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: For the original, the sequel and the remake, what materials did the crew use to create the blob and how did they get it to move?

Answer: In both the the 50's original and 70s sequel, the majority of the Blob effects were created using a thick silicone gel colored with red vegetable dye; its movement was essentially controlled by gravity, just letting the goop run downhill and angling the camera to provide the illusion that it was moving horizontally, vertically, or straight at the audience. The original film also employed a large barrage balloon (or weather balloon) covered in the colored silicone goop for shots where people are actually consumed by the Blob. The 1972 sequel additionally used a preposterous rotating spit covered in red plastic, mounted in front of the camera, to provide the Blob's point-of-view as it steamrolled toward its victims. The 1988 remake used much more sophisticated practical effects such as robotics, latex prosthetics, pneumatic tentacles, et cetera, which were directly inspired by John Carpenter's 1982 special-effects-heavy horror flick, "The Thing." For the last couple of decades, there has also been talk of a major CGI reboot of "The Blob," but it has yet to materialize.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: What did Jameson mean when he said to Hoffman "I'll give you ten percent off. Ah, make it five percent?" What's Hoffman getting a percentage off of?

THE GAMER NEXT DOOR

Chosen answer: Jameson is referring to giving Conway's department store a discount for moving their advertising in the "Daily Bugle" from page 6 to page 7...then page 8, in order to accommodate a story about Spiderman on the front page ("with a decent picture this time!"). He's telling Hoffman to give them a discount to appease the major client. But, in a moment of poking fun at Jameson's cheapskate tendencies, he immediately changes the offer from a discount of 10% to 5%.

Michael Albert

Question: Why did Suge Knight hate Jerry so much? They didn't even talk to each other at all in the movie.

Answer: Suge Knight saw Jerry as a threat, and rightfully so. He had control over E and the others, and knew far more about the business than he did. Which meant he had power, something Suge wants complete control of.

MasterOfAll

Question: When freeing Sirius Black, then flying around the School, why did they whoop and holler and make so much noise if they were trying to be secretive?

Beau Peterson

Chosen answer: They were still high enough in the air where there was little chance of being heard or if they were, it would be muffled. Also, they're kids. They are not always capable of restraining their emotions or enthusiasm when they should. It is also a means to heighten the scene's mood (enthusiasm and success) and show the audience what emotions the characters are feeling at the time.

raywest

Question: Where was David Mann actually going? And where from? As in, which states? He seemed to be travelling for hours even before he met the truck and seemed to have a long way to go yet.

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: The movie opens with him in downtown Los Angeles, California, so he's probably from there or somewhere in Southern California. He's heading to Bakersfield, California, which is north, about 2 hours away. In the short story, he's heading to a client in San Francisco. However, in the film he gets off the main freeway running from LA to Bakersfield (IH-5) and takes Highway 14 towards Canyon Country.

Bishop73

Question: Is there some significance that both Andie's and Ben's first and last initials are the same?

Answer: No.

Answer: If you're talking about during his performances, it's a 2000 Buell X1 Lightning. He's also seen on a Harley-Davidson Sportster, I believe, when jumping through the ring of fire. If you're talking about his other bike, it's a Harley-Davidson Panhead.

Bishop73

Sorry. I should have been more specific as I'm not familiar with motorcycles. The one that turns into the HellCycle.

The HD Panhead is what turns into the Hell Cycle. But the Hell Cycle itself was a custom made piece, built from the ground up, but modeled after the Panhead. So there's no specific make and model, that I know of, for the custom made Hell Cycle itself.

Bishop73

Thank you.

Chosen answer: As said in the film, it was one of the kindergartners who explained the whole story to their parents. It would seem that Rowley would indeed be too soft and cowardly to do such an irrational thing.

Question: How did Anton find Llewellyn's home?

Answer: When Llewellyn returns to the site of the showdown for the second time, he leaves his truck parked in an obvious spot. Coming across the truck later, Anton prizes off a plate from Llewellyn's truck that has the VIN on it. This is likely how Anton later tracked Llewellyn down.

When Llewellyn is telling his wife she needs to go to Odessa, he says "tomorrow morning at 9am a man is going to call the courthouse about the registration of my truck. At 0930, he's going to come here looking for me" (or words to that effect).

The_Iceman

Question: How is Biff from the future able to use the time-machine? He has to: 1) Turn on the time circuits, 2) Set the time destination, 3) Accelerate to 88 MPH, 4) Know to add matter to Mr. Fusion.

Answer: It isn't overly complicated. Once the time circuits are switched on (something you can probably figure out by fiddling with buttons) there is a big section labelled "destination". Logically you would input the day you want to go to. He could then take off and just start driving fast - he wouldn't need to know it has to be 88mph, but the fact that it's built into a car definitely implies speed is necessary. He lives in the future where Mr Fusion exists, so adding stuff to it would just be logical to him.

