Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: In the end of the movie just after Ron sacrifices himself to the Queen to win the chess game, he falls to the floor unconscious. But before the scene cuts, a rock flies past his head, he winces, and it leaves a red mark. Did he really get it by a rock during filming or was it added in later?

Answer: The debris from the exploding chess piece was not real; this looks like a combination of computer-generated special effect (CGI) as well some type of a light-weight material (such as Styrofoam) made to appear real and is tossed at Rupert Grint (Ron) from off-screen. Considering the stringent safety standards and precautions that are employed in today's film industry, particularly regarding child actors, and also the multiple times that scenes are shot to get it right, it is unlikely that this was anything that actually could have hurt him.

raywest

Question: What exactly happened to the Ghostbusters between the first film and this film? Why was a restraining order taken out against them?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: After the initial high of saving the city from Gozer wore off, they were blamed for the danger in the first place and sued out of business. The restraining order was additional insult to injury.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Gozer vanished to either give them the sense of accomplishment that they won OR she realized that the proton energy stream COULD do her harm. She vanished and then had one of them choose "the destroyer", which was the Stay-Puft marshmallow man.

CCARNI

Question: At the end of the "We Are One" song, Simba and Kiara have returned to pride rock around sunset. Fine, fine, but the thing that's been bugging me for years is: Kiara stares intently at something, causing Simba to frown and look up to see what she sees. He seems to chuckle, then turns back to her. What is it that they were looking at before he says "You'll understand some day" and why is it there?

Answer: Kiara is staring at the tip of Pride Rock and thinking of the that she will be a leader one day, due to the fact that shown in the first movie that this is where the new kings/queens roar to show that they are the new rulers. Simba notices her looking and chuckles at the irony of him having wanting to be leader so badly at her age and Kiara not wanting to be a leader at all.

diehardtwihard

Question: Was there a particular reason why the defending champion only fought in the last fight/round? Why exactly did the rules change in this tournament?

Socks1000

Answer: It was a new rule just brought in that year. Defending champion only had to fight in the final.

Chosen answer: My guess is that they wanted to give everyone a chance to fight to the end without a bunch of people needing to fight the previous champion, and therefore be knocked out early by someone of obviously higher skill.

Johnny Lawrence was the champ the previous year. And he fought his way to the championship.

As mentioned previously, it's stated in the film that it's a new rule that the champion on fights in the last round.

Question: When the final battle scene is over, Megatron is badly injured and vulnerable. Is there a reason why Optimus Prime doesn't finish him off, other than leaving room for another sequel?

Answer: Prime's priority is the Fallen. Megatron's a lesser threat at the time; Prime's focus elsewhere gives him time to get clear of the situation once the Fallen is eliminated. Plus, as you say, it does leave things open for a sequel.

Tailkinker

Question: What became of Martin and Beth after the the gene-swapping sequence? also, were Bartoks' employees aware of Bartoks' transformation?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Presumably they go on to live relatively normal lives. The scene at the end of Bartok is meant to show that his employees have no sympathy for any creature, including him, who is suffering. At least some of them are aware it's Bartok, yet they allow him to be imprisoned and gawked at, just as they did the dog.

Chosen answer: He left the show because Michael Shanks decided to come back to the show the next season.

Kevin Howard

Chosen answer: Warlock is his computer name just like Keanu Reeves' character in The Matrix is called Neo even though his "real" name is Thomas Anderson.

Shannon Jackson

Chosen answer: They wanted a good mix of pollutants to turn the planet into a giant cloning facility. Something humanity was well on its way to doing for them.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Her motives are never explained. One possibility would be curiosity, a simple experiment in human infant physiology. Another, perhaps more likely one from her subsequent look of apparent distress is that it was, in an odd way, an act of mercy, giving an innocent baby a swift death, rather than leaving it to die in the nuclear fire or of radiation poisoning afterwards.

Tailkinker

Question: I have a couple of questions regarding Jean Grey: 1) What exactly caused her to turn against the X-Men and join Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants? 2) Why did she kill Scott and Professor Xavier?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It's not exactly Jean. It is her alternate personality known as the Phoenix that has full control. The Phoenix, unlike Jean, wishes to use her powers for her own needs. She kills Scott because she cannot control her powers, and kills Xavier because he is able to lock her back in Jean's mind.

Chosen answer: An apparent long string of illnesses.

Answer: Joan Mavis Trotter (Nee Hollins) was an unseen character in Only Fools And Horses, having died in 1964, 17 years before the series began. She died of an alcohol related illness due to both her sham marriage to Reg Trotter and being hit hard by the death of her secret lover Freddie "The Frog" Robdal.

Ssiscool

Answer: Short of breath.

Chosen answer: We are never given any direct indication that they know Reese's importance. They don't appear to know that Reese is Connor's father. They are merely using him as bait for Connor. They must know that John is interested in someone named Kyle Reese and figure that news of his capture would bring them the man they really want.

Garlonuss

Show generally

Question: How does Number Six appear in Gaius Baltar's' mind? Is she a vision of some kind? Does he have a chip inside his head? Or is it something else entirely?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Well, that's one of the big questions of the show and it's answered in the final episodes. She's, to use Baltar's term, an "angel". Beings who appear in the form of loved ones to help and guide us. Most of the time, they only appear in the head of one person, but the final season had one angel that everyone could see and interact with.

Garlonuss

Question: How could the citizens of Springfield breathe with a dome over their town?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: There were still trees in town to create oxygen, however, in all probability, the EPA meant for everyone to die off eventually.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: We're led to believe Rover is some kind of robot in the series. According to books on the show, Patrick McGoohan was looking for an unusual guardian for the Village, looked up at the sky, and saw a weather balloon, which was what Rover was.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: It's never actually mentioned on the show, though in the 'Continuum' universe, she says she's been with Ba'al for 50 years.

MoonFaery

Chosen answer: Before Q sent the Enterprise to the beta quadrant to officially contact the Borg, there were already indications that the Borg was beginning to reach Federation territory. There were remarks towards the end of the first season of the Next Generation that several of the furthest Federation outposts were being attacked by some unknown enemy. They suspected the Romulans, but when contact with the Romulans was re-established, they learned that it was not them. The Hansens had simply figured things out much earlier than anyone else in the Federation. They learned about the Borg nine years earlier, but Starfleet mainly took notice when their outposts started getting wiped out. It is logical to assume that there were indications of Borg scouting parties and research efforts well before that.

Garlonuss

Answer: Add to that the two transport ships at the start of Star Trek Generations were carrying El-Aurian refugees to Earth. It wasn't stated in the film what they were refugees of, but Guinan would state in TNG that the Borg wiped out her planet and most of people, so it's a safe bet that's what it was. And with 47 El-Aurians being rescued by the Enterprise-B, there were plenty of people to tell Starfleet about this cybernetic threat. At the time though, Starfleet did not have the ability or resources to investigate this further, and it was eventually forgotten when other things became important until the Enterprise-D encountered that cube at J-25.

Chosen answer: That's just how long it took. We are still digging up artifacts that are thousands of years old. It takes as long as it takes. Add to that the fact that, at the time the Borg came, Earth was still recovering from a massive war, and it's safe to assume that it took a while for complete exploration and research missions to get going full bore again. Also, they didn't know to look there. There would be no reason to simply head off to some random site in the Arctic and start digging.

Garlonuss

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