Question: In the original film, the Discovery's onboard computer states: "I am a HAL 9000 Computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January, 1992." So, "HAL" was a manufacturer identification prefix (standing for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computers), "9000" was its model number, and "No.3" was its production lineage. In this sequel, however, Dr. Chandra is chatting with one of HAL's earth-based twin computers which has a feminine voice and is called "SAL"; but how can they arbitrarily change its manufacturer identification prefix? Being produced by the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, and being identical to the computer aboard the Discovery, the twin's name should have a different production number, but it should still be called "HAL," should it not?
Question: Why is there a derelict battleship beneath the bridge? It is easily identifiable as one because of its 2 front main cannons. No battleships are in service any more with any navy in the world.
Answer: There are many mothballed and museum warships in harbors all over the US and a few still have operable engines. People would try to flee major cities infected with the plague by any means. Or even if the engines were out maybe a tugboat was pulling a derelict full of refugees and the Navy destroyed it to maintain quarantine or it was cut loose and sank.
Question: I don't get the joke Chris told Liz in the cabin motel about the Zen master that ordered a hotdog with everything. What was funny?
Chosen answer: The Zen master tells the hotdog vendor to "Make me one with everything," a pun, of sorts, on the Zen philosophy of becoming one with the universe.
Question: I was really confused by the ending, who were the three figures we kept seeing, and what were they trying to do?
Answer: The figures are spirits who figured out how to contact the living, like Michael Keaton's wife. But where his wife wants him to help others, the three spirits are evil and want to only do bad things.
Question: After the gene-swapping sequence, why was Bartok placed in observation? Also, what was that food they gave him?
Chosen answer: Obviously, he was kept alive so he could be studied, which was a nasty twist on the fact that he kept the dog alive, and suffering, for so long. As far as the food, there is no way to know what it was. Probably some kind of bland mush.
Question: What exactly happens to a host's body once the symbiote emerges? At the end of Venom, when Venom is threatening the robber, he partially opens his face, and we see Eddie's face. In this movie, when Cletus/Carnage is escaping from prison, guards start shooting at Carnage who then splits open his entire midsection but Cletus is nowhere to be seen.
Answer: The host and symbiote merge fully. So the symbiote can totally disappear into the host and the host can totally disappear into the symbiote. They can also split again, or partially, at will. It just depends on who gets to be the active version at that time.
I am not up to speed with recent Marvel canon, but in the comics it's never been that way? The symbiote can surely slink inside the host (especially Carnage in Kasady's blood), but the humans can't turn into shapeless goo. Comics aside, that sequence from the movie is mind-boggling; I can sorta explain it thinking the symbiote just tore Kasady's torso in half and then reattached it instantly (in other parts of the movie Eddie gets basically stabbed with what would be lethal wounds).
Actually, in the comics it's long been established that Carnage's healing factor is Deadpool-levels of broken. There are numerous moments where Carnage is impaled, crushed, decapitated, has his neck twisted, even grenades blowing up in his jaws and straight up nailed by military missiles... AND HE'S JUST FINE AND WALKS IT OFF LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED. He absolutely could casually tear himself open with no drawback whatsoever.
"Could" tear himself open, does he usually?"Can turn into shapeless goo", has he? One thing is to regenerate the torso, another thing is to manipulate your body parting before the bullets reach you.I don't really see that from the example posted, but my curiosity aside, given we're talking about the movie anyway, I really don't see Kasady depicted as a shapeshifter, and him and the symbiote in this movie are entirely separated at the end (pending a sequel of course).
Also, for Carnage specifically, the human absolutely can turn into shapeless goo. Makes sense, actually, given that the symbiote canonically merged into Kasady's own cells and microscopic DNA, something even Venom and its hosts can't replicate https://2.bp.blogspot.com/9DjIg5e1HwLrwx-lhLjXxlUqzici7xajVTQZMhEHW8a0X9BqdRFE4U6eaBuPKXJgb8zSxkTytpvh=s1600 so the "symbiote-opening-up-the-host-body-with-holes" being a Carnage specific thing isn't surprising at all, in fact, given it's the same body.
Question: After Toomes says to Peter "Really? Stark?" Did Liz say "so cool"?
Answer: Yes, we hear Liz say, "So cool" but since she's sitting behind Adrian we don't actually see her saying it.
Question: What is the deal with a apples in this movie, is it a subtle reference to something? Aside from the main bad guy chomping on one while tailing with someone (rude), there are several scenes with large bowls of apples. In one scene, there are two tables with bowls of apples on them.
Answer: Its a Navy thing. Centuries ago, to ward off the threat of Scurvy when sailing long distances, eating apples would prevent it, and the tradition carries over into modern times.
After 21 years of Naval service (10 years destine and four ships) I have never heard of apples warding off scurvy. It was discovered that lemons were very effective. Later in time the British started using limes to avoid scurvy. While limes were cheaper than lemons, they were not as effective. This is also where we get the phrase "Limey Brits" from.
Yep you're right. It's the Vitamin C in limes and oranges that prevents scurvy. Not much of that in an apple.
Question: After Alan Krumweide starts spreading misinformation about Forsythia curing MEV-1, we see a scene in a pharmacy being flooded with desperate customers. But if Forsythia is a homeopathic drug, then why is it being sold in pharmacies in the first place? As the characters say later on, it takes months just to get a drug approved, let alone sold.
Answer: Many pharmacies in the US sell homeopathic supplements.
