50 Fun Facts About The Last of the Mohicans

Which TV series features a surgeon nicknamed Hawkeye after the scout in The Last of the Mohicans?

M*A*S*H's Hawkeye Pierce was given the nickname by his father, who borrowed it from the frontier hero of James Fenimore Cooper's novel.

Which humorist mocked The Last of the Mohicans in an 1895 essay on its author's literary offenses?

Mark Twain called the essay 'Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses' and complained that Cooper was overly wordy and lacked a variety of styles.

Which actor learned to hunt and skin game to play Hawkeye in the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans?

Daniel Day-Lewis spent weeks in wilderness training with US Army Special Forces personnel, learning to use period weapons and start fires.

Set in colonial New York, the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans was shot mostly in which state?

North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains stood in for the northern wilderness, and the fort set was built beside Lake James.

Cooperstown, founded by the father of The Last of the Mohicans' author, houses which sports museum?

The Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in the village in 1939; William Cooper had established the settlement, and his novelist son grew up there.

In the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, what does Magua cut from the trapped Colonel Munro?

His heart is cut out after Magua vows to kill the colonel's daughters as well; the real commander of the fort survived the 1757 massacre.

The Last of the Mohicans author James Fenimore Cooper was expelled from which college after a prank?

Yale expelled Cooper in his third year after a prank that blew up another student's door, and he had already locked a donkey in a recitation room.

In Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans, what is the real name of the scout Hawkeye?

Natty Bumppo is the scout's name in all five of Cooper's frontier novels; the 1992 film renamed him Nathaniel Poe.

The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during which colonial war in North America?

The French and Indian War pitted Britain against France for control of the continent, and both armies leaned heavily on Native American allies.

Which frontiersman's rescue of his kidnapped daughter inspired a chase in The Last of the Mohicans?

Daniel Boone rescued his daughter Jemima three days after a raiding party seized her in Kentucky in 1776, and Cooper fictionalized the pursuit.

In The Last of the Mohicans, how is the young warrior Uncas related to Chingachgook?

His son Uncas has no woman of pure Mohican blood left to marry, so the family line is doomed to end with him.

In The Last of the Mohicans, the villain Magua belongs to which nation allied with the French army?

Huron is Magua's nation, though he lived for a time among the Mohawks, the Hurons' traditional enemies, before coming back to seek revenge on Colonel Munro.

The French name for the villain Magua in The Last of the Mohicans likens him to which animal?

Fox is the animal in Le Renard Subtil, the wily fox, a fitting alias for a guide who is secretly working for the other side.

In The Last of the Mohicans, enemies of Hawkeye nickname him after which of his possessions?

His long rifle earns the scout the French name La Longue Carabine, a tribute to his deadly marksmanship.

In The Last of the Mohicans, why are sisters Cora and Alice travelling through the wilderness?

To join their father, Colonel Munro, the sisters set out for the fort he commands just as a French army closes in to besiege it.

In the novel The Last of the Mohicans, Magua offers to spare his captives if Cora does what?

Magua wants Cora to become his wife as a blow against her family, and she refuses twice before he condemns the prisoners to death.

In the novel The Last of the Mohicans, Magua wants revenge on Colonel Munro for which punishment?

A whipping at a post was Munro's penalty for Magua's drunkenness, and Magua blames the colonel's whiskey for starting the drinking.

In the novel The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye enters an enemy village disguised as which animal?

A bear disguise lets Hawkeye pass as a conjurer's magical beast, and Uncas later wears the same skin to escape captivity.

David Gamut, a companion in the novel The Last of the Mohicans, teaches which skill for a living?

Psalm singing is Gamut's trade, and his captors later spare him as a harmless madman; the 1992 film drops the character entirely.

In the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, how does Alice Munro die after Uncas is killed?

She jumps from a cliff rather than stay with Magua, reversing the novel, where Alice survives and her sister Cora is the one killed.

Which director co-wrote, co-produced and directed the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans?

Michael Mann was said to be fanatical about details on the shoot, and several composers, an editor and the costume designer walked off the production.

Which Cherokee actor played the vengeful Magua in the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans?

Wes Studi received an honorary Academy Award in 2019, becoming the first Native American actor to receive an Oscar.

Which actress, later a star of TV's Revenge, played Cora in the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans?

Madeleine Stowe plays a Cora who falls for Hawkeye during the siege and turns down a marriage proposal from a British major.

Which Lakota activist made his film debut as Chingachgook in the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans?

Russell Means, a prominent figure in the American Indian Movement, used his time on set to lobby for better pay and lodging for the Native American extras.

In the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, which officer takes Cora's place to be burned alive?

Duncan Heyward, acting as interpreter, offers his own life for hers, and Hawkeye shoots him from a distance as an act of mercy.

