1985
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7correct to beat the crowd
50 free 1985 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
In 1985 a new Soviet leader took office, pop stars on both sides of the Atlantic sang for famine relief, a soft drink giant changed its recipe and promptly regretted it, and a long-lost ocean liner was finally found on the sea floor. Cinemas, record shops and toy aisles were just as busy, and a Japanese console was about to pull home video games out of a slump. This quiz covers the whole year: the films and television premieres people queued and tuned in for, the singles and albums at the top of the charts (including the song that was number one on May 25), the novels that came out, the games and software that first appeared, and the news and sport that filled the front and back pages. A few questions ask what everyday things cost at the time, from posting a letter to an hour on the minimum wage. It suits anyone born or married in 1985, anyone planning a milestone birthday, a school reunion or an eighties quiz night, and anyone who simply remembers the year fondly. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so the questions work read aloud to a room or printed for a party as well as played on a screen.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1985 comedy became the year's top-grossing film after Eric Stoltz was replaced as its lead weeks into filming?
Back to the Future
Back to the Future had already shot for several weeks with Stoltz before Michael J. Fox took over as Marty McFly, a switch that added about $4 million to the budget.
Q 02Which British star played both Live Aid concerts in July 1985, crossing the Atlantic on Concorde between sets?
Phil Collins
Phil Collins sang at Wembley, then flew to Philadelphia, where he also drummed for Eric Clapton and the surviving members of Led Zeppelin.
Q 03Which reformulated soft drink launched in April 1985 drew such a backlash that the old recipe returned in 79 days?
New Coke
New Coke was born after blind taste tests favoured the sweeter taste of Pepsi, but angry drinkers forced the old formula back onto shelves as Coca-Cola Classic.
Q 04Which ocean liner's wreck did a French-American team led by Robert Ballard find in the North Atlantic in September 1985?
Titanic
Titanic was found with Argo, a towed camera sled the US Navy had sponsored, and the search was only possible after Ballard had first surveyed two lost nuclear submarines.
Q 05Which Shigeru Miyamoto game, released by Nintendo in Japan in September 1985, has sold more than 58 million copies?
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. sold 1.2 million copies in Japan in its first month alone, and it is credited with helping to revive the video game industry after the 1983 crash.
Q 06Which Soviet politician became Communist Party general secretary in March 1985 after the death of Konstantin Chernenko?
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev followed the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Chernenko, and his policies of glasnost and perestroika loosened controls on speech and the economy.
Q 07Which NBC sitcom that premiered in September 1985 saw all four of its lead actresses win Emmy Awards?
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls follows four older women sharing a house in Miami, and the show itself twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Q 08Which singer co-wrote We Are the World with Michael Jackson before its all-star recording session in January 1985?
Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie and Jackson completed the lyrics and melody the night before recording began, and Quincy Jones produced the single to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Q 09Which newspaper comic strip did Bill Watterson launch in November 1985 and refuse to license for any merchandise?
Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes began in just 35 newspapers and peaked at more than 2,000, yet no official toys or cartoons were made during its ten-year run.
Q 10Which wrestling event debuted at Madison Square Garden in March 1985 with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in the main event?
WrestleMania
WrestleMania's first card featured Muhammad Ali as a guest referee, Liberace as timekeeper and baseball manager Billy Martin as ring announcer.
Q 11Which 1985 John Hughes film follows five high school students through an all-day Saturday detention?
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club was shot at a closed high school in Des Plaines, Illinois, where the crew built its library set inside the gymnasium because the real one was too small.
Q 12Which 1985 adventure film, from a Steven Spielberg story, sends a group of Oregon kids after a pirate's lost treasure?
The Goonies
The Goonies follow an old map to the fortune of One-Eyed Willy while trying to save their homes in Astoria from foreclosure.
Q 13Which 1985 drama starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture?
Out of Africa
Q 21Which singer wrote and produced Everything She Wants, the song at number one in America on May 25, 1985?
