# Unanswered Questions about Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2005, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899 "2005-06-19T08:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/61 "2005-06-24T18:44:49Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > what happened after the end of T2. I mean, right after, in the hours following. Sarah Conner is still wanted by the cops. The steel factory has to be surrounded by now. Is the crushed Terminator arm in the big gear going to be sufficient evidence for people to suddenly believe her story? And if they do, what effect is that going to have? In the novelized version of the movie, which I assume is based on the original script, John goes and grabs the arm and throws it in. In the movie, such would be anti-climactic and perfunctory. The alternate ending to T2 that can be seen on the special DVD goes all the way to the future where Sarah is an old woman and she is in the futuristic park (which looks a lot like the park she saw in here vision of the nuclear holocaust), where she sees adult John and his children. The book describes how August 29, 1997 came and went w/ only Michael Jackson’s birthday being notable (the horror, the horror!), and how the future America is a utopia of sorts where the poor live in housing developments and work for a living. Sounds like Communism, but whatever. So no, the cops never show up. All the cops and SWAT guys at Cyberdyne were put out of commision in non-violent ways. But this is LA for chrissake, there’s more than that, and they can follow a helicopter chase going over the LA freeway with machine gunning and crashing into a steelmill :eek: ! I haven’t the slightest idea. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/62 "2005-06-24T19:02:05Z")
After seeing an ad for the new “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” flick due out this summer, I got to wonder about the four bratty kids who were caught up in the machinations of the factory. Did the Oompa-Loompas rescue any of them? In order, there was 1. Uder - who got sucked up into the tube and presumably was squashed flat after being rocketed through the pipes, or failing that drowned in the vat of chocolate he’d eventually land in. 2. Violet - who had to be rolled away to the juicer room quickly, before she exploded. 3. Veruka - who was last seen falling down the ‘bad egg’ shute towards the incinerator. 4. Mike - who had to be taken to the taffy room in order to be stretched back into normal size. What do you think happened to them? Did any of them emerge from the factory in a reasonable condition? And seeing that Wonka just left the chocolate factory to Charlie, how exactly did Charlie deal with the inevitable lawsuits (despite the contract the kids signed before entering the factory) and bad press it would generate? Do you think Wonka stuck around to help Charlie through that public relations fiasco? And then there’s Dorothy & Toto in “the Wizard of Oz.” Once Dorothy woke up and found herself back in good old sepia-toned Kansas, wouldn’t she once again have to give up Toto to be destroyed by the sheriff? Seems to me that Elvira Gulch wasn’t the type of woman to let go of a grudge too easily. If she had it in for Toto, she’d follow through one way or the other. So, did Toto survive returning to Kansas? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/63 "2005-06-24T19:15:58Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Anyway, at one point, you can see a map of austraila, and it is fricken covered with Black triangles, forming a large black polyhedron of some sort. and it’s not on the coasts either. It’s right there in the middle of the continent. > > So what’s so special about Austraila that the martians have all their stuff there in full force? Because the Martians played a lot of Risk, and knew that you can put a chunk of armies in Australia and easily defend an entire continent, giving you 3 extra armies at the beginning of every turn. Then when you’ve amassed overwhelming force, you can burst out, run up the east coast of Asia, over Kamchatka to Alaska, and conquer the world. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/64 "2005-06-24T19:31:25Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > And then there’s Dorothy & Toto in “the Wizard of Oz.” Once Dorothy woke up and found herself back in good old sepia-toned Kansas, wouldn’t she once again have to give up Toto to be destroyed by the sheriff? Seems to me that Elvira Gulch wasn’t the type of woman to let go of a grudge too easily. If she had it in for Toto, she’d follow through one way or the other. So, did Toto survive returning to Kansas? Well, in the 1939 film version, Dorothy sees various people flying by as the house gets sucked up by the tornado, including Elvira Gulch. Although it’s difficult to tell when Dorothy’s extended Oz hallucination/dream begins, it’s possible that Elvira was killed in the tornado and her mangled corpse flying by the window, impaled on a fencepost, was enough to suggest to Dorothy a broomstick-riding witch. And thus, with Elvira conveniently dead, the Toto matter is moot. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/65 "2005-06-24T19:46:53Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Because the Martians played a lot of Risk, and knew that you can put a chunk of armies in Australia and easily defend an entire continent, giving you 3 extra armies at the beginning of every turn. Then when you’ve amassed overwhelming force, you can burst out, run up the east coast of Asia, over Kamchatka to Alaska, and conquer the world. Lousy cheating Martian bastards. Australia’s only worth an extra _two_ armies per turn. