Question: The Spartans come across a village destroyed by Persians, and not long afterwards they arrive at the Hot Gates where they see the Persian army arriving by sea. Granted I wasn't paying full attention, what's going on with the geography?
Jon Sandys
26th Dec 2020
300 (2006)
30th Nov 2020
Definitely, Maybe (2008)
Question: Why did Will and "Emily" get divorced? Is the only hint her comment about "feeling lost when it comes to relationships", implying she wasn't very good at them?
28th Nov 2020
The Mandalorian (2019)
Question: Ahsoka's "head-tails" (called Lekku, technically) seem to have creases in them. Are these meant to be scars from battles, or are they just folds in whatever material was used to make the prosthetics? With all the high production values elsewhere, this would seem to be a fairly ropey oversight if so.
Chosen answer: They could be just like wrinkles from age, like the elderly Togruta in the Zygerrian slaver arc in The Clone Wars series, as Ahsoka is considerably older than her animated appearances. I think there is probably a character design/stylisation aspect to it as well - the other Togruta we've seen in live action, Shaak Ti, has four segments or folds in her lekku that were not visible in her Clone Wars appearances, so it would seem the character design in Clone Wars and Rebels reduces such features.
3rd Sep 2020
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Question: The sequence where the family sees their dog's kennel/chain hanging from the T-Rex's mouth...was that also used in a children's book? My wife and her sister remember it as a story in the 80s, with artwork similar to "Not Now Bernard." My wife's never seen this film, resenting the absence of Sam Neill, but recognises she might have seen the clip and it's just her memory playing tricks on her. Curious if anyone knows of an old book/story with a similar visual.
8th Aug 2020
General questions
It's a bit of a trope in films for an explosive device of some kind to be placed in a microwave, often catching the victim unawares until the final few seconds before the beeper goes and it explodes. Grosse Point Blank and Under Siege come to mind, to name but two. But is there any real reason the countdown should match the explosion? Is there anything specific about the end of a microwave cycle that might cause a detonation in something capable of it, or is it just a Hollywood convention that the hero's skills are such that they manage to set the timer for the perfect length to cause an explosion?
Answer: To start, exploding microwaves in film are like gas tanks exploding when shot, what the movies show is nothing like real life. Most explosive simply do not explode in microwaves, even after 15 minutes. Flash powder (flashbang grenades) can go off in a microwave after about 5 minutes, but just from being heated up, nothing to do with the final seconds of the countdown. Although they certainly wouldn't explode an entire store or cause more damage then the flashbang would do normally. Explosives like C4, hand grenades, or modern TNT and dynamite-type explosives will not go off like seen in the films, at least not with low powered home microwaves.
14th Jul 2020
General questions
I'm trying to remember what movie it's from when the bad guy (I think) says "you find something that's important to them, and...you squeeze." Drawing a blank. Anyone know?
Chosen answer: "Mission Impossible." Kitteridge says it to his colleague, Barnes (when the Feds turn up at the place where Max and her team were, and find them gone) when describing how he's going to get Ethan to come out of hiding.
That's it! Fantastic, thank you. :-)
2nd May 2020
Shazam! (2019)
Question: When the disbelieving assistant puts her hand on the markings that Mark Strong draws on the door, why does she dissolve into ashes?
Chosen answer: Because she is not worthy to open the door (not champion material), or even to touch it. But Silvana is, since he already crossed it as a child.
As you can recall Sivana reached for the eye of sin and the old wizard told him he would never be worthy.
He is a champion candidate. That's good enough to at least enter.
12th Apr 2020
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Question: Given there's only a few months between this movie and the previous one, that means it's set around 2014 vs. Infinity War being set in 2018, as best anyone can figure. Is there any official word on what the Guardians are up to in the intervening 4 years?
Chosen answer: Short answer: Probably nothing much good. In all that time Quinn still felt like a reaver, and Rocket doesn't deny he likes crime. Only Gamora keeps them at bay from doing anything really nasty. In the mean time they try to do good things, protect planets, hunt pirates, stuff like that. It's a crazy bunch of individuals.
