Question: When Indy is in the final room to get the golden idol, how does he know exactly which plates to step on? None of them have moss like the first that he pushed down with the wooden torch. They have no distinguishing features. How can he tell which ones are the safe ones?
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.
Answer: I fully agree with the other answer, and just to expand a bit: we also don't question how Indy knew to "stay out of the light" on the previous trap, or how he knows the idol is on a platform triggered by a change in weight. Clearly, he's done his homework.
Answer: Indy is an archaeologist and would have extensively researched the culture, history, customs, technology, etc. digging up any clue to how and where to find the idol. There may have been other treasure caves found with similar booby traps in place that others tried and failed to overcome. Indy was making a (literal) leap of faith that he had the correct knowledge. There is some "suspension of disbelief" employed here, where the audience accepts that Indy had somehow gained the proper knowledge.
Question: When New York got hit with a tidal wave and Sam asked the receptionist where the "pay phones are?" Why didn't he just ask to use one of the 100s of phones throughout upper parts of the building? I'm sure a verbal warning was the last thing the receptionist mind, I mean there was a freaking oil tanker floating up the street. (00:25:00 - 01:00:00)
Answer: The power had been knocked out meaning anything more than a basic telephone wouldn't be able to work. Payphones would get their power directly from the phone line and given how essential phones are to call emergency services, phone lines usually have backup power sources (batteries, generators etc) in case of power outages.
Question: Is there any particular reason why there is some kind of wire either hanging or protruding from the golf club when Happy hits a ball for the first time? It's most noticeable when says "Look at this stupid thing."
Chosen answer: The wire is actually some sort of line that would be wrapped around the club attaching the club head to the shaft.
Question: Why would Dumbledore hire Lockhart to be a professor at Hogwarts? Dumbledore knows how incompetent Lockhart is and that the DADA is cursed.
Answer: This is better explained in the book. Dumbledore, and also the other Hogwarts' staff, always doubted the narcissistic Lockhart's credentials and abilities, but no-one else would accept the job, knowing it was cursed and no instructor lasted more than a year. At the time, Dumbledore was pressed to hire a new teacher before the school year started, and Lockhart was the only option and better than nothing.
Answer: On paper, Lockheart is far from incompetent. Look at all his books. It appears he has exceptional experience of the Dark Arts and creatures such as Hag's Banshee's etc. So as far as Dumbledore knows he's the best position of the job. With regards to the job being cursed, it's been cursed for 13 years with no teacher lasting more than a year. He still needs a teacher. And all the teachers get more and more qualified as time goes on. Consider the fact that he hires ex-auror, Moody.
In the novels, Lockheart has admitted to Harry and Ron that he's a fraud. His backstory goes that all of his "accomplishments" were told to him by other wizards that actually achieved them and after he learned the whole story, he used Obliviate on them to make them forget what they did and claimed them as his own. Even the spell that he claims would work on pixies failed.
In the movie he tells them too. Nobody knew that though, not even Dumbledore when he hired him. Although some do start getting suspicious, like Snape.
Dumbledore was aware of Lockhart being a fraud as two of the wizards that had their memories erased were friends of his and was able to correctly guess that Lockhart was responsible.
I wouldn't consider Dolores Umbridge, who succeeded (the fake) Mad Eye Moody, as an improvement. She was mediocre in addition to being corrupt. The real Mad Eye, never taught, so it's unknown how well he would have done. Barty Crouch, Jr. (the fake Moody) was a dark wizard, making him an effective instructor. Lupin was an excellent teacher, as was Snape, though he didn't last a full year.
Question: Why didn't one of the elders go get the medicine once they decided that someone could go get it? I get why they picked Ivy because she was unlikely to pick up on the lie due to her blindness, but why didn't her father just go? There'd be no risk to the secret being revealed if he did that.
Answer: Because they'd each sworn to never leave the village, no matter what.
Question: Why did Bull only lose once at the end? Wasn't it double elimination?
Answer: The announcer basically says during the final match that the winner here will win the tournament. Meaning it was double elimination up to the final match (or even the final four). I can't think of an example of a real life double elimination tournament with that structure. It feels made up for the movie to let Hawk lose once, but not have to do a 2nd finals match.
Question: What's the deal with the awful looking costumes in this movie? Were the costumes from the previous two no longer available?
Answer: Jim Henson's Creature Shop didn't work on the third entry, so they went with someone else.
Why would Jim Henson's Creature Shop have to specifically work on the film? There were already existing suits. Shouldn't the studio have owned the suits, or did Jim Henson's Creature Shop only provide them on a rental basis?
All Effects was the company that provided the suits for the 3rd film. They had similar technology as Jim Henson's Creature Shop but underbid Jim Henson's Creature Shop to get the job.
