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: In the next few months, the Extended Edition version will be released. Why did Peter Jackson remove about fifty minutes of footage (which will appear in the Extended Edition) for the theatrical release?
Chosen answer: The movie was already 3 hours long and he removed footage not strictly necessary to make it that length. Movies are shown to test audiences for things like length, proper ending etc. His said that while good, it was just too long.
Question: When Brad Pitt and the Prince fight outside Troy and Pitt is the victor, is there any reason why they began with spears and then when they went, they used their swords? How come they didn't just use their swords to begin with as you see in many movies of the same genre?
Chosen answer: Homer describes the fight as having taken place in The Iliad using spears, not swords - they threw spears at each other in turn, and with Athena's help Achilles (Pitt) struck Hector (Bana), killing him. The movie uses swords to make the fight visually more exciting, but features spears as a nod to the original.
Also in those days the spear was the primary weapon that was used to fight with. The sword was always a secondary or back up weapon. This is often misrepresented in movies.
Question: What's the significance, if any, of Miranda Frost being stabbed through "The Art Of War"?
Chosen answer: Frost is proud of her martial skills and Sun Tzu's Art of War is considered to be one of the classic texts on warfare, but that's about as far as it goes.
Question: Were any of O.J. Simpson's scenes cut due to his then-impending murder trial?
Answer: According to the IMDB, the only scene cut out was an extended version of Norberg and Ed's visiting Dreben near the beginning of the film. So you can assume the rest of Simpson's scenes were left in.
Answer: O.J. Simpson's murder trial wasn't then pending. This movie came out on March 18, 1994. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered on June 12, 1994. In fact, O.J., Nicole and their kids attended the premiere of Naked Gun 33 1/3 together.
Question: At the end of their date, Daniel and Ali run into some of her snobby friends who insult Daniel and drive off. Then Ali seems irritated at Daniel, but why? She's the one who is more laid back about their relationship and the fact that Daniel doesn't fit in with her friends. You'd think if anything she would try to reassure Daniel and say it's no big deal. So why is she mad at him, especially since he didn't say or do anything to make her so?
Chosen answer: She is irritated because he told her she could have gone with her friends if she wanted. I believe she got annoyed because Ali thought Daniel should have realized by now she wanted to be with him and didn't care what her friends thought.
Also, you have to take a look at the snobby friends involved. Johnny and Dutch, two of Daniel's tormentors, were in the front seat and another one, Tommy, was in the backseat with two of Ali's friends who have always looked down on him. This came on the heels of another of Ali's snobby but nicer friends chatting with the two of them from a brand new sports car. Not to mention that at the start of the evening he met Ali's parents who made him uncomfortable. Although it is true that she would have been irritated with Daniel because he hadn't figured out that she didn't care what her friends or parents thought, he couldn't see past the fact that Johnny and his friends were part of her circle. He believed that she would look down on him and wouldn't be any different, which she picked up on, sparking her irritation when he told her she could have gone with them if she wanted to.
Question: Is the healing technique that Mr. Miyagi uses where he rubs his hands together real, or just something made up for the movie?
Chosen answer: That's debatable. Some Chinese people believe that they can heal injuries with the power of their hands, but it has yet to be proved by science. They added it into the movie to make Mr Miyagi seem powerful and mysterious.
Answer: The rubbing of the hands is to get Miyagi's chi flowing - the Eastern cultures believe this to be inner energy of the spirit. A Western perspective would be to say Miyagi did this to warm his hands. The heat generated would help massage Daniel's injury (think of a hot stone massage). He then focuses on the pressure points and eases the knots in Daniel's body (or in the leg injury scene, his pain). He didn't 'heal' Daniel; he simply numbed the pain, which is why Daniel was still limping.
Question: Can anyone tell me why the Predators didn't scan the 'token' human survivor or the last dead predator to see if either were infected with an Alien? Especially when the Predator was not wearing his face mask which would serve as protection against this infection.
Answer: When they emerged from the underground pyramid unscathed, the Predators assumed they were not infected. Any Predator, young or old, would have been taught to self destruct rather than be caught or killed. As seen in the previous movies. Lex was given the mark of a warrior, they assumed she was taught their code of honor.
Chosen answer: Given the speed with which the chestbursters emerged from the other humans, it seems likely that these have been engineered by the Predators to emerge as quickly as possible. As such, they probably assumed in Lex's case that, were she impregnated, it would have emerged before that point. As for their fallen comrade, it may well have simply not occurred to them that one of their number would be foolish enough to get himself impregnated. Even proud alien hunters can make mistakes.
Question: I wasn't sure which Disney film to ask about this, as it occurs in many (Alice in Wonderland, Fox and the Hound, Lady and the Tramp etc.) - But in many of the Dinsey films, most of the time many of the characters don't cast a shadow. Is there a reason for this? Or maybe would it be considered a mistake..?
Chosen answer: It is the style of the artwork. Similarly, it is not a mistake that each individual hair is not drawn, the eyes are not really proportional to the head, etc.
Question: I know that some of the Easter Eggs aren't available on the UK versions of the Extended DVDs, but is there anywhere on the internet that has these clips from The Fellowship and The Two Towers?
Answer: Yes, I downloaded the Coucil of Elrond off Kazaa (look for Jack Black).
