Question: When Spaceball 1 achieves ludicrous speed and overshoots the Winnebago, Barf is heard to remark "they've gone to plaid". Is this just a joke about eighties style special effects or is it a reference to a specific film?
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Question: This question is about the scene where John Candy is the driver, and Steve Martin is the passenger in the rented car. Steve is unaware at one point, that they are going the wrong way on the highway. He becomes aware, after looking out the window and down onto the shoulder of the road with the wet snow splashing up. As soon as he looks at that, he knows they are going the wrong way. What was it about the road that made him realize it?
Answer: The reason was that the snowbank was on his side (the passenger side) when it should have been on the driver's side if they were driving in the right direction. Also and I'm not sure if you could see this in the film but the deflecters on the road which separate the lanes if you are going in the right direction shine yellow and if you are going the wrong way shine red.
Question: Who exactly is the person that Melissa sees behind her before it attacks her?
Answer: The ghost that kills Melissa is the patient Vannacutt was dissecting. When Melissa initially sees them through her camera, what she's really seeing is the ghosts re-living their last moments.
Answer: Just a generic ghost/monster as it has no face.
Question: After Matt Damon shoots the sinner on the bus he and Ben Affleck get off the bus and Matt Damon starts singing a strange song. What is that song all about?
Answer: In the bus, Ben Affleck teases Matt Damon for thinking that the movie "Krush Groove" was going to leave a greater legacy than "E.T." So after they leave the bus, Matt Damon's starts with this riff from Krush Groove. The words are, "Whose house? Run's house. I said whose house? Run's house." The "Run" is from "Run DMC," stars of Krush Groove.
I was under the impression that Damon sings the song in victory after proving that he could recognize whether the couple in front of them on the bus were actually married to each other. Damon establishes that the man is married, but not to the woman he's making out with on the bus.
Question: The scene when the Ku Klux Klan are assembling is very similar to the scene in "The Wizard of Oz", when the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion sneak into the witch's castle. The marching music, the disguises and the way they enter the procession are almost identical. Was this intentional?
Chosen answer: Yes, it was.
Question: Does anyone know if the film has ever been released in colour and if it has was it ever as successful as the black and white version?
Answer: There is a DVD with colour and black and white.
Answer: There have been three colorized versions of the film. Determining whether the colorized version or the original black and white film is more successful is difficult. The original B&W film, released in theaters in 1946, flopped at the box office and the studio lost money. It was only after it started being shown on TV (in B&W) decades later that it became popular. The first colorized version came out in the early 1980s and was released on VHS. Most sales would have been the colorized version, so in that respect, it could be considered more successful. The B&W version is available on DVD.
Answer: There are two colourised versions. See
Question: At the end of Fight Club, when Edward Norton shoots himself in the mouth, how does it kill Tyler Durden and not Edward?
Answer: Edward Norten actually fully intended to kill himself, failing only accidentally. But the definite desire to kill himself/Tyler resulted in the "death" of Tyler.
Question: Is it really possible to stop blood flowing from the brain with a pin stuck in the neck? Also, why does the blood not flow again after Jet Li has removed the pin?
Answer: 1). Yes it is possible. 2) If you listened while Li told the dying man what was happening, he said that when he pulled the pin out, the blood WOULD flow again, except: because of the empty blood vessels, there would be a vacuum effect that would suck too much blood too fast... therefore the guy dies.
Answer: The acupuncture point known as "Point 15" is in a delicate area of the spinal column, a little below the second cervical vertebra. It's a definite knock-out target in fighting, and it can even be a lethal target. But Jet Li's explanation that it somehow prevents blood from flowing away from the brain is pure nonsense.
Question: What specific job in the Visual Effects Department did Suzanne Benson have? It must have been important because she won an Oscar for her work, yet she isn't credited on either version of the film.
Question: At the very end when we see Alkali Lake, we see a phoenix shape underwater, referencing Jean Grey's ascension into the form of the Phoenix. Is this symbolic or has this really happened to her?
Answer: This really happened to her. In the comics, the Phoenix Force that took over her body was an alien, which became so consumed with power that she became Dark Phoenix, and was killed; I don't know how they'll do this in the movie.
