Eden, Apes, and Mel Brooks Trivia Quiz

Answer: In the Beginning

Although individual Bible stories have been portrayed on film going as far back as the late nineteenth century, "The Bible: In the Beginning" was to be the first in a series that would depict major episodes from the entire Bible. However, subsequent films in the series were never produced.

The film itself contained notable creative innovations: the characters of Adam and Eve were shown in artfully-photographed nudity, one of the first such depictions in a mainstream motion picture; there were hardly any opening credits; and the director, John Huston, portrayed both Noah and the voice of God in the scene where God tells Noah to build the ark.

Answer: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Created by two legends - filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke - 1968's "2001" was a cinematic landmark, not just of the science fiction genre, but of the story of mankind's creation and evolution. One way of interpreting "2001" is that the black monolith, which appears at several key points in the film, is an extraterrestrial civilization's method of monitoring or influencing the development of human intelligence. "2001" is full of cinematic innovation, not the least of which occurs at the end of "The Dawn of Man" sequence, as the ape leader throws his bone-weapon into the air in triumph.

In what is probably the most famous "match-cut" in film history, the falling bone morphs millions of years forward to an orbiting nuclear satellite, all to the music of Strauss' "The Blue Danube Waltz".

Answer: Fire

This film, directed by Frenchman Jean-Jacques Annaud, was based on a 1911 Belgian novel. It was filmed on location all over the world, in Iceland, Scotland, Africa, and Canada. It depicts early man's efforts to keep and protect fire - in the form of a small, portable flame - from the elements and from competing tribes.

The film shows how knowledge and culture develop through the interaction of various nomadic groups, who share everything from language, weapons, implements, food preparation, and even mating practices. Finally, one tribe shows how to start a fire at will with readily-available materials, thus freeing man from the burden of carrying and guarding the flame.

Answer: Caveman

"Caveman" shares (probably wholly inadvertently) some themes of human cultural development with its more serious counterparts; and its "hero" actually wins eventual dominance in his tribe, which had initially rejected him, by using methods learned from other tribes during his exile.

The film also makes an effort to create a "language" of grunts and monosyllabic nonsense words for its cast. Those efforts aside, however, "Caveman" essentially portrays all these advancements for comedic effect. The film's cast includes eventual stars Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long. Ringo Starr had appeared in a dozen films prior to "Caveman," and met his wife Barbara Bach on the film.

Answer: The Clan of the Cave Bear

"The Clan of the Cave Bear" tells the story of a young Cro-Magnon woman who is taken in as a child by a Neanderthal tribe of cave-dwellers (the "Clan" of the title) after an earthquake destroys her family and the Clan's first cave-home. The girl, Ayla, bears many physical and cultural differences from the Clan; and she encounters bigotry and persecution by members of the Clan as she grows to adulthood. Eventually she leaves the Clan, having learned some of its survival skills, to travel in search of her original people.

The film starred actress Daryl Hannah as the adult Ayla and featured the late Bart the Bear, an animal actor who also appeared in such films as "The Great Outdoors", "Legends of the Fall", and "The Edge".

Answer: One Million Years B.C.

"One Million Years B.C." makes no pretense to scientific accuracy. It has humans and dinosaurs interacting, when in reality the dinosaurs died out over 60 million years before the arrival of homo sapiens. It does, however, appear to take itself seriously; and once again we see the story of a primitive man, forced to leave his tribe, who is taken in by another culture, thus sharing knowledge, implements, and behaviors with them.

In the process he meets his love interest, Ms. Welch. The sight of her is matched by the stop-motion special effects of the legendary Ray Harryhausen, who created dinosaur attacks, cliff rescues, and volcanic eruptions.

Answer: History of the World Part I

Among other historic events, "History of the World Part I" takes on early man. There's a spot-on parody of the "Dawn of Man" sequence from "2001;" and then Sid Caesar and his merry band of cavemen take over, memorably inventing fire, marriage, and comedy (Stone Age Comedy = comedy with actual stones). Early in his career Mel Brooks worked for Caesar as a writer on "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Alley", along with playwright Neil Simon and Brooks' great friend Carl Reiner. Brooks is one of the very few entertainers to have won an Oscar (for writing the screenplay for the 1968 film of "The Producers"), Emmy (one for his "Show of Shows" writing and three for guest acting on "Mad About You"), Tony (three for writing, scoring, and producing the Broadway version of "The Producers"), and Grammy (one for his work with Reiner on the "2000 Year Old Man" and two for his cast album and video for "The Producers").

Answer: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

In "The Wrath of Khan" the Enterprise, Admiral Kirk commanding, rushes to rescue his former love and their son, who have been working on the Genesis Device and whose planet has been attacked by Khan, who has a vendetta against Kirk. Khan has acquired a Genesis Device, which works at the atomic level to transform the matter in a nebula or on an ecologically barren world into a planet capable of sustaining life.

In the ensuing battle Spock sacrifices his life in order to save the Enterprise, its crew, and Kirk's love and their son.

The film was one of the first to have a completely computer-generated sequence, the passage showing the transformation of a dead planet to a life-supporting one. The effect was accomplished by Industrial Light and Magic through the use of fractals.

Answer: Prometheus

"Prometheus" is related to the "Alien" film series; and it takes place in the same area of the galaxy. Following ancient star maps found in various parts of Earth, a scientific exploration party arrives at a far-flung world and discovers a race of creatures (the Engineers) with identical DNA to humans. An early scene in the film suggests that these creatures created life on Earth by sacrificing themselves to "seed" the planet with their DNA.

The title of the film relates to the Greek myth that the Titan Prometheus created man from clay and was later punished by Zeus for defying him and giving fire to man. Similarly, the explorers in the film come to very bad ends for their presumption in attempting to learn too much about their creation.

Answer: Stars

This short (11 minutes) 1985 Japanese film is notable both for its content and for being a film progenitor itself. Through computer animation it crams five billion years of evolution into its brief run time, beginning with the formation of atomic particles in the stars, through the creation of compounds such as water, to the planets themselves, and, ultimately, to DNA.

The film's development was another type of creative forerunner. It marked the first single-projector 3D film created for showing in the IMAX Dome.

As such, it was the creative ancestor to the "race" of IMAX 3D films which is so popular in the 21st century.