Phaneron

15th Apr 2019

X-Men 2 (2003)

Question: When Mystique is disguised as Senator Kelly, why did she tell the other politicians about Professor Xavier's school?

Answer: Stryker was trying to get permission from the President to raid the school on the grounds that it is a mutant training facility. Mystique interjects and claims it is a docile boarding school in an attempt to dissuade the President from granting Stryker's request, as she doesn't want the students at the school to be harmed.

Phaneron

15th Jun 2010

The Dark Knight (2008)

Question: After the MCU explosion there is a scene where the Joker has his head sticking out of the back seat of a police car and police are chasing him. What is this? He can't drive from the back seat, so what exactly is happening?

swamphawk

Chosen answer: The Joker's henchmen are driving the car.

Brad

Answer: This one always bugged me too. So, I guess the cop cars following were actual Gotham police? Or just additional henchmen? If they were police, how on earth could they have managed to lose the car the joker was in?

The other police cars are being driven by the Joker's henchmen. This will help make it easier for him to flee and it would also be foolish for him to stick his head out the window if he was being pursued by actual cops, as he would be an easy target at that point.

Phaneron

13th Mar 2019

Ghost Rider (2007)

Answer: The movie doesn't show how long the effects of the Penance Stare last. I have Morbius #1, in which Ghost Rider uses his Penance Stare on Morbius, who recovers from it relatively quickly. I don't know definitively because I haven't read very many Ghost Rider comics, but the duration of the effects could vary depending on how much remorse the person already felt for their past sins, or how much their own super powers allow them to recover from it. From what I understand, the Penance Stare doesn't work on the Punisher, as he feels no remorse for the people he's killed. It also had no effect on Deadpool, as his greatest victim is himself and it actually caused Ghost Rider to revert to his human form when he tried it on Deadpool.

Phaneron

Answer: It depends on the person. The penance stare is used to torture the victim into reliving every bit of mean and sinful behaviour in their life time. So if the victim is older and committed more sinful acts, it will last longer than say a 20 year old who hasn't committed that many acts.

Ssiscool

23rd Feb 2019

X-Men (2000)

Answer: He attempted to, but that's what made Magneto threaten to execute all the police officers.

Phaneron

21st Feb 2019

Spider-Man (2002)

Answer: Aside from a couple cuts and what appears to be a sprained wrist, she looks relatively unscathed, so he probably just hovered around her for a short while to terrify her. His goal is to make Spider-Man realise that he knows his secret identity, so he wouldn't risk any major bodily harm to Aunt May, as that could potentially kill her.

Phaneron

Question: When Marty suggests (in 1985A) that they go back to 2015 to stop Old Biff from taking the almanac in the first place, Doc says no because it'll be 2015A instead. When Old Biff went from 2015 to 1955 to give himself the almanac, when he came back to 2015 again, it was still the same one he left because Marty and Doc are just getting Jennifer out of the new McFly house when he returns. So what's the difference? If Biff can go from 1955 to 2015, without it becoming 2015A, then why can't Marty and Doc do it from 1985A?

Answer: There is a deleted scene on the DVD that answers this. You will notice that when Biff returns to 2015 it appears as if he is dying, on the deleted scene when Marty and Doc leave 2015 you see Biff vanish which suggests the "ripple effect" of Biff giving the Almanac to his younger self places everyone in an Alternate 2015 which Biff is no alive to see so is erased from existence. I have seen somewhere a suggestion Biff was shot in 1996, chances are with Biff gone by 2015 Hill Valley may have been a more peaceful city again. Hilldale was a run down suburb in the original 2015 and could have been the same in an Alternate 2015, we never saw inside any houses at that point to answer where Marty may have lived in an Alternative 2015 but perhaps in Switzerland.

Answer: The implication is that Biff returned to 2015 before the consequences of his younger self's actions took effect. Biff would have returned to 2015 immediately, as he wouldn't want to risk Marty and Doc discovering that he had stolen the DeLorean. By the time Marty and Doc travel back to 1985, the consequences of Biff's actions have solidified.

