TedStixon

6th Nov 2020

Halloween (1978)

Question: Does anyone understand the looks on Michael's face at the beginning after his father unmasks him, he looks shocked, later on, after Laurie unmasks him he stares at her with a mix of shock and anger. Does anyone understand what these looks mean?

Rob245

Answer: When we see him unmasked as a child, he looks sort of shocked but also vacant - he's staring off into nothingness... this was the moment when he lost his mind and became evil. I think the look on his face was meant to convey that he had simply snapped and was no longer "there." When he's unmasked as an adult, he didn't really look angry to me... he simply looked empty and expressionless. I think it's meant to show that he's no longer really a person... he's totally gone. There's nothing left but almost instinctive evil.

TedStixon

2nd Nov 2020

Halloween (2018)

Question: Why would Michael Myers recognise the mask from the opening scene in the reboot of the original? When he was a child he was wearing a clown mask. The mask that is shown in the opening scene he started wearing when he first escaped from the mental institution in the first movie as an adult, it doesn't make sense.

Answer: This movie has been deemed as the true sequel to the first Halloween movie in 1978 as it ignores Halloween 2 which was released in 1981 and all other Halloween movies after. Although Michael did wear the clown mask when he was a child, when he escaped from Smith's Grove Sanitarium as an adult, he walked into a convenience store and stole the iconic mask that he wore while killing people. Remember, this is happened in the 1978 film and all other Halloween movies up until this point were ignored so after Aaron shows Michael the mask that he used in the killing 40 years ago, Michael realises that mask was his and killed Aaron and Dana both to get it back.

Answer: You may wanna rephrase this question, because the wording doesn't really make sense as-is, and it's unclear about which movie you're even referring to. You seem to be asking a question relating to the reboot, but it's classified under the questions for the 2018 sequel to the original, so it's hard to tell which of the two movies you're talking about. If you're referring to the 2007 reboot and how Michael recognizes the mask he digs up when he escapes the sanitarium, it's because his sister's boyfriend wore the mask, and he also stole and wore it for a few minutes during the murders. If you're referring to the 2018 film and how Michael recognizes the mask Aaron holds up, it's because it's the same mask he wore 40 years earlier in the original film.

TedStixon

25th Oct 2020

Broken Arrow (1996)

Question: Like the Wilhelm scream, is there a name to the scream Howie Long makes he falls? I've heard that in more than few other things.

Answer: To me it sounds a lot like a Tie Fighter flyby, also been used in a few movies for various different things.

ScottytooHotty

Answer: Funnily enough, it is actually often referred to as the "Howie Scream," in reference to this film, which famously used it. It's a stock sound effect that's been in use since at least 1980. It's also referred to as "Screams 3; Man, Gut-Wrenching Scream and Fall into Distance," which was presumably the title of the track in the music library it's from.

TedStixon

23rd Oct 2020

Community (2009)

Answer: The implication is that Jeff will still be teaching at Greendale after Annie and Abed leave. As for who became vice dean? It's never shown, since it's not really important to the series.

TedStixon

18th Sep 2019

Serenity (2005)

Question: How did the reavers attack the front of the ship, killing Walsh, when they would have been behind the ship, after Walsh glided in?

Answer: Serenity spins around as it skids across the ground...so the front of the ship is now facing the Reaver ship.

I disagree I've watched this recently and agree with the questioner. Maybe a final spin DOES occur but off-camera.

Watch the scene again (You can find it on YouTube under the title "Serenity (6/10) Movie CLIP - A Leaf on the Wind (2006) HD"), and you will see that Serenity does indeed spin around 180° and lands facing the front of the building, and thus allowing the Reavers to take the shot that kills Wash. First it bounces off a column that takes off one of its thrusters, then it bounces off another object, causing it to start to spin in the opposite direction. When the camera cuts back to the exterior a few shots later, you see it finishing a 180 degree spin and thus facing the front of the hanger. (You can even see the light from the hangar door in one of the shots).

