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 does the log mean that they carried Homer Stokes on out of the building?

Answer: Per Wikipedia: Riding the rail (also called being "run out of town on a rail") was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The subject was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside.

Brian Katcher

Question: After Harry discovers that Peter is really Spider-Man, he tells Peter that he murdered Norman Osborne. Why didn't Peter just say, "I didn't kill your dad. He was already dead when I brought him to you"?

Answer: Anything Peter tells Harry about his dad at this point could lead to Harry asking more questions, and Peter wants to get to Doc Ock's lab before it's too late.

Phaneron

Answer: As the other answer suggests, it'd be a dangerous waste of time. Additionally, Harry is literally driving himself insane believing that Spider-Man killed his father... so it's not like Harry would actually believe Peter anyway even if he tried to explain it in that moment.

TedStixon

Question: We saw how the first surgeon gave Archer Castor's voice (using the microphone and the "peach" comment recording). But my question here is after Castor died, a new surgeon comes in from Washington who assumingly never met Archer before. Even though Archer getting his own face back with similar surgery is understandable, how did he get his own natural voice back (considering he sounded like Castor when the surgeon met him and never heard his real voice before and couldn't with Castor dead)?

Answer: His voice was changed using an implanted chip - he's even warned it will be easy to dislodge. The chip changes the modulation of his voice, so removing it would mean his natural voice would return automatically.

Jon Sandys

Answer: Even so, it just takes a recording of the voice to match. That's how they calibrated Archer's voice to Troy's in the first place.

Answer: His chip was dislodged in the climax of the movie, if you remember he says to his daughter "hear my voice, I'm your father" and Castor says "use your eyes Jamie".

Answer: Hands aren't necessary for force usage - it's more a gesture to aid concentration (or for effect, or simply because it looks good on film). During Luke's fight with Vader in The Empire Strikes Back for example, Vader is flinging large objects at Luke without removing his hands from his lightsaber at all.

Jon Sandys

Question: In her death scene Evita sings a final solo and she cries out one line. What does she say? It sounds like "So soon" but I can't get the line. I've listened to the recording of both the film and the Broadway versions.

Answer: Within the movie version, when she is lying in bed singing her final song (titled "Lament"), I think you're referring to the words "how they shone, but how soon the lights were gone" near the end of this song. Also, the following may be helpful to you. This movie is available to watch free on Tubi. The full lyrics to the movie version of "Lament" are available here. For the "Lament" lyrics from the 1979 Broadway version, see here.

Super Grover

Answer: YouTube captions are often autogenerated and have no relation to what's actually being said.

I realise they are autogenerated, which is why I said that it "may" help to work out what the line was. While imperfect, they certainly are relevant to what is said. I've used it myself to figure out parts of movie dialogue. Also, streaming sites showing this movie might have closed captioned dialogue that is not auto-generated and is more accurate.

raywest

Answer: This scene is on YouTube and has the closed-captions option. This may help you determine what the line was.

raywest

Answer: Yes, and Barney is an ignorant drunk. It's a joke.

Question: At the beginning of the film we see Andy make the agents who killed his wife go blind with his mind. Why then didn't he do the same to John Rainbird at the end when they were in the barn?

Answer: Everything happened too fast for him to react, his powers were barely working, controlling only Captain Hollister. If he was at full power he could have controlled everyone.

Question: So does magic exist in this universe or not? We know Blackwood isn't using magic and is just a fraud, but other characters such as Standish act like magic exists; and then there's Holmes having those visions when he performs the ritual. Does magic exist in this world?

MrMovieBuff

Answer: No, there's nothing to indicate that magic actually exists. Characters may be superstitious and believe it exists... but as Holmes displays, it was all cheap parlor tricks. As for his "visions," it's shown throughout the movie that Sherlock is amazing at deduction and prediction, so I assume the visions are a result of that. To me, it seemed like he was doing the ritual more to put himself into the right "mindset" than to actually perform magic.

TedStixon

Answer: Those were not visions, he was calculating the best scenario to use to defeat his opponent. All the other times after examining clues he was recreating the events that best fit the situation.

Question: How can Jack carry around a case of drawings without them rubbing together, and smudging the graphite or charcoal? Many modern artists will spray those mediums with hairspray or art fixative, but I don't think those were available in 1912.

Answer: Artists at that time could use fixatives to protect graphite or charcoal drawings. I had a small foldable metal sprayer for my drawings. The small metal tube is inserted into a bottle of fixative. The hinged top of the sprayer is bent at a 45-degree angle. As the liquid is wicked up through the tube, you blow through the bent part and it sprays the fixative onto the paper. It's a little hard to explain, but it works. There were also hand-pumped misting sprayers and atomizers (like the old-fashioned perfume bottles). Artists made their own fixative with shellac and isopropyl alcohol and also used clear casein (made from diluted egg whites) to paint over drawings.

raywest

Question: Why did Owen and Beru ever tell Luke that they are his aunt and uncle? They apparently want him to live a simple farmer's life, stay away from Ben Kenobi, and not learn about Jedi or get involved in the Rebellion. Would it not be easier to pretend that they are his parents?

