Question: I understand the 2 men staring into the window in the beginning were not the same as the Arab men on the plane, but they were actual spies working for the hijacker right? I still think that was very suspicious and not a coincidence that people were spying on them the day before the incident.
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: A "modified" racing stock car, white with the number 1 on it, appears in the scene when Frank Lucas is calling home to North Carolina for his brothers to join him up north. One brother answers the phone on the garage wall and when he heads toward the house the camera scans the yard following him and there is a white stock car parked in the yard, does anybody know the significance to the movie? Can you tell if it is a red, white and blue number 1 on the side? Charlie Jarzombek's car?
Question: How could Shredder survive that fall long enough to touch some of the ooze to heal himself?
Answer: This is where comic book logic meets real-life physics. He was wearing a giant metallic, robotically augmented suit of armor. The idea is that this protected him enough to survive long enough. They do similar fuzzy physics with Iron Man from time to time. In real life, the reason fighter jets can't fly faster than they do is that they're carrying a living blood-filled water-balloon inside that they can't risk bursting. The fact is that sudden acceleration/deceleration could easily liquify a human's brain and dislodge internal organs. But comic book logic determines that if we can avoid the obvious immediate damage of impact, the human will survive. We see it with Superman catching someone mere feet from the ground, and they survive rather than showing them as being impaled by two arms jutting straight up, or sliced in three if the arms are held horizontally. All they have to do is suggest that he remained alive, though possibly hanging from a thread, until he's able to touch the ooze.
Question: Why did they switch out the actor of Morgan?
Answer: Per thelist.com: Lily Nicksay told Entertainment Weekly her leaving the show "was a mutual decision between her parents and the producers." At Wizard World Comic Con, Rider Strong provided more insight into the situation by stating Nicksay "was not very happy... At that time, she was a little girl who did not want to be on the show." She was four years old when she filmed the pilot and most likely six years old when they filmed season 2.
Question: Why do we see belisha beacons (striped black and white poles topped with orange light to show pedestrian crossings in UK) during the car chase? Are they seen on USA streets?
Answer: Those were just lamps that had a yellowish globe. The poles aren't black and white striped, they're solid black. They have a sign attached to them, probably a no parking sign, though that may make it look like a white stripe.
Question: What is the name of the china pattern used at the breakfast table? It is black and gold trimmed. Not the Royal Doulton and not the Royal Worster Avignon.
Answer: I have asked myself the same question for a long time. It is Rosina-Queen's fine bone china, pattern "Olde England." It's the china that appears most of the time in the series. The Royal Worchester double-glazed Avignon (for candle light suppers) is really Royal Doulton Avignon, pattern "The Moselle Collection." And the Royal Doulton with the hand painted periwinkles is in reality of course Royal Doulton Colclough, pattern "Braganza."
Question: Why did Professor Quirrell really have the garlic in his classroom? I know that some people thought he was afraid of a vampire who wanted revenge. Since he was serving Voldemort, however, it seems that a vampire would not be a serious concern for him.
Answer: At that point, Voldemort had little to no power and was reliant on Quirrell to protect him, not the other way around. No one knew Voldemort still existed, and Quirrell wanted to ensure his safety until he was restored to corporeal form. He may have believed garlic would be an added protection but more likely it was just for show and to create a sense of drama to enhance his phony persona.
This is purely speculation but could it also be considered that the garlic and story about having had an argument with a vampire are all a ruse to cover his quirky behaviour following his meeting with Voldemort? As in, people started the rumour, so he plays on it to make it more believable and give him a better cover story?
Question: At the end of some of the openings we see the family having a picnic. It shows Michelle taking something out of the picnic basket and placing it on the blanket before going to eat. Just what does Michelle take out of the picnic basket?
Answer: Bun cake.
Question: Minutes after Elsa freezes, Olaf flurries away, and turns into a pile of ordinary snow. Why? Is it because he can't exist without Elsa?
Question: Nick was supposed to be watching Fanny sing at Keany's, but I just don't see him in the audience shots. Error?
Answer: If you mean their first meeting, most likely it was a deliberate decision by the filmmakers that Nick wasn't seen in the audience. The scene was constructed to introduce Nick and show Fanny's reaction as she opens the dressing room door, seeing him for the first time. Nick being seen earlier would also have lessened the audience's reaction as well.
Question: Would it actually be possible for someone as young as Harrison was to remember seeing his mother being murdered? I think he was around a year old at the time.
Question: Something I'm confused about... every home-video and streaming version of the movie available is in full-frame. But I've read it was released in theaters in some countries. So was the movie initially released in widescreen? It seems odd that the DVD editions are only in full-frame, especially as at the time they were released, widescreen was pretty much taking over as widescreen TV's were becoming more popular and full-frame was being phased out.
Question: During the first three seasons, all the main cast appeared in every episode (except one without Joyce Dewitt by season 3), but it seems once Suzanne Somers left the show, episodes had some cast members absent on a regular basis (mainly Richard Kline and Don Knotts who both only appeared in selected episodes in the later seasons). Was it a sudden budget cut or another reason for this?
Answer: Richard Kline and Don Knotts were supporting cast members, who could be replaced at anytime. It was John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers who were the star vehicles they relied on to carry the show.
Question: When Caparzo hands Melish the knife, why did he get upset?
Answer: The situation from before, an intense firefight, got to him, the stress and anxiety taking over for a moment. It's likely this is his first moment of rest and reflection since landing on the beach. Plus, it's a Hitler Youth knife, revealing they just killed a bunch of minors.
Question: I know that Sam Elliott, who played General Ross in 2003 Hulk, wanted to play him again in this movie. Why was he rejected and replaced with William Hurt?
Answer: Presumably because this movie was retooled into a reboot that wasn't meant to connect with the 2003 film. So bringing back main cast members might have been seen as being potentially too confusing at the time. (This was nearly 10 years prior to JK Simmons being cast again as J. Jonah Jameson, which proved audiences can go with the same actors being in reboots. But in 2008, it probably would have been viewed as being too risky).
I do think you're right, although it's worth pointing out that Judi Dench was recast as M in the rebooted 2006 Casino Royale after playing her in the Brosnan Bond films. Not sure if that was the first time that's happened.
That is true, although I'd consider it a slightly different circumstance because the Bond films are basically a singular linear film series following one main character, and it was made clear that "Casino Royale" was essentially a full-on reboot. Comparatively, the MCU is multiple different stand-alone "series" (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, etc.) that all tie together via crossovers, cameos and team-up films. They were probably worried that people would assume the 2003 movie was retroactively part of the MCU. (Which you could probably argue is now true given the establishment of the multiverse, and the implication that previous non-MCU Marvel movies are all canonical as part of the multiverse... but that wasn't part of the plan at the time this movie was made).
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Answer: Considering as they appear as the same actors who played the Arab men on the plane, this may have been done as unreliable narration for the audience (she is actually seeing the two men differently than what we are shown) to cast them as red herrings. Also, considering she was under enough stress to imagine her dead husband several times, it is entirely possible that she was being paranoid and imagining the two men in her mind, when there was really no-one in front of the window staring at her apartment. Either way, it's only a plot device to create a red herring later in the film.