Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Season 4 generally

Question: In the original timeline, when Fauxlivia and our Olivia are in their opposite universes, the thing that makes our Olivia remember her real life and try to escape is the memory of Peter. In the new timeline, he doesn't exist. When Walternate has found and synthesised the Cortexiphan, he says that our Olivia is no longer necessary and to kill her. How did she get back to our universe with no memories of Peter, and no alternate Broyles helping her to escape and being sent to us dead with one leg?

Sashamary

Answer: In the time line of Season 4, William Bell is trying to destroy both universes to create a new one, and he needs Olivia to power the collapse. So he helped her escape. But the real question is, if not in search of Peter, why Olivia has to travel to the alternate universe to be captured and replaced?

AmiSecured

Question: Joan wilder is a successful author with a nice apartment and is financially well off. So why wouldn't she pay Jack the $500 he originally wanted for his help? Given her situation, I didn't think it was too much to ask.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: She's lost in Columbia and doesn't have access to money beyond what she has with her. She doesn't want to give him everything she has because she doesn't know when she'll be able to get more.

Question: Is the "singing" by the monolith heard by the characters or just the movie audience?

Answer: As is the case with all non-diegetic sound in films, the characters do not hear it.

Answer: Aside from the piercing radio signal transmitted on the Moon, the Monolith makes no sounds or "singing" whatsoever. Intending this film to be as scientifically-accurate as possible, director Stanley Kubrick deliberately and correctly opted for total silence (no sound effects) in the vacuum of space. He knew, of course, that dead silence is a sure way to lose audience attention, so he commissioned an original musical soundtrack (but never used it). Instead, Kubrick chose to use an eclectic variety of classical symphonic and more modern choral compositions as his "guide music" during production and then as the actual soundtrack of the film. Interestingly, there's no music at all in scenes with dialogue, and no dialogue in scenes with music. As for the "singing" that you mention, you're probably thinking of composer György Ligeti's "Atmosphères" and "Lux Aeterna," which Kubrick used to achieve a mournful, eerie, otherworldly feeling in some scenes. To be clear, this music was not supposed to represent the Monolith "singing"; no characters in the film heard the musical soundtrack, as it was intended solely to set the mood for the audience.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Question: In Claire and Phil's house, what is the room behind the staircase that we never see? It wasn't there in the pilot episode but thereafter, it's got a window and supposedly a good amount of space, as it's in the front of the house, in front of the kitchen. Anybody have any idea?

MovieFan612

Chosen answer: There was a plain wall at the foot of the stairs in the pilot episode. Thereafter, there is a room, but we have never been shown what's in the room.

MovieFan612

Answer: Could be two different reasons. One, she has shown not to care much for the orphans so she didn't care whether Annie knew or not. Two, at the very end it is shown she does have some care for the orphans, shown when she thinks Annie will be killed, so perhaps she had enough heart in her not to break Annie's hopes of her parents coming back to get her.

Answer: Although her parents were poor, they were trying to save up enough to bring Annie home. Her parents' belongings did not have a whole lot in them, but probably enough where Miss. Hannigan would have stolen it for herself along with whatever other small valuables she could hawk. The broken locket wouldn't sell at the pawnshops.

Question: Why does Professor McGonagall give Lockhart the task of catching the monster? She and the other teachers don't like him or trust in his abilities.

Answer: Minerva told Lockhart to kill the basilisk because the teachers all know he's basically an incompetent fool and would most likely run or do something stupid which they can't afford at that time. So they wanted to get him occupied while they safely evacuate the students from Hogwarts by taunting him into seeking and killing the monster in the Chamber as she says, "That's got him out from under our feet." Most likely, they might have already known that he would run away as he obviously has a cowardly and pretentious character.

