Boogie Nights Trivia
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This Boogie Nights trivia quiz has 90 free questions with answers about Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 breakthrough: the rise of dishwasher Eddie Adams into porn star Dirk Diggler, the makeshift family around Jack Horner's San Fernando Valley pool, and the long, cocaine-fuelled slide into the 1980s that ends with firecrackers, a shotgun and a Night Ranger song. The questions cover the plot, the huge ensemble cast, the two soundtrack albums and the production stories that have become movie lore. Some are easy for anyone who has seen the film once (what Rollergirl never takes off, what Buck wants to sell). Others go deeper: which stars turned down Eddie and Jack, what rating Anderson originally wanted, why Burt Reynolds fired his agent, how a firecracker-throwing bit player ended up in the drug-deal scene, and how a teenage Anderson paid for the mockumentary short the film grew out of. It suits a movie-night round, a film-buff showdown or a solo test of how well you know the Valley. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, its cast and crew and the people who inspired it, and each question links to the page and sentence that supports it.
30 of 90 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Boogie Nights released?
1997
It was only Anderson's second feature, made when he was 27.
Q 02Who wrote and directed Boogie Nights?
Paul Thomas Anderson
He went on to make There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, and is the only person to have won the Best Director Oscar plus directing prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin.
Q 03In which part of Los Angeles is the film set?
The San Fernando Valley
Anderson grew up there, in Studio City, and has set several films in the Valley.
Q 04In which California city does Eddie Adams live with his parents at the start of the film?
Torrance
His mother is an alcoholic who is emotionally and physically abusive, which is what drives him out of the house and into Jack's world.
Q 05What job does Eddie have at the Reseda nightclub where he meets Jack?
Dishwasher
The film's famous opening tracking shot ends on him in the club's kitchen.
Q 06In what year does the film open?
1977
The story runs from the disco era to 1984, tracking the industry's shift from film to video along the way.
Q 07What screen name does Eddie Adams give himself?
Dirk Diggler
The name predates the film: Anderson used it for a mockumentary short he shot as a teenager in 1987.
Q 08Who plays Eddie Adams?
Mark Wahlberg
It was the role that turned the former rapper into a serious actor; he had first drawn notice in The Basketball Diaries (1995).
Q 09Which 1970s box-office king plays the porn director Jack Horner?
Burt Reynolds
It was his comeback: the role brought him a Golden Globe and his only Academy Award nomination, even though he did not enjoy making it.
Q 10How does Jack audition Eddie for the business?
By watching him have sex with Rollergirl
It is the first thing Jack does after spotting him.
Q 11Who plays Rollergirl?
Heather Graham
Anderson had never seen her do nudity and did not consider her until her agent called asking for a read; the other three names here were all up for the part.
Q 12What is Rollergirl's real name?
Brandy
Almost nobody in the film uses it; she is defined by the roller skates she never takes off.
Q 13What is the real name of leading lady Amber Waves?
Maggie
She loses a custody battle for her son when a court rules her an unfit mother.
Q 14Who plays Amber Waves?
Q 21What is the name of the rival leading man Jack recruits, whom Dirk fears will replace him?
Johnny Doe
The jealousy, plus the cocaine, leads to the argument that gets Dirk fired.
Q 22What is Scotty J.'s job on Jack's film crew?
Boom operator
He is hopelessly in love with Dirk, and Rolling Stone described the character as a "complete, unabashed loser".
Q 23Who plays Scotty J.?
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Hoffman appeared in Anderson's first four films and again in The Master.
Q 24Theater magnate Floyd Gondolli wants Jack to cut costs by shooting on what?
Julianne Moore
It brought her the first of five Oscar nominations; she finally won for Still Alice in 2015.
Q 15What colour is the 1977 Chevrolet Corvette Dirk buys with his first success?
Competition orange
The car echoes the last line of Anderson's original short, in which Dirk says all he ever wanted was a cool '78 'Vette and a house in the country.
Q 16Who plays Reed Rothchild, Dirk's best friend and co-star?
John C. Reilly
Reilly co-wrote the soundtrack's opening track "Feel the Heat" with Anderson and performs it with Wahlberg.
Q 17On New Year's Eve of which year does Dirk try cocaine for the first time?
1979
The same party ends with Little Bill's murder-suicide, the film's pivot from the seventies to the eighties.
Q 18Who plays the assistant director Little Bill?
William H. Macy
Macy was fresh off his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Q 19Little Bill's serially unfaithful wife is played by which real-life adult film star?
Nina Hartley
Hartley was a working performer and sex educator; the casting was one of several nods to the real industry.
Q 20Where does Little Bill retrieve the gun on New Year's Eve?
From his car
The party is the last time the whole makeshift family is together and happy.
Videotape
Jack's resistance to video is the film's stand-in for the whole industry's loss of its 1970s pretensions.
Q 25Who plays Floyd Gondolli?
Philip Baker Hall
Hall was the star of Anderson's debut feature and helped fund its release out of his own pocket.
Q 26Robert Ridgely, who played Jack Horner in Anderson's 1988 short, plays which character in the feature?
The Colonel James
The short's original Dirk, Michael Stein, also cameos, as the customer in the stereo store.
Q 27Who plays Buck Swope?
Don Cheadle
Samuel L. Jackson, fresh off Anderson's debut, turned the part down first.
Q 28What kind of store does Buck dream of opening?
Stereo equipment
The bank turns him down because of his porn past; by the epilogue Amber is shooting a TV commercial for the store's opening.
Q 29Buck ends up the sole survivor of a holdup at what kind of business?
A donut shop
The clerk, the robber and an armed customer all die; Buck walks out with the bag of money that funds his store.
Q 30Buck marries which fellow porn performer?
Jessie St. Vincent
She is played by Melora Walters, an Anderson regular.