Question: I don't understand the significance of the monolith or the starbaby. Can someone explain it to me?
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Answer: The monolith is a monitor placed by the aliens to track the progress of developing civilizations. When humanity found the monolith on the Moon, that signaled a certain level of technological advancement. The starbaby is the evolution of the astronaut, as the symbol of humanity, from "Earth-bound" to a true child of the universe, turning his back on the Earth and looking toward the stars.
In both the Arthur C. Clarke story and in the movie, the Star Child does not "turn his back on Earth"; quite the contrary, as soon as Bowman transforms into the Star Child, his first impulse is to instantaneously return to Earth, which he does just in time to stop a nuclear war. In essence, Bowman becomes the guardian of Earth.
Answer: In 3001: The Final Odyssey, Clarke makes clear what many already suspected: The Monolith was malfunctioning by the time it tweaked human evolution. It increased human aggression in order to assure human survival, but this was a hasty move, which saddled humanity with a never ending series of destructive conflicts. Kubrick also hinted at this in a later movie. The Monolith appears in Full Metal Jacket, presumably inspiring the soldiers in the Vietnamese War to solve their problems by killing, just as it had inspired the fighting hominids millions of years before.
The monolith from 2001 does not appear in Full Metal Jacket. There is a tall burning building in the background during Cowboy's death scene but it takes a hell of a stretch of the imagination to see it as a monolith. It's just a ruined building. Kubrick himself confirmed this in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine - it's combination of coincidence and wishful thinking.
Question: Where did the nomads get ammo for the guns and gas for their motorcycles?
Answer: They bought/robbed or traded for them with other nomadic tribes or in the cities.
Question: At the beginning of the film, Tony and Jack have a short conversation about "putting it all in commercial papers" and the "Deutsch mark." I have no idea what they're talking about, what does all of that mean? Could someone sum up what they were talking about?
Answer: The doorman has been collecting tips over the holiday season. Jack (being a high-flying business-man) has advised him to invest all the money in a particular type of financial instrument ("commercial papers" - probably company bonds). However, he has also advised him to keep the money there only until the exchange rate between the US dollar and the German currency falls (the Deutschmark was the German unit of currency at the time of the movie). Presumably, Jack anticipates that the investment will rise in value until the Deutschmark falls against the dollar so he's tipping the guy on how to make the most out of his investment.
Question: Is John Leguizamo's character supposed to be the Toulouse-Lautrec (the painter) or a person from the same time period who happens to have the same name as the painter?
Answer: He's supposed to be the actual person.
Question: I'm not sure if this could be a plot hole or not, but did Jonathan Rivers ever come under suspicion in any of the deaths that he happened to encounter?
Answer: The cop thought he was a suspect, Rivers knows this because when the officer asks him if he is going home whilst at the hospital, he replies with "I'm not leaving town, if that's what you're thinking."
Question: Does anyone know what year Dr. Lanning (the character) was born in? It tells you when Spooner is in the cafe on the TV, but I just can't make it out.
Answer: 1971.
Answer: The TV shows 1971-2035 not 1921-2035.
Yep, if you watch it in HD it's clear as day.
Answer: According to the TV in the bar he lived from 1921 to 2035.
Question: Why was it the end of the world? what caused it to be the end of the world, and why did it change simply because donnie changed it so he died when he should have? how did the actions caused by him being alive amount to the end of the world?
Answer: The "end of the world" refers to the end of the alternate universe Donnie enters when Frank summons him out of bed at the beginning of the movie. The alternative universe will only last until the airplane engine is returned to the normal universe and Donnie dies. Donnie sets in motion events that lead to the airplane engine falling through a portal to the normal universe, and when it finally returns he defaults to his place at the exact point when Frank summoned him out of there to guard the engine.
Question: I've read somewhere that Reflector appears in the movie, but I have yet to find him. Could anyone help me out?
