FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!

The Dreaded Cliffhangers Trivia Quiz

Cliffhangers are a time-honored way to keep your audience coming back for more. Kind of like creating interesting trivia quizzes...we'll see if you agree!

A multiple-choice quiz by john_sunseri. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
john_sunseri

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
318,289

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
709

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. The original use of cliffhangers in fiction -- "The 1001 Nights". Which queen staves off death by telling her king stories every night, but leaving off the ending, thus beguiling him into keeping her alive for another day so that he can hear how things turned out? Hint

Scheherazade

Nefertiti

Bloody Mary

Jezebel

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. Which contemporary of Charles Dickens, known best for his "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone", said of the cliffhanger technique: "Make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em wait - exactly in that order"? Hint

Wilkie Collins

Henry James

Thomas Hardy

Anthony Trollope

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. In the 1910s, film began to utilize the cliffhanger technique. Most famously, one series had a woman dodging death on a weekly basis from a variety of scoundrels, rapscallions and ne-er-do-wells. What was this perilous woman's name? Hint

Dale Evans

Miss Kitty

Geraldine

Pauline

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. Probably the most famous cliffhanger ending in television history was the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas". So...who shot J.R.? Hint

Kristin

Sue Ellen

Maggie Simpson

Bobby

NEXT>

Question 5 of 10

5. Stephen King jumped into the cliffhanger game with his serial novel in 1996. He split the thing up into six parts and released them once a month, each one ending on a point of tension or climax. What was the name of the book? Hint

Hearts in Atlants

Bag of Bones

The Green Mile

The Dark Tower

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. This movie, widely considered to be the first of the 'slasher' genre of horror film, ended with the villain shot and falling from the balcony of a house. When the heroine and her savior move to the balcony and look down, he's gone. What was this 1978 movie classic that left us all hanging until the sequel came out? Hint

Friday the 13th

Halloween

Last House on the Left

The Burning

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. This movie ends with a REALLY annoying cliffhanger--Han Solo is frozen in carbonite, Luke loses his hand and gains a father, and we don't know WHAT'S going to happen next. And we wouldn't for years. Hint

"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)

"Return of the Jedi" (1983)

"A New Hope" (1977)

"The Phantom Menace" (1999)

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. This 1969 movie ended with its main characters in a bus...yep. A bus hanging over the edge of a cliff. It starred Benny Hill, Noel Coward and Michael Caine, and was later remade into a movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Jason Statham. What was this cliffhanger? Hint

The Italian Job

The Lavender Hill Mob

The Transporter

Get Carter

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. Who directed Sylvester Stallone and John Lithgow in "Cliffhanger" (1993)? He also directed his wife Geena Davis in "Cutthroat Island" (1995), if that helps. Hint

Renny Harlin

James Cameron

Guy Ritchie

John McTiernan

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. In the grand tradition of the genre, I'm going to have to leave you _______ . Hint

hangdog

hangman

hanging

hangnail

(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

Select a User ID:

Choose a Password:

Your Email:

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Scheherazade

Scheherazade's husband Shahryar had executed three thousand wives before he found one who was clever enough to outsmart him. You wonder where he found all these women...

Answer: Wilkie Collins

The other three WERE contemporaries of Dickens, but Collins was an acquaintance and, for a time, the most popular writer in England. Dickens eventually blew him out of the water, but used plenty of cliffhangers himself.

Answer: Pauline

"The Perils of Pauline" (with actress Pearl White in the title role) once literally had Pauline hanging from a cliff at the end of an episode. It turned out okay, though.

4. Probably the most famous cliffhanger ending in television history was the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas". So...who shot J.R.?

Answer: Kristin

Maggie Simpson did a bit of shooting of her own, one time.

Answer: The Green Mile

While "The Dark Tower" could be considered a serial novel--a very, very long one--it was released over the period from 1977 to 2004. "The Green Mile" was done in half a year, and was later released in collected form, in screenplay form and as a movie.

Answer: Halloween

Michael Myers came back in the sequel for another shot at Jamie Lee Curtis, but couldn't get the job done then, either. He eventually knocked off his sister in "Halloween: Resurrection", though.

Answer: "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)

In one scene in "Empire", Luke's hanging on for dear life. But the cliff has been upgraded to a flying city far above a gas planet. That's progress!

Answer: The Italian Job

In the newer movie, there's no bus hanging off a cliff. There are a bunch of darling little Mini Coopers, though.

9. Who directed Sylvester Stallone and John Lithgow in "Cliffhanger" (1993)? He also directed his wife Geena Davis in "Cutthroat Island" (1995), if that helps.

Answer: Renny Harlin

McTiernan directed "Die Hard" (1988), Cameron directed "The Terminator" (1984) and Ritchie gave us "Snatch" (2000), but it was Harlin who gave "Cliffhanger" to the world. That almost makes up for "Cutthroat Island". Almost.

10. In the grand tradition of the genre, I'm going to have to leave you _______ .

Answer: hanging

Thanks for playing!

Source: Author john_sunseri

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor DakotaNorth before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.