Question: It's been shown that if a Prior were to be captured or betray the Ori then they would burst into flame. When Daniel was turned into a Prior, why didn't he burst into flame the instant he betrayed Adria and the Ori?
Grumpy Scot
24th Jan 2011
Stargate SG-1 (1997)
15th Jan 2011
General questions
I would be incredibly grateful to anyone who finds what I'm looking for. There was this movie trailer or TV show premiere, probably a few years back but released after 2000. I vaguely remember it starting up with a person saying something about a woman was found dead with her face sliced with a knife from ear to ear. Then they flash for a short time the woman, lying on the pavement, who was killed and it looks like there is a neat accurately curved slash from one ear to the other, in between her lips. Does anyone know the name of this movie/ TV show?
Answer: The Black Dahlia (2006) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387877/combined.
30th Sep 2010
Firefox (1982)
Question: When Clint gets inside the firefox in the hangar and starts it up, the guards don't think to shoot out the tires while it's in the hangar?
Chosen answer: There was just an explosion in the hangar and in the resulting confusion none of them were sure why it was moving. To get it away from the fire is not unreasonable. Also, the Soviet military is not big on showing initiative. Unless told to disable it, none of the guards would risk severe punishment for damaging a valuable aircraft.
6th Sep 2010
General questions
I saw this movie recently on TV. The only thing I remember is a bunch of guys dressed up as workers, and one of them was up a pole as a construction worker and another was a cop. They were on some sort of stakeout, and when they were spotted they ran into a club. The guys chasing them ran in after them, but couldn't find them as they had taken to the stage and were performing as the Village People. Any ideas?
Answer: Wayne's World 2.
29th Jul 2010
General questions
I remember a movie when I was a kid that I can't find the title to. I remember things like there was this device. I think it was rectangular in shape. In one scene, a guy is driving with the device in his car down a desolate highway and the power lines are like blowing up because he has the device in his car. I think I remember things like a guy walking into a building only to find fog, and barbarians. There might have been something with a high school too.
Chosen answer: My Science Project (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089652/)
16th Jul 2010
Predator 2 (1990)
Question: Right after the Jamaicans kill Ramon Vega and the predator slaughters all of them, Jerry Lambert says, "she (Ramon's girlfriend) never made it". What could she have died of? She was seen walking with Leona Cantrell and didn't seem wounded, and the predator would not have hurt her because she was unarmed. If she were wounded, she would have been checked out by paramedics right away. (00:31:20)
Chosen answer: Jerry means she never made it to the hospital. Keyes' goon squad intercepted the ambulance and snatched her to interrogate her about the Predator.
16th Jul 2010
I Am Legend (2007)
Question: Is the scene where Will smith recites all the movie dialogue while it is playing in the original Richard Matheson novel, or was it just a homage to The Omega man (where Charlton Heston does something similar)?
Chosen answer: It's an homage to the Omega Man.
1st Apr 2010
Top Gun (1986)
Question: I would like to know from a real Navy pilot if the scene is correct where Maverick's F-14 is right on Iceman's tail and he tells him to fly hard right to get out of his way. This leaves jet wash in his flight path and the jet goes down. Wouldn't a real pilot be trained to avoid this kind of danger from happening with the jet wash?
Answer: The original F-14A used the TF30 engine which was prone to compressor stall. This problem was fixed in later aircraft. https://theaviationist.com/2014/12/12/f-14b-engine-goose/.
18th Dec 2009
Rambo: First Blood (1982)
Question: I actually have two questions about this film. Firstly, does Rambo actually kill anyone in this film? Dennehy doesn't die and he didn't kill Galt so was there anyone else? And secondly when Rambo arrives at the cliff face, why didn't he simply run to his right or left? The police were only coming at him from behind (and even if one of them came from the side, Rambo could have used his skills to get past him). So why did he feel that going down the cliff was his only option?
Chosen answer: No he doesn't kill anyone. He didn't know if he was surrounded or not and if he did encounter one from the side they might have shot him.
Rambo killed Galt, albeit indirectly and unintentionally. In the US, "manslaughter involves causing the death of another person in a manner less culpable than murder." Rambo was responsible for throwing a projectile that struck the helicopter, causing the pilot to lose control resulting in Galt falling to his death.
But if Galt had been buckled in, he'd have lived. He was behaving recklessly. Yes Rambo's rock was involved, but that's two steps removed from Galt's death. Rock thrown -> pilot overreacts -> Galt falls because he wasn't strapped in properly. Galt's own behaviour and the pilot's reaction are more at fault than Rambo. This isn't a court, by most reasonable standards Rambo didn't kill Galt.
11th Dec 2009
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Question: When Helen and Madelin are fighting with the shovels, Helen whacks off the end of Madelin's shovel, and then Madelin throws the stick through Helen. How did they achieve this effect?
Chosen answer: CGI, just like any other difficult effect.
2nd Jul 2010
General questions
How are food scenes in films and TV shows catered for, so to speak? Does the crew ready a set number of portions of what will be eaten in the scene beforehand and just hope they get a good take before supply runs out?
