Question: When Dr. Evil demands $100 billion in 1969, the President laughs it off and says that amount of money doesn't even exist. However, the U.S. budget in 1969 was $186 billion. Does the President just mean that much physical money doesn't exist? If so, how did the government pay for things back then? Did they just reallocate funds?
Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: What is the symbol on Saddam Hussein's pajamas?
Question: I read that there was a feud between Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. What was the reason behind their feud in the first place?
Answer: Mainly it was about egos (mostly McQueen's) and a professional rivalry, not only as top movie stars, but also as auto racers. McQueen considered himself a superior driver to Newman, even though they never competed against each other. When McQueen was considered to co-star with Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," McQueen wanted top billing, then dropped out when he wouldn't receive it, even though Newman was considered the bigger star. In "The Towering Inferno," McQueen supposedly obsessed over how many lines he had compared to Newman.
Expanding on this: McQueen's demand for top billing continued on this film (as did William Holden's, but he was never a serious candidate), which is why the end result was "staggered": McQueen's name was to the left but lower, while Newman's was higher but to the right, so both had top billing depending how one read it (left-to-right, or top-to-bottom). Studies have shown that the name audiences tend to see first is the one on the left, regardless of staggering, so McQueen may have "won" here.
Question: Sour Bill imprisons Felix in the dungeon to make up for not doing so with Ralph. Why did he want to lock Ralph in there in the first place? (01:00:00)
Answer: King Candy decreed that Ralph be imprisoned, so he couldn't help Vanellope win the race. Sour Bill was obeying orders. Plus he wanted to get back at him for that torture lick he gave him. When Ralph escaped, he settled for Felix and blamed him for letting Ralph get into "Candy Rush."
Question: Why would the terminator carry his weapon unloaded? It's shown loading the pistol prior to firing. A machine without care for injury would be loaded at all times.
Answer: Having watched the movie again, this can be explained by the previous scene where the Terminator kills Ginger and her boyfriend. It reloads the pistol but doesn't chamber a round before Sarah calls and leaves the message saying where she is. The Terminator then puts the pistol down and quickly rifles through Sarah's belongings before leaving so presumably it only thinks to finish readying its weapons once it's reached the Tech Noir bar and has Sarah in its sight. Either that, or it's actually doing a brass check (pull the slide back just enough to confirm there's a bullet in the chamber) before firing.
You mean such a sophisticated and advanced killing machine can't keep count of the bullets and has to check if the gun is loaded? I know the terminator runs out of bullets many times in the movie, it's great for entertainment but not for verisimilitude. Of course, if the perfect machine didn't make mistakes the movie would last 15 minutes and be extremely boring.
Answer: It does carry its pistol loaded: it merely pulls back the slide in the nightclub scene, priming the weapon. As an infiltration unit, the Terminator would try to prevent an accidental discharge, and thus avoid drawing attention to itself until it's reached its intended target.
Although I'd argue a perfect killing machine would never discharge its weapon accidentally, how could it?
The Terminators are shown time and again throughout the series NOT to be "perfect"; they make mistakes that are unaccounted for in their manufacture/programming. They are continually improved upon from film to film, indicating that they are BEING perfected, but not perfect. There is a world of difference, perhaps an insurmountable one, between the idea of a perfect anything, and the actual execution of that perfect thing.
Question: Rose and her mother need the financial security from Rose's marriage to Cal. What were they probably expecting after the wedding? Was Cal aware of Rose's father's debt? Did they think he would pay it off, or did they hope he would never find out? I would expect Cal, being from a stable, wealthy family, to have his choice of suitable (to him) women who did *not* come with the burden of debt.
Answer: Cal, who was quite rich and prominent, would have fully investigated the family's debts or other concerns. To avoid any social embarrassment, scandals, or lingering complications, he would likely pay off the remaining debts. Despite Cal's despicable character, he loves Rose, and that is the price of marrying her. In this era, women had many restrictions and few legal rights, so even as Cal's wife, Rose would have no direct access to her husband's money. She would probably receive a small monthly allowance and her expenditures would be closely monitored. Rose and her mother may not have had any money, but they are socially prominent and respected, and that would be an asset to Cal.
Question: How does the government hear about the comet? The scientist saves the information to a disk then takes the disk in the car with him. He crashes and the car catches fire. The disk would have been destroyed.
Answer: It could have been salvaged and worked on, plus he was calling people in authority. There would have been an investigation into the crash, which leads back the young boy and the comet.
Question: If there are roadblocks to leave the town, and it took a great distraction for the sheriff to cross, how did the 3 hunters cross the border to the gas station? And where did the 3rd one go? The sheriff set one on fire and his wife shot another one.
