raywest

27th Jul 2015

Sixteen Candles (1984)

Question: Has Samantha's birthday ever been officially said? She says she looks the same as she did that summer and all that shows is that she doesn't have a tan left. People are still wearing tank tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, etc. throughout the movie. It appears to be early to mid September but nobody says anything in the movie. Does anybody know?

Answer: Her birthdate is not mentioned. Regarding the weather and how the locals dress, it depends on where they live. California, for instance, has a fairly warm climate much of the year, so it would not be unusual to see the people there wearing summer-type clothing in early Autumn.

raywest

Answer: The brother is constantly wearing Chicago gear. I'd bet Chicago. You can lose your tan in one month. That's a long time to a kid back in school. Plus the dance they go to is called the New Faces dance which may be a beginning of the school year.

I did a little checking on the movie production. According to the Wikipedia entry for this film, "Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban communities of Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park, Illinois during the summer of 1983." The summers in this region are usually quite hot and humid which may account for why the cast was wearing lighter clothing throughout the film, even though it was supposedly taking place in Autumn.

raywest

Question: When Nikki came to see Terri, he laid his hat and coat in the chair - no package. Later, he went to the chair and got the package that contained the scarf. Was the package placed there at a later time?

Answer: This sounds like a movie mistake rather than there being a reason in the plot for it to happen.

raywest

Answer: It was never specified how long the curse had been in effect.

raywest

4th Apr 2017

Sing (2016)

Question: In the trailer it shows a pig singing "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga but this song is not on the soundtrack. Why is that? Also "Anaconda" on the soundtrack is "Oh.My.Gosh" instead of its proper title. Again, why is that? It doesn't make sense for one song to be in the movie but not on the soundtrack and for another song to not have its proper title.

Answer: It would have to do with paying royalties to the artists if the songs were included on the soundtrack album. The artists would be paid a one-time flat fee for their songs to be used in the movies or the trailers, but for albums being sold would mean some of the profits would have go to the artists. The movie studio can make just as much on the soundtrack album without certain songs being included. Regarding the title, it may be the artist wanted it changed for some reason, or the filmmakers felt it didn't fit in.

raywest

3rd Apr 2017

Rango (2011)

Question: How was the mayor able to drown Mr. Merrimack in the desert?

Answer: The Mayor, along with Bad Bill and his crew, drowned Mr. Merrimack with the water from the jug. That's why his glasses are seen in the jug after the chase seen with the dysfunctional family.

Answer: It's not specifically explained how but it's a clue about the water pipeline that runs to Las Vegas. It has a secret shut-off valve that the mayor has been manipulating to create a drought so he could buy the land cheap.

raywest

Chosen answer: Frodo is not completely in his right mind. He's been affected by the ring and the extreme physical and mental toll on him. He could very well have not seen Smeagol.

raywest

Question: When Eddie is going up to what he believes is Jessica's apartment, how was he able to survive being flattened on the elevator floor and then slammed on the roof of the elevator while all it took to kill his brother was a piano? Eddie even mentions that Teddy died in ToonTown.

Answer: It's possible that Teddy was crushed by a live-action piano rather than a cartoon piano.

Answer: Because the killer's intention was to murder Teddy all along, and saw to it that the piano would be lethal to him.

But how could a piano kill him if he was in Toon Town? When Eddie went up in the elevator, he was flattened against the floor and that didn't kill him considering that all of his organs were also flattened which should have resulted in his death. So, a piano being dropped on somebody should have the same affect as long as they're in Toon Town.

Answer: It's because he's now in the unreal cartoon world where characters suffer the most horrendous mishaps and injuries without being physically harmed.

raywest

3rd Apr 2017

Titanic (1997)

Question: Why'd Cal shoot at Jack and Rose? Besides, he didn't know she had the diamond til after they got away.

