Question: Where would Andy have been able to get the $10 necessary to buy the rock hammer?
Matty Blast
3rd Feb 2005
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
11th Jan 2005
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Question: Why did Professor Hobby, at the beginning of the movie, tell the Mecha to undress?
Answer: The Mecha was in a room full of strangers, and yet, because it had no feelings of shame (no feelings at all was the point), it undressed without any concern of onlookers.
Chosen answer: To show how completely obedient the mecha are and that there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to them.
11th Jan 2005
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Question: Why couldn't the Emperor sense the presence of Luke Skywalker on Endor (per his conversation with Vader)?
Chosen answer: The Emperor did sense Luke. He just didn't tell Vader that, because he was planning on replacing Vader with Luke (kind of like replacing an old sedan with a new sportscar) and double crossing Vader.
Same thing what happened in Episode III, Palpatine deceived and betrayed Dooku by not knowing he was just a pawn to his plans.
Answer: You never know whether The Emperor is telling the truth or not, but either way what he's trying to convey to Vader here is that he's starting to get the tiniest bit of doubt over whether Vader has truly purged all compassion towards his son, and if not he'd better nip that in the bud, pronto.
27th Nov 2004
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Question: Did the Warden know about the "Randall Stevens" character? At first it would seem that he didn't, since Andy used the identity to clean out the bank accounts and escape to Mexico. On the other hand, how could the Warden make deposits and withdrawals (before Andy's escape) from his bank accounts without noticing?
Chosen answer: He probably only knows the name. He doesn't want to know anymore, so he can pin the blame on Andy should anything go wrong. He no doubt hasn't even considered that Andy might have ID so he can access the accounts after his escape.
Also, Andy indicated that the deposits were night deposits, which were in envelopes. So, the warden may not have known the "Randall Stevens" name.
16th Nov 2004
Caddyshack (1980)
Question: What does the judge say when the ref asks him if there are an odd or even number of tees in his hand? "Bald"? What am I missing here?
Chosen answer: The judge says "odd". He was quessing at whether the ref had an even number of tees in his hand or an odd number of tees. This is a common and fair way of determining who will go first.
18th Oct 2004
Star Wars (1977)
Question: After escaping in the pod, Threepio says, "That's funny; the damage doesn't look as bad out here." But they're too far away to see the ship they were in; all they can see is the Imperial Star Destroyer that "swallowed" their ship up. Was this a humorous character-mistake by Lucas to show how erroneous Threepio can often be? Or could Threepio actually see the small ship the rebels were in (hardly looks possible, given the shot shown when he says it)?
Chosen answer: Well, he is an android, and I doubt the designers would be satisfied at giving him just normal human vision. He probably has some sort of optical enhancements, which would be pretty necessary for any sort of technical work, and he does say that he's done that in the past.
1st Sep 2004
Sliders (1995)
Question: In the pilot episode, the wormhole physically travels to "capture" Quinn and bring him back to his own world, after his very first slide. How did the wormhole know where Quinn was?
Chosen answer: Remember at first Quinn's timer is working perfectly (it's only because they slide off the ice age world early that it begins to malfunction) & given Quinn's intellect he would have devised a way that he could open a wormhole near him so he wouldn't be trapped on that world for 29 years.
11th Aug 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Question: In the movie there are two different types of eye-scanners. The cops and the spiders use a beam of light that has to scan a person's eye for 1-4 seconds to identify the person. Yet advertisements, stores, and the subway use eye-scanners that can identify a person in what seems like 1/16th of a second (similar to a camera). Does anyone know if both types of eye-scanners exist, and if so, why are they different?
Chosen answer: Retinal scanning does exist and is actually in use, but not at the level shown in the movie. The "Ad" scanners are less accurate and not definitive, while the police scanners can provide absolute identification. It's the difference between identifying someone by their face vs. running their fingerprints.
11th Aug 2004
Miracle (2004)
Question: Does anyone else's DVD freeze for a second, right after Brooks says, "I wanna see that kid in the net who wouldn't take the test"?
Chosen answer: I don't recall any intentional "freezes" when I saw this in theaters. I don't have the DVD but I'm assuming your talking about a layer change, if this scene is about halfway through the movie. It's a common thing on many DVDs when, on a dual-layered disc, the laser begins to read the other layer.
19th Jul 2004
Miracle (2004)
Question: Where could one obtain recordings of USA's 1980 Olympic hockey games in their entirety?
Chosen answer: You probably wont ever be able to get all the games in their entirety. The biggest obstacle with recorded events and games from the Olympics is the high price of licensing them so its near impossible to obtain entire matches on DVD or VHS and in many cases catching replays of the full game in the future. Many sports channels on cable tv will be your best bet including the US channel ESPN Classic. If you were looking for something to buy the closest you will probably get is a DVD or VHS called "Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team (2001)".
21st Jun 2004
Pleasantville (1998)
Question: Why does the TV repairman chastise Bud's date for taking an apple off the tree to give to Bud? Even though it's a humorous biblical reference, it doesn't make sense that giving a fresh piece of fruit to someone would be inappropriate in Pleasantville.
Chosen answer: The repairman wanted things to stay the same in Pleasantville, and Bud's date was supposed to be dating Whitey, not Bud. The repairman doesn't like that Bud is changing Pleasantville.
