100 Fun Facts About Winter Movie

In Bong Joon-ho's 2013 film Snowpiercer, where do the last remnants of humanity survive a frozen Earth?

A circumnavigating train carries the survivors after a geoengineering compound called CW-7 backfires and freezes the planet, the poor crammed in the tail and the elite up front.

What kind of place shelters The Hateful Eight's strangers from the blizzard?

In 'The Hateful Eight,' eight strangers, including bounty hunters and outlaws, are forced to shelter together in Minnie's Haberdashery, a remote stagecoach stopover, during a harsh Wyoming blizzard.

Which mountain hosts the rescue mission in the 2000 action film Vertical Limit?

K2 is the world's second-highest peak; in the film a team of climbers is trapped in a crevasse there.

In which US state is Christopher Nolan's 2002 thriller 'Insomnia' set?

Alaska: Nightmute, the film's fictional fishing town, sits in Alaska, where the summer midnight sun keeps Al Pacino's detective from sleeping; most of it was shot in British Columbia.

The 2015 horror-comedy Krampus, drawn from Austro-Bavarian folklore, turns which holiday into a nightmare?

Christmas spirit, or the lack of it, is the trigger: Krampus arrives to punish a dysfunctional family who have given up on the holiday.

The 1997 film "Smilla's Sense of Snow" follows a Greenlander investigating a boy's death in which city?

Smilla Jaspersen, a Greenlander living in Copenhagen, uses her unique understanding of snow and ice to investigate the suspicious death of her young neighbor, Isaiah, in the Danish capital.

At which Manhattan department store is Therese working when she meets Carol in the 2015 film?

Frankenberg's is the Manhattan department store where Therese sells dolls during the 1952 holiday rush when Carol walks in; the film adapts Patricia Highsmith's 1952 novel 'The Price of Salt'.

In Last Christmas (2019), Emilia Clarke's Kate works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop in which European capital?

London's shop owner calls herself Santa and is played by Michelle Yeoh; Emma Thompson co-wrote the script and plays Kate's mother.

In 'The Snowman' (2017), inspector Harry Hole works for the police of which city?

Oslo is Harry Hole's beat: Michael Fassbender's detective hunts a serial killer through the Norwegian capital in this adaptation of Jo Nesbø's novel, which director Tomas Alfredson disowned after a rushed shoot.

In which US city is Die Hard's Nakatomi Plaza?

Los Angeles's Nakatomi Plaza is really Fox Plaza, the studio's own Century City tower; almost the whole film was shot in and around it.

Frozen (2013) was loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale?

The Snow Queen was published by Andersen in 1844; Disney had tried to adapt it since the 1930s.

Frozen was the highest-grossing animated film until which 2019 release overtook it?

The Lion King remake, which grossed $1.66 billion in 2019, passed Frozen's $1.28 billion; Frozen had held the animated record since 2014 and won two Oscars, including one for 'Let It Go'.

How old is Kevin McCallister in Home Alone?

Eight-year-old Kevin defends his suburban Chicago home from two robbers; the film was the highest-grossing live-action comedy for two decades.

Who wrote and produced Home Alone, the 1990 Christmas comedy that Chris Columbus directed?

John Hughes wrote and produced it; it grossed $476.7 million, second only to Ghost among 1990 releases.

In Elf, why is the baby found in Santa's workshop named Buddy?

After his diaper's brand label: the baby who crawled into Santa's sack wore 'Little Buddy Diapers', so the elves called him Buddy; he discovers he is human only at 30.

In Elf, Buddy's father Walter Hobbs publishes children's books from an office in which New York landmark?

The Empire State Building houses Walter's publishing office in Jon Favreau's 2003 comedy, which later became a Broadway musical.

Die Hard is based on which 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp?

Nothing Lasts Forever, Roderick Thorp's 1979 sequel to his novel The Detective, supplied the plot; its hero Joe Leland became John McClane and the Klaxon Oil tower became Nakatomi Plaza.

How much was Bruce Willis, then known mainly for television, paid for Die Hard?

$5 million was Willis's fee, a sum then reserved for stars like Stallone; Fox's gamble on the Moonlighting TV actor paid off when Die Hard grossed over $140 million worldwide.

In Fargo, police chief Marge Gunderson works in which Minnesota town?

