The Great Escape Trivia Questions & Answers

Answer: The Nazi from the start of the film

This is the part of the film that I find especially sad, where Ashley-Pitt dies for Roger. He is also on the platform, and sees what has happened. He draws attention to himself and starts to run toward the opposite direction, is shot and dies on the railway tracks. Roger and Mac are able to get away during the diversion thus created.

Answer: 20

They used a rope to signal others to leave the tunnel when the guards were at the far ends of the compound.

Answer: Spain

He was helped by the French underground to get to Spain.

Answer: Nimmo

Another minor character. While he appears in many scenes, this is practically his only line in the movie (although at the end he does ask if Haynes was among those shot).

Answer: chemical engineering

This is another bit of information from the discussion in the cooler. Ives guesses that he studied physical education, but Hilts replies 'chemical engineering.'

Answer: to give information to Bartlett

Bartlett had earlier asked him to gather information about the immediate vicinity of the camp, especially the location of the local railway station. Hilts initially is reluctant to give up a chance to get clean away, but after he witnesses Ives' death he tells Roger 'I'm going out tonight', with the implication that he'll be back with the needed information.

Answer: a pin

Unfortunately, Colin Blythe has developed progressive myopia due to his many years of forgery work; he can see objects at very close range but is unable to see five feet in front of his face. When "Big X" Bartlett finds out about Blythe's condition, he wants to prevent Colin from entering the escape tunnel. Blythe had earlier planted a pin on the floor in case anyone doubted his eyesight. Roger Bartlett, however, doesn't fall for the ruse and moments later trips Blythe. Hendley then comes to Blythe's defense by assuring Big X that he, Hendley, will take take care of Colin in the escape.

Answer: Lanius Nubicus

Lanius Nubicus is the Masked Shrike's scientific name. The shrike captures his prey on the spikes of thorn bushes. Black from head to tail, and has a white line over it's eyes, and lives in lightly wooded country.

Answer: A camera

"The Ferret" is a German guard, who found Tom, and the one who gets the camera. Blythe needs the camera for his forged ID papers.

Answer: twenty

Said by Virgil Hilts and Roger Bartlett. The tunnel was meant to reach to the woods, where the men could escape into the trees, but the tunnel, when finished, was twenty feet short, so the men had to run for it, one by one.

Answer: In the cooler

This is one of the conversations between Steve McQueen's character, Hilts, and the quaint little Scottish fellow, Ives, who later cracks, tries to escape by climbing the wire, and is shot. It is a show of the bonding that happens between these two characters.

Answer: disposal

He had to get rid of the dirt from the tunnels.

Answer: 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'

'Bloody singing. I never worked so hard in all my life.'

Answer: Neustadt

The name of the station can be seen clearly when all of the escapers who have missed their trains are piled up on the platform waiting. (Sagan was the real-life name of the town nearest the camp).

Answer: his own clothes

Unlike the other escapers, who all have escape clothes made by Griff the tailor, Hilts wears the same clothes he has worn throughout the film, including his captain's bars pinned inside his sweatshirt. He does at one point don German uniform, but disposes of this before he is recaptured.

Answer: officers

Said by Rupert Ramsey. Colonel Von Luger had tried to get Ramsey to put an end to the escape attempts, but Ramsey gave him this answer.

Answer: wallet

He stole it to get ID information.

Answer: 50

50. Hitler was so upset that he ordered that 50 of the captured prisoners be shot.

Answer: 5' 4"

Another snippet from the cooler conversation. When Hilts asks how tall he is, Ives replies "Five feet four", then asks why Hilts wants to know.

Answer: motorcycle

Hilts strings a wire booby trap across a road, upends a speeding motorcyclist and takes both his uniform and motorbike. (I have read that McQueen himself did this stunt). Several escapers choose the train, Sedgewick travels part way by bicycle and Hendley steals an aeroplane for himself and Blythe.

Answer: He turns an airplane propeller clockwise.

After seeing Gestapo agents aboard the train, Hendley quietly informs Blythe that they must leave. The two men head to the back of the train. Blythe tells Hendley, "Give me a good push." and they jump off the train. Later, Hendley and Blythe approach a German airfield in order to steal an airplane. Hendley tells Blythe to turn the plane's propeller clockwise while Hendley starts the engine. The two then escape by air.

Answer: Walking

Sedgwick walks to get the bicycle, steals it, and rides it for quite some time. Then he gets on a train, goes to a cafe and walks to Spain.

Answer: your point of view

Said by Rupert Ramsey and Bob Hendley. Only a few of the seventy-six men that escaped actually made it to freedom. Fifty of them were shot, and twelve of them were recaptured and sent back to the camp.

Answer: three

The three Americans are the ones that make the very strong alcohol to celebrate the 4th of July.