Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Chosen answer: In reality terms, fight choreography was simply not as advanced in those days. From the story point of view, neither man is exactly at their prime any more. Vader is more machine than man and Kenobi is simply getting old and has not been practicing the Force regularly for nearly two decades. When the prequel trilogy was being put together, it was recognised that the story would be dealing with Jedi at the height of their abilities and thus the filmmakers developed a much more complex and detailed combat form for the Jedi characters to use.

Tailkinker

Answer: They had to hold their lightsaber props at a certain angle for the specific effect. Because of this, they couldn't move their props like in later movies.

Question: Where on North America does Wall-e live? I can only tell from the shot of Earth zooming in that it is somewhere around the Virginia or North Carolina region.

Answer: We are never told for sure, but the city resembles the Manhattan island of New York City.

Brenda Elzin

Season 1 generally

Question: Throughout the first season, Sylar has been shown to survive a number of deadly situations, from being shot at in "One Giant Leap" and "Distractions" to falling from a great height in "Homecoming." My question is, how could he survive all of these incidences when he hadn't yet absorbed Claire's ability of regeneration?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: Telekinesis. Stop or deflect the bullets, slow his fall so that he'll survive. Very useful power.

Tailkinker

Both times he was shot, he didn't know it was coming so he couldn't have used telekinesis to stop the bullets.

Question: This goes along with the question someone submitted about Jedi reproducing. Isn't it also very likely that in a whole galaxy, there would be at least a few people born every year who are Force-sensitive, but aren't ever discovered by the Jedi? Couldn't the trait sometimes be passed down for a couple of generations before someone in the family is discovered by the Jedi? For example, it seems unlikely that either of Dooku's parents or Palpatine's parents were Jedi, since they both came from wealthy backgrounds.

Answer: Yes, extremely likely, particularly out on the Rim. There will always be people who either escape notice completely or, while recognised as being Force-sensitive, do not have the power level required to become a Jedi and thus would not be brought into the Order. In such cases, the Jedi would likely keep an eye on them, in case the trait manifested more strongly in any children who could then become Jedi.

Tailkinker

Question: If you were on your seventh day and there was no TV in sight, would Samara still be able to kill you?

Answer: 2 of the 4 teens in the beginning died in a car crash, so it seems Samara can kill you without a TV present.

Answer: Most likely. We have no idea how far away she can be from the TV she spawns from, or if anybody who hasn't been cursed can even see her. Chances are, she would come out of the nearest TV, and stalk you over a great distance. As we see when she kills Naomi Watson's boyfriend, she can practically teleport, and who knows if her power is limited only to TVs.

Answer: Yes, she'd find a way. In some of the original "Ring" franchise media, Sadako (the inspiration for Samara in the remake) can come out of other surfaces, so it'd be logical to assume that Samara would be able to do the same thing. (Or have another method of getting people who have been cursed).

TedStixon

Chosen answer: Zankou can only steal the powers of demons - he cannot steal the powers of good witches because he is evil. He would need a power stripping potion to do that. Now that he has control over the book of shadows he is now able to make the power stripping potion.

Stephen Edmonds 1

Answer: He can't steal powers from good witches because he is evil.

Answer: Zankou needs to kill the demon or witch to steal their powers.

Question: In the scene where you first see Dolarhyde lifting weights, he has some sort of cloth over his face. Is there any significance to this or is it just a weird character trait?

HeyThereKTJ

Chosen answer: Its because he deems himself as ugly (as a result of the abuse of his grandma) which why when he kills he smashes all the mirrors in the houses.

tattoojunkie

Question: Two part question. 1)Is Hakuna Matata a real phrase from another language, or is it one of Timon's and Pumba's originals? 2)Pumba says at one point of the movie, "They call me Mr. Pig!" Is this a reference to anything?

Answer: (1) It's a real phrase from the Swahili language and, as stated in the film, translates roughly to "no worries" (literally "there are no worries"). (2) The line is a reference to Sidney Poitier's detective character Virgil Tibbs from In The Heat Of The Night and his famous reply of "They call me Mister Tibbs" when asked what they call him back home. The film's sequel, focusing on Poitier's character, actually used the line as the title.

Tailkinker

Question: It's been stated in the movie (and in The Animatrix) that humans used nanomachines to intentionally blacken the sky in order to cut the machines off from their main energy source, the sun. Firstly, why did the humans resort to such a drastic and desperate plan? They must have known it would be risky? Secondly, once the plan was implemented, why couldn't they halt or shut down the nanomachines when it grew out of control? Thirdly, why were the machines dependent on the sun in the first place? Couldn't they use or invent an alternate energy source? And fourthly, why couldn't the machines use their combined artificial intelligence to somehow find a way of eradicating the nanomachines in the atmosphere?

