Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: How many towers were in the valley? Only one is shown in a distant shot, but most scenes show it right up to, and overlooking, a thickly forested area. However, there is one view where the trees in the near background had bare, upright branches.

scwilliam

Chosen answer: There were two towers, one at the north end of the valley, and one at the south end.

scwilliam

Question: I remember seeing a mini series about the Ripper when I was younger, in which Mary Kelley had a new young prostitute (Ada) "under her wing", just as in this film. Did Ada really exist, and if so are there any evidence that might support that she was murdered in Kelley's place?

Answer: Kelly regularly spent time with several other prostitutes, as we see in the film, but there's no particular evidence that Kelly was acting in a sort of mentor role to any of them. There is, however, evidence that Kelly did share a room with another prostitute, so the fictional 'Ada' may have some small basis in fact. However, none of the reports of Kelly's murder give any indication that there was any doubt about the identity of the victim.

Tailkinker

Question: When he stabs the Witch King Merry seems to be breaking his arm. Later when Pippin finds him he is close to unconscious. Éowyn on the other hand seems to be doing quite alright. Yet in the extended edition Éowyn is brought to a hospital and appears to be ill while Merry is fit to get back into battle the next day. Is this a mistake, or am I missing something.

Answer: Merry doesn't actually break his arm - it's more that the foul energy that surrounds up the Witch King affects Merry when he makes the stab. The energies have a detrimental effect of those exposed to it - Eowyn is close to the Witch King for longer, plus she's the one who makes the killing blow, so she gets a more potent dose. Also, her arm is severely damaged physically during the fight, making it necessary for her to receive greater care than Merry does. In the books, both are taken to the hospital and neither goes to the fight at the Black Gate - it was presumably considered better for a cinematic audience that Merry should go, rather than sidelining one of the Fellowship during the climax of the film.

Tailkinker

Question: I have to question what killed the speedboat's crew at the beginning of the movie. I don't think the Pteradons would be that fast in attacking and they were locked in the cage. I doubt the Spinosaurus would go that far out to sea and kill the people that quickly. What other dino(s) could have done it out at sea and so fast (and were so messy eaters)?

Answer: This passage isn't very satisfying. There certainly were a large number of predatory marine reptiles, but they would have difficulty with a speeding boat, and if they were out in the water, why would they stay just around the island? The Pterosaurs would have been visible, even if they were loose to attack. The Spinosaurus and other terrestrial dinosaurs might paddle across shallow water, but they're not going to grab people off a moving speedboat. Effective scene but hard to correlate to the local lifeforms.

scwilliam

It was pterosaurs. They were already hanging out in the fog. Apparently some were already loose. It even specifically says it's them in either a deleted scene towards the end of the movie, or an alternate ending, when the group gets to the shore and sees the crashed speedboat. It says something like grant recognizes (yes, paleontologists know what pterosaur footprints/tracks look like), or deduces that the prints/scratches/damage appear to be from pterosaurs.

Answer: It was pterosaurs. They were already hanging out in the fog. Apparently some were already loose. It even specifically says it's them in either a deleted scene towards the end of the movie, or an alternate ending, when the group gets to the shore and sees the crashed speedboat. It says something like grant recognizes (yes, paleontologists know what pterosaur footprints/tracks look like), or deduces that the prints/scratches/damage appear to be from pterosaurs.

Question: On the time traveling train there is the initials E.L.B, does anybody know what this stands for?

Answer: ELB are the Doc's initials - his name being Emmett L. Brown. Earlier in the film these initials were also seen on a plank of wood in the mine indicating to Marty where the time machine had been buried for 70 years.

Chimera

Question: No kids in the whole school go into the girls toilet because of Moaning Myrtle. Clearly even Dumbledore would know about this. Not judging Dumbledore, but wouldn't he have asked Myrtle at least 50 years ago when the chamber was re-opened after Myrtle died?

Answer: Myrtle doesn't know anything Dumbledore doesn't already know. He already knew the Chamber was opened. He knew the kind of monster that was released. He just didn't know where it was, and Myrtle couldn't have helped him with that. (Also, there's no evidence that Dumbledore never questioned Myrtle. She just didn't have a lot of information, when you think about it).

K.C. Sierra

Question: Does Howard Shore the composer for the Lord of the Rings trilogy make a cameo appearance as the orchestra conductor at King Kong"s theater debut?

Answer: Yes, he is the conductor.

scwilliam

Question: I recently saw Ghostbusters 2 on Spike TV. when the broadcast came to the point where Winston is pulled into the river of slim, before Vigon and Ray, I noticed the river of slime looked odd. It was as the river had been shrunken down, or the Ghostbusters were enlarged. Am I crazy? If I am not, then why would they make such a trivial alteration?

Answer: SpikeTV didn't alter the movie except for editing for time and content. The scene you saw was in the original film and the way the river looked was a combination of two things, the camera angle and the poor special effects of the time.

moviemogul

Question: What was the red area on the alien's back which Merril hit with the baseball bat? A major organ? Its heart?

