Bishop73

11th Apr 2022

General questions

Trying to remember where I saw this scene from - a guy is telling a story about where a racing dog caught the mechanical rabbit it was chasing and got electrocuted in the process.

Answer: Actually I saw it again earlier tonight - it was the criminal minds episode To a Better Place.

Answer: Except for the man and the dog, There is a Bugs Bunny cartoon, "The Grey Hounded Hare," Bugs believes the mechanical rabbit is real and tries to stop the dogs from chasing it, after disposing of them, he kisses the rabbit and gets electricuted.

Answer: In that case, there's the movie The Firm. Ed Harris talks about how if a greyhound catches the rabbit, it will never race again.

Brian Katcher

Except it's not a rabbit, it's a bone. And there's nothing about being electrocuted. He doesn't even tell a story about it.

Bishop73

Question: What did Pauley say before he shot Bernie sitting on the steps?

Answer: He says the Italian word "cornuto." Basically insulting Bernie for sleeping with Vito's girlfriend, which is why the hit was put on him in the first place.

Bishop73

6th Apr 2022

The Simpsons (1989)

Answer: The idea probably being they're in the oil business, or at least in the pocket of Big Oil. There's been a long time conspiracy that oil companies killed the electric vehicle, so they could keep making money off gasoline.

Bishop73

Question: When Marty and Jennifer are sitting in front of the clock tower in the park and Jennifer asks Marty if his mother knows he is taking her up to the lake, during Marty's response, he seems to put something in the inside pocket of his jeans jacket with his left hand. What was he doing or what did he put into his jacket pocket? (00:10:00 - 00:11:00)

Answer: It was the audition tape of Marty's music that Jennifer gave him. She wanted him to send it to a record company.

raywest

Answer: There's a mistake entry about the scene where Marty is holding the tape in his left hand and then disappears in the next shot, so Marty's hand is empty at the point in question. To me, it honestly looks like Michael J. Fox rehearsed the scene so many times when he was putting the tape into his jacket that he did the same movement without the tape to stay consistent.

Bishop73

Question: Who played the teenager that got killed at the gazebo? It looks like Michael J. Fox but, when I checked IMDB, there's no name listed for who played him.

Answer: The actor is Randy Doke. He's uncredited for the role, but IMDB lists him as "Puppet Show Dude."

Bishop73

Answer: I checked the Internet and read up on the Killer Klowns production and there is no mention of Michael J. Fox being in the movie. I do not know who the actor in the scene is, and while it's possible that it was Fox, it does not really resemble him, in my opinion.

raywest

28th Mar 2022

Family Guy (1999)

Show generally

Question: When did Quagmire start hating Brian? In earlier seasons it shows Quagmire and Brian getting along fine but, several seasons later, Quagmire now hates Brian.

Answer: Given how succinctly he nails Brian, we can presume that Quagmire has never liked Brian and has only now put it into words.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: It's explained in Season 7 Episode 8 that he hates him for his pompous nature, his liberal attitude, his arrogance towards God believing people, and that he see him as a sad, alcoholic, bore.

Rob245

That answers the "why" but not really the "when." Brian's personality didn't really change, so when did Quagmire start hating him?

Bishop73

For all we know, Quagmire might have disliked Brian shortly after they first met. Maybe he kept his feelings to himself for a while, due to his friendships with Peter, Lois, Joe, Cleveland, and others who associate with Brian. There are some people who I dislike, but I don't want unnecessary tension among people who we both know.

Maybe always, but he was too polite to say anything for years. Hey I started hating my mother for her arrogant bigoted attitude when I was 18 but didn't say anything for years.

Rob245

Question: What song is playing in the ending credits?

Answer: "Land of a Thousand Dances" performed by Wilson Pickett.

Bishop73

21st Mar 2022

General questions

I remember watching a black and white short film in history class in high school. It featured a man about to be hanged (I recall a closeup of his face with tears rolling down his cheeks, and he had a thick mustache). He managed to escape and lead his captors on a chase, but his escape ended up being either a dream or fantasy, and the act of him dropping or his noose snapping is what brought him back to reality. Anyone know what this was?

