It Starts With an Earthquake... Quiz

Answer: Jeanette Macdonald

Often paired cinematically with Nelson Eddy, Jeanette Macdonald plays Mary Blake who becomes a singer at Blackie Norton's (Gable) gambling and drinking establishment. Spencer Tracy plays Norton's childhood friend Father Tim Mullin, and Jack Holt plays an impresario who hopes to convince Mary to leave Blackie and sing in the opera.

The earthquake provides a dramatic backdrop to this story.

Answer: Japan

The movie is a series of flashbacks as the couple prepares to separate, and in one the young couple is shown on a trip to Japan, in the 1920s, during which the earthquake changes their lives. Julie finds she is afterwards unable to conceive another child, and they later turn to adoption to fill this gap in their lives.

The results of this are shown in subsequent flashback scenes. Each flashback is a memory, triggered by a song as Julie goes through her collection of records.

Answer: London

"Gorgo" is a British-made movie with American input, filmed in Ireland and London, and starring Bill Travers as the sea captain who captures the juvenile monster and sells him to a London circus. The action heats up when scientists announce that Gorgo is a mere baby, and his full-grown mother appears in search of him.

After she sinks a naval ship or two, she arrives on the streets of the capital city, destroying buildings and vehicles in her wake. In a rather surprising ending, a mother and child reunion is successful, and both survive.

Answer: New Year's Eve

The passengers and crew of the ship are mostly in the ballroom, listening to a musical group perform and waiting for midnight to greet the new year when the tidal wave tips the ship completely over. The Rev. Scott (Gene Hackman) takes on the duty of leading a small group of willing survivors upwards towards the keel of the ship, which is now its highest point. After a dangerous few hours, some of them reach their goal and are rescued.

The 2005 TV movie of the same name changes the way the ship is capsized to an act of terror, and 2006's "Poseidon" has a rogue wave as the culprit, but all three use New Year's Eve celebrations as the starting point.

Answer: Los Angeles

This is one of many disaster movies made in the 1970s, with an all star cast interacting as people caught up in a violent earthquake that destroys much of Los Angeles, bringing out both the best and the worst in the people affected by it. Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene and Walter Matthau are only some of the members of that cast.

The film boasts Oscar wins for sound and visual effects (special achievement award) and is one of the earliest movies to have been filmed in Sensurround, which attempts to make viewers in the theatre feel like they are really "there" experiencing what the characters are experiencing.

Answer: Near the Hollywood sign

People are seen in all of these places when the earthquake strikes, but the Girl Scouts are walking along the hillside in front of the Hollywood sign when it starts to topple over. Superman (Christopher Reeve) is shown to go beneath the earth's surface to repair the damage done by the missile, and the sign is seen to stop its fall, and even right itself.

The bridge, which appears to be the Golden Gate, is badly damaged and a school bus carrying both boys and girls dangles over the edge, until Superman arrives and pushes it back onto the deck of the bridge.

Answer: The Core

Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative (DESTINI) is intended for use as a weapon to initiate 'quakes in the earth's core, but which has accidentally caused the core to stop rotating. Natural disasters begin to occur, caused by the disruption to the planet's magnetic field. People with pacemakers die suddenly. Superstorms devastate large areas. Dr Josh Keyes (Eckhart) leads an expedition into the earth's interior to set off nuclear explosions that will restart the rotation - if all goes as planned.

The cast also includes Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo and Stanley Tucci.

Answer: Clubbing in an underground nightclub

Having already visited a winery, and ridden up a hillside on the funicular, the group, including Gringo (Eli Roth), two other men and three young women, is partying in a Santiago nightclub, located at basement level. When the earthquake strikes they all manage to escape from the club, but not without injury to one of the men.

He later dies when being transported to supposed safety via the funicular, when an aftershock causes it to crash to the ground. Amidst horns blasting to warn of a potential tsunami the others try to reach safety somehow, but are thwarted by gangs of prisoners who have been released from prison when the earthquake destroyed the walls.

The friends try to find refuge in a church with little success. If you like happy endings, this movie is not for you.

Answer: Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts

McGregor and Watts play Henry and Maria, and their three sons are played by Holland, Joslin and Pendergast. Geraldine Chaplin plays an old woman. Alvarez and Belon are the real Spanish couple on whose experiences the movie is based.
When the tsunami hits, the family is separated, with the father and the two younger boys managing to find each other, and Lucas (Holland), the oldest son, and his mother being swept away in another direction. Most of the film concerns their efforts to be reunited.

Answer: Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pastuzo

Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) is a bear who is living happily with his aunt and uncle (Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon) in the jungles of Peru, when an earthquake disrupts their lives. He sets off for London in search of the explorer, Montgomery Clyde (Tim Downie), who has earlier discovered the English-speaking bears and invited them to visit him if ever they are in London.

Instead the young bear finds the Brown family (Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin) who take him in, at least overnight.

They give him the name Paddington, because they find him at Paddington railway station. Many adventures ensue.