Answer: He wanted to kill Jack because he knew Rose preferred Jack to him. Cal intended that he and Rose would survive. He wanted to make sure that Jack did not. It didn't have anything to do with the diamond.

raywest

30th Mar 2017

Phineas and Ferb (2007)

Show generally

Question: In the beginning of the "Star Wars" special, at the end of the opening titles credits, the narrator says "And none of this is canon, so just relax." Is he referring to it not being canon to "Star Wars", "Phineas and Ferb", or both?

Answer: Mostly it refers to Star Wars, but it applies to both.

raywest

31st Mar 2017

El Dorado (1966)

Answer: The prime ingredient was Ipecac, a nausea-inducing compound (still used today) which so inflames the stomach lining that it's impossible for the patient to hold anything down. Hot mustard in large doses has a similar effect. The other ingredients (croton oil, cayenne pepper, etc) acted as powerful laxatives, so the entire gastrointestinal tract is evacuated in short order. The gunpowder was a fantasy ingredient, no doubt, as gunpowder is known to cause gangrene of internal tissues.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: It was an old folk remedy for a hangover. It was supposed to make someone unable to drink liquor for a short period of time. The fictional potion's ingredients were not specified.

raywest

The ingredients of Mississippi's hangover concoction are very surely in the scripted dialogue. Mississippi: "Johnny Diamond had a recipe. Let's see. Cayenne pepper, mustard-the hot kind, ipecac, asafetida, and oil of cloves or was it? No, it was croton oil." Bull: "Croton oil?! I'll be a suck-egg mule. You know what that mixture'll do to a fella?" Mississippi: "Guaranteed kill or cure." The final ingredient is gunpowder.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Croaking oil, gunpowder, hot mustard, ipecac, asafetida.

30th Mar 2017

The Fugitive (1993)

Question: I don't think this was ever addressed. Sykes had an alibi, that several people could vouch for him. Not that it's really important to the main story, but did the police ever find a hole in it or disprove it? Was it ever checked out, or is it just assumed that he lied?

Answer: It was never specified. Gerard, based on his years of experience, just had a gut feeling from Sykes' behavior that his story was not legitimate. He already suspected that he worked for corrupt medical executives.

raywest

Answer: I find it more of interest that Sykes said the police 'questioned him about the whole thing' during the initial investigations into the murder, presumably during Kimble's trial and before he was convicted. That was when Sykes said he was never in town that night and that 'at least fifteen people verified it'. Why would the police have been questioning Sykes in the first place when he was never a person of interest until Kimble broke into his apartment? That should have set off alarm bells for Gerard right then and there.

Kimble gave the police a description of the one armed man immediately after the murder. I'm guessing that description was pretty close to what Sykes looked like. The movie, during the scene when Sykes returns to his apartment after Kimble has been there, strongly implies that Sykes was a former Chicago cop who lost his arm in the line of duty. So, if you connect the dots, some of the Chicago cops would have at least known about Sykes' existence. Add in the fact that Sykes worked for a health care-related company, and that's more than enough to at least question him in my opinion. Now, when Sykes tells the cops that he was on a business trip and 15 people could verify he wasn't in Chicago, well, that pretty much ended any consideration of him being considered as the potential murderer at the time of Kimble's trial. The next assumption that has to be made is the Chicago police then questioned some of those 15 people, they confirmed the alibi, and that was it.

30th Mar 2017

Jurassic Park (1993)

Question: I can't remember if any of this part occurs in the book, it's been years, and this always bothers me. When Hammond takes them on the tour/ride with Mr DNA, the video is made specifically for his interacting live with his clone. What purpose would this serve since eventually the park would open to visitors and he obviously would not be able to host this tour every time?

Answer: It was a specially-made promotional presentation, specifically designed to appeal to Hammond's investors in the park and to gain professional endorsements.

raywest

Question: Why does the Thin Man always smell somebody's hair after he rips it off their head?

