Black Hawk Down (2001) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Somalia

Somalia is located on the east coast of Africa, on the Horn of Africa. In 1988, the Somali Civil War started. The UN sent in a coalition peacekeeping/making and humanitarian force in 1991. While originally appreciative, the Somali people eventually began to resent foreign intervention. Mohamed Farrah Aidid was the leader of the strongest of the warring clans, and took control of the capital, Mogadishu. In 1993, the U.S. forces learned of a meeting between Omar Salad Elmi, Aidid's foreign minister, and Mohamed Hassan Awale, Aidid's political advisor. U.S. military, without consulting the UN peacekeeping forces (Malaysia and Pakistan), put together an operation to capture these men.

The operation was meant to take only thirty minutes, but numerous complications arose, including PFC Blackburne falling from a helicopter, a Black Hawk being shot down, and poor communication between units.

Answer: Wild boar

The movie opened showing the plight of the Somali people under the reign of General Aidid, and showed militia taking over a Red Cross food shipment. The U.S. military was not allowed to intervene because they were not being fired upon, and had to leave the area.

Next, the arrest of Osman Ali Atto was shown, with Hoot (played by Eric Bana) posing as a reporter in Somalia, who informed his fellow Deltas of Mr. Atto's departure. The Deltas disabled Mr. Atto's vehicle just outside of Mogadishu, and took him into custody. Mr. Atto was responsible for the construction of Aidid's technicals (trucks with machine guns mounted on them).

A Black Hawk was then sent out to recover Hoot. On the way back to the base, the Deltas saw some running wild boars, and Hoot asked "Who's hungry?" while cocking his weapon. Back at the base, Captain Steele (Jason Isaacs) saw the pig roasting on a spit and asked Hoot if it had been another "Tax payer funded Delta safari" and reprimanded the Deltas for their "undisciplined" nature. Sanderson (William Fletcher) reminded Steele that Hoot hadn't eaten in three days, and asked Steele to cut him some slack. Steele also berated Hoot for not having his safety on while on the base to which Hoot replied with "this is my safety" and showed his finger.

Answer: He could type.

The John Grimes character was actually based off of John Stebbins, who was the real clerk during the Battle of Mogadishu, though his character was replaced after he was convicted in 2000.

John Grimes was stuck behind a desk because he was able to type (a rare skill, at the time), and was never sent out to fight, which greatly upset him. Instead, while his colleagues were out fighting, "getting to be Rangers", he learned the art of making coffee, for which he was ridiculed mercilessly.

The day before the Battle of Mogadishu, Lt Beales had an epileptic seizure, and was not allowed to fight. Grimes was chosen to take his place as part of Chalk 4. Grimes had no actual experience in the field, and had to learn on the fly in order to survive. Despite being tossed around by multiple explosions throughout the film, Grimes was fairly lucky and didn't receive any substantial injuries.

Answer: No artillery or armor support

After the mission briefing, Col Matthews asked McKnight what was wrong. McKnight sarcastically asked "What's not to like?" and listed that the operation was during the day, as opposed to night, that they were denied light armor and AC-130 Specter Gunship support, and in the Bakara Market, Aidid's stronghold where he could quickly mount a counter-offensive. He also mentioned that the indigenous population would be high on khat, a drug that causes excitement and euphoria.

Harrell said "Life's imperfect", to which McKnight replied with "Yeah, for you two, circling above it at 500 feet, it's imperfect. Down in the street, it's unforgiving."

McKnight, as the leader of the Humvee convoy, had to endure quite a few problems. At first, he was ordered to move to the crash site to evacuate the wounded, but could not reach it due to roadblock and other obstructions. He was eventually ordered to turn around and head back to the original target building, sustaining heavy casualties during the trip. Information concerning directions had to go from Surveillance, to the JOC, to Harrell in the C-2 helicopter, and finally to McKnight on the ground. This created a large lag time when receiving instructions.

Answer: MH-6 Littlebirds

The Black Hawks were used to ferry in the Rangers, which set up a four-corner perimeter around the target building while the Littlebirds dropped off the Deltas who entered the building and secured the prisoners.

Littlebirds are much smaller and more agile than Blackhawks, and are actually considered attack helicopters.

Answer: Burning Tires

As the helicopters and Humvees were leaving the base (the Mogadishu Airport), a Somali lookout used a cell phone to call in the impending raid. Large roadblocks were set up to obstruct the convoy's path. Also, large piles of junk, in particular, tires, were set on fire to create massive smoke signals in order to get all the militia to converge on the U.S. soldiers.

Answer: Super 61 (Wolcott)

Two helicopters were shot down in this movie, both Black Hawks, both by Rocket Propelled Grenades.

The first Black Hawk to be shot down was Super 61, piloted by CW3 Wolcott (Jeremy Piven). Both pilots were killed and the two crew chiefs were wounded and had to be stabilized inside the crashed helicopter. A Delta Force operator, SSG Busch, was also injured during the crash, and managed to hold off the approaching Somalis before he was evacuated by Star 41, a Littlebird piloted by CW4 Jones. Super 68 came in and dropped off a team of medics that stabalized the wounded inside the crashed Black Hawk.

The second Black Hawk to go down was Super 64, piloted by CW3 Mike Durant. It was overrun by the militia before the survivors of the crash could be rescued, and the site was not secured until Hoot led a small team of four men through the city. This team then moved to help the defenders of the first crash site.

Answer: A Donkey

SPC Nelson (Ewen Bremner) and SPC Twombly (Tom Hardy) were squad gunners of Chalk 4, and had set up a position on one of the four corners of the target building. Eversmann had taken the rest of the Chalk to the crash site of Super-Six One, and had told them to move out with the convoy. It was not made clear whether the convoy was supposed to come get the gunners, or if the gunners were to supposed to move to the convoy before it pulled out. The two men were left behind and the fighting moved away from them, towards the crash sites. Eventually, they came to terms with the fact that they had been left behind, and decided to make their way towards the crash site on foot.

Another soldier, SSG Yurek (Tom Guiry), was accidentally separated from his Chalk and was forces to take cover in a school. He also started towards the crash site of Super Six One.

The donkey passed by all three men as they were making their way through the streets of Mogadishu, and was used to orient the audience. Yurek, while running across a street, was nearly killed by Nelson. After hearing the sound of the weapon, Yurek knew that he was being shot at by Rangers, and all three soldiers made their way towards the crash site together, though they didn't know the exact location.

Answer: Snipers

Knowing that no help would be able to arrive before the second crash site was overrun, Gordon and Shughart volunteered to go in to protect the crew of Super-Six Four until they could be evacuated. They were denied permission multiple times before finally being allowed to enter the area.

When they got to the crash site, the only surviving member of the crew was Durant. Because they were snipers, they had limited ammo and rate of fire compared to squad gunners. Gordon and Shughart were killed when the sheer volume of militia overwhelmed their position.

The two snipers were awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously, for their actions.

Answer: CW3 Mike Durant

Durant (Ron Eldard) was the pilot of Super-Six Four, the second helicopter to be shot down. Though he, Shughart, and Gordon attempted to hold off the Somali militia, their position was overrun. Before the militia could kill him, Firimbi (Treva Etienne), Aidid's propaganda minister, ordered that Durant be taken alive. Durant was held prisoner for eleven days.