Fatal Attraction Trivia
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50 free Fatal Attraction trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Fatal Attraction was the biggest film in the world in 1987 and gave the language the phrase "bunny boiler". This quiz covers the film scene by scene, from the affair and Madame Butterfly to the acid, the rabbit, the kidnapping and the bathtub, and then goes behind the camera: the actresses who turned the role down, Glenn Close's audition and concussion, the original ending in which Alex frames Dan, and why it was reshot. It also covers the box office and Oscar nominations, the psychiatric readings of Alex Forrest, the 2014 West End play and the 2023 Paramount+ series with Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has seen the movie, a third are medium and the rest are for people who have watched the alternate ending. Every answer is checked against the film's reference pages.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Fatal Attraction (1987)?
Adrian Lyne
He was nominated for the Best Director Oscar and later made Indecent Proposal and Unfaithful.
Q 02Who plays Alex Forrest, the spurned lover who stalks Dan Gallagher?
Glenn Close
Producers doubted she could be sexual enough; she let her frizzy hair go wild for the audition and won them over.
Q 03Who plays Dan Gallagher, the cheating publishing attorney?
Michael Douglas
He was one of the few on set who approved of changing the film's ending.
Q 04Which actress plays Dan's wife, Beth?
Anne Archer
She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and was "appalled" when the ending was changed.
Q 05Fatal Attraction was based on which 1980 short film by screenwriter James Dearden?
Diversion
Dearden expanded his own short into the feature script with outside help.
Q 06What is Alex Forrest's job in the film?
Associate editor for a client of Dan's firm
In the 2023 series she works instead in a district attorney's Victim Services Bureau.
Q 07What is Alex's favorite opera, which she invites Dan to see?
Madame Butterfly
In the film's original ending she takes her own life while listening to it.
Q 08What does Alex do to the Gallaghers' pet rabbit?
Boils it on their stove
The scene gave English a new phrase for an obsessive, spurned lover.
Q 09How does Alex first announce herself to Beth?
Pretending to want to buy the Gallaghers' apartment
Dan had changed the family's phone number to stop her calls.
Q 10Where does Alex take Ellen after picking her up from school?
An amusement park
Beth crashes her car while searching frantically and ends up in hospital.
Q 11What does Alex pour on Dan's car?
Acid
She also sends him a tape recording full of verbal abuse after the family moves out of the city.
Q 12Who kills Alex in the theatrical ending?
Beth, with a gun
Dan appears to drown her in the bathtub, but she rises swinging the knife and Beth shoots her.
Q 13How did Alex die in the film's original, unused ending?
She slashed her own throat
She framed Dan for murder, until Beth found a tape in which Alex threatened suicide.
Q 14Why was the ending changed?
Q 21Which film narrowly beat Fatal Attraction as the top-grossing movie of 1987 in the United States?
Three Men and a Baby
Worldwide, Fatal Attraction finished the year on top.
Q 22How many Academy Award nominations did Fatal Attraction receive?
Six
They included Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actress and Supporting Actress, but it won none.
Q 23Which award did Fatal Attraction win at the BAFTAs?
Best Editing
The film's leading man and supporting actress were nominated for acting awards there.
Fatal Attraction is credited with triggering what late-1980s film trend?
Test audiences hated Alex triumphing
The director refused to reshoot until he was offered an extra $1.5 million.
Q 15Which actor persuaded a reluctant Close to shoot the new ending?
William Hurt
She fought the change for two weeks and still prefers the original, though she admits the film would not have been a hit without the reshoot.
Q 16Which director turned down Fatal Attraction because it was too similar to Play Misty for Me?
John Carpenter
Critic Barry Norman later called the finished film inferior to Clint Eastwood's thriller.
Q 17Which actress declined the Alex role specifically because of the rabbit scene?
Tracey Ullman
Olivia Hussey also passed for that reason, and Miranda Richardson called the script "hideous".
Q 18Which French actress did the director originally want for Alex?
Isabelle Adjani
Barbara Hershey wanted the part but was unavailable.
Q 19What happened to the actress playing Alex while filming her death scene?
She suffered a concussion and was hospitalized
She also later learned she had been pregnant during the shoot.
Q 20Roughly how much did Fatal Attraction gross worldwide, on a $14M budget?
$320-344 million
It was the highest-grossing film worldwide in 1987 and spent eight weeks at number one in the US.
The erotic thriller boom
Basic Instinct, with the same leading man, followed in 1992.
Q 25What term for an obsessive spurned lover entered the language thanks to the film?
Bunny boiler
It comes from the scene with Ellen's pet rabbit.
Q 26Psychiatrists have used Alex Forrest as an illustration of which condition?
Borderline personality disorder
Close consulted several psychologists to build the character; one source describes Alex as suffering from de Clérambault's syndrome, or erotomania.
Q 27Where did Alex Forrest rank on the AFI's list of 100 greatest movie villains?
7th
The film itself is #28 on the AFI's 100 Thrills list.
Q 28Which real-life 2013 murder trial was widely dubbed a "real-life Fatal Attraction"?
Jodi Arias
Arias was convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend in Mesa, Arizona.
Q 29At which West End venue did the 2014 stage version open?
Theatre Royal Haymarket
The film's screenwriter adapted it himself, making Alex a more tragic figure.
Q 30Who directed the 2014 West End play?
Trevor Nunn
Robert Fox and Patrick Ryecart produced the fifteen-week run.