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: What is Hannibal doing on the fifth floor and what is he's shooting at when 3 shots were heard after he kills two guards and escape?

Trainman

Answer: Hannibal swapped clothes with one of the guards (Pembry), cut his face off, then threw him down the elevator shaft and fired several shots. He was trying to make the arriving police believe that Pembry had shot and hit Lecter as he tried to escape. He then put Pembry's face over his own, posing as him and was placed in an ambulance. As per his plan, the police believed it was Lecter on the roof of the elevator, until they opened the roof hatch and saw the removed face. By then it was too late, and Lecter had killed the ambulance crew and escaped.

Sierra1

Question: In the bloodbath scene, is it really possible for someone to lose that much blood and remain conscious, even if barely? Not to the mention the fact that the person was a young woman.

Movielover1996

Answer: Probably not, but given the actual murder was only about 1 minute long, you could argue that with enough adrenaline, you might be able to stay awake just long enough for the scene to play out. Obviously, you should take the movie with a grain of salt since it's for entertainment, and they're exaggerating the volume of blood, the spray, etc. for the sake of cool visuals. In reality, your risk for passing out starts getting higher and higher as you hit 30%+ blood loss, and they say you experience organ failure and will probably fall into a coma when you hit 50% blood loss. But at the same time, I actually know a guy who recently had to get emergency surgery and an absolutely massive emergency blood transfusion after losing more than 50% of his blood internally... and he took himself to the friggin' hospital because he was feeling a bit weird and was worried he might have COVID. He didn't even know what was going on until he was examined. So stranger things have happened. The human body is weird.

TedStixon

Question: In the chess scene, why does the gorilla turn around and stick out his butt all of a sudden?

Bunch Son

Question: At the beginning, in the animation cut, Dolittle frees the gorilla from a cage, and he gives a blanket or cape-looking thing to the gorilla who seems to very much like it. What exactly is that and what does it suggest?

Bunch Son

Answer: Like any rescue victim, he was giving him comfort and aid.

Question: Is there any particular reason why Marco Beltrami didn't return to score this film? I understand he has a voice-over cameo during the movie, so he was obviously involved in some capacity. But why didn't he write the music? Was it a scheduling conflict? Did the directors simply want to bring in a new composer? Etc.

TedStixon

Question: Does anyone know if during filming the cargo hold scenes, did they use a real Renault car or was it just a prop made to look like one?

Answer: Online sources indicate that the 1912 Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville seen in the film was an exact replica vehicle that James Cameron had specially built. It is a copy of the one that was known to be in the Titanic's cargo hold.

raywest

Question: Near the end of the movie when Utah goes to capture Bohdi in Australia, he looks quite a bit heavier, was this scene shot sometime after the movie was originally filmed?

Answer: Basing this off nothing but a theory, I always thought that sequence was shot first, given his hair length. I surmised that Keanu came in with long hair to shoot that sequence, then got a haircut to shoot the rest of the movie. Again, this is 100% speculation, just my two cents.

jshy7979

Answer: Possibly. But remember when they were telling Utah about the 50-year storm, they said it would be next year. Plenty of time for the character to gain weight.

lartaker1975

Question: Why did Simon send John to walk the streets with THAT sign on him? The whole point was to use him to cover up his Federal Reserve heist. If John had've died in the very first "Simon says", he wouldn't have been able to play the second "Simon says" causing the subway under the Federal Reserve to blow up, nor use the "a bomb in a school will blow up unless John does this" because John would be dead... So why have him do something he knew could get him killed?

Answer: Because he wanted John dead. Simon didn't "need" anyone to play a game to blow up the subway, and the point of threatening the schools was to occupy the police. John still being alive just gave Simon more opportunities to run him around and mess with him, hopefully with him dying in the process.

Jon Sandys

Answer: He wanted John humiliated and hurt to show the police he has complete power over them, privately to see him suffer for killing his brother, Hans. The rest was like you said to have the police and Feds running in circles, occupying them from the Gold heist.

Question: Near the end Frazier marches into a restaurant and delivers to the mayor a phone number related to war crimes. Presumably he is ensuring that Case gets his just desserts and is exposed/prosecuted. But why the mayor? And what has the Jodie Foster's character got to do with it? She looks so happy but also took Case's tainted money.

Giamanman

Answer: My thought: The mayor is the highest-ranking person in the city and Frazier, being a NYC cop, is openly letting him and everyone know that he (Frazier) is taking credit for uncovering Case's war crimes, leveraging it for a promotion, a commendation, and full exoneration for the missing money he was suspected of taking. He was also not going to allow the bank heist and Case's crimes to be covered up, as his superiors wanted. Frazier had earlier taped the mayor's and White's conversation when they threatened to ruin him and used that as added insurance. White is someone who, for a price, cleans up difficult situations, regardless of most circumstances, for wealthy and powerful clients, including those connected to the mayor and city politics. She is cool, dispassionate, and unflappable. Her bemused expression is mostly a "mask" to appear unaffected by Frazier confronting them. She probably enjoys seeing the mayor put in this situation, as they do not particularly like one another. She took Case's money because she considers it payment for services rendered.

raywest

Question: Whatever happened to Nightcrawler? He was still with Professor X and the other good mutants at the end of the second film, but in this one he's suddenly gone and no-one even mentions him.

