Question: Are Bob and Bill cops or do they sell boats? The whole thing confuses me.
Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: If the Wormwoods are moving to Guam to escape from the police, why move to Guam, a U.S territory, where the Speedboat salesmen or whatever can easily find/extradite them?
Answer: It's a joke, because they are too stupid to know that Guam is a territory of the United States.
Question: One of the cops said Matilda would end up in a federal orphanage once Harry was in federal prison, but can't her mother take care of her? She seems to have no idea that Harry's a criminal, and also where is the evidence that the mother is involved?
Answer: She knows. Listen to her and Harry after their TV explodes: "I told you that was a cheap set." "It's not a cheap set, it's a stolen set!" She knows that Harry is a criminal.
Answer: Also, when Zenia is talking to the cops aka speedboat salesmen, she's talking about Harry having money in banks all over the place.
Answer: It is questionable in what time period the movie is set, but it appears to be at least the 1970s or 1980s - or, after orphanages were replaced with group homes, foster homes, and other more child-friendly places. The threat of sending Matilda to a "federal orphanage" was designed to scare her and get her to reveal what she knew. Matilda could not be sent to a federal orphanage because they no longer existed.
Question: What exactly has Harry done to have the FBI watching him for ages?
Answer: He has been receiving and selling stolen car parts.
Answer: It is a federal violation to own/operate a "chop shop." Other possibilities include interstate transport of stolen vehicles or car parts, altering Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), and falsifying documents. After a VIN is altered, it is difficult to positively identify the vehicle as stolen and acquire the necessary evidence to get a conviction if the.case goes to trial. But it is the interstate aspect that makes the FBI the key investigators.
Question: Did Abberline's wife die while giving birth, or after it? And how did the baby die?
Answer: Abberline's wife died while giving birth. It was hinted since she told Abberline (in his vision) that she's expecting a child from him. So she probably died while giving birth. It could have been a stillbirth but we didn't get more information about his wife and child's death.
Answer: Also, the lobotomy was not thought of until 1946 by a Portuguese physician and brought into the public eye by Dr. Walter Freeman, an American. The two received the Nobel prize for medicine in 1949.
Answer: While based on actual events and characters, "From Hell" takes considerable liberty with facts, in addition to leaving much of its convoluted fictional plot unexplained. The real Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline's first wife died of tuberculosis two months after they married (she was not pregnant at the time). Abberline remained married to his second wife for over 50 years, and they never had children. Abberline was never an opium or absinthe user, either, and he died at the ripe old age of 86. The movie fabricated everything except a handful of essential historical facts regarding the Ripper murders.
Question: Did Abberline use drugs to see visions after his wife and child died, or had he used them before?
Answer: Johnny Depp said in an interview that Abberline was a hypersensitive guy and had a lot of demons and a dark history. He probably start doing drugs to feel numb against the pain that he lost his wife and child since he desperately wanted a family.
Answer: It's not known if Abberline used Absinth before his wife died. But I doubt that he would have used Absinth or any other form of drugs when he was married.
Answer: The real-life Abberline didn't use opium or absinthe or anything else, and he wasn't psychic, and he and his two wives never lost any children nor had any children. Aside from the very few facts regarding the Ripper murders, everything in the movie is fictional, fake. Therefore, irrelevant.
I think those questions are meant for the fictional movie not the real story of Abberline.
Question: In the beginning of the movie when the father brought the video game home for his son he called his son Kevin...that later become Alex. Did I miss something?
Question: Why does the Army bus driver yell at Forrest when he introduces himself?
Answer: Yelling at new recruits is common since they must instill in them that they are now in a hierarchy where they are at the bottom. When people first enter the service, most bring with them their concepts that progress is accomplished through working with, versus for, others, and the kids lack discipline. The military isn't a democratic institution - it is authoritarian, and that isn't a structure most kids understand. New recruits are constantly yelled at to break their previous conditioning, and that begins with the first encounters, like with the bus driver.
Answer: Yelling is how things are done in the Army.
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?
Question: A few minutes into the movie you see English troops all lined-up on the beach with no obvious means of evacuation. That leaves them very exposed to German gunfire and aerial attack. It would seem that the English soldiers would stay off the beach until actually called-up for evacuation. Not to mention the obvious requirement that some troops would have to stay off the beach to defend the evacuation area. How realistic are those scenes?
Answer: That's exactly how it was. If you search for images of the evacuation, the troops were stood in lines, waiting to be evacuated. The Germans were held at bay, and the air raids were periodic, so there was little risk on the beaches.
Question: I don't understand when Louie's finance was waiting at the police station for him to get released, a man sits down and asks about her purse - what was that all about?
