raywest

Question: At the end of the movie where Jack is looking at the map for the Fountain of Youth, I'm pretty sure I saw in faint red writing "To Jerry." And then there is some other writing. Possibly a signature? Jerry is the producer's first name. Did anyone else see this? It is on the left side of the map.

Answer: I could see it, but it's simply too faint to read what it actually says, although it bears a slight resemblance to those words. It's not inconceivable that it says that, however, as movie makers sometimes include hidden messages and/or graphics into their films, such as George Lucas inserting icons of C3PO and R2D2 into "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark".

raywest

Question: In the scene just before Sirius Black is killed he says "Good job, James." Is there someone else named James or is he mistakenly calling Harry by his father's name?

Answer: Sirius is mistakenly referring to Harry as his father, James Potter. After everything Sirius has been through, he is rather emotionally unstable and immature. He has tended to see Harry as a peer and replacement for his dead friend James, rather than acting like Harry's godfather.

raywest

13th Dec 2007

General questions

The details I have on this are sketchy and may not be entirely accurate, but would appreciate any ideas anyone can offer about this movie. It is about a womanizing man who drowns and is sent back to live as a woman as a punishment for his past behavior (not a simple switch with some other woman) The woman could possibly be portrayed by Doris Day, but is someone of her era. Any ideas? Thanks.

Answer: It's the 1964 film, "Goodbye, Charlie," starring Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis. When womanizer Charlie is shot at by a jealous husband, he falls out a ship porthole and drowns. He somehow returns to the living world as a woman (Reynolds). Curtis plays his friend who, after being convinced that it really is Charlie in a woman's body, helps his old buddy.

raywest

Question: When Scarlett visits Rhett in jail to get the $300 for taxes, can anyone speculate as to her plan? Why does she pretend to be rich when she's actually dirt poor? Why would that make her request for money more convincing? Did she plan to ask for a loan, and needed to make it appear as if she would be able to repay it in a reasonable amount of time? I read the book, but this wasn't made clear there either. Can anyone help me?

Answer: If she looked rich she could trick him into thinking she wasn't marrying him for his money.

Answer: Scarlett tries fooling Rhett that she is in love him, somehow thinking that will persuade him to give her the money. She believes if Rhett is in love with her, she can manipulate him, which is what she did with her previous two husbands and various suitors. If she appears desperate and powerless, then Rhett will have the upper hand. He sees through her scheme, however.

raywest

Answer: In the book Scarlett's motivation for dressing up to see Rhett is so that she can go to him 'looking like a queen granting favors." She believes that her way of getting the money is by acting carefree and not desperate as if she looks desperate Rhett will guess it's money she's after (only) and any warmness towards him will look like a ruse to get his money. She is playing on his attraction towards her. Remember the last time she saw him she slapped him and said she hoped a canon ball would land "slap on him." So now she has to appear to be over her venom and her pride will not let her look desperate, also. She's not after marriage to him. If she looks sweet and helpless and gorgeous she figures she'll get the money out of him! (He does say he's tired of looking at women in mourning so she is partly right with her instincts).

12th Oct 2007

Friends (1994)

Chosen answer: This was, "The One After the Superbowl," a two-part episode. Brooke Shields guest starred as Erika Ford, a crazed fan of Joey's character on "Days of our Lives." She stalked him, believing Joey really was the doctor he played on the show.

raywest

Question: This might be subjective, but why does the Enterprise take so much damage, especially interior damage, long before the shields actually collapse?

wizard_of_gore

Chosen answer: There's a limit as to how much the shields can protect the ship. Depending on the force of the explosions, the ship still suffers some damage from any weapon blasts. Also, the shield only holds for so long and gradually loses it protectiveness with successive attacks, causing increasing damage to the ship.

raywest

Answer: The depiction of the shields in this movie is actually interesting because it seems they deliberately tried to show how the ship could plausibly take damage while the shields are up. Here the shields seem to be "on" the hull (or perhaps emanate from the hull itself) and their function seems specific to preventing hull breaches. In TNG and onwards the shields appear as a kind of energy bubble wrapped around the ship, and accordingly they seem to absorb much more impact.

