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: During the climax, as Charlie is walking down the hall, he is saying something that sounds like quiet chanting. This is after he has finished singing 'Daddy's gonna buy you a Mockingbird'. Does anyone know what he's saying?

Answer: He keeps singing "mockingbird" over and over, but it is more of a mumbling by this point. Turn on the subtitles and you can see this.

EMTurbo

Question: How does Bourne set off/stop the car alarms near the end of the movie? I'm guessing it's the thing with the aerial he puts on his car dashboard - what is that?

Answer: An official, CIA-approved, car alarm setter-offer, most likely just made up for the movie.

scwilliam

Question: In the James Bond universe, are 00 numbers unique, as in only one person can ever have them? For example, Sean Bean's character was 006. So after he died, would his designation be given to someone else, or is the number considered "retired"?

Answer: The numbers appear to be passed on to other agents: it is mentioned that Scaramanga killed 002, and another 002 is killed in "The Living Daylights".

Sierra1

Question: Was the third verse of "Hosanna" (where Christ urges the crowd to "sing out your songs, but not for me alone") written for the film? I haven't heard it in any other versions and in most foreign versions of the stage play the verse is not included.

Answer: Yes it was written for the film, and was not used at all before that. The director Norman Jewison asked Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice if they wanted to make some changes to the play before the movie was made, and they agreed by writing that verse, the additional song "Then We Are Decided" and incorporating "Could We Start Again Please" from the Broadway version. However in most stage productions I have seen the additional "Hosanna" verse and "Could We Start Again Please" are included."Then We Are Decided" remains unique to the film.

Answer: They're real.

MoonFaery

Question: I've seen the movie once or twice, but I must've missed something. Could someone please tell me why Noah stabbed Lucius? Was it just something the director put in as an excuse to have someone go into the woods?

Answer: Jealousy. Noah wanted Ivy to himself, but Ivy was in love with Lucius. So Noah stabbed him.

Sereenie

Question: I've heard that Kovu means "Scar" in Swahili, and that Kiara means small dark thing, but do any other names mean anything? Like Simba, Mufasa, Nala, Zira, Nuka and Vitani?

Answer: Simba means "lion". Nala means "gift". Zira means "hate". Nuka means "smell". Vitani means something like "warrior" or "at war". Mufasa is a proper name in the language used - it was reportedly the name of the last king of the Bagada people, who were dispersed during the English colonisation of Kenya.

Tailkinker

Question: People have said that Maggie has the right to refuse the breathing tube. But wouldn't that kill her? That would be suicide and suicide is illegal. Isn't that why Frankie needs to help her? Surely the doctors know if you cut off her breathing source that would be suicide and she doesn't have the right to do that. But I don't know very much about this issue either.

Answer: Refusing medical treatment is not considered suicide. Anyway, suicide's not illegal: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040326.html.

Myridon

Answer: I think it's because he was so disturbed to find out his Dad was having an affair. People do strange things when they get bad news... eat lots of ice cream, retail therapy etc. For Joey, being of Italian descent, his reaction was to make lots of pasta sauce.

Dr Muppet

He does it when he has to sleep with someone for a part?

Question: At the salmon run, what does the foreign bear say?

Answer: A good translation would be "I almost froze to death while I was going over the huge icy mountain pass, it was something which I only barely survived! Barely!

Show generally

Question: I've recently noticed while watching my collection of Stargate SG-1 tapes that one of the team, with the possible exception of Teal'c, seems to say an obligatory "What?" in each episode in such a way that it seems like a ritual signature of the series or an inside game being played by the cast. Has anyone else noticed this, and is it done in each and every episode?

Answer: I can't say I've noticed it every episode, but I agree it happens a lot, most noticably with Daniel Jackson and O'Neill. With the amount of exposition Carter and Jackson have to deliver each episode, after saying "What?" it tends to lead to a long technical or archiological explanation, I wouldn't be suprised if it had now become an in-joke. Much of season 8 seemed to be in-jokes and digs at the show in general.

Soylent Purple

Question: Just before Jonesy is hit by the car he turns to the guy next to him and asks "What did you say?" (or something similar). What was that about? Did Jonesy hear something in the man's thoughts? Did he hear the guy shout "Look out." before he actually had, like a premonition?

Answer: Yes. He heard the man shout the warning before he was hit as a premonition which prompted him to say "what?" to the man. Then the man shouts in real life afterwards.

An american girl in paris (part deux) - S6-E20

Question: Did Carrie go back to her hotel room for her wardrobe after leaving Aleksandr and getting with Big? Surely she returned for all her Manolo's and stuff, or are we left to believe she gave it all up as the ultimate sacrifice for Mr. Big?

Answer: It's not shown, but we're to assume she either went back later and got her stuff or made arrangements to have it shipped home to New York.

raywest

Question: Why does Mrs Conehead begin screaming when she sees the eggplant in the grocery store?

Answer: Because they resemble infant coneheads. To her, it would appear that they were selling babies.

Bruce Minnick

Question: I know that Minnie Driver's vocals were dubbed for the singing roles by a true opera singer, but were her speaking roles dubbed as well? Did she lip-sync her entire script?

Answer: Margaret Preece provided the "Singing Voice of Carlotta" only (as listed in the closing credits). Minnie Driver provided all remaining aspects of her performance herself as documented in numerous interviews both live and in print media.

OneHappyHusky

Question: Why is David known as "the gay friend"? There is no point in the movie where he or anyone else says he's gay.

Answer: When he and the girl are talking in the start of the movie they clearly reference a past boyfriend of his - she says "you loved him right", and the response was "but then his mother found our love letters and that was then end of that."

Spaceboy_007

Answer: Additionally, there's also a scene early on where Jade playfully teases him and suggests that her police chief uncle was "in love" with David, to which David replies something to the effect of "I'm so over the whole uniform thing," which implies he's gay.

TedStixon

Question: Can someone please tell me the order in which the Hellboy graphic novels take place? I want to start collecting, but they don't have numbers or anything on the spine, so I don't know where to begin.

Answer: They run as follows; Seed Of Destruction, Wake The Devil, The Chained Coffin, The Right Hand Of Doom and Conqueror Worm. There are several other books which collect various stories about the character (often by different authors) - these generally take place in different eras and can be read in any order.

Tailkinker

Question: I know the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is supposed to be scary, but I don't understand. Why is it scary and what does it mean?

Answer: The phrase in itself is not scary, the fact that Jack had typed it out thousands of times is. It shows the deteriation of his mental state.

Mad Ade

Answer: The phrase depicts how in the 20s while doing the human flesh butcher job over and over, Jack had started to become dull. This is also visible in 80s Jack's behavior. This ultimately led him to take extreme step of killing his wife and kid out of hunger.

Question: Would it be possible for someone to explain something to me? What is the significance of the time 2:06? Obviously it's when David wakes up in the middle of the night, but why?

Answer: That is the time the he supposedly woke up to find his wife dead in the beginning of the movie, so now he has nightmares and wakes up at the exact same time.

stella stathopoulos

Question: Is it a coincidence that the name of the plane EDI is made following a pattern similar to the one used with HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey with the name of IBM? Letter "E" is 3 letters before "H", "D" is 3 letters after "A", and "I" is 3 letters before "L". Is it just a coincidence?

Answer: Not a coincidence, this is what happens when a screenwriter or producer decides that he is terribly clever. They probably assumed they were paying homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey with their whole "dangerous AI loses control" schtick, so they thought it'd be coy to make that kind of reference.

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