Question: Is Padme's line "This is how democracy dies" or "This is how liberty dies"? I've seen both in news reports and on Google. I saw the movie on the 27th of May and it was definitely liberty, but my friends say that on opening night, it was democracy. The scripts I've found online say liberty, but some news articles say democracy.
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Question: I know that an regular alien comes from a face-hugger, but how do they make a queen alien?
Answer: There are a couple of methods according to the novelizations and movie supplements. None are "official", but they all make sense. 1. A queen can lay a "queen egg" if she needs to. 2. When enough drones are hatched, they will sense the need for a queen and one of them will spin a cocoon and transform into a queen over a few days. 3. When a hive reaches a certain size, a few aliens (they where called "nurses" in the books) would hatch and feed a substance into certain eggs causing the facehugger to carry a queen embryo. As the aliens are based on certain types of wasp, originally, these methods are all pretty logical.
Question: What exactly is the difference between the former US hockey style and the 'hybrid Soviet/Canadian' style that Brooks implements? What is different about how they actually play the game. All Brooks ever says in the film itself is some vague stuff about flow, creativity, and keeping options open. The special features expand on this a bit: circling within positions and being ready to come out of your position if an opportunity presents itself. Is this it, or was there more to it?
Answer: You've pretty much got it. The big difference is that with the traditional North American style of play (at that time), everyone had stayed in the section of the ice indicated by their position. For example, if you were a left winger, you stayed on the left side and moved straight up and down the length of the ice as play progressed, staying in your own little zone. The Soviets, however, were given the freedom to move around the whole playing area, constantly weaving, circling in and out of their positions, and anticipating where their teammates were going to be as they made their passes (as Kurt Russell explains during the film footage he was playing for the team). This freedom of movement meant that each player would have more passing options when in possession of the puck. This system therefore also required that the members of the team become very cohesive and know each other on a deep personal level on and off the ice so that each player, knowing the styles, habits and strengths of each teammate, could anticipate where each teammate would be and make the pass accordingly. At the meeting at the beginning of the movie, Russel explains that "team chemistry" is the most important prerequisite for learing this new "hybrid" style of play. And we see examples of it later in the movie when players are calling out their teammates' nicknames before passing the puck (e.g., "I'm with ya Buzzy!" or "Rizzo! Rizzo!").
Question: Strange question, but I was wondering why the soldiers were using what looks like a Vietnam-era M60 machine gun. Wouldn't they be using the newer version of the gun the M60E3 (which looks different than an old M60 - most notably the fore grip), which was reportedly lighter and easier to use? Also, the M249 SAW (FN Minimi) is carried by a few soldiers and I've been told that this much-more-reliable gun replaced the older weapon entirely.
Answer: At the time of the battle, not all units had gotten or were going to get the M60E3 which was mostly issued to Special Forces units. The M249 SAW has neither the range or power of the M60. It is designed to provide extra firepower to a squad and it will only supplement the M60E.
Question: I was wondering if there were any plans to bring out a special edition DVD of Shaun Of The Dead, or should I just buy the normal version rather than wait?
Answer: The regular DVD has four commentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes, assorted featurettes and a number of other extras ranging from the mundane to the utterly bizarre. Hard to imagine that they've got anything left that could be added to a future special edition. I'd just go for it, if I was you. And I did. Even though I'm not you. Just in case you were worried.
Question: I first saw this film on TV in Britain a few years ago and the song "Exit Music for a Film" by Radiohead played over the end credits. Everytime I have viewed it on television since then, another song from the soundtrack is played at the same point in the movie. Could the change possibly be because its become an expensive song to use as they have become a more high-profile group?
Answer: Whatever songs are in the movie were licensed for distribution by the film production company for a fixed price. It is impossible for there to be later fees somehow incurred on the production company just because the group is more popular. However, it's conceivable that Radiohead only allowed their song for use in cinemas but not television.
Question: Why in the world would Lothar's tether be long enough for him to slam into the gondola at the bottom of the Zepplin? If the Hindenberg is 135 feet at it's widest point, half the circumference of a cross section is ~212 feet. Even if it was a Goodyear blimp (50 feet), the cable would have to be at least ~78 feet in length. That is really long. Also, what is Lothar made of to survive that kind of impact?
Answer: The tether was designed to allow Lothar to be lowered from the zepellin and recovered later without requiring it to land (very tricky for an airship) hence it was hundreds of feet long.
Question: When we first see Marcellus he has a plaster on his neck. Anyone know why?
Chosen answer: Some would say that it's a plot device to show that Wallace sold his soul to the devil (the devil removes the soul through the neck) and the contents of the briefcase is his soul. The real answer is that Ving Rames had a small cut on the back of his neck that was caused by shaving his head. Quentin liked the look of the plaster and they left it on.
Question: During the SEAL team raid on the rock, they are using two "decoy choppers" which fly towards Alcatraz. What is the point of this? Wouldn't it be easier to just have the transport chopper fly all the way to drop zone under radar coverage?