TonyPH

Question: Is it just me or do both of the Patil twins appear to be wearing Griffindor uniforms? one of them (Padma) should be wearing Ravenclaw colours.

Answer: In the books, the Patil sisters are identical twins, but they were sorted into different Hogwarts' Houses (Gryffindor and Ravenclaw). In the movies, they are fraternal twins, and both are in Gryffindor.

raywest

19th Aug 2007

The Great Escape (1963)

Question: In the scenes in which the POWs use the bags inside their trousers to distribute tunnel dirt over the compound, how do they put the pins back into the bags? It seems like a pain in the butt to have to take the bags out, just to put them back in, just to take them back out, etc.

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: The movie is based on a true story and depicts actual events. After dispersing the dirt, the POWs simply removed the bags from their pants, reinserted the pins, and put the filled bags back inside their trousers again. Of course it was a pain, but what other options did they have? Little or none. Carrying out a secret operation in a POW camp with few resources, they worked with what they had, and made what they had work.

raywest

Question: Hagrid was expelled from Hogwart's because he was believed to have opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was stripped of his wand at the same time. Why then, after he is proved innocent of opening the Chamber, is he not given another wand?

Blibbetyblip

Chosen answer: Hagrid apparently still has his old wand that he keeps hidden within his umbrella. That is how he gave Harry's cousin Dudley a tail in "Philosopher's Stone". Also, now that Hagrid has been exonerated, he is free to obtain a new wand if he so wishes.

raywest

Question: Why can Harry only see the thestrals in his fifth year? He saw his parents die when he was a baby - I know there is an explanation I just can't remember it.

Answer: Harry never saw his father die. James Potter was in another part of the house when Voldemort murdered him. It's also unknown if Harry actually witnessed his mother's death. He was in his crib, and his view may have been obstructed. He only remembers seeing a green flash and hearing Lily scream. Also, because he was an infant, he could not interpret what he actually was viewing. One has to be consciously aware when seeing death. However, Harry should have been able to see the thestrals by his second year, after he witnessed Professor Quirrell's death in Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone, although he only witnessed his death in the film. In the book, he passed out before Quirrell died.

raywest

Answer: In reality, he should have been able to see them at the end of the fourth movie but off screen when they were catching the train home.

22nd Jul 2007

General questions

Can anyone help me find the title of this movie? The only thing I remember was that a man was torturing a woman, but she somehow managed to get a gun. She then proceeded to humiliate him by forcing him to eat a dead rat out of a trap and drink sludge off the floor.

Answer: This sounds like the 1986 film, "Extremities" starring Farrah Fawcet as a women who is trapped in her home by a rapist. She is able to turn the tables on him, and he becomes the captive.

raywest

Question: How exactly was Will resurrected? Did that take place when the ship was able to rise back to the surface? And was the Flying Dutchman still a cursed ship at the end even though Will was resurrected and Bootstrap was back to normal human form. It seemed like it to me because one second Will is on the beach with Elizabeth and the next the ship is already on the horizon.

Answer: Whoever stabs Davy Jones' heart becomes immortal themselves, but that person's heart has to be removed and placed in the Dead Man's Chest. Will does "die" before his heart is removed and placed in the chest. Sometime between then and when the "Dutchman" resurfaces, he is resurrected. It's not exactly a curse, Calypso assigned Davy Jones the task of ferrying souls to the next world. However, Jones abandoned his duty and that transformed him and his crew into monsters. When Jones dies, the crew's humanity is restored. Will is now the Flying Dutchman's captain, and he must assume this duty. He can spend one day on land before he leaves, and one day every 10 years after that.

raywest

Question: Because Will was a good captain on the Flying Dutchman and honoured his destiny, was he allowed to return to land for good after the one decade, unlike Davey Jones, therefore freeing his father and crew? Also, could Elizabeth board the Dutchman whenever she wanted to see Will?

