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: Since the destruction of Cyberdyne in the end of the movie, even considering that "Pops" is from the original (now alternate) timeline, wouldn't that fact alone delete the existence of the Terminator?

Movie Nut

Chosen answer: If we accept the theory that alternate timelines even exist, branching off every time there is deliberate interference through time travel, then it becomes entirely possible for time travelers to continue existing in alternate timelines, even if they erased their own origins.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: David Nix is talking about how they saw the iceberg and warned the Titanic, but the monitor was built after the world fair in 1963, and the Titanic sank in 1912 - how is it possible for that to happen?

Answer: He was using it as a metaphor. The Titanic being mankind heading towards its own destruction. Man was warned of the dangers (wars, global warming, etc) and we didn't do anything to change our ways, "went full stem ahead".

Bishop73

Question: When Mr. Nobody and Dom are negotiating a deal to help each other out Dom says he will only do it if it's his way and his team. Mr Nobody agrees and Brian, Tej, and Roman arrive. My question is: Dom had left Han's funeral to pursue Shaw before encountering Mr. Nobody and his men and they apparently don't take long to come to an agreement so how were Brian, Roman, and Tej able to change clothes from the funeral and get the call from Mr. Nobody so fast?

Answer: Mr. Nobody is shown to know Dom very well by the way he grabs a bucket of Coronas on ice as soon as Dom says he is a Corona man. Therefore it's easy to predict that Dom would want his team, so got his men to collect them.

Ssiscool

Question: Is the doctor carrying a double barrel shotgun but his ammo belt has rifle bullets?

Answer: He's carrying a Holland and Holland "Royal" Double Rifle (popularly known as an "elephant gun"), which was introduced in 1918 using large-caliber rim-fire rifle cartridges. The H&H Royal Double Rifle was (and still is) available in a variety of calibers, the largest of which is a truly enormous.700 cal, typically used by big-game hunters on African safaris.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why does Keaton ask Soze/Verbal in the opening scene what time it is? I read somewhere that in the DVD commentary it's said that Keaton placed a bomb somewhere on the ship set to midnight, but the scene was cut. But if this is true, why was the time 12:30 when Keaton asks and why even keep the line where he asks the time if they didn't keep the scene with the time bomb?

DolphinGirlLJ

Chosen answer: I believe it's simply to show the gold watch, which Verbal gets back at the end, same as the gold lighter they show in the beginning.

shanex

Question: Is it ever explained why Dory has her memory problems? Why she has such an incredibly bad memory, even for one of her species? Head injury, exposure to a chemical, genetic?

dizzyd

Chosen answer: In the absence of a neuropsychological work-up, we have only Dory's word for it: "I have short term memory loss...It runs in my family...at least, I think it does." So, Dory believes it to be genetic. At least, I think she does.

Michael Albert

Answer: Because she has short term memory loss.

Question: Dikembe Umbutu stated that his country had been fighting the aliens from the only City Destroyer that landed for nearly 10 years. However, it's stated later in the movie that the surviving aliens were in a catatonic state after the destruction of the mothership, and woke up when their queen arrived 20 years later. So were some aliens not psychically affected by the loss of the mothership's queen and continued a ground war?

Answer: General Adams was only referring to the aliens in the Area 51 prison as having been in a catatonic state for 20 years, not all of the aliens that survived after the mothership was destroyed. Presumably, the aliens in the prison came from the City Destroyer that crashed near Area 51, but the aliens Dikembe fought came from the landed Destroyer, and with their ship intact (and given the fact that it was trying to drill to the core) those aliens retained more of a will to fight.

I don't buy that. After man kind fought the aliens the fiercest war it had known, it let an alien unit go on fighting an African militia for 10 years without providing help? I would imagine if at the end of the war there were still aliens with fighting spirit, world armies would be all over them.

There is a novel authorized by the filmmakers called "Independence Day: Crucible" that takes place between both movies. It explains that Dikembe's father fought a ground war against the aliens from the landed destroyer, all the while stubbornly refusing help from the outside world.

Question: How does Splinter know who shredder is? It's established that his first memories are from the lab so that's how he knows Eric Sacks is a bad guy and April saved them, but how does Splinter know Sacks is working for the foot and is connected to shredder? He even knows shredder trained Sacks as a boy, but this was in Japan, 20 to 30 years before Splinter was around.

