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: When Ray and Charlie are in the bathroom, they sing part of a song. What is the song they sing?

Answer: It's "I Saw Her Standing There," written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, released November 1963. In addition to the Beatles, the song has been covered by Elton John, The Grateful Dead, Tiffany, and many others I'm sure.

Matty Blast

In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as the B-side on the label's first single by the Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

Question: When he stabs the Witch King Merry seems to be breaking his arm. Later when Pippin finds him he is close to unconscious. Éowyn on the other hand seems to be doing quite alright. Yet in the extended edition Éowyn is brought to a hospital and appears to be ill while Merry is fit to get back into battle the next day. Is this a mistake, or am I missing something.

Answer: Merry doesn't actually break his arm - it's more that the foul energy that surrounds up the Witch King affects Merry when he makes the stab. The energies have a detrimental effect of those exposed to it - Eowyn is close to the Witch King for longer, plus she's the one who makes the killing blow, so she gets a more potent dose. Also, her arm is severely damaged physically during the fight, making it necessary for her to receive greater care than Merry does. In the books, both are taken to the hospital and neither goes to the fight at the Black Gate - it was presumably considered better for a cinematic audience that Merry should go, rather than sidelining one of the Fellowship during the climax of the film.

Tailkinker

Question: In the Extended Edition, the scene with Saruman, why is Merry sitting on the back of Éomer's horse? The two had not met earlier and Gandalf has room for a hobbit on Shadowfax.

Answer: Most likely, because Gandalf suspected that Saruman would put up a fight and concentrate his magic on him. Placing Merry with Éomer got him out of the direct line of fire, so to speak, and left Gandalf free to concentrate on Saruman.

Twotall

Question: Rafe's fighter combat experience is in Europe. How does he know the capabilities of a Zero?

Answer: Presumably fighter pilots were instructed about Japanese technical capabilities before they were transferred to the Pacific.

raywest

Question: I heard somewhere that Much Music VJ Devon Soltendiek appears in the film somewhere, can anyone tell me where?

Answer: He plays one of the reporters.

Boobra

Question: When Ed and Shaun are at the Winchester before the zombies break out, Shaun tries to shoot down Ed's high opinion of the Winchester's owner by saying "he says dogs can't look up." Ed says this is true. This bit of trivia comes up several times in the movie and is never answered. So can dogs really look up?

Answer: It's pigs that can't look up.

Answer: Of course they can, everything is up when you are the size of the average dog. They wouldn't have survived long as a species if they were unaware of anything more than a couple of feet off the ground.

Mad Ade

I always thought it meant they can't do it with just their eyes, like they can't roll them upward so they would tilt their head up to see up. But I have seen my dog's eyes peek upward so maybe some other explanation.

Question: Do the actors actually sing or are all of the songs voice overs?

Answer: They actually are doing their own singing.

Boobra

Question: When Jigsaw tells the victims, from one of the tapes, that the order of the combination is 'over the rainbow', what does he mean or how does it work?

Answer: Each of the numbers on the victims' necks are a different colour. If these colours are then put into the order of the colours of the rainbow, the corresponding numbers will be the correct combination.

Kayleigh Green

Question: Which Python sings the song "Christmas in Heaven"?

Season 4 generally

Question: Strangely, unlike seasons 2 & 3, there's no option to branch the deleted scenes back in to season 4 and on disc 7, the first deleted scene is under the heading "Season 4 Director's Cut Promo". Is this really as black and white as it seems or am I missing something? Has anyone heard any rumours, or facts, that Fox is planning to release Season 4 Director's Cut in the near future?

Chimera

Chosen answer: The "Director's Cut Promo" on Disc 7 is just that: a Season 4 promo, in the form of a prequel that bridges Seasons 3 and 4. The context of "Director's Cut" that we normally think of has nothing to do with it.

Cubs Fan

Question: I know this film is supposed to be set in 2004-2005, but does anyone know why the clothes and some of the music seems to be quite old (like 20-30 years ago)?

Answer: The reason the styles and such are so out of date is to signify that the town where "Napoleon Dynamite" takes place is a very small town that is out of touch with current fads and trends. The aged styles also serve to create a sense of nostalgia to the majority of the viewing audience.

