80s Movie Trivia
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150 free 80s Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 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
Reese's Pieces got the placement after Mars declined to license M&M's; Hershey's reported Reese's Pieces sales rose about 65% in the weeks after the film's 1982 release.
Q 02Which Spielberg film finally took E.T.'s title as highest-grossing film of all time, in 1993?
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park took the global record after E.T. had held it for eleven years; E.T. 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
Eric Stoltz shot for about five weeks before Robert Zemeckis replaced him with Michael J. Fox, whose Family Ties schedule forced the reshoots to run at night.
Q 04At what speed does the DeLorean in Back to the Future activate time travel?
88 mph
The DeLorean must hit 88 mph to trigger the flux capacitor; co-writer Bob Gale said 88 was chosen because it was easy to remember and looked good 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
Ford offered $75,000 to make the time machine a Mustang; co-writer Bob Gale replied that Doc Brown does not drive a Mustang. Early drafts had the machine inside a refrigerator.
Q 06The Breakfast Club's five students serve Saturday detention at which fictional Illinois school?
Shermer High
Shermer High School, in John Hughes's fictional Shermer, Illinois, is the setting; the library set was built in a gym because the real library at Maine North High School was too small.
Q 07Which band performed The Breakfast Club anthem "Don't You (Forget About Me)"?
Simple Minds
Scottish band Simple Minds took the single to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.
Q 08Who directed The Empire Strikes Back?
Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner, who had taught George Lucas at USC film school, directed; the screenplay was by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan.
Q 09Who voiced and puppeteered Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back?
Frank Oz
Frank Oz, Jim Henson's longtime Muppets collaborator, performed and voiced Yoda; Lucas had considered dubbing in another actor's voice but kept Oz's.
Q 10Which TV star was cast as Indiana Jones before contractual obligations forced him out?
Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck had been cast, but CBS held him to his Magnum, P.I. contract, so Harrison Ford took the part of Indiana Jones weeks before shooting began.
Q 11How many Academy Awards did Raiders of the Lost Ark win?
Five
Raiders won five Academy Awards from eight nominations: Art Direction, Film Editing, Sound, Visual Effects, plus a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing.
Q 12In Ghostbusters, what form does Gozer take after Ray thinks of a childhood corporate mascot?
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Ray's thought of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a fictional brand mascot, becomes Gozer's destructor form; the team destroys it by crossing the streams Egon had warned against.
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
Ferris mimes the Beatles' 1963 recording of 'Twist and Shout' from a parade float; the scene was shot during Chicago's real Von Steuben Day Parade in September 1985.
Q 23Which former football star did Orion suggest for the Terminator before Cameron rejected him?
O. J. Simpson
Hook & Ladder Company 8, at 14 North Moore Street in Tribeca, provided the exterior; the interiors were shot in a decommissioned fire station in downtown Los Angeles.
Q 14Who sang the number-one theme song to Ghostbusters?
Ray Parker Jr.
Ray Parker Jr.'s theme hit number one; the film topped 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
Kubrick used 237 because Oregon's Timberline Lodge, the exterior location, had a Room 217 and feared guests would shun it; Room 217 instead became the lodge's most-requested room.
Q 16Jack Nicholson's improvised 'Here's Johnny' line in The Shining borrowed Ed McMahon's introduction from which TV show?
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson opened with McMahon's cry; Kubrick, long resident in England, did not recognize the reference and nearly used a different take.
Q 17The 1988 action film Die Hard was adapted from which 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp?
Nothing Lasts Forever
Nothing Lasts Forever came to Thorp in 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
Fox Plaza, the newly completed 20th Century Fox headquarters in Century City, stood in for Nakatomi Plaza; parts of the tower were unfinished during the 1987 shoot.
Q 19What is Maverick's real name in Top Gun?
Pete Mitchell
Maverick is Lieutenant Pete Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise; Tom Kazansky is Iceman, Nick Bradshaw is Goose and Mike Metcalf is Viper.
Q 20Which band's song from Top Gun won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?
Berlin
Berlin's 'Take My Breath Away', written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock, won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song; the soundtrack was certified 9x Platinum.
Orion's Mike Medavoy suggested O. J. Simpson, but James Cameron felt the affable Simpson would not be believable as a killer; Schwarzenegger, first proposed for Kyle Reese, took the role instead.
Q 24Which Terminator line did Schwarzenegger ask to change because he struggled with one word?
"I'll be back"
The line is 'I'll be back'; Schwarzenegger found the contraction awkward and asked for 'I will be back', but Cameron refused, and the phrase recurred in Schwarzenegger's later films.
Q 25Blade Runner is set in a dystopian Los Angeles of which year?
2019
Blade Runner opens in Los Angeles in November 2019; the sequel Blade Runner 2049 jumped thirty years ahead. 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
Sylvester Stallone's rewrite turned Axel Foley into Axel Cobretti and fed into Cobra (1986); Eddie Murphy's comedic version became the highest-grossing US release of 1984.
Q 27Who composed and performed the Beverly Hills Cop instrumental theme "Axel F"?
Harold Faltermeyer
German composer Harold Faltermeyer wrote and played the synth theme 'Axel F', which reached No. 3 on the Hot 100; the soundtrack won a Grammy and had three top-10 singles.
Q 28Sigourney Weaver earned a rare Oscar nomination for a science-fiction role in which film?
Aliens
Aliens (1986) brought Weaver a Best Actress nomination, unusual for a science-fiction performance; she lost to Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God.
Q 29In The Princess Bride, what phrase does Westley say that Buttercup realizes means 'I love you'?
"As you wish"
Westley's 'As you wish' is his way of saying 'I love you'; 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.