Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: How do the people not racing always seem to get to the destination first?

Answer: They take the camel roads, which are easier (and faster) to navigate.

Xofer

Question: I understand Samara "haunting" her parents, spooking the horses, killing everyone who watches her video as an act of revenge, but why then does she torment (or at least "talk to") Aiden? Aiden has visions of Samara days before his cousin is killed, and for some reason, she seems to interact with him a lot, though we never see it in the movie.

Answer: For some reason, I always thought that Samara started to show things to Aidan after he went to Katie's room during her wake. There, he sees a figure on the TV and the proceeds to tell Rachel that it's not Katie's room anymore (clever word play as Katie had died so nothing was hers anymore, but it also implied that Samara's spirit had taken over her room). Since Aidan was a kid just like Samara when she died, she probably attached herself to him and began showing him things and it seems to have gotten worse after Rachel watched the tape and was infected by Samara. As for the drawings showing Katie's death, Samara didn't show those images to Aidan. Katie herself told him that she was running out of time and possibly that she was going to die. This obviously caused a huge impact on Aidan prompting him to draw those pictures.

Answer: Aiden is psychic. He can sense Samara, though he doesn't understand exactly what he is experiencing.

Timothy Cheseborough

Answer: Jamie is a boy, in one of the first episodes after he is born there's a scene where he pees in Hal's face while getting his diaper changed - very unlikely if he were a girl.

Question: Can someone please explain the scene where McClane and Hans are alone near the roof. Hans says his name is "Bill Clay" and the camera zooms in on a board with the name Clay on it. What is the significance of this? Does this give Hans away? And if so how?

Answer: No, this doesn't give Hans away - the zoom represents McClane checking the board out - getting proof that there is indeed a person in the building with that name (listed as W. Clay, for William). Hans has obviously done his homework, but McClane doesn't trust him anyway, hence the trick with the empty gun.

Tailkinker

The zoom to the board occurs before McClane turns around to glance at it. Most likely Gruber was improvising here - he heeded a name, scanned the board quickly and picked one off it.

He doesn't turn - the name board is just behind Hans to his left, in John's direct eyeline.

Answer: John already knew what Hans looked like. He saw him through the vent on the top of the elevator (after sending Karl's brother down wearing the sweater) - He also saw Hans shoot Takagi (which is why he says "Just like you did with Takagi" after Hans says he's gonna count to three).

Answer: It ties in to the earlier scene when McClane first enters the lobby and has to look up his wife in the fancy directory. It seemed like a pointless scene, but it establishes that the ONLY people left in the building are on the 30th floor. Bill Clay works on the 29th floor, and so isn't actually in the building at all. Gruber doesn't know this, he just picked the name, and that is how McClane knew he was lying.

The people on the 30th floor were attending the party, regardless of what floor they worked on, so Clay could have been there. I agree with Tailkinker's answer about Hans having done his homework. It appears that Hans had noticed Clay's name on the board and improvised a cover. As the others indicated, McClane wasn't fooled, though I don't think McClane was positive it was Hans. He'd previously only caught glimpses of Hans while in the elevator and also when Takagi was shot, but he did not see his full-face or close-up. McClane likely recognized his voice, even with the American accent.

raywest

Question: Why is there a lamb in the 'death tape'? I've seen this film at least 20 times, I've figured out everything else except the relevance of the lamb.

Answer: There were lambs on the hillside (near the red Japanese maple tree) that Samara was gazing at when her mother killed her.

Wasn't that just horses?

Answer: The lamb is normally associated with innocence.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: What exactly is the space jockey and why haven't we seen it in the other films except its fossilized self sitting in the what I call the laser gun?

Answer: It's another race of space alien that is also subject to infection by the Aliens. This particular one was infected and moved as far as it could from its race's known space and broadcast a warning before it died. The presence of eggs in the hold may indicate that it was a research ship. The race was never used in other Alien movies because it adds a new dynamic to the plotlines: two alien species, locked in mortal combat and neither particularly friendly with humans. In the Alien pseudo-prequel Prometheus we learn these beings are known as the Engineers and have interesting ties with both the aliens and humans as well.

Phoenix

Answer: Other theories, mostly developed in the comics derived from the original franchise, assume the xenomorphs were biological weapons conceived by the Space Jockeys for some interstellar war of theirs. Hence, the crescent-shape derelict was just a bomber, full of eggs and operated by a single pilot to minimize risks of accident with this mostly dangerous cargo. - what just happened though.

AKA, the plot of Prometheus.

lionhead

Question: This may have been obvious but I wanted to check, the guy that kills Adam Goldberg horribly with the knife and shoots Tom Hanks, he was the guy they let go with 1000 paces, right? Nasty thought. The translating private shoots him at the end as well, right?

