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.

Question: Why did Merope use her father's name as her son's middle name, after the way he treated her?

Answer: There's no explanation. I thought it was more an act of defiance to prove that no matter how badly her family treat her, young Tom Riddle will always be related to his mother's clan.

raywest

This is an interesting interpretation. Maybe she did.

Answer: Merope did not seem to know many people outside of her home and the nearby village. Apparently, she never went to Hogwarts. Perhaps she had no better ideas for a middle name. She may have also felt obligated to use her father's name, regardless of how she was treated. I've actually known a few parents who selected a name because they felt pressured by family expectations.

Question: It appears that the boomerang would have had to spin in the opposite direction to kill the blonde guy the way it did. Am I looking at this the right way or is my limited knowledge of aerodynamics totally backwards?

Movie Nut

Chosen answer: The filmmakers obviously didn't research the intricate logistics of aerodynamics of how a boomerang is thrown. It simply looked cool leaving the kid's hand and killing the blonde guy the way it did.

Dra9onBorn117

Question: How much water would actually be needed to cover the entire earth?

Answer: About 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water. The website How Stuff Works suggests that the oceans hold approximately 326 million trillion gallons of water, or about 96.5% of the liquid. By extrapolation, one could estimate that 100% of the earth would require about 459 million trillion gallons of water. However, there simply isn't sufficient water in the ice caps and other water bodies to float Noah's Ark. The water over the land masses would not be as deep as the waters of the oceans, which would suggest a lower number is possible. However, if there is truly NO land on which to set anchor for the denizens of Waterworld, then there would have to be sufficient water to cover the mountains of the world. That amount would be astronomical.

Michael Albert

Question: What happened to Wolf Edmund? He was one of the dozen astronaut explorers that went into the wormhole to search for suitable planets. Anne Hathaway was in love with him. Did he die before she and Cooper reached Planet Edmund or was he still alive when Brand landed there?

raywest

Chosen answer: Per the novelization of the movie he was dead when they arrived. CASE and Brand gave him a burial.

Carol Lalonde

Question: At one point, Aunt Cass mentions an 80-year-old woman wearing something inappropriate for her age. What exactly is Aunt Cass implying there? What kind of outfit is she suggesting the old woman is wearing?

John Ohman

Chosen answer: Something that is probably showing a lot of skin. Something someone in their teens or early twenties would be seen wearing.

MasterOfAll

Question: Why did Voldemort choose Narcissa to verify that Harry was dead? I read this scene in the book, but there was no explanation.

Answer: It was a somewhat random choice, but being that she and her husband, Lucius are out-of-favor with Voldemort, he knows she'll do his bidding, thinking he can trust her, though that is a mistake on his part.

raywest

Question: Why do they still have gravity when Romilly asks Cooper to turn of the spinning, when they neared the wormhole? The centrifugal force stops, but on the inside there is still gravity.

thibault

Chosen answer: They do not still have gravity. Romilly is actually floating, but nothing is ever shown from behind his back, so the floating is gone unnoticed. In fact, during some shots of Romilly, you can see his feet floating behind him.

Casual Person

Answer: Over the next few episodes, it is revealed that something is not quite right with Sam - that his soul is missing since he returned from Hell, and he does not feel any emotion or attachment to his brother.

Sierra1

Question: What does Jacob say when he tries to kiss Bella, in her kitchen? He whispers something in a native language. I put the subtitles on (DVD) but the subtitles just say "foreign language."

Answer: He says "Kwop Kilawtley" which means "stay with me forever" in his native language.

Question: I can't figure out the ending. After Ig kills Lee and turns to stone, it is implied that he and Merrin are reunited in the afterlife, but all we see is the opening scene of the movie. Is that the afterlife? If so, why would they say that they will love each other for the rest of their lives when they are dead?

Answer: Iggy as the narrator says he doesn't know if this is paradise. It seems he's reliving his fondest memory of when they were together. I got the sense it was his last thoughts before he died.

Bishop73

Question: When Hannah has her back to the camera, as she fills the bath, naked, we can see about 3-4 red long to medium scars/wounds. Is there any reason for these scars/wounds?

kh1616

Answer: Those weren't scars. They were very superficial marks like she'd scratched her back.

Chosen answer: She was apparently brutalized while she was at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

raywest

Question: How did the scientists know what breed of dinosaur they were creating? They couldn't tell which dinosaur's blood they extracted from the mosquito, could they?

