Tailkinker

Question: I haven't been able to figure out why Anakin's eyes are shown turning yellow in this movie, when he is on Mustafar. Dooku's eyes were always brown and Asajj Ventress often has blue eyes in Clone Wars media, although she uses the Dark Side. I don't think it could be a question of Dooku not giving himself over to the Sith as much as Anakin, because he did kill/order others to kill several Jedi and other people in Episode II and the Clone Wars books/shows. Are the color-changing eyes just something that happens temporarily when someone first accepts the Dark Side?

Answer: This seems to be a side-effect of heavy immersion in the Dark Side of the Force, although apparently not one that affects all users. As you point out, neither Dooku nor Ventress are shown to display this change, although Anakin's eyes do change after his massacre of the Seperatist leadership, then again prior to his immolation on Mustafar, after Obi-wan defeats him, and Darth Maul's eyes appeared to be permanently changed, possibly as a result of his total immersion in the Sith ways from a very early age. A number of other users of the Dark Side are depicted or described in Expanded Universe materials as having their eyes change temporarily during heavy use of the Force, including at least two of Anakin's descendants, but it seems not to be a universal trait of all Dark Side users.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: He was offered an extremely lucrative deal to play Gandalf, but turned it down as he didn't want to spend eighteen months in New Zealand making a film that he stated he "didn't understand".

Tailkinker

20th Oct 2009

General questions

I am looking for a documentary about volcanoes that was made no later than 1997. I thought it was by National Geographic but I can't find it on their website (I have watched their film Volcano: Nature's Inferno, and it is not the one I'm looking for). All I can remember about this film is that it included the song "Hot hot hot", possibly as the opening music, and at least part of the movie was about volcanologists Maurice and Katia Kraft. It talks about how they eventually died in a volcanic eruption (ironic, I know). Can anyone tell me the title of this documentary?

Aerinah

Chosen answer: The only other documentary for which the Kraffts are credited on the IMDb is Nature: The Volcano Watchers which was made in 1987. Unfortunately this is before their death in 1991, which is an issue if the documentary discussed their deaths, although wouldn't be unusual for an updated edition to have been shown later with the additional information. Hope that's of some use. May not be the right one, but could be interesting anyway...

Tailkinker

12th Oct 2009

Hannah Montana (2006)

Show generally

Question: I'm really confused about Jason Earles' age. IMDB and Wikipedia say he's 32, but his resume and the Houston Chronicle say he is 19. So where are people getting the information he's 32? Has Jason Earles actually stated his age somewhere? Help me out here, please.

Answer: Many actors and actresses tend to be quite secretive about their ages, probably to try to fend off being automatically dismissed for possible roles as too old or too young or even just because they consider it to be nobody's business but their own. Earles appears to be one of these; as a result, reports regarding his age tend to conflict. However, as a rule, public records can generally be accessed to give a reasonable idea of their true age. He is, for example, listed as an alumni of Rocky Mountain College, from which he graduated in 2000, unless he graduated at the age of ten, that rules out the idea that he's only nineteen, realistically putting his age at at least thirty years old. A name search engine on the internet turns up a Jason D Earles who lived in Billing, Montana, near the college in the right time period, with a listed birth date of April 1977 - an individual with the same name and birth date also has a listing for California, where the actor currently lives. Other information available online also tends to point to a likely birth year of 1977. While Earles and his agent have every right to fudge his age as it appears on his resume for professional purposes, most of the verifiable information suggests that he is indeed currently 32.

Tailkinker

8th Oct 2009

Aladdin (1992)

Answer: Technically, yes. He would still have one wish left. After being knocked out, Genie asks Aladdin if he wishes for his life to be saved. After grabbing Aladdin, his head drops down, which Genie takes as a yes, However, since Aladdin was unconscious the whole time, he never actually confirmed the wish. Genie only assumed he did. Also, since Aladdin was out cold, he could once again make a case that he never wished for his life to be saved since he wasn't awake to make it.

Chosen answer: Under the rules that the genie lives by, he can only use his abilities to grant three wishes per person. He's already technically broken those rules once, when he helped Aladdin escape from the cave, despite Aladdin not actually wishing for it, but that wasn't an intentional violation; it can be considered a mistake on the genie's part, a misunderstanding of what Aladdin actually said. As he said after that incident, he can't give Aladdin any more freebies; while he can stretch the rules a bit, he can't consciously break them again by using his power on another non-wish, even to save a life. The genie's taking Aladdin's unconscious "nod" as affirmation that he agrees to use his second wish to be rescued from drowning. By the rules that govern the genie's existence, even though Aladdin didn't actually say it, it has to count as one of his wishes.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did the author of the book, that this movie is based on, hate this movie version so much?

