Riddle For The Ages / Live-Action Films

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Riddles for the Ages in Films — Live-Action.

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• 2:37: What drove Kelly to commit suicide?
• 3 Women: What really happened to Edgar? It's implied that Reckless Gun Usage was the official cause of death, but assassination can also be assumed.
• 6 Underground: What are One and Six's real names?
• 12 Angry Men:
  • Who is the real killer? Given that this is a film about jurors rather than detectives, this likely goes unanswered because it's not something the main characters are responsible for. Juror #8 freely admits it probably was the defendant, it's just that "probably" isn't enough for him.
  • What are the real names of the Twelve Angry Men? They only ever refer to each other by their juror number, and while two of them reveal their surnames to each other at the end, that's still twelve first and ten last names unaccounted for.
  • Where is Juror #11 from? Given the type of accent he has and his lament at the lack of democracy and due process in his homeland, an Eastern Bloc nation seems likely, but there's still a lot of possibilities.
• 68 Kill: How did Liza locate Chip when he was being held prisoner by Monica? Her answer doesn't clarify anything, and Chip kills her without any further elaboration being made.
• Played for laughs in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension:
  New Jersey: Why is there a watermelon there?
  Reno: I'll tell you later.
• Aguirre, the Wrath of God: What was the story behind the large boat stuck on top of the trees in the Amazon? Was it real, or was it a hallucination? Word of God expanded upon this later in an interview. According to director Werner Herzog, the boat was real, but there wasn't enough time to elaborate on how it ended up as shown in the film proper.
• Allied: What was Marianne's true nationality and name?
• American Animals: We watch Warren go to the Netherlands to meet a fence at a bar before The Heist, but after the botched heist, the other members wonder if he made the whole thing up. We see a second version of the events in which Warren does not get on the plane and instead goes to an American bar that looks exactly like the Dutch bar. The real Warren, who provides commentary throughout the film along with the rest of the real heist members, simply says, "I guess you'll just have to take my word for it."
• American Made: What is the real identity of Monty Schafer, and why did he hide it from Barry?
• Anatomy of a Fall: Did Sandra murder her husband, and did he simply just fall out of the window in a tragic accident? It's the entire Driving Question of the film and Sandra is ultimately acquitted during her trial, but a concrete answer is never given and a multitude of underlying factors keeps the situation ambiguous.
• Aniara: When the crew of the adrift Colony Ship Aniara detect a long, narrow "Spear" rapidly gaining on them, they immediately suspect that it's a high-speed rescue probe stocked with fuel to help the ship turn around. The captain even announces this as a fact to the passengers. But after they get the Spear onboard, they have no idea what it's supposed to be, or even what it's made of. The scientists onboard start studying it, but various calamities cause most of them to die off before any headway is made, and the Spear is ultimately forgotten about. We never find out what it was.
• In Arrival, it is never specified what, exactly, humanity did that would warrant the Heptapods visiting Earth to pass on knowledge to humanity so that humanity can in turn aid the Heptapods 3,000 years in the future.
• Back to the Future: What does the DeLorean's stainless steel construction do to the flux dispersal? Doc starts to explain before he and Marty hurriedly move to accommodate Einstein's arrival through time.
• Bad Times at the El Royale has the identity of the person on the incriminating film that the eponymous hotel keeps for blackmail purposes, as well as what they were doing when filmed. All we're told is that the person is now dead and they were well respected in life, thus the film being released would result in a major scandal. The last two surviving characters throw it into the fire at the end, never having looked at it themselves.
• Beau Is Afraid: Is the eponymous protagonist a delusional man hallucinating that everyone he knows is part of a massive conspiracy to ruin his life, or is he completely correct?
• The Big Lebowski: Did Walter and The Dude ever make it to the Finals in that bowling tournament that they spent a big chunk of the movie competing in? The credits roll right before they start their Semifinal game, so we never get to find out.
• Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey: What is "statiophonicoxygeneticamplifiagraphiphonideliverberator"? All we know is that it was invented by Ria Paschelle in the 23rd century and apparently it's so essential, it's hard to imagine a world without it.
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance): What did Sam see up in the sky that made her smile at the end? Is it related to whatever became of her father?
• The Birds:
  • Why have birds gone homicidal, anyway? Was the drunkard who believed them to be an instrument of divine wrath on humans actually correct? And why didn't the pet parrots join in on the carnage?
  • Did the main characters manage to make it to the hospital, with both the birds and a government cordon in the way?
