Annual Cryptic Movie Quiz 2025 Answers

Quizwoz Answers

Okay everybody. Thanks for all who took part in my Annual Cryptic Movie Quiz for the end of 2025. This year’s winners are returning winners from last year with full marks... Chris and Ross from Manchester. Well done lads.

For all you who want to know which ones you got wrong (or indeed right), here are the puntastic and cryptic answers for you all.

1. Egyptian corpse owns technical equipment. 
An Egyptian corpse would be a mummy. If a person owns technical equipment then he/she “has tech”, so aztec. So we get the first film in The Aztec Mummy Trilogy.

2. What you give people for Christmas.
Well, presents so... yeah... Presence.

3. A central stage for spherical objects used in sports.
A spherical object used in a sport could be a ball. A central stage used in sports could be an arena. So we get John Wick spin off Ballerina.

4. The pride of lions’ fierce vocals are just over 19 decibels.
Lions fierce vocal sounds are a roar. One decibel over 19 decibels would be 20 so... The Roaring Twenties.

5. Suffering a disease in which a high temperature is a prominent symptom, on an evening at the weekend.
A disease could be a fever. An evening at the weekend could be a Saturday night. So... Saturday Night Fever.

6. A non X-rated firebird was polished up for the plan.
A firebird could be a phoenix but, non x-rated means you have to take away the x, which leaves phoeni. If you polished something up then it shone. Another term for a plan could be a scheme. So, phoeni-shone scheme... Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme.

7. Burglar belonging to the father of a kind of sack.
A sack could be a bag. The father could be a dad. The burglar is a thief. So we have, The Thief Of Bagdad.

8. A choice between two indefinite articles.
Two indefinite articles are an and a. A choice implies one or another... so an or a, or rather Oscar winning Anora.

9. A dagger of frozen water.
Frozen water is ice. A dagger is a knife. So we have one of have Carrol Baker’s Italian gialli, A Knife Of Ice.

10. A musical composition made out of soup.
Simply unscramble the letters of soup to get a type of musical composition, so O P U S. Recent John Malkovich thriller Opus.

11. The incorrect leg wear.
Trousers but they’re wrong. It’s the second Wallace And Gromit short film The Wrong Trousers.

12. The specific nomenclature of a prickly stemmed flower.
Nomenclature denotes a name. The prickly stemmed flower is a rose. So Sean Connery does Umberto Eco thriller The Name Of The Rose.

13. Bond villain’s tool for accessing his front door.
The Bond villain I was thinking of was Largo (played by Adolfo Celli in Thunderball and Klaus Maria Brandauer in Never Say Never Again). To access his front door he would surely need a front door key. So the Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson movie Key Largo.

14. Equine’s wing plumage.
Equine implies horse. Plumage is traditionally feathers. So we have the classic Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers.

And that’s it for 2025’s end of year quiz. As always, I hope it gave some of you something to keep you occupied in any Christmas downtime and that you enjoyed having a crack at it. Let me know if you want me to keep coming up with these end of year quizzes. Feedback is always welcome. 

Cryptic Movie Quiz Answers

 

Annual Cryptic
Movie Quiz 2021
Answers

Hello and thanks to all who had a go at my quiz this time around. Not much of a response this year, it has to be said. Not sure if I’ll bother to do another one at the end of this year to be honest (let me know if you want me to).

This year’s winner is Steve Braham in Australia, who got 11 out of the 16 answers correct.

The answers are pictured above in the grid and this is how you break them down to solve them.

1. Take a detailed look at the bed linen that backwards lad brought in!
A detailed look could be when you ‘scan’ something with your eyes. LAD backwards is DAL. Bed linen could be a sheet. So we get Sam Fuller’s Scandal Sheet.

2. Travelling atop the back of the European Community.
The European Community is often abbreviated to the EC. If you travel atop something you are riding it so... EC Rider... Easy Rider.

3. A gap situated between two of their typical structures for this large body of beavers united by common descent, history or culture.
A structure built by a beaver is a Dam. A body of peoples united by a common descent, history or culture is a Nation. A gap between two structures is an alley. So we have Damnation Alley.

4. Ions pass through... it’s one of many similarly unlawful acts.
Crimes are unlawful acts. An ion through a pass is Pass-Ion so...
Crimes Of Passion.

