Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: There's a few things I didn't understand in this film: 1) What's the deal with Jill? Did she really love Mr. McBain or did she just marry for money etc? 2) After she sees the McBain's bodies, why does Jill search the house? Is she checking to see whether anything was stolen? 3) When Jill meets Harmonica in the barn, why does he rip her dress? 4) What's whole thing with Jill and Frank near the end? What exactly happens?

Answer: 1) Jill is a prostitute from New Orleans. She seeks out a new life out West. Love is irrelevant here. 2) She was promised a country living, a family, and wealth. That's why she is looking not only for money or gold but also for the reason her family was killed. 3) So Leone can show her beautiful body. 4) She's saving her life. She's a prostitute and I guess she knows how to fake it. Remember: "There's nothing that can't washed off by a hot bath".

Answer: "Leone fools us into thinking that Harmonica is a criminal and sexual predator in the scene in Jill's barn in which Harmonica rips off the white lace beneath the bodice of Jill's dress. This act, that seems to betoken sexual aggression and to anticipate rape, is actually one of protection. Harmonica represents no more of a sexual threat than Cheyenne does. What Harmonica realises, and Jill does not, is that Frank's sharpshooters wait for her in the hills above her house and that the white of her dress makes her an easy target. He might have explained this situation more carefully to her, of course, but Leone's characters seem to almost thrive on, or to court, ill opinion. Moreover, when Harmonica's shots ring out at the well and Jill realises he is actually intent on protecting rather than brutalizing her, the effect is all the more dramatic for his having given her no hint of his intentions. Leone's heroes do not like to wear their morality on their sleeves." (John Fawell).

Question: About 3/4 of the way through the film, Vincennes finds the body of the actor he arrested early in the movie, with his throat slit. Who killed him and why?

Answer: Reynolds has been sent by Sid Hudgens to sleep with Loew, the District Attorney. Dudley Smith and Pearce Patchett, who are trying to take over everything, have been threatening Loew, who initially refused to play along. They set Loew up, probably in much the same way that Hudgens tried to, with the intention of blackmailing him with photos so that he couldn't prosecute them. According to Loew, who spills the details while Bud's dangling him out of the window, Reynolds overheard all this - presumably Smith and/or Patchett followed Loew to the motel room to do the blackmailing - so they killed him.

Tailkinker

Question: What does "Here's Johnny" mean? Torrance says this as he chops down the bathroom door.

Answer: "Here's Johnny" is a classic line used on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson hosted. Anytime Johnny would enter the stage at the beginning of the show, Ed McMahon would shout "Here's Johnny" as his introduction. Jack Nicholson ad-libbed the line.

T Poston

Question: In the Warg battle, Aragorn accidentally falls over a cliff and doesn't return to Helm's Deep until much later, when everyone believes he is dead. This doesn't occur in the book (in fact, neither does the Warg battle, but I can see why the battle was added, to spruce up an otherwise boring scene). Can anyone explain what benefit Aragorn's accident had to the storyline?

Answer: This was done to add to the tension; in part for the audience, but in larger part for the characters. As Peter Jackson said, when asked about this issue, those who have read the books know what happens to Aragorn throughout the story, and will not think for a second that he truly has perished in the river, but for some viewers coming new to the whole thing, this adds some tension for them... more importantly, though, we see the reactions of the characters; they grieve for Aragorn as if they will not see him again, and even though we know otherwise - perhaps, in part, beCAUSE we know otherwise - we are sympathetic to that. It also serves to highlight the friendship, the true fellowship, that existed amongst them. Finally, PJ also said that he didn't want the whole journey to seem too easy; the heroes just wading through every battle felling enemies and not getting a scratch themselves; he wanted to show that they were vulnerable.

STP

Question: What's the name of the song , and who is/are the artist[s] who performed it, when we first see Peter leading a normal life after he quits as Spider-man?

Answer: Pretty sure the song you are talking about is "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" performed by B.J. Thomas.

T Poston

Question: When the Fat Lady is gone out of the portrait, Harry is carrying something in his hand. Someone told me it was a gift that Ron gave to Harry when he was in Hogsmeade. Does anyone know what it is?

Answer: It's supposed to be the Sneakoscope that in the book is given to him by Ron at the very beginning of the book.

wolfchild

Question: As with the other two films, did Viggo Mortensen have to grow in his facial hair? To me, it looked just full enough to be natural.

Answer: It is Viggo's own facial hair that appears in all three films.

Super Grover

Question: What happened to Kelly's genius friend Arby who, in the book, went with her to the island?

