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Answer: We find out who River's parents are later, but, eh, spoilers.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: They have not.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Maybe I wasn't paying attention but Hammond (the man on the phone) and Hauser himself tell him about a key, which he finds in the piano. When did he use this, and why did they make such a big deal about it, mentioning it twice, he would "know how to use it"? How did he know the safety deposit box (number 10549) Hauser and Hammond never said this.

Answer: First off, they made such a big deal about it because it was the key to a more involved message from Hauser and they wanted to make sure that he knew it was important. But regarding the safety deposit box, after the phone message from Hammond, Quaid got a text message that told him a bank name and a box number.

Garlonuss

Answer: Early in the movie, Quaid says he wants to learn how to play the piano.

Question: Could someone as overweight and unhealthy as John Candy's character really have lived in Jamaica? I would have thought the extreme hot weather conditions would have been rather dangerous for someone in his shape.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: It may not be the wisest place to live, but that doesn't mean that he's physiologically incapable of living there, even relatively long term. It's pretty dangerous being that size anywhere in the world, as Candy's sadly premature demise illustrates; living somewhere as warm as the Caribbean probably wouldn't make the situation significantly worse than it already is.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Most likely a coincidence. It's a common Middle Eastern name.

raywest

Question: When the Swat team leader is trying negotiate with the guy in the Mayor's office, he says to him "Hey no problem Miller. Let the mayor go. We'll even throw in a Blaupunkt". Could someone please explain what a Blaupunkt is? I've never heard that word and its not in my dictionary.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Blaupunkt is a major manufacturer of car stereos. Miller wants a car as part of his ransom demands, so the SWAT team leader is playing along with those demands telling him that they'll make sure the car he wants is fitted with a really cool stereo.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: In the Special Edition, when Vader makes contact with Emperor Palpatine after bringing the ship out of the asteroid belt, It is Palpatine that informs Vader that Luke is the son of Anakin Skywalker, to which Vader replies, "How is that possible?"

Question: Why did Poe get back onto the plane when it left Carson city? I know he stayed on after the first stop cause Cyrus wouldn't let Baby-o off and Poe needed to get him his insulin shot. But he got his shot in Carson city and Poe had no reason to get back on (seemed even more ludicrous after he tied the plane up.but anyway).

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Poe is an ex-Ranger, and he wants to stop the criminals. Also he wanted to save the cops inside the airplane.

Anastasios Anastasatos

Question: What exactly was the point of Daggett? He funds Bane's endeavors with the promise that he will take over Wayne Enterprises, Bane sabotages the stock market to make Wayne go broke, and then, almost immediately after doing this, Bane kills him. Why even have Daggett in on the scheme if the (supposed) plan was to have Miranda Tate take over Wayne Enterprises?

Brad

Chosen answer: Because they needed somebody to be the fall guy. For Tate to take control, somebody needs to take Bruce Wayne's majority share out of the picture and the highly ambitious Daggett is the perfect candidate. They use him to further the plot to remove Bruce from his position, while Miranda cultivates Bruce's trust, positioning herself as the person that Bruce would turn to for help. Daggett's hostile attitude would alienate him from the other board members, whereas Tate, carrying Bruce's seal of approval as his nominal successor, would have a much easier time. They used Daggett to do the dirty work, then took him out of play, allowing Miranda Tate to step in unopposed and, importantly, still trusted by Bruce.

Tailkinker

Question: Has there ever been a canon answer as to whether or not the Space Jockey's ship was destroyed in the explosion at the end? Something from Cameron or another of the film's writers? Comic adaptations and novelizations aren't canon.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: No, there hasn't, although an upcoming computer game, "Aliens: Colonial Marines", which is set post-Aliens, includes action set on the derelict ship. While obviously of dubious canonicity, as there are as yet no official statements to the contrary, the ship can currently be considered to have survived the detonation of the atmosphere processor. Should a future film provide further information on the subject, the status of the ship can be reconsidered canonically.

Tailkinker

Question: In the flashback scene of Bane inside the prison, why were prisoners attacking Bane?

Answer: Bane is acting as a protector for the young Talia, keeping her safe and ultimately holding off the other prisoners while she escapes. As for what a bunch of male prisoners might want with a young girl, well, it's not going to be nice.

Tailkinker

Question: While it is generally known that Marni Nixon sang the part of Maria in the movie, I'm fairly sure Russ Tamblyn did not sing Tony's part. Who covered that?

Answer: Some of Tamblyn's vocals were dubbed by actor/singer/dance Tucker Smith, who was also in the original Broadway production of West Side Story. Smith also appeared in the movie version, playing a character named Ice.

raywest

Answer: James Howard Bryant dubbed Tony in the 1961 movie. Bryant said in an interview that Richard Beymer (Tony) always gave him accurate credit, because he was such a nice guy. George Chakiris (Bernardo) was the only one of the main characters (Tony, Maria, Anita, Bernardo, and Riff) whose voice was not dubbed. This was because Nardo didn't have many singing lines, except in the song America.

Question: How did the Joker convince Harvey in the hospital to become bad? I know he talked him into the whole creating chaos in the world thing but that scene confused me. Also, when did we find out that some of the cops were corrupt? Did they help tie up Rachel or something along those lines? Sorry I just got confused with those plot lines.

