Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: What happens at the end of this film? Was the man who was shot the real man, and who was that guy who McQueen shot at the end?

Answer: The man shot at the hotel at the beginning is Renick. Ross assumed Renick's identity and was going to flee the country. Ross kills Mrs. Renick to keep her quiet. The man at the airport that Bullitt kills is Ross.

ChiChi

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Question: We Know Brian is old (he says in one episode his Cadillac is his pension), how come he has no wrinkles on his face? I wouldn't think Brian has facials.

Answer: I always took that line about the Cadillac being his pension meant that its something he's going to enjoy when he retires. Otherwise, wouldn't he have said, "my pension paid for that" or something. And apart from that, Brian is played by a much younger Peter Kay, who probably decided that putting on lots of fancy age make-up would be both expensive, and unneccessary for a cheaply made sitcom.

Question: In the first movie (Fellowship), Galadriel says that she will 'diminish' and go to the west. What happens to the elves after they reach the Undying Lands. Do they lose their super-natural powers?

Answer: In Valinor, the elves will live with the Valar, their 'gods', in peace and tranquility. Elves don't really have supernatural powers - they have abilities appropriate to their species, which are strange to us, but not actually supernatural - these should remain the same. Galadriel will lose some of her abilities, yes, but this isn't because of relocating to Valinor, it's mostly down to the power of her Ring being lost. Whether those elves with magical abilities (spell-casting and so forth) will keep them is unclear - it's fairly questionable that they'd need them.

Tailkinker

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Question: Was the Angel spin-off created because it was time for the character to be written out of Buffy but Angel was too good a creation to ditch, or was the character written out because people thought a spin-off would be a better idea?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: Joss Whedon claims to have had the idea for a spin-off series while watching David Boreanaz's performance in the late second season episode "I Only Have Eyes For You" - he began to feel that Boreanaz would be capable of carrying his own series. From that point on, taking Angel off to his own show was on Joss's mind and many of the events of the third season were written with this intention.

Tailkinker

Question: Does anyone know why they decided to call Aragorn's horse Brego? In the books Aragorn rides two horses: Hasufell and Roheryn. Brego is actually the name of a former king of Rohan. It's strange that the film-makers don't use one of the "real" names when they are mentioned in the books.

Answer: Aragorn does ride Hasufel - just as in the books, he is lent to Aragorn by Eomer when they meet on the plains and Aragorn rides him until they reach Edoras. As for Roheryn - in the books, this is Aragorn's own horse, brought to him by a group of Rangers who join him for the fight. As this doesn't happen in the film, an alternative horse was needed. Choosing to use the "kingly-named" Brego, former steed of the late Theodred, the heir to the kingdom of Rohan provides a subtle reinforcement of Aragorn's gradual ascendancy towards the kingship.

Tailkinker

Question: When Marlin discovers Mr Ray has taken his class to the Dropoff, he says "why don't we just fry them up and serve them with chips". American "Chips" are not the same as British "Chips." Is this dialogue only in the UK video release that I have, and if so, what is in the US version?

Answer: Even though "chip" as french fries instead of crisps is not an "American" term, we still use it as a description for "fish and chips." There is actually a Fish and Chips stand about a mile from my house and my mom even worked at a fish and chips stand when she was in college. So, it says that on the American version of the DVD as well.

wolfchild

Answer: There's no reason one can't serve actual potato chips with a meal, loads of American restaurants do, some even go so far as to house-fry fresh ones instead of out of a bag.

dizzyd

It's just a saying as "chips" also refers to "fries." It's not technical.

Question: How did they film the Coat Room shoot-out scene?

Answer: It was a real shot, with ropes and wires that held the actors upside down. There was a large amount of people in the back holding them upright, it's in the special feature.

Kirill Ostapenko

Chosen answer: Nobody knew, not even the writers, until at least halfway through the season when they were writing the end. They wanted to keep all options open.

Nick N.

Question: Did the real battle for the Alamo happen during the day or during the night?

Answer: The siege of the Alamo lasted thirteen days, so events would happen both day and night. The actual final assault began at around 5am, and took no more than ninety minutes - it was over by sunrise.

Tailkinker

Question: Neo knew the Oracle wanted to contact him because Bane and the other guy got that disk out of the Matrix. Well, how did that guy get a fake object from the Matrix into the real world? I know there is a corrected mistake for it, but the answer doesn't make sense.

