Best mystery movie questions of all time

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Double Jeopardy picture

Question: How is Libby able to be out in the prison yard without wearing her prison uniform shirt and instead wearing a dark green tank top? This allowed in prison or what?

Rob245

Answer: At that point she has been imprisoned for a few years. She had likely set up a good rapport with the guards over the years. She was likely on her best behavior, knowing that would be considered when her parole hearing came. Prisoners on good behavior are often afforded certain instances where some rules can be bended, which would be up to the discretion of the guards. Exercising was a routine for her that went on for years. If she wanted to run in a tank top, I'm sure that was of very little concern to the guards after a while.

jshy7979

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Chosen answer: No, not all of them. The first three episodes are on Youtube. Direct TV new horror-movie channel - Chiller TV - is airing all the episodes currently, but you have to subscribe to the TV station (check out ChillerTV.com.) They are not officially on DVD, but are also sold on ebay. The series has no affiliation to the Friday The 13th Jason films.

Answer: The entire series is now on DVD. You can most likely find them on Amazon or a video store.

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Scream picture

Question: Why can Liv McKenzie not go to see Tara Carpenter, her co-worker/close friend after her near-murder attack? Her absence is done to draw suspicion on her, but as she is later revealed to not be the killer, the question is left unanswered in the film. (00:15:45)

AdventurePlace

Answer: To try to throw them off the scent and add suspicion to make us think maybe possibly they're the killer(s).

This answer is literally part of the question. The question mentions that this was done to make the character seem suspicious. The question was asking why, in the context of the film, can't Liv go to see Tara. Not why in a behind-the-scenes sense.

TedStixon

Answer: It's never explained in the film, so any answer would be pure speculation. As you said, it was obviously done to draw suspicion onto her by the filmmakers, but there's any number of reasons she might not be able to, so really it's a case of picking your poison. (Perhaps she had a previous appointment she couldn't miss, perhaps she has a family matter to attend to, etc).

TedStixon

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The Breach picture

Question: Spoilers. The end of the movie shows Meg at home, apparently surviving the ordeal. In the final frames, though, we see the eviscerated body of Meg wearing the same clothes she wore in the final fight. How did Meg get zombified? Every other zombie monster had to go through the breach machine to transform, but Meg was still human at the time the machine was destroyed.

Answer: I don't think this is a "zombie" movie - it follows different rules. The scientist and the machine were destroyed, but there were several altered human test subjects still alive at the end. The scientist's rambling explanation was that he wanted to instill the ability for humans to change their physical form. The best I can figure is that Meg survived the fight but one of the altered human test subjects bit her, transformed into an imitation Meg, and later followed her home to kill her. I suppose the "shocker" in the last scene was that the pregnant Meg was an imitation and would now start a new colony of altered humans.

Answer: Sorry, no answer here, but at the end I was left with the same questions. I gave this a watch because the music was supposed to be directed by a member of the Canadian band RUSH. I'm not a fan of zombie flicks, so I don't know the rules or conventions, but I do remember a long and tedious scene toward the end where the demented scientist was explaining to the sheriff how the breach device works and what he was trying to do.

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Paycheck picture

Question: Ben Affleck first met Uma Thurman at a party just before he was offered and accepted the three year job. Surely he would have recognized her after having his memory wiped even if he could not remember any of the time they spent together.

Answer: He does recognize Rachel from the party as well as when he when he saw her at Allcom. The only things he doesn't remember are the last three years of his life since starting the project. So, while he does remember her, the three years they spent together while at Allcom are a total blank. This recognition is shown when he meets with Porter who helps him escape.

But later, when he is going through her stuff, he says he doesn't remember her. Also, if he did remember her, he would have known it wasn't her when the imposter was in the restaurant (also no need to have the imposter try to dress like her either).

Answer: Do you remember every person you've ever talked to at a party? Didn't think so. His memory isn't restored back to perfect condition - he's still had three years to forget about details at the party. He remembers things like the origins of the deal because it was important.

Nick N.

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Gosford Park picture

Question: Why is Jennings drunk and worried about the situation? Is he just upset? I can't understand why the other maid said she would do anything he asked.

dannydandan8888

Answer: Jennings' drinking problem stems from his having been a World War I conscientious objector, for which he was imprisoned. He has kept this secret and is worried the police investigation will uncover his past and jeopardize his job. The maid, Dorothy, is secretly in love with Jennings and wants to protect him.

raywest

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Signs picture

Question: I don't get it. What was the purpose of the aliens coming to Earth? And what exactly happened to them? Where did they go?

MovieBuff09

Answer: It's left unclear, though the film proposes several possible theories, and there are other possible explanations as well. One major theory brought up in the film is that the aliens were there to acquire Earth's resources after using up their own. Another theory proposed at the end of the movie is that the aliens wanted humans for whatever reason, as a radio DJ mentions seeing his friend's family being dragged away. There is also a very popular fan theory that the aliens are supposed to represent demons that are merely there to create chaos and test the moral strength of humanity, as the film is ultimately about Graham losing and then regaining his faith, although this is more subtext than anything and may not be literally true.

Answer: Near the end of the movie... The morning after in the basement... The guy on the radio says the aliens were there not for the planet, but to harvest humans. For what purpose is unknown, maybe as an energy source, Matrix-style.

Chosen answer: According to the theory in the movie they were there to take the planet for their own because they used up all the resources their own planet. They left the planet when it became apparent to them that the water on Earth was too dangerous.

