'The Great Escape' - Hilts Trivia Quiz

Answer: Steve McQueen

A good role for McQueen, which gave him a chance to do a few motorcycle stunts. Most sources say that he did NOT perform the daring leap over the border fence, however.

Answer: Virgil

In encouraging Hilts to call him 'Roger', Bartlett says 'My name is Roger, yours is Virgil isn't it?' Hilts replies, 'Just make it Hilts.' (Quotes are from memory, so may not be word perfect.)

Answer: rode motorcycles

During their first stint in the cooler Ives asked Hilts if he played baseball in the States. Hilts replies that he went to college and did a bit of bike riding. Ives says 'Bicycles?' and Hilts says no, motorcyles.

Answer: Captain

The fact that Hilts stresses his rank to the Kommandant prolongs the length of his first confinement in the cooler.

Answer: see Berlin from the ground and the air

At the end of the film, as the Kommandant is being removed from his command and Hilts is returned to the camp, Von Luger tells Hilts 'It appears that you will see Berlin before I do.'

Answer: to give information to Bartlett

Bartlett had earlier asked him to gather information about the immediate vicinity of the camp, especially the location of the local railway station. Hilts initially is reluctant to give up a chance to get clean away, but after he witnesses Ives' death he tells Roger 'I'm going out tonight', with the implication that he'll be back with the needed information.

Answer: his own clothes

Unlike the other escapers, who all have escape clothes made by Griff the tailor, Hilts wears the same clothes he has worn throughout the film, including his captain's bars pinned inside his sweatshirt. He does at one point don German uniform, but disposes of this before he is recaptured.

Answer: motorcycle

Hilts strings a wire booby trap across a road, upends a speeding motorcyclist and takes both his uniform and motorbike. (I have read that McQueen himself did this stunt). Several escapers choose the train, Sedgewick travels part way by bicycle and Hendley steals an aeroplane for himself and Blythe.

Answer: Switzerland

He pulls up his bike and says 'Switzerland' at one point. Sedgewick reaches Spain by way of France. Danny and Willie (although it is not actually mentioned) represent the two real-life escapers who reached Sweden.

Answer: he is back in the cooler

As befits the 'Cooler King' he ends the movie in the cooler. Fifty of the escapers (in real life as well as the movie) were shot by the Gestapo. The film is dedicated to The Fifty.