Question: I don't recognise the instant messaging tool used during the office scenes. Is it an actual software product typical of that decade or was it created for the film?
Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.
Question: What exactly does Tom Bishop do in the prison in Suzhou, China in the first act of Spy Game? I mean, what are each of his and his partner's steps? So what was their plan step by step? Why is the chewing gum important?
Answer: Bishop's plan to rescue Hadley was to enter the prison posing as doctors inoculating the prisoners and guards for a cholera outbreak, faking his death by electrocution (taking a capsule to stop his heart), which also disabled the cameras, then being revived by an injection. The wrapper of the chewing gum was a map of the cells. Once he located and freed Hadley, she was placed under the gurney where his "dead" body was supposed to be, which would leave in the ambulance they arrived in. Unfortunately, the gum he gave the prisoner tipped off the warden and they were captured.
Question: Is there a reason Dracula was able to walk in daylight, or did the filmmakers just ignore the whole "vampires can't walk in daylight" bit?
Answer: To add to the other answers, the "sunlight kills vampires" lore started with the 1922 German silent film, Nosferatu. The screenwriter wanted to add an unexpected twist to the story that differed from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. It became the accepted vampire mythology in most films and books for many years afterwards.
Question: The examiner says he can't tell which blow hit the victim first. Columbo says he's lying on his back and says the blow to the forehead was first. Why did he think that? If the first blow hit him on the forehead and he fell on his back, how did he get the second blow on the back of his head while he was lying that way?
Question: After Cyclops gives Gambit his assignment in Genosha, why does Gambit say "formidable" of all things?
Chosen answer: "Formidable" is a French oath or comment that is usually used to express awe. It's a bit out of context here where the intent seems to be a sarcastic "wow." At a guess, the writers were trying to find a G-rated French equivalent of a swear word.
Question: At one point, Blue Raja mistakenly says that Bowler's father's name was Sal, which she immediately corrects as being Carmine. I never caught this till now after watching a recent animated Batman movie, but two of the big mob bosses that are rivals in Batman are Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone. Considering the influences of this movie, is this intended to be a reference to the two Batman mob bosses?
Answer: Possibly, but it's more likely these are just stereotypical Italian names that the writers chose.
Question: When the guys are trying to recap the night, they are having breakfast by the Caesars' pool. I've stayed at Caesars twice and never saw this as an option. Was this filmed somewhere else or staged for the movie?
Answer: Venus Pool + Lounge / Secluded, refined pool at Caesars Palace offering light food and drinks beset by Roman-style columns. They would have most likely ordered here, sitting somewhere close by.
Answer: This was staged for the movie.
Question: Am I crazy? I remember a missing scene on the train where Danny explains that he hoped they were going to Vermont, so he bought the long underwear. It isn't there in any of the DVD versions I've seen, so Bing says, "Vermont must be beautiful, all that underwear," and it sounds weird. But I have never been able to find that scene! Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Answer: There isn't a scene where he says that, but I believe Bing says "all that underwear" because it is abnormally warm in Vermont and not the snowy wonderland they thought it was going to be.
Question: During the crew's joyride in a stolen Cadillac, Preacher isn't paying attention while driving, so he accidentally bumps into the rear of another car. Everyone falls out of the car, yelling "whiplash, whiplash". The crew runs. Fast forward, detectives appear at Cooley High to question the crew. How did they know to arrive at Cooley High to question the crew? They didn't leave a trail. Did they drop their school IDs or something?
Answer: Maybe the people in the car saw Cochise's letterman jacket and recognized the school.
Middle Man - S6-E7
Question: What was the costume guest star Melissa Claire Egan wearing?
Answer: Her character was an exotic dancer and wore a sexy costume for that. Is that what you're referring to?
But what exactly was the costume she wore?
In this role, the outfit she's wearing includes: a padlock golden necklace; a lace bra with a modern style bustier that has front decorative buckles; booty shorts (or something like it); a pair of long fishnet fingerless gloves on her arms; ripped hosiery and knee-high boots. Not quite the "Chelsea" wardrobe ;) lol.
Question: How did Art the Clown, who is after the costume designer, show up on the roadside with the sign "Circus" when he is a mile away from the gas station? Did he run really that fast?
Answer: Human beings are known for being able to cover ground. In this case, a mile. With relative ease and in no time at all. Plus, Art wasn't human, so maybe it was some form of demon transport.
Question: When the group finds the abandoned cars, it appears they all have blood either on them or inside them, indicating the occupiers were attacked in or near the cars. Why did they wait so long before attacking the survivors this time when it seems evident they attacked the other people straight away, given all the blood on the cars?
Answer: My understanding is that they would have attacked Jessie the Vampire Slayer and her friends immediately after they'd been ensnared in the barbed wire if it hadn't been for the appearance of Chris the job interviewee. The mutants/hillbillies had not planned on Chris. Just the others. So they had to change their plans accordingly. Once the chick from Cry Wolf and her boyfriend were alone, they attacked.
Question: What is Frank saying during the arms transaction and what is the language? The last part of what he says sounds phonetically similar to "dinga hoash."
