James Bond Special: Part 1 - S6-E1
Question: The three magnets Adam brought are same diameter, three times as thick as the other ten magnets. Are they also stronger than the other ten magnets?
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.
Answer: Without going back to rewatch the episode to be certain, I believe the second batch were Rare Earth magnets, so yes.
Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike - S5-E2
Question: Why would it have been political suicide if it was discovered that Mayor Nicholson was secretly meeting with Cusack to end the garbage strike? If anything, if the people found out that they were meeting to find a way to end the garbage strike, wouldn't that have made everybody happy considering how much garbage was piling up all over the city?
Answer: The two men are trying to work out a secret deal between them without involving the union, which means the workers' interests aren't being represented and defeats the whole purpose of a union. The mayor would lose labor's support and Cusack's union troubles would just be starting.
Question: At the beginning, M and agents representing the USA, Soviet Union and France try to convince James Bond to come out of retirement. Bond steadfastly refuses; whereupon, M lights his cigar as a signal for British troops in the distance to destroy Bond's estate with mortar fire (M is accidentally killed in the mortar attack). But what was the purpose of destroying Bond's estate? Wouldn't that action only drive Bond further away from rejoining the spy corps? Why would the British government go to such lengths to punish Bond? And then why did Bond return to the secret service, anyway, after such treachery?
Answer: Given that this is a comedy, the thinking was probably "Well, we'll just blow up your retirement so you've got no choice but to come out of it."
NSF Thurmont - S6-E1
Question: How is it possible that the president contacted Farad to invite him to the summit at Camp David, if Farad was cut off from the outside world at his camp?
Answer: Even when leaders are "cut off from the outside world," there's typically some way to get hold of them. A secure line unknown to the general public, a couriered message, somebody just got in a car and drove there; there would still be ways.
Question: When C.J. gives the press conference announcing that after lunch the committees would meet to discuss the proposed topics, why do all the members leave in totally different clothes than just before? If it's supposed to be the same day, why would they change their clothes? The president also quickly changed his clothes to meet with the Palestinian president and the Israeli PM. Does anyone know why the costume change in that scene is still the same day? Or could it be a scene error?
Answer: There are a couple of press conferences in this episode, so I'm not sure which you're referring to. The final press conference is at Camp David, which is in the woods, so some of the reporters may have changed from wearing suits at the White House to more fitting clothes for outdoors at the summit. It wouldn't also necessarily be the same group of reporters. Some of the faces would stay the same, but reporters get switched out as they go post their stories and others come to replace them, so they rotate.
Question: The fifth season begins at the end of the first year of the second legislature, and the sixth begins at the end of the third year of the legislature. Has it really been two years in season five? Another thing that doesn't add up to this time jump is Doug's career in Congress. In episode 5x09 (end of the first year of term of the second legislature) Doug wants the support of the White House to run for Congress (following the chronology of the series, the next year would be the Congressional elections, and therefore that's where Doug is going to run because it's the most logical thing to do and it doesn't say anything to make us think otherwise) in the mid-term elections that are held the following year, but in season 6 and 7 we see Doug running for Congress along with the presidential elections. A script failure due to wanting to make a time jump from season five to season six? If someone would explain it to me, I would be very grateful.
Answer: Just because Doug wanted to run next year doesn't mean the election was the same year. It's not unheard of for a politician to spend months campaigning before an election.
Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?
Answer: Sometimes these things get left in because it's simply the best take. (The child covering his ears before the gunshot in "North by Northwest," for example.) It could also be that John Landis cast the extra because he wanted someone with goofy expressions in the crowd. He simply could have told the extras "Ok, be excited that you're at a parade," and that's how this extra did it.
Question: When Saul buys Jesse's house from his parents, he said that he showed their lawyer, Mr. Gardner, "all the pertinent financials", meaning $875,000 in cash available to buy the house. Jesse only had $450,000 and that money was not in any account. How did Saul show Mr. Gardner that he had $875,000 in cash?
Answer: Saul is a criminal himself. It's not past his capabilities to forge some documents to show the 857k is available.
Forged documents by Saul is most likely the correct answer.
Answer: In all likelihood, he sold some more meth.
Question: Why does everyone stop and stare at the plane?
Answer: It's a bit complicated and subject to interpretation. They all look as soon as they hear the engines starting. For each one it signifies something different. Ilsa knows she must part with Rick, the man she loves, and stay with her husband, Victor, to support him and help with his work. For Rick, he knows he is losing Ilsa, by his own choice because he has chosen to stay behind to aid the war resistance and may not survive. Victor knows his wife Ilsa really loves Rick and he will be out of their lives, but she is staying with him out of duty.
Answer: Because the plane taking off meant that the people on board were on their way to Lisbon, and from there, America. Everyone is envious.
Question: Why do the guards in the mental asylum wear cages over their heads?
Question: How did Mark manage to make the hab last longer? He said he was in a hab designed to last 31 days.
Answer: It was designed to last a month with six occupants, but with only one the supplies would last a lot longer. As far as the structure itself, the "design" lifetimes are always conservative, as evidenced by the Mars rovers still running around Mars, such as Opportunity was designed to last at least 90 days, but is still ticking after 5000 days.
I thought that after 31 days the hab would run out of air.
