Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: If the Borg can survive in the vacuum of space without suits (decompression liquefying their organic skin aside), Hawk also should've been able to once assimilated. They obviously had to take his suit off to assimilate him, but why did they put it back on him before sending him back out to help his new comrades?

Answer: He had only just been assimilated and may not have yet have been modified with more specialized Borg technology that allowed the drones to survive in open space using a force field.

raywest

Answer: They assimilated him through his suit.

Question: Red quotes Andy a price of $10 for the rock hammer, and associated fees. Seems like a lot of money for the time period, doesn't it? And what did prisoners get paid, if anything?

Answer: $10 in the '40s is equivalent to roughly $180-$190 today, so yes, rather pricey for an item that retails for under $20 nowadays. Still, Red charges his fees, plus a significant mark-up due to the increased risk of smuggling contraband that could be perceived (by prison officials) as a weapon. The estimate of the cost of the hammer comes from the novel. And no, the prisoners likely weren't paid (even if, at that time, they had the option, the warden is so corrupt he'd likely keep their wages for himself); according to the novel, Andy smuggled a few hundred dollars into prison with him, hidden in...let's just call it a secret place.

Answer: He reprogrammed the computer so that it was possible to win. But winning and losing wasn't really the point; it was a test of character, gauging how potential captains dealt with a situation with only bad options available.

Cubs Fan

Question: Is the kitchen ghost woman the mother of gunshot boy?

Answer: Multiple ghosts just gravitated to where Cole was. It didn't have anything to do with the spirits having any relationship with one another. They actually seem oblivious to other ghosts.

raywest

Answer: Highly unlikely. The ghosts are there because they have unfinished business regarding their deaths. The woman you see is raging about having a lousy husband, she was probably abused and possibly killed by him. That has nothing to do with the boy that shot himself.

lionhead

She killed herself. Remember, she shows her slit writs and says 'Look what you made me do!'

Brian Katcher

Question: How did Quicksilver manage to get the arcade game, the table tennis and what looks like a sound system in the basement? They are very heavy and even with his speed would be impossible to move.

Answer: There could be a basement door, so he wouldn't need the stairs, and with a hand truck, even the heavier objects would be easy to move.

Brian Katcher

He's able to move several people out of the Mansion when it is destroyed, so perhaps his powers allow him to move things that big quickly. He can also push a cart or trolley at speed, remember.

Answer: He doesn't have to steal the actual heavy items, he can steal money and buy the heavy items and have them delivered. His mother is a single parent so it wouldn't be very difficult for him to arrange delivery of items while she is working. Mom also appears to be completely aware of Peter's crimes and doesn't really seem all that concerned.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: He could have just hired a moving company to do it all for him.

Phaneron

And his mother wouldn't have found that suspicious? Or the movers? He's a teenager.

Brian Katcher

His mother seemingly already knows that he steals stuff. It's her house after all. She thinks the heroes are the police when they first show up to talk to him, and she visits him in the basement in the next film, and would have seen all the stuff he has down there. As for the movers, I used to work for a moving company, and not once did we ever ask a customer where they acquired something we were moving. They would be there to do a job.

Phaneron

That totally doesn't make any sense. The idea is that he stole these items. Would he call a moving company to steal an arcade game out of an arcade hall? How does he get the arcade game in the first place? Does he leave it on the curb of the arcade hall (or shop) so they can pick it up and drop it off at his house?

lionhead

He most likely stole money and legit bought all those things. He likely helps his mother with the bills and stuff, so she doesn't ask him how he does it. Pietro is not known to be some master criminal with bad character, so he likely doesn't steal from ordinary people. The way he broke Magneto out of the prison, it seems he knows his way around a vault.

How he gets the arcade game is another question entirely. Maybe he stole it from a gas station or a restaurant that was near an apartment complex, but was still far from his home, and arranged to have it picked up at the apartment complex, so it would look like he lived there and was moving it to a new place. Alternatively, he could have had friends help him load it onto a truck.

