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: When Joker says, "Is it you, John Wayne?" I don't really understand this joke. Unless he's just trying to be random, but then isn't he worried he might be in trouble?

Answer: The quote was "Is that you John Wayne? Is this me?" Its a quote directly from the book the movie was based on. In the book Cowboy says it rather than Joker, mocking Hartman for barking out orders like John Wayne in many of his movies. After saying "Is this me?" Cowboy takes off his Stetson and fans his face, play acting a less masculine character that might also be found in a John Wayne movie. In the FMJ scene they of course weren't wearing Stetsons (full brimmed ranger hats) so it's a little off.

Answer: I always thought from the way Joker says it in the movie, that he is making a joke about the Gunny sounding like John Wayne ("Is that you John Wayne?"). But he says this joke mimicking the voice of John Wayne, which leads him to comically add "Is this me?" He is basically making a joke and then laughing at his joke by adding on to it.

Question: What is the whole deal with the black guy who sleeps all the time? And Sydney was sneaking in changing the time on the clock. I can't quite get the gist of that. Please help and thanks in advance.

Answer: When Sydney arrives at the Vortex, she is told that Embele is a Nigerian transfer student, who is still jet lagged despite the fact that he has been in the U.S. for about three years already. She decides to take matters into her own hands to help him. Every single day she adjusts the time on his alarm clock, so each day he is a bit closer to the actual local time. Then after about a month or two, his body has slowly adjusted to the proper time, which allows him to function normally, instead of sleeping all the time.

Super Grover

Question: When Kate and Chris are in the tunnel (in 1357), Kate tells one of the monks to go tell Arnaut. When did Kate know of the existence of Arnaut, as they had yet to meet?

Answer: Kate is an archaeologist who,d been studying the castle's history for quite a while. She knows the protagonists and who's in charge.

Sereenie

Question: Who is the band on the big screen during Mardi Gras and what is the song? It's the goth music video which Dracula describes as "brilliant."

Answer: "Heads Explode" by Monster Magnet.

OneHappyHusky

Question: How did they film the shot with the different colour medicines coming out of the same bottle?

Answer: Most likely a variation on the "inexhaustible bottle" magic trick which has existed in various forms for hundreds of years - it relies on different chambers holding different liquids, and air holes in the bottle being covered or not change the pressure and allow the desired liquid to flow out. As the scene is one continuous shot with the entire bottle visible, this seems most likely - the air holes could be on the side away from the camera, with Julie Andrews repositioning her thumb for each colour. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inexhaustible_bottle.

Jon Sandys

Question: What was the type of jet that Tony Stark used to travel to Afghanistan in? Is this an actual jet or a movie mock-up?

Answer: It's a CGI mockup. Originally a Boeing 737 Business Jet, it was decided during production that a regular jet wasn't nearly sexy enough for Stark, leading to everything from the wings back being replaced with a digital model that looked cooler.

Tailkinker

Question: Why and how did all that stuff end up in his apartment? Did the computer send it? If so, how and why? How was the FBI coming to his apartment "motivating" him?

Answer: ARIA sent the stuff to his apartment so the FBI would catch it and go after him. His motivation was that only ARIA could "save" him from the FBI, who was investigating him for terrorism.

Ingabritzen

Question: What's the reason why Rafterman doesn't chase after the guy who steals his camera and Joker replies with his own set of "karate moves"?

Answer: Because he knows he cannot possibly catch him. The "karate moves" just shows his frustration.

raywest

Answer: Because it's basically a government camera. It's not his personal camera. He'll just go back and report that someone stole his camera and they'll issue him a new one. Not a big deal for that type of equipment, considering they're in a war zone. If they stole his rifle, it probably would have been a bigger deal, but it's just a camera.

Answer: Yes. He loves messing around with customised cars like that - throwing in some of the red colour is a nod to that. Plus it stops him flying around in a gold-coloured suit, which even he considers a bit over the top.

Tailkinker

Question: Evie was able to translate the ancient Chinese on the Eye of Shangri-la, so that means she has some knowledge of the language. So why did she leave it to Rick to tell the resurrected General Min that they were on his side? (All she said in that scene was "I don't think he speaks English.")