Answer: Harvey's basically lost it already, driven insane by the death of Rachel and his own injuries. The Joker basically just tells him that order, having rules, hasn't brought him anything but pain, that maybe he should let things get a bit more chaotic, go with random chance rather than regimented rules. In his deranged state, Harvey goes along with it. As for the cops, Harvey knows that both he and Rachel were being escorted home by members of Gordon's team, only to both wake up surrounded by bombs. Fairly obvious from that that there are some bad apples in the bunch.

Tailkinker

Harvey also worked for Internal Affairs. He states earlier in the film (and Gordon confirms) that he had investigated many people on Gordon's team. He knows many people on Gordon's team are dirty, but as the DA, he can't do much about it without proof.

oldbaldyone

Question: Bane has a nifty facial device that apparently keeps him alive. When Batman damages it a bit, Bane looses power, nearly faints even. Bane is a beefy fellow, but how does he eat?

Answer: The mask doesn't actually keep Bane alive, it feeds him a constant stream of pain-killing gas in order to stop the excruciating pain from his injuries preventing him from functioning normally. When the League of Shadows rescue him from the prison, Bane appears to simply have his face wrapped in bandages, and certainly would have no access to a constant supply of painkillers in that environment. With this in mind, it seems safe to say that he is capable of removing the mask, it's just highly unpleasant for him to do so. Most likely when he wants to eat, he simply mentally prepares himself, takes the mask off and puts up with the pain long enough to finish his meal.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: A meal in the 80s would have cost 4 or 5 dollars. A bus ticket would have been around 50, or more, depending on where he was going.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: To make them both suffer the pain they have inflicted on their victims.

Rydersriot87

Question: In Episode II, Anakin jumped out of a moving speeder while he and Obi-wan were pursuing the bounty hunter who put the poisonous insects in Padme's bedroom. Other Jedi do similar falls in the Clone Wars movie and series. So why did Mace Windu die from being pushed out of Palpatine's office window?

Answer: Anakin hadn't just had his arm cut off and been electrocuted at full force by a Sith Master. Windu's in phenomenal pain and is likely barely conscious; in no condition to focus the Force enough to survive the fall.

Tailkinker

Question: After Obadiah Stane steals Stark's new reactor, how does the old one he reinstalled run out of power? It's a reactor: it generates power.

Serpentor

Chosen answer: It was basically a prototype made from, to quote Stane, "a box of scraps." It was not strong enough to last, especially when it came to powering Tony's high tech armor armor upgrades.

Rydersriot87

Answer: Yes it does create electric energy, but because of the laws of physics, energy can't just be created, it must be converted from another type of energy (chemical in this case, I assume), so Tony added a ring of palladium to the reactor while building it, which causes a chemical reaction inside to generate electric energy, so anyways, if the chemical energy inside the reactor is taken way so is the ability of the reactor to produce electric energy. Tony solves this in pt. 2 with switchable cores.

Question: How did the witch know Merida is a princess? Somehow, I don't remember if Merida told the witch that she is a princess. If Merida did tell her, where did I miss it?

Answer: Her necklace has the clan crest on it. Plus the witch is a subject of the kingdom, not to mention she can do magic, it stands to reason she'd know who the royal family was.

Phixius

Question: Why was Cal laughing about the fact that he had put the diamond in the coat, and the coat on Rose?

Answer: It's just a reaction to the irony of the situation. He's laughing at his own stupidity for not remembering that the diamond was in the pocket when he put the coat on Rose (though he expected they'd still be together).

raywest

Question: This isn't technically a mistake per se, but it involves Spock's funeral. Several Enterprise crewmembers are killed during the battle with Khan, and yet only Spock gets a funeral. Perhaps there was a smaller memorial for the others, and Spock got a full funeral due to his status as captain, but why is Kirk only sending Spock's body to the Genesis planet? I imagine he sent only Spocks's body there since in ST3 there aren't dozens of little regenerated human babies crawling around down there.

Vader47000

Chosen answer: I imagine there was a memorial service for everyone killed. Starfleet's policy on corpses is probably to return them to Starfleet HQ where their families can collect them for whatever services or ceremonies they want unless the crewman had left instructions specifying otherwise. There's no telling why Kirk sent Spock's body to Genesis. Based on Sarek's reactions in ST3 he almost certainly went against Spock's wishes, unless of course, Spock left no recorded instructions and Kirk did what he thought would please Spock based on his being highest ranking officer and Spock's closest friend. It also seems very out of character for Spock to just assume that whoever he transferred his katra to would be able to handle it and carry out his wishes (McCoy certainly couldn't!). Ultimately it seems we have to chalk it up to a plot device to base the sequel on.

Grumpy Scot

According to the novelization, Kirk's intentions were to send Spock's remains into the Genesis sun. Lieutenant Saavik altered the trajectory of the torpedo beforehand, due to Spock's desire to see the Genesis effect for himself. The torpedo casing was expected to incinerate when entering the atmosphere. As pointed out by David Marcus in STIII when the pod was detected on the scanners, the gravitational fields were in flux at the time, and the pod had obviously soft-landed on the surface.

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