Question: I'd like to know how it's possible that Joker wasn't tied up more efficiently, i.e. in a straitjacket. And WHY, oh WHY was there a policeman inside? It looks really ridiculous in those circumstances.
Tailkinker
31st Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
31st Dec 2008
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Question: I would like to know the physical filming locations for this movie.
Answer: Mostly in Georgia, specifically Covington, Gainsville, Monticello and Alto, with a few scenes shot in Atascadero, California.
30th Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: Did the Joker originally want to kill Harvey Dent during the convoy chase? If Dent had been blown up, the kidnapping scenario could not have happened, and Joker implies this was his "ace in the hole" plan. So what were Joker's intentions?
Answer: No, he definitely doesn't intend to kill Dent - at that point, he can't dismiss the possibility that Dent could be Batman, who he wants to keep alive because it's just more fun that way. The convoy chase is, at least, in part, designed to draw Batman out - Joker knows that, if Dent isn't Batman, there's no way that the Caped Crusader wouldn't intervene in a situation like that. If Batman doesn't show, then, in all probability, Dent is Batman and Joker can focus on him. Batman shows up, thus eliminating Dent from consideration, allowing the Joker to go to the next stage of his plan, the kidnapping scenario.
30th Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: Does Joker really want to kill Batman at first? He says explicitly during the interrogation, "I don't want to kill you." Yet earlier he told the mob "It's simple, kill the Batman," and he says later (when he makes the threat on the hospital) that he's changed his mind. So did he want to kill Batman at first? And at what point exactly did he change his mind?
Answer: The Joker has his own agenda, which is basically the promotion of anarchy in Gotham City. With both the police and the mob gunning for him, that's going to be tricky to do. He can hardly ally himself with the police, so he tells the mob what they want to hear to get them off his back while he takes over. There's no particular indication that he ever really wants to kill Batman.
29th Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: If Bruce Wayne's penthouse was so safe, how did the Joker manage to bust into it during the fund-raising party? Also, if the penthouse was safe, why in the world did Alfred let the girlfriend just leave?
Answer: Wertz is shown at the door holding up his badge as the Joker bursts in. The implication (to the party guests and the audience at the time) is that Wertz was forced to use his police credentials to get past building security. We find out later that Wertz is dirty and probably was ordered by Maroni to help the Joker. Alfred lets Rachel leave because she insists that she is safe, since she was never the Joker's intended target.
Answer: The Joker got in there during the chaos of a party; people are coming and going, guests, caterers, waiters - security is inevitably going to be compromised under such circumstances. Later on, when only Bruce and Alfred should be present, the place is much more secure. As for Alfred letting Rachel leave, what choice does he have? He can hardly keep her there against her will. Short of resorting to physical restraint, he can't stop her leaving and trying to do so, when she's already angry at Bruce for letting Harvey pretend to be Batman, would only annoy her further.
29th Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: Batman talked about jumping out of an airplane to capture the money man in China. What happened to that scene? Did he do it off-screen, just to enter the country illegally?
Answer: Yes, just did it off-screen with the aim of entering the country illegally. Not really a terribly important thing to actually show - they mention how he intends to get in there, then we see him in Hong Kong, so we can assume that it went well. Showing it would just have slowed down the pace of the film.
26th Dec 2008
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
28th Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: The money the Joker burns - why did he get it? I thought he wants to have the money for killing Batman. And he has neither killed him nor unmasked him. So why did the Mob give him the money? They knew that Dent wasn't the real Batman.
Answer: He stole it. He took Lau from police custody, found out where he stashed all the mob money and simply took it.
27th Dec 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: In the scene where Wayne and Fox are looking at the new Batman stuff. Wayne ask Fox if the armor will stop and dog attack and Fox asks if its for a Rottweiler or Chihuahua. Fox then says it will stop a cat. So does that mean that Catwoman will be in the next movie?
Answer: No. It's an off-handed jokey comment by Fox, don't read anything more into it than that. It is, of course, possible that Catwoman could appear in a sequel, but the simple fact is that Christopher Nolan gave no thought to a possible sequel while putting this film together, preferring to focus on the job at hand, and has only recently started considering possible story ideas for a third film that, at this point, he's not even committed to making. If Catwoman serves the story that he decides that he wants to tell, he'll include her, otherwise, he won't. But there's no point in looking for foreshadowing in The Dark Knight, because there really isn't any.
24th Dec 2008
General questions
I'm trying to find the name of a movie that was out not too long ago. The only thing I remember from the commercial is that it's about a woman who is the only one left that can have children. Hopefully, someone knows the movie I'm talking about.
