Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: OK, let's see: Lamar Burgess set Anderton up; he Hired Leo Crow and sent him to be killed in a hotel. But How did exactly Burgess plan the meeting of Anderton with Crow? Anderton arrived at the crime scene by a chain of events that began with the pre-vision of his destiny. It was clear that Lamar did not fake the pre-vision, because this became true just like it was predicted; besides, when Anderton was being chased, he arrived to crime scene by a coincidence; so what did Burguess have to do to make sure the existence of the pre-vision and this possible future? I don't see a simple solution.

Answer: Well, there isn't really a simple solution, but here goes. For a pre-vision to form, there have be two things present within the range of the precog ability (which appears to be limited to the Washington area - regardless of the stated plan to take the programme countrywide, there's never any indication that the precogs can sense beyond that range). Firstly, someone with the intent to kill. Secondly, there has to be a target for that intent within the range of the precogs. Anderton is present, and has the intent within him to kill the man who took his son, but has no target - the real kidnapper is presumably either dead or beyond the precog ability. Burgess, by bribing Crow to pretend to be that man, has provided a viable target for Anderton's intent within the range of the precog ability, thus triggering the prevision, and beginning the chain of events.

Tailkinker

The above answers the question, but there do appear to be some time travel issues with this plot point in the movie. Burgess set things up for Crow to fake being the kidnapper and thus triggering Jon's desire to kill that person, everything starts by the pre-cogs seeing the future. If the pre-cogs did not exist or did not have the vision, Jon would have never known that Leo Crow existed and would have continued on without having killed anyone. This is unique within the movie, as the other murders would have been commited regardless of whether or not the pre-cogs saw it. In this case, the ONLY reason this murder occurred is because the pre-cogs saw it.

oldbaldyone

Thinking about this a little more, it could be conceivable that Burgess had planned a different option for Jon finding Crow. We just never saw that on screen, because the precogs changed everything to an alternative future timeline once they saw the original murder. Originally, Jon could have been triggered by Burgess himself, stating that they got a lead on his son's murder and pointing him to Crow.

oldbaldyone

No I think Burgess set it up so that Anderton would find Crow because of the precogs, not have a different plan set up before or else it could be possible Burgess himself would be visible in the prevision. He manipulated the system perfectly, he has done it before after all. He knows exactly how the precogs work so he is able to set it up so that it's untraceable. Except, except for the fact there is always a choice. Only then did it go wrong for him. This proves both true for Anderton and Burgess in the end.

lionhead

Question: What piece of music does Anderton start playing whenever he's analysing the Precog visions?

Answer: It's Schubert's Unfinished Symphony (a.k.a. Symphony 8 in B Minor). Quite appropriate for watching events that have not yet finished.

Tailkinker

Question: Can anyone tell me what Obi-Wan Kenobi means when he asks R4 to transmit a message to Coruscant? It's the "Care of the old folks home" bit which confuses me.

Answer: It's a humorous reference to the Jedi Council.

J I Cohen

Question: I know that Arwen's mother is Celebrain (daughter of Celeborn and Galadriel) since she was married to Elrond, so my question is where is her mother now? And also where are her brothers (Elladan and Elrohir)? Or is this just a book/film difference?

Answer: Celebrían was attacked by orcs in the Misty Mountains and was rescued by Elladan and Elrohir. She passed into the West soon after. Elladan and Elrohir do not appear officially in the films, though some have argued that this elf or that elf could be them in the Council of Elrond scene.

Phil C.

Question: How come Will doesn't know his father was a pirate? And who was his mother?

Answer: Will grew up believing that his father was a merchant sailor. Since that meant that William Turner would spend a good deal of his time away from home, it was easy for his father to keep the secret from Will and perhaps even the mother, that he was in reality a pirate. We don't know specifically who Will's mother was, only that she raised him in England until she died.

Super Grover

Question: In the extended version, Aragorn calms Brego down by speaking Elvish to him. What does he say in Elvish, and is there a translation?

Answer: "Man le trasta, Brego? Man cenich?" Which means, "What troubles you, Brego? What did you see?" This is why he says to Eowyn that Brego has seen enough war, and to set Brego free.

Super Grover

Question: It is something like 3000 years between Isildur's death and Aragorn's coronation. Why didn't someone else of Isildur's heirs (ex. his son) return to Minas Tirith to reclaim the throne?

Answer: After the war of the Ring, Isildur and his family went back to Arnor in the far North where they originated. Arnor was later conquered by the Nazgul and so that was the end of that line. Gondor had been left to be ruled by Anarion - Isildur's brother - but that line of the family simply died out leaving Gondor in the care of the Stewards.

jle

Question: In the film they find Jimmy Hoffa's body, but who is he? I've never heard of him.

Answer: Hoffa was the powerful and controversial leader of the Teamsters Union from 1957 to 1971. Often alleged to have ties to organized crime, Hoffa was convicted of fraud and jury tampering in 1964 and served four years in prison before his sentence was commuted by President Nixon. In 1975, while trying to regain power in the union, Hoffa disappeared from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was widely assumed to have been killed by the Mafia. His body was never found, and in 1983 he was declared legally dead. Many movies joke of this, because to this day, his body has not been recovered.