Phaneron

Answer: I remember it well. This was the Oscar winning, 1962 short French film titled, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," directed by Robert Enrico. Set during the Civil War, there is virtually no dialogue. It was televised two times as a special edited episode of "The Twilight Zone." It is not part of the series syndication, though an edited version (dubbed over with awful music) is on YouTube. It was based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce, who served in the Civil War as a Union soldier.

raywest

Answer: There was a 1962 French short film called "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" with no dialog where a man being hung escapes when his rope breaks and when he makes it home the film cuts to him hanging from the rope because it was all a fantasy. The "Twilight Zone" then bought the rights to the film and included it as a season 5 episode.

Bishop73

5th Mar 2022

Monk (2002)

Answer: I couldn't find any info on the name "Teeger," but Monk got his name because they wanted to come up with a simple, single-syllable name for the protagonist that could easily stick in your head. They eventually settled on "Monk," which seemed to fit the character.

TedStixon

Just learned Bitty Schram's middle name is Natalie. Of course I'm overthinking it, but it's interesting.

Jlglassett

Obviously without confirmation from a writer that's where they got the name, you can't be sure. But it is an interesting fact that makes it seem plausible that the writers used her middle name as a tribute when she was let go from the show.

Bishop73

Question: Why does the helicopter explode at the end? Did the high-tension electrical wire set it off? I never see it hit the chopper, no matter how many times I see the scene. Or does he fact that the helicopter blades hit the pole have something to do with it?

Answer: Willis' character shot the power lines, which fell from the pole and got tangled up in the helicopter blades. Since the blades couldn't spin, the helicopter fell from the air and exploded as it hit the ground.

That's not what happened. John shot the power lines and in an effort to avoid them the helicopter pilot clipped a pole which took them down.

Answer: The sparks seen above the helicopter is meant to be the live wire wrapping around the blades. The helicopter does try to avoid the wire, but it's too late. If you look closely, it doesn't seem like the helicopter hit the pylon, maybe the blades knick it. But the helicopter explodes while in the air before it hit the ground.

Bishop73

15th Mar 2022

The Karate Kid (2010)

Question: Since this is a movie solely based on Kung Fu (and not karate), why wasn't this film titled "The Kung Fu Kid"? It seems it would also help separate confusion between this film and the 1984 Karate Kid film.

Answer: While there was discussion to name the film "The Kung Fu Kid", it was ultimately decided to keep the original, and more familiar, title since the film is considered a reboot. Not only is the story line the same, there are many elements from the original film seen in the reboot. And, had Ralph Macchio not turned it down, he would have had a cameo. It should be noted that the title in China is "The Kung Fu Dream" (功夫梦).

Bishop73

Answer: There was a comic book titled, "The Kung-Fu Kid," so there were copyright issues.

Titles, names, slogans, and short phrases cannot be copyrighted. In some instances, they can be trademarked.

raywest

The original answer does seem suspect without a source, but it should be noted that there was a DC Comics series before the original film called "The Karate Kid" and Columbia Pictures had to get special permission from DC Comics to use the name. All the films even acknowledges the name is used with consent. There definitely could have been a lawsuit if DC Comics didn't want to give permission.

Bishop73

Answer: Even though it's incorrect, "Karate Kid" is the catchier and familiar title, indicating it is a reboot of the popular original series, making it more marketable. It also uses an alliteration that rolls off the tongue easier. "Jurassic Park" is another example of a deliberate misnomer in a movie title. The dinosaurs depicted in that film were from the Late Cretaceous period, millions of years after the Jurassic. "Cretaceous Park" just didn't sound as good.

raywest

3rd Mar 2022

Groundhog Day (1993)

Question: At the end of the film, Phil finally wakes up in bed with Rita on the day after Groundhog Day (meaning he's finally broken out of the time-loop and temporal continuity is restored). Doesn't this necessarily imply that everything he did the day before will have repercussions for him? I mean, as far as everyone knows, Phil Connors just suddenly became a local sensation in one day, flashing a lot of money on the same day as the armored car robbery. Wouldn't Phil naturally fall under suspicion?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: On that particular previous day, he didn't rob the armored car. All he did was spend the day doing good deeds and the only repercussions will be people thinking highly of him.

