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: The boxes which contain the particle accelerator are marked "Project Pegasus". Is this some sort of comic book reference?

Friso94

Chosen answer: Yes, it is. Project PEGASUS (standing for Potential Energy Group/Alternate Sources/United States) is principally a scientific base used in multiple stories set in the Marvel Universe, although it has also served as a place of incarceration for super-powered individuals at various points in its existence. Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pegasus is the SHIELD scientific base used in the Avengers movie to study the Tesseract, that is destroyed when the portal used to bring Loki to Earth implodes.

Tailkinker

Question: At the beginning of the film, who were the two men in uniform and why did one pull a gun on the other?

Answer: They were erroneously alerted that an actual nuclear attack was underway, and they had been trained to respond by firing a nuclear warhead. However, one was unconvinced that the US was actually under attack, and he wanted further confirmation from his superiors. The other insisted that they follow protocol and fire the missiles. One man alone cannot launch the missiles, it takes two, and the one with the gun is attempting to force his partner to follow through on launching the weapon.

raywest

Answer: Actually it would take four men; two men in two separate LCCs (Launch Control Centers) to corroborate. In fact, there are five LCCs in a Squadron and the others can even "inhibit" an erroneous launch order coming from a single LCC.

Question: How could Louis be the son of a king and Phillipe be the son of D'Artagnan if they're identical twins?

Answer: Both Louis and Philippe are actually D'Artagnan's children. This is why D'Artagnan continues to defend Louis for much of the early part of the film, despite the King's callousness, because he feels that he must defend his son, even against his oldest friends. It's only when he discovers Philippe and realises that he has another son, a humble and decent man, that he's finally able to feel pride as a father and can stand against Louis and his excesses.

Tailkinker

Question: In the beginning of the film, the audience sees the Moulin Rogue in its original role as a bordello/nightclub. It's hugely successful, too - it's full of patrons literally throwing money at the dancers. Why does Zidler want to stop all of this in favour of making it a theatre? And if he's dead set on this, why not do it using the revenue he's already got, instead of entering into a deal with a Duke who is jealous and possessive beyond belief (with a personal assassin, no less) and giving him the property's deeds?

Answer: There is actually a deleted scene from the movie that explains this part. Zidler has run the Moulin Rouge into heavy debt because of his obsession with electric lighting, and the club will fold if he can't come up with the money to cover that debt. That is why he's so desperate to have Satine come through and secure the Duke's patronage. They're all sunk without that investment.

Question: Sasha is blind, so why does she have a watch? It seems pointless.

Answer: There are watches expressly made for the blind. They have hinged crystals that open to allow the individual to feel the watch hands with their fingers.

Jean G

Question: Is there any particular reason why loopers must kill themselves to close their loop? Would it not make sense to send the future loopers back to some random looper in the past? Old Seth got away because he was singing a tune he knew his younger self would recognize, had he been sent to another looper instead, that wouldn't have worked. They can still collect a gold payday, just by closing other loopers' loops instead of their own, right?

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: They are sent to themselves for symbolic reasons also. As you can see, once their loop is closed, they cease to be Loopers. It's the show their work is over, kinda like a forced quit to the job. Not only this, but Loopers killing other Loopers' future selves, even when unknown at the time of the shooting, can cause feuds between Loopers. Like one getting mad at another for the death of his future self.

Quantom X

Question: How old is the boy in this movie? The mom tells the guy that he is 10, but I assumed she was lying, because the little boy appears no older than 5 or 6.

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: When Sara explains to Joe the code from the map she says that 071539 refers to her sons DOB. so 07/15/39 gives out that he's 5 years old since the movie is set in autumn of 2044. she may have lied about the age, as a father taking his 5 year old son to the city sounds a bit odd as opposed to 10, considering the futuristic city was not safe even for adults.

Question: Why doesn't Stan Lee make a cameo in this movie, the second Punisher film, or in both Ghost Rider movies?

Answer: Simple - Stan Lee never created these characters. They were created by the people who worked on the comics. The only Marvel films that he appears in are ones he had a hand in creating.

Rydersriot87

Question: How come Vanellope isn't eliminated from the race once King Candy took her medal out? Once she crossed the finish line after Ralph broke her free she was re-entered but how is that when she technically now has no "pay-to-play"?

Answer: When she substituted the Hero Metal for a coin, it tricked the game into registering her during an in game experience. King Candy was inside the game's code when he removed the metal, which was not an in game experience. Essentially, he change the game's ROM, not the RAM, thus it would not have affected her registration until it was reset anyways.

Quantom X

Question: If Gene is the only Nicelander who is not afraid of Ralph then why does he scream with fear as he sees Ralph at the door during the party? Shouldn't he have given Ralph a stern look and told him to leave? (01:41:00)

Answer: It wasn't that he was screaming out of fear of Ralph exactly, but more surprise to see Ralph of all people, as well as sudden fear of Ralph wrecking the party.

Quantom X

Question: What is the symbolism behind the upside-down cathedral?

Answer: It's open to interpretation, but one theory might be that Chris' faith and his assumptions about the Afterlife have been completely "upended." And as Annie has lost her faith altogether, he must now struggle to bring her back into the fold and set things right so that they can be together.