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Freedomland picture

Question: Brenda reports her car has been carjacked with her son in it. Since this was a lie, and there was no carjacking, what happened to Brenda's car?

marfbody

Chosen answer: She's a drug-addled, crazy trailer-trash woman. It's unlikely she ever HAD a car.

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets picture

Question: Just curious what was on page 47 that the President asked Ben Gates to help him with. Was it finding the City of Gold?

Answer: It is never explained what was on the page. It was just a cliffhanger to set up for a 3rd movie, I think.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button picture

Question: At the end of the movie the town clock that was removed from the train station is shown stored in a basement just as the basement floods. The clock is seen to still be working, but how, given that there was no one there to wind it? As the clock was made during the first world war it would be mechanical, not battery powered.

Blair Howden

Answer: It is symbolic, showing that time never stops. Everyone will be swept up by the tsunami eventually. No force of nature can compare to time itself. Nothing at all.

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The Skeleton Key picture

Question: What was the deal with the mirrors? Are there spirits in the mirrors? Or can Violet (or whoever's body happens to be inhabited) see her "true self" in the mirror? When Caroline first spends the night, a figure, like Mama Cecile, can be seen in her little mirror. If the spirit is in the body (Violet's), why would it be wandering around? So, the mirrors expose their true identity, correct?

RareJewel

Chosen answer: Yes.

Phixius

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Dead Silence picture

Question: Why did Mary get angry when the boy in the audience said that he could see her mouth moving? When a close-up of Mary is shown, she's moving her mouth.

Answer: Because he is heckling her and belittling her performance.

Phaneron

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Suicide Kings picture

Question: Much ado is made near the start of the film about the kidnappers sending Elise's finger back to her family as a threat, but we learn later that she was never harmed. Did the film ever explain where the finger actually came from, or if it was even sent at all?

Answer: The finger is never shown, only mentioned. Since Elise looked to have all her fingers one must assume it was made up as part of the scheme to fool everyone.

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Hugo picture

Question: Why does the Station Inspector chase children who are on their own and threaten to send them to an Orphanage? Is that what it was like in the 1930s?

Luka Keats

Answer: He's not making it a point to chase down random children - he's like a security officer at an airport. It's his job to apprehend thieves and troublemakers and keep the station safe, and he only threatens to send children to the orphanage if they don't have parents for him to return them to. Also, it's implied once he finally apprehends Hugo that his particular harshness toward orphans (and most of his character flaws in general) is due to apparently having been one himself. He spells out the kinds of lessons he was forced to learn by growing up without a family, explaining how he became so cold, bitter, and antisocial.

Chosen answer: It is more than likely an early form of our modern day child protection. Just as today if children are found to be at risk, they can be and are taken away by social services and put into foster care. In the film, orphans may have been seen as a plague in an area that attracts posh looking people in stark contrast to urchins in rags eating out of bins. Most European orphanages/care homes/hospices/whatever you want to call them at that time were no better than anything depicted in Charles Dickens 50 years previously.

Neil Jones

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Hide and Seek picture

Question: When Charlie first goes into the cave, he places Emily's music box on a plank of wood, and pushes it so that it floats along the small stream; why did he do that?

Answer: It is just to scare them. The music makes an eerie noise. and the music box was one of Emily's prized possessions. it would scare her to see it floating in the stream.

Christina

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Salt picture

Question: Salt has been with the agency for a long time and has earned the trust of her colleagues, so when she is accused of being a spy, why would her superiors take the word of a defector over her?

Answer: They have to at least investigate that kind of an accusation, and when Salt so vigorously resists arrest it basically confirms, in their minds, that she is in fact a spy.

Phixius

I actually kind of find it shocking that they would be willing to believe a guy who would do or say anything to save himself and since Salt was with the agency a long time, they could have at least given her the benefit of the doubt.

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The Haunted Mansion picture

Question: Near the end of the movie, Edward Gracey says to Ramsley that the letter is written in Elizabeth's hand. If Mr. Gracey knew what Elizabeth's writing looks like, wouldn't he have realized that the fake letter Ramsley wrote was in fact fake and not from Elizabeth?

Emily

Chosen answer: Considering Ramsley's intelligence, he would have been able to make "couterfeit" handwriting.

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Answer: She was posing as the mother of the little boy who lived adjacent to Andy and Tracy.

Alan Keddie

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American Psycho picture

Question: Did Patrick really kill anybody or was it all in his mind? He killed a homeless man but there's no news report about it on TV. He murders Paul but is told Paul is in London. He severely beat and bloodied two prostitutes but no cops show up to arrest him. He murders Elizabeth and Christie but when he goes back to the apartment later, it is empty and put up for sale.

Answer: The situation is intentionally left vague. The homeless man being murdered wouldn't necessarily make the news in the time (there were over 4000 murders in 1989-90 when the book and movie are set). He and his friends are so alike that they continually mistake each other for others. The prostitutes would likely be loathe to call the police because they might be arrested themselves and he would likely get off with a much better lawyer.

Greg Dwyer

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Sleepaway Camp picture

Question: Why did Angela / Peter refuse to eat much food at first, and also refuse to play volleyball? She / he could probably do those things without the secret being revealed.

Answer: Watch his first scene at his aunt's. He doesn't speak at all. Clearly Angela/Peter has had a withdrawn personality since the death of his father and older sister. So doing activities with other kids is one thing he wouldn't do, as for eating, a lot of kids don't at first if they miss home.

Rob245

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