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.

Show generally

Question: In regards to two of the characters, Plankton and Sandy Cheeks. I have seen all the episodes but cannot figure out a few things on them. Sandy - Can someone tell me why Sandy lives under the ocean? I know she is very smart and is a keen scientist but what exactly made her move to the bottom of the sea? She seems to miss Texas a lot and it seems strange she decided to move to the bottom of the ocean. I know it's a cartoon but what's her motive? Plankton - I understand Plankton is always trying to steal the Krabby patty secret formula but has there been a reason exactly for stealing it? Was it to try and run Krabs out of business or use it for his own restaurant?

Lummie

Chosen answer: Plankton has his own restaurant that is a flop. He wants the secret formula so he can be successful and beat Mr. Krabs in business. No reasons have been given for why Sandy moved underwater. Though she is an extreme daredevil personality, so maybe she did it to be different.

Grumpy Scot

spongebob squarepants episode chimps ahoy. Sandy's bosses are coming to evaluate her work undersea and if she passes she can stay if she fails she has to go back to Texas.

Dan23

Question: Why does Bob Wolverton have a psychology manual in his car when he's a children's psychiatrist?

Answer: Even experts in a given field occasionally like to consult a text on the subject.

Tailkinker

Question: I heard that Max Cavallera from Sepultura provided all the yells and the shouting for the rock. Is this true?

Answer: Yes. According to IMDB 'Max Cavalera' was the voice of The Scorpion King, who was played by The Rock.

Hamster

Question: Could someone tell me everything that is written on the map that Cindy looks at to get to the haunted house?

Answer: If you had any brains you would take your ass home. But since you don't, head North 2 miles on Hades divide. You will pass Elm Street on your left. Whatever you do, keep moving. 6 miles to Kane Manor. If you reach Compton, lock your door, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye.

Hamster

Answer: She also appears in the episode 'Bart Gets Hit By a Car.' Bart sees her in Heaven, complete with tire tracks on her body.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Snowball 1 appeared in an episode where they talk about how Lisa first got her saxophone. The cat appears in a flashback scene where Homer has stolen an air conditioner and the house is ice cold. Snowball 1, white coloured, slowly walks through the scene, with icicles hanging from her.

Question: When Max approaches the house for his second date with Lucy, being a vampire he asks Michael to invite him in so people in the house would be, in his words, "rendered powerless." As a result, Sam and the Frog brothers can't prove he is a vampire. But how did Max know that his vampirism would be tested in the first place?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: A vampire probably wouldn't survive for very long without playing it safe - he's probably in the habit of insisting on being invited in (if possible) whereever he goes, just in case.

Tailkinker

Answer: He didn't, any vampire cannot enter a home unless they're invited.

Question: So what happen to the two guys at the end of the movie? Are there any stories about them in the PC game or an alternate ending or something like that?

Answer: The Game shows Child's frozen body where we last saw him in the movie (Whether he is a thing lying dormant or not, we never find out) There is a comic book series that continues where the movie left off, where MacCready and child's are rescued by another research team on a ship. And it is discovered that Childs was in fact a Thing, spawning a whole new generation of things among the team.

Can you tell me what comic book series that is? I'd like to read it.

lionhead

The comic series is called The Thing From Another World, just like the original movie from the 50's. It was published by Dark Horse comics. Besides some decent artwork, especially on the covers, the series isn't very good and actually contradicts the movie in a few areas.

BaconIsMyBFF

Thanks! I read it, it's not bad.

lionhead

Answer: No one knows what happened. They had no transport and couldn't make radio contact, so very likely they froze to death. If one or both are Things, then they just went dormant until rescue shows up. There is nothing in the game or on the DVD that answers this for sure. BTW It's very hotly debated amongst Thing fans, that Childs is a thing because you cannot see his breath in the cold. (It's very difficult to tell if you can or not because of the scene's lighting).

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Just to add to the other answers, I actually saw an interview with Keith David recently where he explained that it was purposely shot to be ambiguous. They shot two different versions of the scene - one where they played the scene as though neither was the thing... and another where they acted more suspicious of one another. And they built the scene out of the footage they had. He also debunked the popular fan theory about how you couldn't see Childs' breath being a hint... he explained that the way the scene was blocked, the air around him was slightly warmer than it was around Kurt Russell due to the fire and the debris around them - hence you just couldn't see his breath while you could see Russell's, who was about 5 or so feet away. (Not to mention you can actually see a little bit of his breath once or twice.) It wasn't a conscious decision to try to hint that Childs might be the thing. The scene really is just meant to be super ambiguous and unexplained.