Phaneron

True, because young Biff from 1955 has to wait for his 21st birthday in 1958 to legally gamble, as explained by the newspaper Doc and Marty inspect in the bad alternative of 1985.

Answer: The reason Biff arrives like that is because Lorraine found out that he murdered George and shot him.

Where did you get that from please?

lionhead

If you have the DVD or Blu-Ray, watch the deleted scene of Biff vanishing and turn the commentary on. Bob Gale confirms that Lorraine had discovered that Biff murdered George and kills Biff in retaliation.

That info is reported to be from the audio commentary to a deleted scene, published on the official DVD. Since the scene has been filmed, it might even be considered canonical (as opposed to ideas from the drafting stage of the script which, ultimately, were abandoned).

Are those tidbits of information, such as this DVD commentary track, considered canonical?

Question: This gets described as a reboot rather than a sequel, but why? Nothing directly contradicts the original, as far as I'm aware, the only real change is the title character being recast - hardly unusual for a franchise.

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: I haven't seen this movie in several years, but one contradiction I distinctly remember is the Punisher having a deceased daughter in this film, whereas in the 2004 film, he only had a son. The 2004 film had the Punisher's wife and son (named Will here) murdered in Puerto Rico and buried and Tampa. This film takes place in New York, and the cemetery the Punisher goes to has a gravestone for his wife, daughter and son (named Frank, Jr. here). There is also a brief flashback in this scene of the Punisher sitting on a picnic blanket with his dead family around him, which is closer to the comics origin where his family were collateral damage in a gang crossfire. The 2004 film depicted his family as being the deliberate targets of a mob hit and were run over by a truck on a pier.

Phaneron

26th Jan 2019

Zodiac (2007)

Answer: Leigh Allen. Mike Mageau was the only one who had seen him and was still alive. He recognised him at the end of the movie.

Jan Arends

This is what I read online: "In 1991, Mike Mageau identified Arthur Leigh Allen as being the shooter. This identification was the result of Mageau being shown a photo lineup by George Bawart of the Vallejo Police Department. When Bawart asked Mageau why he had never identified Allen in the 20 years Allen had been the top suspect, Mageau said that he had never been shown any pictures of suspects and he had only been asked if he recognized certain names. If Mageau's statement is true, it's probably the biggest law-enforcement blunder of modern times." This would suggest that the police also never made a composite sketch based on Mageau's testimony.

Phaneron

Answer: Which suspect are you referring to? Several men were suspected of being the Zodiac Killer. The film even cast different actors for different scenes to account for the discrepancies in individual eyewitness accounts. Additionally, this film is based on the real-life case files as well as Robert Graysmith's book, and there does exist a composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer (you can Google it). So if there is a certain suspect whose sketch isn't shown, it could be either that it wasn't shown in the film or it doesn't exist in real life.

Phaneron

25th Jan 2019

Inception (2010)

Question: Why didn't Mal use the totem to prove to herself she was back in reality instead of killing herself? Or why didn't Cobb spin the Totem in front of her to prove they were back in reality?

Answer: When Cobb used inception on Mal, the idea that her world isn't real and she needed to kill herself took over her mind. Mal made an error in telling Cobb how her totem worked before they ever went into limbo. Cobb was able to use her totem specifically to implant the idea in her head. Since he knows how her totem works, it can't work as a totem anymore. Spinning the top in front of her and having it fall over would not prove that she wasn't dreaming anymore. Ironically, Cobb makes the exact same mistake as he continues to use the totem even after he tells Ariadne how it works. As an important note, the spinning top itself is a poor choice for a totem, since the thing that makes it special (it never stops spinning in the dream world) can be easily observed by anyone else. The entire point is to have you, and only you, know what makes the totem special. Arthur's loaded die is a better choice because only he notices how the weight is uneven in his hand. Ariadne's totem is not described but it seems to have similar properties to Arthur's in that she has altered its balance in a specific way.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: The movie implies that all the time spent in limbo made her lose her mind, so if Cobb tried to demonstrate the totem proofs for her, she might have dismissed the evidence anyway.

