Room Trivia Quiz

Answer: Candles on fire

"Ma, I'm five!" Jack whispers excitedly as he brushes the hair away from his face. He hovers excitedly over Ma in Bed until she stirs from her sleep with a smile. "You're such a big boy now," she says as she hugs him. They go about their daily routine, beginning with Jack working his way around their small living space and wishing all of the furniture in Room "good morning". When he sits down to a bowl of cereal with Ma, she turns to him with a smile. "Hey, you know what we're going to do today?" she asks. "We're going to bake a birthday cake."

Jack helps to break the eggs for the cake, and when it's ready he sits at the table with his hands covering his eyes. "Abacadabra!" Ma says excitedly as she presents it to him. It is a simple cake, with the number '5' written in the icing on the top. "Now the candles!" Jack exclaims, but is disappointed when he is told that they don't have any. "You said a birthday cake for real. That means candles on fire," he points out. "You should ask for candles for Sunday Treat, not dumb jeans." Ma patiently tries to reason with Jack. "I'm sorry. You know I have to ask for stuff that we really need, stuff that he can get easily," she explains. "But Old Nick gets anything by magic," Jack protests. Ma tries to change the subject by getting Jack to try a bite of the cake, but Jack refuses and throws a tantrum. Ma pauses for a moment before taking him into her arms in a tender hug. "Next week when I'm six you gotta ask for real candles," Jack says. "Next year you mean," Ma replies vacantly.

Answer: A mouse

Jack has had rather limited life experiences since he was born in Room, and he evaluates everything as real or not by reference to what he has seen on television. "There's Room, then Outer Space with all the TV planets, then Heaven. Plant is real but not trees. Spiders are real and one time the mosquito that was sucking my blood. But squirrels and dogs are just TV," he says in a voiceover. "Monsters are too big to be real and the sea. TV persons are flat and made of colors but me and you are real."

Jack squats on the floor and smiles as he watches the mouse nibble at the cake crumbs, when something flies across the room and smashes into Stove. Ma has thrown a heavy book at the unwelcome visitor. "You made him gone! He was a live thing, he was real!" Jack cries out in shock. "He would have stolen our food," Ma replies matter-of-factly. "Mouse can have my food. I'm not hungry," Jack says indignantly. "He would have brought in germs, bit us in our sleep," Ma says, as she tries to plug up the hole in the wall that Mouse had used to gain access and to escape. "Mouse is my friend and you splatted him dead," Jack cries. "No I didn't. He's hunky-dory," Ma replies, prompting Jack to ask if this was a trick. "No, Jack, I swear, he is safe at home in the backyard with his ma," she replies absentmindedly. "What backyard? Mouse lives in a yard in TV?" Jack asks, wide-eyed. Ma changes the subject by handing him some tin foil, and invites him to make a UFO out of it.

Answer: He cuts off the power.

Jack is awake in Wardrobe when Old Nick comes that night, and he hears Old Nick and Ma arguing. "You just have no idea about the world of today," Old Nick says to Ma. "Who pays the power bill? Who pays for everything?" Ma gives the required answer. "You," she says. "And how do you think I'm gonna be able to keep doing that?" asks Old Nick. Ma is concerned by this comment, and learns that Old Nick lost his job six months ago when she pushes for an answer, which causes Old Nick to lose his temper and raise his voice. The sudden outburst frightens Jack, who shrinks back in Wardrobe and knocks his head against the back panel, drawing attention to himself. "Hey there," Old Nick says to Jack as he searches in his coat pocket for something. "You want some candy?" Ma distracts Old Nick away from Jack, but the seed has already been planted in Jack's mind. When he wakes up later while everyone is asleep, Jack remembers the candy. He emerges from Wardrobe to investigate Old Nick's coat, before moving on for a closer look at Old Nick himself. The older man wakes up suddenly, and sets off a chain reaction of events: Ma wakes up and starts flailing at Old Nick, shouting at him to get away from Jack, who dives screaming back into Wardrobe; Old Nick wrestles Ma face down on Bed and threatens to kill her if she ever grabs him like that again, before leaving. Jack comes back out sobbing and hyperventilating, apologizing to Ma for not staying in Wardrobe like he was supposed to, and Ma takes him into Bed with her to calm him down.

