Question: I understand that purists are up in arms over this scene, but why they are very upset on the Han Solo-Greedo scene?
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Question: I'm confused by the ending. Did Helen herself become just like Candyman, was it really Candyman using Helen's body, or did Helen simply decide to make a brief return from the dead to make her husband pay for his betrayal?
Chosen answer: It's a bit ambiguous, but just as Candyman became a tortured soul who suffered a painful and unjust death, to too did Helen.
Question: What is the white powder made out of that they throw on them at the beginning of the movie? I mean, I know it is a delousing agent, but what specifically is it? What is it made out of?
Chosen answer: It's an insecticide (probably DDT, which was in wide use in the late 1940's) to rid the body of lice before prisoners are admitted into the prison. With all the bodily contact in a prison, a lice infestation would not only affect the inmates but the guards as well. It's also a health hazard.
Question: Towards the beginning, after the guard captain beats up the fat guy, the says "call the trustees and have them take him to the infirmary." What are the "trustees"?
Chosen answer: As referenced in this movie, trustees are prisoners that have earned the right to work in parts of the prison - in this case, the hospital wing. The name implies that they can be trusted to do the required work with minimal supervision.
Question: Why was the Nemesis creature supposed to kill members of STARS?
Answer: Two reasons: 1. They're the elite of the Raccoon City Police force and therefore an excellent means of testing his abilities. 2. Some of them, like Jill, know the T-Virus is responsible for the outbreak so they have to be exterminated before they can expose Umbrella.
Question: Could someone please explain the ending to me. Telly passed the test by not forgetting and ended up in the park. So, did she go back in time? If she did go back in time, are we to assume the events of the the film never took place (i.e. the female cop dying)? Also, were the government agents helping the beings? Were they aliens or something else? Any information on this would be appreciated.
Answer: Okay first of all, Telly didn't pass any test. The whole thing was an experiment in testing the strength of the parent/child bond. Second, no she did not travel back in time, she simply traveled back to her neighborhood, where everything was as it would have been, had the children never been abducted. Lastly, no the government agents were not aliens, and they weren't exactly helping the beings either, but rather they were minimalizing the damage, as to not have a full on "Independence Day" invasion. Oh also, neither Alfre Woodard (the cop), Dominic West, or the governemnt agent, were killed, they were simply abducted.
Question: Why was everyone standing up in the last scene of the movie? Did not make too much sense to me, but it was very apparent so it must have been some intentional directional move.
Answer: One of the elders asks if they all want to continue the village the way it is by telling the younger members that Noah was killed by the creatures in the woods and keeping the truth about the village from them. Standing up was the other elders' way of saying "yes."
Question: Does anybody know what year this show takes place? I've noticed that there are all these present day video games, keyboards, etc. on the show, but all the cars are old fashioned.
Answer: The show is based in present day times. Plus most cars aren't old fashtioned, I recall seeing a limo and not to mention a cherry picker, etc.
Question: I know that DHD's only work on the planet that they are on, because of the point of origin, but the gate on Antarctica has a DHD and the point of origin is still Earth, why couldn't the SGC hook up the Antarctica DHD to their gate?
Answer: It was explained in a season 7 ep, the Antartic DHD ran out of juice after only a few test runs when it was recovered, so its useless.
Answer: The point of origin relates more to the paired Gate and DHD than the planet they are on. Take any gate and it's DHD to another planet and it work just fine as soon as the DHD updated its position with the rest of the network. That point of origin would then work for that planet, which is why Earth could have two gates with two origin symbols.
Question: I don't understand why Persephone let one of the guard go, instead of killing both of them when they're saving the Key Maker. Wouldn't they have made a clean escape that way?
Answer: Persephone wants to really stick it to her husband, the Merovingian. By letting one of the guards go tell him she is assuring that he will find out what she did, but it will be too late to stop her.
Shibboleth - S2-E8
Question: Right before Toby asks CJ if she wants to come over for Thanksgiving, he calls her Toscanini. What does Toscanini mean?
