Plan9

Turns out I was up way too late last night watching some crappy action films and I got to thinking about things were never answered.

Examples:

Demolition Man - How exactly do you use the three seashells? They never explain.

Robocop trilogy - What would that annoying TeeVee guy buy for a dollar? They never explain.

...

So, TFP... what unanswered movie questions haunt you at night?

Baraka_Guru

In Back to the Future, does George McFly ever suspect that his wife Lorraine is/was having an affair somewhere with "Calvin Klein," given that their son Marty is a splitting image of him?

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Willravel

What does Palpitine have on the Trade Federation that could convince them to use their giant, interplanetary conglomerate with military hierarchy to risk everything to illegally blockade and then invade and occupy Naboo? They never explain.

What happened to the $305,326.13 Peter, Michael Bolton and Samir stole from Initech? They never explain. For that matter, who ate the worm? They never explain.

How the fuck did Neo kill those sentinels outside the Maxtrix? They never explain. (I think Zion and "the real world" are still inside the Matrix)

Baraka_Guru

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Herk

I think they let on that Milton took off to the tropics with it to get a margarita with NO SALT, but that would mean either cashing a return check that wasn't made out to him or that all the money was in the envelope.

Here is a better question regarding your first. Who the hell let George Lucas have creative control and why didn't they stop him before production of that flick? Here is a video series you may enjoy. YouTube - Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)

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-Blind faith runs into things!-

Willravel

Twas Milton that stole the loot? Sweet.

ratbastid

Oh absolutely. That's what he's doing in Cabo or wherever.

LoganSnake

The Oracle explained how Neo did it. She said that the power of The One extends beyond the Matrix. Yeah.

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Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

telekinetic

What are you talking about? The only Sentinels they encounter in the Matrix are disabled with an EMP. I really liked that movie, it's too bad they never made any sequels to it.

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twisted no more

Herk

That is precisely how I felt about Return of the Jedi, until they made Attack of the Clones.

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-Blind faith runs into things!-

Plan9

Rambo series - Why does Rambo's knife get progressively bigger? They never explain it.

Zeraph

The idea was that Neo and Agent Smith were exact opposites and equals. Like two sides of an equation. Agent Smith could rewrite someone's neurons from within the matrix if they were connected to it through their neural hub, and Neo could do the same to machines.

IIRC it was an allegory for how we are becoming machines ourselves. The end was a choice, to become machine and be safe, or risk it all for human freedom and emotion? The Oracle wondering if they'd see Neo again was like saying history has a way of repeating itself.

So anyways, Neo could use his connection to the matrix to reach out and affect the machines connected to it. Kind of like a wireless router in his head...He used it to destroy the machines. In theory he could have controlled them but he was playing catch up the whole movie while Agent Smith had the advantage of being a machine and assimilating the knowledge and wisdom of other programs.

When he was destroying the drones he was pretty much doing the simplest thing he could think of, activating their self-destruct or some such (or overloading their power cell or something).

It was meant to be the real world.

Speaking of star wars...they never explain any of their weapon systems (are they lasers? plasma? None of those things act that way!) or why storm troopers wear all that armor when it doesn't protect them in the least. In fact it seems to make blaster fire worse...

Stare At The Sun

Truth.

Xerxys

At the end of the second matrix Neo disabled a couple of sentinels by firing an EMP. This got him stuck in some sort of "limbo" in machine world. Towards the end of the third matrix Neo destroyed a lot of sentinels while he was on the surface.

Charlatan

No. Really. What are you talking about?

I love The Matrix. It's a great film. I wonder if they will ever make a sequel?

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Baraka_Guru

I hope they don't make any Matrix sequels. The beauty of that film is that it leaves a lot to the imagination. The openendedness of it is what makes it so good.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

ratbastid

Right! "Blaster" fire moves at less than the speed of light. It LOOKS like light. What IS it?

Or how storm troopers can ALL be such LOUSY shots! Isn't there like a Storm Trooper Academy somewhere? The Empire has the funds to build TWO god damn Death Stars, and they can't train their fucking foot soldiers to handle a weapon?

Xerxys

Storm troopers are actually very good shots. Their average is better than average.

