The Sky is Falling! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dante's Peak

"Dante's Peak" also featured Linda Hamilton as Pierce Brosnan's love interest and the Mayor of the fictional Washington town of Dante's Peak. Brosnan's character, a vulcanologist ordered by his boss to investigate the volcanic activity in the area, begins seeing alarming signs of the impending catastrophe. It seems as though things are quieting down, when all of a sudden the top blows off the mountain, and a panicked evacuation ensues.

The movie was filmed in Wallace, Idaho, using many of the residents of Wallace as extras in the film. Also, actual footage from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helen's was used at the end of the film to show the effects of the fictional Dante's Peak eruption.

The photo shows Mt. St. Helen's the day of the eruption (May 18, 1980).

Answer: Deep Impact

"Deep Impact" also featured actors Téa Leoni, Robert Duvall, and Morgan Freeman as the world prepares for the coming E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event). In the film, a team led by Duvall's character attempts to destroy the comet, but only splits it in two pieces. One of the pieces (the smaller one) ends up striking the Atlantic Ocean, causing a giant tsunami, while the larger comet fragment is successfully destroyed in a suicide mission by the strike team.

The photo depicts a 1907 shot of Comet Daniel (the year it was discovered), which has an orbital period of just over eight years.

Answer: Armageddon

"Armageddon" included an all-star cast with such actors as Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, and Billy Bob Thornton (along with Bruce Willis), and was narrated by Charlton Heston. This movie competed with "Deep Impact" during the same season, but "Armageddon" had a happier ending. The impending asteroid impact was thwarted by Stamper (Willis), whose planted nuclear bomb split the asteroid in half, with both halves missing the Earth.

The image is a painting of, that's right, an asteroid falling to Earth.

Answer: The Day After Tomorrow

"The Day After Tomorrow" was shown primarily from the viewpoints of paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Quaid) along with his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), and U.K. scientist Professor Terry Rapson. The irony of the film lies in an ice age coming from what everyone else believes is only the usual global warming trends. The idea given here is that the melting of the polar ice caps actually triggers a shift in the North Atlantic Current, triggering a sudden catastrophic climate change (to a new ice age).

The photo shows the aftermath of a blizzard (in the Bronx) in New York City, in 1888.

Answer: 2012

The premise behind "2012", outside of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar ending in 2012, is that a massive solar flare has affected the Earth's core, causing its temperature to rise rapidly. This discovery is made in 2009, and plans are made (in secret) to save a portion of the world's population in gigantic arks.

The movie primarily follows a science fiction writer named Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and his efforts to survive the coming holocaust with his family.

The photo is of a modern rendering of the Mayan calendar.

Answer: 28 Days Later

The title "28 Days Later" refers to the number of days after the chimpanzees (infected with a deadly virus called 'Rage') escaped and bit their first victim, to when Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma to find London filled with zombies and a small number of surviving humans. A small group of survivors follow a military signal to a supposed haven, but find it to be a glorified harem for the military leader (played by Christopher Eccleston).

In the process of extricating themselves from their mess, the main characters learn that the Rage virus has been contained to Great Britain, which is now a quarantined island.

The picture, showing a lovely hand-drawn trio of zombies, was made by Shannon Hayward.

Answer: 12 Monkeys

Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt star in this twisty movie where Willis' character, sent back in time to save the future, arrives earlier than planned (by six years) and is institutionalized when he tries to claim he is from the future. Doubting his own sanity, he is brought back to his (future) time, and is sent back again to when he was supposed to have been sent originally. However, the suspect 'terrorist' group, The Army of the Twelve Monkeys, turns out not to be the true enemy.

The photo shows (roughly) a dozen olive baboons, of the family Cercopithecidae (Old World Monkeys).

Answer: Judgment Day

Judgment Day (a reference to the biblical end of the world, when Christ will return and humanity will be judged) changes from movie to movie, as depends upon how the timeline was altered in each film. The date of Judgment Day, mutable though it is through the series, remains the same in its effect - the day that the machines decide to wipe out humanity.

In the course of the franchise, a number of well-known actors have had major roles, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Edward Furlong, Anthony Edwards, Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Claire Daines, Kristanna Loken, Christian Bale, and Sam Worthington.

The photo depicts a Terminator (T-800 model) face.

Answer: Signs

Writer / Director / Producer M. Night Shyamalan is known for his cinematic plot twists, and "Signs" is no different in that the very things that make Hess (Gibson) doubt his faith in the film are the very things that, when their ultimate purpose in thwarting the aliens is revealed, reaffirms his faith in the end.

The film explains the existence of crop circles as possible navigation markers for the invading alien host. Perhaps they really are? (Play creepy music now).

The photo shows a beautiful set of crop circles (man-made) in Switzerland.

Answer: WarGames

"WarGames" was made at the height of the Cold War, when the threat of 'Global Thermonuclear War' (the name of the game in the film) was very real. In the movie, David (Broderick) plays the game as Russia, unknowingly setting off alarms at Cheyenne Mountain as they believe an attack is imminent. To complicate matters, the computer is based on a learning program, and must be convinced not to go through with an actual nuclear launch.

The photo depicts a nuclear test and the resultant beautiful but deadly mushroom cloud.