Phaneron

Question: At the dinner table in 1955, Marty's grandfather is there. It has always appeared to me that there is something off about his appearance. He seems to appear as if he was not actually there, and that he was spliced into the footage from another movie. The lighting on his face, his style of hair, the quality so to speak of him, just seems off from everyone else. He almost seems like he is from a black and white movie, spliced in and colorized a bit Is it supposed to be that he was to look this way, or did they actually take this actor's scene from another movie and splice it in?

oldbaldyone

Answer: I just pulled up this scene on YouTube, and I think it is just the lighting. The shadow from his wife's head is casting onto his right shoulder in a realistic way, which suggests the actor was there for filming. It would also be impractical logistically and economically to insert him after the fact, because they could simply hire another actor for the part if he was unavailable.

Phaneron

20th Jan 2019

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Question: Why did Peter put part of his black symbiote suit on when going over to Harry's?

Answer: The longer Peter wore the symbiote, the more influence it had on him. It was effectively making Peter do things that he would never do and because Peter saw how much stronger it made him, he began to wear it more than his original suit.

Answer: He typically wears his suit underneath his regular clothes to begin with if he's not going out for sole purpose of being Spider-Man and patrolling the city.

Phaneron

20th Jan 2019

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Answer: Having rewatched it recently I thought about this. At least partly it's because *at the time* some people felt it spent too long putting Avengers pieces in place, introducing Nick Fury more, Scarlet Widow, Tony's dad's history, etc. In hindsight however that aspect fits perfectly with the other films that came after it, so feels much less jarring now. I'd also say that Whiplash was somewhat underwhelming, and Sam Rockwell was criminally underused. Personally I'd rate Thor: The Dark World lower than this, but would also argue that the "worst" Marvel film is very much a relative term, as while some may be better than others, they've yet to really release a true stinker.

Jon Sandys

Answer: I absolutely love the MCU, and I consider this to be one of the weaker entries. Not because of world building and setting up future films, I never had a problem with that. I just personally find the story to be a little lackluster, and the villain to be rather bland (to be fair, I always thought Iron Man had a pretty weak rogues gallery anyway).

Phaneron

14th Jan 2019

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Question: What exactly happens with Peter Parker and Mary Jane's relationship at the end of the movie? I know they reconcile, but afterwards do they get back together and get married or is it purposefully left ambiguous?

Answer: It's implied that they are back together, but whether or not they get married is unclear. It's not purposefully left ambiguous as there was meant to be a fourth film, but Sony opted to cancel it and reboot the franchise.

Phaneron

10th Jan 2019

Room (2015)

Question: Why did Joy's father not want to talk to Jack, and why could he not even look at Jack when Joy asked him?

Answer: It's not explained. For whatever reason, he apparently is unable accept that his grandson is the illegitimate product of rape. He may consider his daughter to now be sullied from the experience, and possibly blames her in some way, even though she was a victim. It is also possible he may believe that he somehow failed to protect her.

raywest

Answer: Jack was conceived through rape. Robert is unable to come to terms with it.

Phaneron

9th Jan 2019

Step by Step (1991)

Show generally

Question: Who is the brunette kid in the yellow shirt in the beginning? It's supposed to be Marc but it's not.

Answer: From what I've read, the kid in question was the original actor cast to play Mark and was intended be closer in age to Brendan. For whatever reason, they recast the role with Christopher Castile and didn't bother removing the original actor from the beginning of the opening credits. I guess they figured people would just assume the kid was one of Brendan's friends.

Phaneron

Question: Why was Merry's hand burned when he stabbed the back of the witch king's leg?

