50 free Scarface trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Scarface trivia questions with answers. Scarface flopped with critics in 1983 and then became one of the most quoted films ever made. This quiz covers the whole story of Tony Montana - the Mariel boatlift, Freedomtown, the chainsaw in the motel, Frank and Elvira, Sosa's Bolivia, the New York hit Tony would not finish and the mansion shootout under 'The World Is Yours'. It also goes behind the camera: Oliver Stone writing the script in Paris to escape his own cocaine habit, the director who was replaced, the actors considered for Manny and Elvira, why Miami would not let them film there, the three X ratings and the 17-3 appeal, the 226 F-words, Pacino's burned hand, and the Montecito mansion that played a Miami palace. A final section covers Howard Hawks's 1932 original with Paul Muni, the coin-flipping George Raft and the X motif. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has seen it once; the rest reward people who own the anniversary edition. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed the 1983 Scarface?
Brian De Palma
He was Martin Bregman's replacement for Sidney Lumet, who had first been attached.
Q 02Who wrote the screenplay for the 1983 Scarface?
Oliver Stone
He researched it while fighting his own cocaine habit and moved to Paris to write it clean.
Q 03Where did the screenwriter go to write the script, believing he could not kick his addiction in the US?
Paris
He has said the film's cocaine paranoia came straight out of his own experience.
Q 04Which director was originally attached to the 1983 film before being replaced?
Sidney Lumet
Lumet's idea to make Tony a Cuban refugee survived his departure.
Q 05Who produced the 1983 Scarface?
Martin Bregman
Bregman was also Al Pacino's longtime manager and produced Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon.
Q 06The 1983 film is a remake of a gangster picture from which year?
1932
The original was Howard Hawks's pre-Code shocker inspired by Al Capone.
Q 07Al Pacino's Tony Montana arrives in Miami as part of which real 1980 event?
The Mariel boatlift
Some 125,000 Cubans reached Florida over six months when Castro briefly opened the port of Mariel.
Q 08Who plays Manny Ribera, Tony's best friend?
Steven Bauer
Bauer, born in Havana, was the only Cuban among the leads and earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 09Which actress plays Elvira Hancock?
Michelle Pfeiffer
Glenn Close had been the original choice for the role.
Q 10Who was the original choice to play Elvira before the part went elsewhere?
Glenn Close
The role instead launched a then little-known actress into stardom.
Q 11Which actor was considered for the role of Manny?
John Travolta
Travolta was coming off Grease and Urban Cowboy at the time.
Q 12Who plays Tony's sister Gina?
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
It was her film debut; she later starred in The Abyss and The Color of Money.
Q 13Which actor plays Miami drug lord Frank Lopez?
Robert Loggia
Loggia's Frank teaches Tony the two rules: never underestimate the other guy's greed, and never get high on your own supply.
Which future Amadeus Oscar winner plays Omar Suarez?
Q 21What role does Tony take on after marrying Elvira?
Distributor of Sosa's cocaine
He builds a mansion, a tiger enclosure and a mountain of paranoia on the proceeds.
Q 22Why does Tony refuse to complete Sosa's assassination in New York?
The target's wife and children are in the car
He shoots Sosa's bomber Alberto instead, sealing his own fate.
Q 23Tony's body falls into the pool at the base of a globe bearing what motto?
The World Is Yours
F. Murray Abraham
Omar ends up hanged from a helicopter on Sosa's orders.
Q 15Who plays the Bolivian cocaine kingpin Alejandro Sosa?
Paul Shenar
Frank sends Tony and Omar to Bolivia to negotiate with him.
Q 16How does Frank Lopez arrange green cards for Tony and Manny?
In exchange for killing a former Castro henchman
The killing happens in the Freedomtown refugee camp during a riot.
Q 17What weapon do the Colombians use to kill Angel while Tony is forced to watch?
A chainsaw
Two prominent novelists said they walked out of the film after that scene.
Q 18Which two novelists reportedly walked out of the film after the motel torture scene?
Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving
The scene is actually far less graphic than viewers remember; the camera cuts away.
Q 19Where does Frank send Tony and Omar to meet Sosa?
Bolivia
The meeting sets up Tony's rise and Omar's very short helicopter ride.
Q 20Who actually pulls the trigger on Frank Lopez?
Manny
Tony has Manny do it, then personally shoots the corrupt cop Bernstein.
He first sees the phrase on a Goodyear-style blimp over Miami.
Q 24What is the film's running time?
170 minutes
Nearly three hours, and the studio never asked De Palma to cut it for the R.
Q 25What was the 1983 film's US box office gross?
$66.4 million
A modest hit in 1983, it became a monster on home video and in hip-hop culture.
Q 26On what date did Scarface open in US theaters?
December 9, 1983
It had premiered in New York City eight days earlier, on December 1.
Q 27What rating did the MPAA initially give the film?
X
The board cited 'excessive and cumulative violence and language'; the appeal board overturned it 17-3.
Q 28By what vote did the appeals board overturn the X rating in favour of an R?
17 to 3
De Palma later admitted he released the version he had originally submitted anyway.
Q 29How many times is the F-word used in the film?
226
That works out to more than once a minute for nearly three hours.
Q 30Why was much of the picture shot in Los Angeles rather than Florida?
The Miami Tourist Board turned the production down
Cuban-American groups had objected to the script's portrayal of refugees.