George Michael
George Michael's duo Wham! scored a third straight American chart-topper with it, in the same spring they became the first Western pop group to visit China.
Q 22Which singer's self-titled debut album of February 1985 was the first debut to produce three US number-one singles?
Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston entered the album chart at a lowly number 166 and took until 1986 to reach the top, where the record stayed for fourteen weeks.
Q 23Which British band's 1985 album Brothers in Arms was the first to sell a million copies on compact disc?
Dire Straits
Out of Africa is loosely based on the memoir of Danish author Karen Blixen, who published it under the pen name Isak Dinesen.
Q 14Which 1985 Steven Spielberg drama starring Whoopi Goldberg earned eleven Oscar nominations yet won none?
The Color Purple
The Color Purple, adapted from Alice Walker's novel, also gave Oprah Winfrey her film debut and a supporting actress nomination.
Q 15Which actor made his American film debut as Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV in 1985?
Dolph Lundgren
Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone threw real punches in their fight scenes, and the blows put Stallone in intensive care.
Q 16Which actor made his seventh and final appearance as James Bond in the 1985 film A View to a Kill?
Roger Moore
Roger Moore faced Christopher Walken's villain Max Zorin, and the Duran Duran title song became the first Bond theme to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Q 17Which Miloš Forman film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, at the Academy Awards ceremony held in March 1985?
Amadeus
Amadeus shared the most nominations of the night, eleven, with A Passage to India, and F. Murray Abraham took Best Actor as the envious composer Salieri.
Q 18Which ABC adventure series that debuted in 1985 starred Richard Dean Anderson as a secret agent who avoids guns?
MacGyver
MacGyver fixes problems with a Swiss Army knife, duct tape and science, and his name entered Oxford Dictionaries in 2015 as a verb for making an improvised repair.
Q 19Which BBC soap opera set in the fictional London borough of Walford first aired in February 1985?
EastEnders
EastEnders drew some 17 million viewers to its first episode, and its stories revolve around the residents of Albert Square.
Q 20Which actor shot to fame in 1985 as detective David Addison opposite Cybill Shepherd in the series Moonlighting?
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis played a partner in the Blue Moon Detective Agency, and the show's blend of mystery, comedy and romance made it an early example of the dramedy.
Dire Straits made it as a fully digital recording aimed at the new CD market, and it went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide.
Q 24Which country is home to a-ha, whose sketch-animated Take On Me video helped the song top the US chart in 1985?
Norway
Norway's a-ha waited six months for the video's hand-traced rotoscope animation, which went on to win six prizes at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.
Q 25Which singer launched her first concert tour in 1985, with the Beastie Boys as her opening act?
Madonna
Madonna named it The Virgin Tour, and it promoted her first two studio albums, her 1983 debut and 1984's Like a Virgin.
Q 26Which country singer co-founded Farm Aid in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp after a remark at Live Aid?
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson helped stage the first show in Champaign, Illinois, before 80,000 people, acting on an idea Bob Dylan had floated from the stage that July.
Q 27Which Parents Music Resource Center co-founder pushed record labels in 1985 to put warning labels on explicit albums?
Tipper Gore
Tipper Gore's campaign led to a Senate hearing where Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and John Denver testified, and then to the Parental Advisory sticker.
Q 28Which show opened at the Barbican in October 1985 to poor reviews and became the West End's longest-running musical?
Les Misérables
Les Misérables, adapted from Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, sold out its first three-month engagement despite the critics and has played in London continuously since.
Q 29Which actor, then 29, did People magazine name its first Sexiest Man Alive in February 1985?
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson inspired the title itself, which began as an exclamation in a staff discussion about a planned story on him and was turned into a cover line.
Q 30Which part of the atmosphere did British scientists report in May 1985 was thinning dramatically over Antarctica?
The ozone layer
The ozone layer findings shocked researchers because the loss was far larger than predicted, and by 1987 the Montreal Protocol was adopted to end production of CFCs.