Answer: The 3 hunters were last seen the night before David and Judy got to the gas station. That was the same night that David and all those people were hauled to the gas station. They probably drove there following the cars and no road blocks were set up yet. You can also hear the military say when they are in the barn at the McGregors' farm that the military is pulling back to the perimeter. They likely set the road blocks up after that. As for the 3rd hunter he may have been the dissected corpse on the top of their pickup truck. I'm not entirely sure on that one.
Actually, all three hunters were there. He walked into the cooler of the restaurant. Check it out.
Question: The stamp that was used to "mail" the envelope that never arrived... Is this something that is available to buy?
Question: What did the sharks survive on before the divers?
Question: V has shipped and delivered mass quantities of his outfit to just about every citizen in London. How did he manage to ship and deliver those packages when everyone is out looking for him?
Answer: They received the costumes in the mail, it was been easy for him it gets it shipped, especially the people who supported his cause. He never had any help imprisoning Evey. He played all the characters. That's why you never saw their faces.
Question: Who's the actor that played the jumper...? IMDB doesn't say... I thought I heard once that it's Mel Gibson's brother? He looks like the character "Johnny" in Mad Max.
Answer: The jumper's name was Len McCleary. He was played by Michael Shaner and is credited for the role in the film (and on IMDB).
Answer: Also, "Johnny The Boy" from the first Mad Max film was played by Tim Burns, according to Wikipedia; not only is he a completely different actor, but he is also obviously not Mel Gibson's brother.
Question: Will and his father slide down poles to get to the secret sanctum. How do they get back out?
Answer: Elevator, stairs, secret entrance used when the leave, like the batcave, or he used his super strength to leap both of them out.
Question: There's probably an obvious answer here; but why does Miraz wait until his wife gives birth to his child before killing Caspian? If Miraz wanted to take the throne, he could have killed Caspian any time after Caspian's father died (I think he died but can't remember the movie that well) so that he would be the next successor.
Answer: Prior to the birth of Miraz's son, Miraz had no heir. So his nephew, Caspian, was heir to the throne after Miraz. With the birth of his son, he didn't want there to be any questions as to who would be heir.
Question: This might be a stupid question, but why do all three of the children speak in typical American voices? Wouldn't their speech have a British influence because of their father, and also Niles?
Answer: Children's brains and language skills are still developing at that age and they adapt to the environment they live in. My former boss was born in England and moved to the US at about eight years old. She completely lost her British accent by her teens, even though her parents still spoke as typical English citizens. A Japanese co-worker and his wife, also Japanese, spoke English as their second language. Their two children learned both English and Japanese simultaneously while growing up and spoke each language with the appropriate accent.
Answer: Kids tend to take on the accident of where they live. I once had a British student who lost his accent after a couple of years in the US.
Not just where they live, but also after their peers (who live there, but you know what I mean).
Answer: Not necessarily. Their late mother being American would've probably made the most impact on their speech, considering most kids spend most of their early years more with their mothers than fathers.
Gracie is young enough that she doesn't remember her mother. The episode "I Don't Remember Mama" was about this.
Question: When Tony Goldwyn shoots Belushi at the end, are they using fake bullets, or did he actually mean to shoot Belushi with real ones and Belushi just survived? If they were fake, when did the two of them plan to do this elaborate setup? It is never discussed in the movie.
Question: When Helga tells Luke about the Grand High Witch, Luke asks if she ever saw her. Helga responds that nobody has. Later in the film, Helga recognizes the Grand High Witch. How would Helga know what the Grand High Witch looks like if she never met her?
Answer: 1. Helga had met her before, she just didn't know at the time she had met the Grand High Witch. 2. Eva was not the Grand High Witch yet when Helga met her.
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Question: When Lady Edith gets the letter confirming her pregnancy - who is the letter addressed to? Because she would not have wanted to use her real name, or have the OBGYN doctor's return address on the envelope.
Answer: The letter was addressed to Edith, an adult woman. As such, the family respects her privacy and would not question her receiving something from her own doctor. If anyone asked, she would merely give some vague explanation for seeing a physician. If she was concerned about anyone becoming suspicious, then she could have instructed the doctor's office to send it in a plain envelope.
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Answer: I think it was just exaggerated as a gag. But he was asking for a huge amount of money that probably couldn't get pooled together. He was asking for almost 10% of the U.S. GDP and more than 50% of the budget. So it would have been like asking for $1 trillion in 1999 (or over $2 trillion today).
Bishop73