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: I saw a trailer for the film in which the scene in the hotel (between Holmes and Irene Adler) appears to be different - she's wearing a short black and red outfit instead of the peach coloured one, and she physically knocks him out instead of drugging him (she first tries to use her hairclip as a weapon). Why was this changed, and is it on the DVD?

cherry_girl

Chosen answer: Oftentimes scenes that appear in a trailer don't appear in the final movie. The trailers are sometimes created months in advance of the release of the movie, and sometimes scenes are removed for pacing reasons or to reduce the overall runtime, or are only intended for the trailer. Occasionally those scenes might be put back into a movie on its DVD/Blu-ray release, or might be included in a 'deleted scenes' section, or often are simply omitted altogether.

GalahadFairlight

Question: What in the world was 8 doing when he had the magnet over his head and he became all relaxed?

Answer: The magnet was acting as a drug on him. He was in a way getting high off a magnet.

Answer: You know the Futurama scene where bender gets high off electricity? Same thing. Magnets make electrical things not work (I'm pretty sure I heard it from some where). It's like how drinking alcohol and taking drugs makes us not totally there. It's what story writers believe happens. Pretty cool story element really.

YellowBird

Question: Why is it that when the Trojans invade the shores at daybreak to initiate the second battle, it is quite obvious that Brad Pitt was playing the role of Patroclus only until his throat was cut? First, you can see Pitt's face in Achilles' helmet in the close-up shots when he is about to start fighting with Hector. Second, you can see the significant change in Patroclus' physique before and after Hector cut his throat.

Ivan-sama

Chosen answer: Watching the scene carefully, I would say that Garrett Hedlund plays the character throughout. Hedlund does bear a notable resemblence to Pitt - he was undoubtedly cast as Patroclus for that reason, both because their characters are cousins and because of the requirement to successfully pull off the masquerade as Achilles during the scene - and thus could readily be mistaken for him, given that his face is rarely seen clearly throughout the scene. However, it's not unreasonable that they might have used Pitt in a couple of key shots, in order to preserve the illusion that this really is Achilles fighting, to bring the audience along in making the same mistake that the Greek army have. As for the physique, it can be seen in their introductory sword-fighting scene that Hedlund and Pitt have roughly similar builds - any perceived change in physique is most likely an illusion caused by the shift between standing in a fighting stance and lying limply on the ground.

Tailkinker

Question: I'm really confused, and need help with this. I saw the second BTTF, so I saw the scene when Doc explains the two timelines and changing the future, but I'm still confused. If what Doc said was true, when Marty got hit by the car, he would have changed the future by preventing his parents from marrying. Therefore, there are now several timelines in the movie all going off at the same time. According to the movie, the first one is a timeline where Marty goes into the time machine back to 1955, and he has a loser for a father. There is also a timeline just like the first one, but George punched Biff, making him cool in the future. Another, alternate timeline is also present where Marty's parents haven't married, Marty doesn't exist, and none of the events from the first two timelines happen in this timeline. However, if this were true, all three timelines would have to be there, as Marty jumps from timeline to timeline in the movie and then in the end, watched himself do it again. First he would be in the regular timeline, then as he prevents his parents from meeting, he is in the other timeline. As he puts his parents back together and goes to 1985, he is now in the "cool father timeline". That is how I see the movie. Can somebody help shed some light on the subject for me?

