1980's Movies that I Like Trivia Quiz

Answer: Xanadu

"Xanadu" now has a cult following, but it was considered, by many, one of the worst movies ever made when it came out. Sonny (Michael Beck) and Kira fall in love, and Kira doesn't want to tell Sonny who she is. Sonny meets Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), who once dated a woman who resembled Kira, and after she left, he lost all his creative energy. Kira gets the two men to open a nightclub named Xanadu.

The night before it opens, Kira tells Sonny she is really Terpsichore, one of the Nine Muses, and that she was sent by her father Zeus to inspire the two men to open Xanadu, but now that it's complete, she has to leave. Sonny is upset when she leaves. Encouraged by Danny not to let Kira go, Sonny goes to Kira's home by skating into the mural of the Muses he painted. Kira's mother, Mnemosyne (Coral Browne - voice only), tries to intercede on their behalf, but Zeus (Wilfrid Hyde-White - voice only) refuses at first. Eventually, he gives in and says Kira can go back with Sonny for "a moment or maybe forever".

Answer: History of the World, Part I

Moses (Mel Brooks, who also played Comicus, Torquemada, Jaques, and King Louis XVI) is holding three tablets and says, "The Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen", and then drops one of the tables, "Oy! Ten! Ten Commandments for all to obey!" The movie goes from the stone age through the French Revolution with coming attractions of "History of the World, Part II" at the end. During the coming attractions, the narrator says, "See Hitler on ice."

Answer: Annie

Annie (Aileen Quinn) is a ten-year-old orphan who wears a broken locket around her neck. She believes her parents will return with the other half and take her home someday. Miss Hannigan (Carol Burnett) is the drunk who runs the orphanage. Annie sneaks out with the help of the other orphans and finds a dog which she names Sandy. Shortly after she returns to the orphanage, Grace (Ann Reinking) comes in search of an orphan to live with Oliver Warbucks (Albert Finney) for a week to improve his public image.

Despite Hannigan's protests, Annie is the lucky orphan who goes. Everyone loves her, and Warbucks wants to adopt her, but Annie wants to wait for her mother and father to return. So, Warbucks offers a reward of $50,000 if her parents return to her. Insanity ensues as everyone wants to be her parents so they can get the money. Warbucks takes Annie to Washington, DC, to meet President Franklin Roosevelt (Edward Herrmann) and Mrs. Roosevelt (Lois de Banzie), who Annie cheers up by singing "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow".

Meanwhile, Hannigan plots with her brother Rooster (Tim Curry) and his girlfriend Lily (Bernadette Peters) to get the money by pretending they are the parents since Hannigan has the other half of the locket. The other orphans hear that they are planning and escape to find Warbucks, but they are not quick enough and Rooster and Lily get Annie and the money. Annie realizes it's a scam when she sees Hannigan and gets them to pullover so she can pee. Once out of the car, she escapes by climbing up a bridge with Rooster, planning to kill her. Punjab (Geoffrey Holder), Warbucks' bodyguard, rescues Annie as the orphans have told Warbucks what is happening. Lily and Rooster are arrested, Hannigan gets a reprieve because she tried to stop her brother from committing murder, and Annie is adopted.

Answer: The Outsiders

"The Outsiders" is based on the book of the same name by S.E. Hinton. Hinton had a cameo as the nurse in the movie. Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) is out late with Johnny (Ralph Macchio) when the Socs find them asleep on the ground. The Socs try to drown Ponyboy in a fountain, and Johnny kills Bob (Leif Garrett). Pony and Johnny find Dallas (Matt Dillon), who tells them to go to Windrixville and lay low for a while. The two hop on a train and leave town. They hide out in an abandoned church, both cut their hair, and Pony also bleaches his. After a few days, Dallas tells them that Cheryl (a Soc) (Diane Lane) is willing to be a witness for them, saying that it was self-defense. Johnny says they have to turn themselves in, which Dallas isn't happy about. They return to the church, which is on fire, with children inside. Johnny and Pony save the children, but Johnny's back gets broken. He is also severely burned. Johnny is in the hospital, charged with manslaughter, and Pony could be taken out of his home.

Meanwhile, the Socs are angry that a Greaser killed Bob, and a rumble is arranged, in which the Greasers win. Pony visits Johnny in the hospital to tell him what happened, and Johnny tells him, "Stay gold" before dying. ("Stay gold" was about the Robert Frost poem Pony shared with Johnny while hiding out). Dallas cannot deal with Johnny's death and holds up a store and then points an empty gun at the police, who shoot and kill him. At the end of the movie, Pony is writing the story of what happened in "The Outsiders" book. Rob Lowe played Sodapop.

Answer: Splash

Allen (Tom Hanks) asks Madison (Daryl Hannah) how she chose her name, and she points to a street sign. He replies, "Good thing we weren't on 149th Street." The two fall in love, but she has to go home in "six days and a full moon". He asks her to stay, but he decides to go with her when she can't.

