The Green Mile Trivia
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49 free The Green Mile trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
40 free The Green Mile trivia questions with answers. The Green Mile started as a six-part serial paperback in 1996 and became one of the most-loved Stephen King films three years later. This quiz covers both: Cold Mountain Penitentiary and the linoleum that gives the Mile its name, John Coffey's gift and his fear of the dark, Percy Wetmore's dry sponge, Wild Bill, Del and Mr. Jingles, Warden Moores' wife, Top Hat, and Paul Edgecomb still alive at 108. It also covers how the film got made: Tom Hanks meeting Frank Darabont, Bruce Willis getting Michael Clarke Duncan the part, the Shaq rumour, the four Oscar nominations and the fight with the British censors. Easy questions ask who plays Paul and what animal Mr. Jingles is; the hard ones want the mouse's other name, the year King moved the story to, and how long the film's opening weekend trailed Toy Story 2. Written for King readers, film buffs and anyone who still cannot watch Del's execution. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, the film and the cast, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which was the first published novel by Stephen King, author of The Green Mile?
Carrie
Carrie: King threw his opening pages in the bin, but his wife Tabitha fished them out, read them and urged him to keep going.
Q 02How was The Green Mile novel originally published?
In six monthly paperback volumes
In six monthly paperback volumes: King wanted the suspense of the old serials, where no reader could skip ahead to the ending and everyone had time to guess at the next twist.
Q 03Stephen King modelled the original release of The Green Mile on the practice of which Victorian novelist?
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens: King put out the opening of the story before he knew how it would end, which bound him to finish it while readers could not peek ahead.
Q 04In Stephen King's The Green Mile, what gives the death row block its nickname?
The linoleum on the floor
The linoleum on the floor: most prisons called the walk to the electric chair the Last Mile, but this one's faded lime-green floor earned it a name of its own.
Q 05What is the name of the prison where the story takes place?
Cold Mountain Penitentiary
Briar Ridge is the mental hospital Percy is bound for; Trapingus County is where the murders happened.
Q 06In The Green Mile, what part does Toot-Toot, the old trustee who sells snacks, play when the guards rehearse an execution?
The condemned man
The condemned man: strapped into the chair, Toot-Toot cracks vulgar jokes until every guard is laughing except Paul, who orders them to take it seriously.
Q 07Paul doubts John Coffey could have planned the crime he was convicted of, partly because Coffey is unable to do what?
Tie a simple knot
Tie a simple knot: yet at his trial the prosecution argued he had silenced the family's watchdog and carefully planned the whole crime.
Q 08In The Green Mile, what crime was John Coffey convicted of?
Raping and murdering two young girls
Raping and murdering two young girls: he was found holding their bodies, but he had really been trying to bring them back to life.
Q 09In The Green Mile, what does the guard Percy Wetmore do to Del's pet mouse, Mr. Jingles?
Stomps on him
Stomps on him: Del's pet looks dead, but John Coffey urgently asks for the body and revives the mouse.
Q 10In The Green Mile, what does the guard Brutus Howell call the mouse before Del names him Mr. Jingles?
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie: the mouse peers into each cell as though searching for someone, and Paul later decides it had been waiting for Del all along.
Q 11In The Green Mile, why must guards tolerate the cruel Percy Wetmore?
He is the nephew of the governor's wife
He is the nephew of the governor's wife: to be rid of him, Paul lets Percy run an execution on the promise that he then moves to a job at a mental hospital.
Q 12In The Green Mile, how does the guard Percy Wetmore sabotage Del's execution?
He leaves the electrode-cap sponge dry
He leaves the electrode-cap sponge dry: it is revenge on Del, who had mocked Percy for wetting himself in fright.
Q 13In The Green Mile, what illness is Warden Hal Moores' wife Melinda dying of?
Q 21In The Green Mile, which death row inmate was convicted of killing a man in a fight over boots?
