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: Why is Teasle so against allowing Rambo to come to town to get something to eat at the beginning? And what's with Galt being so harsh and brutal to Rambo when he's in prison, and then becoming obsessed with wanting to kill Rambo after he escapes? What is the character motivation for Galt hating Rambo so much?

Answer: Teasle considered Rambo to be a vagrant who might cause trouble and wanted him out of town. Galt is a sadistic, cruel thug with a badge who enjoys abusing others. After Rambo overpowers him and his deputies and then escapes, Galt is furious, and, probably humiliated, wants revenge.

raywest

Question: Why does Landa allow Shosanna to go free at the beginning instead of shooting her and killing her?

Answer: Because he's arrogant, and it's all a game to him. He figures he'll get another shot at capturing her, so he decides to let her go (maybe also out of recognition of her bravery), to continue the chase another time. Why not? She's one fugitive on the run, and he has time and the entire apparatus of the German state at his disposal.

Answer: It could be a compassionate act, though leaving her alive as the lone survivor after seeing her family killed is also cruel and inflicts life-long emotional pain. He may have also have had moral issues about killing a defenseless woman, even a Jewish one, or considered her too insignificant to bother with.

raywest

Question: Why does it take Taylor so long for him to figure out he's really still on Earth? Shouldn't the fact that the apes all speak perfect English be a dead giveaway?

Answer: This is an issue with the "Planet of the Apes" films. The astronauts never question why the apes speak English, why all animals (like horses) are identical to ones on Earth, the vegetation is the same, the star constellations have not changed, etc. You really just have to attribute it to a "suspension of disbelief" where we are expected to accept the premise that the main character does not work out the truth until the big "reveal" at the end of the film.

raywest

Answer: At the time, it was a standard film convention to have the characters speak the language of the country that produces the film. Sure, they could all speak "ape", but that would have been an added layer of complexity (and pre-production) that just wasn't done in Hollywood at that time. Even most WWII films had the Germans, French, etc, all speak English. But to give an in-film explanation: he's on a planet where apes evolved from humans just like him, so maybe he just assumed that English had evolved there, as well. In a universe as vast as ours, it's actually a statistical certainty that English has independently arisen on another planet.

Show generally

Question: TV Tropes says there's an episode where multiple tornadoes come down on Earl's hometown, one after another - anybody know what that episode was?

Answer: Sounds like s04e11, "Nature's Game Show."

Bishop73

Question: Watson gets absorbed into the Darkness, becoming a part of it, so how was he able to appear and open the attic window to let Sara and Eddie escape?

Answer: The Darkness was so focused on Sara and Eddie that Watson used his few seconds of freedom to help them.

Question: How did Hank's wife Janet survive all those years in the quantum realm?

Rob245

Answer: Hank asks Janet a question about the energy from her hands, and she hints that the quantum realm changes you: not just adaptation but evolution (or mutation!) which gave her certain abilities which may have helped her survive. It's also hinted that she was involved with/accepted into a civilization which existed in the quantum realm and you see a city in the distance as they depart.

Sierra1

Answer: The answer to pretty much any question beginning with "Has David Lynch ever explained _______?" is: no.

Question: How does Jake survive despite being seen eaten by the shark?

Answer: We never see Jake "eaten", he is merely shown being dragged underwater by the shark. Off screen, the shark simply let go of Jake and didn't kill him. In a movie full of factual errors and plot holes, this bit is actually somewhat realistic. Sharks typically do not eat humans, but will maul people on occasion and let go, presumably because they don't like the taste. How Jake survives underwater for minutes on end is not addressed. Originally, Jake was meant to be killed by the shark but for whatever reason, it was decided that Jake should survive and make a surprise appearance after the shark has been killed.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: His decision to retire wasn't related to this film; it just happened to be his last. He was working on other projects (mostly writing), and wanted to focus on those. He didn't "officially" announce his retirement from acting until 2008.