In the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye is sentenced to hang for which offense?

Sedition is the charge after Hawkeye helps colonial militiamen slip away from the fort to defend their own homesteads.

In the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, where do the heroes hide before Hawkeye leaps to escape?

Behind a waterfall, Hawkeye urges Cora to stay alive and swears he will find her, then plunges into the river below.

Scenes near the end of the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans were shot at which scenic landmark?

Chimney Rock is home to Hickory Nut Falls, which appears late in the film, in a story actually set hundreds of miles to the north.

Which Irish folk group recorded I Will Find You for the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans?

Clannad's singer performed the song in English, Mohican and Cherokee, and the group put it on the 1993 album Banba.

The 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans took its main theme from a songwriter born in which country?

Scotland's Dougie MacLean released the tune as The Gael on his 1990 album The Search, two years before the film made it an orchestral anthem.

The French general who takes the fort in The Last of the Mohicans died defending which city in 1759?

Quebec fell after a battle on the plains outside its walls, where the commanding generals of both armies were mortally wounded.

Which French general besieges the fort in The Last of the Mohicans, as he did in real life?

The Marquis de Montcalm forced the surrender by handing the fort's commander an intercepted letter in which his own general refused to send help.

In The Last of the Mohicans, General Webb refuses to reinforce Colonel Munro from which stronghold?

Fort Edward lay only about 16 miles to the south, but Webb kept his men there and advised Munro to negotiate the best terms he could.

The real colonel in The Last of the Mohicans survived the massacre, then died in which city?

Albany is where the colonel died suddenly in November 1757, three months after the surrender; the 1992 film has him killed during the retreat.

The North American fighting in The Last of the Mohicans was one theater of which worldwide conflict?

The Seven Years' War set Great Britain against France around the globe, and British colonists gave its American front a name of their own.

Which political machine was named after the real chief behind Tamenund in The Last of the Mohicans?

Tammany Hall grew out of societies honoring Tamanend, a Lenape chief remembered as a peacemaker, and a marble statue of him stood on its headquarters.

The name Uncas in The Last of the Mohicans came from a real sachem of which Connecticut tribe?

Mohegan sachem Uncas was a real leader in colonial New England, and Cooper's use of his name blurred two separate peoples in readers' minds.

The real Mohicans of The Last of the Mohicans fame had their homeland along which river?

The Hudson valley in upstate New York was Mohican country, and their lands reached east into the hills of western New England.

In the novel The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye uses the name Horican for which body of water?

Lake George struck Cooper as too plain a name and the French one as too complicated, so he lifted Horican from an old map of the area.

Despite the title The Last of the Mohicans, the Mohican nation survives, now based in which state?

Wisconsin is home to the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, a federally recognized Mohican nation whose ancestors moved west from New York and Massachusetts.

The Last of the Mohicans is one of five Cooper novels about Hawkeye, known together by which name?

The Leatherstocking Tales take their name from what settlers call the hero in The Pioneers, the first of the five to be published, in 1823.

Which later Cooper novel shows Hawkeye of The Last of the Mohicans as a young man in the 1740s?

The Deerslayer was the last of the scout's adventures that Cooper wrote, in 1841, yet its setting makes it the opening chapter of his life.

The name Chingachgook in The Last of the Mohicans comes from Delaware words with which meaning?

Big Snake joins the Lenape words for big and snake, and a 1967 East German western about the character was titled after the Great Serpent.

In the novel The Last of the Mohicans, Colonel Munro met Cora's mother in which part of the world?

The West Indies marriage gives Cora remote African ancestry, and critic Diane Roberts called her the first tragic mulatta in American literature.

The 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans won its only Academy Award in which category?

Best Sound was the film's lone Oscar, while its celebrated music was ineligible for consideration because two composers shared the credit.

Which composer began the score of the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans as an electronic one?

Trevor Jones had to refashion his electronic score for orchestra late in production, and Randy Edelman was called in to finish the remaining scenes.

Which Western star played Hawkeye in the 1936 film version of The Last of the Mohicans?

Randolph Scott's version cast a long shadow: its screenplay by Philip Dunne is credited as a source for the 1992 film.

Which horror star played Chingachgook in the 1957 TV series Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans?

Lon Chaney Jr. co-starred with John Hart, who played the scout, in a series that was filmed in Canada and ran for a single season.

Which landscape painter put scenes from The Last of the Mohicans on canvas a year after publication?

Thomas Cole painted Cora kneeling before Tamenund in 1827, just a year after the novel appeared, and also depicted her death scene.

After the surrender in The Last of the Mohicans, what did the French army do with the captured fort?

The French systematically destroyed it before withdrawing north, and the site lay abandoned for two centuries until a replica was built in the 1950s.