2000s Movies
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
This 2000s movie trivia quiz has 119 free questions with answers and covers the films released between 2000 and 2009, from Gladiator and Memento at the start of the decade to Avatar and The Hangover at the end. Expect the blockbusters (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, Iron Man), the comedies everyone still quotes (Mean Girls, Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, Superbad, Zoolander, Elf), the Pixar and DreamWorks hits, and every Best Picture winner from Gladiator to The Hurt Locker. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who went to the movies in the 2000s, a third are medium, and the rest dig into casting stories, box-office records and behind-the-scenes details that will separate the film buffs from the casual fans. Every answer has been checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 119 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 2000 film won Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe as the general-turned-slave Maximus?
Gladiator
Gladiator won five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe; Oliver Reed, who played the trainer Proximo, died during filming and his remaining scenes used a body double and digital effects.
Q 02In Ridley Scott's 2000 Roman epic, which actor played the emperor Commodus opposite Russell Crowe?
Joaquin Phoenix
Phoenix would win his own Best Actor Oscar two decades later for Joker.
Q 03What condition does Guy Pearce's Leonard suffer from in Christopher Nolan's Memento (2000)?
Anterograde amnesia
Leonard has anterograde amnesia: he cannot form new memories after his injury, so he relies on Polaroids, notes and tattoos; Nolan adapted the story from his brother Jonathan's short story 'Memento Mori'.
Q 04In Cast Away (2000), Tom Hanks's character Chuck Noland works as a systems analyst for which company?
FedEx
Noland works for FedEx, which appears throughout the film without paying for the placement; production paused for a year so Hanks could lose about 50 pounds and grow out his hair and beard.
Q 05Which company made the volleyball that is Chuck Noland's companion in Cast Away, giving it its name?
Wilson
The ball is a Wilson volleyball, so Chuck calls it Wilson; screenwriter William Broyles Jr. conceived the character after a volleyball washed ashore while he deliberately stranded himself on a beach for research.
Q 06Which 2001 film was the first ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?
Shrek
Chris Farley had recorded nearly all of Shrek's dialogue before his death, after which Mike Myers took over.
Q 07Shrek is loosely based on a 1990 children's picture book by which author and illustrator?
William Steig
Steig was 83 when the book came out; he was also a long-time New Yorker cartoonist.
Q 08Which actor voiced the villain Lord Farquaad in Shrek?
John Lithgow
John Lithgow voiced Lord Farquaad, the diminutive ruler of Duloc; Farquaad's tiny stature is a running gag, and Fiona's dragon swallows him whole at the wedding.
Q 09Which Home Alone filmmaker directed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)?
Chris Columbus
Chris Columbus, who directed Home Alone, also directed the first two Harry Potter films; Richard Harris took the Dumbledore role only after his granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he refused.
Q 10Which word replaced 'Philosopher's' in the American title of the first Harry Potter film?
Sorcerer's
The US release was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because Scholastic felt 'Philosopher's' sounded dull to American readers; it was the highest-grossing film of 2001 worldwide.
Q 11In Zoolander, Mugatu brainwashes Derek into assassinating the prime minister of which country?
Malaysia
Malaysia's government banned the film; Will Ferrell played Mugatu and Owen Wilson the rival model Hansel.
Q 12Which American actress drew controversy for being cast as the "quintessentially British" Bridget Jones?
Renée Zellweger
Texas-born Renée Zellweger took the role after British fans questioned an American playing Bridget; she adopted an English accent and earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the 2001 film.
Q 13Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002) was the first film to gross how much in a single weekend?
$100 million
Q 21The Bride's yellow tracksuit in Kill Bill: Volume 1 pays homage to which Bruce Lee film?
Game of Death
The tracksuit copies the yellow-and-black jumpsuit Bruce Lee wore in Game of Death, released in 1978 after his death; Kill Bill was shot as one film and split in two when the cut ran past four hours.
Q 22In School of Rock (2003), Dewey Finn poses as a substitute teacher at which prep school?