Brian Katcher

A huge part of his "good deeds," no doubt, was his flashing a lot of money around town, buying a full insurance package from Ned, paying the piano teacher a significant wad of cash, gifting the newlyweds tickets for their honeymoon, etc. That's a big part of how Phil became so beloved by so many townspeople in one day. Plus, he bought the ice-carving chainsaw and who knows what else. He wasn't just pulling all that cash out of thin air. I think robbing the armored car every morning had become second-nature to Phil.

Charles Austin Miller

Phil seemed to be trying to do everything just right to break the cycle. It's unlikely he would choose to rob the armor truck. And it's unlikely the truck was robbed that day. However, Phil was a professional with a good paying job. Rita herself had almost $400 in cash on her. If Phil didn't have that much cash on him, he could easily get it from the bank and then write checks (or use a credit card) for everything else.

Bishop73

25th Feb 2022

Venom (2018)

Answer: Possibly, but very unlikely. The mid-credits scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home sees Eddie Brock telling his bartender that he intends to go to New York to "talk to this Spider-Man guy" (paraphrased), which would suggest he's never heard of Spider-Man before, and if he occupied the same universe as the Andrew Garfield version, he would definitely know who Spider-Man is, not least because Eddie is an investigative journalist, and Spider-Man would undoubtedly be one of, if not the most, famous persons on the planet.

Phaneron

Answer: No, it's established that Tom Hardy's Venom is in a universe of his own. The mid-credit scene of "Let There Be Carnage," shows him jumping into the MCU and seeing Spider-Man for the first time. At the end of "No Way Home," he wants to go to New York, but is pulled back, but leaving a piece behind. Somebody will be Venom in the MCU, maybe rich kid Eddie Brock, his arrongance would be perfect for Venom.

Venom, as in the symbiote, knows who Spider-Man is and has been to multiple universes. It's Eddie Brock that seems unaware of Spider-Man. Although there was that "incident at the Daily Globe", which in the comics is what started Brock's hatred of Spider-Man.

Bishop73

Answer: I agree it's unlikely he's in the Garfield universe. At the time of the film, Tom Holland was already Spider-Man. It would be different if this Venom film came out before 2016. But the Symbiote has been to other universes in the multiverse as explained in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage", so it's possible it's been to the Garfield universe and could be the same one from the Maguire universe.

Bishop73

25th Feb 2022

The Simpsons (1989)

You Only Move Twice - S8-E2

Question: I, like Marge, don't know much about football. Why is Homer disappointed to own the Denver Broncos team? I know his first choice was owning the Dallas Cowboys, but he seems to especially dislike the Broncos.

Answer: I don't think the writers had anything particular in mind when choosing the Denver Broncos to be the butt of the joke. But I wonder if it's meant to be a clue where Springfield is. But, while this episode did air late 1996 when the Broncos had a winning season, given the amount of time needed to produce the episode, it was written when the Broncos were a mediocre team at best. From '92-'95 they had a 32-32 record and never finished higher than 3rd in their division. And the Cowboys and Broncos are in separate conferences, so they're not particularly rivals. But as Phaneron points out, the Broncos ended up winning back-to-back Super Bowls in the following 2 season after this episode aired, so Homer is a very lucky guy.

Bishop73

Probably also worth mentioning that by the time this episode had aired, the Broncos had an 0-4 record in the Super Bowl, and to this day I believe they hold the record for most Super Bowl losses.

Phaneron

The Buffalo Bills also had an 0-4 record at the time of airing having lost 4 straight years.

ctown28

The Vikings are also 0-4 in the Super Bowl. The Patriots have 5 losses (although only had 1 at the time this episode aired).

Bishop73

True, and they would have been a funnier pick for Homer to end up owning, given that two consecutive of those four Super Bowl losses were to the Cowboys. Although Homer fantasizing about being John Elway in the episode Cape Feare makes his disdain for the Broncos rather funny.