LoganSnake

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

Plan9

Amended.

...

Predator - Why does Dutch's "rescue team" come equipped with a goddamn mini-gun and six-shot grenade launcher? They never explain.

LoganSnake

What's the in the fucking briefcase!? Ugh.

No, they never explain.

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Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

Xerxys

LoganSnake

Better late than never, X.

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Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

Fremen

He never does!!

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Google

MSD

Concluding that the "real world" and the Matrix are both VR constructs within a larger Matrix is the only way to reconcile plot holes and turns Neo's "magical" abilities from Deus Ex Machina as a plot device to cover up lazy writing by making it an actual act of Deus Ex Machina as part of a larger force within the story line.
There were two types of energy weapons used in the Star Wars universe, plasma weapons and blasters. Blasters (from pistol sized through ship-mounted heavy lasers) used two power sources. One was a battery, which produced the energy required to ionize spin-sealed Tibanna gas (a more stable form than exists in nature, and the primary export of Cloud City) and emit these ionized particles. The beam itself was composed of high-energy ionized particles focused into a coherent "beam," and the light was produced by the photoelectric effect as ionized gas toward the outside of the particle beam returned to its ground state.

Lucifer

Repo-Manwhat the fuck is in the trunk of the car? They never explain! Is it the same thing that is in the briefcase in this movie?

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I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

jusolson00

I totally missed that part of the movie....a re-watch is in order....

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"Of Course I don't look busy.. I did it right the first time!"

fresnelly

My memory of Mulholland Drive is hazy but wasn't there an unresolved scene with some sort of monster/ghoul living by a dumpster in a 7-11 parking lot?

There was a big build up leading to its discovery but then the movie cuts away, never to address it again. I wonder what the whole story is there.

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Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

m0rpheus

Actually all the Stormtroopers who were the crack shots were based on Tatooine hunting the dreaded Jawa and taking out Space-red-neck aunt and uncles. After all "only Imperial Stormtroopers could be so precise" well if Obi-Wan's only been on Tatooine since Ep. 3 and only seen Tatooine troopers that's the only explination.

Although the Clone Troopers from Ep. 2/3 are pretty accurate. Maybe it's a case of making a copy of a copy, since Jango gets a sudden case of missing head in Ep. 2, where each copy gets gradually worse.

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"it never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

FoolThemAll

I think Zion and "the real world" are still inside the Matrix, the machines actually lost the war, and everyone inside the matrix is a sentinent machine fooled into thinking they're on one side or the other of a still-ongoing struggle in order to keep them distracted from prospects of rediscovering and going all skynet on the real real world, which sells overpriced tickets to those who wish to enjoy the spectacle.

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I wonder if we're stuck in Rome.

Vaultboy

Ronin (1998) - What's in the briefcase?

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"Failing tastes of bile and dog vomit. Pity any man that gets used to that taste."

Charlatan

In Repo Man, the trunk held the remains of an alien (the outer space kind).

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

m0rpheus

Blade Runner - Deckard. Human or Replicant?

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"it never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

ironpham

Total Recall - Was it all a dream or did he actually go to Mars?

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SIGNATURE.

Plan9

He was there. The "Take this pill." scene where the bad guy started sweating was supposed to clarify that.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Redlemon

I love this thread, and that the last two questions come from Philip K. Dick.

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

LordEden

Pulp Fiction. Briefcase. It's GLOWS like my hobbit skin.

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Vice-President of the CinnamonGirl Fan Club - The Meat of the Zombiesquirrel and CinnamonGirl Sandwich

Vaultboy

I remember reading somewhere that Dick intended for Deckard to be human. In the orginal movie I thought he was anyway. And then the Director's cut pointed clearly to him being a replicant. I genuinely think Ridley Scott just fucked up and inadvertently started this debate.

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"Failing tastes of bile and dog vomit. Pity any man that gets used to that taste."

ObieX

I think Neo just had built-in wifi.

In Spaceballs: How do Barf and Princess Vespa breathe in space? They never explain!!#@!

Also: How soon will then be now?

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We Must Dissent.

Cynthetiq

At the end of the LOTR trilogy, they fly away on giant birds....

why didn't they just fly on them to Mordor????

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