Question: My idea was that the plot is a time loop and Cole was sent back to find a pure sample of the virus, so they can make a cure in the future and then tried to stop the pandemic but fails. That's what I thought it was about. But I've heard this crazy theory however that the scientists that send Cole and the others back are in fact responsible for releasing it and are preventing Cole from trying to prevent the pandemic in the past by keeping an eye on him and force him to follow his orders. Is that it?
Answer: No, they really want to find a cure. Why else would that female scientist travel back to the hot zone at the very end? Why would they send people back if they wanted them to fail? It was the crazy 1990s lab assistant who released the virus.
Kill the Boy - S5-E5
Question: Ramsay talks with his father about Walda. Ramsay asks, "How did you manage it? Getting her pregnant." and Bolton responds, "I imagine you're familiar with the procedure." Then Ramsay says "Of course, but how did you find it?" to which Bolton didn't answer. So what did he mean by "find it"?
Question: When Peggy Sue looks at the children in the locket, what does this mean: "Your mother gave me those. It's you and me. You know that. So are they." Doesn't seem to make sense.
Answer: When Peggy receives the locket from Charlie in 1960, the pictures inside are baby pics of Peggy and Charlie however, in the future, Peggy had replaced the pictures in the locket to pics of her children Scott and Beth, so when she sees it she is slightly confused for a second until Charlie says, "that's you and me." When she says "so are they" she is realizing that her children are indeed her and Charlie (combined)... it's where she realises that she does want to be with Charlie otherwise her kids will never be born.
Answer: It's them to his kids and when they have kids she replaces it, and they just look alike. 9 months after he gives it to her the locket the boy will be born.
Question: Does anybody know the name of the music when Kenshin kisses Mitsu? I know it's in several of the movies, but I can't find it.
Answer: It might just be incidental music, but it sounds more like a variation of "Yoshi's theme" (an original score for the film), which was meant to sound like traditional Japanese music.
Question: How exactly did Kara get pregnant? She didn't have sex with any other character on the beach.
Question: How fast do the satellite readings say the temperature is dropping?
Answer: I think the question is asking how fast is the temperature dropping as reported by the satellites. I did not review the data from the computer screens shown in the various scenes, but the dialog indicates that the temperature was dropping unusually fast and at a rate without historical precedent.
Answer: Most weather satellites are in geosynchronous orbits, about 25,000 miles above the earth and use infrared cameras to detect temperature changes. The satellite detects these changes almost instantaneously, but then has to transmit this information to the ground. Taking into account receiver, processor, and transmission delays, the satellite would report that the temperature is dropping in about a quarter second.
Question: When Dr. Evil demands $100 billion in 1969, the President laughs it off and says that amount of money doesn't even exist. However, the U.S. budget in 1969 was $186 billion. Does the President just mean that much physical money doesn't exist? If so, how did the government pay for things back then? Did they just reallocate funds?
Answer: I think it was just exaggerated as a gag. But he was asking for a huge amount of money that probably couldn't get pooled together. He was asking for almost 10% of the U.S. GDP and more than 50% of the budget. So it would have been like asking for $1 trillion in 1999 (or over $2 trillion today).
Question: Sour Bill imprisons Felix in the dungeon to make up for not doing so with Ralph. Why did he want to lock Ralph in there in the first place? (01:00:00)
Answer: King Candy decreed that Ralph be imprisoned, so he couldn't help Vanellope win the race. Sour Bill was obeying orders. Plus he wanted to get back at him for that torture lick he gave him. When Ralph escaped, he settled for Felix and blamed him for letting Ralph get into "Candy Rush."
Question: Any idea what chemical substance is used in the fire extinguisher? I initially assumed it couldn't be straightforward liquid H2O as I couldn't see any spherical droplets floating around, but could it be an aerosol?
Answer: A quick internet search revealed that the International Space Station uses both carbon dioxide and water-based foam extinguishers. The Space Shuttle used Halon 1301 fire extinguishers, but these were fixed nozzles built into the shuttle compartments.
Question: Whatever happened to the assassin who had the facelift and tried to shoot Senator Palmer? He is never seen again after that episode.
Answer: It's never explained but my best guess would be that to assassinate a president-elect, they would hire a solid professional used to taking out high-profile targets who could remain anonymous. After the failed attempt he would likely have changed his face again and remained in the shadows till new work came along.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Note how Indy only steps on the darker area surrounding the centre of each plate, but triggered the trap by pushing down the centre area. That could mean that the plates consist of two parts and only the centre part is the trigger. Thus it would've been easy to figure out that "walking on the cracks" is the savest way. Additionally, Indy might be putting on a "genius at work" show for the clumsy assistant. If tomb raiding was revealed as being rather easy, everybody would do it.