Jerry Maguire Trivia
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This Jerry Maguire trivia quiz has 49 free questions with answers and follows the 1996 film from the mission statement that gets Jerry fired to the $11.2 million contract that makes Rod Tidwell cry on television. The plot questions cover Bob Sugar's coup, the Cushman handshake, Dorothy's move to San Diego that never happens, the Christmas Day game against Dallas, the divorcee support group and the little boy who thinks the human head weighs eight pounds. Then it goes behind the camera: the real agent and client who inspired the story, the Disney memo, why Tom Hanks didn't play Jerry, who nearly played Dorothy and Rod, and the Eagles guitarist and Rolling Stone founder hiding in the cast. The last stretch takes in Nancy Wilson's score, the Aimee Mann song that was cut, Springsteen's 'Secret Garden', the Reebok commercial that vanished, the box office, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Oscar, the AFI-ranked quotes and the art collective hoarding 40,000 VHS copies. Every answer has been checked against the film's Wikipedia page, and each explanation adds one detail worth remembering.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Jerry Maguire's director Cameron Crowe drew on his teenage years as a Rolling Stone reporter for which later film?
Almost Famous
Almost Famous. Crowe was 15 when he started interviewing rock stars for the magazine, and the film won him the screenplay Oscar that Jerry Maguire had only been nominated for.
Q 02In Jerry Maguire, who plays Rod Tidwell, the disgruntled receiver who becomes Jerry's only client?
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Cuba Gooding Jr. The part was written for a much taller man, but he won it on exuberance: told at a reading that Rod was naked in the scene, he dropped his trousers on the spot.
Q 03In Jerry Maguire, which NFL team does Rod Tidwell play for?
Arizona Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals. Rod wants ten million dollars to stay in the desert, and when the team comes back with far less he gambles on playing out his contract instead.
Q 04Which actress plays Dorothy Boyd, the single mother who follows Jerry out of the office?
Renée Zellweger
Renée Zellweger. Her callback fell flat, on a day when her dog was sick and she was rattled; invited back after the search had moved on, she read with Tom Cruise and the part was hers.
Q 05In Jerry Maguire, which child actor plays Dorothy's son Ray?
Jonathan Lipnicki
Jonathan Lipnicki. He replaced another boy weeks into filming with one McDonald's advert to his name, and Ray's line that the human head weighs eight pounds was his own idea.
Q 06In Jerry Maguire, who plays Bob Sugar, the protégé sent to fire Jerry?
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr. He auditioned to be the golden-boy quarterback; the director, who remembered him from Saturday Night Live, liked him too much to lose and made him the oily protégé instead.
Q 07Which actor plays Frank 'Cush' Cushman, the quarterback prospect expected to go first in the draft?
Jerry O'Connell
Jerry O'Connell. Ten years earlier he had been Vern, the chubby kid in Stand by Me; here he is the golden boy every team in the draft wants.
Q 08In Jerry Maguire, who plays Avery Bishop, Jerry's fiancée at the start of the film?
Kelly Preston
Kelly Preston. Avery's idea of comfort after Jerry is fired is a pep talk that lets slip the word 'loser', and the engagement does not survive it.
Q 09In Jerry Maguire, who plays Marcee Tidwell, Rod's fiercely loyal wife?
Regina King
Regina King. Marcee is the toughest negotiator in the film: she reads the team's offer, pronounces it below average and tells Rod to turn it down.
Q 10In Jerry Maguire, who plays Laurel, Dorothy's sceptical sister?
Bonnie Hunt
Bonnie Hunt. Laurel is the voice of caution, forever reminding Dorothy that a single mother needs a job with medical cover more than she needs a crush on her boss.
Q 11In Jerry Maguire, what is the name of the agency that fires Jerry at the start of the film?
Sports Management International
Sports Management International. Jerry's memo reminds SMI that it began as a small company and calls for fewer clients and less money; within days he has exactly that, one client and no salary.
Q 12In Jerry Maguire, what triggers Jerry's late-night epiphany and mission statement?
Criticism from an injured player's son
Criticism from an injured player's son. The boy asks who will make his father, a hockey player on his fourth concussion, stop; Jerry's glib answer earns a two-word reply that keeps him awake.
Q 13Why does Jerry lose Cushman despite a visit to the family home?
Q 21Jerry Maguire's mission statement was partly inspired by a 28-page memo written at Disney in 1991 by whom?
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg. His memo attacked the blockbuster mentality behind films such as his own studio's Dick Tracy; it was passed around Hollywood for years, and he left three years later to co-found DreamWorks.