5. The perfect fusion of VHS and homo sapien.
Well, yeah, man and video spliced together gives you Videoman.

6. Shoo! It was a bit of a scramble yesterday evening.
Yesterday evening was Last Night. Shoo scrambled up is Soho, so... Last Night In Soho.

7. It’s solely an alliance of frozen water.
Solely something means it’s Just something... frozen water is Ice. An alliance is a league so... Justice League.

8. The first games player is a militarised ant of a behemoth.
A games player is often referred to as a Gamer these days. The first one might be titled Gamer A. A soldier in the US military is referred to as a GI. Put it together with Ant and you get Giant. A behemoth is a monster so... Gamera The Giant Monster.

9. Not a light person to pull your stranded vehicle away.
Opposite of light can be dark. Someone who tows your vehicle away could be a tower so... The Dark Tower.

10. The backwards glance.
A glance could be a peek. Backwards it’s The Keep.

11. The act of devouring the coverings on top of her fingers.
Eat her nails... The Eternals.

12. I’m dreaming of a Shark Father Christmas!
Well this one couldn’t be anything other than Santa Jaws.

13. ... as sunlight power does!
Solar is as solar does. So... Solaris.

14. It’s crimson... negative on the frozen water.
Crimson is red. Negative is Not. Frozen water is Ice so... Red Notice.

15. Had all the violence and bloodshed taken out of it.
It had gore... now it’s gone... gore gone... The Gorgon.

16. Carnal relations at the Overlook Hotel.
Sex at the hotel from The Shining is... Jess Franco’s Shining Sex.

Hope all those who had a go enjoyed playing! Thanks very much and congratulations to Steve in Oz... who finally won one after years of trying and failing.

Quizwoz Answers - Christmas 2012

Christmas Quizwoz: 
The Answers

Hi there.

Thanks to all of you who played. Had some very impressive answers back but nobody got a full house of correct answers on their first entry. However, very special shout out and congratulations to... drumroll please...

Leilani Holmes aka @momentsoffilm

I was very happy she had a go at this because she’s a good writer/director and I’ve reviewed her work before, here and here. So loads of respect to her for being the winner of this year's Christmas Quizwoz by getting the most right with a whopping 17 out of 20! Power to her.

Right then... here are those questions with the answers in full...

Q1. 
Which two directing K’s made contemporary movie versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and what were the two films called?
Well the K’s who I was looking for were the directors Kurosawa and Kaurismäki, who both made their own versions of Hamlet in a contemporary setting. Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960) and Aki Kaurismäki's Hamlet Goes Business (1987).

Q2. 
What is a common factor, which is fairly unique in films, of the 1952 version of The Prisoner Of Zenda, the 1991 version of Cape Fear and the 1998 version of Psycho?
Only one person got this question right in their original entry. People quite rightly pointed out that all of these films were remakes... but that in itself is not really unique to these three films. We’re at a stage right now in movie history where we have remakes coming out our ears. 

These three movies are quite special in that, for each of these, the original musical score from the previous version was reused for the remake. 

So for the 1952 version of The Prisoner Of Zenda, Alfred Newman reused his own musical score from the 1937 version. For the 1991 version of Cape Fear, Elmer Bernstein was called in to re-record/adapt Bernard Herrmanns famous score for the 1962 version (along with a cue or two from his rejected score to Torn Curtain I believe) and for the1998 version of Psycho, Danny Elfman was called in to adapt Bernard Harrmann’s (once again) iconic score to Hitchcock’s 1960 original.

Q3. 
What do Bob Holness, Barry Nelson and Daniel Craig all have in common?
Well, they’ve all played James Bond. Barry Nelson played him first in the original TV version of Casino Royale in 1955 then, two years later, Bob (Blockbusters) Holness played him on the radio in an adaptation of Moonraker. Then, of course, Daniel Craig started playing Bond from the third version of Casino Royale onwards.

Q4. 
Mechanismo and Dangerous Days were both early working titles for which movie?
They were both early working titles, at various script stages, of the film that was finally called Blade Runner.

Q5.
What do Robert Siodmak, Don Siegel and Andrey Tarkovsky have in common?
They all made film adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers (Tarkovsky’s was a short). All three are still available, I believe, on a 2 disc DVD set from Criterion.

