100 free 80s Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
52 free 80s Movie trivia questions with answers. The 1980s gave us the blockbuster as we know it. E.T. broke every record, Back to the Future recast its lead a month into filming, and a Christmas action movie about a barefoot cop rewrote the rules of the genre. This quiz runs the whole decade, from The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 to Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. Expect the crowd-pleasers you can quote by heart alongside the questions that separate the casual fan from the film buff: which action star was originally cast as the Predator, why room 217 became room 237, and how much cash Ford offered to swap the DeLorean for a Mustang. There are easy warm-ups, a solid middle, and a handful of genuinely hard ones about Oscar history and production trivia. Every answer was checked against the film's own history and primary references, so you can play these 80's movie trivia questions and answers at a movie night or trivia party without worrying about a wrong answer sparking an argument.
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Q 01In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which candy does Elliott use to lure the alien into his home?
Reese's Pieces
Mars refused to let M&M's appear, fearing E.T. would frighten children, and Hershey's profits jumped 65% after the placement.
Q 02Which Spielberg film finally took E.T.'s title as highest-grossing film of all time, in 1993?
Jurassic Park
E.T. held the global record for eleven years and kept the North American record another four, until the Star Wars Special Edition.
Q 03Which actor was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future and replaced weeks into filming?
Eric Stoltz
Recasting Michael J. Fox meant reshooting the finished scenes and adding $4 million to the budget.
Q 04At what speed does the DeLorean in Back to the Future activate time travel?
88 mph
The number was picked because it was easy to remember and looked cool on the speedometer.
Q 05Which carmaker offered $75,000 to have Doc Brown's time machine be one of its cars instead of a DeLorean?
Ford
Co-writer Bob Gale's reply was that Doc Brown does not drive a Mustang; the time machine had once been conceived as a refrigerator.
Q 06The Breakfast Club's five students serve Saturday detention at which fictional Illinois school?
Shermer High
The library set was built in a gym because the real one at Maine North High School was too small.
Q 07Which band performed The Breakfast Club anthem "Don't You (Forget About Me)"?
Simple Minds
The single reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.
Q 08Who directed The Empire Strikes Back?
Irvin Kershner
Lucas handed the director's chair to his former USC teacher; the screenplay was by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan.
Q 09Who voiced and puppeteered Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back?
Frank Oz
Lucas planned to dub in a different actor's voice but decided nobody could match the puppetry.
Q 10Which TV star was cast as Indiana Jones before contractual obligations forced him out?
Tom Selleck
Magnum, P.I. kept him in Hawaii, and Harrison Ford stepped in.
Q 11How many Academy Awards did Raiders of the Lost Ark win?
Five
It was also the year's highest-grossing film despite pre-release polling that showed little interest compared with Superman II.
Q 12In Ghostbusters, what form does Gozer take after Ray thinks of a childhood corporate mascot?
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
The team defeats it by crossing the streams, which Egon had warned against earlier in the film.
Q 13Which real New York firehouse served as the exterior of the Ghostbusters headquarters?
Hook & Ladder Company 8 in Tribeca
Q 21What make of car does Ferris borrow from Cameron's father in Ferris Bueller's Day Off?
Ferrari 250 GT California
Only about 100 were ever built, so replicas were used for the wide shots and the crash.
Q 22During the parade in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris lip-syncs "Danke Schoen" and which Beatles song?
Twist and Shout
The scene was shot at Chicago's Von Steuben Day Parade.
Q 23Which former football star did an Orion executive suggest for the title role in The Terminator, only for James Cameron to reject him as not believable as a killer?
O. J. Simpson
Columbia University also stood in for the fictional Weaver Hall on the condition it was not named.
Q 14Who sang the number-one theme song to Ghostbusters?
Ray Parker Jr.
The film was the number-one movie in US theaters for seven straight weeks and was then the highest-grossing comedy ever.
Q 15In The Shining, what number replaced the novel's Room 217, which the location hotel feared guests would avoid?
237
The plan backfired at Timberline Lodge, where Room 217 is now requested more than any other.
Q 16Jack Nicholson's improvised "Here's Johnny!" in The Shining borrowed Ed McMahon's introduction from which show?
The Tonight Show
Kubrick, long resident in England, did not recognize the reference and nearly used a different take.
Q 17Die Hard was adapted from a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp. What was the novel called?
Nothing Lasts Forever
Thorp got the idea from a dream he had after watching The Towering Inferno.
Q 18Die Hard was filmed almost entirely in and around which real Los Angeles skyscraper?
Fox Plaza
The building doubled as Nakatomi Plaza and was the studio's own newly built headquarters in Century City.
Q 19What is Maverick's real name in Top Gun?
Pete Mitchell
The film was inspired by a California magazine article titled "Top Guns" published three years earlier.
Q 20Which band's song from Top Gun won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?
Berlin
"Take My Breath Away" also won the Golden Globe, and the soundtrack went on to 9x Platinum.
Stallone and Mel Gibson also turned the role down before Schwarzenegger took it.
Q 24Which Terminator line did Schwarzenegger ask to change because he struggled with one word?
"I'll be back"
Cameron refused to soften it to "I will be back", and Schwarzenegger has repeated it in film after film since.
Q 25Blade Runner is set in a dystopian Los Angeles of which year?
2019
The film adapts Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Q 26Which actor was originally attached to play Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop and rewrote it as a straight action film?
Sylvester Stallone
His draft renamed the character Axel Cobretti; Eddie Murphy's version became the highest-grossing US release of 1984.
Q 27Who composed and performed the Beverly Hills Cop instrumental theme "Axel F"?
Harold Faltermeyer
The soundtrack won a Grammy and produced three Billboard top-10 singles.
Q 28Sigourney Weaver earned a rare Oscar nomination for a science-fiction role in which 1986 film?
Aliens
Her line "Get away from her, you bitch!" had to be shot in a single take because the schedule was so tight.
Q 29In The Princess Bride, what phrase does Westley say that Buttercup realizes means 'I love you'?
"As you wish"
The grandfather closes the film with the same words when asked to read the story again.
Q 30Which bodybuilder-turned-actor was William Goldman's second choice to play Fezzik in The Princess Bride?
Arnold Schwarzenegger
André the Giant was the first choice all along and only became available when a $5 million Tokyo wrestling match was cancelled.