Answer: Sacks told April that he was raised in Japan by a local sensei, and that he shared the lessons he learnt with her father. Splinter would have overheard Sacks mention his master at the lab, as well as when O'Neil discovered what he was up to with Project Renaissance and his connection to Shredder and the Foot Clan.

Sierra1

Question: After Frank is essentially forced to abandon Brenda in order to avoid not getting caught at the airport he resumes his farce as a pilot and recruits young women as his accompanying stewardesses. Roughly how long does this thing with the stewardesses possibly last? Did he really risk to include them in his "trip" around the world to various countries to continue his fraud because obviously he abandoned them at some point and ended up in France where he was caught.

Answer: It lasts several months. The stewardesses were juniors and seniors from the University of Arizona, whom he fake-recruited for a PR project for Pan-Am (they were not supposed to be real stewardesses, but dress like them and be photographed in various European capitols). Frank was frequently being asked where his "crew" was, so he thought it would lend him credibility.

Question: I heard there's a scene in the credits where Eddie's bunkmate is snorting cocaine, but I just can't find it. Could I please have a little help?

MikeH

Kamp Krusty - S4-E1

Question: When the kids take over Kamp Krusty, Lisa hands out all the kids' confiscated mail to them and one of them says "My insulin." How did that kid survive at that camp all that time (whilst it was being run by the bullies and Mr Black), without their insulin and not become ill due to not being able to treat their diabetes?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: He assumedly arrived at camp with a supply. The shtick is that the counselors are so cruel they'd withhold his lifesaving medication.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Most likely Roddy and Rita freed them after defeating Toad and Le Frog.

Chosen answer: Like any cinematic depiction of ANY behavior, "Leaving Las Vegas" is a depiction of extremes of behavior. Keep in mind that Nic Cage wasn't merely trying to catch a buzz in this film, he was trying to commit suicide-by-alcohol, which is extreme. If anything, Nic Cage's performance was far too animated and articulate for someone dying of alcoholism. Seldom are the final, terminal stages of alcoholism worthy of depiction in a feature film. So, the answer is no.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: How did Nicolas Cage manage to keep his job for so long? You'd think he'd get fired for coming to work drunk the first time.

MikeH

Chosen answer: On the contrary, the social contacts at work typically tolerate, sympathize with, and even enable alcoholics and other substance abusers, because many of the other employees are also similarly (and secretly) engaged in addictive behavior of their own to varying degrees. Usually, no action is taken until the addictive behavior starts affecting company income, insurance and morale. So, some substance abusers can lead lengthy careers within a company before the hammer falls.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Is Joker's girlfriend the same girl who is with Cruz in the car when he gets attacked?

Answer: No.

Question: To find south why not look at the sun. East to West?

Answer: That would only work when the sun is visible. In Alaska there are frequent rainy and overcast days where the sun is completely blocked by heavy clouds, making a precise directional determination difficult, if not impossible.

raywest

The Corbomite Maneuver - S1-E11

Question: In this episode, the navigator, Mr. Bailey, has an earpiece only for the length of time it takes to notify the crew of the message coming in over the navigation beam. Why is it that no time before, or since, that anyone at the conn or navigation positions never had one?

Movie Nut

Chosen answer: This was an early episode and TV shows often make small changes to set design, props, equipment, and so on as the program progresses. Most likely it was felt that this particular prop was not effective and the producers decided to eliminate it.

raywest

Answer: That they are bitter rivals, the gung ho general didn't like the young know it all kid telling him what to do and what he was doing wrong.

Question: In the post-credit scene, The Tank gang are seen still trapped in their now algae-covered plastic bags as they reach California. Since this movie takes place a year after "Finding Nemo" (2003), how did these fish survive without eating anything for a whole year?

Answer: Algae on the inside of the bag?

dizzyd

Then what about being able to breathe or not being eaten?

Answer: Cooper's CIA superior, Ross, learns that Cooper is attempting to oust him by making false accusations so he can become the CIA director. Ross devises his own plan to fool Cooper into believing that someone who can exonerate him is arriving at the airport. Ross sends one of his agents to the airport to randomly chose a man to appear to be the person that Ross is expecting. The agent selects Richard Drew because he is wearing mismatched shoes, the result of a trick a friend played on him. Cooper, who had bugged Ross' house, overheard the fake conversation and fell for the bait. He sends his own agent to the airport, who spots Ross' man with Richard and begins trailing him. Of course, Richard has no idea what is happening.

raywest

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