Question: Why did later seasons have many of the episodes take place in New York?
raywest
22nd Mar 2021
Murder, She Wrote (1984)
16th Mar 2021
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Question: Why didn't Harry simply refuse to take part in the Tri-Wizard tournament? Even though his name came out of the goblet, he could have said no.
Answer: No, he had to participate because the goblet of fire forced him into a "magical contract." The goblet itself is probably partially sentient and would punish anyone who didn't participate after being selected by the goblet. How this works exactly is never explained, but the tournament judges were pretty clear that he had no choice but to participate.
What would have happened to Harry if he broke the contract?
Broken magical contracts usually resulted in death; a good deterrent for not breaking them. Keep in mind, however, Harry (in the book at least), like many students, very much wanted to compete in the tournament despite the danger, but initially couldn't because he was underage. He still wanted to compete, despite knowing the selection process was rigged.
It's never explained.
19th Mar 2021
Ten Commandments (1956)
Question: After Ramses finally agreed to let the slaves go, why did Dathan go with them? He wasn't a slave, so he could have said no and stayed in Egypt.
Answer: He had blood on his doorway, only the followers of Moses had it. Therefore, the Egyptian guards assumed he was one of them.
Answer: It's been years since I've seen this movie. As I remember, on the night of the Plague of the Firstborns, those Hebrews who painted a symbol in lamb's blood on their doors were spared God's wrath (Passover). To punish his being a traitorous collaborator and cruelty to the slaves, Dathan's door was marked without his knowledge to identify him as a Hebrew. He was then exiled from Egypt with the others, despite being a loyal to Pharaoh Ramses and acting as his spy.
19th Mar 2021
Game of Thrones (2011)
Winterfell - S8-E1
Question: As Qyburn gives a crossbow to Bronn to kill Cersei's two brothers, he says "The queen's brothers made promises to you and broke them. Her Grace wants to rectify their mistake." I remember Jaime promised Bronn a castle or more, but I don't know what Tyrion had promised to Bronn and broke it. From I can tell, it was Bronn who turned his back to Tyrion. So, what was Tyrion's promise to Bronn that wasn't kept?
Answer: I believe Bronn had wanted Tyrion to give him High Garden, the Terrell's castle - which Tyrion was later unable to provide him. Jamie also offered Bronn a castle and also gave him a large amount of gold, but Bronn specifically wanted High Garden and would not consider any other as being grand enough. At the end of the series, High Garden has been given to Bronn.
19th Mar 2021
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Question: Given the Triwizard tasks are the Main Events and huge spectator stands are erected to watch them... why are two of the tasks set up so as to be largely invisible to any spectators? If I'm from Durmstrang and I've failed to get selected, I spend a year at Hogwarts for the purposes of watching a classmate disappear underwater for an hour and, months later, go into a maze. It would be like camping out at a Super Bowl stadium for a year to watch three matches, two of which are held in the dark.
Answer: The students were there for more than just to watch the competition. It was a year-long cultural and educational experience centered around the TriWizard Tournament. Dumbledore's true intent in reviving the competition, however, was to bring international wizarding students to Hogwarts as a means to build lasting friendships and alliances to help fight Voldemort. This was an ancient competition, which had been banned because it was so dangerous. It originally wasn't designed as a spectator sport but as an extreme test of courage and ability. There are many types of competitions that people follow where they cannot watch/see the entire event, such as car and bike rallies, equestrian cross-country jumping, marathons, etc.
19th Mar 2021
Superman III (1983)
Question: Why was Lex Luthor absent in this movie? Not only he didn't appear but wasn't even mentioned. Did Gene Hackman refuse to reprise the role in this movie?
Answer: There were rumors that Hackman was angry with the Salkind Brothers (the producers) for firing director Richard Donner, though Hackman later disputed saying that. His explanation, though he may have been downplaying the real reason, was that he had a number of other movie projects at the time, and he also did not wish to continually play the same villain in an ongoing movie series.
19th Mar 2021
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Question: Given the Tasks are the main point of the Triwizard Tournament, they're pretty poor spectator sports - one is an hour underwater and another is in a dark maze. So all the overseas students spend most of a year at Hogwarts to watch three short rounds of a competition, two of which happen out of sight?
Answer: This is better understood in the book. The students were not invited there solely to watch the Triwizard Tournament. It was also a year-long educational and cultural experience. Dumbledore revived the tournament in its original form for a specific purpose - his secret goal was to build an international wizarding community to help fight Voldemort, who he was certain would return and spread his evil beyond the U.K. Bringing the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students to Hogwarts for the school year was intended to build lasting friendships and alliances and for them to work cooperatively. Also, the original competition was never designed to entertain a crowd. It was a dangerous, life-threatening event that tested competitors' courage and abilities under extreme conditions, That is hardly boring and would likely keep spectators engaged long enough to see if the champions survived, even if some events weren't entirely visible.
