Attack of the Movie Clones Trivia Quiz

Answer: Armageddon

Lightning may not strike twice in the same place, but large floating objects in space with the ability to annihilate all life on Earth evidently do. "Deep Impact" featured an ensemble cast that included Elijah Wood, Tea Leoni, Morgan Freeman and Robert Duvall, and was released in May of 1998. "Armageddon" starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, and came out just two months later. Both films depicted the denizens of Earth launching a desperate international space effort (led by the United States) to deploy nuclear devices to destroy or deflect the oversized "planet killers" in order to save the human race. Both films involved spectacular sequences of mass destruction, poignant scenes filled with teary goodbyes, and noble acts of self-sacrifice. And both films earned a combined revenue of over $900 million worldwide, proving that the disaster film was alive and well in 1998.

Answer: 1492: Conquest of Paradise

1992 marked the 500th anniversary of Columbus' historic voyage, but this proved to be a poor excuse to devote so much celluloid to a man whose most famous achievement was the result of him losing his way. He was trying to establish a westward trade route from Europe to Asia, but he miscalculated the diameter of the Earth and discovered the Americas instead. Both films depicted Columbus winning over the support of the Queen of Spain, as well as his difficult journey to the New World, although Ridley Scott's version devoted more screen time to Columbus' struggle to control the indigenous people he encountered on his expedition.

"Christopher Columbus: The Discovery" was released in August 1992, and boasted the talents of Georges Corraface, Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck, and a story by Mario Puzo (author of "The Godfather"). "1492" came out less than two months later, and featured Gerard Depardieu, Armand Assante and Sigourney Weaver. Despite the pedigree of everyone involved, both films performed dismally at the box office.

Answer: A Bug's Life

The ongoing battle between animation powerhouses Disney and DreamWorks started in 1998 with the release of "Antz" and "A Bug's Life" within weeks of each other, although the seeds of the war had been sown much earlier. Pixar had pitched the idea for "A Bug's Life" to Disney in August 1994 as part of their three-picture deal, around the same time that Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that he was stepping down as the Chairman of Disney at the end of September. Katzenberg had been responsible for reviving Disney's animation division with films like "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King". After his departure from Disney, he founded the studio DreamWorks SKG together with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. DreamWorks and Katzenberg have always claimed that they were unaware of the pitch for "A Bug's Life", but within a year, Katzenberg had his own animated insect movie in development at DreamWorks. Pixar/Disney had a head start on DreamWorks, so Katzenberg rushed production on "Antz". He took two and half years to complete his film compared to the four years that Pixar took to finish theirs, and beat "A Bug's Life" to the theatres by six weeks.

Both films centered on the exploits of a lone ant who saved his colony from destruction while falling in love with an ant princess, but that's where the similarities ended. "Antz" was more adult-oriented in tone, with actors like Woody Allen, Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman lending their voices for the film, while "A Bug's Life" boasted a wider range of insects than "Antz", and was more like the other Disney films that came before it. Despite being released later, "A Bug's Life" became an enormous hit - it took in $363 million worldwide, surpassing the $171 million earned by "Antz" by a huge margin, proving that faster isn't always better.

Answer: Infamous

"Capote" was released in September 2005 to a limited number of theatres in the U.S. to qualify for the upcoming awards season. The gambit paid off and the film received five Oscar nominations, including nods for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

It subsequently expanded to 1,200 screens in February 2006. "Infamous" was released just eight months later, in October 2006. Both films chronicled the same period in Truman Capote's life when he wrote the book "In Cold Blood" and developed a close relationship with the condemned killer he was researching. By a strange twist of fate, it was sheer coincidence that the two films came to be written and developed contemporaneously. "Infamous" had been completed around the same time as "Capote", but had its release delayed by the film studio because of its similar story. Perhaps unfairly, Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning turn in "Capote" completely overshadowed Toby Jones' mesmerizing portrayal of the same role in "Infamous". Jones went on to play supporting roles in "The Mist", "W." and "Frost/Nixon", and may be best remembered as the voice of Dobby the house-elf in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets".

Answer: Red Planet

"Red Planet" starred Val Kilmer, Carrie Anne-Moss and Tom Sizemore as a group of astronauts who encountered problems while working on a terraforming project on Mars. The film started out as a promising story with interesting ecological and philosophical implications, but quickly descended into a "killer-robot-on-the-loose" movie that could have taken place on any other planet. Even some dazzling special effects sequences couldn't salvage this movie, it opened in November 2000 to mixed reviews and only made $33 million worldwide.

The film's earning potential could have been affected by the release of "Mission to Mars" in March 2000. The film fared marginally better with the critics, who complained that the movie squandered most of the opportunities in its rescue-mission storyline to create tension and excitement. Still, "Mission to Mars" finally gave movie audiences the chance to see Gary Sinise in space (the astronaut he played in "Apollo 13" five years earlier had been grounded due to German measles), although by most accounts, he may have been better off staying on Earth.

