Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Question: Was Vanessa a fembot all along? Or did they get a robot that looked like her?

Answer: There is one theory that is that Vanessa is converted or replaced before we see her being brought into the room by Alotta Fagina.

Oliver Baum

Answer: Supposedly, Austin never met the real Vanessa. She'd been replaced by a fembot before we were ever introduced to the character. "Vanessa" obviously exists within the film, else her mother wouldn't know who'd called her.

Phixius

Question: Exactly what happened at the end? I didn't get it. She stabbed herself and then commits her dad. What did it mean?

Answer: Molly attempts to commit suicide to avoid having to join the Devil. Unfortunately for her, the clock strikes midnight before she can kill herself, and thus, having reached her 18th birthday, her soul now belongs to the Devil, who preserves her life. Molly, now one of the Devil's minions, has her father committed to the asylum, presumably having framed her father for her self-inflicted injuries, leaving her free to continue her life working for her new master.

Tailkinker

Question: When the Death Race is being aired, it describes it as having 100 different angles, including angles from inside the driver's car, but Jason Statham's character, imitating Frankenstein, has his masks off, and doesn't have a face "ruined by crashes so he has to wear a mask". Surely if anyone viewed this angle, they could see it wasn't really Frankenstein at all?

JonTheRandom

Chosen answer: The cameras INSIDE the car are facing out. So that the viewers see what Jenson and Case see, not looking at Case and Jenson.

Ssiscool

Question: I'm a little confused as to the reason why Esther wore dentures. Obviously she had to conceal her bad teeth to A) have a better chance of getting adopted and B) try to seduce the men in the families she lived with. But why didn't she just let someone in one of the orphanages see her real teeth and take her to a dentist/orthodontist? Seems a lot easier than having to wear dentures all the time, not to mention always being worried about someone discovering them.

Answer: Also, the dentist would have realised her age.

Answer: Esther wanted to look like a young child who still had her baby teeth. Tooth size is not linked to pituitary hormones so her normal sized adult teeth would make people wonder about her age.

Myridon

Ester's real teeth were baby teeth; people with hypopituitarism retain their baby teeth well into their 40s. She did not wear dentures, she wore veneers to make it look like she had adult teeth like a normal nine-year old, Shirley Temple wore them to hide her braces they are purely cosmetic and not designed for eating which explains why Ester ate funny and didn't want to go to the dentist. She probably murdered the dentist that made them for her in some horrible way.

Question: In the legend of Cibola, the ship landed in Florida. Why did they show him the City of Gold in South Dakota? In those days for an entire group of people to travel that far (on foot) would have been deadly.

nala98036

Chosen answer: You (or the movie) have your legends confused. Cibola was supposed to be somewhere north of New Spain (now Mexico). The Spanish conquistadors explored much of the southwest looking for it. Coronado travelled from central Mexico all the way to the northwest of Kansas and back (without dying!) looking for Cibola and Quivera.

Myridon

They mention he wrecked off Florida but when they find the city it's under Mt. Rushmore which is in south Dakota.

Answer: No, although shortly after the event, there was a "I *heart* NY" seen written on the small message board that hangs on Joey and Chandler's front door. A small tribute, no doubt. Also, during the end-credits of the 2001 Season Eight episode, 'The One After "I Do"' there is a dedication to the people of New York. Joey wears an FDNY shirt as well.

raywest

Answer: They actually had to re-shoot the episode following 9/11. Chandler had made a joke about a bomb on a plane while in the airport during the honeymoon episode, so they changed that subplot.

Chosen answer: Nothing has been said and no indications are given as to what is in the cooler.

Ssiscool

Question: When Shrek and Donkey are lost in the woods, one of them says something about passing a bush that looks like Shirley Bassey. Who is she?

Answer: Welsh-born internationally famous singer, who started her career back in the fifties and is still singing today. Probably most famous for her involvement with three different James Bond movies, having performed the theme songs for Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. For further information, try her Wikipedia article.

Tailkinker

Answer: A Black Bush whiskey is also known as a Shirley Bassey.

Shirley Bassey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Bassey What I find most interesting is the animated and nicknamed shrub was inspired by a real bush! Link to pic here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?FBId=6491477774216765&set=a.6491486730882536 They stopped to sketch my larger than life topiary lady (A Personable Hello in Ligustrum sp.) on a main route to the lake one fine summer day. She used to be part of an overgrown hedgerow and was salvaged from a driveway widening project.

