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: Was there ever a name provided for the character who was dancing with Ivy when she heard the children's screams? He also was one of the men carrying the sacrifice of meat, and might have been the Villager in the tower in the opening credits. He is tall and bearded, and seems to be the "go-to" guy here in the Village.

scwilliam

Chosen answer: There was no name, and I was not under the impression he was indeed the "go-to" guy. Other than dancing with Ivy and participating in the meet ritual, he was not seen in the movie at all.

Question: What is the name of the song that is played when we first see Francois Toulour? It's the scene where Danny Ocean is telling his crew which jobs he has done.

Answer: This song is listed in the credits (and is listed to be on the soundtrack). It's called Faust 72 performed by Dynastie Crisis. Here's a link to the audio on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INo-YT3Vyb8.

Chosen answer: Most of the civilians from outside have been brought into the safety of the underground Area 51 facility. Just as the alien destroyer settles over Area 51, at timecode 02:10:10, when Connie, Major Mitchell and some others are the last to run in, they are joined by a blonde woman and her daughter, who scream, and they are the last ones to make it to the elevator. That woman is, I believe, Kimberly Beck.

Super Grover

Question: What's the name of the song that is playing at the start of the credits, before it actually begins scrolling upwards?

Answer: "Down to Earth", by Peter Gabriel, composed specifically for the film.

Tailkinker

Question: After Fletcher gets his son to try to unwish the "No lying" wish, he tests to see if it works. He gets slapped in the face. When his son asks "Did it work?", Fletcher says, "Not as well as I had hoped." What did he mean by that?

Answer: As you said, he was testing to see if the wish was broken--by going up to an attractive woman and talking to her. While we don't hear what happens, he apparently said something a little too "forward" to her (probably more forward than he would have done otherwise, hence the "not as well as I had hoped"), and got slapped, so he knew that he was still under the wish's effects.

Chanteuse66

But I want to know what he said to the woman.

It's deliberately made unclear what he specifically said, because him getting slapped in the face is the gag that shows the audience that he's still under the spell. If we heard what he said, then we would know right away the new wish wouldn't have worked. It's ultimately up to the viewer's imagination to decide what he told the woman.

Phaneron

Question: (Spoiler warning) I didn't really understand why the wildfire was put into the story. I know that fires happen in California often and that the scene at the end of the movie looks creepy with all of the smoke and fires in the background, but was there supposed to be any other special meaning or symbolism?

Answer: As far as symbolism, from a film student's perspective (mine), it's like destruction or division, two common themes in the film. The two characters are split in values and the fire is raging between them. As the fire gets closer to the houses, it increases in intensity, as does the fighting between neighbors. I think in this film, fire was used not only as a plot device, but a metaphor for the story as well.

manthabeat

Answer: Eagle Eye is based on an original idea by Steven Spielberg who had been inspired by Isaac Asimov's sci-fi novel "All the Troubles of the World." The idea is original, the inspiration for that idea came from the novel, so yes, he really did come up with the idea.

manthabeat

Question: Was the whale in the night scene in the raft an illusion? I only ask because it faded away instead of going under the water. Is this intentional or just bad special effects? Thanks.

Answer: I noticed this too. He is really seeing a whale. This scene shows what is coming as a whale wakes him up in time to see the ship. As for the special effects, that is still up in the air.

manthabeat

The whale is he's guided salvation to being rescued when the cargo ship goes past waking him up with water sprays.

Answer: Her raven's name is Diablo.

raywest

Question: In the scene where Hellboy breaks Johann Krauss' suit in the locker room, Johann walks away in his "gaseous" shape, merrily singing a song in German. What song is that, and what does its lyrics mean?

Answer: It's not an existing song - at least I never heard it, and I'm a pretty old German - but he sings about finding himself a cute little nurse.

Ioreth

Question: If the 21 game is still played in casinos, there could be hundreds of geniuses who can count and cheat the system as shown in the film. Is this a possibility, or have casinos adopted extra security measures or something?