Answer: Volcano

The imaginatively titled "Volcano" starred Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche, and was released in April 1997 to lukewarm reviews. Perhaps audiences and critics found it hard to accept that a volcano could suddenly sprout from the centre of the La Brea Tar Pits and wreak havoc on Los Angeles.

The suspension of disbelief required by the film was especially significant when one considered that Southern California is situated on top of the wrong kind of tectonic plate junction for a volcano to form in the manner depicted in the movie. Still, it was an excuse to show Wilshire Boulevard, the Metro Red Line subway system and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art devastated by molten lava.

The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for "Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property", but lost to "Con Air". "Dante's Peak", which starred Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton, was released some two months prior to "Volcano", and fared only slightly better with the critics and at the box office.

Answer: The Wild

When Disney's "The Wild" opened less than a year after DreamWorks' "Madagascar", it immediately attracted a lot of controversy for its similar plot. Although "The Wild" had been in production for over a decade, many critics accused Disney's film of imitating "Madagascar". "The Wild" did feature a group of animals who found themselves leaving the creature comforts of the Central Park Zoo, but unlike their counterparts in "Madagascar", they actually made it to Africa.

It didn't really matter, since 2006 saw the release of so many animal-themed animated films that it was hard to tell "The Wild" apart from the others. "Open Season" was about a domesticated grizzly bear who was released back into the wild just before hunting season, and had to team up with a rag-tag band of forest animals in order to outsmart a relentless hunter. "Over the Hedge" was about a raccoon who led a rag-tag band of forest animals into a nearby suburban community to forage for food. "Barnyard" was about a young male cow who was forced to leave behind his partying ways to protect a bunch of farm animals from a vicious pack of coyotes.

In a year that was saturated with talking animals, the animated feature that stood out from the pack was Pixar's "Cars".

Answer: Seven Years in Tibet

Hollywood and its many celebrities have been known to embrace worthwhile causes from time to time, some recent examples being global warming and the ongoing genocide in Darfur. In 1997, the movement du jour seemed to be the oppression of the Tibetan people and the exile of their political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. 1997 saw the release of the first "Tibetan Freedom Concert" album, a television documentary on Tibet, and these two movies featuring the revered Buddhist master. "Kundun" was a biography of the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama which chronicled the 22-year period of his life from the time of his discovery at the age of two, up to his exile to India in 1959. Scorsese employed only non-professional actors, including several relatives of the actual Dalai Lama, to make the film. By contrast, the focus of "Seven Years in Tibet" wasn't so much the Dalai Lama, although he did figure prominently in the story.

Instead, the plot centered on Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer who, for reasons both external and internal, spent seven years living in Tibet.

The film depicted Harrer's journey of personal growth, and showed how the experience of living among the Tibetan people and, above all, Harrer's friendship with the young Dalai Lama, helped him to discard his selfish and egotistical ways to achieve enlightenment and redemption. The film opened in October 1997, and made over $131 million worldwide.

Answer: Tombstone

Kevin Costner was originally involved in the production of "Tombstone", but he had creative differences with Kevin Jarre, the film's screenwriter and (then) director. Costner left the film to develop his own project with Lawrence Kasdan, the eventual director and co-writer of "Wyatt Earp". "Tombstone" eventually got off the ground with Kurt Russell in the lead as Earp, and beat "Wyatt Earp" to the theatres by almost six months, opening on Christmas Day in 1993.

It went on to make more than twice the amount that "Wyatt Earp" did in ticket sales.

It didn't help that "Wyatt Earp" was weighed down by its length. At three hours and ten minutes, it was one hour longer than its predecessor. "Tombstone" had wisely elected not to focus on Wyatt Earp's early life and back-story, and concentrated instead on the events surrounding the battle at the O.K. Corral, resulting in a much tighter story. One thing that both movies got right was the portrayal of the tuberculosis-ridden Doc Holliday - Val Kilmer in "Tombstone" and Dennis Quaid in "Wyatt Earp" were easily the best things about each movie.

Answer: Happy Feet

After the runaway success of the live-action documentary film "March of the Penguins" in 2005, it made sense when "Happy Feet" opened the following November as the most popular movie in the U.S., beating out even "Casino Royale" for the number one spot at the box office. "Happy Feet", a tale of singing and tap-dancing penguins in Antarctica, captured the imagination of children and adults alike, and went on to win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

By the time "Surf's Up" arrived on the scene in the summer of 2007, movie audiences were in danger of overdosing on penguins.

The comparisons to its predecessor were a little unfair though. Apart from being another animated film about penguins, the film wasn't all that similar to "Happy Feet". "Surf's Up" was conceived as a mockumentary-style send-up of classic surfing documentaries, and most of the action was situated on a tropical island. Critics praised it for managing to set itself apart from the other penguin movies that came before it, and it received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost out to Pixar's "Ratatouille".