Question: Bayfield and McMoon buy every copy of the New York Post in their neighborhood and throw them in the trash so as to not upset Florence if she ever found out the truth of what people thought of her singing. Wouldn't this have been a waste of time, especially if somebody just came right up to Florence at any time and told her what they really thought of her singing?
Question: Why did Arthur tell Aurora that Jim woke her up even though he promised to keep it a secret?
Answer: Being that Arthur is an android, he takes everything that is said literally and without analyzing it. Once Jim and Aurora began their romantic relationship, Aurora casually mentioned to Arthur that she and Jim have "no secrets" from one another, which Jim, without realizing the context or the consequences, confirmed. Arthur then interpreted it to mean that Aurora knew Jim had intentionally awakened her from the sleeping pod.
Answer: Because the ship had been malfunctioning due to collision with the asteroid it had effected Arthur as he is part of the vessel. This shows something is wrong with the ship as previously indicated, Arthur's sudden change of behaviour being integral to what is going on.
Question: Two questions are puzzling me. 1. Considering the tactics that Ray used to take control of McDonald's from the brothers, couldn't it be said that he cheated and conned the brothers out of their restaurant? 2. When Ray visits Mac in the hospital, he offers him a blank check to which the brothers agree. Why would they agree to such a thing instead of fighting to get their restaurant back?
Answer: 1. Yes, he pretty much cheated them out of their restaurant, royalties, intellectual property, etc. 2. Ray elaborates on this towards the end of the film when is on the phone with them. He's generated so much revenue from his real estate venture that he can afford to tie them up in court for years and drown them in legal fees if they decided to sue him for breach of contract. This is why they decide to surrender the company and everything that came with it in exchange for $1 million each and 1% perpetuity, the latter of which they never received.
Question: What happened to Mike the Mouse? At the end of the film we see him escaping with his girlfriend, but the bear is latching on the car. This is the last time we see them and we don't see them at the reopening of the theatre, so what happened?
Answer: I think he escaped from the bear with his girlfriend, sped off very fast and the bears fell off the car.
You haven't read the question. Before it cuts to Meena's performance, the lead bear popped up from behind the car and presumably kidnapped them.
Answer: Mike had to stay with the bears for the rest of his life.
Question: In the first combat scene, we see the big climbing net already in place. Who put the net up in the first place and how would that have been done? And why would the Japanese not simply cut it down after the first fights when the US troops retreated?
Chosen answer: US troops put the net up (in reality the ridge isn't as tall). The Japanese were fighting a defensive battle from heavily fortified positions on a reverse slope, and it suited them to have the Americans attacking from that point. The Americans also used ladders on other parts of the escarpment.
Question: I think that there is one scene in which Rafe (Gluck) has braces on his teeth - but he does not for the rest of the movie. The scene is the one when he sneaks back into his bedroom and his sister is waiting for him because she overheard the fiancé telling the kids' mother that Rafe should go to military school - it is a touching scene in front of Rafe's bedroom window. Am I right that he has braces in that scene but not in any others?
Answer: That's correct.
Question: Is it true Jimmy Harrell was taking a shower as the disaster began?
Answer: Yes. There are actually many cases where the actors portray what the actual people were doing at the time of the disaster. Another example is when the guy (I can't remember his name off the top of my head) rubs mud off the main drill pipe.
Answer: Yes.
Question: How were the brothers able to steal the second car, after their hostage escaped? Or was that their car? They just jumped in and drove away with no apparent time or effort spent.
Answer: The smaller car belonged to them. They go and pick it up again after Dun Meng escapes the Mercedes at the gas station.
Thank you! With hindsight, maybe that's obvious, but I didn't catch it when I watched the movie.
Question: When Edward Snowden obtains the MicroSD card after downloading all the data, he and Patrick Haynes (who's fully aware what he's up to) start communicating via sign language before he leaves to avoid their conversation being recorded. Does anyone know what they are saying to each other?
Chosen answer: The scene is captioned as follows - Snowden: "I might not see you again." Haynes: "You 'gonna leave me here...with Captain America? Thanks a lot." Snowden: "NSA may come after you." Haynes: "I don't know what you're talking about. [walks away.]" I should note that my profession is that of an American Sign Language interpreter. From my observation, they are signing pretty much correctly, if not artfully. The only difference is that what the movie translates as "I don't know what you're talking about" would probably be more accurately stated as, "I don't understand your comment." And there really isn't a sign used for "gonna'." Hayes just says, "you're leaving me here with him? Captain America!"
Thank you!
