Question: Can someone explain why the show makes jokes about Major League Baseball and how they control us?
Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: Is there really a punch line to the "naked lady walks into a bar" joke while Bender is crawling through the ceiling?
Chosen answer: The joke goes like this: A naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm and a salami under the other. She slams the poodle down on the table and the bartender says "so you won't be needing a drink?" The blonde replies "I will after what just happened! I was about to make love when my boyfriend said 'I'm gonna pound my favourite bitch with my giant sausage' so I grabbed them both and ran out".
Question: Why does the air traffic controller call Maverick "Ghostrider"? Surely that isn't his call sign?
Chosen answer: The term "Ghostrider" refers to the squadron name. There used to be a Tomcat squadron called the Ghostriders. Usually in a radio call, the squadron name is followed by a number. For instance, in the first fight where we see Cougar get into a spot of trouble with the Mig on his tail, he radios "This is Ghostrider 117 this bogey's all over me, he's got missile lock on me, do I have permission to fire?" That is normally the correct term as to who is on the radio.
Question: I'm doing horror movies in my Media Studies course and we're looking at this film in great depth. There were many themes that came up a lot in the film, mainly mirrors, birds and eyes. I've had loads of interpretations of all of these, but does anyone know what they symbolise?
Chosen answer: Birds are just a favourite choice of spooky animal that Alfred Hitchcock seems to use hence the film "The Birds". Eyes show the window to our soul where our deepest fears originate and who isn't scared of getting knifed in the shower. The mirrors i can't explain but I can suggest that it just looks creepy.
Question: I know that the images in the tape represent things that happened to or around Samara, but what is the point of the nail going through someone's finger? I know they can't show every second of Samara's life so we might not see a connection, but that part of the tape really grossed me out and so I want to know if someone knows why it was put there, or was it just the gross-out factor?
Chosen answer: Samara broke her finger nail clawing at the walls of the well... I guess that's why it's on the tape also.
Answer: In the movie Rings, the main girl gets her finger nail stabbed by a nail.
Question: I hear that elves live forever - if this is true how do they actually AGE? For example, Elrond is obviously older than legolas, but if they live forever how do they get older?
Answer: Elves do not live forever - it's a misconception that they're immortal. To quote Tolkien, "The Elves were sufficiently longeval to be called by Man 'immortal'. But they were not unageing or unwearying" (taken from his Letters, dated 1963). They do age, just extremely slowly, hence the appearance of older Elves, like Elrond, or the oldest Elf seen on screen, Cirdan the Shipwright, who appears receiving a ring in the Fellowship prologue, and leaves on the ship with the other Ringbearers.
Question: After the car crash near the start, Riggs finds that the driver has disappeared, and says "This guy's Mandrake." What does that mean?
Chosen answer: 'Mandrake the Magician' was a comic strip that was popular (at least in Australia) in the 1970s. It featured the title character that was able to perform very elaborate magic tricks (including disappearing acts).
Question: I realise that a lot of US schools look similar but would this be the same school used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (by the same director)?
Chosen answer: According to the IMDB, the answer is yes. Both movies used the same two high school locations: Glenbrook North High School, Northbrook, Illinois; and Maine North High School, Des Plaines, Illinois. The director, John Hughes, directed both movies and decided to use the same school. He also uses the name Shermer for the name of the high school in Breakfast Club and for the name of the suburb in which the Bueller's live.
Question: During the scene when Naomi Watts allows her ex boyfriend to watch the video for the first time, she wanders out to her apartment balcony. She observes several neighbors in the apartments surrounding her. At this point the music becomes intense - is there a hidden message or hint that we are supposed to see here?
Chosen answer: The Samara virus is transferred through the televison. See how the televisions are on in each of the apartments? This is a bit of forshadowing to the end where Rachael realizes that the only way to avoid death is to make a copy of the tape and show it to someone else.
Question: How come I never saw how Charlie's thumb got retrieved from the water? Is this another deleted scene or part of some director's cut?
Chosen answer: If you watch until after the end credits, you see it get eaten by a fish.
Question: In Roger Ebert's review, he says "...Mathayus intones, 'As long as one of us still breathes, the sorcerer will die.' See if you can spot the logical loophole." I can't - what's the problem with that line?
Chosen answer: By the way Mathayus is saying it, it sounds like he is saying as long as him or the sorcerer still breathes, either he or the sorcerer will die, but he is trying to say as long as one of the Akkadians are breathing, they will not stop trying to kill the sorcerer until he is dead.
Question: Does anyone know why this is the only Tim Burton film for which Danny Elfman hasn't written the score? All I can think is that time-wise it might have clashed with Black Beauty, but I'd like to know a definite reason.
Chosen answer: According to Tim Burton in an interview at the time, they were "taking a little vacation from each other", - he also said that he was not sure what the situation between them was, which certainly implied a falling out. Danny Elfman is a bit more open, describing what happened as "a family feud" - he says that after working on six films together in ten years, they had a bit of a creative fallout, which led to Howard Shore doing the music for Ed Wood. Afterwards, according to Elfman, they realised that they missed working together and went back to collaborating happily.
Question: Maybe I need to read the book, but can someone explain the whole ending sequence to me. Why all the flashy over dramatized pictures? It's artistic but is there some other meaning to it?
