There Once Was a Crooked Man Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jabba Desilijic Tiure

You would probably know Tiure better as Jabba the Hutt and, as a young man (myself) at the time "Return of the Jedi" was released in 1983, I was grateful for the arrival of Jabba. After all, he was the one responsible for putting Princess Leia into that gold bikini. Jabba, like most of the Hutt species, was known for his ruthlessness.

He also had strong leanings towards gambling, collecting slave girls and inflicting torture. If it could be said that he possessed a sense of humour it was sadistic at best.

His first cinema appearance was in "Return of the Jedi" though he did get a mention in the first film "A New Hope" (1977). Note: A special edition release of "A New Hope" in 1997 saw deleted scenes of Jabba re-installed, albeit as a CGI version.

In "Return of the Jedi" we find that Jabba has secured himself in a heavily guarded palace in the wastelands of Tatooine and surrounded himself with an array of bounty hunters, smugglers, assassins and a list of other sycophants who are all endeavouring to garner favour from him.

He has enslaved Leia and condemns Luke to death in the Great Pit of Carkoon. It is here that Luke ends up defeating Jabba's guards and, in the ensuing melee, Leia is able to strangle Jabba.

Answer: Smith

One of the movie screen's great characters, Agent Smith commences life as an artificial intelligence programme within the Matrix, designed to maintain order and remove any rogue programmes within its collective. Like his fellow agents inside the scheme, Smith had the ability to take over simulated bodies of humans who were wired into the Matrix and to defy the laws of physics or the limitations of the human body.

Hence they were able to move faster than bullets or smash rocks with their fists. From the outset, however, Smith stood apart from his fellow agents.

He appeared to be a figure of authority. Apart from giving orders to his fellow agents, there was a scene where he sent them out of the room while he interrogated Morpheus: he also had the authority to initiate attacks by Sentinenals. Also, whilst other agents appeared to be indifferent about humans, Smith would articulate his open hatred of them.

This was also borne out during the abovementioned interrogation scene. Neo, as a representative of the human race, was seen by Smith as a virus that needed to be eliminated.

This was interesting because Smith was "freed" from the machine at the end of the first film (inadvertently) by Neo and in the subsequent movie, "The Matrix: Reloaded" (2003) he found he had the power to replicate himself numerous times, thereby effectively becoming a form of computer virus himself. As the story progressed we noticed that this "freeing" of Smith triggered a gradual humanising process within him that seemed to run parallel with Neo's continued growth and discoveries of his own powers that made him somewhat less human.

Answer: Dune

"Dune" is David Lynch's adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel of the same name and, as stated, the story centred around a feud, fought on the spice rich planet of Arrakis, between the Harkonens and the Atreides. The Harkonen House had become a power well before Baron Vladimir had ascended to its control.

He continued to build on this empire through deeds of treachery, subterfuge and blackmail and he would not hesitate to stoop to torture and murder to remove any threats against his power. As a young man the Baron had flaunted his "perfect" body but this deserted him when he cruelly raped one of the Bene Gesserit Sisters.

She got her revenge by infecting him with an incurable neurological disease that turned Vladimir into an obese creature.

The Baron soon became too heavy to stand on his own feet and had to resort to wearing an antigravity suit to remain upright. In the end, despite all of his wiles and cunning, it would be the Baron's sheer hatred of the Atreides that would lead to his demise.

Answer: He was bored

"Klytus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?"

These were Ming's opening lines in the film. When Klytus, his general, revealed the planet Earth, Ming's eyes lit up like those of little child. He instigated a series of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, on Earth because "I like to toy with things before their annihilation". Deliciously portrayed by Max Von Sydow, Ming was a seriously nasty piece of work. He had a total disregard for the lives of others, considered that Adolf Hitler "showed promise" and even tortured his own daughter. Seriously, who does that?

Answer: False

In the scene where Kyle Reese revealed to Sarah Connor that he was from the future he also described an inferior model of the Terminator; "The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him."

Arnold (Schwarzenegger) has made the role of the Terminator his own but in my view he was at his peak when he played the evil Terminator in 1984. His official designation was "Terminator T-800 Cyberdyne Systems Model 101". At various times in the film he was referred to as a T-800, T-101 or simply a Terminator. All of the Terminators in this designation shared identical features. This has allowed the franchise to use Arnold on multiple occasions and at various levels of ageing. This was borne out in the fourth film of the series "Terminator Salvation" (2009) which revealed a production line of the 800 series model 101s. Roland Kickinger was the actor whose body was shown in these shots but it was Arnold's face, from the 1984 film, that was super imposed onto the head with the use of CGI imaging. In "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" (1991) Arnold revisited his earlier role but on this occasion he played an identical model that had been captured by John Connor's forces and re-programmed to protect Sarah and the younger version of John.