Answer: Any answer would be speculation and it's hard to know exactly how much George Lucas had planned ahead for these characters. Not to mention things like Obi-Wan never knew Anakin was alive when they were separating Luke and Leia, Darth Vader hadn't been created yet, and he doesn't find out Anakin is Darth Vader until years later. An in-universe answer would basically be there's no way for the Lars to explain they now have a baby when Beru was never pregnant, so everyone would know Luke isn't their son (which could eventually be told to Luke as he got older). So really the only options would be to raise him as an adopted child or as their nephew. The Organas on the other hand always wanted a daughter and so Bail agreed to secretly adopt Leia.

Bishop73

Answer: Considering Kenobi lived on Tatooine and it was known that Anakin became Vader, there was always a chance that Luke would learn the truth and finding out he was lied to about his past could have been devastating to him and the family dynamic.

Question: Did they have signs for smoking cars on the train windows in that era?

Answer: Yes they did. In 1868 the Railway Regulation Bill was passed in the UK which forced railway companies to designate certain cars as smoking cars. This bill was passed in response to companies banning smoking altogether on their trains.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When the Kraken is attacking the Pearl, what was the point of hoisting all the gunpowder as high as possible? The Kraken is below the water and it's just the tentacles that are above the water. Did Will really expect it to kill the Kraken?

Answer: If they set it off too close to the deck, it could kill members of the crew or severely damage the ship. Hoisting it high and hoping that it would cripple the Kraken by maiming its tentacles was their best bet.

TedStixon

Question: The miscast spell made everyone who knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man to appear in Tom's universe. Why didn't Mary-Jane, Harry Osborne and Eddie Brock from Toby's universe and Captain George Stacy and Gwen Stacy from Andrew's universe also appear as they knew Peter Parker was really Spider-Man?

Answer: Perhaps they did cross over, but they were not part of the plot, so we just didn't see them. They were all returned at the end anyway.

lionhead

Answer: It could be there were too many characters and too many subplots already, they only needed the characters that would cause the most damage to Peter's universe. There are confirmed sequels in the SCU and The MCU, who knows who could show up there.

Question: What is the machine that grabbed Neo, and why did it let him go after the cables that were attached to him get removed from his body?

Answer: The machine is probably a regular maintenance machine for the pods. It grabs hold of him as the cables are detached to prevent him from falling out. It let him go so the body could be drained for recycling.

lionhead

Answer: It let him go because he woke up and became self-aware. Everyone else was asleep in the Matrix fantasy world. The machines knew if anyone woke up, they would join the resistance, so Neo was considered defective and literally flushed away.

Question: So, Maverick is in Miramar (California) and must depart immediately for the Indian Ocean, some 12 time zones away. How do he (and all the others) get there in 24 hours, especially on the carrier, well rested and acclimated to the new time zone, ready to go to battle?

Answer: Who said it was 24 hours? When they move from one scene to another one, it's indicated that time has passed. Several hours to several days.

When they cut to the aircraft carrier, it says 24 hours later.

Question: Touching Lorna's computer Riggs unintentionally started a Three Stooges game which Lorna claimed to be a weapon. Why?

Answer: She didn't want him to see that she was a fan of those comical idiots. She was supposed to be a tough nonsense internal affairs officer. She was in fact his soulmate, exactly like him, wild and crazy.

Answer: There are two times when this happens the first time he is holding his guns. The second time he is holding a frog.

Question: Who is the character with him in the picture?

Answer: This question needs way more context. Who is the he you're referring to and what picture are you referring to?

Bishop73

If you're referring to the pictures that Eddie is looking at, the guy in the pictures next to Eddie is his brother Teddy who was killed by Judge Doom.

Question: How did the Marshalls know Kimble had been picked up by the lady when he was hitchhiking? (00:45:20 - 00:46:00)

Answer: They didn't. When Cosmo tells Sam that, "He's shacked up with some babe over in Whiting," they were actually talking about Copeland, who had also escaped and was with his girlfriend. Although the line was meant to let people watching the movie think they had found Richard, as eventually shown. It was really Copeland they had found.

Question: In The Matrix Reloaded, the Architect tells Neo that each incarnation of the One went into the Source while the machines killed everyone in Zion. If the machines knew where Zion was the whole time, then why did the machines need the code for the Zion mainframe?

Answer: Because that would make it easier to access Zion, like opening the gates and shutting off defences.

lionhead

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