The Ultimate Once Were Warriors Quiz | Movies

Answer: The Muss

Jake is a violent alcoholic, and his brute strength and size mean he wins every fight he picks. He is known as "The Muss", shortened from "Muscles".
Unfortunately, as well as beating up grown men, Jake also vents his violence on his wife and five children, subjecting them to physical and verbal abuse on an almost daily basis.
In "Once Were Warriors" (1994) and its 1999 sequel "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?", Jake was played by Maori actor Temuera Morrison.

Answer: Eighteen Years

Jake and Beth have been married for eighteen years as the story opens. They have five children and live in a run down "state house" (social housing) in a slum area.
Beth's parents never liked or approved of Jake, and opposed her marriage to him, leaving her isolated and vulnerable to his drunken outbursts.
Jake is unemployed and an alcoholic, and makes the lives of Beth and their children miserable.

Answer: Auckland

In the original 1990 book upon which the film is based, the town where the Hekes live is named Two Rivers. Author Alan Duff named it for his own real hometown of Rotorua, which translates from the Maori into English as "Two Rivers".
For the 1994 film, the setting was changed to Auckland.

Answer: Toot

Toot is a young homeless boy who lives in an abandoned car near the Hekes's house. He is teenage Grace's best friend, and the person she turns to after she has been attacked by one of her father's drinking buddies.
Toot then kisses Grace, intending only to comfort her, but she is too upset to realise this and runs away from him. Next time Toot sees her is at her funeral after she has committed suicide, and in a touching scene he says "Friends forever G".
In the film, released in 1994, Toot was played by the then fifteen year old Shannon Williams. He had not even attended an open audition held at his school, but was spotted by director Lee Tamahori who thought he looked perfect and persuaded him to try out for the part.

Answer: Mark

Mark, or Boogie as he is known, is the second son of Jake and Beth Heke.
During the course of the story he is made a ward of the State by the New Zealand authorities and placed in a children's home. Beth is heartbroken and misses him immensely, but Jake barely seems to care at all.
In the end, the home turns out to be a better place than home for Boogie, as the manager is very kind and takes him under his wing, helping him discover and embrace his Maori heritage.

Answer: He gets a tattoo

Nig is desperately searching for some form of the "belonging" and caring that is so badly lacking in his home life. He joins a Maori gang and gets a traditional "Ta moko" facial tattoo. These tattoos display someone's lineage and heritage, and by only getting his on one side of his face, to show his mother's side, Nig makes a highly visible statement about his (non)relationship with his father.

Answer: She hangs herself

Grace is attacked and raped by one of her father's drinking buddies, "Uncle Bully", and is so traumatised that she hangs herself from a tree in the garden at home. She is just thirteen years old.
In the 1994 film, it is made clear that "Uncle Bully" is her attacker, but in the original 1990 book by Alan Duff, Grace thinks it was actually Jake, and Jake was so drunk that he can't even remember if it was him or not.

Answer: Cliff Curtis

Before portraying drunken rapist Bully in "Once Were Warriors", Cliff Curtis had also appeared in a small role in "The Piano" in 1993.
"The Piano" was the most sucessful New Zealand made film of all time until it was surpassed at the box office by the unexpected popularity and critical acclaim of "Once Were Warriors".
Curtis has also appeared in many other films over the years including "Three Kings" (1999) and "The Last Airbender" (2010).

Answer: Toot

Toot attends Grace's funeral and is heartbroken as he blames himself for her suicide. At this point, none of the Hekes know that Grace had been molested by one of her father's drunken friends, but she had confided in Toot after it happened. He had kissed her, in a misguided attempt to offer comfort, and she had become very upset, run away from him, and hung herself in the garden of her home. At the funeral he tells Grace how much she meant to him and how she was his best friend, and Boogie says that he knows that Grace loved Toot too. Beth then invites Toot to leave the abandoned car in which he lives, and move in with her and her remaining children.

Answer: Beth reads Grace's journal

Grace had been in the habit of keeping a journal, and she detailed what happened the night Bully attacked her. After the funeral, when Beth finds and reads it, she goes to the bar where Jake and Bully are drinking and shows Jake what she has found. Jake then attacks Bully, and beats him up in a very violent scene, culminating in Bully being stabbed with a broken bottle.
The discovery of what drove her daughter to take her own life is the final straw for Beth and she tells Jake she is leaving him, and the city, and taking the children back to her parents Maori homeland.
Jake is left alone, sitting on the kerb outside the bar as the film ends.
Beth was played by award winning actress Rena Owen, and she reprised the role for the 1999 sequel "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?" too.
She has also appeared in several of the "Star Wars" films directed by George Lucas, and lent her voice talents to two of the franchised video games as well.