Ashley Davis

22nd Apr 2025

Notting Hill (1999)

Question: When William says, "Apart from the American, I've only loved two girls, both total disasters," Max replies, "That's not fair." What did he mean? William is technically right. Does Max think William is generalising?

Ashley Davis

20th Apr 2025

Species (1995)

Question: How is it Sil managed to cut off the woman's thumb since garden shears are not strong enough to cut bones?

Ashley Davis

Answer: You could probably make a compelling argument that, as an alien-hybrid, Sil is stronger than a normal person and thus was just able to forcibly cut through the finger with the pruners by "crushing" it. Also, this is where good old suspension of disbelief comes in. The pruners might realistically have broken at some point, but it's a movie, so we can "forgive" this bit of unrealism because it creates a compelling scene.

TedStixon

Question: At the end of the movie, Charles and Carrie decide to spend the rest of their lives together without being married. If Charles loves Carrie so much and wants to spend the rest of his life with her, why doesn't he just marry her?

Ashley Davis

Answer: Carrie had just gone through a divorce, and Charles had left a woman at the altar. They were both kind of soured on the idea of marriage.

Brian Katcher

Answer: I don't recall if it was determined whether or not they eventually married. The end showed them together with their baby and implied that they had married by then.

raywest

He specifically asked her not to be his wife.

Brian Katcher

Question: If Carrie loves Hamish so much, why does she still hang out and sleep with Charles?

Ashley Davis

Answer: Carrie was attracted to Charles and gave in to her passion; she even said she thought they had a missed opportunity. Most likely, she never truly loved Hamish, was infatuated with his status and wealth, and probably felt it was too late to back out. Carrie really didn't know the type of person he was.

raywest

17th Apr 2025

The Patriot (2000)

Question: At the end, when Martin and his family go back to their old home, why isn't Abigail with them? She loves them and they are like family to her.

Ashley Davis

Answer: Abigale, along with the rest of Benjamin's slaves, was taken away by the British earlier in the film. We don't know what happens to her after that, but more than likely, she was sold or given to another slaveholder. Slavery continued after the war, so she would have continued with her new household. We can speculate that maybe, after the end of the film, Benjamin may have tried to track her down and possibly buy her back, but either way, she likely remains a slave.

17th Apr 2025

The Patriot (2000)

Answer: She is angry, mostly from missing her mum, but also at her dad for being away so long and often.

lionhead

17th Apr 2025

The Patriot (2000)

Question: If Tavington and his men had succeeded in finding Martin's family at the plantation, would they have just killed them or taken them hostage?

Ashley Davis

7th Apr 2025

The Patriot (2000)

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?

Ashley Davis

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

24th Mar 2025

The Patriot (2000)

Question: Why don't Anne and her parents stay at the Gullah camp with the rest of Martin's family? Yes, Tavington and the British don't know that she has married into his family, but wouldn't staying there be the best bet for their safety?

Ashley Davis

Answer: Presumably, Mr Howard has a business or plantation to run. As well, it would be suspicious for all of them to disappear like that. It could also leave their house open to looting.

LorgSkyegon

24th Mar 2025

Anastasia (1997)

Question: How was young Anastasia never aware of the secret door in her room? You would think her family would have told her about it since secret doors were often built into castles and palaces for the safety of royal families.

Ashley Davis

Answer: There may have been some concern that young Anastasia might try to leave the palace to go exploring, could carelessly reveal the secret to someone, or sneak someone into her room. There's any number of reasons. She probably would have been told about it when she was older and more trustworthy with information.

raywest

24th Mar 2025

Paulie (1998)

Answer: My best guess is that a neighbour told Ivy about the family and where they had moved to.

19th Jul 2023

Anastasia (1997)

Question: Anya believes she has family in Paris, according to her necklace. However, if she had never met Dimitri and Vladimir and gotten there herself, how would she have been able to find her "family" if she did not remember their names, her real name, and last name?

Ashley Davis

Answer: Anya was desperate to locate her family and may have been willing to search for additional leads in Paris. Thousands of Russian refugees had settled in Paris after escaping the revolution, and they could have helped her, someone might have recognized her, and so on. Also, Anya's memory was slowly returning.

raywest

15th Jul 2023

Blood Diamond (2006)

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