Question: Did the real Titanic have a passenger named J. Dawson on board?
Tailkinker
21st Apr 2004
Titanic (1997)
20th Apr 2004
Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)
Question: Does Jamie leave her at the end, after seeing her kissing outside, or will he always be there with her without her knowing it?
Chosen answer: I've always assumed that Jamie does indeed leave, going on to wherever he's going on to. My read of the story is that Jamie has come back to help her move on with her life (whether he knows that himself is unclear). As she has begun to move on, he himself can now go to whatever awaits him.
19th Apr 2004
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Question: If Shinzon is Picard's clone, wouldn't it have been easier to have Patrick Stewart play both parts? Tom Hardy doesn't even look like Stewart.
Answer: Shinzon was always intended to be much younger than Picard - the whole point is that he's a Romulan project that was ultimately abandoned - he hasn't gone through the accelerated aging process. Patrick Stewart could not have convincingly played a version of his character who was that young. And Tom Hardy does bear a distinct resemblance to a young Patrick Stewart if you look properly.
19th Apr 2004
X-Men 2 (2003)
Question: When Jean 'hears everything' at the museum, she hears a man yell "to the shelter" this suggests that she can hear all the way to Washington D.C. with her incoming increase of powers. My question is can the Phoenix hear the future? If you watch with the subtitles, you see as she's looking around, it says WOMAN- THEY'RE GONNA KILL HIM the voice is of Rogue in the scene where she bobby and john are in the tunnels after Logan closes the passage way.
Answer: The Phoenix Force is a primal force of the universe and Jean is tapping into it. As such, she's heading for a point where she really doesn't have any limitations - in the comics, Phoenix destroyed an entire star system. A degree of precognition doesn't seem remotely out of the question.
19th Apr 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: Does anybody know how old Shelob is, is she older than Sauron?
Answer: Shelob's date of birth is not recorded, but is believed to be sometime in the First Age, which would make her at most seven thousand years old. Sauron is much older, having been around since the creation of the world.
18th Apr 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: The scene in the movie with everything about Saruman is not true to the book, and even though there will be more scenes in the extended version, all this is not correct. Saruman's palantir and staff are actually taken by Gandalf, and Saruman is let out by Treebeard. Saruman later dies in the Shire, after the fellowship sees him on their way back home. Why is all this info being changed, couldn't they have put all this in the extended version? If all this was not filmed for the movie, why wasn't it?
Answer: The entire Scouring of the Shire sequence was never filmed. This was a deliberate choice by the film-makers to prevent the ending of the film from becoming overlong - the climax to the tale is, really, the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron. The theatrical release of the film goes on for at least half an hour after that - to include all the necessary scenes would lengthen the ending of the film to probably around the hour and a half mark - the Scouring is a complex sequence - which is untenable in cinematic terms, even for an extended version. As such, in their version, Saruman dies at Isengard (apparently still at Wormtongue's hands) - this will be seen in the extended cut.
18th Apr 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: When Gandalf is talking Pippin to Minas Tirith, he says it is 'three day's ride, as the Nazgul flies', but how did he know that the Nazgul are now flying using the Fell Beasts to find the ring?
Answer: After Gandalf's resurrection, or whatever the right term is, according to the books, he was rescued from the mountain peak where he fought the Balrog by Gwaihir, the Eagle who helped him escape Isengard (and who subsequently shows up at the battle at Black Gate). Gwaihir is Lord of the Air and is going to be pretty well informed about anything that occurs in his realm. It seems extremely unlikely that he wouldn't know about the Fell Beasts, and, as it's a pretty significant piece of tactical knowledge, he would undoubtedly have informed Gandalf of this new development.
18th Apr 2004
The Matrix (1999)
Question: How exactly do you cut the hard line? In the scene at the hotel where the walls turn to brick, a shot is shown of someone literally cutting a cable with a big pair of pliers, but how would that affect the Matrix?
Answer: The entry and exit points from the Matrix are always functional landline phones - we don't know precisely why, as the full details of how this works are never explained (the book "Taking the red pill" has some theories). As the Matrix largely follows the same rules as our reality, cutting the line to the phone will prevent that phone from functioning, and thus it cannot be used as an entry point.
15th Apr 2004
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Question: Obi-wan ordered the people on the ship to "send no reply" when the cries for help were being received from Naboo ("It sounds like bait, to establish a connection trace," he explained). That being the case, how did Darth Maul know they were on Tattoine? Darth Sidious even asked him, "Are you sure your trace is correct?" or something like that.
Chosen answer: As a Sith, Maul has methods of tracking that would not be available to non-Force users. When Obi-wan ordered them not to reply, they're not aware of any possible Sith involvement - his precautions would be secure against technological means of determining location, but not against a Sith Lord.
Answer: It is stated in the novel that they did send a brief response. I see no reason why they could not have defied Obi-Wan's advice and done the same off screen in the movie.
14th Apr 2004
X-Men 2 (2003)
Question: What's the extent of 'Blink's' powers? I know he/she(comic) never sleeps so he doesn't get knocked out by the 'tranquilizer' but what else can he do?
Answer: There's nothing to link the character seen in the film to Blink the comic character - the fact that he's seen using his powers by blinking is tenuous to say the least, particularly as the comic Blink doesn't do that. Blink the comic character has the ability to open teleport gates, and seems to able to use those gates to physically disrupt solid objects. She has lilac coloured skin and does sleep. The character seen in the film bears no resemblance to any X-man seen in the comics - he appears to be entirely an invention of the film makers.