Arlen Bitterbuck
Arlen Bitterbuck: as his body is taken away, the guard Percy mocks the dead man to his face, telling him he hopes hell is hot enough for him.
Q 22In King's novel The Green Mile, what becomes of the inmate Arthur 'The President' Flanders?
Commuted to life in prison
Commuted to life in prison: yet 12 years after John Coffey's execution, he is murdered by another inmate.
Q 23Who wrote and directed the 1999 film of Stephen King's novel The Green Mile?
Frank Darabont
An inoperable brain tumour
An inoperable brain tumour: to reach her, the guards smuggle John Coffey out of the prison so that he can try to heal her.
Q 14In The Green Mile, which ailment of Paul Edgecombe's does John Coffey cure first?
A urinary tract infection
A urinary tract infection: John Coffey absorbs it into his own body, then breathes it out as a swarm of black insects.
Q 15In The Green Mile, how does John Coffey learn that Wild Bill Wharton is the real killer?
Wharton grabs his arm
Wharton grabs his arm: so John Coffey holds on to the sickness he draws out of the warden's wife and pours it into Percy, who then shoots Wharton dead.
Q 16In The Green Mile, which Wild West figure does the killer Wild Bill Wharton prefer to be named after?
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid: calling himself Will Bonney, Wharton was hired to help paint the victims' family barn shortly before the crime.
Q 17In The Green Mile, how does Wild Bill Wharton fool the guards on his arrival?
He acts dazed and drugged
He acts dazed and drugged: once the guards lead him onto E Block, he suddenly attacks the guard Dean Stanton and tries to strangle him to death.
Q 18In The Green Mile, why does John Coffey refuse the black hood at his execution?
He is afraid of the dark
He is afraid of the dark, yet he is ready to die, because he is tired of the cruelty and pain he feels in the world.
Q 19In the film of The Green Mile, how does the elderly Paul Edgecomb regard his unnaturally long life?
As a punishment
As a punishment: having outlived everyone he loved, Paul sees his long life as the price of sending John Coffey, a miracle of God, to his death.
Q 20In Stephen King's novel The Green Mile, how does Paul's wife Janice die in 1956?
In a bus accident
In a bus accident: on the day she dies, Paul believes he glimpses the ghost of John Coffey standing in the shadows near the wreck.
Frank Darabont: at 20, before he had worked a day in films, he wrote to King asking to film one of his short stories, and King let him have the rights for a dollar.
Q 24In 2001, which film director criticised The Green Mile's John Coffey as a 'magical Negro' character?
Spike Lee
Spike Lee: fresh from his own satire Bamboozled, he asked students why Black characters given such powers only ever use them for the benefit of white people.
Q 25Who plays the death row guard Paul Edgecomb in the 1999 film The Green Mile?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks: Stephen King had already pictured him in the role, so the author was delighted when the director cast him as Paul.
Q 26Why did Tom Hanks not also play the elderly Paul Edgecomb, as originally planned?
The old-age makeup tests were not credible
Character actor Dabbs Greer took the part in his final film role, at 82.
Q 27Which Armageddon star did Michael Clarke Duncan credit with getting him his audition for The Green Mile?
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis: on hearing of the casting call for the role, he contacted the director himself to recommend his Armageddon co-star.
Q 28Which basketball star has said he turned down the role of John Coffey in the film The Green Mile?
Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal: he said he did not want to play a Black prisoner in the old South, then called it the right decision because Michael Clarke Duncan did far better than he could have.
Q 29Which actor played the unhinged killer Wild Bill Wharton in the 1999 film The Green Mile?
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell: the film-makers had at one point considered Josh Brolin for the part, before Rockwell took on the violent killer.
Q 30Who played the sadistic guard Percy Wetmore in the 1999 film The Green Mile?
Doug Hutchison
Doug Hutchison: his Percy ends up catatonic and locked away in Briar Ridge, the very mental hospital where he had angled for a job.