Answer: Alan Cumming declined to reprise the role due to the uncomfortable makeup process, the change in directors (Brett Ratner taking over for Bryan Singer who left the project to film Superman Returns), and the fact Nightcrawler's role would have been minimal in this film. The absence is not explained in the film but the video game X-Men: The Official Game, which is canonical to the films and takes place between the 2nd and 3rd films, has Nightcrawler leave the X-Men because he is uncomfortable with the violent lifestyle.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why did Bruno place the medallion on the branch before leaving?

Answer: He was showing compassion. Just because he's a bad guy doesn't mean he is heartless.

Question: At the beginning, Dolittle was scared because a boy broke in his territory, so he says to Chee-Chee, "Possum, play dead." Why does he call the gorilla possum? Chee-Chee is a gorilla, not a possum. Also Possum is not his name nor nickname.

Bunch Son

Answer: 'Playing possum' is slang for pretending to be dead, as possums sometimes do that to avoid predators.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Opossums will go into a state where they appear dead when threatened, thus the term "playing possum." Dolittle was just saying to act like a opossum and play dead.

Bishop73

Ruling Days - S1-E5

Question: Jacob says "as long as we distribute (the heroin) on the water, the cops can't touch us." What does he mean by this? Is he saying they have an agreement with the Sheriff or cops they won't interfere with him on the water? Or is just saying there's not enough cops patrolling the water to catch them? If it's the latter it seems like a poor choice of words since the cops could "touch" them.

Bishop73

Question: When Dani and Grace are in the vehicle that drops out the back of the plane...how then is it possible that the plane is able to nearly come down upon them if it was moving in a forward motion at a great speed in opposite direction? The plane would naturally have gone down miles away from them and not nearly collided with them.

Answer: The simplest answer is, this is a movie, and movies often exaggerate, change, or fabricate details that logically could never occur in real-life. This is a perfect example of a deliberately faked action sequence that is contrived solely to entertain the audience by employing a 'suspension of disbelief.' It's more exciting and suspenseful to be able to see the plane crash, even though, as you point out, it realistically would be miles away by that time.

raywest

Question: When Arne was in prison, Father Newman comes to Arne's cell at night and secretly gives him a vial of holy water. Arne tried to commit suicide with the shards from the vial at the end. Was Father Newman possessed too? I don't understand why Father Newman would give it to Arne at night in secret.

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: It's been a while since I've seen the film, but I believe Father Newman was giving Arne the holy water to protect himself and use as a tool against the demon. I don't think there was any indication Newman was possessed. He probably gave it to Arne in secret so the guards wouldn't confiscate it, since it could be broken and used to hurt himself or others.

TedStixon

Question: The woman who cursed David and Arne, is she a living human or a ghost? She seems to teleport like a ghost but from the way her father tells about her, she is still alive at that moment. I'm confused.

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: She's basically a witch/occultist. She uses magic and curses and whatnot, which might explain why she seems to be able to do unnatural things. But she is most definitely alive and not a ghost.

TedStixon

Question: The reporter on the TV says that Bruno Sauls, the owner of Brookfield Boarding Kennels was stabbed 22 times by Arne Johnson. And another victim, Katie was also stabbed 22 times by her best friend, Jessica. Why 22 in particular?

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: Maybe just to show the correlation between both cases?

Question: Why can't the contestants be released after they cross their arms that they quit as the TV producer said?

Trainman

Question: When Doc and Marty hijack the train, they are both wearing masks. Marty zooms straight ahead as the train behind him goes off the tracks and explodes at the bottom of Shonash Ravine. When he comes back to 1985 there's a sign that says Eastwood Ravine. How could the people of Hill Valley know Clint Eastwood was on that train when he immediately took off and disappeared after defeating Buford Tannen?

Answer: In the novelization, the people of Hill Valley believed that 'Clint Eastwood' died trying to save the train from the bandits and was remembered as a hero.

Answer: Presumably, Doc, who remained behind in the 1880s, and Clara gave their version of the story about "Clint Eastwood" and influenced the naming of the ravine.

raywest

Question: When Henry is doing his kidnapping gig to meet Lucy, he sees a car coming and says false alarm and sits up. The car has her dad and brother in it, and they tell him to come by the house when he's finished, and once there he says she only paints on days she meets him. She's there painting and singing. Based on how it unfolded, it seems that he hadn't yet met her that day, so what's that about? He's still wearing the same shirt so it's the same day. (00:44:23 - 00:45:28)

Answer: It was implied she was developing some memory retention, as she changed her daily routine with something new. The father and brother surmised this change was due to her meeting Henry. As a result, they gave him their blessing to continue seeing her as they hoped she would continue to improve.

Invader_Gir

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.