Answer: To be honest, it sounds like you've got a reasonably good handle on the situation. Initially Marty's in a 1955 where his parents will marry after George is hit by the car, but his father will be the loser we see in Marty's original 1985. The moment that Marty gets hit by the car, the future is changed and he's now in a timeline where his parents will never get married and thus he will not be born. The timeline begins to slowly alter (time is shown to have a resistance to change in the series), giving Marty enough time to reengineer his parents' meeting before he's erased from existence as the new timeline exerts itself. The way he handles it creates a third timeline where his parents do get married and go on to be cool and thus when he returns to 1985 at the end of the first film, that's the timeline he's in. The other Marty that he sees there is one who grew up in that third timeline, with the cool parents, and thus may be a bit different, but who still met Doc at some point, rendezvoused with him at the mall and ultimately went back in time after encountering the terrorists, where he'll encounter the young loser version of his father and will have to turn him into the cool, confident man that he grew up with. In the second film, old Biff goes back in time and gives his younger self the sports almanac, which changes the timeline again, now creating a fourth timeline where George and Lorraine still marry and are cool, but George will subsequently be murdered by this timeline's rich and powerful version of Biff, leading to the 1985 we see in the middle section of the second film. When Marty and Doc go back to 1955 from there, they arrive in the same timeline, the one where Biff will go on to be rich and powerful. As a result of their actions there, stealing the almanac from young Biff and destroying it, they technically create a fifth timeline, one where events in 1955 played out slightly differently but which is otherwise effectively identical to the third timeline, where Marty's parents are cool and successful in the present day. It is quite a complicated situation, with several different timelines involved, and I have no idea how well I explained it, but hopefully that helped a little bit, at least.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Toph had Katara use it to send a letter to her parents. It never returned.

Question: Why, when he gets shot, does he put duct tape on his abdomen over his shirt? Shouldn't it be under?

Answer: Not really, imagine how painful the duct tape would be to remove from the bare skin around a wound. Putting it over the shirt still applies the pressure needed but with out the adhesive skin contact which would cause more problems later on.

Mad Ade

Show generally

Question: So what exactly did happen to Carly's parents that she is left with her brother, Spencer? I think in one episode Carly mentions the Marines or something, but that still doesn't answer where her mom is.

Answer: Their father is in the military and is on a submarine and the mother is never mentioned.

Shannon Jackson

Question: There is one part of the film I didn't quite understand. The whole war at the end of the movie was to stop the humans to bomb the Tree of Souls. However, wasn't that tree already destroyed by the dozers the morning after they "mate for life"? Also, how was Jake with the tree praying before the war when it was destroyed?

Answer: I was confused about that too, when I saw the flim, but it's actually the tree of voices that is destroyed, not the tree of souls. They look almost identical, the tree of souls is never destroyed. That's what Jake is praying to before the war.

Question: Do the Avatar alien creatures on Pandora connect with horses, dragons, the soul tree or whatever with their tail or a pigtail in their hair or both?

Answer: The connect with the pink fibrous tentacles contained in their hair.

Sanguis

Question: The terrorist group is called the ten rings. Does that refer to The Mandarin whose power in the cartoon came from his ten rings?

Ivan-sama

Chosen answer: It's intended as a subtle nod to the character, yes. It's been suggested that the Mandarin might be the villain in a future third film, so using the name "The Ten Rings" was a bit of foreshadowing that there might be a greater power behind the terrorist group.

Tailkinker

Question: Where did Agamemnon get the horses for his chariot? Did he bring them with the ship? Because I can't imagine having a horse on a ship.

Ivan-sama

Chosen answer: Difficult as it might be to imagine, they did indeed transport the horses by ship. Historical evidence indicates that ships of the period could have specific modifications made to their decks in order to carry horses safely. As such, while Agamemnon would not have had them on board his personal ship that we see in the film, it's reasonable to assume that he had a modified "horse carrier" among his fleet.

Tailkinker

Answer: According to me, it's possible that they stole the horses from Trojans after the first battle on the beach, where only Hector left alive and took his own horse, whereas the other horses were held by Achilles' men.

Question: Couldn't the events of the movie have been avoided if Frank just let Donnie get hit by the jet engine and die from the beginning instead of waking him up and taking him out of his room?

sccrkeepa00

Chosen answer: In short: no. Because of the films themes of wormholes, time travel, alternative dimensions/parallel universes and meta-physics the events of the film had to happen the way the did or else they wouldn't have happened at all! It's very difficult to wrap your head around but it's one of the many many paradoxes caused by time travel (cause and effect becoming effect and cause).