• Blade Runner never actually gives us a straight answer as to if Deckard is human or Replicant. Blade Runner 2049, if anything, muddies the issue even more.
• Black Christmas (1974): Who was Billy? Where did he come from and what was his connection to the sorority (was there even a connection)?
• Blind Chance has no real explanation of why Witek lives through the story three times — if he really does. The events simply restart on their own accord, each time with minor changes at the train station, which are also left unexplained. There is also his wife sensing something wrong about the flight and asking him not to go.
• Want to hear a dirty joke? "A gorgeous blonde lady walks into a bar, naked, with a poodle under one arm and two foot salami in the other. She places the poodle on the table, and the bartender says, 'I suppose you won't be needing a drink?' And the lady replies-" Unfortunately, fans of The Breakfast Club will likely never know the punchline to this joke, as Bender falls through the vent he's climbing through before he can finish it.
• Brewster McCloud: What is Brewster's over-controlling Mysterious Protector Louise's stake in him, and is she killing everyone who upsets Brewster or only covering up crimes Brewster commits himself?
• Brick: Who was the father of Emily's baby? Dode believed he was, but only because he was dating her and evidently never knew she was sleeping around on him. Tugg also thought he was the father because Emily told him so, but there's a pretty good chance she was lying about it on Laura's orders. Laura herself insinuates that Brenden was the dad, but she only does so out of spite after he exposes her crimes, leaving it unclear whether she is telling the truth or just saying it to hurt him. The film ends without answering the question definitively, and Brenden's expression makes it pretty clear that he's just as uncertain as the audience.
• The Cable Guy:
  • Was Sam Sweet found guilty or not?
  • What is the Cable Guy's real name?
• In Caché, we never find out who sent the tapes, or why. There are many clues, but no answers. Word of God says there is no answer because it doesn't matter.
• In the Disney film Candleshoe, Jodie Foster's character is hired by a con artist to pose as the Long-Lost Relative of an English noblewoman. At the end of the film, it's suggested that Foster's character might actually have been the person she was impersonating, but we don't find out for sure.
• Cast Away: What was in the package Chuck never opened?
• Chinatown: Who killed Ida Sessions?
• The Citadel is about Dr. Manson, an idealistic young doctor who saves his patient with a technically forbidden treatment — namely, taking her to an expert who isn't actually a medical doctor and allowing the expert to perform surgery. The treatment works and saves the patient, but Dr. Manson is still brought up before a review board that has the power to strip him of his license. Dr. Manson gives a Rousing Speech to the review board in which he decries British medicine's unwillingness to listen to new ideas. Then he storms out, and the film ends. We never do find out if Dr. Manson got to keep his license.
• Count Yorga: Did Yorga really turn himself into a vampire through occult magic or was he just a victim of a previous vampire? Also, what made him want to come to Los Angelos after living and spreading his vampirism in Bulgria for so long?
• Crank: High Voltage: What was in Johnny Vang's cooler that disgusted Chevy so much?
• The Dark Knight:
  • What is the Backstory of the Joker? It's even a specific trope. Also, how did he get those scars?
  • What happens to him after he's arrested? Due to Heath Ledger's death, his planned return was written out in The Dark Knight Rises and he isn't even mentioned in the movie out of respect for Heath Ledger. The novelization does add in that he was the only recipient in the abandoned Arkham Asylum during the events but doesn't confirm if he's still there or escaped during Bane's takeover of the city, leaving his fate in the air.
• The Day After: Who launched their nukes first, the United States or the Soviet Union?
• The Jackal's true identity in The Day of the Jackal:
  Insp. Thomas: But if the Jackal wasn't Calthrop, then who the hell was he?
• In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Klatuu tells Helen that if he is killed, Gort will destroy the Earth, and to stop him, she must use the code word "Klaatu Barada Nikto". She successfully does so, but exactly what the phrase means (obviously, it's something in Klatuu's language) has never been truly revealed. Word of God is actually contradictory on this. The film's director, Robert Wise, related a story he had with Edmund North, the screenplay writer, saying North told him, "Well, it's just something I kind of cooked up. I thought it sounded good." On the other hand, Billy Gray, who played Bobby Benson in the film, said that "barada nikto must mean... save earth". Florence Blaustein, widow of the producer Julian Blaustein, said North had to pass a street called Baroda every day going to work and said, "I think that's how that was born." Film historian Stephan Jay Rubin claimed that in an interview he had with North when he asked the question, "What is the direct translation of 'Klaatu barada nikto', and Edmund North said to me, 'There's hope for earth, if the scientists can be reached'."