Answer: The disk is not really a disk, just as nothing in the Matrix really exists. The people don't wear real clothes; they don't have real weapons; each of these items exists only virtually; they're created by the Matrix, and they look and feel and seem real, but they are not, they're computer code. Therefore, the 'disk' doesn't need to come out of the Matrix into the real world; only the computer code needs to be downloaded, just as always happens when people move from the Matrix back to the real world. There have been other examples of this; if you've seen the Animatrix short, The Final Flight of the Osiris, a large part of the story involves someone trying to drop off a 'tape' at a certain point, within the Matrix, to be picked up by another ship. Obviously, they won't pick up something physical; they'll download the information, which is represented in the Matrix by the tape.

STP

Question: Who is Arwen's mother and where is she? Is she alive?

Answer: Arwen's mother is Celebrian, daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn. Around III 2510, about five hundred years prior to the events of the film, she was captured by orcs in the Redhorn Pass (the pass of Caradhras that the Fellowship fail to cross) and tortured. Rescued by her sons, Elladan and Elrohir, and healed by her husband, she chose to sail into the West.

Tailkinker

Question: In the trivia section it says that the whole movie was dubbed due to bad weather conditions. Surely this cannot be correct: why would bad weather affect sound equipment when they are filming inside, e.g. at Edoras?

Answer: Any kind of rain on the roof or howling winds, etc. can affect sound, especially if it's a specially built structure and not on a sound stage. (Things like planes, trucks, and motorcycles cause problems, too.)

Krista

Question: How does Gollum get into Moria after the gates were destroyed? If there is another way in, why didn't the Fellowship use that after Gandalf couldn't open the doors?

Answer: Gollum was already in Moria, hiding out after escaping from elven captivity. Note that Gandalf tells the Fellowship that Moria will take four days to pass through, then, later, tells Frodo that Gollum's been following them for three days. At that point, they're very close to the exit, so Gollum must have picked up their trail after they entered Moria - ergo, he was already there.

Tailkinker

Question: What happens to the guy in the yellow shirt, who hits Leatherface in the face with the wrench? The main character leaves with the guy in the truck but the yellow shirt guy doesn't. And we don't see him get killed, it just goes to Leatherface doing his dance. Are we supposed to assume that he dies?

Answer: The yellow shirt guy keeps running off screen while the main character jumps into the back of the truck. Since Leatherface's attention was solely on her, it's assumed the guy survives seeing as no one left in the Family is in pursuit.

Question: After Heath ledger jousted with Prince Edward, he tells Jocelyn that flowers are useless. He suddenly gets very agitated, saying she is a silly girl. Why did he act this way? It seemed out of sync with everything else, and I was wondering if there is a deleted scene that might explain this.

Answer: The reason he is so agitated has to do with the manner in which he won the tournament. If you'll recall, William states, "I'll not be champion until I beat Adamar." Adamar had forefeited beforehand, (not wanting to joust against royalty) therefore not giving William a true victory. After his half won victory, Jocelyn's (Shannon Sossamon's character) inane chatter just rubbed him the wrong way. It had nothing to do with what she was saying...if anyone had spoken to him he would have reacted in the same way.

Question: It says during the final credits that several scenes from Billy Elliot were show throughout the movie. I don't remember seeing these scenes. When are they shown?

Answer: It's when Will is in HMV looking for a CD and it's on the screen in the background.

Hamster

Question: Most tsunami are caused by earthquakes underwater that trigger a huge wave. However, there are no earthquake-causing fault lines anywhere near New York City. So what caused the tsunami?

Answer: That's not a tsunami - it's a catastrophic rise in sea level caused by the disruption in the ocean's balance. Same basic effect, different cause.

Tailkinker

I say it's a storm surge.

Question: What was the little ball of light coming out of Sirius's mouth when the dementors were around him?

Emily

Chosen answer: It's supposed to be his soul.

Xofer

Question: Are the quaffles in Quidditch enchanted? I know it didn't bump around when Harry was being shown how to play. Does it have any magical powers? What if someone drops it to the ground? Does it fly back after someone scores?

Coconut

Chosen answer: The quaffle was enchanted by means of a Gripping Charm, allowing one to throw and carry it using one hand without need for straps or finger holes. Source: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Gripping_Charm.

Chosen answer: "So goes the nation" seems to have been used on many occasions, with various different US states in the "As .... goes" section. Most commonly it seems to be California that's considered to lead the way, but probably most other states have appeared in the lead role at some point or another. Other things have also been used - no less a person that Pope John Paul II said "As the family goes, so goes the nation...". The origin of the quote format is unclear - in US politics it goes back into the 19th century, when it was Maine that held the title spot, but, while no definitive origin is known, it seems highly likely that it goes back considerably further than that.

Tailkinker

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