Answer: As the other fine answers indicated, it was multiple reasons. An additional one was his health. Hackman said his doctor told him his heart wasn't healthy enough to withstand the stress and physical rigors involved in filming movies.

raywest

Answer: It was said, that he got tired of doing movies where everything and everyone explodes and dies a bloody death.

Answer: No reason has been given by the studio as to why Skyler replaced Jake Cherry, 17, in the role.

Ssiscool

Question: Is this film accurate to how rabid dogs behave in real life?

Answer: Not really. Rabies has a wide range of behavioural symptoms, and it's rare for a rabid dog to display what's called "furious rabies," whereby they become more aggressive. And even then, they wouldn't become single-mindedly determined to terrorise two people in a car. It's much more common for a rabid dog to get slower/lethargic as paralysis sets in, eventually leading to coma and death. You can find more info here: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/rabies-in-dogs.

Question: What's making the birds go insane and attack people?

Answer: It is never explained, probably because it would ruin the mystery of the film to spell it out.

If you are a Hitchcock fan, you pay attention to dialogue. They mention quite often that it started Melanie's arrival, of which she brought 2 caged birds. The rest is implied.

Answer: None of the characters knew why the birds attacked, or the reason it was confined to the one town of Bodega Bay. The incident was so isolated that the outside news media was barely aware it was occurring or knew its severity, so there was no investigation into it at the time. Alfred Hitchc0ck's explanation was that the birds were rising up against humans to punish them for taking nature for granted.

raywest

Answer: It was cancelled due to declining ratings. Season Two had about half as many viewers as Season One.

raywest

Question: Why did the Dementors attack Dudley?

Answer: Dementors are blind and can only sense a human by feeling their emotions. They were sent to attack Harry but couldn't tell the difference between him and Dudley so both were attacked. They don't care about collateral damage and are all too eager to suck up someone's emotions or soul.

lionhead

Answer: She recognized Farhad wearing the Jersey number.

Answer: As soon as Davian escaped, Hunt realised Julia could be in danger and tried to call her cellphone. When she didn't answer he called their house, and her brother told Ethan "some English guy" was looking for him and he had told him the hospital where Julia worked. Posing as a paramedic, the English guy found Julia at the hospital and put a sedative patch on her arm, then smuggled her out on a gurney covered with a sheet - he is walking out as Ethan runs into the hospital.

Sierra1

Sedative patch? Where would the English guy get the sedative patch?

He's a kidnapper. They have related gear.

Answer: Carol Anne Susi played the character in both appearance and voice. Susi passed away in real life on November 11, 2014, which is why in the show Mrs. Wolowitz also passes away.

Bishop73

Question: In Rocky II we're told Rocky suffered an eye injury, a detached retina. However, in this film that's suddenly no longer an issue. What happened in between?

Answer: A detached retina can be fixed with surgery, and since Rocky is now well-off, we can assume he did just that.

The Queen's Justice - S7-E3

Question: When Jon Snow and Davos visited Daenerys on Dragonstone, at some point, Varys runs in and whispers to her. Then she said something in Dothraki to a Dothraki who was there. What exactly did she say? The subtitle is missing here. Other foreign lines were included but not this. (00:17:35)

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: According to the Dothraki Wiki (!), she says: "Idriso jin mahrazhis gacheshaan mori. Ti morea chek, vosma vitihiri mora." = "Escort these men to their rooms. Treat them well, but keep an eye on them."

Sierra1

Question: Is there any particular reason the ghosts are still there after Tangina has declared the place clean, other than these are just the biggest, baddest ghosts on the block? I'm fine with that explanation but I always wondered if there was more to it.

TonyPH

Answer: Tangina may have believed the house was "clean," but the dark spirit she called the "Beast" was more powerful than she realised and was preventing the other spirits from moving on. The real estate development that the Freelings' house was built on was supposed to be a former cemetery. However, no-one, including Tangina, knew that the bodies were still buried there (the developers had only moved the tombstones) and was why the spirits were angry.

raywest

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