Phaneron

Question: I don't quite understand why Dr. Manhattan had to kill Rorschach. That is, I don't quite get why that was the only solution. Rorschach was a valuable member of the Watchmen, and in the type of world they were in (chaos, corruption, murder, etc) one would think that they would want to keep as many of themselves banded together as possible. Couldn't some sort of negotiation or compromise have been reached/agreed to by Rorschach instead of him being killed?

Answer: He has spent years as a costumed vigilante despite the fact that it was illegal. He has a very strict idea of what is right ("never compromise") and has proven himself incapable of doing otherwise. So no, there was no real chance of negotiating with him - Rorschach himself made it clear he'd have to die if they wanted his silence.

Garlonuss

Death was not the only choice. Doc M could easily have teleported/banished Rorschach to Mars/anywhere secluded in an oxygen bubble. He could have spared his life and just made him mute or manipulate his brain chemistry/atoms to remove the memory of what happened. The point is Doc M is all powerful and could manipulate matter at his whim; death was just a plot device creating a chance of an emotive martyrdom/sacrificial ending.

Ethically speaking, exiling him to Mars or erasing his memory of the event can be considered just as cruel as killing him, because then his agency is being taken away from him. Rorshach's malcontent with the situation poses a problem for the other heroes, and since Dr. Manhattan isn't willing to let him tell the truth of what happened, he obliges Rorschach's demand that he kill him instead.

Phaneron

Question: James Harrison reports to general James Longstreet that the union Army of the Potomac is moving in their direction. If that is true, why didn't General Stuart report it? Stuart's mission was to report any movement by the union Army of the Potomac.

Answer: Stuart was away from the army at that critical moment. He had fallen into the trap of reading his own news press clippings about being a dashing cavalry general, and he was off trying to ride around the entire Union army in order to make headlines. His absence (and his cavalry's "eyes") kept General Robert E. Lee from making an informed decision about his army's disposition and set in motion a chain of events that probably helped lead to the Confederates defeat at Gettysburg.

Answer: As noted elsewhere here Jeannie is speaking Farsi.

What are the several things she says in Farsi? Please translate.

Answer: Regarding the three wishes, there was never any set-in-stone rule or belief. This appears to originate from "The Ridiculous Wishes" or "The Three Ridiculous Wishes" that is a French literary fairy tale written by Charles Perrault and was published in 1697. It sort of set the standard for genie rules that later appeared in other folk tales and then in movies and TV shows. Like vampire lore, common details can be changed by any author to suit their story.

raywest

Answer: She's speaking Persian. And there was never a 3 wish rule. When Tony freed her, he became her master, and she'd do anything for him (i.e. grant his every wish).

Bishop73

Question: Why did the shuttle craft only have room for two crew members when there are seven of them? The shuttle is mainly an escape vessel if the ship was in danger and their lives were at risk hence the stasis capsules, so there should have been accommodation for seven.

Answer: Considering "The Company" that owned the mining space ship was notoriously cheap (and corrupt) about providing their crew with necessities, it is hardly surprising they had inadequate safety equipment, like enough stasis capsules. Also, the company's real mission (known only to Ash) was to collect the alien creature at any cost while the crew was deemed "expendable," so no need to provide them with a viable escape method.

raywest

Question: The record shop girl gives Ethan a record. Where does it come from? The way her arm moves it's like she receives it from someone at her right.

Answer: She gets it from under the counter. It's hard to see the way the shot is framed, but you can just see her arm movements as she reaches under the counter, slides the record out, then rotates her arm (out of frame) to hand the record to Ethan.

Sierra1

Question: Just after Maverick gets put in jail he makes one of the officers hold up a tablet for them, showing the lawbreaking race. This doesn't seem likely at all to me: 1, wouldn't this encourage more lawbreaking? 2, surely an officer has better things to do than stand there holding a tablet. 3, I call this an objectification of the officer (reduced to a stand). 4, inmates making their officers doing what they want can't end up good. I'm not wrong here, or what?

Answer: In this instance he was a civilian in military prison. Notice he wore civilian clothes while his cellmate still had on garb. The rules process is different for civilians held in military prison so it is quite reasonable that would happen.

