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: I've heard this movie contains subliminal images and messages. Is this true and if it is, what are they?

Answer: It is true. The director spliced in a few frames of later scenes in the film throughout the film to "help" the viewer figure out the ending. These frames went by so quickly, the viewers couldn't really see them, but the director thought that maybe the subconscious mind would pick up on these clues.

Scary Godparents - S2-E13

Question: During the bit were its raining sweets at the end, is that the music from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory?

Answer: It's not the exact music but it is similar enough to be recognisable as the song 'Pure Imagination', sung by Gene Wilder in the original Willy Wonka movie.

Answer: He left the show to write for Everybody Loves Raymond, but is currently writing the Simpsons Movie.

Question: In the scene where Nemo gets initiated, Jacques the shrimp wakes him up, says "suivez-moi", swims off and then clarifies - "follow me". In the French version, however, Jacques first says something similar to "suivez-moi", then when he comes back he says something almost completely different. What is the English translation for the second thing he says?

Answer: In the French version, he says "suivez-moi" twice, but it's 2 different voices, and the French dub has a strong French accent, so it sounds different.

Show generally

Question: During the opening title sequence, one of the future shots, there is a shot of a starship flying over the camera. The engines (3 large, with 2 sets of 2 small ones in between, glowing blue) and the ship's movement look very similar to the star destroyer from Star Wars New Hope's opening shot. The theme for the Enterprise's opening is pioneering and exploration, and Star Wars was a revolution in special effects (and ILM has done some shots for Star Trek). Is this a tribute or just coincidence?

Answer: It is likely just coincidence. The ship in question is designed to show the state of space travel about halfway between the flight of the Phoenix and the launch of Enterprise. It is flying over the moon, to highlight the fact that in the early 22nd century, mankind was just mastering the colonization of our own solar system.

Question: How much of the sword fighting/horse stunts were actually done by the actors? For example the scene where Alejandro gets Tornado back after being chased by the Mexican soldiers.

Answer: In the DVD extras for The Legend of Zorro, it is said that Antonio (Alejandro) is extremely keen on doing all his own stunts (to the point where they sometimes have to tell him when to stop) and that even the scenes with the carriage races were done in real life rather than CGI. Judging by this, I'm guessing most of the fighting and stunts in the first film were also done by at least Antonio, and probably the others.

Question: While at the New Year party near the end, Mace tells Lenny that his clip of the Jerico One murder is the only one, and that there are no copies. Yet when Faith was explaining the situation earlier, we see Philo setting fire to a clip with the same content. Did I miss something?

Answer: The clip that Mace and Lenny have is a copy of the original that was made that Philo didn't know about. When he destroys the original by burning it, that leaves only the copy that was made and passed on to Lenny. He then has the only remaining copy, which is what Mace means.

Question: In the "Heidi" scene, when the girls are singing in German, what do they say?

Answer: In the German version of the movie, the text is a rather normal advertising song about the company, the Angels pretend to work for. In the US version however, the actresses' accents are so horrible, it is, besides some "typical German words", impossible to make out if their song has any meaning at all.

Question: In the original novel, it was Shogo (not Shuya) who hacked the system to discover how to disable the collars; at the same time he found out that the class would be doing the Battle Royale and transferred into that class to try and use his knowledge to mess it up. In the film, the person who found out how to disable the collars and the person who found out about the Battle Royale and transferred into it are different people. Does anyone know why this change was made?

Moose

Chosen answer: Kawada hacked the system, learned about the collars, and transferred voluntarily to the class he knew would be participtaing in both versions. The only difference is when he transferred: in the book, it was right after his win, and in the film it was just for the battle. Shuya never hacked anything in either the book or the film. As to why the change was made, I can only assume that, given the shortening of novels involved in film making, it's easier to make Kawada a complete stranger than a loner that the kids recognize.

Question: Who is responsible for taking pictures of Brad Pitt's character in Amsterdam while he is following Catherine Zeta Jones' character? Is it Toulour?

Answer: More likely, it was simply a detective that Jones' character set on Brad Pitt; she knew he was there and knew he was tailing her.

Answer: If you watch, in certain scenes with CZJ character and Rusty, you'll see her with a couple of guys that look kind of like MI6 or our version of Men in Black with the Black hats and everything. These are the guys that probably were tailing Rusty and taking the pictures of him watching her. I believe these were the same guys she got in trouble with her boss for wasting their time and forging the form to get approval to use them.

Show generally

Question: We can see a decoration in Ross' apartment, a kind of big Japanese sword hanging on the wall, especially on Seasons 2-3-4. Can anybody give some info about that weapon? I find it really beautiful.

Answer: This is a Chinese axe called a Pudao or a Guan Dao. It's made of a broadsword, but has a much longer handle - about four to six feet. Also known as the 'Horse-Cutter'.

Question: What's the instrumental acoustic song that's played on the main menu of the DVD and also at various points throughout the movie? I believe it plays when they're showing on-the-ground reactions to the planes hitting. It's quite a slow, depressing song.

Answer: It's an acoustic instrumental version of 'The Nobodies' by Marilyn Manson.

Question: Why in the world would Lothar's tether be long enough for him to slam into the gondola at the bottom of the Zepplin? If the Hindenberg is 135 feet at it's widest point, half the circumference of a cross section is ~212 feet. Even if it was a Goodyear blimp (50 feet), the cable would have to be at least ~78 feet in length. That is really long. Also, what is Lothar made of to survive that kind of impact?

Answer: The tether was designed to allow Lothar to be lowered from the zepellin and recovered later without requiring it to land (very tricky for an airship) hence it was hundreds of feet long.

Question: In the beginning, during the Paramount Pictures logo, we softly hear a female voice singing a short, creepy tune. This sounds a lot like something I heard in a black-and-white horror film from the 50's, but I'm not sure which. It sounds like something from the original "House on Haunted Hill" or "13 Ghosts" or one of those other horror "classics." Does anyone know if this was intentional or if it was just a coincidence?

Answer: The voice is just a few notes from the opening song with the littlest elf sung in a really high pitch.

1969 - S2-E21

Question: Where is the observatory that Jack & Teal'c use to watch for the solar flare supposed to be? Where was it actually filmed?

Answer: Gordon Southam Observatory in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Answer: It's a computer graphic.

Question: When Nicholas and Mr. Squeers arrive at the school, Nicholas asks, "Is this Dotheboys Hall?" and Squeers replies something I can't understand, followed by, "We call it that in London because it sounds better." Anyone know what he says?

Krista

Chosen answer: Squeers says, "No need to call it a hall up here" and then he says "We call it that in London because it sounds better."

Question: What are the sound effects to produce the "strange in scary sound" in Lardass' stomach before he pukes for the first time?

Answer: A cello.

Question: In the scene where Sarah is in the bathroom during the time when her three other covenmates are torturing her, she walks by what looks like a paper towel dispenser kind of high up on the wall that has some writing on it. What do those letters mean?

Sarah Van Winkle

Chosen answer: It says "Gustav Klimt", the name of an artist in the 1800s, and the paper towel dispenser is actually one of his prints. In the shot where Robin Tunney is walking out of the shower, you can see the bottom of the painting, although the full piece is never visable.

Question: When Bond first enters Zukovsky's casino, there's a tune playing on a saxophone in the background. Can anyone make out what tune it is? It sounds really familiar.

Answer: It's a variation on the "standard" James Bond theme.

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