Footloose Trivia
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48 free Footloose trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
46 free Footloose trivia questions with answers. Footloose trivia for anyone who has ever cut loose to the title song at a wedding. The quiz covers the 1984 film in depth: Ren, Ariel, Willard and Reverend Moore, the tractor chicken, the brick through the window, the Bible-verse speech and the prom in the mill, plus how it was made, from the Oklahoma town whose dance ban inspired it to the Utah locations, the fired director and the stars who nearly played Ren. It also covers the soundtrack (Kenny Loggins, Deniece Williams and Bonnie Tyler's number ones and Oscar nominations), the 2011 remake with Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough, the Broadway musical, and Kevin Bacon himself, from Animal House to Six Degrees. Easy questions come first; the harder ones will stretch real fans. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the films, songs, musical and cast, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays Ren McCormack, the dancing newcomer, in the 1984 Footloose?
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon was a little-known New York stage actor the studio couldn't picture as Ren, so the director arranged a screen test to change its mind.
Q 02From which city does Ren move to the small town of Bomont in the 1984 Footloose?
Chicago
Chicago is where Ren and his mother leave when her marriage breaks up, moving in with relatives in Bomont; his big-city ways mark him out on his first day at school.
Q 03Which actor plays the strict Reverend Shaw Moore in the 1984 Footloose?
John Lithgow
John Lithgow's reverend ends the film asking his congregation to pray for the students and their dance, a prom he had fought to stop.
Q 04In Footloose, what tragedy drove Reverend Moore to ban dancing?
His son died after a night of drinking
His son died after a night of drinking and dancing, one of several teenagers killed in a car wreck; the reverend then led the town to outlaw public dancing.
Q 05Which director of The Goodbye Girl and Steel Magnolias also made the 1984 Footloose?
Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross got the job at the second attempt: his deal talks broke down, the studio hired someone else, and he returned when that director was let go.
Q 06Which director, fresh from a ruinous flop, was hired for Footloose and then dropped as his demands grew?
Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino had not made a film since the costly failure of Heaven's Gate; when his demands on Footloose kept growing, the studio let him go and went back to its first choice.
Q 07Which real town's dance ban, lifted for a 1980 prom, loosely inspired Footloose?
Elmore City, Oklahoma
Elmore City, Oklahoma, had outlawed public dancing since its founding; when its students won the right to a prom in 1980, the news reached a songwriter hunting for a film idea.
Q 08What did the school-board president say as he broke the tie over the 1980 prom that inspired Footloose?
Let 'em dance
"Let 'em dance" settled it: the board had split two against two over the school's first prom, and the vote made national news.
Q 09In which US state was the 1984 Footloose filmed?
Utah
Utah stood in for Bomont: the crew shot around Provo, Payson and Lehi, where the star spent time hauling flour sacks at a local firm to prepare for his role.
Q 10Which blockbuster album did the Footloose soundtrack knock off number one on the US chart in 1984?
Thriller
Thriller's run at number one ended in April 1984: the Footloose songs had been released before the film opened, so that audiences would already know them when they watched.
Q 11Which Footloose scene needed four doubles for its star?
The warehouse dance
The warehouse dance put a stunt double, a dance double and two gymnasts in his costume; he was furious to be doubled, and says the studio told him never to mention it.
Q 12What does Ariel give Ren as a gift in the 1984 Footloose?
A music box
A music box is her gift after her bruising split from Chuck, handed over in a town that polices loud music; the two kiss for the first time moments later.
Q 13Who plays Ariel, the reverend's rebellious daughter, in the 1984 Footloose?
Lori Singer
Lori Singer's Ariel is the reverend's own daughter, so Ren's fight over a dance lands inside the preacher's home: she takes Ren's side and argues it out with her father in his church.
Q 21Made for about $8 million, roughly how much did the 1984 Footloose gross in North America?
