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.

Answer: Because Dory asked for his help to get to Sydney. Although Marlin doesn't believe her, Dory can in fact speak Whale quite well which is proven in the sequel.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Megatron is a cruel, violent, evil despot and there is absolutely no chance he would follow through on his word. There is no doubt he would betray Optimus (or anyone else, for that matter) the moment the opportunity arose. All of this is exasperated by the fact that Megatron is also extremely powerful and an immensely skilled fighter. He is, in short, much too dangerous to be kept alive.

BaconIsMyBFF

Grease - S9-E6

Question: When this episode first aired, Sam torments Rebecca about her incarcerated boyfriend by constantly playing Bobby Fuller's 'I Fought the Law.' When I watched the rerun on Hulu, however, the song was replaced with another song, and a lyric search shows it doesn't even seem to be an actual song ever recorded by anyone. Why is this?

Answer: Various films / shows have run into licensing issues in the streaming era for songs they used when first broadcast. I think it's even happened with DVDs, but less often. The license expires or didn't cover non-broadcast use, and it's easier / cheaper to use different music. The Charmed theme tune is a famous example - Netflix's version is completely different from the original.

Jon Sandys

Answer: How does anyone know how to read any language? He learned it, at some point in his millennia-long existence and long association with the Elves.

Answer: Why wouldn't Santa Claus visit the same house and the same children each Christmas season? Little Sarah obviously believed in Santa Claus and expects him every year, like many children do. Sarah believed in Santa so much she left him food for the reindeer, and cookies and milk for him, and later, soy milk because she remembered that Santa told her he was watching his fats. Santa will visit each Christmas as often as he can, provided people believe in him.

Scott215

Question: Surely 'curing' the villains and sending them back to their own universes will have severe implications on the timeline. For example if Norman Osborn never dies in Spider-Man, then Harry never finds out, never becomes the new goblin and wouldn't be able to save Peter in Spider-Man 3?

Answer: Potentially, but there are way too many variables. Changes to the original Spider-Man timeline might have such ramifications that the events of the third film never come to pass at all! Or indeed the Norman Osborn that we see might be a variant of the one in the Spider-Man film, with his own timeline, or indeed making changes to the original timeline might split off multiple alternate timelines. There's just no definitive answer.

Jon Sandys

Answer: While Disney did buy the rights to Star Wars before this episode aired, Kylo Ren was introduced after this episode, so it can't be intentional he looked like Ren. Siths often wore helmets and his helmet bears more resemblance to something a Sith Acolyte would wear, or even Darth Revan's helmet. Which were introduced before Kylo Ren.

Bishop73

Roast Chicken - S3-E2

Question: When Doug is telling jokes at the dinner, he asks the audience if they all received a number-two pencil. Then he tells a red-haired woman that he is just kidding. Would someone explain this joke?

Answer: A number-two pencil has long been standard for filling in the little boxes or circles on various paper evaluation forms, tests, and ballots. Doug didn't think he was funny enough to tell jokes at the roast and seems to be implying that his performance will be rated on a scale. For example, the audience would fill in a box somewhere between five for "excellent" to a one for "poor." He quickly clarifies he is kidding.

raywest

Also, as for the "Red" part: it's somewhat common for a red-haired person to jokingly be called that, just as a blonde person might be called "Blondie." I don't think her hair color was part of the joke; he just wanted to stop her from seriously looking for a pencil.

Answer: It's nothing more than him saying her red hair looks like the red eraser on top of a pencil. He's asking did every table get a redhead.

Bishop73

Pencil erasers are more pink. Is it a common joke for people to think that redheads look like pencil erasers?

There are some pinkish erasers, but a lot also have very red erasers. I don't know if it was common per se, but certainly something someone would come up with off the top of their head in that situation. Plus, he puts his hand on her shoulder to indicate he's talking about her and not just talking to the room.

Bishop73

Answer: He's a chemist who develops food additives for a food company.

Brian Katcher

Question: When the survivors are in the cabin, it shows the smoke die down and a chilling noise can be heard. What is the purpose of this?

Answer: I'm just speculating here, but I think it was to try to show us that the inhabitants didn't plan on being away from their cabin for long. They used "just enough" fuel on their stove, so the smoke dissipating was a way of telling the viewers "This is around the time they were planning to be back". A bit like when using a slow cooker, you set it to go off around the time you'll be home from work.

Question: When all the junior girls go to the gym after the fire alarm is pulled, why doesn't Cady sit with Gretchen and Karen?

Answer: I think she feels alone. Janice and Damien are angry, so they don't want her to sit with them. But she doesn't want to be a Plastic any more, so she avoids sitting with Gretchen and Karen.

Question: When Miss Shields is discussing the incident with Flick with the whole class, she looks accusingly at Ralphie as it's clear she's blaming him. Why would Miss Shields blame Ralphie considering he never made Flick stick his tongue to the pole, none of the other students said anything and even Flick refused to talk about who really made him do it?

Answer: Miss Shields is not blaming Ralphie. She has probably seen him and Flick together around the school grounds, so she knows that they are friends. Therefore, she suspects that he knows what happened.