Q 22Cameron Crowe wrote the part of Jerry Maguire with which star in mind, before Tom Cruise took it?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks. He chose to direct his own That Thing You Do! instead, and broke the news so charmingly that Crowe only realised he had been turned down after hanging up.
Q 23Which Tom Petty song does Jerry Maguire find on the car radio and belt out after keeping his star quarterback?
Free Fallin'
They secretly signed with Bob Sugar
They secretly signed with Bob Sugar. Cush's father had refused a contract, swearing his word was stronger than oak; on the eve of the draft he admits they signed with the rival an hour earlier.
Q 14As Jerry Maguire storms out of his agency, what does he take from the office to join his new company?
A fish from the tank
A fish from the tank. 'These fish have manners,' he tells the silent office, bagging one; of the humans he invites along, only Dorothy Boyd gets up and follows.
Q 15In Jerry Maguire, where does Dorothy plan to move for a more secure job with health benefits?
San Diego
San Diego. Rather than lose her, Jerry proposes on the spot, and the two are married in her back garden.
Q 16In Jerry Maguire, Rod's make-or-break touchdown comes on Monday Night Football against which team?
Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys. Rod is knocked unconscious making the winning catch; when he finally gets to his feet he dances for the crowd, while Jerry is on the phone to Marcee from the touchline.
Q 17In Jerry Maguire, who hears Dorothy say 'You had me at hello'?
Her sister's divorcee support group
Her sister's divorcee support group. Women who meet to pick over the men who let them down get a front-row seat for Jerry's plea; the actress said she first took the reply for a typo.
Q 18In Jerry Maguire, where is Rod Tidwell when he learns that Jerry has finally won him his big contract?
On live television
On live television. The news comes from real sportscaster Roy Firestone, mid-interview; Rod, who has just insisted he will not cry, sobs his way through a list of thank-yous.
Q 19In Jerry Maguire's final scene, Ray's strong throw sets Jerry and Dorothy talking about his future in which sport?
Baseball
Baseball. A stray ball from a pickup game lands near them and Ray hurls it back over the fence, at which the agent in Jerry cannot help sizing up his stepson.
Q 20Which real sports agent inspired Jerry Maguire and served as the film's technical consultant?
Leigh Steinberg
Leigh Steinberg. He opened doors for the director, who travelled with athletes, owners and agents to research the script; his rival Drew Rosenhaus appears in the film as himself.
Free Fallin'. He spins through several wrong songs before it turns up, and the published screenplay still has him singing a different Petty hit, Refugee.
Q 24Which actress lost the role of Dorothy Boyd after a final screen test with Tom Cruise?
Connie Britton
Connie Britton. By her own account she had flown to New York to read with Cruise and believed the part was hers, until she heard on the day that the producers wanted to test just one more actress.
Q 25Which legendary director turned down the part of Dicky Fox, Jerry Maguire's mentor?
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder. Courted for months, he told Crowe he was no actor and that a director must always hire one; the friendship that followed became Crowe's book of conversations with him.
Q 26Jerry Maguire's score was written by Cameron Crowe's then-wife, a member of which rock band?
Heart
Heart. Guitarist Nancy Wilson, half of the sister act behind Barracuda, swapped the band's hard rock for a film score, and Crowe dedicated the published screenplay to her.
Q 27Aimee Mann's 'Wise Up', written for Jerry Maguire but cut from it, later turned up in which 1999 film?
Magnolia
Magnolia. Crowe had laid her piano demo over a scene of Jerry crossing an airport; the finished recording felt too big for so small a moment, and he still calls it the one that got away.
Q 28Which Bruce Springsteen song returned to the charts after featuring in Jerry Maguire, reaching No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100?
Secret Garden
Secret Garden. A Portland radio programmer spliced lines of the film's dialogue into the ballad as a novelty; it was his most requested track within a day, and 150 stations copied him.
Q 29Which sportswear company put over $1.5 million into Jerry Maguire, only for its advert to be cut from the cinema release?
Reebok
Reebok. What stayed in was Rod's rant against the brand, so it sued; the case was settled out of court, and the advert was back in place when the film reached television.
Q 30In Jerry Maguire, how do a couple in a lift first say 'You complete me' to each other?
In sign language
In sign language. Dorothy, who has a deaf aunt, translates for Jerry, and he borrows the words later; Crowe has said the line grew out of a Joni Mitchell song, Court and Spark.