TedStixon

10th Oct 2020

Halloween (1978)

Question: I may have forgotten this but how come in all the incarnations of Myers he never speaks? There some reason, maybe it was to make him seem less human, maybe seem even more spooky?

Rob245

Answer: In a meta "behind the scenes" context, Michael was more or less intended to basically be the pure, simple personification of evil. He's basically the closest thing there could be to a "real life boogeyman." Choosing not to have him speak was a way for the filmmakers to keep his evil "pure" and simple. He has no real personality or motivation - he simply does evil things for the sake of doing them. His actions speak for him, so to speak. It is also arguably frightening to imagine why someone who could speak would choose not to. In terms of the movies themselves, it's never really 100% explained. It's implied that he stopped speaking and basically lost all traces of humanity after killing his sister. The closest we get to any sort-of direct explanation is in the 2018 sequel that "Halloween" creator John Carpenter approved and produced, in which Dr. Sartain clarifies that Michael can speak, but simply chooses not to for reasons unknown.

TedStixon

Question: How did the box get out of the cement in part 3 and into a pillar in part 4?

Answer: Not sure why you submitted this question for the eighth film in the series. But regardless, that's just a bit of what's called "retroactive continuity," which is a term for when a movie either changes or ignores things from previous films. Rather than having the box be in the cement floor, it was relocated to a cement pillar. This change was presumably just because the writer or director thought it would look more dramatic for it to be ripped out of a pillar as opposed to being just dug up from the floor.

TedStixon

8th Oct 2020

Rush Hour (1998)

Answer: To my knowledge, "Rush Hour 3" is supposed to take place roughly 10 years after the first movie, given she's all grown up and is around 20/21 years old.

TedStixon

Answer: At the end of "Rush Hour 2", Isabella is heading to New York. Lee and Carter then decided to go to New York too. At the beginning of "Rush Hour 3", when Carter is talking to Lee, Carter says Lee is still mad at him because of what happened in New York. He then says, "It was 3 years ago." Lee brings up Isabella, indicating it was the same New York trip. This is the only indication the film takes place roughly 3 years after the first one, but just seems to be a mistake. When Geneviève takes off her wig and Carter thinks she's a man, he says, "I'm Brokeback Carter." "Brokeback Mountain" was a 2004 film, so more than 3 years have passed.

Bishop73

19th Aug 2019

Little Monsters (1989)

Question: I'm watching on Netflix. Was this edited somehow from the original? In the Netflix version Brian enlists the help of Todd and Kiersten to rescue his brother. After escaping the dungeon, it shows them rearming themselves at the school. Then there's a cutscene where Maurice is in Ronnie's room and says "oh, Ronnie." Brian, Todd, and Kiersten are see walking into Boy's room a 2nd time, then all of the sudden Ronnie is there with the battery pack, and no-one seems surprised. In the original, was Ronnie recruited the first time around and then cut in the Netflix version? In the Netflix version Boy says the line "why lose 5 lives when you can gain 4?" when there's only 4 kids and not 5. So I feel like he must have been there. If Ronnie was edited out, why? Was it just to save the run time? If Ronnie wasn't edited out, who are the 5 lives Boy is talking about?"

Bishop73

Answer: I'd seen the movie a lot growing up and also just picked up the new Blu-Ray. As I remember seeing it when I was younger, and indeed in the new Blu-Ray, Ronnie is recruited on the group's second attempt to rescue Eric. He was never there the first time around. Admittedly, the line about "why lose five lives when you can gain four" is confusing given there's only four kids. But I always assumed he was referring to the four kids and Maurice, who he also has held captive.

TedStixon

Answer: You see Brian go down with Kiersten and Todd armed with their first set of flashlights. He then says this line because he wants to keep the four kids there and turn them into monsters. But he could kill them and my guess is maybe kill Maurice as well because he didn't succeed in turning Brian into one of them.

