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: How does Gandalf break Saruman's staff? He just says 'Your staff is broken' and it shatters. Saruman is head wizard of the Istari, therefore more powerful than Gandalf.

Answer: All the power of the wizards come from the Valar, and it is they who take it away from Saruman, working through Gandalf. Besides, it was never clearly defined who was the most powerful of the two. Saruman was the leader, yes, but Gandalf had Narya (the Ring of Fire) from the start and was perceived by Cirdan as the wisest and truest. When Gandalf dies and returns as Gandalf the White he is given far more power than Saruman ever had, since his quest is nearing the end and he had been the only one to see it through.

Twotall

Answer: He means that they have all turned 30 by this point in the series - this episode flashes back to all the 30th birthday stories. Ross & Chandler were in the same college class and Joey states that he is 28 during the second season (TOW Joey Moves Out). Monica and Rachel were in the same high school class, and were seniors when Ross was a college freshman, implying a 1-2 year gap. The run from oldest to youngest is: Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Ross, Monica, Rachel.

Steph_Jared

Chosen answer: The rocket has been rigged to burn the athmosphere if the rocket reachs 100km - the boosters will fire and destroy life.

Dr Wilson

Question: Is there actually an answer for the riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Hamster

Chosen answer: There is no real answer. It is intended to be left unknown. See http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_266.html for The Straight Dope's answer.

Guy

Answer: At the time the movie was being made there wasn't one but today, the riddle officially has an answer. "Because Poe wrote on both of them."

Answer: His first name is "Sod Off". Blackadder asks him in series 3 where this came from, and he replies "Well, when I was a kid, living in the gutter, I'd go up to the other kids and say 'Hello, I'm Baldrick'. And they'd say, 'Yes, we know. Sod off, Baldrick.'"

Shay

Question: The news reporter fish sounds very familiar to me, is she an actual play on someone?

Answer: Katie Couric, who is a reporter on NBC's Today Show and Dateline NBC, voices the character of "Katie Current" in the US version.

kernssk

Question: Andy Dufrense sent the accounting ledger to the Portland Daily Bugle, this is how they found out about the fraud schemes, but how did they find out about the murder of Tommy Williams? It was in the headline "Corruption, Murder at Shawshank"

Answer: The information about Tommy's death was in the letter that Andy sent along with the ledger. In it, he explained everything that was happening at Shawshank. He sent the accounting ledger as well because he knew that: a)without proof, the letter would be ignored and: b)that the fraud and corruption would be the only thing that would actually get the warden and Hadley arrested as there was no proof of Tommy's murder.

Guy

Answer: This was just a little deceit by Peter Jackson to make the audience believe the "White Wizard" was Saruman for a few more seconds.

Bob Blumenfeld

Question: What exactly are the types of frogs that can spontaneously change gender in a single-sex environment, that Grant was referring to?

Answer: To be exact. Grant is reffering to "amphibian DNA" most commonly found in species of West African frogs. It is the amphibian DNA that allows the frog to change gender. It is not specifically related to frogs only.

XIII

This type of behavior has been observed in survival situations. Unbalanced populations.

Question: In all respect, was a woman allowed to hug the emperor at that time?

Answer: Nobody was allowed to hug the emperor.

bessytheevilcow

Chosen answer: His Nokia phone has a video recorder on it. He simply records the display on the camcorder with his phone.

XIII

But the video on his phone was too clear, not like he recorded the video on the camera but like he downloaded directed to the phone.

Answer: Even if he'd been able to copy the video onto his phone, we see him running through water under the pier. There would've been water damage to the phone, rendering it useless.

Question: Something that was bugging me, but maybe someone who knows more about guns can help: On Shang Tsung's ship, Sub-Zero freezes & breaks off the front of Sonya's gun. What good does this do? The firing mechanisms are towards the rear of the gun. She could have fired off a shot, just not a second one. Freezing the front only locks the slide, part of the barrel and return spring, right? A round must have been chambered, otherwise it would be really stupid for her to be wielding it the way she does. Sub-Zero was not far away, so the shorter barrel shouldn't be much problem. Sub-Zero wouldn't have been able to freeze the bullet, given how he couldn't' stop that icicle that kills him later.

