If 1990s Films Spawned Classified Ads Quiz

Answer: Ghost

Molly and Sam are young, in love, and have just moved into a spacious apartment in New York City. Sadly, tragedy strikes when a late-night encounter with a mugger leaves Sam dead from a gunshot wound, and his disembodied spirit struggling to come to grips with his new existence as a ghost. When Sam's ghost discovers that his murder was not the result of a random act or plain bad luck and that Molly may be in danger herself, he must learn to make an impact in the real world so that he can protect the woman he loves from suffering the same fate at the hands of his killers. He is helped along the way by Oda Mae Brown, a psychic medium who acts as a bridge between Molly and Sam in the spirit world.

"Ghost" was a huge sleeper hit of 1990, and earned five Oscar nominations, including an unexpected nod for Best Picture. It won Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg's spot-on portrayal of the feisty Oda Mae. The film is probably best remembered for the much-parodied pottery scene, which featured Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze adopting an unconventional two-person approach to pottery throwing while listening to "Unchained Melody" on the jukebox. Who knew that wet clay could be so romantic?

Answer: Fight Club

Soap plays an important part in the plot and promotional advertising for this film. Edward Norton's narrator character meets the mysterious and enigmatic Tyler Durden on a plane, and the pair eventually start a commune of sorts based around the underground movement they founded known as "Fight Club". (I would tell you more, but I don't want to break the first or second rules of Fight Club.) At one point, Tyler memorably gives the narrator a hands-on lesson on how to make soap. The pair break into a liposuction clinic to steal human biohazard waste, which they render to make the soap which they then sell to high-end department stores. Eventually, Tyler's antics become more and more dangerous, and it is everything the narrator can do to escape from his corrupting influence. This highly original film rewards repeated viewings.

"Fight Club" starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, and was directed by David Fincher.

Answer: Groundhog Day

When Phil Connors, a self-centered, polarizing TV weather man, is sent to Punxsutawney to cover the local Groundhog Day festivities, he can't wait to finish the assignment and get out of town. But when a sudden snowstorm forces Phil and his crew to stay an extra night, he wakes up the next morning to find himself stuck in a repeating time loop, forced to relive Groundhog Day over and over and over again. The start of each day is signaled by his bedside radio alarm clock going off and playing Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe". At first, Phil employs increasingly desperate measures to try and break the cycle that he finds himself trapped in, but over time he seems to accept his predicament and decides to make the best of it, becoming a better person in the process, eventually winning the affections of the woman he loves.

"Groundhog Day" was directed by Harold Ramis, and starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

Answer: The Silence of the Lambs

A serial killer known as Buffalo Bill is targeting women in and around the Ohio area, and the FBI have their work cut out for them when the daughter of a U.S. senator becomes the latest young woman to be abducted. In a race against time, FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is forced to reach out to incarcerated killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) for his unique insight on the case. The killer uses, as part of his killing ritual, the pupae of the Acherontia styx or "Death's head" moth, so called because of the unique markings on the moth's thorax that resemble a human skull. As Lecter explains to Starling, the killer's use of the moth is symbolic. "The significance of the moth is change," he explains, "Caterpillar into chrysalis or pupa, from thence into beauty. Our Billy wants to change, too."

In 1992, "The Silence of the Lambs" became only the third film in Oscar history to win all five of the top awards - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The first two films to achieve this rare feat were "It Happened One Night" (1934) and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975).

Answer: The English Patient

Hungarian Count László de Almásy is a member of the International Sand Club, a group of cartographers and surveyors from the Royal Geographical Society tasked with mapping the Sahara on the eve of WWII. They are joined by Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, a British couple who arrive in the Rupert Bear, a yellow Stearman Model 75 biplane that was supposedly a wedding gift from Katharine's parents. Almost immediately, a mutual attraction forms between Almásy and Katharine. They eventually begin an affair during Geoffrey's frequent absences to take aerial photos of North Africa. When Geoffrey finds out, he collects Katharine in his biplane and attempts to crash-land it onto Almásy in a bizarre murder-suicide scheme. He only succeeds in killing himself and injuring his wife, leaving Almásy and Katharine alone in the desert with no means of rescue. Almásy leaves Katharine in the Cave of Swimmers and promises to come back for her, setting off for help. His search proves difficult due to the outbreak of war, and suitably tragic consequences follow.

"The English Patient" starred Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche and Colin Firth, and was directed by Anthony Minghella from his own adaptation of the novel by Michael Ondaatje. The film won nine Oscars (from 12 nominations), including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.

