Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: In the scene where Will and Martin are at the "pink house", when Will puts his gun in the hole and shot the Haitian in the eye, how did Will know the Haitian was going to look through the hole, and when did he know when to fire?

Answer: He was looking through a tiny mirror he was holding in his hand.

Question: What does Cannessa mean when he says "I had no premonition. So much for ESP,"?

Answer: ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception, the ability to see into the future or predict it in the form of a premonition. He means that whatever happened, he literally didn't see it coming.

David Mercier

Question: In the warehouse scene, we see Spidey hanging up-side down on a web. Then he sort of pulls it back into his wrist. How does he do that?

Answer: Because it grows out of his wrist, he has the control to contract it back in if he wants. Note that in the comics Spiderman actually made a sort of gluey string for his web, and in the film it's organic. This is a creative decision on the part of Sam Raimi who said "I think it's more believable that the web is organic rather than a kid making a glue 3M can't make."

David Mercier

Question: Why is the film called Trainspotting? Is it meant to be a drug reference or something?

Answer: Trainspotting is a hobby where participants try to spot and document as many different types of trains as they can, and as a group, reconstruct the routes and schedules of shipping and rail companies. It's a bit like bird-watching, but with trains. Irvine Welsh, who wrote the novel, has compared this hobby to heroin addiction, in that both seem pointless, confusing, and unpleasant to outsiders, but make perfect sense to enthusiasts.

They are called track marks, and heroin is called train. Train spotting, the needle marks that make tracks in your skin.

Answer: Train is sometimes used as another word for heroin.

michael g

Question: During the sequence in the vault, De Niro uses a kind of torch. This torch emits sparks and is powerful enough to cut steel but is small enough to take with him. Is there such a torch? And if so what does it use for heat?

Answer: It's called a thermic lance.

Answer: More than likely its a plasma cutter. I am not sure what it uses for heat but I know its a common welding tool used in motorcycle and car shops. You can see one being used on Monster Garage on Discovery all the time.

No... That's a Thermite or Thermic lance. It melts steel nice and clean.

Question: I live in the UK and I was watching this movie when it was broadcasted on T.V. When Harry is trying to fix Mary's toilet I could have sworn I saw Harry literally rip the toilet off the floor and tip the contents out the window and yet I have never seen this on the video or DVD. Could I just have been imagining it or does it have something to do with the American version?

Answer: This is a scene that was cut from the theatrical release of the film, but is present in the extended cut and some international DVD versions.

Question: I'm not going to list this as a mistake since apparently it didn't happen, but George obviously changed his, his wife's, and Biff's future (at least) when he knocked Biff out in 1955. Since right there the timeline would have changed, what are the odds that Marty would still have been in the parking lot driving from the Libyans and going back to 1955? Couldn't Marty have accidentally caused a paradox to destroy the universe?

Answer: Yes, he could have. But some theorize that the function of the universe itself cancels out paradoxes. For example, Larry Niven proposed that time travel can never be developed because by its nature it would constantly cause paradoxes, so natural accidents and twists of fate prevent time travel from being discovered. In this case, it's possible that Marty's life was rewritten to insure that he was in the right place at the right time to prevent a paradox.

Phoenix

Question: After Algren returns to Omura's office, we see Omura standing by a window, smoking a cigar. Through the window you can see a red brick wall. Did Japan have those then?

Answer: Certainly, red bricks have been around for at least 500 years. Hampton Court Palace in the UK is an example of a very old building which used it. They are only red because of the colour of the sand used, and it is certainly possible that Japan had this to hand.

David Mercier

Question: There is a scene in Sadako's video (ie. the death tape) which features some people crawling backwards. I have watched this film millions of times and cannot work out what it means. Does anyone know what it means or if relates to anything in the film? Does it even have a meaning?

Answer: The other answer is not correct, although you could take it that way if you wanted. The novel upon which "Ring 0" is based was not even out at the time, nor was the prequel even planned at the time this movie came out. So that's not really the answer, although you could retroactively try to connect the two. As for the actual question: the crawling figures are typically viewed as being representations of the victims of the volcanic eruption that Shizuko (Sadako's mother) predicted. Especially as they appear right after words like "eruption" appear onscreen. Or they can be viewed somewhat more nebulously as representations of Sadako's pain, or the pain her victim's feel.