Question: When Esther is being taken to her new home, Sister Abigail is seen with her fingers crossed behind her back. Did she do this because she knew how evil Esther was and she wanted to keep that fact a secret, or because she knew Esther's secret and was actually lying about Esther in hopes of getting rid of her more quickly?
Answer: I would say your first guess is correct, Sister Abigail suspected Esther's true, sinister nature while everyone else saw her as an innocent child. Later in the film, she tells the mother her suspicions but was never able to prove Esther's wrongdoing. She may have also been crossing her fingers hoping that it was the last time she would ever have to see Esther. It's highly unlikely Sister Abigail knew Esther's secret or else she would have alerted the authorities.
Answer: I'll admit, likely due to my own personal experience with adoption agencies, I assumed the fingers crossed behind her back was to hope that it turns out OK in general. Adoptive parents sometimes undo the adoptions for various reasons and give the kids back. Given how many kids they take care of at that orphanage and given that kids in group homes like that are often considered non-adoptable (as they're often put there as a last resort when nobody wants them), I imagine she's probably had several kids returned in the past. It's especially more common with kids from other countries, which Ester is. Given the sinister nature of the movie, I could be completely wrong, of course. I'd love to hear the director's answer to this, as that's who probably would know the real answer.
Question: Why does Dr Gordon decide to work with John? And why does he put himself, his daughter and wife in extreme danger?
Answer: He, his wife and his daughter were abducted before he decided to work with Jigsaw. He didn't put them in danger. As for why he decided to work with Jigsaw following his ordeal, like other characters in the franchise, he either developed a level of Stockholm syndrome or he concluded that Jigsaw's methods were right, or a combination of both.
Question: When speaking, why was a mixture of different languages used instead of Hebrew? Hebrew was a primary language back then so shouldn't it have been the only language used?
Answer: Hebrew would have been the main language for Jewish residents, especially in religious teachings. However, Aramaic was a common language in Judea and it's believed that Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. The land of Israel also had heavy Greek influences, and the Romans spoke Latin and Greek. The New Testament says the title Pilate wrote to put on the cross was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
Question: Is the landscape around Rockport MA (where the film was shot) really that similar to that around Sitka AK (where the film is set)?
Question: At the very beginning, John and Louise stroll down a dock, get into a row-boat and start across the lake; but John dies of a heart attack half-way across, and Louise dumps his body into the water. Throughout this entire scene, John's transistor radio is warbling a rockabilly song that sounds Elvis-inspired (but it's not Elvis). What is the song and who sang it?
Answer: "He's Caught" by Buddy Fowler and the Fads. It was an unreleased song used for the movie.
Question: While in the future, Simon Phoenix was about to kill what I believe is a priest. Just before he does, the priest says something like, "Isn't there something you should be doing right now?" After the priest says this, why did Simon let him go and run off?
Answer: The man was Dr. Raymond Cocteau, mayor of San Angeles. He was the one who was ultimately responsible for re-programming Simon. He also programmed Simon to kill Edgar Friendly, who was the leader of the resistant group that was rebelling against Cocteau and his established way of life. Simon was also programmed to be unable to kill Cocteau (which is why he also "missed" when he first shot at him). No sense in waking up and letting loose a well trained psychopathic killer if he's also ends up killing you too.
Question: At the beginning of the film where were the bodies of the people that Simon killed? John said he searched the whole building but couldn't find anything so, how did the bodies appear after the building was destroyed? And why was John placed in cryogenic suspension? It seems a bit harsh to punish somebody especially since he was able to catch Simon.
Answer: Simon killed the bus passengers before John arrived, but kept their dead bodies in the building. John said he did a thermo search and only saw 8 people (Simon's gang), but that's because the dead bus passengers didn't show up on the thermo scan. John wasn't suppose to go after Simon alone, wasn't suppose to be there, and violated police procedures. John was convicted (because of Simon framing him) with 30 counts of involuntary manslaughter because it was presumed the passengers were in fact still alive and in the building, but died in the explosion that wouldn't have happened if John was trying to apprehend Simon alone. Simon was also convicted for the murders though.
Question: When Alan has reached Jumanji, why were the bullet and rifle pulled into the game? They weren't from the game, but purchased by Van Pelt from a gun store.
Answer: The game is essentially "resetting reality" back to the point Alan was first sucked into the game. So it is undoing everything that has been done - including taking away the gun and bullets Van Pelt had purchased.
Answer: The gun and bullets may have been from the real world but they were Van Pelt's property. He purchased them at the gun store. Apparently the game pulls in Van Pelt and anything of his he was using to hunt Alan. It makes sense that the game would do this because Alan defeats Van Pelt by following the rules of the game. Having Van Pelt be able to simply purchase a gun in the real world and kill a player with it even after they've completed the game would be a huge cheat.
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Answer: They are FBI, and they are undercover.