Question: This has always confused me. In the scene with the guards, which one always lies and the other always speaks the truth, Sarah asks which door leads to the castle gate then she figures out the riddle and chooses a door. However, the door she chooses, the supposedly correct choice, doesn't lead her to the entrance instead it's a trap. So did she choose the wrong door, or just the wrong direction for the hands to take her?
Answer: To add to that, the other door was supposed to lead her to certain death, and technically the oubliette wasn't exactly certain death.
Answer: She did choose the right door...if she had chosen up, she would have very likely come out at the castle, but she chose down.
If you pay attention down was also the correct answer. The Goblin king was angry when he discovered she was down there "She never should have made it this far" or something similar upon finding this out. Had she chosen up she would have ended up back at the beginning.
Answer: Sarah did indeed select the right door and did ask a sensible, albeit confusing question. The reason she fell into the oubliette (and the helping hands) is because as she walked through the door she said "I think I'm getting smarter. This is a piece of cake" - saying "piece of cake" within the Labyrinth to say how easy something is brings bad luck upon those who say it. Sarah said it to Jareth and he upped the stakes (reducing her time). Hoggle said it later (in Goblin City) and then they got surrounded by Goblins.
Question: I know that the studio chose James Cameron to direct due to the strength of his script, but why wasn't Ridley Scott offered the chance to direct? And was the studio considering a sequel before Cameron joined?
Answer: It really was all down to James Cameron having already written the script and proving himself capable of directing with 'The Terminator.' It was just a quicker, easier, and almost certainly cheaper decision to let him direct his own script rather than get someone else, even Ridley Scott. While the producers had wanted to make an 'Alien' sequel almost immediately, at the time the head of 20th Century Fox didn't want to pursue it fearing it would be seen as an obvious cash-in and flop. When a new executive at the studio came in a couple years later, the project was put back on track, and I believe Cameron was the first to be approached to write the script.
Chosen answer: The studio was considering a sequel before Cameron was involved, but regarding directing it, Ridley Scott told "The Hollywood" in a 2008 interview, "They didn't ask me! To this day I have no idea why. It hurt my feelings, really, because I thought we did quite a good job on the first one." The studio liked Cameron's script and at that time he had enough clout to be able to insist on directing it.
It would have been a gamble to choose Ridley Scott as he had no experience with action films, James Cameron had proved himself with films such as Terminator.
Question: This is probably a stupid question, but I know nothing at all about how these kind of aircrafts are flown. What exactly is the purpose of the guy sitting in the back of the plane? All they seem to do in the film is look in all directions for enemy aircrafts.
Answer: These aircraft are extremely complex; the presence of the backseater, variously known officially as the Weapon Systems Operator or Radar Intercept Officer, allows the pilot to focus on the immediate needs of flying the plane, as his backseater can take on many of the other tasks required. They serve as navigators, tacticians, bombardiers, weapons systems operators and, of course, as we see in the film, an extra set of eyes; they use their discretion in passing information to the pilot, ensuring that the pilot has only data that's important to the situation and isn't swamped by trivia. Without the distraction of having to fly the plane, they can often be better placed to coordinate between multiple planes, leading to situations where the backseater can be placed in command of the mission.
Question: Throughout the film, are there a series of deliberate 'Back to the Future' references? I noticed two straight away - Daniel says 'If you put your mind to it anything is possible, you can do anything' which is repeated several times during BTTF. Also, when Daniel and Kumiko are at the dance, the song 'Earth Angel' can be heard. The song at the climax of the dance in BTTF. Are these deliberate, as BTTF was a year before this movie?
Chosen answer: No it is not deliberate. what Daniel says is a common saying, and Earth Angel was a popular song. coincidence at best.
Answer: Also, Daniel's "put your mind to it you can accomplish anything" (before painting the fence) was used in the first film from 1984 - a year BEFORE Back to the Future came out.
Answer: I thought he was freaking out, realizing the picture was made of thousands of tiny dots (pointillism).
Question: At the beginning, Stretch asks the two punks in the car to hang up so that the call can end and the phone line can be clear. Why? Why can't she just hang up and end the call? This makes no sense.
Chosen answer: That's how telephones worked back then. It has to do with the lack of a disconnect signal being sent by the called party, which phone companies have now. Back then when someone called another person, they were paying for the call and thus it was felt that they're entitled not to be hung up on and the line would not be "free" for the person being called, even after they hung up. This also meant if someone was called and they picked up in one room, they could say "hold on I'm going to switch phones", hang up, go to another room and pick up the phone and the caller would still be there. It was also a great way to scam or annoy people by calling them and not hanging up. Some countries still maintain this method of operation, largely because some people have become used to it, although nowadays it's by choice, not by technical limitation, and the length of time the line is held open is significantly reduced.
That's not true my brother would prank call KDKA in Pittsburgh constantly they had no trouble hanging up. If people called our house there was no trouble hanging up.
That's exactly how it worked if the line didn't have a disconnect signal.
Question: Walter is discussing changing the name of Cheap Girls to Meryl Streep with a band member. When they say 'Meryl Streep,' their mouths are not in sync with the words. Do you know what the original name change was supposed to be, and why was it changed?
