Question: If Costello was an FBI informant then why did he put Sullivan undercover in the police department, and then why did the police put Costigan undercover in Costello's mob, and therefore why the police were trying to get evidence against Costello and wanted to arrest him?
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Question: When Max is pulled over by the cops because of the broken windshield and blood on his taxi, they immediately demand for him to open the trunk, which has the dead victim inside, and then to impound the taxi. When they receive a distress call on the radio, they let Max and Vincent go, feeling that it is more serious. Would this happen in reality?
Answer: It's quite possible it could happen. Max had told them that he had hit a deer, which explained the blood and broken windshield. The police did not suspect a taxi driver with a passenger in the car of any wrongdoing. Their concern was regarding the safety of the vehicle. When they got the emergency call on their police radio that became a more urgent priority than a damaged car, and Max was then instructed to get his cab off the road as quickly as possible. It's unclear why the cops wanted the trunk opened, but it really seems this was only to add to the scene's overall suspense before it is quickly diffused. It's a rather cliched plot device.
Answer: The cop says they need to do an itinerary, no doubt for legal reasons in case the cab driver claimed that they had stolen something after it had been impounded.
Question: After the witch is crushed by the house and confirmed by the coroner, a munchkin says, "This is a day of independence for all the munchkins and their descendants." After this, a different munchkin adds "If any." I have always wanted to know what is meant by "if any."
Question: Beginning with the "Convicts at Large" episode in season 3, full width window boxes appear at the bottom of both front windows on the inside of the Sheriff's Office. Prior to this episode, they did not exist. Window boxes are often used to display decorative plants but I don't see any plants. And if they were supposed to partially block the background, the blinds were long enough to accomplish that. I find it hard to believe that the producers would spend additional money (for material and labor) for something that seems to serve no purpose. So why were they added?
Answer: Those "boxes" are valences that used to be very common, before air conditioning. They allow for windows to be open during rain storms. They permit air circulation, without letting the rain in.
Answer: As noted in the previous answers, in real life, things like this provided wind and/or rain deflection, and also maintained a bit of privacy when blinds were raised somewhat. The interior courthouse set was located in the studio, so the "outside" Main Street didn't exist. I believe these things were added to the courthouse windows for practicality, to avoid some crew movement being visible on the opposite side of those windows. These are not "window boxes" to hold anything, as they're actually bottomless; we can see the Venetian blind's long pull cords under them. They're made of plywood and simple to build, so the "material and labor" was inexpensive. Similar variations made of different materials are in other movies/shows. In 1957's "12 Angry Men," textured chicken wire glass panels are in the jury room windows, and in "Jesse Stone: Night Passage" another type is in Jesse's office windows.
Answer: I suspect these were common, as to block the wind from blowing the blinds and papers on the desk.
Question: What was the underlying reason for Sutherland for wanting to dump Michael Douglas? Was he aware that Demi Moore had fouled up the production line in Malaysia? If so, why was he backing her? The buyout/merger would be tainted with the bad CD/ROM drives so was he hoping to merge before the bad units came to light? He wanted Douglas to stay on until the merger at least. Why make bad drives to start with if he truly hoped to spin off the CD/ROM production. Was Demi acting on her own when she attempted to frame Douglas for sexual assault? What would have been the outcome if Douglas had gone all the way with her? Was she hoping to pin a rape charge on him but since that didn't work opted for the assault? Was she just hoping to dominate/humiliate him and when that didn't work opted for the assault charge? Douglas was the driving force behind development of the CD/ROM drives so why attempt to get rid of him in the first place? There are so many unanswered questions.
Answer: Sutherland was aware there were problems with the production line, but he did not know it was Moore's doing. He had perfect reason to put the blame on Douglas as he was responsible for the production line, and Douglas had almost taken $100 million from him and Meredith, who he believed to be the key to the merger and deeply cared about, unaware of how much he was of her manipulation of him. Moore impulsively changed Douglas' specifications on the production line as it was his responsibility and to attempt to improve costs, but her incompetence led to the problems. She did not frame Douglas because she was spurned, but premeditated to do so after discovering the problems to try to get him fired before he discovered the problems with the line. She also blackmailed Arthur Khan into lying to Douglas and send the drives late (in the novel she was having an affair with Conley-White CEO Ed Nichols). On the other hand, Moore does appear to have an ulterior motive as she appears jealous that Douglas has a family and typically demonstrates herself throughout the novel and film as a woman scorned and has a manipulative personality.
