Question: Why did time not end when Thanos destroyed the stones, and what happens in now there aren't any? The Ancient One stated that the stones control the flow of time, and removing even one of these opens up the world to unimaginable horror. Well why did nothing happen after Thanos destroyed them all? And now that our timeline has no stones, how would Dr. Strange be able to stop Dormammu from coming back?
Answered 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.
Answer: In the comics the stones will be replaced by something else equally powerful to compensate for their loss. I suppose the same applies to the MCU. These powers need to have a physical presence in the universe, in one way or another.
The only problem is the films never insinuate this at all. The Ancient One flat out states that not having the stones would be bad for the universe, and yet Thanos destroys the stones with absolutely no adverse affects to the universe whatsoever. This movie played very fast and loose with the rules they established regarding the stones and time travel and I feel like things like this were massive flaws.
The universe is a pretty big place, though. There could very well be bad things in another part of the universe that have yet to affect our galaxy. Additionally, the forces of darkness that could potentially threaten the universe may be curbed by a cosmic entity such as the Living Tribunal, whose existence in the MCU was acknowledged in "Doctor Strange" and could very well appear in "The Eternals" or "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."
I just believe the ancient one didn't even know. The ancient one isn't always correct, as Bruce proved. And the bad thing was taking the stones away from their timeline, creating timelines where they are not supposed to be, it says nothing about destroying them.
That to me is still bad writing. You have a character whose entire purpose in the movie is to give exposition, and the exposition she gives is apparently incorrect. That's all well and good but that still needs to be addressed at some point. Some character should have brought up the fact that the stones were destroyed (and incidentally, remain destroyed in the main timeline) and the Ancient One should have addressed that fact. Otherwise, like the original question points out, it leaves a bit of a gap in the film's logic.
Answer: I believe the filmmakers have said that the energy of the stones was dissipated into the universe when their crystal vessels were destroyed. So that while they didn't have a physical form anymore, their essence remained and continued to regulate the flow of existence of the Universe. Presumably the energy can't then be reconstituted into the stones without some sort of profoundly intricate magic/science, the kind of power only possessed by gods and/or ancient elemental beings. Also, the Ancient One says that Hulk taking the time stone would be good for his timeline, but would leave hers without their weapon, which I presume means they wouldn't have the time stone to help the Sanctum's usual efforts in holding dark magic at bay. The actual effect of removing the essence of a stone from its timeline is still open to speculation.
If the ancient one was only talking about the time stone then Cap wouldn't have to bother bringing all stones back. No, she was talking about all infinity gems. Remove a stone and that universe is doomed.
Answer: The sorcerers may have other ways to stop Dormmamu from returning (even if those ways are currently unbeknownst to them). This could be addressed in the sequel. Additionally, since Dormmamu would have to know that the Time Stone was destroyed in the first place, he may well just stay away rather than falsely believing that he can be trapped in a time loop again.
Answer: She said the world not the universe. She said "without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness our world will be overrun." Theory: since Thanos used the stones to destroy the stones and Hulk heard what the Ancient One said, he could have used the stones to bring back their stones along with everyone else. He couldn't have know who all died in the universe, he could have just undid everything from 5 years ago.
Question: Why did 2014 Thanos bother to come to the future? As we are already aware, changing one time doesn't affect the other, and whether he knows that or not is sort of irrelevant. He could have stayed in 2014 and completed his mission, in fact he could have done it even more easily with the Pym particles he obtained without anyone ever knowing. He really had no reason to need to come forward in time. Knowing that Thor kills him in the future just means he could take steps to prevent that if/when it happens, he didn't need to act right then.
Answer: As an alternative to the above answer, another thing to keep in mind is that Thanos believes that his vision of a better world shouldn't be fought against. Finding out that an alternate universe version of himself wins the battle and then ends up having his plans ruined makes him believe that the heroes of that universe are ungrateful, and that he should help the alternate universe version of himself that died to stay the winner. He's evil. He doesn't just want to win in this universe. He wants to win in all universes.
Answer: He probably also realises that if the Avengers can get all 6 stones, stealing them all at once would be easier than trying to collect them himself.
Question: Why is the man's groin blurred out in the fight-scene at the Japanese sauna? It's an R-rated movie (or unrated, depending on the cut of the film you watch), so it's not like they couldn't have shown it. The best I can figure is that it's a reference to the fact that genitals are blurred out in Japanese media due to "decency" laws. Is that what the joke was?
Answer: It is a possibility. In Japan, the showing of a person's genital area and/or pubic hair is considered obscene.
Question: Is 2014 now in danger or basically completely screwed? Quill would have woken up and probably have been caught by either Korath or Yondu as he had been knocked out. Even if he didn't, he would have gone to the broker with the orb, but this time there would be no Gamora outside to try and take it, he may have still been arrested with Groot and Rocket, however they wouldn't join them as they have no chance to bond over Gamora. Without the Guardians, Xandar would have probably fallen, but more horrible is Ego may have found Quill, and without the Guardians he wouldn't have been able to stop him so guess what...Ego destroys the universe.
