Name That Movie: Downward Spiral With A Twist Quiz

Answer: Witness

"Witness" (1985) was an unusual movie as it was deemed a thriller but underneath it was a love story. Lucas Haas played an Amish boy who witnessed a murder in Philadelphia. John Book (Harrison Ford) was a hard-boiled cop who needed to shelter in the boy's Amish community and, in time, fell in love with the boy's mother (Kelly McGillis).

It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two.

Answer: American Graffiti

"American Graffiti" (1973) was a coming of age movie of a single night in Modesto, California, in 1962, just before the high school graduates left for college. The movie starred a young Richard Dreyfus and Ronny Howard (as he was known then) with Harrison Ford getting the small but crucial role of Bob Falfo. "American Graffiti" was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, but this Oscar was won by "The Sting" (1973).
The other answer options are all Oscar Nominees for Best Picture in 1973.

Answer: The Mosquito Coast

"The Mosquito Coast" (1986) was adapted from the novel of the same name by Paul Theroux. It was the story of the Fox family who left the United States to build a Utopian society (which failed) in the jungles of Central America. It starred Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and River Phoenix. Harrison Ford said in 1992 that it was only one of his movies that did not make its money back.

He thought the reason for this was that the movie did not highlight the language of the book and that maybe it was a literary rather than cinematic event. The other answer options are all Oscar nominees for Best Picture in the same year as "Mosquito Coast" was released.

Answer: The Fugitive

"The Fugitive" (1993) was a movie based on a 1960's TV series. When explained in a plot, it seems trite but but both TV series and movie plots are successful. The protagonist, a successful surgeon is wrongly accused of murdering his wife. He escapes from custody to clear his name, but most of the movie is spent showing how Richard Kimble evades the US Marshalls.
The movie was a surprising blockbuster coming in third in 1993 with receipts with over $360 million worldwide, behind "Jurassic Park" (1993) and "Mrs Doubtfire" (1993) and edging out key movies such as "Schindler's List" (1993) and "The Firm" (1993). It brought Tommy Lee Jones an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and assured his future as an A-list actor.
The other answer options are all blockbusters from 1993.

Answer: Clear and Present Danger

Another Tom Clancy inspired blockbuster, "Clear and Present Danger" (1994), was the third Jack Ryan character movie based on Tom Clancy's novels and second for Anne Archer in the series. The plot of the movie is clever, simplifying Clancy's convoluted plot; A friend of the US president is murdered but it is revealed he has skimmed $550 million from a Colombian drug cartel.

The president identifies a "Clear and Present Danger" to the drug cartel and a CIA Black Ops team is sent to Colombia to eliminate the Cartel. Jack Ryan, a CIA Director is sent to Congress to appeal for more funds to fight the drug wars. Ryan ends up in Colombia after the Black Ops team is ambushed, wrecks the cartel and rescues the captured US operatives. Back in the US, he confronts the US President for his culpability. The movie surpassed its predecessor, "Patriot Games" in box office receipts earning in excess of $215 million ("Patriot Games" earned $182 million).

The clue that differentiates the two movies is Colombia where the latter movie was set (though the Colombian scenes were filmed in Mexico). "Patriot Games" was shot in England and the US.

Answer: K-19: The Widowmaker

"K-19 the Widowmaker" (2002) was a $100 million blockbuster that never eventuated, returning only $65 million in worldwide receipts. The plot depicts the problems that occurred on the first Russian nuclear submarine on its maiden voyage when the nuclear reactor malfunctioned, threatening the lives of all the submariners aboard.

Despite the popularity of submarine movies ("The Hunt for Red October" (1990) and "The Last U-Boat" (1992)), and a strong cast, the movie was considered a commercial failure.

This could have been due, in part to the inaccuracies in the film which did not depict the true situation on which it was based. An example is the title itself: In the real world the submarine had no nickname, only its numbered name. The other answer options are all successful submarine movies.

Answer: What Lies Beneath

"What Lies Beneath" (2000) is an unusual movie - it is a supernatural horror film specifically aimed not for teenagers. It tells the story of a an empty-nester mother who believes murder may have occurred next door. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a convincing sympathetic role against the cast against type husband whose past belies his present image as a supporting husband.

Despite a commercial success earning in excess of $300 million. the movie's critical failing appears to be superimposing a supernatural motif on top of a Hitchcockian plot, something that Hitchcock himself would never have contemplated.

Answer: Air Force One

In 1981, German Wolfgang Petersen made the claustrophobic submarine movie, "Das Boot", a movie that set the genre standard. In 1997 he swapped the submarine for a 747 and made an equally claustrophobic movie about terrorists taking the President's wife and daughter hostage (the movie would probably not have been made if it was to occur post-9/11 in 2001).

This was a blockbuster earning over $175 million, twice its budget and the star was perhaps overshadowed by the performance of the terrorist's leader played by Gary Oldman whose cold ruthlessness of his character remains memorable. The other answer options are all successful American movies where the US President is the central character.

Answer: Frantic

In Roman Polanski's "Frantic" (1988), Paris itself becomes one of the characters of the movie, juxtaposing the underbelly of the famous city against its tourist attractions. The film has been described as "vintage Polanski" and his best since "Chinatown" (1974) with the themes of isolation, paranoia and quirky cameo roles.

The movie shows how a confident, successful American cannot cope in another country with another language when his wife is kidnapped because of the wrong suitcase at the airport. All other options were 1988 movies that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar for movies released in 1988.

Answer: Blade Runner

Certainly by now you will have recognised the twist - all the movies were memorable Harrison Ford movies with the deliberate omission of any movie from the "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" franchises. If you picked up the twist early, it would have helped you in the tougher latter questions. If you didn't pick up the twist until it was revealed, it's a fair assumption you're not a Harrison Ford fan...

*SPOILERS* "Blade Runner"(1982), based on Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", was an enigma of a movie, while it was not a commercial or critical success initially, it has become one of the most revered science fiction movies of all times, setting the bar for many subsequent sci-fi movies in terms of themes, subject matter and visual effects. Harrison Ford is a Blade Runner, a detective that finds and "retires" artificial people called replicants. When he meets Rachel (Sean Young), he is conflicted between his feelings for her and his job to prove that she is a replicant. Just like this quiz there is a twist at the end. Just when you work out if Rachel is a replicant or not, you are faced with something that shifts the whole dystopian (downward spiral) movie. It will not be revealed here because, even if you are not a Harrison Ford fan, see this movie. You will not be disappointed but merely twisted.