Frequency Trivia Quiz

Answer: October

The film is set in a New York City borough: autumn in New York! In addition to the date projected on the screen, the director used music to establish and contrast the two time settings, opening on October 10, 1969, to strains of "Crimson and Clover," and "Susie-Q" (by Tommy James and the Shondells, and Credence Clearwater Revival, respectively), big hits in 1969.

Answer: baseball

There are several scenes in the movie involving Frank teaching young Johnny how to pitch and hit, as well as rooting for their favorite team. When Frank asks the adult John about his life, he specifically asks if Johnny has become a professional baseball player. John says no, explaining he "blew out his arm senior year," so he "didn't have a shot" at the pros.

Answer: fire fighter

Frank, the fire fighter, calls his son "Little Chief."

Frank dies fighting a fire at an old warehouse when Johnny is young, but John (from the future) has a chance to save him by telling his father the night before he is to die to "go the other way" in the fire and ignore his instincts. It works, and Frank is spared from death. Enter: the "butterfly effect." Once events change and Frank doesn't die in the fire, things that would not have happened occur, including the survival of the serial killer and the murder of Frank's wife (and John's mother) Julia, a nurse.

Answer: police officer

The signs are there: as little Johnny, he asks for a cop kit (gun, holster, badge) and his mom buys it for him -- withholding the gun, however. Satch (Andre Braugher, in a role that won him a Blockbuster Entertainment Award) is a police officer and best friend to the family, has a lot to do with Johnny growing up to be a cop.

Answer: aurora borealis

The special effects of the aurora borealis (aka "The Northern Lights") are gorgeous. Bill Westenhofer, Supervisor of Special Effects for "Frequency," won an Oscar in 2008 for the film "The Golden Compass," and has worked on a variety of special effects films, including "Babe, Pig in the City," and "Stuart Little."

Answer: ham radio

"Frequency" as a film title has a double meaning, with one being the frequency of the ham radio signal used by the father, then years later by the son, intersecting in time so they can speak to one another. The other meaning is the frequency of the scientific phenomena creating the opportunity for this time-warpy thing to occur.

It is a really scientifically sophisticated notion by screenwriter Toby Emmerich, otherwise an accomplished Executive Producer of an impressive number of films, including "The Notebook," "A History of Violence," "Wedding Crashers," and "Sex in the City 2".

His idea: Instead of people traveling through time, voices do. In what would be majorly weird and trippy if it really happened, John the adult gets to talk to "Little Johnny" -- himself -- over the radio.

Answer: The Nightingale Murders

The tag is undoubtedly a nod to the famous Crimean War nurse, Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) who, studying and working in London prior to the war, almost singlehandedly turned the profession of nursing from "one step above prostitution" to the level of comfort and care required of the sick and dying, especially the poor. As a result, "Nightingale" became almost synonymous with "nurse."

Answer: Specific plays in the World Series

It's the Miracle Mets! "The Amazins!" John tells Frank, his father, the score and outstanding plays of the first game of the series. When it happens exactly as "John's" voice on the ham radio describes, Frank becomes a believer. As impossible as it seems, he IS talking to his son Johnny in the future. When Frank is framed by the real murderer for one of the serial murders, Frank tells Satch, his best friend and the cop initially assigned to the investigation, what Johnny-in-the-future has told him about the fifth game in the Series: the so-called "shoe-polish" play involving Orioles pitcher Dave McNally and Cleon Jones for the Mets.

When Satch sees the unusual play on t.v. with his own eyes, he realizes that regardless of its improbability, what Frank is telling him must be true.

Answer: Jack Shepard, police officer

The same actor, Shawn Doyle, plays the villain over the span of thirty years (but his "aged" makeup doesn't work very well, in my opinion). Doyle also appeared in "The Majestic" and "Don't Say a Word," both in 2001, and has many television credits on his resume. Although too often cops are portrayed negatively in films (e.g., on-the-take , brutal macho men, or bumbling idiots), a cop as a serial killer strikes me as unique. Jack Shepard's mother was a nurse and either an early victim of his or perhaps just the source of his sexual anger towards nurses ... depending on whether we're viewing him before or after the butterfly flaps its wings.

Answer: Elvis, a Dalmation

Elvis the Dalmation (what other breed would a fireman have?) notably shows up in the pictures of the family (photos that keep changing, with the "butterfly effect") and in the scene where Frank accidentally trips over Elvis and breaks one of the panes in the French doors. Elvis sleeps with Johnny to Frank's nightly lullabye, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." We learn that Frank is a big Elvis Presley fan when he returns from a tour. "Dancin' in the Streets" -- Martha and the Vandellas -- is playing on the radio when he gets home, but he turns it off and puts on one of The King's LPs, playing "Suspicious Minds", declaring his undying allegiance as he serenades his wife and they do a slow-dance in the kitchen, much to the amusement of little Johnny and Gordo, giggling at the adults' expressions of affection.

Answer: Jim Caviezel

Jim Caviezel is probably most famous for playing Jesus Christ (another J.C.) in Mel Gibson's controversial epic "The Passion of the Christ" (2004). This talented actor paid his dues with a number of small roles (e.g., "My Own Private Idaho," "The Rock," and "Pay It Forward") before landing the role of idealistic Pvt. Witt in "The Thin Red Line" (1998), which brought him significant critical recognition.
The innocent-looking Caviezel plays against type as a crazed terrorist "patriot" in the 2006 film "Deja Vu," opposite Denzel Washington. Curiously, that film also has a time-travel thread. Hmmmm...
In another coinky-dink, Jim Caviezel is said to have had high hopes for a professional basketball career, but reportedly blew out his foot in college, so he didn't have a shot at the pros. Different sport; different appendage, same result, and another example of life imitating art, or vice-versa.

Answer: Dennis Quaid

Born an Aries (4/9/54) in Houston, TX, the handsome and affable Dennis Quaid has played a wide variety of roles over his 30+ year career. Quaid, brother to actor Randy, is comfortably at home with comedy ("In Good Company"); fantasy ("Dragonheart," "Enemy Mine," "Innerspace"); and biography ("Wyatt Earp" [Doc Holliday], "Great Balls of Fire" [Jerry Lee Lewis], and "The Right Stuff" [Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper]). Quaid has won both the Chicago and New York Critics Associations' Best Supporting Actor award for his work in 2003's "Far From Heaven."

Answer: Frank

This is the point in the film where the past and present intersect (or is it two different versions of the present?) and it's pretty hard to follow -- and swallow. Sixty-something Frank appears in time to kill the serial killer and save John from being murdered. Sometimes we just have to suspend disbelief and silently intone, "It's only a movie."

Answer: The Dick Cavett Show

In reality, Dick Cavett did have a nightly show on which Dr. Brian Greene (a real professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University) actually appeared in 1969. Together Cavett and Greene recreated that interview for the film and added another interview where Greene and Cavett were aged thirty years, discussing the second occurrence of the aurora borealis visible in New York (1999). Dr. Greene, a string theory expert, also served as the technical advisor for "Frequency."

Answer: Yahoo

Adult John has an opportunity to talk to his eight-year-old best friend and neighbor, Gordo, across time. When he does, he tells Gordo (the child) to write down and remember for a long, long time the word "Yahoo," hoping that when Gordo grows up he will buy stock in "Yahoo!" -- which he apparently does, and makes enough to own a very nice Mercedes with a license plate that reads "Yahoo1." In the film's final scene, a men's softball game, John hits a long floater that drops on the Mercedes, breaking a headlight.

In this scene, we see how it all turned out: Frank and Julia are both alive, Johnny marries and becomes a father himself -- and they're all playing ball and living happily ever after.