70 Fun Facts About 2022 Movies

Who directed Top Gun: Maverick, the long-delayed 2022 sequel starring Tom Cruise?

Kosinski had already directed Cruise in Oblivion. The sequel was originally scheduled for July 2019 before pandemic delays pushed it to May 2022.

Top Gun: Maverick grossed about $1.5 billion worldwide. Where did that rank among Tom Cruise's films?

It was the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 overall, and the first Cruise film to pass a billion dollars.

Which artist recorded 'Hold My Hand', the Oscar-nominated song from Top Gun: Maverick?

OneRepublic's 'I Ain't Worried' was the film's other single. Gaga's song was nominated for Best Original Song but lost to 'Naatu Naatu'.

After its first run, where did Avatar: The Way of Water rank on the all-time worldwide box-office list?

Its $2.32 billion put it behind only the original Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, giving James Cameron two of the top three.

In the 2022 Avatar sequel, Sigourney Weaver returned to play which character?

Weaver was in her seventies while playing a Na'vi teenager through performance capture. Kiri was born from Grace's inert avatar body.

In Everything Everywhere All at Once, what business does Evelyn Wang run while being audited by the IRS?

The Wangs' laundromat is in Simi Valley, California, and the audit meeting is where the multiverse first cracks open.

How many Academy Awards did Everything Everywhere All at Once win at the 95th ceremony?

It won seven of its eleven nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, both supporting acting prizes, Original Screenplay and Editing.

Which former Goonies and Temple of Doom child actor won an Oscar for playing Waymond Wang?

Quan had largely quit acting for two decades and worked as a stunt coordinator before his comeback role.

Jamie Lee Curtis won her first Oscar for playing Deirdre Beaubeirdre. What is Deirdre's job?

Curtis played the hot-dog-fingered auditor in a deliberately unflattering wardrobe and had reportedly asked to look like a real government worker.

Which horror film did Everything Everywhere All at Once overtake as A24's top grosser in 2022?

Hereditary had held the studio record at $79 million since 2018; the Daniels' film went on to more than $140 million worldwide.

Who played the Riddler, the serial-killer villain of The Batman (2022)?

Dano's Riddler is a Zodiac-style figure who livestreams his crimes. Barry Keoghan appears briefly at the end as an unnamed Arkham inmate.

Which actor was buried under prosthetics to play the Penguin in The Batman?

Farrell was so unrecognisable that Robert Pattinson said he did not spot him on set. Turturro plays crime boss Carmine Falcone.

The Batman was one of the longest superhero films ever released. Roughly how long is it?

Only Avengers: Endgame ran longer among major superhero films at the time. The story is set in Batman's second year fighting crime in Gotham.

Which Oscar-winner plays Colonel Tom Parker, the manager and narrator, in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis?

Hanks wore a fat suit and adopted a Dutch-tinged accent, a nod to Parker's secret origins as an illegal immigrant from the Netherlands.

Which actor, previously known for The Carrie Diaries, played Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic?

Butler won the Golden Globe and kept traces of the Presley voice for months afterwards. Elordi later played Elvis in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla.

In The Banshees of Inisherin, what does Colm threaten to do every time Pádraic keeps talking to him?

Colm is a fiddle player, which makes the threat self-destructive. Pádraic's beloved miniature donkey Jenny later chokes on one of the severed fingers.

Which conflict's gunfire drifts over from the mainland in The Banshees of Inisherin, set in 1923?

The feud between two friends mirrors a civil war between former comrades. Martin McDonagh reunited the two leads of his earlier film In Bruges.

In Tár, Cate Blanchett plays Lydia Tár, a world-renowned figure in which profession?

Tár is fictional, but the film was so convincing that some viewers assumed she was real. Blanchett won the Volpi Cup at Venice for the role.

Who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Charlie, a reclusive English teacher, in The Whale?

The role marked a comeback for Fraser after years away from leading parts. The film also won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Which director, known for Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream, made The Whale?

It was adapted from Samuel D. Hunter's 2012 play and takes place almost entirely inside Charlie's apartment.

In which language is the Oscar-winning 2022 version of All Quiet on the Western Front filmed?

It was the first German-language adaptation of Remarque's novel; the 1930 Hollywood version had already won Best Picture. Netflix released it in October 2022.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, the 2022 Best Animated Feature winner, moves the story to which setting?

The stop-motion film has Pinocchio meet Mussolini and get conscripted into a youth military camp. Ewan McGregor voices Sebastian J. Cricket, the narrator.

In which language is RRR, whose 'Naatu Naatu' won the Best Original Song Oscar?

S. S. Rajamouli's film pairs fictionalised versions of two real revolutionaries, Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju, in a 1920s bromance epic.