• Demolition Man: Set in the future where toilet paper is replaced by a shelf of three seashells. The only source of paper Spartan, who was thawed out after 36 years, can obtain are from verbal morality monitors printing out citations whenever you curse. It's never revealed how the seashells work. Explanations had varied over the years, from Sylvester Stallone stating that "You hold two seashells like chopsticks, pull gently and scrape what’s left with the third", to Sandra Bullock saying "There's several processes. You have number one, you have number two, and then the cleanup".
• Detroit: What happened to the starter pistol? We see Carl Cooper fire it at the police as a prank, then get killed as they storm the Algiers motel, but even after a prolonged search, no one is able to locate the starter pistol or any other weapon in the motel. Text at the end states that the starter pistol was never found. This is Truth in Television, as several victims of the Algiers Motel incident claimed that Cooper fired a starter pistol before the police raid, but neither it nor any other weapon was ever found.
• The Disaster Artist: Where does Tommy Wiseau's money come from? Where did he get his accent? How old is he? These are all questions that have never been definitively answered in real life either, although there have been some pretty decent guesses at the latter two (he was born in Poland and moved to France at a young age before learning English, and around 48 at the time of The Room's filming in 2003).
• Don't Worry Darling:
  • Was there any truth to Frank's insinuation that he and Alice are former lovers, or was he just gaslighting everyone as usual?
  • Did Margaret survive her suicide attempt?
  • Why did Shelly murder Frank, and why did she say "My turn now" while doing so? Did she just want out of the simulation, or did she have a sinister agenda of her own?
• Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing caused controversy upon its release due to the fact that it never actually gives a concrete answer on what "the right thing" is within the context of the film's conflict, a violent race-riot, instead inviting viewers to draw their own conclusions. Lee has been asked many times over the years whether the film is endorsing or condemning the characters' actions during the riot and has always declined to answer, feeling that such questions are motivated by discomfort with the film's difficult themes, and in some cases outright racism.
  • The specific example is did Mookie do the right thing by throwing a trashcan through Sal's window? Relatedly, did Sal deserve to have his store trashed for his participation in Radio Raheem's murder?
• Dr. Strangelove:
  • The spy camera General Turgidson claims to find on the Russian ambassador. Did Turgidson really plant it on him, as the ambassador claims, or, given his use of a real spy camera to photograph the big board at the end, was it really his and he was accusing Turgidson of planting it on him it as plausible deniability?
  • What was Strangelove's plan that he wanted to share before yelling "Mein Führer, I can walk!"?
• Dumb and Dumber: Which one is dumb and which one is dumber? Harry appears to be capable of more common sense and can read, but the poster listing Lloyd's actor first implies that Harry is the dumber one.
• Elizabethtown: Why on God's green Earth was Drew's shoe design recalled? The movie dwells extensively on the aftermath of the recall, and Drew's struggle with depression (at the very beginning of the film he's even suicidal) courtesy of being pinned as the mastermind of a billion-dollar Epic Fail in the footwear industry, but why the shoe failed is never even so much as hinted at.
• Eraserhead has a meta example: Every single person involved with the film, up to and including David Lynch himself, has declined to comment when asked what the prop used for the mutant baby was made from. This has predictably led to all sorts of grisly speculation, including that the prop was an actual aborted calf fetus.
• Eve's Bayou: Who initiated the kiss, Cecily or her father? When Eve confronts her sister about it, Cecily swears she can't remember.
• Eyes Wide Shut: Is there any foul play in Mandy's death? Is she even the same woman as the one at the orgy, given that the latter is portrayed by a different actress?
• Fanny and Alexander: Why did the bishop's wife and children die? We hear several different explanations, including from their own ghosts... though that may just be Alexander's imagination.
• The Flash: Barry Allen never gets an answer on who really killed his mom, as the killer from the comics and Arrowverse, the Reverse-Flash, has been Adaptated Out.
• In Fright Night (1985), we never do learn what Billy Cole was, only that he was neither human nor vampire. The novelization shows the heroes are as perplexed about this as the reader. Likewise if that was Evil Ed at the end spying on the protagonists at the end of the movie.
• Galaxy Quest:
  • What does the Omega 13 do? In the fictional sci-fi television series, it's a mysterious machine aboard the main characters' spaceship that was apparently the subject off a running arc, only for the show to be canceled mid-storyline. The Thermians, who have based their entire culture off of Galaxy Quest reruns, built a working replica of it, but even they don't know what it does because the show never revealed it. The Thermians' version turns out to be capable of reversing time by a few minutes, but is this what it was going to do in the never-made episodes of the show?
