Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Question: Why does Barty Crouch Jr. flee when the prisoner says his name? Surely the minister's son could easily claim that the desperate prisoner trying to get out of jail's claim is completely false. And was the man in prison in that scene the Damstrung headmaster, and if yes, is that why he and Moody (Crouch) were so suspicious of each other in the trophy room right after Harry's name was drawn?

bomberswarm2

Chosen answer: Even though Barty Jr. could claim he was being set up, he would have been interrogated using veritase serum, a potion that forces wizards to tell the truth. Some can circumvent its effect, but Barty was not a talented enough wizard to do this. The prisoner who implicated him in that scene was Igor Karkaroff, who became headmaster of Durmstrang, the wizard school that was participating in the Triwizard Tournament. Karkiroff was a Death Eater who defected to Dumbledore's side. Moody (a disguised Barty Jr.) would never have trusted him under any circumstances. Karkaroff had been previously pursued and captured by the real Mad Eye Moody, and would naturally have a negative reaction to being around him.

raywest

Answer: Barty Crouch Jr. appeared to be a fanatical Voldemort supporter, not unlike Bellatrix Lestrange and several other death eaters. They refused to deny their allegiance. This differs from the book, where Barty does protest his innocence, but his father refuses to spare him mercy to set an example.

Answer: He didn't attempt to flee. He tried to kill the prisoner for exposing him and for betraying Voldemort.

Question: What exactly was happening when Harry casted red sparks with his wand in the maze? All things just seemed to get more aggressive. Did Dumbledore say to Harry that he can use red sparks if he want to give up?

Loesjuh1985

Answer: Harry was not giving up. Harry saw that Fleur needed help, and cast red sparks to bring attention to her.

Chosen answer: In the book, the finalists were told to shoot off sparks out of their wands if they got lost or got into trouble in the maze - sort of a distress flare. As to why things get nasty at that moment, most likely it's because Mad Eye has rigged the maze to make sure that Harry wins and touches the cup first, which wouldn't happen if Harry had to give up.

roboc

Question: Why was Ron angry with Harry for allegedly putting his name in the Goblet of Fire?

MikeH

Answer: Ron was becoming a jealous of Harry's fame and, feeling inadequate, was tired of being in his shadow. He (wrongly) believed Harry had entered his name into the Goblet for the attention.

raywest

Why does he think Harry did it? Ron was with him when the others put their name in and he couldn't have done it overnight because prefects roam the grounds.

Ron knows that Harry had the cloak, and that Harry can generally get away with a lot more than other students.

Ssiscool

Answer: Harry has an invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map, easily undetectable to anyone but Mad-Eye Moody. I'm sure Ron thought that Harry could have slipped away; surely they aren't together every second of the day. Ron was jealous, it doesn't have to make sense.

Answer: Since Harry was hanging out with Neville more (lack of Ron around), it sounds as if Neville had been driving Harry a bit up the wall, with Neville's nonstop comments about things he was finding/doing. So when Neville exclaimed aloud, "Amazing, amazing," Harry told him, "Neville, you're doing it again."

Super Grover

Answer: Neville had a habit of talking out loud and at length about whatever he was thinking, regardless of whether anyone around him knew the context.

raywest

Question: Anybody who puts their name into the Goblet and is selected is bound to a magical contract to participate in the tournament. Since Harry never actually put his name into the Goblet, shouldn't that void the contract?

Answer: The selection process was corrupted by Barty Crouch, Jr, who cast an exceptionally powerful "Confundus" spell on the Goblet of Fire. The Cup was somewhat sentient and wrongly sensed that Harry was a student from a (non-existent) fourth school who'd entered his own name, even though someone else submitted it. Once a name was entered, a student was magically bound to compete in the tournament.

raywest

Answer: I watched the clip on YouTube, stopping and enlarging the image to scan it, but I did not see Cho sitting among the other students at Cedric's memorial scene. She may have been sitting in an area in the back or off to the side where the faces were less visible or else she was too distraught to attend the ceremony.

raywest

Question: Why did Barty run away, letting Harry go at the world cup? I know he heard the voices of Hermione and Ron but he's smart enough to know that he could've killed them and then just taken Harry. After all, isn't that why he was there in the first place?