In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Namor rules which hidden underwater kingdom?

Marvel swapped the comics' Atlantis for a Mesoamerican-inspired civilisation played by Tenoch Huerta Mejía. The film was rewritten after Chadwick Boseman's death, and T'Challa was not recast.

Which former Batman actor played the villain Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder?

It was Bale's first comic-book role since The Dark Knight Rises. Natalie Portman returned as Jane Foster, who wields Mjolnir as the Mighty Thor.

Which Oscar-winning Australian plays Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder?

Crowe played the part largely for laughs at Omnipotence City. His son Hercules, played by Brett Goldstein, appears in a mid-credits scene.

In Jordan Peele's Nope, OJ Haywood names the sky creature 'Jean Jacket'. After what?

The Haywoods run a horse ranch that supplies animals to Hollywood. Nope was the first horror film shot with 65mm IMAX film cameras.

In Nope's flashback to the fictional 1990s sitcom Gordy's Home, what was Gordy?

The chimp attack, triggered by popping balloons, is Peele's parable about trying to tame a wild spectacle. Steven Yeun plays the child star who survived it.

Where is Miles Bron's island mansion in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery?

Rian Johnson wrote Bron as a Musk-style disruptor whose genius turns out to be borrowed. Netflix streamed the film after a one-week cinema run.

Pixar's Turning Red is set in 2002 in which city?

Director Domee Shi grew up in Toronto, and Mei's obsession with the boy band 4*Town is a period detail. The film went straight to Disney+ in March 2022.

In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the bounty-hunting Wolf stalking Puss is revealed to be what?

Wagner Moura voices the Wolf, whose whistle became a meme. Puss is down to the last of his nine lives, which is why Death has come calling.

What was the hashtag for the TikTok trend of teenage boys attending Minions: The Rise of Gru in suits?

The film is set in 1976 with an eleven-year-old Gru auditioning for the Vicious 6. Some cinemas banned suited groups after rowdy screenings.

Which famous director plays John Ford in the final scene of Spielberg's The Fabelmans?

Lynch's brief, gruff cameo turned out to be his final acting role. Gabriel LaBelle plays Sammy Fabelman, the Spielberg stand-in.

In The Menu, how does Margot escape Chef Slowik's deadly tasting menu?

Asking for a plain cheeseburger and fries reminds Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes, why he once loved cooking, and he lets her leave with the bag.

In Bullet Train, Brad Pitt plays an anxious assassin with a run of bad luck. What is his codename?

The film adapts a Japanese novel by Kōtarō Isaka. Sandra Bullock plays Maria, the handler Ladybug complains to over his earpiece.

Which Swedish director won the 2022 Palme d'Or for Triangle of Sadness, his second win after The Square?

The satire strands fashion models and billionaires from a luxury yacht on an island, where the cleaner takes charge. Woody Harrelson plays the drunken Marxist captain.

The Woman King dramatises the Agojie, an all-female regiment of which West African kingdom?

The Agojie were real, and European visitors nicknamed them the 'Dahomey Amazons'. Gina Prince-Bythewood set the film in the 1820s.

Prey, the 2022 Predator prequel, is set in 1719 and follows Naru, a young woman from which nation?

Amber Midthunder stars, and the film was released with a full Comanche-language dub. It went straight to Hulu rather than cinemas.

Who voices Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2?

Elba's deadpan warrior proved popular enough to get his own Paramount+ series. The film became the highest-grossing video game movie in North America at the time.

The Northman's source, the legend of Amleth, directly inspired which Shakespeare play?

The tale comes from Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum. Alexander Skarsgård stars, with Nicole Kidman as his mother Queen Gudrún and Björk as a Seeress.

Damien Chazelle's Babylon follows Hollywood through which transition in the late 1920s?

Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt play stars whose careers collide with the talkies. The film lost Paramount an estimated $87 million.

Harry Styles joined Don't Worry Darling in September 2020 as a replacement for which actor?

The film's Venice premiere became infamous for a rumoured feud between director Olivia Wilde and star Florence Pugh, and a viral clip that appeared to show Styles spitting on Chris Pine.

The 2022 Scream was the first film in the series not directed by which filmmaker?

Craven died in 2015. Radio Silence's Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett took over, and the film coined 'requel' for its mix of reboot and sequel.

In Ti West's slasher X, Mia Goth plays both the young Maxine and which other character?

Goth wore heavy prosthetics for the older role. A prequel about her, Pearl, was shot secretly back-to-back and released the same year.

In which city is the double-booked Airbnb in the horror hit Barbarian?

Zach Cregger set it in the decaying Brightmoor neighbourhood. Bill Skarsgård plays the other guest and Justin Long the house's disgraced owner.

