50 free Uncut Gems trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Uncut Gems trivia quiz covers the whole of Josh and Benny Safdie's 2019 thriller, from the black opal pulled out of an Ethiopian mine to the security doors that trap Arno and his goons while the Celtics game plays out. There are questions on the plot (the ring, the stopped bet, the Passover dinner, the auction, the helicopter to Mohegan Sun), the cast (Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Idina Menzel, Kevin Garnett as himself), and the people you only hear, from Tilda Swinton to Doc Rivers. The second half digs into how the film got made: the decade Sandler spent turning it down, Jonah Hill's brief casting, the NBA stars who nearly played Garnett's part, the 35 mm cinematography, Daniel Lopatin's score, and the box office numbers that made it A24's biggest domestic hit until Everything Everywhere All at Once. Easy questions are for anyone who has seen it once; the expert ones are for people who have watched the auction scene through their fingers more than they'd admit. Every answer was checked against the film's Wikipedia article and its cited sources before publishing, so you can settle arguments with confidence.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which brothers directed Uncut Gems?
Josh and Benny Safdie
The Safdies had been developing a movie about Manhattan's jewelers since 2009, drawing on their father's years as a diamond salesman.
Q 02What is the name of the jeweler Adam Sandler plays?
Howard Ratner
Howard is a jeweler and gambling addict trying to turn one rare stone into a way out of his debts.
Q 03What kind of gemstone drives the plot of Uncut Gems?
A black opal
The stone is dug out of a mine in the film's 2010 prologue before the main story picks up in 2012.
Q 04Which real NBA star plays a fictionalized version of himself in Uncut Gems?
Kevin Garnett
Garnett was cast in September 2018 after several active players fell through, and his performance was praised as one of the best ever by an athlete.
Q 05In what part of New York City is Howard's jewelry store located?
The Diamond District
The Safdies drew on their father's stories of working as a diamond salesman; co-writer Ronald Bronstein's father worked in the Garment District.
Q 06Which studio distributed Uncut Gems in United States theaters?
A24
A24 handled the domestic release while Netflix took the international rights and streamed it abroad from January 2020.
Q 07Which musician plays himself hosting a nightclub party in the film?
The Weeknd
He specifically asked to be portrayed as an egotistical punk, saying that was how he treated people in 2012.
Q 08Which actress made her feature-film debut as Howard's employee and mistress?
Julia Fox
Roughly 300 actresses auditioned for the part, and it became Fox's breakthrough role, earning a Gotham Award nomination.
Q 09Which Broadway star plays Howard's wife, Dinah?
Idina Menzel
Menzel joined the project in autumn 2018 alongside Eric Bogosian and Judd Hirsch.
Q 10Who plays Demany, the associate who brings clients into Howard's store?
LaKeith Stanfield
Demany walks the basketball star into KMH on the very day the opal arrives, setting the whole disaster in motion.
Q 11What does Garnett leave with Howard as collateral when he borrows the opal?
His championship ring
Howard immediately pawns it to fund a six-way parlay on that night's game.
Q 12How is Arno related to Howard?
Brother-in-law
Arno is married to Dinah's sister, which is why he can ambush Howard at family events like the school play and the holiday seder.
Q 13From which country is the opal smuggled at the start of the film?
Ethiopia
The mine scenes were actually shot elsewhere on the continent, though the extras were genuinely from the country.
Q 21Where does Julia go to place Howard's final bet?
Mohegan Sun casino
She gets there by helicopter while Howard keeps Arno and the goons locked between the security doors back at the store.
Q 22How much does Howard win on the final parlay?
$1.2 million
Julia walks out of the casino with the winnings; Howard never gets to spend a cent of them.
Q 23Who shoots Howard at the end of the film?
Phil
Phil then shoots Arno too when he protests, and loots the store with Nico as Julia leaves the casino.
Q 24Who composed the score for Uncut Gems?
Q 14What is the name of Howard's jewelry store?
KMH
The store's double security doors become the film's final trap when Howard locks Arno and the goons between them.
Q 15How much money does Howard owe Arno at the start of the film?
$100,000
The debt is why Arno places a stop on Howard's winning parlay: it was made with money that was already his.
Q 16Where do Arno's goons ambush Howard, strip him naked and lock him in his own car trunk?
At his daughter's school play
Howard has to call his estranged wife Dinah to let him out.
Q 17Which Jewish holiday dinner does Howard sit through with his family during the film?
Passover
Dinah has agreed to divorce him after the holiday, and at the seder she rejects his plea for another chance.
Q 18How much would Howard's first big parlay have paid out before Arno stopped the bet?
$600,000
Arno reveals he cancelled it because Howard placed it with money he owed him, one of the film's cruellest reversals.
Q 19How much does Garnett offer to pay for the opal before the auction?
$175,000
Howard turns it down because he believes the stone is worth far more, then learns the appraisal is much lower than his own estimate.
Q 20Whom does Howard recruit to bid at the auction to drive up the opal's price?
His father-in-law, Gooey
The plan backfires when Garnett refuses to top Gooey's final bid, leaving the family holding its own stone.
Daniel Lopatin
Lopatin, better known as Oneohtrix Point Never, won the Florida Film Critics Circle award for the score.
Q 25Which legendary director served as an executive producer on Uncut Gems?
Martin Scorsese
Once he signed on, the Safdies said actors finally started taking the script seriously.
Q 26Which actor was cast as Howard in 2017 before dropping out to direct Mid90s?
Jonah Hill
The Safdies had tried rewriting Howard younger for him; Sandler took over in April 2018.
Q 27Which earlier Safdie film convinced Adam Sandler to finally take the role?
Good Time
His manager had rejected the script twice before, in 2010 and 2015.
Q 28Which NBA player was the Safdies originally writing the basketball role for?
Kobe Bryant
They planned to build the story around the night he set the Madison Square Garden single-game scoring record, but his agent said he only wanted to direct.
Q 29Why did Amar'e Stoudemire not end up in the film?
He refused to shave his head
The Safdies liked that he shared Black and Jewish heritage and had played for their beloved Knicks.
Q 30Which then-active NBA player agreed to appear but dropped out when filming moved into the season?
Joel Embiid
After that the Safdies turned to retired players and landed on a Celtic, despite their Knicks loyalties.