Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were on the pirate ship, heading to Minas Tirith, the two-headed Orc commander said "Come on you sea-rats, get off your ships, there's knife work here needs doing." and then they jump off, he readies his scythe like he's going to attack. But if the pirates were on his team, why would he attack the three of them?

Answer: He sees that the three who jump ashore are NOT Corsairs as he expected, but a Ranger (evidenced by Aragorn's clothing and weapons), a Dwarf and an Elf. All of these are enemies of Sauron and the Orcs, so the Orcs' instinct would be to attack them on sight. At this point the commander has not realized that if those three were on board, then the rest of the fleet probably is not Corsairs either...

Twotall

Question: What evidence linked Black to killing the Potters? After the movie I didn't understand how everyone could have been so completely wrong.

Answer: Black was thought to be the Potter's secret keeper and only the secret keeper could have directed Voldemort to the Potters. There was a showdown on a street between Pettigrew and Black, after the Potters were killed, where many people died. Since Black was the only one to live, and they found only Pettigrew's finger, everyone assumed Black did the killing. No one knew that Pettingrew, along with Black, and James Potter, were animagi.

Rlvlk

Question: When Gandalf is talking with Saruman about the Palantir in Isengard, Gandalf says, "They are not all accounted for, the lost Seeing-Stones. We don't know who else could be watching." What is a Seeing-Stone? I don't think it's the Palantir.

Answer: In short, yes it is. The word "Palantír" itself means "Far sight", and the stones were used to witness events and communicate over long distances.

Twotall

Question: I read that this film was inspired by Lord of the Rings and that there are many similar elements between the two. Can anyone please tell me if this is true and also point out what the 'elements' are?

Answer: It's not true - other than both films dealing with quests, there are no real similarities.

Tailkinker

Question: I probably missed this, but why does Dina keep saying, "muskrat" to Jack?

Answer: Muskrat is a "code word" they use to remind Jack to keep his temper under control.

Myridon

Answer: Near the end, after Fiona turns into an ogress, Lord Farquaad orders the guards to get both Fiona and Shrek, and as the guards grab hold of the green duo we hear Lord Farquaad say, "This hocus-pocus alters nothing. This marriage is binding, and that makes me king! See? See? Don't just stand there, you morons... I'll make you regret the day we met. I'll see you drawn and quartered! You'll beg for death to save you!" After Farquaad nastily threatens Fiona, he continues to shout, "I am king! I will have order! I will have perfection! I will have..." and then he's eaten.

Super Grover

Answer: "Ugh. It's disgusting. Guards. Guards. I order you to get that out of my sight now. Get them. Get them both."

Nelleke Rietvink

Question: I've heard this movie contains subliminal images and messages. Is this true and if it is, what are they?

Answer: It is true. The director spliced in a few frames of later scenes in the film throughout the film to "help" the viewer figure out the ending. These frames went by so quickly, the viewers couldn't really see them, but the director thought that maybe the subconscious mind would pick up on these clues.

Question: Does any one know the Japanese golfer joke Uncle Vernon was telling at the beginning of the movie?

Answer: The joke goes like this, "A California business man, while in Japan for some business meetings and a few rounds of golf, arrived in Tokyo a day earlier than expected. Feeling lonely that evening, he employed the services of a beautiful young Japanese girl to be his companion for the evening. Although the Japanese girl spoke very little English and the businessman spoke no Japanese, their passion roared and in the heat of the moment she began yelling "Machigatta ana. Machigatta ana" Hearing this, the Californian believed he had pleased his female Japanese friend and soon afterwards went to sleep. The next day while playing golf with his Japanese business colleague, his Japanese partner holed his shot from 170 yards away. Wanting to impress his friend, the Californian began yelling, "Machigatta ana!" The Japanese business man turned to the Californian and with a confused look on his face asked, "What do you mean wrong hole?"

Answer: The punchline is actually quite vulgar, but you can read a copy of the joke at http://www.sugarquill.net/forum/index.php?s=1a43217a81cc245555ad6ac82d3bcc5b&showtopic=6214&view=findpost&p=225388.

Cubs Fan

Question: When the Ring is destroyed and all the bad guys fall into the earth, but the good army does not, how do they get on to other land when all around them the ground has collapsed? I'm guessing that the eagles pick them up, one by one, but I'm not sure.

Answer: After Barad-dûr, Sauron's Dark Tower, crumbles, the Black Gate falls into ruin and the area around it quakes and opens up. The Men of the West are surrounded by Sauron's army on all sides, but it is only the ground between the Men and the Black Gate that collapses, taking with it many in Sauron's army, but not all. The ground behind the Men of the West is still intact.

