U-571 Trivia Quiz

Answer: He was turned down for a command position.

Before attending the wedding reception of Ensign Larson (Matthew Settle), Lt. Andy Tyler (McConaughey) looks at a letter he received telling him that he has been turned down for a command position. Lt. Tyler questions Capt. Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) at the party about why he didn't give his recommendation. Capt. Dahlgren replies that he didn't feel Andy was ready to take on a command of his own.

Answer: Weapons and explosives

Amidst the preparations for the S-33's departure, Lt. Tyler and Lt. Emmett (Jon Bon Jovi) are standing on the dock talking, when a man comes up to them and asks where he can find the Executive Officer, which is Lt. Tyler. The man introduces himself as Maj. Coonan (David Keith) from the Office of Naval Intelligence.

He says he's going to sea with them and, pointing to a jeep, says there is his luggage. Lt. Tyler and Lt. Emmett walk over and see a couple of crates of explosives sitting on top of boxes of ammunition and weapons.

Answer: Enigma

Lt. Hirsch (Jake Weber) is travelling on the mission and has operational control. On the submarine, he explains that the inability of the Allies to decipher the German's messages are costing the Allies the war. They plan on capturing the Enigma encoding machine from a disabled U-boat, but must hurry to its location because a German resupply submarine is also on the way.

Answer: It is torpedoed by another U-boat.

After the Americans board U-571 and capture the encoding machine, they are in the process of transferring the German prisoners to the S-33. Capt. Dahlgren turns and sees a torpedo heading for the S-33. The torpedo was fired from the German resupply sub, which saw what was happening to U-571.

The S-33 is blown up, and the few Americans left on the U-boat are forced to get it underway quickly before the other U-boat fires at them.

Answer: Wentz

Lt. Hirsch finds out prior to their departure that Seaman Wentz (Jack Noseworthy) can speak German fluently. Wentz's skill comes in handy both when the boats approach the U-571, and when the Americans have to operate the German sub.

Answer: Captain

On the sub, Capt. Wassner (Thomas Kretschmann) does not admit to being U-571's captain when he is captured, and is on the S-33 being processed with the rest of the prisoners when the torpedo strikes the sub. Lt. Tyler realizes that the German resupply sub is responsible for torpedoing the S-33, and puts his crew into action.

They submerge the U-571 and fire torpedoes at the other U-boat, sinking it. They resurface, and find only two survivors. One is Eddie Carson (T.C. Carson), the cook from the S-33, and the other is Capt. Wassner. Capt. Wassner tells the Americans that he is an electrician.

Answer: True

Lt. Tyler is afraid that if they shoot and miss, the plane will radio to headquarters that one of the U-boats has been captured. If the Germans know that an Enigma machine has been compromised, they will change the codes. The Enigma machine and codebook that were captured will then be worthless to the Allies. Seaman Mazzola (Erik Palladino) panics, thinking the plane is going to fire on them and tells Rabbit (Will Estes) to fire, but Lt. Tyler orders him not to. Immediately after the plane flies over them, a German destroyer is spotted on the horizon.

Answer: the hydraulics are inoperable

Capt. Wassner is handcuffed near the engine room, but momentarily knocks Tank (Dave Power) unconscious and frees himself. He then quickly sabotages the hydraulics. Lt. Tyler sends Mazzola to the engine room to find out why they have lost hydraulics and are not diving. Capt. Wassner shoots Mazzola and the two struggle, with the German getting shot as well. Mazzola dies, and Tank must hurriedly try to fix the hydraulics system.

Answer: Radio shack

As a result of not being able to dive, the German destroyer has now approached U-571. They cannot take on the ship without a working torpedo tube, so Lt. Tyler and Lt. Hirsch decide to destroy the radio shack and the antenna so the Germans cannot report that Enigma has been compromised. Rabbit's shot accomplishes this and the sub dives under the destroyer.

The Germans begin dropping depth charges, forcing Lt. Tyler to continually make their depth deeper to stay under the explosions. He eventually comes up with a plan to destroy the German ship, but they must first find the air leak which is rendering the rear torpedo tube inoperable.

Answer: False

After surfacing, Lt. Tyler must wait until Trigger (Tom Guiry) has closed off the air leaks before the torpedo tube is ready for firing. In the meantime, the German destroyer has seen the sub and begins firing on it, causing major damage. Trigger becomes trapped in the bilge water and dies after he closes off the valve.

The torpedo is fired and destroys the German ship. The Chief (Harvey Keitel) tells Lt. Tyler that they can't keep U-571 afloat any longer, so Lt. Tyler gives the order to abandon ship.

As the men watch from their life raft, U-571 sinks beneath the surface. They are later found by a U.S. Navy plane.