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: To prevent spoilers/plot leaking to the public, Tim Burton made five endings to keep people guessing. Is there anywhere I can see any of the other four?

dizzyd

Answer: There were five different endings to the movie and late actor Michael Clarke Duncan saw them all. So far, no website seems to have all five endings. Just the one we're familiar with.

Answer: You might be mistaken, there was only ever one ending shot for this film: the ending we all saw at the Lincoln Memorial. There were different planned endings (one was a similar ending to the theatrical but set at Yankee stadium with apes playing baseball) that were each rejected for various reasons. The ending we see is the one that is in the script.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: In the very last scene of the movie, we see Christina Ricci and David Krumholtz sitting in the Addams Family graveyard, and Krumholtz is placing flowers at Debbie Jellinski's tombstone, when a full human arm (presumably the late Debbie's) shoots out of the grave and grabs his wrist, sending him into screaming fits. However, Debbie was completely cremated to ash by electricity a few minutes earlier in the film. Nothing left of her but ash, shoes and credit cards. So, whose arm reached out from Debbie's grave?

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: We are never told whose arm it was that came out of the grave.

Answer: It was a prank Wednesday was pulling on Joel. She mentions she would scare her husband to death and then smiles when Joel starts screaming.

BaconIsMyBFF

Yes, she said she'd scare her husband to death. But it is a very animated human arm that reaches out of the grave, causing me to wonder WHO was in the grave to pull off the prank?

Charles Austin Miller

I mean, if it was just a hand coming out of the grave, I would be satisfied that it was "Thing" taking part in the prank. But it was a whole human forearm (which Thing does not have).

Charles Austin Miller

There's no evidence in the film to answer the question. They never show you who the arm belongs to, and with good reason. It would ruin the joke. This is just one of those questions that can't be definitively answered.

BaconIsMyBFF

This is also a reference to the end scene of Carrie.

Oliver Baum

Question: When Dr. Kimball gets his foot stuck in the security door, the Marshal looks at him and mouths the words "Tilt it" to Kimball. Does the Marshall want Kimball to get away?

Answer: He does not want Kimball to get away. Although you can't know for sure what Gerard is saying, it looks like he may be mouthing a silent expletive because he knows Kimball is escaping.

raywest

Answer: It looks to me like Gerard is saying, "Son of a..." because he's just realised that the glass is bulletproof and his shots are having no effect.

Answer: They don't particularly want her. They're capturing humans in general and use their blood to manufacture a solution that will vegetate the earth with alien plant life.

raywest

Question: When Woody is trying to explain to Jesse, Stinky Pete and Bullseye why he was at the yard sale before Al finds him, Stinky Pete interrupts him. Why?

adamtrainman@aol.com

Answer: As we learn later, Stinky Pete has his own agenda. He's seizing on the fact that Woody was being sold as a way to convince Woody to go to the museum.

Show generally

Question: In a vast majority of the episodes, whenever Mulder and Scully investigate some mysterious or paranormal phenomenon, Mulder believes that some unknown force is responsible but Scully always has a rational explanation for what is happening. In other episodes, when Scully herself is caught up in something mysterious, she is the believer but Mulder is the skeptic. In those episodes, why would Mulder be skeptical about an unexplained phenomenon considering that he a was witness to his own sisters abduction and he saw many strange things that defied explanation while working for the F.B.I.?

Answer: As he stated many times throughout the series, Mulder needed Scully to be sober and skeptical. Whenever Scully's skepticism wavered and she started questioning her own rationality, Mulder would try to restore her sense of skepticism, because he needed her to be clear-thinking.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: A variety of reasons. Just because Scully saw something unusual does not mean that it was. Mulder always needs concrete proof before he'll believe there's some otherworldly explanation for unexplained phenomena. He's too experienced to take a novice's explanation as fact. It is also a plot by device by the writers to switch the tables on the characters to make it more interesting and to let viewers see another side of their relationship.

Question: How did Carson convince the captain Kyle was a hijacker without showing any evidence of Kyle being a hijacker?

Answer: Basically, Carson used his role as an air marshal to mislead everyone. In matters of security, the captain would assume the marshal was the expert and he would follow his recommendations.

raywest

Well a plot hole says just Carson is an Air Marshal does not mean the captain would trust him. The captain would know Air Marshals break the law too.

The captain had no reason to distrust him. He's busy flying the plane and Carson is acting exactly the way an air marshal would.

raywest

You would have to read the entire plot hole.

The captain has no reason at all to distrust an air marshal at that point. First of all, he was suspicious of her from the beginning and was angry for disrupting the flight which was the whole point of removing all evidence of the daughter, which was also the point have the morgue director sending a fake certificate that Julia died. They were going to use the "daughter's disappearance" as a credible excuse for "Kyle" to enter the hold and retrieve the explosives. The real plot hole is not that Carson has no evidence of as a hijacker, but why the airline accepts the "hijacker's" request to wire the money without talking to them or having a background identity.

