Question: Charles Xavier knew about Erik Lehnsherr's past, but did he know about those three people he killed at the bar?
MikeH
19th Oct 2016
X-Men: First Class (2011)
19th Oct 2016
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Question: Why was Charles Xavier so against Erik Lehnsherr killing Sebastian Shaw?
Chosen answer: Charles wants Erik to use his powers for good, but if he kills Sebastian Shaw, this may lead him down a darker path (which ultimately ends up happening).
3rd Oct 2016
American Beauty (1999)
29th Sep 2016
Up (2009)
29th Sep 2016
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
Question: Why did Sophie have blood on her mouth before The Bride cut her arm off? And why didn't she try to fight back or run away? Why didn't anyone else try to stop her?
Chosen answer: Just before that, we saw her in the bathroom, oblivious to the Bride's presence, and the Bride about to get the drop on her. It's safe to assume that the blood on her mouth was a result of whatever the Bride did to her off-screen between that moment and when she presented her to O-Ren. It's hard to "try to fight back or run away" when your assailant is brandishing a katana and is literally the deadliest person in the world with that weapon. And plenty of others tried to stop the Bride...she just killed them all.
8th Sep 2016
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Question: What did Batman mean when he said to Bane "Then you have my permission to die"? I know he was repeating what Bane said to him earlier, but does that mean he was going to kill him?
Chosen answer: It was probably on his mind. Not sure if he would have actually done it, but he needed Bane to tell him where the trigger was, after that maybe he guessed Bane would die anyway, having failed his mission. It could be either that Batman kills him indirectly, he commits suicide or he gets the death penalty. (Also, plausibly, he could have been hinting that Bane will inevitably die of natural causes after a long, dissatisfying life in prison, a reversal of how Bane attempted to defeat Batman in the same fashion).
8th Sep 2016
American History X (1998)
Question: What accent did Sweeney have? It sounded like he was from a foreign country but moved to America when he was young.
Chosen answer: It's Avery Brooks' natural Indiana accent.
16th Aug 2016
Licence to Kill (1989)
Question: Why did MI6 shoot at Bond after he refused to give them his gun? Surely it's not worth killing one of their agents over. And why did M say there's too many people? There was nobody around.
Chosen answer: At that moment, he was not one of their agents; M had just stripped him of his licence to kill and suspended him. So he was, essentially, a rogue agent about to escape...of course they were going to try and stop him. M stopped them because 1) they were in an MI6 building in the middle of an American city and gunfire would have drawn unwanted attention (perhaps giving away the location to enemy agents), and 2) unlike the faceless security forces trying to shoot Bond, he had a personal relationship with Bond and didn't want to see him injured or killed.
16th Aug 2016
Licence to Kill (1989)
10th Aug 2016
Taxi Driver (1976)
Question: When Travis first entered the porn theater, why was it blurred? Was that Martin Scorcese blurring the picture to avoid an NC-17 rating, or was the porn movie supposed to be blurry?
Chosen answer: It could be for several reasons. As you pointed out, it could be to avoid an NC-17 rating, though Scorcese could easily have used scenes that were not specifically pornographic. It may also be to keep the audience's attention focused on Travis and what was is going on in the scene and not be distracted by any pornographic material. Also, if you are referring to when the movie was being aired on TV, then any pornographic materials would have been blurred out to comply with FCC standards. Nudity and pornography cannot be shown on general TV stations.
10th Aug 2016
Taxi Driver (1976)
7th Aug 2016
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Question: A few questions about Snape's death: How did Voldemort slice Snape's throat with his wand without saying anything? Where exactly did Nagini bite Snape? Did he die from wounds or from venom?
Answer: Nagini kills Snape by biting him in the neck, it was in the movie.
Chosen answer: More magically advanced wizards do not need to speak the name of the spell to cast it. In the books, Harry and other students spend time learning how to cast spells silently. It is not specifically explained how Nagini kills Snape, but most likely it is a combination of various bites over his body and the venom.
16th Jul 2016
Stuart Little (1999)
16th Jul 2016
Stuart Little (1999)
Question: How come the humans can understand mice and birds, but not cats?
Answer: Since there no scenes of cats trying to communicate with humans, we don't actually know if humans can understand them or not. It may be that cats can communicate with humans, but simply choose not to.
Answer: Because it's a movie when talking animals is possible but not all animals can talk to humans.
12th Jul 2016
The Dark Knight (2008)
12th Jul 2016
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Question: What does "mao" mean?
Chosen answer: The whole phrase is "di di mao", which basically mean go now, or hurry up.
11th Jul 2016
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Question: Why did Bruce Willis refuse to help Haley Joel Osment after he told him he sees ghosts? As a psychiatrist, surely he's used to patients with hallucinations. And what made him change his mind?
Chosen answer: Spoiler alert: Psychiatrists help their patients in a variety of ways. Generally, they begin by developing rapport, establishing an empathetic relationship, and trying to understand the patient's perspective and how he views the world. Some therapeutic approaches are based on the notion that the relationship between therapist and patient is the prime source of healing. Many psychiatrists would also prescribe medication to ameliorate what they would almost assuredly view as psychotic symptoms. But in this case, I think Dr. Crowe has a sense, throughout, that his young patient's experiences are more than hallucinations. Cole's stories resonate with him at a deep level, as he is also struggling internally and subconsciously with his own (as we will later learn) ambiguous position between life and death. I don't think there's a point where Dr. Crowe changes his mind, per se. He develops. And in the process, he definitely assists Cole in overcoming his fears, as well. During the film, they heal one another.
Answer: I would have to rewatch, but it seems at one point he is humoring him, but maybe deep down has a feeling that he is not totally crazy, but then he goes and listens to the tape and hears a dead person and realises that there is such a thing as seeing dead people. This is why he tries to help cole cope after that, not be cured.
11th Jul 2016
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Question: Mel Gibson says "They killed them both." I know he's referring to his wife, but who's the second person?
Chosen answer: Rika Van Den Haas, the South African woman he was seeing whose body he finds tied up under water.
11th Jul 2016
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Question: Near the end of the film, Stephen asks Jane how long he has to live, and she says two years. But I thought they already established he had two years near the start of the film. Can someone please explain this?
Chosen answer: Throughout his existence, prognoses of the life expectancy for Dr. Stephen Hawking have been repeatedly offered and then surpassed. He continues to amaze with not only his brilliance, but his resilience. In this case it sounds like a callback to the initial estimate, which was demonstrably inaccurate.
8th Jul 2016
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Question: In the nightclub, Mel Gibson shoots a guy who says "Hey, what are you..." Was he a bad guy, or was he just a random citizen?
Chosen answer: He was one of Hunsacker's men.
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Chosen answer: Xavier can read minds, so it's assumed he knows about the murders.