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: How much of the cursed tape do you have to watch to become cursed with the "seven days" threat? All of it? Or would even seeing two seconds of it Affect you?

Hamster

Chosen answer: Since the girl in the second movie lived because she covered her eyes, you'd have to watch the whole thing.

DirrtyGrrl

Answer: I only watched the first one but I didn't see anyone who watched the tape for two seconds die.

Question: Is there actually an answer for the riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Hamster

Chosen answer: There is no real answer. It is intended to be left unknown. See http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_266.html for The Straight Dope's answer.

Guy

Answer: At the time the movie was being made there wasn't one but today, the riddle officially has an answer. "Because Poe wrote on both of them."

Question: What exactly are the types of frogs that can spontaneously change gender in a single-sex environment, that Grant was referring to?

Answer: To be exact. Grant is reffering to "amphibian DNA" most commonly found in species of West African frogs. It is the amphibian DNA that allows the frog to change gender. It is not specifically related to frogs only.

XIII

This type of behavior has been observed in survival situations. Unbalanced populations.

Question: Was First Blood not approved by any law enforcement or military? I noticed many types of military uniform mistakes, the stars on the trucks upside down, the flags on the police uniforms facing backward when the blue field should be forward. Usually, if a film can not get approval, they can not correctly show military or law enforcement items.

Answer: More than likely. After all, the movie portrayed both the local law enforcement and National Guard to be either intolerant jerks or incompetent morons. Hardly something they would approve of.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: No, it's a myth that actors have to have permission to wear military or law enforcement items, and nor do they have to be displayed correctly.

stiiggy

Question: How does Gandalf break Saruman's staff? He just says 'Your staff is broken' and it shatters. Saruman is head wizard of the Istari, therefore more powerful than Gandalf.

Answer: All the power of the wizards come from the Valar, and it is they who take it away from Saruman, working through Gandalf. Besides, it was never clearly defined who was the most powerful of the two. Saruman was the leader, yes, but Gandalf had Narya (the Ring of Fire) from the start and was perceived by Cirdan as the wisest and truest. When Gandalf dies and returns as Gandalf the White he is given far more power than Saruman ever had, since his quest is nearing the end and he had been the only one to see it through.

Twotall

Question: In the scene at the end where the conductor is finishing stamping everyone's ticket (e.g. know-it-all got 'learn', girl got 'lead', etc), what was on Hero Boy's ticket? I didn't watch the English version and the conductor said not to say it out loud.

Answer: It says "Believe".

Answer: This was just a little deceit by Peter Jackson to make the audience believe the "White Wizard" was Saruman for a few more seconds.

Bob Blumenfeld

Question: There is an entry saying, 'At Roman's birthday party, Roman and Jennifer go off alone to find a missing room and end up in the basement. Later, Gale is looking for Roman and goes straight to the basement. She calls his name and gets no answer, but is adamant that he is in the basement and continues down to find him. Why would she think he was down there if she had no idea where he went?' What is this all about, because I don't understand it?

Answer: It's pointing out how ridiculous it is that Gale goes looking for Roman in the basement. She has absolutely no idea where he is, and they're in a large enough mansion - if she called his name and he didn't answer, then there's no reason to think he's down there (since he has no reason, as far as she knows, to hide from her). However, she needs to go down to the basement for the sake of the plot, so she does so even though there's no real reason for it.

Shay

Question: Why is Hershey always going into the men's changing/locker room?

Answer: She is not. The judges have unisex locker rooms. Later in the movie when another female judge opens a locker, a male is in the background wearing a towel, which shows they all share the same locker room.

Twotall

Question: When Elektra goes back to her old house, she uses the gas stove to blow up the bad guys. She also turns on the bedside lamp. Is someone really paying the electric and gas bills after all those years? I'm assuming she didn't call Con Ed to reup right before she went to the house to fight.

Answer: Elektra's father was a wealthy shipping magnate and could afford to maintain the electric and gas bills for a house that the family hadn't visited in years.

Answer: After. They met at Reese's 21st birthday party and subsequently worked together in Cruel Intentions. They wed on the 5th of June, 1999, which was after Cruel Intentions was completed.

Hamster

Question: All the easter eggs mentioned in the Matrix Revisited section are not really easter eggs on my version of the film. Is this because I own the American version, and the easter eggs are on the UK version? All so, The Matrix trailer is not included in my version, even when I try the easter egg mentioned in the Matrix Revisited section it does not work. Can somebody tell me where I can see the trailer?

Answer: I also own the American version and I have the easter eggs. It could just be your specific copy that does not have them. And if you happen to have the Ultimate Collection I'm pretty sure you can see the theatrical trailer for it there. Or you can search for it online and you'll probably find it.

Sir William

Answer: He certainly would have told Gandalf about it. Whether he told the other members of the Fellowship is unclear, but the book details a meeting between them where they discuss their various adventures - it seems highly likely that he would have told them then, or allowed Sam to tell the tale for them both. Certainly his love for his compatriots would mean that he wouldn't lie to them about what happened.

Tailkinker

Question: Is the airplane captain supposed to be the "Gyro-captain" from "Mad Max 2"? (a.k.a. "The Road Warrior" in America) This would explain why Max says "You." when he first sees him, but I still do not know, as they say at the end of Mad Max 2 that no one ever saw him again.

Answer: The airplane captain is not the "Gyro-captain". Max says "you" in Mad Max 2 because he saw him earlier in the movie. In Beyond Thunderdome, it never says who or what happened to the real airplane captain.

Mark English

Question: What kind of plane did Varrick use in the chase in the end with molly? could someone please answer this?

Answer: That is a Boeing 'Stearman' biplane.

Answer: That's the standard British pronounciation.

Moose

Answer: His first name is "Sod Off". Blackadder asks him in series 3 where this came from, and he replies "Well, when I was a kid, living in the gutter, I'd go up to the other kids and say 'Hello, I'm Baldrick'. And they'd say, 'Yes, we know. Sod off, Baldrick.'"

Shay

Question: In the shot where John Ryder is in the van and uses a metal like object to unlock the handcuffs. When Jim Halsey was to be talking to John in prison, they are holding hands. I was wondering if Jim could've put the metal object into John's hands, so that John could escape and Jim could kill him himself? As like a kind of getting back at thing for all that he had to go through.

Answer: What you see him playing with is a link on the chains around his waist - note chains, not handcuffs. We know he's a resourceful guy, and just before he escapes, we see the two guards playing cards, with the shotgun loosely on one's lap - based on what we know about the configuration of the truck, John would have easily been able to leap forward and grab the shotgun while we see Jim driving up to the truck. John then shoots the guards with the shotgun we now know he just grabbed.

Question: The news reporter fish sounds very familiar to me, is she an actual play on someone?

Answer: Katie Couric, who is a reporter on NBC's Today Show and Dateline NBC, voices the character of "Katie Current" in the US version.

kernssk

Question: When Bond first enters Zukovsky's casino, there's a tune playing on a saxophone in the background. Can anyone make out what tune it is? It sounds really familiar.

Answer: It's a variation on the "standard" James Bond theme.

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