Question: When the church is being burned, Tavington tells Wilkins that "the honour is found in the end, not the means." What did he mean by this?
TedStixon
7th Apr 2025
The Patriot (2000)
3rd Jan 2025
The Substance (2024)
Question: Why would the New Year's Eve special at the end of the movie allow naked women to be viewed by the audience and on public television without censorship? Also, why would a mother allow her young daughter in the audience (the little girl in the blue dress) to see these naked women on stage?
Answer: The film is depicted in a very fantastical and even "cartoonish" way. It doesn't really take place in "our world" so much as a sort of twisted "fairy-tale" version of it. If you notice, everything is very heightened and extreme. The film explores themes like the impact of aging, beauty standards, and the way women are mistreated and exploited by the industry. So you shouldn't be asking why these things are literally happening, but rather why they're thematically happening. The New Year's Eve special broadcasting nude women builds off the themes; it's more exploitation the film has been analysing. In this "world," it's just accepted. As for the little girl? I took that as a satirical statement on how normalized the mistreatment and exploitation of women in the industry is. It's so normalized that a little girl is idolising it, and her mother is allowing her to see it.
24th Mar 2025
Spaceballs (1987)
Question: Why didn't Yogurt just tell Lone Starr the meaning of his medallion earlier?
Answer: He tells Lone Starr he can only know what it means at the "proper time." Which, of course, ends up being right before the ending, conveniently at just the right moment for him to be able to marry the princess. It's a borderline meta-joke; he finally is told what it means, but only when it's super convenient for the plot. It's kind of poking fun at the idea of tropes and clichés like this, where a last-minute revelation saves the day.
24th Mar 2025
Tremors (1990)
Question: Given that Heather is supposed to be a gun expert, why did she grab a flare gun and shoot it at the Graboid when there was a wall full of other choices?
Answer: They were throwing literally everything they had at it to see what worked. At a certain point, it shrugged off enough regular bullets, so why not try a flare and see if fire is its weakness? They eventually realised that only high-powered ammo and explosives were effective.
24th Mar 2025
Shrek (2001)
Question: What did Shrek mean when he said he'd be there until Thursday?
Answer: He's just entertained the crowd and is making a joke as though he'll be sticking around to put on more shows, similar to how a standup comedian might say, "I'll be here all weekend!" or "I'm here all night!" He's not being literal, though; it's just a gag.
24th Mar 2025
Saw (2004)
Question: Why exactly was Adam Stanheight tested?
Answer: From his tape: "Up until now, you simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives. But what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Now, I see you as a strange mix of someone angry, but apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So are you going to watch yourself die today, Adam, or do something about it?"
Answer: He's wasting his life away being a seedy voyeur who doesn't really contribute anything to himself or society at large.
24th Mar 2025
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Question: Why didn't Violet's mother stop the Oompa-Loompas from jumping on her daughter during their song? They didn't care about her comfort as they jumped on her from a big height, making the impact painful, and they also rolled her on her head, making her hit the floor and mopping it with her hair. She can be heard several times pleading with the Loompas to stop, crying for help and screaming. So why didn't her mother stop them?
Answer: I'll be completely honest - I think you may be drastically overthinking this quite a bit. There's nothing to suggest that the Oompa-Loompas are causing her significant pain, nor is screaming or crying as much as this question suggests. It's a highly stylized song sequence in a highly stylized movie. You shouldn't necessarily be watching it as though it were totally realistic and logical. But to give you something of an answer, you could also say the mum is just in a state of shock.
2nd Mar 2021
Blade Runner (1982)
Answer: It was probably a matter of public record or a big company she worked for would have some connections to find out.
Yes, but police addresses are not given to the public.
This response is nonsensical. I know a cop and literally just Googled him and found his address in seconds. You can find pretty much anyone's address easily today... It'd probably be even easier in a futuristic society with more advanced technology. Saying "police addresses are not given to the public" means nothing when they're literally public record.
21st Feb 2025
Batman Forever (1995)
Question: Would it really have been possible for Nygma to modify the security footage to make it look as if Stickley was committing suicide at the time, with Nygma nowhere in sight?
Answer: That's an extremely difficult question to answer because you have to look at it from two perspectives. In real life at the time in the 90s? Probably not, because the technology wasn't really there to convincingly create a convincing computer simulation/fake footage that quickly. (Even the special effects wizards who had months to make the movie did a good job but didn't quite nail the digital Batman in the few shots he's CGI.) But in the context of the movie? Yes. You have to remember, this movie is set in a highly stylized, fictionalized universe. One with superheroes, supervillains, highly advanced technology, doomsday machines, and all that jazz. The movie isn't meant to be realistic. It's meant to be exaggerated and cartoonish. So you can safely assume, in the context of the movie, Nygma had the means to create the fake security footage.
19th Jan 2025
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Question: Why doesn't anyone from the Afterlife try to stop Lydia from doing her TV series? In the first movie, Juno said that the living must not discover evidence of the Afterlife.
Answer: My guess would be that it's a combination of a few factors. The first is that she's far from the only one doing that sort of program. There are hundreds of paranormal shows, YouTube channels, etc. It would start to look very suspicious if suddenly things started happening to everyone who makes that type of content. Second, a lot of people just flat-out don't believe in things like ghosts and the afterlife. And a lot of those shows are faked, anyway. So while Lydia is earnest and honest, a lot of people won't believe it. Therefore, her show isn't exactly super risky for the afterlife. And finally, the original movie really doesn't dwell on that idea; it's basically given a few brief lines of dialogue in like one scene, and that's it. So you could also make the argument that this movie just sort of ret-conned or is ignoring that idea due to it being such a minor, unimportant element of the original.