Answer: Like with most adaptations from book to film, some characters weren't needed and therefore not included in the movie script.

Question: Can anyone tell me why some of the subtitles change font, such as during one of Legolas' lines while the Rohirrim are being gathered?

Answer: It is in one font when they are just speaking (those are the ones you can turn on and off) and a different, fancier font when they are speaking Elvish.

Question: Maybe I missed a major plot point, but why exactly does Tom kill his lover at the very end?

Krista

Chosen answer: Tom & his lover are travelling on a boat. The rich girl, who knows Tom as Dickie is also on the boat. If they were to meet, Tom's false identity would have been revealed, and the lover would have been able to figure out that Tom actually murdered Dickie.

marfbody

Answer: He had to kill him. Tom couldn't kill Meredith because she wasn't alone and Peter was.

ChristmasJonesfan

Show generally

Question: BoB is virtually free from major script "errors" like in Saving Private Ryan. I am referring to strongly questionable military tactical behavior, which bother me a lot with SVP. (Miller making his own interpretation of military priorities, the strange assault on the machine gun nest etc.). To which extent did the BoB crew consider the script "errors" of SPR when they made BoB? Or is it a mere coincidence that the feeling of military amateurism one gets from watching SPR, is completely gone with BoB?

Airborne Ranger

Chosen answer: The makers of Band of Brothers were very particular about getting things right. It helped immeasurably that BoB was initially based on the book by the military historian Stephen Ambrose, who based it entirely on interviews with the real individuals. Scripts for the episodes were shown to some of the surviving members of Easy Company, and their suggestions were incorporated into the show, as, indeed, were they. It's not so much that they actively considered the 'errors' of SPR - it's more that the source material (the recollections of those who were really there) that was available to them was so accurate that none of these types of errors ever entered the equation.

Tailkinker

Lockdown - S8-E3

Question: Why didn't Anubis just kill the members of SG1 when he Zatted them? He would've been dying to kill them considering they wiped out his fleet and destroyed his physical shield.

Question: When Hermione, Harry and Ron are in Hagrid's hut and the Ministry of Magic Knock on the door, what is it that Hagrid puts a blanket over?

Answer: A bit earlier in that scene, he tosses food to a new 'pet', aka a new strange creature, that catches it in his 'mouth' and that is what he covers up, because he doesn't want his new 'pet' to be confiscated/sent back to its own kind, just like Norbert was.

Super Grover

Question: During the 'Bring It On' tryout scene parody, after Sandy-Sue has said "It's just swell to meet all of you", Priscilla says "P A G (or P E G) - I assume you brought a routine?". What does P A G (or P E G) stand for?.?

Answer: She says "Peachy".

Myridon

Answer: It was, yes. The filmmakers deliberately didn't bother with anything resembling film continuity, intending to make this a completely new character.

Tailkinker

Question: I'm curious, why is it stated that the Tigriss of Gaul is the only undefeated gladiator? Wouldn't Proximo be an undefeated Gladiator, seeing as how he won the wooden sword? I do take in mind that Proximo could not be counted because he was set free, but could someone clear this up for me?

Answer: Gladiators weren't automatically killed on losing a fight - it almost certainly wasn't even the norm. As such, a gladiator could be defeated, but be spared to fight again and, if luck was with him, ultimately retire in some fashion.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the significance of Danny's whole "house" speech? "Because the house always wins. If you play long enough, never change the stakes, the house takes you. Unless, when the perfect hand comes you bet big, and then you take the house" ?

Answer: Basically, what he's saying is that the casinos are set up so that, in the long term, they win - obviously, really, as they have to make a profit - and that the only way to win there is, when you have a really good hand, to go for it in a big way, and only then can you come out on top. It's about taking an opportunity when you see it - a roundabout way of referring to his own plan, which is extremely risky, but with the right level of commitment (people, finance and so forth) could allow them all to win big.

Tailkinker

Question: What was the exactly function of the spell that Dumbledore casts to save Harry in the Quidditch game?, I think it was Aresto Momentum, or something like that.

Answer: "Aresto Momentum" is kind of like saying "stop moving." It basically freezes Harry in midair and keeps him from hitting the ground.

Krista

Answer: Real hair.

Answer: In all his movies he's always been blonde.

Question: After Spooner explains how much of his body is robotic, the woman asks what it was like when he went back to work. He starts to explain, then starts describing the accident with the truck and the girl. I'm a bit confused. Was this where his arm and lung were damaged, or did this happen after he received his bionic appendage?

Answer: Although not clearly explained, Spooner lost his left arm and lung during the accident.

Kirill Ostapenko

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