Spare Parts (2015 Movie)
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40 free Spare Parts (2015 Movie) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Spare Parts is the 2015 drama about four undocumented teenagers from an Arizona high school who build a robot on a shoestring and enter a national engineering contest against well-funded college teams. It is a true story, and the real events are often stranger and funnier than the film. This quiz covers both sides: the film's plot, characters and cast, the people who made it, and the facts about the real students, their machine and the competition weekend that the screenplay changed or left out. It suits anyone who has just watched the film in class or at home, teachers looking for a follow-up activity, and fans of underdog stories who want to know what really happened.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Spare Parts, which supermarket item do the students use to soak up a leak inside their robot?
Tampons
Tampons kept the water away from the circuits the night before the contest. In real life the idea was Lorenzo Santillan's, and he had to ask a stranger in the store which box to buy.
Q 02In Spare Parts, what name do the students give their robot after its glue fills the room with fumes?
Stinky
Stinky got its name from the pungent glue that held it together. The real students assembled the whole frame in a single night, then painted it blue, red and yellow.
Q 03Which famous university's well-funded team do the Carl Hayden students beat in Spare Parts?
MIT
MIT sent a dozen students with corporate sponsorship behind them. The high schoolers had expected to finish somewhere in the middle and were privately hoping for third.
Q 04Which comedian, also a producer of the film, plays reluctant mentor Fredi Cameron in Spare Parts?
George Lopez
George Lopez made the film as the first project of a new film and television deal. Variety praised his mix of sincerity and self-deprecating humour in the role.
Q 05Which Halloween star plays Karen Lowry, the principal who hires Fredi Cameron in Spare Parts?
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis plays the overworked head of Carl Hayden with a dry sense of humour. Variety's critic wrote that she steals every scene she appears in.
Q 06Carl Hayden Community High School, the real school at the centre of Spare Parts, is in which city?
Phoenix
Phoenix is home to the school, which opened in 1957 just west of downtown. Reaching the contest meant a long drive across the desert to the California coast in a school van.
Q 07In Spare Parts, which branch of the military turns Oscar Vazquez away because he is undocumented?
The Army
The Army was Oscar's plan after years as a standout cadet at school. While waiting at the recruiting office he notices a brochure for a robotics contest, which sends him down another path.
Q 08Roughly how much money did the Carl Hayden team have to build the robot that wins in Spare Parts?
About $800
About $800 was all the students raised from local businesses. That is why the robot was built from scavenged odds and ends while rival teams machined and welded metal frames.
Q 09Spare Parts is based on a 2005 article about the Carl Hayden team published in which magazine?
Wired
Wired ran the story in April 2005, after the win had gone largely unnoticed for months. Its readers responded by sending the four students more than $90,000 in scholarship money.
Q 10Carlos PenaVega, who plays Oscar Vazquez in Spare Parts, found fame in which Nickelodeon boy band?
Big Time Rush
Big Time Rush was both a Nickelodeon series and a real touring group. He was studying musical theatre in Boston when his manager pushed him to audition, and he won the part almost two years later.
Q 11What job does out-of-work engineer Fredi Cameron take at Carl Hayden High School in Spare Parts?
Substitute teacher
Substitute teacher is the post he lands thanks to his doctorate, though the principal doubts he will stay. Overseeing the engineering club comes with the job.
Q 12Which My Cousin Vinny Oscar winner plays teacher Gwen Kolinsky in Spare Parts?
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei plays the colleague who helps Cameron learn the programming language the robot runs on. Variety felt she made the absolute most of an underwritten part.
Q 13Alexa PenaVega, Karla in Spare Parts, played Carmen Cortez in which family film series?
Spy Kids
Q 21Which restaurant chain did the real Lorenzo Santillan ask to be taken to if Carl Hayden won?
Hooters
Hooters was his cheeky request before the awards dinner. His coach laughed and agreed, joking that he would retire as well if the team actually won.
Q 22Which oil giant sponsors the favoured college team that Carl Hayden faces in Spare Parts?
