Question: In some of the fight scenes in the Star Wars movies, and other ones, one of the people fighting will quickly twirl/spin around. Is there any reason for doing that move?
Zwn Annwn
28th Jun 2007
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
12th Jun 2007
General questions
I am looking for the name of a science fiction movie from the 60's or early 70's about a group of people on a small island being attacked by large mutant crabs. Possibly ending with survivors trapped on an antennea.
Chosen answer: It could the "Attack of the Crab Monsters" in 1957. Several people are trapped on a small island where mutant crabs are attacking everyone. The island is also sinking. That may be the reason for being trapped on the antenna.
6th May 2007
The Parent Trap (1998)
Question: Why does Hallie put a piece of apple under Annie's ear?
Chosen answer: Three reasons. 1) She wanted to have something hard on the back of her ear so that she could pierce the lobe easily and have the needle enter the porous apple 2) the apple was cold and moist which would help the pain from the piercing 3) it was the most readily available thing to use for this since they were at a summer camp with no facilities for ear piercing.
15th Apr 2007
Airplane (1980)
Question: I hear this film has nudity in it and yet it only has a PG rating. Even if it was brief, how did this film avoid an R rating?
Answer: To some extent, it depends upon the rater. However, there is some clarification in the PG description which says "Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. This signifies that the film rated may contain some material parents might not like to expose to their young children - material that will clearly need to be examined or inquired about before children are allowed to attend the film. Explicit sex scenes and scenes of drug use are absent; nudity, if present, is seen only briefly, horror and violence do not exceed moderate levels." As seen in the movie - the nudity was seen only briefly - not more than a second. The rater felt it didn't deserve an "R" rating for that. At the time there was no PG-13 rating, which is what it would probably get today.
28th Feb 2007
Tombstone (1993)
Question: Whatever happened to Morgan's wife and Kate? They are never mentioned by the narrator at the end of the movie.
Answer: Morgan's wife, Louisa "Lou" Earp accompanied Morgan to be buried in California. She remarried Gustav Peters in December of 1885 and died in 1894, at the age of 36, in Los Angeles. Kate "Big Nose Kate" Haroney is thought to have spent time with Doc Holliday during his time in Colorado until his death in 1887. Afterwards, she married a man and moved to a town near Tombstone until she left him for another man. She lived with the other man until his death in 1930 doing odd jobs in hotels and for the railroad. She died in the Pioneer's Home in Arizona in 1940 just a few days before her 90th birthday.
31st Aug 2005
Moonraker (1979)
18th Nov 2006
Blackadder (1986)
Question: Do Blackadder, Baldrick, George and Darling die at the end or is it kind of like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid where we don't really know?
Answer: It's exactly like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. No one knows for absolutely sure, but it is a near-certainty that they did because they were in the first wave charging across no man's land. Like BC and the SK, they stop the scene just as they were rushing in.
4th Aug 2006
Animal House (1978)
4th Aug 2006
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
4th Aug 2006
Batman (1989)
4th Aug 2006
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Question: Why is trucking Coors beer south of Texas bootlegging?
Answer: It wasn't south of Texas - it was east of the Mississippi River. Coors was not licensed to be sold in the east at that time (it, of course, is different today). Anyone carrying more than what would be considered for personal consumption (about 24 beers) would be in violation of the registration and licensing law. During prohibition, bootlegging was applied to those that made their own alcohol for distribution or use. After prohibition, bootlegging has been used to describe those people violating the laws for registration and licensing of alcohol. So, in the vernacular of the time, carrying Coors beer east of the Mississippi River would be bootlegging. Coors (brewed in Colorado) could not be shipped East of the Mississippi because it was brewed without being pasteurized and with no added preservatives, so shipping it long distances was impossible due to spoilage.
15th Jun 2006
Groundhog Day (1993)
Question: When Phil Connors is playing the piano with the jazz group, his piano teacher excitedly tells Rita that he is her pupil. Why has he has a piano lesson that day, when he obviously learnt to play brilliantly in previous days?
Answer: He has been doing the same routine for who knows how many "days", that is would not be unusual that he would have a lesson that day - no matter how well he played.
Answer: After he finishes playing, you'll notice she takes his place at the piano. So, he took the lesson to get to know her, so she would allow him to sit in for her.
11th May 2006
Band of Brothers (2001)
Question: How does the ranking actually work? Winters seems to be promoted but keep the same title, is this right?
Answer: Winters was promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to 1st Lieutenant during training (at Toccoa). He was promoted to Captain and Major during the war. 2nd and 1st Lieutenants are usually just called Lieutenant but, other than that, he was always referred to appropriately.
24th Jan 2006
Seinfeld (1990)
6th Sep 2005
That '70s Show (1998)
Question: Red is shown in his WWII Naval Uniform. He has three medals on his chest. One of the medals (the far one on the right as you look at him) is a Commendation Medal. I was looking at the episode and it wasn't clear if the medal was a Navy or an Army Commendation Medal. They look very similar - the Navy medal is green and white with the bronze eagle as is the Army's (I have an Army one). However, the Navy's has two broad white stripes near the edges of the green ribbon while the Army's has several thin white stripes near the center of the green ribbon. Has anyone noticed which ribbon it actually is?
Chosen answer: It's the Army Commendation Medal. You can notice the pinstripes in the center of the ribbon. The navy one has no pinstripes.
31st Aug 2005
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Question: Why does the archvillain Ernst Blofeld want to eliminate the diamond smugglers (including Tiffany Chase) via his two assassins?
Chosen answer: Blofeld and Spectre has enough diamonds for the laser he is building to hold the Earth hostage. In typical Spectre fashion, since he is finished with the operation, he wants to leave no loose ends that could tie Spectre into the mix.
10th Dec 2005
Van Helsing (2004)
Question: Does anyone know what kind of an accent Dracula (and most of the other characters) have? I've googled Transylvanian, and it gave me quite a few countries.
Answer: Well, no one really knows what type of accent they were trying to achieve - but Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) was born in Transylvania in the middle ages. Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia were joined together later to form Romania. Therefore, it would historically correct to say they had Romanian accents.
16th Sep 2005
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Question: This applies to all three movies and also Zorro and Batman. When Indy uses his whip to swing from one place to another, how does he free the whip from whatever it was attached to? A flick of the wrist wouldn't do it, it seems like he'd have to climb to the end of the whip and separate it from the object by hand.
Answer: There are two answers - a short one and a longer one. The short one -- it's a movie and the director can pretty much do what he wants. The longer one -- assuming that the ends of the whip loop around the log, etc., the parts of the whip further back from the end can cover the end. Then, as long as there is weight applied to the whip (i.e., a person swinging), the whip could stay attached to the log, etc. As soon as the weight is release, there is no pressure on the ends of the whip and it shouldn't be too hard to flick the handle and have the whip release.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: If you are talking about the light sabre fights, that is a sword fighting move that some fighters will use. Occasionally, a sword fighter will find himself in a weak position that would give the opponent an easy strike to move in a more conventional way. The spin is a way to strike while putting distance between yourself and your opponent. I have some experience in Japanese katana fighting and the spin is not a move I like because it puts your back to the opponent - but it is useful in the right conditions. And it looks exciting - which is probably why they used it in Star Wars.
Zwn Annwn