Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: In the courtroom scene, the mob guy suddenly pulls out a gun and attempts to kill Harvey Dent. How was he able to get a gun into the court building? Surely the metal detectors and/or security would have easily caught him?
Answer: Dent specifically describes it as a ceramic gun, which is presumably designed not to set off metal detectors. It's arguable that security should have frisked him more closely, but as the witness was expected to be cooperative, based on his previously sworn statement, it's understandable that they didn't consider him a major threat and simply relied on the metal detectors.
Question: When both Rohan and Gondor are at the Black Gate, there is a deleted scene where Aragorn fights with Sauron. How would this be possible seeing that Sauron can only come into physical form once Mordor have taken the ring?
Answer: He fights an emissary of Sauron's who's called "The Mouth of Sauron," not Sauron himself.
Question: I know that this film was set in the 1990s but even then, was smoking permitted on US submarines? It would seem a bit odd given that the crew are relying on recycled oxygen.
Answer: In the most technical sense ("by the book") it is against policy. But then, the Marines do not allow tattoos and look how well that's enforced. It is up to the ship's Captain to enforce such regulations, and at sea, there's no one to penalize him if he chooses to let the crew smoke at certain times, given certain conditions.
Question: Regarding Paul and Eli. Are they actually twin brothers or is Paul an figment of Eli's imagination and Eli schizophrenic? As far as I remember Paul is only mentioned three times. At the beginning when he meets Daniel, when Eli attacks his father (and says 'you are as stupid as Paul!' and at the end, when Daniel mentions him. Are there any other bits I've missed? Or is it left open to interpretation?
Answer: There is nothing in the film to suggest anything other than that they are brothers. Paul sells out his family, takes the money and goes away. It is only natural that they would not want to speak of him later on. Daniel on the other hand, keeps a certain track on Paul, especially since he also got into the oil business and became a minor competitor to Daniel.
Question: Something that I was confused about: in the later movies, Vader supposedly can't breathe for long without the respirator in his suit. However, in this movie, there has to have been several minutes from the time Obi-wan leaves him lying on the ground, to the time Palpatine arrives, and the time that the medical ship arrives. Later, when his armor is being put on, he lies on the table before his mask is put on, and has to be breathing on his own. If he could breathe on his own right after his accident, shouldn't he have been able to twenty years later (after his injuries have probably healed somewhat)?
Answer: After the battle on Mustafar, Anakin's basically keeping himself alive through sheer force of will more than anything else; once rescued, he's being helped by the Imperial medics and the Emperor's own power. His lungs have been badly seared - he's still capable of breathing, but much less efficiently than when he was healthy - the respirator built into his suit compensates for those injuries. Twenty years on, when Luke removes the helmet to see his father's face, Anakin's body has been nearly fried by the Emperor's Force lightning - he's already dying. Taking the helmet off might accelerate that, but he's happy to sacrifice what would only be a few more minutes of life to see his son with his own eyes.
Question: Did Rod Steiger ride a motorcycle at any time at all in the movie "In the Heat of the Night"?
Question: When Cypher is in the restaurant with Smith, is this before he was set free from the Matrix? I'm not too sure if it was the same for him, but I know they try and get them when they are young rather than older, so if it was during him being free, would he have been caught?
Answer: Cypher was out of the matrix when he met Smith at the restaurant. Like those on the ship, he had to plug into the system anytime he wanted to go into the Matrix. Cypher was being used as a mole by Smith to get to Morpheus. There would be no reason to take him out as he was working with them.
Question: When the old Biff gives the Sports Almanac to his younger self, he cautions him that in the future, a teenage kid and an old man claiming to be a scientist will ask him about that book. The old Biff surely knew who they were; why didn't he give his younger self their names, Marty McFly and Doctor Emmet Brown?
Question: In the scene where Reese is asking Lucius Fox for 10 million dollars to keep Batmans ID secret, why did Reese change his mind? What part of Lucius Fox's dialogue made Reese hesitate and change his mind?
