Brazil Trivia Quiz

Answer: ducts

"I want to talk to you about ducts. Do your ducts seem old-fashioned and out-of-date?" The latest ducts are available from Central Services in an amazing variety of colors. After the commercial, there is a horrific explosion. The terrorists are to blame. Speculating on their motivation, the minister suggests that it is simply a matter of "bad sportsmanship."

Answer: fly

As arrest warrants are being generated, the clerk is distracted by a buzzing fly. The fly lands on the ceiling and the clerk, on a quest, grabs a chair, and squashes the fly with a newspaper. The fly falls into the typewriting mechanism and an error occurs. The name Tuttle is turned into Buttle. This seemingly innocuous error creates great havoc.

Answer: watch old TV westerns

Mr. Kurtzmann (Ian Holm) has an office above the main working area. When he goes into his office, the workers immediately switch their computers to an old TV western. The flurry of activity begins again as Mr. Kurtzmann comes out of his office. The transitions from working and watching television are hilarious.

Answer: air conditioning

Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) lives in an apartment filled with Wallace & Gromit like contraptions and devices oddly concocted of new and old technology. He calls Central Services, but they are hopelessly understaffed. "I've got trouble with my air conditioning.

It's an emergency." Unfortunately, Central Services reports that they cannot take service calls between 2300 and 0900. In what is an obviously recorded message, the message states, "Have a nice day, this has not been a recording."

Answer: Yes

Yes, he does. Archibald Tuttle (Robert DeNiro) intercepts the call to Central Services, and arrives to fix Sam's air conditioning. "Harry Tuttle, heating engineer, at your service." All of Sam's wiring and ducts are hidden behind panels in his apartment.

When Harry opens the panel, the ducts spring out and hiss as if they were alive. Harry is a bit of an anarchist in this dystopian society steeped in bureaucracy. He manages to fix it with a by-pass. While Harry is still in the apartment, a couple of thugs from Central Services do show up, but Sam fends them off by insisting that they produce a form 27B/6. Harry hums the tune to "Brazil" as he closes up the panel.

Answer: Information Retrieval

Sam is intent upon tracking down Jill Layton (Kim Greist) and finally accepts a position with Information Retrieval in order to gather information about her. There is a desk located in the wall connected to an adjacent office. He has to tug on the desk in order to get at least half of it on his side.

Answer: Jack Lint

Jack Lint (Michael Palin) is indeed officer 412/L and has been a fixture in Information Retrieval for quite some time. Sam tells Jack that he needs some information. Jack replies, "This is Information Retrieval, not Information Dispersal." It turns out that Jack is the person who killed Mr. Buttle in a case of mistaken identity and now it has become necessary to cover their tracks.

Answer: Harry Tuttle

As Sam is thrust out of his apartment, Tuttle arrives on the scene to help. The Central Service workers are wearing thermal suits since they have made the apartment too cold to be without one. Tuttle switches their oxygen intake with the sewage pipe, causing their suits to be filled with sewage.

Answer: He deletes her file from the computer records.

Sam makes his way to Mr. Helpmann's office, finds a computer terminal and deletes her records. This, in essence, makes her non-existent. However, as they are celebrating, security forces barge in and arrest Sam and Jill.

Answer: No

He is only rescued in his imagination. As Jack is on the verge of torturing Sam, Jack is killed by a sniper. Harry Tuttle once again comes to Sam's rescue. They escape together, but suddenly Harry is enveloped in paper receipts and disappears without a trace. Next, Sam narrowly escapes security forces by entering a small house situated on a truck that Jill is driving. They happily drive off into the picturesque countryside. Now, that would have been a happy ending. Unfortunately, all of this takes place in the vivid imagination of Sam.

In the final scene, you see the faces of Mr. Helpmann and Jack. Mr. Helpmann says, "He's got away from us, Jack." Jack replies, "I'm afraid you're right, Mr. Helpmann. He's gone." They depart, leaving Sam in what appears to be a semi-catatonic state. Even so, Jack is smiling, lost in the revelry of his dreams.

Brazil, where hearts were entertained in June,
We stood beneath an amber moon,
And softly murmured 'Some day soon'
We kissed and clung together,
Then, tomorrow was another day.
The morning found me miles away,
With still a million things to say;
Now, when twilight beams the sky above,
Recalling thrills of our love,
There's one thing I'm certain of,
Return, I will,
To old Brazil.