Hollywood Hype - Taglines Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alien

Imagine a space ship returning to Earth receiving a signal from a nearby moon (no, not that one). The ship lands, the landing party is attacked, there's a monster, an android, several deaths, and various 'things' squirming and leaping out of people. Some of the other people use very high technology, a.k.a. a net, to try catching whatever it is. Throughout the whole scenario there's Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the most capable Warrant Officer you've ever seen on a starship this side of Alpha Centauri, who barely breaks into a sweat and conjures up wondrous escapes with shuttles, airlocks, and a grappling hook.

Answer: The Fly

Science guy meets journalist girl and shows her his latest experiment in teleporting. It doesn't work properly but between them they manage to fix it. She goes home to fix something else (her editor) and science guy deals with his lovesick sorrows by transporting himself.

The only problem is that there's something in the transportation pod with him. Buzz, buzz, can you guess what it is yet? Next time you eat steak, if you do, be very wary of the guy at the next table. He may well buzz over to your plate...

Answer: Deliverance

Four guys, with city smarts but with varying degrees of outdoorsy knowledge, decide to canoe down a wild river in the good old state of Georgia. En route to their starting point they upset a few locals, split into pairs, then one pair crosses the path of two mountain men. Things do not go well. Violence, deaths, bodies, a raging river, and a sceptical sheriff all conspire to make the viewer think that perhaps they should just have gone fishing.

But then there's a dead hand rising from the water... anyone fancy a nice trout?

Answer: The Graduate

This is the sort of movie where people say "only in the movies" but that may be because they hope such things only happen in the movies... Guy leaves college, older woman seduces him, his parents and her husband badger him to go out with her daughter, he does, it all goes wrong, then it goes right, and oh boy, she finds out about her mother. Girl goes away, boy follows, father follows, father tells girl to marry someone else. Like that would go down well back in the '60s when this movie happened. Anyway, girl does marry other guy but our guy turns up at the church and they escape on the bus. Let me repeat that, on the bus. Only in the movies.

The music was good though. Simon and Garfunkel did the soundtrack which includes "Mrs Robinson" and "The Sound of Silence".

Answer: Chicken Run

A bunch of British chickens live on an egg farm but if they don't produce eggs they're chopped chicken livers. One day the evil farmer's wife decides to cut out the middleman and installs a mincing machine and pastry maker. Yep, it's chicken pot pie time. The chickens are not happy, they keep trying to get out, but the chicken sheds are designed to thwart the most tenacious escapologist.

Then an American rooster drops in and fills the hens' ears with his tales of derring-do; they resolve to escape the pie production line and fly away. Only they can't fly so they build a plane. As you would if you were a chicken. The farmers are evil until the end, the American isn't everything he pretends to be, but there's still romance, bravery, and a chicken-shed load of plasticine. It's basically "The Great Escape" without a motorcycle and Steve McQueen.

Answer: Easy Rider

Two guys are drug smugglers. They make a lot of money, buy themselves a Harley each, and stuff the spare loot inside one of the gas tanks. Did you ever wonder why there is so much storage space in drug smugglers' vehicles whereas you struggle to find room for a spare sweater?

Anyway, our heroes join a parade, get arrested for parading (who knew that was a crime?), get Jack Nicholson as a lawyer, give him drugs, and get him killed in Louisiana. They go to another parade in New Orleans, go to a brothel, and then ride out of town... only to get shot by some good old boys in a good old truck. The bike with the money burns. Which is probably just as well or there'd still be people looking for it.

We have a saying in the UK: "How unlike the home life of our own dear Queen." If there was ever a movie which should have had that as a tagline, this was it.

Answer: Mrs Doubtfire

There's this guy, Daniel, who's an actor - in that world where actor means unreliable, unemployed dreamer. His wife can't stand it any more and takes the kids, files for divorce, and advertises for a nanny. Meanwhile Daniel gets made up for an audition and applies to be a nanny. Look, I don't care who you are but if you've been married long enough to have three kids with your husband but still don't know that your nanny is Robin Williams then you have face blindness and need to see someone. And if your children don't recognise their father, someone needs to see the judge.

There's a new boyfriend, an allergy, another custody battle, and forthcoming worldwide fame for Daniel and a toy dinosaur. Well, maybe not worldwide, at the time some of us had forthcoming Teletubbies, but you get my drift.

Answer: Mars Attacks!

Remember the good old days when aliens all wore goldfish bowls on their heads and Martians were little green men? Well, in this movie the Martians aren't green but they wear little green suits so that counts plus they have huge brains and wear glass bowls. I'm not sure we should ask what happened to the goldfish.

One day they all come to Earth for a party. The Earthlings, poor benighted fools, think they come in peace; the Martians think they've come to kill people. They like doing that, it's fun! Not only do the Martians kill loads of people, they also amuse themselves by swapping people's body parts and animal parts around. Once you've seen this movie you'll never look a chihuahua in the eye again, it might be anyone.

What the Earth needs now is old vinyl. Or YouTube. Somewhere with Slim Whitman and his yodeling 'Indian Love Call'. Go on, look it up. I guarantee, if there are any Martians near you their heads will explode. I just worry about the broken glass bowls.

Answer: The First Wives Club

Once upon a time, four young women were friends at college then life went on and they got married and they all lived happily ever... no, wait, one of them gets divorced, her ex- marries a much younger woman, and she kills herself. Oh dear. So far, so sad. The other three attend the funeral and discover that they're all in much the same boat, all headed for the same place: Divorceville, USA.

In each case the husband's success was built largely because of his wife but here they are, all having affairs with younger women, all trying to get away with everything they own - or more, one is even going after alimony. It's a sad tale of love and money but then the soon to be ex-wives decide to get the money. All of it. At this point things start to look up, although not for the men. Don't get mad, get everything.

Answer: Psycho

My mother always told me not to be scared by films because at every scary moment there was always music and music meant there was an orchestra somewhere and that meant there were a lot of people around to stop something terrible from happening. Hmm. Anyway, in "Psycho" (the original Hitchcock version) cue woman, motel, booking clerk, booking clerk's mother in rocking chair, chair creaks, shower, shower curtain, cue music! And cue chocolate syrup.

In a black and white movie no one can tell the colour of the blood and in this case it wasn't red.

It wasn't Janet Leigh's body either. But there were some extremely scary violins!