The next morning, Jack wakes up to ice crystals forming on the edges of Skylight. "Ma, I'm a dragon," he whispers excitedly, referring to the white clouds of breath that form in the air as he exhales. Ma sits up in bed and tries to switch on Lamp. "He cut the power," she realizes.

Answer: "I want a different story."

Ma needs to explain certain things to Jack, but she has to broach the subject carefully. She starts by asking him if he knows where Mouse is, and telling him that he's on the other side of the wall. "In Outer Space?" Jack asks, not understanding. Ma realizes this might be more difficult that she imagined. "Listen, I know that I told you something else before, but you were much younger. I didn't think that you could understand, but now you're so old. You're so smart. I know that you can get this," she says. She tries explaining that all the stuff he's seen on TV are pictures of real things that exist in the real world, which is so much bigger than what they can see and touch in Room, but Jack thinks it's all a trick and calls Ma a liar.

Ma glances at a storybook on the table, and has an idea. "Do you remember how Alice wasn't always in Wonderland?" she asks. "Well, I wasn't always in Room. I'm like Alice. I was a little girl named Joy." Jack looks skeptical, but Ma presses on. "When I was 17, I was walking home from school," she tells him. "But there was a guy - he pretended that his dog was sick." When Jack asks who the guy was, Ma explains that they call him Old Nick because she doesn't know his real name. "What's the dog's name?" asks Jack, causing Ma to lose her patience. "Jack, there wasn't a dog. He was trying to trick me, okay? There wasn't a dog. Old Nick stole me," she says as she rubs her face in frustration. Jack scrunches his face up in irritation. "I want a different story," he whines. "No, this is the story that you get. He put me in his garden shed, here. Room is the shed. He's locked the door and he's the only that knows the code - you know the secret numbers that open the door," Ma says. "He's the only one that knows and I've been locked in here for seven years."

Answer: Pretend to be dead

Ma is concerned that their days might be numbered now that Old Nick has lost his job, so she recruits Jack in her efforts to trick Old Nick into letting him escape. She uses the power cut to their advantage, and pretends that Jack became so sick from the cold that he needs to be taken to the hospital, but Old Nick just promises to bring them some antibiotics the next night. Once they are alone again, Ma devises a different plan. "So you remember how Edmond pulls his friend out of the bag and hides him, and then he gets in the bag, and lays in there really still until the guards come?" she tells Jack, recalling the plot of one of his favorite stories. "So that's what you're going to do. You see how that's even tricksier than pretending to be sick, because you're gonna play dead?"

Ma rolls Jack up in Rug and gets him to pretend that he's dead. When Old Nick comes with the promised antibiotics, he finds Ma crouched on the floor crying over the rolled up Jack. "What are you doing?" he asks. "He got worse in the night. He didn't wake up," she replies, choking back tears. She gets him to take Jack "somewhere nice" to bury him, and makes him swear that he won't lay his "filthy eyes" on Jack. Old Nick places Rug in the back of his truck and sets out. Jack feels the rumbling of the vehicle as it makes its way along the road, and he hears Ma's voice in his head telling him what to do. He rolls and wriggles until he bursts out of Rug, his hair clinging all over his face from the perspiration. The strange new sights of the neighborhood hit Jack all at once: power lines and street lamps rush by against the backdrop of a shockingly blue and open sky. "You're going to love it," Ma said to him when they were going over the plan in Room. "What?" he asked. "The world," she replied.

Answer: Yes

Jack is waiting to jump out of the truck at the next stop sign, but Old Nick doesn't come to a complete stop and swings right, causing Jack to be flung backwards onto the flatbed by the momentum. Old Nick hears the sound and glimpses Jack in his rearview mirror and screeches to a stop. Jack leaps down from the truck and stumbles clumsily away, running straight into a man walking his dog. Old Nick catches up to Jack and starts to take him back to the truck, but Jack's attempts to give the man Ma's note raises his suspicions, and he threatens to call the police. Old Nick dumps Jack on the corner as he breaks into a run, and drives off in his truck.