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/66 "2005-06-24T20:04:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But the Chief wasn’t committed – he _was_ voluntary. They make a point of it earlier in the film, and McMurphy expresses surprise that the Chief stays there. That’s why it made syuch an impression on me (and on the Mad Writer, apparently) I always suspected that his crashing out was more of a symbol of his own ability to face the world and escape his self imprisonment in a way that McMurphy would have wanted. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/67 "2005-06-24T21:36:33Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Because the Martians played a lot of Risk, and knew that you can put a chunk of armies in Australia and easily defend an entire continent No, no, no…(obligatory Eddie Izzard reference coming up)…put them on Papua New Guinea… ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/68 "2005-06-24T21:59:28Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > After seeing an ad for the new “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” flick due out this summer, I got to wonder about the four bratty kids who were caught up in the machinations of the factory. Did the Oompa-Loompas rescue any of them? It’s stated at the end of the movie that they will all be returned to their normal rotten selves and returned to their rotten normal lives. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/69 "2005-06-24T22:36:35Z")
…but I thought I’d include them anyway. _It’s a Wonderful Life:_ The magnetic wreath George Bailey carries on his arm as he goes into the Building & Loan office and gtes a call from Harry. He sets the wreath on the desk, but a few frames later it reappears on his arm. _Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark:_ Indy flies to Africa on a transoceanic airliner, one year before such service actually began. And he comes back on a dirigible–about a year after the _Hindenburg_ disaster sealed the fate of airship travel. ☹ And in a scene set in the Berlin airport, about the same time, two people are reading newspapers. 1918 newspapers. _Li’l Abner:_ General Bullmoose plots to have Abner killed after marrying Appassionata von Climax. He figures von Climax will, by dint of community property laws, own half of Abner’s assets, specifically the Yokumberry tree; then Bullmoose will have Abner drive off a cliff. The problem is that community property refers to assets acquired _during_ marriage, not before; this attests to the ignorance of Bullmoose (or the movie script writers’), not Al Capp’s. And Abner didn’t own the Yokumberry tree anyway–his parents did. (Admittedly, they wouldn’t have much of a moive this way…) ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/70 "2005-06-24T22:52:41Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Lousy cheating Martian bastards. > > Australia’s only worth an extra _two_ armies per turn. That’s the Earth version. The martian version is very similar, with a few important, but distinctive rules. Spoilered in case anyone doesn’t know the story. 1. Australia is worth 3 and Europe is worth 4. 2. You can jump from any space to any space via your spaceship. 3. If the game isn’t concluded in 2 hours, all armies immediately succum to Earth virus and everyone loses. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/71 "2005-06-24T23:01:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But the Chief wasn’t committed – he was voluntary. They make a point of it earlier in the film, and McMurphy expresses surprise that the Chief stays there. That’s why it made syuch an impression on me (and on the Mad Writer, apparently) > [@kingpengvin](#): > > I always suspected that his crashing out was more of a symbol of his own ability to face the world and escape his self imprisonment in a way that McMurphy would have wanted. If you’ve read the book (which is narrated by Chief), that point is made more clear. Also, there’s the whole McMurphy=Christ metaphor that runs through the book/play/movie. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/72 "2005-06-26T03:12:26Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > The novel was adapted to film and stage, with the latter having the title _The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial_ and, as stated, concentrating solely on the trial. Thanks! (You too **Alias**.) By the way, I like your happy _Wizard of Oz_ ending. Another possibility I came up with is Toto takes off with Professor Marvel. The Professor obviously liked the dog when he and Dorothy came to visit him. He is itinerant and probably never stays in one area for long. And Miss Gulch has no way of knowing if Toto is even still alive, all she knows is he ran away from her before the tornado. So the Professor takes Toto with him, when Miss Gulch comes back to the Gale’s farm looking for him they all feign ignorance of the dog’s whereabouts (“Well, we gave him to you…where IS he?”). Within a year Miss Gulch dies from choking on a chicken bone or something equally unpleasant, and Toto comes back to live with Dorothy the next time the Professor comes to town. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/73 "2005-06-26T04:17:33Z")