Answer: They're mercenaries, like we see with the Sovereign. They do good things for money. We see this with the Sovereign, and Quill's comments make this seem like this is normal. Later, Rocket makes a comment about raising their prices. In Infinity War, they only respond to the Asgardian distress call because they expect to be paid.
5th Feb 2020
The Flash (2014)
Question: Why do Cisco and everyone else think the multiverse is destroyed? At the end of Crisis we explicitly saw a "tour" of various recreated earths, like Earth-12 with the Green Lantern Corps, Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp thing all getting their own, Brandon Routh's Superman being back on Earth-96 in his old suit, etc. Is it just that people assume all the earths were combined because the new Earth Prime is a bit of a mish-mash?
Chosen answer: Earth Prime is a combination of Earth-1, Earth-38, and Black Lighting's Earth. However, the Earths in the new multiverse are separated by something other than vibrational frequencies, so Cisco can't vibe them, nor can they travel to other Earths as before. So the Paragons think it's still destroyed and don't know (at this point) that Queen/Spectre recreated some of the other Earth's (and new ones).
Answer: Exactly, the new series, Stargirl, shows a universe where the JSA existed, but to soon to tell if it's situated on Earth Prime.
2nd Feb 2020
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Question: How do the "door transporters" outside Starfleet work? People just seem to walk straight into them and vanish, a) faster than normal transporters, and b) without any indication they're controlling where they're going. There's no sign saying where each door connects to, are people just hoping for the best?
Chosen answer: My guess is that they go to 1 place and they can't chose where to go. Like a highway without exits, you just end up where the highway stops.
Answer: I assume they get sent directly from those 'Doors' to a Central Transporter hub, from there they can request to be beamed to their desired destination.
20th Jan 2020
Titans (2018)
5th Jan 2020
Harley Quinn (2019)
Question: Is the music at the end of each episode a cover of something? It sounds really familiar and I can't put my finger on it.
30th Dec 2019
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Question: How does Rey get Luke's original (Anakin's) lightsaber? Twice, no less. The first time when Maz Kanada says "a story for another time", a time which never came, apparently. Then it's destroyed in TLJ in the fight with Kylo Ren, then she gets it back again...somehow, in this movie.
Answer: In TLJ you see her pick up both halves. It was then repaired between movies, with the prop showing modifications where it was fixed.
Chosen answer: According to StarWars.com: Rey took the broken pieces with her to Crait. The lightsaber's shattered pieces reunited themselves as she continued down the Jedi path.
If you look closely, the lightsaber has been repaired after being broken in Last Jedi. There is a new middle piece joining the two broken pieces together.
At the end of "The Last Jedi", when the remaining Resistance fighters leave Crait, there is a close-up of Rey's hands holding the broken pieces of the saber, meaning that she took them with her.
24th Dec 2019
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Question: Who are all the hooded figures surrounding the Sith throne?
Answer: It's a group of Sith cultists known as the Sith Eternal. They have been based on Exegol for many years.
24th Dec 2019
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Question: How did Palpatine come back? Cloned? Or somehow survived the Death Star explosion, which seems unlikely.
Chosen answer: According to the novelization, Palpatine sensed Vader's internal conflict and created a clone as a backup in the event that Vader betrayed him. When Vader threw him down the shaft, Palpatine transferred his consciousness into the clone's body.
Answer: It is not said exactly how he came back. He says that he had died before which presumably is him dying in ROTJ. The most we get is the reference to Sith ability that some consider unnatural.
It is not said how he came back, but I get the idea that he was using the Force to keep himself alive. At least that's the message I was getting when I saw that Palpatine's fingers were wilted away. And I thought that the power he was using was urging his life to go on, but his physical appearence was being dragged behind.
