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.

Question: After discovering the slaughter of the apprentice Jedi at the Jedi Council, why do Yoda and Obi-Wan decide to fight Palpatine and Anakin separately? Palpatine was ready at hand, at the Senate, while Anakin was in distant Mustafar. Stategically, it seems to me this would be their best option - Yoda loses the fight to Palpatine but not for much, managing to survive and flee; he most likely would have been able to win had Obi-Wan fought along. Then, Anakin would have certainly been defeated - the loss of his master impacting on him. If I understood it all correctly, this would have saved the Republic and allowed them to rebuild the Jedi Order from scratch (but not made any sense with IV, V, VI, which is why they didn't do it). But is there any in-plot explanation?

Answer: It boils down to the element of surprise. The clone troopers have shown that they're entirely capable of dealing with Jedi by that point - if either Palpatine or Anakin is able to surround themselves with a large and alerted clone trooper force, then Yoda and Kenobi will have no chance to get near them and that's game over. With Anakin seperated from his master, they're vulnerable, but if both Jedi attacked one target, the other would be alerted to the fact that Yoda and Kenobi had survived Order 66 and could take steps to protect themselves and unleash the military to hunt down their adversaries. By dividing their strength and attacking their targets simultaneously, Yoda gives them their best shot of taking out the Sith for good.

Tailkinker

Question: Is the Mouth of Sauron capable of seeing through his helmet? The design visibly does not incorporate eye holes, yet he nevertheless is able to accurately throw Frodo's mithril shirt at Gandalf and then recognizes Aragorn even though Aragorn does nothing to give away his identity, both conceivably would not be possible without keen eyesight.

Answer: We know very little about the Mouth of Sauron as he's portrayed in the film. While he's human in the book, his cinematic incarnation is of indeterminate species, so it's hard to say what he might or might not be capable of. The book version of the character is described as being a powerful sorceror - if the same holds true of the film Mouth, then possession of such strong magic could readily explain his ability to identify those around him and operate easily without eyesight.

Tailkinker

Question: At the start when the agent gets shot at the concert, what is the name of the band and the song that they are singing?

Answer: Rammstein - Feuer Frei! Look for it on YouTube.

Shannon Jackson

Question: When Maddie leaves Abe's bedroom (after they shared a quick kiss), he rushes back out and calls her. Why does he call her back? If he wanted to say something to her, why not say it when she was in the room?

Answer: Because he apparently had to work the courage up to say whatever it is he wanted to say. He was conflicted in his feelings for Maddie. He's a priest and isn't supposed to 'want' her the way he does. Catholic priests take a vow of chastity and he was trying to deal with his feelings as a man and his vows as a priest.

Shannon Jackson

Question: When the final battle scene is over, Megatron is badly injured and vulnerable. Is there a reason why Optimus Prime doesn't finish him off, other than leaving room for another sequel?

Answer: Prime's priority is the Fallen. Megatron's a lesser threat at the time; Prime's focus elsewhere gives him time to get clear of the situation once the Fallen is eliminated. Plus, as you say, it does leave things open for a sequel.

Tailkinker

Doomsday (2) - S2-E16

Question: Why wasn't Pete sucked into the Void when he came back to rescue Rose? Also, how did he even know when and where to teleport to, or that she even needed saving at all?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: He was only there for a fraction of a second, so the Void didn't have a chance to drag him in. As for knowing when and where, it's one of those last-second rescues that fiction revels in. Improbable, but dramatically satisfying.

Tailkinker

Question: When using the trap, why is it inadvisable to look directly into it?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It is so bright, it may damage your eyes.

William Bergquist

Chosen answer: Her motives are never explained. One possibility would be curiosity, a simple experiment in human infant physiology. Another, perhaps more likely one from her subsequent look of apparent distress is that it was, in an odd way, an act of mercy, giving an innocent baby a swift death, rather than leaving it to die in the nuclear fire or of radiation poisoning afterwards.

Tailkinker

Question: You'll have to forgive my ignorance regarding a comment made by Matt Farrell. He said that it took FEMA five days to get water to the Superdome. What exactly was he talking about?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, with many of the residents temporarily housed in the Superdome. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was highly criticized for their response (or lack of), including how long it took to supply the Superdome with adequate water and food. Matt's pointing out to John how the government isn't nearly as capable of responding to disaster as people think.

