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 does the phrase "not until the fat lady sings" mean?

Answer: It's an opera reference. The common phrase is, "It's not over until the fat lady sings." Many operatic sopranos (female lead performers with high-toned singing voices) are of large girth. In an opera, the soprano usually sings a dramatic aria just before the big finale. Basically it means that unless every option has run out, there's still hope of succeeding.

raywest

Question: I read somewhere that at the very end of the film, when the flying saucer has flown away, you can hear Scully whisper "I saw it" or something to that effect. Has anyone tried listening for that?

Answer: It's actually fairly clear. I've heard it every time I've watched the movie.

MoonFaery

Question: The end of the movie, where Luke is brought to Tatooine, is often jokingly referred to as "The Harry Potter scene." However, every time I hear the tunes played at the exact moment Obi-Wan hands the baby to Beru, I can't help thinking about the Harry Potter theme. Was this done on purpose by John Williams, who also composed the music of the Harry Potter movies?

Answer: According to IMDb: "Composer John Williams included a small 11-tone musical cue in the scene reminiscent of his score for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). It can be heard when Obi-Wan arrives at Owen and Beru's house."

Question: Why were all the women wearing latex outfits in the movie? Is it supposed to be a futuristic society or what?

Answer: No, it's a movie world. All the women are beautiful and wear very tight clothing. There's a cartoon working for the police, all phone numbers begin with 555, guns make cars explode etc, etc. Basically, every action movie cliche you've ever seen is true here.

Grumpy Scot

Question: We are told that the ringwraiths were once kings of men, I was wondering what men were they kings of?

Answer: In most cases, it's not been established. The only Nazgul to have been named by Tolkien, Khamul, was a king of the Men of the East (also known as the Easterlings), who fought for Sauron in the War. Tolkien also states that three of the Nazgul were of the Numenorean race but precisely who they were and where their realms might have been have never been revealed.

Tailkinker

Question: When K and J are about to leave the police station, J says that he has a report to do. At that moment, his boss arrives and tells him he did a good report. Who did his report? It couldn't have been the MIB, because J was the only person who saw the entire chase.

Answer: The MIB - or K specifically - had already erased the memories of all the police that were involved to cover up the alien sighting. It stands to reason therefore that theyd already have a cover story in place - that is the report that the captain is reading, and for which he congratualtes J.

roboc

Season 4 generally

Question: From "The 4th Grade" onwards there's a new opening intro for the show. The final clip shows a live action scene from a guy jumping away from an explosion, where it that clip from?

Answer: It's from Bad Boys.

Question: How did the ox (or dog) get the alien inside of it? Did it get facehugged or something? If so, how did the facehugger survive the escape pod and come to land?

Answer: The facehugger came down in the escape pod and survived the crash - as has been previously established, they're tough little critters. In the theatrical release, we see the dog standing in the escape pod while it's being moved, with the facehugger moving towards it. With the Ox, the 'hugger presumably left the pod and impregnated the first creature that it came across.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: She kicks him in the groin when he has her cornered on the stairway.

Answer: I was told that Tim Curry AKA Frank N Furter was also accidentally kicked in the groin in the pool shot. You can see the look on his face. But it's not clear if Susan Sarandon did it or the actor playing Rocky did it.

Answer: It happens on the stairwell during the song, "You Better Wise Up, Janet Weiss".

Charles Austin Miller

Question: The round conference table on Geonosis (where Dooku is updating the other separatists) looks an awful lot like the symbol of the Empire, especially when viewed from above. Is this intentional?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Yes.

Phixius

Question: In Episode II, the symbols on the Republican ships had eight spikes on them. In this episode, there are only six. Why did the symbol change? It cannot be due to the forming of the Empire because we can see the changed symbols early in the movie, before the Empire is formed.

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: The symbol seen in Episode II is the general all-purpose symbol of the Republic. The symbol seen in Episode III (which also happens to be the symbol of the Empire) is the designation for wartime. War was only declared at the end of Episode II, the old symbols had simply not been repainted.

Question: Why did the villains kidnap Jodie Foster's daughter? The item they were smuggling was well hidden in the casket, and they could easily retrieve it after they landed. Nabbing the kid only drew attention to what they were doing. Can anyone explain this?

Answer: The bad guys needed Jodie Foster to open the casket (combination locked) to get to "the goods" (a bomb they needed in mid-air, not smuggled goods - it would be useless after landing). They concocted a plan to kidnap the daughter but make it look like the daughter never existed. This was the only way that the casket would be opened without reasonable suspicion on the bad guys.

Jason Feng

They wouldn't have needed to worry about suspicion among them if they asked mortician for the code, the mortician would have known the code too, not just Kyle.

Question: It's established that the vast majority of the movie takes place in 1959. But what year do the present day scenes take place in, when Gordie is an adult?

Answer: It isn't verbally stated, though there is a shot of a newspaper with a 1985 date on it. Since Gordie was "12 going on 13" in 1959 (therefore born 1946/47) this makes Gordie about 40, which roughly looks about right physically.

Neil Jones

Question: What is it that Captain Mifune shouts to the other people in the APUs after the digger has drilled through, just before the sentinels come through the hole? I've listened many times, but still can't work it out.

Answer: Just as the sentinels begin coming thorough the hole he yells "For Zion!" as they begin firing.

Question: When Remer is showing Squeak around the house, they walk into a bedroom. Squeak sits on a pull-out bed, and Remer says 'That's Jenkin's Bed'.Who is he referring to?

Answer: Jenkins is their dog, the one that attacks him earlier in the film when he walks into the back yard.

Gary O'Reilly

And also attacks him seconds after this conversation.

Question: Just before Frodo leaves middle earth, he tells Sam about why he must leave, what does he mean when he says 'the shire has not been saved for me, Sam'?

Answer: He means that the memory of the Shire (as his home) was always what he clung to, his motivation for doing what he did. However, in the end his experiences had changed him so much that he did not feel at home there anymore, and could not fit in among all the people who had no concept of what he had gone through and what he had sacrificed. Essentially, because his outlook on the Shire is lost, he feels almost as if it really was gone and another had taken it's place.

Twotall

Question: Right before they get killed, what are the Jamaicans trying to do to the guy hanging from the ceiling?

Answer: They are doing a voodoo ceremony to take his heart out and sacrifice it. It's a terror tactic to warn other dealers off their turf.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: During the several years it took to construct the ship probably, or in any of the supplies/food brought on board, or in the furniture brought on board. A single pregnant female rat can be responsible for thousands of rats in a very short space of time (the offspring are not too choosy about who they breed with).

Soylent Purple

A pregnant female rat could have made a home in a underneath a third class couch and had the other rats then all the females would have baby rats quickly.

Answer: In addition to the other answers, rats can easily get on ships by climbing the mooring lines that tie vessels to the dock and also go up unattended gangways. They can also use temporary overhead cables attached to ships while in port.

raywest

Chosen answer: The film takes place over a considerable period of time, as Palpatine works on turning Anakin, Anakin grows increasingly dissatisfied with the Jedi Council, the search for Grevious goes on and so forth. There's enough time for Padme to have only had a relatively small pregnancy bump in the early scenes.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end of the film, when they go back into the bathroom from the first, I noticed that they had shown 2 people. They showed the man from the first, chained to the piped in the corner. And then they showed a face of someone on the floor. Who was this?

Sir William

Answer: It was Zep, but he died because Adam smashed his head with a toilet seat cover.

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