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 couldn't young P. T. Barnum or his father retaliate against Charity's father for striking him?

Answer: In those days that would be a normal punishment for P.T.'s behaviour. His father could have said something but did not want to lose a customer. P.T. also did not want his father to lose a customer because they knew getting money was worth taking the hit. If they had enough money to miss one customer it may have been different.

Iceberg

Question: Why would the five lead characters need to be avatars if Alan Parrish was just himself when he was in the game for 26 years?

Answer: Because in original Jumanji it was a board game and Alan's piece was an elephant. The game sucked Alan in until Sarah or other players rolled a 5 or 8 - at this point he would return and continue playing with the elephant piece. In new Jumanji it's a video game, tricking the players in by choosing avatars, then sealing their fate of having to play Jumanji. Alan wasn't supposed to be in the game for so long - it was an incentive for Sarah to keep playing. The game just wants to be played.

Question: Is the villain Russel Van Pelt the son or nephew of the hunter Van Pelt from the first movie?

Answer: The Van Pelt seen in the sequel is a 're-imagined' version of Van Pelt due to the fact that Jumanji has evolved to become a video game, rather than a board game.

Same character, alternate universe.

Question: Are there any other Alan Parrish references in this movie other than the treehouse Alex had been living in?

Answer: The elephant figurine is Alan Parrish's playing piece from the original game.

Answer: Adult Alex named his son Alan.

Actually, the son's name is Andy.

Cody Fairless-Lee

Question: Who was the real commander of the Serbian army when O'Grady was stranded behind enemy lines?

Answer: "Lokar" might be based on real-life Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, commander of Serb Volunteer Guard.

And In the End... - S15-E22

Question: I'm not sure if it was ER but it seems that the last episode showed Abby walking and a truck or bus blew up as she got close to it. Am I confusing this with a different show? I can't find it anywhere.

Answer: These is an episode where a character walks by and an ambulance blows up. I Don't know if it was Abby or not.

It was Abbey.

Question: Just wanting to know about the animal running in front of the Native Americans when Marty travels back to 1885. Looks like a dog, but was it meant to be there, or was it an animal that was disturbed as they did the scene and it bolted for its life?

Answer: It is a rabbit that probably got disturbed by the filming.

Bowling255

Question: Why doesn't Barbossa use Blackbeard's sword to control his and Salazar's ship in battle? It isn't broken because he brings back the Pearl.

Answer: The sword only controls Blackbeard's ship. Not the Pearl or Salazar's ship.

In On Stranger Tides Barbossa said that the Pearl turned against them, the rigging had come to life because of Blackbeard.

Question: Voldemort said Lucius has no need for a wand anymore. Without a wand he really is useless, so why not just kill him and his family earlier due to having no faith in them?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: There's no known explanation. For one, it serves the book's plot to keep Lucius and his family alive throughout the series. For another, Voldemort liked mentally torturing his victims, stretching out their fear and misery for as long as possible for his amusement. He may also have felt that the Malfoy's usefulness had not yet entirely run out.

raywest

Answer: There's several factors that mainly revolve around Amy never having any real girl friends growing up (she had never even been to a slumber party). Also, she never had a girls night out before and would rather do that then hang out with boys. She was only going to the movie because Sheldon was going, but had no real interest in it. She also wants to spend as much time with Penny as possible.

Bishop73

Answer: She is wearing shoes.

Bowling255

Question: Whenever the detective watches the surveillance tape from Susan's work, why does Kayako say "I know something about Peter"?

Answer: Because she was in love with him.

Question: When Phil says that they'll have 4 days together, from the expression Alice has on her face, does that mean she was not intending to go at that point?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Question: I don't understand why Barker couldn't get unbuckled in the car. Why couldn't Artie just remove his hand from the seat belt?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: It's demonstrated throughout the film that Artie struggles with the modern way of doing things. This may extend to modern car seat belts with their five point harness systems. That and the fact they're already late for school and holding up the traffic makes it a stressful situation for Artie and it was probably easier (and to add comedy) for Artie just to rip the seat out with the boy still in it.

Neil Jones

Question: When Alice, Dianne and Harper got in the house she said it was Phil calling but why would she lie when obviously Artie was talking on the phone to her? Also, why did Artie call Alice Mrs. Rosin?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Answer: Stephen King doesn't have a cameo in this movie.

I have been told it's a common misconception that Stephen King regularly does cameos.

lionhead

Question: Why did the man in the opening scene kill himself?

Answer: One popular theory is that Peter felt guilty for Kayako's death. The day before, he stopped by the Saeki house and discovered her and Takeo's dead bodies, right after he found Kayako's diary detailing her unrequited crush on him. Another theory is that since anyone who steps into the Saeki house dies, the curse is what drove him to suicide. Unlike her other victims, Kayako did not personally kill him, making it possible that she either still held affection for him after her death or that he killed himself before she could get to him, satisfying the curse.

Answer: It's a pen torch or pen light. Used to test pupil dilation response.

Question: This an odd question, but why are there no smartphones or smartphone-like devices in the SW universe? These are reasonably advanced pieces of technology that would be appropriate for such a time period. A few situations would also have been easier with phone communication. Smartphones were still very new when "Revenge of the Sith" was being filmed, so I understand why the original trilogy and prequels don't show them - the creators were not thinking about them.

Answer: You basically answered your own question. The Star Wars universe is in the future and its a future without any smart phones. It would be kind of weird if out of nowhere smart phones would pop up everywhere in the universe as if its a new invention, whilst its supposed to be an old invention. They simply have different ways to communicate with each other, more advanced ways are needed. For example distances between people is a lot larger, across the galaxy, so you'd need a lot more that just a smartphone to communicate with people, they use other devices on board starships and bases so the smartphone disappears as having both feels like overdoing it.

lionhead

It is not set in the future, hence the very first words on the screen of each movie. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. Now as far as the cell phones go, they do just fine with their communication. Making interplanetary calls on cell phones is not needed.

ctown28

You're right, I always forget that part.

lionhead

Question: Would Zep have faced charges for his role in the game? If so, what charges would he be facing exactly?

EK8829

Answer: If you can show that you were forced to commit the crime under duress, then you may be able to form a defensive strategy. Even if this cannot get you acquitted, you may be able to plea down to lesser charges and receive a lesser sentence. When you are arguing for the duress defense, you must show that: you had a reasonable fear of death or serious harm; you did not have any way to escape the situation; you could not have contacted the police about this; you did not force this situation to occur.

Answer: It's possible he could get off due to the extraordinary circumstances of what transpired. But given his sadistic pleasure in the game, I would assume he might face some charges. Among possible charges: kidnapping, assault, battery, weapons possession, criminal conspiracy, child endangerment, attempted murder, among many others.

As a lawyer, I believe the law is clear that you will not be charged for crimes you were forced to commit under immediate distress - that your life or a loved one's is in imminent danger.

To be clear the danger must be imminent - if John had told Zap to do it or he'd be poisoned next week wouldn't count, for example. But since the poison was already in his bloodstream his threat of death was indeed imminent, thus preventing any charges should he have lived.

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