TedStixon

Question: Where can I find the scene where Gimli is telling Legolas the point of a drinking game? Also why does wood elves enjoy wine but Legolas doesn't?

Answer: The drinking game scene is in the extended version of the Return of the King. As for Legolas not enjoying wine despite other wood elves doing so, he just doesn't like it; not everyone has the same tastes.

Tailkinker

Question: What are the themes of the film and the novel it was based on?

Onesimos

Chosen answer: Mainly the book is about the war against an alien enemy in a facist society. It goes into considerable detail about the facist society being fully functional, unlike those in the past.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: Frost is proud of her martial skills and Sun Tzu's Art of War is considered to be one of the classic texts on warfare, but that's about as far as it goes.

Tailkinker

Question: Does the line uttered by one the soldiers at the start 'look at the size of that whammer.' come from the comic? It just seems a bit camp.

Answer: Just the type of lingo used in those days, that seen is supposed to be from the time when Hitler controlled Nazi Germany. Just like "oh boy", "hot dog", "jeepers" and so on.

Question: If the werewolf antidote could work at anytime, then why did Van Helsing order Carl to kill him if Dracula was not dead by the twelfth stroke of midnight?

Answer: The antidote can't work at anytime; it must be administered to the bitten person before the twelfth stroke of midnight of the first full moon after they were bitten. Because only a werewolf could battle Dracula, Van Helsing ordered Carl not to give him the antidote unless he had killed Dracula before the twelfth stroke (if by which time, he hadn't killed Dracula, Carl was to kill Van Helsing, as the antidote would be useless and Van Helsing would remain a werewolf).

Question: What is the word that Drew Barrymore says to her boss, which she claims means that he'll have it "right away"?

Answer: She says "tickety-boo" - later on he asks for her article and says he wants it "tickety-now" not "tickety-boo".

david barlow

Answer: It is an instrumental version of "Funkytown", by Lipps Inc.

Shay

Question: In the final battle scene, the samurai army is shown as having several dozen footmen who were not casualties. Additionally, the archers did not appear to have taken more than light casualties. Yet the final charge was made by by a small group (30-50) samurai. Why would Watanabe have used only a small portion of his army with so many support troops left?

Answer: Because they were the only ones with horses. Foot soldiers running across the field would be easily picked off, but charging horses are more difficult.

David Mercier

Question: How did Jenny's mother commit suicide?

Answer: She overdosed on prescription pills.

MoonFaery

Question: What happened to the family at the end of the TV series?

Answer: Presumably, they're still "Lost In Space." The series ended before a final episode was shot. In the 80's, series creator Irwin Allen considered doing a TV reunion movie with the original cast to bring the Robinson family home, but with the unfortunate passing of Guy Williams, the idea kind of fell to the wayside.

Question: What I don't understand is: Dumbledore has the brilliant idea of using the Mirror of Erised to hide the stone in. Yet the mirror is in some room in the castle, where Harry eventually finds it, and not inside the guarded area, where the stone is hidden, until very much later into the movie. Why is that? Even if it was there to teach Harry its secret, it would mean the stone was less efficiently guarded. Or did Dumbledure just get the idea of using the mirror later into the movie ?

Answer: Presumably, Dumbledore came up with his idea after catching Harry in front of the mirror, after he explained the mirror's "power" to Harry. It is safe to assume that the stone was stored in some other magical manner that was less secure before Dumbledore decided to use the mirror.

BGraz

Question: How exactly does the father kill the wife? I noticed when she comes down the stairs she comes out of a bloody bag. So how is she killed?

Answer: Well, in the Japanese original (Ju-On: The Grudge), it shows that Takeo, the father, killed his wife by shoving a knife down her throat or something similar to that. When he was killing her, she tried to scream, except her scream came out all messed up (because the knife hit the vocal chords), which explains the horrible croaking noise. There's no doubt about it that it's the way she was killed in this version.

Answer: Another website states that after pushing her down, Kayako sprained her ankle and crawled down the stairs, only to realise Takeo was slowly following her from behind watching her suffer. He then snapped her neck, but she was still alive and could only make the croaking noise. It is also implied that he stabbed her multiple times afterwards, which could explain the bloody corpse.

Question: In the scene where Malfoy is sitting in the great Hall (after the Hippogriff attack when he's cradling his arm), a black-haired girl says something like, "Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" Who is she?

Answer: It is likely that she is Pansy Parkinson, a very unpleasant Slytherin schoolgirl, who tends to join in with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle when they pick on Harry and co.

Foebane

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.