Staying Alive Trivia Quiz

Answer: Saturday Night Fever

'Saturday Night Fever' was released in 1977 and its central character is a young man who has a mundane job in a hardware store during the daytime. However, the movie concentrates on what he and his gang of friends do to occupy themselves on Saturday nights.

The movie was directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood and was based on an article by Nik Cohn entitled 'Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night', which appeared in 'New York' magazine in July 1976. The movie was very successful both in financial terms and in terms of accolades for its artistic qualities. For example, the American Library of Congress selected it for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 2010.

Answer: John Travolta

John Travolta was the actor who played Tony Manero in the movie 'Staying Alive', just as he did in the earlier movie 'Saturday Night Fever'. The later movie was released six years after its predecessor and is also set some years later than the earlier one.

Other actors from the first movie were at first apparently intended to have roles in the later one but things changed during the evolution of 'Staying Alive'. In the end the only one from the earlier movie to have a recognised role in 'Staying Alive' was Julie Bovasso, who played Tony's mother, Flo Manero.

Answer: Sylvester Stallone

During his acting career Sylvester Stallone was the hero of some movie series. He played a Vietnam veteran named John Rambo in the 'Rambo' movies (1982 to 2019) and a boxer named Rocky Balboa in the 'Rocky' movies (1976 to 2006) and again in two 'Creed' movies (2015 and 2018).

John Travolta apparently suggested someone like Sylvester Stallone as the director but the Paramount movie company managed to engage the actor himself. After discussions between John and Sylvester, the latter re-wrote parts of the initial script by Norman Wexler, as well as being the sole director and a co-producer with Robert Stigwood.

Answer: New York

Like its predecessor 'Saturday Night Fever', the movie 'Staying Alive' was set in New York. In the earlier one, Tony Manero lived in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn but by the later movie has moved to Manhattan, where he lives in a cheap flophouse or dosshouse.

However, he still keeps in contact with at least some of his family, with part of 'Staying Alive' showing him going back to Brooklyn to visit his mother. He apologises to her for his earlier less than ideal behaviour and she accepts that his feisty attitude was what helped him to move to Manhattan.

Answer: In a dance club

In the earlier movie, 'Saturday Night Fever', Tony worked in a hardware store but spent much of his Saturday nights dancing in a discotheque called 2001 Odyssey. He was king of the dance floor there and his ambition was to become a professional dancer.

His older brother encouraged Tony to follow his dream and he moved to Manhattan where he obtained work in a dance club as both a waiter and a dance instructor while trying to get work as a dancer in a Broadway show.

Answer: Jackie and Laura

Tony Manero, the main character in the movie 'Staying Alive', has a girlfriend, Jackie, at the start of the movie and she is a rock singer and chorus dancer. He is not always faithful to her and one of the other women he sleeps with is Laura. Jackie and Laura are played by Cynthia Rhodes and Finola Hughes respectively.

Laura is a lead dancer and she and Tony only slept together once by her decision. The parting between Tony and Laura is less than harmonious and Jackie decides she is no longer prepared to accept Tony's behaviour so ends her relationship with him too. However Tony later shows remorse about how he treated Jackie and he and Jackie get back together by the end of the movie.

Answer: Satan's Alley

Tony Manero's ambition has been to be a dancer on Broadway. He and his girlfriend Jackie both manage to get small roles in the Broadway show 'Satan's Alley' while Laura, a girl with whom Tony had what turned out to be one-night stand, is employed as the main female dancer.

Tony is ambitious for a larger role and Jackie helps him to rehearse the lead male dancer's role and he manages to take over the part. Although Laura is unhappy at having him as her dance partner, there is still an attraction between them but Tony does not want to see her in private.

Answer: Tony

After the very successful premiere of the Broadway show, 'Satan's Alley', the male leading dancer, Tony, is shown kissing his girlfriend, Jackie. Unbeknown to Jackie, he is also seen to be exchanging glances with Laura (the leading female dancer with whom he had a one-night stand) at the same time.

Tony then tells Jackie he is going to 'strut' and leaves the theatre to do just that along the streets of New York. This echoes the start of the earlier movie, 'Saturday Night Fever', whose first scenes show Tony strutting along in a different neighbourhood of New York.

Answer: Golden Raspberry Awards

'Staying Alive' was first released on 15th July 1983 and was a major success at the box office and in financial terms. It cost some $22 million to make but was shown in a number of countries and earned nearly $65 million in the US and $127 million in total.

Although it was one of the most successful movies of 1983 financially, the critics were less kind about its artistic qualities and accounted it less realistic than its predecessor, 'Saturday Night Fever'. Both John Travolta and Finola Hughes were nominated for Golden Raspberry awards but this did not prevent either of them from having successful careers and winning other, more desirable awards.

Answer: Bee Gees

The Bees Gees song 'Stayin' Alive' was part of the soundtrack for both the movie 'Staying Alive' and its predecessor, 'Saturday Night Fever'. It accompanied the opening scenes of the earlier movie and the closing scenes of the later one, both of which showed John Travolta as the character Tony Manero strutting along streets in New York.

The Bee Gees wrote and performed about half of the songs in the movie 'Staying Alive'. Many of the other songs were written by Frank Stallone, Sylvester Stallone's brother, and sung by him and other artists. The song 'Far From Over', which was written by Frank Stallone and Vince DiCola, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. The soundtrack of the movie reached number six in the US album charts and also charted in several other countries.