Answer: Short version is probably...yeah, basically. Despite "snip all the branches", certainly a few new timelines spin off from the original (Loki disappearing in 2012, Thanos/Gamora not being around in 2014, Old Steve being in our timeline or a new one, etc.) The "rules" aren't 100% clear, but that set of outcomes seems pretty likely.
Answer: All the timelines are screwed, each time they went back, they altered that timeline in ways Captain couldn't have known about to fix.
Question: What was that scream at the end? Was that Kate's scream? If so, why did she scream? What happened to her at the end?
Answer: At the end, Kate thinks the mystery of the masked killer has been solved - "Adam" has framed Dorothy. But, of course, the viewers know that the killer is actually Jeremy, who suffers from nosebleeds in times of distress. As Adam's nose starts to bleed (onto Kate's cheek) at the end, it is revealed that he is in fact Jeremy after all. The scream is most likely just added for dramatic effect and not actually Kate since, while we know she's in danger, she remains blissfully unaware.
Answer: Unless he does kill her because his bleeding nose onto her would make her aware of his true Identity and he would kill her to conceal it.
Answer: The killer is Adam who was previously Jason. He has had plastic surgery. Dorothy was framed by him.
Answer: It wasn't a scream at the end, it was the music. I think Adam only killed the three girls, and Dorothy killed the rest.
I don't think Dorothy killed anyone, she was just framed by the killer so Kate would think it was her when it really wasn't.
So which killer is more likely to have killed Scary Gary (the guy trying on Kate's underwear and got beaten to death with an iron)?
Question: What kept the police from going into the sewers to retrieve Oswald?
Answer: Nothing was stopping them. After Penguin's true nature was revealed, they most likely started searching the entire sewer system but couldn't find where his lair actually was so they had no choice but to give up.
Question: Why did Anna get so mad over Ryan killing Carly? If it were not for him, all of them would have died. All of them were almost dying when Ryan injected Carly. But after they were all release from the chains, Anna got so angry with Ryan and attacked him and said to him "Fucking asshole." It turns out that she killed her baby just because her baby didn't stop crying in the past. So she is not the type of the person who cares about people's lives very much.
Answer: She's just trying to maintain a moral high-ground over Ryan. Plenty of people do that all the time, especially in stressful situations.
Question: Why was Edgar asking for Halloran on the roof? Was that his game where he had to kill Halloran or trigger the remote?
Answer: Spoilers: As revealed at the end, Halloran is a crooked cop who has a past connection to Edgar. Edgar therefore wanted him there, since he presumably assumed Halloran could help him out of this jam. It's also possible that Edgar's tape instructed him to find Halloran, but we can't know this for certain, since it wasn't on-screen.
Question: The dirty cop who shot Costigan; how did he end up there? Costigan names the time and location over the phone to Sullivan. He also states while on the roof to Anthony Anderson that he called him for verification of who he was. That relates back to their time at the Academy together. It's a bad gaffe in the climax of the story. It's like he just magically appears, unless I'm missing something. Any answers as to how that other rat in the staties on behalf of Costello who kills Costigan ended up at that point to kill William?
Answer: If Leo was in the lineup for Costello's crew, why didn't Anthony Anderson pick him up in the line up while investigating Costello? They had pictures of the whole crew. Anthony Anderson was in SIU. Bothers me.
Pick him out as what? Someone who supposedly washed out of the academy and turned to crime? Costello knows this - it's part of Costigan's cover.
Answer: The implication based on the dialogue is that Trooper Barrigan had been following Sullivan ever since he discovered that Costello was an FBI informant. He states that because of Costello's actions, the two of them have to stick together now and look out for each other.
Question: Instead of telling Stark to turn the donut around why doesn't he use a sling ring?
Answer: The range of the sling rings hasn't been defined. They were in deep space at this point, so they may have been too far away for Strange to open up a portal on Earth for them to step through.
In Endgame, Strange opens at least one portal from across the galaxy. For example, we see the one opened from Titan that he, Spiderman, and the Gaurdians all come through. Unless his sling powers suddenly increased after the great purge, he should have been able to open a portal from deep space on the ship.
Answer: The Q Ship was travelling in some form of hyperspace. It would be reasonable to assume that the slingring could not work under those circumstances. When he does use it later, it is from the surface of the planet Titan.
And when they arrive on Titan his idea to protect the time stone changes. He instead looks at different time-lines.
Why would it be different in hyperspace? The ship has its own gravity.
By definition, hyperspace exists outside normal time and space. Depending on how the sling ring works, it may not be able access normal space.
Question: Dexter tests the blood on Miguel's shirt, to see if it's Freebo's. It looks like he's just using a DNA sequencer and the blood result comes back "bovine." Can a DNA sequencer differentiate which species the blood came from like that? Or perhaps he was using a different type of blood analysis machine? Is there an analysis machine that's capable of that? I thought the way to test if blood is human or not, "anti-human serum" is mixed with the blood to see if it will clot. So wouldn't the only way to tell it was bovine blood is to inject it with "anti-bovine serum"?
