Black Sunday Trivia Quiz

Answer: Super Bowl

The terrorists planned to attack the Super Bowl between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. Much of the play shown in the film was actual Super Bowl X footage, held at Florida's Miami Orange Bowl open air stadium, that, at the time, could hold approximately 80,000 fans.

Answer: Blimp

In the film, a Goodyear Blimp was employed to carry an explosive device into the Orange Bowl stadium. The Goodyear corporation was willing to provide its blimps for the film but stipulated the "Goodyear" logo - which is emblazoned on the blimp's side - not be employed in any marketing (the blimp in the movie's poster has the words "Super Bowl" instead) nor could the blimp itself be used as the actual weapon. I guess it was OK for it to be the "delivery device"!

Answer: Bruce Dern

All the actors listed were born in 1936, but it was Bruce Dern who played the embittered and slightly deranged Michael Lander, a retired naval officer, now Goodyear Blimp pilot. Lander was scheduled to cover the Super Bowl, but lost the assignment shortly before the Super Bowl due to his erratic behavior. No worries - his replacement was murdered by the terrorist, Dahlia, just hours before the flight, clearing the way for Lander to finish the job.

Answer: Marthe Keller

Marthe Keller played Dahlia Iyad, an ultra-radical member of the terrorist group, Black September (of 1972 Munich Olympics infamy). Dahlia easily controlled and manipulated the somewhat erratic Lander. She was a stone cold killer, dispatching Lander's replacement pilot (and others) with no emotion.

Marthe Keller also played Babe Levy's (Dustin Hoffman) duplicitous girlfriend, Elsa Opel, in the 1976 film, "Marathon Man", for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

The other actresses listed are also Swiss, but far too young to have been in a 1977 movie.

Answer: Israeli Mossad

Major David Kabakov and his partner Robert Moshevsky (played by Steven Keats) were members of the Israeli Mossad. Early in the film, during a raid, Kabakov came upon naked and unarmed Dahlia in the shower, but decided not to shoot, instead moving on to others.

Robert Shaw played many tough guys in blockbusters such as Quint in "Jaws" (1975), Mr. Blue in "The Taking of Pelham 123" (1974), and SPECTRE operative, Red Grant, in "From Russia with Love" (1963). Unlike in those movies, in "Black Sunday", Shaw's character is still alive at the end.

Answer: Religious statuettes

Several hundred pounds of Mother Mary statuettes were literally made of plastic explosive material. They were smuggled into the US via cargo ship and unloaded by Dahlia and Lander onto a speed boat. The unloading was spotted by the Coast Guard but the two managed a daring escape through the Miami waters.

Answer: Michael V. Gazzo

Michael V. Gazzo was Mr. Muzi, the Turkish importer who arranged to have the explosives smuggled into the United States via ship. He is strong-armed by Major Kabakov into revealing information about the terror operation.

Answer: Boat trailer

The bomb was handmade by Lander (with help from Dahlia) in his garage. It was shaped like a small boat, loaded with a quarter-million darts and weighed over 1000 lbs. Dahlia used a baby blue Oldsmobile Delta 88 to tow the bomb mounted on a boat trailer. Posing as a member of the television crew, Dahlia entered the blimp terminal and Lander convinced the ground crew the "boat" was a last-minute request of the TV network and needed to be mounted beneath the aircraft.

Much of the blimp's legitimate television equipment was thrown overboard in an attempt to get the now overweight blimp off the ground.

Answer: John Williams

Yes, it was John Williams who wrote the foreboding score to the film.

I suppose I could have listed the films "Jaws", "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for the hints, but that would have made an "easy" question "very easy". We can't have that!

Answer: Towed out to sea by helicopter

Having chased the blimp with a commandeered helicopter, Kabakov managed to shoot and kill Dahlia and wound Lander, and, in the process, destroy the bomb's control box and damage the blimp's engines. Still, the blimp continued its journey over the stadium walls as Lander lived just long enough to ignite the backup fuse to the bomb. Meanwhile, Major Kabakov had lowered himself, via rope, from the helicopter, then connected a hook to the blimp and the chopper towed it out to sea.

By the time the burning fuse reached the explosives, the blimp was out over the water.

It detonated harmlessly, destroying the blimp (yes, it was a suicide operation) and dramatically showering the water with the darts.