Answer: I have watched this several times. It looks to me like he is saying Meryl Streep but the audio is just out of sync with the man's lips. Plus when Hanks says it, it matches Meryl Streep on his lips.
Answer: It looks like Meryl Streep the first time he says it but not the second.
Question: One of the early posters of this film shows a bearded guy (who is not in the film) coming through a wall crack and holding puppet strings with one hand. Who is this guy supposed to be and what does he represent?
Chosen answer: He does bear a striking resemblance to Stephen King. King was both the writer and director of this movie, and as such, was certainly the guy in charge of all the character's fates and pulling all the strings.
Answer: It is Stephen King.
Question: Why is the secretary was so rude to Howard when he tried to find the job?
Answer: As she said to Howard, she believed that he was using his "outlandish" appearance to be unable to find work and collect money through unemployment. She's probably dealt with people who did the same thing and was eventually sick of it.
Question: When Lightning is crushed by the statue at the end of the movie, he sends out dozens of bolts of energy before he dies. The final wisp of electricity forms a Chinese character. Does anyone know what it means?
Answer: It's the symbol for "carpenter" after the director John Carpenter.
Question: Would the interference from the plutonium keep the RC car from working?
Answer: Radiation wouldn't necessarily affect a remote control car. It would contaminate it, but beyond that the car would continue to work.
Question: What are those devices we see disappear from the wraith's arm and after the second and third race supposed to be?
Chosen answer: I believe they are markers to show how many people are left to take revenge on for his death.
The problem with that answer is that the Wraith had to kill five people (Oggie, Minty, Skank, Gutterboy and Packard) and he only had four of those metal braces. If he had one for each gang member he wanted revenge on, he would have had five. I think he was only given four chances to crash his car and reassemble, and once they were gone, that was it. That's why he killed Skank and Gutterboy at the same time.
Question: What exactly was Scotty's reason as to why giving the Company boss the formula for the one inch glass wouldn't alter the future? He gave a brief response, but I honestly can't think of any reason why it wouldn't do any future damage.
Chosen answer: Scotty says "Why? How do you know he didn't invent the thing!" If the man was in fact the inventor, this would only cause a slight causality loop problem - he "invents" it because they gave it to him, but they only know it because he "invented" it. However, since Sulu said earlier in the movie that it was about 150 years too early for transparent aluminum, it would seem they do know this, so it wasn't a smart thing to do. Of course, the real flaw in the plot is that they need the tank to be transparent at all.
Answer: They only give him a schematic of the molecule. The man even says, "It would take years to decipher the matrix", or something like that.
Answer: The crew is resigned to the fact that their mission forces them to alter history in some fashion or another. McCoy just wants to acknowledge the gravity of their actions before they go ahead and do it, and Scotty's response is a cheeky way of reassuring him, "Hey, maybe it won't be that bad."
Question: Why was the platoon making such a big deal about wearing shirts during their exercises? I would think they would be better off wearing shirts so they would not get a sunburn. So what was the big deal?
Chosen answer: Gunny Highway insisted that they all wear the same shirts as he himself was wearing. If they showed up in a different one, he made them go shirtless. The reasons for this were 1) to break through their rebellious attitudes and teach them to follow his orders, 2) to make them look and feel unified, and 3) to develop resourcefulness and adaptability in them.
To also display esprit de corp to other units gaining them respect from those units as well as command leadership.
Question: When Jeffrey and Sandy are discussing where Isabella Rossellini lived, it is mentioned that she lived on the 7th floor of the apartment building. When they show the outside of the building it appears to have only 4 floors. Was this symbolic or an oversight?
Answer: There's probably not any symbolic meaning, despite the number seven having multiple magical connotations to it. Most likely, this is just a movie inconsistency.
Question: How is the "no fighting on holy ground" rule enforced? I really can't see a guy like the Kurgan, who seems to have no sense of honor to speak of, following the rule willfully, unless there was some severe punishment for breaking the rule.
Answer: What the punishment is isn't shown in this movie, but since even the Kurgan follows it, it must be high. In Highlander 3 we see that fighting on holy ground at least destroys the weapons they are fighting with (although only Macleod's for some reason), it's possible the ultimate penalty is given when an immortal kills another immortal on holy ground. A good guess is the penalty is death.
Answer: The "No Fighting on Holy Ground" is considered a sacred rule. Like being quiet in church, a funeral or any religious service. If any immortal would break this rule he was not be honorable and not subject to any of the other rules. Like fighting one on one and using hired thugs to capture an immortal holding him down to take his head.
Answer: You DO see Rosalie in the past. She hosts the party at which Charlie and his group sing. And Jim Carrey asks for the lights to be turned out. She walks, and begins to dance with her boyfriend.
No, that was Maddie's party. Peggy Sue's mom said so when she asked her why she wasn't ready for the party, when Charlie came to pick her up.
I finally see her, thanks! She's to the left of Peggy Sue and her girlfriends as they watch Charlie and the guys sing. Then she's the girl dancing on the counter at the coffee shop when Peggy Sue meets with Michael Fitzsimmons the first time. I always wondered about the Rosalie plot hole.