Answer: Fox subtly pointed out that Batman/Bruce Wayne is an individual who would not respond well to blackmail. Wayne is extremely rich and powerful, and could crush Reese financially and socially without ever leaving his office, and his Batman side is a violent vigilante who would not hesitate to beat the tar out of criminals, such as blackmailers. Fox simply made Reese realize what a bad idea it would be to anger either of the two personas, and a terrible idea to attack both of them.
Question: In the bank robbery at the beginning of the movie, the Joker and his henchman are being shot at by the Bank Manager. They decide to return fire and the henchman says something to the Joker. He jumps up and starts shooting but the Joker delays a few seconds before jumping up and shooting the Bank Manager. The Henchman then says to the Joker, "Where did you learn to count?" My question is, what was said before they decide to return fire?
Answer: He says "He's out, right?", basically asking if the bank manager has any ammunition left, based on how many shells a gun of that type should carry. The Joker thinks for a moment, then nods, so the henchman stands up to fire, thinking that he's safe, that the manager is out of bullets. Unfortunately, the Joker having lied, he's wrong and ends up getting shot. The Joker then stands up and shoots the manager, having maneuvered his henchman into taking the last bullet.
Question: I am confused. Buddy has blood drawn in order to do a DNA sample and they get the results almost right away. Doesn't it take weeks for DNA samples to come back? If so, how can they get the results so quickly in the movie?
Chosen answer: More than likely, it was done for storyline reasons. Since the results of DNA tests *do* take a while to come back, it slows the plot down to show them waiting. I guess, in a way, this situation calls for a suspension of disbelief; it may seem like it took no time at all, but in order to enjoy the film, you have to just accept that the necessary waiting period has passed.
There's an old story where someone asked a major sci-fi producer how fast one of his space vehicles could go. He answered, "At the speed of the plot."
Answer: It was most likely a blood typing test (it can take minutes and its done through a finger-stick test). If the doctor's office had the test cards. If both parents have type A blood, their child can't have type B and vice versa with type B and A. Type O is rare enough that its more likely that Walter and Buddy's mother were either type A, B, or AB. -college student who has rewatched the movie and had to go through several allele genotype/phenotype lectures.
Actually, type O is the most common type. O - is more rare than O+, which is true for every blood type, but O is still the most common for most ethnic groups.
Answer: Most private labs can return DNA testing results in 1-2 days because the test isn't that complicated, even in the early 2000's. It's usually court ordered testing that take weeks to process because of all the bureaucratic red tape, paper work, and signatures required. Some labs do get extremely busy and therefore it might take up to 2-4 weeks to get results back, but that also usually includes more extensive DNA testing.
Answer: Even so the test came back almost immediatly.
Question: What song does Demi Lovato sing in the Easter Egg that wasn't in the movie?
Chosen answer: Demi wrote a song for her castmates and the crew of Camp Rock, which she performs for them on the last day of the shoot, when principal photography wrapped on 10-6-07. The line, "We'll never be too cool for Camp Rock 3" got laughs, just before she was overcome with emotion by the last verse.
Question: When Professor Lowe calls Dieter Perez to tell him about his findings on Earth 1, Perez makes note that one of the viables was named Vorhees and deduced it was Jason Vorhees. My question was how did Lowe know it was named Vorhees? 1) Rowan at the beginning acknowledged she had yet to prep the chamber which means no paperwork. 2) The students found no paperwork when they found the chamber and had no time to look for paperwork once they realized they needed to get Rowan to a lab to save her right away. 3) Rowan did not give him Jason's name when she first woke up. This is obvious in the scene after Lowe talked with Perez he was talking to Rowan and she brought up the story about Jason and he acted like he never heard the name before. So how did he get Jason's name for his report to Perez?