Answer: Back to the Future

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is late for high school because his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) set all his clocks 20 minutes slow. Everyone thinks Doc is strange, but he shows Marty his latest invention using his dog Einstein. He places Einstein in the DeLorean and sends him one minute into the future. Doc is ecstatic that it works, and Marty is surprised, but it's short-lived after the Libyans kill Doc for stealing their plutonium. Because he was with Doc, the Libyans are now after Marty, who escapes in the DeLorean.

He ends up in 1955. His mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), who is now a teenager, falls in love with Marty. Marty must get her and his dad, George (Crispin Glover), to fall in love before he and his brother and sister are "erased from existence".

Answer: Children of a Lesser God

James Leeds (William Hurt) is a new teacher at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing school in New England. While in the cafeteria, he sees a young woman telling the chef off in the kitchen. James inquires about her and learns her name is Sarah (Marlee Matlin), and she works for the school. He meets Sarah and discovers she does not speak nor read lips. James wants to teach her, but she does not want to learn.

However, he falls in love with her, and they begin dating. She gets angry when James insists she reads his lips and speaks orally to tell him she sounds like a freak and then leaves him and goes to her mother's house (Piper Laurie). He goes to see her, but she does not want to see him. The two see each other at the school's prom and agree they can be together "not in sound and not in silence". Sarah signs "joined" and he copies her, and they kiss.

Answer: Dirty Dancing

Baby (Jennifer Grey) is vacationing in the Catskills with her father (Jerry Orbach), mother (Kelly Bishop), and sister Lisa (Jane Brucker). While at the resort owned by Max Kellerman (Jack Weston), Baby meets Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) and soon becomes his dance partner after Penny (Cynthia Rhodes) has an abortion that gets botched. Baby's father believes Johnny got Penny pregnant and didn't want Baby anywhere near him. Baby learns that Robbie (Max Cantor) was the one who got Penny pregnant. ("Why not sky write it, Penny got knocked up by Robbie the creep.") Baby does an excellent job at the performance but doesn't do the lift. Baby tells Johnny, "and most of all, I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you.") Johnny is later accused of stealing, but Baby tells everyone he didn't do it because "he was in his room, and the reason I know is because I was there with him"). Johnny still gets fired, and Baby's dad will not talk to Baby. "I did it for nothing. I hurt you. I hurt my family. I did it for nothing!" Johnny and Baby say goodbye, and he leaves. Baby is with her family at the end-of-the-season talent show. Johnny comes back, sees her in the corner, and says, "Nobody puts Baby in the corner." He leads her to the stage and informs everyone that he always does the last dance of the season. They dance to "I've Had the Time of My Life", and she does the lift this time. Her dad finds out it was Robbie, not Johnny, who got Peggy pregnant and apologizes to Johnny.

Patrick Swayze did not like the line, "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."

Answer: Twins

Vincent (Danny DeVito) and Julius (Arnold Schwartzenegger) are fraternal twins due to an experiment using the DNA of six fathers to create the perfect child. Julius got the good stuff. And Vincent was "genetic garbage". Their mother, Mary Ann (Bonnie Bartlett), was told Julius died at birth. She was never told about Vincent. When the twins turn 35, the scientist who conducted the experiment, Professor Werner (Tony Jay), tells Julius he has a twin brother, and Julius searches for him, finds him in jail, and bails him out. Vincent does not believe Julius at first, "Oh, obviously! The moment I sat down, I thought I was looking into a mirror." Vincent ditches his brother, but Julius finds him again as Vincent is being beaten by Morris Klane (David Efron), one of the loan shark brothers to whom Vincent owes $20,000. After Julius rescues his brother, Vincent has more respect for him. Julius meets Linda Mason (Chloe Webb) and soon is dating her sister Marnie (Kelly Preston).

Vincent shows a document he stole from the orphanage he was brought up in that showed their mother was alive, but Vince believes she abandoned them. Since the twins didn't know about each other, he reasons their mother didn't know about either of them. They try to find her. Vincent steals a Cadillac and discovers there is a prototype fuel injector worth 5 million dollars. Vincent decides to go to New Mexico, deliver it and get the money and begrudgingly lets the other three come with him. They meet a gardener who tells them their mother died, only she is their mother and did not believe Julius was dead. Vincent abandons the others and heads to Texas to deliver the prototype.

Answer: Road House

Dalton (Patrick Swayze) takes over the security at the Double Deuce in Jasper, Missouri. Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara) is a businessman who owns and controls the town and its businesses. Dalton has a brawl that breaks out with some of Wesley's people where he is wounded by a knife and has to go to see Doc (Kelly Lynch) to get stitched up. Soon they start dating. Wesley wants Dalton to work for him and lets Dalton know he knows Dalton killed a man in Memphis, Tennessee. Dalton has no interest in working with Wesley, so Wesley starts going after Dalton's friends. Dalton's friend and mentor, Wade Garrett (Sam Elliot), arrives to help Dalton. Eventually, Wade is murdered at the bar. Dalton has decided it's time "not to be nice", and it's an all-out war between him and Wesley.