Phaneron

16th Jul 2018

Sunshine (2007)

Question: The captain of the first Icarus is insane, burned worse than Freddy Krueger, and his crew has been dead conceivably for 7 years. How is he even alive still without medical care, let alone able to attack and murder members of the second Icarus crew? Insanity doesn't bar one from infection or organ failure.

Answer: Actually, there is a perfectly logical explanation for Pinbacker being on the Icarus II: he went through the airlock while the team was searching the ship and sabotaged the connection from there.

Friso94

Wouldn't the Icarus II immediately sense his presence though? As soon as Capa and Mace reach the airlock, the ship acknowledges that they are there.

Phaneron

Answer: It is implied that Pinbacker's dedication to his mission to destroy humanity allows him to ignore his injuries. It must also be pointed out that Pinbacker was intentionally designed by director Danny Boyle to break the "realism" of the film. His survival is intended to be almost supernatural. Note that there is no possible way Pinbacker could have made it from Icarus I to Icarus II, but he does somehow and it's never explained.

BaconIsMyBFF

12th Sep 2019

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Question: When Harry confronts Peter as The New Goblin for the first time while trying to avenge his father, was he planning to kill Peter, or just torture him by toying around with him in a terrible way?

Answer: He was planning on killing him before unmasking him in the previous film, so likely his intention here was to still kill him. He's shown to have used the gas that Norman tested on himself which made him insane and more aggressive, which would suggest Harry would undergo the same changes.

Phaneron

Answer: Harry's intent was to kill Peter because he believed that Peter was responsible for the death of his dad Norman. When Harry tries to knock Peter off a building and even throws pumpkin bombs at him.

Question: After Peter yells at Kevin "You spent $967 on room service?!", where does Kevin run off to? It's not clear from what's onscreen.

Answer: He's heading back to the hotel most likely to apologize for spending such a huge amount.

Answer: It's Kevin's dad who screams out. You can tell because Buzz looks at the bill, smirks, and says, "Oh, Dad." I've always interpreted it as Kevin running away. The joke is that Kevin's dad screams so loud from the hotel room that Kevin can hear him from the park. So Kevin wouldn't want to face his dad.

Bishop73

I just watched the clip on YouTube and yeah you're right, it is his dad. The sound of his voice when he yells "Kevin" sounds exactly like Buzz, so it probably conditioned a lot of viewers such as myself to accept it as Buzz's voice for the whole line.

Phaneron

24th Jul 2019

Midsommar (2019)

Question: Spoilers: When Simon's corpse is discovered flayed apart and hanging, it looked like some of the organs suspended above him (possibly his lungs?) were still moving a bit. Was he still alive at that moment?

TedStixon

Answer: Yes, that is the impression that is given. He is still alive.

wizard_of_gore

How would they be able to keep him from bleeding to death? We see earlier in the film when they kill Josh that someone was wearing Mark's skin. That means they completely flayed him and then crudely reattached his skin in order to hang him from the ceiling later on.

Phaneron

Never mind, I see that I was confusing Simon with Mark. It looked like Mark hanging to me when Christian found Simon.

Phaneron

27th Aug 2019

Batman (1989)

Question: Why did Joker poison everyone in the museum? If he wants to talk to Vicki alone, why can't he send her to a secluded area rather than send her to a public place?

adamjustus

Answer: Because he's a homicidal maniac, and he also wants to test his gas.

Phaneron

Question: Back in 1885 why doesn't Doc change the letter he sent to Marty, asking him to bring a can of gas?

Answer: When Marty received the letter from Doc in 1955, as seen in the second movie, Doc wrote down that he didn't want Marty to go to 1885 to rescue him because he was happy living in the past. Instead, he wanted Marty to take the Delorean straight back to 1985 and then destroy it so it could never be used for personal gain again.

But once Marty appears in the past Doc could easily change the letter, changing things such that Marty would bring gas with him.

That wouldn't really work with Marty already there. Since Marty and Doc are occupying the same timeline, changing the letter wouldn't do anything until Marty traveled back into the future, at which point the altered letter would be unnecessary since they had found a way for Marty to return.

