Three Kings (1999 Film)
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40 free Three Kings (1999 Film) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Three Kings turns the last days of the Gulf War into a heist story. Major Archie Gates, close to retirement and disillusioned with the war, talks three reservists into chasing a fortune in stolen gold, and the plan changes the moment they see what the ceasefire has left behind. This quiz covers the whole film: who Archie Gates is and what becomes of him, the men who follow him into the desert, the people they meet along the way, and how the story ends. It also goes behind the camera, to a shoot remembered for bold visual experiments and for arguments that became part of film lore. It is for anyone who has seen the film once and still thinks about it, and for fans of war movies and heist stories who like their trivia with a tale attached.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor stars as Major Archie Gates, the career officer who leads the gold heist in Three Kings?
George Clooney
George Clooney won the part only after lobbying hard: he wrote the director a self-mocking letter signed as a mere TV actor and turned up at his New York apartment.
Q 02The gold hunted in Three Kings had been plundered by Iraqi troops from which country?
Kuwait
Kuwait gets its bullion back in the film's epilogue, though officials there claim a small amount is still missing.
Q 03Which US president invited the makers of Three Kings to a White House screening of the war film?
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton had the film shown at the White House two weeks after it opened, and its director recalled him calling it useful for understanding the intervention in Iraq.
Q 04Studio executives pushed to cut a scene from Three Kings in which what animal explodes?
A cow
A cow that explodes on screen was one of the violent moments the studio wanted gone, but the film's star helped persuade executives to keep it.
Q 05Three Kings is remembered for a startling close-up that follows a bullet travelling where?
Inside a human body
Inside a human body, the shot shows a bullet piercing organs as Archie Gates describes sepsis; the director built it from an emergency-room doctor friend's account of what a bullet really does.
Q 06The star of Three Kings was still shooting which hit TV series three days a week during filming?
ER
ER kept the film's star in Los Angeles three days a week, so he worked on the war movie the other four and was exhausted through the shoot.
Q 07In Three Kings, the soldiers dress up luxury cars as whose motorcade to scare off a bunker's guards?
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein's entourage is faked so convincingly that the bunker's defenders flee, letting the Americans free the captured Troy Barlow.
Q 08Which rapper turned actor plays Chief Elgin, the soldier from Detroit, in the war film Three Kings?
Ice Cube
Ice Cube made his acting debut in Boyz n the Hood, eight years before he played the devout staff sergeant.
Q 09The part of Archie Gates in Three Kings was first planned for which older star before a rewrite?
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood was the first idea for the weary officer, but the director rewrote the character as a younger man and the search for a lead began again.
Q 10The star and the director of Three Kings came to blows on set in a row over the treatment of whom?
An extra
An extra was thrown to the ground by the director during the finale shoot, as the star saw it, and their shouting match turned into a physical fight.
Q 11Which actor plays Troy Barlow, the new father and reservist taken prisoner in Three Kings?
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg, once the rapper Marky Mark, had broken through as an actor two years earlier in Boogie Nights.
Q 12Which filmmaker made Three Kings years before Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle?
David O. Russell
David O. Russell had made only two small comedies, Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster, before a studio trusted him with a war film.
Q 13In Three Kings, the soldiers try to escort Iraqi rebels to safety across which country's border?
Iran
Iran is the rebels' only way out, and the Americans are arrested at the crossing before a deal finally lets the families through.
Q 21Which music video director took his first major film role as Private Conrad Vig in Three Kings?
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze had the part written for him, and he rehearsed the Southern accent long-distance while directing his own first feature, Being John Malkovich.
Q 22Which Saturday Night Live alumna plays hard-nosed TV reporter Adriana Cruz in Three Kings?
Nora Dunn
Nora Dunn plays the cable correspondent whose reporting ends up clearing the surviving soldiers of the charges against them.
Q 23Unlike the reservists he recruits in Three Kings, Archie Gates serves in which elite Army branch?
Special Forces
Special Forces is where the major has spent his career, and he is close to retirement and disillusioned when the gold tempts him.
Q 14What do American soldiers find hidden on a captured Iraqi officer early in Three Kings?
A treasure map
A treasure map marking bunkers full of stolen gold turns up during a search of the prisoner, and it is Archie Gates who works out what it shows.
Q 15Held in a bunker in Three Kings, what does Troy Barlow use to reach his wife back home?
A cell phone
A cell phone from a room full of plundered handsets lets him call home, and he tells his wife to report his location to his Army Reserve unit.
Q 16Which famous American critic gave Three Kings a full four stars and ranked it third-best of 1999?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert praised the way the film crashes action into comedy, and he put only two movies ahead of it on his list for the year.
Q 17The director of Three Kings toned down the gunfire to avoid the sound of which action star's films?
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis was the name the director used for the booming style he wanted to avoid, and for the same reason each explosion was filmed by a single camera.
Q 18Two leads of Three Kings reunited a year later as doomed fishermen in which disaster film?
The Perfect Storm
The Perfect Storm put the two actors aboard the Andrea Gail, a real swordfishing boat lost with all hands in 1991, the same year the war film is set.
Q 19The desert around Casa Grande in which US state stood in for Iraq during the Three Kings shoot?
Arizona
Arizona hosted the shoot, which the studio trimmed to 68 days after the director had asked for 80.
Q 20Fleeing a tear-gas attack in Three Kings, the four soldiers drive straight into what hazard?
A minefield
A minefield scatters the group, and in the confusion Troy Barlow is captured while rebels pull the other three to safety underground.
Q 24According to the epilogue of Three Kings, what job does Archie Gates take after leaving the Army?
Hollywood military adviser
Hollywood military adviser is his new line of work, consulting on action films, and Chief Elgin quits his own job to join him.
Q 25In the epilogue of Three Kings, Troy Barlow goes home to his family to run what kind of business?
A carpet store
A carpet store is the quiet ending Troy Barlow gets, after an honorable discharge and a wound that punctured his lung.
Q 26What civilian job does Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin hold back home in Detroit in Three Kings?
Baggage handler
Baggage handler at an airport is the life he goes back to, until the epilogue has him quit to work alongside Archie Gates.
Q 27How does the Iraqi interrogator Captain Saïd torture the captured Troy Barlow in Three Kings?
Electric shocks
Electric shocks are his method, yet when the bunker falls the Americans spare the interrogator's life.
Q 28How does Archie Gates persuade US officers to let the rebels cross the border in Three Kings?
He surrenders the loot
He surrenders the loot, revealing where the gold is buried, though the commanding officer still insists the three face a court-martial.
Q 29Many of the Iraqi roles in Three Kings went to non-actors living in America who were what?
Refugees
Refugees who had fled Iraq filled many parts, and the director said two of the cast had personally defaced 300 murals of the country's dictator.
Q 30Which major studio bought the original script and distributed Three Kings in the United States?
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. had not backed an auteur film in years and worried about the politics, so it pressed for a smaller budget and cut the shooting schedule.