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: When the guards appear at Shrek's door, they are all lined up and blowing their trumpets. When they are finished, one of them on the end starts playing a tune. The leader goes to him, slaps him and says, "Quiet, Reggie." Does anyone know what this refers to?

Paul Pepiton

Chosen answer: The music he's playing is the main them from the seventies television serie "Hawaii Five-0". The name is just a random one.

Dr Wilson

Answer: The name "Reggie" as well as the joke comes from a Fred Astaire film "Damsel in Distress" in which a character named Reggie breaks out into jazz during fanfares repeatedly in the film.

Question: I was startled by the authentic-appearing emotion on Hugo Weaving's face at the coronation scene when he told Arwen to "Go to him." Is he that good an actor, was there a real emotion running through the scene, or was he simply exhausted by the whole thing?

scwilliam

Chosen answer: According to commentary, they reshot this part of the scene and these particular shots were done in pickups, long after the shoot in New Zealand ended, so exhaustion had nothing to do with it. Hugo Weaving is simply a good actor, receiving direction from a good director.

Super Grover

Question: Does anyone know what that thing is that Dr. Scott examines intently while he's sitting in the Zen room?

The Doctor

Chosen answer: It's a joint that is clipped in a "roach clip."

wolfchild

Question: Why does Creasy almost kill himself in the beginning of the movie? How does Creasy die at the end of the movie?

Answer: Creasy was a contract assassin for the CIA. His downfall was his drinking because it affected his reaction time and so forth. He had a lot of bad memories he was trying to live with. He considered this bodyguard assignment to be a blow off assignment. This and his bad memories combined with his drinking problem, made him severely depressed. This is why he considered killing himself. At the end of the movie, you see Creasy being taken away in a car. His gunshot wound from the "Voice's" brother, along with his prior gunshot wounds that were never properly treated, had finally gotten the best of him. He was bleeding the whole last half of the movie because he never fully recovered from the gunshot wounds. So, to answer the question of why he died, he bled to death.

Answer: He wanted to kill himself because of his past. Hence- "will God ever forgive us for what we have done?" His friend answered "no"

Question: What was the significance of Frank wearing the rabbit suit? Was it because the face was supposed to stick in Donnie's mind so he'd remember what he had to do? I can't think of any logical reason why he'd have to wear the suit to accomplish his mission.

Answer: According to the DVD special features, people who die in the alternate universe (the Manipulated Dead) have more power and self-awareness than those who live throughout. The supernatural force that appoints Donnie to end the alternate universe adopts Frank's face because a) he wants a form that Donnie can interact with and b) as a Manipulated Dead Frank has more understanding of what is going on and maybe wants to help. The costume is necessary because it's an essential part of Frank's character as a dead person - it's what he was wearing when he died - and also because it's so alien Donnie will understand that he's dealing with things beyond normal ken.

Phoenix

Question: My gripe is why did the doctor cut off his foot to get to the phone/gun? He was of mind enough to use his shirt to tie around his leg - why not use his shirt to retrieve the phone/gun. Also can't mobile phones set to receive only still make calls to directory enquiries and emergency services?

Answer: It is doubtful there can be a precise correct answer to this, unless you happen to be the screenwriter. However, it can be presumed that the doctor resorted to the skills he had down cold, almost automatic, as opposed to attempting any further creative problem-solving because he was at his wits' end, in a very traumatic situation. He knows how to tourniquet and amputate.

Rooster of Doom

Answer: Dr Gordon had been mentally abused for close to 8 hours by this point. As the situation got more grave he resorts to more drastic (and quicker) methods to try and win his game to save his family. We are shown throughout later films that FBI agent Hoffman (who doesn't appear on screen until Saw 3) is working with Jigsaw at this point already, so has access to high end tech. Enough to manipulate a phone's abilities.

Ssiscool

Answer: So he could escape.

The question wasn't why he cut off his foot. It was why he didn't use his shirt to retrieve the gun.

Question: What exactly does the title of this film mean? Is there even an answer to that?

Sir William

Chosen answer: It is a reference to a class of fast-paced, sensationalistic, and frequently exploitive stories published in cheap magazines from the 1920's through the 1950's. They were called 'pulp' because of the cheap quality of the paper they were printed on, as opposed to the 'slicks' which were more like full-color magazines of today.

