Snakes On Planes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Conan The Barbarian

The hero of "Dragonslayer" was a skinny wizard played by Peter MacNicol. A very fit looking Marc Singer starred in "The Beastmaster".

Winning hands-down in the muscle department was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played the title role in the sword/sorcery cult movie "Conan The Barbarian". His English skills at that point were far from perfect and he only had an estimated 39 lines in the whole movie - which is a good thing really, because the entire dialogue in this film was atrocious and would have been even more (albeit unintentionally) funny if ANYone had been given more to say.

Answer: King Kong

The Japanese gave us Godzilla, a creature that did not appear on film until 1954. While he faced off against all kinds of weird movie monsters over a period of 60 years, a snake wasn't one of them.

In 1949, Mighty Joe Young didn't really "fight" anything other than boredom, loneliness and some tug-of-war combatants. Unlike the "King Kong" movies, this one had a (relatively) happy ending.

In the 1933 original, King Kong fought a giant snake, a pterodactyl AND a T-Rex, all on a very small budget and using newly-invented stop-motion photography. By contrast, a huge amount of money (for the time it was made) was spent on the 1976 version and the best they could come up with was just ONE "monster" (a snake that was SO obviously made of rubber it was laughable, not scary/exciting). The Kong robotics/mechanical hands created for the remake were definitely pretty cool though. Unfortunately, the "mini-documentaries" showing how they were constructed/operated were generally far more fascinating to watch than the actual movie!

Answer: Kung Fu Panda

"Fists of Fury" (the U.S. title for the Chinese movie "The Big Boss") starred Bruce Lee. While he was indeed a martial arts master, there was nothing upbeat or charming about this film, nor was there an anthropomorphic snake amongst the cast of characters.

The multi award-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was basically an action film (definitely not a comedy) where the martial arts concentrated on sword skills and defying gravity. Unless you believe that dragons are nothing more than serpents with wings, legs, claws and the ability to fly and breathe fire, there were no snakes in this movie either.

The unlikely hero in this case is Po, an overweight and clumsy panda voiced by Jack Black in the 2008 animated feature "Kung Fu Panda". The members of the Furious Five were Viper (Lucy Liu), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogan), Crane (David Cross) and headed up by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). The film was very successful at the box office and was even fairly well-received in China, where it was felt that the content did a decent job (for an animated film) at remaining true to traditional Chinese culture.

Answer: Percy Jackson and The Olympians

Uma Thurman played the character Poison Ivy in "Batman & Robin" and the Bride character in "Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2".

She played Medusa in "Percy Jackson & the Olympians - The Lightning Thief". If you're familiar with mythology, you know that Perseus disposed of the Gorgon. If you're a fan of Uma, you'll agree that she looks good whether dressed in vines, a wedding gown, or even with a CGI-generated snake "coiffure".

Answer: Jafar

Until Jafar (would-be sorcerer and arch-rival of Aladdin) uses one of his wishes to be given the powers of a genie, he had no "real" magicking abilities of his own. However, he did carry an enchanted snake-headed staff that he used to hypnotise people with.

Abu, a monkey with a habit of stealing things, is the hero's sidekick.

Iago is a bad-parrot turned good-parrot, whose character is actually somewhat amusing (but only if you can stand listening to Gilbert Gottfried's voice).

Answer: Natural Born Killers

There are many snake references in the movie "Natural Born Killers". Mallory (Juliette Lewis) and Mickey (Woody Harrelson) exchange intertwined snake wedding rings. Mickey is shown as having a heart shaped rattlesnake tattoo. The couple are bitten by rattlesnakes, which leads them to seek out a pharmacy (caduceus symbol) for antivenin.

Although audiences "recoiled" from the truly despicable main characters, the "snake in the grass" persona was probably best demonstrated by the exploitive reporter Wayne Gale (played by Robert Downey Jr.).

Answer: Beyond the Mat

"Hulkomania" is a self-promoting phrase invented by Terry ("Hulk") Hogan. "Raw" is the title of a televised series of pro-wrestling events.

Jake Roberts selected his nickname for several reasons. His favourite NFL player was Kenny ("the Snake") Stabler, he wanted a name that would indicate that he couldn't be trusted and it gave him a reason to incorporate real snakes (usually pythons) into his act. Pity the poor snakes though - in 2004, Roberts was charged with animal cruelty after allowing his most recent "prop" to die of starvation/neglect in his garage.

I admit that I'm most definitely NOT a fan of "professional/entertainment" wrestling, but I did in fact watch the 1999 documentary "Beyond the Mat". It was filmed over approximately three years and focused on wrestlers both on their way up in the business and some on their way out. Largely depressing, it showed that their real lives could be FAR stranger than their wrestling "alter egos". While almost all pro-wrestling consists of contrived acts, the film also showed that many wrestlers have been seriously (a few fatally) injured physically.

It may be interesting to note that this film actually received a certain amount of critical acclaim: Cinequest Film Festival (winner: Best Documentary), Director's Guild Association (nominated for Best Documentary and Best Director) and was in the top 12 picks for an Academy (Oscar) Award for Best Documentary that year.

Answer: Blade Runner

The movie "Blade Runner", starring Harrison Ford, was based on the 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. The plot explores conceived notions of what it means to be "human" and in the end, you are left wondering just whose memories are real and which characters are, in fact, "replicants".

From a snake's point of view, the "fish scale" misdirection in the movie is a bit of a plotline problem. Fish scales have nothing in common with snakes. The so-called "scales" of a snake are in fact merely ridges of a single piece of skin. When snakes shed during growth periods, the ENTIRE skin is left behind, not separate "flakes".

Answer: Kill Bill

Quentin Tarantino directed the two-part movie "Kill Bill". The plot involved The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad headed up by David Carradine as Bill (codename: Snake Charmer). Bill betrays one of his employees, who later seeks revenge on him along with anyone else who participated in the event. The past and present DiVAS members included Uma Thurman (Black Mamba/The Bride), Lucy Liu (Cottonmouth), Vivica Fox (Copperhead), Daryl Hannah (California Mountain Snake) and Michael Madsen (Sidewinder).

The only real snake to make a brief appearance in the two movies was a Black Mamba (whose "body double" was probably a Western Racer).

Answer: Moonraker

In "GoldenEye", Pierce Brosnan played James Bond. "Goldfinger" starred the inimitable Sean Connery.

In "Moonraker", Bond dispatches the giant snake by stabbing it with a poison-tipped ballpoint pen. Although the film did fairly well at the box office and was praised for its use of special effects, it is generally considered to be one of the worst Bond films ever. It wasn't helped by dialogue in scenes like this:

Drax exclaims to Bond, "You defy all my attempts to plan an amusing death for you! You're not a sportsman, Mr. Bond! Why did you break up the encounter with my pet python?" To which 007 replies, "I discovered it had a crush on me."