SockWearer

Chosen answer: Blocking out the sun was an act of desperation, the humans weren't thinking about long-term consequences like unblocking it again. As for the machines, once they had adapted and created the Matrix, there was no need to unblock the sun because their problem had been solved.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: What has ended up with Max? Billy promised to go back and release him, but we never see that happen, and no explanation is given for that in the Epilogue. Is Max a real figure? If he is, what has happened to him? Did he manage to escape, or did he die in prison?

Answer: Max WAS a real character, and a Dutchman in real life, rather than an English one as portrayed in the movie. He eventually got paroled and later treatment for a severe drug addiction he had too.

Answer: It's never stated what happened to Max. The film was a heavily fictionalized version of Billy Hayes' book, and the Max character appears to be fictional as well or at least a composite of other real-life imprisoned Westerners that Hayes met while in a Turkish prison.

raywest

Question: Why is there another flight of stairs going up from the Fat Lady's portrait when there are only supposed to be 7 floors on the Grand Staircase? There's also another flight of stairs going up higher in the background (behind Harry and the others) when the Fat Lady won't allow the students in until she's broken the glass with her voice. Is there an 8th floor we're not hearing about?

Answer: We are constantly told that the staircases move by themselves and often lead no-where. It is very easy to assume that these stairs are ones that go no-where.

Ssiscool

Answer: They don't hate him, particularly, he's family and, in their own ways, they love him, but they certainly don't trust him. He's unstable, unpredictable, arrogant, power-hungry, prone to conspiracy and ruthless. In a potential Emperor, that is not a good mix of qualities, as far as they're concerned, so they keep a very close eye on him and, as we see, Marcus Aurelius chooses to elevate Maximus in his place, something that unfortunately pushes Commodus over the edge.

Tailkinker

Question: Why did Jango Fett kill Zam Wesell with a Kamino saberdart? Surely a bounty hunter as experienced as Jango would have realised it would lead to the Kaminoans and eventually to himself? Instead, why not kill her with a well aimed laser blast?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: At the range we're talking about, even as good a shot as Fett couldn't guarantee a kill. But hit Wesell anywhere with the poisoned dart and it does the job. Kamino's been wiped from the Archives, there's no information on the dart there either, so he probably felt that it was pretty safe to use. He couldn't have anticipated that Kenobi would have had a contact who actually could identify one. Even if they do track him down, he's a bounty hunter, which is a legal profession. Somebody with his resources would have no problem faking documentation to show that he had been contracted to take Wesell out.

Tailkinker

Question: Why does the female ghost in Cole's house keep on opening the drawers and cupboards?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: She lived in the house and is repeating actions she took so many times during her life, as if trying to relive it.

Brenda Elzin

Answer: Traditionally, ghosts that are angry will do things like open all the cupboards just to try and be noticed, or to mess with people. And maybe she is looking for food that is not there because her husband is a terrible man who does not give her money to buy food, but always gets mad because she has not made dinner, so she is always looking for food in the cupboards.

Question: In the opening credits, do Victor and Logan fight in both World Wars as Americans or Canadians?

Answer: In WWII they are fighting for the Americans for sure, you can tell by the uniforms they are wearing. I am not sure about WW1, it was hard to tell the uniforms apart. But since they are fighting for the Americans in all of the others, it is probably a good bet they were in WW1 as well.

pross79

Answer: Canadian army in WW1. American army WW2. Specifically (as revealed in the comics) they were in the 1st Special Service Force A.K.A The Devils Brigade. It was made up of American and Canadian troops.

Mark Andrew

Question: When Luke asked Leia if she remembers her real mother she said she does but she died when she was very young. Her mother died during child birth. How can Leia remember what her mother looked like?

MizJess

Answer: Leia most likely knew she was adopted as she had no reaction to Luke asking about her "real mother." I believe the correct answer here is George Lucas hadn't planned on Leia's mother dying during childbirth when this scene was written and at that time Leia genuinely had faint memories of her real mother. This was later shown to be impossible when the prequels were made.

Answer: She is referring to Padme. I believe she actually replies 'not really' when asked what her mother looked like. Also, Leia was a senator at some point, like Padme. It is likely she would have seen a painting or senator entry.

She most likely didn't know Padme the senator was her mother, because that would mean Anakin/Darth Vader would therefore have the same knowledge. She most definitely knew she was adopted. The "not really, just feelings" (paraphrased) line was "ret-conned" to fit when the newborn twins were shown in Episode III. Luke's eyes were shut, while Leia's eyes were open-she "saw" her mother. Perhaps the Force gave her a more mature feeling/insight into her mother from the brief time between pregnancy and when she was spirited away to Alderaan and her adoptive family.

kayelbe

Chosen answer: The mother Leia refers to would be Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan. At this point, Leia has no idea that she was adopted.