Phaneron

Changing the letter wouldn't have made a difference. When Doc decides to leave 1885, Marty tells Doc that he ripped the fuel line so, with the fuel line damaged and no gas available, bringing a can of gas wouldn't have helped.

Answer: This would create a different timeline, not the timeline they are in.

Answer: That would not be possible as in 1885, Doc sent the letter on September 1st, and 1955 Doc sent Marty to 1885 on September 2nd so it was a day later and on the 1st, Doc was not expecting Marty to turn up. However, one CAN ask why Marty and Doc didn't go to the local Western Union office and change it (or write a new one) there since it was in their possession per the gentleman in part 2.

Changing the letter while Marty is in 1885 with Doc would accomplish nothing, because it doesn't it instantly travel to the future. Marty at the end of Part II, for his part, may receive the letter almost immediately, but the letter itself had to wait 70 years to be delivered to him.

Phaneron

I mean, there's no solid rules to time traveling, but just for argument's sake it seems like the letter idea could work... in the franchise, when something is set in motion, the effects usually take place immediately. Take for instance when George and Lorraine kissed at the dance in Part 1. The picture of Marty and his siblings went right back to normal, even though the kids had not been born yet. Doc and Marty changing the Western Union letter "could" have had an immediate effect and a gas can could have materialized in the Delorean, much like we've seen newspaper headlines change before our very eyes, disappearing gravestones, etc.

jshy7979

In your examples, the changes occur to future events. The items that changes, like the picture and newspaper, are from the future themselves. They can't change the past by changing events in the future (like they do in Bill and Ted's). This is why Doc and Marty couldn't go back to 2015 to stop old Biff from taking the DeLorean.

Bishop73

18th Aug 2019

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Question: Considering how many heroes died fighting Thanos, why was only Tony Stark given a funeral?

Answer: There's nothing to indicate that only Stark was given a funeral. While some sorcerers, Ravagers, and Asgardians were certainly killed in the final battle, they wouldn't have been personally known by all the main characters, and showing funerals for any of them would be rather superfluous in an already three-hour long movie.

Phaneron

10th Aug 2019

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Question: Why didn't Hulk use the Infinity Gauntlet to snap Thanos and his army? He was able to snap everybody that Thanos killed and survived, so he would have survived another snap.

Answer: The gauntlet fell off after his first snap, then Thanos arrived from the past and destroyed the building, separating them. Hulk never got near the gauntlet and the stones during the ensuing battle, so he didn't have an opportunity to try a second snap to destroy Thanos.

Sierra1

Really what they should have done was pulled the stones off the gauntlet and separated them again, and not run around with a fully assembled and powered up Gauntlet for Thanos to grab.

Vader47000

I agree.

That would mean they had to touch them, and nobody besides Hulk, Thor and Carol could touch one without dying.

lionhead

Ordinary humans can't just grab an infinity stone. Even when Thanos takes the power stone out of gauntlet you see it start to destroy them.

Only the Power Stone has been shown to kill normal people who try to hold it. Hawkeye literally held the Soul Stone in his hand in this movie.

Phaneron

Because he made the necessary sacrifice. Anyone else touching it, big problem. Could be an exception though. The power, reality and space gems have been proven to be untouchable and killing anyone who does (with exceptions though). Time gem is very carefully handled as well so I wouldn't touch that one either. Mind gem, who knows?

lionhead

I don't recall the Time Stone killing anyone who touched it. The only example I can think of was the Red Skull presumably being killed when he handled the Tesseract, but was in actuality teleported to Vormir. The Reality Stone has a will of its own, so someone could feasibly handle it without harm. You're wonder about the Mind Stone is correct, as no human character was shown in any movie to have handled it directly. Overall though, I would say that I disagree with someone trying to remove a stone from the gauntlet, as one stone could easily be lost, and Thanos could still kill every hero at the battle even with one or more stones missing.

