Unbroken
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50 free Unbroken trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Unbroken is Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling biography of Louis Zamperini, a California troublemaker who ran his way to the Olympics and then into the Second World War. When his bomber went down over the Pacific he survived weeks on a life raft, only to be captured by the Japanese and held for more than two years in prison camps, where a guard the prisoners called the Bird set out to break him. This quiz follows the book from start to finish: Louie's wild boyhood and running career, the air war, the crash and the long drift at sea, the camps, and the hard homecoming that ends in forgiveness. Expect questions on the main characters, including Phil, Mac, Pete and the Bird, plus a few on the author and the film. It suits students reading the original or the young adult adaptation, teachers who need a ready-made reading check, and book clubs. The first questions are the gentlest, later ones reward close readers, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which leader asked to shake Louis Zamperini's hand after his 1936 Olympic race?
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler asked to meet the teenager whose 56-second final lap had caught his eye. Louie had finished only eighth, but his closing lap set a record.
Q 02In Unbroken, how long did Louis Zamperini drift across the Pacific on a life raft before his capture?
47 days
47 days of raw fish and rainwater left Louie and Phil at about half their normal weight. The boat that finally reached them was Japanese, not American.
Q 03In Unbroken, which evangelist's 1949 tent revival in Los Angeles turns Louie Zamperini's life around?
Billy Graham
Billy Graham's sermon brought back a vow Louie had made on the raft. He stormed out of the first meeting, returned another night, and his nightmares about the Bird stopped.
Q 04Which Japanese guard, nicknamed the Bird, singles out Louie Zamperini for constant beatings in Unbroken?
Mutsuhiro Watanabe
Mutsuhiro Watanabe came from a wealthy family and never got over the army's refusal to make him an officer. Prisoners picked a nickname with no insulting meaning, in case he overheard it.
Q 05Before Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand wrote which 2001 bestseller about a Depression-era racehorse?
Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit led her to Louie: while researching the horse she came across a 1938 newspaper article about the young runner. Both books were later filmed.
Q 06Which Hollywood star directed the 2014 film version of Unbroken, shot largely in Australia?
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie released the film on Christmas Day 2014, less than six months after Louie died at 97. It follows him only as far as his return from the war.
Q 07In Unbroken, what is Louie Zamperini's crew position aboard the Super Man on missions over the Pacific?
Bombardier
Bombardier Louie aimed and released the bombs, and in training he proved superbly accurate. He had enlisted in the Army Air Forces a few months before Pearl Harbor.
Q 08In Unbroken, which seabird do the castaways catch on the raft and cut up as bait for fish?
An albatross
An albatross worried Phil, who remembered the sailor punished for killing one in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. Louie shrugged off the superstition.
Q 09Which worn-out bomber, trusted only for errand flights, crashed into the Pacific with Louis Zamperini aboard?
Green Hornet
Green Hornet was known among pilots as a lemon. Two of its engines failed over open ocean in May 1943, and only three of the eleven men aboard survived the crash.
Q 10In Unbroken, what does the Bird force a weakened Louie Zamperini to hold above his head?
A heavy six-foot beam
A heavy six-foot beam stayed up for 37 minutes while Louie stared his tormentor down. The Bird finally charged and punched him in the stomach.
Q 11In which Southern California town did Louis Zamperini grow up stealing, brawling and outrunning the police?
Torrance
Torrance forgave its troublemaker: the town cheered him onto the Olympic team, and its airport was later named Zamperini Field.
Q 12In the first chapter of Unbroken, which German airship glides over twelve-year-old Louie's house in 1929?
Graf Zeppelin
Graf Zeppelin was three days from completing a flight around the world. Hillenbrand turns the giant shape that blotted out the stars into an omen of the coming war.
Q 13At the 1936 Olympics, which distance race did the teenage Louis Zamperini run for the United States?
5,000 meters
Q 21After a raid on which Japanese-held island did Louie Zamperini's bomber limp home with 594 holes in it?
Nauru
Nauru cost the crew dearly: three Zeros attacked after the bombs fell, five men were wounded and one of them, Harry Brooks, died.
Q 22In Unbroken, where is Army trainee Louie Zamperini sitting when he learns Pearl Harbor has been attacked?
