Schools On The Silver Screen Multiple Choice Quiz | Movies

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Schooldays, the old folks often told kids, were "the best days of your lives". In which of these movies were the days, at a school called Hogwarts, not only fun, but magical? And if learning how to cast spells was not enough, it was even more fun when the school sport demanded a skill in riding broomsticks.

Answer: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hogwarts was the setting for six of the seven "Harry Potter" books and movies. Harry Potter was created by J. K. Rowling and the books and movies told the tale of an orphaned boy who, as it happened, had magical powers. The underlying theme, first outlined in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", and which steadily built throughout the series, was that Harry was destined to confront the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, who killed his parents. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was the first of the series and introduced Harry as a seemingly ordinary boy, who then discovered there were mysteries in his past and a future potential he had never imagined - but someone was determined he should not fulfill that potential.

It was also the movie that introduced Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to give its full name.

The school aimed to nurture the magical abilities of its young pupils. The school sport was Quidditch, best described as a goal-scoring game between two teams of seven players, with each player mounted on a broomstick. Note: The first HP movie was released as "Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone" in the USA.

2. "Girls just wanna have fun" might well have been the song for a boarding school at which the pupils had lots of adventures - including foiling a train robbery. Which school had a saintly name, even if the pupils were far from being saints?

Answer: St Trinian's

St Trinian's was a fictional English private school for girls, created by the cartoonist Ronald Searle. The movies were: "The Belles of St Trinian's" (1954); "Blue Murder At St Trinian's" (1957); "The Pure Hell of St Trinian's" (1960); "The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery" (1966); "The Wildcats of St Trinian's" (1980) and "St Trinian's" (2007). Throughout the series, the movies told of shady dealings within the school by staff and others.

It was often threatened with closure, and the girls conspired with staff to keep it running.

They were even not short of a few 'irregular' enterprises themselves. The cream of Britain's comic actors appeared in various St Trinian's movies. Among them were Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Stephen Fry and Alastair Sim.

3. When some of the pupils decided they fancied a break from studies at Shermer High School, they took a day off. Which movie featured three friends hitting the road in a borrowed Ferrari?

Answer: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Matthew Broderick led the cast in the 1986 movie. Ferris Beuller was a street-wise kid who always kept a step ahead of the school authorities. They knew what he was up to, but stopping him was another matter. In the movie, Ferris decided to take a day off school and headed out for adventure, along with his best friends.

4. One of 1976's most shocking movies was set on the campus of Bates High School. It was the story of a bullied schoolgirl who turned into an angel of death on a Prom night never to be forgotten. What was the name of the film?

Answer: Carrie

Brian De Palma directed the movie based on Stephen King's novel. (Lawrence D. Cohen shared the writing credits for the movie). Sissy Spacek played the bullied Carrie, a girl with kinetic powers. After having a trick played on her at the Prom, she used her powers to destroy the high school gym, killing many of the pupils and teachers.

The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards and Spacek won a National Society of Film Critics best actress award.

5. Time travel was a blast, with a plutonium-powered means of transport. After his school principal told him: "No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley", the hero retorted "history is gonna change." Which movie featured a gleaming sportscar as a way of going back in time?

Answer: Back To The Future

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd led the cast in the 1985 movie directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also co-wrote it. Fox played Marty McFly, who was sent back in time from 1985 to 1955 and accidentally prevented his parents from meeting. With his whole existence in jeopardy, he had to convince Lloyd to send him back to the future. Lloyd starred as a zany scientist who created a time machine based on a DeLorean sportscar.

6. Perhaps if they had turned up the heating system at Rydell High School at least once in a blue moon, then fewer people would have got the chills. The summer nights were fun, but it rained on proms night. Which of these movies was featured on that high school campus?

Answer: Grease

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John starred as high school pupils who tried to keep their summer love on track when the school year resumed. Their respective sets of friends were more than a little interested. Hopefully you recognised the cryptic clues from some of the film's songs, "Blue Moon", "It's Raining on Prom Night", "Summer Nights" and "You're the One That I Want". Travolta was 24 and Newton-John 30 when the movie was made.

7. Some thought he was a hero, but really he was a coward. Still, he had plenty of adventures from the Wild West to the exotic east. Which public school with a sporting past was the alma mater of a bounder who was a bit of a flash Harry?

Answer: Rugby

Sir Harry Paget Flashman was the creation of the late George MacDonald Fraser in a series of books that also provided the basis for a movie. The character first appeared in the novel 'Tom Brown's Schooldays', by Thomas Hughes. Fraser took the concept further. He created the myth that a trunk full of the memoirs of Harry Flashman (Flashman had been the bully in 'Tom Brown's Schooldays') was discovered after his death, telling tales of his derring-do in a wide series of adventures. The books were meticulously researched and presented like memoirs - so much so that some people actually believed that Flashman was a real person.
The first book, 'Flashman', was set in the Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842; other books included 'Flashman And The Redskins' in the American West; and 'Flashman And The Dragon' set in China. On the movie screen, 'Royal Flash' (1975) starred Malcolm McDowell as Harry Flashman. The movie (and book) were something of a parody on 'The Prisoner of Zenda' and were set amid the struggles and revolutions that beset Europe in 1848. In the story, Flashman was forced by Otto von Bismarck to impersonate a Danish prince engaged to a German princess. (In all the 'Flashman' tales, Fraser used the names of historical characters with abandon).
Founded in 1567, Rugby is one of England's most prestigious public schools. It gave its name to the sport of rugby. Legend has it that the sport evolved after a game of football when one of the players picked up the ball and carried it. That story may, at best, be a stretched one, since no uniform laws of football existed at the time (pre-1825), and many variations involved the ball being carried.

8. Boys will be boys and never more so when there are girls around. East Great Falls High was a great school for teenage kicks. In which movie did a group of boys make a pact to lose their virginity before their graduation?

Answer: American Pie

'American Pie' was made in 1999 and starred Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, and Eugene Levy. It was a box office smash hit, and spawned two direct sequels and three spin-offs. Readers of 'Total Film' magazine named it the sixth best comedy movie of all time (in 2000).

9. It always seemed at school that teachers were a different race, and at Herrington High School they almost literally became so. In which of these movies did an alien parasite turn the teachers into personality-free clones - then the attention was switched to the pupils?

Answer: The Faculty

Robert Rodr�guez directed this 1998 offering about strange happenings at a small-town school in Ohio. Josh Hartnett led the cast as one of a group of pupils who tried to combat the spread of a parasitic organism that created a clone of humans. Each clone, in turn, tried to infect someone else. Jordana Brewster, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Elijah Wood and Piper Laurie also starred.

10. Detention could be a drag, especially when you had nothing in common with the other miscreants - and it was the weekend too. Somehow, however, at Shermer High School the disparate group seemed to bond and it became a life-changing experience. Which movie tried not to make a meal of its optimistic message?

Answer: The Breakfast Club

John Hughes wrote and directed the 1985 movie, which starred Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy as pupils forced to endure detention on a Saturday morning. While the main characters initially seemed to be stereotypes - a sports nut; a geek; a waster; a Prom Queen; and a psycho girl - with nothing in common, they all began to see the people behind those labels and found they had much to learn from, and teach, each other.

Source: Author darksplash

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
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Schools On The Silver Screen Trivia Quiz

Most people just want to put them behind them, but schooldays have been a favorite subject for movie makers down through the years. See how many of the movies, and the schools, you can identify.

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