Phaneron

The reality stone attaches itself to anyone touching it like a parasite and slowly kills them. I'd say it's a bad idea to touch it. As for the time stone only the ancient one and Hulk actually touched it and there is reason Strange handles it carefully and without touching it. As for the Red skull, don't really know if he is really alive on Vormir. Who knows what the tesseract did to him?

lionhead

Whether or not Red Skull is still alive is an interesting topic, but either way, I'd argue that while the Tesseract transported him, it itself is not what made him in his current state, but rather his curse to guard the Soul Stone and the planet of Vormir itself, as it is a dominion of death as Nebula stated.

Phaneron

Question: When Obi-wan Kenobi goes to the planet to fight General Grievous alone, shortly after he arrives he is in two places at once. He is sitting back in his ship talking to his droid before leaving and yet seconds later he has never left the planet. Can this be explained?

Answer: He set his plane on auto-pilot and then snuck off it before it took off to give the impression that he had left the planet.

Phaneron

Thanks for your response. Auto pilot had occurred to me and it must have been that way, it's just that that it all happens quick, in the blink of an eye.

13th Aug 2019

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Question: When Hulk has the Infinity Gauntlet, Tony tells Hulk to snap back everybody that Thanos killed. Why not just snap Thanos and his army first and then snap half the world's population back to life? If Thanos had been snapped first, then they wouldn't have to worry about him anymore.

Answer: Bruce snapped everybody back before they even knew 2014 Thanos had traveled into the future to attack them.

Phaneron

Answer: It's important to remember Tony's motivation as well. He was reluctant to even try because he now had a daughter and didn't want to risk losing her or Pepper. When he reminds Banner, he tells him not to try anything other than bringing everyone back in the present because he doesn't want him to rewrite history, potentially removing his daughter.

Answer: No guarantees they'd get two goes at it. They likely figured it was more important to bring everyone back and hope they can take on Thanos conventionally. Although if I remember rightly, they have no idea Thanos is back before they snap anyway - last they heard they'd chopped his head off, end of story.

5th Aug 2019

Groundhog Day (1993)

Question: This might be a silly question but it did puzzle me just a little bit. The old man in the film, when Phil first starts to care for him he starts referring to him as Dad and Pops. Is there supposed to be any actual relation between them, or is he just referring to him as this as sort of a kind title?

Quantom X

Answer: I think he is just using them as terms of elderly respect. It would be pretty callous even for Phil to completely disregard the homeless man at the beginning of the film if he was some sort of relative. The old man also does nothing to indicate a shared history between them.

Phaneron

It was a common term that was often used in the early-to-mid 20th century where a kindly, older man would affectionately be referred to as "Pops." In movies of that era, there was often a minor character referred to in this way, particularly if no-one knew his name (i.e. the stage doorman, the custodian, etc).

raywest

Question: If Captain America had to go back to return the infinity stones to balance the timeline, would he not have to go back to before Black Widow died to return the Soul Stone?

Answer: Well since he wouldn't know the exact moment she sacrificed herself, he might have shown up before then and then just had to wait for everything to play itself out before returning the stone.

Phaneron

Answer: No before Black Widow died the soul stone was still there, he had to get it back after it was taken, so after Black Widow died.

lionhead

I think the poster meant he would go back to the time he knew Black Widow and Hawkeye were aiming for, or a bit before for safety, then go there and wait until Black Widow died and Hawkeye got the stone, and then return it. It would be hard for him to watch, but then he would know when the right time was.

Right. But you also have to think that, having witnessed the events, and then seeing that the Red Skull is the guardian, that would have been a damn interesting scene to watch. Does Cap try bargaining with the Red Skull to return Black Widow to life after giving the stone back? On the other hand, the Ancient One's explanation was that the flow of time occurs simply because the stones are in the universe. I don't think it mattered where they are. She only wanted the time stone back because of how it was tied to the Sanctum. So really, Cap probably could have just thrown the stone in a ditch somewhere and been done with it. It also raises a question about the nature of Vormir as the home of the stone. We see the other stones were more or less fashioned into artifacts and out and about. This implies that they too were in some sort of temple in their raw stone form before being found, seized and manipulated into a real-world application. So does Vormir even have a mechanism for receiving the stone back once it's been claimed? And what is the soul stone's solo power, anyway? Reading people's fates like a crystal ball?