Answer: Contact

Dr. Ellie Arroway is working on the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project at the observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, when she meets Palmer Joss, a self-described "man of the cloth without the cloth". He finds a small compass in the box of Cracker Jacks he is snacking on, and attempts to give it to Ellie, but she tells him to keep it as it "might save [his] life someday". Palmer eventually leaves the compass with Ellie together with his phone number after spending the night. The compass changes hands a few more times throughout the movie, eventually ending up with Ellie, who wears it around her neck during her ride in "The Machine", a top secret facility built by an international consortium from a design derived from an intercepted alien transmission. The Machine creates an interplanetary wormhole that transports Ellie's pod from Earth to Vega. During the dangerously bumpy wormhole ride, the compass comes loose from around Ellie's neck, and floats away from her in the zero gravity environment. She removes the straps securing her to her chair in order to retrieve the compass, just before the bolts on the chair come loose, sending the chair crashing to the top of the pod. Ellie arrives at her destination in one piece and comes into contact with the intelligent aliens, but it remains to be seen if the rest of the world will believe her fantastic story upon her return.

"Contact" starred Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, and was directed by Robert Zemeckis from a story by astronomer Carl Sagan.

Answer: The Shawshank Redemption

Andy Dufresne might be the only innocent man in Shawshank prison. Wrongly convicted for the double murder of his wife and her lover, he spent almost 20 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit, but never seemed to let prison life get to him in all that time. As Red says of Andy, it was as if "he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place". Red is "the guy who can get it for you" on the inside, and soon after his arrival, Andy asks Red to get him a rock hammer. He intends to use it to collect and fashion chess pieces from the rocks found in the prison yard. At one point in the film, the warden pays a visit to Andy in his cell to size him up and almost walks off with his bible. "I almost forgot. I'd hate to deprive you of this. Salvation lies within," he says, not realizing that the hollowed-out bible was Andy's hiding place for the rock hammer. It turns out he was also using the hammer to dig a tunnel to freedom from his prison cell, which he uses to escape at the end of the movie. As Red recalls after the escape, "All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub."

"The Shawshank Redemption" starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, and was directed by Frank Darabont, who adapted the script from the novella by Stephen King. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Screenplay.

Answer: The Straight Story

When aging WWII veteran Alvin Straight learns that his estranged brother is dying, he vows to make the 240 mile journey to visit him and mend their relationship before it's too late. A stubborn man, Alvin values his independence and wants to do everything himself, even though he needs two canes to walk and is starting to have problems with his vision. He decides to drive his mower to Wisconsin, but his old mower doesn't get him as far as the Grotto, so he shoots it and buys a new one. "You always struck me as a smart man," the salesman says to Alvin when he learns of his plan, "Until now." Alvin eventually makes it to his brother's house, meeting all kinds of people along the way, and changing a few lives in the process.

Based on an amazing true story, "The Straight Story" earned Richard Farnsworth a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Alvin Straight.

Answer: American Beauty

When a new family moves into Lester Burnham's neighborhood, it isn't long before his teenage daughter, Jane, becomes drawn to the brooding, voyeuristic, pot-dealing Ricky from next door. In what must be the most memorable scene in the film, Ricky shows Jane "the most beautiful thing [he's] ever filmed". "It was one of those days where it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, and this bag was just dancing with me, like a little kid, begging me to play with it, for 15 minutes," he says, as Jane just stares, mesmerized by the plastic bag floating in the wind. "That's the day that I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid... ever," Ricky continues. "Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world. I feel like I can't take it. And my heart is just going to cave in." Jane takes Ricky's hand in hers, and they kiss.

"American Beauty" tells the story of the seemingly perfect homes in suburbia and invites the audience to "look closer" to discover the dysfunction, perversions, and even beauty lurking just beneath the surface. The acclaimed film starred Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, Thora Birch and Wes Bentley, and won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.

Answer: Jurassic Park

When InGen pioneers a method of extracting prehistoric DNA from mosquitoes perfectly preserved in amber (fossilized tree sap), it opens the door to a new kind of safari park - one inhabited by creatures not seen on Earth for millions of years. The creators of the state-of-the-art park have spared no expense to produce a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but what happens when different species, separated by millions of years of evolution, are thrown together on a remote island? Needless to say, human greed, Murphy's Law and chaos theory intervene to ensure that things don't go according to plan, pitting a rag-tag band of scientists and children against hordes of vicious dinosaurs for "an adventure 65 million years in the making".

Steven Spielberg had to agree to make "Jurassic Park" before Universal would let him make "Schindler's List". The latter film would go on to win seven Oscars, including Best Picture and the first Best Director trophy for Spielberg, while "Jurassic Park" broke box office records and won well-deserved Oscars for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.