Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: When Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach Minas Morgul (The dead city), a massive green and white tower of light comes out of the city. (It frightens Gandalf, Pippin and the Gondorians back at Minas Tirith). What is it for exactly?

Answer: In the book, this happens in response to a similar signal (albeit red) from deep within Mordor (probably from Barad-Dur) - it seems to be a rather dramatic signal for the armies of Mordor to advance. In the book, Sauron's forces make multiple assaults - both Lothlorien and the dwarven kingdom of Erebor (in the north) come under attack - so a powerful signal, visible for great distances, would be required to ensure a simultaneous assault. Although the Barad-Dur signal is not seen in the film, the Morgul flare can still serve the same purpose of signalling the advance on Gondor. Plus, as you observe, it has the handy side-effect of scaring the hell out of the Gondorian forces - Sauron is a master of manipulation and psychology, so it's exactly the sort of thing he'd do.

Tailkinker

Question: If the company knew about the Aliens from the start and coveted them as a bioweapon, why did it take 57 years and the reappearance of Ripley for someone from the company to make another effort to get one? In the intervening 57 years, wouldn't the company have sent someone out to the derelict spaceship wreckage?

Answer: The company doesn't wait 57 years, they built a colony on the planet over 20 years prior to finding Ripley. The company was apparently unaware of the exact location of the derelict spacecraft. After finding Ripley and obtaining information from her, Burke was able to send the Jorden family to the precise location of the derelict spacecraft.

Answer: For me anyway, the company doesn't seem to be as hostile as they do in Alien. Won't surprise me that in 57 years there has been a change in leadership and they are no longer interested in capturing the alien, Burke seems to operating on his own. Minor plot hole ultimately.

Sam Montgomery

I think the original answer is right and they simply didn't know where the crashed ship was located on the planet since the beacon was deactivated and all information was on the Nostromo and with Ripley. They built a colony there to find it eventually, just takes a long time. Until they got lucky and found Ripley. Burke is definitely not working on his own though, they still knew about the aliens and the original idea still remained, capture aliens and bring them back to study.

lionhead

Yes that's right, because when Ripley has a run in with Burke he says that this specimen is worth millions to the bio weapons division and if we bring it back we will be made for life.

Question: Well into the movie, Seth's computer, which uses voice recognition, can no longer recognize his voice due to his transformation. How then, did he hook up the three telepods and execute the final sequence if he couldn't get into his computer?

William Bergquist

Chosen answer: He just used the keyboard. We see him typing on it several times before this scene, so the computer is not voice command only.

Grumpy Scot

Question: What is the name of the Black and White movie that Caine and his Grandparents are watching in the house after Caine has been shot?

Question: How come Numbar uses a microphone with a Z on it, since on all of his posters he has a froofy looking person (In no way resembling Selena) and Selena is the supposed goddess of the moon, and the festival is on the moon, wouldn't he have an S?

Answer: There was a "find the hidden Zs" contest on the website for the movie. The Z on the microphone is part of the contest.

Question: This applies to all three films: does anyone have a link to a website showing Peter Jacksons different cameo appearances throughout the three films?

Answer: IMDb.com lists all the cameos in the trivia sections for each film.

STP

Question: Is there some kind of time difference between Neverland and London or something? Because the children leave London at night but when they get to Neverland, it's around 2:20 (indicated when Smee tells Hook that spring isn't due until 3pm.).

Emily

Chosen answer: The whole point of Neverland is that time is different. The lost boys never age.

Grumpy Scot

Question: What did the girl cut her leg on when she was squeezing between the two taxis? It looked like it was cut on the edge of a license plate, but that would have made a horizontal cut, not a vertical one.

Answer: From what I saw the license plate rim was broken, exposing a sharp end. It looks like the moved her leg forward, the sharp peice cut into her leg and she moved her leg up which would create a near vertical wound.

iceverything776

Question: After the citizen is caught and Hart tries to keep the agents back with her, shouldn't McDonald be or act at least a LITTLE surprised at Hart's 'new look'?

Answer: He was so riled up about the amount of trouble that Hart had caused that he probably didn't notice. Also, since the makeover was FBI sponsored, he probably knew about it and possibly had even seen pictures.

shortdanzr

Question: The events of the trilogy take place during the end of the third age of Middle-Earth, but how long does an 'age' actually last?

Answer: It varies, as the ages are marked by significant events, rather than lasting any specific time period. The First Age, which began with the return of the elves to Middle-Earth and the awakening of man and finished with the defeat and banishment of Melkor (a.k.a. Morgoth), the first Dark Lord, lasted 583 years. The Second Age carries on from that point until the defeat of Sauron by the forces of the Last Alliance, as seen in the prologue to the films - this age lasted 3441 years. The Third Age, which runs up to the events of the War of the Ring and ends with the departure of the Ringbearers into the West, lasted 3021 years.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did they decide to go with an older looking Armand? I thought the rules about vampire children would have seemed more apparent if the audience could see that he was one, so why the change?

