Question: We see Biff groan in pain as he returns to 2015 with the stolen DeLorean. In a deleted scene we actually see Biff fade away as he is erased from existence by his actions. I assume this is because an alternate Biff now exists (or could have been killed) and so he is erased from time. If this happens to Biff, why doesn't this happen to Marty, Doc, and Jennifer? They too are replaced by alternate versions of themselves when they return and even before they return to 1985a. 1985a Biff even says in the film that Marty was in school in Switzerland, and Doc has been committed, so they too should fade away as Biff did, shouldn't they? I would say "time" was giving them time enough to correct things like in the 1st movie, but Biff faded away almost a soon as he arrived back in 2015a.
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Chosen answer: Biff faded away because he completely changed his own past. When Marty, Doc, and Jennifer return to 1985, they're returning to the alternate timeline that Biff created. They still exist and remember their own history because without it, Biff's timeline couldn't exist and a paradox would be created.
Answer: The comics answer this question. In 1986 in the alternate timeline, Biff forced the committed Doc Brown to send him forward in time to get more sports results, but Doc tricked him and sent him back to 1884 instead, where he was shot by his own great-grandfather Buford. When he reappeared in his current time (that's how the time machine worked in this timeline), he was dead. Old Biff faded from existence because Biff never grew up to become Old Biff (because he was dead), so Old Biff no longer existed.
Question: Just wondering out loud. Since Marty showed Doc the drawing of a flux capacitor in 1955, I think this would have caused some infinite loop in the universe. I'll explain it better. Wouldn't Marty have destroyed the universe because he showed Doc the time machine in 1955, meaning Doc wouldn't have had the machine tested out in 1985 because the design was already "completed" in 1955? Meaning Marty never would have gone back in time in the first place to show Doc the time machine, meaning that Doc would test it out in 1985. Meaning that Marty would have gone back to 1955 and showed Doc the time machine, meaning Doc wouldn't have tested it out in 1985, meaning Marty wouldn't have gone back in time and showed Doc the time machine, etc.
Answer: Jeez, take a deep breath already. Yes, as a result of Marty's jaunt back in time, Doc now knows more about the design of the time machine, but that doesn't mean that he has the capability to build it in 1955. He needs all sorts of high-tech equipment, plus, let's not forget, some plutonium from somewhere. Regardless of his additional knowledge of the systems, it may simply be impossible to build until 1985. You also have to consider that Doc's not stupid - he knows that he completes the time machine in 1985, starting the whole thing off. He's not going to risk a temporal disruption by completing it early.
Question: At the end of the episode, Sylar injected himself with a cure to rid himself of the Shanti virus. Upon injecting himself he used his telekinesis to summon a tin can to him. My question is, how was he able to retain his telekinesis when the Shanti virus completely removed all of his acquired powers?
Chosen answer: Sylar is supposed to be able to copy powers through empathic mimicry, as we see him do with Elle's electrical abilities. If he does that, then it appears that the powers genuinely become innate to him, as if they were his from the start, whereas if he takes them in his usual way, they don't - he has access to them, but they don't become innate and thus can be erased by the Shanti virus. When Gabriel killed Brian Davis to take his telekinetic ability, he felt terrible guilt over having done so and thus his empathic mimicry kicked in, making the telekinesis an ability which the Shanti virus couldn't remove. This is also why the Company could only detect his telekinesis when examining him, despite the fact that he possessed many other abilities at the time.
Question: What was Arthur Petrelli doing all that time he was lying in bed hooked to a respirator? Making plans of some sort?
Chosen answer: Basically, yes. Using others to further his agenda and ultimately restore his health and allow him to establish a powerbase.
Question: Maury objects quite heavily at the idea of Arthur giving the order to murder his son, Matt. Why is this? In season 2, Maury is shown to use his telepathy on Matt in a harmful way, not to mention the fact he abandoned him when he was quite young.
Chosen answer: There's something of a difference between Maury using his powers against Matt to take him out of the equation and actually killing him. Maury is prepared to work against his son if necessary, but doesn't want to see him dead.
Question: After completing the Adamantium procedure on Wolverine, why does Colonel Stryker want Wolverine's memory wiped?
Chosen answer: Logan only agreed to the procedure so that he'd be able to take down Victor. As Stryker is actually working with Victor, he obviously doesn't want Logan killing Victor off, so he orders his memory erased so that he doesn't remember the details. Plus, with no memory of why he left and subsequent events, it might be possible to bring Logan back into the fold, giving him another mutant agent to further his agenda.
Question: Is is true that there is a third ending to Wolverine? I heard it was about Deadpool picking up Weapon X1's head.
Answer: There were rumours of as many as six different post-credit scenes at one point, but only two have been confirmed. It's possible that others were shot, but were ultimately never included to make things simpler - they may appear on a subsequent DVD release.
Question: Why does Sabertooth look so different in this movie than he does in X-men 1? Even in the comics and the cartoon that was on in the early 90's, he was always shown to be at least 7 feet tall and at least 400 lbs, and in the comics and 1st movie he was very animalistic looking; here he looks like a human with a bad manicure and small fangs. Does anyone know why this is?