Question: Benedict sent the SWAT team down to the vault while the "thieves" were still there in order to gain control over his vault etc. Obviously the SWAT team kind of managed to do that, except that the "thieves" blew up the vault with the money. But then when Benedict came down to the vault personally, why he didn't ask about the thieves or want to speak to them, or wonder where their bodies were? Because when the SWAT team left it was only him in the vault.
Answer: Simple, he didn't suspect the SWAT team to know anything more than he did. All he knows is that the SWAT team arrived in an empty vault, just like he did. No thieves, no money. He is a control freak anyway and wanted to nail the scumbags himself, it was his vault.
I thought about this... but how are they going to justify the standoff and gunfight if they say the vault is empty.
He talks to the SWAT team shortly after the lights are turned back on. They say the bomb was detonated, and they were looking for survivors. He then rushes to the vault and doesn't contact them again, assuming he would meet them at the vault but the SWAT team was already gone before he got there. I suspect Benedict would have run up to vault to find nobody there, no guards, SWAT, or thieves. That's when he starts working things out. Remember the money was supposed to be in the van at the airport.
Question: The whisper people bring the selected boy and girl to safety before the final day of earth. Why do they plant a message to be found and decoded just before the final day? I do not think the whisper people need any help from any humans to save humanity (and organize a whisperers' version of Noah's Ark).
Answer: There is no intention on the part of the whisper people to warn humanity as a whole, merely a select group of children who appear, due to their telepathic powers, to be the next stage in human evolution, and their respective guardians.
Question: Did Dumbledore and other Hogwarts staff know that Voldemort would try to return with the help of the Philosopher's Stone this year, so they transferred it from the bank to Hogwarts, and put such a big protection as the three headed dog etc.? Because I think it's a very big coincidence that after all this years that stone has spent in the bank, they decided to put the stone in school, and the very next day someone tried to steal the stone from the bank. It's like they knew that Voldemort would try to use the stone to return. And if they did, why didn't they figure it out and put protection on over the last 10 years, maybe the very next day when Voldemort was defeated by little Harry? It's really like Dumbledore knew that Voldemort will try to use it, and more important, like he knew that he will try to do it NOW, not in last decade when he was "half alive."
Chosen answer: Dumbledore did probably have an idea that Voldemort might be looking for the stone, but he knew he would never be able to find it as he wanted to use it (Dumbledore's own spell upon it). But the stone gave Dumbledore an opportunity to lure Voldemort to him. So, in order to lure Voldemort out Dumbledore hid it at Hogwarts, closer to him, telling the staff what was going on. Of course then Quirrell knew too and thus Voldemort as well which caused a dangerous situation right the next day, but the general idea was to lure Voldemort out of hiding and into the hands of the Hogwarts teachers. They didn't know yet that Voldemort was already inside Hogwarts as a parasite of Quirrell.
Question: The Diva gets to perform only one song of her concert before she is mortally gunshot in the abdomen. Almost simultaneously, Zorg sets a time-bomb to detonate in 20 minutes. Korben removes the stones from the Diva's dead body and barely escapes from the Fhloston cruise liner before it explodes 20 minutes later. Korben and his party immediately fly at hyperspeed straight to Earth and set the stones in place with only 5 minutes to spare. If they had followed the original plan without interruption and the Diva hadn't been unexpectedly murdered, she would have proceeded with the remainder of her concert, lasting an indeterminate amount of time; thereafter, presumably, she would have to undergo surgery to remove the stones from her body and deliver them to Korben, all of which would have taken far too long for him to save the Earth, correct?
