60 free Killers of the Flower Moon trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Killers of the Flower Moon trivia quiz covers all three layers of the story: Martin Scorsese's 2023 film, David Grann's 2017 book, and the real killings of wealthy Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma that both are built on. The film questions get into how DiCaprio talked his way out of playing the FBI agent, the Zoom call that won Lily Gladstone the part, the composer the film is dedicated to, the Cannes ovation, the ten Oscar nominations that produced no wins, and the closing radio-drama scene in which Scorsese himself reads Mollie's obituary. The history questions go to the sources behind the script: where the Osage were relocated from, the year oil was found, the guardianship law that made the crimes possible, how Anna Brown's death was first explained away, the bomb at the Smith house, the hitman's price for killing Henry Roan, the paroles, the pardon and the 2011 settlement with the U.S. government. Roughly a third of the questions are answerable by anyone who saw the film once; the rest reward people who read the book or went down the Osage County rabbit hole afterwards. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the film, the book, the murders and the people involved before it was published.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) was how many feature-film collaborations between Scorsese and DiCaprio?
Sixth
It was also the tenth Scorsese film with De Niro; the three of them had worked together only once before, on the 2015 short The Audition.
Q 02Who co-wrote the Killers of the Flower Moon screenplay with Martin Scorsese?
Eric Roth
Their first draft, told from the investigators' point of view, ran nearly 200 pages before DiCaprio asked where the heart of the story was.
Q 03Which New Yorker staff writer wrote the 2017 nonfiction book the film is based on?
David Grann
His earlier book The Lost City of Z was also filmed; Time listed the Osage book among its top ten nonfiction titles of 2017.
Q 04What is the subtitle of the book Killers of the Flower Moon?
The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
The book gives far more space than the film to J. Edgar Hoover and the young Bureau of Investigation using the case as a showcase.
Q 05The "flower moon" of the title is the traditional name for the full moon of which month?
May
The Old Farmer's Almanac began publishing the tribal names for each full moon in the 1930s.
Q 06The book's title came from "Wi'-gi-e", a poem in Mollie Kyle's voice by which Osage poet?
Elise Paschen
The author tracked her down and she sent him the poem, part of which is printed in the book.
Q 07Ernest Burkhart, DiCaprio's character, is what relation to De Niro's William Hale?
Nephew
Ernest returns from World War I to live on Hale's ranch with his brother Byron, and Hale steers him toward marrying Mollie Kyle.
Q 08Which role, eventually played by Jesse Plemons, was originally written for DiCaprio?
BOI agent Tom White
DiCaprio pushed to play Ernest Burkhart instead, and Scorsese and his co-writer rebuilt the script around the Osage perspective and the Burkhart marriage.
Q 09De Niro's William Hale was known locally by what nickname?
The King of Osage
A rancher and reserve deputy sheriff, he posed as the tribe's benefactor while arranging the deaths of Mollie's family.
Q 10Lily Gladstone was raised on which reservation in Montana?
Blackfeet
She is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce descent on her father's side, and decided to act at age five after wanting to be an Ewok.
Q 11Casting director Ellen Lewis tipped Scorsese off to Lily Gladstone by showing him which 2016 film?
Certain Women
Her role as a lonely rancher in Kelly Reichardt's film had already won her the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's supporting-actress prize.
Q 12Lily Gladstone won the role after a Zoom call with Scorsese in which they discussed what?
Catholicism
DiCaprio endorsed her after his own video call, and the Osage Nation then gave its approval too.
Q 13Lily Gladstone won the Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Actress but lost the Oscar to whom?
Emma Stone
The winner said she "blacked out" in shock; Gladstone had been the first Indigenous American actress ever nominated in the category.
Q 21Scorsese cited which director's Midsommar and Beau Is Afraid as inspirations for the slower pacing?
Ari Aster
Paul Thomas Anderson, rumoured to have done uncredited rewrites, said he had merely offered his thoughts.
Q 22Scorsese himself appears on screen in the film's final scene as what?
A radio show producer
His co-writer wrote the closing tribute to Mollie, and Scorsese read it himself because he felt he could not direct another actor to do it.
Q 23Which rock musician appears as an actor in the closing radio-drama scene?
Jack White
The scene's bandleader is played by real jazz-revival bandleader Vince Giordano.
Q 14How many Academy Award nominations did Killers of the Flower Moon receive?
10
It won none of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor for De Niro.
Q 15Which Scorsese film, like Gangs of New York, was shut out at the Oscars despite 10+ nominations?
The Irishman
Billboard called the repeat "hard to explain" for a director it described as a legend.
Q 16At 81, Scorsese became the oldest Best Director nominee ever, eclipsing which director?
John Huston
It was his tenth directing nomination, more than anyone alive at the time.
Q 17Which longtime Scorsese editor earned a record ninth Best Film Editing nomination for the film?
Thelma Schoonmaker
She and Scorsese publicly defended the three-and-a-half-hour running time against critics.
Q 18Who composed the score for Killers of the Flower Moon, his last before his death two months before release?
Robbie Robertson
The film is dedicated to him; it was his eleventh collaboration with Scorsese and brought a posthumous Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.
Q 19The film's composer, formerly of The Band, had heritage from which two Indigenous nations?
Cayuga and Mohawk
Critics described his score as old-timey, bluesy and percussive, and it sits alongside 1920s pop and Native American songs.
Q 20Who was the film's cinematographer, a Scorsese regular since The Wolf of Wall Street?
Rodrigo Prieto
He shot mostly on film and, as the story darkens, switched to the harsh, desaturated Technicolor ENR process.
Q 24Country singer Jason Isbell plays which character in the film?
Bill Smith
His character marries two of Mollie's sisters in turn; the real man survived the blast for four days and gave a statement naming his suspected killers.
Q 25Brendan Fraser plays W. S. Hamilton, who is what in the story?
Hale's attorney
He tries to persuade Ernest to claim he was tortured into confessing and to recant.
Q 26John Lithgow plays Peter Leaward, who fills what role in the trials?
Lead prosecutor
Lithgow and Fraser were the last major additions to the cast, joining in August 2021 while filming was already under way.
Q 27Tantoo Cardinal plays Lizzie Q, who is what to Mollie?
Her mother
In the film, her ancestors welcome her to the afterlife as she dies; in reality Lizzie's death was first put down to old age.
Q 28Hale orders Ernest to poison the medicine Mollie takes for which condition?
Diabetes
Ernest shows the same symptoms after ingesting some himself; agents get Mollie to hospital, where repeated poisoning is confirmed.
Q 29In the film, Mollie travels to Washington to plead for help from which president?
Calvin Coolidge
The scene follows the killing of an Osage representative sent to lobby Congress.
Q 30Ernest finally agrees to testify against his uncle after his daughter dies of which illness?
Whooping cough
Mollie leaves him anyway when he refuses to admit he poisoned her.