Question: What did Palpatine mean when he said to Anakin, "We will watch your career with great interest"?
Phaneron
27th Dec 2018
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Answer: I believe the line was meant as foreshadowing so fans would get it if they have watched the original trilogy they can make the connection from Anakin to Vader so they are aware of his fate. It also shows that Palpatine had his eye on Anakin for a long time to eventually recruit him as his apprentice.
17th Dec 2018
General questions
I saw a TV movie in the early 90s. The plot centered around a man abducting a young boy under the guise that he was a co-worker of the boy's father and that he was looking after the kid while the dad was tied up in a meeting. At one point in the movie, the kid is keeping his distance from the man in an attic and manages to break his nose with a canoe paddle. Later in the movie, someone else tries to claim the kid. The kidnapper says the kid got away and the other man says "What did he do, punch you in the nose?" The two get into a scuffle that ends with the kidnapper killing the other man by stabbing a screwdriver into his neck. At the end of the film when the boy is rescued, rather than face the consequences, the kidnapper commits suicide by jumping out of the window. Anyone have any idea what the title of this movie is?
Chosen answer: The kid taking refuge in the attic and the kidnapper jumping out of the window, is from a 1990 TV movie, Bump in the Night. Christopher Reeve takes a little boy to his N.Y. townhouse. The boy evades him long enough to call his mother, Meredith Baxter, for help.
13th Dec 2018
End of Days (1999)
27th Nov 2018
Star Wars (1977)
Question: When Obi-Wan tells Luke about Darth Vader murdering his father, Luke doesn't seem to have heard of Vader before. But he knows about the rebellion and wants to go to the Imperial Academy (so he can defect later). Shouldn't he know who Vader is?
Answer: Not necessarily. The Empire is infamous, but that doesn't mean everyone will know who their higher-ups are. I know who the Ku Klux Klan are, but I couldn't tell you who their leaders are.
This. Or possibly, Luke knows who Vader is but just doesn't comment while Obi-wan is talking.
Answer: For most of his early life, Luke lived a simple, rustic life. His aunt and uncle knew his parentage and no doubt suppressed information about the Empire from him. Luke is naive and still has a limited and generalized knowledge of the rebellion, most of which was gleaned from talking to friends. He has little awareness of who the key players are.
Answer: Remember that Luke was hidden on Tatooine as a baby, and Obiwan also went into hiding there, presumably as a protector to keep Luke's very existence a secret from Darth Vader. It could be that Obiwan remotely exercised Jedi mind-tricks on Luke throughout his young life to block any curiosity about Vader.
2nd Oct 2018
Hereditary (2018)
Question: After Peter is possessed by Charlie and he clicks his tongue for the first time after standing up, he starts to walk towards the tree house and heads off screen. The camera lingers though, and focuses in on something lying on the ground in the background. What is that on the ground? It almost looks like a dead dog or possibly the dead dear from earlier, but the shape isn't quite right. It does appear to be some sort of animal but I can't make it out. What is that the camera lingered on right then? And why? It's not shown again. (01:57:45)
Answer: Earlier in the film, Peter swerves the car to avoid hitting a dead animal in the road, resulting in Charlie's decapitation. That animal appears to be a goat (a ram) with slightly curled horns. Within the context of this movie, this is probably a Sabbatic Goat, alluding to Occult symbolism associated with the Mystic Pentagram and the Satanic deity Baphomet. The implication is that Satanic forces caused Peter to swerve off the road, killing Charlie in preparation for migrating her soul into Peter. The dead animal seen in the background at the end appears to be the Sabbatic Goat again, marking completion of Charlie's soul migration into Peter.
5th Nov 2018
The Sandlot (1993)
Question: At the end of the movie, it shows Benny managing to steal home, being called safe, the catcher arguing that Benny was out and the umpire saying Benny was safe. In slow motion, it shows the catcher catching the ball and tagging Benny as he slides into home so why wasn't Benny called out?
Answer: The umpire got the call wrong in that case. It happens all the time in real life. It wasn't allowed back then, but now Major League Baseball and other sports leagues will use instant replay to make sure they get close calls right.