Answer: The art department is responsible for creating/dressing sets in film and television. They would provide food for a scene just like any other prop. Either by having a small kitchen on site or ordering the necessary food from a caterer. Most movie set meals are also catered. I imagine there are companies that provide on-camera food as well as feeding the cast and crew.
24th Apr 2010
Titan A.E. (2000)
Question: For those of you who have the DVD, what is the name of the song that plays in the TV spot "Get Ready"?
Chosen answer: "I want to leave you far behind" by Lunatic Calm.
19th Jan 2010
General questions
I saw this movie many years ago, it looked to be late 80's early 90's. It was about a guy who saved a girl in a robbery and just before he died he asked her out. Later he comes back from the dead, but is decomposing. At the end he goes back in time to the point of the robbery and gets shot again but this time there is a locket that blocks the bullet that the girl gave him in the future.
Chosen answer: My Boyfriend's Back. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107626/)
16th Jan 2010
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
Question: How does being magnetised give you the power to delete tape footage? Wouldn't that work for DVDs, but not for VHS? Also I noticed in the scene where Jerry walks into the video store magnetised, the screen on the tv got all staticky every time I watched it. Was the static intentional?
Answer: VHS is data magnetically encoded on tape. A magnet will wipe them out. DVD/CD's are data encoded in plastic with a laser. Magnets won't hurt them in the slightest. Yes, the static was intentional, magnets can interfere with televisions.
16th Jan 2010
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Question: Why would Skynet want to kill Kyle Reese? If he doesn't go back, he won't destroy the first Terminator, and that arm will not end up becoming Miles Dyson's inspiration for creating Skynet (as stated in T2), and if Skynet isn't created at that point, they will never exist in the future. Surely the machines would work this out, and make sure the loop is completed (i.e, not killing Kyle so Connor can send him back?
Answer: No because the timestream clearly has some flex in it for changes, but Judgment Day is inevitable. The arm and chip were destroyed, yet Skynet was still built in T3. In all the timelines, Skynet is built and John Connor beats it. So killing Kyle or John is Skynet's only real option.
9th Jan 2010
Doctor Who (1963)
Question: Out of all the robotic arms The Daleks could have equipped themselves with, why did they select toilet plungers?
Chosen answer: Because Dalek toilet technology is the only area where they are inferior to the rest of the universe. Approximately 1960's. You'd have to ask the designer of The Daleks. It is shown in the new series to be a very nasty weapon indeed, some sort of point singularity projection device, like a mini-black hole launcher.
There are lots of documentaries and DVD special features about The Daleks and how they made. It was due to budget costs that they use the plunger the idea was that it was able to suck or stick to anything push and pull.
9th Jan 2010
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Question: How could McClane tell that the ammo in the blue labeled magazine were blanks?
Answer: If you listen, he says something to the effect of "I know I had that guy in my sights", meaning he is amazed he missed. So he checks the bullets in the magazine to see if that's the problems. Blanks are simply shells with no bullet that are crimped shut to hold the powder in. The difference between blanks and live rounds is very obvious even at a glance.
Answer: Just before the attack on the church, Grant and his team switch the red taped clips from their weapons with blue taped clips. The blue clips carried blanks and the red clips carried real ammo. After firing on a guy but not hitting him, McClane checked the clip and realised that the gun he used had blanks and that Grant and his team were involved with freeing Esperanza.
Quite apart from the fact that anyone who has spent his whole professional life with guns would know instantly that he had just shot off a magazine of blanks – no recoil.
3rd Jan 2010
General questions
I'm also looking for the title to an old science fiction movie I saw on TV a long time ago, possibly 1970's to early 1990's era. It took place in a post-apocalyptic world and features desert landscapes with sparsely-distributed debris of what was, back then, modern technology. It started with a wanderer staying at a friend's place before it is attacked. He has a sword and can fight, but, when taken in by a family, that family hides his sword from him. To protect this family from bandits, the wanderer duels the bandit leader with staffs. At the end, the men who killed his friend show up, and he is given his sword back to fight them with.
Answer: Sounds like Steel Dawn. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094033/.
2nd Jan 2010
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Question: So what tricks does Blackwood use to make the girl try to kill herself at the beginning? I don't get that part. Thanks.
Answer: While it's never stated explicitly, drugs and hypnotic suggestion are most likely.
30th Dec 2009
General questions
Looking for a TV movie title and the lead actor's name; I believe he played a teacher whose female student became very attracted to him. The student showed up at a yard sale (or car wash, or some kind of fund raiser) in shorts and tried to seduce him. In the end, she murdered one of her own friends and made it look like she herself was dead, then went to the teacher's house and attacked his girlfriend. Who is the actor? He appeared tall, was handsome, dirty blonde or brown hair, and has been in a few television movies.
Answer: Wild Things. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120890/ It was a theatrical release. The lead actors were Matt Dillon and Kevin Bacon.
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Chosen answer: Either because Adria believed he was truly devoted to Origin when she made him a Prior or the same mechanism that made the transformation wear off prevented it.
Grumpy Scot