Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Hey, what do we know about Nightcrawler's past? I know he can't remember the whole Stryker experience, but before that? Like, when he was in Germany?

Answer: From the movie, very little, other than the circus references. From the comics, quite a bit. Kurt's actually Mystique's son, his father, according to a recent storyline, being some sort of demon-like mutant who dated back to biblical times. Abandoned by Mystique at birth, when she was chased by a mob, the baby Nightcrawler instinctively used his teleporting to escape. He was taken in by a gypsy witch, who raised him as her own son. She ran a travelling carnival, in which Kurt appeared - an obvious parallel to the circus mentioned in the films. Ultimately, Kurt decided to strike out on his own - a decision that ended with Charles Xavier having to rescue him from a mob and recruit him into the X-Men.

Tailkinker

Question: I know this might seem kind of silly, but I'm just curious - if the Ring makes its wearer invisible, why didn't it make Sauron invisible?

Answer: Because Sauron has power over the ring, not vice versa. The ring has many more powers than invisibility. That is just the only one that most people can take advantage of. It is a way of showing how the ring is so powerful that it will obscure all those who can not control it. In the book, it didn't make Tom Bombadil invisible because his magic is older than the ring itself.

Garlonuss

Question: What exactly is Anthony Kiedis doing on his bed when Keanu Reeves looks in the apartment before the big shoot-out? Is he listening to music, shooting up heroin or (as my pals suggested) is he jacking off whilst watching the woman in the nearby shower?

Answer: He is listening to music and just getting getting really into it.

Toolio

Answer: Neither do Cosmo's random comments, but they're funny.

Question: Did or didn't Sonny kill Lanning? If he did, how did he do it? What was the promise he had to give?

Answer: Sonny killed Lanning. Lanning had designed Sonny with the ability to opt out of the Three Laws when he deemed it absolutely necessary. Lanning forced Sonny to promise to do Lanning a favor, then told him the favor was to throw Lanning out the window. Forced to keep his word by Lanning's own programming, Sonny overrode the Three Laws and tossed Lanning out the window.

Phoenix

Question: When Mushu is using the panda for a horse, he says something along the lines of "Have you never seen a black and white before?" What does that mean?

Answer: In the US a lot of the police vehicles have traditionally been black and white. That is what Mushu is referring to.

Nikki

Question: What actually happens at the end? I assume that the whole plot of the film was Nancy's dream but what happens at the end with the car and Nancy's mom pulled through the window? Was that a dream too?

Answer: The point of the ending is that this question is left unanswered - the classic horror movie ending.

Moose

Question: What would happen if Lucy stayed up all night and she was with Henry? Would she all of a sudden forget him or would it happen very slowly?

leyesalot82789

Chosen answer: Apparently, she loses all her daily memories when she enters a full sleep, so keeping her awake would have given them a chance to see each other for longer periods.

Joshua Skains

Then my question is what about the naps during the day that she takes?

Naps would reset her brain like any other sleep.

Question: In the movie there are two different types of eye-scanners. The cops and the spiders use a beam of light that has to scan a person's eye for 1-4 seconds to identify the person. Yet advertisements, stores, and the subway use eye-scanners that can identify a person in what seems like 1/16th of a second (similar to a camera). Does anyone know if both types of eye-scanners exist, and if so, why are they different?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: Retinal scanning does exist and is actually in use, but not at the level shown in the movie. The "Ad" scanners are less accurate and not definitive, while the police scanners can provide absolute identification. It's the difference between identifying someone by their face vs. running their fingerprints.

Question: Does anyone else's DVD freeze for a second, right after Brooks says, "I wanna see that kid in the net who wouldn't take the test"?

Matty Blast

Chosen answer: I don't recall any intentional "freezes" when I saw this in theaters. I don't have the DVD but I'm assuming your talking about a layer change, if this scene is about halfway through the movie. It's a common thing on many DVDs when, on a dual-layered disc, the laser begins to read the other layer.

Nick N.

Question: During the gambling game at the beginning, one of the rules is 'an open man can't see a blind man'. This seems an insane rule - it means that as soon as one player has their first win, and thus has more money than everyone else at that instant, he should always play blind. If others play open, they can't call him (that would be 'seeing' him), they lose if they fold, so all they can do is raise - and since he has more money, he can then raise back, and keep going until they are unable to raise further (and have to fold, because they still can't 'see' him). The only way to prevent this is to play blind themselves, so after the first win, EVERYONE would play blind. Is this really what's intended?