  • What is Fred's real surname and heritage? An exaggerated parody of obvious Fake Nationality characters, he plays a Chinese character on the show, under the stage name "Kwan," despite the fact that he is clearly not Chinese. He seems like he's about to reveal the answer at one point, but gets interrupted.
• Game of Death: None of the surviving materials reveal what is on top of the pagoda. There are many rumors (a scroll, a mirror, another fighter, something supernatural, nothing) but none of these are canon. One can assume that Bruce Lee's intention was that it's unimportant what is on top of it, the quest to the highest-level counts.
• Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys: Did Gamera survive the final battle against the Gyaos swarm at the end? Word of God says that it's really a question of whether you believe he wins.
• Gerry: We never find out what "the thing" at the end of the trail is.
• Griff the Invisible: Did Melody really phase through solid matter at the end? Did she actually briefly turn invisible halfway through? Was Griff's cat real?
• Groundhog Day:
  • How did Phil get trapped in that "Groundhog Day" Loop in the first place? Originally, it was supposed to be a curse put on him by an ex-girlfriend, but this idea was ditched.
  • Exactly how long was Phil trapped in the loop? Our only real clue is the skills he mastered, such as playing the piano and learning French, which would require several years.
• Halloween: So what was pushing Michael Myers to kill? It’s a question that most of the sequels never really answer, even the ones where he and Laurie are siblings! Also is he just a really strong human man or is he something else entirely? Is he, as Dr. Loomis believes, literarily Made of Evil?
• The Hangover: What the hell happened to that chair? And why was the chicken there?
• Hannie Caulder: Just who is The Preacher, and what does he want? And how does he keep showing up at the crucial moments?
• Highlander: Where did the immortals come from? How did they become immortal? What is the origin of The Game? None of these are answered, but Connor and Ramirez actually discuss the former.
  Connor: Tell me, how did it happen, for God's sake?
  Ramirez: Why does the sun come up, hm? Or are the stars just pinholes in the curtain of night? Who knows?^note This is still an improvement over the badly-received sequel Highlander II: The Quickening that... sort of, explains the mystery: the Immortals aren't humans, but in fact aliens from another planet.
• The final scene of Inception, in which it is purposefully unclear if Cobb has finally seen his kids or if he is dreaming. Cobb spins a top to test whether or not he is dreaming; if it stops spinning, he is in the real world, but the film invokes a Smash to Black before this happens. Cobb also walks away from the top after he spins it, which is the real answer: he doesn't care if it's a dream or not anymore.
• Interstellar: Just what exactly are the 5D Bulk Beings? Sufficiently Advanced Aliens? Transhuman Aliens creating a Stable Time Loop? Eldritch Abominations that happen to like humanity? Something else entirely? We never learn. Cooper considers the Transhuman origin most likely, but that's just his guess and there's no more evidence for it than any other.
• James and the Giant Peach:
  • What exactly is the rhino? A demon? A manifestation of James' fear?
  • Where did the mechanical shark come from, and why did it attack James and the bugs?
• In Joker (2019), was Arthur really adopted by the delusional, manipulative Penny or is he Thomas Wayne's bastard child? Thomas tells him that his mother was obsessed with him and that he never slept with her, but Arthur also finds a picture and a letter signed "TW" that muddy the waters. She could have forged them in her delusions and Arthur finds his adoption and her psych papers later, giving credence to the idea that he was telling the truth. On the other hand, given that this version of Thomas is a classist asshole, it's not hard to imagine he could have used his power and clout to forge the adoption documents and forcibly institutionalize her to stop an embarrassing story from getting out^note For what it's worth, Thomas's actor personally believes that Arthur is actually Thomas's bastard child and played the role accordingly.
• Kazaam: What was up with Max coming out of Kazaam's glass of water? How did he do that?
• In K-PAX, was prot a delusional savant, or genuinely an extraterrestrial from the planet K-PAX?
• Krampus ends with the Engel family restored to life after having seemingly all been killed by the eponymous creature the night before, but then we pan out to reveal that Krampus is observing them through a snowglobe, and he has dozens more just like it in his lair. It's never stated whether he's literally holding them prisoner in the snowglobe or if it's simply a scrying device he's using to keep an eye on them — though the tie-in comic suggests the latter.
• The Last Summer: Who posted Foster's list of girls he wants to score with on social media and how did that person know about the list?
• Legend: Who (or what) is the father of Darkness?