Answer: The 2006 film Children of Men, starring Clive Owen, Michael Caine and Julianne Moore.
22nd Dec 2008
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: As far as I understand it (I haven't read the books, only seen the films), with the One Ring Sauron can rule and control all the other rings of power. But why didn't/don't the other ring-bearers just take off their rings so that Sauron cannot dominate them? Weren't the other rings of power made by Sauron, too? And of what use is the One Ring to Sauron without the other rings, except that it contains a part of him, thereby making him somehow indestructible?
Answer: The Rings of Power were made by the elves of Eregion, guided by Sauron, posing as a mysterious and highly knowledgeable craftsman named Annatar. Each, however, had their own hidden agenda. Sauron's, obviously, was to make the Rings subservient to his own Ruling Ring, to give him great influence over the wearers while giving them power. Part of the magics of the Rings, however, was that that influence would not be perceived by the wearer, so they would simply accept the gifts, lured by the temptation of the power that it would grant them. The Elves, for their part, secretly made three more Rings using both Annatar's techniques and their own magics, resulting in three more powerful Rings. As Annatar's methods were used, these Rings were still slaves to the One Ring, but the additional magics meant that the bearers of the Three Rings became aware of Sauron's betrayal and removed them before his influence could take hold. Enraged at this treachery, Sauron launched a military strike on Eregion, obliterating the realm and taking the remaining Rings, giving seven to the Dwarves, whose nature proved resistant to the magics of the Rings, which did little more than increase their innate lust for gold, and nine to Men, whose desire for power led to them falling completely under his influence, ultimately becoming the Nazgul. Without the other Rings, the One Ring has no purpose - it was specifically created as part of Sauron's plan to covertly dominate Middle-Earth, by bringing the wearers of the Rings of Power under his control.
16th Dec 2008
Wall-E (2008)
Question: When Wall-E and Eve are in the repair ward, and Wall-E is misinterpreting Eve's cleaning as torture, what is the second "scene" supposed to be? I understand that the first one looks like Eve is having her arm ripped off and the third looks like Eve is having her head chopped off, but I can't figure out what the second one with the malfunctioning umbrella is supposed to be.
Answer: It's a combination of what WALL-E sees happening to EVE, with her circuitry lighting up and her head bobbing up and down as she laughs, with the noise of the umbrella as the diagnostic arms try to force it down. All WALL-E can hear is something that resembles a mechanical screech, along with EVE reacting - he thinks that she's being electrocuted and is in pain.
11th Dec 2008
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: When this question was originally asked it was not clear enough, because the answer that was given is wrong and has nothing to do with the "emissary of Sauron's who's called "The Mouth of Sauron". Here is a more precise version of the question, so if anyone can please offer a response, it would be much appreciated. This question refers to the scene that Peter Jackson edited/chopped, when both Rohan and Gondor are at the Black Gate, and Aragorn is battling the Troll. Before the scene was edited, the Troll was originally the physical form of Sauron that Aragorn is fighting. How would this even be possible seeing that Sauron can only come into physical form once he has possession of the Ring? Likely the question answers itself, as that may be the reason why Jackson edited the scene and changed Sauron into a Troll, but am very interested in anyone else's thoughts about it.
Answer: Sauron's power is referred to as "growing" throughout the trilogy, so the initial rationale may have been that Sauron was ultimately able to gain enough power to reform his body, even though he still lacked the full power provided by the Ring. This would tie in to the books where, although Sauron never appears directly, there are a number of references that suggest that, in the book version of the tale, he possesses a physical form throughout. There's also the likelihood that it was originally felt that, dramatically speaking, a direct confrontation between the leaders of the two factions would be more satisfying to the casual viewer. Ultimately Jackson chose to revert to a story angle closer to that of the books, where Sauron remains a distant presence, plus, as you so rightly point out, it goes against statements made earlier in the film that Sauron requires the Ring to attain his power. As such, the fight against Sauron was reedited to pit Aragorn against a powerful troll instead.
6th Dec 2008
Wall-E (2008)
Question: Perhaps I missed it somewhere, but how is it that the Wall-E main character is the only functioning Wall-E unit left?
Answer: All the others have either malfunctioned or been damaged beyond repair in the 700 years since they were built - their mission was only intended to last five years, so they're a long way past their expected functional lifespan. WALL-E has simply lasted the longest and has kept himself going by replacing his own worn-out parts with those scavenged from other defunct WALL-E units.
