Sixteen Candles Trivia
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This Sixteen Candles trivia quiz has 48 free questions with answers and covers John Hughes's 1984 directorial debut from the first forgotten birthday to the last candle. It walks through the plot - the sex quiz, the floppy-disk bet, the borrowed Rolls-Royce, the grandparents answering the phone, the cake - and then digs into how the film got made: the headshot Hughes pinned above his desk, the actors who nearly played Jake, the closed Skokie high school that doubled as a set, the R rating that became a PG, and the five-song soundtrack. There is a full round on the cast beyond Molly Ringwald: the Cusack siblings, the youngest Oscar nominee ever as little brother Mike, a Poltergeist medium at the organ, a Tony winner as Mrs Baker, and what Jake Ryan's actor did after quitting Hollywood. It also faces the parts that have aged badly, from Long Duk Dong to the Caroline scene critics revisited decades later. About a third of the questions are easy warm-ups for anyone who has seen the film; the rest climb toward the detail only a true fan of 1980s teen movies will know. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1985 John Hughes film reunited the two teen leads of Sixteen Candles?
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club's five young stars were soon lumped together by the media as the Brat Pack.
Q 02The actress who plays Sam's sister Ginny won an Emmy for which 1978 miniseries?
Holocaust
Holocaust drew about half of West Germany's adults when it aired there in 1979, and parliament then lifted the statute of limitations on murder.
Q 03Which actress plays Samantha Baker in Sixteen Candles?
Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald got the part over Ally Sheedy, who also auditioned for Sam but lost out because Hughes felt Ringwald fit the role better.
Q 04Who plays Sam's crush, senior heart-throb Jake Ryan, in Sixteen Candles?
Michael Schoeffling
Michael Schoeffling's Jake Ryan became such a lasting dream crush that The Washington Post ran a 2004 Valentine's Day story on fans still pining for him.
Q 05In Sixteen Candles, what is the nickname of Anthony Michael Hall's freshman character, also billed as 'the Geek'?
Farmer Ted
Farmer Ted went to Anthony Michael Hall because, Hughes said, every other kid did a stereotyped nerd act, while Hall played it straight.
Q 06In Sixteen Candles, what does Ted wager with Bryce and Wease that he will 'get physical' with Sam before the dance ends?
Floppy disks
Floppy disks are the stakes, and once Ted wins, he and his pals charge other freshman boys to see the proof.
Q 07In Sixteen Candles, what proof do Bryce and Wease demand that Ted has won his bet?
Sam's underwear
Sam's underwear later ends up with Jake, who takes it from Ted in exchange for a favor and returns it to Sam along with her birthday cake.
Q 08In Sixteen Candles, who is Long Duk Dong?
An exchange student travelling with Sam's grandparents
An exchange student travelling with Sam's grandparents, Long Duk Dong gets sent along with Sam to the school dance that night.
Q 09Which actor plays Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles?
Gedde Watanabe
Gedde Watanabe gave Dong a heavy accent, but the actor was actually born and raised in Ogden, Utah.
Q 10What sound effect plays whenever Long Duk Dong appears on screen?
A gong
A gong marks his scenes, and Asian American kids in the 1980s were taunted at school with nicknames based on his name.
Q 11Which future comedy star was considered for the Geek in Sixteen Candles before Anthony Michael Hall won the part?
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey was in the running, but Hall got the role and later turned down Duckie in Pretty in Pink to avoid being typecast as the geek.
Q 12Carole Cook, who has a small role in Sixteen Candles, was the protégée of which TV comedy legend?
Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball talked her into swapping her first name, Mildred, for Carole, after Carole Lombard, and was matron of honor at her 1964 wedding.
Q 13In Sixteen Candles, with her bedroom taken over, where does Sam have to sleep?
On the sofa
Q 21Which real-life sibling pair both appear in Sixteen Candles, as Bryce and 'Geek Girl'?
John and Joan Cusack
John and Joan Cusack had bit parts, and in 1985 Joan joined Saturday Night Live alongside co-star Anthony Michael Hall, but both were let go after one season.
Q 22Hughes wrote Sixteen Candles in one weekend after pinning which item of his future lead actress above his desk?
Her headshot
Her headshot sparked the script, which Hughes pushed ahead because he felt his other planned teen film had less commercial appeal.
Q 23Which future star was a finalist to play Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles?
Viggo Mortensen
On the sofa, Sam gets a late-night visit from her father, who finally apologizes for forgetting her birthday.
Q 14How does Sam reveal her crush on Jake in Sixteen Candles?
By filling out a friend's sex quiz
By filling out a friend's sex quiz, Sam spills her crush, while Jake, who has noticed how she looks at him, asks his friend Rock about her.
Q 15In Sixteen Candles, in exchange for the bet winnings, Jake lets Ted drive a drunken Caroline home in his father's what?
Rolls-Royce Corniche
Rolls-Royce Corniche is the car, and the next morning Jake finds Ted and Caroline together in the back of it.
Q 16In Sixteen Candles, what does Wease's photo of Ted with Caroline in the expensive car actually show?
The top of Ted's head
The top of Ted's head is all the picture shows, after Ted drove Caroline over to Bryce and Wease's house just to impress the geeks.
Q 17In Sixteen Candles, when Jake phones the Baker house from his party, who answers and tells him Sam is not interested?
Her grandparents
Her grandparents turn him away, and Jake only learns that Sam likes him after the party, when he finds Ted trapped under a table.
Q 18In Sixteen Candles, what does Sam say when Jake tells her to make a wish?
That it already came true
That it already came true is her answer, after Jake surprises her and takes her back to his house for a cake with 16 candles.
Q 19The morning after the party, a hungover Long Duk Dong garbles his English and says Sam is doing what?
Getting married
Getting married is Dong's garbled version, but Jake heads to the church anyway and catches Sam after the ceremony.
Q 20Paul Dooley agreed to play Sam's father in Sixteen Candles only after John Hughes did what?
Wrote him a new scene
Wrote him a new scene, in the middle of the film: the late-night talk in which Sam's father apologizes for forgetting her birthday.
Viggo Mortensen was the lead actress's own pick for Jake, but the part went to the other finalist.
Q 24Where was Sixteen Candles primarily shot?
Chicago's North Shore suburbs
Chicago's North Shore suburbs were close to home for Hughes, who grew up in the nearby Chicago suburb of Northbrook.
Q 25What was unusual about Niles East High School, where Sixteen Candles shot school scenes?
It had already closed to students
It had already closed to students in 1980, and Oakton Community College later demolished most of the building to make way for a new campus.
Q 26In Sixteen Candles, the Baker family house is a real home in which suburb?
Evanston
Evanston, where the Baker house stands, stayed dry for more than a century, until its city council allowed liquor sales in 1972.
Q 27Which 1983 hit comedy, written by John Hughes, gave him the clout to direct Sixteen Candles?
National Lampoon's Vacation
National Lampoon's Vacation, together with another 1983 hit script, won Hughes a three-picture deal with Universal.
Q 28Hughes chose Sixteen Candles as his directing debut after studio executives fired him from which film?
Mr. Mom
Mr. Mom's studio later rehired him, and Universal's Ned Tanen then approved his films on condition that Sixteen Candles came out first.
Q 29What rating did the MPAA initially give Sixteen Candles before Hughes won an appeal?
R
R was the first rating, and after Hughes won his appeal the film opened as PG in May 1984, two months before the PG-13 rating was introduced.
Q 30Paul Dooley, who plays Sam's father, co-created which PBS children's show?
The Electric Company
The Electric Company, which Dooley helped create, aimed its sketch comedy at kids too old for Sesame Street who still needed help learning to read.