Answer: It's just a gruesome quirk. Every person has their own scent. He's savoring the moment of his kills.

raywest

Question: Maybe this has been brought up before, but I haven't been able to find a discussion of this particular time-turner question. If they went back in time and ensured Remus took his potion, wouldn't it sort of solve all of the problems? He wouldn't turn, Pettigrew would still be captured, Sirius would be proven innocent and not forced into hiding, and Lupin could still teach at the school. I know they aren't supposed to know that he is a werewolf in the past, but they could at least mention the moon or something! I know that there are a million other ways it could have gone, but this is one I haven't seen discussed.

thebirdandbull

Chosen answer: There's no particular answer to this. When Dumbledore had Harry and Hermione go back in time to save Sirius and Buckbeak, he may have wanted to minimize any chance of them causing irreparable harm by changing too many events. The Ministry of Magic strictly controlled how the Time Turners were used and by whom for a good reason. As Hermione mentioned to Harry, horrible things could happen to wizards who meddled with time. It may simply have been too dangerous to add that on to Harry and Hermione's primary mission. Dumbledore may also not have had all the facts about what transpired inside the Shrieking Shack, and he needed to act quickly. He also knew that due to the curse Voldemort put on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position that Lupin would not last longer (one year) than any previous instructor and there was no point in attempting to change that. It also serves the movie's and the book's story lines for the events to unfold as they did. Sirius' unproven innocence was carried over into the next book/movie, and unfortunately, it ended tragically for him.

raywest

Chosen answer: Michael Douglas was not playing the piano himself. Special effects were used to digitally graft Douglas' head onto the body of Philip Fortenberry, a Julliard-trained pianist who also once played at the now-closed Liberace Museum in Las Vegas.

raywest

Chosen answer: In the pumpkin patch, Hermione turned and glimpsed the "other" Harry and Hermione hiding behind the trees. She either thought she'd imagined it or else she realised that it was her time-traveling self and could not let Harry and Ron know what was going on.

raywest

I couldn't see any part of either of them. What part of them was Hermione seeing?

Chosen answer: It's not known how or in what way Obi Wan is powerful or if that power can be physically extended to the living world. Also, for various reasons, Luke, to fulfill his destiny to be a Jedi, must be the one to confront and defeat Vader, though Obi Wan can still guide him.

raywest

There seems to be a common theme (in movies, shows) that a dead person must "move on", and those who are still alive must forge their own path, complete their own journey, etc. This also happens when Dumbledore dies in the Harry Potter series.

26th Feb 2017

Twilight (2008)

Answer: It's because vampires are physically so much stronger than humans that any touch or action can inflict severe injury or even death. This physical characteristic was somewhat toned down in the movies, but in the books, even a simple hug or kiss from Edward could have harmed Bella.

raywest

27th Feb 2017

Star Trek (1966)

The Naked Time - S1-E5

Question: Has it been overlooked that in this episode Spock seems to intuitively know that the sword Sulu is wielding is of the 16th (or 17th) century? It is made clear that Sulu is chasing crewmen with 'a sword' but the type of sword and the manner in which Sulu challenges the men, is not known. Later Spock gives an 'overview' of what is happening on the ship describing Sulu as a 16th (or 17th) century swashbuckler - but the bridge crew had no prior knowledge of what sword Sulu was using or how he was speaking... Was that just one of Spock's "best guesses"?

Answer: It is never revealed how Spock knew this. This is either an educated guess on his part, or else Spock, who is intellectually superior to most humans, has a particular interest in or knowledge of ancient Earth history and is familiar with different types of weapons.

raywest

Question: When Katniss asks Johanna about Annie why does Johanna kind of stutter when answering?

Answer: Joanna hesitates a bit when she's recalling how many years ago it was when Annie was in the games - she tells Katniss it was "four" then corrects herself and says "five." She then seems a bit somber when Katniss indicates that Annie had some kind of mental breakdown, implying that Annie is Joanna's friend. Joanna is being shown as having a softer side than the harder image she tries to project.

raywest

Answer: Joanna won her games the year after Annie. It's possible she stuttered and corrected herself when recalling how many years ago Annie won was because she was shocked by how long ago it seems her own games were.

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