Chain Breaker Trivia Quiz

Answer: Prison Break

Sentenced to serve a lengthy spell on the inaccessible French penal colony of Devil's Island are two prisoners - one a safecracker, played by Steve McQueen and the other, a forger, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. Despite this disparity, the pair form an unlikely friendship. Supposedly based on true events we cannot help to be drawn to the two rogues as they try and plot their escape from the hell-hole that they're in. So likeable are the two that we find ourselves rooting for a happy ending, despite the fact that they're criminals.

Released in 1973, it produces two wonderful performances from its leads. In particular, Steve McQueen (as the title character), whose show of vulnerability is a far cry from his usual action/hero roles, and it garnered him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

Answer: Prison Break

Based on the 1982 Stephen King novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", in the 1994 film we are positively urging for Tim Robbins' Andy Dufresne to make good his escape. One, because he has been wrongly imprisoned and, secondly, despite this, he has managed to maintain both his dignity and his hope, in a prison where the obdurate walls and the corrupt prison officials are doing their damnedest to steal both away from him.

He strikes an endearing friendship with "Red" Reddings (Morgan Freeman) that elevates this film on an emotional level to such an extent that the emotion becomes more the heart of the story than the escape itself.

Answer: Prison Break

Directed by John Sturges, "The Great Escape" (1963) has an epic quality about it. Set in a World War II prisoner of war camp (Stalag), we are not being asked to bear witness to the possible escape of one or two prisoners but, daringly, the entire prison population.

There are so many ingredients to this film that draw upon our affections - the strength and the courage of the prisoners, their camaraderie under the most adverse of conditions, the planning, the preparation and the execution of the escape and, ultimately, the suspense surrounding which of the prisoners will make it and who won't.

Add to this an incredible line-up of stars, including the "King of Cool", Steve McQueen (in another escape movie), James Garner, Charles Bronson and Richard Attenborough. The movie also produces one of filmdom's most iconic scenes, that of Steve McQueen's Virgil Hilts attempting to escape a string of Nazi soldiers by jumping a motorcycle over a barb-wire barrier.

Answer: Prison Break

Directed by Alan Parker, "Midnight Express" is a 1978 film that is tough to watch. Written by Oliver Stone, it details the harrowing experiences endured by a young college student named Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), thrown into a hellish Turkish prison after being captured trying to smuggle a supply of drugs out of Istanbul.

We are left with little doubt that his chances of surviving the wretched pit he'd been cast into are very thin. Yet, despite having little sympathy for the act that got him here, the inhumanities that he is left to deal with have us on the edge of our seats, urging him to break out.

Answer: On the Run

This 1935 film, "The 39 Steps", is a perfect example as to why Alfred Hitchcock is held in such high regard as a master filmmaker.

Robert Donat is Richard Hannay, a man framed for a murder that he did not commit, fleeing London in a bid to make his escape and prove his innocence. Along this journey he becomes involved with a group of spies who, unbeknownst to him, are also tied into the murder plot.

The film is brief, at only 86 minutes in length, which is just as well, as it moves at a breakneck pace, effectively putting us, the viewer, in the same shoes as Hannay. Hitchcock displays his skills by leading us with a light touch, that seems to take the edge out of the paranoia.

Answer: On the Run

In "To Catch a Thief" (1955), we are introduced to Cary Grant's John Robie, a retired cat burglar, living on the French Riviera. However, a series of high profile robberies take place that have his signature attached to them which sees the police point their fingers squarely at him. Robie feels that the best way out of this predicament, is for him to catch the thief. In its own light, that may sound simple enough but, in his case he also has to stay away from the gendarmes who are hot on his tail.

This wonderful Hitchcock directed film brings together two of Hollywood's "beautiful people", at the time, in Grant and the glamorous Grace Kelly, amidst a backdrop of European glitz and high life. While the suspense keeps us ever at the front end of our seats we are also being seduced by the electricity and the chemistry that flows between Grant and Kelly.

Answer: On the Run

As he is an absolute craftsman of the films that involve an innocent man on the run, it seemed rather appropriate that all three of the movies that I have selected for this category were refined by the genius of Alfred Hitchcock. "North by Northwest" (1959) proves to be one of Hitchcock's finest.

In a similar manner to Robert Donat's Richard Hannay (see 1935's "The 39 Steps"), Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive, is cast as the patsy for a murder that he did not commit. This triggers a high octane escape from the law and him becoming embroiled in a plot by spies to smuggle government secrets out of the country.

Cary Grant, as the smooth talking Thornhill, produces one of his finest performance and he is ably assisted by the gorgeous Eva Marie Saint. The film is also memorable for the iconic image of Cary Grant being pursued by a low flying plane, an image that is likely to be forever branded in this author's mind.

Answer: Perilous Situation

One of the more enduring disaster epics that permeated through the 1970s, "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) provides us with an inventive concept... the perilous situation that the passengers of an ocean liner find themselves in is that that ship has capsized and they are now faced with a series of obstacles as they try to make their way from the top of the ship, which is now underwater, to the bottom of the ship... which now represents the top of it.

With a great ensemble cast, which includes the likes of Gene Hackman, as an unlikely preacher, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons and Shelley Winters, we are drawn to these characters, either likeable or not, and the predicament that they're in and this adds an extra layer to the suspense of this film that bears the tagline "Hell Upside Down".

Answer: Perilous Situation

"127 Hours" (2010) delivers the story of real life adventurer Aron Ralston, played by James Franco, who finds himself in desperate fight for survival after one of his arms becomes pinned by a boulder in one of the canyons of Utah.

Franco delivers a stunning performance as Ralston, a man imprisoned both physically and psychologically by this giant rock. Alone, he battles hunger, thirst, despair and his own mind for 127 hours (five days) before coming to the realization that the only way he can escape his predicament is to amputate his own arm.

Answer: Perilous Situation

"The Mist" (2010) has a striking symmetry about it. It was based on a 1980 Stephen King novella of the same name, and it was directed by Frank Darabont. Previously, Darabont had directed "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), another film based on a King novella.

"The Mist" introduces us to a small community in the state of Maine that is besieged by an alien mist, full of monstrous creatures. For a small group of residents in the community, a shopping centre becomes both their prison and their fortress, as they look to extricate themselves from this predicament.

In some respects, the film bears similarities to "127 Hours" (released in the same year) in that, as well as the physical threat, there is a strong psychological danger to deal with. Not only is this alien mist shrouding the town, it also clouds the decision making, the moralities and the grasp on humanity that the trapped citizens possess. Whilst the horror is ever present and the tension is palpable, the juxtapositions of hope versus despair, unity versus division, scattered among the residents, is as suspenseful as the identification (or hope) of who will survive and how they will escape.