Horace Green
Dewey takes a job at Horace Green, an elite prep school, by impersonating his roommate Ned Schneebly; screenwriter Mike White wrote the part for Jack Black, his neighbour at the time.
Q 23In Elf (2003), Buddy's love interest Jovie works at which New York department store?
Gimbels
Spider-Man opened to about $115 million in May 2002, the first film ever to take $100 million in a single weekend; its rain-soaked upside-down kiss won Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards.
Q 14Which actor played Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, in Spider-Man (2002)?
Willem Dafoe
Dafoe insisted on wearing the uncomfortable Goblin suit himself rather than leaving it to a stunt double.
Q 15The Ring (2002), starring Naomi Watts, was an American remake of a horror film from which country?
Japan
The Ring remade Ringu, a 1998 horror film from Japan directed by Hideo Nakata; both adapt Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel, and the cursed videotape gives its viewers seven days to live.
Q 16In which country is Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006) set?
Spain
Pan's Labyrinth is set in Spain in 1944, five years after the Civil War, with Ofelia's stepfather a Francoist captain hunting guerrillas; the film won three Academy Awards.
Q 17Peter Jackson filmed and edited the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in which country?
New Zealand
Jackson shot all three films back to back in New Zealand, his home country, with post-production at his Wellington facilities; The Return of the King grossed $1.1 billion, the most of any 2003 film.
Q 18Johnny Depp said he based his Captain Jack Sparrow performance on which rock star?
Keith Richards
Richards later appeared in the sequels as Jack's father, Captain Teague.
Q 19In Finding Nemo (2003), what species of fish are Marlin and his son Nemo?
Clownfish
Marlin and Nemo are clownfish, orange-and-white reef fish that live among sea anemones; Finding Nemo became the highest-grossing animated film to that point and Pixar's first Best Animated Feature winner.
Q 20Which comedian and talk-show host voiced the forgetful fish Dory in Finding Nemo?
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres voiced Dory; director Andrew Stanton wrote the part for her after hearing her change subject five times in one sentence on her sitcom.
Jovie works in the Christmas section of Gimbels, a real Manhattan department store chain that had closed in 1987; Buddy got his name from the label on his diaper after crawling into Santa's sack.
Q 24Which Rosalind Wiseman parenting book was Tina Fey's Mean Girls (2004) based on?
Queen Bees and Wannabes
Fey adapted Wiseman's 2002 non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes, a guide for parents of teenage girls; October 3 became 'Mean Girls Day' online from a throwaway line Cady says about the date.
Q 25In Mean Girls, what is the Plastics' scrapbook of insults about classmates and teachers called?
The Burn Book
The Burn Book is the Plastics' pink scrapbook of rumours and insults, which Regina later leaks to the whole school; Cady, played by Lindsay Lohan, had spent twelve years being home-schooled in Africa.
Q 26Napoleon Dynamite (2004) is set in Preston, in which US state?
Idaho
Preston is a small town in southeastern Idaho where director Jared Hess grew up; he shot the film there on a budget of about $400,000 with many locals in the cast.
Q 27How much was Jon Heder originally paid for starring in Napoleon Dynamite?
$1,000
Heder was paid $1,000 for the lead; after the film grossed more than $40 million he renegotiated for a share of the profits. Director Jared Hess cast school friends to keep costs down.
Q 28Anchorman (2004) is set at KVWN Channel 4, a 1970s TV station in which city?
San Diego
It was Adam McKay's directorial debut; Ron's dog Baxter gets punted off the San Diego–Coronado Bridge.
Q 29In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, what is the memory-erasing firm called?
Lacuna
The firm is Lacuna Inc., run by Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, whose procedure erases Clementine from Joel's memory; the title is a line from Alexander Pope's 1717 poem 'Eloisa to Abelard'.
Q 30The Passion of the Christ (2004) is entirely in Latin, Hebrew and which other language?
Aramaic
Gibson had the dialogue spoken in Aramaic, the everyday language of first-century Judea, plus Latin and Hebrew, with subtitles; it remained the highest-grossing R-rated film in the US and Canada for 20 years.