Question: Is there any indication as to where the aliens come from and what exactly they want?
GalahadFairlight
19th Mar 2009
War of the Worlds (2005)
Answer: Maybe they were waiting for us to get up to a very high number in population. Before, we didn't have over 7 billion people in the world. More people, more food.
Answer: All versions of "War of the Worlds" are based on the novel of the same name written by H.G. Wells and published in 1897. Wells explained that the aliens are from the planet Mars, and they came to Earth for the natural resources.
But that still doesn't answer why did they wait till then to attack when they could have done it years ago with less resistance. The natural resources were still here.
Perhaps the Martians considered the technological advances of Mankind as "resources," also. The prologue states that the Martians had been observing humanity on Earth for a long time before they chose to attack. Why? Possibly observing our advances in engineering (dam building, for one example, mining for another). It could be viewed that the Martians allowed us to perform the hard work of making natural resources more accessible and consolidating those resources. Personally, I always thought the Martians intended to come exploit the fruits of our labor, allowing us to advance as far as we could without becoming a physical threat to them. If the Martians had waited a few decades more, they could be dealing with a technologically-dangerous human species.
Maybe they were still building the tripods, and when they finished, they would bury them in the ground. Then wait for the Earth's population to grow.
Answer: The alien homeland is never described in the film, but is described in the script as a lifeless, barren place, unfit for life.
20th Feb 2009
Taken (2008)
Question: Technology-wise, in the scene where he is on the phone and the French police are tracking him down, how does he make that possible? A two-way radio "wired" to the cell phone? Only in Hollywood, or could it be possible?
Answer: Actually, what Bryan Mills did was perfectly possible. He strapped a mobile phone to the two way radio, and used the other two way radio to talk. By speaking into his radio, it transmitted it to the other radio, where the mobile speaker could hear and transmit his voice. The French police would have been able to triangulate the source of the mobile phone signal from the particular 'cell' (i.e. area) that the mobile was using - while that would lead them to the phone position, he'd be elsewhere talking on the other half of the radio.
Two-way radios have a push-to-talk button. There's no way he could operate the button remotely.
Answer: Yea but how did he answer the call? A very long stick?
2nd Feb 2009
Taken (2008)
Question: Was Kim wanting to follow a U2 tour a decision made because both the band and Liam Neeson are Irish?
Chosen answer: Bit of a tenous link that to be honest, I just put it down to her and Amanda liking the band and wanted to go on the European tour to see them.
17th Jan 2009
General questions
Which British Second World War film, set in a desert, featured a girl singing a song to soldiers which included the following lyrics: "Till the right time comes, it's all just a snare and delusion, it's just a romantic illusion, till the right time comes." Also, who was the girl? (I thought it was Jean Simmons, but her filmography doesn't seem to include any war films).
Answer: Sounds like Ice Cold in Alex to me.
15th Jan 2009
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Question: What kind of necktie knot does Bond use and how do you do one?
Answer: A Windsor Knot, and go here to see how: http://www.tie-a-tie.net/windsor.html.
31st Dec 2008
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Question: What exactly is a goathouse and why are there two goats tied up outside it?
Chosen answer: A goathouse is a house for goats! Seriously though, Horses have stables, pigs have stys, goats have 'houses'.
31st Dec 2008
Hancock (2008)
Question: Who's that kid in the beginning of Hancock, who wakes him up when he's lying on the park bench? It looks like Drew Mikuska from Scary Movie 3 but I'm not sure.
Answer: It's not Drew, the actors name is Atticus Shaffer.
24th Dec 2008
General questions
Why has 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' (1980), starring Alec Guinness and Rick Schroder, never been released on DVD?
Answer: Probably no perceived demand for it. This is the type of movie that is frequently given away for 'free' on the covers of various newspapers.
24th Dec 2008
Vantage Point (2008)
Question: When we're following Forest Whitaker he looks up at the "shooter building" right before the shot fires, and he keeps saying "No, you shouldn't be there." Does he know who it is? And who was it? From what I gathered there was no one in the building, and the gun was fired by remote.
Answer: He assumed by the movement of the curtains that there must be someone up there, which of course the Secret Service should have cleared to make sure there was no-one there.
Answer: He just sees the outline of a person, who I take to be the SS Agent checking on Barnes' suspicions about the curtain.
17th Dec 2008
General questions
The only scene I remember from this movie, is that one or two boys who liked science created something that looked like a little glowing blue circle of light. It flew around and went through a shelf of books, putting holes through all of the books. I thought it might be Weird Science, but I haven't seen that whole movie before, so I'm not sure. I saw this when I was younger kid, so please forgive me if it's a really popular/obvious movie.
Answer: Sounds like Explorers (1985) to me.
17th Dec 2008
Transformers (2007)
Question: Can someone please explain why all this happened more than 100 years after Megatron crash landed on Earth? Why didn't the Transformers come sooner?
