Best movie questions of 1987

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Over The Top picture

Question: Regarding that move Hawks does where he lifts his fingers and adjusts then in a different position in order to get the advantage and win, a) what is the significance of doing this (what exactly is he doing) and b) is this even legal in a real arm wrestling tournament?

lartaker1975

Answer: It's a regrip to get leverage. Yes it's legal. The best arm wrestler in the world Devon Larratt does it with perfection. Usually works only in a strap match.

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Predator picture

Question: This bugged me for years, when Billy said there is something in the trees to Dutch and in the next shot it shows the trees, is the Predator there, as in visible onscreen?

ezorro

Chosen answer: Yes. The predator can be seen not in the immediate shot after, but the one a few seconds later as they are seen walking away.

XIII

Before or after Ramirez gets hit in the face with the branch?

About 3 seconds before. If you look VERY closely (probably needing to pause the screen around 00:40:55 - about a minute after Billy said, "There's something in the trees"), there appears to be a transparent image of The Predator in the background above the major's (Arnold's) right shoulder. If this is meant to be The Predator, its body is curved around a tree trunk and its arms are extended toward the right of the screen (near Arnold's right ear), camouflaged as green leaves.

KeyZOid

The Predator - in a recognizable form - really wasn't visible until another minute later @ 00:41:55 when it was on the ground approaching Hawkins and the woman.

KeyZOid

That's a tree, not the predator. We see Billy and Dutch head on in "predator vision" as they're talking, which means the predator is directly in front and slightly above them (unknown distance). The thing you're referring to would be in the wrong position.

No, it can't. I've just been through this several times and the predator isn't shown on screen at any time during or just after after the conversation.

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Empire of the Sun picture

Question: Can anyone who speaks Japanese tell me what Jim says to the guard who's beating up the doctor? He says a few lines, then bows. The guard seems embarrassed and walks away.

Krista

Chosen answer: The first time, Jim says "Nanika no machigai desu. Bokutachi wa minna tomodachi desu yone. Senso no sei desu." This roughly translates to "There has been some sort of mistake. We are all friends aren't we? It is the war's fault." The second time, Jim only says "Nanika no machigai desu. Bokutachi wa minna..." and then gets pushed aside. "There has been a mistake, we are all...". I hope that helps.

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Dirty Dancing picture

Question: When Baby helps Penny out by dancing with Johnny at the Sheldrake hotel, it is stated that it is Thursday night (when Penny has the abortion). At breakfast the next day Baby's dad says they are leaving tomorrow, even though they are paid up til Sunday. Thursday night is the first night that Baby and Johnny sleep together, yet they seem to be seeing each other for ages before Johnny even gets sacked, let alone the time that's past when he comes back. I don't see how all of this be squeezed into 2 days?

Answer: The father says they're leaving the next day, but when the mother asks why, he realizes he'd need to explain what happened, so he decides not to leave, and they stay for the rest of the trip as originally planned.

Answer: They were there for 3 weeks, so they had been together for at least 2 weeks.

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Answer: It was Gustav Hasford's idea. It happened in the original book that the story is based on, "The Short Timers."

Captain Defenestrator

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Robocop picture

Question: When Robocop is about to arrest Jones, he suddenly feels his system malfunctioning. Jones then explains that Directive 4 is used to shut him down if he attempts to arrest a senior officer of OCP. Why did Jones put this directive into Robocop? At the time nobody knew he was working with Boddicker.

Answer: Because he knew he was doing illegal activities. Robocop was said to be highly efficient at his job and Jones did not want to risk him out on the streets without the insurance of shutting him down if Robo came after him.

MasterOfAll

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Answer: Lacy had gotten tired of her dad's newspaper, big-city life and decided to move to Smallville because she wanted to experience life at a much slower pace and even decided to live on a farm.

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The Monster Squad picture

Question: At the beginning of the movie, it was stated that Van Helsing planned to use the amulet to send every monster to limbo but that him and his team blew it. How exactly did they blow it?

Answer: It is shown that Dracula's servants were successful in protecting their master. Dracula escapes while Van Helsing himself is sucked into limbo.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Overboard picture

Question: When Dean and Annie are at the restaurant/bar, they go outside and with plastic wine type glasses Dean pours some champagne in their glasses. When Annie picks up her glass, the bottom comes off. She says, Oh I lost my bottom! Was that in the script or was it a blooper? I've always felt it was a blooper and if it was Annie covered it so well. Thanks.

Answer: Goldie Hawn mentioned in an interview that it was a blooper. She explained that she and Kurt Russell are so comfortable with one another that it wasn't really like acting, and she reacted naturally.

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Flowers in the Attic picture

Question: Who laced the cookies that were given to the children with arsenic? It's never shown who applies it, only who takes the cookies to them.

