John Wayne Films Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rio Lobo

"Rio Lobo" was John Wayne's last movie with Howard Hawks, and was also the third remake of the earlier movie, "Rio Bravo". "Rio Lobo" is an okay movie. The plot line is pretty much the same as "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado" with a few changes here and there.

The movie started out in the Civil War with McNally getting captured by a Confederate group. A few minutes later, McNally escaped and captured two of the Confederate group. A few scenes later the war was over, and McNally tried to find the traitor that was the cause of death of one of his men.

He traveled to Rio Lobo and found the man he was looking for and in the end, there was a shoot-out with McNally and his allies winning, and the traitor and his friends being wiped out.

Answer: The Longest Day

At the time that this movie was made, it was the only war film that depicted the invasion. John Wayne played the character of Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort, who helped play an important part of the 82nd Airborne division. The 82nd Airborne division and the 101st Airborne division contained some of the first soldiers who started the invasion.

In the dark on June 5, 1944, these brave men parachuted to their targets deep into enemy-controlled France, and made it easier for the invasion to take place.

Answer: The Shootist

"The Shootist" was John Wayne's last film. With everything growing up around J.B. Books, he was not changing. Books found out he had cancer, but as an old gunfighter, he did not want to die by cancer. He befriended Ron Howard in the movie. Howard, wanting to be a gunfighter also, was taught some things by Books, but in the end decided not to take the route of a gunfighter.

In the last scene of the movie, Books was in a shootout with three men in the saloon. Books took them each out one by one, being wounded in the shoulder once. Books then noticed that he was still alive, before the bartender walked up and shot him in the back with a shotgun.

Answer: Rio Bravo

"Rio Bravo" was the first time that John Wayne was teamed with a young popstar. Although many thought that it would not go well, John Wayne and Ricky Nelson hit it off well, and did a great job in the movie. This movie also spawned two remakes, with one mentioned at question one.

The movie started out with Dean Martin playing a drunk who was once John Wayne's deputy, but had become hooked on whiskey. He then helped John Wayne again by watching over the jail where they were keeping Joe Burdette.

They received help from Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan, who both wanted to keep the Burdette gang from winning and fought at all costs to keep him there. Dean Martin was then taken by Nathan Burdette and used as a tool to get his brother out of jail. John Wayne then decided to swap Joe Burdette for Dean Martin and as the trade was taking place, a fight broke out. Dean Martin jumped on Joe Burdette and they started fighting each other and then John Wayne and his deputies started firing at Nathan Burdette and his gang.

In the end, John Wayne and his group fought until the Burdette gang surrendered, and the Burdette gang all went to jail.

Answer: The Green Berets

When this movie was filming and when it was produced, it was a very controversial subject. It was very anti-Communist and stirred emotions on both sides of fence. John Wayne wanted to film it on location in Vietnam but the risk was too great. Deciding on a safer location, he chose North Carolina to be his set. Wayne played a colonel in the Green Berets who was leading other Green Berets to their battle station in Vietnam, when the North Vietnamese launched an offensive against the fort that the Green Berets had built and occupied.

After the battle, the fort was overrun, but air support came into the scene and took the enemy out with major force. A mission came up after the battle, with John Wayne as the leader. The mission was to bring back a critical Vietnamese general.

The plan went great except for two heart wrenching deaths. In the end, the Vietnamese general was captured, and John Wayne showed the rest of America what we needed to do to win the Vietnam War.

Answer: Big Jake

"Big Jake" was the first and only time Ethan Wayne starred with his famous father. As stated above, Patrick Wayne also starred with his father. Patrick had starred with John Wayne in over nine films. The story started with the big kidnapping in the beginning and John Wayne coming to the rescue with Bruce Cabot as his tracker.

They spotted the kidnappers, and were ambushed in the mountains when they tried to ambush the kidnappers. John Wayne, Bruce Cabot, Patrick Wayne, and Christopher Mitchum set out after the kidnappers one more time.

They were met by Harry Carey, Jr. and were told to bring the money or they would never see the grandson again. John Wayne fooled them with newspaper clippings instead of money and a fight broke out. John Wayne and his group had a shootout and all the kidnappers were killed and all was well again.

Answer: The Alamo

"The Alamo" was the first movie John Wayne directed and starred in. "The Alamo" also almost made John Wayne bankrupt. He set to the large task of recreating the set of the Alamo as historically accurately as possible. John Wayne played the famous Davy Crockett, with Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie, and Laurence Harvey as Col. William Travis.

The three of them bravely led men that wanted independence from Mexico. After 13 days, it was all over. There was a big battle and all were killed including John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and Laurence Harvey.

This is a movie about The Alamo that you will not want to miss.

Answer: Dark Command

"Dark Command" was the only movie that Roy Rogers starred in with John Wayne. The movie was based roughly on Quantrill's Raiders but most of it was fictional. John Wayne came into the scene as a Union supporter. Walter Pidgeon starred as Quantrill, a school teacher, who was madly in love with Claire Trevor's character. Roy Rogers played Claire Trevor's younger brother. Wayne tried to win Claire Trevors heart but failed in the begining.

He then ran for sheriff of the town in Kansas against Walter Pidgeon and won. Pidgeon then broke bad and turned into a raider, picking no side but dressing as a Confederate soldier. Quantrill and his band of raiders took over the town that John Wayne was sheriff of and started destroying everything. John Wayne and a group of defenders took on the raiders and won the battle in the end.

Answer: The Big Trail

"The Big Trail" was John Wayne's first leading role, and was later preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It told the story of pioneers in the earlier days who were searching for a better place to live. They set out on the journey with John Wayne as the scout for the wagon train, and the villian in the movie, Flack, as the wagon master.

They went through many trials and troubles along the trail from a wagon falling off a cliff to Indian attacks. Flack, hating John Wayne very much tried to have him killed a couple of times but to no avail. Finally, John Wayne hunted Flack who had recently fled into the forrest. Wayne found him and won in the struggle against him.

After the fight they reached their destination and all was well.

Answer: The Flying Leathernecks

This was the first movie that Robert Ryan starred together with John Wayne. Major Dan Kirby was actually inspired from real life World War II fighter pilot ace Major John L. Smith. There are only a few movies made of the United States Marine fighter pilots and this is one of the very first. Both John Wayne and Robert Ryan had many different points of view throughout the whole movie. John Wayne was trying to show the higher command that fighter pilots could help the ground troops with air support.

They finally let Wayne and his group fly air support and his idea worked with John Wayne being promoted and helping to show other how to use air support. At the end of the movie, Robert Ryan and John Wayne finally saw eye to eye and all was well.