Answer: The catcher tags Benny on the chest after he touches home plate with his left hand. Safe.
Answer: The film shows Benny beating the tag. Although the ball gets there before Benny, the catcher tags Benny a split second after his hand touches home plate.
5th Nov 2018
Saw II (2005)
Question: Is the SWAT team lead to a different building than Matthews by jigsaw at the end of the film? It looks very similar to the actual crime scene, which is what confuses me so much. If it was the same building they would be able to find Matthews, right?
Answer: It's a different building. It does look extremely similar, but it's not the same building. Given that they are so similar, it's entirely possible that they share a common blueprint design and are part of a development project, which would make sense, as later in the series, John is shown to have had a part in reel estate development.
Detective Mathews is in the real building, the signal the SWAT team finds leads them to a 2nd building which sends the camera feed.
No it was the same building, that's when they found out the tapes were pre recorded because it didn't show them on the cameras.
Answer: When they enter the house, the rugs on the floor are different.
Answer: Yes, he took Matthews to the real building and sent the SWAT team to a duplicate building. But, couldn't they start tracing that building through the feeds in the building he sent the SWAT team through? Oh, and it's kinda BS anyway. There isn't any detective worth his salt, that's been around for as long as he was, that wouldn't have dragged Jigsaw in by his ear and stuck his gun right against his head the whole walk down to that toilet. After all the crap he's done, now all of a sudden the detective is going to trust Jigsaw and trust the key that he handed him? I would've said you hold on to that key. You're going to be the one using it.
30th Oct 2018
Beetlejuice (1988)
Question: Is there any reason besides plot convenience that the Deetzes didn't enter the attic during the three months that the Maitlands were away from the house to meet with Juno? I realise they don't have the key, but seeing as how they were renovating the entire house anyway, it seems like they would have had no problem just knocking the door down.
Answer: No reason was given, but they probably felt no immediate need to enter the attic. I've never been in my own house's attic. As you pointed out, it's really a matter of plot convenience.
Answer: After the dinner scene when Otho asked where they hid and Lydia said "the attic" Charles replied that the attic was locked. So it seems like she never told them she had the skeleton key.
I addressed this in the question. A key is not required to get into the attic because they could just break the door down.
Except they didn't break the door down. Delia kept banging on the door until it opened. If they had broken the door down, there would have been some damage.
Answer: This is purely for convenience. It's always bothered me. Like since the early 90s when I first had a VHS copy to rewind. That whole house has been gutted and rebuilt but no-one got in to the attic for 3 months? That's BS. For one thing not only would someone like Charles Deets want to see every square inch of his property, but a major company/contractor doing a remodel of that size would have at some time needed access to and been on every square foot of that house.
Quite often, people don't think about the attic along with the rest of the house. Many of them won't be going into the attic every day, not every month, maybe not more than once a year.
30th Oct 2018
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Question: Why are they all so shocked that Kevin called Frank a cheapskate? He is. He also just practically admitted that he's not paying for this trip?
Answer: Not only was it disrespectful toward his uncle, when a kid Kevin's age says something like that, it is often attributed to overhearing and repeating what adults said. The implication is that Frank would now know what his adult relatives thought of him. They are shocked partly because they are embarrassed and feel guilty.
29th Oct 2018
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Question: When the clones arrived at Geonosis, why didn't Palpatine just execute Order 66 there?
Answer: Palpatine had a clear, detailed plan mapped out. First he was to become Chancellor by sympathetic vote after the invasion of Naboo. Then he would instigate the Civil War with the Seperatists in order to install himself as a lifelong Emperor while using Order 66 to wipe out the Jedi. Finally he would completely dissolve the Senate, leaving no-one left to challenge him. He needs the Jedi to fight in his proxy war with the Seperatists to dwindle their numbers and give the illusion that the clones are fighting for the Republic, when in reality they are fighting for him. When Palpatine finally does execute Order 66, it is after the war has left both sides crippled, with the Jedi at the weakest they've been in ages.
Answer: He might not have had such a plan in place at that time. He also wanted Anakin to eventually become his new apprentice, so he wouldn't want to risk him being killed by ordering the Clone Army to execute all the Jedi.