21st Jun 2004
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Question: Whenever anyone wants to contact someone else from another part of the ship, they hit their badge and say (for example), "Picard to Engineering." In no episode ever is there an instance where we hear somebody call someone else who is not involved in the current scene. We should assume, therefore, that when communication like this is initiated, it is only heard by the recipient of the page. So the question is, how can the ship's communication system know ahead of time who the person is paging? In other words, if Picard says, "Picard to Engineering," what keeps sickbay from hearing his call? There can't be a time-delay (i.e., the computer does not make the page until it hears the entire page, and then directs it only to the intended recipient) because in many episodes we hear the reply right away. Can anyone explain this? Are we simply "lucky," in that we only hear pages made by or sent to people in the scene we're watching?
Chosen answer: Enterprise's computer directs the call to the aforementioned department. It is then answered by the ranking member of the department. For instance, if Engineering was contacted, and Geordi was in sickbay or off duty, the call would be answered by whoever was "officer of the watch" in Engineering. Mainly, it wouldn't do much for the show to say, "Picard to engineering", "This is engineering, go ahead." "Yes, I'd like to speak to Geordi about some more phaser power, please", "One moment, I'll transfer you."
There is a episode of Voyager where someone calls someone on their combadge and it gets rerouted to another station and someone else answers. Due to a communications error being fixed. The comm signal was rerouted.
27th May 2004
Carrie (1976)
Question: A few of the mistakes point out that certain scenes were shown backward. Why was this done?
Chosen answer: To give the film that extra creepy feel.
27th May 2004
Minority Report (2002)
Question: When Anderton is viewing the images of the Leo Crow murder, he describes the building as "federal housing." But when he and Agatha get there, the guy at the desk says, "Rooms are $95 a night" (or whatever the price was). Is it federal housing, or is it a hotel? It can't be both, can it?
Chosen answer: It could be both. "Federal Housing" could be a description of the style - it might originally have been built as federal housing, but converted into a hotel at a later date.
24th May 2004
Miracle (2004)
Question: Three guys made up the offensive line that was affectionately nicknamed the "Coneheads" after the classic Saturday Night Live skits from the late 70s. What specifically caused them to earn this nickname? What's the connection between those three guys and the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live? The assistant coach starts to give an explanation, but doesn't elaborate enough to offer a clear answer.
Chosen answer: The "Coneheads" (John Harrington, Mark Pavelich and Buzz Schneider) all were from the same area in Minnesota. Naturally, they gravitated together and would often be found working on plays around orange pylon cones at the end of the rink - hence the "Coneheads" nickname.
24th May 2004
Lean on Me (1989)
Question: At the very beginning of the movie, Joe Clark is enraged when he finds out that there is a meeting going on without him. What exactly is the subject of this meeting (other than the obvious dismissal of Mr. Clark)? Why is Mr. Clark accusing them of "selling out," and what do the people in the meeting refer to when they say, "You want to be posturing, etc., but we just want to work."?
Chosen answer: They are discussing some of the things that Mr. Clark has done that has "embarassed" the school. They are debating what to do about him. And by "posturing," they mean his insistance on wearing African dress and espousing his political beliefs.
14th May 2004
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: I've always been a little confused by Luke's "failure in the cave." What exactly should Luke have done to actually pass this test? And why did his face appear inside the mask of the image of Darth Vader?
Chosen answer: Luke failed the test before he even entered the cave - Yoda tells him to leave his weapons behind, but Luke takes them anyway. Seeing his face within Vader's mask is a warning that, if he embraces the path of violence (as he has by taking his weapons into the cave with him) then he could end up falling to the Dark Side as Vader did.
10th May 2004
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Question: Every time I see Dex's Diner, I'm reminded of "Mickey's Dining Car" in downtown Minneapolis (there's a brief shot of it in The Mighty Ducks). Is it just a coincidence that they look so similar, or is there more to it?
Chosen answer: Dex's Diner was largely based on the diner seen in Lucas' 1973 film, American Graffiti. As that was a fairly typical diner, it's not surprising that other diners around the US bear a considerable resemblance to it as well.
7th May 2004
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: Why do Anakin and Qui-gon have to cover up the fact that it's Anakin's pod they want him to race? Anakin says, "You could make them think it's yours" (or something like that), and Qui-gon later says that he acquired the pod in a game of chance. Why the deception? What does Watto care, who built the pod?
Chosen answer: As a slave, Anakin is not allowed any possessions of his own. Anything the Skywalkers have, ultimately belongs to Watto, so if Watto discovered Anakin had a pod, he would claim it for himself and maybe have someone else race it. The Jedi, of course, needed Anakin to race, since he was the best pod pilot around (and to test his Jedi capablities).
29th Apr 2004
Cool Runnings (1993)
Question: When the Jamaican bobsled team returned to the next Olympics, did they have the same members as before?
Chosen answer: Yes.
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Chosen answer: In the original novella it is revealed that Andy smuggled $500 into the prison inside of his rectum. During an interview in 2004 Robbins incorrectly quoted the amount as being $100. The narration up until Red's release is provided as Red writes his account of the events while still in prison, and employs the same method to smuggle the story out. But since the issue of Andy smuggling in $500 into the prison isn't addressed in the movie, we should assume that he smuggled it in. In addition to this, the wardens scams are described as "near slave labor." From this we can assume that it is possible the inmates are getting paid (an incredibly small) wage. Perhaps Andy, with his financial knowledge, knows how to haggle, barter and stretch a dollar. One last (but not as likely) scenario is that Red allows some sort of lay by system to inmates.