Answer: Casinos have always looked out for people counting cards, even before the real events that inspired this movie.

pross79

Answer: Yes, most casinos have now upgraded to the automated card shufflers, which constantly shuffle the cards after each deal, so there is no way that counting cards would be possible.

Question: Near the beginning of the movie, Fletcher can't lie and tries saying the word that sounds like "sight-ull". Why can't he say "Settle"? Just saying "Settle!" is a command or suggestion. It isn't telling a lie about something.

Answer: Because the underlying reason the parties would settle is a lie. He knows that settling the case is not really the right thing to do.

wizard_of_gore

Chosen answer: It's showing he's sexually adventurous, as he's using a cooking appliance as a sex toy.

Question: When the Joker tells Batman that he'll have to break his one rule (not killing anyone) is he referring to the choice he'll have to make with Harvey and Rachel, or is he foreshadowing Harvey's death at the hands of Batman. Also on that note, since Batman did kill Harvey, does that mean the Joker did win over Batman?

Answer: He's obviously referring to the choice that Batman has to make - even the Joker, at that point, can't predict how things are going to turn out with Harvey. He's telling Batman that he's going to have to choose to let somebody die in order to save the other. Second part is kinda iffy - Bruce isn't intentionally choosing to kill Harvey, which was the point the Joker was making earlier, about forcing Bruce to consciously choose to let somebody die. He's doing what he has to to save Gordon's son; Harvey's death is a by-product of that, rather than a deliberate decision on Bruce's part. The fall that Harvey took wasn't so far that he couldn't potentially have survived - Bruce did what he had to do to save the boy and left Harvey, somewhat appropriately, in the hands of fate. Harvey's death leaves Bruce in a pretty dark place, but it's probably not reasonable to say that the Joker actually turned him to the dark side, as it were.

Tailkinker

Question: What kind of necktie knot does Bond use and how do you do one?

Answer: A Windsor Knot, and go here to see how: http://www.tie-a-tie.net/windsor.html.

GalahadFairlight

Question: When the Joker burns his half of the money, why didn't any of his own henchmen stop/subdue him and/or pillage the money for themselves? Piles of cash that high (even if it only consists of $1.00 Bills) shows that the cash amount would be substantially high (a few hundred million to say the least).

Answer: Given the Joker's tendency towards extreme and somewhat random violence, killing abruptly and on a whim, it would be a brave henchman who tried to interfere with his plans. It's also established that many of the Joker's henchmen are recruited from among the mentally unstable inmates of Arkham Asylum, so money may well be not as great a priority to them as it would be to your average mob henchman. Finally, as you mention in your submission, the Joker specifically states that he's only burning half of the money that he took from Lau. That still leaves plenty of money to go around among his crew - if the boss wants to burn his half share, that's his business.

Tailkinker

Someone stated on another question, and I believe it to be accurate - Joker is burning his half of the money...which is the bottom half of the money stack. The top half is the Mobs money, but that is obviously going to burn too and that is why the other mob leader objects. Joker says he doesn't need money, cause the things he likes are cheap. Still, I don't think any of the joker's henchmen are going to be brave enough to try and stop him.

oldbaldyone

Question: What exactly happens in the opening? I'm assuming Blofeld is the one Bond kills, but what was the point of it? Was it just to answer the question about what happened to him? And why was his face not shown?

Answer: The producers of the film had a falling out with Kevin McClory, who had the rights to the character of Blofeld. They decided to kill off Blofeld to show McClory that the films could manage fine without the character. Obviously, without McClory's permission they couldn't go so far as to say that the guy in the wheelchair is actually Blofeld, otherwise they'd get into legal bother, so they just left it to fans to assume that's who it is.

Madstunts

Question: Has Marco Beltrami's score for this film ever been released as a CD? I have looked around quite a bit, but have never found it.

Answer: Yes. It's been released in the USA (Varese Sarabande 302 066 365 2) and in Germany (VSD 6365).

Madstunts

Question: Originally, the plan was to kill Richard himself rather than his wife in order to keep him quiet about Provasic causing liver damage. But wouldn't Devlin MacGregor eventually have had to deal with the side effects anyway, especially when the wrongful death lawsuits began pouring in? I know some suspension of disbelief is required, but this still seems like a stretch.

