Question: I've always wondered about one scene in the movie. It happens when Tom Hanks says, "prepare for a little jolt, fellas." We see the astronauts being propelled forward in their seats as the spacecraft accelerates very quickly. But the only time you'd be going forward was if you were riding in a car and the brakes were suddenly slammed on, right? Can someone explain this to me?
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Answer: You have to think three-dimensionally. The rocket is travelling upwards under the thrust of the first stage - the moment that thrust cuts off, the only force acting on the ship is gravity, so it's effectively as if the brakes have been slammed on, relatively speaking, as they are no longer moving forwards anywhere near as fast. Then the second-stage engines kick in, propelling them upwards at speed again, pushing them back into their seats.
Question: It's not unusual for Pixar to put characters from their next movie in their movies (like the Nemo doll in "Monsters Inc."). Are there any characters from "Up" in this movie?
Chosen answer: There aren't any characters from Up in Wall-E, however during the first scene in Wall-E's trailer you can see Carl's walker briefly.
Question: Is it usual for gun store clerks to leave ammunition and bullets on the counter where anyone can pick them up and load them into a gun?
Chosen answer: No, it's not, but not every gun shop owner is reputable or responsible.
Question: Why would an interpreter be necessary for a mission such as Miller's? Is this purely a plot devise to add a character who is 1) inexperienced in combat and 2) not part of a pre-existing group close-knit through combat?
Answer: Miller and his platoon advanced onto Ramelle France. Seeing as none of the platoon spoke French, Upham was a perfect candidate for this. Also, when they capture steamboat Willy, Upham is also of good use as he spoke French and German.
Question: This is a two part question. Question 1: during Obi-Wan and Darth Vader's duel aboard The Death Star, Obi wan spins around, briefly exposing himself and giving Vader an opening within which to strike. Why didn't he take it and stab him through the back? Question 2: towards the end of the duel, at 91 minutes 28 seconds, why does Obi-Wan's lightsaber dim to the point of where it looks like it's going out?
Chosen answer: In response to your first part, its simply a case that Vader missed the opening, he clearly has no issues with striking down someone unarmed as he demonstrates later. In response to your second question, its a fault with the effects used at the time that when the lightsabers were held at certain angles, the effects used to 'paint' on the shimmer of the lightsabers couldn't be applied because there wasn't enough of the required colouring.
Question: In an answer for one of the other questions here, it says that Leia doesn't know she is adopted until Luke tells her that they are siblings. If she doesn't know, why would he use the term "real mother" when asking her about her mother? It seems that if she didn't know she was adopted, she would think it was strange for him to ask about a "real" mother.
Answer: It's never stated anywhere in the films whether Leia knows that she's adopted or not. Given her apparent lack of surprise at Luke's reference to her "real mother", it seems more than likely that her adoptive parents have told her at some point.
Question: Why are the vast majority of stories set on modern day Earth as opposed to the 1963-1989 series where nearly every story was set on an alien planet?
Chosen answer: One of the 'quaint' aspects of Doctor Who of old was the utter cheapness of the BBC in spending as little money as possible on the original series. Visits to 'alien planets' were laughably poor looking, clearly were Earth like with a few 'alien' touches, and it was something that writer Russel T Davies didn't want to return to.
Question: I don't understand why Darth Maul talks about having revenge in this movie or why Episode III is called "Revenge of the Sith". I thought the original group of Sith all killed each other. I know that they want to destroy the Jedi, but how is that getting revenge for anything in particular?
Answer: The Sith and Jedi have been at war for millenia. Yes, there's always been infighting among the Sith as well, but the fact remains that their primary enemy has always been the Jedi. The Sith have been forced to hide away, working in the shadows, for a thousand years, because they lacked the power to eliminate the Jedi. Now, finally, they're in a position to do so. What else would you call it but revenge?
One of Us, One of Them - S3-E3
Question: Can't The German use his power to simply rip off the door of the vault instead of opening it via the combination?
Chosen answer: The German's powers could be limited in ways of heaviness of the metal he is manipulating. Meaning the door could be too heavy for him to rip off.
Question: At the beginning, what was in Connor's mind when he chased after a state-of-the-art HK with a 50-year old chopper?! What was he trying achieve?
Chosen answer: It is shown that the exposed engines of the Hunter Killers can be easily disabled by gun fire or by dropping something in it. Maybe he thought he could keep it occupied in an air fight while more help got there.
