johnrosa

19th May 2008

Cloverfield (2008)

Question: On the DVD, the directors say that the monster was awakened by a satellite falling from its orbit (you can see the satellite in the top right corner when Rob holds the camera out to the ocean at the end of the movie). The date when that event occurs is April 27th. When the monster attacks, it is late May. How did it take a month for the monster to become awakened and attack New York City?

Answer: As we don't have a real good definition of what 'awakened' means in relation to this creature, it's not possible to say precisely why nearly a month passes between the splashdown and the "attack" by the monster. But the makers also mention on the DVD that the monster is actually not "attacking", but it is actually a newborn "baby", that has no idea where it is and it's in a panic as it is being attacked by the humans. It simply wants to escape, but has no clue where to go or why we are attacking it. Using that info, I can imagine a scenario were it was actually in an egg-type state underwater, and the heat of the statellite resting near it caused the egg to finish developing, and Clover then 'hatched' weeks later. But the egg idea is merely a guess. Much has been left secret to make the future sequels better.

johnrosa

Question: How much time did Derek do? Also, Derek killed a couple guys, and his black friend stole a TV, so how could he have gotten out sooner than his friend?

Answer: The difference in their punishment is one of the major points of the film. It's about racial injustice, and that black offenders get harsher punishments than white offenders. For the friend, it isn't stealing the TV that gets him the long sentence. It's that he dropped it on the cop's foot which the prosecutor twisted into in attempted murder charge. Derek did a few years for killing the one guy, but as he was white, the dead guy black, and Derek was, at least at the beginning of the events, defending his home, property, and arguably the lives of his family and himself, his sentence wasn't nearly as harsh.

johnrosa

15th May 2008

Blue Thunder (1983)

Question: Near the end, Cochrane wants to kill Murphy. Why do it in the air? Even if Cochrane did wipe him out, the only way he would have to do that was to destroy the helicopter completely when he had the chance; instead, he injured Murphy and disabled the cannon somewhat, which is painful to watch and understandable, for fear of collatoral damage or simply because he did not want to blast it out of the sky and foot the bill. But the helicopter costs '$5 million', and even if Cochrane had the money, it would have been cheaper to take Murphy out on land instead of in public and in broad daylight.

Allister Cooper, 2011

Chosen answer: Murphy has been deemed a threat to the public at large by the authorities, having "snapped" and stolen an armed helicopter. Cochrane is using that determination as cover to finally kill Murphy, whom he's long despised. Killing Murphy on the ground would be harder to get away with. He would not be responsible for paying for the helicopter anymore than the Air Force or the other police helicopter crews would be had they sucessfully knocked Blue Thunder down.

johnrosa

13th Mar 2008

Cloverfield (2008)

Chosen answer: News reports indicate an oil tanker has overturned in the harbor. We can presume this is just beyond the Statue of Liberty, possibly in the area of upper Bayonne, NJ. Considering there are lights and other electrical devices aboard, as well as static electricity, almost anything could have sparked an explosion aboard, the concussion of which tore the head off the statue and hurled it and other debris onto Manhattan island.

johnrosa

Answer: The fall killed him, and the brain waves are seen leaving his body as he physically transforms back. Then, he's raised from the dead by the smell of cheese. (Yeah, I know, but it's a kid's movie, not a documentary.)

johnrosa

29th Dec 2005

The Island (2005)

Question: What happens to all the clones at the end? Do they live? Do the sponsors get their money back? Does the government kill them all?

Answer: We saw them set free, so assume beyond that what you will. If we apply current reality to it, we can guess the sponsors lost their money, as the venture was entirely illegal to start with. The government would gain nothing killing them, so they likely would issue new Social Security numbers to them and start collecting taxes ASAP. If you must have a definitive answer to 'what happened next', you can always wait for a sequel.

johnrosa

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