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: Did I miss something? How did it only take 1 day for the cargo ship to get from Isla Nublar to Northern California?

Answer: The timeline was purposely vague and compressed to expedite the plot. A movie has a limited amount of time to tell the story and there was no reason to show the audience any more activity that was happening on the ship.

raywest

Question: Harris flies away from the island with the two FBI agents/pilots. 1. How could he return? 2. How did the killer know that and find him? 3. How could he and the agents/pilots be killed, as the group of profilers was always together?

Question: Why did Kevin's mother take him to the third floor instead of his own room?

Trainman

Answer: Possibly because with so many family members staying in the same house, in order to all fly to France together, one or more of his relatives were sleeping in his room and he was relegated to the attic; it's likely a sacrifice forced on him rather than one offered to him. As is common with young children, they often get the short end of the stick compared to their older, more mature siblings and are given a lesser degree of latitude and independence.

Cubs Fan

Answer: Earlier in the film it's mentioned that Kevin is sleeping in the hide-a-bed with Fuller. So it was pre-arranged where everyone was going to be sleeping. The hide-a-bed was on the 3rd floor. I don't think they mentioned who was sleeping in Kevin's room. I've been in similar situations (where several families are staying in one house) and kids' rooms are either given to an adult couple, or girls in one room, boys in another, etc.

Bishop73

Question: Who is running the power plants so that they can turn the lights on? I work at a power plant and it is not quiet.

Answer: If you look closely at the background in one scene, you can see solar panels attached to the roof of the home, providing them with energy. Additionally, the original script also mentioned that the family also used generators that were located underground so the noise would be muffled, though I don't believe it's mentioned in the film itself.

TedStixon

Question: Did Alice tell Dan the truth at the end? Did she really stop loving him that moment and for what? It wasn't the fact he played her, not telling that she new, because she told him it was over before he told her he knew.

Answer: Earlier in the movie, Alice said, "I'm the one who leaves. I'm supposed to leave you. I'm the one who leaves." To me, this implies that she likes to control relationships. Dan has begun asking questions about Larry. She realises that he will not leave the issue alone. Even though he insists that the truth does not matter to him, he will not stop questioning her. Therefore, she ends the relationship before *he* can possibly end it someday. She wants to leave him before he can possibly change his mind and leave her. Over time, her encounter with Larry might have bothered him more and more.

Answer: Niles did love Maris, but he was very much a pushover who let Maris control his life. He accepted that because of Maris' money and connections, which gave him a very good life.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: I forget exactly, but I believe it's along the lines that Niles enjoyed the social status that being married to her brought him, despite her flaws; it's somewhat akin to someone staying in a bad relationship because the sex is good. As for the second part of your question, the producers were planning to cast someone, but as the show wore on, the writers found they enjoyed writing Maris as an unseen character, and as the descriptions of her became more outlandish and contradictory, it was felt that finding the right actress for the part would next to impossible.

Cubs Fan

Answer: The other answers accurately explain Niles and Maris' relationship. As to her never being seen, Maris is a version of Norm's wife Vera in "Cheers." Vera remained unseen throughout the entire series, but was often talked about and incorporated into various episodes. It was left to viewers' imagination regarding what she looked like and guessing if she'd ever appear. Vera sort of appeared in one Cheers episode when she was hit by a pie that entirely covered her face. Her voice was also occasionally heard. This same plot device was used in "Frasier."

raywest

Question: What was Wesley's problem with the Geek House female bodybuilder?

Rob245

Question: When both Mater and McQueen were running away from Frank how was Frank able to catch up with McQueen, a race car?

Answer: McQueen's engine and wheels are designed to be fast on a racetrack. In a bumpy grassy field, he's not going to be able to go nearly as fast.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: It's a derogatory slang term made up for the show.

Question: One thing that bugged me from a recent rewatch. When Brett comes across the Alien skin that it has recently shed, it in no way resembles what the creature looks like now, and is completely disproportionate with its size a few minutes later when it kills him. Now I know that its methods of 'growing' we are lead to believe are different to those of Earth creatures in that they are more accelerated etc...but if it is following a similar pattern to Earth animals that shed their skin shouldn't it have shed at least ANOTHER skin or maybe two to achieve its near-adult human size? And also why in 'Aliens' were no shed skins in abundance dotted around the place when it is part of the Aliens' natural life-cycle? They don't strike me as the kind of creature that would worry about leaving their shed skin around to cover up their presence?

Answer: The skin Brett finds is presumably the first skin the creature shed based on its size. There might be other skins that were shed all over the place but we never see every inch of the ship. The alien in this film primarily uses the air ducts to move around, but the film only shows the air ducts in one brief scene. There could be other skins somewhere in those ducts we never see. The same is true in Aliens. We never see every inch of the floors of the colony, they could be anywhere. The floor of the hive does have a considerable amount of debris, some of this debris could conceivably be shed skins.

BaconIsMyBFF

That's a much more logical answer, thank you.

Answer: They shed their skin once, probably some kind of protective fleece around its immature body it disposes of, not actual skin like with a snake. These are smart creatures, yes they would hide their shed skin.

lionhead

If that's the case why did the first Alien shed skin get found? If as you say they are 'smart' enough to hide their shed skin why was this one left laying around?

Because in later movies the aliens have a lot more space to shed their skins where it can't be found. Maybe they don't actually hide it, but it's logical they hide themselves as their skin sheds because they are vulnerable. The alien in the first movie simply couldn't find anywhere to hide.

lionhead

Question: Didn't Charlie notice that Ipkiss isn't with him when he enters the Coco Bongo? He is entering with the girls but didn't seem to notice that he wasn't with him.

