Fearsome Foes of Ford Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rene Belloq

Steven Spielberg suggested Paul Freeman for the role of Rene Belloq after he saw his performance in the docudrama "Death of a Princess", the controversial film about the execution of 19-year-old Princess Misha'al bint Faud for the crime of adultery. Freeman has a British accent but is quite talented at playing roles in which he plays characters from different nationalities. He plays a very convincing corrupt French archaeologist in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". At the beginning of the film, he forces Indiana Jones to hand over the golden idol he has painstakingly retrieved from a South American cave system with dangerous traps. Later, Jones encounters him in Egypt while searching for the Well of Souls and the Ark of the Covenant. Again, Jones is the one to find the Ark while Belloq takes it from him.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" was released in 1981, and many great names associated with the film industry were involved in its creation. George Lucas was one of the executive producers and created the character of Indiana Jones as well as much of his story. Steven Spielberg directed, and Frank Marshall produced. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. It is frequently included in lists of greatest films ever made, and it remains one of the top grossing films of all time.

Answer: Sean Miller

Sean Miller is played by Sean Bean, the English actor known for his role as Boromir in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy as well as his roles in the films "Golden Eye", "National Treasure", "Troy", "The Martian", "Lady Chatterley", and "The Field". He has also established fame as a television actor in series such as "Sharpe", "Game of Thrones", and "Legends". Interestingly, on one of his shoulders Bean has a tattoo of the number nine written in the Tengwar script created by J.R.R. Tolkein; this refers to the original "Fellowsip of the Nine" established in "The Fellowship of the Ring". Bean also occasionally receives Rowan Atkinson's mail as it is often addressed to "Mr. Bean", a comical character made famous by Atkinson.

"Patriot Games", released in 1992, has generally been well-received by both the public and the critics, who particularly praise Harrison Ford's and Sean Bean's performances. In the beginning of the film, Bean's character Sean Miller watches his brother's eyes glaze over in death after Jack Ryan has stopped their terrorist group from assassinating a royal. He devotes his life to revenge on Ryan, and after escaping while being transported to prison, he travels to America to destroy Ryan and his family. He later discovers that his attempts have failed because Ryan and all of his family are still alive. Eventually, his desire for revenge causes him to jeopardized the mission of his terrorist organization and he causes many of their deaths as well.

The film was surrounded by a great amount of controversy. Tom Clancy, who wrote the novel that inspired the film, eventually separated himself from the movie's production because the film greatly departs from the story he initially wrote.

Richard Harris has a supporting role in this film, thus making this a second film that he and Sean Bean performed in together. They were the main actors in the film "The Field".

Answer: Paul Schaeffer

Paul Schaeffer is played by Josef Sommer, who was born in Germany and has acted in a number of important films - including "Dirty Harry", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and "Silkwood". In "Witness" his initial portrayal of Schaeffer as a loyal and dedicated police officer is so convincing that the viewers are shocked to discover that he is the villain behind all of the mayhem. He sends two corrupt officers after John Book, and one of them manages to shoot him so that he has a dangerous abdominal bullet wound. However, Book escapes and hides out inside the Amish community, where there are no telephones and few people travelling in and out of the community. Thus, Schaeffer loses Book's trail - until near the end. He manipulates one of Book's closest friends into telling where Book is and kills him after he talks. Then Schaeffer and his two corrupt officers drive to the Amish community, and an intense and harrowing chase scene occurs.

"Witness", released in 1985, is directed by Peter Weir, who also directed Harrison Ford in "Mosquito Coast". Kelly McGillis plays the lead female role, the mother of the young witness and John Book's eventual romantic interest. A very young Lukas Haas plays the witness, and Danny Glover, Jan Rubes, Alexander Gudonov, and Viggo Mortensen also have roles. "Witness" was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won two, one of which was Best Original Screenplay. Harrison Ford was nominated for Best Actor for his role of John Book.

Answer: Barbara Sabich, his wife

Barbara Sabich, played by Bonnie Bedelia, is filled with grief and rage after she discovers her husband's adultery. She kills Carolyn Polhemus (Gretta Scacchi), the lawyer with whom her husband has had an affair and implants her husband's semen inside Polhemus to suggest that Polheums had also been raped. However, during the final scene in which she confesses all to her husband, she claims that she had no idea that Sabich would be charged with the murder and that she would have come forward and admitted everything if he was truly found guilty. Throughout the course of the film, we also learn that Polhemus slept with men to manipulate them and gathered information for blackmailing, that Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) is willing to betray his own friend and right-hand-man Sabich to save his political career, that Judge Lyttle (Paul Winfield) has taken bribes, and that Detective Lipranzer (John Spencer) is willing to hide evidence (a wine glass with Sabich's fingerprints) to protect his buddy. Thus, while we in this country believe in "presumed innocence", we learn that no one truly is.

"Presumed Innocent" was released in 1990 and was directed by Alan J. Pakula, who produced "To Kill a Mockingbird" and directed "All the President's Men". He also directed Harrison Ford in the later film "The Devil's Own". Raul Julia also played a major role in "Presumed Innocent"--Sandy Stern, the defense attorney who saves Sabich during the trial.

Answer: Gary Oldman

"Air Force One" was directed by Wolfgang Peterson. It was tremendously successful at the box office and was generally well praised by critics as a fresh summer blockbuster action film. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. Harrison Ford played President James Marshall, Glen Close played the Vice President Kathryn Bennett, and Wendy Crewson played First Lady Grace Marshall. Jurgen Prochrow, William H. Macy, and Dean Stockwell also had roles.