Vader47000

I don't think the red skull is really the red skull anymore, just some kind of ghost of whats left of him. However the stone gets returned is irrelevant, yes he could even just leave it in a ditch somewhere. He didn't return other stones in their original form either, except the time stone. These timelines don't continue on as the original one. According to the comics the soul stone is sentient and everyone sacrificed to obtain is has their soul trapped inside the gem. Cap and the others of course don't know that (although Hulk must theoretically know having used it) or in the MCU this does not apply. When possessing it you can control any life and read their souls (their feelings and desires). One can also revert living things back their original state (like Nebula for example).

lionhead

2nd Aug 2019

Demolition Man (1993)

Question: When the building with the hostages gets destroyed, Simon tells the police that he told John where the bodies were, with John responding that he didn't care. Clearly a blatant lie - why would the police actually take the word of a murdering psychopath like Simon considering that he would do or say anything to save himself?

Answer: Spartan didn't have authorization to go in and apprehend Phoenix to begin with. Depending on the time and manner of deaths of the hostages, it may have been impossible for the authorities to determine that they were already dead before Spartan went in guns blazing, so it would be determined that he was criminally negligent in their deaths. Whatever Phoenix had to say on the matter probably didn't even factor into Spartan's trial.

Phaneron

Answer: They didn't. They found the bodies and knowing how badly John wanted to take down Simon, they assumed Simon was telling the truth. I always felt that there was an assumption that Simon also had other planted evidence to frame John but that is never confirmed, just my hunch.

The_Iceman

Question: When the dynamite goes off in the theatre, destroying it, there is a shot of a woman being blown out of the top window of the building screaming for a brief moment. Who was that woman and how did she get there? It couldn't have been Shosanna as she was very dead from being shot before that moment. And it wasn't the translator for Goebbels either for the same reason. Most everybody else was in the theater room or the balcony's themselves. So who was that woman?

Quantom X

Answer: I'm not entirely sure it's a woman. I slowed the scene down and the person looks like they are wearing a tuxedo. So probably a man with a high-pitched voice/scream. My best guess is that it is one of the attendees who may have excused themselves from the auditorium before all the doors were locked, and once the fire and massacre started, they were running through the corridor unable to escape and were eventually thrown out of the window by the explosion.

Phaneron

31st Jul 2019

Deja Vu (2006)

Question: How would Doug leave the clues if Claire is already dead? The incident with Carroll happened before he went to her house to wash the blood off, which means she would have already been killed before he could've gone to her house and set all the clues.

Answer: This is just one of many examples of using the causal loop aspect of time travel. The clues aid Doug in his quest to catch the bomber and rescue Claire, but he is the one that puts the clues there. It's similar to "Terminator," in which Kyle Reese is sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, and by extension, her future son John. but Kyle is the one who fathers John when he goes back in time.

Phaneron

Question: Since it was possible to create a clone army, why were cybernetic parts given to Anakin, instead of cloning the limbs he lost and attaching them to his body?

Answer: To add to the above it is not just that he is missing arms and legs but his internal organs like lungs are incapable of working properly. So one would have to do more then just replace the arms and legs. In addition Palpatine make the suit vulnerable to force lighting making it harder for Vader to overthrow him as is the way of the Sith.

Answer: It's debatable whether or not they could clone individual body parts. Also, since Anakin's limbs were severed with a lightsaber, his nerve endings would be cauterized, so simply reattaching organic limbs to them wouldn't be an option.

Phaneron

Answer: Adding to what Phaneron, also note how long it would take to grow said limbs for a full adult. The clones themselves have growth acceleration so that they take half the time a normal person to reach full maturity and growth. But this still takes 10-15 years for the to get to physical adulthood. And their growth acceleration doesn't stop at that point. The reason why none of the Storm Troopers are Clones in the original trilogy, by the time New Hope rolls around, is because they age twice as fast. Most died of old age or were very old by that point as in that 17 year time gap between Episode 3 and 4, they aged 34 years physically, without the growth acceleration being stopped as it's likely not able to be stopped. So it would take a very long time to grow cloned limbs for Anakin and be physically a match for him. And if they did accelerate the growth for said limbs, it would only take a few years before he'd be a younger guy walking around with very old man legs and arms. Not to mention, the arms and legs wouldn't have his muscle mass grown by default without being used.