Answer: There is much confusion over this. According to some sources, the film writers claim that Will is freed and can return home after he honors his duty for ten years and if his true love (Elizabeth) remains faithful. It is unlikely that Elizabeth can board the Flying Dutchman during this time as it will be in the netherworld, a place she cannot go. (However it's always possible in a future Pirates film they have a brief reunion.) When Davy Jones abandoned his duty, he transformed into a monster and returned to the living world where he wrecked havoc.

raywest

Answer: He was cursed to sail the Flying Dutchman for all eternity, but to go on dry land for one day every ten years.

Question: How exactly did the dog escape from Pelagosto island?

Answer: It's unknown, although Captain Teague, Jack's father, makes a sly reference about "sea turtles," an obvious reference to Gibb's claim that Jack escaped the island he was marooned on by lashing two sea turtles together. Will uses this same "tall tale" to explain how he escaped from Davy Jones.

raywest

Answer: He deciphered a clue on Sao Feng's navigational chart. He realized that "sundown" did not mean "sunset". Rather it meant that what was up had to be down to upturn back into the living world. They had to capsize the ship at sunset to return at sunrise amid the "green flash" that signals when a soul returns to earth.

raywest

Question: Why did the lady Calipso blow up into crabs?

Answer: There's no definitive explanation, although Calypso seems to have a particular fondness for the crustaceans, as can be seen after she sends the crabs to retrieve the Black Pearl when they're in Davy Jones' Locker. She is seen affectionately holding one that has scurried back to her. When she's released from her human prison, her spirit disperses into crabs and returns to the sea.

raywest

Question: Did i miss something? In the 1st pirates movie, the pirate with the glass eye tried to get rid of Jack and his crew. But in this movie they are part of his crew. I know they sneaked onto the ship, but nobody who saw them questioned them or recognized them as the pirates who tried to kill them before.

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: Pintel and Ragetti (the one with the wooden eye) are pirates. They are basically loyal to themselves and adapt to whatever the situation is that best serves their own purpose, rather than out of loyalty to anyone else. They'll serve under whoever offers the best motive or profit for doing so. The same goes for the captains. If they need a crew, they will utilize whoever is available at the moment, even if they know they've been disloyal in the past, as was the case when Jack allowed them back on his ship. This is a bit of a "running gag" in the series that the characters are constantly betraying one another.

raywest

Question: The title of the film 'At worlds end' implies to me that they considered the world to be flat, but in Beckett's ship there is a globe. Am I reading the title incorrectly or is this a mistake? Also, in the scene in which Sparrow goes to retrieve his 'effects' and a cannonball blasts through the brig, how is this possible, because the ship in the maelstrom was at such an angle that it would have been impossible for the Pearl to fire one through there.

Answer: It had already been well known for several centuries that the earth was round. World's End is the end of the living world and the beginning of the netherworld. Also, this is not a normal maelstrom, it was one created by Calypso, so the ship could have momentarily uprighted itself in some manner.

raywest

Question: Hey, i was just wondering if anyone could tell me what happens after the credits? I went to see it at the cinema and walked out before they were over. Thanks.

Answer: This can be seen on You Tube, but the post-credits "Easter Egg" scene is set ten years later. Elizabeth and a young boy, (presumably her and Will's son) are walking towards a cliff overlooking the sea. A green flash is seen on Elizabeth's face. On the horizon is the Flying Dutchman (fully restored to its full glory) and Will is on the mast. He is returning to his family.

raywest

Question: In the scene where Jack is being rescued he says "Four of you have tried to kill mein the past. One of you succeeded". Barbossa tried, Will tried, Elizabeth tried (successfully) so who was the fourth person in the group that Jack is referring to?

Answer: Apparently it was Tia Dalma, although it's not specified exactly how or why she tried killing him.

raywest

Apparently it was in a sexual way (not a physical attempt to kill him). Hence why just after, she says "now don't pretend like you didn't enjoy it."

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