Something I was wondering about. In “Das Boot”, in one scene they all start singing to “It’s a long way to Tipperary” which seems rather Odd for sailors on a German U-boat during WW2. I know the captain was trying to piss off the political officer(and doing a good job of it too), but that doesn’t quite explain the sailors. ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/74 "2005-06-26T04:17:44Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > After seeing an ad for the new “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” flick due out this summer, I got to wonder about the four bratty kids who were caught up in the machinations of the factory. Did the Oompa-Loompas rescue any of them? In the original book, there is a scene in the Great Glass Elevator where Wonka, Charlie, and Grandpa watch them leave the factory w. their truckloads (lifetime supply, y’know) of candy. IIRC: Augustus Gloop was made thin through his trip through the pipes. Violet was successfully juiced, but remained purple in the face. Veruca Salt (and her parents) were covered with garbage. (In the book they were pitched into the garbage chute by the walnut-shelling squirrels.) Mike Teavee was stretched a little too far on the stretching machine. Charlie thought that that was horrible, but Wonka reassured him, saying that basketball teams around the country would be fighting to get him. What _I_ want to know is this: In the old movie, why did they take the Oompa-Loompas, who were described in the book as happy, laughing, cheerful folk, and turn them into dour, gloomy, always-singing-in-a-minor-key depressives? (N.B. I do know how the Oompa-Loompas were described in the _original_ version, but they were still happy and cheerful…) ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/75 "2005-06-26T12:27:20Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Something I was wondering about. In “Das Boot”, in one scene they all start singing to “It’s a long way to Tipperary” which seems rather Odd for sailors on a German U-boat during WW2. > > I know the captain was trying to piss off the political officer(and doing a good job of it too), but that doesn’t quite explain the sailors. It’s a pretty catchy song, and the sailors were bored. Also, **Das Boot** was meant to be an anti-war film. The allies have become quite good at detecting and destroying the U-Boats, and the seamen’s morale was less than high. They were also probably about as cynical as the captain by this point in the war. Singing along to “Tipperary” was a good way to show this without beating it into the ground ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/76 "2005-07-07T00:37:55Z")
Nobody ever answered my question about _Billy Jack,_ in the OP… ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/77 "2005-07-07T04:05:23Z")
Nobody wants to admit they saw _Billy Jack_. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/78 "2005-07-07T07:04:24Z")
In **The Shawshank Redemption** : How does Andy get the poster to stick to the wall after he climbs through the hole? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/79 "2005-07-07T07:46:54Z")
Another set of questions: _Mighty Joe Young:_ why was the drunk who threw the bottle at Joe Young (and touched a cigarette tip to his bare skin) never punished for provoking him? _Damn Yankees:_ At the end, is Joe Hardy or is he not still in thrall to Mr. Applegate? _12 Angry Men:_ I find it hard to countenance that the watchmaker, the adman and the old guy (George Voskovec, Robert Webber, and Joseph Sweeney), who discussed the possibility of the defendant’s innocence with such eloquence, voted “Guilty” in the first place. _Miracle on 34th Street:_ If Sawyer was not really cold-cocked when Kringle socked him with his cane (that is, he was not knocked unconscious), why did he require medical treatment? _Babe_ (about Babe Ruth, with John Goodman in the title role); Considering how much money Ruth was making as a baseball player, I don’t see what his first wife was complaining about–heck, he seemed to be a good provider…was he coming home drunk every night, or something? I was never clear on that… _The Three Stooges Go around the World in a Daze:_ When Fogg, Amelia, the Stooges, and the police inspector wait at Heathrow and Cavendish and Filch impersonate bobbies in a paddy wagon, the crooks push the Stooges away and force the others into the paddy at gunpoint. Don’t British police inspectors routinely carry service revolvers? _Court Jester:_ When Danny Kaye tries to remember which cup has poison in it and which doesn’t (“the flagon with the dragon has the pellet with the poison…”) it never occurs to him to write it down! Perhaps he is illiterate… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899/80 "2005-07-07T08:04:07Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > _12 Angry Men:_ I find it hard to countenance that the watchmaker, the adman and the old guy (George Voskovec, Robert Webber, and Joseph Sweeney), who discussed the possibility of the defendant’s innocence with such eloquence, voted “Guilty” in the first place. Peer pressure. > [@dougie\_monty](#): > > _Court Jester:_ When Danny Kaye tries to remember which cup has poison in it and which doesn’t (“the flagon with the dragon has the pellet with the poison…”) it never occurs to him to write it down! Perhaps he is illiterate… Write it how? With the ballpoint pen and notepad in the breast pocket of his armor? Angela Landsbury told him about the poison while he was already on the way to the joust. When would he have had time to find a quill, an inkwell and a piece of parchment to write anything down? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-movies/308899.md?page=5)