Answered 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: When Bourne and Marie arrive at his Paris apartment, Bourne phones a hotel to inquire if a 'Jason Bourne' was a guest there. When told no, he then asks if his other alias - John Michael Kane - was registered. He is told by hotel staff that Mr. Kane has been killed in an accident. (This is before Treadstone's Rome operative tries to eliminate Bourne in the apartment.) So I'm guessing this first report of Kane's accidental death had been arranged by Treadstone? To cover Bourne's trail to Wombosi's yacht?

Dusibello

Chosen answer: That's correct. Nicky arranged for a substitute corpse to appear as if "John Michael Kane" had died in a motorcycle accident, to cover up the connection to Bourne's mission once Treadstone realised Bourne had failed and disappeared. However, Wombosi saw the body at the morgue and deduced the deception, and Bourne later discovered that body is "taken" by the brother so deduced that it's a setup all together.

Sierra1

Question: When the four main guys are first coming down the slope in 1986, the two from the ski patrol apparently don't recognize Jacob's snowboard. Though snowboards were still largely unknown in 1986, wouldn't someone who worked for a popular ski resort recognize them?

zendaddy621

Chosen answer: The James Bond film "A View To A Kill" came out the year before in 1985. In the film, Bond's snowscooter is blown up by the Soviets, so he takes a wrecked ski from it and improvises it into a snowboard. Snowboards existed at the time, however, it wasn't until that film that their existence became well known. One year later in 1986, they'd still be very rare, but it's likely that his wasn't the first that the ski patrol had seen.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: I can't figure out why Draco wanted to go to Hogsmeade and give someone the cursed necklace there, then have them walk - under the influence of a curse - all the way back to Hogwarts. Why not hex someone in the castle (someone not old enough to be visiting Hogsmeade), closer to Dumbledore?

Answer: Filch used secrecy sensors on everyone entering Hogwarts at the start of the year, so Draco could not bring the necklace into Hogwarts as it would instantly be detected. We know from the books that the barmaid at the Three Broomsticks Rosmerta was under the imperious curse from Malfoy and she passed it onto the first Hogwarts student to enter the bathroom alone. Therefore it was likely sent to her directly from Borgin and Burkes.

Answer: Rey implies he's hiding behind the mask. He removes it to show he's not afraid of her seeing his face.

Chosen answer: Because there was cat food in her jello mould. He's pointing out the absurdity of someone adding cat food to jello.

Question: Towards the end of the movie, since everyone knew that it would be sunrise soon and since Stella was comfortable enough under the car, why would Eben inject himself and become one of them? Had he waited until dawn Stella could still be waiting under the car and everyone else could also be fine in the house.

Answer: It's stated in the movie they'll freeze to death under the car before sunrise. Whether that's true or not, Eben believes it, and that's why he acts.

Answer: The previous answer misses one very important aspect that forced Eben's hand. Prior to him injecting himself with the vampire blood, the vampires had broken apart the oil pipeline and set the oil ablaze to cover up their actions. The fire spread quickly and was nearing Stella's hiding place. As a result, Gail and Stella risked either burning to death or leaving their hiding place and being torn apart by the ten or so vampires who were standing nearby. Eben sacrificed himself so she could make a run for it. He understood - as well as stated in the film - they were in no shape to fight them as they were. The vampire blood was the only chance he had at saving her.

Invader_Gir

Question: Watney leaves the Hab for the long trip to the Aries 4 site in the rover. Is there a restroom on board?

RICHXX

Chosen answer: No. The book answers this by stating that he uses a bucket for his waste.

MasterOfAll

Question: If the French kidnapped the Native American woman, then why were the natives trading the furs with them and saying that they needed horses to find the woman. Were the French hiding her?

Answer: The French were lying to the natives. They had kidnapped the woman and then sold them provisions to help the search for her. They benefited further from the Native Americans killing their rivals.

Question: I don't get it. When Arlo finally returns end at the end of the film, why does his mother initially mistake him as her husband, Henry, when she should know Henry is dead?

John Ohman

Chosen answer: It's a momentary emotional lapse. Arlo has come back changed, and his mother is seeing him differently now, as if he is his father.

raywest

Question: At the end of the space battle in the latter half of the movie, the Resistance's X-Wings jump to hyperspace with their stabilizer foils still locked in attack position. Why?