Question: I'm confused with the start of the movie where he goes to the waterhole, but he doesn't drink the water. Why is that?

Answer: As he goes to drink the water, he smells it and realises it is not safe to drink.

Question: While questioning the doctor on the witness stand, Kaffee asks him if a heart condition could have caused the fatal lactic acidosis rather than a mysterious poison on the rag stuffed in his mouth. Under the circumstances of the Marine's death, wouldn't a complete autopsy have been performed to positively determine the cause of death? And if an autopsy were performed, wouldn't the heart condition have easily been discovered?

Answer: An autopsy can show what physically caused a death, but not necessarily what led up to it. Kaffee is trying to prove that there could be more than one reason for the marine's death.

Question: I get that Meg is in trouble for hitting Veronica in the face with a basketball, but why isn't Veronica in trouble for leaving a mean note on Meg's locker and calling her brother crazy?

Cody Fairless-Lee

Answer: Could be a matter of severity. Hitting someone in the face with a basketball could result in someone being permanently injured or disfigured, possibly even blinded. Leaving mean notes and calling someone crazy is far less serious and might not warrant being punished other than a mild reprimand.

raywest

Question: At the beginning of the movie, it was stated that Van Helsing planned to use the amulet to send every monster to limbo but that him and his team blew it. How exactly did they blow it?

Answer: It is shown that Dracula's servants were successful in protecting their master. Dracula escapes while Van Helsing himself is sucked into limbo.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: I know Elizabeth can't live on the ship and William can't be on land except every 10 years. Why can't they meet in the ocean whenever they want to? She can swim... she swam to the island when Barbossa stranded Jack and her... and it's not land so William can be there... so why don't they think of that?

Answer: To fulfill his purpose of ferrying souls to the "other side" William must remain in the underworld, allowed to leave it only once every ten years to step on land (in the living world). Davy Jones had abandoned this role and returned to the living world. As a consequence, he and his crew were cursed and began transforming into the hideous monsters.

raywest

Question: Even if Carson was exposed as the hijacker, how would the US, and Canada charge him? The crime was committed outside of both of those nations.

Answer: They can still arrest him, regardless of where the crime was committed. He'd likely be extradited to the appropriate place to be charged. Also, the crime was occurring while the plane was on Canadian soil. There would also be matters of violating international law.

raywest

Question: I don't understand the scene where Candy and Billy go into a room to have sex. McMurphy tells Chief that they will leave for Canada when Candy and Billy are done. Why did they stay there all night and fall asleep? Why did Candy stay in the room with Billy?

Answer: The girls who sneaked into the ward had brought alcohol and everyone was partying before McMurphy and Chief were to escape. Everyone got drunk while waiting for Candy and Billy to finish, eventually passing out. Candy and Billy probably just assumed McMurphy and Chief had already left or they'd fallen asleep.

raywest

Question: What does Fee-lie say to the elf lady when he's leaving her to go to the Lonely Mountain? He tells her he's something and she says she doesn't know what that means.

Answer: He speaks the Tolkien created language of Dwarvish and says amrâlimê, which I'm told translates to "My Love", or "I Love You" depending on interpretation. I personally don't speak Dwarvish though, so use at your own risk.

jimba

Question: They try to stop the runaway train by deploying another train in front of it and continuously braking. Instead of having a man come in from a helicopter, why not just have a man jump from the train in front onto the runaway train? (00:40:00 - 00:45:00)

Answer: It would be a lot more dangerous trying to jump from one train to another, and there'd probably be only one chance for success or else die trying. The helicopter allows for a little more maneuvering.

raywest

Question: In the tower where Lucius and another guy were watching, the guy told him he is a good friend and hopes he wasn't seen. What did he mean by that? Or was he just thanking him for being out there with him? Just wondering if there was more to it.

Redivy22

Answer: It appeared that he was thanking Lucius for sneaking out after late-night hours (probably breaking the village curfew) to join him in the tower.

raywest

Question: Does Bruce kill the militants' leader at the end of the movie? I know that he turns into the Hulk, but what happens to all of the militants, including the leader? Do they die?

Answer: We don't know since the movie ends then and there. It's ultimately up to the viewer's imagination what happens next.

Phaneron

Question: What happened with Paul at the end and why did the police just kill everybody instead of getting help?

Answer: Paul returns briefly in the sequel, where he is hit and killed by a bus. The local doctor's office did not have the resources to take care of the virus, so rather than take any infected survivors to the county hospital, the police decided to make an attempt to contain and end the outbreak by killing them instead.

Phaneron

Answer: There were a number of concerns. Firstly, that the knowledge of a hostile alien race would lead to a mass panic amongst the population. Additionally, other nations would want to be involved and would be angry at the US military gaining advanced alien technology. This is seen as a valid concern in later seasons, when the IOA was set up.

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