A patrol car picks up Jack, who quickly becomes withdrawn around these new people and surroundings. Officer Parker, the kindly patrolwoman who is first at the scene, patiently coaxes Jack out of his shell and manages to ascertain that he is five and that he and his Ma live in a garden shed with a skylight. When she asks Jack what made him jump out of the truck, he explains that Ma told him to jump when it slowed down, but it was only on "the third time" that he managed to do it. "The third time of what?" Officer Parker asks. "The third slow, everything went sideways, and then it stopped and I jumped..." Jack replies. Officer Parker puts it all together and picks up her walkie-talkie. "Dispatch. Listen carefully," she says. "We have a rough location. All right, south on Elm, three stop signs past the junction with Beach. Look for a garden shed with a skylight. Also check the most recent satellite images for a red pickup in the driveway."

The police manage to locate and liberate Ma, who is tearfully reunited with Jack. They are taken to a hospital, where they meet Ma's parents. Ma's mom, Nancy, turns to her grandson and says, "Hello, Jack. Thanks for saving our little girl."

Answer: Nancy

Ma returns to her childhood home with Jack, but has to adapt to the changes that have taken place in the seven years since she was abducted. Her disappearance had proved too much to bear for her parents, who split up, and her father, Robert, now lives in another city. Nancy is now living with Leo, an old family friend, and if these new domestic arrangements aren't enough, Robert is having trouble accepting Jack as part of the family, as he is a constant reminder of what his daughter endured at the hands of Old Nick. Jack, meanwhile, is disinterested in many aspects of his new life, and spends most of his time isolated and using his grandmother's mobile phone to watch the same shows that he used to watch in Room. One day, Ma gets out of bed and drags Jack down to the living room to get him to play with his toys. When Nancy gives her daughter a look, Ma says in frustration, "He needs to play with something real. I'm worried about him being on the phone." Nancy insists that Jack's doing fine, causing Ma to lash out at her. "Well, I don't give him my phone so I'd appreciate it if you didn't give him yours," she snaps, before adding, "I just want him to connect with something." Nancy softens a little, and sits down next to Ma.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm supposed to be happy," Ma says as she hides her face in her hands. Nancy then makes the mistake of referencing her doctor's advice, which causes Ma to lash out again, and Nancy to lose her patience with her daughter. They argue about Ma's reluctance to let anyone in on what she's going through, and Ma comments that Nancy doesn't need her and has been doing fine without her. "How can you say that?" Nancy asks. "Do you think that you are the only one whose life was destroyed?" Ma says that that's exactly what she thinks, prompting Nancy to ask her how she would feel if someone took Jack away from her. "Look at him. You should be thinking about him ," Nancy says, motioning to Jack, who is covering his ears with his hands. "Don't you tell me how to look after my son," Ma snaps back. "I'm sorry that I'm not 'nice' anymore." She goes on to say that she wouldn't have tried to help Old Nick with his sick dog if she didn't have Nancy's voice in her head saying, "Be nice!" Nancy is devastated by the accusation. "Stay there, Jack," Ma says, as she leaves to call her lawyer to set up the prime time interview. "I can't stand this place."

Answer: She attempts suicide.

Ma's lawyer had indicated that a prime time interview would command a lot of money, and she commits to one after her argument with her mother so that she can afford to move out. The talk show hostess maintains a professional demeanor, but it seems clear that she intends to get the most out of her scoop. "Listening to you, I'm sure you must have felt at times as if God had deserted you," she says. "In those very black moments, did you consider taking your own life, just to escape?" Ma's lawyer intervenes at this point, giving her the chance to dodge the question. The talk show hostess decides to change tack. "So, when Jack came along, was it different for you then?" she asks. Ma explains that Jack changed everything for her, as her paramount concern was to keep him safe. When the hostess asks Ma if she will tell Jack about his father when he is older, Ma replies, "Jack's not his," causing the hostess to ask if there were other men during her time in Room. "No," Ma clarifies, "A father is a man who loves his child." When the hostess points out Old Nick's biological relationship to Jack, Ma flatly replies, "That's not a relationship. Jack is nobody's but mine." The hostess senses that she should move on, and asks, "When he was born, did it ever occur to you to ask your captor to take Jack away?" When Ma asks why she would do that, the hostess describes it as a mother's "ultimate sacrifice", and suggests it would have allowed Jack to be free and have a normal childhood. "But he had me," Ma points out. "Of course he did," the hostess replies. "But was that the best thing for him?"

