Magnolia (1999 Film)
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50 free Magnolia (1999 Film) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Magnolia is Paul Thomas Anderson's three-hour mosaic of one strange day in Los Angeles: a crowd of lonely people, two deathbeds, a televised quiz and a storm nobody forgets. It made Quiz Kid Donnie Smith a name people still look up, and it still splits audiences who cannot agree whether the ending is a miracle or a dare. This quiz covers the film the way fans remember it: the former child champion and the boy genius on the quiz show, the police officer, the motivational speaker and the families around them, plus the cast, the songs, the making of the film and how critics and awards juries received it. It is written for people who have seen the film at least once. The early questions stay with the big characters and moments; the later ones reward viewers who sat through the credits.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor plays the former child champion known as Quiz Kid Donnie Smith in Magnolia?
William H. Macy
William H. Macy got the role because the director felt he was scared of big emotional parts and wrote him a tearful one on purpose.
Q 02Which star won a Golden Globe for playing charismatic self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia?
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise sought out the director after admiring his previous film, and the rare supporting role also earned him an Oscar nomination.
Q 03In Magnolia, which television quiz show pits child prodigies against adults under host Jimmy Gator?
What Do Kids Know?
What Do Kids Know? is also the show that made Donnie Smith briefly famous as a boy, decades before the day the film covers.
Q 04In Magnolia, what does lovesick former quiz champion Donnie Smith plan to pay for with stolen money?
Dental braces
Dental braces are his way to impress a bartender who wears them, and the scheme ends with his own teeth smashed in a fall.
Q 05What does Los Angeles police officer Jim Kurring lose while chasing a suspect in Magnolia?
His gun
His gun vanishes during the chase, and after the storm of frogs it simply falls back out of the sky.
Q 06Magnolia's rain of frogs echoes a plague from which Bible book, flagged by hidden 8s and 2s?
Exodus
Exodus 8:2 warns of a plague of frogs, yet the director says he had no idea of the Bible link when he first wrote the scene.
Q 07Which singer-songwriter's songs inspired Paul Thomas Anderson to write Magnolia and fill its soundtrack?
Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann has nine songs on the soundtrack album, and the director described his script as an adaptation of her songs.
Q 08In Magnolia, what role does Philip Seymour Hoffman's Phil Parma fill at dying Earl Partridge's bedside?
His nurse
His nurse spends the day trying to reach the one person the dying man asks for, in a part written to be simple and caring.
Q 09How is self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey related to dying producer Earl Partridge in Magnolia?
His son
His son has shunned him for years, because Earl walked out and left the boy to care for his dying mother alone.
Q 10In Magnolia, Henry Gibson's barfly Thurston Howell shares his name with a millionaire from which sitcom?
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island had its own Thurston Howell, a castaway tycoon played by Jim Backus; the film's version needles Donnie Smith at a bar.
Q 11In Magnolia, quiz host Jimmy Gator and producer Earl Partridge are both dying of which disease?
Cancer
Cancer also killed the director's own father, and much of the dying producer's material came from watching that happen.
Q 12Which two-time Oscar winner made his final film appearance as dying producer Earl Partridge in Magnolia?
Jason Robards
Jason Robards nearly lost the part to a staph infection, and returned to it only after another veteran actor turned it down.
Q 13Which actress plays Linda Partridge, the guilt-stricken young wife of a dying producer, in Magnolia?
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore had the part written for her, and agreed to go first when the nervous cast filmed its famous sing-along.
Q 21Which song do Magnolia's scattered characters all sing along to in one celebrated sequence?
Wise Up
Wise Up was first recorded for an earlier film, and several nervous actors only sang after one of the leads agreed to go first.
Q 22Which Oscar-nominated song was written for Magnolia and plays over the film's ending?
Save Me
Save Me got a music video shot on the film's own sets, with cast members asked to stay in place at the end of filming days.
Q 23Which British band's hits Goodbye Stranger and The Logical Song both feature in Magnolia?
Supertramp
Supertramp is the only band on the soundtrack album, which is otherwise the work of solo singers and the film's composer.
Q 14Which actor plays Jim Kurring, the lonely Los Angeles police officer looking for love in Magnolia?
John C. Reilly
John C. Reilly asked for a romantic part after years of playing heavies, and the character grew out of spoof police videos he shot with the director.
Q 15Which veteran character actor plays Jimmy Gator, the ailing quiz show host, in Magnolia?
Philip Baker Hall
Philip Baker Hall modelled the host on real television personalities such as Bob Barker and Arthur Godfrey.
Q 16Which 1997 ensemble hit gave Paul Thomas Anderson the clout to make Magnolia with final cut?
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights was still being edited when he began jotting down ideas for the next film, first imagined as a small 30-day shoot.
Q 17In which part of the Los Angeles area do Magnolia's interlocking stories unfold?
San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley was the point: the director said he wanted to make the area's all-time great epic movie.
Q 18During a quiz show taping in Magnolia, what do the adults refuse boy genius Stanley Spector?
A bathroom break
A bathroom break is denied during the commercials, so he wets himself once the cameras roll again and later runs away.
Q 19In Magnolia, who took all the prize money Donnie Smith won as a child quiz champion?
His parents
His parents kept every dollar, one of several threads in the film about adults who exploit or fail their children.
Q 20Magnolia's closing song lost the Best Original Song Oscar to a number from which animated film?
Tarzan
Tarzan won with Phil Collins's You'll Be in My Heart, on a night when Magnolia left empty-handed despite three nominations.
Q 24After the three-hour Magnolia, which far shorter Adam Sandler film did Paul Thomas Anderson make next?
Punch-Drunk Love
Punch-Drunk Love was a deliberate reaction: he vowed to keep his next film to about 90 minutes and wrote it for Sandler.
Q 25Which Chicago critic gave Magnolia four stars and later added it to his Great Movies list?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert ranked it his second favourite film of 1999, behind Being John Malkovich, and came back to praise it again in a 2008 essay.
Q 26Magnolia's Frank Mackey actor first met Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of which Stanley Kubrick film?
Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut had the star playing a repressed man, which the director believes made an outlandish, larger-than-life role appealing next.
Q 27Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia won the top prize at which major European film festival?
Berlin
Berlin gave the film its Golden Bear at the festival's 50th edition, where a newspaper's reader jury also chose it as its winner.
Q 28Magnolia ends on which character glancing into the camera and smiling as a suitor talks?
Claudia Wilson
Claudia Wilson smiles as Jim Kurring promises to make things work, and that smiling face was the first image the director had for the film.
Q 29In Magnolia, what does Donnie Smith climb while trying to return the money he stole?
A utility pole
A utility pole is his route to the roof because, after a change of heart, he finds he can no longer get back into the office.
Q 30Magnolia lost the Best Original Screenplay Oscar to which film that also won Best Picture that night?
American Beauty
American Beauty won for writer Alan Ball, beating a field of nominees that included Paul Thomas Anderson's script.