Q6.
In which movie did Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman first appear together?
They both appeared together in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Portman played Queen Amidala/Padme and Knightley played her loyal decoy/impersonator.

Q7. 
The two Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after characters from which seasonal film favourite?
Named after the cop and the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life.


Q8. 
Keye Luke took over the role of which oriental detective in the last of a running series of films about the character, and which actor did he replace?
Another one which really seemed to fox people. While it’s true that Keye Luke played Lee Chan (Number One Son) in many of the Chan films (and even played the voice of the great detective himself  in the Hannah Barbara cartoon, years later), he also played the Lee Chan character once in a Mr. Moto film too. However, the actual answer is that he took over the role of Mr. Wong, previously played by Boris Karloff in a short series of films, but then replaced by Keye Luke for the last one in a very different interpretation of the role.

Q9. 
Philip K. Dick’s short story Second Variety was adapted into which film?
This was Screamers, one of the more faithful adaptations of Dick’s work to appear on screen. This is not to be confused with the film Island Of The Fishmen, which was also known as Screamers in some territories.

Q10. 
To date, in Doctor Who, which of The Doctor’s companions has appeared, at one time or another, with the most incarnations of The Doctor?
Sarah Jane Smith as played by Elisabeth Sladen. She has appeared with seven of the Doctors, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th and 11th Doctors.

She was a regular companion to both the 3rd and 4th Doctors, then met the 1st (played by Richard Hurndale covering for a dead William Hartnell), 2nd and 5th also, in the anniversary show The Five Doctors. She also appeared with the 10th Doctor a number of times and, most recently before her death, with the 11th Doctor (alongside Katy Manning reprising her role as Jo Grant). 

Q11. 
In television, perceived competition from Davy Jones in The Monkees at a similar time slot lead to the creation of which character for the second series and onwards of the original Star Trek?
Ensign Chekov, as played by Walter Koenig, was brought in from the second series onwards to compete with the popularity of the Davy Jones character in The Monkees. He was a much younger cast member and he even had the same kind of face and was given the same haircut.

Q12. 
The two main protagonists from Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset make an ambiguous cameo appearance in which animated movie?
The two characters pop up in Linklaters animated movie, Waking Life.

Q13. 
Which two Peter Cushing movies also feature the talented Caroline Munro?
The two stars both appeared in Hammer’s Dracula AD 1972 (um... 1972) and Amicus’ At The Earth’s Core (1976).

Q14.
Ron Moody appeared as a character in the pilot episode of a TV show, but was replaced by Roddy McDowell in the actual series of what?
Tales Of The Gold Monkey. Ron Moody played Bon Chance Louie in the original pilot episode but Roddy McDowell took over the role from the next episode.

Q15. 
In the Toho classic that had an alternate US title in one of its early releases as Godzilla VS The Thing... who/what was revealed to be The Thing?
Mothra. Indeed, in many countries the film is known as Mothra VS Godzilla.

Q16. 
“Man Is The Warmest Place To Hide.” Which 80s movie had this tagline on the poster?
And talking about “things”... “Man Is The Warmest Place To Hide” was the poster tagline to John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Q17. 
Which of Roger Corman’s famous Edgar Allan Poe “adaptations” for AIP was actually an uncredited adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward?
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunted Palace... which so wasn’t Edgar Allan Poe’s, save for a few lines quoted from a poem at the end.

Q18. 
The title of which Michael Crichton novel (and subsequent film adaptation) is an homage to a famous story by Arther Conan Doyle?
The Lost World (later known as The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2) after the first of the Sherlock Holmes creator’s Professor Challenger stories, which features dinosaurs.

Q19. 
Which Spaghetti Western is a remake of one of the Zatoichi (The Blind Swordsmen) films?
Blindman (1971)... which also featured Ringo Starr as a Mexican villain.

Q20. 
Noel Neill replaced another actress from the second season onwards (1953 - 1958) on a TV show playing the same role which she’d formerly played in two Columbia serials in 1947 and 1950. What was the role?
Lois Lane! Noel Neill took over the role from Phyllis Coates in the famous George Reeves show The Adventures Of Superman. Coates had played her for the first series but ducked out for the other five. Noel Neill was already familiar with playing Lois Lane as she had played her twice before in the two Kirk Alyn Superman chapter serials... Superman (1947) and Atom Man Vs Superman (1950 - the Atom Man was Lex Luthor).