Captain Defenestrator

Negative. Luke specifically says "your real mother." Nowhere is it said Leia didn't know she was adopted. It's also highly unlikely she didn't know, since her adoptive father was a high-profile governmental figure and no way would the press keep a tight lip on the Bail and his wife suddenly having a baby without any signs of pregnancy.

kayelbe

Bail Organa says "We've always wanted a daughter." It wouldn't make sense to tell the daughter they've adopted in order to hide her from Vader "Oh yeah, you're adopted but don't tell anybody because the Emperor would send Vader to hunt you down." Better to just let her think you're her real parents.

Captain Defenestrator

Just because Leia knows she's adopted doesn't mean she has any idea who exactly her birth mother was, aside from her apparent memories. The Organas may well have concocted a whole cover story about her birth parents for another layer of protection over her identity. In fact, the way both Luke and Leia casually use/accept the "real mother" term suggests that not only does Leia know she's adopted, it's actually fairly common knowledge.

TonyPH

Answer: The short answer is that we don't know and it's left a mystery for the viewer. But on the flip side the lack of concrete information does leave room for numerous possibilities: One is that Leia might simply be mistaken: she had dreams of an idealized mother figure that she mistook for memories. Another is that the Organas could've lied to Leia about who her birth mother was for her own protection, and she is recalling this decoy mother (I quite like the theory that they told Leia her birth mother was one of Padme's loyal bodyguards chosen for their resemblance to her). And of course there's always the possibility there's something supernatural going on: Leia is strong with the Force and doesn't know it, and Padme's fate was so inexplicable you could theorize she didn't even really "die" so much as her spirit simply left her body.

TonyPH

Question: I don't know if there is an answer to this, but what did Dooku think was going to happen on the ship above Coruscant? It seems like he was supposed to kill Anakin and Obi-wan, but if he had managed to do that, there wouldn't have been a way for Palpatine to be "rescued" from him and Grievous. Was Dooku planning to let them escape eventually?

Answer: Dooku believed that the intent was that he would slay Kenobi, with the aim of provoking Anakin into enough of a rage that he would tap into the dark side of the Force - we see him goading his opponent during the duel with this in mind. Palpatine would then reveal himself as Sidious, stop the fight and turn Anakin to the Sith. Dooku would be "arrested" by Anakin and would then, after an appropriate time had passed, claim to have come to see the Republic's point of view, allowing him to later emerge from captivity to assist Sidious and Anakin in setting up the new Empire.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: Is there any relevance to the way the main characters' lives interacted before they crashed? E.g., Ana Lucia hitting Sawyer with a car door, Hurley owning the box company Locke worked for, Shannon reporting Sayid at the airport, Charlie saving Nadia from a mugger or Desmond getting a boat from Libby? (There are numerous others.) Is there a grand plan or is it just to add a bit of mystery which means nothing?

willieboy78

Chosen answer: SPOILER ALERT. In a word YES. As seen in the finale of season 5, Jacob is seen visiting the main characters well before and after the events of the island. The whole show continues to show the connections between the characters. This seems to hint that the plane crash on the island was "meant to happen".

XIII

Season 3 generally

Question: How exactly does Arthur Petrelli's ability of Power absorption work? How does he take powers and integrate them? Is there any chance of returning the stolen power/s to the original recipient? Also, after he absorbs an ability, what affect does it have on the person who's had their ability absorbed? Does the original recipient have any chance of regaining his/her original power?

LazyBoy09

Chosen answer: No explanation is ever given as to precisely how the process works. The subject is rendered powerless. If Arthur had the ability to return the ability if he wished to, it's certainly not shown in the show and it seems unlikely that he would have been interested in doing so. Later events suggest that the stolen power is not actually completely gone, as Peter Petrelli was able to use the power-serum to partially restore his own absorption ability, and Hiro's power is eventually partly revived by the infant Matt Parkman, suggesting that, in both cases, some vestiges of their original ability was still present.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: Throughout season 8, Christy and Billie have been described as the "Ultimate Power" by various sources. Why are they, these two relatively young and inexperienced witches, described as the ultimate power when the battle ready and experienced Charmed Ones have come up against centuries old demons and beings with far more powers, such as The Source of All Evil, Barbas, Zankou, Cole etcetera?

SockWearer

Chosen answer: Because they are unique from the previous demons (like the Source, Zankou, et al) because they are witches and human (and the sisters have not vanquished mortals before), and because Billie is a friend of the Halliwell sisters, and they trained her personally (making her the last person the sisters would think of as a threat). This makes it a difficult moral quandry for the Charmed Ones, since they care about Billie and aren't enthusiastic about killing humans (unlike demons, whom they will hunt and kill without the moral problem). Also, Billie's thought projection power (a rare and formidable power) combined with Christy's telepathy and fire-starting ability make their combined powers incredibly strong, enough to challenge the Charmed Ones.

jademoon

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