Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
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?
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"?
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?
4. Probably the most famous cliffhanger ending in television history was the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas". So...who shot J.R.?
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?
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?
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.
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?
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.
10. In the grand tradition of the genre, I'm going to have to leave you _______ .
Source: Author
john_sunseri
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
DakotaNorth before going online.
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