Question: What's up with Percy (the midget)? He was with Dr. Parnassus decades ago, when he won a bet with the devil to win the heart of a woman he craved, but he hasn't aged a day since. Or was that another midget and Dr. Parnassus has a tendency to pick midgets up to live in poverty by his side, and these two just happen to look identical? Both were obviously played by the same actor (Verne Troyer) and some make-up would easily disguise this, so I'm guessing this is intentional.
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Question: This has interested me for ages: Where does Smithers actually live? And how does he get to and from the power plant? I am asking because Smithers is at Mr Burns's mansion most of the time, which gives the impression he is sort of a live-in servant, but in other instances, he is shown to live in a house by himself e.g. Lisa vs Malibu Stacey. And in terms of his commute to and from work, he is seen to drive Mr. Burns around in Burns's car, like a chauffeur, but in the episode where Homer gets promoted and gets the executive spot, Smithers drives up in another car, and not Burns's, which is already there.
Answer: In the episode, "You Only Move Twice", Smithers walks out of a house saying that it's nice driving Mr. Burns to work, so he could live in said house.
Question: Why was Michael killing people? There was no mention of his history, or what made him the way he was.
Answer: The only answer given in this film is that Myers is purely and simply evil. He's just doing it because he's compelled to, and doesn't seem to have any trace of humanity left inside of him. Future sequels attempted to give an explanation, but to varying degrees of success. But as far as this original film is concerned - he's just pure evil.
Answer: The movie doesn't require a back story, although subsequent sequels, and the Rob Zombie remake address your questions. Then again, what makes any serial killer kill? The topic has been studied by psychologists for decades. Often serial killers lead normal lives, at least in public.
Question: Is it possible to shoot the pilot of an enemy bi-plane in mid-air with a handgun? I would have thought the high wind velocity would have blown the bullet sideways, but I'm hardly an expert.
Chosen answer: Biplanes were not very fast in flight. For instance a Sopwith Camel at about 5000 ft altitude had a cruise speed of approximately 100 mph. A Fokker had a cruise speed of about 95 mph. A typical WWI handgun could shoot 830 feet per second. With the distances between the planes as shown in the movie, a bullet could travel between the planes in less than half a second. The pilot would have to lead the target some, but he conceivably could hit the other pilot if close enough.
Question: Why didn't Rocky simply tell Ginger at the start that he couldn't fly, instead of dragging everyone through that whole charade. I realise that it was crucial to the plot, but was there any other reason?
Chosen answer: Because he wanted them all to have something to look forward to, he didn't want to let them down. Plus Rocky is very bigheaded, it would no doubt be embarrassing for him to admit that he couldn't fly.
Answer: The exchange was he would teach them to fly so he could hide out from the circus and he didn't have anything else to offer them.
Answer: Because Rocky is a coward.
Question: When Vesper is kidnapped by Le Chiffre, Bond suspects Mathis betrayed him, and Le Chiffre even confirms it. But then it is revealed the traitor is actually Vesper. So why would Le Chiffre tell Bond Mathis was his "friend"? Or for that matter, why did Vesper get out of the casino (only to get kidnapped), if Mathis apparently never text messaged her saying he "needed her"?
Answer: Le Chiffre needs Bond to believe that Vesper is innocent, so that he can use her as leverage during the torture scene. If Bond knew that she was actually a traitor, that leverage would be gone, so he tells him that Mathis sold him out instead. Having failed to win the poker tournament, Le Chiffre's only remaining option to get the money back is to take it from Bond, so he sent the text telling Vesper to leave the casino so that he can stage her kidnapping, putting his plan into motion.
Answer: I thought she was getting the money for ransom for her old boyfriend which it spoke about in the next movie.
Question: Anne tried to get her brother to impregnate her so Henry wouldn't know about her miscarriage, but wouldn't this have obviously not worked? She mentioned that Henry already seemed to notice that her pregnancy wasn't showing. Even if she and George did sleep together and she became pregnant, she wouldn't start showing for another four months or so. By then, wouldn't Henry and everyone else expect her to look eight or nine months pregnant?
Answer: Of course they probably would have noticed, but Anne was desperate, thinking irrationally, and she would have done anything to regain Henry's favor and remain queen. She probably believed that if she became pregnant, it would be assumed that it must be the king's child. And if she could entice the king back into her bed, she could claim her earlier condition was a false pregnancy, but that she was now carrying the king's child.
Question: First question: Who would win, theoretically, Superman or Hulk, in a fight? Second: When Eric Bana changes into the Hulk, you don't see the emphasis on the eyes changing first as you saw in the TV series The Incredible Hulk. Why was this?
Answer: 1. Theoretically, the Hulk would be able to win. Superman draws his power from the sun and the more energy he expends from things such as using heat vision or fighting, will weaken him. The Hulk's power comes from his own rage. Even though the Hulk can lift 100 tons, the angrier he becomes the stronger he gets making him powerful enough to eventually lift anything heavier than 100 tons. If Superman were to fight the Hulk, he would slowly wear himself out but the Hulk would keep on fighting. 2. The only time Bruce's eyes are seen changing are at the end of the movie when some South American militia are stealing medical supplies. After Bruce tells the leader of the group that he just made Bruce angry, Bruce's eyes turn green.
Chosen answer: 1.) Superman, especially if he decided to use tactics like stranding the Hulk in space. 2.) Artistic licence.