Question: I have a few questions about the different groups in the film. 1. I looked up 17th Feb, or February 17th Martyr's Brigade, on Wikipedia, and I noticed that an ally that was listed on Wiki was Ansar-Al-Sharia. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ansar-Al-Sharia the current ISIS/ISIL that we're fighting today? 2. Was the group the soldiers were fighting in the film ISIS? 3. Who was the group of soldiers that saved them all at the end of the film?
Answer: Ansar-Al-Sharia isn't ISIS; it was disbanded in 2017. The group the soldiers were fighting weren't ISIS, they were February 17th Martyr's Brigade. The soldiers at the end were Tripoli GRS reinforcements.
Question: In the very last scene, we see Michael Shannon in shackles (presumably in a federal prison) with electroencephalographic sensors attached to his forehead and scalp, oddly gazing at the sunrise as two prison guards flank him. In the very last shot of the film, a closeup of his face, we see his eyes faintly glow for a split-second as he smiles a very slight smile. Question: Is the film implying that Alton is in otherworldly contact with his father, or that his father absorbed some of Alton's otherworldly power; or is it implying that, being the boy's biological father, he was the source of Alton's power? In any event, this may never be revealed, because the film barely made back one-third of its $18 million production budget, making the probability of a sequel highly unlikely.
Answer: I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I got the impression that he was communicating with Alton like he had done when Alton ran from the truck. I also thought his smile was perhaps in reaction to what Alton told him and/or the two were making fun of (mocking) the use of electrodes because they knew the electrodes would not have any effect on him.
P.S. Plenty of lousy movies have had sequels, so it is possible there could be a "Midnight Special 2".
Not necessarily holding my breath.
A sequel doesn't seem likely. Hope you weren't holding your breath waiting for an answer to your question.
Question: Why is it that the aliens, who obviously possess technology and intellect far beyond humans, didn't think to use their pictographs to communicate right out the gate? We had to wait for Amy Adams and her dry erase board?
Answer: The Heptapods' "present" encompassed about 6000 years of our human past, present and future. So, they perceived 3000 years of our past and 3000 years of our future simultaneously. It's a confounding idea to humans, but the Heptapods already knew, 3000 years in advance, that Louise was the critical contact for the evolution of communication between our species. For the Heptapods, there was no coincidence or impatience or blind luck; they already knew exactly when and how to start communicating with her.
Answer: The aliens don't see time in a linear fashion but all of time at once, meaning they can see the future, which is why their writing is like it is. They therefore knew Louise (played by Adams) would be the one to figure out their language and had to wait for her, or simply chose to wait for her.
Question: While there were various characters being held in a sort of "suspended animation" entwined in the "canker man's" roots/webs, only one was set free (the foster care agent), why? (01:20:35 - 01:24:25)
Answer: We only see her released, but the implication is that the others were, too.
Question: I may have missed this, but early in the film, how did Mia and Sebastian get into the empty planetarium? It must have been locked up pretty tight. Did someone let them in? Did they break in? I'm guessing this was explained and I didn't catch it.
Chosen answer: The answer is, "It's a movie." They wouldn't have been able to drive up to the entrance either. The entire sequence is fantasy-driven.
Question: In the tavern, the dwarves emphatically tell the huntsman that dwarven females are so repulsive that dwarf reproduction only happens accidentally, in bad lighting and under the influence of drink. Which sounds quite repulsive. But, when the huntsman and male dwarves are later captured in the net trap, the female dwarves turn out to be perfectly lovely, even quite sexy. Then, even stranger, one of the male dwarves later apologizes for the appearance of a lovely female dwarf (who is standing right next to him in plain sight), claiming that she was hit in the face with a rock. So, what was the purpose of the male dwarves obsessively lying about the beauty of female dwarves? Or were the male dwarves blind to true beauty for some reason?
Question: Can someone be shot through the side and just duct tape the entry and exit holes? (Wouldn't the bullet have mushroomed in the body and not exited anyway?) If there were a real gunshot wound like that, how long until he bleeds out?
Answer: Duct taping the wounds may seal the injury and hold the bleeding, but it may not be effective. If something along the lines of this would happen in real life, it would be best to tend to the wounds properly in case of infection. Whether or not the bullet would get stuck inside the body depends on if whether or not the bullet hits something, that would cause it to get stuck inside the body. How long until someone would bleed out in real life depends on the severity of the gunshot wound and whether or not something major was hit.
Answer: They had no way of knowing whether or not someone would do that, but they did whatever they could to keep her from reading the bad reviews.
raywest ★