Rooster of Doom

Show generally

Question: In the intro to the show, just before Homer's car arrives at the garage, there is a crash pan across several screens-worth of characters. Are these characters significant in any way or are they just random people?

Moose

Chosen answer: Actually it looks like many are large characters but I guess it's a quick way to show as many of the characters as possible. If you freeze frame the shots you can see the characters Milhouse, Nelson, Jimbo, Patty and Selma, Grampa Simpson, Dr Hibbert, Flanders and his wife and many more.

Lummie

Question: They talk about how Nightcrawler may accidentally teleport himself into a wall. What would have happened if he did?

Answer: If he appears within the wall, he would die. The structure of a wall is solid so his body including his organs and so on would only appear (or materialise) within cracks and gaps within the wall. Something could not "instantly form" within a solid area.

Baz94

Question: Why did Pussy Galore join the good side? Was she a American undercover agent?

Answer: If I understand correctly Bond and Ms. Galore had a romantic encounter and during that Bond explained the full intent of Goldfinger (killing all the innocent people at Ft. Knox)to her. Apparently willing to go along with the theft of the gold at Ft. Knox, Ms. Galore was unwilling to go along with mass murder.

Mark English

Question: My son and I believe that, in Harry's photo album and the magic Mirror, Lily and James Potter are played by J.K. Rowling and a friend of hers named "Sean" who is said to be the inspiration for Ron Weasley's character. Can anyone confirm/deny?

Answer: According to J.K. Rowling on her official site (www.jkrowling.com), the filmmakers asked her to play Lily, but she felt she "would have messed it up somehow". IMDb credits Geraldine Somerville as Lily and Adrian Rawlins as James.

Kathy Tjarks

Answer: No. In the first or second episode of the series Kawalsky says he worked with Jack all those years and never even knew he had a son.

scaryterri

Answer: More than likely, the priest has been helping him.

Toolio

Why would the priest help Matt? When Matt talks to the priest, the priest seems a bit angry at him for what he does.

Question: Is it (or was it, as the case may be) really a common practice to put keys in the visor? (And why?)

Answer: It's not really "common" per se, but some surveys indicate that up to one in seventeen people in the US routinely leaves their keys in the car overnight. If you do so, it's only logical to put them in a place where they can't be easily seen yet you will be able to find them. It's just luck that it happens to work out for Arnold in this movie.

Phoenix

Question: After Stan finished building the Hydra, he said: 'it's time to disguise you as internal destruction'. Now, I'm not a hacker or a great programmer, so can anybody please explain to me what he meant?

Answer: He wants to dupe everyone who investigates the problem into thinking it was an internal error, rather than a virus. Doing so would lead them away from Stan, and he would get away with the attack.

Ryan Andersen

Question: What was that tune that Ray was playing on the piano just after he offered his 3 backup singers $30 a week?

Answer: Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.

ChiChi

Question: When talking to Freddy Lounds, why does Francis Dolarhyde wear the stocking over his face?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: He wears the stocking over his face for two reasons: (a) to protect his identity (to make Lounds think he'll survive) and (b) remember that Francis believes he is an "ugly monster" so he is also wearing the stocking to defer judgement away from him.

xxCadyxx

Question: In the scene where the kids are talking about their Dads, does anyone know what the non-English speaking child said?

Answer: She says, 'My father works in the house and plays with me a lot.'

ChiChi

Question: Are Blaster and Soundwave in any way related like Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are? They transform into tape-playing devices, they both have cassette robots and so on, so does any one know the answer?

Answer: Alpha Trion seems to have created these two robots with special abilities concerning sound. As all Transformers received new Transformation Forms from the arc after their "sleep", it might have been intentionally from the arc to give them Transformation forms similar to their abilities. However it is not mentioned in the series.

Christoph Galuschka

Question: Was Commodus and Lucilla half brother and sister? Wondering because of Commodus' attraction for Lucilla. Was incest normal at that time?

Mortug

Chosen answer: No, they are full brother and sister. They both had the same mother and father. Incest was not exactly normal at that time, but it stretches back within the imperial families as far as Caligula and possibly earlier. There is no evidence to suggest that the real Commodus was attracted to his sister, it was probably just included in the film in order to make the character seem more disturbed, and also as another reason why he would be Maximus' enemy (Maximus and Lucilla were, after all, once lovers).

The Doctor

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