Shaun of the Dead Trivia
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This Shaun of the Dead trivia quiz has 40 free questions with answers and covers the whole of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's 2004 rom-zom-com, from the opening shuffle to the shop to the shed at the end. Expect questions on the cast (Nick Frost's film debut, Bill Nighy's cold tap, Penelope Wilton's Barbara), the plan and its several drafts, the garden fight fought with Shaun's record collection, the jukebox scene set to Queen, and the running 'You've got red on you' gag. It then goes behind the camera: the Spaced episode that started it all, the pub in New Cross that played the Winchester, the eight-week script, the studio that only signed on with a strange condition attached, George A. Romero's reaction and the cameo it earned Pegg and Wright, the awards, and the Cornetto trilogy that followed. About a third of the questions are warm-ups any fan will get; the rest climb toward details only a rewatch obsessive would know. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia, Wikiquote and the primary sources they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How do Shaun's group get past the horde to reach their pub in Shaun of the Dead?
Acting like zombies
Acting like zombies: the act holds until Ed pauses to chat on his phone, and the shouting match that follows draws the horde's attention.
Q 02In the opening scene of Shaun of the Dead, what is Ed playing in the pub?
A fruit machine
A fruit machine: during the siege Ed feeds the pub's machine again, and its racket draws the zombies straight to them.
Q 03Which cast member made his film debut in Shaun of the Dead?
Nick Frost
Nick Frost was waiting tables at a North London Chiquito when he met Pegg, who went on to co-write a part for him in Spaced.
Q 04What is the name of Shaun and Ed's favourite pub in Shaun of the Dead?
The Winchester
The Winchester: the rifle over its bar, which Shaun had insisted was fake, turns out to work during the siege.
Q 05In Shaun of the Dead, Kate Ashfield plays which character?
Liz
Liz: she dumps Shaun when his anniversary plans collapse into yet another night at the pub with Ed.
Q 06In Shaun of the Dead, what is Bill Nighy's character Philip to Shaun?
His stepfather
His stepfather: after years of friction, the bitten Philip tells Shaun he always loved him and asks him to look after his mum.
Q 07Who plays Shaun's mother, Barbara, in Shaun of the Dead?
Penelope Wilton
Penelope Wilton: Barbara keeps quiet about a zombie bite, and after she turns in the pub, Shaun is forced to shoot her.
Q 08In Shaun of the Dead, how is Dylan Moran's character David connected to the others?
Liz's housemate
Liz's housemate: when Shaun accuses David of being in love with her, it's Dianne who admits she has always known.
Q 09Which actress from The Office plays Dianne?
Lucy Davis
The cast was stacked with faces from Spaced, Black Books and The Office.
Q 10In Shaun of the Dead, which character does Jessica Stevenson, Pegg's Spaced co-creator, play?
Yvonne
Yvonne: after the pub siege, she turns up with the British Army and leads the last survivors to safety.
Q 11Which piece of sports gear does Shaun wield against zombies for much of Shaun of the Dead?
A cricket bat
A cricket bat: armed with it and Ed's spade, Shaun sets off to rescue his mum from the outbreak.
Q 12Why does Ed deliberately crash Pete's car in Shaun of the Dead?
To drive Philip's Jaguar
To drive Philip's Jaguar: the Jag carries them on, until Philip dies of his bite and they have to abandon it.
Q 13At which London studio was the film partly shot?
Ealing Studios
The shoot ran nine weeks in the summer of 2003, split between the studio and location work in North London.
Q 21Shaun of the Dead's score by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford is a pastiche of zombie soundtracks from which country?
Italy
Italy: the soundtrack album also remixes 'The Gonk', a cheery stock-library tune George Romero had used in one of his own zombie films.
Q 22Which flavour of Cornetto does Ed eat in Shaun of the Dead, kicking off the trilogy's running joke?
Strawberry
Strawberry: Wright wrote it in as Ed's hangover cure because a Cornetto is his own real-life hangover cure.
Q 23Which two films complete the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy?
Hot Fuzz and The World's End
Hot Fuzz and The World's End: each Cornetto's colour matches its film, blue for the police in Hot Fuzz and green for the aliens of The World's End.
Q 14Shaun of the Dead is set in which North London neighbourhood?
Crouch End
Crouch End: yet Shaun's beloved local pub was filmed miles away across the city, a real trek from his screen flat.
Q 15Which real pub stood in for Shaun and Ed's local in Shaun of the Dead?
The Duke of Albany, New Cross
The Duke of Albany, New Cross: the pub where the undead besieged Shaun has since closed and been converted into flats.
Q 16Which Queen song plays from the jukebox while the survivors beat the pub landlord with pool cues in Shaun of the Dead?
Don't Stop Me Now
Don't Stop Me Now: it comes on at random mid-fight, so Shaun yells at David to 'kill the Queen', meaning the jukebox.
Q 17Which artist told Wright they could 'trash Diamond Life without hesitation' in the record-throwing scene?
Sade
Wright later put one of her songs into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and joked that he owed her some publishing money for the album he destroyed.
Q 18In Shaun of the Dead's record-throwing scene, Ed's first throw shatters an 'original pressing' of which record?
Blue Monday
Blue Monday: Shaun wails that it was an original pressing, yet soon lets Ed hurl the Batman soundtrack.
Q 19Which band's album does Shaun okay with 'Throw it' in Shaun of the Dead's record-throwing scene?
Dire Straits
Dire Straits: but when Ed reaches for the Stone Roses next, Shaun flatly refuses to let that record go.
Q 20Which real British talk-show host appears in Shaun of the Dead, grilling a guest who still loves her undead husband?
Trisha Goddard
Trisha Goddard: she hosts two made-up episodes of her real show, Trisha, and asks the zombie's wife, 'You go to bed with it?!'
Q 24The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy's name riffs on which European director's trilogy?
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski: when a journalist noticed Cornettos in two films, Wright joked the trio would be like his Three Colours trilogy, and it stuck.
Q 25In April 2020, a photo of lockdown protesters outside which state's capitol trended for echoing Shaun of the Dead's poster?
Ohio
Ohio: the Columbus Dispatch photo showed protesters pressed against the Statehouse's glass doors, like the zombies at the windows on the poster.
Q 26How did George A. Romero first watch Shaun of the Dead?
Alone in a Florida cinema
Alone in a Florida cinema, apart from a security guard Universal had sit in with him; he then phoned Wright to give his blessing.
Q 27In Shaun of the Dead, what does Shaun first assume about the girl he and Ed spot outside their house?
That she's drunk
That she's drunk: when she pins Shaun down, Ed dashes inside for a camera and snaps a photo instead of helping.
Q 28Which horror novelist called the film 'a 10 on the fun meter and destined to be a cult classic'?
Stephen King
Quentin Tarantino, for his part, listed it among his twenty favourite films made since 1992.
Q 29Which event Edgar Wright missed by ignoring the news for a fortnight inspired Shaun of the Dead?
The 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic
He turned on his TV one day to footage of cattle being burnt and had no idea why, which became Shaun channel-hopping past the apocalypse.
Q 30In Shaun of the Dead, what does Shaun use to impale a zombie attacking his mum as they cut through the neighbourhood?
A swingball pole
A swingball pole: he pins the zombie with it, then snaps 'Feel free to step in anytime!' at Ed and David, who just stood watching.