Moose

Chosen answer: If you are playing blind, you obviously aren't allowed to see your cards, nor exchange any cards. So if I'm playing open, I've seen my cards (and only me) and after the first round of betting I can exchange some or all of my cards. Statistically I'm now going to have a much greater chance of having a better hand than the blind man. Both players know who's likely to have the best hand, so it's a very brave gambler that plays blind for more than a couple of rounds. Imagine betting hundreds or thousands of pounds on cards that you haven't seen versus a hand that your opponent has managed look at and change. The rule an open man can't see a blind man tries to even up the odds, and make the game more interesting. It's literal seeing, rather than poker terminology.

They are playing 3 card brag. Nobody can exchange cards regardless of whether they see or not.

Answer: The open player can still "cover the pot", which means they bet all the money they have left and then place their cards face down on top of all that has been bet so far (hence cover the pot). The rest of the players then open a new pot and place their bets there. Once the new pot has been resolved, the player who won it compares their hand with the cards covering the old pot - the better hand wins the covered pot. This means if you keep playing blind you will likely lose those covered pots.

Question: Is the braille text that appears at the start of the film (then transforms into the opening credits) correct?

Moose

Chosen answer: In short, yes, it is.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Question: Could someone please tell me the name of the woods in the movie? I've been trying to think of it ever since I saw the movie.

Answer: Covington Woods (actually located in the Walker Preserve).

Ingabritzen

Question: What was the title of the score that was played after Theoden says "And Rohan will answer" in response to the Beacons of Minas Tirith until the part where the Rohirrim leave Edoras for Gondor? It's a Rohan theme and it seems that it is not in the soundtrack.

Answer: The movie is 201 minutes long, the soundtrack album is at most 74 minutes long. Other than what's on the soundtrack we are not privy to the score to even know if the individual bits have titles.

Myridon

Question: Why did Hammond scream Grant's name over the phone when Grant starts shooting?

Answer: Because Hammond asked Grant if the kids were OK, then the Raptors broke in and Grant started shouting, so Hammond didn't have a clue what was going on and was a bit on edge and shouted "Grant!"

Craig Bryant

Answer: Max's disease is specifically tailored to work only on cells exhibiting Logan's genome. No one else would notice it.

Phoenix

Question: Do the clones in AOTC and the storm troopers in the last 3 have anything to do with each other? The armor is little different between the two, and the stormtroopers are definitely more clumsy, but it's something I've wondered about... I know that by the time episode IV comes around, the clones are probably very old, considering the age progression, but I wonder if the empire still has them made. Maybe to be seen in episode III...

Answer: They are, to all intents and purposes, the same army, just with a twenty-odd year gap. The clones form the Republic Army - as it's now reasonably clear that the Republic becomes the Empire, the stormtroopers that we see in the original films are therefore the same army, just under a slightly different regime. The armour variation seems like a plausible alteration over the time period. The stormtroopers are, however, not clones (not as a rule, anyway) - they're conventionally recruited and trained soldiers, which probably accounts for their lesser effectiveness. But, yeah, to sum up, they're the same army, just twenty-odd years apart.

Tailkinker

Question: What exactly does Aunt May mean when she says, "What do you mean 'we'" after Spider-Man tells her, "We sure showed him"? Is she just being modest?

Answer: She's actually being funny because she thinks that she did all the work, instead of Spider Man.

Allyson

Answer: I later found out it could have been a reference to a Spider-Man comic. In the comic, after he rescues a girl from a bad guy, she says "We sure showed him!" There is a thinking bubble by Spider-Man's head saying "We?" It's like the conversation in the movie but in reverse.

Question: Including his mechanical ones, Doc Ock only has 6 arms. Shouldn't he have eight, like an octopus does?

Answer: Octavius does have eight limbs, just like an octopus - you have to include his legs in the count.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the point of Dennis Quaid throwing his helmet out the window when the factory is on fire in the beginning of the film?

Answer: Firemen never get rid of their gear in a fire, especially not a helmet. He was unable to reach via radio his crew and when he threw his helmet out the window, it told his crew that he was in trouble and what his position is. They also then have a clue that he is still alive.

shortdanzr

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