Answer: After creating the first dinosaur from a DNA sample, they would then be able to identify the species, then proceed to clone more.

raywest

Answer: In the book it states that they don't really know what dinosaur they're making each time. Just that if it works out it does, if not, back to the drawing board and filling gaps to make it work.

Question: During the graveyard scene Voldemort says "I can touch you now." But then he starts screaming, so is he actually in pain or is he mocking Harry?

Answer: Mocking him.

Mocking him and intending to harm him.

Question: I have two questions regarding the drive-in sequence where De Niro and his crew are double-crossed by Van Zant. Firstly what was the make and model of the white vehicle the deliver guy was driving? And secondly, who was the actor who played the driver?

Gavin Jackson

Answer: The driver was played by a guy called Vince Deadrick, Jr. (It's in the end credits crawl). All I know about the vehicle is it's a dodge.

Answer: He actually says "Never wound what you can't kill." Basically he means "You can't beat me, so don't even try."

Phaneron

Question: While in disguise as Professor Moody, why didn't Barty Jr. grab Harry earlier in the school year and take him to Voldemort?

Answer: It would have looked too suspicious. Voldemort's plan relied on secrecy, and in his position impersonating Moody, Crouch needed to make sure no one discovered him before Voldemort returned to his physical body. Disappearing from school with Harry would have blatantly tipped off Dumbledore.

Cubs Fan

Question: Does Nash call Tom Brant by his real name when at the train tracks when Brant (aka Jason Statham) tries to attack the killer. I thought I heard Nash say "Jason, calm down Jason"?

Answer: No, Brant does yell "Jesus Christ!" and then Nash says "Calm down, calm down", so you may have misheard that as Nash saying "Jason".

Sierra1

Answer: Yes; he definitely says Jason.

Answer: The answer is "no, he doesn't say Jason." After Nash says "get this piece of s*** our of here", he turns to Brant and says "Just calm down."

Bishop73

Question: Ron, Harry, and Hermione use polyjuice potion a lot. I'm confused as to how this is. In The Chamber of Secrets it is revealed that it takes a month to make. It would seem unlikely that Hermione would carry around a cauldron and potion ingredients and waste a month making the potion after they had a plan. If Hermione had made them over the summer, she would have only had time to make a few before she would have to leave with Harry and Ron. How do they get all their polyjuice potion?

Jennifer Smith

Chosen answer: It's explained a little more in the book. Hermione swiped Mad-Eye Moody's stock of the potion when Mrs. Weasley wasn't looking. And it's possible that, when they ran low, she simply replicated it with a Doubling Charm.

Cubs Fan

Question: Voldemort asks Snape if the elder wand truly listens to him. Voldemort thinks that it listens to Snape because he killed its last owner, Dumbledore. Voldemort has his snake kill Snape. If Voldemort's theory was correct, that the wand listens to Snape and killing him would be the answer, wouldn't the wand belong to the snake? This is probably a stupid question but it would make sense to me. The snake is a living thing, Voldemort himself doesn't kill Snape so it would go to the snake, right?

Jennifer Smith

Chosen answer: Voldemort was not correct. He mistakenly believed that Snape was the wand's master, but it was actually Draco Malfoy who commanded it, though neither he nor anyone else knew that. When Draco disarmed Dumbledore when they were atop the Astronomy Tower, the wand, sensing Dumbledore was defeated, changed its allegiance to Draco. It was after that event occurred that Snape killed Dumbledore. Even though Draco never physically possessed it, the wand remained under his control until Harry disarmed him. It is not necessary to kill the Elder's wand's master in order to win control of it. Also, if an animal killed the Elder Wand's master, it is unlikely the wand would respond to it. It would have to be a human or a humanoid-being.

raywest

Your last sentence, of course, becomes far more complicated in light of the Fantastic Beasts series' revelation that Nagini WAS once a human being. Given that this is the case, if Snape really had been the master of the Elder Wand, could Nagini have become its next master upon killing him? Hopefully, J. K. Rowling will answer this question someday.

Well either way it won't worked for Snape because he wasn't the master of the Elder wand at that point. He didn't even know that the Elder wand belong to Draco and then to Harry. He wasn't interested in the Elder wand as a matter of fact.

DFirst1

I think it's more important that regardless whether Nagini was a human once or not, at that point Nagini was a Horcrux and a vessel of Voldemort's soul without having a soul herself (if she ever did), unlike Harry. So Nagini killing Snape is the same as Voldemort himself killing him.

lionhead

Question: If Callaghan thought that Abigail is gone because of Krei, why is he killing Hiro and others?

Answer: Because they are interfering with his plans and trying to stop him.

Quantom X

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.