$80 million
$80 million was roughly ten times its cost and the seventh-best US total of 1984; the studio had dropped one director when his plans for the film kept growing.
Q 22Which studio released Footloose in February 1984?
Paramount
Paramount took the script on after a rival studio let it go, and backed it with a pay-or-play deal that committed it to paying the producer whether or not cameras rolled.
Q 23Who wrote the Footloose screenplay and most of the soundtrack's lyrics?
Dean Pitchford
Dean Pitchford was a lyricist with an Oscar for 'Fame' and no screenplay to his name; he wrote this one himself so that the story and its songs would be built together.
Q 14Who plays Rusty, Ariel's best friend, in the 1984 Footloose?
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker was fresh from the high-school sitcom Square Pegs; the screenwriter has said Rusty was first written for her co-star on that show, Tracy Nelson.
Q 15Who plays Willard, the friend Ren teaches to dance, in the 1984 Footloose?
Chris Penn
Chris Penn, younger brother of Sean Penn, played the farm boy who is quicker with his fists than his feet, and who ends the film using both at the prom.
Q 16In Footloose, what kind of vehicle do Ren and Chuck drive in their game of chicken?
Tractors
Tractors make it a slow-motion duel that Ren wins by accident: his shoelace snags on a pedal, so he can't leap clear, and Chuck bails out first.
Q 17Where do Bomont's students finally hold their prom in the 1984 Footloose?
A grain mill over the county line
A grain mill over the county line put the dance beyond Bomont's law, an idea from Ren's boss at work; the reverend and his wife stand outside listening.
Q 18What does Ren use to argue his case for dancing before Bomont's town council in Footloose?
Bible verses
Bible verses turn the reverend's own book against the ban: Ren reads passages that celebrate dancing and silences the room, though the council still votes against him.
Q 19What is written on the brick thrown through Ren's window in Footloose?
Burn in Hell
'Burn in Hell' lands in the bedroom of Ren's young cousins the night before he faces the council, and his uncle blames him for the trouble.
Q 20What does Reverend Moore stop members of his congregation from doing late in Footloose?
Burning library books
Burning library books is the step too far: the reverend scolds his own flock and sends them home, the first sign he is ready to bend on the dance.
Q 24Which song beat two Footloose nominees to the 1984 Oscar for Best Original Song?
I Just Called to Say I Love You
'I Just Called to Say I Love You' won for Stevie Wonder, so Footloose left empty-handed despite holding two of the five nominations: its title track and 'Let's Hear It for the Boy'.
Q 25Who sings the title song of Footloose, a US number one in 1984?
Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins wrote most of it with the film's screenwriter over a few days in a Lake Tahoe hotel room, nursing a rib injury from a fall at a concert while his co-writer hid a case of strep throat.
Q 26Who sang 'Let's Hear It for the Boy', the second number-one hit from Footloose?
Deniece Williams
Deniece Williams sings it over the montage in which Ren teaches his friend Willard, who can't dance a step, how to keep time.
Q 27Which singer recorded 'Holding Out for a Hero' for the Footloose soundtrack?
Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler got a song built to order: the lyricist studied Jim Steinman's Meat Loaf epics and wrote the opening lines in that style to lure him in as co-writer.
Q 28The singer of the Footloose title song earned what nickname for hits from Caddyshack and Top Gun?
King of the Movie Soundtrack
King of the Movie Soundtrack was earned with 'I'm Alright' from Caddyshack and 'Danger Zone' from Top Gun, yet of all his film songs only 'Footloose' reached number one.
Q 29The director of the 1984 Footloose had first made his name in what role?
Choreographer
Choreographer first: he staged dances for Broadway musicals and for films such as Funny Girl, and was in his forties before he directed a picture of his own.
Q 30Which director of Hustle & Flow made the 2011 Footloose remake?
Craig Brewer
Craig Brewer rewrote the script as well as directing, sharing the writing credit with the man who wrote the 1984 original.