Film Quiz Friday: Trains Of Thought

Choo choo! With The Railway Children Return and Bullet Train pulling into UK cinemas, this week’s film quiz travels both on and off the rails.

It’s a popular misconception that cinema began with L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, an 1895 short documentary in which a train comes into a station. Even so, trains have always been a super-cinematic form of transport, and from where we’re sitting, (if we can get a seat, that is) the entire medium has led us to a Railway Children legacyquel, a hitman action-comedy starring Brad Pitt, and this week’s train-themed film quiz.

Once you’ve finished all three rounds, you’ll find a link to a separate post with the correct answers at the bottom of this post. As always, this is just for fun, but please let us know how you did in the comments (scores out of 30 this week!) and give us any other lovely feedback. And if you don’t like trains, the rail-replacement quiz will be along in the next six to eight hours.

 

ROUND ONE – This Week In Movie History

 

This round is about new UK cinema releases and general film history from this week in years past – we’ve given you the year at the start of each question to help out!

1. 1985 – Fairuza Balk plays Dorothy in the unofficial sequel Return To Oz, but who played the role in 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz?
2. 2014 – Which Oscar-winning coming-of-age film was shot by director Richard Linklater in real-time from 2002 to 2013?
3. 1978 – Born this week, who plays Letty Ortiz in the Fast & Furious franchise?
4. 2005 – How many of the four Madagascar films are set in Madagascar?
5. 2017 – What comes next in this sequence – Rise Of The… > Dawn Of The… > ?
6. 1981 – Which fantasy adventure film connects John Cleese, Sean Connery, and David Warner?
7. 2002 – “Be Afraid. Be Kind Of Afraid” is the tagline for which live-action adaptation of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series?
8. 1961 – Also born this week, which actor’s first three films were Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Color Of Money, and Platoon?
9. 2009 – Who plays astronaut Sam Bell in Moon?
10. 1990 – In what form of transport does Marty McFly travel back to 1985 in Back To The Future Part III?

 

ROUND TWO – All Aboard!

While we wait for the connection between this week’s The Railway Children Return and the upcoming Bullet Train, here’s 10 questions about trains in movies.

11. Who reprises her role as Bobbie Waterbury from 1970’s The Railway Children in its 2022 sequel?
12. Which Marvel Studios movie features a giant Thomas The Tank Engine toy in its finale?
13. Who directed 1951’s Strangers On A Train?
14. In which London railway station is Harry Potter’s Platform 9¾ located?
15. What time is the train To Yuma in a 1957 Western and a 2007 remake of the same name?
16. In The Polar Express, what is the Polar Express’ destination – the North Pole or the South Pole?
17. Which 1990s blockbuster ends with an explosive encounter in and around the TGV train to Paris?
18. Who plays Helen Quilley, the woman who alternately misses and catches her train on the London Underground in 1998’s Sliding Doors?
19. Which train circumnavigates a snowball Earth in Bong Joon-Ho’s dystopian actioner of the same name?
20. Which silent-movie legend wrote, directed, and starred in 1926’s The General?

 

ROUND THREE – Pot Luck

Let’s finish with a random selection of pot luck movie questions – these could come from any era, any genre, or any level of difficulty. Enjoy!

21. Which superhero movie connects Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron?
22. Which Speed star declined to return for 1997’s Speed 2: Cruise Control and starred in The Devil’s Advocate instead?
23. Also in cinemas this week! Which Netflix action-thriller connects Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas?
24. Who plays Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values?
25. In the news! According to the BBFC, which movie’s 15 certificate attracted the most complaints from the public in 2021 – The Suicide Squad or Venom: Let There Be Carnage?
26. Who plays Sonny Corleone in The Godfather?
27. In what decade is Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy set?
28. What word goes before the words Arizona, Cain, and Helen to make the titles of three different movies released in successive decades?
29. Who directed 2019’s Booksmart?
30. And finally, Adrian Woodhouse is the title character of which 1968 horror movie?

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Ready for the answers?

That’s the end of this week’s quiz – when you’re ready to check your answers, click here to get them (it’ll take you to another page). We’ll be back next Friday with another quiz, but until then, share your scores in the comments below!

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