Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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The Antique - S5-E12

Question: When Hogan gives Klink $100 for the cuckoo clock, the bill handed over was a crisp American $100 note. How did Hogan get an American $100 note? At best, in this time period, he should only have Reich Marks. And how would he have 333 Marks, 33 pfennigs? Unless he had a side businesses going, this seems unlikely.

Movie Nut

Answer: It's a comedy, not a documentary.

stiiggy

Perhaps it was counterfeit. There are numerous episodes where they deal in counterfeit monies.

Chosen answer: Hogan and his men are running a spy ring out of the camp, they have access to supplies from outside. (In another episode, they have to convince a defecting German officer that they're legitimately working for the Allies by arranging a specific personal ad to run in the next day's London Times, so a new $100 bill is not beyond their capabilities).

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Werner Klemperer fled Nazi Germany as a teenager. His two conditions for taking the role of Colonel Klink were that he had to be a bumbling idiot and he always had to lose. It would then be a character mistake that if Hogan offers him a fresh American hundred-dollar bill, he's not going to ask questions, he's going to take the deal. The fact that he's Commandant and could just confiscate the money from Hogan would never occur to him because, again, he's a bumbling idiot who, by the actor's contract, always has to lose.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Rightfully, Hogan should not have any money at all. POW were stripped of all cash they carried. The intention was to make escape more difficult. The fact that Hogan has what is the equivalent of a third of the price of a KdF-Wagen (You'd probably know it as a Volkswagen Beetle) in cash should rightfully make Klink more than a litle suspicious.

Question: In the hotel scene in China, Bond throws the ashtray at what is believed to be a mirror but is actually a 1 way mirror where the guys had cameras. Were they trying to shoot a sex tape or something?

Answer: This was the 20th Bond film and there are a number of references to previous films throughout. This scene references From Russia With Love, where agents of SPECTRE film Bond and Tatiana for their blackmail/murder/suicide plot to both kill Bond and steal the Lektor decoder. Bond sees it coming this time, though - it's most likely just the Chinese security service keeping him under surveillance.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Since the Chinese government agent at the reception area recognized Bond as a British spy, they wanted to keep tabs on his activities and understand why he was patronizing the hotel and showing up in the area unannounced.

Timothy Conard

Question: How did Willy Wonka know that Charlie and Grandpa Joe had stolen Fizzy Lifting Drinks? The entire time they were in the room they were completely alone and security cameras obviously didn't come into existence at the time.

Answer: Closed circuit security was invented in 1942 and came into common use in the late 60s and early 70s. Beyond that, Wonka could have had Oompa Loompas monitoring the group or simply noticed that they were gone and guessed.

Greg Dwyer

Question: What did Hermione mean when she asked them if they thought that Sirius was trying to live through her, Ron and Harry?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: Because Sirius was imprisoned when he was still young, he'd become emotionally stunted, lacked maturity and sometimes exhibited poor judgement and often thinks and acts like someone much younger. Hermione thinks he is trying to relive his lost youth through them.

raywest

Question: How is Elliott spelt, as I've seen it both Elliot and Elliott on various different Disney memorabilia?

Answer: In the original film, the credits show his name as "Elliott" (with 2 t's). In the remake, his name is "Elliot" (with 1 t). So older memorabilia will have "Elliott". In the original film, Elliott was the dragon's given name, in a manner of speaking. In the remake, Pete names the dragon after the puppy from his favorite book which was called "Elliot Gets Lost". This is the only reason I can find for the spelling change.

Bishop73

Question: When they are fighting John the bartender would that dart to the head not have killed Shaun?

Answer: People have survived much more serious head injuries than a dart to the head, such as gunshots and even a railroad spike driven completely through the skull. There is also the possibility the dart didn't penetrate Shaun's skull.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Did Ethan actually know it was a mole hunt to trap Jim, or was he oblivious until he worked it out at the train station?

Answer: Ethan never thought it was a mole hunt to trap Jim. He found out from Kittridge at the restaurant that it was a mole hunt, but Kittridge believes that Ethan is the mole (the money his parents mysteriously receive). At the station Ethan realises that Jim must be the mole since it is too convenient both he and his wife survived. However, the hunt to catch the mole was never directed at Jim - Kittridge never suspected him until at the end when he sees Jim alive.

swordfish

Actually had suspicions before Jim showed up. Ethan found the Bible that was stamped from the Drake Hotel. Where Jim had literally just come back from before the mission. It made no sense otherwise why that would be in Jim's possession.

Question: There's an entry mentioning when little Forrest's foot gets stuck in a drain and how the leaves are there, then not. I've seen this movie at least 20 times but don't ever recall seeing that scene in the movie. Did some countries get an edited version?

Answer: Perhaps. It's near the beginning right after Forrest explains how he got his name.

Greg Dwyer

Answer: He gets his foot stuck at 6 minutes and the leaves never move. The shot shifts up in the second shot so you see less leaves but they don't move or disappear.

Question: At Harry's trial there is a large mural behind Fudge. I have searched high and low but I can't find it anywhere, but I'm sure it is famous and that I've seen it before. Can you help?

BobsWife8

Chosen answer: According to the Harry Potter wiki it is a depiction of a 5th Century Byzantine fresco (or indeed, mural), religious setting. As I read it the mural was made for the movie and is not a true historic piece.

lionhead

Show generally

Question: When Freddie gets bullied by the kids at school or harassed by Sam, why doesn't he just tell the teacher/principal?