Question: How come Wade has to take out all those guards, and why not his teammates? Agent Zero, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Wraith, and the big guy can easily take them out as they are powerful mutants.
Chosen answer: Stryker simply knew that they were all eager to show their skills and knew that wade wouldn't have any trouble doing it. He wanted to see how good his team was and this was a good way. Anyhow given how eager Wade was, he probably let him just to shut him up.
Question: How did Remy know that Ego would want ratatouille as his meal? It couldn't have been that Remy lived in the house during the flashback because the flashback is from too long ago for Remy to have been born.
Answer: He didn't. He's playing a hunch. Ego's used to high-class food, chefs plying him with their most up-to-date haute cuisine - he gets that all the time. Remy's guessing that giving him a simple traditional meal, albeit presented in a style appropriate to a high-class restaurant, will work well; something that proves to be correct.
Question: After Luke and Vader's duel aboard the second Death Star, Why does Luke deactivate his lightsaber and throw it aside?
Chosen answer: Palpatine's trying to turn Luke to the dark side, to make him his new apprentice in Vader's place - he wants Luke to strike the now defenceless Vader down in anger and hate and thus open himself to the Sith way. By throwing his lightsabre aside, Luke's telling the Emperor that, no matter how much the Emperor goads him, he will not raise his weapon against Vader again and that he utterly rejects the Sith way.
Question: If Mike's ex-wife (Scarlet) recognizes him from when they were teenagers, wouldn't the coach remember him too? He was the star player.
Answer: I've not seen the movie, but an ex-wife would be closer to her ex-husband than a coach to his old student, no matter how good.
Answer: It's also possible that the coach might have noticed a resemblance, but he would have simply written it off as an odd coincidence, much like Scarlet did earlier in the film.
Question: Why did Yoda leave for exile after his duel in the senate with Palpatine? Why didn't he continue fighting?
Chosen answer: Because he came to the conclusion that he couldn't win, so the best solution, long-term, was for him to hide away somewhere to be ready to help prepare the next generation for the fight. If he continues the fight, he risks his own death and the loss of his ability to pass his knowledge on later, which could leave the galaxy under Sith rule forever. If he runs, then the Sith will rule for a time, but there's a far greater possibility that the Jedi will eventually be able to rise again and defeat them.
Question: It's been established that during Lister's time in stasis there was a radiation leak that wiped out Red Dwarf's crew. My questions are, after the radiation leak was The Jupiter Mining Corp aware of what transpired? Was there any attempt at all to salvage Red Dwarf? Also, exactly how did Red Dwarf become lost?
Chosen answer: After the radiation leak, Red Dwarf became an extremely dangerous place, with the majority of the ship irradiated and thus a danger to anyone who ventured near it. As such, Holly boosted the engines to maximum, sending Red Dwarf hurtling out into deep space where it couldn't pose a threat. It would seem likely that the Jupiter Mining Corporation would have been informed, either directly by Holly or by some sort of automated system, but, given the irradiated nature of the ship, they probably would have decided that any salvage mission would be pointless and would simply risk more personnel. Once the radiation finally reached a safe level for Lister to be brought out of stasis, after three million years of thrust, Red Dwarf was well and truly lost.
Question: When Han and Lando meet for the first time after a while in the Cloud City, Han gets a rude welcome from Lando. Was Lando's rudeness a veiled warning to Han to leave, since Darth and the troopers were waiting for him?
Chosen answer: The rude welcome was just a way for Lando to "mess" with his old friend. It would have been suicide for Lando to get Han to leave knowing Vader and Company were waiting for all of them.
Question: Was the scene of a naked Wolverine arriving at the elderly couple's farmhouse supposed to be some kind of a reference to Superman? The couple seemed to resemble Ma and Pa Kent, the house and farm looked identical to the ones in the Superman films and Logan turning up naked seemed to mirror the fact that baby Clark was naked when he first arrived. So was it intentional?
Chosen answer: There is nothing that the filmakers have said to indicate that this is a reference to Superman. In addition, since this is a Marvel comic, and Superman was was/is a DC comic, it's unlikely.
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Answer: While this did actually happen on Apollo 13 it was completely unexpected, the "get ready for a little jolt" line was made up for the movie. There are retro rockets on the S1-C (first) stage of the Saturn V that are supposed to fire at separation to slow the S1-C and create more separation before the S-2 ignites. The retros fired one second early on this mission so it was before separation and the unexpected reverse thrust is what caused them to get thrown forward. Apparently Jim Lovell even had marks on his helmet from hitting it on the panel when this happened.