Question: Morpheus says the "one" was born inside the matrix in film 1. What happens if you're born there? This seems like a flaw in the matrix. How can millions of people live in it for hundreds of years and not reproduce? The matrix is their mind world; if they reproduce there, does the mother get pregnant and have her baby in the real world even though she has no idea she's there? How can you be born inside the matrix? I don't understand.

modrique02

Chosen answer: None of the people jacked into the Matrix actually get pregnant. It's likely their bodies experience some of the "symptoms" of pregnancy. That's a real world phenomenon: a woman who sincerely thinks she is pregnant, or very strongly wishes to be pregnant, will start producing the same hormones and undergo the physical changes involved with pregnancy, up to a point. When someone becomes pregnant within the Matrix, another artifically grown human baby is jacked in and "assigned" to be their baby. The original "One" who was born inside the Matrix was like Sati in Matrix: Revolutions. The result of two programs, which were written outside the Matrix and then inserted into it, using bits of their own code to create an entirely new program within the Matrix. This individual had unique powers, having been "born" inside the Matrix rather than inserted into it, and woke up the first humans. The cycle perpetuated from there.

Phixius

I wondered about this too now I watched it again. Aren't the babies supposed to be actual offspring? I mean that's the poit of the fields of humans batteries, to make more and more right? But in order to do that they'd have to taken semen from the right man and artificially inseminate the right woman and then take the baby away and grow it seperately. But that would mean the baby growing inside the woman's belly in the matrix isn't real, so when does it become real? Do they simulate the birth too and then replace the fake baby with the jacked in baby that was grown seperately? That would make you wonder about many things. Or me in any case. It's a problem with that system.

lionhead

Question: I can't remember which film it is (I think it's the second one but I'm not sure). In the film there is a scene where Gollum and Smeagol are fighting and Smeagol tells Gollum to go away. Gollum calls Smeagol a murderer and Smeagol looks ashamed and says something. Gollum laughs and says "Go away" patronisingly. I assume it's "Go away," but it always sounds to me like "You win." Is it "you win" or "go away"?

Answer: It's quiet and a little muffled, but he does say "Go away".

Tailkinker

Answer: No, it's not. Tenacious D is just a duo, with Black and his friend Kyle Gass. If you want to watch them in action, you can see them in Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny.

Cubs Fan

Question: Did Hannibal like Clarice? The perfume in the letter, the fact that he saved her, and cut off his own arm. He could have easily killed her. What was it about her that he liked, or respected?

Answer: There are many factors here, and his feelings for Clarice are complicated. He's attracted to her in a physical male/female way, and probably loved her as much as he was capable, but, as seen in the first film (and book), it is also her unpretentious innocence, honesty, and vulnerability that drew him to her, causing him to be protective. She is the "lamb" who never inflicts harm on anyone, nor does she ever pretend to be anybody other than who she is. Hannibal's victims lacked those characteristics, and he felt no inhumanity or remorse whatsoever when he killed them.

raywest

That ending was a movie ending. The book is different and at the end they are seen together at an opera by Barney.

Answer: They actually became lovers in the book. So yes, he loved her.

Question: Do the vampire birds actually give birth to the pods, like a human female would with a baby?

Answer: It'd be more like a bird laying an egg, or given the quantity, like an insect laying eggs.

Phixius

Question: When Rose and Ruth are sitting with Ruth's friends, Ruth comments on how Rose chose lavender for the bridesmaid dresses, even though she knows Ruth detests the colour. Why should it bother Ruth that Rose chose lavender, when after all, it's Rose's wedding and not hers?

Answer: Because some people are shallow, vain and self-centered and are bothered about such inconsequential things like how they're going to look on somebody else's wedding day. Ruth is annoyed that, despite the fact that Rose knows that she hates lavender as a colour, she still chose it for her to wear anyway. In her self-centered way, Ruth thinks that Rose should have chosen a colour for the bridesmaids to wear that she would approve of. Some people are just like that. It could also be a small measure of payback for Rose. Since Ruth arranged Rose marriage to Cal, whom she does not love, Rose's gets a small jab back at her mother. Her attitude is: since you are forcing me into this marriage with a man that I don't love, then you will be forced to wear this color that I know you hate.

Tailkinker

Answer: She says that Rose did it to spite her mother, knowing that her mother detested the colour. I think Ruth was trying to illustrate how needlessly rebellious, unseemly, immature, difficult and obstructive she thought Rose was being - basically trying to show her up in front of the other high class ladies there.

Answer: During that time period, lavender was the color of half-mourning, to be worn half a year after solid black. It would be the equivalent of your bridesmaid wearing a black armband to a wedding today. Lavender and half-mourning is explored in the first season of Downton Abbey as well.

Question: I haven't been able to figure out why Anakin's eyes are shown turning yellow in this movie, when he is on Mustafar. Dooku's eyes were always brown and Asajj Ventress often has blue eyes in Clone Wars media, although she uses the Dark Side. I don't think it could be a question of Dooku not giving himself over to the Sith as much as Anakin, because he did kill/order others to kill several Jedi and other people in Episode II and the Clone Wars books/shows. Are the color-changing eyes just something that happens temporarily when someone first accepts the Dark Side?