When Miss Shields looks at Ralphie, she says, "Those who did it know they're blame." She then says" Now don't you feel terrible? Don't you feel remorse for what you have done?"

Exactly. She suspects Ralphie because she knows he and Flick are friends and that they are mischievous. It would not surprise her if Ralphie had something to do with it. She just can't prove it.

wizard_of_gore

I agree. From the way she looks at Ralphie and what she says when looking at him, she's blaming him.

Question: When Palmer was revealed to be a Thing, MacReady tries to blast him, but the flamethrower only shoots out at most a foot. What caused the weapon to act the way it did?

Answer: It appears that the fuel line is clogged. Macready keeps banging the tank to try to get more fuel to come out, and it eventually does so - the unit wasn't empty.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Which spider attacked the doctor in the barn, killing him? Was it the general, the queen, or just one of the offspring?

Answer: It definitely wasn't one of the offspring, as you can see when it jumped out at him that it was a very large spider, likely the general since they mentioned the queen would be guarding the egg sac in the wine cellar to defend it from other spiders.

Phaneron

Answer: I think he's referring to the Brazilian doctor they brought in to help. If that's the case, it was the main spider that hitched a ride with the body.

lartaker1975

Answer: One of the offspring. There was a brief shot of the little one crawling into the doctor's slipper.

Wrong doctor.

lionhead

The question is actually referring to the entomologist played by Julian Sands, not the town medical doctor that Jeff Daniels moves in to replace.

Phaneron

Question: When the group first meet up at the dock, just as they are about to set off in the helicopter, when Roger closes the door, he then looks out of the window - eventually he gives a smiling nod. This could simply be a nod to the other group but it seems as if it may have been unintentional possibly as if he thought that the camera had stopped rolling. Curious to see if anyone could clarify it. Maybe I'm just looking too much into the film.

Mikebbisgreat

Answer: One of the cops that was with Joe Plato (how much you have seen of them will depend on which version of the movie you, but I HIGHLY recommend the fan made/edited 'Extended Mall Hours' cut on YouTube) asked them for cigarettes. You'll notice that Roger and Fran lit up cigarettes as they were taking off, that's what Roger was laughing at.

Question: Is there a deleted scene that explains why the girl who doesn't go to the school (the one who Damien points out), has been going there?

Answer: I don't think there is a deleted scene, it's just supposed to be funny because she didn't even go to that school, and she just went there just to talk about her feelings.

Answer: No, they are part of the multiverse. The MCU is just one of those universes within the multiverse.

lionhead

Answer: I almost think the best way to refer to them would be to call them "MCU-Adjacent." Both answers nail it - they're not part of the MCU universe itself, but are canonical to it and co-exist alongside it thanks to the establishment of the multiverse. And considering the "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" trailer teases Patrick Stewart as (presumably) Professor X, I think we could probably also apply this to pretty much any other Marvel adaptation ever made that was not made by Marvel Studios itself. It all co-exists and is all canonical to each other through the use of multiverses/alternate timelines/alternate dimensions.

TedStixon

Answer: Their respective movies themselves are not retroactively part of the MCU franchise, but since characters and events from those films crossed over here, they can be considered canon to the MCU's overall narrative.

Phaneron

Answer: No. It's explained that they are from another universe, and were sent back to their universes at the end of the film.

gobylo

Question: When Clark gets the lights to work, Eddie shows up. Eddie calls to Rocky and Ruby Sue to come see what Uncle Clark has done to the house. Then in the scene where Clark's boss is at the house, Clark refers to Eddie as his Cousin-in-law. Is this a mistake or is the word uncle just being used as a pet name for Clark for the kids?

Answer: No mistake or pet name. In America it's common to refer to your cousin's kids as your nephews or nieces and thus you would be their aunt or uncle. Technically, they would be your first cousins once removed, but in the English language there's isn't a specific word for that relationship, so most stick with nephew/niece and aunt/uncle relationship.

Bishop73

Eddie and Catherine are on Ellen's side of the family that is why he calls him cousin in law.

Legend - S5-E9

Question: When Matthew goes against Dr. Quinn's suggestion that he needs to rest and heal, and hitches his curse to leave, the sign above him says "Coopering." Shouldn't that be "Coppering"?

Answer: A Cooper was someone who made various things out of wood including wooden caskets and even barrels.

Question: When Brody and Hooper find Ben Gardner's boat why does Hooper dive into the water to examine the bottom of the boat when he already knows there's a man-eating shark in the water? How does Hooper know the shark won't swim up behind (or underneath) him and devour him?

Answer: Because he is under the impression the shark has recently eaten and the digestive system of a shark works really slow so it won't be out hunting for a while. With a normal shark anyway.

lionhead

Answer: Hooper wanted to inspect Gardner's boat as soon as possible to see what caused it to sink, and before the town locals towed it and possibly destroyed any evidence. As the other answer noted, Hooper knew the shark's eating habits. He was willing to take a calculated risk and which he was quite nervous about.

raywest

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.