Answer: They are two completely different people. The soldier they let go, who (probably unknowingly) shot Miller and who was killed (or murdered, as I prefer) by Upham after he surrendered was a member of the Heer (regular army)— - you can see the insignia on his collar. The man who stabbed Mellish was a private in the Waffen-SS (military arm of the SS) - —you can see the "SS" runes ("lightning bolts") on his collar. They have similar shaved hairstyles, but if you look closely at them in side-by-side screencaps, you will notice the differences. The Waffen-SS character also does not seem to recognize Upham when he encounters him on the stairs; the Heer character seems surprised to encounter Upham when he surrenders.

Question: In the part where Bianca's friend is asking "I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but can you ever be just whelmed?" Bianca answers something like, "I think you can be in Europe" What does she mean?

Answer: The answer doesn't mean anything, it's deliberately stupid to show us from her very first scene how much of an airhead Bianca is. The implication is that Bianca's thinking of something practised in Europe that isn't in America.

Shay

Question: What is the significance of the second video Amelie gives the glass man? I understand the first one - the horse is with the cyclists, and yet different from them, like the girl in the painting. But I don't get the second one.

Answer: As far as I can see, Amelie is just trying to give him a view of the world, so he doesn't become entirely cut off.

Chosen answer: The site is Lisathemovie.com. It doesn't exist.

ChiChi

Question: When Dr. Buddy is in the control booth at Yankee Stadium, he's talking to a very old man who he's about to tell what message to put on the scoreboard. The way the film is cut, hanging on the old man for a few extra seconds makes me believe he's someone special in real life, but I saw the movie on a special movie channel promo weekend, and the end credits were squashed up to make room for cast interviews. Anyone know who this elderly gentleman might be?

Krista

Chosen answer: That would be the famous Bob Sheppard. He is the long time Yankee announcer. For more info: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/comment/sbcol15.htm.

Bruce Minnick

Question: What is the significance of Bourne's and The Professor's headaches? The Professor might have explained it just after he mentioned them, but I didn't catch what he said.

J I Cohen

Chosen answer: It's something to do with the conditioning that the Treadstone agents go through. The precise cause isn't clear. It is mentioned more in the sequels, but not to any great extent - either PTSD or medication seems to be the root of it.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the song being played during the scene when Henry is being chased by the helicopter towards the end? It starts when he puts the bags in the trunk of his car before going to pick up his brother, but it's not on the soundtrack and I can't see it listed in the end credits.

Stacey

Chosen answer: The song is called "Jump Into The Fire" by Harry Nilsson, and is not on the original motion picture soundtrack.

Answer: The title refers to an experiment in 1907 which attempted to show scientific proof of the existence of the soul by recording a loss of body weight (said to represent the departure of the soul) immediately following death. Referred to as the 21 grams experiment as one subject lost "three-fourths of an ounce" (21.3 grams), the experiment is regarded by the scientific community as flawed and unreliable, though it has been credited with popularizing the concept that the soul weighs 21 grams. (Wikipedia).

Answer: It's called this because supposedly at the time of death everyone loses 21 grams of body weight. Sean Penn's character does a monologue near the end of the movie that goes into this theory.

Tobin OReilly

Question: What are the two muscle cars used in the film?

Answer: The blue car with the white stripes is a 1969 Chevy Camero with a yanko engine. The orange one is a Dodge Hemi Challenger.

Question: Why doesn't Anakin wear the normal or really traditional Padawan outfit?

Answer: There is no Jedi 'uniform' as such - Jedis tend to wear variations on a given look rather than going for a regimented appearance. Anakin has presumably chosen his costume himself - it's quite an extreme variation, but could be seen as along the same lines.

Tailkinker

Question: Does anyone know of any good sites about all three of the movies?

Answer: www.lordoftherings.net is a great one.

Tobin OReilly

Question: I heard that Chris Columbus isn't the director of PoA. Is he or the other director of PoA, going to direct HP 4?

Answer: Neither. Mike Newell (Mona Lisa Smile, Four Weddings and a Funeral) will direct Goblet of Fire.

Krista

Question: Frodo is pricked by Shelob in the torso. However he is at the time wearing a mithril coat which are supposed to impervious. How is he stabbed then?

Answer: The stinger actually comes in quite high, presumably above the rather low neckline of the mithril coat. An injury can be seen high up on his chest later in the film, presumably the stinger wound.

Tailkinker

Caged - S2-E7

Question: In this episode, Catherine says, "I think I know the word that made her throw her coffee," and Sarah says she hates that word. While I could take a few educated guesses, I'm not sure what word they mean and I can't tell from Croft's mouth movements either. Can someone enlighten me?

Answer: I believe that she is referring to the 'C' word.

umathegreatstationarybear

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