Answer: Because the Decepticons didn't know where Megatron ended up for the last 100 years. Bumblebee arrived on Earth as a scout to check out for any clues, found the glasses on Ebay, signalled the other Autobots, which prompted Blackout and Frenzy to investigate the base in Qatar, which lead to Blackout downloading the base computers and Frenzy hacking the computers aboard the aircraft later leading to the discovery of Megatron's whereabouts.
11th Dec 2008
Hancock (2008)
Question: Is one of the doctors that treat Mary after she is shot, actor (and director of Hancock) Peter Berg?
Answer: Yes, in fact Hancock has quite a few cameos from other famous people who are normally on the other side of the camera, most notably, Michael Mann, Akiva Goldsman, and Huy Nguyen.
29th Nov 2008
Blade Runner (1982)
Question: Has there ever been an explanation given as to what purpose the fire belching towers seen in the initial opening scene of Los Angeles serve?
Answer: The suggestion in the future Bladerunner universe is that the planet is so over populated, that you have living areas and industry all in the same areas, hence the towers with fire.
23rd Nov 2008
General questions
I watched part of a movie years ago. I don't remember the name of the movie. Please help! All I remember is. there is a guy on a computer (let's name this guy Bob) looking at famous historical photographs, and he notices in the background of each picture, there is the same guy (let's call this guy John). John is super ugly. I think later on in the movie Bob is trying to track down John.
Answer: I'm not sure if you're remembering correctly, but this sounds suspiciously like 12 Monkeys, where Bruce Willis' character is in the background of a lot of pictures.
6th Nov 2008
Crimson Tide (1995)
Question: The disagreement between Hunter and Ramsey centers on the interpretation of the message that got cut off - Hunter says it might be a recall order so it has to be verified before they launch missiles; Ramsey says it is meaningless because it got cut off, so they should proceed with their original orders. I do understand that the captain was working within a scary time limit (one hour till the Russians could fire their missiles), but I don't understand how anyone could justify not spending part of that hour trying to confirm the cut-off message. Naval command would hardly have radioed them again to say "Yes, we really want you to fire your missiles, we're just telling you again for emphasis," so that means it was not just possible but extremely likely that the cut-off message was a recall order. Given that, how could anyone in their right mind want to cause a nuclear holocaust without first trying to find out what the cut-off message really said?
Answer: In a war situation, the Captain is absolutely NOT allowed to try and contact anyone, lest it gives their position away, which is why he was unable to question or confirm the order.
21st Sep 2008
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
Question: In the prologue, Michelle Yeoh put a curse on the Emperor and all who followed him, turning them into terra cotta statues. Her lover, General Min, was still a follower when she cast the spell so why did she do it? I thought she loved him. Can someone explain this to me please? Wouldn't it make more sense if she had placed a curse on the Emperor himself?
Answer: At the point that she cast the spell, General Min's relationship with her had already been discovered, and he was about to be punished, so he would no longer be a follower of the Emperor.
20th Sep 2008
Disaster Movie (2008)
Question: The 'I'm Dating Matt Damon' song at the end of the film. What is it a spoof of and where can I get the lyrics from?
Answer: It's a spoof of the Sarah Silverman song called "I'm F**king Matt Damon", plenty of versions to view on YouTube.
27th Aug 2008
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
Question: Why were the aliens protecting the Predalien? My dad thinks it's because the Predalien helped birth them, but I seem to recall them protecting her before she impregnagated those women. Did I miss something?
Chosen answer: The Predalien was a Queen, those aliens only exist because of her, so just like in Aliens, the drones protect the Queen.
23rd Aug 2008
Step Brothers (2008)
Question: During the end credits when they are fighting the school kids, and they do the slow motion kick with the doves/pigeons flying, are they paying tribute to John Woo or Charlie's Angels?
Answer: It was John Woo's trademark long before a Charlie's Angels film was made.
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Chosen answer: In the original George Pal version they were Martians and the reasoning for what they were doing was never explained. In this version, it's never explained where they come from, but their mission is simple, to eradicate human life from Earth, and use our bodies to fertilise the planet, probably so that they can colonise the planet for themselves.
GalahadFairlight
If it was to eradicate us they could have done that millions of years back, why now, so that doesn't add up.
You want to grow the substance (people) that grows your food source before using it. If they waited too much longer, they'd have a harder time because we'd have the technology to fight them back.
The reason which was apparently provided by Wells was that Mars was dying by lack of natural resources and that Martians needed a new home and food source.
They were waiting until the population grew large enough to sustain terraforming efforts. As they used our bodily fluids seemingly as a primary material for their terraforming.
It's an assumption that they could have eradicated us millions of years ago (which by the way would be long before we even existed). Maybe they didn't have the ability to transport themselves, only the machines. Maybe the original aliens all died. Lots of other options why they couldn't have done it.
They probably needed to wait for us to produce enough humans to use as fertilizer. Doesn't make sense to try to use several million bodies as fertilizer back then vs now with billions of people.