50 free Good Will Hunting trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Good Will Hunting trivia questions with answers. Good Will Hunting started as a homework assignment Matt Damon turned in late and too long, spent a year at Castle Rock as a thriller about the NSA, and only got made because Robin Williams cut his fee and Kevin Smith walked the script into Harvey Weinstein's office. Then it won two Oscars. This quiz runs 50 questions on the film itself (the bench, the bar, 'It's not your fault', Sean's World Series story, the NSA speech), the cast (Williams, Skarsgård, Minnie Driver, the Afflecks), the long road to production (the $600,000 sale, the oral-sex test scenes, Mel Gibson, Terrence Malick's ending) and the aftermath: nine nominations, the youngest screenwriting winners ever, Elliott Smith in a white suit at the Oscars. It starts easy and works up to questions for people who know who Derrick Bridgeman is. Every answer has been checked against reference sources, shown under each question once you answer, so it works for a movie night or a 90s film round at pub trivia.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting?
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
They won the Oscar for it; Affleck at 25 became the youngest screenwriting winner ever, Damon at 27 the second youngest.
Q 02Who directed Good Will Hunting?
Gus Van Sant
Affleck and Damon wanted him from the start; Miramax also met with Michael Mann, Ben Stiller, Mel Gibson and Chris Columbus first.
Q 03How did the script begin life?
A late Harvard playwriting assignment of Damon's
He turned in about 40 pages instead of the one-act play requested; only the first Will-and-Sean scene survived verbatim.
Q 04What was Will Hunting's job at MIT?
Janitor
He was placed there through a programme for parolees; Affleck's father and his girlfriend had worked as janitors at Harvard.
Q 05Which star plays the therapist Sean Maguire, in what many consider his finest dramatic role?
Robin Williams
Affleck and Damon wrote the part as 'the Harvey Keitel part' and had improvised it on tape imitating Morgan Freeman.
Q 06Where does Sean Maguire teach psychology?
Bunker Hill Community College
He is Lambeau's old college roommate and a fellow Southie.
Q 07Who plays MIT professor Gerald Lambeau?
Stellan Skarsgård
He received the script while shooting Spielberg's Amistad.
Q 08Who plays Skylar, the Harvard student Will falls for?
Minnie Driver
Weinstein said he had wanted Ashley Judd; Driver later said he sent a sexist note objecting to her casting, which he denied.
Q 09Where is Skylar planning to go to medical school?
Stanford
Will's refusal to move to California with her triggers their breakup and, eventually, his final drive west 'to see about a girl'.
Q 10What was the script originally about, before 60 pages were cut?
A physics genius chased by NSA agents
Rob Reiner and William Goldman both told them to drop the thriller and focus on Will and Sean.
Q 11Which studio first bought the script in November 1994, and for how much?
Castle Rock, for $600,000
They took the deal on Richard Linklater's advice and blew the money in six months, partly on a Jeep Cherokee and a party house by the Hollywood Bowl.
Q 12How did the writers test whether their first studio's executives were still reading the rewrites?
They inserted a scene of Will and Sean having oral sex
Nobody at Castle Rock mentioned it; Harvey Weinstein asked them to remove it, proving he had read the script.
Q 13Which director brought the script to Harvey Weinstein at Miramax and served as executive producer?
Q 21Which singer-songwriter wrote 'Miss Misery' for the film and performed it at the Oscars?
Elliott Smith
He had to be talked into performing, said he mainly wanted to wear his white suit, and lost to 'My Heart Will Go On'.
Q 22Which song beat 'Miss Misery' to the Best Original Song Oscar?
My Heart Will Go On
Madonna announced the winner with a sarcastic 'What a shocker!' but later said she greatly admired Smith.
Q 23Who composed the film's score?
Danny Elfman
He also arranged Elliott Smith's 'Between the Bars' with strings and reworked 'Miss Misery' for the awards shows.
Kevin Smith
Affleck had asked him to direct; Smith said he 'wouldn't dare' given its beauty.
Q 14How much did Miramax pay to buy the script out of turnaround in 1995?
$1 million
Castle Rock had given the duo 30 days to find a buyer at that price or lose the film.
Q 15Which Braveheart director developed the film for months before Damon asked him to step aside?
Mel Gibson
Damon feared he and Affleck would be too old for the roles by the time Gibson was free.
Q 16Where did the writers get the title Good Will Hunting?
A script by high-school friend Derrick Bridgeman
They promised him $10,000 for it if the film sold; he appears as a student in one of Lambeau's classes.
Q 17The star playing Sean slashed his usual eight-figure fee to what?
$5 million
His deal gave him a growing share of first-dollar gross once the film passed a box-office threshold Miramax did not believe it would reach.
Q 18What was the film's approximate budget and worldwide gross?
$10 million and $226 million
It opened one week before Titanic and was praised as a textbook piece of counterprogramming.
Q 19How did Good Will Hunting fare at the 70th Academy Awards?
Nine nods, two wins
Wins for Williams and for the screenplay; Damon, Driver, Van Sant, editor Pietro Scalia, Elfman and Elliott Smith were among the nominees.
Q 20At what age did the film's co-writer become the youngest person ever to win a screenwriting Oscar?
25
Damon was 27, making him the second youngest.
Q 24Which sporting event did Sean give up tickets to on the night he met his wife?
Game 6 of the 1975 World Series
He told his friends he had to go 'see about a girl'; the producers tried to get the Red Sox to license Carlton Fisk's home run footage.
Q 25What are the last words of the film, improvised on set by the actor playing Sean?
Son of a bitch stole my line
Williams improvised often on set and needed at least seven takes to feel he had covered every emotion.
Q 26Which famous line did Van Sant initially cut before the writers insisted it stay?
How do you like them apples?
It comes at the end of the Harvard bar scene where Will humiliates a ponytailed grad student.
Q 27What phrase does Sean repeat to Will in the film's emotional climax?
It's not your fault
It follows their conversation about both being victims of childhood abuse.
Q 28Where were most of the film's interiors shot?
Toronto
University of Toronto buildings like Knox College and Whitney Hall stood in for MIT and Harvard; the exteriors were done around Boston.
Q 29Where was the famous bench scene between Will and Sean filmed, drawing 3,000 onlookers?
Boston Public Garden
Boston police had to provide security while Damon and Williams shot it.
Q 30Which South Boston bar did the actor playing Sean insist on filming in after a night out there?
L Street Tavern
He liked the gritty atmosphere and rang Weinstein to say he wanted scenes shot there.