Heaven Can Wait Trivia

1. What was the name of the Angel played by James Mason in the movie?

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: Mr. Jordan

The interplay among Mason's courtly Angel, Warren Beatty's nice-guy characters, and Buck Henry's exasperated escort is one of the many funny highlights of the film. "Heaven Can Wait" is actually a reworking of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," a 1941 movie about a boxer accidentally killed before his time on earth is set to expire.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: 67 million dollars

While standing in the Los Angeles Coliseum, the former owner, played by John Randolph, said, "All I asked was $67 million, and he said, 'Okay.'"

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: Riding his bike through a tunnel

An exercise fanatic, Beatty's character is riding his bike when he enters a narrow highway tunnel toward an oncoming car. Wanting to avoid a bloody scene, the Escort takes him to Heaven even though he is not scheduled to die for decades.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers

At the end of this movie it shows that these two teams were playing in Super Bowl XIII. Interestingly, Los Angeles would make its first Super Bowl appearance, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the following season, in Super Bowl XIV, in 1980.

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: The body has been cremated

The Angel orders the Escort to return Beatty's character to earth at once and get him into his old body, but they're too late. They arrive in time to watch his ashes being scattered, and hear his old trainer saying "I hope they got the best football team in America in Heaven, and I hope God makes you first-string."

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: Max Corkle

The team trainer was played by Jack Warden. He was the only person able to get both of Beatty's characters, Joe Pendleton and Leo Farnsworth, a try-out with the Los Angeles Rams.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: Leo Farnsworth

Beatty's original body was that of Joe Pendleton, starting quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams, who was accidentally enraptured, by the Escort, prior to an accident on his bicycle. Later, the Escort would help Beatty's character fulfill his dream of winning a Super Bowl by giving him the body of Tom Jarrett, the back-up quarterback for the Rams.

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: Liver and whey shake

As Beatty's character begins to fall in love with Julie Christie's character, he orders his staff to whip up a liver and whey shake for her so they can dine together. Later, when his onetime trainer panics after realizing that he somehow returned to earth after dying, he orders a shake to in hopes of reviving the trainer. His butler Sisk is obsessed with serving cocoa to him, a humorous running joke in the movie.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: Warren Beatty

He directed and starred as the main character, a football quarterback, for an old National Football League team of the 1970s, the Los Angeles Rams. Originally, Beatty wanted this movie to be based on a boxer, however, the person he wanted to play the part, Muhammad Ali, was too busy.

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: Deacon Jones

Deacon Jones, an NFL Hall-of-Famer, has a funny role in the film, as an angry football player not at all pleased that a businessman dabbling in football wants to play quarterback for the Rams. The main character's personal assistant, trying to kill his boss, further enflames Jones by reminding him of his boss's earlier racially insensitive remarks. After sailing unblocked into the backfield and flattening his new owner/quarterback, Jones would contritely apologize each time ("I'm terribly sorry Mr. Farnsworth - this is really embarrassing.").

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: "No, I played a little polo"

A funny scene, but also a minor editing blooper. Earlier in the movie, when a butler is trying to get him to don a polo helmet, Beatty asks "Do I play polo?" and the butler replies "Not really, sir."

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: Haiti

Leo Farnsworth wanted this country so that his corporation could profit by growing millions of acres of sugar cane. However, once Beatty's character took over Farnsworth's body, he decided against the purchase of Haiti, because he felt sugar wasn't good for a person's body.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: soprano saxaphone

During the initial scene of the movie Joe Pendleton is shown playing this gold plated instrument. Later, while assuming Leo Farnsworth's body, he continues to practice with this instrument.

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis

Gowdy and DeRogatis were the main NBC football broadcasting team through much of the 1960s and 1970s, and Gowdy covered some of the great moments in sports history, including Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat, and Hank Aaron's 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth. Gowdy covered every odd-numbered Super Bowl from 1967 to 1979 - plus, of course, the Super Bowl in "Heaven Can Wait." Gowdy and DeRogatis are never seen on camera, but two well-known broadcasters who do appear in the movie are Dick Enberg, who does the locker room interviews after the Super Bowl, and Bryant Gumbel, uncredited, doing a television sportscast.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: The Escort

The Escort, played by Buck Henry, was a rookie angel who took Joe Pendleton out of his body, prior to the accident, only to later learn that it wasn't Pendleton's time to die. While at the Way Station, Pendleton explained to the Escort that he was a world-class athlete, thus, his reflexes allowed him to swerve out of the way of the on-coming vehicle prior to it hitting his bicycle.

From Quiz The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78

Answer: "It's all right. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Just before Beatty's character is shot, he proposes to Julie Christie's character. When he realizes that he is about to be taken away, he tells her that someday someone else might come up to her, maybe even a football player, maybe even a quarterback, and she'd be able to look into his eyes and feel recognized. She expresses confusion, and he assures her, "It's all right. There's nothing to be afraid of." Those are the last words he speaks to her before being shot.

From Quiz Heaven Can Wait

Answer: 2025

While in Heaven, waiting to be transported, it was revealed, by the Way Station Attendant, that Joe Pendleton wasn't actually scheduled to die until the year 2025, almost 50 years into the future.

This is category 16515

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.