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.

Question: Just curious, but how does Indy's dad know what the trials to get to the Grail are if he's never done it and anyone who has hasn't survived past the first task?

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: He states quite specifically in the movie that he found the details of the trials in the Chronicles of St Anselm. How the details got in there is anybody's guess - given what's seen to occur in the movies, divine inspiration is an entirely reasonable explanation.

Tailkinker

Of course, that begs the question... If the grail was not meant to be discovered, then why inspire Henry with the clues to get to it?

The Grail is meant to be discovered, but only by those who are worthy of locating it. In a Grail Quest, the hero has to overcome various challenges and seek out clues to be considered worthy of finding and wielding the Grail. You can't get the Grail if you're unworthy. The 3 Challenges in the temple specifically require traits like faith, wisdom, and bravery to pass. Only someone who understands what the Grail represents would be able to succeed. When divine inspiration is used in storytelling, the goal is to spur people on to want to make themselves better, or to fix something. There may be some divine inspiration that gave Henry the nudge to want to find the Grail, but he still has to put in the work and make himself worthy of it.

Question: When Reggie is negotiating with Reverend Roy and tells him that Marks mum wants a walk-in closet, Roy responds with "Walk-in. Is that hyphenated?" Although I gather that Roy was being sarcastic, I still have no idea what that comment means. Any help would be great.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Meaning is the word walk-in hyphenated.... walkin or walk-in.

shortdanzr

Answer: I saw his question "Is walk-in hyphenated?" as a touch of humor.

Question: SPOILER: What exactly was Bane's and Talia's plan? Had Batman not thwarted the attempt at blowing up the bomb, were the bad guys simply content with being killed in the blast also as long as Gotham was destroyed as well?

Answer: Yes. Their entire purpose was to finish what Rha's had started; no matter what the cost.

Question: How on Earth did the Joker know that Reese wasn't dead when he blew up the hospital? It seemed like he just guessed and blew it up anyway.

Brad

Chosen answer: Why not? That'd be Joker's style to blow up the hospital anyway, so it's very likely he didn't care whether Reese was dead or not.

Phixius

Chosen answer: It is possible to laser etch or engrave kevlar. The only real world problem Batman would run into doing this procedure would come from the fact that kevlar emits a very lethal cyanide gas when the laser begins melting the material. So laser etching with a respirator or allowing a machine to do the laser etching for him would allow Batman to create his custom logo onto his kevlar suit.

oddy knocky

Chosen answer: The drug is supposed to prevent a person from turning into a werewolf during a full moon. However, one batch is bad, and it causes immediate transformation.

raywest

Question: I don't remember if this is explained in the book, but when it is discovered that Umbridge has the locket, assuming she wore it while she had it, wouldn't she be possessed by its powers like Ron was when he wore it? And did she know it was a piece of Voldemort's soul?

Answer: This was never answered in the book, but in The Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter, it is speculated that Umbridge may have been unaffected because her own evil nature was more aligned to the dark locket. Also, the locket being somewhat sentient may have sensed that she posed no threat to it, whereas Harry, Ron, and Hermione's sole intent was to destroy it.

raywest

Question: As the triplets misguide Fergus and the lords through the castle with a dead frog on a stick they use as a bear's shadow, Fergus and the lords end up on top of a tower. Since they are locked out, they manage to climb down on their kilts, which they remove from themselves and tie together. Why couldn't they just break through the door to get back into the castle instead? (01:33:00)

Answer: They didn't want to destroy the door, probably.

Phixius

Question: After Hamish, Harris, and Hubert help distract Fergus and the lords as Merida helps Elinor, who has turned into a bear, escape, Merida offers her brothers to help themselves to anything in the kitchen. Why doesn't she warn them not to eat the cursed tart? (01:33:00)

Answer: She was rather preoccupied with getting her mother to safety. It didn't occur to her.

Phixius

Question: At the beginning of the film, Simon gives Mal an injection in the sick bay. What is this for?

Brad

Chosen answer: Answering my own question: In the script, Mall specifies that it is an inoculation for the planet's atmosphere.