Answer: They went back to rescue Brian's younger brother Eric. Ronnie was there after Maurice went and got him to come and help. So the five lives refers to the four kids and the one that he stole which was Eric.

That's why I'm wondering why it was edited on Netflix because Ronnie isn't there when Boy says the line. In the Netflix version, Ronnie is recruited after Boy's line.

Bishop73

28th Sep 2020

Joker (2019)

Answer: Murray Franklin is loosely based on Johnny Carson. He can also be seen as sort-of a general reference to nighttime talk-show hosts. Robert De Niro has also said he played the character as a bit of an homage to his character Rupert Pupkin from the 1982 film "The King of Comedy." (Though he stresses they are not meant to be the same character).

TedStixon

9th Sep 2020

Venom (2018)

Question: If Venom got hit by fire at the end how'd he survive?

Rob245

Answer: It's not really explained, but I think we are just supposed to assume that Venom didn't completely burn up. Enough of him survived that he was able stay bonded with Eddie and live.

TedStixon

20th Sep 2020

General questions

Looking for a movie from the 80's - it starred Bette Midler and (I think) Lily Tomlin as two mismatched pairs of twins, and had Steve Winwood's Higher Love in the soundtrack.

Answer: Is it "Big Business"? That film stars both Midler and Tomlin and features "Higher Love."

TedStixon

31st Aug 2020

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

Question: Just who all are all those other Sawyers in the opening scene? I saw The Cook and Grandpa but who were the rest and why were they there?

Rob245

Answer: We are to presume they are extended family members and/or associates of the family that we simply didn't see in the original film.

TedStixon

1st Sep 2020

Halloween (1978)

Question: Three here: 1. Does Myers pick Laurie for any specific reason? 2. His mask symbolic or something? 3. Why waste time killing Annie and Lynda if he was fixated on Laurie?

Rob245

Answer: The movie doesn't provide any reason why he targets the three girls, which I think is a wise decision, but you can interpret that Myers chose those three because of Annie's "Speed kills!" wisecrack. It was enough to get him to stop the car. Good enough reason as any.

Answer: (1) In the context of the movie, no. Michael is, as Loomis puts it, "purely and simply evil." He pretty much picks the girls as a target seemingly at random after Laurie drops the keys off at the Myers house. While future movies tried to provide him with a reason (such as saying Laurie is Michael's sister in "Halloween 2"), in this movie, it's pretty much just because Michael is a psychopath and they just so happened to become his target. That's part of what makes him so scary in this film. (2) The mask was picked by the filmmakers because it was the most unsettling. (A clown mask was also considered.) It also had the added bonus of having a vacant, emotionless face that also happened to reflect Michael's vacant, emotionless state. (3) Michael is a psychopath and simply decides to kill all of the girls and save Laurie for last for reasons unknown.

TedStixon

I think Michael zeroed in on the 3 girls from when Annie yelled at him while they were walking home from school.

1st Sep 2020

Carrie (1976)

Question: Why did they change her name from Rita Desjardin, in the book, to Miss Collins?

Rob245

Answer: The only answer I could find online was that it was changed simply because "Miss Collins" was easier to pronounce/remember. It's also worth noting that it's really not all that uncommon for movie adaptations to alter and rename characters. Especially supporting characters. Given there are some other changes to the character in the movie, renaming her could have also been a way to distance her more from the character in the original book.

TedStixon

Question: Alex's Seaplane McDonough avatar's weakness is being bitten by mosquitoes. He's also been in the game for 20 years. The region of the game that he's living in seems to be quite warm. It's literally impossible to go two decades without being bitten by a mosquito. So how is it that he went 20 years without being bitten?

Answer: Remember, the world of Jumanji operates on video-game logic in the context of the film. And in video-games, there are usually "safe areas," while hazards are often usually allocated to specific contained areas for the sake of creating dramatic gameplay. Something like mosquitoes, which are a character's weakness, might only appear in a few specific spots in the "map" of the game. So there's a very real chance he may not have encountered them because he just hadn't been in the part of the game map where they're located before.