Answer: This seems to be a side-effect of heavy immersion in the Dark Side of the Force, although apparently not one that affects all users. As you point out, neither Dooku nor Ventress are shown to display this change, although Anakin's eyes do change after his massacre of the Seperatist leadership, then again prior to his immolation on Mustafar, after Obi-wan defeats him, and Darth Maul's eyes appeared to be permanently changed, possibly as a result of his total immersion in the Sith ways from a very early age. A number of other users of the Dark Side are depicted or described in Expanded Universe materials as having their eyes change temporarily during heavy use of the Force, including at least two of Anakin's descendants, but it seems not to be a universal trait of all Dark Side users.

Tailkinker

Question: Maybe I missed it, but did the McAllisters even bother to call home? I don't remember them calling the house at all. Why wouldn't that be the first thing they do? Kevin seems to be pretty independent for his age. He might have not answered the door, but I'm sure he would have answered the phone.

Carl Missouri

Chosen answer: They did but the power and phone lines were down due to a tree branch that had fallen on them the night before the family left. A flight attendant on their plane mentions that attempts had been made to call the McAllisters' home but "the phones are still out of order".

Jeff Swanson

But how did he call the police at the end if the phone lines were down.

That was several days later. Clearly the phone lines were repaired over the course of the film.

The film takes place over 3 or 4 days.

Ssiscool

After the storm the lineman tells them the power has been restored but the phone lines are "a mess" and that it would take several days to get them fixed. They were out initially, and then in various stages of repair afterward.

Also explains calling for a pizza.

Ssiscool

It's ridiculous though that the phones are apparently working by the time they land (Kate's SIL calls everyone on their street). Yet none of them try the house again.

Answer: That is also how Kevin was able to order his cheese pizza from Little Nero's.

zredman

Answer: The phone lines were fixed by the end of the movie. Remember, this takes place over the course of several days.

Answer: It's also possible they don't think he's at the house still since the cops did attempt to stop by and see if he was home, but received no answer after ringing the bell. Or they did try to call and left a message, but Kevin may not have thought to check the phone messages if he was out of the house and didn't expect anyone to call. He also didn't want anyone to return until the day prior to Christmas, by which point the mom was already en route and the dad and remaining kids had a plan to come home on Christmas morning.

Answer: The next day, after the cop shows up to check the house, while the Wet Bandits are in the house next door, the phone rings and the answering machine picks up, allowing Peter to leave a message. If the next-door neighbor's phone is working, wouldn't it only make sense for Peter to immediately call his own house? Even if Kevin hasn't returned home from shoplifting a toothbrush and doesn't answer the phone, Peter should still be able to leave a message on an answering machine and most likely keep calling over and over until Kevin answers the phone.

Question: Where exactly are Humungous and his men getting their gas from? Given the amount of vehicles they have, it would take a fair amount of fuel to run them. But there is no explanation as to where they are getting it.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The same way Max did until finding the fortress- scavenging, and when possible, attacking other vehicles like they attacked Max at the start of the film. They take what they can find.

johnrosa

Answer: The answer could be referenced to the first movie "Mad Max." In that film it shows some members of the outlaw gang, though not necessarily the ones in "Road Warrior" stealing gas from a tanker by jumping onto the back of it and filling cans; apparently the driver of the tanker unaware. "Road Warrior" was a continuation of "Mad Max."

michael g

Question: When we first see MIB headquarters, K says that the little destructive energy ball thing is "a little practical joke by the Great Attractor." As far as I can tell, the Great Attractor is just a gravitational anomaly, so how could it play practical jokes?

Answer: Yes, "the Great Attractor" can refer to a specific anomaly in the Centaurus Supercluster, but that is a far cry from saying that the term can only refer to that specific anomaly. It is completely possible for a high-tech prankster and/or performer to use the name "the Great Attractor." It's like saying "the Boss" when referring to Springsteen. The term means a manager over a group of people in a place of work, but he can still use it as a stage name.

Garlonuss

Chosen answer: He was offered an extremely lucrative deal to play Gandalf, but turned it down as he didn't want to spend eighteen months in New Zealand making a film that he stated he "didn't understand".

Tailkinker

Question: Was there a particular reason why the defending champion only fought in the last fight/round? Why exactly did the rules change in this tournament?

Socks1000

Answer: It was a new rule just brought in that year. Defending champion only had to fight in the final.

Chosen answer: My guess is that they wanted to give everyone a chance to fight to the end without a bunch of people needing to fight the previous champion, and therefore be knocked out early by someone of obviously higher skill.

Johnny Lawrence was the champ the previous year. And he fought his way to the championship.

As mentioned previously, it's stated in the film that it's a new rule that the champion on fights in the last round.

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