Not sure where that is in the books, other than it being a genuinely good strategy, but the original question does seem to have a point - if you're going to collate three communities to watch a very spread-out version of the Olympic Games, why select two games where the action is entirely invisible to the audience other than who eventually emerges from the lake/maze first? It's like staging the Indy 500 when the crowd can only see the podium and not the track.
It is part of the book's overall plot, and, in the movie, Hermione mentions its purpose is about "magical cooperation." I don't recall that Dumbledore personally selected the events. He revived the original TriWizard Tournament, albeit with safety modifications. The real answer, however, is that this is a book/movie. J.K. Rowling crafted the plot to make it exciting and suspenseful and to allow for Voldemort's ultimate plan at the story's end to unfold, hidden from Dumbledore, the Hogwarts staff, and Ministry officials, who, naturally, would intervene. Otherwise, how could Harry be captured, Cedric killed, Harry be part of Voldemort's resurrection, and the climatic duel with the Dark Lord in the graveyard take place? Sometimes facts/reality/logic, etc. are suspended for the sake of the story.
16th Mar 2021
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Question: When McClane asks Barnes to 'break the code' on one of the baddies' Walkie Talkies, Barnes tells him it is impossible as it is a 10 button device with a 6 digit readout..."There could be a million combinations!" How can there be a million combinations? Surely the largest number on a 6 digit readout is 999,999.
Answer: You forgot 000000.
Answer: Totally agree with the other answer, but also, someone saying, "There could be a million combinations!" can also just be a deliberate hyperbole, and never meant to be taken literally. It's like saying, "I told you that a thousand times already."
Except that a 6-digit code literally has a million combinations. It's not hyperbole at all.
Oh really? No kidding? Never disputed that there was one million combinations. The character, however, could have intended his comment as a hyperbolized, off-the-cuff remark that was not meant to be an exact number count. He said, "There COULD be a million combinations!" He did not say, "There are precisely one million combinations." He could have meant it either way. There was more than one way to interpret what he said.
This is a strange situation because the wording suggests that Barnes is using hyperbole ("there COULD be a million combinations..."), but mathematically the number of possible combinations with a 0-9 keypad and a 6 digit readout is exactly 1 million (10x10x10x10x10x10 = 1,000,000). So he is technically not using hyperbole but that was his intent. So it's both hyperbole and not hyperbole at the same time. It's kind of fascinating, actually.
16th Mar 2021
Die Hard (1988)
Question: It is quite obvious that both Hans and Karl are Germans. So how is this possible that, when Hans ordered Karl to shoot the glass (Schieß dem Fenster) in German, Karl didn't understand it? He complied with this order only after Hans repeated it in English.
Answer: Karl understood what Hans was saying in German. He hesitated because he was puzzled by the request, probably unaware, unlike Hans, that John would have to run through shattered glass while barefooted. Hans repeating it in English is merely a plot device so that the audience understands what he's saying without subtitles being used and it emphasizes Hans' urgency.
My interpretation is that when Hans said it in German, he said it too quietly for Karl to hear. When Hans repeated his command in English, he said it louder.
14th Mar 2021
Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
Question: Why did Gene Hackman quit acting after appearing in this movie?
Answer: His decision to retire wasn't related to this film; it just happened to be his last. He was working on other projects (mostly writing), and wanted to focus on those. He didn't "officially" announce his retirement from acting until 2008.
Answer: It was said, that he got tired of doing movies where everything and everyone explodes and dies a bloody death.
16th Mar 2021
Rambo: First Blood (1982)
Question: Why is Teasle so against allowing Rambo to come to town to get something to eat at the beginning? And what's with Galt being so harsh and brutal to Rambo when he's in prison, and then becoming obsessed with wanting to kill Rambo after he escapes? What is the character motivation for Galt hating Rambo so much?
16th Mar 2021
Stargate: Atlantis (2004)
Question: I've been told stargate Atlantis was cancelled because it was too expensive to make. Is this true?
Answer: True, and the reason is complicated. Production costs were rising and it was announced that Season 5 would be the last, but there was to be a direct-to-DVD movie after the series ended, with more movies to follow. The movie was never made, and while there were later discussions about a revived Season 6, the MGM studio was undergoing financial difficulties, eventually going bankrupt. The project, after numerous failed attempts to negotiate with other production companies, was eventually shelved.
16th Mar 2021
Die Hard (1988)
Question: When John sees a group of SWAT guys head to the building, why does he react by saying, "No, no, no!" Wasn't having the police come to help exactly what he wanted?