Answer: Taking Harry and killing Ron and Hermione at that time would have made it too obvious that Voldemort was behind it. Voldemort's plot hinged on abducting Harry in a way that no one would immediately know what had happened to him. The TriWizard Tournament was traditionally extremely dangerous, resulting in students in past events being killed while competing. Harry's disappearance in the maze would initially be attributed to some tragic mishap, giving Voldemort time to complete his resurrection.

raywest

Yeah, the ritual needed to be made ready too I think, for Voldemort's revival.

lionhead

Question: What are the three curses Mad-Eye Moody taught (or you can say Barty Crouch Junior)? Cruciatus and avada kedavara - what's the third?

Answer: The three curses are the Unforgivable Curses. The Cruciatus Curse (crucio) causes intense pain. The Imperius Curse (imperio) puts someone under mental control. The Killing Curse (avada kedavra) kills instantly.

Question: This goes along with the previous question about that song that starts at :33 on the first trailer. Does anyone know what kind of music genre it would be under so I might find an album that sounds like it?

HulkObsessedChick

Chosen answer: I can do better than that. The track is called "The World Waits" by Edmund Choi, from the soundtrack to the movie "The Dish". If you're in the UK, the track can be downloaded here for 70p: http://is.gd/5KgJb.

Madstunts

Question: Is it possible for someone to tell me, what was the music playing in the trailer? The one on this site I mean, from Trailier Addict. The song starts at :33 and I would really like to know what it is and if it's possible to get it somewhere.

Answer: The only listing of trailer music that I know of doesn't provide direct timecodes for when each track is used, but, looking at it, it seems likely to either be an unnamed piece composed specifically for the trailer by a group called "Brand X Music", in which case there's likely no chance of finding it, or a track entitled "Terms of Enchantment" by James Dooley. Dooley tends to write incidental pieces for use in trailers and so forth, which would probably make it very difficult to track down, although there have been collected albums of such tracks in the past. It may also be called "The World Waits" by Edmund Choi, from the soundtrack to the movie "The Dish".

Tailkinker

Question: Who was the guy in the red uniform that follows Krum and Karkaroff about? Is it ever explained whose aide he is, or what his job is?

Answer: It's never explained; in the movie or the book. Maybe just an aide.

Zwn Annwn

Question: During the first task with the dragons, there is a shot of Hagrid in the stands. It seems very deliberate that there is only one other person sharing the shot, although slightly in the background. It really looks like the author, J.K. Rowling did a cameo in this shot. From her statement several years ago I realize she would be reluctant to do a cameo, but is there some more up-to-date information?

Answer: I'm not an expert, and I haven't seen any information about her changing her mind about doing a cameo. But I watched that scene very carefully and it does not look like J.K. to me.

citysister

Question: Why does the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall begin acting weird when Mad Eye Moody (Crouch) makes his entrance during the beginning-of-the-year feast?

raywest

Chosen answer: The ceiling does not really start acting weirdly when Moody enters. The ceiling is enchanted to portray whatever the outside sky is doing, and, as it is stormy outside, it is therefore stormy on the ceiling. It is just a coincidence that just as Moody enters, there is a lightning strike, and he thinks that it is a curse or some other magic spell.

mandy gasson

Addendum: in the book, there's a big storm going on (outside), and Mad-Eye does not interact with the ceiling as he does in the movie. The lightning at the same time he comes in is a coincidence.

It's more about foreshadowing for the terrible events caused by fake Moody later in the movie.

Question: When Harry became the champion, why did Dumbledore get mad? I know in the book, he doesn't get mad, he asks Harry calmly. Why did the screenwriters change this?