Chosen answer: Alcatraz is small enough and out in the middle of the bay that any lookout in a high point could see and hear a chopper, no matter where it approached from. The idea of the decoys was to split any enemy fire received. The whole insertion of SEALS was absurd, in a real situation like that, the SEALS would have been inserted by submarine or used dive motors to pull themselves to the island.
Question: I went on a website recently and it showed a screenshot from a Simpsons episode with an iPod in it. I'd like to know what is the episode called and what season is it in?
Chosen answer: After only five minutes of researching this, I found two times when the iPod was spotted in the Simpsons. First, when Homer was in some sort of religious store, he saw a poster for iGod with a clear silhoute of God rocking with an iPod. That episode is titled "Thank God it's Doomsday". It's episode ID is GABF14, meaning it was from Season 16. In another episode, which takes place at Lisa's prom, the DJ is simply an iPod. This episode is "Future-Drama" and, believe it or not, aired just bfeore "Thank God it's Doomsday", meaning it too is season 16. Hope this helps.
Question: Is it possible, or even probable, that Palpatine was somehow responsible for Shmi Skywalker's pregnancy? When talking about Darth Plagius who could create life it's implied that Palpatine was the apprentice and knows the power too.
Chosen answer: Plagueis taught Palpatine everything he knew, even his knowledge of midi-chlorian manipulation (though Palpatine could not master the skill) and roughly ten years before the events of The Phantom Menace, Palpatine and Plagueis attempted to create a super-being via midi-chlorian manipulation which inadvertently resulted in Anakin's conception (Plagueis theorised the conception was the Force "striking back" for their unnatural use of it) Thus inadvertently Palpatine is indeed responsible for Anakin's conception.
Question: When some Jedi die, they disappear (Yoda, Obi-wan). When others die, they don't (Qui-gon, Vader). Why is that? I thought this phenomenon would be explained in this movie, but unless I missed something, no explanation was given.
Chosen answer: Powerful force users seem to have some degree of control over their bodies even after death. In the later series, Luke's wife Mara Jade Skywalker only allows her body to disappear when her killer, and nephew Jacen Solo arrives at her funeral as a clue. Thus it appears that a powerful force user can simply choose if they wish their body to disappear.
Answer: Towards the end of the movie Yoda tells Obi Wan that Qui Gon has learned the path to imortality and offers to teach this to Obi Wan. In the Clone Wars TV series we see the journey Yoda takes to learn this power. The power to become one with the force is a power you have to learn as opposed to being achievable to all Jedi. Both yoda and Obi Wan has the years between ROTS and ANH/ESB to fine tune and master this power. It is possible that Darth Vader, having seen Obi Wan become one with the force, spent the following years after A New Hope, studying and learning this skill by himself, hence how he was able to appear as a force ghost towards the end of Return of the Jedi, but not quite skilled enough to dissapear on cue.
Chosen answer: It is explained that in a duel between Asajj Ventress and Anakin Skywalker, Ventress manages to strike Anakin across the face, she does this to prove that she could kill him at will (she claims she could have as easily beheaded him) Anakin defeats her however, forcing Ventress to flee.
Question: Are the Clone Wars an excuse for Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to justify absolute power over the Republic?
Chosen answer: Absolutely correct. Similarly, the Episode I dispute between Naboo and the Trade Federation was an excuse for Palpatine to become Supreme Chancellor. And in Episode II, the separatist movement was an excuse for him to be given emergency powers, so he and Dooku could get the Clone Wars started.
Question: Do any important events happen between the end of Episode III and the beginning of Episode IV?
Chosen answer: It depends on whether you choose to view the Expanded Universe (non-movie) stuff as part of the proper Star Wars "universe", but some important events include the start of the Rebellion, Han Solo rescuing Chewbacca from Imperial capture, Lando Calrissian losing the Millennium Falcon to Han, and of course, the capture of the Death Star plans by the Alliance. As of 2016 the events of Rogue One are documented on film, together with other new canonical novels, comics, TV series, etc., and the Expanded Universe has been disregarded.
Question: Obviously there's some background on the Sith Lords that isn't explained in the movie. There is the implication that they ruled before the Republic was established. Is there more to this backstory?
Chosen answer: The best place for this is the official Star Wars Databank: http://www.starwars.com/databank/organization/thesith/index.html. There's also a lot of information in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sith.
Question: Spoiler: If I remember correctly, in "Return of the Jedi" when Luke asks Leia if she remembers her mother, she says she does and that she was very beautiful but very sad. The assumption is that she is speaking of her birth mother and Luke's mother as well. How is that possible if Padme dies in childbirth? Was she talking about Bail Organa's wife?
Answer: The question is not answered in the movies. Leia is either mistaken (possibly remembering her adoptive mother) or, Jedi heritage that she has, she is remembering things from visions of the past: things she did not participate in.
Question: Was the number 1138 hidden somewhere in the movie? If so, does anyone know where?
Chosen answer: One of the commanders of the clone army has 1138 as his uniform number.
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Answer: It's definitely "liberty". From memory, the only time the word democracy is used is when Obi-Wan's talking to Anakin before they fight - his line's something like "you're meant to be loyal to the republic! To democracy!"
Jon Sandys ★