Gary Oldman was generally praised for his performance, and Peterson was amazed at how quickly Oldman stepped in and out of character. Apparently, during downtime Oldman was quite humorous and entertaining on the set but would at lightning speed become a totally different person when time to play the ruthless Russian terrorist.

President Bill Clinton saw the film on a couple of different occasions while he was in office and was complimentary of it. Interestingly, the airplane used as the real Air Force One at the time did not have two features seen in the movie: an escape pod that could jettison from the plane during an emergency and a "backdoor" parachute ramp.

Answer: Harrison Ford

Shockingly for many viewers, Harrison Ford is the villain in the Robert Zemeckis film "What Lies Beneath". He appears to be a loving husband although he is preoccupied with his scientific work at the college in Vermont where he works. Eventually, the audience discovers along with Michelle Pfeiffer's character that Dr. Norman Spencer has had an adulterous affair with one of his students, Madison Frank (played by Amber Valletta).

Initially, Dr. Spencer explains her death as a suicide, but then the movie reveals that he murdered her. Finally, Spencer attempts to murder his own wife. Ford has rarely played an unlikeable character.

In fact, in the much earlier film "Mosquito Coast", Ford's character, who was a radical, obsessive, and eccentric individual, was not well accepted by a majority of the viewing audience.

However, viewers and critics tended to appreciate Ford's performance in this film, and Michelle Pfeiffer's performance was lauded as well. The film was also successful at the box office and quite profitable. Nevertheless, many critics did not like the film overall.

Some were expecting much more from a Zemeckis film, and many felt that the supernatural elements were too much. Pfeiffer's character learns much of truth not only through ghostly visitations and seances, but she is also possessed by the dead student's ghost a couple of times.

Answer: Dr. Charles Nichols

Jeroen Krabbe plays Dr. Charles Nichols, a fellow doctor and researcher who works at the same hospital as Harrison Ford's character, Dr. Richard Kimble. Kimble has believed Nichols to be his friend; in fact, when Kimble sneaks back into the city of Chicago to search for the seems very sympathetic, and on another occasion appears to be quite loyal to Kimble when he refuses to tell the U.S. Deputy Marshall Samuel Gerard (played by Tommy Lee Jones) any information about Kimble or his whereabouts. However, the viewers of the film eventually discover that Nichols is set to make a great amount of money from the pharmaceutical company Devlin MacGregor because of his positive review of one of its drugs. Kimble, however, has discovered that the drug Provasic causes liver damage. Nichols decides Kimble must die before he can expose the drug's flaw.

"The Fugitive" was released in 1993 and is, of course, inspired by the 1960s American television program of the same name. The film was a great success and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Tommy Lee Jones won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Julianne Moore and Sela Ward also had roles: Ward plays Kimble's wife, and Moore plays Dr. Anne Eastman.

Answer: Irina Spalko

Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko is played by Cate Blanchett. Spalko is the leader of Soviet agents who are accompanied by soldiers with a mission at the beginning of the film to break into Warehouse 51 in Nevada and steal a mysterious crystal skull hidden away there. She forces Indiana Jones to locate and retrieve the skull. Later, we discover that the skull is that of an alien and that Spalko believes it to have the power to provide psychic abilities to those who possess it. She uses its powers on Jones himself so that he can decipher the cryptic messages of an addled scientist who knows where all the other skulls are.

Karen Allen also starred, reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood, Jones's love interest and adventuresome partner in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Shia LaBeouf plays Henry "Mutt Williams" Jones, III, Indiana's son. John Hurt and Ray Winstone also play supporting roles.

The film has been a polarizing one among fans of the Indiana Jones franchise as well as among critics. Some believe the plot is too predictable and the special effects are too ridiculous. The film was nominated for Best Action Picture at the 2009 Critics' Choice Awards, yet it won the Worst Prequel, Re-make, Rip Off, or Sequel at the 2009 Razzie Awards.

Answer: Col. Felix Cortez

"Clear and Present Danger" was the third film based on one of Tom Clancy's novels that involved the character Jack Ryan. "The Hunt for Red October" was the first, but Alec Baldwin played Jack Ryan in this film. Ford took over the role in "Patriot Games" and reprised the role for "Clear and Present Danger".

Joaquim de Almeida plays Col. Felix Cortez. Cortez is having an affair with a secretary in one of the offices of the United States government and is using her to gather information. Through her he learns of the FBI Director's plans to visit Colombia, and he sets up an ambush to kill the Director as well as to frame his boss Escobedo. Later, he strangles his informant while pretending to have a romantic moment with her.

Many important celebrities were involved in the film, including Anne Archer, James Earl Jones, Willem Dafoe, Benjamin Bratt, Raymond Cruz, Thora Birch, Dean Jones, Miguel Sandoval, Donald Moffat, and Harris Yulin.

"Clear and Present Danger" was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

Answer: The Empire Strikes Back

Han Solo as well as Chewbacca, Princess Leia, and C-3PO seeks to hide from the pursuing fleet of the Empire in the floating Cloud City run by Lando Calrissian, an old friend of Solo's. However, Calrissian has made a deal with Darth Vader to protect his own selfish interests in his city. He betrays Solo by leading him into a trap, where Solo draws his weapon and fires it at Vader, who blocks the blast with his hand and then uses a telekinetic aspect of The Force to remove Solo's blaster from his hand.

"The Empire Strikes Back", released in 1980 and thus the second "Star Wars" film chronologically in order of appearance in the theaters, initially received mixed reviews. Nevertheless, many consider the film to be the best of all of the "Star Wars" movies, and some critics consider it one of the best movies in film history.