Scrambled 20th Century Movie Titles Quiz

Answer: Forrest Gump

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this Tom Hanks-led dramedy swept at the Oscars taking Best Picture, Best Director, and a second Best Actor win for Hanks himself (who won for "Philadelphia" the year prior). The film, about a dimwitted man who had a profound affect on several decades of U.S. events, was so popular that it spilled into the pop culture mixing pot almost immediately, becoming a source for parody in the years to follow. Nonetheless, it proved to be important to film culture in the 1990s, eventually becoming selected as an entrant to the Library of Congress in 2011.

Answer: Halloween

Created by John Carpenter, "Halloween" is one of the horror-slasher franchises with the most staying power having been extended, reworked, retconned, and rebooted more times than virtually any series of horror films. The original starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence and, of course, had the honour of introducing the world to Michael Myers, a psycho killer broken free from the mental ward.

The movie was rebooted once by Rob Zombie in 2007 and again by David Gordon Green (as a sequel of the same name) in 2018.

Answer: A Clockwork Orange

Based on a novel by Anthony Burgess, "A Clockwork Orange" remains a key entry in Stanley Kubrick's film catalogue due to its sadistic scenes of criminal depravity set in dystopian Britain and starring Malcolm McDowell. Though the film was received mildly, it has since gone on to become a cult classic in every sense of the word with the film's characters having carried over into mainstream consciousness.

It was banned in a handful of countries yet still found itself nominated for four Oscars (including Best Picture).

Answer: Apocalypse Now

It would be easy to call "Apocalypse Now" Francis Ford Coppola's crowning achievement if not for the fact that he also directed the first two "Godfather" movies in the years before this, bringing Marlon Brando with him to make what is considered to be one of the greatest war films of all time. Released in 1979.

The film followed Martin Sheen into the jungles of Southeast Asia on the hunt for Col. Kurtz and was so highly-anticipated, it became the first unfinished film to be shown at Cannes.

Answer: Planet of the Apes

In what could have been a "Twilight Zone" episode (as it was co-written by Rod Serling), a group of space travellers pushed forward through time only to land back (as it was later discovered) on Earth, two thousand years in the future, to discover it had been taken over by intelligent apes.

The series was popular sci-fi fare in the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in a five-movie series that was rebooted not only by Tim Burton in 2001, but again as a series starring Andy Serkis in 2011.

Answer: Event Horizon

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, "Event Horizon" was an ambitious space movie which, though it received a bit of a critical warming-up-to in later years, was a box office failure on initial release in 1997, bringing together Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, and Kathleen Quinlan as members of a spaceship crew set out to investigate a derelict craft near Neptune carrying a rare space artifact with nefarious powers.

The film's reception led Anderson, the director, to move back into video game adaptations.

Answer: The Princess Bride

Told as a story from a grandfather to his sick grandson, "The Princess Bride" became a classic almost instantly, telling the fairy tale adventure story of Westley and Princess Buttercup (and the people around them) in the Kingdom of Florin. Starring a now all-star cast of Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Billy Crystal, Andre the Giant, Mandy Patinkin and Wallace Shawn, it was another entry in director Rob Reiner's stellar filmography and is beloved as a cult classic to the present day.

Answer: Total Recall

A sci-fi classic at the turn of the decade, "Total Recall" was one of those outlandish films that could have only been as crazy as it was because of the time. Set on Mars, it involved a man, Douglas Quaid, who received a memory implant and found that the adventure he wanted to take was blurring into reality.

The movie, as ambiguous as a Philip K. Dick work gets, still managed to be immensely popular, being the fifth-highest grossing film of 1990 while Schwarzenegger would continue flip-flopping between action and comedy, becoming one of the most bankable stars of the era.

Answer: The Truman Show

One of Carrey's turns into dramedy, "The Truman Show" showcased the otherwise highly-comedic actor's ability to bring a serious take; the movie was about Truman Burbank, a man who lived his entire life, unknowing, on a town-sized movie set for the world to watch him 24/7.

As the walls came down, he started to discover that his life wasn't quite as it seemed. The film was critically praised for its concept (at the advent of reality television) and its acting; it netted Ed Harris an Oscar nomination and allowed Carrey to take further dramatic lead roles in later years.

Answer: Maximum Overdrive

The only instance in which Stephen King took the director's chair for himself, "Maximum Overdrive" was heavy metal bombast and horror at its loudest. Set in an apocalyptic scenario in which a group of strangers were trapped in a diner/gas station by sentient electronics (especially vehicles), it featured Emilio Estevez in the lead role.

It was a box office flop, but a jokey watch nowadays, even if King disowned the film and fessed up to his mistake after its release.