The Shawshank Redemption Trivia
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107 free The Shawshank Redemption trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Shawshank Redemption bombed in 1994, lost all seven of its Oscar nominations and then quietly became the most beloved film on the planet through video rentals and cable reruns. This trivia quiz covers the whole story: Andy Dufresne and Red, Warden Norton and Captain Hadley, Brooks and Tommy, the rock hammer and the posters, the Marriage of Figaro scene and the escape through the sewer pipe. It also goes behind the camera. You will be asked about the Stephen King novella and its collection, the actors who turned the roles down, the Ohio prison that stood in for a Maine penitentiary, the Caribbean beach that played Zihuatanejo, the box-office numbers, the Academy Awards, and the film's long climb to number one on IMDb. The 107 questions run from easy ones any casual viewer can get to hard ones for people who have read the novella and watched every making-of documentary. Every answer was checked against the film's documented production history, so you can trust the answer key when you use these at a movie night or pub quiz.
30 of 107 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote and directed The Shawshank Redemption?
Frank Darabont
Frank Darabont turned down a seven-figure offer to let a bigger name direct his script, taking a pay cut to make it his first cinema feature.
Q 02Which author wrote the novella that The Shawshank Redemption is based on?
Stephen King
Stephen King granted the rights because he had enjoyed the director's short film of another of his stories, The Woman in the Room.
Q 03What is the full title of the 1982 novella behind The Shawshank Redemption?
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption lost its first three words on screen because the director feared people would expect a biopic of the actress.
Q 04Which film shares a source book with The Shawshank Redemption?
Stand by Me
Stand by Me came from The Body in the same 1982 book, Different Seasons, and its director offered millions to direct Shawshank himself.
Q 05What was Andy Dufresne's profession before prison in The Shawshank Redemption?
Banker
Banker Andy's know-how buys him protection inside: he ends up doing tax returns for the guards and managing the warden's finances.
Q 06Who plays Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption?
Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins said yes because of the script, which he called the best he had read in years.
Q 07Who plays Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in The Shawshank Redemption?
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman threw a baseball for the nine hours it took to film Red's first chat with Andy, then turned up the next day with his arm in a sling.
Q 08In the novella behind The Shawshank Redemption, Red is described as what?
An Irish-American
An Irish-American in the book, Red keeps the joke 'Maybe it's because I'm Irish' on screen as a wink at the Black actor cast in the part.
Q 09In the film The Shawshank Redemption, what is the surname of the prison warden?
Norton
Norton preaches discipline to new arrivals while he hires out convict labour, pockets the bribes and has Andy hide the money.
Q 10Which actor plays the warden in The Shawshank Redemption?
Bob Gunton
Bob Gunton had a shaved head from Demolition Man, so the film-makers bought him a wig for the screen test that won him the part.
Q 11In The Shawshank Redemption, what is the name of the brutal captain of the guards?
Byron Hadley
Byron Hadley is about to throw Andy off a roof when Andy offers to shelter his inheritance from tax.
Q 12In The Shawshank Redemption, whose poster hides the tunnel when Andy's cell is found empty?
Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch gives the game away when the raging warden hurls one of Andy's stones at her poster and it sails straight through the paper.
Q 13In The Shawshank Redemption, who is the warden's "silent partner"?
A man Andy invented
A man Andy invented by mail, complete with birth certificate and driver's licence; after escaping, Andy walks into the banks as him and empties the accounts.
Q 21Most of The Shawshank Redemption was shot in and around which city?
Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield, Ohio made the most of it: a local bakery took to selling Bundt cakes shaped like the film's Gothic prison to visiting fans.
Q 22In which US state is The Shawshank Redemption set?
Maine
Maine is only the setting: the film was shot several states away, where a real town and its empty prison doubled for New England.
Q 23In The Shawshank Redemption, what does Andy ask for in return for tax advice to a guard on the roof?
Beer for his co-workers
Beer for his co-workers is the whole fee, though Andy doesn't drink himself; for one morning the tarring crew feel like 'the lords of all creation'.
Q 14In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy dreams of starting over in which Mexican Pacific town?
Zihuatanejo
Zihuatanejo appeals to Andy because, he tells Red, the Mexicans say the Pacific has no memory, and that is where he wants to live out his life.
Q 15In The Shawshank Redemption, which opera does Andy play over the prison loudspeakers?
The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro costs Andy two weeks in the hole, which he calls the easiest time he ever did because he had Mozart in his head for company.
Q 16In The Shawshank Redemption, what is the first item Andy asks Red to smuggle in for him?
A rock hammer
A rock hammer, which Red reckons would take a man six hundred years to tunnel out with; Andy does it in under twenty.
Q 17In The Shawshank Redemption, which elderly inmate is paroled after 50 years and cannot cope outside?
Brooks Hatlen
Brooks Hatlen carves his name into a beam of his halfway-house room before he hangs himself from it.
Q 18In The Shawshank Redemption, which young inmate reveals that a former cellmate confessed to Andy's crime?
Tommy Williams
Tommy Williams pays for speaking up: the warden has him shot and passes it off as an escape attempt, so Andy stays inside to run the books.
Q 19In The Shawshank Redemption, who leads the prison gang known as "the Sisters"?
Bogs Diamond
Bogs Diamond never walks again: once Andy is useful to the guards, their captain beats him so badly he is shipped off to a prison hospital.
Q 20Which real prison served as the fictional jail in The Shawshank Redemption?
Ohio State Reformatory
Ohio State Reformatory found a second life as a fan attraction, with tours of the warden's office and the solitary cells where scenes were shot.
Q 24In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne is sent to Shawshank for which crime?
Murdering his wife and her lover
Murdering his wife and her lover is a crime Andy didn't commit, yet he tells Red he killed her: he never pulled the trigger, but he drove her away.
Q 25What did The Shawshank Redemption win from seven Oscar nominations?
Nothing
Nothing, yet the nominations proved the turning point: the buzz put a film few had seen in front of the audience that later adopted it.
Q 26Which film beat The Shawshank Redemption to the Best Picture Oscar?
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump had already cost Shawshank a leading man: Tom Hanks turned down the part of Andy because he was committed to it.
Q 27Which composer earned his first Oscar nomination for the score of The Shawshank Redemption?
Thomas Newman
Thomas Newman was up against himself that night: his score for Little Women was nominated too, and The Lion King beat them both.
Q 28Which cinematographer filmed The Shawshank Redemption?
Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins earned his first Oscar nomination for it and lost, then kept losing until his 14th nomination finally won, for Blade Runner 2049.
Q 29In The Shawshank Redemption, which 1946 film are the inmates watching when Andy asks Red for a poster of its star?
Gilda
Gilda was a late swap: the screenplay has the convicts hooting at Ray Milland's drunk in The Lost Weekend, not at the star Andy wants on his wall.
Q 30In The Shawshank Redemption, what does the warden find in his safe in place of his ledger?
A Bible
A Bible, with the warden's own line turned on him, 'Salvation lay within', and its pages hollowed out in the shape of the tool that dug the tunnel.