Phaneron

24th Jan 2011

Superman (1978)

Answer: That's the updated comic book version. In the movie and the original origin story their red sun was going super nova and caused Krypton's orbit to shift.

Jor-El's conversation with the Science Council in the movie is all about the planet's core.

Captain Defenestrator

You must be thinking of a different movie. There wasn't any mention of the core and when Jor-El says the planet will explode, the reply is the planet is just shifting orbit. Later, Jor-El tells 18 year old Clark they will enter the realm of the red Krypton sun, the cause of their destruction. The answer about Krypton's sun is correct.

Bishop73

I went and looked up the script and it DOES say orbit. OK, you're right.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: An atomic chain-reaction in the planet's core. The explosion also irradiated the fragments of the planet, which is why kryptonite is deadly to Superman.

Captain Defenestrator

17th Feb 2022

The Walking Dead (2010)

Show generally

Question: Maybe I missed a full explanation or it's a plot hole for the show, but how do Michonne's armless, jawless walkers on a leash help mask her scent or let her walk among the walkers?

Bishop73

Answer: The other walkers see the two already upon her, figure that she's already taken, and move on.

Captain Defenestrator

What do you mean "upon her" if they're in front of her and walking forward?

Bishop73

A satisfactory answer hasn't really been given. The general consensus on Reddit is that having the two tame rotting zombies close by overpowers her own smell and the zombies can't detect her. In my previous answer, I was thinking that it was a psychological tactic. The other zombies see that they're about to eat her and about to attack, figure "that one's taken," and move on. This time, I'll go with the internet's answer.

Captain Defenestrator

I broke this question up into 2 because I ran out of room. But, yeah, I thought the idea was either mask her smell or make other Walkers think she's "taken." But in the show, those options don't seem to work for other characters.

Bishop73

"Upon" as in "They are about to descend down on their prey."

Captain Defenestrator

Yes, but I was asking about times when they're in front of her and she's following, not that ever showed any signs of descending down on her.

Bishop73

Well, zombies don't look that carefully to distinguish "Oh, those guys are walking in front of her instead of about to throw her on the ground and eat her. Let's get really hung up on the word "upon" now, shall we?"

Captain Defenestrator

It was my polite way of letting you admit you didn't know what you were talking about and were guessing with a total BS answer.

Bishop73

Ah. Well, I DID admit that earlier.

Captain Defenestrator

17th Feb 2022

She's All That (1999)

Question: Can anyone please tell me what is the song, and the artist/band playing during the movie credits? Thank you.

Answer: If you're talking about the opening credits, it's "Prophecy" by Remy Zero. If you're talking about the end credits, it's "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer followed by "Prophecy." Although, in the opening credits, they skip the first "verse" of the song.

Bishop73

Answer: She read the script and wasn't impressed (which is generally the reason a lot of actors don't return to sequels). In the initial script, Sarah dies part way through, but Hamilton felt her character was more of a background character and the film focused too much on action rather than character development like the previous 2 films. Of course, her ex-husband, James Cameron, dropping out of the original production of the T3 film due to that whole mess also factored into her decision. Had Cameron remained on the project, Hamilton probably would have reprised her role (not to mention how different the film would have been).

Bishop73

Answer: I took it to mean the opening line someone uses when writing in to an advice column, like "Dear Abby." There was a 1998 book called "Dear Barbara: Answers to the Most-Asked Questions from Teenage Girls." Basically a joking way to say she hasn't quite grown up, or at least a kid at heart.

Bishop73

Question: Is it me, or does Medusa's head open her eyes as Perseus holds her head up after leaving the temple?

Answer: To me, it just looks like the way the prop catches the light as the actor lifts it up, and then higher up, the angle of the prop isn't catching the light in the same way.

Bishop73

Answer: I watched this scene several times on YouTube. When Perseus walks out with the severed head, the eyes are closed. Just as Perseus raises it, Medusa's eyes suddenly appear to open. Zeus is then heard telling Perseus to "fulfil his destiny" amid the thunder and lightning. Her eyes are wide open at this point. I interpreted this as showing that Medusa's power still resides within the head, even though she is dead.

raywest

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