Red Scare: The Cold War in Film Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. A senior Soviet submarine commander and his officers attempt to defect to the United States with a brand new submarine that has a secret, silent propulsion system.

Answer: The Hunt for Red October

In the 1990 film "The Hunt for Red October", Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) is given command of a new boat, the "Red October", a "Typhoon" class, nuclear, ballistic missile submarine with a new, silent, propulsion system. Disillusioned with the Soviet system, Ramius and his officers decide to defect to the USA. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) figures out Ramius' intentions and he and American sub captain Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn) devise a plan to help Ramius and bring the sub to the USA.

2. An electronic glitch mistakenly sends U.S. bomber aircraft to attack the Soviet Union, while the President and the Soviet Premier desperately try to avert all-out nuclear war.

Answer: Fail-Safe

"Fail-Safe" is a 1964 American film, wherein a faulty computer circuit sends a squadron of U.S. bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The President (Henry Fonda) contacts the Soviet Premier and tries to recall the planes, but he is hampered by reluctance on the part of some Air Force officers to cooperate with Soviet officials, as well as policies that direct the pilot not to follow recall orders, as they may be a Soviet trick.

3. After a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union renders the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, an American submarine captain and his crew help the Australian government determine whether the fallout will affect Australia.

Answer: On the Beach

Based on the Neville Shute novel, "On The Beach" is a story of a 1964 nuclear war between the U.S. and the USSR that leaves the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable. An American submarine makes it to Australia, and the sub's commander, Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), agrees to go to Alaska to check if fallout levels are dropping, and also to investigate a Morse code signal from San Diego. Accompanying Towers is Australian officer Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins), who is worried about the fate of his wife and infant daughter.

4. A Soviet tank crew becomes lost in 1981 Afghanistan and is hunted by a force of guerrillas whose village they destroyed.

Answer: The Beast

In Afghanistan, two years into the Soviet invasion, the crew of a Soviet tank gets lost after destroying a village. Hunted by a relentless band of guerrillas, the crew begins to disintegrate, with the commander killing an Afghan member of the crew and then leaving one of the Soviet soldiers tied to a rock as a traitor.

When the guerrillas find the soldier (Jason Patric), he agrees to help them destroy the tank.

5. An American soldier, captured by Soviet commandos during the Korean War, is brainwashed into becoming an assassin and helping to install a Soviet sympathizer as the U.S. President.

Answer: The Manchurian Candidate

A group of American soldiers, who were captured in the Korean War by a Soviet commando unit, are returned to the USA. One of the men, Sgt. Ray Shaw (Lawrence Harvey), programmed to be a "sleeper" agent, becomes an assassin to help install his Senator stepfather as the Vice Presidential candidate in the upcoming election.

Another of the captured men, Major Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) figures out the plot after he and others of the group have recurring nightmares. Marco, now in Army intelligence, must race against time to stop the plot.

The film was remade in 2004.

6. The Soviets and the Americans race to recover a capsule, ejected from a satellite, containing a secret British camera that has landed in the polar ice pack near a remote weather station.

Answer: Ice Station Zebra

In a remote area north of a British weather station in Greenland, an American submarine is sent to retrieve a capsule dropped by a satellite. Along with the Marine platoon assigned to the task is Soviet defector Boris Vaslov ( Ernest Borgnine) and British Intelligence agent David Jones (Patrick McGoohan).
The race is on as Soviet paratroopers land in order to retrieve the capsule, which contains a secret British camera that has photographed Soviet missile sites.

7. An American Air Force base commander orders his planes to attack the Soviet Union, while his British aide attempts to find the code that will recall the aircraft.

Answer: Dr. Strangelove

American Air Force base commander Jack D.Ripper (Sterling Hayden), blaming Communist water fluoridation for his impotence, sends his bomber group to attack the Soviet Union. His aide, British RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tries to figure out the recall code after Ripper shoots himself.

In the War Room at the Pentagon, President Merkin Muffley (Sellers) tries to stop the planes, but has to deal with a war-hawk General (George C.Scott), a drunken Soviet Premier, and his German security advisor Dr.Strangelove (Sellers).

While based on the same material as "Fail-Safe", director Stanley Kubrick decided that the film could only work as a comedy.

8. While at a Los Angeles coffee shop at 4:00 am, a man looking for his waitress girlfriend takes a call on a pay phone that warns him of an imminent nuclear attack.

Answer: Miracle Mile

Los Angeles musician Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) is at an all-night diner looking for the waitress he met earlier in the day. He takes a call, on a pay phone, that warns him of an impending nuclear war. When he tells the patrons in the restaurant, one of them, a businesswoman (Denise Crosby) confirms the information and charters a plane to Antarctica. Harry and the others spend the next few hours trying to gather loved ones and escape before the missiles strike.

9. An American magazine reporter boards a U.S. Navy destroyer to do a story on the ship's captain, and is caught up in the cat and mouse game the ship plays with a Soviet submarine near Greenland.

Answer: The Bedford Incident

Magazine reporter Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier) boards the U.S. destroyer "Bedford" to do a story on her captain, Eric Finlander (Richard Widmark). Finlander is a hard-nosed commander who keeps his crew on an almost permanent war footing, appalling both Munceford and his new ship's doctor ( Martin Balsam). Finding a Soviet submarine In Greenland territorial waters, Finlander pushes both his ship and crew to the brink trying to force the sub to surface.

10. An American pilot, assisted by Soviet dissidents, attempts to steal an advanced Soviet fighter and fly it to the United States.