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil backed the favourites, whose compact robot wore a large company sticker on its side. Beside it, one Carl Hayden student thought his own machine looked like an economy car among luxury models.
Q 23What is the title of the Joshua Davis magazine article that inspired Spare Parts?
La Vida Robot
Spy Kids made her known worldwide in 2001. She married her co-star Carlos, who plays Oscar, a year before this film reached cinemas.
Q 14Which cheap hardware-store material forms the frame of the Carl Hayden robot in Spare Parts?
PVC pipe
PVC pipe was all the team could afford, but it brought a bonus. The air trapped inside gave the robot buoyancy and a waterproof run for its wiring.
Q 15Why is Luis Aranda recruited to the Carl Hayden robotics team in Spare Parts?
His strength
His strength made him the one who lifted the heavy robot in and out of the pool. The real Luis stood 5 feet 10, weighed 250 pounds and also managed the tether cable.
Q 16In Spare Parts, Oscar Vazquez is told to stay away from government offices for fear of which agency?
ICE
ICE, the immigration enforcement agency, could deport him if an official reported his status. The same fear hangs over the team's road trip out of state to the contest.
Q 17Which university's pool hosts the robotics contest in Spare Parts, as it did the real 2004 event?
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Barbara hosted the 2004 championship in its Olympic-size pool. Organisers hid the water under a black tarp beforehand so no team could study the course.
Q 18Which La Bamba actor plays Lorenzo Santillan's disapproving father in Spare Parts?
Esai Morales
Esai Morales plays Pablo Santillan, whose respect his son slowly earns. Years later he turned villain opposite Tom Cruise in two Mission: Impossible films.
Q 19Which director of Soul Surfer and Disney's Even Stevens made Spare Parts?
Sean McNamara
Sean McNamara came up through children's television, producing The Secret World of Alex Mack before he turned to true-story dramas for the cinema.
Q 20Although Spare Parts is set in Arizona and California, where was much of it actually filmed?
Albuquerque
Albuquerque hosted much of the shoot, hundreds of miles from the story's real settings. The film itself was a co-production between the United States and Mexico.
La Vida Robot later grew into a bestselling book, also called Spare Parts, which Davis published a few weeks before the film opened.
Q 24In Spare Parts, which surprise award convinces the Carl Hayden team it has missed the top prize?
Special Achievement
Special Achievement sounded like a consolation prize, so the students assumed it was all they would get. Later that night they were announced as overall champions.
Q 25In Spare Parts, what is Lorenzo Santillan caught doing before Fredi Cameron makes him join the team?
Robbing the principal's car
Robbing the principal's car lands him in the robotics club rather than in trouble. Cameron wants his mechanical talent, first seen when the boy bypasses a sensor on Cameron's own car for $20.
Q 26Which 2014 Mary Mazzio documentary tells the same true story as Spare Parts?
Underwater Dreams
Underwater Dreams chronicles how the sons of undocumented immigrants learned to build robots and take on elite colleges. It reached audiences before the drama did.
Q 27Which change did Spare Parts make to the coaching staff of the real Carl Hayden team?
Two teachers became one
Two teachers became one on screen. The real club was run by Fredi Lajvardi and Allan Cameron, and the film splices their names into a single character, Fredi Cameron.
Q 28Which proposed law, raised in the article behind Spare Parts, would help undocumented students afford college?
The DREAM Act
The DREAM Act was first introduced in the Senate in 2001 and has been reintroduced several times since. The film ends with a coda that argues openly for immigration reform.
Q 29Which future star of the Predator film Prey plays Nikki in Spare Parts?
Amber Midthunder
Amber Midthunder was still a teenager taking supporting parts when she played Nikki. Seven years later Prey made her an action lead as a young Comanche hunter.
Q 30The real 2004 contest behind Spare Parts asked robots to explore a sunken mock-up of what?
A submarine
A submarine built from plastic framing sat at the bottom of the pool. A gap in that frame stopped the favourites' robot from reaching one of its targets.