Answer: Not really. If anybody raises a wrongful death lawsuit against them, Devlin MacGregor's high-priced lawyers can just point to their battery of "successful" test results to show that no side-effects occurred during their comprehensive testing. If they then dig deeper into the case, then, lo and behold, it's revealed that the tests were all faked, with the fake results signed off on by Dr Alexander Lentz, who was, rather conveniently, tragically killed in a car accident. It would be easy to cast Lentz as the villain, faking the test results for his own reasons, which gets Devlin MacGregor off the hook. In all probability, the original idea was to frame Kimble for the fraudulent testing - with Kimble killed in a "burglary gone wrong", he could easily be used as a scapegoat. When things went awry and Kimble's wife was killed instead, this gave them the perfect angle to completely discredit Kimble, taking him out of the equation, and they switched to a replacement plan of using Lentz as their scapegoat, forging his signature on the test results and arranging the car accident that killed him.

Tailkinker

Question: At the end when the pick-up truck drives away, there is an angel on the back flap of it, similar to the angel in the garden of the house where Tom Hanks delivers the parcel. Are we to assume that the parcel belongs to the woman in the pick-up, and that this is significant in some way?

Answer: It's the same women. It's a little complicated. The angel wings are a recurring plot device to show that the parcel Tom Hanks just delivered to the ranch belongs to the woman (who is an artist) in the truck, which also has the wings painted on the tailgate. There are also metal wing wind sculptures in her yard. The wings are her artist's "logo." As Hanks stands in the crossroads deciding where to go, his looking back in the direction that she just drove off implies he will go back to her house, probably to let her know that her package gave him hope while he was on the island that he could someday deliver that package, and possibly to restart his life with her (she is pretty, after all). She was married to the guy in Russia who she was sending packages to, but he was cheating on her. If you notice the gateway over the entrance to her property where another package was delivered at the beginning of the movie, both her name and her husband's were on the overhead ironwork, as well as the angel wings. At the end, his name has since been removed, indicating she is now single.

raywest

Wow, you are extremely observant. Thank you, I was totally confused at the end.

You're welcome.

raywest

Also, the artist would have been on the island with him just like Kelly was in the watch.

Answer: The Angel wings are an important symbolic thread that run throughout the move. They appear in several scenes. They represent love/hope/salvation. We first see them in a seemingly unrelated scene at the pretty redhead artist's ranch when she is still married to the cheater dude. She sends him the wings on a package but the package is not important. Rather the Wings on the package are important. She intended the wings to go to her cheating husband but instead they went to Chuck. Chuck preserves the wings. He caresses the wings. Later we see that he has drawn dozens of the same wings on the inside of his cave wall. On the raft, he takes only Wilson and the Wings which he carefully wraps in leaves. When finally delivering them home, Chuck writes "this package saved my life" when he means hope/love/salvation have saved his life. The wings have make the exact same journey as Chuck. They have finally returned to the redhead and bought Chuck with them.

I agree with your assessment, though the wings also serve as a practical plot device. It helps the audience to recognize and track the package as it moves through the story and for Chuck to link it to the woman's truck at the end, which also had the wings painted on the tailgate.

raywest

Nailed it! My thoughts exactly I just needed confirmation that all of this was reasonable to assume. Thank you.

Answer: The package that Mrs. Peterson sends to her husband in Russia contains divorce papers. The winged package that Tom Hanks' character saves as an unfinished task represents his desire to eventually deliver. He opens all the other packages and finds a few useful items. And the package sent by Mrs. Peterson, he uses to motivate himself to make that delivery. He only took bare essentials on the raft when he leaves the island. This package is essential to him. For some reason, he does not deliver the package to the destination to which it was addressed, but instead takes it back to the original sender. It helps close the loop in a way that could not have been done if he just delivered to the original destination 5 years late.

But why would there need to be such a big box for divorce papers? On the island, he opens a document mailer.

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