Question: I've heard people say that Wasp appears, is this true?
Tailkinker
28th May 2012
Thor (2011)
28th May 2012
The Avengers (2012)
Question: We all know that movie guns tend to have outrageous amounts of ammunition, but what about movie quivers? In the big battle Hawkeye is knocking out arrow-ey death all over the place, and most of the time his quiver seems to be full. Up until it's totally empty of course. So just how many arrows does that thing carry, and how many arrows did he shoot in the movie?
Answer: The arrows in Hawkeye's quiver are very tightly packed - promotional shots of scenes immediately prior to the final battle seem to suggest that he has several dozen arrows in there. The number does visibly decrease as the battle progresses, although the initial tight packing makes it less easy to tell. A number of the shots he takes are also at close range, allowing him to potentially retrieve the arrows for re-use - it's only once he's atop the building, mostly sniping at long range, that he finally runs out. As for precisely how many arrows he fires in the course of the movie, watch it and count 'em.
6th Apr 2012
Star Wars (1977)
Question: When Luke has an argument with Owen and Beru and storms out, Beru says to Owen "He's too much like his father", to which Owen says "I know. That's what I'm afraid of". But if Luke is like Anakin (as Owen and Beru fear), then what caused Luke to not go to the dark side like his father did, if Luke had all this frustration of wanting more control in this movie like his father did when he was younger?
Answer: Luke, despite his typically youthful frustrations, has been raised in a loving family environment. Compared to his father, who was separated from his mother at an early age, leaving her in slavery, raised by the strict Jedi Order, ended up in a secret marriage that he was unable to acknowledge and had a Sith Lord working on manipulating him from the age of ten onwards, Luke's frustrations are nothing.
18th Mar 2012
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Question: Is it ever explained how Beckett knew of Jack's compass? We know Jack had it in the first film when he used it to find Isla De Muerta and we learn a little later in this film that Jack got it from Tia Dalma. Could it be possible that Jack already had it when Beckett branded him as a pirate?
Answer: No, it isn't, although, as you so rightly say, Jack and Beckett appear to have a considerable history between them. Beckett presumably learned about the compass during those encounters.
18th Mar 2012
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: Why is Percy put into a mental hospital at the end?
Chosen answer: Coffey put the sickness that he absorbed from Hal's wife into Percy, causing him to snap mentally, shoot Wild Bill and then collapse into what amounts to a catatonic state. He was placed in a mental hospital for long-term treatment to try to cure his condition.
18th Mar 2012
A Christmas Carol (2009)
Question: Can someone please explains this? When Marley visits Scrooge, it's Christmas Eve. Marley tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by three ghosts. The first ghost would appear tomorrow when the bell tolls one. Meaning that the first ghost would appear on Christmas day. The second would appear the next night at the same hour. December 26th. And the final spirit would appear the following night at twelve o'clock. December 27th. When Scrooge is talking to the boy outside his window after the visitations, the boy tells him it's Christmas Day.
Answer: It's basically the magic of Christmas. While, to Scrooge, three full days have passed, in reality his whole experience took place in a single night, allowing the reformed Scrooge to enjoy Christmas Day.
18th Mar 2012
Terra Nova (2011)
Question: Is there any reason they have to go to that particular time to start their colony? Why not say 64 million years ago? Since it's after the dinosaurs, but before the evolution of sabertooths and mammoths? It'd be a lot safer.
Chosen answer: Because that's where the rift led. They don't have a time-travel machine, capable of taking them wherever they please - all they have is a hole in time leading to one single time period.
18th Mar 2012
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Question: Even though I have seen the movie five times, I still don't understand Holmes when he is explaining how Lord Blackwood survived the hanging, without any pulse. Could someone explain it to me?
Chosen answer: Blackwood took a chemical toxin that slowed the body's functions down to a very low level, far enough that he would appear dead even to the trained examiner. Watson pronounced him dead, then his body was placed within the prepared tomb. At some point after that he returned to normal function as the toxin wore off.
Answer: He survived the hanging because there was a fish hook near where the knot of the rope was that Blackwood was hung by.
18th Mar 2012
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)
Question: Why did Zeus go to the empty baseball stadium? This scene didn't really move the plot along, have I missed something?
Chosen answer: He was directed there as part of Simon's plan. The original idea was that both Zeus and McClane were supposed to show up there, where Simon's men would take them out. As McClane disobeyed orders, leaving just Zeus to go there, Simon told his men not to shoot, as eliminating Zeus alone would simply tip McClane off that something wasn't right.
Plus also without that scene we wouldn't have the car chase and McClane discovering the quarters.
18th Mar 2012
Doctor Who (1963)
Question: Has the Doctor's real Gallifrey name ever been mentioned? And why does he call himself the Doctor?
Answer: No, his real name has never been stated, although one previous nickname from his early years ("Thete", short for "Theta Sigma") was mentioned by Drax, another Time Lord. Nor has his reason for adopting the pseudonym of The Doctor ever been fully explained. The name appears to be a personal choice rather than something given him by others - the Master tells him at one point that it was sanctimonious of him to choose a name that identifies him as "the man who makes people better". Several incarnations have claimed to have studied a number of different disciplines (including medicine) at various points in his existence, making it also possible that he could genuinely hold at least one academic doctorate, which could be a potential factor in his choice.
