Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Trivia
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49 free Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was panned by half the critics in 1969, became the year's top-grossing film anyway, won four Oscars, gave Robert Redford the name of a film festival and turned Paul Newman and Redford into the definitive movie buddies. William Goldman spent eight years researching the real outlaws before writing a screenplay one studio rejected because 'John Wayne don't run away.' This quiz covers the film front to back — the superposse, the cliff jump, the bicycle, 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head,' Bolivia and the freeze-frame — plus the casting near-misses (Jack Lemmon, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty), the Utah and Mexico locations, the reviews, the awards and the legacy that runs from The Sting to Sundance. It also covers the real Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh: how they got their nicknames, the Wild Bunch, Etta Place and what probably happened in San Vicente in 1908. Every answer is checked against a reference source and each question links to where the fact was confirmed.
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Q 01Who directed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill directed Paul Newman as Butch, though Newman had first expected to play Sundance; the script's title was flipped to match the casting.
Q 02William Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, later turned which of his own novels into a fantasy film?
The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride began as his 1973 novel, which pretends to be an abridgement of a fairy tale by an author he invented, 'S. Morgenstern'; he adapted it for the 1987 film himself.
Q 03What did one studio head tell William Goldman when rejecting the Butch Cassidy script?
'John Wayne don't run away'
'John Wayne don't run away' was his objection to heroes who flee to South America; by Goldman's telling, a few changed pages later every studio wanted the script.
Q 04Goldman said the outlaws' escape abroad disproved which F. Scott Fitzgerald claim about American lives?
They have no second acts
They have no second acts, Fitzgerald wrote; Butch and Sundance ran to South America and, Goldman said, became bigger legends there than they had ever been in the West.
Q 05Which actor turned down the role of Sundance because he disliked riding horses?
Jack Lemmon
McQueen backed out after disagreements with Newman, and Beatty passed because it felt too much like Bonnie and Clyde. Redford simply liked the script.
Q 06In which 1974 disaster film did Paul Newman and Steve McQueen finally team up?
The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno finally paired them, years after McQueen left Butch Cassidy, reportedly over billing; this time he had the script padded until he and Newman had the same number of lines.
Q 07Who plays Etta Place opposite Butch and Sundance?
Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross had broken through in The Graduate two years earlier, and she came back to play Etta again in a 1976 television sequel.
Q 08In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, what is Etta Place's profession?
Schoolteacher
Schoolteacher is the film's choice: one account has the real Etta working in a Texas brothel, and her true identity has never been established.
Q 09What is Butch's gang called in the film?
The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang
The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang is the film's name for the outlaws history calls the Wild Bunch, a title reportedly dropped because a rival 1969 Western had already taken it.
Q 10How does Butch see off a rival for leadership of his gang?
A sneaky kick in a knife fight
A sneaky kick in a knife fight: Butch insists on settling the rules first, and when Harvey Logan snorts that a knife fight has none, kicks him in the groin.
Q 11Which railroad do Butch and Sundance rob twice, drawing the wrath of its boss E. H. Harriman?
Union Pacific
Union Pacific boss E. H. Harriman pays for a special posse to hunt the pair down, and Butch grumbles that he would have stopped robbing the man for less if Harriman had simply paid him instead.
Q 12What goes wrong when Butch's gang robs the train a second time?
Butch uses too much dynamite
Butch uses too much dynamite and the whole car goes up, scattering the money; the real gang went too far as well, their dynamite wrecking a railroad car in the Wilcox hold-up of 1899.
Q 13How do Butch and Sundance finally shake the posse?
Q 21What was Robert Redford's first objection to the hit song in Butch Cassidy?
There was no rain in the film
There was no rain in the film, Redford objected, calling the song a dumb idea; he later admitted how wrong he had been once it became a giant hit.
Q 22Which film beat Butch Cassidy to the Best Picture Oscar?
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture, beat it; Butch Cassidy still left with more Oscars than any other film that night: four, for script, cinematography, score and song.
Q 23Which cinematographer, later honored for American Beauty, won his first Oscar for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
Conrad Hall
They jump off a cliff into a river
They jump off a cliff into a river, but only after Sundance confesses he can't swim and Butch roars with laughter: the fall, he says, will probably kill him anyway.
Q 14In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Etta agrees to follow the outlaws abroad but refuses to do what?
Watch them die
Watch them die: 'I'll do anything you ask of me except one thing,' she says, and she keeps her word, going home before the final shootout.
Q 15What are Butch and Sundance called once they start robbing banks south of the border?
Los Bandidos Yanquis
Los Bandidos Yanquis, the Yankee Bandits, thrive until Butch spots a man in a white straw hat and fears the lawman who chased them out of the United States has caught up.
Q 16What honest job do Butch and Sundance briefly take after fleeing the United States?
Mining-company payroll guards
Mining-company payroll guards is as straight as they ever go, and it lasts one trip: bandits kill their new boss on the first run and the pair have to fight their way out.
Q 17How are Butch and Sundance tracked down for the final shootout?
A boy recognizes a stolen animal's brand
A boy recognizes a stolen animal's brand: the pair ride in leading a pack animal taken in their last robbery, and once the police are told, soldiers are called in as well.
Q 18How does Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid end?
On a freeze-frame of their last charge
On a freeze-frame of their last charge: the image fades to sepia while the gunfire carries on, so the film never shows the two men fall.
Q 19Who wrote 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'?
Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote it for the film, and the director kept it in over objections that a pop song had no place in a Western; it went on to win the Best Song Oscar.
Q 20Who sang 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
B. J. Thomas
B. J. Thomas sang it while suffering from laryngitis, which is why his voice sounds huskier in the film than on the hit single he recorded once he had recovered.
Conrad Hall and the film's leading lady became a couple during the shoot and married that year; his third Oscar, for Road to Perdition, was awarded after his death in 2003.
Q 24What does Butch show off to Etta while 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' plays?
A bicycle
A bicycle, sold in the film as the future: a stuntman was hired for the tricks, but the director disliked the results and Paul Newman rode them himself.
Q 25In which college town, where Paul Newman studied drama, did Butch Cassidy premiere?
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut, is home to Yale, where both Newman and the film's director had studied; the film opened there the night before it reached New York.
Q 26How did Butch and Sundance's film rank at the box office among 1969 releases?
It was the year's top grosser
It was the year's top grosser among 1969 releases over its full run, taking about $102 million in North America, even though the first reviews were mixed.
Q 27Which awards gave Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid nine prizes, including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress?
The BAFTAs
The BAFTAs gave it nine awards in 1971, Best Actor for Robert Redford among them, though Hollywood's own Academy had not nominated a single member of the cast.
Q 28Soon after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came out, Robert Redford gave his character's name to what?
His Utah ski resort
His Utah ski resort, bought as Timp Haven shortly before filming, became Sundance; the film institute and festival that made the name famous grew out of it years later.
Q 29Which 1973 film reunited Newman, Redford and their Butch Cassidy director?
The Sting
The Sting cast the pair as Depression-era con men and outdid its predecessor at the Oscars, winning seven, Best Picture among them.
Q 30Which 1970s TV Western was inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones lost its star Pete Duel, who died midway through the run; the show's narrator, Roger Davis, stepped into the part and filming carried on.