Answer: It's quarter of a century earlier - his appearance could easily have changed in that time. It's been shown that mutant powers can evolve over time - Victor may simply have gradually changed to a more animalistic appearance as the years have passed. Longer hair and a bigger beard would cover most of the changes.
Question: If Stryker was capturing mutants and put their powers in Weapon X1, how come he only used 4 powers (Wolverine, Cyclops, Wraith and Deadpool)? He could have used Emma Frost's powers to turn into a diamond, Bradley Bolt's power of telekinesis, Blob's strength, and Agent Zero's skill with weapons. If he used those powers he could win against Wolverine and Sabertooth.
Answer: Stryker makes it clear that they've been experimenting to see which abilities can be successfully combined. They can't just throw in every power going, only those that can work in combination.
Answer: Stryker released weapon XI even though the scientist said the bonding wasn't complete, hence the lines still drawn on him and how crude he looked. They may have been adding those powers at a later stage in the bonding.
Question: Before going to play baseball, Edward says that there's a thunderstorm coming and that's the only time they can play, I heard Bella saying "I see why you need the thunder" but I don't quite understand why that is?
Answer: The Cullens, as vampires, possess extraordinary physical power -- so when they play baseball, the sounds generated when striking the balls are extreme and need to be covered by the thunder (or blamed on thunder, should anyone hear them hitting the balls).
Question: Does anyone know, what is the last word of the quote used on the back of the packaging?
Chosen answer: The quote reads: "Terrific entertainment fueled with endless invention." --Roger Ebert, "Ebert & Roeper"
Question: When exactly is the movie set? I think it may be sometime in the 70s, but all of the technology has me confused. It all seems so advanced for the 70s.
Chosen answer: The finale of the film takes place around Three Mile Island and implies that the accident there is actually a result of the events of the film, dating it to March 28th 1979. That's an assumption, but fits with the chronology of the X-Men movie series given how young Professor X looks.
Question: Exactly why did The Terminator raid the police station and kill all those cops? Wouldn't it have been more prudent to wait until Sarah was released, make sure she was unprotected and then kill her?
Chosen answer: From his point of view, she was already unprotected. At least, unprotected enough for him to make an attempt on her life. The police can't stop him and concerns for his own safety do not enter his calculations. But he was programmed with one goal in mind: Kill Sarah Connor. When he sees an opportunity to do so, he takes it. He knew where she was. To wait would be to risk losing that information.
Question: What was the point of bringing the Elves to the Battle of Helm's Deep? I don't mean in terms of the action of the film - I mean, why would the filmmakers add in something that is completely off the book? Legolas and Gimli frequently comment in the books that they wish their kinsmen would come to help them. Legolas then says that war is raging on their lands, and they will not come. Why have them come in the film?
Chosen answer: It's to show that the other races aren't just sitting back and letting the race of Men fight the battles. They could, of course, simply have had Legolas and Gimli saying that their people are fighting elsewhere, much as the books do, but it's more interesting and emphatic to actually show that the elves are participating in the battle against evil, even if it represents a change.
Question: In "The Stolen Earth", is The Doctor refering to an old episode when he says, "Someone tried to move the earth before"?
Answer: Yes. The Daleks tried to destroy the Earth's core and replace it with an engine to pilot it through the universe in the first Doctor story "The Dalek Invasion of Earth."
Question: Does Colonel Stryker have more than one son? Assuming he is the same character played by Brian Cox in X-Men III, he has another son in a wheelchair that can't be Wade.
Chosen answer: First of all, Stryker was in "X2", not 3. Secondly, Wade was never his son. Stryker only has one son, named Jason. In this movie he can be seen encased in ice (to protect people from him), but it is obviously him (note his eye colour - one brown, one blue). It's far from unthinkable that sometime between this movie and "X2", his father's experiments on him put Jason in a wheelchair.
Question: At the beginning, why did the cops chase after Reese, what was their reason?
Chosen answer: He'd just mugged somebody in the alley for their trousers.
Question: Hiro Nakamura acquires two plane tickets to Tokyo for himself and Charlie Andrews. Why? Wouldn't it be a lot less time consuming to simply teleport her there?
Chosen answer: Hiro's powers aren't terribly reliable at the time - he's okay with using it himself, but doesn't want to risk her ending up somewhere unsafe.
Question: Towards the end of the film, why does Reese switch on all those machines? He says something about "cover, so it can't track us." What does he mean by this?
Chosen answer: It creates more heat, more noise and more motion in the area. It makes it harder to pick out two people running around, either by sight (machines blocking view), heat sensors (from the heat of the machinery) or listening out (the machines are loud).
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Answer: I read somewhere the reason Biff faded away was Lorraine shot him in the alternate timeline for murdering her husband, George.
I hadn't heard that one, could be in a novelization or something. This is entirely my own speculation with nothing official to support it; however, it could be that because Doc and Marty are trying to correct the timeline, he and his siblings' removal from history happens gradually, as they get closer or further from the act of their trying to set things right. Biff doesn't know or care and is actively trying to change history, so the moment he returns to 2015, he vanishes all at once.
Captain Defenestrator
If you have the DVD or Blu-ray, watch the deleted scene of Biff vanishing and turn on the commentary. It will confirm that Biff was murdered, which is why he was erased from existence.