Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: How did Matrix know that the gun store had a hidden room full of illegal weapons such as automatic rifles, rocket launchers, and anti-personnel mines? There isn't any dialogue explaining how he knew the room was there and how he knew the general location of the hidden switch to open the room.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: You are right that there is no reason given in the movie so any answer would be speculation. One possibility is it is a secret government (or criminal) arms cache which can be accessed in times of emergency and Matrix is connected enough to know about it.

He might have heard about it through the grapevine as gun guys talk. Notice how he fumbles around for the switch? That and the surprised look on his face when he walks into the secret room says he had never been in there before but had enough knowledge to know there was one.

Answer: Most likely knew the store owner's tendencies or a scene cut from the movie that would have filled in the missing information.

Question: What happened to Paolo after he was left to the paparazzi?

Answer: No one knows for sure, but he likely lost his career and faced a lot of lifelong humiliation as have previously singers who were found to be secretly lip syncing to someone else's voice.

Show generally

Question: The Monsignor Martinez - in addition to being a priest, is he supposed to be a vigilante? Or a mercenary?

Answer: I get the impression he's some sort of master criminal, though the specific details are left up to the viewer's imagination.

Brian Katcher

Question: This might be a silly question but it did puzzle me just a little bit. The old man in the film, when Phil first starts to care for him he starts referring to him as Dad and Pops. Is there supposed to be any actual relation between them, or is he just referring to him as this as sort of a kind title?

Quantom X

Answer: I think he is just using them as terms of elderly respect. It would be pretty callous even for Phil to completely disregard the homeless man at the beginning of the film if he was some sort of relative. The old man also does nothing to indicate a shared history between them.

Phaneron

It was a common term that was often used in the early-to-mid 20th century where a kindly, older man would affectionately be referred to as "Pops." In movies of that era, there was often a minor character referred to in this way, particularly if no-one knew his name (i.e. the stage doorman, the custodian, etc).

raywest

Question: What exactly is an orange whip?

Answer: It's an alcoholic drink.

Question: If Doc Ock were to die, would the arms attached to him also die? Also, if they did, could they be removed from him, and attached to someone else and come back to life?

Answer: It's hard to say. The film shows Doc Ock dying, and the arms seem to "die" with him. (Notice the lights on them slowly blinking out as he sinks into the water.) But at the same time, we don't know 100% how they work, so there's always a chance if they were removed and attached to someone else, they may come back alive and resume their "mission." Outside of the inhibitor chip, which seemed to have its own power source, the arms themselves didn't seem to "come alive" until the unit attached itself to his spine. So I always assumed they got their power/electricity from a host body. Which would explain why they appeared to "die" when Ock died.

TedStixon

Answer: How the tentacles work in the film differ a bit from the comics, so any answer would be speculation (and not really relevant since any future Doc Ock movie character is going to be a reboot with rules based on the writers' whims). In the film, the tentacles were attached to his nervous system along the spinal cord and he was able to control them mentally (mentally controlled prosthetics are a real thing). In the comics, they were more remote-controlled and his exposure to radiation gave him telepathic control over them and he could control them psionically, even when severed from his body. In the film, the tentacles had been built with more A.I. than in the comics, and the blast from his sun experiment actually caused the tentacles to gain control of Doc Ock because of the A.I. If Doc Ock died, the tentacles could continue to "live" if they had a power source. They could then be attached to someone else in the same manner, i.e. connected to the nervous system. However, whether or not they would be in control of that person or "alive", without going through another similar accident, would be speculation and up to the writer.

Bishop73

Question: When Beetlejuice tried to get the Maitland's business - I don't recall hearing what he expected for payment from them - does anyone know?

Answer: He didn't really talk about payment from the Maitlands. He made it seem like he was good at getting rid of the living and just wanted to help out. But really, he was trying to get "hired" so they would say his name 3 times so he could be summoned. Then by marrying Lydia, he could escape the Neitherworld.

Bishop73

Question: 2 questions: 1. What Is the significanceof the Deathly Hallows story (Luna's dad wears it around his neck, is it some sort of religion?), and 2. Why did Dumbledore draw the symbol in correspondence with Grindlewald?

dannydandan8888

Answer: It's a bit complicated. The Deathly Hallows were not tied to any religion but to mythology. They were the three powerful and revered magical objects (the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility) that, through history and legend, were believed to give whoever possessed them immense power and mastery over death. The Deathly Hallows symbol, like the one Mr. Lovegood wore, is a circle, a triangle, and a straight line that represent the three objects.Voldemort only coveted the Elder Wand, wielded by Dumbledore, because it was the most powerful wand in the world. Dumbledore won the wand from his former friend, the evil wizard, Gellert Grindelwald, after defeating him in a fierce duel. Mr. Lovegood merely serves as a plot device to explain the significance and lore of the Hallows that were tied to Harry's ancestors, the Peverells. Dumbledore placed the Deathly Hallows symbol in the book as a clue to Hermione about the Elder Wand's importance. In the book, when Harry became the Elder Wand's master, he chose to return it to Dumbledore's tomb; in the movie, he destroys the wand. He deliberately dropped the Resurrection Stone in the Forbidden Forest so that no-one, including himself, would be tempted to summon a spirit from the Netherworld. He kept the cloak, that he had inherited from his father. Harry understood that truly "mastering" death was not fearing it.

raywest

Question: Why would Ben/Riley/Abigail need to go all the way to Philadelphia to see the Silence Dogood letters? Surely they would have been available online in 2004 when this movie was made? Ian found info on "Pass and Stow" online. (01:07:05 - 01:14:05)

History_Movie_Nerd

Answer: In reality, they wouldn't...the only reason they go to Philadelphia is to advance the plot. This has been discussed by numerous critics and can be classified as a mistake (either a "Deliberate Mistake", or character stupidity).