Question: At the end he sees the Statue of Liberty on the beach. How did the statue get there from Ellis Island?
Answer: He's in the same location as Ellis Island. Thousands of years have resulted in significant changes geographically.
Answer: The statue was destroyed during the nuclear war at some point in the past. The remnant of it had washed ashore to where Taylor finds it.
Question: Why did Castor shoot Dietrich? They were on the same side.
Chosen answer: Although they were on the same side, Troy is currently posing as Archer, which means he would have to do everything that the FBI would expect Archer to be doing. The whole point of the raid was to take out Archer, as well as Troy's gang. He would have rather risked killing part of his own gang than risk exposing his identity to anyone else.
That doesn't really make sense. In the scene, he goes out of his way to shoot him and smiles while doing so, carefully and slowly. Was not a collateral damage situation. The question is why he deliberately goes out of his way to kill him.
Answer: If you watch closely, he saw Archer, went out of his way not to shoot him, instead was aiming for his own son that he didn't know was his, to further traumatize Archer.
Question: Something I couldn't figure out. The black fluid (in the glass cylinder) made Wikus start turning into an alien. If the aliens were mainly interested in going back to their planet, why had they been developing a substance that could turn humans into aliens? How would this help them go home?
Question: To play Loveless, were Kenneth Branagh's legs removed digitally with a blue/green screen?
Answer: Assuming it's the same technique used for Gary Sinse in Forrest Gump, Mr. Branagh was probably wearing blue leggings which was used to digitize out his legs.
Question: When Donnagon is about to fire the transmooker on Juni, Carmen and Ingrid. Did Carmen try to grab Juni and protect him?
Answer: Yes.
Question: When the Debutante examines herself in the mirror, why does she center on and support her breast just before doubling over in pain?
Answer: She was most likely giving herself a breast-self examination. Doing this would enable her to feel for lumps, distortion or swelling which if felt early would mean that she might have early stages of breast cancer and could get it checked immediately.
Her breast was sensitive and painful because she could sense that something wasn't right with her.
So the alien embryo inside of her body was giving her cancer?
No. It wasn't giving her cancer. She probably does a breast-self examination periodically to insure that there's nothing wrong with her breasts.
Plus, it wouldn't make any sense for an alien embryo to give her cancer since after giving birth to an alien hybrid she would immediately die.
Answer: She could feel discomfort in her breast as she moved her hands down to her stomach.
Question: If the "cold drink" vending machine was unplugged and the buttons were unresponsive, WHY did the saboteurs deliberately illuminate the front of the machine? Wouldn't this ATTRACT people to the machine, only to subsequently arouse curiosity when it failed to function (as it did with Mulder)? The more logical approach would be to disable the vending machine (including the illumination) and tape an "out of order" sign on it. People would then just ignore the machine, arousing no suspicion. The illuminated vending machine gimmick looks like an illogical contrivance to advance the plot.
Chosen answer: If they had put an "Out of Order" sign, or left it unilluminated, someone in charge might try to have it fixed or replaced, or could have checked to see if it's plugged in, etc. By leaving it illuminated, it doesn't look out of place and simply not taking money wouldn't arouse too much suspicion. In my own life, when I've come across a seemingly working vending machine that won't take my money or dispense drinks (but gives my money back), I just find another one instead of calling someone or reporting it. But yes, it is very convenient to the plot that Mulder just happens to try and use this particular machine.
Question: Who exactly are "the new founding fathers"? It never actually says. I read an internet post that said they were not singular people, but a collection of multi-national companies that took over the government after a near nation wide collapse of the US.
Answer: The only information the original script offers is the company that took over the government, their name is "Arcon". Other than that, there is no other specific name nor is there an answer to what kind of company Arcon really is.
Question: How come Superman is so nice to Gus at the end? He was working with the baddies, he created a computer and the Kryptonite to kill Superman! Yet Superman is totally cool and even asks the coal miners to give Gus a job. Did I miss something?
Answer: The only reason that Gus was working with Ross, Vera and Lorelei was because he stole money from the company he worked at. To avoid going to prison, Gus was forced to do anything that they wanted. After realizing that his computer was designed to do anything it was ordered to, including killing Superman, Gus removed a small screw which shut down the power momentarily but, after the computer brought itself back online, Gus attempted to destroy it with an axe to save Superman. Superman saw this and realised he was wrong about Gus and after the computer was destroyed decided to help Gus find a job.
That makes sense, thank you! Been bugging me for years.
You're welcome.
Question: Why is the secretary was so rude to Howard when he tried to find the job?
Answer: As she said to Howard, she believed that he was using his "outlandish" appearance to be unable to find work and collect money through unemployment. She's probably dealt with people who did the same thing and was eventually sick of it.
Question: How did Kirk die? He got hit by a lot of debris but from what was seen, not enough to do real damage.
Answer: Kirk also fell a considerable distance, clinging onto the platform as it dislodged from the cliff and rolled several times. In addition to being crushed/hit by debris, the fall and the rolling would have caused further serious trauma.
Answer: The most likely reason the name was changed was probably a literary one. It makes it easier for the audience to differentiate SAL from HAL, showing how they are two distinct computers playing different roles in the film. It may also just be a feminine nickname being that SAL has a female voice.
raywest ★
I thought perhaps "SAL" was a nickname, also, until I saw that the computer's maker nameplate reads "SAL 9000" (visible in close-ups of SAL's glowing eye).
Charles Austin Miller