70 free 1990 Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
1990 was a strange, brilliant year at the movies. A pottery-wheel romance became the biggest film in the world, an eight-year-old defending his house became a Christmas institution, and a submarine thriller, a Coen brothers gangster picture and a Kevin Costner Western all landed within months of each other. This 1990 movie trivia quiz has 70 free questions with answers on the films released that year, and only that year, so it goes deeper than any 90s round. The easy questions cover the hits everyone has seen: Home Alone, Pretty Woman, Die Hard 2, Kindergarten Cop, Predator 2, Back to the Future Part III. The harder ones ask which studio walked away from Home Alone, what Pretty Woman was originally called, where Total Recall was filmed, which pulp hero Sam Raimi wanted before he invented Darkman, and which effects house built the Ninja Turtles. There are questions on the year's Oscar winners, on cult favourites like Tremors, Troll 2 and Jacob's Ladder, and on the foreign films that broke through, from Nikita to Cyrano. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you answer, so you can settle arguments as well as start them.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which film was the highest-grossing movie of 1990 worldwide?
Ghost
It took about $505 million on a budget of roughly $22 million, and at the time was the third-biggest earner in history.
Q 02In Home Alone, Kevin McCallister's family accidentally leaves him behind while flying to which city?
Paris
The eight-year-old is left to defend the suburban Chicago house against two burglars, and the film became the highest-grossing live-action comedy for two decades.
Q 03Which studio originally planned to finance Home Alone but shut it down over budget before Fox picked it up?
Warner Bros.
John Hughes had the idea while on holiday, and the film moved to Fox after meetings with the writer-producer, with Chris Columbus and Macaulay Culkin hired soon after.
Q 04What was the title of the original, much darker screenplay that became Pretty Woman?
3000
The number referred to the fee for the week; the release title came from a 1964 rock and roll hit instead.
Q 05Pretty Woman takes its title from a 1964 song by which singer?
Roy Orbison
The film made Julia Roberts a superstar, earning her a Golden Globe and her first Oscar nomination.
Q 06Goodfellas is adapted from which 1985 nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi?
Wiseguy
The film was initially going to use the book's title too, and it follows the rise and fall of Mafia associate Henry Hill from 1955 to 1980.
Q 07Which Goodfellas actor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film?
Joe Pesci
It was the film's only win from six nominations, and much of his dialogue grew out of improvised rehearsals.
Q 08Much of the dialogue in Dances With Wolves is spoken in which language, with English subtitles?
Lakota
The translation was done by Doris Leader Charge of Sinte Gleska University in South Dakota, where much of the film was shot.
Q 09From twelve nominations, how many Academy Awards did Dances With Wolves win, including Best Picture?
7
It is one of only four Westerns ever to win Best Picture, alongside Cimarron, Unforgiven and No Country for Old Men.
Q 10Total Recall was shot over six months on huge sets at Estudios Churubusco in which country?
Mexico
With a budget estimated at $48-80 million it was one of the most expensive films ever made at the time.
Q 11Total Recall, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is based on a short story by which science fiction author?
Philip K. Dick
Ronald Shusett bought the rights to the story back in 1974, and an early attempt at a sequel eventually became Minority Report.
Q 12Which horror legend plays the Inventor in Edward Scissorhands, his last film released in his lifetime?
Vincent Price
Tim Burton and composer Danny Elfman both call it their most personal and favourite work.
Q 13Tim Burton drew Edward Scissorhands from his childhood in which suburban California city?
Burbank
Caroline Thompson was hired to turn his story into a script during pre-production on Beetlejuice, and the project was fast-tracked after Batman's success.
Q 21Kindergarten Cop was Ivan Reitman's second collaboration with Arnold Schwarzenegger. What was the first?
Twins
Patrick Swayze was among the actors considered for the undercover-detective role before it went to the action star.
Q 22In Misery, which actor plays novelist Paul Sheldon, held captive by his obsessive fan Annie Wilkes?
James Caan
Kathy Bates was a stage actress largely unknown to film audiences, and her Best Actress win made it the only Stephen King adaptation to win an Oscar.
Q 23In Back to the Future Part III, Doc Brown is stranded in which year of the Old West?
1885
Marty goes back to rescue him from Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen, but Doc complicates things by falling for schoolteacher Clara Clayton.
Q 14The turtle costumes in the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film were built by which effects workshop?
Jim Henson's Creature Shop
It was one of Jim Henson's last projects; he died shortly after the premiere.
Q 15Which small independent acquired the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film mid-production?
New Line Cinema
On a $14 million budget it became the highest-grossing independent film up to that time and the ninth-biggest film of the year.
Q 16Die Hard 2 traps John McClane at which airport as terrorists seize the air traffic control system?
Washington Dulles
He must also fight off airport police and a military commander who want nothing to do with his help while planes circle low on fuel.
Q 17Who directed Die Hard 2, subtitled Die Harder?
Renny Harlin
The Finnish director took over from John McTiernan, who had made the original and was busy that year with The Hunt for Red October.
Q 18The Hunt for Red October is adapted from a 1984 novel by which author?
Tom Clancy
Alec Baldwin played CIA analyst Jack Ryan, a role later taken by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine.
Q 19The Hunt for Red October won a single Academy Award. In which category?
Best Sound Editing
It was also nominated for Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing at the 63rd ceremony.
Q 20Kindergarten Cop's school scenes were shot on location in which Oregon town?
Astoria
John Jacob Astor Elementary School stood in for the fictional school; the same town had hosted The Goonies five years earlier.
Q 24What title did Coppola and Puzo want for The Godfather Part III before Paramount rejected it?
The Death of Michael Corleone
They saw the third film as an epilogue to a saga already told, and a 2020 recut finally used a version of that title.
Q 25Whose casting as Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III drew accusations of nepotism?
Sofia Coppola
She would later win an Oscar herself, for the Lost in Translation screenplay in 2004.
Q 26Who produced, directed and starred in the 1990 comic-strip adaptation Dick Tracy?
Warren Beatty
Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Walter Hill and Richard Benjamin had all been attached before him, and Madonna played Breathless Mahoney.
Q 27Tremors is set in which fictional isolated Nevada desert town?
Perfection
The subterranean worms are nicknamed Graboids, and the film was shot in Inyo County, California, on a purpose-built desert set.
Q 28Which country singer made her acting debut in Tremors?
Reba McEntire
She plays survivalist Heather Gummer opposite Michael Gross, who went on to appear in every entry of the franchise.
Q 29Arachnophobia was the first film produced by which Walt Disney Studios label?
Hollywood Pictures
It was also the directorial debut of longtime Spielberg producer Frank Marshall.
Q 30The five main characters in Flatliners, who deliberately induce near-death experiences, are what?
Medical students
The cast included Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon, and Sutherland returned for the 2017 follow-up.