Airplane! Trivia Questions

Answer: Dr. Rumack

'Surely you can't be serious!' 'I'm very serious. And don't call me Shirley.'

Answer: Molomboes

The Hutus and the Tutsis were two tribes that often fought with each other.

Answer: "I take it black, like my men"

When the passengers are boarding the flight, an unnamed young boy gains a crush on an unnamed young girl who walks by him. Later, during the flight, he brings her a cup of coffee. She accepts it and asks him to sit down in the seat beside her. The boy then asks her if she wanted some cream in her coffee, but the girl responds to him by saying, "No, thanks. I take it black, like my men." The boy just stares at her.

Answer: Steve McCroskey

Steve McCroskey is the head of Chicago International Flight Control. He is an addict who had planned to quit his vices but due to the hectic situation is unable to do so. He is played by Lloyd Bridges, who was cast to spoof his many adventurous, no-nonsense, tough-guy characters.

Answer: "...disco lives forever."

This is heard right before the low-flying plane knocks the station's antenna off. Also, note the name of the station, WZAZ. This comes from the names of the producers, Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker.

Answer: 26

She mentions her age to Dr. Rumack, when she's worried about the plane crashing. She also mentions she isn't married.

Answer: The Molombos

They should start their own NBA franchise.

Answer: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

'Hey! I know you! You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, you play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers!' 'I'm sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else, my name is Roger Murdock.' 'You are Kareem! I've seen you play! My dad's got season tickets.' 'I think it's time to go back to your seat, right Clarence?' 'No, let him stay. He's not bothering anyone.' 'I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense.' 'THE HELL I DON'T! Look, I'm out there bustin' my butt EVERY NIGHT. Tell your old man to drag Walton or Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!"

Answer: 7

It was originally six, but Lt. Zipp died early one morning.

Answer: She knocks out her I.V. tube

Lisa was a young girl on the Trans American flight who was traveling in a stretcher. She was being flown to Chicago to receive a heart transplant. Randy, the flight attendant, asks to borrow a guitar from a nun who was on the flight. She starts singing to Lisa and the other passengers start dancing along. As she sings, she accidentally knocks out the I.V. (intravenous) tube keeping Lisa alive. Lisa starts convulsing, but manages to put the tube back in. Randy knocks out the tube a second time and this time Lisa passes out with her mother frantically trying to put the tube back in and wake her daughter up. Randy continues singing, unaware of what she is doing to Lisa.

Answer: Dr. Rumack

No one knows why Dr. Rumack doesn't like to be called Shirley, but he tells Striker several times throughout the movie to stop calling him that, when Striker has never said that name once. "Don't call me Shirley" has became a very famous quote, prompting a "Don't call me Shirley" Special Edition DVD of the movie. Leslie Nielsen plays Dr. Rumack.

Answer: Stephen Stucker

The others were all also in the movie, though only Stucker got to ad-lib his lines. Bridges played Steve McCroskey, Stack played Rex Cramer, and Nielsen was Dr. Rumack.

Answer: The movie never says

While the movie never actually says, some might say due to the clothing and his jungle-like location, that he fought in World War II, but this is just my opinion.

Answer: Steak

Joey orders the steak, but his parents both order fish. Unfortunately, everyone who eats the fish gets sick.

Answer: Nun's Life

The nun was reading "Boy's Life".

Answer: Ethel Merman

The character of Lt. Hurwitz is actually played by Ethel Merman.

Answer: Barbara Billingsley

She also played June Cleaver on 'Leave it to Beaver'.

Answer: Jive

There were two black men who boarded the Trans American flight. They spoke only in Jive. When they end up getting sick from the virus, they ask the flight attendant for medicine. The flight attendant couldn't understand them. An elderly white passenger offers to help translate as she can speak Jive. The two men end up insulting her and she insults them back in Jive leaving them speechless.

Answer: Pedro Borbon

Interestingly, Manny Mota and Pedro Borbon were both professional major league players, but were never on the same team together.

Answer: The Molombos

The Molombos had never seen Americans before Ted and Elaine arrived. They introduced basketball, and Tupperware to the tribe.

Answer: Otto Pilot

This was the first love scene between a beautiful woman and an inanimate object in a parody film.

Answer: Otto Pilot

And introducing Otto as himself, in the credits.

Answer: On the beltline

This was revealed when Otto, the automatic pilot, started to deflate, thus lowering the altitude of the plane. This scene had several takes, each succeeding one with the nozzle slightly higher up. The take with it in the lowest position was used.

Answer: It explodes

This is one of the directors' favourite jokes in the whole movie. This small gag was nearly cut out of the final edit, but was left in because of a request from David Zucker.