Quantom X

Where or when is it said the accelerated growth doesn't stop or is removed when the clones reach adulthood?

lionhead

In many places in the canon. Just look at the new Rebels show even. There are still a few clones left, and they are very very old.

Quantom X

Question: Is there any reason, other than to further the plot, that Jack and Will fight over possession of Davey Jones's heart? Their plans once they have control of the heart are not mutually exclusive as Will wants to free his father and Jack wants his debt with Jones settled. They have shown previously that they can work together, so why couldn't one of them take control of the heart and make the demands for both?

Phaneron

Chosen answer: Will having control of Jones' heart would not help Jack in the slightest. Will's intent is to KILL Jones, therefore freeing his father. If Jack had control of Jones' heart, he'd only use it to settle his debt, given Jack's history of treachery. Yes, they could work together, but that would solve nothing: Bootstrap agreed to serve Jones FOREVER. The only way that debt is settled is with Jones' death. That wouldn't help Jack, because, as he says: "With Jones dead, who's to call his terrible beasty off the hunt, eh?"

Brad

Davy Jones doesn't have to die in order for Will's father to be freed from service, though. As captain of the Dutchman, Jones has the power to relieve Bootstrap of his duty for any reason or no reason at all. The third film makes it clear that Jones is at the mercy of anyone that is in possession of his heart, when Beckett becomes his overlord and orders him to kill the Kraken and hunt other pirates. Will and Jack could have easily taken possession of the heart and ordered Jones to both release Jack from his debt and release Bootstrap from the Dutchman. Jack even proposes the idea in the next film to Will that Jack can be the one to stab Jones' heart and then release Bootstrap from his service, allowing Will to still be with Elizabeth.

Phaneron

30th Jul 2019

Game of Thrones (2011)

Season 8 generally

Question: Why does everyone argue over the best way to remove Cersei from power with minimal civilian casualties when they could have just sent Arya to assassinate Cersei? Given her training with the Faceless Men, she could easily infiltrate the Red Keep and get the job done. On top of that, Arya wants to kill Cersei.

Phaneron

Answer: Daenerys and her allies don't just want to kill Cersei, they want to claim King's Landing and free her people from Cersei's grip. The problem is the people of Essos viewed Daenerys as a liberator but the people of Westeros view her as an outsider and usurper. They would never follow Daenerys if she had Cersei assassinated. That is Daenerys' dilemma, she certainly has the ability to wipe Cersei out and obliterate her armies but doing so would make her a tyrant. Which as it turns out is exactly what happens.

BaconIsMyBFF

But no-one has to know that Cersei was assassinated. Arya has the ability to impersonate anyone she kills, so she could pretend to be Cersei afterwards and profess to the citizens of King's Landing that she has yielded the throne to Danaerys and that she is going into exile.

Phaneron

That plan would be incredibly suspicious. Knowing what they know of Cersei it is highly unlikely the people of King's Landing would believe that she would accept defeat so easily and then voluntarily exile herself, never to be heard from again. In order for that to work, all of Cersei's advisers and closest allies would have to be similarly eliminated, or they would have to be on board with the exile plan. If they are all killed it sort of makes it obvious that something is amiss. There's no way they would be fooled by Cersei suddenly doing a 180 and completely changing her personality by accepting defeat without a fight. If any part of this plan goes wrong then Daenerys would look worse than just an assassin, she would also be deceitful to the people she hopes will willingly accept her rule.

BaconIsMyBFF

3rd Nov 2017

The Founder (2016)

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.

Phaneron

6th Jul 2019

Logan (2017)

Question: What happened to the clerk and the others at the convenience store when Pierce and the Reavers showed up? If they are killed then why?

adamjustus

Answer: The clerk was definitely killed, as we see his body on a slab later in the movie. Presumably he was killed for seeing too much.

Phaneron

Why did he get killed for seeing too much? Does Pierce tries to cover up what's going on?

Trainman

Yes, the work that Dr. Rice is doing for Alkali Transigen is illegal, so they are eliminating any potential witnesses to their activities.

Phaneron

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.