Answer: Arturo Toscanini (1867 - 1957) was an Italian born conductor who was well known for being authoritarian and a bully. Perhaps this is a reference to CJ's commanding nature?
Question: Was it always Lucas' original plan to have Darth Vader be Luke's father?
Answer: The short, short answer to this is "Yes... from a certain point of view." The long answer is complicated and depends completely on what timeframe you mean by "always." If you're going back all the way to the early rough drafts of the early-mid 70s (which actually resemble Episode I more than they do the Star Wars of 1977), you'll find there's a cyborg father figure protagonist that makes a heroic sacrifice, and then another character that is a "black knight" villain that eventually turns to the side of good near the end. Just to make things more complicated, there is yet another character, a villain by the name of "Darth Vader" that is a human Imperial officer like Grand Moff Tarkin. It may be a stretch to count all that as "Darth Vader was always the father" but the pieces were all there, at least.
(1) Now the earliest explicit mention on any documented material that Darth Vader is Luke's father comes from notes Lucas made outlining the general story of the trilogy and its place in the larger Star Wars saga. These were found in the archives for The Empire Strikes Back, but they are undated and we don't know if they were written before Star Wars (1977) and carried forward, or if they were written afterward. These were found fairly recently (made public in 2010) and as far as I know Lucas has never commented publicly about them.
(3) One thing we know, at least, is that Lucas had come up with the idea of Darth Vader the father before starting work on The Empire Strikes Back. Something incredibly odd, though, is that the first draft written by Leigh Brackett does not feature the twist (and in fact introduces Anakin himself as a ghost); for a long time many fans took this as proof that Lucas hadn't thought of the idea at all by then, but after the series outline was discovered it was made apparent that Lucas simply hadn't told Brackett for some reason. Perhaps he wasn't sure yet that he wanted to go through with it, or maybe at that point he was thinking of revealing it in the third film. Either way, Lucas would write the second draft himself, and that's where the twist first appears in script form.
(2) Something that must be understood about Star Wars (1977) is that it was an ALTERNATIVE to his original plans of a saga. By then he didn't think it was realistic that he would be able to make a long series of many movies, so he came up with a "Plan B": he crammed the general story of the trilogy into one movie. So we know that when Star Wars (1977) was filming, Darth Vader was NOT Luke's father, because this one movie was IT, that was the whole story. But what we DON'T know, is whether that means Lucas had abandoned the idea of Vader being the father in order to simplify the story, or if Lucas simply hadn't thought of that at all just yet.
(2, cont.) On a side note, you can tell by watching Star Wars (1977) how it has condensed the story of the trilogy. The middle portion has the characters trying to escape capture from the Empire while one of them loses a duel with Darth Vader (like The Empire Strikes Back) and the third act is a final battle against the Death Star above a forest moon (like Return of the Jedi). The first act features a member of royalty on the run while a couple of protagonists find the main hero on a desert planet, resembling the original drafts and by extension Star Wars: Episode I. Because of this we've arguably never actually had a "pure" first chapter to the original trilogy, even though Lucas eventually had the film serve this purpose anyway.
Answer: Yes, however, he didn't want anyone to KNOW about it. In fact, the original script said "'Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father.' 'He told me enough... he told me YOU killed him!' 'No, Obi-Wan killed your father'" Even Hamill was only told the real line just before shooting, so his reaction is somewhat natural.
Question: Maybe I've missed the reason, but why is the film called Friday the 13th? I'm sure there is never any reference to that date, so why be titled this?
Chosen answer: Just after the credits, there's a bank sign that says "Friday, 13 - 7:01 - 60 Degrees". Then the DJ says "It's 7:01 on Friday the 13th of June." and goes on to say some more about it and lists some other bad luck superstitions. At two other points in the movie, two characters (Ralph and Tierney) say "it's Friday the 13th". So there are at least four references to the fact that the movie takes place on Friday the 13th.