Oh he did have a plan, but I agree the biggest reason was that Anakin was still a Jedi and he couldn't execute the order until he had turned Anakin to the dark side.
He had a long-term plan to wipe out the Jedi, yes, but at this point I don't think he had any plan to kill them all from a logistical standpoint, especially given that he had just barely received the Clone Army.
The Sith ordered the clone army to be made and they were made specifically with order 66 in them, and Palpatine knew it from his former master (who manipulated Jedi Sifo-Dyas to place the order). It was always the plan to kill the Jedi. He just had to wait.
29th Oct 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Question: Peter said Aunt May would stop him being Spider-Man if she found out who he was, so why hasn't she, given she found out the truth at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming?
Answer: This may be addressed in "Spider-Man: Far From Home" but without any sort of onscreen confirmation thus far, all we can do is speculate. Perhaps Peter was mistaken about how Aunt May would feel about him being Spider-Man, or he could have simply told her he would stop being Spider-Man but lied about it.
15th Oct 2018
Secret Window (2004)
Question: What's the point of the braces?
Answer: What I find ironic is the fact he tries to fix his teeth with braces hoping to minimize double-personality jaw mimique, while he grows and eats corn in the garden. Corn and braces are one of the worst possible combination in terms of comfort of eating. That was nice spice of absurdity to the story.
Answer: Mort had some problem with his jaw and eventually got braces to help correct it. I also read that it was Johnny Depp's idea for Mort to get braces, believing it added an interesting facet to his character.
Answer: As read in previous answers the jaw aches came about because of his imagination of Shooter. Shooter is taking over Mort's personality, throughout the movie it progressively gets worse and worse until the end where Shooter finally gets through to Mort and takes over. The braces are now a sign that Mort can no longer hold back Shooter, and it's shown because the braces stop the mannerism. (Shooter is the sole personality and no longer needs to push his way out, thus the need for braces and no more pain). He finally got his way. The true ending.
Answer: If you recall, Mort was kicked in the mouth after he had stabbed his wife in the leg. I'm thinking braces were the result.
15th Oct 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Question: How are Captain America, Black Widow, and Black Panther talking to Proxima Midnight through the Wakandan cloaked shield? What's she looking at? Trees?
Answer: It's not a cloaking shield. It's a defensive barrier. There would be no need to have a cloaking shield within the city because anybody that's inside the city would seemingly already know that Wakanda is hidden.
The cloak is to hide the city. If Cap flew in and only saw trees...what is the Black Order looking at and talking to?
The cloaking shield is what hides the city from overhead view, so aircraft that fly over can't see that there's an advanced city hiding within what is believed to be a third-world country. The barrier around the palace is to prevent enemies from attacking. That's why the "space dogs" are being torn apart when they try to go through the shield. When it becomes apparent that they can get through the shield when they attempt to do so in large numbers, Black Panther orders a section of the shield to be opened in order to bottleneck the forces in so that they can't surround the palace and penetrate the shield from a side that's not as well guarded.
This wasn't an overhead view. They were flying low and in a straight line into trees that on the other side hid buildings that were the same height. They weren't looking down.
Irrelevant. The simple fact of the matter is the Wakandans build that shield, and they can do anything they want with it. Perhaps the cloaking part is discarded to boost the shield's defensive capabilities.
That's an illogical answer: they can do what they want. Perhaps? Where is that in the movie? These are guesses not answers.
Are you saying they don't have full control over their own shield that they designed and can manipulate very specifically, as seen in the movie?
"Perhaps the cloaking part is discarded to boost the shield's defensive capabilities." - where is that in the movie? This website would not exist if every response was "they can do whatever they want".
It is when we are talking about future technology in advanced civilizations. This entry is also a question, not a mistake. There is a simple explanation for it, so that is the answer.
This is a theory not an explanation. An explanation would be backed up by facts from the movie.
