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: Does anybody have an explanation to the apparent violation of orders by Miller's team? Their orders are to find and bring back Pvt Ryan, yet they engage themselves in one battle after another, repeatedly jeopardizing their mission. One would expect the mission objective to be exclusive, and that engagements with the enemy should be avoided of possible.

Airborne Ranger

Chosen answer: Miller is a good officer. He won't carry out his orders at the expense of having American soldiers die. Losing Ryan at the battle would have doomed his unit. He knows that not losing this town is more important to the war effort than saving Ryan.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Why does the Jedi council decide against training Anakin? One thing is that Yoda senses much fear in him, and that he is past the standard age for training, but with his power level you would think it wiser NOT to have him running around like a loose cannon, developing his powers in all sorts of directions, not to mention the risk of him being recruited by Dark Jedi.

Twotall

Chosen answer: Yoda and others on the council probably used Jedi farseeing (a power mentioned in the novel sequels which have been said to be part of the universe continuity by Lucas) and learned it to be a bad idea. It is also possible that Anakin's bringing "balance to the Force" is by becoming Vader and bringing down the old corrupt Republic and (indirectly) replacing it with a new Jedi order and a new Republic. They told Obi Wan they wouldn't train Anakin knowing that that is what was necessary to begin bringing back balance.

Grumpy Scot

The Dogs of War - S5-E2

Question: How did they find Zoe and who kidnapped her? At first they said that the Bahii were taking responsibility for it, then Leo tells Will that they never found the Bahii sleepers. Also, the man on the helicopter tells the President and the First Lady that Zoe was dropped off on the side of a road and she called 911 on her cell phone, then, later, on the ground, another man tells the Bartletts that they found her tied up in a closet. What really happened?

Answer: One of the kidnappers was having an argument with his girlfriend and dumped her. She called 911 about Zoe.

No, some woman had an argument with her boyfriend, and he kicked her out of the car in the rain. She tried to take shelter in an abandoned farmhouse and noticed the kidnappers holed up in there, and called 911.

Brian Katcher

Question: Terry Chaney from the first final destination got "splattered" by a bus, her initials are T.C., and she was second on death's list, Tim Carpenter from the second final destination gets "splattered" by plate glass, his initials are T.C. and he was also second on death's list. Did the screenwriters do that on purpose or did that just a coincidence?

Answer: It was a coincidence, Since it would have to be the same for all of the other individuals on deaths list. But, if you watch both movies, the first person who dies in Final Destinations dies in a similair manner as the first person on deaths list in Final Destinations 2. It is like this for every other person, too.

Question: What accent does Christine's character speak with? Which part of the UK, social class if anyone knows, etc.? And also the character who's the host in Will's favorite restaurant, the one who says "Will, you're disturbing the other customers"?

Answer: Christine is from Glasgow, Scotland. The maitre d' is Russell Barr (http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0056566/).

jle

Question: There are many scenes where the film is "flipped". (You can usually tell because the brooch on the Elven cloaks is reversed.) Is there a reason why the brooch on Samwise's cloak is the reverse of everyone else's throughout the films?

Laurie Brown

Chosen answer: It is true to say that flipped shots are obvious for this "brooch" reason, but there is a much better explanation if Samwise's is like it for the whole film. It could be that the actor who plays him is left handed and therefore unlike the majority of the cast, he would put his on the other way round. Not a definitive answer, but a practical one.

David Mercier

Answer: After battles Legolas picks up the enemies' arrows (if they used any). I believe that he also makes his own (though we don't seem him do either of the 2 things).

bessytheevilcow

Question: Can a Star Trek fan tell me what is the name of the ship that's hanging when Mr. Cupid is doing the puppet show?

Answer: It's the Enterprise from the original series.

Grumpy Scot

Show generally

Question: How was Dr. Peter Benton written off the show? I just started watching the show regularly and I've seen some of the reruns from earlier seasons, but I've never seen that explained.