Answer: The design could have advanced enough in the last 30 years that the S-foils no longer need to be closed to enter hyperspace.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: As Kurt is loading the hack to deactivate the laser grid, Paxton and his partner are banging on the van, demanding that Kurt and Dave come out. Just as the program finishes loading, the cops open the door and drag them out. If the van was locked, how did they open the door? If It wasn't locked, why did it take so long to just open the door?

MFWills

Chosen answer: They could have opened it with a crowbar or a Jaws of Life. (Likely the crowbar, since we didn't hear metal rending).

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: This is a reference to a popular fictional masked cowboy hero, the Lone Ranger. The Lone Ranger stood for truth, justice, and conducts himself by a strict moral code. When the Lone Ranger would solve a crime or capture a villain he never stopped to explain who he was but he always left behind a silver bullet as his trademark. Even his horse was named "Silver". When Sandy calls Danny a fake and a phony, Kenickie says "I wonder if she carries silver bullets" to mock her for her righteous outburst.

Question: It never shows the clues to Kat, Rory, or Eugine and Clear's deaths, can someone please tell me what they are?

M0vi3

Chosen answer: Eugene's death had no clues I know of, but Clear and Rory's did, Rory's clue was with Nora's. The trophy's shadow is segmented, giving it a divided look, Rory ends up divided to pieces by the barbed fence. As for Clear, Bludworth hints at it with his comment "such fire you have now".

Answer: Eugene And Clear die at the same time because when Eugene was plugged up to the ventilator it sparked a fuse and caused the whole hospital to go up in flames, leading Kimberly to drive the emergency van into the river trying to drown herself.

Chosen answer: Scotty spent the best years of his career as the chief engineer of the flagship of the Federation: the Enterprise. His time has passed, however and the Federation is rumored to be planning on the Excelsior becoming the new flagship. It is a larger ship with a new, experimental warp drive. Scotty hates the Excelsior primarily due to his pride in the Enterprise but also because he is unimpressed by the design of the Excelsior. The trans-warp drive is easily sabotaged.

Question: Why are lots of skyscrapers and other buildings in Manhattan covered in large plastic foil ?

altinisl18

Chosen answer: The Krippin virus was highly lethal and contagious. When it got airborne, the army had to quarantine these buildings.

Question: The question is if all the bridges and tunnels to Manhattan are destroyed, how does one drive from New York to The Colony in Vermont? How do Anna and Ethan drive to Manhattan to meet Robert Neville in the first place?

Answer: In the alternative ending Dr.Neville, Anna and Ethan are seen driving a car over a bridge that wasn't destroyed. The army would need to leave a entry/exit point, but it would have been heavily guarded until everyone died.

Question: If the movie plot is over a 4th of July weekend, wouldn't offices be closed? It appears to be a regular non-holiday weekday with so many people working.

Answer: Government offices would definitely be closed, however, in a big city like DC, not everyone would have the weekend off, and between the people who still have to work and the ones going out of town for the holiday, traffic would be about the same if not worse.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: My question is regarding the first shot of the film. You see the back of a henchman holding a clown mask with a suitcase. Later you realize that this is the Joker, however he is in full make up. So does this mean he was standing out in broad daylight without a disguise on at the very beginning?

Answer: Yes. No reason not to. Nothing's happened yet and people in a big city like Gotham would just walk past the guy with the weird makeup and not think anything of it. (And since they wear masks in the holdup, nobody's going to think that the guy in the mask is in weird makeup under it).

Captain Defenestrator

Batman was shown a joker card in an evidence bag at the end of Batman Begins so would not at least some of the police be looking for him?

Bane91

This doesn't mean that the general public is on the lookout for a guy in makeup.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: What ever happened to Obi Wan's lightsaber? Did Vader keep it as a trophy, or just throw it away?

Answer: According to the Expanded Universe (now non-canon), Darth Vader kept it as a trophy in his castle on Vjun. It was found by Anakin Solo, stolen by someone who wanted to learn to be a Jedi, and eventually returned to Luke's Jedi academy.

Greg Dwyer

Answer: It's wasn't unusual for multiple actors to play one character on this show. The villains on the TV Batman were played by guest stars, not regular cast members. George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach played the part at various times. They may simply have only wanted to play the part once or twice, or they were later tied up with other projects, making it necessary to cast someone else. Other characters, like Catwoman, were also played by more than one actress.

raywest

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.