The Great "Heaven Can Wait" from '78 Quiz

Answer: Mr. Jordan

The interplay among Mason's courtly Angel, Warren Beatty's nice-guy characters, and Buck Henry's exasperated escort is one of the many funny highlights of the film. "Heaven Can Wait" is actually a reworking of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," a 1941 movie about a boxer accidentally killed before his time on earth is set to expire.

Answer: Riding his bike through a tunnel

An exercise fanatic, Beatty's character is riding his bike when he enters a narrow highway tunnel toward an oncoming car. Wanting to avoid a bloody scene, the Escort takes him to Heaven even though he is not scheduled to die for decades.

Answer: The body has been cremated

The Angel orders the Escort to return Beatty's character to earth at once and get him into his old body, but they're too late. They arrive in time to watch his ashes being scattered, and hear his old trainer saying "I hope they got the best football team in America in Heaven, and I hope God makes you first-string."

Answer: Sabotaging his car

Beatty's character is able to temporarily assume the identity of a wealthy industrialist just before the man drowns in his bathtub after being drugged by his wife and personal assistant, who are having an affair. Later they rig a mirror over his bed to fall on him, but it instead falls on his coat when he throws it on the bed. Ultimately, they shoot him as the evening cannon is fired, his body falling, unnoticed, down a well.

Answer: Liver and whey shake

As Beatty's character begins to fall in love with Julie Christie's character, he orders his staff to whip up a liver and whey shake for her so they can dine together. Later, when his onetime trainer panics after realizing that he somehow returned to earth after dying, he orders a shake to in hopes of reviving the trainer.

His butler Sisk is obsessed with serving cocoa to him, a humorous running joke in the movie.

Answer: Deacon Jones

Deacon Jones, an NFL Hall-of-Famer, has a funny role in the film, as an angry football player not at all pleased that a businessman dabbling in football wants to play quarterback for the Rams. The main character's personal assistant, trying to kill his boss, further enflames Jones by reminding him of his boss's earlier racially insensitive remarks.

After sailing unblocked into the backfield and flattening his new owner/quarterback, Jones would contritely apologize each time ("I'm terribly sorry Mr. Farnsworth - this is really embarrassing.").

Answer: "No, I played a little polo"

A funny scene, but also a minor editing blooper. Earlier in the movie, when a butler is trying to get him to don a polo helmet, Beatty asks "Do I play polo?" and the butler replies "Not really, sir."

Answer: Max Corkle

Max Corkle is the name of the Rams' trainer, played by Jack Warden. Warren Beatty is first Joe Pendleton, before he is prematurely taken to Heaven. He then gets to temporarily assume the identity of Leo Farnsworth, a despicable industrialist who becomes inexplicably nice after Beatty occupies his body. Beatty is Farnsworth for most of the movie.

When Farnsworth is ultimately killed, Beatty permanently moves into the body of Tom Jarrett, another Rams quarterback. It's actually a lot less complicated than it sounds!

Answer: Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis

Gowdy and DeRogatis were the main NBC football broadcasting team through much of the 1960s and 1970s, and Gowdy covered some of the great moments in sports history, including Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat, and Hank Aaron's 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth. Gowdy covered every odd-numbered Super Bowl from 1967 to 1979 - plus, of course, the Super Bowl in "Heaven Can Wait."

Gowdy and DeRogatis are never seen on camera, but two well-known broadcasters who do appear in the movie are Dick Enberg, who does the locker room interviews after the Super Bowl, and Bryant Gumbel, uncredited, doing a television sportscast.

Answer: "It's all right. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Just before Beatty's character is shot, he proposes to Julie Christie's character. When he realizes that he is about to be taken away, he tells her that someday someone else might come up to her, maybe even a football player, maybe even a quarterback, and she'd be able to look into his eyes and feel recognized.

She expresses confusion, and he assures her, "It's all right. There's nothing to be afraid of." Those are the last words he speaks to her before being shot.