Answer: Heavy Spoilers break down of this film that Frank in this scene is in disguise as Otto Krieg. And supposedly is able to speak German, Russian, and Arabic. So doing some research and getting Chat GPT to help find the answer, there isn't anything from Russian or Arabic that sounds like "dinga hoash." However in German it is very close to "Dinge hast," which would roughly translate to "you have things." So it would seem basically he was saying "Do you got the stuff?" from what I can gather.
So I finally pulled up the clip on YouTube and turned the subtitles on. It says in this part that they are speaking Russian. This seems to make sense, as the crime boss's name is Yuri Astrov, and his accent sounds Russian. Unfortunately, the translator app on my phone can't pick up what they are saying, so I think I will have to look up a sub-Reddit for people who speak Russian and ask for their assistance.
Question: Why do Nic Cage and Peter Stormare have metal chains for their dog tags while others all seem to be leather?
Answer: Marines (and other service members) wore their dog tags on the issued chains, or cords, string or other materials. This might have been for personal preference, available materials at issue, or replacement for breakages. So the costume designers probably copied this.
Question: How, in the year 2000, did this film manage to secure a PG rating? The graphic violence of the final death shown during the vortex scene near the beginning was verging on R-rated.
Answer: There was no actual blood or graphic display.
No graphic display? A man is shown on camera being violently torn to several pieces by high G-forces, and there was indeed blood visible. There's also a scene later in the movie where shrapnel completely pierces the palm of a man's hand, complete with a zero-gravity blood spurt.
I remember watching it for the first time thinking it was a pretty graphic death scene for a PG rated film, but I think it's a stretch to say it was verging on R rated. There isn't that much blood, the guy is in a space suit, and it happens very fast. Studios can lobby the MPAA for what rating they feel the film deserves, and it is likely Disney argued for a lower rating than PG-13, and the MPAA agreed.
Well, by "verging on R-rated," I meant that even in a PG-13 film, that scene would have been pushing the envelope. I would imagine there were a lot of parents at the time who took their young children to see the new Disney film about going to Mars and were not pleased with that scene.
A PG rating does not mean family friendly. A "Parental Guidance" rating warns there may be strong language, sexual content, violence, or graphic images. No one should expect a G-rated Disney film. I watched the "twister" clip on YouTube and wouldn't say it's gruesome. It's not a close-up shot of the rapidly spinning body being pulled apart; it's rather blurred, and there wasn't much blood. I realise it's a matter of opinion regarding what is considered too violent.
Yes, but you're also an adult, and you watched the clip having an idea of what you were about to see. If you read the comments on that clip, you'll see a lot of people saying that scene traumatized them as children. Violence like that from earlier PG films is why the PG-13 rating was later invented, and it just struck me as odd that that was able to get a PG rating in the year 2000.
My point is that parents were (or should have been) aware of the PG rating before taking their children to see it and that it might be unsuitable for younger audiences. It falls upon them to make sure they do not take their children to a film that could contain disturbing scenes. By 2000, movie violence had become far more graphic and mainstream.
Question: Why is Jimeno so out of breath and tired-looking when near the cart at the beginning?
Answer: That cart was very, very heavy.
Question: After the cosmic storm hits the space station and affects the 5 people on board, the next scene is Ben suddenly waking up in a hospital. Ben, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Victor are the only 5 people on the station, and they would all have been affected by the storm. Unless it's supposed to be that only Ben was knocked out. How exactly did the team get rescued and brought back to Earth? Were they all knocked out or just Ben?
Answer: When we see the rest of the team getting hit by the cosmic storm, you can see they are still awake; Sue even is shown pushing through the storm to get to Reed and Johnny. Plus, Victor was behind the shields and trying to protect himself from the sparks and rays, so we can assume he flew the ship back to Earth.
Interesting. I'm mostly asking because in the video game adaptation of this movie, for which I'm doing mistakes, after the opening mission, every one of these characters wakes up for the first time after the space station in the hospital, in bed with powers. I know the game has to play fast and loose with things, but in that version of events, it's implied that all of them were knocked out and then woke up down on Earth in the hospital. So it could be a plot hole for the game version.
Sounds like it, or at least the game designers took some liberties with it. But that does happen with games based on movies; the Spider-Man game for the 2002 movie was nothing like the film.
Can't the ship simply have an auto-return in case of emergencies? I mean, it's not your everyday space shuttle. In a lot of cases, it's controlled by AI too and, usually, Reed Richards built it.
Good point, but this is based on the 2005 film, and AI wasn't anything like it is today. Also, it was Victor Von Doom's shuttle, not Reed Richards. Von Doom was all about money, so his tech may have had shortcuts.
Well, the whole tech in the movie isn't anything like it is today. Surely Von Doom, though not Richards but also a genius, would have some AI running his ship.
Maybe so, but they were not on the shuttle. They were on the space station, so if the storm knocked them out, they still wouldn't have made it to the shuttle.
Only Ben was knocked unconscious because he was directly hit by the storm; everyone else had some level of protection from the station's shields. Sue was, in fact, alert, as we saw her eyes open when she was going to help Reed and Johnny after she was hit by the rays.
Answer: Johnny was not only awake but also the pilot; he flew the shuttle back and forth. Ben was co-pilot and did the heavy lifting only.
Question: Who are the two kids, dancers during the final dance scene dancing next to Baby and Johnny? I've always wondered.
Answer: Most software products in movies or TV shows are created because then they do not have to pay the maker of whatever software they are using.
bucade