Question: If Cecil, Gus and Reginald knew that the tablet brought the exhibits to life, and could extend their own, then why didn't they steal it from the moment it was brought to the museum in 1952? Why wait after so many years?
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: After killing Barbossa in the cave, why would Jack surrender (i.e. go with Will and Elizabeth) knowing that he was going to be hanged anyway? Wasn't there any escape for him?
Chosen answer: At that point he already had hope that his crew and others would rescue him and he would be able to escape from custody. Which he did.
Question: Why does Dobby only attempt to save Harry from the dangers that will happen at Hogwarts this year? If he knows that Lucius Malfoy is planning something, why not go to Dumbledore and try to save everyone at the school?
Answer: Dobby overheard a plot that involved Harry. He had heard of Harry and his "greatness" and decided to help him for that. Going to Dumbledore would be for totally different reasons and a more direct "betrayal" of his family. Its not unlikely Dobby thought any other wizard like Dumbledore would tell the Malfoy's about his "betrayal", but not Harry. He also didn't know the entire school was in danger.
Question: Why is this film called Brazil?
Chosen answer: Because of the reoccurring use of the song "Aquarela do Brasil" by Ary Barroso. The song's common English title is "Brazil". And at the end, when Sam is sitting in the chair, he starts to sing "Brazil".
Question: Why exactly did R.K. Maroon want to sell his studio? A scene in the movie shows a news reel of him shaking hands with a Cloverleaf corporate man. A full explanation would be appreciated.
Answer: Maroon was simply greedy and Cloverleaf offered him a lot of money to sell, provided Acme sold his part too. Spoiler alert: Maroon was only trying to frame Acme (with the Jessica Rabbit patty-cake pictures), not kill him. However, Judge Doom turned out to be the owner of Cloverleaf and by buying out Maroon and Acme, he could get rid of Toontown (he hated toons). So Doom was willing to pay Maroon a lot of money (and when that didn't work, turned to murder).
It's Not Easy Being Green - S5-E16
Question: How could Bobby and the rest of Mr. McKay's class have showed up at Strickland Propane without Hank knowing? Surely the students would not have been allowed to go on a field trip without a parent's permission. If Peggy had signed a form at some point, she mostly likely would have mentioned to Hank that Bobby would be at his workplace.
Answer: Peggy is a substitute teacher. She may have been teaching at the school the day the permission slips were sent out and Bobby could have just walked to her classroom, had her sign it, and taken it back to his teacher and both just forgot to tell Hank when they got home. ("There are ways" is my point).
Question: I would really like some insight on a burning question I have had since seeing this movie as a child in 1978, when it came back around in theaters in eastern Canada, where I grew up. Not knowing much about American history in school, I didn't know at the time that there even was a Devil's Tower, or that it had been made the first US National Monument in 1906, and as such would have been famous to all American citizens. I still remember loving the psychic element in the film where our heroes agonize internally about the strange mound shape seen only in their heads, to be finally rewarded and deeply relieved with news footage later in the film which solidified their visions into something tangible and concrete (igneous rock actually!) Thus, as a boy knowing nothing about the tower in Wyoming, this part of the film played perfectly into the fantasy for me-it sold me all the way. But why or how did this work for Americans at the time the film was new? In the film, we are to believe that our adult heroes knew nothing of the tower before their initial close encounters, and were shocked to discover that it actually existed. Again, for me, Devil's Tower was an absolutely incredible and awesome choice, and made me love the film all the more for it. But I would like to know how Americans felt about it during the film's 1977 and later 1980 re-release? Was it just as awe-inspiring for them as well, or was it more like: "Duh-you're driving your family crazy making models of a natural rock formation everyone knows is less than 90 miles away from Mount Rushmore?" I would really appreciate an answer, because for me, the tower's news-footage "reveal" was a huge moment in the film, and really does provide the kick-start that launches the entire third act of the film. For American audiences, why was it not the same as if Roy had struggled to attach a garden hose under a hastily-built plywood model with a hole in the middle, because the aliens implanted a vision of "Old Faithful" in his head?
Answer: Devil's Tower really is out in the middle of nowhere, and in one of the least populated states (it's "only" 90 miles away from Mt. Rushmore, but it's an incredibly boring 90 miles of mostly empty plains) so it didn't make for a convenient tourist attraction like other landmarks and thus didn't garner as much fame (it's actually much more famous nowadays, thanks to this movie). That said, the movie seems to have cleverly provided two separate "reveals" for this plot turn: those familiar with Devil's Tower will recognize it when Richard Dreyfuss knocks the top off his sculpture, giving it the distinctive "flat top" shape; then, only minutes later the rest of the audience will discover it along with the characters during the news broadcast. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was set up deliberately keeping in mind the landmark's status of "kind of famous but not really THAT famous."
Your explanation (and the other answer) helps makes the overall plot more understandable. The French scientist, Lacombe, mentions that there were probably hundreds of people who were implanted with the Devil's Tower image in their minds. As pointed out, it is not a particularly recognizable landmark, which would explain why many never made the connection to it.
Answer: "Devil's Tower" is, indeed, a national landmark. However, it isn't one of the most famous, nor most iconic. It isn't nearly as widely known as, say, the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River, Niagara Falls, or the landmarks you mentioned - Mount Rushmore and Old Faithful Geyser. But, as you stated, its imposing form does fit so nicely into the aura of the film's alien encounter. Devil's Tower isn't something everyone knows by shape. And for those of us who do, it doesn't require much suspension of disbelief to posit that the characters in the film wouldn't have put it together prior to the news footage.
