Q 01/05

Which author's novella Heart of Darkness, set in the 19th-century Congo, inspired Apocalypse Now?

A) Joseph Conrad

B) Graham Greene

C) Rudyard Kipling

D) Ernest Hemingway

Answer · why

A) Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad drew the story from his own time as a steamboat captain in Africa; the film moves the river journey to the Vietnam War.

Q 02/05

Which star plays Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, having arrived on set overweight and unprepared?

A) Gene Hackman

B) Lee Marvin

C) Marlon Brando

D) Jack Nicholson

Answer · why

C) Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was paid $2 million for a month's work, and Coppola hid his size by dressing him in black and filming only his face.

Q 03/05

Which classical piece blares from Kilgore's helicopters as they attack a village in Apocalypse Now?

A) The 1812 Overture

B) Ride of the Valkyries

C) Carmina Burana

D) Night on Bald Mountain

Answer · why

B) Ride of the Valkyries

Ride of the Valkyries, from Wagner's opera Die Walküre, plays from loudspeakers mounted on the helicopters throughout the air assault on the village.

Q 04/05

In which country was Apocalypse Now shot, standing in for Vietnam?

A) Thailand

B) Malaysia

C) Papua New Guinea

D) The Philippines

Answer · why

D) The Philippines

The Philippines offered cheap labour and American military hardware, but the planned five-month shoot there dragged on for more than a year.

Q 05/05

Which medical emergency nearly killed Martin Sheen, then 36, during the Apocalypse Now shoot?

A) A heart attack

B) A burst appendix

C) Dengue fever

D) A stroke

Answer · why

A) A heart attack

A heart attack left Sheen struggling a quarter of a mile to reach help, and he passed it off as heat stroke so the film's backers would not pull the m...