Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Something I really don't understand about the ending. Riggs is looking over his former wife's grave when his beeper tells him that Lorna is expecting their baby. He races to the hospital and there she is about to give birth. So who drove Lorna to the hospital? Can't have been Riggs as he wouldn't have left at a time of need just to see his wife's grave. Doubtful that Lorna drove herself, and no relatives were there (as we see at the end). So what other explanation is there?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: She could have taken a taxi or an ambulance, or even driven herself. A neighbor or friend could have taken her who didn't stay after she was admitted. She might have already been at the hospital for any number of reasons - doctor's appointment, already admitted for bed rest prior to labor, etc. etc. etc.

Myridon

Question: In the commentary the director remarks about how he hated working with an actor and he/she won't work again. Does anyone know who this might be?

Answer: The whole commentary is a joke - they decided to parody other Hollywood commentaries instead of giving a serious one. The actor he was talking about was Ben Stiller, who turns up late for the commentary then leaves early. (The rest of the film is then the commentary for "There's Something About Mary"). So Ben Stiller is the actor, but it's not meant to be taken seriously.

Show generally

Question: Why does the USAF pronounce the word 'lieutenant' as 'loo-tenant' whilst the RAF and RAAF pronounce it 'lef-tenant'? I realise there are different spellings between countries (aluminium and aluminum, for example) but the word lieutenant is spelled identically in the US and UK, yet still pronounced differently. What's the specific reason for the different pronunciation of this word?

Answer: No-one seems 100% sure. The closest we can get seems to be that the spelling and pronunciation evolved differently - the current spelling comes from the French - lieu tenant = place holder, ie. someone who acts in place of an absent superior. The pronunciation appears to have derived from English ears hearing the "w" sound in the French pronunciation as something closer to a V or F (certainly possible if older French pronunciation was anything like, say, modern German, where words such as "wunderbar" are pronounced "vunderbar"). This site (http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OLD-ENGLISH/2000-11/0973487763) quotes some examples from the 12th century onwards of English spelling, with the first syllable varying between "luff", "lieve", and "Leif". The French spelling seems to have eventually become the standard, but the mis-pronunciation remained, possibly as it was so widely used already. When America declared independence they made an effort to shed many effects of English influence (such as gradually switching to driving on the right). Noah Webster (of dictionary fame) encouraged the independent development of American English, and came up with the American Spelling Book, which pushed spellings and pronunciations in the US rapidly towards their current forms, including the more literal pronunciation of the word "lieutenant".

Jon Sandys

Question: What is the name of the song on the TV in Craig's house?

Answer: "Today was a good day", or possibly "Hittin' Corners".

Question: Is there any particular reason why Miranda wasn't in the movie? Did the director think she would interfere with the romance between Gordo and Lizzie, or was it for a different reason?

Answer: I think the actress that played Miranda left the show just before it was cancelled. Lizzie in the last few episodes said that Miranda went to Mexico to visit family. Most likely the actress didn't want to be in the movie either.

Question: Max rambles a bit sometimes. But why does he say "I'm collateral anyway" in the scene after Vincent shot the Jazz player?

Answer: By this point, he's pretty much figured out that Vincent's going to kill him at the end of the night - given the lengths that Vincent goes to to prevent people from seeing his face, he's hardly going to leave somebody who could easily identify him alive. The term 'collateral damage' is used to describe individuals who are killed as the result of targeting somebody else - like a civilian standing near a military target who's killed by a bomb aiming at that target. Max isn't the target of Vincent's hits, but he knows that he'll end up dead anyway.

Tailkinker

Can I just say it took me ten times watching this to catch that.

Also the name refers to the fact Vincent was going to use Max to to blame the murders on him no matter what, if the night failed and he didn't kill his targets he'd suicide Vincent and blame it on him, risk management, protecting his identity even from his employers since a dead killer is "clean" in terms of the law investigating it. Kinda like the job was a loan, and Max was a house, if he lost the job he'd forfeit Max as a contingency. Basically Max was always going to be his "Collateral" if he failed in his killings or succeeded, Collateral Damage if he succeeds, Employment Collateral if he failed, and if Detective Fanning showed up 5 minutes earlier or if the body didn't fall out the window, the whole movie wouldn't have happened as it did since the witnesses would have been locked down, and he'd end up suicide an unsuspecting Max in an alleyway somewhere upon failure. I love the title, it's so provocative, the meanings behind it for Max, Vincent, and the story.

Question: Who is the woman on the bike that rides up and meets Uncle Rico toward the end of the movie? Is she Tammy, his previously mentioned girlfriend? If so, what is the significance of this scene and why is this her only part?

Answer: It is his girlfriend. He doesn't mention ever having been married and instead said that he broke up with his girlfriend.

Answer: I believe it was his estranged wife coming back to him. The only significance is that 'in the end, everything will be ok.'

Toolio

Answer: Isn't that Trisha's mom?

Yes, it's Trisha's mom.

No it is not. The woman on the bike is Asian. Trisha's mom is caucasian and has lighter hair color as well.

Phaneron

Answer: In the movie, that is Tammy, but in real life, that's Kip's wife.

Answer: Wayne Rogers quit the show, feeling that Trapper had become more of a sidekick to Hawkeye, rather than them both being equals.

Cubs Fan

Question: Does anyone know what they made Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber out of? I've looked all over the internet and can't find plans anywhere.

Answer: The lightsabers for the Star Wars prequels are all made from machine aluminum. For Star Wars and the Empire Strikes back, they were the handles from old-style camera flashes, modified to look as they do in the films. By the time Return of the Jedi was made, the lightsabers were machined metal, allowing multiple props to be made. This was especially useful for the prequels, as the extensive lightsaber duels caused them to go through many of the prop sabers.