DFirst1

Answer: It's typical for scenes taken from a book to be depicted a bit differently in a film adaptation. Movies are visual and in this instance, the filmmakers were going for a more dramatic, ramped-up effect. Dumbledore was never mad at Harry, but upset by the turn of events and he had to be certain Harry was not in any way involved.

raywest

Answer: He's not mad per se, he is concerned that Harry did it himself and that he put himself in danger. He felt it was careless of him to do that, that's why he asked so furiously.

lionhead

Question: When Hermione tells Harry and Ron that Neville has a partner for the dance, why doesn't she tell them that it's Ginny, Ron's own sister?

Answer: Because it's not really her place to tell them anything. She probably enjoys keeping them guessing, particularly Ron, and wants them to find out for themselves, which will surprise them even more. I don't remember how it was in the book, but for the movie, it sets up the scene for the audience to be surprised as well.

raywest

Question: The 'shooting off sparks in the maze' at the end feels particularly clumsy...was the book the same way? Like, if this is all magic, why would the maze not be able to recognize who shot off the sparks, and make sure that person was ejected from the maze? Otherwise, it seems like you could use this to sabotage a competitor (e.g, if Viktor knew Cedric was coming around the corner momentarily, then he could shoot up sparks and run away, so that Cedric would be in place to be sucked up by the maze).

Answer: In both the book and movie, the contestants sent up sparks. However, all were pre-warned of the dangers and that they were pretty much on their own upon entering the maze. In the book, the maze is filled with hazardous objects and creatures that each contestant had to overcome. In the movie, the hedge itself is the danger, and it appears Voldemort (aided by Barty Crouch, Jr.) manipulated it to ensure that Harry reached the middle while it sabotaged and controlled the other competitors. Therefore, the maze would not protect the contestants. The four were unaware the maze was corrupted and were so focused on winning that they ignored the dangers. All were determined to continue as long as they could.

raywest

Question: Why was Molly Weasley absent in this movie? Did her actress, Julie Walters, get sick or was simply too busy with another movie?

Answer: Walters wanted to be in it. "Goblet of Fire" is a fairly long story with many new characters added. In the book, Molly mostly appeared early on in scenes confined to the Weasleys' home. She did not attend the World Quidditch Cup or play a significant role in the overall story arc. To trim its running length, the movie starts later in the story as Harry and the Weasleys, minus Molly, set off for the match. There was really no reason, plot wise, to add her character into the already complex storyline. Harry's family, the Dursleys, were also left out.

raywest

Question: I was just wondering why the Death Eaters were so eager for the Dark Lord to return, but the moment he's resurrected (which happens in this film and in the book), they are suddenly really afraid of him. I mean they go on and on about how they can't wait for him to return but the moment he does, it's almost like they wish he hadn't e.g. the scene in this film in the graveyard where Voldemort calls out Lucius Malfoy or the scene at the start of "The Deathly Hallows part 1" where they're all having a meeting at Malfoy Manor and Voldemort is walking and talking amongst them and they're all fearful of him.

Answer: Voldemort works on fear and hate. His minions are full of that. They hate muggles and wish they could dominate them, to crush their world. Voldemort promised them that, so they follow him, to reach that goal since he is a powerful dark wizard with followers and the ambition to go as far as he can. But Voldemort likes people being afraid of him, even his minions, so he is harsh on them, punishes any tiny mistake severely, does cruel things to them. So they fear him, are very submissive in his presence because of his cruelty and magic prowess. but he does lead them to their ultimate goal.

lionhead

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Wormtail performs the Avada Kedavra curse and then raises the "bone of the father," he places Voldemort's wand inside the left side of his coat, before he slices off his right hand. When Voldemort says, "My wand Wormtail," Wormtail retrieves the wand from the right side of his coat. (01:56:00 - 01:57:40)

Super Grover

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Trivia: Mike Newell decided against the original idea of separating the 734-page book into two films released several months apart, figuring he could still make it into a workable film by cutting some of the bulkier subplots.

More trivia for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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