A Film by Any Other Name... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Beaches

Released in 1988, "Beaches" told the story of a pair of unlikely, lifelong friends, played by Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, and the ups and downs in their relationship over the years. It was famous for featuring Midler's rendition of the song "Wind Beneath My Wings".

The title for "Beaches" came from a quote from the 1973 novel "The Princess Bride": "If your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches". The tagline on the U.S. poster for the movie was "Once in a lifetime you make a friendship that lasts forever", which may be where the alternate title came from.

Answer: Dying Young

Julia Roberts played Hilary, a woman looking for a fresh start when she took a job as a nurse caring for a leukemia patient named Victor, played by Campbell Scott. The two fell in love after Victor's cancer went into remission, but complications arose when Victor started to get sick again and kept it from Hilary.

The film also featured Vincent D'Onofrio as a friendly handyman who threatened to come between Victor and Hilary. The film was marketed as "The Choice of Love" in some countries because "Dying Young" was probably too depressing a title for some markets.

Answer: Hero

Dustin Hoffman played a smalltime crook who was on his way to see his son for his birthday, when a plane fell out of the sky in front of him. He begrudgingly helped the trapped survivors out of the burning plane and promptly disappeared into the night. One of the survivors, a feisty reporter played by Geena Davis, became determined to discover the identity of her anonymous savior, but in a surprising development, an impostor in the form of a homeless man (played by Andy Garcia) came forward to claim credit for the rescue.

The film explored themes like the true nature of heroism and celebrity, and was directed by Stephen Frears, who went on to make "High Fidelity" and "The Queen".

Answer: Point of No Return

John Badham directed this 1993 remake of Luc Besson's "La Femme Nikita", which featured Bridget Fonda as a drug addict who was sentenced to death for killing a police officer, but given the chance to adopt a new identity and become an assassin for the government. The film also featured Gabriel Byrne, Anne Bancroft and Dermot Mulroney. Although it was called "Point of No Return" in North America, it was released as "The Assassin" in Australia, the UK and other parts of Europe.

"The Jackal", "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Bangkok Dangerous" were all remakes about assassins, but none of them were released as "The Assassin" and the original movies weren't from France.

Answer: The Ref

After an unlucky burglar (Leary) bungled a job on Christmas Eve, he was forced to take a married couple (Spacey and Davis) hostage while he hid from the police. This turned out to be a mistake, as he wound up having to mediate the couple's constant bickering, making him the "Ref" referred to in the original title.

As this may have been too abstract for some audiences, the film was released with the more descriptive alternative title in several markets.

Answer: Swimming With Sharks

This 1994 movie was written and directed by George Huang, who was supposedly inspired by his own experiences as a production assistant in Hollywood. It told the story of Guy (Frank Whaley), a film graduate who landed a job as assistant to Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey), an up and coming movie producer with a reputation for being abusive, petty and downright cruel. Guy quickly became adept at handling the insults and ill treatment, but when an act of betrayal pushed him over the edge, he took matters into his own hands and turned the tables on Buddy, with brutal results.

As far as I can tell, the movie was originally called "The Buddy Factor" before it was renamed to the catchier title that it goes by more commonly now.

Answer: Two If By Sea

This poorly reviewed 1996 movie was about an art thief (Denis Leary) who had to balance his efforts at fencing a priceless painting with salvaging his rocky relationship with his girlfriend (Sandra Bullock), while at the same time keeping one step ahead of the FBI.

The title of the film came from the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and was a reference to the signal employed by the colonists to warn of the movements of the British Army during the American Revolution. The army's choice of route over land or water was to be indicated by the number of lanterns seen hanging in a church steeple - one if by land, two if by sea (although in reality, the army advanced across the Charles River). Since this reference was probably too obscure for most international markets, the film was released outside of the U.S. under the more generic alternative title.

Answer: Keep the Aspidistra Flying

When Gordon Comstock (Richard E. Grant) quit his job at an ad agency to concentrate on his poetry, he quickly learnt that poverty for art's sake was not all it was cracked up to be. For one thing, it put a serious damper on his attempts to woo his girlfriend, Rosemary (Helena Bonham Carter).

This 1997 movie was an adaptation of the 1936 novel by George Orwell entitled "Keep the Aspidistra Flying". "A Merry War" was taken from a line in the novel, and was probably considered more accessible than the original title.

Answer: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter had always thought that he was an ordinary boy, until his eleventh birthday when he discovered that magic existed and that he was, in fact, a wizard. This 2001 movie, the first in a wildly successful franchise, introduced audiences around the world to Harry's wondrous world - a world of wands and magic spells, dragons, goblins, sorting hats and, last but not least, Quidditch.

The film was released as "Philosopher's Stone" in the UK and "Sorcerer's Stone" in the U.S., to mirror the names of the books in both countries.

The title of the book was changed when it was published in the U.S. because of fears that people would mistakenly think that the book had something to do with philosophy, even though the philosopher's stone was actually an item used in alchemy, to turn metals into gold, and to achieve immortality.

The scenes in the movie which made mention of the stone were filmed twice, with the actors saying "philosopher's" and "sorcerer's" as appropriate.

Answer: Live Free or Die Hard

John McClane (Bruce Willis) returned to the big screen in 2007 to foil a terrorist plot, in which hackers targeted the country's vital computer-controlled infrastructure systems, to bring the nation to its knees. The film's U.S. title was a reference to New Hampshire's official motto "Live Free or Die", which in turn originated from a famous toast written by General John Stark, a soldier of the American Revolution. Since the reference would probably be lost on audiences outside of the United States, the film was marketed internationally as "Die Hard 4.0", in keeping with the cyber terrorist aspects of the film's plot.