Answer: The first problem was finding a child actor capable of playing the role - Armand is an extraordinarily complex character and it's highly questionable that a child actor could have played him to the requirements of the script. Secondly, there are some extremely homosexual overtones in the relationship between Louis and Armand (and, for that matter, Louis and Lestat) - while the film just about manages to get away with the relationship between Louis and Claudia, it's extremely likely that there would have been major problems with the censors and critics at any attempt to portray the relationship between Louis and a child Armand. The requirements of the story dictated that Claudia needed to be a child, but there's nothing that insists the same for Armand - hence the eventual decision to up his age.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Vin Diesel pull out of the sequel? Why is the sequel called XXX: The State of the Union if it has nothing to do with XXX himself?

Answer: Vin Diesel chose to reject the sequel as he was being offered three different franchises, based on XXX, The Fast and the Furious concept and the character of Riddick (from Pitch Black) - he presumably felt that he couldn't commit to them all. In the end, he chose to go with the Riddick films and reject the others. The sequel is called XXX for the simple reason that the character is still present - they've just recast the role.

Tailkinker

Question: Throughout the movie Samara is about ten, but she comes out Noah's television as someone who is about twenty. Why the difference?

Answer: She is still in her 10's - the reason why she looks older is because her corpse is rotten.

Malaver

I've noticed that too. It is mentioned in IMDB that this scene was played by an uncredited stuntwoman and not the actress who played Samara. That actress probably was older.

Question: Is there a reason that Gollum's fingers-per hand constantly appears to change from six to five? I know that I am not seeing things, but one of the corrections says that this would never happen.

Answer: Given how Gollum was created, his fingers certainly should remain consistent throughout the films, and it's highly implausible that the SFX people would arbitrarily introduce another finger for certain scenes - it could serve no possible purpose and would detract from the reality of the character. The most likely conclusion is that the apparent change is illusionary - you yourself say that it 'appears to change', which lends itself strongly towards illusion as a possible reason. That being said, errors in rendering the character could result in such an error occuring, although it's an awfully specific thing to happen - rendering errors are usually much more random in nature - and it's surprising, considering the attention to detail required for such an important character, that nobody in the SFX department picked up on it, particularly if it happens on several occasions.

Tailkinker

Question: What does Claudia give the twin boys to keep their blood warm, and what does Lestat think it is?

Answer: She says that she gives them laudanum, an opium-based drug that was very popular at the time. She tells Lestat, however, that the two boys are merely completely drunk on brandy. After biting them and feeling the bad effects, he initially asks if she's fed them absinthe, an extremely strong (usually 60%, but can easily be as high as 75%) herbal liqueur with a flavour resembling licorice, before being told the truth.

Tailkinker

Question: I never would have picked Tom Cruise for that role, but he did a fabulous job. However, I was wondering who else the casting people considered, and what made them choose Tom Cruise?

Answer: Daniel Day Lewis was offered the part, but turned it down. There's also a rumour, that I've never seen confirmed, that Johnny Depp was approached - if true, he presumably said no. The studio wanted a good name in the role (Lewis was riding high in Hollywood after "The Last of the Mohicans", Depp was very much an up-and-coming actor at the time) so Cruise would have seemed like an obvious choice. He was initially cast against the wishes of Anne Rice (who created Lestat with Rutger Hauer in mind) - after seeing his performance, however, she made a public apology for doubting him.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the meaning of all of the images that Samara made in the hospital? The rocking horse, the hardware, the weird people, etc; and what is the significance of the spinning up-side-down chair in the video? I know she had a chair in her loft, but why is it spinning upside down?

Answer: Every image that Samara created was made with her mind and was relevant to everything that happened with her time with the Morgans. All of the objects are odd and disfigured thus the spinning chair. The hardware was there because of Mr. Morgans constant use of hammers etc. in and around the farmhouse.

Question: Is is a coincidence that Claudia wears blue dresses so frequently? I was wondering if it is because blue is a color that Louis loves so much.

Answer: Given that Claudia is very fond of Louis, I suspect that you've hit the nail on the head with your suggestion.

Tailkinker

Question: Why was that one guy walking around with a knife in his back? Were some of the other Necromongers that way too?

Answer: In the novelization they say that Irgun received the wound but because the knife was so near the spine it would require major surgery to remove it. He opted to leave it in.

Question: What is Sauron's army chanting as they approach Minas Tirith? Not the Grond bit, earlier than that. It sounds like four syllables being repeated.

Answer: It is just an orc war chant. I'm not sure that anybody knows quite what it means.

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