Answer: Some kids are afraid to tell because they fear later retaliation, are embarrassed, don't think they'll be believed, or will be considered a sissy.

raywest

Answer: He maybe just wanted to be brave and let it go.

Question: It's stated in "The Return of the King" that the Witch-king of Angmar is Sauron's greatest servant. Given this, why is he portrayed as somewhat bumbling in this film? A scene in the extended edition of "The Return of the King" shows him confronting Gandalf and even destroying his staff and he also has the reputation of being unkillable, but in this film he is chased off by Aragorn swinging a sword and a torch at him, and is also defeated by Arwen using a river to wash him away.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: The Witch-King of Angmar, as well as the other 8 Nazgûl were severely weakened since the defeat of Sauron, when they were send out to find the ring they had been dormant for decades, that's why they were so easily defeated by fire and waves. In the later movies their powers had increased significantly, especially the witch king's.

lionhead

Question: Why does Indiana Jones wear glasses? We always see him wearing round-rimmed glasses in academic settings, which implies that he wears reading glasses. In the midst of high adventure, however, he never wears glasses; nonetheless, he's able to read cryptic inscriptions and even his father's diary in the worst possible lighting conditions. Are his reading glasses some sort of passive disguise, like Clark Kent's?

Answer: According to the book, he is far-sighted. In his office, he had to hold the package that contained the diary at arms length. He cannot read anything up close.

Answer: Indy does not attempt to disguise himself. Most likely this is done to show his character's two personas. He dresses like a mild-mannered, nerdy professor when in an academic setting and transforms into a masculine, rugged man when he is on an adventure.

raywest

Hi Honey, I'm Home - S1-E13

Question: In this episode, a married woman is surprised to discover that her first husband, a soldier who was MIA and then declared legally dead is still alive. How would this affect her marriage to her second husband? Is she still legally married to her first husband?

Answer: Being declared legally dead is called "death in absentia", meaning there is no evidence of death (i.e. a body), but the individual is presumed dead. This can happen to anyone, not just MIA soldiers. If a spouse petitions the courts to grant a divorce on the presumption of death and all criteria are meet, they are legally divorced and free to remarry. The return of the presumed dead would not change the divorce ruling. However, if a spouse does not go through the legal steps prior to remarrying, then the return of the presumed dead spouse would nullify and void the 2nd marriage immediately (and the remarried spouse could face bigamy charges).

Bishop73

Question: After shutting down their business in delivering babies, why didn't the storks destroy the baby-manufacturing factory?

Johman

Chosen answer: It could have been for a number of reasons. It would be expensive and time consuming to completely dismantle and remove a large piece of machinery. It may have been something that was being delayed until a later time or was to be sold. Perhaps the machinery, after retooling, would be reused for another purpose, and so on.

raywest

Answer: At around the end of the movie, you could see that when Hunter goes down with the package factory, you could see that the factory was connected to the Baby Factory off the side of the mountain. They probably didn't have the time to demolish that one and then rebuild the packages.

Chosen answer: Tarkin is a Grand Moff. He is in command of the Death Star. He has full authority on board the station, so Vader obeys him. In reality, they are of fairly equivalent rank, but Vader's respect for Tarkin allows him to follow his orders.

Question: Is the entire movie through the eyes of Blaire or the computer?

Answer: Given the scene at the end of the film (the computer slams shut and Laura attacks Blaire) is in a POV, it should be assumed that it takes place through the eyes of Blaire.

TRENCH117

Question: What was the explanation for Princess Leia changing from an American accent to a bad British accent and back to an American again during "A New Hope"? Was this simply a case of bad acting and sloppy editing, or was Leia actually mocking Tarkin's British accent (which doesn't seem very dignified for a Princess)?

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: In-universe, the accent Tarkin has (and that Leia starts with) is the Coruscanti accent. The one she uses later is an Alderaan accent. In reality, Carrie Fisher had been living in Britain for a while before production started and had picked up a slight accent, which she lost as production continued.

Greg Dwyer

Question: During the final fight between Anakin and Obi Wan, at one point Anakin has Obi Wan in a choke hold and seems to mouth something as he is pushing down further. Is he just doing that as he's exerting more force into the hold, or does he possibly say something, and if so what does he say?

Answer: He is making sounds as he is exerting force. He doesn't say anything.

lionhead

Question: In "Empire Strikes Back", when Vader reveals that he is Luke's father, he tells Luke to search his feelings and sense the truth. Luke is able to do this after a limited amount of Jedi training. How come Anakin calls Padme a "liar" on Mustafar, despite spending more than half of his life (at the time) as a Jedi? Shouldn't he have known that she was telling the truth?

Answer: By the time Anakin calls Padme a liar, he had begun his descent into the Dark Side and was becoming much darker as a person. As soon as he saw Obi-Wan, he immediately jumped straight to the conclusion that she had lied to him without putting any real thought into the scenario, so the likely explanation is that, in his anger and darkness, he did not really bother to sense her feelings and he just assumed that she brought Obi-Wan to Mustafar to kill Anakin. If he was much more calm and spent a few seconds to sense her feelings a little, it would have been more likely for him to discover that she was telling the truth, but by that point, he was much closer to the Dark Side for him to do that.

Casual Person

Question: Why did Harry and Ron bring Lockhart with them to the chamber of secrets? Did they really think he'd be any use? Especially after they found out he was a fraud?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: They couldn't leave him alone after finding out he was a fraud or he would tell the other teachers and lie about them and have them in detention before they would be able to enter the chamber themselves. They were in a hurry to save Ginny so they needed to bring him with them.

lionhead

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