Chosen answer: There is a certain difference between filling out paperwork and preparing a chamber for cryogenic freeze. Rowan may have reserved the cryo chamber for Jason, filled out the forms and put his tag on it, but she had yet to prep it properly (check that every detail was in working order, maybe run a test, re-check, etc). So there may have been a tag on the chamber with the name "Vorhees" on it, Rowan just did not think of this as "prepping".
Question: Why did Hancock end up having to go to New York to prevent his and Mary's powers from weakening? They had lived in L.A. all that time without it being a problem. Mary new he existed since his drunken heroics were always caught on tape or recorded (YouTube), and Nancy Grace even knew who he was.
Answer: True, Mary knew he existed - but he didn't know about her. It was only after both of them became aware of one another that the mutual attraction set in. Besides this, before they met, Hancock was an alcoholic bum living on the streets, scorned and ridiculed by everyone. When he was in that state, it would be a lot easier for Mary to keep her (possible) attraction to him in check.
Question: How could Auto act against his directive? He's playing the top-secret order he got (never to come back to Earth) in front of the captain, yet isn't able to act against it again because things might have changed in the 700 years since the order was received. And in the face of the new evidence (the plant), doesn't that contradict the order?
Answer: One of the key points of the movie is that programming can evolve - WALL-E being the most obvious case in point. After all this time, Auto's entitled to be somewhat erratic in how he deals with things. Besides, he's still very firm on his primary directive, to prevent the return to humanity to Earth - keeping the existence of that directive a secret is rather less critical. As for the plant, that does very little to invalidate the directive. It may show that the principles underlying that directive are flawed, but Auto's not got the leeway to deal with that. The directive still stands.
Question: If Coop doesn't want anything to do with the clothing line that Cain wants to set up with Remer, then why does he go to the media blitz?
Answer: Remer and Cain agreed that the profits from the clothing line would go to the Dreams Come True foundation. Coop would realize that he could help more (and impress Jenna) by endorsing the clothing line.
Question: One of the jokes I've never really gotten - on Quahog's news show, why do Tom and Diane point out that other reporters are Asian, Hispanic, etc?
Question: Why doesn't Wayne Enterprises conduct business in the same building as in Batman Begins? The building is seen in the background during the scene with the Joker firing the machine gun at Batman whilst he's on the Batpod. It was damaged at the end of Batman Begins, but the next day Fox is holding a meeting there when Earle walks in, and after 6/8 months when this film takes place I would have thought it would have been repaired.
Answer: A company the size of Wayne Enterprises would have multiple buildings. As much of Bruce's interest revolves around the applied sciences and research and development divisions, he presumably decided to use the building that contained those areas as the company's main base of operations.
Question: Still can't quite get this to make sense: why would the citizens of Gotham buy the story that Batman killed the five people, as planned by Gordon and Batman in the effort to maintain Dent's status as a hero, so as to keep hope alive? Last word from Harvey was to the reporter: "Batman saved my ass." Other reasons the fake story might not be believed are that Batman has never killed anybody before. As well, what would his motivation be? Are they planning to cover up the kidnapping of the Gordons, saying that Batman was there alone with Harvey Dent and killed Harvey? Why would any of that happen? And asking the Gordon family who underwent trauma to lie about how it happened is taking a big chance, especially since there are kids involved, who might slip. Thematically, the ruse makes sense, and it makes sense that Batman would be willing to be hunted. But I don't see why the citizens wouldn't question why he killed the people.
Answer: Harvey's never killed anybody before either, and what would his motivation be? In the absence of direct evidence, people will generally believe what they find it most comforting. The citizens of Gotham will not want to believe that the decent, trust-worthy, law-abiding man that they elected as their protector could have been torn down and turned into a monster, dispensing life or death at the flip of a coin. Batman, on the other hand, is entirely self-appointed, hides his identity and uses tactics that are often very similar to those of the criminals themselves - people would find it far easier to believe that he could somehow snap and descend to killing. Yes, there will always be questions, rumours about what really happened, but the vast majority of people will accept the fake story that they're presented with, simply because it's easier for them to do so than to consider the alternatives.
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Answer: No.
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