TedStixon

Answer: They're in a video game, not real life, so it's possible mosquitoes are only in certain sections. Otherwise his character would be pretty doomed.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Also, his in game time was only a couple of months, not 20 years like in the real world.

1st Sep 2020

Halloween 4 (1988)

Question: Did Jamie acting like Michael at the movie's end happen because of the night's events, or when she touched his hand, or what?

Rob245

Answer: I think it's really up to the viewer to decide. I personally always took it as she simply snapped and briefly lost her mind and became just like her uncle for an instant. But given she and Michael share a psychic connection in the sequel, I've seen other people suggest that perhaps she was under his "influence" in some way.

TedStixon

31st Aug 2020

Halloween 4 (1988)

Question: There's talk of Rachel having to cancel her date with Brady. Why couldn't he just go along with her taking Jamie trick or treating?

Rob245

Answer: Rachel probably doesn't want to ruin his whole Halloween night by making him a third wheel. She likely figures they can just reschedule and he can find other stuff to do since it's a holiday. There's also the chance they had other certain "things" planned that they couldn't do around Jamie.

TedStixon

31st Aug 2020

Halloween (2018)

Question: What's his motivation for going after Laurie after all these years? That and why transfer him?

Rob245

Answer: You could argue that Laurie is "unfinished business" for Michael, since she escaped him years ago. But it's important to note that in the movie, Michael doesn't seem to be going after her specifically at first. He arrives in town and just begins to start randomly killing people again. He doesn't really go after Laurie until the doctor specifically drives him to her neck of the woods, because he (the doctor) is obsessed with the idea of Michael and Laurie encountering each other again. So there is also the chance that she wasn't really Michael's target at all. I think it's kind of purposely left ambiguous what Michael's "goals" are in the film. As for the second question, it's answered in the opening scene - he's been at the hospital to be studied. But the state has lost interest in the case since no real developments have occurred. So rather than wasting more time/resources on him, they're instead dumping him into a maximum security facility where he'll basically be left to rot.

TedStixon

31st Aug 2020

Halloween 4 (1988)

Question: Why transfer him at night in bad weather? That and given his past why not have him cuffed to the gurney and have armed guards there regardless of his comatose state?

Rob245

Answer: The best in-universe answer I could give you to your first question is that Michael just happened to be scheduled to be transferred at night and the weather ended up being crummy. I've been transferred between hospitals at night before. (Albeit, I'm not a homicidal maniac.) But honestly, the real answer is simply... "because movie." It's a horror movie - it's just more dramatic for the scene to be set at night during lousy weather. It wouldn't be nearly as effective a scene if it was during the day in nice weather. A dark, stormy night is sort-of a convention of the genre. As for the second question, he was severely burned in a fire and has been in a comatose state for years and years. Realistically, it was safe to assume he wouldn't wake up, and even if he did, a normal person's muscles would have likely softened into jelly in the meantime. They assumed they'd be safe... but they were wrong.

TedStixon

The question would be why did the characters transfer him at night in bad weather, not why did the film makers set it up like that. The viewer may thought he or she missed the in-film explanation or was looking for someone with expertise in transferring patients to provide an answer. And again, was there any in-film explanation given or persons with experience in transporting patients like Michael (albeit without supernatural powers). Pointing out the caveat of character's actions isn't realistic because it was scripted that way is fine, but pointing out that a movie is a movie isn't a valid answer (or correction).

Bishop73

I did amend my answer slightly before I saw your response. I really don't think my initial answer was that invalid though. That's honestly the truth - it was done that way for dramatic purposes, and any other answer would be pure speculation.

TedStixon

If no in-film explanation is given, speculation is OK as long as it aligns with something that would happen in real life (although I would suggest saying it's speculation). Sometimes people do ask question about why film makers would do something, and an answer like "to make it more dramatic" would be acceptable.

Bishop73

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