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: Why is there a lamb in the 'death tape'? I've seen this film at least 20 times, I've figured out everything else except the relevance of the lamb.

Answer: There were lambs on the hillside (near the red Japanese maple tree) that Samara was gazing at when her mother killed her.

Wasn't that just horses?

Answer: The lamb is normally associated with innocence.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: I understand Samara "haunting" her parents, spooking the horses, killing everyone who watches her video as an act of revenge, but why then does she torment (or at least "talk to") Aiden? Aiden has visions of Samara days before his cousin is killed, and for some reason, she seems to interact with him a lot, though we never see it in the movie.

Answer: For some reason, I always thought that Samara started to show things to Aidan after he went to Katie's room during her wake. There, he sees a figure on the TV and the proceeds to tell Rachel that it's not Katie's room anymore (clever word play as Katie had died so nothing was hers anymore, but it also implied that Samara's spirit had taken over her room). Since Aidan was a kid just like Samara when she died, she probably attached herself to him and began showing him things and it seems to have gotten worse after Rachel watched the tape and was infected by Samara. As for the drawings showing Katie's death, Samara didn't show those images to Aidan. Katie herself told him that she was running out of time and possibly that she was going to die. This obviously caused a huge impact on Aidan prompting him to draw those pictures.

Answer: Aiden is psychic. He can sense Samara, though he doesn't understand exactly what he is experiencing.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: How do the people not racing always seem to get to the destination first?

Answer: They take the camel roads, which are easier (and faster) to navigate.

Xofer

Question: When Dr. Buddy is in the control booth at Yankee Stadium, he's talking to a very old man who he's about to tell what message to put on the scoreboard. The way the film is cut, hanging on the old man for a few extra seconds makes me believe he's someone special in real life, but I saw the movie on a special movie channel promo weekend, and the end credits were squashed up to make room for cast interviews. Anyone know who this elderly gentleman might be?

Krista

Chosen answer: That would be the famous Bob Sheppard. He is the long time Yankee announcer. For more info: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/comment/sbcol15.htm.

Bruce Minnick

Answer: The title refers to an experiment in 1907 which attempted to show scientific proof of the existence of the soul by recording a loss of body weight (said to represent the departure of the soul) immediately following death. Referred to as the 21 grams experiment as one subject lost "three-fourths of an ounce" (21.3 grams), the experiment is regarded by the scientific community as flawed and unreliable, though it has been credited with popularizing the concept that the soul weighs 21 grams. (Wikipedia).

Answer: It's called this because supposedly at the time of death everyone loses 21 grams of body weight. Sean Penn's character does a monologue near the end of the movie that goes into this theory.

Tobin OReilly

Question: Frodo is pricked by Shelob in the torso. However he is at the time wearing a mithril coat which are supposed to impervious. How is he stabbed then?

Answer: The stinger actually comes in quite high, presumably above the rather low neckline of the mithril coat. An injury can be seen high up on his chest later in the film, presumably the stinger wound.

Tailkinker

Question: In a few things I've read, Antonio Bandaras is credited as playing Che Guevara but in the credits of the film he's listed as only 'Che'. Is the character actually meant to be Guevara?

Kara

Chosen answer: Though (very) loosely based on Che Guevara, the character of Che is NOT supposed to be him, as was stated by both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Sereenie

Question: I heard that Chris Columbus isn't the director of PoA. Is he or the other director of PoA, going to direct HP 4?

Answer: Neither. Mike Newell (Mona Lisa Smile, Four Weddings and a Funeral) will direct Goblet of Fire.

Krista

Question: Why doesn't Anakin wear the normal or really traditional Padawan outfit?

Answer: There is no Jedi 'uniform' as such - Jedis tend to wear variations on a given look rather than going for a regimented appearance. Anakin has presumably chosen his costume himself - it's quite an extreme variation, but could be seen as along the same lines.

Tailkinker

Caged - S2-E7

Question: In this episode, Catherine says, "I think I know the word that made her throw her coffee," and Sarah says she hates that word. While I could take a few educated guesses, I'm not sure what word they mean and I can't tell from Croft's mouth movements either. Can someone enlighten me?

Answer: I believe that she is referring to the 'C' word.

umathegreatstationarybear

Question: I've been told that the original script for Alien 3 was quite different then it turned out to be, but due to costs/times it was revamped. Is this true?