Answer: The short answer is yes, it could. but, it would have to be set up to analyze results to differentiate species. The sequencer will report the base pairs for any properly prepared sample, but interpreting the results is a software package. The software is available, but I would think it unlikely that an analysis package used in a forensics lab would have the capability to be so specific. More likely it would report "Non Human Sequences Found."
Question: In the lunchroom cafeteria scene after Cheng sadistically and purposefully slams Dre's lunch tray all over him and knocking it over, Cheng says something to the teacher in Mandarin that is omitted by the English subtitles before Dre yells "Whatever he's saying, he is lying." What is Cheng saying?
Answer: Whatever Chang said, he said it too fast. I am Cantonese but I understand a bit of Mandarin. Even in 0.5 speed I either can't understand it or he said it too fast. I made out his last words (in ping ying), "ta Dar wour," that means, "he fought me." However, the rest might be the other reason why he flipped Dre's lunch.
He said, "I bumped into him and I apologised but he hit me."
Question: Near the end, the guards turned into animals when Pacha knocks the potions at them and Izma turns after crushing one. Why didn't Kronk turn when he poured his potion on his shoulder while pretending?
Answer: The potion was consumed by Kuzco - he drank it. As for the others it looks like they inhaled it while it was in smoke form. Maybe it needs to be ingested somehow in order for the person to turn into an animal.
There was a scene that showed Yzma pouring the potion onto a cactus which, she thought at the time, was poison. In the next scene, the cactus had taken on the shape of a llama. This could imply that the potion could affect somebody any number of ways.
Question: Are the Dunphys Jewish? Claire mentions Hanukkah in this episode.
Answer: No, they're not. It was just a joke because they said they've only had 8 consecutive days of bliss, which just happened to be in December 2007, and it was the Dunphy's version of Hanukkah. They're just comparing it to Hanukkah because Hanukkah also lasts 8 days. The Dunphys have been shown to celebrate Christmas, with presents, Christmas tree, etc, and the Pritchetts have Christmas traditions (see s01e10 "Undeck the Halls").
Question: I believe that Carrie did not actually die at the end of the film and is waiting to torment Sue and whoever else messes with her. Anyone adhere to this?
Answer: That was always the impression I got until the sequel was released in 1999 (The Rage: Carrie 2) that made it clear Carrie White was definitively dead.
So her grabbing her arm, what was the purpose for that?
It was a nightmare, never happened, it was just Sue's imagination.
Answer: Her grabbing her arm was a guilt ridden nightmare that Sue had.
Question: At the end of the movie, when the ship finds Richard, Emmeline, and baby Paddy in the lifeboat, Richard's father asks if they are dead. A crewman tells him that they are only asleep. Are they really dead and the crewman was trying to spare his feelings by lying to him, or are they really only sleeping?
Answer: The ending is meant to be ambiguous, and is identical to the ending of the original novel on which the film is based. It is never answered whether they are alive or not.
Answer: At the end of the movie, it says they are only asleep. But in the second film (The Blue Lagoon: The Awakening), they say that they are dead. However, the child is not, because he didn't actually eat any of the dead and buried berries. Then they named the baby Richard because that was the first word baby Paddy could say. He probably said it a lot, so they thought that was his name.
Question: How does Coraline wake up in her room when she goes to sleep in the Other World? Is it part of the Other Mother's magic?
Answer: It's part of the other mother's trap. Coraline thinks she goes back home, but really, she's still in the other world.
Answer: She is waking up thinking she went back to normal but actually always stayed in the other world. It was a part of the Beldam's magic.
Answer: She isn't actually dreaming it's just an illusion by the beldam, so she can appreciate the other world.
Question: When Carrie begins using her power to get revenge on everybody, a quick shot shows Sue on her phone. Who was she calling? The screams of the students made it impossible to hear.
Answer: After seeing Carrie get soaked in blood and Tommy get killed by being hit with the bucket, Sue leaves the building. Sue returns while talking on the phone just in time to see Heather crash into the gym window due to Carrie's shock-wave. As Sue rushes away, still on the phone, we hear her say, "There's been an explosion!" Sue was most likely calling the police to tell them about the prank that Chris and Billy pulled, so she could get some help for Carrie. She then gave them more information upon witnessing Carrie's rage.
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.
Answer: The way I understood it, removing the stones from one timeline into another timeline is what The Ancient One was talking about. The "new branched reality" is what would be overrun by the forces of darkness. But, even if she meant this reality, the reality where Thanos destroyed the stones, The Ancient One said it was their chief weapon, not their only weapon. Bruce then tells her Doctor Strange gave the time stone to Thanos and The Ancient One says maybe she made a mistake. However, since Thanos eliminates half the population of the universe, including the forces of darkness, whatever forces she was talking about may not have been around to try and attack Earth. Or in the 5 years that we don't see, there was an attempt and other weapons were sufficient.
Bishop73