Question: This is a two part question. When Zorin is flying over the mine in his zeppelin, he sees Mayday coming out of the mine with the bomb, and looks really shocked when it blows up, killing her in the process. But a few scenes before, he was quite happy to just leave her to drown in the flooding mine, so did he really love her and was just shocked that she had killed herself or was it shock because she removed the bomb from the mine and ruined his plan? I'm asking since Mayday tells Bond that Zorin told her he loved her (when they're both trying to escape from drowning in the flooding mine), so was Zorin lying to her or did he actually love her?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Zorin is a psychopath. He may have meant it when he told May Day he loved her, or he may have just been telling her what she wanted to hear. Either way, when he thinks she'll drown in the mine as well, he doesn't consider it worth scrapping the plan just to save her. Once she escapes and has the bomb, he looks shocked partially because she wasn't killed but mostly because she's chosen to sacrifice herself to thwart his plans, something that a self-interested psychotic personality can't comprehend.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: I know this question is somewhat subjective, due to unknowns such as location, but can anyone hazard a guess as to what kind of punishment/sentence Pitt would be likely to get after shooting Spacey? Bearing in mind the unusual situation and that he is otherwise a model citizen.

Answer: Based on my extensive legal training (that being watching just about every episode of "Law & Order" in syndication), I would say Brad Pitt, Detective David Mills, is guilty of manslaughter. It is clear that the execution of the defenseless John Doe without benefit of trial in a court of law is, by definition, illegal. If prosecutors were to proceed to indictment, it would likely not be for the crime of murder. More likely, the charge sought would be "voluntary manslaughter," defined as killing with intention to kill or to cause serious harm, but with mitigating circumstances that reduce culpability - in this case, extreme emotional distress. Given these particular circumstances, however, Detective Mills would have an excellent chance of being found either not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity at trial by a jury of his peers. It is also quite likely he would not even be prosecuted given the extreme circumstances under which the killing occurred. However, a State's Attorney or District Attorney should pursue charges, as a clear violation of the law has occurred, regardless of how sympathetic or understandable the context.

Michael Albert

The District Attorney has wide discretion and can refuse to prosecute. If the DA does not think there is sufficient evidence to get a conviction if the case were to go to trial (no prima facie case), the case will be dismissed. (That's how prosecutors are able to attain such high conviction rates.) This case would not be likely to be prosecuted, regardless of the evidence. However, IF the case went to trial, the defense attorney would probably start by asking for a dismissal. If that didn't work, the defense attorney would most likely assert that, under the circumstances of the case, it was an excusable or justifiable homicide and the defendant is therefore NOT GUILTY.

KeyZOid

Answer: According to the "letter of the law" Mills would be subject to a reasonably lengthy prison sentence. I'm thinking Murder 2 or Voluntarily Manslaughter. In an academic vacuum he should be looking at 25 years minimum. However, with the extreme nature of the circumstances I could definitely see a prosecutor (and general public) go very light on Mills as it's not exactly a difficult situation to imagine the stress Mills was under at the moment. Historically the legal system was a pretty forgiving when it comes to acts of revenge in cases of intimate offenses. In the real world the cops simply would have fixed the scene and Mills would have walked away scot-free and probably been back to work on Monday lol.

Question: After Anna tells Marshmallow that they won't come back, what does she cut the rope with?

Answer: She grabbed Kristoff's knife, as it was hanging from his back. Watch closely as they're being dragged up, and you'll see it hanging there.

Lily Harrison

Answer: Eric Carmen - All by Myself.

Question: How did Carolyn get out of the cave and make it to the ship without being killed?

Answer: She had a jar of the light bugs that kept the creatures away.

lartaker1975

Question: Were any other instruments besides a violin recovered as artifacts from the Titanic wreckage?

Answer: There are several on-line references to the recovery of musical instruments salvaged in a steamer trunk belonging to one Howard Irwin, in addition to some playing cards, a diary, and a bundle of letters from his girlfriend Pearl Shuttle, who had died of pneumonia one year earlier. It was first thought that Irwin, a musician and professional gambler, had boarded the ship under a false identity. There was no record of him being among the passengers, even though a ticket had been purchased for him. It turned out that he had stayed ashore but his trunk had been brought aboard the ship by his friend Henry Sutehall, who was among the victims of Titanic v. Iceberg. I have searched extensively (because you piqued my interest) for more detail regarding exactly what instruments were said to have been found, but I have uncovered no specifics.

