Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Why wasn't Amanda's face shown in the flashbacks of her first day at the school?

Answer: The filmakers decided to forego showing Amanda's face early on to give her grand entrance at the party more impact.

Question: Two questions: First, why didn't Dent kill the Joker in the hospital? Okay, he left it up to chance with a coin flip. But the coin was double-sided! So after all the agony, and all the crime busting Dent has been through and achieved, why let the Joker live? Secondly, and this is a pretty major thing, how is it the Joker knows every move that either Batman or the Police/Commissioner Gordon, etc., makes or has planned? It literally seemed like no matter what Batman did, the Joker correctly predicted his move and was already one step in front of the Batman. That seems a little ridiculously impossible to me, unless the Joker is one smart smart con man. Anyone else realize this?

Answer: Harvey's coin isn't identical on both sides any more. One side is pristine, one side is damaged (scratched and scorched), so it's truly a fair coin flip now. Joker persuaded Harvey to leave it to chance - the coin came up undamaged so Joker lives. As for predicting their moves, that's precisely the point - they are predictable, because they live their lives according to rules, laws and ethics. Joker, as an agent of chaos, has the edge over them because he doesn't. He's smart enough to know that people react in predictable ways in particular situations. So it's not that he has some mystical ability to know ahead of time what people will do, he just anticipates the most likely course of action and prepares something to counter that course of action ahead of time.

Tailkinker

Question: This question probably is insignificant but I was just wondering - why didn't Rachel want to be with Bruce, and choose Harvey over him? Did she love him more and not love Bruce anymore? And did she really die at the end? I know she probably did but I thought maybe there was a chance she survived? Thank you.

Answer: Bruce has a darkness to him - she says in the first film that she can't be with him while Batman exists. Then Dent appears on the scene and has the same drive for justice that she and Bruce do, but goes about it in a much more open fashion - it's not that she doesn't care about Bruce any more, it's simply that Dent is a man that she can be with, which Bruce isn't. Then, when Bruce fails to hand himself in, letting Dent pretend to be Batman instead, she feels that Bruce is in the wrong and that basically ends it for her - she still cares, but it pushes her into finally making her choice to be with Dent. As for her death, there's no indication whatsoever in the film that she survived the explosion.

Tailkinker

The Ember Island Players - S3-E17

Question: Is there an inside joke or added meaning to the names that worked on the "play"? The "surprisingly informed cabbage merchant" is obvious, but besides that.

Answer: The pirates are from the episodes "The Waterbending Scroll" and "The Waterbending Master" (They're the ones Katara stole the scroll from). The traveling musicians are from "The Cave of Two Lovers. The prisoners of war likely refer to the Kyoshi Warriors, the men of the Southern Water Tribe, and possibly Bumi and the other citizens of Omashu.

Answer: It all depends on how you land. Maroni landed on his legs, which would break them, but wouldn't necessarily be life-threatening. We don't know how Dent landed - he could easily have just broken his neck on impact or something.

Tailkinker

Question: When the Princess Nuala asks Abe what he's wearing early in the film, Abe answers "It's a breathing apparatus". But he only dons the mechanism twice in the film, and rarely wears it outside where the microbes in the air can kill him! Why even wear it?

CCARNI

Chosen answer: Why not wear it? It's clearly something that's useful to him, even if it's apparently not particularly essential. It may simply just make him more comfortable, like a human wearing a scarf in cold weather - allowing him to breathe the water that he prefers rather than air. There's never any mention that Abe can only survive for a limited time out of the water; equally, there's no suggestion that he's particularly vulnerable to atmospheric microbes. It's part of his equipment that he uses when he wishes to, that's all.

Tailkinker

Question: Doc Brown shows up at the end of part three with his wife Clara, his two boys, and a time-traveling, hovercraft-converted train. How did he build it? There was nothing in 1885 that could even begin to help him build another time-machine! And don't tell me that he used Marty's 'hoverboard' as parts, because that doesn't wash.

CCARNI

Chosen answer: Time machines don't actually exist, so who are we to say whether or not the parts to build another time machine are available? Doc Brown is an inventor. Doc had the knowledge of how to build a time machine having built the original machine into a DeLorean, Doc also appears to have had a few years to come up with a way of building a time machine into a train, given that he now has children who appear to be around 5 years old. Plus, remember that the fridge in Doc's shop was much bigger than a modern fridge, and a steam train is way bigger than a DeLorean.

Blair Howden

Answer: Doc's consistent problem was finding high-energy power sources for his inventions. But, actually, materials and technology did exist in the late 19th Century to construct extremely high-energy components. If Doc Brown had contacted electrical geniuses of the day (such as Nikola Tesla, who was already working in high-energy physics, radio and and X-ray technology in the 1890s), he could have certainly acquired the materials to reconstruct the Flux Capacitor and back-engineer hover pads for his time-travelling locomotive. As we saw earlier in the film, he was quite capable of back-engineering 1980s electronics using 1950s components (when he repaired the DeLorean).