5th Dec 2008
Iron Man (2008)
Question: Does anyone know if there will be a massive compilation of all the Marvel heroes, e.g. the Hulk, Iron man, Spider-Man, etc., and if so, who would most likely be the director?
Answer: The current plan at Marvel Studios is to do solo films for the various members of the Avengers superteam over the next couple of years. Iron Man and the Hulk were the first two, Thor is currently in pre-production under the directorship of Kenneth Branagh for a 2010 release and Ant-Man is reportedly to be directed by Edgar Wright, possibly for release in the same year. 2011 will see Captain America: The First Avenger being released under the guidance of Joe Johnston, which will be set during World War II and deal with how Steve Rogers became Captain America. Then a couple of months later a full Avengers film will be released, featuring all five characters teaming up to fight a greater threat. The cinematic rights to other filmed Marvel characters, like Spider-Man or the X-Men currently lie with other film studios, so they could not realistically be included unless the film rights reverted to Marvel.
3rd Dec 2008
Batman Begins (2005)
Question: Has it ever been brought up in the news or on some board that the Batmobile in Batman Begins looks a lot like the ship Harrison Ford drives in Blade Runner? I only asked because Christopher Nolan said, after he and his crew watched a private screening of Blade Runner, that that was how they were going to make Batman Begins.
Answer: No, for the simple reason that they don't really look that much alike. Nolan was thinking in terms of the general gritty aesthetic of Blade Runner more than anything else.
2nd Dec 2008
The Fugitive (1993)
Question: Again, was the Polish woman's son really a drug dealer? A little piece of me thinks that it could have been a ruse by the Chicago PD to get him in and let Kimble think he was safe for the moment. Or, did he tell the cops that Kimble was living in his mother's basement as leverage to get out of being arrested for drug dealing?
Answer: Why on earth would the Chicago PD leave Kimble to think he was safe if they knew his location? He's a convicted killer - they find him, they grab him, they throw him in prison, end of story. No requirement to lull him into a false sense of security. They busted the Polish woman's son for drug dealing - he turned Kimble in to try to buy some leniency.
29th Nov 2008
The Matrix (1999)
Question: How is it that the heroes are able to "broadcast their pirate signal and hack into the matrix", but the machines are unable to hack the "codes to Zion's mainframe computer"?
Answer: It's a range issue. It's specifically mentioned that, in order to tap into the Matrix, the ships have to rise to "broadcast depth". Zion's too far down for signals to reach it, so the machines can't hack their systems.
29th Nov 2008
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)
Question: I don't remember which episode this is but it's the one where at the end Iroh gets out a picture of his son and some incense and tells his deceased son happy birthday. Then at the end, where it's over in the top right-hand corner of the screen, it reads, "In Memory Of Mako" or something along those lines. Who's Mako? I thought his son was Lu Ten.
Answer: Mako Iwamatsu, often credited simply as "Mako" was the actor who voiced Iroh during the first two season of the show - he died of cancer in July 2006.
29th Nov 2008
V for Vendetta (2005)
Question: Was any explanation ever given for why V's signature flower was changed to the Scarlet Carson for the movie when in the graphic novel it's the Violet Carson (keeping in tone with his obsession with the letter V)? It doesn't seem to serve any plot significance so I'm rather puzzled why they felt a modification was necessary.
Answer: The Violet Carson is an uncommon rose, and the requirement to frequently require a rose in a state of perfect bloom meant that production crew were required to purchase hundreds of roses during the course of production. As such, they chose to go with a more common rose, the Grand Prix, which they renamed to the fictional Scarlet Carson to tie the name in to the original. There's also the point that the Violet Carson is named after a real person, a British actress who passed away in 1983. Her family might well not appreciate having her name prominently associated with a serial killer anti-hero in a major Hollywood movie.
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Answer: What, it's ridiculous to have somebody watching a prisoner, nice and close to make the point that he's being watched, to try to stop any escape attempt before it happened? It didn't work, sure, but that doesn't make doing so stupid. Maybe they should have spent time getting the Joker a strait-jacket, maybe they should have spent time going over the holding room with a fine toothcomb to make sure that there aren't any shards of glass big enough to be used as a weapon, maybe they should have done a lot of things differently, but they've got other priorities at that particular point, most notably getting to two of Gotham City's public officials before they get blown to hell. They felt that Stephens, an experienced officer, would be capable of handling the supposedly unarmed Joker. Being wrong doesn't make them ridiculous.
Tailkinker ★