Question: Why did Splinter make Michelangelo do flips after he jokingly said, "All the good ones end in O" to Keno?
Phaneron
21st Sep 2020
The X-Files (1993)
Question: When Gerald is holding Scully hostage, Scully says that she has no unrest but Gerald says she does. What did Gerald think Scully's unrest was?
Answer: Gerry Schnauz thinks all of his victims suffer from "howlers" in their brains, which is why he lobotomizes them. In Scully's case, it should be noted that the spot where he said her howlers were was the same spot she received her cancer diagnosis, so it could be assumed that his other victims might have had other legitimate maladies they didn't know about.
21st Sep 2020
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Question: I never saw it from the beginning. Does it actually show the home invasion, or is he just telling us about what happened?
Answer: The theater version shows the wife's rape and murder, but not the daughter's. When the little girl interrupts her mother's rape, Darby smiles and laughs as he tells Clyde and Ames, "I'll take care of her, kids like me." He then picks her up and carries her into another room as Clyde's wife stares at Clyde as she dies and that's when Clyde blacks out.
21st Sep 2020
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
21st Sep 2020
Joker (2019)
Question: Why was this movie so controversial?
Answer: In a nutshell, it's because the film's protagonist is a mentally disturbed killer, and certain groups in America thought the film's violence would lead to copycat behavior.
I never got this aspect of the controversy, if anything, it goes to show what can happen when mental illness goes untreated.
I agree with you on that, but unfortunately, there's so many people, at least in the United States, that have no sense of nuance and are prone to knee-jerk reactions. They would rather condemn and blame different kinds of media for society's ills, rather than stop and look at the message something is trying to tell.
I read about the concern over possible copycat behavior in an on-line article; Phaneron's answer is correct.
Answer: Because the left thought it would encourage violence and mocked liberal run cities.The right thought the same on violence, it seemingly justified a mentally ill guy's actions, that it made white businessmen bad guys. Both sides in general only complained about Joker for attention.
6th Sep 2020
The Dark Knight (2008)
6th Sep 2020
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Question: How come Deadpool is aware of the fourth wall, but none of the other characters in the X-Men movies are?
Answer: That's one of his superpowers, "Comic Awareness" (sometimes called 4th Wall or Medium Awareness). This is something that Deadpool has in the comics and was incorporated into the films. Other than being a framing tool and to be funny, I don't know if the creator, Fabian Nicieza, or any writers have said why they gave Deadpool that power.
9th Aug 2020
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Question: In the last shot of the knight waving goodbye to the Joneses, is it just me or has the actor been swapped out with a dummy?
Answer: It is the real actor and not a robotic dummy. He moves a bit slowly and deliberately, apparently for effect, but it's a real person.
Just to be clear, I'm not referring to when we see the knight raise his hand to wave goodbye to them, but rather right after Indy says "Please Dad," and he and Henry begin to flee the collapsing temple, you can see the knight in the background with his arm raised and he looks rather stiff. You can see it at around 2:22 of this clip: https://youtu.be/PAfZ7V2VyD8.
I took a closer look. There is the shot where the knight raises his hand and you can see him moving. It then cuts to Indy and Henry, then a cut back to the knight where it briefly looks like it could be a mannequin, then there is another cut and back to the knight again and this time it's definitely the live actor. So yes, for that brief long shot, I think it could be a dummy. This may have been for the purpose of efficiency in the filming, it being easier to use a stationary prop for doing multiple takes, rather than the live actor just standing there. Sometimes they do what is called "pick up" shots, where, post-production, a part of a scene or close-ups are re-shot or added weeks or months later, and it would just be easier to use mannequin rather than recall the actor.
But he does move, so most likely a real person.
3rd Aug 2020
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Question: I don't understand why Lady Van Tassel had to cut her hand during her sexual encounter with the reverend?
Answer: She was using blood magic to keep him under her spell... this is why later in the film the reverend kills the magistrate just as the magistrate's about to betray their secret about Lady Van Tassel to Ichabod.
3rd Aug 2020
General questions
I saw this movie trailer in the late 1990s or early 2000s. A man has become, or can choose to be, invisible. At one point in the trailer, he asks a woman if she has ever made love to an invisible man before. I am certain that she had long brown or black hair.
Answer: There's another film, The Man Who Wasn't There, (1983), Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy) plays a man who becomes the target of American and enemy agents after stumbling upon an invisibility serum. After using it to escape, he hides out at a girlfriend's apartment. I don't remember the exact dialogue, but they do have a love scene. It's funny seeing her going through sex motions with no-one there.
Answer: I believe you are referring to Hollow Man, with Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue.
Thank you.
Answer: This could also be the 1992 film, "Memoirs Of An Invisible Man," starring Chevy Chase and Darryl Hannah.