• In Live and Let Die, who, or what, is Baron Samedi, and how did he survive so many things that should've killed him? Is he really the Vodou Loa of death from whom he takes his name? If so, why is he working for a mere mortal drug lord?
• In the Living Dead Series, we're never definitively told what's caused the dead to re-animate and devour the living, although various possibilities are put forth in the different films.
• Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels: The Director's Cut has Soap suggest a plan to get the money, but we only hear the start and end of his proposal. Whatever it was, Tom declared it bad enough to make Bacon's idea of betting on a horse look genius.
• What's whispered at the end of Lost in Translation? Audio clean-up suggests it's "I won't see you till the next making of Suntory. Go to that man and tell him the truth, okay?" However, this is irrelevant; Sofia Coppola didn't write any lines for the scene, she just told Bill Murray to ad-lib something.
• Magnolia: Did Jimmy really sexually abuse Claudia or not?
• In The Maltese Falcon we never do find out what happened to the original. The criminals are pretty sure they just accidentally clued in the guy they stole it from so he set up a decoy (although the implication is that they would rather prefer to believe this than accept the possibility that the Falcon is truly worthless) and Sam only cared about getting them captured for their role in the death of his partner.
  Sam Spade: [after a cop asks him what the thing he's carrying, the Falcon, is] Huh... the stuff dreams are made of.
• The Man From Planet X: Did the alien always have hostile intentions toward Earth, or did he intend to come in peace before Dr. Mears started tormenting him? The surviving characters end the film pondering this question.
• The Menu:
  • How does Chef Julian maintain such Undying Loyalty in his staff that they're willing to kill and die for him? Are they all just suicidal nihilists broken by the restaurant industry like he is, or does he indoctrinate them somehow?
  • What did Julian whisper into Tyler's ear that caused him to immediately hang himself upon hearing it?
• Minority Report: Anderton never gets any answers about who took his son or even if the boy is still alive.
• Mission: Impossible III: What was the Rabbit's Foot? Not even Ethan finds out.
• Miss Nobody: Was the water from Mr. Ormsby's office that Sarah Jane drank at the end of the film the very water that she'd poisoned herself while contemplating killing him? The film ends with her experiencing the realization that it might be, but ends before she can find out for sure.
• Used for purposes of Mind Screw in the French film The Moustache, which also has No Ending. The protagonist may or may not have Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, with someone or something repeatedly changing the world around him. He also may or may not be the only one getting messed with, and it's left uncertain whether he'll ever figure out what's going on and how to end it.
• Mom and Dad: Who or what released the signal that makes parents kill their own children? And why did they create a Hate Plague that specific?
• The Mummy (1999): What was it that Rick O'Connell did that got him arrested and sentenced to death? All we know about it is that "he was looking for a good time".
• Mystery Road:
  • After finding the murder victim's hidden drug stash, Jay only calls one other person (an ally who saves his life during the climax) about it and arranges a meeting place, apparently to show it to him and discuss what to do next, and yet all of the villains know to show up there and attack him. Whether one or both of the policemen deliberately set a trap for them, the criminals followed them out there, or something else entirely is never explained to the audience.
  • Where did Crystal disappear to during the final act before returning safely in the final scene? Was she in hiding? Obliviously doing normal teenaged stuff without knowing people were panicking over her? Or could she really have been kidnapped and then was let go after Jay found the drugs and called to set up the Mexican Standoff in the climax?
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a 2020 indie drama about a pregnant teenager seeking an abortion. We never actually find out who the father is, and the film showcases multiple not-very-nice men in her life, ranging from classmates to authoritative adults. The most we ever find out is that her partner has forced himself onto her on at least one occasion.
• Old: What was it about the beach that caused everyone on it to experience Rapid Aging, and why did every attempt to leave result in the would-be escapee blacking out and waking up back inside the area? (And why didn't the latter effect apply when Trent and Maddox swam through the reef?) Neither the film nor the graphic novel it's based on provide any answers; even the scientists who run the resort and perform experiments on people using the beach admit that they have no idea, since they merely discovered the beach, rather than creating it.
• Once: Did The Guy come back for The Girl on the bus seen in the film's last shot, or didn't he?
• Pandorum: What the hell happened to Earth? The characters discover that the Elysium picked up a radio signal claiming that the planet is gone and the crew of the Elysium are the "last of us". It's noted that the colony ship left because Earth was getting overpopulated and polluted, but it certainly didn't seem like the world was literally ending outright. Since the Elysium is light years away and has been out of touch for centuries, the heroes never find out what happened and by the end it's the only mystery that isn't answered.