T Poston

Answer: Congenial-1. Kindred, sympathetic 2. suited to one's taste or nature: Agreeable. (New Merriam-Webster dictionary)

Grumpy Scot

Question: Why exactly do the pirates need Bootstrap Bill's blood to lift the curse? What is so special about his lifeblood that renders it capable of lifting a mythical curse that quite obviously predates him?

Answer: He took one coin from the treasure, thus he got cursed along with the other pirates who did. For the curse to be lifted, *all* of those who took a coin need 1) to give back their coin and 2) to give some of their own blood. Since Bootstrap's somewhere in the ocean's depths, tied to a cannon, the only way for the pirates to lift the curse is to find his coin and put it back, then find his son (which they know about and who is of the same blood as he) to make the blood sacrifice.

Sereenie

Question: We know that Saruman and his tower remain standing, despite the flood... so how did the Palantir end up in the water? Did Saruman throw it out of the tower?

rabid anarchist

Chosen answer: Saruman did throw the palantiri. It's a missing scene that will, hopefully, be edited back in for the Extended Edition.

cullothiel

Question: Pandora's box has already been opened according to legend thats why there is bad in the world so why does it matter if anyone gets hold of the box.

Answer: As the movie sets out, that is the "Sunday school" version of the story. Within the movie, the legend is based on an artifact that not only bestowed life upon the earth but also slew all who opened it with horrible disease, gaining a reputation for containing the essences of both "good" and "evil."

Phoenix

Question: When judge Doom is "dipped", the other toons ask who he was, does anyone out in movie land know who he was supposed to be?

Answer: Even though it's never known who Judge Doom was, a fan theory has sprung up about a possible identity. In Maroon's office is a framed picture of a toon called Pistol Packin' Possum. The theory is that Judge Doom is Pistol Packin' Possum in disguise. This is because the photograph of Pistol Packin' Possum has red eyes and so does Judge Doom and the gun that Doom uses to kill Mr. Maroon is the same gun that Pistol Packin' Possum is holding in the picture.

Answer: I don't think he was supposed to be any established cartoon character; they just wanted to know who the pile of goo on the floor used to be.

Xofer

Answer: In the book "Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom", it is explained that Doom was originally Baron von Rotten, a toon that would play villains. But then he got a concussion and woke up thinking he was a real villain, and then sets out to rob the bank and killed Teddy by dropping a piano on his head.

Bishop73

Question: Does Riley (from Buffy-and sorry, don't know his real name) make a few appearances in the movie? And also Zac (Mark something) from Saved by the bell?

Answer: According to IMDb, Marc Blucas (Riley Finn) played Basketball Hero. Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack) was not present.

Phoenix

Question: Does anyone know the significance of the title, Gothika? It wasn't apparent to me when watching the film.

Answer: The word Gothika means - when someone is seeing or feeling things that others don't see, and as a result, others think that someone is crazy, even when that someone is not crazy. All in all, that is the exact plot of the film.

Answer: It's meant to reflect the dark, 'gothic' aspects of the movie.

J I Cohen

Answer: Dawn's experience here was meant to be a teaser for original plotline of season 7, intended to explore Dawn's Key-ness and how it affects her place in the universe now that it's gone. However, when SMG left the show, the writers were forced to pursue a different plotline to give viewers a satisfactory ending. So it was supposed to be Joyce when the episode was written, but subsequent reinterpretation implies that it is actually the First.

Phoenix

Question: I'm not going to list this as a mistake since apparently it didn't happen, but George obviously changed his, his wife's, and Biff's future (at least) when he knocked Biff out in 1955. Since right there the timeline would have changed, what are the odds that Marty would still have been in the parking lot driving from the Libyans and going back to 1955? Couldn't Marty have accidentally caused a paradox to destroy the universe?

Answer: Yes, he could have. But some theorize that the function of the universe itself cancels out paradoxes. For example, Larry Niven proposed that time travel can never be developed because by its nature it would constantly cause paradoxes, so natural accidents and twists of fate prevent time travel from being discovered. In this case, it's possible that Marty's life was rewritten to insure that he was in the right place at the right time to prevent a paradox.

Phoenix

Question: What exactly is meant by never feed them "after midnight". Every moment of time that does not happen right at midnight may be construed as happening after midnight...even 11:59PM which occurs 23 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds AFTER the preceding midnight. I would assume that the afternoon hours are considered before midnight, but does anyone know the exact extent of "after midnight"?

Michael Westpy

Chosen answer: The precise cut-off point is never stated - I've generally assumed that the embargo on feeding finishes once the sun comes up.

Tailkinker

Question: What's the name of the song Dutch and co. are listening to in the chopper?

Answer: Long Tall Sally by Little Richard.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Near the start of the movie, when Jackie scales the bamboo scaffold, Chris Tucker takes the stairs. During his ascent he passes an old lady who says something like "Move Kobe". What does 'Kobe' mean?

Answer: She thought Chris Tucker was Kobe Bryant from the L.A. Lakers.

T Poston

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