Sarah Van Winkle

Napoleon dynamite is set in 2004 but, like some other commenters have said, many of the town's inhabitants are way behind the times, Uncle Rico living in 1982 and proudly proclaiming it, Deb living in the early 1980s with her side ponytail, and the faculty at the school being with a lot of the town's backwardness by playing 1984 songs "Forever young" and "Time after time" at the school dance. However, some of the other townspeople are much more updated with their styles such as Summer and her friends dressing and acting much more up to date, because they're the cool kids who have been able to keep up with America's more modern trends than a lot of the town's being stuck in the past. Also, Summer and her friends may've also travelled like to Los Angeles or some other bigger city more than the others and have been more exposed to the modern world. And because they're the cool kids, they've cared more about that. Alot of the rest of the town, Rico, Deb, school faculty, Napoleon's family, etc., they've either not learned or not cared about getting modernized, probably some of both.

Answer: Shopping for Napoleon's "tuxedo" at a thrift store would explain the old clothes. As far as the music goes I think we all have listened to music from the 80'-90's at one point.

Question: I don't understand the opening. What was the object that Zod broke in half, and why was it so important (considering it had a guard standing near it)?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: We're never told.

K.C. Sierra

Question: When Pippin and Merry collide with Frodo and Sam in the corn field they seem to be acquainted with Frodo but nothing more than that. Yet they still end up going with him on the journey. I didn't quite understand why they chose to do so, are they better friends in the books?

Answer: In the book, Frodo's departure is much less rushed - it takes him several months to depart rather than leaving the same night. Merry and Pippin, being among his closest friends, help him pack and so are with him right from the start of the journey. In the film, the timeframe has been considerably compressed for dramatic reasons, so things are much less organised - as such, it became necessary for Frodo and Sam to encounter Merry and Pippin along the way. They're still intended to be friends, but the depth of that friendship is less clear.

Tailkinker

Question: On Scene 20 of the DVD, if you immediately pause it (just before the camera starts to pan up the outside of the hotel), you can see a shadow in the first window that looks like it's E.T. I can't find anywhere else online where this is mentioned. Is this my imagination? Or might this have been done intentionally?

Answer: I have looked at this about a dozen times, and I think it's just a shadow that resembles E.T. I can't imagine why it would have been done intentionally.

wizard_of_gore

Question: If it's such a hi-tech factory, why is Doris still using an old fashion typewriter when they wave to her?

Answer: Perhaps she prefers the old style typewriter. Besides, the film seems to be set in a parallel time where modern items and more antique items exist quite happily side by side.

Mad Ade

This is further shown by the fact that there don't seem to be any phones.

Question: Do the individual aliens have cloaking abilities? It seemed at that the dogs were reacting to something that the people could not see. Were they smelling cloaked aliens? Were they going crazy to protect their human owners and that was misinterpreted as an attack on the people? I thought they are walking around at least invisible at times to do their work without detection. I may be wrong on that.

Answer: The aliens were not cloaked, not invisible. They had a chameleon-like ability to change their appearance to match their background. Recall the alien's fingers turning plaid when he held the boy. They seem to be that green color when not camouflaged. The better senses of the dogs did allow them to detect the aliens. However, one of the effects of alien presence noted in the movie was a change in personality; that is what happened to the dogs.

scwilliam

Question: What car does Johnnie B drive?

Answer: Its a late 90s/early 2000 Mercedes Benz S500 or S600.

Answer: A 1964 Dodge Dart.

FordGuy

Answer: Don't know if it's confirmed but that's believed to be Heath Ledger's Dodge Dart that he had at the time.

Question: I recently saw Ghostbusters 2 on Spike TV. when the broadcast came to the point where Winston is pulled into the river of slim, before Vigon and Ray, I noticed the river of slime looked odd. It was as the river had been shrunken down, or the Ghostbusters were enlarged. Am I crazy? If I am not, then why would they make such a trivial alteration?

Answer: SpikeTV didn't alter the movie except for editing for time and content. The scene you saw was in the original film and the way the river looked was a combination of two things, the camera angle and the poor special effects of the time.

moviemogul

Question: I remember seeing a mini series about the Ripper when I was younger, in which Mary Kelley had a new young prostitute (Ada) "under her wing", just as in this film. Did Ada really exist, and if so are there any evidence that might support that she was murdered in Kelley's place?

Answer: Kelly regularly spent time with several other prostitutes, as we see in the film, but there's no particular evidence that Kelly was acting in a sort of mentor role to any of them. There is, however, evidence that Kelly did share a room with another prostitute, so the fictional 'Ada' may have some small basis in fact. However, none of the reports of Kelly's murder give any indication that there was any doubt about the identity of the victim.

Tailkinker

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