Question: Does "Vilnius Nastavnic" really translate to "Vilnius Schoolmaster"?
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Question: When Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn are leaving the troops to go summon that ghost army in the mountain, all of the troops and even Eowyn think he is abandoning them. Why does he not explain where he is going? If he would have told them that he was going to summon a great army to help it would have done a lot for their morale. What does the book say about this?
Chosen answer: The Dead who live under the mountain are feared and hated by pretty much everyone - note Aragorn's reaction when Elrond first suggests recruiting them. The Rohirrim will be well aware of all the tales - if Aragorn were to tell them what his mission was, they'd likely consider him to be insane. Better for them to think that one of their leaders has to go on some unspecified mission than for them to think that he's actually nuts. Besides, Aragorn has no idea whether the Dead will actually choose to fight - he seems reasonably convinced at first that they won't, and he's not likely to be alone in that opinion - most of the Rohirrim would probably consider him to be a fool for even contemplating it - also not exactly great for morale.
Question: The WB said that Smallville was going to introduce Krypto the dog. What is Krypto's origin and how did he get his powers?
Answer: In the comics, Krypto is a dog from Krypton who was used as the passenger in a test launch by Jor-El, Superman's father, before he launched the actual rocket taking his infant son to Earth. Krypto's capsule was involved in a mishap, sending it out of Kryptonian orbit and eventually found its way to Earth where he linked up with the young Clark Kent. Like any native of Krypton, Krypto has superpowers on Earth. In Smallville, the dog is a standard Earth dog who has been experimentally injected with kryptonite, giving him super-strength for a limited period of time, who escapes and links up with Clark (who suggests the name Krypto, ostensibly because of the dog's cryptic origins). It doesn't take too long for the dog's strength to fade, and the Kents decide to keep him, although they ultimately name him Shelby, after a dog that Martha Kent had in childhood.
Question: The number 1138 gets referenced in many later Lucas-related projects. What, if any, is the original significance of the number?
Answer: It's been widely suggested that Lucas based the title on his telephone number at the time. The first three digits corresponded to T,H and X on the keypad - the last four were 1138.
Question: Where is the David Schwimmer reference in this movie? I know that there is a Jennifer Aniston reference, but I heard that there was one about David Schwimmer.
Answer: It's when Dewey and Randy are talking about the movie Stab. Randy says to him "At least you get played by David Schwimmer, I get the guy who rode the stage coach through one episode of Dr Quinn".
Question: Just two things I was curious about whilst watching. Does anyone know how they trained the boy who plays Little Jack to do the hand signals and cry on cue etc.? I imagine it would be quite difficult to teach a toddler all of that. Also, how did they get a boy who looks so much like Ben Stiller for the part of Jorge? Is he related in any way or is it just luck that they found a boy like that?
Answer: Little Jack is played by twins so both twins did not necessarily have to learn all of the "tricks". Ray Santiago is not related to Ben Stiller and there are quite a lot of make-up effects applied to his face especially around the nose, ears and eyebrows.
Answer: The boy was already taught to sign by his parents before he was discovered.
Question: How do the hovercraft work? I know the glowing pads contribute to the hovering ability, but is that based on any real technology? And why don't the sentinels have the hover-pads?
Chosen answer: The hover pads work by electro-magnetic repulsion much like the mag-lev trains we have today only much more so. They would not leave a trace of propellant to be followed/tracked/traced nor would they be especially hotter than ambient temperature like jet engines etc. The sentinals do not care if they are tracked, but it is not clear if they use a more advanced form of this technology or something else. Remember that the Zion people have to start over from scratch every so often while the machine culture is constantly advancing so the humans' technology would not necessarily be as advanced.
Question: Isn't the whole premise for this movie dead wrong? There is no precedent for an assassination of a president ELECT. He is not president so therefore anyone could become president. The Constitution does not apply to "elects" What does happen?
Answer: According to the Constitution, the Vice-President elect is actually elected separately by the Electoral College, i.e. they are really not a package deal, the death of one doesn't negate the election of the other. The Vice-President elect would indeed become the President.
Question: Why did Mordor attack Middle Earth at this specific time? .Why did the battles and fighting all start at a certain time in middle earth. Since their world has been going on for thousands of years you'd think that something specific happened to make them fight.
Question: At the very end, when the boy walks up to Violet, Violet is talking to another girl and saying something that sounds like "Why do they even have to have cheerleaders." Given the film's many political correctness references, is this also a reference to something?
Chosen answer: Traditional cheerleaders are very un-pc for many reasons. They are basically popularity contests, promote beauty/thinness as an ideal, etc.
Question: On the DVD audio commentary,when all the actors are introducing himself. Sean Astin introduces himself as 'a well fed Sean Penn.' Why?
Question: What kind of bird is Nigel? He looks a lot like an Albatross to me.
Chosen answer: Nigel is a pelican - he appears to be modelled on a Brown pelican (although that particular species is not actually native to Australia).
Question: In the trivia section, it says, "Look at the pictures the TV guy takes out of the filing cabinet", but it doesn't say what's there. I don't have the video, could someone please fill me in?
Answer: It is referring to a moment during the song "Worthless" toward the end of the movie, right before the Red Car sings. The photos he takes out have pictures of what looks like some exotic dancers on them.
Question: What exactly is a Witch King - where did it come from and why is it there?
Answer: The Witch-King is a name given to the Lord of the Nazgul, leader of the kings corrupted by the Nine Rings. The title "Witch-King of Angmar" refers to a time in the middle of the Third Age, around 1500 years before the War of the Ring, when he founded the northern kingdom of Angmar to oppose the kingdoms of the north, which were populated by Aragorn's ancestors. The specific title "Witch-King" alludes to the fact that the Nazgul leader was a powerful sorceror - whether he was before he fell to darkness, or whether he learned his skills from Sauron is unclear. What his mortal name was is unknown.
Question: I understand that Jean Grey perishing to turn into Phoenix was part of the storyline, but there had to be another way to stop the oncoming water. Couldn't Bobby (Iceman) have tried to freeze the water? Or maybe that and a combination of Storm turning the weather very, very cold would've turned it into ice?
Answer: As mentioned elsewhere, Iceman is still in training and doesn't have enough control over his powers to turn the entire flood of water into motionless ice within the short time frame. Storm might have been able to lower the temperature, but dropping it enough to instantly freeze such a volume of water probably would have killed them all (we know from Cerebro 2 that she can't insulate people from the effects of her powers). It's just too much water too fast for these to be possible.
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Chosen answer: The literal translation is "Vilnius Principal", but that doesn't sound as imposing.
Schoolmaster is correct. Nastavnik means male teacher or instructor, i.e. a schoolmaster. It does not mean "Principal/Headmaster/Head Teacher."