Who plays Sully opposite Tom Holland's Nathan Drake in the 2022 film Uncharted?

Wahlberg had once been attached to play Drake himself when the project was first developed a decade earlier. The plot chases the lost treasure of Magellan's expedition.

Which Evil Dead and Spider-Man director made Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?

Raimi's horror roots show in a zombie Strange and Wanda's rampage. Xochitl Gomez debuted as America Chavez, who punches star-shaped doorways between universes.

Jurassic World Dominion's plot hinges on a plague of which engineered creatures?

Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill appear together for the first time since 1993. The film still passed a billion dollars worldwide.

Who voices Buzz Lightyear in Pixar's Lightyear, presented as the movie that made Andy want the toy?

Tim Allen, the toy's voice, was not involved. Despite good reviews the film lost Disney an estimated $106 million, and Sox the robot cat stole most scenes.

Aftersun follows a father and his 11-year-old daughter on holiday in which country?

Charlotte Wells's debut is told through Sophie's camcorder footage. Frankie Corio, who plays Sophie, had never acted before.

Blonde, Netflix's fictionalised Marilyn Monroe drama with Ana de Armas, made history how?

Andrew Dominik adapted Joyce Carol Oates's novel, which is fiction rather than biography. De Armas still earned a Best Actress nomination.

At the Oscars in March 2022, Will Smith slapped which presenter over a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith?

Smith won Best Actor for King Richard less than an hour later. The Academy banned him from its events for ten years.

Which film was the first Best Picture winner distributed by a streaming service?

Apple TV+ had bought the deaf-family drama at Sundance for a record $25 million. Netflix's The Power of the Dog had been the favourite.

Bruce Willis's family announced his 2022 retirement after a diagnosis of which condition?

Aphasia affects language expression and comprehension. In February 2023 the family said his diagnosis had progressed to frontotemporal dementia.

The women of Sarah Polley's Oscar-winning Women Talking belong to what kind of isolated community?

Miriam Toews's novel was inspired by real assaults in a Bolivian Mennonite colony. Frances McDormand produced the film and appears in a small role.

The Oscar-winning documentary Navalny follows the investigation into what event in his life?

The film captures Navalny prank-calling one of the agents suspected of poisoning him. It premiered at Sundance in January 2022; Navalny died in prison in 2024.

Why did Sony re-release the flop Morbius in theatres in June 2022, two months after it opened?

The second run bombed again; the film had earned $167.5 million against a budget of up to $83 million.

Who replaced Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)?

Depp had filmed one scene before being asked to step down after losing his 2020 libel case in London.

Black Adam (2022), starring Dwayne Johnson, is a spin-off from which earlier DC film?

Johnson was confirmed as the villain of Shazam! in 2014 before persuading producers to give the character his own film.

The Gray Man (2022), one of Netflix's costliest films, was directed by which brothers?

Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans led a cast that also gave Indian star Dhanush his Hollywood debut.

In The Lost City (2022), Sandra Bullock plays a romance novelist kidnapped alongside her what?

Channing Tatum plays the model, Daniel Radcliffe the billionaire villain, and Brad Pitt pops up in a cameo.

The horror hit Smile (2022) was originally slated for which streaming service before going to cinemas?

Strong test screenings convinced Paramount to release Parker Finn's debut feature theatrically instead.

Which South Korean filmmaker won Best Director at Cannes 2022 for Decision to Leave?

The neo-noir follows a married detective drawn to the widow of a man whose death he is investigating.

The Oscar-nominated 2022 film The Quiet Girl is performed mostly in which language?

Colm Bairéad's debut adapts Claire Keegan's short story "Foster" and is set in County Waterford in 1981.

In Disney's Strange World (2022), which miracle plant powers the explorers' society?

Director Don Hall drew on pulp magazines, Journey to the Center of the Earth and King Kong for the subterranean adventure.

Bones and All (2022) pairs Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell as young lovers who share what secret?

Luca Guadagnino won the Silver Lion for direction at Venice, where Russell also took the Marcello Mastroianni Award.

Which pop star wrote and recorded "Carolina" for the soundtrack of Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)?

The song earned Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for the marshland murder mystery adapted from Delia Owens's novel.

In Ticket to Paradise (2022), Clooney and Roberts try to sabotage their daughter's wedding where?

Ol Parker's romcom grossed $168 million despite mixed reviews for the reunited Ocean's Eleven co-stars.

Which slasher villain returned in the 2022 independent hit Terrifier 2?

Writer-director Damien Leone built the sequel around Sienna, the angel-costumed heroine he calls its "heart and soul".

Halloween Ends (2022) closed a sequel trilogy that directly followed which earlier film in the series?

David Gordon Green's 2018 film ignored every other sequel, and Danny McBride co-wrote all three instalments.