Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: What happened to Special Agent Starling and why isn't she in Red Dragon? And how come the new agent didn't know who Hannibal Lecter is (recognition), when nearly the whole of America (let alone the FBI) had heard/seen at least a picture of him?

Answer: Red Dragon is a prequel to Silence of the Lambs. The events took place while Clarice Starling was still at the FBI academy. At the very end of the film, Chilton tells Lecter that a woman (Starling) from the FBI wants to meet with him. Also, when Special Agent Will Graham first met Dr. Hanibal Lecter while investigating another case, Lecter had not yet been convicted of any crime. Therefore, no one knew him to be anything other than a noted psychiatrist.

raywest

Question: Does Emmanuelle Mimieux know of the Bastard's plan to blow up the cinema and do the Bastards know that Emmanuelle Mimieux is going to burn it down, or are the plans not connected at all?

Answer: They're unconnected. As happens often in Tarantino's films, their storylines are completely separate until they intersect at that point.

Captain Defenestrator

Show generally

Question: This is actually for Doctor 1 but I couldn't find it anywhere. I heard it somewhere that they were going to do only 10 series, but when Doctor 1 fell ill they put in the idea he can regenerate. Is this true? Also is this why a lot of the later episodes were destroyed?

Shadow5

Chosen answer: The show was intended to be ongoing, with no particular plan as to how many series might be involved. But you are indeed correct that William Hartnell's failing health was the principal factor that led to the concept of the regeneration being introduced, with Hartnell himself suggesting Patrick Troughton as his successor, a suggestion that was taken up. This is not, however, why many episodes from that era are missing. At the time, it simply wasn't standard policy to keep episodes indefinitely after transmission, due to the limitations in storage space, and thus many early episodes were simply wiped.

Tailkinker

Question: Why would Andy get Hadley arrested? He saved him from the sisters. And what happened to Hadley after he got arrested? Was he put in Shawshank?

jawsant

Chosen answer: Hadley was a cruel, brutal man who repeatedly beat inmates, in some cases so badly that they died. He was directly responsible for, or an accomplice to, multiple crimes up to and including premeditated murder. By any standards, the guy deserves arrest, conviction and punishment. He may have saved Andy from the Sisters, but that was purely because Andy was useful to both him and the warden with his financial acumen. Hadley stepping in was purely down to self-interest, not any interest in inmate welfare. After all, the Sisters have clearly targetted other prisoners prior to Andy, without any apparent reaction from the prison staff. As for Hadley's eventual fate, it's not revealed.

Tailkinker

Answer: Andy could have also at least have strongly suspected that Hadley shot Tommy.

Actually, when he visits him in "the hole" Norton told Andy that Hadley is the one who shot Tommy.

Question: Were the CGI artists running out of time at the end of the movie? I ask because towards the end there is an increase in reusing footage, and masking the Transformers off with dust, explosions, sheets of fabric, pillars and some more uninteresting stuff. What's the reason behind this? This only starts after the forest battle, before that, everything looks just fine.

Friso94

Chosen answer: It was probably as much to do with cost as it was with time. Although, there's no real way to know which scenes the CGI was actually made for, and which scenes it was borrowed for since they could very likely have animated a sequence for the climax then use elements of it for much earlier scenes. No reason to assume they'd work on the effects in the order we see them in the movie.

Phixius

Question: During the lunch scene, Ismay says that Titanic was the largest moving object made by man. Was that true? At least, at the time?

Answer: Yes, it was. At the time, the big cruise lines were all trying to outdo each other with the largest and most opulent cruise ships. The Olympic class ships were the White Star Line's entry in the size race, with Olympic, the first built, taking the title in 1911, before losing it to her sister ship, the Titanic, the following year.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: No they most certainly did not. That wouldn't remotely be considered a particularly respectful homage! They picked Alzheimers because it's specifically a brain condition, which can then be explored in the movie as a plausible way of explaining the intelligence raising properties of the drug used.

GalahadFairlight

Question: How is it possible that Peter Petigrew was in Gryffindor? The main Gryffindor attribute is bravery, and we can see that Petigrew is a total coward.

Feather

Chosen answer: The sorting hat takes into consideration your choices. Black, Lupin, & Potter befriended Pettigrew on the Hogwarts express. So when Black and Lupin, preceeding Pettigrew alphabetically, were sorted into Gryffindor, Pettigrew chose to join his new friends thinking to have them as protectors from school bullies.

Phixius

Question: I'm just curious, but at Helm's Deep, when Legolas says to Gimli "Shall I get you a box to stand on?" or words to that effect, was that line improvised by Orlando Bloom or was it in the script?

Answer: There's nothing to indicate that it wasn't in the script. It seems in line with much of the humour displayed throughout the trilogy, so was likely there from the start.

Tailkinker

Justice - S4-E3

Question: In various episodes in the first series it is mentioned several times that the crew numbered 169 crewmembers aboard the ship. However, when the mindprobe convicts Rimmer of second degree murder it states that he is guilty of 1,167 counts. Where did the other 1,000 casualties come from?

Skarma

Chosen answer: This is an example of the rather lax attitude to continuity that Red Dwarf subscribed to. Early on, the crew was stated as numbering 169; in later series of the show, this was deemed to be more than a little low, given the huge size of the ship, and the count was upped to 1169. Various arguments have been put forward to try to explain this, most commonly that the ship had 169 registered crew, but families, passengers and so forth boosted the actual number of people on board to the higher level, but, in The End, it's simply an intentional change in continuity by the show's writers.