14th Apr 2004
The Abyss (1989)
Question: The last 2 times I've watched the ending, the undersea life forms send out a massive tsunami to all continents to wipe us out, only to rescind it right when it is about to strike land. I never remember this being in the original version of the movie, although I was much younger then. Was this ending changed after it was released, or was it always there? And if it was changed, why did they go with the original ending, because this new one is much better?
Answer: The Tsunami only exists in the director's cut of the film. Due to the length of the film, James Cameron was asked to cut down the length. The ending has, effectively, two seperate strands, the tsunami strand and the 'human' strand of the core relationship between Bud and Lindsey. As losing the relationship strand would have left things hanging, the choice was made to remove the tsunami side of things. The director's cut allowed Cameron to restore his original vision, which, as you said, is a distinct improvement.
10th Apr 2004
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Question: What is the name of the Monet painting that Thomas Crown loaned to the museum?
Answer: It's not actually a Monet. The painting is called "The Artist's Garden at Eragny", painted in 1898 by the French painter Camille Pissarro.
5th Apr 2004
Star Wars (1977)
Question: Is Han Solo brain-dead, or does he have the biggest cojones in the galaxy? From what we see of Greedo trying to kill him, there really isn't much explanation for why he is found screwing around in a bar on the home planet of the mobster who has it in for him. He couldn't have possibly known that the special edition scene with Jabba could go so well in his favor. I can't think of an explanation.
Answer: Han is still under the impression that he can pay Jabba off, and, as his meeting with Jabba implies, the Hutt is still willing to cut him a little slack, so he's not actually wrong. As such, he needs work - the cantina is one of the best places to find opportunities to get money - as, indeed, he does, by meeting Obi-wan and Luke.
5th Apr 2004
Eastenders (1985)
Question: Is outdoor Albert Square a set or a real life location? If its a set, how do they get the trains to run by so realistically and how do they get so many extras? If it's real, where is it?
Answer: Albert Square is a set in the BBC studios in Borehamwood, on the north side of London. The trains, to the best of my knowledge, are simply a bit of the old TV magic. As far as the extras go - it's not difficult to get extras in reasonable numbers through agencies.
5th Apr 2004
Blackadder (1986)
Question: When Blackadder is taunting Dr. Johnson with his knowledge of the English language, are any of the words he says legitimate words? If so what are their definitions?
Answer: None of them are actually real words, although, in most cases, they're close enough to genuine words that some sort of plausible meaning can be determined. Good examples would be "interludicle", which is obviously a variant on "interlude", "velocitous", a play on "velocity" expressing Edmund's desire that Dr Johnson leave as soon as possible or "anaspeptic" which could be drawn from the prefix "ana", meaning "up" and "peptic", which refers to the stomach - possibly some sort of vomit reference.
5th Apr 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: What happened to Frodo's Mithril vest? After the orcs remove it at the borders of Mordor we never see it again. Surely Frodo would not leave something behind that is 'worth more than all the Shire', as Gandalf said in Fellowship.
Answer: In the Extended cut, we see what happens to it. It is taken by the orcs and paraded in front of Aragorn's forces at the Black Gate by a character known as the Mouth of Sauron (effectively a spokesperson), taunting them that Frodo has failed in his mission. It was retrieved after the battle and returned to Frodo after his rescue from Mordor.
Answer: The first time that it's clear that Will knows the details is on the Black Pearl after the destruction of the Interceptor, when he threatens to shoot himself. There are two possibilities - either Jack told him en route to the island, or Elizabeth told him after her rescue. Bearing in mind that Jack was hoping to use him as leverage, it seems unlikely that Jack would have told Will the full details of the curse, in case Will did something stupid and mucked up the deal, so the most likely possibility seems to be that Elizabeth told him about it.
Answer: Will may not have known the exact details of the curse, but, he did see them when they were preparing to have Elizabeth return the coin, as they talk about being freed from the curse, saying they needed her blood, and dropping the coin. Once he realised she had the coin, and that the coin was sent from his father, he was able to at least deduce that they needed his blood for something. It is, however, possible that Elizabeth informed him, although I find this unlikely.
5th Apr 2004
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Question: Why is Arwen fighting in the battle of Helms Deep? Even if it is a mistake presumably there was some reason for her to be there, like a story line that didn't get included in the movie. Does anyone know if this is true?
Answer: Efforts have been made during the trilogy to beef up Arwen's role in events - using her to bring Frodo to Rivendell in the first film being one of them (replacing Glorfindel in the book). Having her at Helm's Deep was another way of doing that, and Liv Tyler was present at the filming of Helm's Deep. Ultimately, the decision was made to cut her out of that sequence, and the battle was edited to exclude her, with the exception of one brief shot listed as a mistake.
5th Apr 2004
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Question: What's the film the 2 guys are watching on the flat screen when the Merovingian's wife takes Neo to the Keymaker?
Answer: The Brides of Dracula, made in 1960.
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Answer: Not a passenger, no. There was, however, a 23-year-old Irish crewmember named Joseph Dawson who died in the tragedy. His body was recovered and is buried in Nova Scotia. According to James Cameron, he was not aware of this until after the script was finished.
Tailkinker ★