Michael Crichton's 'Congo' Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Gorilla

Amy was an extraordinary female gorilla who was part of an experiment in San Francisco. The experiment focussed on language learning abilities of primates. Amy had a 620 sign vocabulary and could communicate with her trainer Peter Elliot. The character of Amy was based on a real gorilla named 'Koko' who reportedly had a vocabulary of more than 1000 signs and words.

'Congo' is a work of fiction. But through the use of footnotes Crichton makes it appear as though the novel is based on facts. An interesting fact which Crichton reveals (on his website) is that he had never seen a gorilla in the wild at the time of writing the book. He had also not visited Congo to write the novel. He visited Rwanda and saw wild gorillas two years after writing 'Congo'. This is chronicled in his non-fiction work 'Travels'.

Answer: A species of gorilla

The initial expedition members are killed by a species of gorilla. Primatologist Peter Elliot observes that these gray coloured gorillas were entirely a new species of animal. He planned to name this species as 'Gorilla elliotensis'.

Answer: To search for diamonds

ERTS, the Houston-based Earth Resources Technology Services Inc, finds out about the lost city of Zinj which reportedly contains blue diamonds. This information is found out by a Euro-Japanese consortium, which also mounts an expedition to find the diamonds. The reason why they want the diamonds is not for its monetary value, but for it's use in computing technology.

Crichton was an admirer of the classic novel 'King Solomon's Mines' written by H. Rider Haggard. He wrote 'Congo' because he wanted to "write a similar sort of Victorian adventure, set in the 20th century".

Answer: She is carried by Munro

The expedition team has to para drop into the Barawana forest after their plane is shot at by the Zaire army. Amy is carried by Munro and lands safely.

Answer: Because her mother was killed there

While Amy was an infant, her mother is killed in the gorilla attack at Zinj and both mother and baby are carried off by natives to be sold. An animal lover, Mrs. Swenson, saves Amy and donates her to the Minneapolis zoo from where she is taken by Elliot. The memories of the killing of her mother come back in Amy's dreams and she paints the city of Zinj.

Answer: None of these

Amy, Ross, Elliot and Munro survive the expedition and escape in a balloon. However many of the porters are killed by the gorillas of Zinj.

Answer: All of these

Using the help of the intelligent Amy, Elliot manages to decipher the language spoken (by sighing)by the gorillas guarding Zinj. He records the words 'Go way', 'No come' and 'Bad here' to scare away the attacking gorillas. While this doesn't work initially, later on when the gorillas hear the message they stop the attack and leave.

Answer: They were trained to attack

Many years ago, the residents of Zinj had trained gorillas to kill any intruders to protect their diamond mines. Over the years, the trained behaviour had been passed on to the next generations and gorillas began to kill anyone who came to Zinj.

Answer: She is lost

After the expedition returns back, the Project Amy is scrapped because of Amy's increasing maturity and size. Amy is returned to the forests of Zaire to interact with the wild gorillas. She is finally lost in the jungles. She comes back briefly with her infant child before returning to the forests. She is last spotted on the slopes of Mt. Kyambara.

Answer: They manage to survive

At the end of the story, the volcano Mukenko explodes burying Zinj forever in its lava and ashes. The expedition does not get the diamonds and Elliot does not get any evidence of the new species of gorilla. They manage to escape with their lives intact.