Answer: Firefox

Clint Eastwood plays former Air Force pilot Mitchell Gant, who is recruited by a joint British-American intelligence team to steal the prototype of an advanced Soviet fighter jet. With the help of Soviet dissident scientists, Gant successfully infiltrates the base and steals the plane, which responds to the pilot's thoughts, but he is pursued by a Soviet pilot flying a second prototype.

11. Colorado high school students form a guerrilla band and fight Soviet and Cuban troops in the Rocky Mountains during World War III.

Answer: Red Dawn

In a fictional 1980s, NATO has dissolved, several Latin American states have become Communist, and, together with Soviet troops, invade the U.S. A group of Colorado high school students escape Soviet paratroopers that occupy their town of Calumet and form a guerrilla resistance force, the Wolverines.

The amateur warriors become such a threat to the Soviet occupation forces that special anti-guerrilla units are sent in to destroy them.

12. Two bumbling CIA agents are sent into the Soviet Union as decoys, to cover for the real mission, the launch of a missile at the U.S. that rogue agents are using to test a secret anti-missile system.

Answer: Spies Like Us

Two inept government employees (Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase) are recruited by a rogue element of the CIA and sent to infiltrate the Soviet Union via Afghanistan. They are cover for the real agents, whose mission is to launch a Soviet mobile missile at the United States in order to test an anti-missile laser system.

They end up joining with the surviving agent to complete the mission, only then realizing the implications.

13. In 1962, U.S. reconnaissance detects Soviet missile sites being built on the island of Cuba, setting in motion a series of events that could lead to World War III.

Answer: Thirteen Days

In this dramatization of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. President John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) is presented with evidence that the Soviets are building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Kennedy is advised by his brother and Attorney General Robert (Steven Culp) and friend and assistant Kenneth O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), along with other members of his Cabinet, but the ultimate decision on how to proceed is his.

14. A Russian submarine runs aground near a small island off the New England coast. The captain sends a group of sailors to find a boat big enough to free the submarine, but their discovery leads to panic among the residents in this comedy.

Answer: The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming

When a Soviet submarine runs aground near a fictional island off the coast of New England, several members of the crew land and try to steal a boat to tow the sub off the sandbar. They make contact with a writer and his wife (Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint), and head into town, as rumors of their presence frightens the locals. During a standoff in the harbor, both sides team up to save a frightened child trapped on a roof, and the townspeople end up giving the sub an escort back out to sea.

15. A teenage computer hacker, trying to play games on a tech company's server, accidentally hacks into a defense department computer and almost launches World War III.

Answer: Wargames

Seattle teenager David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), while trying to access a computer game company's inventory, accidentally gains access to a defense department computer that has been programmed to respond automatically to any attack on the U.S. Thinking that he is playing a game, the teen almost starts a real war with the Soviets, and only the intervention of the program's writer can stop the game.

Source: Author Reamar42

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
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Questions		Choices
1. A senior Soviet submarine commander and his officers attempt to defect to the United States with a brand new submarine that has a secret, silent propulsion system.		Fail-Safe
2. An electronic glitch mistakenly sends U.S. bomber aircraft to attack the Soviet Union, while the President and the Soviet Premier desperately try to avert all-out nuclear war.		The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming
3. After a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union renders the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, an American submarine captain and his crew help the Australian government determine whether the fallout will affect Australia.		Ice Station Zebra
4. A Soviet tank crew becomes lost in 1981 Afghanistan and is hunted by a force of guerrillas whose village they destroyed.		Dr. Strangelove
5. An American soldier, captured by Soviet commandos during the Korean War, is brainwashed into becoming an assassin and helping to install a Soviet sympathizer as the U.S. President.		Wargames
6. The Soviets and the Americans race to recover a capsule, ejected from a satellite, containing a secret British camera that has landed in the polar ice pack near a remote weather station.		Red Dawn
7. An American Air Force base commander orders his planes to attack the Soviet Union, while his British aide attempts to find the code that will recall the aircraft.		Miracle Mile
8. While at a Los Angeles coffee shop at 4:00 am, a man looking for his waitress girlfriend takes a call on a pay phone that warns him of an imminent nuclear attack.		The Beast
9. An American magazine reporter boards a U.S. Navy destroyer to do a story on the ship's captain, and is caught up in the cat and mouse game the ship plays with a Soviet submarine near Greenland.		The Hunt for Red October
10. An American pilot, assisted by Soviet dissidents, attempts to steal an advanced Soviet fighter and fly it to the United States.		The Bedford Incident
11. Colorado high school students form a guerrilla band and fight Soviet and Cuban troops in the Rocky Mountains during World War III.		Firefox
12. Two bumbling CIA agents are sent into the Soviet Union as decoys, to cover for the real mission, the launch of a missile at the U.S. that rogue agents are using to test a secret anti-missile system.		The Manchurian Candidate
13. In 1962, U.S. reconnaissance detects Soviet missile sites being built on the island of Cuba, setting in motion a series of events that could lead to World War III.		On the Beach
14. A Russian submarine runs aground near a small island off the New England coast. The captain sends a group of sailors to find a boat big enough to free the submarine, but their discovery leads to panic among the residents in this comedy.		Spies Like Us
15. A teenage computer hacker, trying to play games on a tech company's server, accidentally hacks into a defense department computer and almost launches World War III.		Thirteen Days

Lasting from the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocs was often portrayed in movies. Match the film description to the title.