Answer: When the children discover the cookies had been poisoned (revealed by the death of their pet mouse which ate part of one of the cookies), they suspect their grandmother. After all, she was the one who had been cruel to them all along. But eventually, they realise that it was in fact, their mother, Corinne, who was lacing the cookies with poison. She was doing so with the hope that the children would eventually die, seemingly from disease. In doing so, she would secure the family inheritance which was contingent upon her never having had children from her first marriage. They eventually confront their mother on the day of her second wedding, and a struggle ensues which ultimately leads to Corinne falling to her death from a balcony.

Michael Albert

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The Lost Boys picture

Question: Star tells Michael that she was supposed to be his first kill. I'm only speculating that it was on David's orders so, if he was, why did David change his mind and decide to make Michael a vampire instead?

Answer: Because the Head vampire, Max, had fallen in love with Michael's mom. At the end of the movie he said, "Boys need a mother and if I could get Michael and Sam into the family, you would have no choice but to join us."

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The Untouchables picture

Question: How accurate is the portrayal of the Untouchables, when it comes to names and numbers? Were there actually only four of them? Do Garcia, Connery and Smith play actual people or fictive ones?

Answer: It's about 50% truth and 50% fiction. Ness, Al Capone, and Frank Nitty are real, of course, but the characters played by Connery, Garcia, and Smith are fictional. Ness started out with 50 candidates for his 'Untouchables' force. This was whittled down to 15 finalists and from that he selected 9 agents (none of which has the same name as the characters played by Connery, Garcia, and Smith). It's true that Capone was convicted for tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but received an early release because he was in the last stages of syphilis. He died shortly after being released from prison.

raywest

Capone lived for 8 years upon his release from prison. The 8 years being slightly longer than the actual prison time he served, which was just over 7 years. He died, having the mental capabilities of a 12-year-old.

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The Running Man picture

Question: How is Ben able to enter his brother's old apartment, now occupied by a single young woman, and still be able to shave off his beard and find a change of clothes?

Answer: When Ben is walking to the apartment door, he has a huge case with him which is big enough to hold clothes and even shaving equipment. Ben entered the door code into the keypad which unlocked the door so the code was never changed.

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The Witches of Eastwick picture

Question: What's the deal with Darryl Van Horne; was he a warlock, the Devil himself, or something else?

Answer: He's the Devil.

Ral0618

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Chosen answer: A sequel was not only planned, but money was spent developing sets and costumes. However, Dolph Lundgren did not want to reprise the role, so Laird Hamilton was picked to play He-Man with Albert Pyu set to direct. Canon Films, who produced the first movie, was also planning on producing a Spider-Man movie. However, Canon Films still owed money to Mattel and Marvel for the character rights that they couldn't feasibly pay, so both projects had to be scrapped. Incidentally, not wanting to let money go to waste on sets and costumes, they had Pyu come up with a movie to utilize them, which resulted in Cyborg starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Bishop73

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The Brave Little Toaster picture

Question: In the trivia section, it says, "Look at the pictures the TV guy takes out of the filing cabinet", but it doesn't say what's there. I don't have the video, could someone please fill me in?

Answer: It is referring to a moment during the song "Worthless" toward the end of the movie, right before the Red Car sings. The photos he takes out have pictures of what looks like some exotic dancers on them.

Piemanmoo

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Evil Dead II picture

Question: If this movie is a sequel to the first Evil Dead, how come it only shows Ash and Linda driving up to the cabin and not the other friends? Also, why does it show Ash playing the recording and not Scotty, like in the first film?

Answer: Sam Rami could not get the footage of Evil Dead to use in the sequel, so he remade the movie in a shortened form for the beginning. Since Linda was the only original character other than Ash to come back he included her in the recap but deleted the others as not to waste time. An in universe answer could be that trauma of losing his friends made Ash block them out and rewrite history in his head, except for Linda who comes back to haunt him in the movie so he is forced to deal with it.

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The Princess Bride picture

Question: When Buttercup confronts a masked Westley, she says that she loved more deeply than a killer like him ever dreamed. Westley's response is to raise a hand as if to hit her, but he stops and says that was a warning and that where he comes from, there are penalties when a woman lies. In what way was Buttercup lying?

Answer: Westley comes back from the sea, only to find that his one true love is engaged to another man. He feels her love for him wasn't true if she could even think of getting married again, at least so soon.

Brian Katcher

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Fatal Attraction picture

Question: Why did Alex kill Ellen's pet bunny and how did she get inside the house to boil it? Didn't Dan and Beth lock the door?

adamtrainman@aol.com

Answer: Because she is insane! And she picked the lock. By murdering the innocent pet bunny rabbit Alex was sending a message. She won't be ignored! She's just letting Dan know that she can get to him, or in this case his family (daughter's pet), anytime she wants to. He's not safe.

Alan Keddie

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Answer: When Bruce IV eats Mario Van Peebles, it also eats a device that they use to give it an electric shock by remote control. This makes it leap out of the water. The last time they do this, the long pole on the boat's bow impales it.

Grumpy Scot

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