Science Fiction Movies Quiz

1. What is the famous opening line that begins every Star Wars film (from Episode IV onwards)?

1. 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....'
2. 'From the darkness of space came a war that would change everything...'
3. 'In a time of war, one family's struggle shaped the fate of a galaxy...'
4. 'In the beginning, there was nothing, and from nothing came everything...'

2. In Alien (1979), the famous tagline was what?

1. 'In space, no one can hear you breathe'
2. 'In space, no one can hear you scream'
3. 'In space, no one survives'
4. 'In space, terror has no name'

3. In Interstellar (2014), what is 'time dilation' and how does it affect the characters?

1. A government programme to extend human lifespan
2. The effect of travelling faster than light
3. Time passes more slowly near massive gravitational sources — so astronauts near a black hole age far slower than people on Earth
4. Time travel to the past via a wormhole

4. What is the name of HAL 9000's counterpart AI in the film Her (2013)?

1. Ava
2. AVA
3. JARVIS
4. Samantha

5. Which director made both Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017)?

1. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott; 2049 by Christopher Nolan
2. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott; Blade Runner 2049 by Denis Villeneuve
3. Both by Denis Villeneuve
4. Both by Ridley Scott

6. The 'Turing Test' is referenced in Ex Machina (2014). What does it test?

1. Whether a computer can solve complex mathematical problems
2. Whether a robot can perform physical tasks indistinguishable from humans
3. Whether an AI's conversation is indistinguishable from a human's
4. Whether machines experience pain

7. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was the highest-grossing film of all time until it was surpassed by what?

1. Jurassic Park
2. Return of the Jedi
3. Star Wars: A New Hope (re-release)
4. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

8. In The Martian (2015), what does astronaut Mark Watney famously 'science the s*** out of' to survive?

1. Communicating with Earth using Morse code in the sand
2. Generating water from rocket fuel
3. Growing potatoes in Martian soil using his own waste as fertiliser
4. Repairing his spacecraft's engines

9. What is the 'Monolith' in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey?

1. A mysterious black rectangle of unknown origin that appears at key moments in human evolution
2. HAL 9000's physical form
3. The final scene's location — a black room
4. The spacecraft Discovery One

10. Which 1984 James Cameron film established the Terminator franchise with a time-travel plot?

1. Aliens
2. The Abyss
3. The Terminator
4. True Lies

11. Denis Villeneuve's Arrival (2016) is based on a short story by Ted Chiang. What is its central premise?

1. A linguist learns to communicate with aliens and discovers their language changes her perception of time
2. Alien invasion defeated by a computer virus
3. First contact through radio signals decoded over 30 years
4. Time travel used to prevent an alien invasion

12. What is the 'Nostromo' in science fiction?

1. A Joseph Conrad novel only
2. The AI in 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. The spacecraft in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)
4. The spaceship in Event Horizon

13. In Star Wars, what is the Kessel Run and why did Han Solo boast about doing it 'in less than 12 parsecs'?

1. A dangerous spice-smuggling route; the boast actually makes no sense (parsecs measure distance not time) — though later films retconned it
2. A famous asteroid belt race; 12 parsecs is the fastest possible time
3. A hyperdrive speed test; parsecs are a unit of speed in Star Wars
4. A standard starship endurance test; parsecs measure time in the Star Wars universe

14. Which science fiction film features a station orbiting Jupiter with a cast including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain?

1. Ad Astra
2. Gravity
3. Interstellar
4. The Martian

15. RoboCop (1987), directed by Paul Verhoeven, was a satire of which aspects of 1980s America?

1. Corporate privatisation, media saturation, and urban crime/decay in Reagan-era America
2. Environmental destruction and overpopulation
3. Nuclear war anxiety and Cold War politics
4. The space race and military industrial complex

16. What is 'xenomorph' and which franchise is it from?

1. A type of warp drive in Star Trek
2. The alien creature in the Alien franchise, known for its acid blood, parasitic life cycle, and endoparasite reproduction
3. The alien language in Arrival
4. The robot villain in Terminator: Salvation

17. Metropolis (1927), directed by Fritz Lang, is historically significant because:

1. It is one of the first feature-length science fiction films and established many sci-fi visual tropes still used today
2. It was the first film to be shown on television
3. It was the first film to use sound
4. It won the first Academy Award for Best Picture

18. In Dune (Part One, 2021), the 'spice' (melange) is the most valuable substance in the universe. What does it do?

1. It extends life, enables space navigation, and heightens consciousness — only found on Arrakis
2. It is a currency used to control planets
3. It powers spacecraft faster than light
4. It prevents aging entirely

19. Which science fiction film famously ends with the Statue of Liberty buried in sand on a beach?

1. Logan's Run
2. Planet of the Apes
3. Soylent Green
4. The Omega Man

20. Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, is set in a dystopian world where humanity faces what crisis?

1. A deadly pandemic with no cure
2. An alien occupation of Earth
3. Climate collapse making food production impossible
4. Global human infertility — no child has been born in 18 years