Answer: A Woman

Rotwang had fallen for a beautiful woman by the name of Hel. She, however, had chosen Rotwang's rival, John Frederson, the owner of Metropolis as her man. Sadly she died giving birth to Frederson's son Freder. The forlorn scientist put his heart into creating a female robot as his replacement for Hel. Freder grew to manhood and fell in love with a working class girl called Maria, who was garnering popularity among the labourers as a mediator and a preacher of peace. Frederson was appalled to see his son associating with a commoner.

He ordered Rotwang to kidnap Maria and turn his robot into a likeness of her so that he could use the fake Maria to spread dissent and confusion amongst the working class. The spirit went out of Rotwang's work and this melancholy was soon reflected in the heartless machine that he created.

The fake Maria would go on to incite the workers to revolt against their rulers and destroy the city's machines.

Answer: Replicants

The Nexus-6 replicants had a life span of four years. Batty was a combat model unit who possessed genius level intelligence, superhuman strength and extraordinary endurance. He and his five comrades were nearing the end of their lives and escaped to Earth with the sole purpose of extending them. Batty was brilliantly portrayed by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer who produced, possibly, his finest moment on screen.

In Batty he created a thoughtful creature struggling to come to grips with his developing emotions. All the while he exuded an athletic vitality, a smouldering menace and a vibrant lust for life.

In his hour of dying Roy delivered his "tears in the rain" speech, which was written by Hauer and presented to director Scott prior to his commencing work on the film.

In a delightful twist his final act was to rescue Deckard (Harrison Ford), the man trying to kill him, from certain death before shutting down and dying. Hauer was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor but was pipped to post by Richard Lynch in "The Sword and the Sorcerer".

Answer: Maximilian

"The Black Hole" became the first movie that Disney released that did not carry the "G" rating. It scored a PG rating because Max was way too creepy and he scared the pants off people. Max was designed and built by Dr Reinhardt to act as his loyal assistant (and companion) as they sat within a force-field on the edge of a black hole. Only problem was that sometime during the construction phase the doctor must have inadvertently inserted some form of malevolence chip into Max's circuitry.

The end result is that Max didn't like strangers, matter of fact he didn't like them at all.

He was merciless, ruthless and he did not hesitate to kill - just ask poor old Dr Durant who got himself sliced and diced by the big red robot. Max's silence was no hindrance, it simply added to his sense of menace. Even the deranged Dr Reinhardt was scared of his own Frankenstein; "Protect me from Maximilian" he urgently whispered into Kate's ear.

It was rather ironic then, that at the climax of the movie, as the professor and Max were sucked into the black hole, the doctor's body merged with that of his monster, dooming him to a life in the shell of the beast as they eternally drifted through the darkness.

Answer: No

In "Dr. Who and the Daleks" (1965) the TARDIS lands on an unnamed planet (it was revealed in the sequel, "Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 AD", to be Skaro) at the end of an ancient nuclear war. It was intimated that this long battle had been fought between two humanoid races the Daleks and the Thals. The Thals were able to survive and thrive by use of an anti-radiation drug that they had created. The Daleks, who were highly susceptible to radiation, did not have the benefit of the drug and, as a result, underwent some serious mutation. As protection they built the metal shells, we have come to recognise so well, as armour against the poisoned atmosphere and encased themselves within. Further evidence is provided in the television series. In the episode entitled "Remembrance of the Daleks" (1988) the good Doctor stated "they're little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour". In "Revelation of the Daleks" (1985) it was revealed that there were two factions of Dalek, the Imperial and the Renegade. One looked like, as the Doctor described, an amorphous blob and the other had a crablike appearance, complete with claws. The Daleks voice-box needed the electronic enhancement to deliver its messages. Once removed from the tin can it could register little more than a squeak.

(Note) The two movies described above were cinematic releases starring Peter Cushing as Doctor Who. Whilst they employed elements of the television series they did take some steps to distance themselves from the small screen version. The Doctor in the films was human, not alien, and his surname was "Who". There was a further movie, specifically made for television, released in 1996.

Answer: They were the victims of a failed experiment.

It was Shepherd Book, in the television episode of "Firefly", "Bushwacked" (2002), who put forward the idea that these creatures were just men that have been abandoned by society. The notion was strongly dismissed by both Mal and Jayne who preferred to live with the idea that space had driven them to madness.

In the movie the crew landed on the planet Miranda, in an effort to solve some of the mysteries in River's past and find some leverage they could use against the Alliance to extricate themselves from the mess they found themselves in.

They discovered that the planet had been used as a testing ground by the Alliance for a chemical compound known as G-23 (or Paxilon Hydrochlorate) which was supposed to remove the aggressive tendencies from society.

The drug worked brilliantly. It worked so well that 99.9% of the population lost all desire. They stopped everything that they were doing and simply lay down to die. The extreme opposite happened to the remaining 0.1% who immediately became super aggressive, lost the ability to speak coherently and developed cannibalistic tendencies.

These dudes were scary. They were so scary that even big, tough Jayne was fearful of them. The mere thought that Reavers may be within his vicinity was enough to raise his hackles. As Zoe eloquently put it "If they take this ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing - and - if we're very, very lucky, they will do it in that order".