Sanguis

Show generally

Question: In a few episodes, I've noticed a small black 'Reserved' sign on the coffee table that the friends always hang out at, is this how they always manage to get that sofa every time they go to the Central Perk? I didn't know that you could call and reserve tables at coffee shops.

Eclipse

Chosen answer: Obviously, you can't. But this is a TV show and much of the action takes place around the sofa and coffee table. This employs the viewer using "suspension of disbelief" to allow the plots to play out.

raywest

Question: This question might sound odd, but how has La Carlotta become so successful if a lot of people don't like her voice very much (as seen when she sings "Think of Me" before Christine tries)?

Answer: The fact that the "in the know" people don't like her doesn't mean that she doesn't have a huge public and make a killing at the box office. On top of that, she was their "Diva." She may not have necessarily had many fans (in some versions they comment that there were no refunds, with Christine singing). Therefore, it can be assumed that given that she was the Diva if she didn't get her way, things would be bad on their end. Likely why her husband (who also did not sing well, due to his deep accent) was another main role in all the operas. They may have also thought there was nobody else who could handle the main roles. It takes a strong person to take on so many lines. And you need to project your voice, which heaven knows she had a loud one.

Sereenie

Question: Jessie is using a car design program from the Supra. Does anyone know either what the program is or where to get it?

Neon_Turbo

Chosen answer: It's not a real program, just some CGI. As well as when the pictures of "what it could look like" show up. Those are existing pictures of the car.

Question: Why did Obi-wan say to Luke "You will go to the Dagobah system" as opposed to "You must go"? Was he simply giving him an order? Seems strange considering Luke was very close to freezing to death when he said it.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Obi-wan's one with the Force at this point, so, given that the Force has been shown to grant precognitive visions, he may simply have seen that Luke survives and does go to Dagobah and is telling Luke that he will go there as a statement of fact. Or it could just be a bit poorly worded.

Tailkinker

Question: Did the arriving FBI agents at the end of the movie let Seth leave because they knew he was going to testify against the firm?

Answer: Yes. Actually, with the help of Seth's dad, he cut a deal to testify.

William Bergquist

Question: How does being magnetised give you the power to delete tape footage? Wouldn't that work for DVDs, but not for VHS? Also I noticed in the scene where Jerry walks into the video store magnetised, the screen on the tv got all staticky every time I watched it. Was the static intentional?

Answer: VHS is data magnetically encoded on tape. A magnet will wipe them out. DVD/CD's are data encoded in plastic with a laser. Magnets won't hurt them in the slightest. Yes, the static was intentional, magnets can interfere with televisions.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Why would Skynet want to kill Kyle Reese? If he doesn't go back, he won't destroy the first Terminator, and that arm will not end up becoming Miles Dyson's inspiration for creating Skynet (as stated in T2), and if Skynet isn't created at that point, they will never exist in the future. Surely the machines would work this out, and make sure the loop is completed (i.e, not killing Kyle so Connor can send him back?

Answer: No because the timestream clearly has some flex in it for changes, but Judgment Day is inevitable. The arm and chip were destroyed, yet Skynet was still built in T3. In all the timelines, Skynet is built and John Connor beats it. So killing Kyle or John is Skynet's only real option.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Are the Na'Vi aware or at least able to sense if one of their kind is an Avatar? They don't seem all that surprised when they encounter one of their own kind wearing army clothing and wielding a human weapon (they actually go so far as to dub Jake a 'dreamwalker,' which I took to be their term for a Na'vi body being remotely controlled by another being), yet later on when Jake and co.'s true status as impersonators is revealed, Tsu'Tey makes a huge uproar of disgust about it.

Answer: The Avatars have five fingers while the Na'vi only have four - the avatars' eyes are larger and they have eyebrows and avatar noses are more humanlike vs the na'vi's more catlike noses; the Na'vi simply tolerate the avatars (remember Neytiri tried to kill Jake). Tsu'Tey isn't angry that they are actually human, he's angry that their ulterior motive is trying to get them to leave their home.

Sanguis

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