70s and 80s Movies
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50 free 70s and 80s Movies trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 1970s and 1980s reshaped the movies. One decade handed directors the keys to the studio and produced gritty crime sagas, paranoid thrillers and the first summer blockbusters; the next filled multiplexes with action heroes, teen comedies, time travel and friendly aliens. This quiz covers both decades side by side: the roles that made stars, the directors behind the hits, famous props, settings and creatures, the awards-night upsets, and the behind-the-scenes stories that fans love to retell. Questions range from scenes almost everyone remembers to a few deep cuts for serious film buffs. It is written for anyone who grew up with these films or discovered them later, and it works well for movie nights, reunions, pub quizzes and family game nights. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play on screen or print the questions for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor sent Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando boycotted the ceremony to protest Hollywood's depiction of American Indians. He was only the second winner to turn down Best Actor, after George C. Scott for Patton.
Q 02Which candy does Elliott leave in a trail to lure the alien home in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?
Reese's Pieces
Reese's Pieces got the part after Mars refused to let M&M's appear, fearing the alien would frighten children. Sales of the candy climbed sharply once the film opened.
Q 03Which masked killer stalks babysitter Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's 1978 horror film Halloween?
Michael Myers
Michael Myers wears a Captain Kirk mask bought for under two dollars, with the eye holes widened and the face sprayed a bluish white.
Q 04Which composer wrote the menacing two-note shark theme for Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws?
John Williams
John Williams first played the two notes on a piano for Steven Spielberg, who laughed and assumed it was a joke. The director later said the film would have been half as successful without the score.
Q 05Which sports car does Doc Brown turn into a time machine in Back to the Future?
DeLorean
The DeLorean jumps through time when it reaches 88 miles per hour, running on plutonium that Doc swindled from Libyan terrorists.
Q 06Which city's Museum of Art steps does Rocky Balboa sprint up during his famous training run?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia now keeps a bronze statue of the boxer by the 72 stone steps, and it has become a popular photo stop for visitors.
Q 07What do the knights' servants bang together to mimic hoofbeats in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
Coconut shells
Coconut shells replaced real horses because the film's small budget could not cover them. The German release was even titled The Knights of the Coconut.
Q 08Which animals does Indiana Jones fear most, then find by the thousand in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Snakes
Snakes were in such short supply on set that handlers across Europe rushed thousands more to the studio. Many were harmless grass snakes, and the cobras stayed behind plexiglas.
Q 09Which actor voiced Darth Vader in the original Star Wars while David Prowse wore the black suit?
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones went uncredited at his own request, regarding his contribution as a special effect. George Lucas dubbed over David Prowse because of his West Country accent.
Q 10Which group of brothers gave the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack three American number-one singles?
Bee Gees
Bee Gees songs were only added after filming, yet the album became the best-selling in music history until Thriller.
Q 11Which fictional school do Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson attend in the musical Grease?
Rydell High
Rydell High was really Venice High School in California, where the exterior scenes were shot during the summer of 1977.
Q 12Which actor won an Oscar as rebel patient Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson's win was part of a sweep of all five major Oscars, a feat no film had managed since It Happened One Night in 1934.
Q 13Which actress got her first leading film role as warrant officer Ripley in Alien?
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver took a part that could have gone to a man, because the script noted that every crew role was unisex. She was the only actor to return for all four films of the original series.
Q 21Which Japanese director drew on a Shakespeare tragedy and a warlord's legend for his 1985 epic Ran?
Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa began with the legend of a warlord famed for three loyal sons, then imagined the sons turning against their father.
Q 22Which martial arts star died just six days before Enter the Dragon premiered in Hong Kong?
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was only 32 when he died in July 1973, and the film was his final completed screen appearance.
Q 23Which beer does the Bandit haul illegally from Texarkana to Atlanta in Smokey and the Bandit?
Coors
Coors could not be sold east of Texas in 1977, and with no preservatives it could spoil within a week unrefrigerated, which explains the 28-hour deadline.
Q 14Which Joseph Conrad tale did Francis Ford Coppola move to the Vietnam War for Apocalypse Now?
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is set in the 19th-century Congo and drew on Conrad's time as a steamboat captain. George Lucas was first lined up to direct the film, with Coppola producing.
Q 15Which landmark does Roy Neary sculpt in his living room in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Devils Tower
Devils Tower in Wyoming became America's first national monument in 1906, proclaimed by Theodore Roosevelt. The crew filmed on location at the real rock.
Q 16Which Saturday Night Live star debuted on the big screen as the hard-drinking Bluto in Animal House?
John Belushi
John Belushi was the only established star among the young leads, and the part of Bluto was written specifically for him.
Q 17Which actor agreed to play Willy Wonka in 1971 only if he could enter with a limp and a somersault?
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder kept the stunt a secret on set, so the crowd's surprise at the factory gates was real. Joel Grey had been the front runner but was judged not physically imposing enough.
Q 18Which Best Picture winner cast Paul Newman and Robert Redford as Depression-era con men?
The Sting
The Sting revived the ragtime of Scott Joplin, whose piano piece The Entertainer became a top-10 single decades after it was written.
Q 19Which director released both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein in the same year?
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks saw the two comedies finish 1974 as the second- and third-highest-grossing films in America. Both were later chosen for the National Film Registry.
Q 20Which Woody Allen romantic comedy beat Star Wars to the Best Picture Oscar?
Annie Hall
Annie Hall won four Oscars, including Best Actress for Diane Keaton. Star Wars took home six that night, all for craft and music rather than acting, directing or writing.
Q 24Which conflict is the official setting of Robert Altman's 1970 army-hospital comedy M*A*S*H?
Korean War
The Korean War is named in an opening caption the studio asked for, fearing audiences would take the story for Vietnam, the conflict in the news when the film was made.
Q 25Which disaster film traps Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in a burning San Francisco skyscraper?
The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno paid its two leads $1 million each, and both of them wanted top billing.
Q 26Which newspaper employs reporters Woodward and Bernstein in All the President's Men?
The Washington Post
The Washington Post first handed the break-in to a new reporter as a minor courthouse story, before it grew into the scandal that brought down a president.
Q 27Which director gave himself a cameo slashing Jake Gittes's nose in his own film Chinatown?
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski used a special knife that could really have cut his star's nose if he had held it the wrong way.
Q 28Which novelist criticized Stanley Kubrick's The Shining for straying from what he had written?
Stephen King
Stephen King was unhappy enough to produce his own three-part television miniseries in 1997, made to be more faithful to the novel.
Q 29Which actor played parapsychologist Peter Venkman in the 1984 supernatural comedy Ghostbusters?
Bill Murray
Bill Murray was singled out by Variety for his ad-libbing, in a film whose director encouraged the cast to improvise.
Q 30Which star of the 1976 satire Network became the first performer to win an acting Oscar after death?
Peter Finch
Peter Finch died before the 1977 ceremony, and no other performer won a posthumous acting Oscar until fellow Australian Heath Ledger three decades later.