Answer: It's what is known as the Black Breath.

Phaneron

That's caused by his breath and I don't think he breathes from his leg.

lionhead

It could be wrong, but the reference page I read specified that despite its name, the Black Breath is not actual breath, but an aura that the Nazgul project.

Phaneron

How was Merry even able to stab the witch king's leg anyway? It's been said that no man can kill the witch king.

Merry doesn't kill the witch king, but he hurts him. His power has grown, giving him more of a presence in the real world, a presence that can be hurt.

lionhead

Going back to the books for more explanation: First: it wasn't a protection. It was a prophecy/prediction by Glorfindel a millennium earlier. Second: the weapon Merry had in the books was a barrow-blade recovered by Tom Bombadil while saving the Hobbits from the barrow wights and had been enchanted directly against the Witch King. Since the scene (and Tom) were not in the film, they went with a more specific interpretation. The Witch King was not killed by a man, but by a Hobbit and a woman.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Because of what the Witch King is made of, his blood (or whatever) burns the skin of a mortal. Maybe even being too close will cause burns.

lionhead

28th Dec 2018

Cape Fear (1991)

Question: So how exactly did Max Cady slip past Kersec's security system and get into the house? Did he kill the maid outside and then just walk in disguised as her?

Phaneron

Answer: He snuck in during the day and hid, before Kersec's teddy bear security system was set up. Sam Bowden realises this when he wakes from a nightmare. Its how he was able to poison the dog which hadnt been let outside. Max Cady killed the maid in the pantry with the same piano wire he later attacks Kersec with.

Answer: Kersec suspected that Cady might attempt to break into the Bowden house if he thought it was empty. His plan was for Cady to break in and then be shot dead as an intruder. He likely lessened the security to allow Cady to break in. Cady killed and then impersonated the housekeeper to get in.

raywest

I like your answer but I'm a little confused by the "lessened the security" part. If I'm not mistaken, every possible point of entry into the house at least from the ground floor was connected to the bear via the fishing line, so Kersec would know if a point of entry was disturbed by the bear moving. Where would Kersec lessen the security from that standpoint, especially since his setup was supposed to be foolproof?

Phaneron

Kersec wanted Cady to be able to break in so that there would be a plausible reason to shoot him dead. The idea is to make it look like his death was a result of self defense. I'm only speculating that Kersec made it easier for Cady to break in into the house. Being as it was his security system, he would know how to make it possible for Cady to get in.

raywest

29th Dec 2018

Dead Silence (2007)

Question: Why did Mary get angry when the boy in the audience said that he could see her mouth moving? When a close-up of Mary is shown, she's moving her mouth.

Answer: Because he is heckling her and belittling her performance.

Phaneron

Question: What happened to the limo on the curb of the toy store after Kevin got out? Why did the limo driver leave him there?

adamtrainman@aol.com

Answer: During that time, the hotel found out the credit card Kevin used was stolen. So since they were the ones who got the limo for Kevin, it's safe to assume they also called it back.

lartaker1975

Answer: The limo company may have only had an agreement with the hotel to take Kevin to one destination of his choosing or to drive him around for a certain amount of time.

Phaneron

Answer: When Kevin exits the toy store he doesn't look around for the limo but instead pulls out his map to examine it. This would suggest that Kevin was intending to do some more sightseeing on foot and likely told the limo driver not to wait for him.

When Kevin got outside the toy store, he did look around like he was confused, and after that, he raised his shoulders.

Trainman

27th Dec 2018

Zodiac (2007)

Question: In the movie, Robert meets a theatre owner and he shows his basement. Why did he get scared and run out?

Answer: I always thought that Robert thought that the theatre guy was the Zodiac Killer, and he kept on hearing noises coming from upstairs, which also made him run out.

ChristmasJonesfan

Answer: It was theorized that the Zodiac Killer had a basement, and not many people in California have basements. Robert's paranoia was just getting the better of him.

Phaneron

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