Super Grover

Question: As in all Pixar films, in this one they have the main cast listed, then very far down in the credits they have additional character voices. I was very surprised to see the name Chris Rock under additional voices. Who does he play?

Answer: I think you've got things a bit confused. Chris Rock isn't listed under "Additional Voices" but under "Lighting Artists". I'm pretty sure that he is not THE Chris Rock.

Andreas[DK]

Question: Why was the original composer Alan Silvestri fired?

Answer: On 1/21/05 in "Battling Monsters with Alan Silvestri" an interview by Ron Goldwasser, Mr. Silvestri explains that he was hired by Gore Verbinski for the Jerry Bruckheimer film and in the end, "I think Jerry was much more comfortable working in a way that he had worked historically, with people he had worked with historically, and it seemed the best idea for us to part our ways." He further stated it was just not the right chemistry but the parting was not acrimonious. Full interview can be found at: http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=137.

OneHappyHusky

Question: In the scene at the ruined house, what is Ray doing in the closed room while his daughter is closing her eyes and singing?

Answer: Tim Robbins was shouting quite loud (and losing his mind) and Ray did not want the aliens to discover their hiding place. He therefor had no choice but to kill (or possibly beat unconscious) Robbins in order to keep his daughter safe. Rachel was told to sing so she would not hear what her father was doing.

dgemba dgemba

Answer: Sara is watching "Jerry Maguire" released in 1996. Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/ for more information.

moviemogul

Question: Bond kills Kananga at the end by placing the bullet with the air pellet in his mouth which causes him to inflate and explode. But Bond had the bullet in his own mouth before when he was concealing it. Why didn't it kill him?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Bond just stored the bullet in his own mouth to hide it. As he puts it in Kananga's mouth he presumably pulls a pin, or forces Kananga to bite it.

Soylent Purple

Question: In the scene where Draco was struck by Buckbeak. You see Hermione run up saying to take him to the hospital. If you look she has the timeturner outside of her shirt. Isn't the timeturner supposed to be a secret?

mrslaura

Chosen answer: She wears it as a necklace. Anyone knows that a necklace can pop out of your shirt at anytime. She was just careless. Anyhow I doubt any of the others around her would know that it was a timeturner and probably didn't notice it at all.

Mortug

Question: Is Senator Palpatine aware of Queen Amidala's use of decoys to protect herself?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: There's no indication one way or another. It's not particularly likely that he's ever been briefed on her security arrangements, but he's familiar enough with Amidala that his force abilities would be able to tell him that it wasn't her if he encountered her decoy at some point.

Tailkinker

Question: If I wanted to read about the events that took place between III and IV, what would be the most accurate and authorized book or series of books to read?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: There aren't any at the moment, as the books have been under orders to stay away from that time period. There will, however, be books coming out in the near future that deal with that timeframe.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Senator Organa want to wipe away C-3PO's memory? Was it to further ensure that Luke and Leia's existence would be kept a secret?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: I would say it was mostly done to fill a plot hole with the original Star Wars. If his memory wasn't erased then C3PO would have recognized Owen Lars and Aunt Beru in the original Star Wars. Plot-wise, I'm sure the justification is safety.

William Bergquist

Question: Other than maybe galactic domination, why does Shinzon want to destroy Earth? He was a human, created and enslaved by the Romulans? Why is he so bent on killing everyone on Earth?

wizard_of_gore

Chosen answer: Earth is the headquarters of Starfleet, and the de facto capital of the United Federation of Planets. As Picard says at one point in the movie, "If you destroy Earth, you cripple the Federation." Shinzon wanted to remove the biggest threat to the Romulan Empire so he could gain sympathy and support from the Romulan people, so they would support his rule.

Answer: Shannon seems to be based partly on Mordred from Le Morte d'Arthur and partly on Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. Ming had nothing against Earth, and Mordred had nothing against Camelot. Villains are just into conquering and destroying. It's what they do.

Question: What type of Allied fighter destroyed the units vehicles? It doesn't look like any allied combat aircraft I've seen before.

AdmRose

Answer: It's a Yugoslav Soko 522 Ikarus.

Chosen answer: From the markings it looks like a P47 jug. Strange thing is it was equipped with rockets, which I have only seen outfitted on the P-38 lightning and the P-51 Mustang. Kelly's is a great movie but far from historically accurate. There is a country song Odd Ball Plays as the blow up the rail yard that not even close to having been released at the time.

James Rowell

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