Android Kaeli

Chosen answer: He felt that it took too many liberties with the story. In the original agreement, Dahl himself was to write the screenplay (he was, by that point, a not-unsuccessful screenwriter), only to find that his version of the script was subsequently heavily re-written, including what Dahl felt were a number of unnecessary gimmicks, such as Wonka's penchant for literary quotations. Even the title of the film was changed from the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", in order to tie into the launch of the "Wonka Bar", a new candy bar made by the Quaker Oats company, who co-financed the film. Annoyed at all the changes, he ultimately disowned the film and refused to sell the cinematic rights to the sequel, "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator".

Tailkinker

Question: If the machines have managed to locate Zion, wouldn't it have been easier for them to try and find the main door through which all the hovercrafts fly and blast their way through that, as opposed to digging through a HELL of a lot of pure rock to get into the city?

diesel123

Chosen answer: To do so, they'd have to search a vast labyrinth of tunnels under the earth, contending with human ships, booby traps, dead ends and so forth, plus they can guarantee that they'll be facing a defensive bottleneck of apocalyptic proportions. Once they establish the location, much easier to just take the direct route and drill straight down to it, rather than waste time and resources attempting to locate the entrance used by the human ships. Plus the drilling method has the added advantage of bypassing most of the Zion defence grid and putting their forces directly into the dock, rather than having to battle their way there.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end of the movie, why does Ethan appear so shocked when the flight attendant asks if he wants to watch a movie? I understand that this is probably another mission, but why does he react the way he does?

Answer: In addendum, only the leader of the group receives communication in this method. He's baffled because he's never been approached in this fashion, hence his utter confusion. Naturally, he catches on quickly.

Answer: Because he's resigned from the IMF. As such, he's more than a little surprised to be approached with another mission.

Tailkinker

Question: I don't think this is ever answered in the movie, so could someone tell me approximately how much time has elapsed since Andy's escape, until he meets up with Red on the beach in Mexico? Or until Red gets paroled?

Answer: Andy escapes from Shawshank in August 1966, as evidenced by the date on the paper that Norton reads shortly before his suicide. Red's parole comes up the following year, 1967, exact date unknown. He then works at the store for an unspecified but short period of time before fulfilling his promise to Andy to go and find the box buried in the field - from the greenery visible, most likely in the mid-to-late summer - and he then heads to Mexico. In all likelihood, the total time between Andy's escape and he and Red being united is about a year, give or take a couple of months either way.

Tailkinker

Plausible, but the question asked if the real time frame/date was addressed in the movie. I believe the answer is No. The date of escape was stated as 1966, but Red's release date was not formally indicated.

18th Sep 2009

Star Wars (1977)

Question: I read that Mace Windu was originally going to be in this movie. Does anyone know if this is true?

Answer: Sort of. The name "Mace Windu" dates back to the very first story treatment that George Lucas wrote in 1973, however the character bears no resemblence to the distinguished Jedi Master of the prequel trilogy. In the rough draft, the name is given to a brother of Leia's, while a later draft has the character as a friend of Luke's. The name was ultimately dropped from the script entirely, only to be reintroduced when choosing names for the Jedi council members decades later for the prequels.

Tailkinker

16th Sep 2009

Doctor Who (2005)

Answer: No.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did the Kraken die (or was it killed)? Does it have anything to do with Jack Sparrow walking into it with the cutlass in the 2nd movie? Or Beckett's conquering Davy Jones?

Yerzhan

Chosen answer: Beckett ordered Jones to kill the Kraken. No exact reason is ever specified, although it's suggested that it was, at least in part, to teach Jones a lesson about obedience. It also seems fair to say that Beckett was thinking ahead, depriving Jones of his most powerful weapon in case Jones ever managed to break free of his control.

Tailkinker

Question: Does anyone know if the Skorponok that attacks Jetfire is supposed to be the same one from Blackout or a new one (from, say, Grindor)?

Answer: According to the filmmakers, yes, this is the same one back from the previous film, who's been hiding out in the desert repairing himself in the interim.

Tailkinker

7th Sep 2009

The Island (2005)

Question: At the beginning of the movie, when Lincoln wakes up, he removes something from his ID bracelet. What is this and what significance does it have?

Brad

Chosen answer: It appears to be some sort of cable - it can be seen leading to the bracelet in the shot from above the bed immediately prior to the one where Lincoln unplugs it. Exactly what it does is never revealed, but it seems likely to be some sort of monitoring system, keeping an eye on Lincoln's health through sensors in the bracelet.