The One With The Baby Shower - S8-E20
Question: When Joey asks the question about triskaidekaphobia Ross jokingly answers "a fear of triscets", what's a triscet, if anything?
Answer: A Triscuit is a cracker that is made of wheat or something. You set them out at cocktail parties with crab cake or something. You understand it a little more when you hear his next line, something about the sharp edges.
Question: Would the labels on the Budweiser bottles be the same in the older era during the beginning of the movie, as it is in the latter part of the movie (1994)?
Answer: The color and design of the label hasn't changed in decades, although the script on it has changed some over time. They all look almost identical from a distance.
Question: The very first episode of Friends includes Rachel leaving Barry on their wedding day and coming to live with Monica. The rest of the group are already friends. But I know I've seen an episode which has Phoebe moving out of Monica's, Joey moving in with Chandler and making a move on Monica. It also shows Central Perk as a bar, before it gets turned into a coffee bar and Ross anouncing him and Carol have broken up. In which episode does this happen?
Answer: "The One With The Flashback", series 3.
Question: When Marty arrives back from the past, but a bit earlier to try to save Doc's life he sees himself disappear into the past. So for a few minutes we have two Deloreans and two Martys. What happens to this Marty who obviously goes back to 1955? Is he going to relive the whole film?
Question: In the Barbarian Horde battle, why on earth is there a gas cylinder in the chariot to begin with? What significance does it have for the "prop" (i.e. the chariot)?
Answer: It's full of compressed air, used to flip over the chariot.
Question: At the end of the movie, Frodo mentions something about the journey lasting 13 months. He then says his chest wound occurred four years ago to the day. If this is the case, why did he and the others wait 3 years to leave Middle Earth on the ship?
Answer: In the book it takes three years because the Hobbits are repairing the Shire (wrecked by Saruman in the book). In the movie it may have taken three years because the elves and Gandalf may have been attending to buisness in their lands (leaving for them would be a big event as Galadriel and Celeborn are the oldest elves still living in Middle Earth.)
Question: How long exactly did the whole journey take up until Aragorn became king? In both the movie and the book?
Answer: In the movies, the journey alone lasted 13 months, until the Ring was destroyed. In FotR, it was only a short amount of time between Gandalf leaving after Bilbo's party for Minas Tirith to look up the scrolls of Isildur and coming back to Frodo to warn him. Once the Ring was destroyed, it was not that long until Aragorn was crowned either. Now in the book, it's very different. Bilbo's feast was the year 3001 and in this year Gandalf and Aragorn start searching for news on Gollum. Between 3004-3008, Gandalf sees Frodo in intervals. During 3009-3017, Gandalf and Aragorn hunt for Gollum, who at some point during this time was captured by Sauron. In 3017, Gollum is released and captured by Aragorn and taken to Thranduil in Mirkwood, Legolas' father. Also during this year, Gandalf reads the scroll of Isildur. In April 3018, Frodo leaves the Shire. March 25 3019, the Ring is destroyed. May 1 3019, Aragorn is crowned King Elessar. In September 3021, Bilbo, Frodo and the Keepers of the Rings leave the Grey Havens.
Question: At the end of film, when the hobbits and Gandalf go to the Grey Havens, Elrond, Galadriel, and Celeborn are also there. Behind them is another person who disappears after the others board the ship (I assume he boarded also). He looks to me like one of the elves who received the three rings, shown in the prologue of the first film. Could this perhaps be Cirdan or Gil-galad?
Answer: It would be Cirdan the Shipwright. Gil-Galad was killed in the Last Alliance.
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Answer: Its a reference to how the stars streak around the ships in "Star Wars". "Ludicrous speed" had to have a ludicrous color. It is also referencing 2001: A Space Odyssey, where this "tartan" effect occurs when Dave is in the pod towards the end of the film.
Grumpy Scot
Those answers are quite correct and possible, but how about this: Warp and weft are the two directions of yarn in weaving (of plaids and other things). It might be a very meta joke since plaid is at much higher level than warp. On the other hand, it's Mel Brooks. On the gripping hand, he was born in Brooklyn in the mid 20's and might have been exposed to the basics and vocabulary of the tailor at a young age.
Btw, it's also a clear reference to the sentence from Star Trek "They've gone to warp."