Chosen answer: Since Del knew that the tuxedo actually belonged to Clark, she most likely thought that the watch and shoes did too.

Question: Why didn't Gretchen and Karen stay friends? (at the end of the movie it shows Gretchen sitting with a different group of friends) I thought Regina was the only one they didn't really like.

Answer: Gretchen had simply found a new group of friends with the Vietnamese girls; just because she and Karen no longer sat together in the cafeteria didn't mean they were no longer friends at all. As Cady said in her closing narration, the "Plastics" disbanded at the end of the school year because they had all found new things to belong to: Regina was now a star player on the school's lacrosse team, Cady stayed with the "Mathletes", Karen started giving the school weather report, and Gretchen, as mentioned before, hung out with the Vietnamese girls. The four remained on friendly terms, though.

zendaddy621

Question: Why did MI6 shoot at Bond after he refused to give them his gun? Surely it's not worth killing one of their agents over. And why did M say there's too many people? There was nobody around.

MikeH

Chosen answer: At that moment, he was not one of their agents; M had just stripped him of his licence to kill and suspended him. So he was, essentially, a rogue agent about to escape...of course they were going to try and stop him. M stopped them because 1) they were in an MI6 building in the middle of an American city and gunfire would have drawn unwanted attention (perhaps giving away the location to enemy agents), and 2) unlike the faceless security forces trying to shoot Bond, he had a personal relationship with Bond and didn't want to see him injured or killed.

Chosen answer: No, they were not having an affair. He just liked her.

raywest

Season 6 generally

Question: How does Chris still have his powers when he travels to the past, but the witches did not when they went to the past?

Answer: With Chris being from the future (and being half-witch, half-whitelighter), he must know about the fact that his aunts can't use their powers in the past. Therefore, he would think to write an advanced spell so that his powers can be used.

THGhost

Answer: Also it's stated only one in a time period can have the powers. The pasts' Chris isn't around at the beginning to have access to the powers and then when he's conceived he doesn't show signs of having powers yet.

Answer: It was a different spell, you can see that from episode Chris-Crossed, the charmed ones did not drew anything when travelled to their past. It's also explained from the conversation from Phoenix and Chris.

Question: When Katniss asks Johanna about Annie why does Johanna kind of stutter when answering?

Answer: Joanna hesitates a bit when she's recalling how many years ago it was when Annie was in the games - she tells Katniss it was "four" then corrects herself and says "five." She then seems a bit somber when Katniss indicates that Annie had some kind of mental breakdown, implying that Annie is Joanna's friend. Joanna is being shown as having a softer side than the harder image she tries to project.

raywest

Answer: Joanna won her games the year after Annie. It's possible she stuttered and corrected herself when recalling how many years ago Annie won was because she was shocked by how long ago it seems her own games were.

Question: I was wondering why the man and woman in the last trap didn't use the woman from the bathtub to give the pints of blood? They could have carried her into the room because the door stayed open for about forty seconds.

Michelle Ferris

Chosen answer: Assuming the woman in the bathtub was able to be moved safely the amount of blood gained from her, while still being helpful, would probably not be enough to save the final two survivors from self harm. Without the heart pumping blood you would only get the blood that was in her arm at the moment. You would have to lift her or raise her so gravity would get other blood moving to get enough. Which the final two possibly could have done, but stress of the situation clouded their judgement.

Question: When Baxter and his men ride into town, he brings 8 hired guns with him for a total of 9; but when the fight starts, there are only 8. Baxter and 4 men confront Charlie and Boss, in the street, and 3 go round behind the buildings. What happened to the 9th man?

Answer: I believe he is the one being chased by the townfolks, after the gunfight is over.

Answer: The man you see being shot at in the end was the man who ran off once the sheriff had the kid, and Baxter was going to kill him. So, just before the shooting started again, this man ran off away from Baxter. What you see the townsfolk shooting at is this man who ran off just before the end, where Baxter and the sheriff had the boy and were counting down.

Answer: I noticed this as well. The person shot at the end of the film is the same man that was with the sheriff when they were held in the jail. He was a deputy and did not ride in with the land baron.

Episode #1.1 - S1-E1

Question: Lady Grantham did not want electricity in the bedrooms, but near the end of the episode doesn't she turn out a light at her bedside while Lord Grantham blows out a candle?

Answer: It's possible it's a paraffin lamp. My grandparents have these for power cuts - There is a thick wick which can be raised or lowered by turning a little knob. This can make a brighter flame or cut it out entirely. The flame is covered with a glass tube and, for fancy versions, a lampshade fits over the top.

Chosen answer: No reason is given in the film. But the books make mention that he has to have room for the oxygenator, water reclaimer and atmospheric regulator. All of which only work in pressurized areas.

MasterOfAll

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.