Dying to Be a Star, Part 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

With the Ministry of Magic refusing to believe that Voldemort had returned, the members of the Order had their hands full keeping him and his Death Eaters away from the prophecy, housed in the Department of Mysteries. The link between Harry and Voldemort became more and more important as Voldemort used it to manipulate Harry into helping him get that prophecy, so that he could use it as a weapon.

In the final show down, with members of Dumbledore's Army and the Order on one side and Death Eaters (and ultimately Voldemort himself) on the other, Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, was killed. Black was played by Gary Oldman.

Answer: Big Fish

Ed Bloom, played brilliantly by both Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney, loved to tell his stories about the unusual people he had met and places he had been. The problem was that his stories were too large, and his son Billy, played by Billy Crudup, never believed a word he said.

His father's impending death brought Billy home. Forced to listen to those stories once again, Billy gained a new respect for his father, when he learned that there was truth in every story his father told.

Answer: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Dr. Rene Belloq, played by Paul Freeman, and Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, often managed to be seeking the same artifact at the same time. Driven by greed and the desire for power, Belloq saw the Ark as being a direct link to God. He aligned himself with the Nazis and had the manpower to steal the Ark of the Covenant from Jones, who was able to find it first.

In a religious ceremony Belloq opened the Ark before turning it over to Hitler, using the excuse that they needed to make sure it was real first, so as not to disappoint the Fuehrer. What emerged from the Ark was at first beautiful, but became terrifying and deadly and all present were killed, except for Jones and his companion, who kept their eyes closed.

Answer: Little Miss Sunshine

Inspired my her grandfather, who choreographed her dance routine for the talent show, based on the strip clubs that he loved to frequent, Olive (played by Abigail Breslin) desperately wanted to win The Little Miss Sunshine pageant. To get her there, the entire family set off on a marathon trip in a Volkswagen van that was falling apart and had to be push started every time it was turned off. Between her suicidal uncle, her brother who refused to talk (until he had a break-down), her father whose career was falling apart and her porn-loving, dope-doing grandfather (played by Alan Arkin, in an Oscar winning performance), it's no wonder the young girl didn't fit in with the rest of the beauty pageant crowd.

Answer: Vertigo

Scottie Ferguson (played by Jimmy Stewart) was a former police officer who was injured in a circumstance in which a colleague was killed. When a friend hired him to keep an eye on his wife, whom he claimed had begun acting strangely, Scottie agreed, soon falling in love with the beautiful but haunted woman.

When she rushed up to the top of a mission tower, Scottie's vertigo stopped him from pursuing her, and she appeared to throw herself to her death in front of his eyes. Of course it was the real Madeleine (played by Kim Novak) who was thrown off the tower, while the imposter walked away free...but only until Scottie saw her, in a chance encounter, and put two and two together.

As always, Hitchcock did not disappoint.

Answer: POTC: At World's End

With Jack (played by Johnny Depp) lost in Davy Jones' locker, his friends, along with the crew of the Black Pearl (lost with him), sought a way to secure his release. They managed, although hampered by the pursuit of Lord Beckett (played by Tom Hollander) and the troops at his command. Beckett's relentlessness resulted in the call for a meeting of the Brethren Council, a meeting at which Elizabeth Swann (played by Kiera Knightley) was surprisingly elected Pirate King.

She chose to fight the armada assembled to wipe them out and managed to destroy Beckett's ship, with Beckett aboard, in the process. Davy Jones was killed by Will Turner (played by Orlando Bloom) who took on the role that Jones was originally supposed to perform, that of ferrying the dead.

Answer: Die Hard

John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, arrived from the airport to meet up with his wife for Christmas. Because of the fight they had, he was not with the party when the terrorist group made their move. Moving through the not completely finished building, McClane picked off the terrorists, one at a time, saving the bonds and the season, for most of the employees.
Alan Rickman was deliciously evil as Hans Gruber, leader of the terrorist group.