Answer: He took a job at another facility, and he had full custody of his son, so they moved to the 'burbs.

Jack's Revenge

Question: Did John Belushi do all the dancing, especially the turnovers in church, by himself or was it a double?

Answer: It was a double, and the "making of" documentary on the DVD shows this.

David Mercier

To be fair, John did do a lot of flips and dancing as Jake; just not all of them in the movie.

Question: Within the last 5 minutes of the film, Evan (Ashton Kutcher) wakes up from his very last life changing flashback in a dorm room with his roommate, Lenny, the fat blonde kid from his childhood. If you recall, in the flashback which preceded this, Evan as a young kid tells KayLee at her birthday party to "Never talk to me again or I'll kill you and your family." The flashback changes his future so KayLee would still be alive, as she is appeared on the streets of New York when Evan (the stockbroker) walks past her, in the final scene of the movie. The question is, if the flashback is supposed to correct the past to change his future, how is Evan still friends with Lenny (fat blonde kid), but has no relation or 'real' knowledge of KayLee, nor does Lenny.....?

ramiro quintero

Chosen answer: During the movie Kaylee specifically told Evan that after her parents split up the reason she chose to stay with her abusive father was because of her friendship with Evan. Since Evan changed the past by never becoming friends with her, Kaylee and her brother went to live with their mother after the split which was ultimately a better life for them. Lenny was also a neighborhood friend and there is nothing to suggest that Evan wouldn't still be friends with him even though he never became friends with Kaylee.

Thank you, I was confused about how one sentence change the whole ending.

Answer: He isn't a stockbroker.

Question: What exactly was wrong with Forney's sister? I know he said she started drinking when he was younger but why did she have to be taken care of all the time?

Answer: She has been drinking since she was younger, and died from alchohol related disease.

Chosen answer: It was most likely Joss Whedon messing with the audience. It was intended to make people believe he wasn't really dead and he was coming back somehow. Also, they didn't want to give away that Wesley was joining the cast, which is how it concludes.

Question: At the beginning of the movie when the killer is about to kill Cotton, he changes his voice and talks about how it was a simple game. Does anyone know who the voice belongs to?

Answer: The "voice" in all the movies belongs to Roger L. Jackson.

Season 2 Episode 6 - S2-E6

Question: In the 'Stars in their Eyes' bit, which of the characters is singing as George Michael on, 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me'?

Answer: Jerry St. Claire.

Question: Does anyone have a translation as to what the Mullaram says during the human sacrifice scenes? He chants something like 'Cully-ma, Cully-ma, Cully-ma sha-ti-day.' Also, what does the human sacrifice say? It sounds like 'Oh num-shi-vye.'

Answer: He says "kali ma, shakti day". This is hindi and means (literally) "black mother, give me power/strength". "Ohm nama Shivaya" means "I bow to Shiva." Both are Hindi.

Question: The song playing during the opening titles is "Volcano Girls" by Veruca Salt. The song seemed to "shape the film", but wasn't on the soundtrack. Why?

Answer: The band had recently broken up when Jawbreaker was released, so maybe that had something to do with it. Or maybe just a good old-fashioned disagreement about how much VS would be paid for using their song? I agree, the soundtrack seemed somehow empty without it.

Question: Does anyone know what the scene with the chicken is all about? Where did the chicken come from, and is it supposed to represent anything?

Krista

Chosen answer: If you watch the commentary on the movie they discuss this, they explain that the guy who played the mom's boyfriend came up to them and just started doing that thing with the chicken and they thought it was funny so they put it in the movie.

Question: What is the song that plays at the end of the movie in the scene where Evan is in New York City and continues into the credits. Also, who is it by?

Answer: "Stop crying your heart out" by Oasis.

Question: When Harry and Draco are duelling, Draco casts a spell before Lockhart says "three". What spell does he cast on Harry?

Answer: According to the subtitles he said "Everte Statum." No such spell exists in the books.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.