Answer: Sean Cunningham was the one who had an idea for a horror film called "Friday the 13th", because he really felt like it was a can't miss film title. He got with Victor Miller about making a horror film similar to "Halloween" and Miller began writing a script. Miller had titled the first draft "Long Night at Camp Blood", but he admits he's never been good at coming up with titles, so this was just a working title. Cunningham had called Miller and told him he wants to name the film "Friday the 13th" and Miller said "That's great. Unfortunately, there's no reason for that." To which Cunningham replied with "Stick one in." (Which is why there's a few references to the date in the film.) Cunningham was so sure of the film's title that he put an ad in Variety magazine in July before any sort of production of the film had begun.
Answer: Another reason is in the scene where Pamela is talking to Alice she mentions that today was Jason's birthday, Friday the 13th.
Answer: I do not recall any answer, definitive or otherwise, been given to your question. Originally the film was to be called 'Long Night at Camp Blood'. I have no idea why it was changed. Or why the new title was chosen. However the film is set on a Friday the 13th. And it is mentioned as such after the credits when Annie is walking through the town. On the radio, the DJ says as much.
Answer: After Barry and Claudette was killed by young Pamela in 1958, it then flashes white to Crystal Lake and words in the bottom saying "Friday June 13 The Present." Present means the year 1979.
Question: Producers are currently unsure as to whether Martin Sheen is returning for another season. Even if he does though, in due course he'll have to be replaced, unless they include a constitutional rewrite into the script giving him 3 terms of office. I've heard reports that in the coming season a few characters will be introduced who might replace him as president. My question is, wouldn't the incoming president have his own principal staff, meaning that the current cast would need to be almost entirely replaced, not just the president?
Chosen answer: The current 'Inside Scoop' is that Bingo Bob would become Prez, keeping at least Will (Joshua Malina) in the show. It could be extrapolated that the producers will offer the main cast to continue with the show, and work out a storyline where Bingo Bob would offer them to stay with him.
Question: If the Predators are so big on honor and the hunt, why do they always fight with the cloaking devices, wouldn't it be more honorable to meet an enemy head on?
Answer: It's almost always a single Predator against hordes of armed enemies without backup of any kind; there's nothing in the honor code that says that a Predator should be suicidal. Even with prey exempted from the code (pregnant mothers and ill or disabled prey), they are honorably killable if they become a threat to the Predator.
Question: When Nathan fights the samurai on the battlefield, he cuts them down like grass with his cavalry sabre ao he appears to be quite a good swordsman. But later, when he has been captured, he's practicing with the Japanese sword and he fights like an amateur. Is there so much difference between fighting with a cavalry sabre and fighting with a samurai sword?
Answer: Several reasons. Number 1: while on foot, a katana is typically used with both hands, while a sabre is used with one. Number 2: The katana and sabre are weighted differently. Number 3: The sabre, for a cavalry officer, was a last resort weapon, rarely used. For a samurai, the katana was used quite often.
Question: When Jason Bourne is running from the Hotel Brecker, he runs under a bridge over a main highway. The bridge is on a diagonal and it looks like the bridge Lola ran under in 'Run, Lola, Run' which was also set in Russia and starred Franka Potente. Was the same bridge used in both movies, and if not, what are the names of the two bridges?
Answer: "Run, Lola, Run" was not set in Russia, but in Berlin, and was shot there. Parts of "The Bourne Supremacy" were shot in Berlin, too. So chances are, it's simply the same bridge. I seem to remember seeing the same bridge in "Wings of Desire" (Der Himmel ueber Berlin). Perhaps it's just the most accessible for filming.
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Chosen answer: Originally, Han shot Greedo outright. The next releases of the films were altered, the first with Greedo firing roughly a second before Han does, and in the subsequent release, Greedo firing just slightly before Han does. Many fans felt that Han seemingly shooting in self-defence took away from his scoundrel character.
Darius Angel