Tailkinker

Question: Shouldn't Anakin be angry when, after he finally converts to the Dark Side and kills Mace, Palpatine/Sidious reveals that he really doesn't know how to save someone from death, but if they work really really really hard, maybe they can figure it out? Shouldn't Anakin fly into a rage at this? He has no reaction, just kneels and says he will pledge himself to the Emperor's teaching.

cks72

Chosen answer: He probably is, but he's out of options at that point. Having acted directly against the Jedi by participating in Windu's death, he can no longer turn to them for help. If he wants to save Padme, he has no choice but to sign up with Sidious and hope that they can figure it out, no matter what his feelings on the matter might be.

Tailkinker

Question: When the boat first starts sinking, some nameless crew members are shown trying to sort things out. But I don't remember them appearing again, even when the DJs were being rescued. Did they drown?

Josman

Chosen answer: They can be seen in a couple of long shots of the ship's prow as the DJs shelter there. It's reasonable to assume, given that they were present when the rescue flotilla arrived, that they were picked up as well, just off-screen while the film focused on the main characters.

Tailkinker

Question: In the movie when Harry, Ron and Hermione are sitting in the Great Hall and discussing how Ron and Lavender broke up, Hermione asks Ron if he remembered something from that night in the Hospital Wing. Ron says, "I did remember something, but no, it can't be". What was it that Ron remembered?

FirstQuote

Chosen answer: Ron remembers calling Hermione's name when he was in bed sick. Hermione asks if he remembered anything, which he lies about and says his mind was completely "boggled." He remembers, but he does not want to admit it since he likes Hermione and does not want her to know.

Tricia Webster

Question: The answer to this might be a long shot, but I just have to ask would the passengers still on the ship when it is sinking really not notice two people (Rose and Jack) running from someone (Cal) who is shooting at them? Obviously they would have other things on their mind, but the scene wasn't as chaotic as other scenes during the sinking with the people other than the main characters.

Answer: There's no definitive answer to this. Even though it may have seemed less chaotic than the later scenes, considering the extreme crisis and terror that was unfolding at that moment, and knowing their their lives are at stake, it is conceivable that others would not take much notice of what people were doing, or even if they did, would not be inclined to intervene.

raywest

Question: When Mr Warbucks goes to the orphanage to adopt Annie, he already has the adoption papers with him. But shouldn't the papers be at the orphanage since Annie was only going to be staying with him for a two weeks and he only decided that morning that he wanted to adopt her permanently?

Answer: The orphanage would certainly have adoption papers handy, but Warbucks is super-wealthy. His lawyer is undoubtedly quite used to procuring legal documents for Warbucks on a moment's notice. It just seemed the fastest way to go about it to him: have the paperwork as filled out and ready to go before he ever got there so all he'd need was Hannigan's signature, as pointed out in the song "Sign".

Phixius

Show generally

Question: When the friends gang can't get in or out of Monica's apartment because they have locked the keys in or out why couldn't the other gang members let them borrow theirs? In the last ever episode it shows them having a key each.

Shadow5

Chosen answer: That doesn't mean they all had keys before the final episode. The lockout incident happened earlier in the series when Rachel was still living with Monica. It could be that after they got locked out, the girls decided everyone should have a key to their apartment to avoid another similar dilemma.

raywest

Answer: Because they're two different films made years apart (1981 and 1997) by two different directors. Not only had CGI effects made significant advances by the time "Werewolf in Paris" was made, but every filmmaker has their own vision and style for their movie. A new director often feels no obligation to make a sequel look exactly like its predecessor. Look at the Harry Potter series. There have been different directors, and each made changes to how characters and locations look from film-to-film. It's just a natural progression.

raywest

Question: In Half-Blood Prince, Draco disarms Dumbledore at the top of the Astronomy tower. He disarms the wand revealed to be the Elder Wand. Therefore Malfoy IS the new master of the wand. In Malfoy Manor in DH1 Harry disarms Draco's OWN wand, not the Elder Wand. Why then does Harry automatically become the new master of a wand he did not "win" from its previous owner? Is it because he is now the owner of Malfoy's wand, the wand that "won" Dumbledore's, and therefore the wand believes Harry disarmed Dumbledore?

Answer: The Elder Wand's master does not have to actually be holding the wand to lose its allegiance. If its owner is overpowered in some way, then he can lose possession of the wand. Wands are sentient, and the Elder Wand is the most powerful wand in the wizard world. When Harry disarmed Draco, even though the Elder Wand was never in Draco's physical possession, the wand sensed this and changed its allegiance to Harry.

raywest

The One With The Flashback - S3-E6

Question: In the cold open, Janice asks who's done it with who. How come Ross and Rachel aren't saying anything and why, in a deleted line in that same scene, does Rachel says something like, "If you don't put out I'll dump you for someone who does" to Ross? Ross and Rachel have had sex numerous times prior to this episode so is the whole joke that Rachel's being sarcastic?

bugmenot

Chosen answer: Everyone, including Janice, already knows that Ross and Rachel, having been a couple, has "done it," so there's no reason for them to say anything, hence why Rachel makes that joke. Janice's question is meant to find out who, other than those two, have had a sexual encounter with each other. Janice is still directing the question to Rachel and Ross, but she wants to know if either of them has done it, or almost done it, with any of the other friends.

raywest

Question: Is there a fish visible in the "Where's the fish?" segment, or is it just a joke?

Answer: There is no fish in the scene.

Kevin Howard

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