Answer: One of the Reflector robots does indded appear in the movie, very briefly. As the Decepticons regroup after Blaster sends the communication to Moon Base 1, there is a shot from behind showing the Decepticons coming in, then a few more come in and transform to their robot modes. If you look when Dirge comes in, Reflector is in front of him. This is the only part of the film Reflector is in, so this character was either captured by the Autobots or destroyed, as he is not seen on Astrotrain when the Decepticons retreat.
Question: Doc Ock's power comes from his actuators. Without them he is just a normal man. Spiderman has superpowers ie strength, recuparative powers etc. So why after all their fighting does only Spiderman show visible injuries? Even after being crushed between a flying table from the bank, and a taxi,which rocks the taxi onto two wheels, he gets up with no apparent injuries.
Answer: In the comics, the radiation from his experiment also gave him some extra strength and toughness. Not as much as Spider-Man, of course, but enough to be able to withstand a beating.
Question: What is going on in the room where the professor left the little boy after he found the dead body and 'karen' goes into the room and all you hear is a thumping sound?
Answer: Its the thumping of the husband's legs against the wall from hanging himself.
The One With Ross's Library Book - S7-E7
Question: Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe is in the background at Central Perk drinking coffee in one episode of Series 7. Can anyone tell me which episode this is?
Answer: He's a coffee shop customer in "The One With Ross's Library Book".
Question: Why can't they use every last iota of energy they've got and dial earth and ask them to send them any ZPM's that they could find?
Answer: Because even all 4 Naquadah generators (one was destroyed) together is only enough to dial Earth for approximately 1.2 seconds (As seen in the episode "Letter from Pegasus"). Further, if Earth had found a ZPM, they would dial Atlantis and let them know. After all, the SGC has no other use for a ZPM than to dial Atlantis.
To Sirloin with Love - S13-E20
Question: What is Boomhower's occupation?
Answer: Jeffrey Boomhauer is a Texas Ranger as can be seen in the final episode at the end when he sets his wallet down, it flips open revealing a Texas Ranger badge.
Question: In the earlier episodes of Friends why is Ben Gellar credited as John and Christoper Allen and then when he next appears, he is credited as Jack and Charlie Allen? Was the character of Ben played by quadruplets before the part was recast?
Answer: The twins who played Ben Gellar were named John Christopher and Charles Thomas Allen. John Christopher was the one credited initially, and the "Jack and Charlie Allen" credit was for both twins (Jack is a nickname of John).
Question: All of the computer monitors on TNG are referred to as "LCARS." What does LCARS mean?
Answer: It is short for "Library Computer Access and Retrieval System", the ship's computer system.
Question: The girls talk about something which sounds like 'wee-hawking'. What exactly is that?
Answer: Weehawken is a town in New Jersey that is right on the Hudson River. The Hudson River separates New York and New Jersey. Weehawken provides a gorgeous view of the NYC skyline.
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Answer: As author Arthur C. Clarke explained it, the first Monolith (the one seen at the beginning of the film and then buried on the Moon) was a space probe from an incomprehensibly more advanced alien intelligence that resided inside a star elsewhere in the cosmos. The Monolith's objective was to seek out lifeforms that had potential and "tweak" their neural evolution, causing them to evolve toward intelligence. In the case of Mankind on Earth, once the modification was made, the Monolith probe retreated to the Moon and waited 4 million years for Mankind to reach it. When Mankind reached the Moon, the Monolith sent a signal to the next phase of the experiment, which was another Monolith in orbit of Jupiter. When Mankind reached the Jupiter Monolith in a matter of months, the Monolith acted as an interdimensional portal to the other side of the universe, transporting the evolved human specimen to its creator (that resided within a star). The creator intelligence found the specimen (Dave Bowman) to be of acceptable quality and rapidly evolved him to the next level, a Star Child. The Star Child is a "godly" evolution of Mankind. The Star Child chooses to instantaneously return to its home planet (Earth), where it stops a nuclear war.
Charles Austin Miller