Trainman

Answer: He was too busy with the girls and taking in the scene. He probably simply assumes Ipkiss followed them in and he lost sight of them, he didn't have to suspect he was left outside.

lionhead

Show generally

Question: Just what is it with them always relying on each other in the police department or the D.A.'s office? They don't trust anyone else?

Rob245

Question: During the Battle of the Bands near the end of the film, a band with a singer who sounds like and somewhat resembles Joey Ramone performs a song called "So Socko" (or possibly "So Psycho"). I've heard some people insist that it was, in fact, Joey Ramone in an uncredited role, but it doesn't really look like him and doesn't have Joey's stage presence, i.e, standing still throughout the performance as opposed to moving about the stage. So who was the actual singer for this particular band?

zendaddy621

Answer: The lead singer is Rick Wilder. The band is credited as "Berlin Brats" (The Groups). The song is called "Psychotic", or sometimes listed as " (I'm) Psychotic", but it seems the middle part was cut out for the film or maybe arranged differently for the film.

Bishop73

Calamity Jen - S1-E2

Question: In this episode, there's a commercial about "999" being changed to a ridiculous long number. While I get why it would be funny, was there some basis for joke itself? Like, was there talk about the UK changing the emergency number or something? Or is it just completely random. And when Roy says "how hard is it to remember 911, I mean 999", is this just a joke for American viewers to understand what 999 is? Or do British people say or use "911" too?

Bishop73

Answer: It's a joke on the "118" numbers in the UK. 118 numbers were used for directory enquiries and adverts for them on TV always tried to give a way to easily remember one for a particular company. The fake ad in the show takes it to the extreme. People in the UK do not use "911", the point of the joke was that Roy had forgotten "999" while saying it was easy to remember.

Question: If the package got delivered to the cheating husband, which we see in the scene where he receives it shirtless wearing a cowboy hat, then how did that package end up back on a plane headed to the USA and crash and wash up on beach? Wouldn't that package have been opened by said cheating husband?

Answer: I just re-watched the movie, and realise my previous answer is wrong. Here is what happened. Bettina Petersen, the lady on the Texas ranch, sends a FedEx package to her husband in Russia. She appears to regularly send out packages via FedEx, possibly to customers of her artwork. When the driver picks up the outgoing package, she tells him she will have another on Thursday. That, presumably, is the package that is aboard the doomed FedEx plane that Chuck is on and the one he returns to her four years later.

raywest

But why should that parcel return to her?

It "shouldn't" do anything. If the package raywest is referring to is in fact a second package to whoever, really, that just so happened to be on Chuck's plane, there wasn't actually a reason to return it, he just chose to return it to the sender if he ever made it off that island because that package was his saving grace and his will to get back home. That's the only reason he never opened it and why he returned it just so he could thank them by saying it saved his life.

Chuck returns it to the woman in Texas because it's the closest location. The woman was sending the package overseas, so it's unlikely Chuck would travel out of the country to deliver it. Instead, he returns it to the sender.

raywest

Answer: It appears the package he received contained the divorce papers, which he would have signed and then returned to the woman in the U.S. in a different package.

raywest

Might be possible! And maybe for the reason Bettina Peterson never got them she just took of her ex-husbands name at the ranch to just live free for herself again after her husband cheated on her.

Answer: The package delivered to the soon to be ex-husband has pink wings and the package Chuck never opens has gold wings.

Question: During the sex discussion when Anita says "don't worry the burning sensation is normal" what does she mean by that?

Answer: She's playing like Josie asked her an embarrassing question, in this case, likely related to a urinary tract infection or a sexually transmitted disease.

LorgSkyegon

Question: When Rocky says "Come on" before a round Drago says something angrily, was he cussing in Russian? Also, Rocky and Drago both kept pummeling each other after the bell, Rocky slams Drago, shouldn't they have been disqualified for this stuff?

Rob245

Answer: He is telling his coach "My hands hurt, it's like hitting a slab of iron" referring to Rocky's seemingly superhuman endurance.

Question: I can understand Michael hallucinating his mother but why is he also hallucinating his younger self? Is this supposed to be him remembering an innocent period of his life?

Rob245

Question: Why does Clarice not have the handcuffs on when she is found by the police at the end? if Hannibal cut his hand off, then he would slip the cuffs off and she would still be wearing them. Even if she had the key, there was little time to get them or take the cuffs off.

Answer: She had plenty of time to take the bloodied cuffs off, we only see her again when she is outside looking for Hannibal.

lionhead

Question: As the Cerberus codes have been entered, with the time limit set prior to the missile's destruction, how did Jang expect to leave the country within what I assume was the 5 minute time limit and not feel the fallout from the nuclear missiles, or be killed or at least full of radiation, and also, why take the president then?

Answer: Kang wanted the USA to suffer famine and be a 3rd world country. His plan was to get in, set off all the warheads and plunge the USA into the dark ages. During one of the exchanges between Kang and Mike, Kang says "I just want the USA to experience poverty and famine." So he had no plans to survive his mission. He needed the president to gain the 3rd code incase it couldn't be broken by the hacker. He faked the presidents death to give himself more time with the president.

Ssiscool

Answer: My best guess is they went in knowing it was a suicide mission.

That suggested answer doesn't make any sense. Jang idea was to capture the code to start a war presumably between N &S Korea. There is no indication that Jang's computer whiz had the ability crack the code, or was even trying, and that sounds unlikely. I think the whole story line went off the tracks at that point and they were trying to wrap up the shooting. Pretty shaky in my opinion. Just a movie with some good stars and and a lot of stuff got blown-up and the good guys won.

Answer: The Washington monument is destroyed in one scene and in a later scene, it is fully erect.

This isn't an answer, this seems to be a mistake entry.

Bishop73

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.