• Picnic at Hanging Rock: Why did the girls suddenly wake up, and then walk into the mountain? And more importantly, what happened to the girls and their teacher (who also disappeared) after? While the novel does eventually include an extra chapter explaining the fates of the girls (which arguably would've ruined the film's powerful mystery), the film leaves their fates extremely ambiguous.
• Pilgrimage: We never find out the backstory of the Mute. He's implied to be a former crusader, but what happened to him, why he stopped talking and how he ended up as a lay brother in an Irish monastery are never revealed.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • How did Cotton manage to teach his parrot to talk for him?
  • What did Jack do to insult Sao Feng, and did he do it on purpose or not?
• The Postman Always Rings Twice: Was Cora actually pregnant and willing to give up her vendetta against Frank for their child's sake, or was she lying to get him to lower his guard around her? Before either the audience or Frank get an answer, Laser-Guided Karma comes knocking for Cora in the form of a car accident, the exact way she murdered her first husband to make room for Frank to begin with.
• Project Almanac: What David does when he travels back to Lollapalooza alone that seriously screws up the timeline in a way that causes the school's star player to have an accident (which in turn causes a plane crash, his mother to not have a job and several other catastrophes) is never revealed, nor is anything he does that ends up making it worse. The most we get from watching is that David and Jessie just aren't meant to be together, at least not in the timeline where they go to the festival.
• Pulp Fiction:
  • The contents of the briefcase. Quentin Tarantino originally intended for it to contain diamonds, but he'd already used diamonds as a MacGuffin in Reservoir Dogs, so he nixed that idea (though that hasn't stopped fans from speculating that the Pulp Fiction briefcase contains the Reservoir Dogs diamonds). Samuel L. Jackson, meanwhile, said it contained "two heavy-ass batteries and three lights."
  • How did Vincent and Jules survive from getting gunned down?
  • Why did Marsellus Wallace have Antoine "Tony Rocky Horror" Rockamora thrown out a fifth-floor window, anyway? The rumor among Marsellus's gangsters is that Tony gave Marsellus's wife Mia a foot massage, but Mia denies this.
• In The Quiet Man Mary Kate whispers something to her husband Sean Thorton which gives him a shock. This is also a Real Life mystery, as director John Ford told Maureen O'Hara to whisper something shocking to John Wayne to get that reaction. The three of them never explained what was said, and unless O'Hara mentioned it to someone else for posterity, the secret died with her in 2015.
• Rashomon: We never find out who the murderer is.
• In Ready Player One (2018), the avatar of James Halliday, creator of OASIS, still exists in the virtual world despite the fact that the real Halliday is dead, which shouldn't be possible. Wade asks him why this is at the end, but Halliday simply shrugs and disappears.
• The Recruit: Did James' father ever actually work for the CIA, and if he did, was he killed in the line of duty?
• The Return of Godzilla: What is the significance of the Taoist amulet that Steve Martin is carrying? Is it at all related to Godzilla's resurgence thirty years after his first assault on Japan? If he is the same Godzilla as before, how did he survive the Oxygen Destroyer?
• Reversal of Fortune: Did Claus von Bülow ever actually try to kill his wife or not? The film posits strong evidence for both sides and Jeremy Irons plays Claus with just enough charm that begs the question of whether he's genuinely innocent or just trying to manipulate everyone into thinking that he is. This is lampshaded in Sunny's Posthumous Narration, where she notes that no one will ever know what really happened. In Real Life it will forever remain a mystery, as Sunny would end up passing away in 2008 after spending nearly three decades in a coma while Claus died in 2019.
• The contents of the silver case in Ronin (1998). The main characters even demand more money because their employers refuse to tell them anything about it — anything at all, such as if they are fragile. It's somewhat implied to be a WMD (perhaps a suitcase nuke). After losing it, the IRA makes peace. At the end of the movie, Robert De Niro's character knows what it is, but when Jean Reno asks him, he flatly replies "I don't remember."
• What does Rosemary's Baby look like?
• The Secret (2007): There is never even a hint as to why Hannah and Sam were Sharing a Body. It appears to be just something that can happen sometimes in the film's universe, since Ben finds another case where this happened in Africa too, triggered by a sudden death (though those involved had no connection, unlike Hannah and Sam).
• Shaun of the Dead: What caused the zombie outbreak?
• Spree: How did uNo survive Kurt’s poisoned water, when everyone else who drank it didn’t? Is it a poison at all or just a strong tranquilizer?