Question: Although we see that the biker gang has about 20 members when we first encounter them, why does Max only kill 7-8 bikers after his family is run down?

Answer: He kills the members of the gang directly involved in the attack on his wife/child, and the one who ordered it.

Question: Why does Dracula do that dance that involves placing his hand on his chest and slowly spinning around while Velkan is being strapped to the device while screaming "Never"?

Answer: Dracula can hear heartbeats, as he makes clear to Van Helsing. He even states that he can almost "dance to the beat" of scared humans. He is mocking Velkan's anger and fear by dancing to the beat of his racing heart.

Question: What is the name of the song that is played during the wedding when they switch back and forth from the wedding and Jess's final match before her final kick?

Answer: Puccini aria Nessum Dorma sung by Tito Beltran. Famously sung by Aretha Franklin at the 98 Grammy's when Pavarotti cancelled 45 minutes before showtime.

Question: I have two questions.1. Why would it be important, as Leo Drummond says, that his objections have to be noted, even after they are overruled? 2.After Rudy was finished with the C.E.O., Leo Drummond is allowed to ask the C.E.O. some questions, what good does it do to say that he rests on his objections?

Answer: 1) Having his objections noted into the court records would make it easier if the defense decides to appeal the verdict, allowing counsel to cite what aspects of the trail he felt were mishandled. 2) Having him repeat his objections after cross-examining the CEO reminds the jury that Drummond felt it was inappropriate to use stolen documents as evidence in the case, perhaps generating some sympathy.

Answer: 1) A lawyer has only to object one time and it be acknowledged by the judge to preserve his right of appeal related to a given legal ruling. He might choose to object a second time in order to eliminate the highly unlikely possibility that the court reporter misheard and inaccurately recorded his first objection and/or it being overruled. 2) The CEO had just been destroyed on direct examination by the plaintiff's lawyer, Rudy, to the point where no questions Drummond might ask had any chance of rehabilitating his client's testimony, and so he passed on asking any questions. Saying, "No questions, your honor, as we instead rely on our earlier objections", Drummond was making a somewhat feeble attempt to imply to the jury that the reason he wasn't asking any questions wasn't because he didn't have any that could help his case, but it was actually because they should not have been allowed in the first place. It was weak, but it was all he had under the circumstances.

Question: I'm a little slow on drug slang, so is the drug on the boat cocaine or marijuana? I'm pretty sure it's cocaine as 91,000,000 dollars of marijuana sounds a bit ludicrous, but it's referred to by Kujan as Dope, which in the UK means pot/marijuana. Could someone correct my slang and tell me what is on the boat?

Answer: Dope generally refers to marijuana but it is cocaine in the deal. When Kobayashi comes to see the men and shows them all that evidence he has on them, he mentions to them about the drug deal and refers to it as Cocaine.

Lummie

Answer: In US police parlance, particularly for the era of the film and the age of the DEA agent in the film, any kind of drug, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, barbiturates and LSD were referred to as "dope".

Question: In the Director's Cut, there is a scene where Drew Barrymore tells the students they will be reading Watership Down instead of The Destructors but there have been copies of The Destructors reserved at the Mall. She then turns to Donnie and says "perhaps you and Frank could read it together". Does she know about Frank and if not what does she mean by this?

Answer: There is a cut scene in which Donnie reads a poem he wrote in front of the class and he mentions Frank. Drew asks who Frank is and he states he's a 6 foot tall bunny rabbit. That is how Drew knows about Frank and since Watership Down's main characters are rabbits, this reference to Frank is appropriate.

Question: Near the beginning at the wedding Fran comes to to meet Mary, Penny comes over to tell Mary about the bellydancer's tattoo. Mary then asks her to prepare the 'Murdoch file' and Fran's mom says "Murdoch? As in-" then she makes a funny noise as if this had some meaning to her. I realize the 'Murdoch file' was fake and just to get rid of Penny, but is there some other meaning for it?

Answer: Murdoch as in media mogul Rupert Murdoch. It makes her sound important, giving the impression that someone of his caliber would use her for a wedding planner.

Question: In an earlier question someone asked about Brego and said it was Eomund's horse. Eowyn says that it was her cousin's horse. I thought Theodred was her cousin not Eomund. Is that true?

Answer: You're correct - Theodred, who rode Brego before his death, is Eowyn's cousin. Eomund is her late father, who married Theodwyn, King Theoden's sister.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the name of the song in the night club?

Answer: "Ready Steady Go", by Paul Oakenfold.

Answer: 'Ready steady go' by Paul Oakenfold. The original has english lyrics but the one in Collateral is the Korean lyrics version.

Question: Early on in the film Casey cracks a joke about "Andre and Boudreau going hunting down on the Bayou". He then delivers a punch line. The question is what does he actually say?

Answer: I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. I heard plenty of Beaudreaux - Thibodeaux jokes growing up. I haven't the faintest idea what the joke was supposed to be. I ended up here trying to find the answer. Under Siege just popped up on NetFlix and I haven't seen it since I was a teenager. I stopped the video to try to look up this random joke. If it's a real Southern joke, maybe it comes from Mississippi or Arkansas.

Answer: If you have the DVD and use the subtitles feature you can see he says with a heavy bayou accent "Where're the guns, Druillet?" and then he repeats it. It must be a southern thing.

Answer: It doesn't mean anything actually it's just dialogue they made up for the film with no actual meaning.

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