The Cave of Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Village

Not the supernatural thriller it may initially look like, "The Village" (2004), director M. Night Shymalan's sixth movie, received mixed critical reviews. While the quaint commune's 19th-century lifestyle is meant to be a haven from an unexpectedly modern world, the younger generation is held captive by fear of "Those We Don't Speak Of", who are said to be attracted by red, the "bad" color, and repelled by yellow. Whatever the truth, Ivy Walker, a tenacious young blind girl, does face a threat when braving the woods to retrieve medicine from "the towns" for her dying fiance. Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, and William Hurt are among the cast of this film, which is riddled with Shymalan's usual twists.

Answer: The Time Traveler's Wife

Adapted from Audrey Niffenegger's novel of the same title, "The Time Traveler's Wife" (2009) uniquely blends a romantic tearjerker with the element of time travel. Henry (Eric Bana), afflicted with Chrono Displacement Disorder since childhood, meets and falls in love with Clare (Rachel McAdams), though she has known him since she was a child.

Henry's time jumps would take him to young Clare in the meadow where she played, and she would leave clothing for him in expectation of his next visit. The film follows their marriage, strained by Henry's unpredictable absences and Clare's multiple miscarriages. Eventually, they do become parents to a little girl named Alba, who inherits her father's time-traveling gene, but neither Henry nor Alba can change the tragic accident that both know will occur.

Answer: Inception

In "Inception" (2010), writer and director Christopher Nolan explains the mechanics of shared dreaming and dream architecture, used by spies for corporate espionage. The task set before Dom Cobb, however, is inception: planting an idea into the subconscious mind so subtly it seems to have grown naturally. Cobb assembles a team to pull off this reverse-heist, which involves intricate, multilevel dreams where time passes ever more slowly, with coordinated "kicks" to wake the dreamers, some of whom carry a totem to separate the dream from reality. But, only dream architect Ariadne knows that their efforts are threatened by a secret buried deep in Cobb's mind. With a cast including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, "Inception" performed well at the box office and was praised by critics for its original and intelligent approach.

Answer: WALL-E

Winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture, "WALL-E" (2008) marks the ninth collaboration of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. It is unique in its limited dialogue, though the voice of John Ratzenberger, a regular contributor to Pixar films, does make its obligatory appearance. Sound designer Ben Burtt is credited with the voice of WALL-E, the only surviving trash compactor robot left to clean up a future Earth that is overwhelmed by trash. With a cockroach for a companion, the adorable little robot amasses a collection of interesting relics as he builds the garbage skyscrapers.

When EVE, another robot, descends in search of plant life, lovestruck WALL-E follows her into space. There, we get a look at the future of humanity, which has degenerated pathetically after centuries on starships. "WALL-E" has it all: adventure, romance, tragedy -- and a happy ending!

Answer: Jurassic Park

Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a Michael Crichton novel, "Jurassic Park" (1993) contains impressive special effects by Industrial Light & Magic, whose computer-generated dinosaurs paved the way for the later prevalence of digital animation in film. Using dinosaur DNA found in insects preserved in amber, John Hammond resurrects the prehistoric species to create a theme park.

The park is opened for a trial run to ensure its safety when everything goes haywire! In a memorable scene, Dr. Ian Malcolm, injured, sits alone in a jeep, watching water puddles ripple with increasing impact tremors as the Tyrannosaurus rex approaches: "I'm fairly alarmed here!" Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill star in this "Adventure 65 Million Years In The Making," as the tagline describes it. Spielberg returned to direct the film adaptation of Crichton's sequel novel, "The Lost World" (1997).

The film series became a trilogy with "Jurassic Park III" (2001).

Answer: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

While "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986), directed by Leonard Nimoy, lacks the space action of its predecessors, its humor and contemporary setting proved successful. With the Enterprise destroyed in the preceding film, its crew takes a Klingon Bird-of-Prey back in time to save Earth from a probe that is searching for an answer from humpback whales, which are extinct in the 23rd-century. So, Kirk (William Shatner) and company locate a pair of whales named George and Gracie and outfit the Bird-of-Prey to transport them.

While Scotty (James Doohan) struggles with 20th-century computers, Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) meet trouble as they search for a power source aboard "nuclear wessels" for their drained ship. Upon returning to the future, Kirk faces punishment for earlier charges; he is demoted, but given captaincy of a new starship Enterprise.

Answer: Somewhere In Time

With a beautiful soundtrack that features the compositions of Rachmaninoff, "Somewhere In Time" (1980) relates a tragic romance made possible by time travel. Just before her death, elderly Elise McKenna, a former actress, seeks out playwright Richard Collier and asks him to "come back to" her. Years later, Richard finds himself at the Grand Hotel where the actress last performed decades earlier, and where hangs the captivating photograph in which she smiles only for him. Through self-hypnosis, Richard travels back to 1912 and the two meet and fall in love, but too soon, Richard is abruptly jerked away by the jarring presence of a modern coin. Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour star as Richard and Elise, in this film that initially flew under the radar, but has since achieved cult classic status.

Answer: Secretariat

Walt Disney Pictures' "Secretariat" (2010) depicts the inspirational true-life story of Penny Chenery and her horse, one of the few to win the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing and the first to do so since Citation, some 25 years earlier. Mrs. Helen Tweedy (Diane Lane) inherits her father's Meadow Farm Stable, and enters the horseracing business under her maiden name, Penny Chenery. Overcoming financial difficulties and gender discrimination, she sees Big Red, the colt of Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal, become a champion with the now-famous name, Secretariat. Along with trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) and jockey Ron Turcotte, Red sets records in winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, and amazes the crowds by running the 1 1/2 mile Belmont Stakes in an unmatched 2:24 to capture the Triple Crown in 1973.

The real Penny Chenery makes a cameo at the end of the film, in the stands at the Belmont Stakes.

Answer: Timeline

While it didn't win any awards for historical accuracy, "Timeline" (2003) is, in my opinion, an interesting movie, though critics and the box office disagree with me! A team of archaeologists uncovering the ruins of Castlegard, a village destroyed during the Hundred Years War, locates the sarcophagus of a married couple, the husband with one missing ear.

After the team braves a painful faxing process through a wormhole to the year 1357 to rescue Professor Johnston, history lover Andre Marek finds himself falling in love with Lady Claire, an important figure in French history who is destined to die. Managing to salvage the timeline and save Claire, Marek is incongruously elated when his ear is cut off, realizing that the sarcophagus belonged to him and Claire. Billy Connolly and Gerard Butler star in this apparently underwhelming Sci-Fi action film.

Answer: The Lake House

"The Lake House" (2006) is a remake of a 2000 South Korean film titled, "Il Mare" ("The Sea"). Moving out of the title home, Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) leaves a letter in the lake house's mailbox for the next tenant, but her note is perplexing to architect Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), who receives it two years before it was written.

After witnessing a traumatic event, Kate returns to the lake house, where waits a letter from Alex. The two fall in love through correspondence. Alex sees Kate for the first time when she asks him to pick up a book she left at a train station, "Persuasion" by Jane Austen.

After an attempted meeting fails, the two break off their correspondence, but when Kate finds her book in the floorboards of her apartment, placed there years earlier by Alex, feeling are rekindled. On Valentine's Day, 2008, a memory resurfaces, and knowing that Alex's life is in danger, Kate rushes desperately to the lake house once more with a hastily penned letter.

This time, the barriers of time truly do fall.