Brad

Question: The cave paintings found in the Isle of Skye are reckoned to be 35,000 years old. Is this possible? Would not Skye have been under several metres of ice 35,000 years ago?

Answer: While the dating given in the movie does put it during the last major glacial period, which lasted from about 100,000BC to around 10,000BC, that period saw a number of advances and retreats by the ice, with the maximum ice coverage only occurring around eighteen thousand years ago, a considerable number of millennia after the dating given for the paintings. As such, it's certainly plausible that Skye was inhabitable during the time frame stated by the movie.

Tailkinker

Question: I couldn't understand what Young MacGuffin said. Is that because he only speaks the Scottish language? Can someone please translate what he said? (01:33:00)

Answer: MacGuffin isn't speaking gibberish - it's a dialect called Doric. Doric is used in the Aberdeenshire area - including Elgin, when Kevin McKidd (who voices MacGuffin) is from. Quine means girl - basically he's saying there's no use marrying a girl who doesn't want to be married.

Question: How exactly did Merida get her mother to transform back into a human? Did she do it with her tears or was it by mending the tapestry and putting it on her mother along with the sun to help break the spell? (01:33:00)

Answer: It wasn't her tears, exactly, but rather her genuinely heartfelt confession of love for her mother, admittance of guilt, and regret for her own behavior that broke the spell. But not until the dawn's light touched her.

Phixius

Answer: It was sewing the tapestry, for sure.

Sewing the tapestry was just a symbol of mending the bond (as the witch said "Fate be changed look inside, mend the bond torn by pride"). However, we see she sewed the tapestry and that didn't actually turn her mother back to human. It's not until Merida hugs her mother, apologizes, and says she loves her that the bond is mended. After that the tapestry magically seals and her mother turns back to human. Phixius is right.

Question: Barbossa tells Sao Feng about Calypso to win him over to their side. Feng, mistakenly believing that Elizabeth is Calypso, wants Calypso for himself. Barbossa knows that Elizabeth isn't Calypso, so why does he allow her to be handed over to Feng? And what assurance does he have that Elizabeth won't spill the beans that she's not Calypso? Surely, that would just get Feng mad at Barbossa and wouldn't help matters in the slightest.

Brad

Chosen answer: They need Feng on their side. Elizabeth and Barbossa are both willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. If Feng is willing to help because he's smitten with Elizabeth, believing her to be Calypso, then that's how they'll play it.

Phixius

Question: When Merida is first seen riding her horse, we hear a song. Is that Merida's voice singing, or is that supposed to be a different voice? (01:33:00)

Answer: The singer is Julie Fowlis, a Scottish folk singer. Merida is voice-acted by Kelly MacDonald. Because the movie isn't in the same vein as other Disney movies like "Aladdin" or "Pocahontas" with characters singing part of the soundtrack, it would be reasonable to presume they're considered separate entities. The songs here are more to establish the atmosphere than to serve as "voices" for the characters.

Question: How come there was no blood coming from Kirby's mouth when she was stabbed?

Answer: A person generally spits up blood from internal injuries to the lungs, sometimes the stomach. Kirby was stabbed below both organs.

LorgSkyegon

Question: What did General Ross mean when he told Betty that she couldn't see things?

Answer: Maybe that she is blind from her love for Bruce and she couldn't see that Hulk is a monster that can devastate a whole city in minutes.

Anastasios Anastasatos

The way I've always seen it, General Ross is the one who can't see things, considering he wants to use the Hulk as a weapon.

Chosen answer: Poker. They have been playing that this whole time, once a week with everyone who was invited that lived on the Lane.

Question: At the beginning of the movie, the elderly woman is being looked after in the house. How is this so when her son hasn't bought the house yet?

Leprechaun

Chosen answer: The scenes showing her son buying the house later in the movie are flashbacks showing the viewers how they came to live there. The timeline of the movie goes back and forth several times.

Purple_Girl

Answer: "Give me money or I won't drive. Pay me, pay me, pay me" and "now you're speaking my language."

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.