Thank you.
26th Jul 2020
Fantastic Four (2015)
Question: I read that Stan Lee greatly approved black Johnny. Is this true?
Answer: According to Entertainment Weekly, it's true. Unlike characters like Black Panther, Storm, Thunderbird or Shang-Chi, Johnny Storm's race has really nothing to do with what defines him as a character, which is why Stan Lee had no issue with it.
24th Jul 2020
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Question: How are Thanos and the Black Order able to track the infinity stone throughout the galaxy?
Answer: We aren't given a specific answer, but as Thanos himself tells Tony Stark, "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge." Thanos has probably studied the Infinity Stones for most of his life, and with the exception of the Soul Stone, every Stone presumably gives off some kind of energy signature that can be tracked.
Answer: He probably has spies everywhere and he can probably gain their location through interrogating his victims.
18th Jul 2020
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
15th Jul 2004
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Question: After the massive battle on Endor the Rebels try to make it look like the stormtroopers have won so the ones inside the shield generator will come out. What I don't understand is who's the Imperial guy that appears on the monitor telling them it's over and they need reinforcements? Aren't all the Imperials outside meant to be dead at this point?
Answer: Look close, it's Han Solo with his hand covering his mouth with the radio so as to not give away his identity. You can even recognize his voice. Apparently, he got inside the walker that Chewie highjacked, took an imperial officers uniform from somewhere, then radioed to the base to get them to come out so he could ambush them.
And a few seconds later, he had the time to go out of the AT-ST, remove his uniform and be on the ground for the ambush?
It's only a few seconds of screen time. Within the film itself, several troops gathered to meet them at the door, which could have taken a couple minutes. That's plenty of time for Han to have removed the helmet and gloves (only his head and hand are visible, so he likely didn't put the full uniform on) and the climbed back down to the ground.
You only see his head. It doesn't take long to remove a helmet.
It wasn't an entire uniform, just the jacket helmet and glove. And more than a few seconds had passed as the troops inside needed to be assembled and then exit the bunker.
If you look closely, you can see it's about a half-second of footage on a loop. Where they got it is another question.
16th Jul 2020
Watchmen (2009)
Question: If Rorschach's considered nuts then why kill him? Why kill the Comedian? Why wasn't he heavily guarded in prison once caught? Why not arrest Veidt?
Answer: The Comedian discovered what Veidt was planning to do, so Veidt killed him to silence him. Rorschach isn't causing problems for the prison once he's in there. Every violent thing he does is in self-defense. There's no reason for him to be heavily guarded. He's killed because they can't risk anyone exposing what Veidt did and ruining the world peace that was achieved. Veidt is not arrested for the same reason.
11th Jul 2020
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Question: Why do they keep changing Mystique's appearance in this branch of the franchise? Compare First Class to Dark Phoenix, notice the difference.
Answer: Jennifer Lawrence was actually allergic to the makeup that was used on her in First Class. For the next two films, she wore a body suit instead. For Dark Phoenix, since they were just going to kill her character off anyway, I think they just decided to be lazy and went with a more minimal approach with her appearance, and didn't care that it looked different. I mean, the scene of Jean Grey being taken over by the Phoenix Force at the beginning of Dark Phoenix directly contradicts her having the Phoenix power at the end of Apocalypse, so it's not like the filmmakers cared too much about overall continuity in the series.
10th Jul 2020
The Punisher (2004)
Question: In the extended version, when Frank confronts Jimmy about his betrayal, why did he make Jimmy commit suicide instead of killing Jimmy himself?
Answer: Jimmy is drowning in massive gambling debt and has had to resort to selling everything of value he owns as well as steal money from evidence lockers to help pay his debt down. He has nothing to live for and is merely going through the motions of life, and coupled with his guilt over selling out Frank and getting his family killed, Frank concludes Jimmy needs to take his fate in his own hands.
8th Jul 2020
Wonder Woman (2017)
Question: Why not tell her the truth? She wouldn't have been worse off. If he'd wanted to find them he could've done so sooner.
30th Jun 2020
The X-Files (1993)
Je Souhaite - S7-E21
Question: When Mulder is writing down his last wish after using the first two, what was he writing and why did he stop?
Answer: He was intending to once again wish for world peace. This time he is writing down his wish in a specific and deliberate manner in order to avoid any technicalities, loopholes or misinterpretations the genie might cause, since his first attempt at wishing for world peace resulted in her removing everyone else besides Mulder from the face of the Earth. He stops because Scully convinces him that world peace is something that should be attained through effort and not magic, so he instead uses his final wish to set the genie free.
29th Jun 2020
The Wedding Singer (1998)
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Answer: He's punishing Michelangelo for disrupting the session with Keno, which he used as an opportunity to diss Raph.
Phaneron ★