OneHappyHusky

Chosen answer: It's never actually mentioned on the show, though in the 'Continuum' universe, she says she's been with Ba'al for 50 years.

MoonFaery

Question: What exactly happened to the Ghostbusters between the first film and this film? Why was a restraining order taken out against them?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: After the initial high of saving the city from Gozer wore off, they were blamed for the danger in the first place and sued out of business. The restraining order was additional insult to injury.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Warlock is his computer name just like Keanu Reeves' character in The Matrix is called Neo even though his "real" name is Thomas Anderson.

Shannon Jackson

Chosen answer: Before Q sent the Enterprise to the beta quadrant to officially contact the Borg, there were already indications that the Borg was beginning to reach Federation territory. There were remarks towards the end of the first season of the Next Generation that several of the furthest Federation outposts were being attacked by some unknown enemy. They suspected the Romulans, but when contact with the Romulans was re-established, they learned that it was not them. The Hansens had simply figured things out much earlier than anyone else in the Federation. They learned about the Borg nine years earlier, but Starfleet mainly took notice when their outposts started getting wiped out. It is logical to assume that there were indications of Borg scouting parties and research efforts well before that.

Garlonuss

Answer: Add to that, the two transport ships at the start of Star Trek: Generations were carrying El-Aurian refugees to Earth. It wasn't stated in the film what they were refugees of, but Guinan would state in TNG that the Borg wiped out her planet and most of her people, so it's a safe bet that's what it was. And with 47 El-Aurians being rescued by the Enterprise-B, there were plenty of people to tell Starfleet about this cybernetic threat. At the time though, Starfleet did not have the ability or resources to investigate this further, and it was eventually forgotten when other things became important until the Enterprise-D encountered that cube at J-25.

Chosen answer: Q brought the Borg ship to the Alpha Quadrant. He used his powers to alert the Borg of the human existance. Once alerted it is the nature of the borg to persue assimilating other cultures.

Boobra

Q moved the ship to the delta quadrant, near a cube that was likely exploring for targets. The Borg ship never left the delta quadrant until Q gave the borg a reason to do so.

oldbaldyone

Question: After the gene-swapping sequence, why was Bartok placed in observation? Also, what was that food they gave him?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Obviously, he was kept alive so he could be studied, which was a nasty twist on the fact that he kept the dog alive, and suffering, for so long. As far as the food, there is no way to know what it was. Probably some kind of bland mush.

wizard_of_gore

Chosen answer: We are never given any direct indication that they know Reese's importance. They don't appear to know that Reese is Connor's father. They are merely using him as bait for Connor. They must know that John is interested in someone named Kyle Reese and figure that news of his capture would bring them the man they really want.

Garlonuss

Question: How could the citizens of Springfield breathe with a dome over their town?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: There were still trees in town to create oxygen, however, in all probability, the EPA meant for everyone to die off eventually.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Throughout the film, Thomas Gabriel is shown be to an extremely intelligent and talented computer hacker with enormous resources at his disposal as well as an equally talented entourage of computer hackers. My questions are, why did he hire other hackers to write code for him and then kill them? He must have realised that this would draw attention? Couldn't he or any of his colleagues have done it themselves instead?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: First off, from the time they started killing off their hired hackers, there wasn't much anyone could do about it. They weren't worried about calling attention to themselves because they were doing plenty of that with their fire sale. Secondly, the number of systems they would have to hack would require lots of different methods and directions of attack. Way too much man power for Gabriel to let them all in on the plot without risking exposing their plans way too early. The idea of one hacker breaking into all of the systems they need is a nice Hollywood cliche, but rather unrealistic. People spend hours, days, or even weeks trying to hack one single system. Gabriel doesn't have that kind of time. The reason his one "extremely intelligent and talented computer hacker" is able to do everything he does is because all of their hired hackers had already passed off all of the programs and algorithms they needed. That's why he appears to have "enormous resources at his disposal" at all.

Garlonuss

Chosen answer: They wanted a good mix of pollutants to turn the planet into a giant cloning facility. Something humanity was well on its way to doing for them.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Yes.

Tailkinker

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