Instigator Penalty Trivia Quiz

Answer: American Football

A two-minute warning is given when two minutes of playing time remain on the game clock in each half of a National Football League (NFL) match.

A sniper has been spotted, by the camera on the Goodyear Blimp, positioned inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during a Championship football match akin to the Super Bowl. Police Captain Peter Holly (Heston) is brought in and he endeavours to set up a plan to capture or take out the assassin with the SWAT team Sergeant played by John Cassavetes. As the two minute warning in the game approaches the sniper sees that he's trapped and opens fire, shooting at random targets in the stadium. Panic erupts and many spectators are killed or injured in the stampede that ensues.

Sadly the all star ensemble, which also included Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, David Janssen, Jack Klugman, Gena Rowlands and Walter Pidgeon could not lift the film above the average. The film would be heavily criticised for its focus on violence.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

Released in 1984 the song opens with Reagan's crack "We begin bombing in five minutes" (he was jesting about Russia at the time) which he'd made on his weekly Saturday radio address on National Public Radio (August 11, 1984). The quip was an attempt at levity that Jerry Harrison did not see the funny side of. Feeling that it was in bad taste he was quoted "Everyone has the right to kid around, but that was too public". Harrison and Collins would use that phrase, amongst others, sample it and mix it with drums and synthesizers and continuously loop it through the song.

Taking the Reagan connection a step further, the name of their band was inspired by a 1951 comedy that featured the former President, "Bedtime For Bonzo". Ironically this film was also the inspiration for the Ramones song "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg".

Answer: Werewolf

Based on a story by Gene DeWeese, better known for his addition to the world of "Star Trek" novels, the ABC produced this short film as part of their "ABC Weekend Specials". The film deals with fourteen year old Walt Cribbens who goes to see a horror movie with his best friend Cindy.

After the film he transforms into a werewolf for two minutes in front of Cindy. Whilst it is cool to have these powers they cause him all sorts of headaches - he cannot understand how or why he transforms, he finds himself in conflict with Stanley, the local bully, and he looks like he's going to be pinned for a series of burglaries in the district and needs to prove his innocence.

He does however, get support from his good friend Cindy who, strangely, is the only person who doesn't seem to be freaked out by all of this.

Answer: Flash Drama

These are generally put forth by schools as part of their annual productions or eisteddfods or they may form part of a local drama company's performances. Typically the number of actors involved are few, generally one to four. The scenery/set design is limited if any is used at all and what is used is kept very simple.

It would be unusual to have a play under these circumstances run more than a single act.

Answer: 1984

Each day the Oceania Party members are required to file into a room and watch films of their enemies and then, for exactly two minutes, they must stand and vent their hatred of them. The novel goes on to explain that the members live a controlled existence. This has the potential to lead to a build up of subdued angst which, in turn, can lead to subversive behaviour. The "two minutes hate" was introduced to alleviate or release these feelings ensuring that all this negativity is directed at the enemy.

Set in Airstrip One, a country that was previously known as Great Britain, in a constant state of war, Orwell produces a society that is constantly being manipulated and kept under surveillance. "1984" is considered one of his finest works and was published for the first time in 1949.

Answer: That the universe sprang into existence five minutes ago

Russell's sceptical hypothesis suggests that the universe sprang out of thin air only five minutes ago complete with all our human memories and histories. This is an off-shoot of the "Omphalos Hypothesis" that argues that God's creation of the universe is only a recent occurrence - by recent, we're talking the last 10,000 years - and that as part of that creation he'd introduced false evidence that the universe is immensely old.

Another alternative idea that has sprung from this is "Last Thursdayism" which proposes the view that the universe was created last Thursday and given the physical aspects of an entity formed billions of years ago. The debate as to whether there is truth in this argument has raged on since... oh, last Thursday.

Answer: Two minutes

The first minute of silence is a moment of gratitude for those soldiers who managed to make it home from World War I. The second minute is to remember those who had fallen. A bugler plays the "Last Post" during the second minute of silence and "Reveille" is used to signal its end.

Sir Henry, at the time he set up this gesture, was the Lord Mayor of Cape Town (South Africa). A description of his ceremony was soon sent to London via a Reuters journalist and it did not take long for the word to spread to other nations within the Commonwealth where it has become a permanent part of their Armistice Day services.

Answer: UK's Parliament

Getting a first reading for a Private Member's Bill in the Common Chambers in Great Britain's Parliament is extremely difficult and, as a consequence, the opportunity to win this right by way of the Ten Minute Rule has proven to be a blessing for UK's MPs.

However, it is not a given that the rule will help them succeed. To qualify to introduce their Bill the MP needs to be the first through the door of the Public Bill Office on the Tuesday or the Wednesday morning to register their Bill, three weeks before they wish it to be introduced. Should they succeed they are then given ten minutes to convince the House that the Bill is worthy of a second reading. Another minister then has the opportunity to speak for ten minutes against the Bill. After this the Speaker will call for a vote to decide if the Bill is to proceed to the next stage.

Answer: Alabama

On the day that was to become known as "Bloody Sunday" (March 7, 1965) Martin's picture captures a line of protestors preparing to march from Selma to Montgomery confronted by a line of State troopers only moments before violence was to erupt. Whilst its presence is not physical, one can almost sense the foreboding that something "bad" was dwelling in the gap between the parties. This remains one of the defining photographs of that moment.

Twenty five year old Martin, working for The Birmingham News, had just been handed the assignment that nobody else wanted - to get the story on the fatal shooting of a black protestor by the name of Jimmie Lee Jackson. It didn't take Morgan long to figure that what he'd gotten himself into was history in the making. His intuition did not let him down and it proved to be the making of his career.

Answer: Midnight

The Doomsday Clock, which first appeared in 1947, is a symbolic notion that indicates the likelihood of a global nuclear war. This probability is marked as minutes away from midnight. Coincidentally, in the first seventy years of the clock's existence, the nearest it had gotten to midnight was two minutes. This occurred in 1953 when both the USA and Russia tested their thermonuclear devices, for the first time, within nine months of each other. In 2017, with the rise in US nationalism under President Donald Trump's leadership, his comments about the use of nuclear weapons and the subsequent threat of the arms race between Russia and the USA re-igniting, the Doomsday Clock had moved to within two and a half minutes of midnight.

The ever-present threat of nuclear war during the Cold War that existed between Russia and the USA was the inspiration behind the writing of this song by Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson. On their "Live After Death" DVD (2008) Dickinson would expand on this stating that "it's about the romance of war, and how we're all repelled and fascinated by it at the same time". Iron Maiden released the single in 1984 and saw it rise to number eleven on the UK Singles Charts.