The glasses! And of course one can presume the didn't know specifically what they where looking for.

Question: Why didn't Superman spin the world (and time) backwards enough to prevent the nuke from exploding in the first place? Wouldn't that have saved a lot more lives?

briggs

Answer: Just to clarify: Superman didn't spin the Earth backwards. We just see the world turning backwards when he went back in time. Of course this doesn't answer your question and it shows how difficult it is to write a good time travel story that doesn't leave the audience thinking of better ways to solve problems.

I guess the way they wrote it, Superman got to be the hero and also get the girl, not really too bad of an outcome.

briggs

Answer: Well yes. This is actually a perfect thing to submit for a Stupidity. Cause it's just bad writing all around.

Quantom X

Question: When Cal and Jack escort Rose to a boat to get off the ship, we see a father saying goodbye to his wife and daughters. What is the name of this actor? Was he credited?

Answer: If you mean the one who says, "It's goodbye for a little while...", the actor's name is John Walcutt. He's credited as "1st Class Husband."

Question: In the droid factory, when the smasher crushes what Anakin's arm is trapped in, his lightsaber shoots out, but how is it when his arm is released from it, it's now back in his hand as if it never shot out? It seems too noticeable to be a mistake.

Answer: I watched the clip on YouTube. It's hard to see, but Anakin's light saber is always in his hand. Just after the light blade is switched off, the sword's hilt can still be seen in his palm as his arm is trapped. When his arm is freed, he's still holding the light saber, but it has been damaged.

raywest

Yeah the top part of the lightsaber is cut off by the machine and bounces off. I think that what the question asker is referring to, mistaking it for the entire saber.

lionhead

Answer: Because she was a loose end who could have conceivably undermined his carefully-constructed lie that he was working for the Allies all along.

Answer: I always took it he admired her so much and maybe even pursued a relationship with her that never came to pass. Her lying to him was a personal betrayal that drove him to strangle her. Crime of passion. Just always has been my theory.

Question: When Gregory was singing beautifully for his audition, did he really sing that well, or did he lip-sync from someone else singing?

Answer: That was not him singing, that was another kid singing.

Turangaa_Maxx

Answer: According to wiki.celebrity.fm and diaryofawimpykid.fandom.com, L.J. Benet provided the singing voice for Greg in the movie.

KeyZOid

Answer: Where did you hear that? Because on IMDb, it says that everyone EXCEPT Greg did their own singing.

Answer: That was Zachary Gordon's actual singing voice.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When the dynamite goes off in the theatre, destroying it, there is a shot of a woman being blown out of the top window of the building screaming for a brief moment. Who was that woman and how did she get there? It couldn't have been Shosanna as she was very dead from being shot before that moment. And it wasn't the translator for Goebbels either for the same reason. Most everybody else was in the theater room or the balcony's themselves. So who was that woman?

Quantom X

Answer: I'm not entirely sure it's a woman. I slowed the scene down and the person looks like they are wearing a tuxedo. So probably a man with a high-pitched voice/scream. My best guess is that it is one of the attendees who may have excused themselves from the auditorium before all the doors were locked, and once the fire and massacre started, they were running through the corridor unable to escape and were eventually thrown out of the window by the explosion.

Phaneron

Question: Why didn't IMF just raid Ambrose's house when they realised he only had a cure and no virus?

Answer: As Ambrose says, Ethan Hunt "favours misdirection over confrontation" - Ambrose's house is heavily guarded and fortified, and an armed raid could result in the deaths of IMF personnel including Ethan and his team, or other innocent parties such as Nyah. Better to break into Biocyte covertly and destroy the virus, with a much lower risk of casualties.

Sierra1

Answer: He said "where did you come from man."

Answer: "New Divide" by Linkin Park.

Question: When the building with the hostages gets destroyed, Simon tells the police that he told John where the bodies were, with John responding that he didn't care. Clearly a blatant lie - why would the police actually take the word of a murdering psychopath like Simon considering that he would do or say anything to save himself?

Answer: Spartan didn't have authorization to go in and apprehend Phoenix to begin with. Depending on the time and manner of deaths of the hostages, it may have been impossible for the authorities to determine that they were already dead before Spartan went in guns blazing, so it would be determined that he was criminally negligent in their deaths. Whatever Phoenix had to say on the matter probably didn't even factor into Spartan's trial.

Phaneron

Answer: They didn't. They found the bodies and knowing how badly John wanted to take down Simon, they assumed Simon was telling the truth. I always felt that there was an assumption that Simon also had other planted evidence to frame John but that is never confirmed, just my hunch.

The_Iceman

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