Answer: Sonya's pistol looks to be a Glock, Model 17 or 19. It looks like the barrel was broken off up to about the front end of the trigger guard. If she fired it like that, the bullet would have significantly reduced muzzle velocity because the recoil spring is gone (it would be in the front part of the weapon that was frozen and broken off.) The remaining part of the slide wouldn't have any resistance working against it. Not only would that result in less pressure inside the chamber during firing, but it would also most likely send the slide back into Sonya's face if she pulled the trigger.

Mobrien316

Question: Was First Blood not approved by any law enforcement or military? I noticed many types of military uniform mistakes, the stars on the trucks upside down, the flags on the police uniforms facing backward when the blue field should be forward. Usually, if a film can not get approval, they can not correctly show military or law enforcement items.

Answer: More than likely. After all, the movie portrayed both the local law enforcement and National Guard to be either intolerant jerks or incompetent morons. Hardly something they would approve of.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: No, it's a myth that actors have to have permission to wear military or law enforcement items, and nor do they have to be displayed correctly.

stiiggy

Question: Why is Hershey always going into the men's changing/locker room?

Answer: She is not. The judges have unisex locker rooms. Later in the movie when another female judge opens a locker, a male is in the background wearing a towel, which shows they all share the same locker room.

Twotall

Season 5 generally

Question: In the previous 4 series, Angel's had no sexual contact (once when someone else possessed his body, but that's different). In this series, he has a drunken/mystical encounter with Eve one night, and later he and Nina start to go out, and definitely have sex at least once. I realise his curse applies to perfect happiness rather than just sex, but is there any reason he started getting some in this series, whereas he pretty much swore off it completely in the previous ones?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: Previously Angel has had somebody around who had a very serious level of feeling for - Buffy originally and then Cordelia - and it was having sex with those that unleashed Angelus (even if it was only a hallucination in the case of Cordelia). With everything else going right, it was enough to disrupt the curse. In season 5, Angel's stuck in a position that he's really unhappy with (the whole Wolfram & Hart thing); all is not perfect in his world. He's dating Nina, but doesn't appear to have the same level of feeling for her as his previous love interests - combine that with his concerns about his situation, and he's intelligent enough to realise that he's not going to be perfectly happy any time soon, even if he does enter into a physical relationship. With Eve, the situation was even simpler - he doesn't trust her in the slightest, plus he's under a mystical imperative anyway. No chance of attaining perfect happiness under those conditions.

Tailkinker

Question: All the easter eggs mentioned in the Matrix Revisited section are not really easter eggs on my version of the film. Is this because I own the American version, and the easter eggs are on the UK version? All so, The Matrix trailer is not included in my version, even when I try the easter egg mentioned in the Matrix Revisited section it does not work. Can somebody tell me where I can see the trailer?

Answer: I also own the American version and I have the easter eggs. It could just be your specific copy that does not have them. And if you happen to have the Ultimate Collection I'm pretty sure you can see the theatrical trailer for it there. Or you can search for it online and you'll probably find it.

Sir William

Answer: That's the standard British pronounciation.

Moose

Question: What exactly is Bob's job at the start of the film? I know it's something about insurance.

Answer: Bob works in the claims department, dealing with clients who are making a claim on their insurance policy, deciding whether their claims are valid and paying out (or not) accordingly.

Tailkinker

Answer: The song is called "Don't Stand So Close to Me".

LuMaria 1

Question: I have a question about the infected people in this movie. I understand that they attack anything/anyone that moves, but why don't they attack each other? There's something about this on the correction page but it really didn't answer my question.

Answer: The goal of any virus is simply to propagate, they really have no other purpose. They attack only non-infected people simply to infect them, they dont bother attacking each other as there's no point in it.

RJR99SS

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