Tailkinker

Question: Marty prevents the bad 1985 by burning the sports almanac in 1955. However this alone won't prevent Old Biff from taking the almanac from 2015 to 1955. Indeed it raises the possibility that OB will remember having lost the almanac as a young man and choose to travel back to a date other than 12.11.55 to hand it over. I can think of three possible resolutions to this problem: (1) Marty makes a note of the date and time, then burns the almanac as a 47-year-old before Old Biff gets it; (2) Marty informs the 1950s Doc of what is to happen and he resolves to make the DeLorean more secure and/or not to throw the almanac in the bin; (3) Doc travels to 2015 in the steam locomotive and burns the almanac. Any other ideas?

Answer: I don't think it works like that. Old Biff came from a timeline that no longer exists, wiped out in favour of a timeline where his younger self becomes hugely rich because of the almanac, which is then ultimately replaced with a timeline where Marty wasn't involved in the car crash and he, and his children, are presumably more successful. In this new timeline, Marty and Doc would never have been to 2015 to try to sort out Marty's wayward children, Marty would never have bought the almanac, the old Biff of that timeline would never have learned about the time machine, and so would never have the idea of taking the discarded almanac back to his younger self, much less changing his date of arrival to try to prevent the theft. Doc and Marty have nothing to worry about.

Tailkinker

Question: Did Dooku have any personal reason for wanting to kill Padme, or did he just send Jango after her as a favor to Nute Gunray?

Answer: Gunray demanded that Amidala be targeted as part of his price to bring the Trade Federation, with its substantial military force, into the Seperatist movement.

Tailkinker

5th Sep 2009

Eureka (2006)

Chosen answer: He's still around, we've just not seen him lately, as scenes with Blake have been mainly at work, where Kevin wouldn't be.

Tailkinker

Question: In the books Malfoy fixes the vanishing cabinet to allow death eaters through and there is a fight between them and the order. However in the film the fight is cut making the whole point of Malfoy fixing the cabinet irrelevant as the death eaters do not need to witness the death as proved by Malfoy's earlier attempts to kill Dumbledore. Considering this, why do they cut the fight, when it is such a vital part of the story line?

Answer: Because it's not actually vital at all. The Death Eaters are there to kill Dumbledore if Malfoy can't (as his previous attempts have been woefully unsuccessful) - that's their goal. The battle against the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix is, for the most part, irrelevant to the overall storyline. It also allows them to avoid repetition, as the final book also finishes with a big battle through Hogwarts. If they kept the fight in, they'd have to make it look good, which would give them problems in depicting the final, much larger battle in the last film as expectations would be so much higher. By leaving it out and solely showing the main features of the storyline, namely Dumbledore's death at Snape's hands, it keeps the story focused and allows them to show the final battle in the last film without having already set a high mark that they'd then have to ensure that they exceeded.

Tailkinker

31st Aug 2009

28 Weeks Later (2007)

Question: If the infected can sense the uninfected due to the uninfected smelling clean and scented (deodorant/perfume), wouldn't the closest approximation be to just stop bathing or showering, and not wearing deodorants/perfumes? Wouldn't one rather be dirty than dead? Am I over-simplifying the situation? Do the infected sense the uninfected using some other method in conjunction with the above, thereby nullifying my hypothesis above?

Answer: I suspect that it's really not that simple. Remember that in the first film, Jim was lying alone in a hospital bed for some considerable time before waking to the deserted London. He would certainly not have smelt clean and fresh, yet he was still clearly detectable as prey by the infected. While being nice and clean makes it easy for them, it seems clear that it's not the sole indicator that triggers an attack.

Tailkinker

25th Aug 2009

The Fugitive (1993)

Question: How much time does this movie cover? I ask because when Sykes is being interrogated, he says he was questioned about Helen Kimble's murder a year ago. And Nichols says that Lentz died last summer, but Richard saw him at the fundraiser the same night his wife died. Is this a mistake or is there something I'm missing?

Brad

Chosen answer: Murder investigations are not, as a rule, speedy processes; it's quite plausible that a year could have passed between Helen Kimble's murder and her husband's conviction for the crime. The police have to gather evidence, question witnesses, put their case together and so forth. The main body of the film, from Kimble's escape onwards, probably only covers at most a few weeks, but Helen Kimble would undoubtedly have died some considerable time prior to that. The time periods stated in the film are quite reasonable.

Tailkinker

Answer: The timeline of events is Fundraiser, Emergency surgery, Helen killed, Richard arrested/held in jail for trial, Sykes questioned, Lentz dies in car crash, Richard convicted, Richard escapes. Lentz was alive when Helen was killed, he was killed while Richard was in prison which is why Richard doesn't realise until closer to the end that Lentz is dead. With Sykes saying he was interviewed about Helen's death over a year ago it leads us to believe the timeline of the movie is 12-18 months.

Answer: Sam Gerard and his team question the one armed man in his residence, they show him a picture of Richard Kimble and suspect him of murdering his wife. He replies, he went over this a year ago with the police.

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