In Other Words, They're Wrong IV Quiz

Answer: Snakes on a Plane

In this 2006 film, the "Plane" is short for "Airplane," so it refers to a vehicle for powered flight rather than a useful geometrical concept. It is best not to go into too much detail about the plot, which involves a baroque zoological assassination scheme on a commercial flight.

The film's appeal, such as it is, rests mainly on the shoulders of the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson, who plays an FBI agent with foulmouthed vigor.

Answer: The Cider House Rules

John Irving published "The Cider House Rules" in 1985, and also wrote the screenplay for the 1999 movie adaptation. The story tells of an orphanage in Maine around the time of World War II, where a boy named Homer has been trained as a medical assistant to the director. Over the course of many years (in the book) or many months (in the rather foreshortened movie), Homer eventually comes to terms with life in all its complication, pain and glory.

The title refers to a building in an apple orchard, where fruits can be pressed to make cider, and where the apple pickers sleep. A list of regulations - or rules - is posted on the wall. It would be a very different story if the pickers were actually subject to the personal authority of the building itself!

Answer: Night Watch

The painting, by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn, is more officially known as "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch". Its popular title is inaccurate in two ways. First, Rembrandt did not intend to depict a nighttime scene -- it's just that his painting got so grimy over the years that later generations assumed it was set at night. Second, the civic guards Rembrandt painted weren't really police officers, or soldiers, or anyone else who might keep watch; they were more of a shooting or social club. Still, "The Night Watch" is considered a masterpiece, and is the pride of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

"Night Watch" *is* the official title of a 2002 novel by Terry Pratchett, set in his fantasy Discworld. This book, more serious than many of Pratchett's others, sends one of his main characters back in time to a crucial moment. Again, the "Watch" of the title refers to the municipal guards, a proto-police force.

A watch is also, of course a personal timepiece -- either a pocketwatch or a wristwatch.

Answer: Big Trouble in Little China

In this 1986 film, "Little China" refers to the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco -- that is, an area mainly settled by relatively recent Chinese immigrants. As the movie tells it, Little China is also the nexus of a dastardly criminal (and supernatural) scheme that can only be stopped by the kicks and punches of two good friends.

The country of China has also given its name to fine porcelain, whose manufacture was once a state secret there. To this day, people "bring out the good china" when they set a table with their nicest plates.

Answer: Children of the Corn

Famed horror writer Stephen King published the short story "Children of the Corn" in 1977. The tale follows a couple who end up in the small town of Gatlin on a cross-country road trip. Unfortunately for them, Gatlin is the home of an evil cult of children, driven to murder adults by the demon who lives in the cornfields. The fate of the couple was radically changed the 1984 movie adaptation, but a 2009 made-for-TV version restored King's original ending.

A corn is also a term for a painful callus, or hardening of the skin, which usually occurs on fingers or toes. On toes, corns are often a result of poorly fitting shoes.

Answer: First Contact

"Star Trek: First Contact" (1996) was the eighth feature film from the "Star Trek" universe, and the first not to include any of the actors from the original television show. Instead, it is the "Next Generation" crew, captained by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) who must repel a time-traveling cyborg attack on the history of Earth. It makes sense in context, I promise.

Part of the plot involves engineering the very first meeting between humans and an alien species: "first contact." Contact lenses, while useful, are not explicitly involved.

Answer: Hail to the Chief

"Hail to the Chief" dates to the early 1810s, when James Sanderson wrote music for words from Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake". "Hail to the chief, who in triumph advances," the song begins, and continues from there. With a few additional musical flourishes, this quickly became the anthem for the President of the United States, and is often used to announce that dignitary's arrival in a room.

Here, the singer and musicians are "hailing" the Chief -- that is, they are greeting and honoring the Chief. "Hail" also refers to precipitation in the form of ice falling from the sky, but this is not often a feature of presidential pomp and circumstance.

Answer: Clear and Present Danger

Both the 1989 Tom Clancy novel and the 1994 Hollywood movie follow the exploits of Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), a CIA analyst and former Marine who, as usual in a Clancy novel, ends up forced into some physical derring-do. In this case, the clear and imminent threat to his country has to do with the international drug trade, and not with Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion.

Answer: Miss Congeniality

Released in 2000 and starring Sandra Bullock, "Miss Congeniality" takes its name from an award, given at some beauty pageants, to the woman who is friendliest and kindest to her fellow contestants. Bullock's character, FBI agent Gracie Hart, goes undercover at a beauty pageant that's been threatened with a terrorist attack.

The comedy comes from Hart's clumsy efforts to get in touch with her feminine side; she begins the film as someone who really is missing friendship, rather than an embodiment of it.

Answer: The Phantom of the Opera

Gaston Leroux published "The Phantom of the Opera" in French in 1909 and 1910 (it was serialized). The novel tells the story of a disfigured man who lives beneath the Paris Opera House and becomes obsessed with one of the singers. The story is perhaps best known in the form of a 1986 musical with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Heavy use of organ music, exciting and fast-paced songs, and impressive staging (including a falling chandelier) have given the musical a great deal of staying power.

The "Phantom" of the story is so named because he lives like a ghost. McDonnell Douglas also wanted to evoke ghostlike properties when they named the F-4 Phantom II, a fighter plane that was a mainstay of the US military for more than three decades after its 1960 introduction.