TedStixon

Answer: It may relate to a scene in Ringu 0, which goes a bit more into Sadako's origins; in that film, Sadako is a normal girl trying to hold back the evil spirit within her. A large group of people chase Sadako past the well, but the evil spirit breaks out and Sadako kills them all; the crawling people could be them as they were dying.

Moose

Answer: The video footage of the crash was all real, but the racers did not carry the sled to the finish line, they walked in front of it as the Olympics crew/ team members pushed it behind them.

Question: Why does the Jedi council decide against training Anakin? One thing is that Yoda senses much fear in him, and that he is past the standard age for training, but with his power level you would think it wiser NOT to have him running around like a loose cannon, developing his powers in all sorts of directions, not to mention the risk of him being recruited by Dark Jedi.

Twotall

Chosen answer: Yoda and others on the council probably used Jedi farseeing (a power mentioned in the novel sequels which have been said to be part of the universe continuity by Lucas) and learned it to be a bad idea. It is also possible that Anakin's bringing "balance to the Force" is by becoming Vader and bringing down the old corrupt Republic and (indirectly) replacing it with a new Jedi order and a new Republic. They told Obi Wan they wouldn't train Anakin knowing that that is what was necessary to begin bringing back balance.

Grumpy Scot

Reaping Havoc - S1-E5

Question: What is the song playing over the end of "Reaping Havoc", after Betty has thrown herself into the void? It plays at several other times this season, but this is the first and longest playing of it.

Shay

Chosen answer: The Song is Callled "Boom Boom Ba" and is by the band Metisse. it plays at certain points during the series. Mainly when George is looking over Reggie or in Reaping Havoc where it plays whilst shes showing her scrapbook "Mysterious and Reassuring" which is what she thought Betty was.

Chosen answer: She says "Daddy loves the horses...but he doesn't know" meaning she knows what's about to happen to all his horses. (Because she makes them commit suicide).

Question: Does anybody have an explanation to the apparent violation of orders by Miller's team? Their orders are to find and bring back Pvt Ryan, yet they engage themselves in one battle after another, repeatedly jeopardizing their mission. One would expect the mission objective to be exclusive, and that engagements with the enemy should be avoided of possible.

Airborne Ranger

Chosen answer: Miller is a good officer. He won't carry out his orders at the expense of having American soldiers die. Losing Ryan at the battle would have doomed his unit. He knows that not losing this town is more important to the war effort than saving Ryan.

Grumpy Scot

Question: What exactly is meant by never feed them "after midnight". Every moment of time that does not happen right at midnight may be construed as happening after midnight...even 11:59PM which occurs 23 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds AFTER the preceding midnight. I would assume that the afternoon hours are considered before midnight, but does anyone know the exact extent of "after midnight"?

Michael Westpy

Chosen answer: The precise cut-off point is never stated - I've generally assumed that the embargo on feeding finishes once the sun comes up.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: In a lot of the episodes there seems to be a slightly curved "scratch" in the upper right of the screen, it always stays in the same spot, stays the same shape and size... what is this?

MAC

Chosen answer: Maybe your TV... or just the channel. It happens sometimes you know.

Answer: After battles Legolas picks up the enemies' arrows (if they used any). I believe that he also makes his own (though we don't seem him do either of the 2 things).

bessytheevilcow

Show generally

Question: How was Dr. Peter Benton written off the show? I just started watching the show regularly and I've seen some of the reruns from earlier seasons, but I've never seen that explained.

Answer: He took a job at another facility, and he had full custody of his son, so they moved to the 'burbs.

Jack's Revenge

Question: What accent does Christine's character speak with? Which part of the UK, social class if anyone knows, etc.? And also the character who's the host in Will's favorite restaurant, the one who says "Will, you're disturbing the other customers"?

Answer: Christine is from Glasgow, Scotland. The maitre d' is Russell Barr (http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0056566/).

jle

Question: In the lift, when the Tech Support guy is explaining to Tom Cruise what happened to him, we see scenes from several movies. Which movies are they? Was one of them "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

Answer: Yes, one was "To Kill a Mockingbird." The other was "Jules and Jim," a French film from 1961.

Krista

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