Answer: The line "The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural" is a direct reference to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in which Palpatine says the same line verbatim to Anakin. Recall that a major plot point to that prequel is that the Sith have long been rumored to have found a method to cheat death. This film strongly suggests that Palpatine had indeed discovered this method. The film doesn't go into specifics. My understanding is the novelization says his body is a clone. Going by his appearance in the film (blank eyes; body manipulated by machine), it suggests to me that he is a reanimated corpse.
21st Dec 2019
The Irishman (2019)
Question: I don't quite get how the Hoffa killing plays out. His son is there in the car, Frank and Jimmy go into the house, Frank shoots him, apparently not heard, then leaves the house...doesn't Chuckie Hoffa have questions? Like where his dad is for a start, let alone the gunshots he must have heard?
Chosen answer: First off his name was Chuckie O'Brian. Jimmy Hoffa wasn't his biological father, he was more in the nature of a foster father. Second, he probably knew what happened. What was Chuckie going to do? It was a sanctioned hit. And if he went to the police he would have ended up the same as Jimmy Hoffa. They put him in the middle of it to keep him quiet. If he goes after the people who did it, he's as good as dead. If he talks he could end up in jail with them, and the mafia will probably kill him anyway.
13th Dec 2019
Die Hard (1988)
Question: The armoured vehicle that gets sent in when the SWAT team are struggling to get in, before they're even attacked...what's that meant to actually achieve? If it's just meant to smash the doors, the men with guns could do that. And if not...will it just sit there?
Answer: I believe it is supposed to be that it was a precautionary measure and probably standard operating procedure to have it on site when dealing with a terrorist situation. To have it at the ready for if they needed it. Not only this, but a large armored vehicle like that could serve as physiological warfare to make the terrorist more fearful merely by it just being there. A show of strength. As for using it on the door, yes, guys with guns can smash those doors. But guys with guns are still targets to be shot at especially though glass doors. The armored vehicle can smash through it and get the men inside without exposing them to small arms fire.
But why send the armoured car into the lobby before being attacked? And why send it in in the first place? Once it's in the lobby it becomes a sitting duck. Easy pickings for when the occupants decide to disembark.
In some cases, maybe. But the vehicle itself still provides cover for the men in it. They usually would exit from the back or the top, and have that as something to hide against or shoot from. Also, most armored SWAT vehicles like that usually have a very high powered water cannon on the top that has the pressure of a fire truck. This can quickly subdue any hostile forces and knock their defenses down, giving the SWAT ample time to make their move while the enemy is still recovering. Not only this, but the vehicle can have inside more equipment the SWAT members can use, like throwing out smoke and flash bang grenades, or have riot shields as the exit. But this at least gets them inside and up where they can do good. If they tried to walk up to the door without cover, they would be easy pickings from small arms fire and snipers.
Good answer. I would add that presumably, the SWAT vehicle could be put in reverse, and once the front entrance was breached, it would back up. Also, this being a movie, it's shown that the overall police and F.B.I. response is supposed to be somewhat bungled, with different egotistical characters vying for control. Plot wise, it shows how well armed the "terrorists" are supposed to be by blowing up the SWAT vehicle with a missile, and how they anticipate and outsmart the police's every move. This is not reality.
13th Dec 2019
Die Hard (1988)
Question: They say the wires for the electromagnetic seal "can't be cut locally" - how is that possible? I mean at some point the electricity for them has to come into the building, surely?
Chosen answer: I took this to mean that cutting the lines themselves wouldn't open the safe. The safe is designed such that the physical locks could be destroyed but the electromagnetic lock wouldn't open unless the power to the entire building was shut off.
But my point is they've got control of the building, including the basement/anywhere else. General power has to enter the building from the street somewhere, and I don't see how they wouldn't be able to just cut through a main power cable and achieve exactly the same result as a switch being flipped by a city engineer.
The city engineer shuts down an entire city grid. I think that has something to do with it. It's not as simple as cutting a power line or flipping a switch.
I get that's the argument, I just don't see how. Because eventually it has to come down to the building being connected to the city grid via...something, and I don't see why the bad guys couldn't just interfere with that "something" themselves. There's either a technical reason or it's a plot hole, but I'm not really bothered about the mistake aspect, it's more just a query my brain can't let go of and I want the answer. :-).
