Fifteen Minutes to Save the World Quiz

Answer: George C. Scott

The film is well known for having Peter Sellers playing three roles - the US President, a Royal Air Force officer and the title role, an expert on nuclear war. George C. Scott plays the Chief of Staff of the American Air Force. The film is described as a black comedy, in which the world is destroyed by nuclear weapons.

Answer: Gregory Peck

Based on Nevil Shute's novel of the same name, this film describes the end of human life on Earth due to radiation from nuclear explosions which have already killed everyone in the northern hemisphere. Australians are waiting for the radiation to reach them, knowing they are doomed.

The cast includes Gregory Peck as the commander of an American submarine and Ava Gardner as the Australian woman with whom he falls in love. Anthony Perkins plays an Australian naval officer who has to persuade his wife to end their baby's short life before he and she take the pills which will kill them both.

Answer: Viggo Mortensen

The film was an adaptation of a novel by Cormac McCarthy. Most of the world's population has been wiped out by a cataclysm, leaving only a few survivors who struggle to find food, shelter and safety. Viggo Mortensen plays the father to a young son, Kodi Smit-McPhee. Neither character is given a name, nor are most of the people they come across while travelling across the USA.

The circumstances which caused the disaster are not explained, either, adding to the overall bleakness of the film.

Answer: Brian Blessed

The film that inspired the whole quiz, thanks to the line 'Flash, Flash, I love you but we only have fourteen hours to save the earth'. Flash Gordon was played by Sam J. Jones, who made mainly television shows afterwards, with Melody Anderson as Dale Arden, who uttered the line quoted. Perhaps rather better known were Max von Sydow, who portrayed Ming the Merciless, Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin, and Brian Blessed, of the unmistakable booming voice, who played Prince Vultan.

Answer: Tom Cruise

Probably the most famous adaptation of the novel by H G Wells is the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles, but the 2005 film was directed by Steven Spielberg, so it had a good start. Tom Cruise plays the man trying to save his children from the aliens invading Earth.

The story varies quite a lot from the source novel, but the world is saved in the same way - the aliens cannot cope with the germs humans have learned to live with, and die as a result.

Answer: Dennis Hopper

You probably saw 'Waterworld' and started looking for Kevin Costner, who is perhaps the best known actor from this famously expensive box office flop. The world has been covered in water, following the melting of the polar ice, with Costner playing a man who has developed gills, enabling him to survive underwater, although he lives mainly on his boat. Dennis Hopper plays the villain of the piece, a character called The Deacon.

Answer: Bill Pullman

One of the most popular disaster movies, 'Independence Day' is another film based on an attack by aliens. Its cast included Will Smith, Judd Hirsch and Jeff Goldblum as well as Bill Pullman, who portrayed the US President. A sequel, called 'Independence Day: Resurgence', came out in 2016 with several of the actors, including Pullman, reprising their roles. Pullman, of course, was no longer President as the film not only came out twenty years after the original, but is set twenty years later too.

Answer: Martin Freeman

The books on which the film is based are among the best known comic science fiction ever written, with Douglas Adams the man we have to thank. Earth is demolished to make room for a bypass, with Freeman's character, Arthur Dent, rescued by an alien named Ford Prefect, played by Mos Def in the film.

The film also featured Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor and John Malkovich, while the incomparable Alan Rickman provided the voice for Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Answer: Brad Pitt

The premise of the film is that the population is dying from an infection which turns them into zombies, who then attack surviving humans, creating more zombies. Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, who has some relevant experience in war zones, although not necessarily involving zombies.

The film ends as a vaccine is developed which may enable the survivors to start a fight back, so we don't discover whether or not the world will end.

Answer: Elijah Wood

In this film, the survival of the Earth is threatened by a large comet heading for the planet which will, if it strikes, create huge tsunamis and dust clouds which will block sunlight from reaching Earth. The USA and Russia combine forces to try to blow up the comet, but manage only to split it in two, thereby partially averting a major catastrophe. Apart from Wood, who plays the young man who initially spots the comet, the film stars Morgan Freeman as the US President, and Robert Duvall.