Chosen answer: Not necessarily. Remember that the evil sped up once he knew Zorg was dead and the team had the stones. And we don't know how the Diva was going to get the stones out.
Answer: At the end of the Diva's big number she bows, and they close the big curtains behind her displaying the amazing view. Maybe that was it, one big epic song. Plus, she asked Leeloo to wait in the hallway for her which seems kind of rude if it's the longer concerts we think of, so I don't think she planned on being that long. The Diva definitely gave off the mystic physic vibe so maybe she knew her fate. However, that would mean that she told Leeloo to wait in the hallway knowing she wasn't coming back, and maybe even knew the big beasties would show up. Either way you are correct about the dramatic timing issues all around in this movie, not that I mind.
Answer: The Diva already knew her fate... she knew it was her last song and fate would unfold the way it did.
Question: Everyone says Rambo only kills one person in First Blood. But I watched it a few months ago, and I'm sure I remember him blowing up some police cars in a chase. What happened there?
Chosen answer: He is never shown on camera to definitely kill more than one person (the shooter in the helicopter); the police cars flip over and crash, but the people inside are not shown to be dead, so it is possible they survived.
Question: What is Shane's quote in the last huddle? Something like pain is temporary...glory lasts forever"?
Answer: "Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever."
Question: Why do the other pirates bully Smee? What do they have against him?
Chosen answer: He's too much of a bumbler and too cheery (for example when he tells the crew "good morning" and they wanted to know why it's so good.) They probably also see him as a fool and brown-noser since he's always trying to make Hook happy. To the crew he's just Hook's assistant and not a real pirate at heart.
Question: When Steve Rogers and Black Widow are secretly chatting to each other after the conference bombing, what brand of cellphones are they using?
Chosen answer: Vivo V3.
Question: Why did Bruce Wayne die when Barry Allen saved his mother? How come the killer didn't kill Bruce's parents?
Answer: When you break the sound barrier, there's a sonic boom. When you break the time barrier, there's a temporal boom. Barry changed 3 things, Bruce's death, Superman's crash, and the Green Ring election.
Question: How does the dog get into the tree house?
Answer: It's unknown how the dog got into the treehouse. After the boys put their hands on top of each others, the dog puts his paw on and Rudy questions how the dog got in with none of the boys being able to give an answer.
Chosen answer: Obviously it is carried up there by one of the kids.
Question: Why didn't Zod just terraform a different planet, like Jupiter? Why did he have to choose Earth?
Answer: For one, Jupiter is a gaseous planet with no rocky surface, and cannot be terraformed into a terrestrial world. To sustain life, a rocky planet must be in the habitable zone of its host star and have liquid water, an atmosphere, and so on. Zod chose Earth because he trailed Superman there, and also, because it is already habitable. He only needs to adapt it to his specific conditions.
Answer: The codex and scout ship with the genesis chamber were already on Earth as well as Zod wanted revenge on Jor-El and he doesn't care about humans so he had no interest in going off to another planet.
Question: When Heather is counting the children it appears to me that she counts herself twice as number 3 and 11 - am I correct?
Answer: She does indeed...she counts herself as "3" in the wide shot, and in the shot from inside the van, right after she counts the neighbor kid as Kevin, one can see her tap her own head again and say "11". It's a continuity error (yet still, for some reason, the correct number of kids).
Question: Why did Matt save Andrew's abusive father?
Answer: Because he was a human being and Andrew was attempting to murder him in cold blood.
Question: Why did Michael Douglas expect David to spend 2 hours in the back stairwell between entering the building at 8 p.m. and attacking Gweneth at 10 p.m. after the phone rings? He'd be sitting in the stairwell where anyone could see him, with or without his black ski mask.
Answer: Good point. If a resident in an upscale apartment building like that were to see a suspicious-looking man loitering in the stairwell, he would tell the doorman, who would either investigate or call the police, or both.
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Answer: The FBI and police are separate organizations that do not share full information. Only the FBI and Costello himself knew about the informing, and the FBI can only do so much to stop Costello being caught without drawing attention to their relationship. The police and Costello's gang are fighting a separate battle, hence the two moles.