Jean G

Question: What doesn't Vanellope like about being princess? Why would she rather be president instead? (01:41:00)

Answer: She's been on her own since King Candy took over. She probably doesn't like the idea of a monarchy anymore.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: While in the small boat at Whitecap Bay, why did the mermaids attack most of the sailors but left Philip alone?

Answer: They didn't "leave him alone." The mermaids were in the midst of attacking all the men in the boat when Blackbeard had his crew on shore set off the explosions. That caused the mermaids to panic, tipping the boat over and dumping the surviving men, including Philip, into the sea. Serena, the mermaid Philip falls in love with, was apparently attracted to him and she pushed him out of danger. During the confusion, Philip made it back to shore. The mermaids were still attacking everyone on shore, and that is when Serena became trapped by some falling debris.

raywest

Question: Maybe this was explained in the film and I missed it, but it has been bugging me for a while. What happened to all the rest of the clones of Jack and Victoria after the Tet was destroyed? Presumably their daily instructions in the form of Sally would cease. Wouldn't they get suspicious? Some reasonable explanation would be nice.

Answer: They would obviously notice that the Tet was gone and would no doubt have questions, but, without outside intervention, would be unlikely to be able to do anything about it, as they would have no reason not to believe that the "radiation zones" confining them to their particular area weren't real. Some would likely die fighting Scavenger groups in their areas (without the drones, they'd be increasingly vulnerable), others might be successfully contacted by those groups and thus could join with them, some may have ultimately starved without resupply from the Tet. The film only covers what happens to Jacks 49 and 52; the others likely met with a variety of different fates.

Tailkinker

Question: Why are lots of skyscrapers and other buildings in Manhattan covered in large plastic foil ?

altinisl18

Chosen answer: The Krippin virus was highly lethal and contagious. When it got airborne, the army had to quarantine these buildings.

Answer: He probably didn't know. He just searched the dungeon until he found them. We're just not shown how long he searched.

MasterOfAll

Question: Spock, in the Jellyfish, warps and leads the Narada away from Earth. Then both the Jellyfish and Narada jump out of warp. Where are both ships located in the universe? There is a debate with a friend where I believe that they warp somewhere outside of Earth's Solar System, not near any other planets, but there is not enough data to determine the exact location. The person that I am debating with believes that they are somewhere near Saturn because the Enterprise appears. I dispute this with my friend because all the Red Matter got destroyed, creating a huge black hole. Wouldn't a black hole near Saturn also endanger the planet and anything near it? (01:45:55 - 01:47:40)

Answer: There's certainly no evidence that they're still within the solar system; the Enterprise arrives dropping out of warp, which would seem to be good evidence that they're not anywhere near Saturn any more. While no specifics are given, Spock jumps into warp to get the red matter on board well away from anything it could endanger; as a handy side-effect, this also serves to draw the Narada away to a location where it can be taken out safely. Given that, Spock would most certainly have ensured that he came out of warp well away from any major celestial bodies; the most logical place would be to emerge somewhere outside the solar system.

Tailkinker

Question: When Superman went back in time to save Lois, doesn't that mean that the people that he had originally saved are now doomed to die?

Teru_Kage

Chosen answer: No. Because the version of him *before* he time-traveled is still out doing those things. The REAL question is, what happens to that Superman, seeing as Lois no longer dies and he has no reason to travel back in time.

JC Fernandez

Answer: There are generally two methods of time travel. Skip vs Slide. When you slide through time, you are in essence rewinding or fast forwarding a tape. Time will accelerate to the desired moment. This method, the traveler will witness the rewind and will only allow one of them to exist. When skipping, you are plucking yourself from the time stream and placing yourself in the desired moment. This method, travel is instantaneous and can allow for multiples of the traveler to exist at once. Superman rewound time. He used the slide method and went directly to Lois after doing so. This means those he previously saved...died after his reversal.

Or he could have used the skip method. Like you said, it enables a traveler to pluck themself from the time stream and placing them at the desired moment allowing for two Supermen to be able to prevent both missiles from reaching their destinations.

He couldn't have used the skip method if he rewound time.

Bishop73

Question: There is a scene where Parker is telling Grace that the piece of ore he is holding, called "unobtainium", is why they are on Pandora. This same ore was used in the 2003 movie, "The Core", to build the manned drilling machine to bore through Earth, to the core. Was the use of the same ore name in Avatar, done with permission from the earlier movie? Or was it a mistake?

Big John

Chosen answer: The Core didn't originate the name - it's been used since the 50's and even has its own Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium. There it's described as "any fictional, extremely rare, costly, or impossible material, or (less commonly) device needed to fulfill a given design for a given application."

Jon Sandys

Show generally

Question: I understand that the show won the Emmy for Best Made-For-TV Movie or Miniseries. And, yet, the show has had more seasons. Just how do the rules for that category work and what made Downton Abbey eligible to be considered a miniseries?

Answer: Yes, because at the time it was not sure if it would continue and since it was short it could be seen as a miniseries. it also depends on where the producers decide to submit it. However since it continues on it is no longer a miniseries but a full series and thus cannot be submitted in the miniseries category anymore.

luke f

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