie gave him when he ran out of wishes to fill the truck with a million cookies because he was hungry. The other times he eats something non-food related is because he gets overly excited, or just being silly. Of course, now Cookie Monster knows that cookies are a sometime treat and will eat healthy foods.

Bishop73

I'm asking if he eats anything.

Answer: No, he doesn't eat everything, though he prefers cookies.

raywest

Question: At the camp scene Harold Oxley is using a stick that whistles as he twirls it about his head. Does anyone know what these sticks are called?

Answer: Some sort of bullroarer, I believe.

Question: Would Clubber Lang have been charged in Mickey's death since it was his shoving Mickey that caused his heart attack and eventual death?

Answer: Unlikely. Lang shoved him in the heat of the moment, and there's no indication he meant to kill or injure him.

Question: What did Clyde use to stab his cellmate in the neck in order to be sent to solitary confinement?

Answer: The bone from his T-bone steak.

Phaneron

Answer: We are never told as to how they got there.

Answer: People who built the digital world most likely had them sent there. Gennai tells the kids in the last episode that the streetcar was from San Francisco, and he asked them to take it back for him.

Question: If the Emperor had ordered Ochi, the Jedi Hunter, to recover Rey as a child then he would have known how to go back to Exegol - why then would he need to find another Sith Way Finder and end up on Pasaana?

Answer: That assumes that Ochi received the order to find Rey from Palpatine in person on Exegol. Evidently Palpatine gave his orders to Ochi remotely and Ochi had to find his way to Exegol just like everyone else.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: If they were constantly being bullied then why didn't Ralph and his friends tell their parents about their bully? That and why take the same route home if they knew that's where he'd be waiting for them?

Rob245

Answer: Until recently, bullying wasn't taken very seriously. Also, school kids don't take very kindly to the idea of 'snitching.' Scut might have gotten in trouble if they'd told their parents, but in the long run, that might have made things worse for them. As for taking a different route home, it's possible he altered where he ambushed them or that he wasn't there every single day.

Brian Katcher

Thanks it's just that when Mad Magazine did their spoof of this I wondered this as did they.

Rob245

Question: What was Finn going to tell Rey when they were sinking in the quicksand?

Answer: JJ Abrams said at a Q&A that he was going to tell Rey he was force sensitive. Rumours abound that various plotlines and character developments were tweaked or cut or dropped, seems like this was one of them.

Jon Sandys

Show generally

Question: So aside from trying, very badly, at playing football did they ever play other sports on the show? I'd think the best ones would be figure skating, roller derby, and track. Shelley Hack could've played basketball while there.

Rob245

Answer: In Season 2, Episode 16, Game, Set, Death, Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd) plays tennis.

raywest

Answer: When she falls through the devil's snare, there is a considerable drop so she could have landed awkwardly. She also has hold of a vine when she falls through so may have caught her hand that way.

Ssiscool

Answer: The gargoyle had been watching Preston through his window for a long while and, falling in love with him, assumed a human form so she could be with him.

raywest

Awkward. I mean eww, should've just left him alone as it was a murderous creature who killed for no reason. She could've done the human form without killing anyone you know.

Rob245

Well, love makes people (and gargoyles) do weird and stupid things.

raywest

Answer: She most likely wanted to keep an eye on him, to make sure he would never break the vow.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.