Michael Albert

Question: A minor point, but does Professor Snape's body presumably get buried (or whatever treatment was given to the bodies of Tonks, Remus, and others) ? Some fans think that Nagini eats him, but it seems rather odd for a snake to leave dead prey for a while - since Harry has time to talk to Snape - and then come back to eat it much later.

Answer: Nagini does not get to eat him as she vanished with Voldemort before he knew Harry was there. (The same thing happens in the book, albeit in a different location). Snape's body would have been recovered after the battle when Harry made it known what he did and how he risked his life. He would have been given a proper burial.

kristenlouise3

Chosen answer: She actually does sing very briefly, in an early scene where, as a child, she sings along with her mother (in Gaelic), but, otherwise, yes, she's the only Disney Princess who doesn't burst into a major song at some point in the movie. She does sing in her mind or internally when she is shooting arrows in the forest at the beginning of the film. The song is called "Touch the Sky."

Tailkinker

Question: When Loki first arrives and steals the tesseract, he looks sick or injured. The skin around his eyes is discolored, he seems to be in pain and/or have trouble walking (especially noticeable after Clint shoots Fury) and he needs help climbing into the back of the truck. Later in the movie, he's fine. What was wrong with him?

Aerinah

Chosen answer: Without the stabilisation equipment that's built by Erik Selvig, the portal opened by the Tesseract is unstable (demonstrated when the residual energy from the portal completely levels the Project Pegasus installation). Passage through it can therefore be reasonably assumed to be a pretty rough trip, even for an Asgardian.

Tailkinker

Question: Many times, when Robocop's helmet screen is not in front of his eyes, he can still get and see information about people. How come?

Answer: The helmet doesn't contain a screen - it's purely there as protective armour. Murphy's heads-up display is built directly into his eyes.

Tailkinker

Question: In one scene in the second half, Cowboy and Joker are walking into what might be be an intense fire fight. Do soldiers close the dust covers after charging their M-16s? Cowboy's is open, Joker's is closed. Mistake, or normal?

Answer: It's part of your drill to close it after you "ready" or fire the weapon. Soldiers often forget and it's not uncommon to see them open.

Question: When Vincent's friends set him up, they set the scene so that the police would think that the girl drugged Vincent and then cut her wrist with the knife. But they already know the girl killed herself with the pills, or at least they think she did. At the end of the movie, female police tells Chris that the cause of death was not the pills, but it was the wrist cut. But if she really had killed herself with the pills, police would have been telling him the opposite, which would have raised a lot of questions. Were they lucky? Were they dumb enough to think that the cause of death would not have been discovered in the autopsy, or magically it would appear as the wrist cut? Or am I missing something here? Or the writers missed this?

Question: When Griffin is revealed to be Juntao, he reveals that all of the artifacts once belonged to him. If they were his, then how did Consul Han manage to get them? Wouldn't it be considered stealing, since they were actually Griffin's?

Answer: Many countries, including China, have laws regarding confiscation of proceeds of crime or criminal forfeiture of assets. When the Chinese government took control of Hong Kong, they seized Juntao's assets including drugs, weapons and the collection of artworks under such laws.

Sierra1

Question: When Ryan is descending back into the atmosphere in the Shenzhou, two pieces pop off the landing module after the big tracking shot. One appears to be part of the heat shield, and the other looks like an O-ring from the window. 1) If it really was a part of the heat shield, wouldn't she along with the Shenzhou have burnt up in the atmosphere and 2) If that was a part of the window, shouldn't it pop out due to the pressure differential? Or, if I'm wrong about those two parts, what are they?

Friso94

Chosen answer: The heat shield separates before landing. If it didn't the solid fuel engines behind the shield that are designed to give a soft landing wouldn't work. It doesn't separate until the capsule has slowed sufficiently to mean it is no longer needed. I don't know what the other piece that separates is but it is nothing to do with the windows. It comes from under the capsule so was behind the heat shield.

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