Jellyfish Hunters / The Fry Cook Games - S2-E16
Question: In "Jellyfish Hunters", when Mr. Krabs keeps saying "More" to Spongebob to get more jellyfish, there are several pictures of Mr. Krabs saying this. There is one quite disturbing picture of what looks like a mutated and rotten Mr. Krabs. Can anyone please explain what it's supposed to mean, or is it just some random joke?
Answer: More likely a random joke. Commonly in Spongebob they use awful looking pictures of the characters as a joke usually about their appearance. In one episode Mr Krabs talks about how Squidward and Spongebob are some of the finest crew mates he's ever had and then you see them looking horribly dressed, with almost mutated faces and nothing close to impressive as Krabs states. The entire show is primarily made up of visual jokes like these.
Answer: I have a better answer. This image is known as an internet meme, something [either a phrase of any actions] that are popular all over the internet.
The image became an internet meme AFTER the episode aired. It's not fan art or a meme that was subsequently used in the show, so the question of what is the reference or joke has nothing to do with it being a meme.
Question: In the film's trailer, I saw several scenes and special effects that were not in the final cut. Does anyone know about these shots? I am assuming they were cut close to the films release to cut back on time.
Answer: There didn't seem to be any special f/x that were in the trailer that weren't included in the film itself. The only shots that were certainly not in the film was the opening shot that shows the aliens watching one of the Galaxy quest shows and when the narrator introduces Sigourney Weaver where she is showing off her chest (which is a deleted scene on the DVD). Your explanation of why they are not there is the most likely reason they were cut.
Question: Why aren't the four hobbits given a hero's welcome when they return to the Shire? The fellow who greets them seems less than impressed that they just saved Middle-Earth. Do the Shire folk not know about what went on? Do they ever learn of it?
Answer: Few hobbits have ever ventured outside of the Shire and tend to regard Bilbo and Frodo with a certain amount of suspicion for having left for so long. In the novel, the Shire is attacked and therefore they would know about it, but since it is apparently unharmed in the movie they wouldn't care very much about what was going on in the rest of Middle Earth.
Question: Why does Sam refer to his old gaffer while killing the orcs guarding Frodo?
Question: Why aren't Nyssa and the other vampire fried by the big UV grenade? Sure, they dove underwater, but light doesn't diffuse THAT much underwater. I'm using the logic from an entry's correction that the UV light bounced around the corners is still enough to kill reapers, so it ought to kill them too.
Answer: In Blade I we saw that with sunscreen and the avoidance of direct exposure Deacon Frost and his lackeys could go out by day. The reapers are probably two or three times more sensitive than normal vampires so the exposure was probably not long or direct enough to kill the regular vampires.
Question: Who is One Stab telling the story to? I thought maybe it was a relative of Tristan (son/daughter or grandson/granddaughter) because he hands the person the family letter which makes me think it WAS a family member, but who is it?
Answer: There's nothing to tell us who the listener is. Your theory that it's probably a family member seems entirely reasonable, but there's nothing in the film that would allow the identity of the listener to be narrowed down any further than that.
Question: In the end when the credits are playing, after Enya's song "May It Be", another girl sings. Who is it and what is the song called?
Answer: It's a boy called Edward Ross singing 'In Dreams'. It's on the soundtrack CD at the end of track 17 'The Breaking of the Fellowship'. The 2 songs are reversed in the film and CD.
Question: At the beginning of the movie, Quaid has a friend at work (if my mind's not failing me his name is Harry) that tells him not to go to Recall because some person got lobotomised. Later, when Quaid is returning from Recall his friend stops him and tries to kidnap (or kill) him because Quaid "talked about Mars". I can't understand the role that this man has in the plot. Quaid told his wife that this man is a spy (I wonder how he knew that), and I'd like to know which side he seems to be fighting for (the Agency or the rebels).
Answer: It depends on whether you choose to believe the events of the film are real or in Quaid's lobotomized brain. If the events are real (i.e. Quaid is actually Houser with his memories blocked) then Harry is from the agency and is there to make sure Quaid doesn't say or do anything that would potentially break his memory block (like going to Recall). If you believe everything is in Quaid's mind after he goes to Recall, then Harry really was just his friend.
Answer: Harry works for the Agency the same way Arnie's wife did. While the wife watched him at home, Harry was to watch him at work. Harry told Arnie that story to keep him from going to Recall and to keep him from having to kill Arnie for bringing up his memories of Mars.
Question: Is the Bowie knife named after Jim Bowie because he invented it or because he became famous for using it?
Answer: There were several versions of the knife over time - the original was believed to have been designed by his brother Rezin Bowie, but the subsequent versions were Bowie's own designs. For more information, try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowie_knife.
Question: When Bruce is killing Quint (and in every shot of Bruce thereafter) there's a whole lot of white stuff around the shark's teeth that doesn't seem to be just his gums. What is that white stuff? It looks like he's chewed on lots of paper or something...
Answer: It's supposed to be flesh from whatever he ate before. Like when you eat chicken and a piece gets stuck in your teeth.
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Chosen answer: It only took me a couple of seconds to find a fan site with a credible answer. Apparently, in an early draft, Marty mentions in passing that Doc hired him to clean out his garage for fifty bucks and total access to his record collection. This scene was presumably never shot, thus the backstory was lost to time. See www.kristensheley.com/bttf/bttfuniverse.html for more extensive info.
Macalou