Answer: There's no mention as to where the cables actually enter the building. They could come in via the basement, there could be a separate utility room that can only be accessed from outside or the cables could simply be inside a wall somewhere. They'd probably need to find the building blueprints to find out where the cables come into the building.
12th Dec 2019
Knives Out (2019)
Question: In the flashbacks of Ransom storming out, it's different each time. The first time his Grandma speaks, the second time she's silent, and the third time she's holding cake, when she wasn't the other times. The flashbacks we see don't contradict each other, they're not really portrayed as coming from unreliable narrators, they're generally an honest portrayal of what happens, even when what they're telling the police isn't what we see happen. So why these minor, certainly deliberate, differences? Far as I'm aware it's the only time it happens too, not like there are lots of moments like this.
Chosen answer: She is holding cake all 3 times, actually, so the only difference is that the first time she speaks. It can be a case of unreliable narrator, but I'd write it down as a mistake (deliberate, probably, as the phrase is important for the plot and they didn't want to hammer it in), since as you said, the other times even when they tell things to the police in a different way from what happened, the details tend to stay consistent, except for parts that are obviously made up, such as who is putting down the birthday cake for Harlan Thrombey therefore appearing subservient and not as close (when Richard tells the story, it's Walt and his wife, when Walt tells the story it is Richard and his wife).
Answer: Each time, it is being described by a different person. Maybe not all heard her speak.
24th Nov 2019
Star Wars (1977)
Question: Has there ever been any sort of canonical discussion about the morality of droid treatment in any Star Wars titles? They're intelligent/sentient, are treated well by most people, even like friends/pets by some. And yet they also seem to casually get their minds wiped, or if they're destroyed many people shrug rather than mourn. Tools to some, valued comrades to others, it's just a bit all over the place. Idle thought really.
Answer: Lucas has gone on record as to the treatment of droids in Star Wars being a thought-provoking allegory for the way people treat minorities. I've never heard him specifically talk about how it's almost never commented-upon in-universe, but intentionally or not, I'm of the opinion that it's more compelling this way. Why doesn't anybody do anything about the way droids are treated? Well, go around asking people why they don't do anything about the way other people are treated and you'll quickly find out.
Answer: Not in the films, but several of the books removed from canon by Disney mentioned a "droids' rights movement" that decried memory wipes and other dismissals of sentience. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Droid_rights_ (movement).
Solo, which is canon, features a subplot about droid's rights. So not everything has been scrubbed regarding this topic.
Chosen answer: Nobody in the Star Wars universe, except on rare occasions, has shown sympathy towards a droid or any AI. Even though these robots learn, they don't really evolve beyond their programming so they aren't considered "alive" (unlike in other fiction like Wall-E), not even by the most sentimental of people. Organic beings develop attachments to droids, but mostly towards their usefulness, not because they like their personality, not even Luke Skywalker towards R2 or Poe towards BB-8. If they are destroyed, too bad. Memory wiping doesn't remove the droid's original programming either, and their way of talking and manners stay.
In Episode 2, Obi-Wan makes the offhanded comment "Well, if droids could think there'd be none of us here", implying that droids do not actually possess artificial intelligence. R2-D2 seems to be a particularly unusual droid in that he is uncommonly resilient and steadfast, which makes his allies quite fond of him. Poe and BB-8 appear to have a bond that goes beyond simply being attached to the droid's usefulness, but like you say that appears to be a unique case.
Just because he said that doesn't mean they didn't have AI. They think for themselves, so they have AI. Just not as advanced as in other fiction.
The point is raised again later in the film when the cloners state that unlike droids, clones can think for themselves.
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Chosen answer: The village was destroyed by a Persian scouting party. The emissary talking to the Spartans at the Phocian wall told Dienekes that the hills were swarming with scouts. It would make sense that they had a large party going ahead of the partial army on the ships.
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