Answered 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: What exactly is the "water" that Mama Fratelli serves the Goonies?

Answer: It really is water, but since the restaurant hasn't been in operation for some time, residue and grime have built up in the pipes, causing the water to be discolored.

Ral0618

Question: When Gandalf is resurrected he says "I had been sent back, until my task is completed". What is this 'task'?

Answer: To advise and guide the races of Middle-Earth in their fight against the powers of evil.

Tailkinker

Question: Who built the 'winding stair' and why would they build it?

Answer: Tolkien never addresses the question of who built it - one candidate would be the Gondorians, who were responsible for the construction of both the Tower of Cirith Ungol and Minas Morgul (then named Minas Ithil). The stair could have been used as a stealthy method of moving between the two, although the presence of Shelob, who was present before either was built, would complicate matters. Probably the most likely candidate would be Sauron's forces, at some point during the Second Age, as a method of moving between the two passes through the mountains.

Tailkinker

Answer: As seen in the Extended Edition, their primary reason is to talk to Saruman and to find out what he knows. While they would know by that point that the Ents are up to something - the appearance of the Huorns at Helm's Deep (Two Towers Extended) would tell them that - it's not likely that they'd actually know that the Ents had attacked Isengard. They might strongly suspect that something had happened there, but it's not likely that they actually knew for certain.

Tailkinker

Question: In the Fellowship it shows Isildur dead in the water from some arrows and then the Ring falling into the water. In the RotK it shows Deagol picking up the Ring in the water. Where exactly is this?

Answer: This takes place in an area referred to as the Gladden Fields, which is where the Gladden River meets the Great River Anduin (the river that the Fellowship travel on by boat), some distance to the north of Galadriel's realm of Lorien.

Tailkinker

Question: Why didn't the elves let everyone go to the undying lands? That way no one would die from Mordor's armies. In fact everyone would be happy there.

Answer: The Elves had no say in the matter. The Undying Lands were created for the Elves by the gods, who decided who was allowed in; the only non-Elves allowed were Bilbo, Frodo and Sam (as Ringbearers) and Gimli (due to his participation in the Fellowship and friendship with Legolas).

Xofer

Question: What is the name of the song that plays in the ads for this film? It played on the radio quite a bit about four or five years ago, but I don't know the name or who sang it.

Krista

Chosen answer: "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" by Nina Gordon.

Jane Doe

Question: I must have missed something. When did Shrek spare Puss' life? All I saw was Puss attacking him, then coughing up a hairball. Puss makes such a huge deal of the spared-my-life debt but it didn't make much sense to me.

Answer: Puss means that when he is incapacitated by the hairball, Shrek could have killed him easily. Shrek does not only refrain from this, but does not do anything to harm Puss at all, even if Puss attacked him.

Twotall

Answer: Shrek did eventually get ahold of Puss after the hairball, Shrek then asking who sent him. This is the moment Puss says "and the King offered me much in gold." Shrek is too shocked by this news to care to hurt Puss. Since Shrek is an ogre, Puss believes his life has been spared.

Question: Why on earth does Marion take her bra off before putting on the white dress given to her by Belloc?

Answer: She takes off her bra because the dress has a very low back.

Answer: She was trying to "seduce" Belloc and get him drunk so she could escape. What better way to take a man's attention off your real plans, than to wear a white dress with no bra on.

Mark English

Answer: Strapless and backless dresses usually have a bra-like support constructed within it, and the wearer does not need to wear an additional foundation garment. Otherwise, the dress would not fit properly and would look odd, particularly a backless one.

raywest

Question: When Paris is with Helen at Sparta, there are no tattoos on his body. However, in real life, Orlando Bloom has several tattoos on his body, including one on his left elbow. How is this trick of deleting tattoos performed?

Answer: CGI or makeup.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Exactly how did Van Helsing and Carl get out of Draculas' Castle? When Carl tried to back out shortly after arriving he just bounced off the wall, so how did they get out later?

Answer: The spell's objective was to keep Dracula prisoner; once he is dead, the spell is broken, so everyone could have left the way they came in.

Sereenie

Question: I'm really bad at remembering faces - was just wondering if the guy who Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon meet, and eat with - and play the weird phrases game, is also Le Marque - so technically, did CZJ met her father unofficially, (before Pitt introduces him) when she was interrogating him?

Answer: Le Marque and Matsui (the weird phrase guy) are played by Albert Finney and Robbie Coltrane, respectively (so no, she never met him before).

Xofer

Question: What's the deal with Phantom's magical lasso? One of the actors talks about it. What is this magical lasso, and did Phantom ever use it?

Answer: It's what he uses to kill Buquet, and what he tried to strangle Raoul with at the end. It's not really magical though - that's just Buquet over exaggerating for the sake of his story.

Sereenie

Question: How, in the scene before the ballet (the one where Christine acted as a page) did Phantom manage to make Charlotte croak?

Answer: He switched her "throat mist" for his own concoction.

Sereenie

Question: I know the story about how Andrew Lloyd Webber had planned to adapt his original musical to film with Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in their original roles, but then Webber and Brightman divorced and things never panned out. But now after all these years, why didn't Joel Shumacher contact Sarah Brightman and/or Michael Crawford to do the film? It seems they were meant to play the leads. If I do recall, Michael Crawford had been contacted but declined. Can somebody shed some light?

Answer: Schumacher wanted young, up-and-coming actors to play the roles. Brightman and (especially) Crawford were too old for his taste. Besides, Christine is supposed to be a very young lady; a middle-aged Brightman would have been laughable at best seen up close.

Sereenie

Answer: He grew them himself, and used the trees around Orthanc as fuel in the process. In addition, he probably recruited Orcs from the Misty Mountains, in the same way that you can see him recruiting the Wild Men from Dunland.

Twotall

Question: In The Bourne Identity, Conklin orders his staff to activate all Treadstone operatives. The only one in Germany is Pico, who is based in Hamburg. In the Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne returns to Berlin and kills the "last" Treadstone field agent. This operative never makes mention of the fact that he killed Conklin. Was he supposed to be the same field agent as Pico from Hamburg in Bourne Identity? If so, it is a different actor playing the same role. That may not be so uncommon, but there is a mistake in the city where the German operative is based - Jason Bourne tells him: "You should have moved" - as if he was always based in Berlin, not Hamburg. Anyone have an explanation?

Answer: Picot from The Bourne Identity is not in The Bourne Supremacy. The one Jason Bourne pays a visit is called Jardo (director Paul Greengrass mentions this on the commentary track) and lives in Munich (visible on screen), ie. South Germany.

Question: What happened to the two girls in Dave's crew? They were at all the practices, but not in the finals.

Answer: When Dave's crew went to the finals they wanted to bring the best dancers in their group, so they apparently decided that the two girls happened to be the least strong dancing wise on his team.

Question: What is the name of the song that is played during the wedding when they switch back and forth from the wedding and Jess's final match before her final kick?

Answer: Puccini aria Nessum Dorma sung by Tito Beltran. Famously sung by Aretha Franklin at the 98 Grammy's when Pavarotti cancelled 45 minutes before showtime.

Question: Although we see that the biker gang has about 20 members when we first encounter them, why does Max only kill 7-8 bikers after his family is run down?

Answer: He kills the members of the gang directly involved in the attack on his wife/child, and the one who ordered it.

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