Charles Austin Miller

Question: As Phoenix is using the computer stand on the street and accessing Edgar Friendly's info, a box pops up on the screen with a phrase and then Phoenix's name at the end. What does that box say? I've tried pausing it and watching in slo-mo, but its picture is blurred on my screen.

Answer: The box reads, "You have accessed secure mailbox facilities for...Simon Phoenix."

Question: I have a question about the car chase scene. How is it possible that a van of this size is able to catch up to a Viper? As far as I know that car can reach 60mph in less than four seconds.

Answer: Yes, but when you're driving through streets crowded with people and other vehicles you can't just stand on the gas pedal or you'd wreck the car. The van can catch up because the Viper can't drive at its top speed.

Phixius

Question: In the Joker's last scene, he has Batman pinned underneath a bar and asks, "Do you know how I got these scars?" Batman replies "No, but I know how you got these" and he shoots those blades of his into what I thought was the Joker's face. But later, when the Joker is hanging upside down, his face doesn't appear to be any different than usual. Did Batman shoot the blades into another part of the Joker's body, or was I completely oblivious to the Joker's new wounds?

Answer: If you slow down the footage, Batman's blades don't hit Joker's face...but the remote control in his hands to prevent him from blowing up the boats.

Paulie Larson

Answer: As of 2014, King of the Hill finished with 11 season, putting it 6th among longest running US animated shows (with at least 3 animated shows already in 9th or 10th season.) In terms of episodes, it's 3rd with 259 episodes, behind The Simpsons and The Bugs and Tweety Show, with South Park nearing that number.

Bishop73

Question: Was the possibility of putting Asajj Ventress into the movie ever considered?

Answer: No, but before the character of Count Dooku was developed, the Art Department for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones developed a female Sith as the film's villain, as seen in concept art by Dermot Power in The Art of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Since Dooku replaced her as Sidious' apprentice, she was put in to the animated series.

POKER

Question: Just before the Emperor is raised, why does the General demand that Evie O'Connell translate what's written on the Eye? She is (or at least was) an Egyptian expert. Both the General and his female aide are there - couldn't one of them read it?

Answer: First, it's ancient Chinese, probably unreadable to someone who speaks modern day Chinese (and possibly a different dialect as well). Also, Evie was an Egyptian expert, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have other areas of expertise.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Question: Why are Rick and Evie the ones requested to return the Eye? I know the General needs the Eye to revive the Emperor, but why have 2 mummy experts bring it? After all, he's raising a mummy emperor and army, wouldn't he be worried the O'Connells would interfere? Or is he wanting to get all 3 (parents and son) together so they can all be killed?

Answer: He needed Evie's skill with ancient languages. She was one of the few people in the world who could translate what was written on the Eye accurately, and who could be easily persuaded to travel to Shanghai.

Twotall

Question: Was there a reason why Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson didn't just play the high school versions of themselves in the flashbacks at the beginning of the movie? If their characters in the present are in their early 20's, it seems like it wouldn't have been a big stretch for them to play themselves as high school students.

Answer: Presumably the filmmakers wanted to emphasise that some time has passed since they last saw each other. If they still looked pretty much the same, which they would if played by the same people, that wouldn't be as clear.

Tailkinker

Answer: Warrick first, Nick next, Sarah last.

Question: How did Moses' Egyptian mother explain where Moses came from? Her husband was dead and this baby just happened?

Answer: Bithiah (not sure of the spelling, sorry) claims the Gods of the Nile sent Moses to her, knowing she would never have a child of her husband's body.

Question: Just before Angel and Collins invite Roger and Mark to go to the life support meeting, Angel says something in Spanish. Does anyone know what it is?

Answer: "This egg needs some salt." It's a Spanish idiom meaning that he needs a girlfriend.

Question: Just wondering, does Jim Gordon realize in any of these two movies that Bruce Wayne is in reality the Batman? Because when Bruce and Gordon talk after Bruce crashes his Lamborghini, they talk as if they don't know each other.

Answer: No, there's no indication that Gordon has any idea.

Tailkinker

Answer: In the first movie, he became a recluse then disappeared for several years. They never stayed in contact with one another. Even after Bruce returned they only spoke when he was Batman. While Gordon was trying to fight crime and corruption, Bruce was playing the boozy Playboy millionaire.

This doesn't answer the original question.

Ssiscool

Question: Just a question about the remarkable resemblance to Johnny Five from the Short Circuit films. Is Wall-E intentionally modeled this way or is it just a coincidence they look so alike?

Answer: It certainly wasn't intentional, although the director, Andrew Stanton, has acknowledged that he did see Short Circuit many years ago and agrees that it could well have been a subconscious influence. WALL-E was principally designed with the job that he does in mind - the design brief was to consider WALL-E as an appliance first, what he would need to look like in order to do his job efficiently, then work out how to read emotion into the character after that. Stanton has stated that the chief inspiration for WALL-E's eyes came from a pair of binoculars, which he decided looked happy or sad depending on which way up they were.

Tailkinker

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