Azureth

Chosen answer: There are umpteen different scripts for Alien 3 available on the net, some of which are very different to what was eventually made - some of the early ones are set in a monastery, rather than the prison colony that was eventually used.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: What is the episode called (and which series) when everyone reflects on what may have happened? It involves Monica still being overweight and Chandler is a computer geek.

Answer: It's called 'The One That could have been' and it's from series 6. Two parts.

Kara

Question: Does anyone know of any good sites about all three of the movies?

Answer: www.lordoftherings.net is a great one.

Tobin OReilly

Question: What is the age difference between Missy and her brother Cliff?

Answer: I believe that Missy is a Junior (16-17) and Cliff is a Senior (17-18).

Ral0618

Answer: No, the TV interviewer calls her a senior. They're the same age.

Brian Katcher

Question: Jack sings "come Josephine to my flying machine, going up she goes, up she goes..." to Rose. Was this an actual song or did they just make it up to go in the film?

Answer: It's an actual song written by Alfred Bryan and Fred Fisher in 1910. http://www.geocities.com/dferg5493/comejosephineinmyflyingmachine.htm.

ChiChi

Question: In the shot when Doc is in the time machine and it is hit by lightning, it apparently explodes. After the initial explosion you can see what appears to be two backward nines. Does anyone know what this means?

Answer: Whenever the Delorean travelled backwards or forwards in time, it would leave a trail of flames. There was no reason given, but it was a neat effect. When it was struck by the lightning it activated the flux capacitor, etc. And sent Doc and the car back to Jan 1st 1885. The "double nines" you saw was because the Delorean tilted on its axis.

BGraz

Question: Does Roxie get back together with her husband at the end? We see him leave, but they don't explain it. Perhaps the stage play explains this.

Answer: Amos wants to reconcile when the trial ends but Roxie walks away. (The end of their marriage is not explained in the stage play, either.) One is led to believe Roxie leaves Amos and goes on to stardom.

JustJudy

Question: I heard some people saying that Harrison Ford's performance in ROTJ was 'phoned-in'. What does this mean exactly?

Answer: "Phoned in" is a term that means the actor's heart wasn't in the role. They were physically there, but there was a distance between them and their character. If an actor is in a movie merely because of a contractual agreement and not because they truly connect with the movie or the character, they put less effort into the part and some people can pick that up when they watch the show.

Garlonuss

Question: In the liquidation of the ghetto segment a little girl is shown in color wearing a red dress. What is the significance of this?

mxdllngr

Chosen answer: The little girl appears three times in the film: once at the beginning of the film, bringing her belongings into the ghetto with her family, once during the liquidation of the ghetto, and once during the disinternment and burning of the Jews killed at Plaszow. Schindler noticed her during the liquidation scene and was horrified by the way the Germans completely ignored her and callously murdered and destroyed other human lives without any regard for this innocent child. It was one of the turning points in his life; after that he began to realize he could no longer turn a blind eye to the monstrous evils of the Nazi party, and began to take a more active role in protecting and rescuing Jews. As another possible answer: During the Adolf Eichmann Trial, which took place in Israel, a story was told by a holocaust survivor (a father) who just parted forcibly with his wife and daughter at Auschwitz. Then, moments later, his son was told by the SS guard to run after his mother. The only way the father could follow the sight of his family among so many people was to follow his little daughter who was in a red jacket. He describes the sight of the girl in the red coat getting smaller and smaller...that was the last they saw of his family. Here is a link to that story http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-053-04.html Additionally, the story was so moving that the prosecutor could not speak for many minutes (per an interview I once saw with the prosecutor, who also had a little daughter the same approximate age) and the courtroom was silent under the weight of this story of the girl in the red coat.

Phil C.

Question: Maybe a dumb question. But what exact kind of Apocalypse happens in the movie that causes all of these problems? Shortage of gas is one of them. But was it nuclear war or what? What would cause the port of Sydney Australia to dry up like it was shown in the 3rd movie? Did the whole sea dry up?

iceverything776

Chosen answer: It was nuclear war. Tectonic plate movement could make ports dry and flood others. None of the movies ever goes into great detail about the apocalypse.

Grumpy Scot

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