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: In his Establishing Character Moment, Khan removes his left-hand glove, but leaves his right-hand glove on through the rest of the film. Fans have always asked director/screenwriter Nicholas Meyer why, but he's never given an answer, often saying "Why do you think he wears it?".
• Star Wars:
  • Where did the humans originally come from? They're the most numerous species in the galaxy, but one of the few with no identified homeworld, with the explanation being that they've been space-faring for so long (tens of thousands of years) and through so many cataclysms that the information is lost. In-universe, most people generally agree that humans originally came from Coruscant, but the same sources that say that also go out of their way to point out that this is not confirmed.
  • What role does Earth even play in the Star Wars Universe? Nowhere in the movies is it ever mentioned. The famous opening credits assure us that it takes place A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.... There was a non-canonical comic book that did feature Earth, showing that it took place 200 years in the past, but never any official information.
  • On that same note, are the various "near-human" aliens actually aliens, or just long-lost groups of humans who colonized various planets and evolved both culturally and biologically along different lines millennia ago? Legends implied that this was the case, but the new canon has said nothing. The fact that humans and near-humans can produce viable offspring, even in cases where they could not in Legends (e.g. human/Twi'lek hybrids), definitely suggests that something is up, given the impossibility of two species on planets thousands of light years apart just happening to evolve so closely, but then again the Force is an active element in everything in this universe, so it's not impossible that's the reason.
  • The exact name and homeworld of Yoda's species are still unknown. Revealing these facts is one of precisely two things Star Wars Legends authors were forbidden from doing by George Lucas himself. I, Jedi makes it clear that Yoda and his species are not so mysterious in-universe, with the characters having been told the story of how Yoda became a Jedi, but the reader doesn't get told any of it. Meanwhile, The Mandalorian introduces Grogu, the third member of Yoda's species, with no information on how he came to be.
  • Speaking of Yoda, why does he talk in that particular way? When Yaddle finally speaks in Tales of the Jedi she doesn't use the same patterns, showing it not to be a species-wide affectation.
  • What Jawas look like under their hoods. In the EU, they are described as resembling gaunt rodents of some sort, but other sources suggest they are actually pygmy humans or more closely related to their equally mysterious neighbors, the Tusken Raiders (which leads to the possibility the two are both descended from the extinct Kumumgah). One character in The Mandalorian claims that they are very furry.
  • On the subject of Tuskens, what they call themselves has also never been revealed. Both "Tusken Raiders" and "Sand People" are names given to them by their enemies. Even in EU stories with Tusken characters, no species name is given. Possibly they don't actually have such a name for themselves, only identifying as members of a tribe or clan rather than as members of the entire Tusken species.
  • Why did Luke think Dagobah seemed familiar? He's never been there before.
  • Who or what are the Whills, who are said to be chronicling the entire franchise? An early draft of Revenge of the Sith had Qui-Gon reveal the secret of becoming a Force spirit had been imparted on him by the Whills. Chirrut and Baze from Rogue One are Guardians of the Whills, and the Holy City on Jedha has the Temple of the Whills, implying them to be a religious order of some sort.
  • In The Rise of Skywalker, was the apparition of Han that Kylo sees, and which gives him the final push he needs for his Heel–Face Turn, all in his imagination or a genuine Force ghost? The latter possibility is interesting in the sense that it would be the first time we've ever seen a non-Force-sensitive become a Force ghost. (When asked about the matter, Harrison Ford replied he didn't know and didn't care one way or the other.)
• Street Trash: What is Viper, why does it melt people, and how did it end up in the back of the bar?
• Super Mario Bros. (1993): What exactly happened that made Daisy run to Mario and Luigi for help at the end, and what did Mario mean by "I believe it"? Does he know?
• Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl: The film never explains what Beth is. Some kind of witch? An inhuman monster who appears like a girl but isn't? All we know is she lives by taking people's youth.
• Tammy and the T-Rex: Where did Dr. Wachenstein get that robotic T-Rex from?
• Tenet: The identity (identities?) and motives of the Greater-Scope Villain that supplied Andrei Sator from the future and set him on the path to destroying the world are never revealed; nobody learns why they want to kill humanity or what they even are, and there honestly isn't any obvious way to find out. This gets lampshaded and deconstructed by Sator himself, who points out how absurd it is that the heroes are fighting this whole secret war without even really knowing what it's about.
• At the end of The Thing (1982), is the Thing really dead? Is Childs a Thing? Is Mac? They're wondering too.
  If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't think we're in much shape to do anything about it.