Air for 31 days would assume they were using only canned air, and NASA included no extra for safety (like if they couldn't leave on time). Assuming they were using canned air, then with only one occupant the remaining air would last 6 times as long, so would still go well past the 31 day mark, though they were almost certainly using systems to recycle the air by scrubbing the CO2 so the air would last a lot longer. This is the same way air is handled in current NASA spacecraft. An offset though is we have a flame which is using oxygen at a greater rate than a person would, and plants that are also helping remove CO2 to produce oxygen, though the net of this would almost certainly be to have a higher oxygen use rate.
It's explained in greater detail in the book. There was a plentiful supply of oxygen for him to survive a long time, even using up some of it to produce water for the soil. The real risk was a potential build up of carbon dioxide, which would prevent the diffusion of carbon dioxide out of his blood and into his lungs.
He had an oxygenator in the Hab. That meant there was not a finite amount of oxygen.
Question: Why does Han irritate Leia so much?
Answer: Star Wars being for the young and the young at heart, Han and Leia's relationship unfolds in a deliberately childish manner that kids can relate to and adults will find comedic. Leia is irritated at herself for her attraction to Han, and certainly unamused that Han teases her over it, while at the same time he is not brave enough to admit his own feelings, either.
Answer: Because Leia is trying to bring down an evil empire while Han keeps trying to charm her. Also she sees potential in him as a leader and fighter instead of just a mercenary smuggler.
Question: How come Andy didn't give his old toys to Molly?
Answer: More than likely she didn't want them. Besides Barbie the toys never really speak of Molly at all, so it's likely she rarely ever played with them, if at all.
Answer: Then why does Andy have Mrs. Potatohead? From what I remember Molly got Mrs. Potatohead for Christmas at the end of the first movie so shouldn't she belong to Molly?
It is suggested Molly hardly played with Mrs. Potato Head and she was kept alongside Mr. Potato Head in Andy's room since then. The rest of Andy's toys are mostly "boy" toys, so Molly may well not be interested in them anyway.
Either Andy borrowed or even kept it in case Molly didn't need it or want it.
Question: The SAM missiles continuously chases the fighter jet for a few minutes. In reality, don't SAM missiles only contain enough fuel to fly for about 5 to 10 seconds?
Answer: Surface-to-air missiles come in 3 ranges (long range, medium, and short). Long range missile have a range of 100-150 km (there are some very long ranged missiles that can go up to 400 km). Short range missiles go about 3 km. SAM's are faster than Air-to-Air missiles and can travel around Mach 3 and up to Mach 8, with some that can go faster (so about 1 - 2.7 km/s) I don't know what kind of SAM was used, but long range SAM's are fired from a fixed or semi-movable position and medium ranged SAM's can be fired from vehicle mounted systems.
A behind enemy lines goof from IMDb, says that no missile is capable of chasing the F/A-18 as it is portrayed in the movie. A missiles rocket motor only holds enough fuel for one pass at a target. I don't know if you agree with it or not.
I would disagree with the statement that it wouldn't have enough fuel. However, even after a missile runs out of fuel it can still glide to its target at supersonic speeds for a time. I do think the portrayal of the chase scene is overly dramatic in Hollywood fashion though, particularly for the first SAM fired.
According to the trivia of the film the missile used was a 9m37m missile.
In that case the scene is completely Hollywood and unrealistic. The 9m37m is a short range missile, even though it's vehicle mounted, and has a max range of 5 km and doesn't even reach Mach 2. When the 2nd missile is fired we hear one of the pilots say "3 miles and closing", meaning the SAM shouldn't have been able to catch up to them or chase them down. The film makers probably wanted something cool looking without considering (or caring) what they had or may not have access to a midrange SAM system and pretended it was one.
But don't long range missiles lack the ability to turn fast enough to follow and chase a jet due to the weight of the amount of fuel they carry?
Question: Why couldn't Calder and his people do the shoveling themselves? Were they lazy?
Answer: Technically Calder's people were doing the digging themselves. The planet basically had a caste system and the working class citizens had to do the digging as slaves while the upper class citizen got to live on the surface. All the workers underground were citizens of the planet except for SG-1. However, Calder was also trying to preserve this caste system because he wanted to stay in power and the upper class enjoyed their lifestyle. I don't see it so much as being lazy but more like, why do something yourself when you can get someone else to do it.
Then what would you call being lazy?
Laying around, not doing anything when you could be, or are suppose to be, doing something. In this episode, the upper class people still had jobs, they just didn't do the dangerous, dirty, and labor intensive jobs.
New Ground - S3-E19
Question: Why does the guy who was interrogating SG 1 think they know how the dead man they found was killed? Why does he think they're lying? Why doesn't SG 1 tell their interrogator that they weren't there when the man was killed?
Answer: He knows that SG-1 didn't kill the man because they were in custody when he died. He suspected that there was a fourth member (Teal'c) and was trying to get them to admit it.
Answer: The planet had two groups of people that were basically at war with each other. The guy interrogating SG-1 was part of the Bedrosian military and thought SG-1 was working with, or part of, the Optricans (their enemy). He simply doesn't trust his enemy and thinks they're responsible, and he certainly isn't going to listen to reason. Plus, he's trying to preserve his religious beliefs and doesn't want to think his people came through the Stargate.
Question: Does Liam Neeson (Dr. Martin Harris) ever pick up a gun? And if so, when? I've seen him with a gun on posters and the DVD case, but I don't think I've seen him with a gun in the film.
Answer: I haven't seen him with a gun.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: They were all rare earth magnets, but yes, the bigger ones were stronger. With that addition, strong enough to deflect steel bullets.
Friso94