In a movie theater
In a movie theater in Texas, where he was in training, the news left him wide-eyed and struggling to take it in. He had joined the Army Air Corps only months earlier.
Q 23In Unbroken, what is Louie Zamperini's crew sent out to do on the flight that ends in the ocean?
Search for a lost plane
5,000 meters was his second choice: the field at his favorite shorter distance was too strong, so he switched and tied the American record holder at the trials.
Q 14Which city, first awarded the 1940 Olympics, was the goal Louie Zamperini trained toward after 1936?
Tokyo
Tokyo did become his destination, as a prisoner of war rather than an Olympian. The Games he was training for were called off when the world went to war.
Q 15Which American miler, who learned to run again after childhood burns, was the teenage Louie Zamperini's hero?
Glenn Cunningham
Glenn Cunningham lost the ability to walk in a fire as a boy, taught himself to run, and by 1932 was hailed as America's greatest miler. Louie trained daily to match him.
Q 16Which California university gave track star Louis Zamperini a scholarship and later named a plaza after him?
USC
USC is where Louie set a national collegiate mile record in 1938 that stood for fifteen years, even though rivals spiked his shins during the race.
Q 17Which college friend of Louie Zamperini's turns up again in Unbroken at his first prison camp in Japan?
Jimmie Sasaki
Jimmie Sasaki had posed as a student in California while nearing forty, and the FBI suspected him of spying. He claimed to be a powerful official but proved to be only a low-ranking interpreter.
Q 18Which American gold medalist was Louis Zamperini's roommate at the 1936 Olympics?
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens won four gold medals at those Games. His young roommate went home without one, but with a reputation for a blistering final lap.
Q 19Which four-engine heavy bomber does Louie Zamperini's crew fly on Pacific missions in Unbroken?
B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator crews found the plane ugly, hard to fly and prone to accidents. After hundreds of hours of training, Louie's crew came to love theirs as a home.
Q 20In Unbroken, what grim nickname does a crewman give the accident-prone bomber that Louie Zamperini trains on?
The Flying Coffin
The Flying Coffin fit a plane that felt like a death sentence to its crews. Early in the war, most American planes that went down were lost to accidents rather than combat.
Search for a lost plane was the order, and the searchers became the lost. Nobody knew where their own aircraft had gone down, so rescue was unlikely from the start.
Q 24In Unbroken, what does a panicking Mac eat on the first night adrift, wiping out the raft's food supply?
The chocolate bars
The chocolate bars were meant to be rationed, one square each morning and evening. Louie chose not to blame Mac, whose sweet tooth was already known to the crew.
Q 25In Unbroken, which animals does Louie Zamperini haul onto the raft by the tail so the men can eat the livers?
Sharks
Sharks had lunged at the men on the raft, which Louie felt broke an unspoken truce. The liver gave them their first full stomachs of the whole drift.
Q 26Which Japanese-held island chain do Louie Zamperini and Phil reach at the end of their Pacific drift?
Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands waters were patrolled by the Japanese navy, which hauled the two men off the raft. They were soon shipped to Kwajalein and locked in wooden cages.
Q 27Late in the raft journey in Unbroken, what does Louie Zamperini hear coming from the clouds overhead?
A choir singing
A choir singing, with twenty-one human figures in the clouds, is what Louie described. Phil heard and saw nothing, but Louie never believed it was a hallucination.
Q 28In Unbroken, what does Louie Zamperini promise during a desperate prayer for rain on the raft?
To serve God forever
To serve God forever was the bargain, and rain fell the next day. Louie forgot the vow for years, until it came back to him at a revival meeting in 1949.
Q 29In Unbroken, where do Louie, Frank Tinker and William Harris plan to sail after escaping from Ofuna?
China
China was the goal: hike across Japan, steal a boat and cross the sea. They shelved the plan when guards announced that other prisoners would be killed for every escapee.
Q 30What did Americans call the Japanese base where Louie Zamperini is caged for 42 days after the raft?
Execution Island
Execution Island had earned its name: the nine Marines whose names were carved in Louie's cell had been killed there. He and Phil were spared, for reasons Louie learned only later.