Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Maybe someone with agricultural expertise can answer this. Ray's entire cornfield is large and obviously worth a lot of money. How much would the small section of corn that he plowed under for the baseball field have been worth in comparison to the rest of the crop once sold?

raywest

Chosen answer: In modern times (say, over the last 10 years) corn crops yield about $240 in profit per acre. In the mid-to-late 1980s (when this movie was made) the profit yield was far less, maybe only $150 or less profit per acre. Today, most farms produce about 1100 acres of corn per season; but, back then, most farms produced around 600 acres per season. Of course, these are all just average figures. So, let's say Ray had an average Iowa farm of 600 cultivated acres in 1989, expecting to profit $150 per acre. Optimistically, Ray would profit about $90,000 on his total crop. Meanwhile, the acreage of a large baseball field (with 90-foot baselines) is only about 5 acres. Which means Ray plowed under only about $750 worth of his crop profits to open up land area for the baseball field. It doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice at all, in terms of corn. Ray could still potentially profit $89,250 on his remaining crop (assuming he had the farm hands and heavy equipment to harvest it).

Charles Austin Miller

Thanks! The plot seemed a bit far-fetched by implying that he would go completely bankrupt because he sacrificed five acres to build a baseball field. And it appeared that not all of those five acres near the house were previously being used for growing corn. Factoring in the other incidental building costs would be a different consideration, however.

raywest

Yeah, the 5 acres of corn was not a bank-breaker. My impression was that Ray probably cut down the corn himself at no great loss; but he then mortgaged his farm to have that one small piece of the cornfield leveled and professionally developed with ballpark-quality turf, baselines, stadium lighting and fencing, et cetera, not to mention the bleachers and professional-grade field equipment...all of which would total, what, a half-million bucks (or more) in the 1980s? Ray's brother-in-law rightly thought it was an insane risk that would result in bank foreclosure.

Charles Austin Miller

I just watched it again. It's mentioned they paid for building the field using all their savings, so presumably nothing more is owed. Another year passes and there is another crop of corn to be harvested, but the bank is threatening to foreclose.

raywest

Maybe it's a plot hole or a deleted scene; because, if the bank was threatening foreclosure, then a mortgage of some kind existed somewhere.

Charles Austin Miller

He did spend a lot to build the field, and those profit margin numbers are best-case, no?

Yeah, all the figures I provided were just averages for the year 1989; but the figures do demonstrate that cutting down 5 acres of corn didn't significantly impact Ray's profit on the whole crop. It wasn't cutting down the corn that cost him money (as the original question inquired); rather, it was developing the cleared 5 acres into a level, professional-standard baseball field that cost him a ton of money.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: It's from s06e23, "The One With The Ring." Chandler and Phoebe are at a jewelry store and Phoebe tried to run after a guy while still holding store property, which caused the door to lock and the metal gate to come down.

Bishop73

Question: Why was the tape of Christine's suicide handed over to a law firm instead of simply destroying it?

Answer: The late station owner's wife respected his wishes. She's admitted she doesn't understand why he didn't want to destroy the tape, either.

TonyPH

Question: Can someone please tell me the name of the red headed actor who was the captain or lieutenant on the ladder truck 46 that rolled on the side? He always had a coffee cup in his hand.

Answer: His name in Backdraft is Nightingale and his real life name is Kevin Casey.

Answer: Nimrod's actual identity was never revealed in the series. It was only known that he was a British intelligence agent. Nimrod was not Colonel Klink. Hogan had only implied it was him as a ruse to get Klink returned as camp commandant, not wanting him replaced by someone more competent who would impede the Heroes war activities. (As another contributor previously posted, the term "nimrod" is slang for a nerdy, doofus type of person, though it's unclear why that was his code name).

raywest

Question: It's revealed that the ooze came from TGRI but, what were they planning on originally doing with it before they decided to dispose of it?

Answer: If you pay attention to the professor's explanation (starting at 0:55:55) he says "An unknown mixture of discarded chemicals was accidentally exposed to a series of radiated waves and the resulting ooze was found to have remarkable but dangerous mutanagenic properties... on our way to bury them a near collision caused us to lose one of the canisters down a sewer 15 years ago." Basically, "we had an accident and the results were dangerous and unpredictable, so we immediately went to dispose of it all." So there actually were no plans for what to do with it at all.

Garlonuss

Answer: It's a little dark, but if you pay attention in the last shot when the phone gets disconnected, it looks like a fishing rod reel.

Garlonuss

Question: How come Ransom did not realise that Marta had not given Harlan the morphine when he went back to the study room to switch the evidence?

Answer: She didn't drain either of the vials so unless he actually measured how much of each liquid there was to start with, he was unlikely to notice that the amounts weren't quite what would have expected. He knew enough to know that the switch could lead to a death, but he's not anal enough to note every tiny aspect of the situation to verify that nothing's gone wrong.

Garlonuss

Question: Why is it Doc Brown and Principal Strickland both look the exact same age in 1955 and 1985?

Answer: Doc doesn't really look the same age; his hair is shorter/blonder, and he doesn't have as many wrinkles. Christopher Lloyd was only in his mid-40s when the movie was made, so they actually used makeup to age him for the 1985 sequences. As far as Strickland goes, it's a joke in the film... Marty even asks, "Geez, didn't that guy ever have hair?" when he first sees him in 1955.