Question: Why do Rorschach and Night Owl go searching at Veidt Enterprises for further clues about Pyramid Deliveries? They go there after interrogating the guy at Happy Harry's about Roy Victor Chess. He tells them that Janey Slater had him give the sealed envelope (with the assasination orders) to Chess. So is this the link, that they know Slater is also working for Veidt Enterprises? Furthermore: Can it be assumed that Slater was in on the staged assassination on Adrian Veidt, as she was delivering the envelope? Or did she also not know what was in it?

Answer: They go to Veidt's place because they think he will have business contacts that will help them uncover more about what is going on at Pyramid Transnational. It's only once they look through Veidt's office that they learn that Pyramid Transnational is a subsidiary of Veidt's corporation. The man at the bar mentioned that Janey's job at Pyramid was to give work to ex-cons, so it's unlikely she was in on the red herring assassination attempt on Veidt. She would have just been doing her job to give assignments to people under her.

Phaneron

Question: How does Cassandra manage to find Brett's home address and track him down there? There's no suggestion he gives her any other information than his mobile number, which isn't enough to find an address.

swordfish

Chosen answer: It's possible to find someone's address using a reverse directory (using a cell or landline phone number to link to an address). I've found people's addresses by putting their name and/or phone number into a search engine.

raywest

Question: During the opening scene, where it explains the creation of the ring, Sméagol finding and Bilbo taking it, was the entire scene animated or were live actors used before switching to animation?

Answer: This is from Wikipedia: The (1978) film is notable for its extensive use of rotoscoping, a technique in which scenes are first shot in live-action (human actors), then traced onto animation cels. It uses a hybrid of traditional cel animation and rotoscoped live action footage.

raywest

Answer: Ray Park's film work has mostly been as a stunt double and not as a speaking actor. Peter Serafinowicz has extensive experience as both an actor and doing voice-over work. He was better able to vocalize the Darth Maul character. It's fairly common in films (particularly sci-fi and fantasy) for minor character's voices to be dubbed over by other actors. Many movie scenes are filmed without sound and the dialogue and sound effects are added in post-production. Many actors dub over their own voices for better sound quality.

raywest

Question: Why didn't Scully believe Mulder when he told her that he found the bomb and was trapped in the room?

Answer: She's used to Mulder's rather droll, off-beat sense of humor and thought he was just making a glib jest.

raywest

Question: What does Netty say when Wilma calls her after she discovered the turkey **** all over her sheets? Wilma says "I'm gonna get you and your stupid mutt" and Netty replies with something that sounds like a foreign language before finally talking English again and saying "He's a good dog".

Answer: She says "You don't dare. You stop bothering me and my Raider." (Raider being her dog).

Bishop73

Question: What spills onto the floor in the hotel fight when the toilet is broken? It looks like some form of insulation.

Answer: From what I could tell, at the beginning you see a smoky glass partition (or glass-like) by the toilets. I couldn't really tell what for, maybe a changing area. Before the toilet gets broken, this partition gets shot and shatters. That's what's on the floor. But I can't see how it could get around the toilet like it does without some mistake.

Bishop73

Question: Why did Uncle Ben chastise Peter for standing up to Flash? Considering that Flash constantly bullied Peter, shouldn't Ben have been pleased that Peter finally stood up for himself?

Answer: If you're talking about after the dunk scene, Ben didn't see it as Peter standing up for himself. Instead, he says Peter humiliated Flash and then finds out he's the same one that punched Peter earlier. So in Ben's mind, this was retaliation or retribution, which is not OK.

Bishop73

Question: Hannibal tricks three, "DNA-modified" dogs to chase him, dodging the dog's attack to send them crashing through the building's high-rise window. The result is the three dogs falling to their death on the street below (you hear terrified screams as the dogs make impact). Why did the dogs die though? Wouldn't a vampire, however infected or changed, survive a fall from a great height?

Answer: Vampires may be very resistant to a lot of trauma, but they aren't indestructible. If they fall from such a height the entire body will just explode and though they could theoretically regenerate (very far fetched) if their head is still attached, the dogs would be dead not much later anyway.

lionhead

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