Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: There are scenes in the movie where Dick Best's gunner, Murray, is facing forward in their aircraft, particularly when the aircraft is on the Enterprise. The only time he appears to be facing the rear of the aircraft is when they are under attack. How is that possible?

caharmey

Answer: Good eye! The gunner's seat in the Douglas SBD was on a swivel. The military rating was actually radioman/gunner, and when facing forward, he had access to a suite of radio equipment and a set of basic flight controls! He could actually fly the SBD from the rear seat, although this is never reported to have been necessary in combat.

Killer Instinct - S2-E9

Question: Did it cost the network too much to use the team names of the Bears and Browns for the championship game when the actors are dressed like those two teams?

Rob245

Question: There are 3 obvious movie spoofs...when General Olov dies on the train tracks à la Von Ryan's Express, when a bad guy gets an octopus in the face à la Alien, and when Q floats in the compound at the end vis Wizard Of Oz...did anyone spot any more? I'm sure there are some.

Answer: On IMDB there is a section of Movie links and there is currently 15 listed https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086034/movieconnections/.

Ssiscool

Answer: Even today, it's totally possible to get hired for random temporary jobs without a résumé or references, especially if you're getting paid under the table. Most of my early jobs were like that. Local businesses I'm familiar with needed a hand for a few weeks, and I needed a little extra money. Boom! I got a temporary under-the-table job where I got a couple hundred bucks a week in cash to just come in and help out. Technically not legal, but lots of places do it. And from what I've read, back in the 70s a lot of these types of gigs were more widespread, hence it was easy to find them.

TedStixon

Dick and Taxes - S4-E12

Question: When Mary asks Dick what he expected for not paying his taxes when he learns he owes thousands to the IRS, he responds with, "I certainly didn't expect my girlfriend to wear my ass as a snowshoe!" I'm not sure I have ever understood this joke. What is the meaning behind it?

Phaneron

Answer: The writers often have Dick respond to Mary with a retort that he thinks is in the common vernacular but makes a mistake in wording that is often funny. Dick seems to be imputing a criticism from Mary and responds with a corruption of the more common "I'm going to wear your ass like a hat!" I doubt it has anything to do with owing taxes. Probably just one of the writers assuming a common regional phrase would be universally recognized.

That makes total sense. I always interpreted it as perhaps snowshoes are an expensive item, and given that he was blaming Mary for his newfound financial woes, he was equating her living off his generosity and used snowshoeing as a metaphor.

Phaneron

Question: Why aren't Katana, Deadshot, and Killer Croc in this?

Answer: It's a combination of various reasons. Will Smith wasn't available to reprise his Deadshot role, so there was a shift in the story. King Shark was intended to be in the first film, but the CGI was too extensive, so they went with Killer Croc. In this film, they took the opportunity to bring in King Shark as the "monster" character. But, this film isn't really a sequel or reboot. Basically, this is a new storyline with new characters, and many of the previous characters are just not in the film, with no exposition on what happened to them, and they may not even be part of this film's "universe." The fact that some of the actors play the same character in both films only serves to muddle the concept of this film not really being a part of the previous film's continuity.

Bishop73

Question: Who is Chalmers? He seems to have a lot of power, but his position is never identified. The plot synopsis says he's the District Attorney. But Bullitt's Captain says, "He's grooming himself for public office." Isn't the D.A. already a public office?

Answer: He's the district attorney. "Public office" in this context means "politician." The Captain is saying the D.A. is grooming himself to enter politics as a senator or mayor, or what have you.

BaconIsMyBFF

A Nice Place to Visit - S1-E28

Question: Rocky and Pip are leaving the flat. Rocky has already told the "girls" to wait in the other room. Right before they leave, Rocky goes back to the room the girls are in, pushes the door open, says he'll be back in a few minutes, and then gets a strange, quizzical look on his face, as if he's confused about something. A moment later, when he and Pip leave, as he reaches the door, he still has the same quizzical look on his face. Any idea why he gives this look? I thought it might be an editing error.

Answer: Pip had basically told Rocky that they were the only two real people in the place, and the girls were like props in a movie (as Rocky put it). I took his look of confusion as "What does Pip mean? These girls aren't real?" And as he was leaving, he couldn't shake the thought and was confused again. But there's also a part of me that thinks since the girls weren't involved in Rocky's story at the time, they were just sitting there doing nothing, just waiting, and Ricky found their lack of movement weird. And when leaving, he thinks "Did I see what I think I saw?" But that is just my thought, knowing what the twist is.

Bishop73

Question: How did Mad Hatter hypnotize Batman this time?

Rob245

Keepin' the Faith - S1-E5

Question: When Al is holding a stack of towels, the Tanners say that he is "carrying towels through the damp." What does that mean?

Answer: Mr Tanner actually asks Alf, "Why are you carrying our towels through the den?" The streaming subtitles are wrong when it substitutes "damp" for "den" twice. It's possible the error originated from the VHS or DVD, which occurs often.

Super Grover

Yes, I was re-watching episodes, and I heard "den" the next time. Thank you for answering, though.

Border Song - S1-E18

Question: How did Alf grow so much zucchini when he insists that he didn't plant any? Did I miss something? Is there a deleted scene, maybe?

Answer: Regarding the "how", zucchini is an easy-to-grow vegetable that proliferates quickly, almost like a weed. My mother and our neighbours used to grow it, resulting in an over-abundance that was sometimes difficult to give away.

raywest

Answer: In addition to Raywest's comment, Alf must have planted some zucchini, unless it originated from a neighbouring property. He is probably joking when he says that he didn't plant any, because he knows the family is mildly annoyed.