Answer: He seems to have deliberately struck where a bipedal creature's spine would have been the most vulnerable. The color was a wound caused by water being poured on it earlier.

scwilliam

Question: When Ed and Shaun are at the Winchester before the zombies break out, Shaun tries to shoot down Ed's high opinion of the Winchester's owner by saying "he says dogs can't look up." Ed says this is true. This bit of trivia comes up several times in the movie and is never answered. So can dogs really look up?

Answer: It's pigs that can't look up.

Answer: Of course they can, everything is up when you are the size of the average dog. They wouldn't have survived long as a species if they were unaware of anything more than a couple of feet off the ground.

Mad Ade

I always thought it meant they can't do it with just their eyes, like they can't roll them upward so they would tilt their head up to see up. But I have seen my dog's eyes peek upward so maybe some other explanation.

Question: Do the individual aliens have cloaking abilities? It seemed at that the dogs were reacting to something that the people could not see. Were they smelling cloaked aliens? Were they going crazy to protect their human owners and that was misinterpreted as an attack on the people? I thought they are walking around at least invisible at times to do their work without detection. I may be wrong on that.

Answer: The aliens were not cloaked, not invisible. They had a chameleon-like ability to change their appearance to match their background. Recall the alien's fingers turning plaid when he held the boy. They seem to be that green color when not camouflaged. The better senses of the dogs did allow them to detect the aliens. However, one of the effects of alien presence noted in the movie was a change in personality; that is what happened to the dogs.

scwilliam

Question: If it's such a hi-tech factory, why is Doris still using an old fashion typewriter when they wave to her?

Answer: Perhaps she prefers the old style typewriter. Besides, the film seems to be set in a parallel time where modern items and more antique items exist quite happily side by side.

Mad Ade

This is further shown by the fact that there don't seem to be any phones.

Answer: Not specifically. There is an earlier episode where they hint that they broke up so that they could remain friends because they were better as friends than as people romantically involved.

Zwn Annwn

Question: What is the name of the song played when the plane leaves the oil rig?

Answer: "Gimme Some Lovin'" by The Spencer Davis Group.

Tina Gilliam

Question: First, let me say that the aliens being affected by only the "contaminants" in the tap water seems to be wrong. Two reason: 1)The Indian vet mentions that they don't like water, and 2) the aliens were avoiding areas with large bodies of water nearby. My question is this: wouldn't humans, who are over half water, be toxic to the aliens? Even if they processed the humans with different equipment and took precautions to avoid blood or body fluids, wouldn't carrying off a sweaty person burn the aliens? Seems like a dangerous harvest.

Answer: It could be that they are affected by the chlorine in the tap water (humans are affected by chlorine to, just look at Mustard Gas) to a greater extent then humans. The vet is only speculating about the landing sites. And while it is true that humans are mostly water, it is saline (i.e. salty like sweat) and has different chemical properties to pure H2O.

Soylent Purple

Well water does not contain chlorine.

Question: When Pippin and Merry collide with Frodo and Sam in the corn field they seem to be acquainted with Frodo but nothing more than that. Yet they still end up going with him on the journey. I didn't quite understand why they chose to do so, are they better friends in the books?

Answer: In the book, Frodo's departure is much less rushed - it takes him several months to depart rather than leaving the same night. Merry and Pippin, being among his closest friends, help him pack and so are with him right from the start of the journey. In the film, the timeframe has been considerably compressed for dramatic reasons, so things are much less organised - as such, it became necessary for Frodo and Sam to encounter Merry and Pippin along the way. They're still intended to be friends, but the depth of that friendship is less clear.

Tailkinker

Question: What was the dance move announced by the DJ at the disco, that is an 80's dance move and not a 70's dance move, which has been added as a mistake, as the film was set in the 70's?

Answer: The dance move could quite easily have been a known move of the time which only gained popularity in the 1980's. The same thing happened with Michael Jackson's "Moonwalk" which had been performed by dancers and mime artists for decades before he made it popular and widely known.

Mad Ade

Question: Donnie's purpose was to ensure that that the engine fell into the primary universe by sending his mother and sister on the plane. Why was it so important that his mother had to board the plane? Wouldn't it have gone down without her anyway?

Answer: No they didn't have to be on the plane and it would have gone down without her but Donnie and his sister had to have the party for the remaining events to work. In burning down Cunningham's house, Kitty would have to stay behind and help Cunningham. This would ensure Donnie's mother would therefore leave and the remaining events could occur.

Lummie

Question: What is the song that Emma sings with Frank Churchill when she plays the pianoforte?

Answer: The song is 'Silent Worship' by Handel.

ChiChi

Question: How do they know that Gretkov must be arrested?

Answer: Pamela Landy and her team both talked to the Russian Minister of the Interior and went to Moscow. Surely it didn't take the Russians long to figure out who Abbot and Conklin's associate was...assuming they didn't already know.

scwilliam

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