  • Around the climax of the movie, Nauls goes off to investigate a sound he heard coming from down the corridor. This is the last we see of him. Did a Thing get him? Did he survive the explosion? There was a deleted scene in which we did see him getting killed by a Thing, but, well, that scene was deliberately taken out of the movie.
  • There's also the question of when Blair got turned into a Thing. Was he already one when he told Mac he was "feeling much better" and asked to be let out of quarantine? Was he a Thing when he smashed up the radio equipment? If so, why would the Thing do that?
  • Earlier in the movie, a sample of blood, kept on hand in case of emergency, is sabotaged, making it harder to determine who is and isn't a Thing. The only people who would have had access to the blood are Garry and Copper, making them prime suspects. Neither of them turn out to be the Thing. So who sabotaged the blood?
  • Who was it who tore up Mac's laundry to make it look like he was a Thing? The most obvious candidate would be Nauls, since he's the one who finds the torn garment, but he turns out not to be a Thing.
  • Even earlier in the movie, the dog from the Norwegian facility is seen wandering freely about the base. It walks into a room in which we can see the shadow of a man who looks like he might be Palmer or maybe Norris, and as the man turns to pet the dog, the scene fades to black. A scene or two later, the dog is revealed to be a Thing, implying that whoever was in that room was likewise turned into one. Both Palmer and Norris turn out to be Things. Best of all, that shadow didn't actually belong to either of the two characters' actors, but a crew member chosen specifically because, in silhouette, he could pass for either of them. John Carpenter has admitted that he never really planned out when, exactly, each character who becomes a Thing got assimilated.
• Through Black Spruce: The characters and thus the audience never find out what became of Suzanne, though it was almost certainly nothing good.
• Time Bandits: It's never explained why Robin Hood's savage merry men are humoring his charitable leadership.
• Titanic (1997): Is Rose really asleep in the finale, or is she dead?
• Total Recall (1990): Did Quaid's adventure on Mars really happen or was it all in his mind?
• Tremors: The original film never says where the "graboids" (giant worms) terrorizing the town came from. The characters offer various speculations (space aliens, radioactive mutants from nuclear bomb testings, government-engineered bioweapons), but no firm answer is given. This is because the writers felt that any answer they gave would be cliche and had been used in other monster movies before, and in any case they felt it was unlikely the normal residents of a small town would be able to determine the answer themselves anyway. The first sequel features them finding a fossil that they presume to come from a graboid, meaning that the creatures are presumably a naturally-evolved species that has been around for millions of years and is a Lazarus Taxon. However, the TV series retconned this when closer examination of the fossil results in them concluding that it was misidentified. The TV series instead hints that the government bioweapon theory is true, though never explicitly states it. But then in the prequel, the graboids are shown appearing in the 19th century, which would seemingly rule out government bio-engineering and nuclear radiation as well.
• Tropic Thunder: Who was the person who was supposedly close to Tugg Speedman and said, "One more flop and it's over"?
• Upstream Color: Where did the mysterious blue substance come from, and what was the relationship between the Thief and the Sampler?
• The Way, Way Back:
  • How is it physically possible to pass ahead of someone else on a water slide, anyway?
  • Does the final scene indicate that Pam has finally worked up the courage to dump [Trent?
• What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: Does Blanche die there on the beach, or not?
• Whiplash: What happened to the folder Andrew lost near the vending machine?
• Who really is The White Orchid? The film never says, as she uses multiple false identities and then successfully escapes in the end. We also never learn if she'll be caught and answer for her crimes.
• The Wicker Man (1973): Willow's attempt at seducing Sgt. Howie is never explained.
  • It may be a test of his chastity, since he's intended to be a virgin sacrifice in the end.
  • In mythology, there is often a forking point in the story where a potential victim is given a chance to turn away from his fate if he is insightful enough and open-minded enough to recognize it and accept the opportunity. This makes Sgt. Howie's fate his "own choice" as a result of how he has chosen to live his life and how he has chosen to close his mind.
  • Popular fan speculation is that she felt sorry for him and was trying to offer him an escape clause.
• The Wrestler: Did Randy die performing his signature move at the end?
• XXX Return Of Xander Cage: How did Gibbons survive that satellite crash?
• Z for Zachariah: The end of the movie leaves it ambiguous whether Loomis kills Caleb in A Tragedy of Impulsiveness by letting go of a rope Caleb is hanging from, or Caleb leaves the valley. Caleb had expressed a desire to stay and be with Ann right before finding his life in Loomis's hands, but might have changed his mind out of gratitude for Loomis saving his life or fear due to how clearly Loomis was tempted to let him fall.

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