Chosen answer: All the flashing images are supposed to represent Bowman travelling past far and distant galaxies, this is what happens in the book, where he travels to that white house place.
Answer: At the end, in the Arthur C. Clarke's story, both Dave Bowman and Frank Poole (who survived) went to a moon of Saturn to investigate the second Monolith. Dave Bowman tried to touch the Monolith with his space pod and was sucked into a wormhole that transported him to a star on the other side of the universe - at which point, Dave's last transmission is "My God, it's full of stars!" All of the "slit-scan" visual effects by Doug Trumbull (based on effects created by John Whitney years earlier) represent an almost instant voyage to the other side of the universe. Whether this is supposed to be a quantum-jump is not explained, but it's millions of times faster than anything ever depicted in Star Trek or other space fantasy knockoffs.
Frank does not survive in the book; he is killed by HAL just as in the film.
Question: No matter how many times I watch this, I don't count all 10 plagues. Do some end up on the cutting room floor?
Answer: The featured Plagues are: locusts, flies, water turning into blood, fiery hail, the sun turning black, boils and sores. The missing Plagues are: cattle disease, wild beasts, frogs, and death of the first-born sons.
Chosen answer: The plagues stop when they 'destroy' the mummy's powers. The good guys are trying to stop the mummy before the death of the first-born plauge (which they suceed in doing, as Jonathan survives the movie), as well as preventing the mummy from becoming all powerful and impossible to destroy - which would happen after the tenth plague. Some of the plagues, too, could have been happening while the good guys are in Hamunaptra and therefore not experiencing them themselves, bringing the total of plagues experienced by the outside world closer to nine.
Question: What is the "Spcial Meat" that is sold in the butchers? Most people believe it to be human flesh, but it's never specified.
Chosen answer: The members of the League refuse to admit what it's actually supposed to be, but have stated that it's possible to work it out from clues in the series. Human flesh seems like the most likely candidate, probably supplied by Edward and Tubbs from their general butchery of any non-local who sets foot in the place. Another theory is that cocaine is involved in some way as its effects seem to match most of the things that the special stuff is supposed to cause. So, combining the two, and why not, the "special stuff" is non-local human meat sausages impregnated with cocaine.
Question: I listened to the scene where Harry goes to visit Ron and Hermione at the end after he gets out of the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione apparently have a conversation that's not appropriate for a PG rated movie, and I turned it up as loud as I could, and I heard Ron say something like, "I have this black shirt." Can anyone tell me what he really is saying?
Chosen answer: While he stands at the top of the stairs with Hermione, Ron says, "I had a resurrection!!", referring to his 'near death' experience on the chess board earlier in the film. Some people mis-hear it as a reference to "an erection" which is why you may have heard people think it's inappropriate.
Question: Why all the build up of John having sent the Russian eye-surgeon guy to jail, suggesting that he will hurt John; only to have him successfully complete the operation, and take care of John afterwards?
Answer: Because subverting the expectations of the viewer makes it more interesting. The audience (and potentially John) are set-up to expect bad things, which don't happen. Once the "bad thing" happened, the suspense would be gone and everyone could relax. Expecting something bad but knowing when it might happen maintains the tension.
Chosen answer: It's what's known as a McGuffin; a plot element that seems to be important when introduced, but serves no purpose other than to intrigue/distract the audience. The term was popularised by Alfred Hitchcock.
That's not *quite* what a MacGuffin is. A MacGuffin not only seems important, it *is* important; in fact, one of its two diagnostic characteristics is that a MacGuffin is something around which the entire plot revolves. The other property fundamental to what makes something a MacGuffin is the fact that the origin, purpose, function, and, in some cases, even identity of the object is left either vague or completely undefined. The briefcase in Pulp Fiction is a classic example (although there *is* a compelling argument that the object in the briefcase is in fact a specific artifact).
Well, according to the doctor when the operation is beginning, the doctor reveals that in prison, he spent all of his time in the library, including books on medicine and technology. As a result, he found his "true calling", and is thankful to John for helping him see that.
Question: Why is your face blurred in pictures one you've seen the tape? Just a sign that you'll be dead soon?
Chosen answer: Yes, the blurred faces do indicate that you've been cursed by the video. It has to do with Samara's face always being covered by her hair, which is also the reason behind infected people unconsciously scribbling over the faces of people in pictures. It also foreshadows the victim's fate (hence the distorted face) if they don't copy and send the cursed tape to someone else.
Question: What was the deal with all the horses drowning? Was it just because Samara was evil and she was causing it? What about the horse Rachel sees on the ship that freaks out? Is it scared of Rachel because she's been "infected" by the tape? She's already showed the tape to Noah, so she should be okay at that point, right?
Answer: After Samara was released from Eola, she returned to the Morgan's house but was sent to sleep in the barn because Richard wanted to keep her as far as humanly possible from Anna who was suffering from horrible hallucinations caused by her. Since the horses kept her up at night, she drove them to suicide, but she had also told her doctor that her daddy loved the horses not her, so she probably drove them crazy out of childish jealousy as well. As for Rachel, she was affected by the curse and by Samara and as a result her presence drove the horse crazy.
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Chosen answer: Major League Baseball is very protective of their copyrights and trademarks, and likely to take legal action if they are used without permission. I think that is what the jokes refer to.
J I Cohen