Answer: Technically you CAN see an age different in Strickland. First seen in 1985, he is FULLY BALD, and has some wrinkles and looks of retirement age. Then seen in 1955, he is mostly bald but still has some hair on the sides and does look younger (like 35 or 40) - no wrinkles.

Question: In the fight with Ryu and Ken in the courtyard, Vega uses a claw similar to his conventional one. How did he come into possession of that? He couldn't have smuggled it in because it would've been confiscated. I don't think that he had the materials necessary to make a new one either. So, where did it come from?

Answer: To this day books, magazines, phones, food and drugs have been smuggled into prisons, getting a hook smuggled into or made in a third world prison would be easy.

Question: When Ben and Fred are trying to call people with the calculator, why does the calculator randomly start playing "Help me Rhonda"?

Rollie55

Answer: They could only communicate via musical tones. They were trying to give Sandy clues as to where they were being held (playing 'Downtown' to let her know they were downtown). 'Help Me Rhonda' was a clue that they were in trouble.

Brian Katcher

Question: On weathertop why didn't the nazgûl take the ring from Frodo when they had the chance?

Answer: They tried. The Witch King stabbed Frodo to make it easier to snatch the Ring from him, but Aragorn's sudden intervention foiled them for the time being.

Jukka Nurmi

Question: Are we to assume Gabriel lives on as a human on Earth after Father takes his wings? Can there be another reason Gabriel submerged into the water after his wings are burned off? Suicide maybe?

Answer: Gabriel would never commit suicide. That is a mortal sin and would put him in Hell. Yes, he lives his life as a mortal from now on, and like Constantine did, he has to prove himself to God again to be brought back into His good graces. Or wind up in Hell otherwise.

lionhead

Question: Why does the probe even wish to talk to humpback whales?

Rob245

Answer: It's stated by Spock in the movie, even if he is just speculating. He mentions that humans are not the only intelligent special on Earth, and that it's human arrogance to assume that the probe's signal, "Must be meant for man." The point is, the aliens were communicating with the whales, and when that communication stopped, they sent the probe to find out why.

wizard_of_gore

Answer: There is a hypothesis by Spock that the probe was perhaps sent to find out why they didn't hear the whale song any more.

Answer: It was never explained, but as whales are highly intelligent animals capable of communicating with one another, the visiting aliens somehow were once able to establish contact. Perhaps the alien's form of language was more compatible with the humpbacks.

raywest

Answer: Wouldn't you if you could?

TonyPH

Question: Why, after days with no food, would Dooley throw away the box of Spam? I would have been ready to eat the box!

wolfman

Answer: Because after eating it as part of their rations throughout WWII many ex GIs never swore to touch the stuff.

Question: At the end when Gamora and the Good Nebula are speaking, Gamora asks Nebula what happens in the future and Nebula responds that she tried to kill her many times, but they eventually became friends. Why didn't Nebula bother to tell Gamora that Thanos killed her to get the Soul Stone. Seems odd that she left that out.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Nebula already alluded to Gamora being killed by Thanos earlier when she said something along the lines "You know what he does to you?" In this scene in question, Gamora is already disillusioned with Thanos and frees Nebula from captivity to battle him, thus it's not necessary to show the audience Nebula telling Gamora what Thanos did to her. She may have told her offscreen while they were on their way to find the evil Nebula.

Phaneron

Answer: Heads Up, developed by Ellen DeGeneres. I believe it originally began on her talk show with the use of index cards.

Cubs Fan

Question: How is Lydia able to see Adam and Barbara along with Beetlejuice? Did she have some sort of near death experience or maybe inherited something from her family?

Answer: It's about her personality. She is just quirky and different from other people, maybe a bit psychic, and that has given her the ability to see the spirits. She may have inherited the trait from her late mother.

raywest

Question: Assuming that Ripley wasn't infected with the queen before ending upon fury 161, would the facehugger implanted the queen embryo into the dog/ox or use one of the prisoners assuming it can choose which embryo to deposit first.

Darth Crucible

Answer: It could be the Facehugger either has a short life span or a short period of time to lay her egg.

Question: At Bruce Wayne's party, why does Knox (the reporter for the Gotham newspaper) seem to not know who Bruce Wayne is? Knox flat out asks him in the room with the life-size figures "Who are you?" Seems like Knox would know who such a prominent citizen of Gotham is. I understand Vicki Vale not knowing as she is a freelancer in from out-of-town, but Knox not knowing?

Answer: He considers himself a tough hard edge reporter, like Woodard and Bernstein, walking the gritty streets, going down dark alleys and coming face to face with the underworld's rogue's gallery. He regards the entertainment, gossip and high society pages as puff pieces worthy of Catherine "Cat" Grant of the Daily Planet. So he wouldn't recognize the wealthy blue blood types.

Respectfully, that's pure speculation. Bruce Wayne is the most well-known person in Gotham City and surely his name and photo would have been in the newspaper, on magazine covers and on the news many, many times. It makes no sense that Knox wouldn't know who he was. You might not care about Kim Kardashian, but most people would recognize a picture of her.

wizard_of_gore

Answer: In the original comic book lore, young Bruce Wayne travelled the world for years seeking the expertise of the greatest cops, criminals, athletes and martial artists to become Batman. In the movie, "Batman'" had been active for a few months and was considered a urban legend, which means he may well have only recently returned from those travels. Also, at the party celebrating newly appointed Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne's seat was empty, was means he missed several other ceremonies. He was avoiding the spotlight. Forget "Batman Begins."

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