Question: Didn't Gordon Gekko only have a son in Wall Street, not a daughter, as he does here in Wall Street Never Sleeps?
Answer: Gordon did talk about his son (who was then about 3-years-old) to Bud Fox in Wall Street, but that does not mean he only had one kid. He may have had another child that wasn't mentioned. It's also possible that Gekko's wife was pregnant at the time he was indicted.
Question: Toward the end of the movie, one of the gang members visits a barber shop and picks up a small bag of cut hair swept from the floor. I cannot remember any follow-up to this scene showing how or where this cut hair was used. I have asked several people who have seen the movie and no one seems to know what happened to this hair. Was there any follow-up to this scene or did I blink and miss the part that shows what they did with it?
Answer: The bag of hair from the barbershop was used to throw off the police when they search the getaway car later. In other words they will find all the scattered hair and have the wrong DNA. This is what they do after the second heist. They never used one at the end since the cops already knew who they were.
Question: Why didn't Casey ring the police, after the call when she realied he was taunting and making threats?
Answer: Characters in horror movies are notorious for not doing the most obvious things. It's most likely that she was scared and not thinking straight at receiving numerous threatening phone calls, particularly when she is threatened after hanging up on the killer.
Also, when she told the caller that she was "two seconds away from calling the police", his response was that they'd never make it in time. She also knew he was nearby as he made comments that indicated he could see her. She didn't know it was someone that knew her. She's a teenager and scared, so her judgement was clouded. She reached a point where she believed her only chance was to get away from him by either fighting him or getting out and hiding somewhere outside.
Answer: Landline phones like the one used in the movie cannot dial out a phone number while the line is active. Considering the killer is continuously calling her, she can't dial out on the phone line. This is referenced in the movie itself when her parents arrive home, attempt to dial 911, and can't due to the line still being active.
Question: When Clint gets inside the firefox in the hangar and starts it up, the guards don't think to shoot out the tires while it's in the hangar?
Chosen answer: There was just an explosion in the hangar and in the resulting confusion none of them were sure why it was moving. To get it away from the fire is not unreasonable. Also, the Soviet military is not big on showing initiative. Unless told to disable it, none of the guards would risk severe punishment for damaging a valuable aircraft.
Question: I submitted a mistake where the soldiers hear the blockade runner docking with the star destoyer before they come into contact. Someone corrected me saying that they were hearing the effects of a tractor beam on the ship. Does the book mention a tractor beam being used to capture the ship?
Answer: The blockade runner's not going to be docking willingly with the Star Destroyer that's been shooting at it. Something has to be moving the runner into the docking bay, and use of a tractor beam to capture ships is established elsewhere in the movies. It's a reasonable assumption that the same system is used in this scene.
Question: I know most movies have a disclaimer at the end of the credits saying that no animals were hurt during this movie, etc., so I have to ask this: did Percy stomp on a real mouse? I'm only asking because the after-death twitching that the mouse did was VERY realistic. (I've trapped many mice in my home so I know what I'm talking about - only I don't stomp on them.)
Answer: When we first see Mr. Jingles get stomped, that is an effects shot done by ILM. In the next shot when Percy removes his foot and you see the mouse twitch a little, that is a puppet. Director Frank Darabont confirms the effects shot on the commentary, and there's a feature on the Blu Ray that shows it in detail.
Question: In the first appearance of Laurence Fishburne where he starts by saying, "Over here," that sounds so much like when Mac wants to remove the scorpion from Dillon in the original Predator 1. I haven't found anything though, if it should be some trivia. Can anyone tell me if it is a trivia or just me thinking that it should be?
Chosen answer: Yes it is trivia. There are many homages to the original movie in this movie. Some are subtle some are cleverly hidden. From the big mini-gun used by a certain character, the stand-and-fight challenge by another character and even covering themselves in mud will camouflage them from the Predators. So many more obvious homages.
Question: Was Beetlejuice attracted to Lydia?
Answer: Beetlejuice wanted to marry Lydia because that would allow him freedom from the ghost world. Any physical attraction would be secondary to that.
Question: When Harry and Hermione are rescuing Sirius, Hermione blasts open the door using a different spell than the one she used in The Philosopher's Stone to open the door to where Fluffy was. I can understand that the reason the spell would be stronger on Sirius's cell is so he can't escape and it's more secure. But the Philosopher's Stone had to be secured well, so why was the lock so easy to unlock?
Answer: It's never stated that one spell is stronger than the other. There may be different spells that achieve similar results, and Hermione simply chose one over the other. Therefore, it should not be assumed that one lock was easier to open than the other. Also, the "bombarda" spell was never mentioned in the books. It was invented by the filmmakers for the movie, probably because it sounded stronger and was more descriptive (as in to bombard).
Question: Why did death try to kill Wendy and Kevin during Frankie's death scene, when it wasn't their turn to die?
Chosen answer: It didn't exactly try to kill them. They were more like a part of Frankie's death. It was Kevin's car engine fan that killed Frankie. It was fate. In my opinion Death wanted Wendy and Kevin to witness Frankie's death.
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Answer: Percy's backstory is never touched upon, but he certainly appears to have been with Parnassus for a substantial period of time, longer than his visual age would suggest. Possibly he himself has done his own deal with the Devil, or some other power, to extend his life, but, if so, the film never elaborates on it.
Tailkinker ★