Uncut Gems Trivia
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40 free Uncut Gems trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 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 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The opening shot of Uncut Gems drifts through the opal and reveals Howard at which appointment?
A colonoscopy
A colonoscopy: what looks like a cosmic voyage through the opal turns out to be the camera inside Howard's colon.
Q 02The Safdie brothers, who made Uncut Gems, are lifelong fans of which NBA team?
New York Knicks
New York Knicks: their original Uncut Gems script was built around Knicks star Amar'e Stoudemire, long before Kevin Garnett took the basketball role.
Q 03Which comic actor did the Safdies pursue for the lead in Uncut Gems around 2015?
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen: the brothers courted him in 2015, when Adam Sandler's team kept calling their star unavailable even after they offered to move the dates.
Q 04Which 1990s toy does Howard sell in jewel-encrusted versions in Uncut Gems?
Furby
Furby: Howard pitches his blinged Furbies to Kevin Garnett, but it's the opal he then brings out that hooks the star.
Q 05In what part of New York City is Howard's jewelry store located?
The Diamond District
Howard's store sits in Manhattan's Diamond District on West 47th Street, the block where the Safdies' father worked as a diamond salesman and which they had wanted to film since 2009.
Q 06Which streaming service released Uncut Gems outside the United States?
Netflix
Netflix: A24 kept the US rights, so Britons could stream the film from 31 January 2020 while Americans waited until late May.
Q 07Which musician plays himself hosting a nightclub party in Uncut Gems?
The Weeknd
The Weeknd: he performs 'The Morning' from his 2011 mixtape, and Howard ends up shoving him after finding his girlfriend in the singer's private section.
Q 08Which actress made her feature-film debut as Howard's employee and mistress in Uncut Gems?
Julia Fox
Julia Fox: the character was so like her that, on first reading the script, she asked the Safdies if they had been spying on her.
Q 09Which Broadway star plays Howard's wife, Dinah, in Uncut Gems?
Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel: she modeled Dinah on the Long Island women she grew up around, calling the part 'based on some parts of me.'
Q 10Who plays Demany, the associate who brings clients into Howard's store in Uncut Gems?
LaKeith Stanfield
LaKeith Stanfield: Demany's big catch, Kevin Garnett, walks in just as the opal arrives, and the star's obsession with the stone sets the whole disaster moving.
Q 11What does Garnett leave with Howard as collateral when he borrows the opal in Uncut Gems?
His championship ring
His championship ring: Howard runs it straight to a pawnbroker to fund a six-way parlay on Garnett's game that night.
Q 12How is Arno related to Howard in Uncut Gems?
Brother-in-law
Brother-in-law: the loan shark hounding Howard for money is also family, so their feud follows him to the family's holiday table.
Q 13From which country is the opal smuggled at the start of Uncut Gems?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia: the prologue's scenes at its Welo opal mines were actually filmed in South Africa.
Q 21About how much does Howard's final parlay win in Uncut Gems?
$1.2 million
$1.2 million: the win Howard has chased all film finally lands, and he gets only moments to celebrate before his life ends.
Q 22Who shoots Howard at the end of Uncut Gems?
Phil
Phil: he guns down Arno too, and he and Nico loot the store while Howard's winnings are being collected.
Q 23Who composed the score for Uncut Gems?
Daniel Lopatin
Daniel Lopatin: for a frantic crime thriller, much of his synth score is counterintuitively New Age, full of wordless chants and choirs.
Which legendary director served as an executive producer on Uncut Gems?
Q 14What is the name of Howard's jewelry store in Uncut Gems?
KMH
KMH: its double security doors become the final trap when Howard locks Arno and his goons between them as the game plays out.
Q 15Why does Kevin Garnett ask to borrow the opal in Uncut Gems?
As a good-luck charm
As a good-luck charm: Howard lends it for one night, but Garnett doesn't return it on time, and Howard has to chase down the stone he means to auction.
Q 16Where do Arno's goons strip Howard naked and lock him in his own car trunk in Uncut Gems?
At his daughter's school play
At his daughter's school play: stuck naked in the trunk, Howard has to phone Dinah, the wife who is divorcing him, to let him out.
Q 17Which Jewish holiday dinner does Howard sit through with his family in Uncut Gems?
Passover
Passover: Howard's business troubles follow him even to the seder, turning the family holiday tense.
Q 18In Uncut Gems, how does the smuggled opal arrive at Howard's shop?
Hidden in a dead fish
Hidden in a dead fish: Howard is sure the stone will fetch a fortune at auction, but the appraisers value it far below his estimate.
Q 19Whom does Howard recruit to bid at the auction to drive up the opal's price in Uncut Gems?
Gooey
Gooey: played by Judd Hirsch, he helps Howard rig the bidding, but the scheme backfires.
Q 20Where does Howard's girlfriend go to place his final bet in Uncut Gems?
Mohegan Sun casino
Mohegan Sun casino: Howard sends her there with the cash as Arno and his goons descend on the store to collect.
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese: his arrival as executive producer raised the project's profile, and with heavyweight backers aboard the brothers were pushed to land a bigger star.
Q 25Which actor was set to star as Howard in 2017, before his schedule forced him out of Uncut Gems?
Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill: the brothers struggled to rewrite Howard as a much younger man, and when Hill's schedule fell through they went back to Adam Sandler.
Q 26Which earlier Safdie film finally convinced Adam Sandler to take the Uncut Gems role?
Good Time
Seeing Good Time, the Safdies' 2017 Robert Pattinson thriller, persuaded Sandler; his team had passed on the script twice before.
Q 27Around 2015, which NBA star did the Safdies rewrite the Uncut Gems basketball role for?
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant: the brothers rebuilt the script around one of his biggest scoring nights, until word came back that he only wanted to direct.
Q 28Which NBA star was courted for the Uncut Gems basketball role until the shoot slid into the NBA season?
Joel Embiid
Joel Embiid: an active player's schedule proved impossible to work around, so the Safdies turned to a list of retired stars and landed on Kevin Garnett.
Q 29Who was the cinematographer on Uncut Gems?
Darius Khondji
Darius Khondji: a wide-lens cinematographer by habit, he shot the film with super-long anamorphic zoom lenses that kept the camera far from the actors.
Q 30At which festival did Uncut Gems have its world premiere?
Telluride
Uncut Gems premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019, then played Toronto and the New York Film Festival before its December release.