Answer: As you may have noticed in the immediate run-up to this, he has been trying to warn them against taking direct action. He has tried to tell them that they are fighting heavily armed and highly trained terrorists who are well-prepared to handle a small group of policemen overtly entering through the front door. So, he was saying that because he knew the SWAT men were about to get hurt, or worse, in their idiotic attempt to, as Dep. Chief Dwayne puts it, "kick ass."
16th Mar 2021
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Question: Why does Landa allow Shosanna to go free at the beginning instead of shooting her and killing her?
Answer: Because he's arrogant, and it's all a game to him. He figures he'll get another shot at capturing her, so he decides to let her go (maybe also out of recognition of her bravery), to continue the chase another time. Why not? She's one fugitive on the run, and he has time and the entire apparatus of the German state at his disposal.
Answer: It could be a compassionate act, though leaving her alive as the lone survivor after seeing her family killed is also cruel and inflicts life-long emotional pain. He may have also have had moral issues about killing a defenseless woman, even a Jewish one, or considered her too insignificant to bother with.
16th Mar 2021
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Question: Why does it take Taylor so long for him to figure out he's really still on Earth? Shouldn't the fact that the apes all speak perfect English be a dead giveaway?
Answer: This is an issue with the "Planet of the Apes" films. The astronauts never question why the apes speak English, why all animals (like horses) are identical to ones on Earth, the vegetation is the same, the star constellations have not changed, etc. You really just have to attribute it to a "suspension of disbelief" where we are expected to accept the premise that the main character does not work out the truth until the big "reveal" at the end of the film.
Answer: At the time, it was a standard film convention to have the characters speak the language of the country that produces the film. Sure, they could all speak "ape", but that would have been an added layer of complexity (and pre-production) that just wasn't done in Hollywood at that time. Even most WWII films had the Germans, French, etc, all speak English. But to give an in-film explanation: he's on a planet where apes evolved from humans just like him, so maybe he just assumed that English had evolved there, as well. In a universe as vast as ours, it's actually a statistical certainty that English has independently arisen on another planet.
14th Mar 2021
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008)
Question: Why was this series cancelled after two seasons?
14th Mar 2021
The Birds (1963)
Question: What's making the birds go insane and attack people?
Answer: It is never explained, probably because it would ruin the mystery of the film to spell it out.
If you are a Hitchcock fan, you pay attention to dialogue. They mention quite often that it started Melanie's arrival, of which she brought 2 caged birds. The rest is implied.
Answer: None of the characters knew why the birds attacked, or the reason it was confined to the one town of Bodega Bay. The incident was so isolated that the outside news media was barely aware it was occurring or knew its severity, so there was no investigation into it at the time. Alfred Hitchc0ck's explanation was that the birds were rising up against humans to punish them for taking nature for granted.
9th Mar 2021
Poltergeist (1982)
Question: Is there any particular reason the ghosts are still there after Tangina has declared the place clean, other than these are just the biggest, baddest ghosts on the block? I'm fine with that explanation but I always wondered if there was more to it.
Answer: Tangina may have believed the house was "clean," but the dark spirit she called the "Beast" was more powerful than she realised and was preventing the other spirits from moving on. The real estate development that the Freelings' house was built on was supposed to be a former cemetery. However, no-one, including Tangina, knew that the bodies were still buried there (the developers had only moved the tombstones) and was why the spirits were angry.
9th Mar 2021
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: When Professor McGonagall acquires a Nimbus 2000 for Harry, that's pretty much the state-of-the-art broom, and very expensive (given no-one else has apparently got one, and only the wealthy Malfoys can afford the next-gen 2001's in the second film). It seems unlikely for a teacher, or a school, to buy an untried first year a state-of-the-art broom when the school is generally muddling along with old cast-offs that he could have used. Who paid for Harry's Nimbus 2000?
Answer: Prof. McGonagall personally bought the Nimbus 2000 as an anonymous gift for Harry, though he knew it was from her. The Nimbus 2000 may have been too pricey for Hogwarts to buy for all four Quidditch teams, but it was not beyond what most wizard families could afford for their own children. Lucius Malfoy was rich and could afford to buy the entire Slytherin Quidditch team the more expensive brooms, which he provided as a bribe for Draco being made the new Seeker. Up until then, all teams used school brooms, though some individual players may have had their own. It's unclear what the rules are about what brooms can or cannot be used.
5th Mar 2021
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Question: I read that, according to Margot Kidder, when working on this movie, Christopher Reeve and Sidney J. Furie didn't get along at all. Is this true? If it is true, then what was the reason behind their feud in the first place?
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.
Answer: The storyline was that Jessica was teaching classes in New York. However, after so many seasons and as ratings declined, it was probably to freshen up the series with a different locale, introduce new characters, and have a greater variety of situations in which Jessica could solve murders. It was already unbelievable that so many people could be murdered in the small town of Cabot Cove. Being in a large city like New York makes it a tiny bit more plausible.
raywest ★