18th Mar 2012
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
Question: In "Underworld Evolution" Tanis said (to Selene and Michael) that Viktor killed Selen's family in winter when Lucian escaped with the key from the castle. However, in this movie Viktor at the end goes into the hibernation chamber. How is this possible?
Chosen answer: Victor's badly injured and needs to recover - his hibernation chamber is an obvious secure location for him to rest while he heals. He could easily emerge a short while later, once his recovery was complete, and go after Selene's family.
18th Mar 2012
Inception (2010)
Question: In the beginning of the movie, we see Cobb and Arthur get mad at their first architect for not knowing about the wool rug in Saito's "love nest." But further on when Ariadne joins up and they are hiding from the commandos from Fischer's subconscious, no one blames her for not knowing about them beforehand. Since the architect is supposed to know everything about the level she/he built, so why do they blame Nash?
Answer: The architect builds the levels, they don't populate them. Nash screwed up in a physical detail of the dream, the composition of the rug, which is the role of the architect, so he gets into trouble. Ariadne only designed the dream's architecture, the inhabitants of that dream are all formed from Fischer's subconscious and thus are not something she has any control over. Arthur was the one who was detailed to research Fischer's background, and thus should have picked up that he had been trained in the anti-intrusion tactics that manifest as the armed security force. He somehow missed it, so they get annoyed at him for putting them all in danger.
18th Mar 2012
Titanic (1997)
Question: How far could the rudder panel on the Titanic actually turn? Could it turn 90 degrees, or 45, or something in the middle? I'm wondering, because this could have made a difference.
Chosen answer: The Titanic's rudder was capable of turning to about sixty degrees off the centreline, reaching that position in about six seconds from straight.
18th Mar 2012
Star Trek (2009)
Question: Why was Spock's ship carrying so much red matter? We see that a tiny drop is enough to destroy a planet, and Spock uses a similarly tiny drop to destroy the exploding star, so why would the ship carry what appears to be hundreds of thousands of that quantity?
Chosen answer: Spock's trying to stop a supernova, which is a hellishly big deal. Much better to take too much and end up not needing it, than take too little and end up failing.
18th Mar 2012
Avatar (2009)
Question: I've got two questions 1)What Neytiri meant when she said that she mated with Jake before Eywa? 2) How did Tsu'tey know that Jake and Neytiri have mated?
Chosen answer: (1) Neytiri means that she has bonded with Jake in the eyes of their deity, that, by Na'vi tradition, they are effectively married. (2) Jake and Neytiri show up holding hands, and it's clear that Tsu'tey, who was already suspicious that they had an affection for each other, spots it. He's not stupid, he can work it out for himself.
18th Mar 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Question: Why would Meinhard need to have been shot if the bomb would have taken everyone in the room out? The only reason I can think of is that Moriarty has considered the possibility of Meinhard surviving and has thus ordered Moran to shoot Meinhard to give him no chance of surviving whatsoever. Can anyone kindly confirm this or give a better explanation?
Answer: That sounds entirely right. Bombs are potentially unreliable; it's possible, albeit unlikely, that Meinhard could have survived the blast, so by getting Moran to shoot him dead first, then covering up the true cause of death (and thus who the real target was) using the bomb, it ensures that the job gets done.
18th Mar 2012
Casino Royale (2006)
Question: I would like to know why, when they check in the hotel, Vesper is angry when Bond tells her to sign the reservation, because she represents the treasury?
Chosen answer: It's because he's blatantly blowing their cover. They're supposed to be masquerading as a professional gambler and his lover, so when Bond goes up to the counter, gives his real name rather than his cover name and states directly who and what she is, it understandably annoys her.
18th Nov 2011
V for Vendetta (2005)
Question: In Gordon's ''secret room'', why is there a Union Jack-flag with a swastika in the middle? Does Gordon sympathise with Nazis or was there something behind it? It seemed a little odd to me, since a Neo-Nazi wouldn't enjoy reading the Quran and, more importantly, be gay.
Answer: The item in question is intended to be a protest poster - it's an artistic piece protesting the similarity between the totalitarian government taking power in the UK and Nazi Germany, a comparison that Gordon likely feels is not unjustified. A poster of that nature would likely be banned immediately; as such, Gordon has every reason to want to keep one as a symbol, but obviously keep it well concealed.
2nd Oct 2011
Thor (2011)
Question: Since Loki is the son of Laufey the Frost Giant, why doesn't he look like one?
Answer: When initially found by Odin, he does. Something then acts on him that causes him to mimic Odin's more human appearance, which he then keeps until his exposure to the frost giants during the events of the film, which tips him off to his true nature. Whether this was caused by some magic inherent in Loki even as a baby or whether Odin did something to disguise the child's true origin is unrevealed.
23rd Sep 2011
Red Dragon (2002)
Question: When Graham is talking to his wife about joining Crawford on the investigation, she says something about "we're all paid up, even Josh." What does she mean by this?
Answer: What she means is that Graham (and, by extension, his family) has served his country enough, including suffering serious injury and mental trauma in the course of his duties. She feels that, whatever moral debt they might owe their country, they've paid it in full, Graham directly through his actions, and she and Josh through the negative effects his work and its consequences have had on them.
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Chosen answer: No.
Tailkinker ★