Question: Is it ever said how Vada's mother died? Harry mentions she met Vada and lived a couple of days after her birth.

Answer: She still died due to complications from childbirth, despite living another couple of days. Hence why Vada believes that she "killed" her mother. Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, also died from complications, but she lived for two weeks after.

To add an additional example to your accurate answer, a condition like postpartum pre-eclampsia (extreme hypertension) can occur from a few days to six weeks after giving birth and is sometimes fatal.

raywest

Question: Is there any symbolism or meaning to Otho's reading of the incantation from "The Handbook of The Recently Deceased" during the seance/exorcism scene? Even as a child, I found it seemed like it had more in-depth meaning of some kind.

The D'Arcy Files - S8-E20

Question: Jefferson doesn't know who the vice president was during Eisenhower's presidency. Why does this convince Al that Jefferson is a real American?

Answer: The joke being that Americans don't know their own history, whereas foreigners do. When applying for US citizenship (naturalization), non-exempt applicants have to take a civics test that tests the person's knowledge of US government and history.

Bishop73

Answer: Although the vice presidency is the second-highest U.S. office, it is also a relatively non-powerful one. Few VPs were notable or distinctive while in office, and most are forgotten once their term ended unless they later assumed the presidency, such as Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson. A few VPs who became president, such as Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore, are barely remembered for holding either office.

raywest

Question: Why did Mr Guggenheim and the other guy, who was with him, just sit in the grand staircase waiting for the water? I can understand Captain Smith locking himself in the wheelhouse (captain goes down with the ship), but why Mr Guggenheim? Was he a person of any particular importance, or had he just given up on trying to get into a lifeboat?

Answer: This happened in real life. Benjamin Guggenheim (a member of the prominent Guggenheim mining family; his brother, Solomon, founded the Guggenheim Museum in New York) assisted with the loading of women and children into the lifeboats and helped maintain order. He realized there wouldn't be enough space for himself and many others, and that the ship would inevitably sink, so once the lifeboats had gone, he dressed in his finest, made himself a drink, and accepted his fate. His line about being "prepared to go down like a gentleman" is reportedly accurate, as well. The other man is (or at least, in reality, was) his secretary, Victor Giglio.

Also, during a crisis, some people take a "business as usual" approach. They cling to a last shred of hope that everything will be all right, somehow, so they want to behave as normally as possible. I think it's one reason why the band kept playing music.

Question: When Jack and Rose encounter Thomas Andrews in the smoking room, he gives Rose a life jacket and says, "Good luck to you, Rose." Does he not really care whether Jack lives or dies? Why not wish them both good luck?

Answer: She's the one he has a relationship with, and she's the one he's talking to. Jack isn't part of the conversation, so Mr Andrews addresses Rose alone because she's the one who's listening to him.

Answer: Would add to the other accurate answer that Andrews would have little concern about Jack because he is a male third-class passenger. It's unlikely he knew about Jack and Rose's romance. Andrews also knows there are not enough lifeboats, and women and the first-class passengers will get top priority in leaving the ship. He would consider Jack's fate already sealed, while Rose can be saved.

raywest

I believe he also only had the one life jacket that was his own, and being a gentleman, he gave it to the lady, Rose, as an act of etiquette.

Ssiscool

Question: How can Bail and Tommy not have known that the archbishop had a private reading room? When explaining Aaron's story to his assistants, Vail identifies that Aaron was returning a book.

Question: In the end of the movie, when Aiden's dad was picking him up and taking him to the car, who was the black figure in the room staring out the window at 1 hour and 36 minutes into the movie? (01:36:44)

Answer: It's presumably one of the officers we saw in the previous scene since they've been through a relatively traumatic event. It's likely they were given a ride to pick up their son. (Alternately, it's also entirely possible that it's a crew member who got caught in the shot since they're out of focus in the background.)

TedStixon

Question: Is it really possible for a man, even one as strong as John is implied to be in the movie, in a weakened condition, to throw a steel pipe with such force as to penetrate all the way through a large man and into the wall of something behind? The only time I've heard of anything remotely like that happening is in tornado and cat 5 hurricane winds (hurricane Andrew was powerful enough to blow timber planks through the trunks of pine trees).

Answer: No, that is not realistically possible. It is not a steel pipe since Matrix simply rips it off, breaking it. It's made of some sort of plastic like PVC. That is definitely not hard or sharp enough to penetrate a body, nor the boiler behind him. Even if it was, you'd need a whole lot more force than a human can produce from that distance to fully penetrate a person.

lionhead

Answer: The Hulk is accused of killing Dr. David Banner and Dr. Elenia Marks. After the lab explodes, McGee sees the Hulk emerge carrying the body of Dr. Marks, so he assumed the creature is guilty. It was McGee who caused the explosion. After following the trail of evidence of the Hulk to the lab, he hides when David and Elania arrive. In a darkened storage closet, he knocks over a bottle of flammable liquid. He confronts them, then is forced to leave by Banner, who says, "Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." When Banner reenters the lab, it explodes, caused by the Hulk when it went on a rampage trashing the lab, causing many electrical systems to catch fire, thus igniting the flammable liquid.

Answer: The phrase "Incredible Hulk" is coined by Jack McGee in one of his tabloid articles. He's trying to find proof of the Hulk because no one takes his story seriously, so probably nobody takes his name for the creature seriously either.

Captain Defenestrator

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