Answer: I agree with Ted Stixon - many people have similar shows/online channels, and many people don't believe in the content. So, the afterlife officials are probably not concerned about all of them. There are people in real life who claim to be in contact with the deceased, as well as psychics and people with various religious beliefs.
7th Aug 2016
Ice Age (2002)
Question: The end of the movie shows Scrat and his acorn frozen in and eventually thawed from a block of ice 20,000 years later. How did he come back for the sequels?
Answer: The sequels take place before he was frozen.
That's not true. If the movies made later were prequels, how would the characters all already know each other?
Good Lord, people are overthinking this, hahaha. It's a silly animated movie series primarily aimed at children. It's OK if the Scrat character doesn't have super-concise continuity. It'd be like getting upset over the Looney Tunes not having strict continuity.
That one scene is set much later than the other films. The sequels aren't prequels.
11th Jan 2025
Beetlejuice (1988)
11th Jan 2025
Enchanted (2007)
Question: What did Robert Philip mean when he told Giselle that she's acting like she escaped from a Hallmark card?
Answer: Hallmark is a fairly common greeting card brand that is known for being extremely good-natured. He's basically saying she's acting almost unnaturally... perhaps even annoyingly... sweet and kind.
11th Jan 2025
Halloween Kills (2021)
Question: Why did the officer in the flashback beat Michael to the ground?
Answer: Because they were all angry and frustrated, Michael killed multiple locals and was also responsible for the death of their fellow officer, McCabe. They were taking out their rage on him. Completely unprofessional, but also arguably understandable. Additionally, this question is a duplicate entry; it was posted twice today.
20th Dec 2024
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Question: SPOILERS: When Sonic and Shadow land on the moon, they have a heart-to-heart conversation and appear to be breathing. But there's no air on the moon. Are we to assume that the Chaos Emeralds (which have given them both powers) are giving them the ability to breathe and speak in the environment?
Answer: They still have the Chaos Emerald power at that point because, immediately after, they turn gold and fly away.
Honestly, that's probably the best answer.
23rd Dec 2024
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Question: How did Stone see Robotnik's message at the end? It appeared to be displayed on jumbotron-like devices in big city squares, but Stone was in London and there didn't appear to be any giant screens, or even small ones, anywhere near him.
Answer: Per a quick Google search, it appears there are several locations in London where there are giant screens. He likely was running around the city in a panic (there is a doomsday weapon threatening to destroy mankind, after all) and managed to stumble onto one of the locations.
1st Dec 2024
Creepshow 2 (1987)
Question: How much involvement did Stephen King have in the making of this film? He wrote the script for the first Creepshow movie; however, for this film, the screenwriter is credited as George A. Romero. I know the middle story "The Raft" is based on a story King had written previously, but what about the other two, "Old Chief Woodenhead" and "The Hitchhiker"? Did King have any involvement in the making of those stories as well, or were they made up entirely by Romero?
Answer: From what I understand, "Old Chief Woodenhead" and "The Hitchhiker" were both loosely outlined by King. But he ended up stepping back and having little involvement in the film beyond writing rough outlines since the budget was being cut drastically and George A. Romero wasn't directing.
9th Nov 2024
Predator (1987)
Question: After the Predator gets out of the water and walks past Dutch, it sees some small animal (not sure what) and kills it. Since it kills for sport, targets experts with weapons, why kill a defenceless animal? (01:20:00)
Answer: It simply might have seen killing a different animal as yet another "trophy." Especially if it hunts for sport and is on a different planet. I know a few people who hunt for "sport," and many of their targets are non-dangerous, defenceless animals that could not realistically fight back. It's just... a thing for some people.
Except that the Yautja only kill people who have weapons. The animal was defenceless, and it wouldn't have been very, what the Yautja perceive, as being honourable.
The issue is that you're going by logic established in sequels/spin-off material and trying to retroactively connect it. Nothing in the original movie explicitly states this. Even the name you're using, "Yautja," wasn't coined until a spin-off novel that came out seven years later. Sometimes sequels and spin-offs will "rewrite the rules" and retcon from the original, thus creating small inconsistencies. You just have to accept that it's something that happened in this movie, even if it contradicts future series "lore." You can't really fault it for not lining up with sequels they didn't even know would exist when they made it.
8th Sep 2024
Deep Rising (1998)
Question: Finnegan put only one torpedo through the hole in the side of his boat. Would only one be enough to destroy the whole cruise ship?
Answer: According to some good old Google Fu, a single torpedo hit could absolutely destroy and sink a cruise ship since they're not as fortified as a warship would be. They're meant to carry passengers, not go to war. Granted, it probably wouldn't be quite as dramatic an explosion, but you could also argue that any other explosives on Finnegan's ship, plus the cruise ship's fuel, could have been ignited in the blast. You also have to factor in that the ship was already heavily damaged from the monsters attacking and was in a more fragile state than it would otherwise be.
31st Aug 2024
Halloween Kills (2021)
Question: Who is Conrad Mulaney and how did Lonnie steal his candy?
Answer: I always thought that Conrad was the guy with those two girls who steal Lonnie's candy. And Lonnie could have just pickpocketed the candy from Conrad. It's never explicitly stated in detail.
Answer: He's another kid, and Lonnie probably just picked on him and stole some of his candy... it happens.
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Answer: Crucially, he also immediately follows this by saying, "This will be forgotten." You could read it as a sort of variation of the phrase "The ends justify the means," which basically means that bad actions can be excused if the result is a net positive. Tavington is basically just trying to defend and excuse his abhorrent war crimes under the pretext that winning the war will be worth it.
TedStixon