Answer: Reading and speaking many Eastern languages can be entirely different tasks so it's perfectly plausible that she knew how to translate the writing but not how to speak it.

Question: During the end credits it says "Dedicated to Ryan Mone." Who was he and what happened to this man?

Answer: Ryan Mone was a young hockey player from Martha's Vineyard, who died in a car accident at the age of just seventeen. The Farrelly brothers are long-term friends of the Mone family and chose to dedicate their film to Ryan as their tribute to his memory.

Tailkinker

Question: In the scene where Joker is talking with Cowboy, what does he mean by "I think that Leonard is a section-A" and pretty much the rest of the conversation about Cowboy's sister?

Answer: What he says is "Section 8," the category for a psychological discharge from the US military. Since they don't care one way or another, the conversation shifts to how much Joker wants to do Cowboy's sister.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Where can I find reviews of the extended version?

Answer: Here are two random reviews: http://dvd.ign.com/articles/647/647168p1.html and http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58493Simply google "gladiator extended version review" and you'll find tons of them.

Mortug

Question: Warning: Spoiler. At the end of the movie, it's found that three of the victims had managed to escape; only one was actually returned to the parents. It isn't known if the other two were recaptured by the killer or managed to get away (but went into hiding). Why didn't the police just go back and question the killer's accomplice? He'd likely be able to reveal whether any of the boys had been recaptured. (We're never told if the accomplice had died by that point, or whether he was unavailable, or whether nobody bothered asking him.)

Answer: When the accomplice is originally questioned he says that killer told him a few 'may have escaped', implying he never knew if they were caught.

Also, it's implied his accomplice a young boy himself was scared of ending up like the boys himself, sadly I think it was done for survival.

Answer: The song playing in this scene is A Bad Dream by Keane.

pinkwafer

Rain King - S6-E8

Question: I didn't understand why Darryl's rain business had been working (before the agents arrived). If Holt was the one who had been changing the weather, and he didn't like Darryl, why was he creating rain and allowing Darryl's business to be successful?

Answer: The rain were Holt's tears, not his happiness. Whenever Darryl did his rain dance, Shelia was in his corner, like a cheerleader, praising him. He caused a tornado, when she confessed her attraction to Agent Mulder.

Answer: Because Darryl's success makes Sheila happy. Holt loves Sheila and is happy when she is happy. Ergo, Holt makes Darryl successful.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Tony Stark has a socket in his chest that is dead centre. What on earth must his rib cage be like? Surely the chap who helped him out in the cave didn't cut out his rib cage to fit the socket in?

Answer: Without seeing X-rays of Tony Stark's chest its impossible to determine. Most likely, a large portion of his ribcage was removed (possibly a portion that was damaged by the shrapnel), and the remainder of the ribcage was secured to the elctromagnet's outer shell, built into Stark's sternum. How his ribcage is able to expand and contract with a large chunk of steel lodged into it I have no idea.

Question: A small thing that I was curious about: when Billy and Sidney are in the police station, they are in two rooms/areas that are only separated by a glass wall. In real life, would a suspect be kept so close to the person they are accused of attacking?

Answer: No, this is completely incorrect from the film makers. US police stations by law have to have an interrogation cell deliberately so as to avoid the accused person intimidating witnesses or the victim, as billy does to Sydney. Even if the interrogation cell were being used when Billy is brought into the station, he would then be put in a holding cell to wait his turn - they categorically would not just allow him to sit in the public, non guarded part of the station near the accuser.

swordfish

Question: What exactly happens in the opening? I'm assuming Blofeld is the one Bond kills, but what was the point of it? Was it just to answer the question about what happened to him? And why was his face not shown?

Answer: The producers of the film had a falling out with Kevin McClory, who had the rights to the character of Blofeld. They decided to kill off Blofeld to show McClory that the films could manage fine without the character. Obviously, without McClory's permission they couldn't go so far as to say that the guy in the wheelchair is actually Blofeld, otherwise they'd get into legal bother, so they just left it to fans to assume that's who it is.

Madstunts

Question: What happened to people who were shipped to the Americas?

Answer: They would have become indentured servants - basically their debt be bought by someone in the Americas and they would be forced to work for the buyer until the debt had been worked off.

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.