Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 140 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a robot able to pilot a spaceship

Dr. Ralph Harrison and Professor Arnold Nordstrom believe that the Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission is too little concerned for the safety of the brave men who pilot spaceships. They endeavour to design and construct a robot capable of flying a vehicle in outer space.

The result is Tobor ("robot" spelt backwards), who, they believe, can and should replace humans in space travel. Unlike other robots, Tobor is able to sense emotions and to communicate telepathically with humans.

Answer: Nearly Dead

"Curse of the Undead" (1959) is a vampire movie set in the American Old West. "The Undead (1957) is a Roger Corman horror film about hypnotic regression. "The Thing That Couldn't Die" (1958) is about the head of a sorcerer, executed 400 years ago, who is alive and causing trouble at a modern California dude ranch.

A 2D open-world video game called "Nearly Dead" was released in 2021. It describes itself as a "hack-and-slash" survivor game. A rock-and-roll band from Nashville, Tennessee, called The Nearly Deads was formed in 2010. A short (26 minute) film called "Nearly Dead" was made in 2012. It is about a lot of cantankerous old farts in the Shady Grove Nursing Home who are the world's last hope for survival against a zombie plague. An episode (S3.E7, 24 Apr 98) of the British television comedy series "Father Ted" (1995-1998) was titled "Night of the Nearly Dead". No feature-length motion picture called "Nearly Dead" was made in the 1950s.

Answer: Dr. Lombardi's death ends its life.

The creature appears at the beach for the last time. Lt. James' bullets are ineffective. Andrea redirects the monster to attack Lombardi. It hits him with a crushing blow and lumbers back into the sea. Lombardi dies, which releases Andrea from his hypnotic control, which causes the creature to disappear forever. (It is now safe to go back in the water.)

Answer: Morris Ankrum

Character actor Morris Ankrum played Brig. Gen. John Hanley, the father of newlywed Carol Marvin, in "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers". Hanley works with his daughter's new husband, Dr. Russell Marvin. The general is kidnapped by the aliens and subjected to a brain suck which siphons off all of one's knowledge and leaves one a sort of zombie. Because humanity decides to fight rather than capitulate to the aliens, they drop General Hanley from their saucer at a great height, obviously to his death.

Answer: Okongo

The okongo are four-footed herd animals which look rather like a cross between an antelope and a zebra. A semi-reliable source claims that the crew of "Fury of the Congo" painted white stripes on Shetland ponies to depict the okongo in the movie. Ogopogo is a lake monster said to inhabit Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Okole is the Native Hawaiian word for "buttocks". Ogonori is a Japanese word for one variety of edible seaweed.

Answer: the Arctic vs. Antarctica

"The Thing From Another World" (1951) is set at a fictional research station somewhere near the North Pole. John Carpenter's 1982 adaptation, "The Thing", is set in Antarctica at an equally fictional American research station.

Answer: True

The party on its way to "Voodoo Island", experiences a failure in their plane's radio, which requires them to land at a weather station. No cause is found. They charter a boat to land them on the island, but it fails to proceed due to a bug clogging a fuel line. Even with the blockage removed, the engine will not refire. Later, when the men return to the boat to fetch supplies and provisions, they discover that the food is inexplicably all rotten and crawling with maggots.

Answer: acting

Richard Crane (1918-1969) was an American actor with many credits in both film and television. He portrayed Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, on television, which half-hour programmes were edited into 75-minute feature films. To promote his character, he toured schools in the US and appeared at assemblies with a message of hard work, good citizenship and patriotism.

His other feature-film credits include "The Flying Serpent" (1946), "Mysterious Island" (1951), "The Neanderthal Man" (1953), "The Alligator People" (1959), and "House of the Damned" (1963).

Answer: Colorado Springs, Colorado

In "Have Rocket, Will Travel", the Three Stooges are maintenance men working at the National Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These janitors are detailed to clean up around the facility's spaceport. It is from here that they are accidentally launched to Venus.

Answer: Both of these "innovations" were employed.

"Day the World Ended" begins with a nuclear war which wipes out most of the population on the Earth. Then follows a written crawl which says, "What you are about to see may never happen... but to this anxious age in which we live, it presents a fearsome warning... Our Story begins with... The End!" The movie ends with a title card which reads, "The Beginning".