Ma becomes consumed in her thoughts after the interview, which has shaken her already fragile psyche. One night, Jack wakes up to discover that he is alone in bed. He makes his way to the bathroom, and pushes the door open when his calls for his Ma go unanswered. He finds Ma lying on the bathroom floor next to a pool of vomit. Jack's frantic screams awaken Nancy and Leo, who call an ambulance. Ma had overdosed on the sleeping pills prescribed for her insomnia. "Ma was in a hurry to go 'boing' up to heaven but she forgot me, Dumbo Ma," Jack says in a voiceover. "So the aliens threw her back down - crash! - and broke her."

Answer: "She needs my strong more than me."

Nancy had previously offered to bring Jack for a haircut, but he had refused and told Ma "that's where his 'strong' is". Now that Ma is in the hospital and needs to stay there for a little while longer, Jack wants do whatever he can to help her. He finds Nancy while she is reading, and asks for a pair of scissors so that he can cut his hair and send it to Ma. When Nancy asks Jack why he wants to do that, Jack replies, "She needs my strong more than me, so I want to send it to her. Or you could take it to her." Nancy is visibly moved and offers to help Jack, which he gratefully accepts. "Let's do this right," Nancy declares. "I've been wanting to cut that hair for a very long time."

"You think this will work?" Jack asks, as he sits waiting in a chair. "Can my strong be her strong too?" Nancy thinks about it before answering. "Of course it can. We all help each other stay strong. No one is strong alone. You and your mom, you help each other through, don't you?" she says. "And you and me, and you and Leo, and Leo and me. We all have the same strong." Once Jack is ready, she snips off his ponytail in a few clean cuts and hands it to him, before proceeding to wash his hair in the bathroom sink. "This is the best part," she says, as she helps him towel dry his hair. "Doesn't it feel good?" Jack agrees, and then tenderly says, "I love you, Grandma." Nancy looks down at her grandson. "I love you too, Jack," she replies. Later, Ma tells Jack how much she appreciated his gesture. "When Grandma brought this to me, I knew that I could get better," she says with a smile as she hands him back his ponytail. "You saved me. Again."

Answer: He wants to go back to Room for a visit.

Ma gets better and comes home to Jack, and they set about trying new things. "When I was four I didn't even know about the world and now me and Ma are going to live in it forever and ever until we're dead," Jack says in a voiceover. "Ma and I have decided that because we don't know what we like we get to try everything. There's so many things out here and sometimes it's scary but that's okay, because it's still just you and me." They go to the beach, where Jack runs down the boardwalk, and go ice skating for the first time. They try new and different foods, and spend time lazing together in a hammock behind their house. "Can we go back to Room?" Jack asks Ma one day. "Just for a visit."

Officer Parker leads Ma and Jack through Old Nick's house and into the back yard. The old garden shed is still there, but not for much longer - towering next to it is an enormous bulldozer. Jack makes his way over to the shed, with Ma close behind him, and they step inside. The place no longer resembles the home that Ma had made for Jack all those years - his drawings have been stripped away from the walls and what little furniture that remains in the tiny space has been neatly folded and stacked against the walls. "Is this Room?" Jack asks in disbelief. "Has it gotten shrinked? Where is everything?" It's hard to believe that this was his entire world for the first five years of his life. "Taken for evidence," Ma replies. "Proof that we were here." Jack looks into Wardrobe, where he spent so many nights, and walks over to the bedside table, where he finds Plant all shriveled up. "It's because Door's open," he remarks thoughtfully. "It can't really be Room if Door's open." Ma tries her best not to look concerned, and asks, "Do you want me to close it?" Jack thinks about it for a moment, and then shakes his head 'no'. "Jack, can we go?" Ma asks with just a tinge of anxiety in her voice. Jack walks over to the pot on the bedside table and pats it gently. "Bye, Plant," he says, before making his way around to the other objects of his childhood. "Bye, Chair No. 1. Bye, Chair No. 2. Bye, Table. Bye, Wardrobe. Bye, Sink. Bye, Skylight." He may not be aware of it, but Jack is getting closure. "Ma, say bye-bye to Room," he says as he steps across the threshold and back into the yard. Ma takes one last look around before mouthing the words "Bye, Room," and then leaves. She takes Jack's hand in hers as they make their way back to the waiting patrol car without looking back.