Answer: The Departed

Martin Scorsese's Oscar winning picture told a convoluted tale of two police officers from the same graduating class. One (played by Matt Damon) was recruited by the mob to be an inside man on the force, while the other (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) was recruited by the force to go undercover and become a mole within the mob. Things started heating up when the bodies started dropping and very few of the major players were left alive.
Jack Nicholson personified evil, as mob leader Frank Costello.

Answer: Batman Begins

'Batman Begins' tells the story of how Batman (played by Christian Bale) became who he was. Tortured by his parents death, and disgusted by both the corruptness in his hometown and his own weakness, Bruce embarked on a shiftless life, that saw him end up in prison in China.

The mysterious Henri Ducard (played by Liam Neeson) had Bruce released and challenged him to rise above himself and become part of his League of Shadows, but Bruce refused to pass the final test. Back in the States he started using his new skills to craft himself into Batman.

His final confrontation with Ducard was to stop the League of Shadows from destroying Gotham City, because it had become so corrupt.

Answer: Lord of War

Yuri Orlov, played by Nicolas Cage, was very good at what he did, which was to provide weapons to anyone who had the money. Of course this meant closing his eyes to what those weapons were used for. His brother Vitaly, played by Jared Leto, was not able to disassociate so well, and he became tormented by the lives lost through their business dealings.

He settled on being a chef, but he was forever tortured and fell into drugs to forget. When Yuri tried to stop gun running, he was dragged back into the business by Andre Baptiste, played by Eamonn Walker, an African despot and a very dangerous man. Yuri agreed to the deal but took his brother along because he felt the need of someone to watch his back. Unfortunately his brother saw the refugee camp that would be wiped out by their guns, tried to stop the sale and was killed in the process.

Answer: Beverly Hills Cop

Mikey Tandino, played by James Russo, was killed by the owners of the warehouse he'd worked at, from whom he had stolen some bonds. His friend, Detroit cop Axel Foley, played by Eddie Murphy, headed out to Beverly Hills where he succeeded in bringing Mikey's killers to justice, while breaking a few rules along the way.

Answer: Hot Fuzz

Because Nicholas Angel, played by Simon Pegg, was such an excellent cop and was putting his colleagues to shame, he was transferred to the sleepy little village of Sanford. The town had virtually no crime, but had one of the highest accident rates he'd ever seen.

He soon figured out that these bizarre accidents were really murders, committed by the members of the Neighbourhood Watch Association. They were out to win another award for their village, and were eliminating anyone who made the town look bad.

Answer: Blood Diamond

Forced to work for the rebels, Solomon Vandy, played by Djimon Hounsou, found a large, rare, pink diamond, which he hid. He was seen doing this and the bulk of the film covered the search, by various parties, for this stone. Diamond dealer, Danny Archer, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, promised to help Solomon find his family in exchange for the diamond. Once the family was found, they learned that Solomon's son was conscripted by the rebels, who forced young boys to do awful things in order to ensure their loyalty. Solomon was able to get away with his son, but Archer was killed in the process.

Answer: Crash

Paul Haggis brought us a powerful film of isolated, yet interconnected events, occurring during two days in Los Angeles. Don Cheadle played Detective Graham Waters, a man whose drug addicted mother preferred his younger brother, who was a car thief. Matt Dillon played a prejudiced street cop, whose molesting of a woman, pulled over for performing sex on her husband while he was driving, made his partner ill. Yet it was this much more liberal partner who shot Waters' brother, played by Larenz Tate, after making a mistake about what he was pulling from his pocket.

Other, intertwined stories showed other facets of prejudice.

Answer: Shrek the Third

Saddened by the death of his father-in-law, (voiced by John Cleese) Shrek (voiced by Mike Meyers) was even more disturbed to learn that he was named as heir. After a few days of having stepped in for the King during his illness, Shrek knew that there was no way he wanted the job full time.

After the King died, he set off to find the only other heir to the throne, a youngster named Artie (voiced by Justin Timberlake). Meanwhile, back in the Kingdom of Far Far Away, Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett) launched his campaign to take over the kingdom himself.