There isn't an in-film "explanation", but that's a distinction without a difference. If in a movie we see someone in one place and then several scenes later we're shown them somewhere else, there isn't an "explanation" for how they've got there, but there might be plenty of perfectly reasonable theories about how - drove themselves, got a ride, took the bus, etc. This is a wholly fictional technology and the "facts from the movie" are that people can talk through it, just like they can choose to open specific narrow sections. So we take at face value that it's possible, because there's no in-film reason to assume it isn't possible.
5th Apr 2007
Boy Meets World (1993)
Question: In early episodes, why did Topanga call her parents by their first names?
Answer: That was what I hope was only a phase of the way things were in California at that time. Many kids who had parents who liked to be modern and be friends more than parents to their kids had them call them by their first names.
I've watched episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," made in the 1950s-60s, where some characters sometimes referred to parents by first names. Although, the characters were adults, so maybe it was acceptable for full-grown children? I guess it just depends on the specific relationship and what a parent wants to be called.
9th Oct 2018
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Question: Why is Peter still bullied by people in school even though he is in college? I'm referring to the scene where people hit him with backpacks and call him names as well as the scene in "Spider-Man 3" where he is bullied in Dr. Connors' class.
24th Sep 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Question: Would any company in their right mind build a theme park (or any business for that matter) on a private island with a volcano? I know populated areas like Hawaii just assume the risk, but wouldn't a company that has the money to purchase their own island do their due diligence and make sure they won't be prone to a major catastrophe like that?
Answer: As it was stated in the film, the volcano had been dormant for many many years. Presumably even since well before the events of the first Jurassic Park movie in the early 90's. It was only recently, between the events of this film and the prior Jurassic World that the volcano had its surprise re-awakening.
For sure, but dormant simply means that the volcano could one day erupt again, so wouldn't it be pretty foolish to gamble on building a multi-billion dollar theme park with the hope that the volcano will never again erupt?
One would think. But just look at our world's history. Like Pompeii, an entire civilization wiped out cause they lived at the base of a dormant volcano. And then even in more recent history. Mount Saint Helens, which I've actually been to and seen the exhibits and footage of it's destruction. Foolish, yeah. But that doesn't stop us from still doing it repeatedly.
I think it's been made pretty clear over the course of all the films that the people building these parks did not exactly think everything through properly. They took a gamble on the volcano, and they lost.
23rd Sep 2018
King of the Hill (1997)
Question: Can someone explain to me what a red shirt means? I know in one episode when someone broke Bill's high school touchdown record that Hank mentioned that Bill was red shirted because Bill went into the army before he graduated thus compelled Bill to go back to high school and try and break the record again.
Answer: The main point of being red-shirted is that a student athlete only has 4-years of eligibility to play. By red-shirting as a freshman, a student is allowed to practice, to get better, bigger, etc and then still be able to play for 4 years (seasons).
17th Sep 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Question: When did this conversation between Gamora and Nebula that Thanos showed Gamora on his ship take place?
Answer: We aren't told for certain, but it was most likely before the events of the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film.
3rd Sep 2018
X-Men (2000)
Question: Victor/Sabretooth, Wolverine's brother (we later find out) - where does he go after this movie?
Answer: It is deliberately left ambiguous. He most likely survived.
Answer: I think the sabretooth in this movie is not Wolverine's brother at all. I also think this sabretooth died from being blasted by Cyclops and falling off the statue of liberty.
Well they don't seem to recognize each other.
Wolverine doesn't remember his past, and anything could have happened to Sabretooth between movies that made him forget as well. Plus, the X-Men movies aren't exactly great at keeping the continuity in the overall narrative consistent.
Its possible I guess, but there is no real evidence. The idea of having them be brothers only came up in the first Wolverine movie.
There's no concrete evidence, but nothing to really contradict it either. Similar to "X-Men: First Class" making Mystique Xavier's adopted sister, it was a questionable decision but nothing in the previous movies flat-out contradicted it. Sabretooth's obsession with Wolverine in this movie and taking his dog tags at the least suggests a shared history between them.
3rd Sep 2018
The Simpsons (1989)
Lisa on Ice - S6-E8
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Answer: Palpatine is the Dark Lord of the Sith and he knows Anakin is highly Force-sensitive. He's planting the seeds of corrupting Anakin to eventually make him his apprentice.
Phaneron ★