Question: The trap in which Robert Neville got caught could not have possibly be set by some over aggressive mutants. Installing such a trap would have required not only human abilities (which Robert Neville said they completely lack) but also a lot of patience, advanced planning and the use of tools. The level of aggressiveness shown by the mutants excludes any possibility that they could be patient enough to set such a trap. For me there was no doubt in my mind that the trap was either set by: 1. Robert Neville himself, and then he forgot due to a deteriorating mental state 2. Another survivor from New York who wanted to catch animals or mutants for whatever reason. How likely does it sound that the trap was set by another survivor?
Chosen answer: The point the movie makes (and is backed up more in the alternate ending) is that Neville was wrong about mutants. They DO have the ability to plan and use tools and other higher thought process abilities. So they did set the trap for Neville. Neville thought they were monsters, when it was he who the monster. He just did not realise his presumptions about them were wrong until the end.
Answer: All possible yes...but again as Neville surmises in Matheson's novel the infected ones are mutating too.
Question: Why would Dr. Lanning's perfectly good house need to be demolished right after he "committed suicide?"
Chosen answer: It didn't. Destroying the house (and any potential evidence) was part of the cover up.
Question: 1. At Neptune High graduation, the colors are green and gold. In season 1, wasn't there red involved with the cheerleader uniforms? 2. Why is Dick Casablancas watching the seniors graduate, and then in season 3, he has graduated and is off to Hearst College with the rest of the gang?
Answer: 1. No, the pep squad uniform was green and yellow. 2. He failed one of the classes, the one where they were trying to launch an egg from various heights without cracking the egg. He was pairing with Angie Dahl, who told the teacher that he didn't do anything in the project. The teacher then asked him to pick the project he worked on, and he couldn't do it because he didn't help. Then the teacher told him, "See you in summer school." He couldn't graduate with everyone else because he needed to attend summer school in order to pass that class and graduate. It's assumed that he did, in fact, attend summer school, despite all the mess that happened in the season 2 finale.
Question: In the intro of some episodes, Timmy says "Livin' a lie." What is the lie that he is living?
Answer: It's a lyric from Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld's self-titled one hit.
Question: When they get back at Motivation Corp at the end, how did Cartman manage to get into the building, along with his Mexican painting crew, and also how did they manage to paint the whole place in crap so quickly before any of the staff came in for the day?
Chosen answer: Cartman has a knack for getting into places he's not supposed to be. We don't need the details. As for how they worked so quickly, either Cartman worked them mercilessly or it's a cartoon, your pick.
Question: Since World War 3 was the cause of the nuclear devastation, as evidenced in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, how is it that Dr. Zaius doesn't know the full story of the rise of the apes over the humans? Wouldn't the story be passed down?
Chosen answer: Dr. Zaius did know the true history of man and ape, but he deliberately hid the truth from the other apes. For Zaius (and other high-ranking apes who were guarding the secret), it would be shameful and demoralizing to ever admit that humans were far superior to apes in the past and that they could, potentially, conquer the apes. In more than one scene (such as the paper airplane scene in the first film), we see Zaius obviously frustrated that Taylor's very existence threatens to expose the truth.
Question: What song is Mary playing when she forces Tanya to dance with Charles?
Answer: Sleep Walk by Santo and Johnny.
Question: When Harry first meets Dobby in his bedroom, in Chapter Two, he asks Dobby if the danger at Hogwarts has something to do with Voldemort. Dobby shakes his head no. But it is later revealed that Lucius Malfoy's plot did involve Voldemort after all. Why did Dobby lie to Harry?
Answer: Lucius Malfoy didn't know the diary was a horcrux and had part of Voldemort's soul in it. It was unintentional and nobody could know beforehand Voldemort was involved in all of it. Including Dobby.
Lucius most certainly knew that "Tom Riddle" was Voldemort. The entire plot centers on that Lucius was up to no good.
I didn't say he didn't know it was Voldemort's diary. I said he didn't know it was a horcrux. He just knew the diary was bad news and tried to pass it on to the Weasleys.
Answer: Dobby is not lying. But he is not able to reveal the name Voldemort, due to his bond to his master, and instead tries to give a - quite unintelligible - hint about who is behind the plot: "I've got just one question, Dobby, " said Harry, as Dobby pulled on Harry's sock with shaking hands. ' You told me all this had nothing to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, remember? well-" "it was a clue, sir." said Dobby, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious, "was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named, you see?" (at the very end of book 2, about third to last page).
Question: When McDonald tells Hart "If you wanna stay, stay. But as a private citizen. Turn in your badge and your gun." Did he just fire her? Suspend her? Ask for her gun and badge so that if anything happened, she wouldn't give the FBI a bad name?
Answer: Somewhere between your second and third guess, in my opinion. Firing would require a far more complex due process under Federal rules. But McDonald certainly has the authority to determine what missions will and won't be pursued under the authority of the FBI. He's essentially telling her that this is a rogue action on her part, and she may not use her status as an FBI agent, nor her government issued weapon, to pursue it. She also won't be paid for her time and efforts in the process.
Question: Why did that one adviser have Nusrat killed? I think it was because she killed Jamal, but I have a feeling that there's more reason than just that.
Answer: Nusrat was killed because she knew the secret of Jamal's treatment of her, the pregnancy that was not Ahmed's, but Jamal's, etc. She was a liability to the al-Fayeed family who could be used by their enemies to erode their power. Also, it was Ahmed who killed Jamal, not Nusrat.
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Answer: The tablet did not extend life (the guys grew old there, remember), but gave more energy to those affected. As for stealing it earlier, that would not have been possible as they would have been the prime suspects. The best way to do the crime was to pin the rap on somebody new, like Larry, after they had retired.
Scott215
That's a seriously long waiting game.