She is seven months pregnant when she takes on the case; McDormand won Best Actress.

Which two Oscars did Fargo win at the 69th Academy Awards?

Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay went to Frances McDormand and the Coen brothers; Fargo's other five nominations included Best Picture and William H. Macy for Supporting Actor.

The Revenant dramatises the 1823 ordeal of which real frontiersman?

Hugh Glass is the role that finally won DiCaprio Best Actor after five previous nominations.

Emmanuel Lubezki's Oscar for The Revenant was his how-manyth consecutive win for Best Cinematography?

Third: Lubezki had won for Gravity (2013) and Birdman (2014) before The Revenant (2015), making him the first cinematographer to take the award three years running.

Cool Runnings is loosely based on the debut of Jamaica's bobsleigh team at which Winter Olympics?

Calgary 1988 saw the real Jamaican debut; the film's theme, a Jimmy Cliff cover of 'I Can See Clearly Now', hit number 18 in the US.

In Cool Runnings, why was coach Irv Blitzer disqualified from the 1972 Winter Olympics?

Cheating: Irv Blitzer hid weights in his sled at Sapporo 1972 and was stripped of his gold medals; John Candy's disgraced coach is working as a bookie when Derice finds him.

Groundhog Day was shot almost entirely in which Illinois town standing in for Punxsutawney?

Woodstock, Illinois, doubled for Punxsutawney; its town square hosted the Gobbler's Knob scenes and a plaque marks the puddle Phil steps into. Filming ran from March to June 1992.

Which song wakes Phil Connors on the clock radio every morning in Groundhog Day?

"I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher greets Phil at 6:00 every February 2 at the Cherry Street Inn.

It's a Wonderful Life is based on which self-published 1943 short story?

'The Greatest Gift' was written by Philip Van Doren Stern, who printed about 200 copies as a 1943 Christmas card after publishers passed; RKO bought the film rights the next year.

It's a Wonderful Life became a holiday staple only after what happened in 1974?

Its US copyright lapsed in 1974 when the owner failed to file a renewal, so stations could air it royalty-free; repeated broadcasts turned a 1946 box-office disappointment into a classic.

In It's a Wonderful Life, how did young George Bailey lose the hearing in his left ear?

Rescuing his brother from a frozen pond: George pulled Harry out after he fell through the ice, caught a bad cold, and lost the hearing in his left ear; Clarence watches it in flashback.

Which actor plays multiple roles in The Polar Express, including the conductor?

Tom Hanks optioned the book in 1999 after reading it to his children.

In Miracle (2004), Kurt Russell plays which US hockey coach?

Herb Brooks was head coach at the University of Minnesota before the 1980 Olympics.

In Miracle, what score do the Soviets run up against the Americans in their Madison Square Garden exhibition?

10–3 was the score of the 9 February 1980 exhibition at Madison Square Garden; thirteen days later at Lake Placid the same Americans beat the Soviets 4–3 in the 'Miracle on Ice'.

In Snowpiercer, the tail passengers discover their protein bars are made from what?

Dead cockroaches, ground into gelatinous blocks, are what Curtis finds the tail section's protein bars are made from; Bong Joon-ho adapted the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige.

John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) is based on which novella by John W. Campbell Jr.?

Rob Bottin's creature effects ate $1.5 million of the $15 million budget.

Ice Age (2002) was the debut feature of which animation studio?

Blue Sky Studios, the Fox-owned studio founded in 1987, made Ice Age as its first feature; Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary voiced Manny, Sid and Diego.

David Lean's Doctor Zhivago was filmed mostly in which country, since the novel was banned in the USSR?

Spain stood in for Russia: the Moscow street set was built outside Madrid and the snowbound steppes were shot around Soria, with a few winter scenes filmed in Finland. The 1965 film won five Oscars.

The ice-planet Hoth scenes in The Empire Strikes Back were shot near which Norwegian village?

Finse, a railway stop beside the Hardangerjøkulen glacier, provided Hoth in March 1979; blizzards trapped the crew in their hotel, and Luke's escape from the wampa was shot just outside its door.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo keeps Luke alive on the ice planet Hoth by putting him inside what?

A tauntaun carcass keeps Luke warm until morning; Obi-Wan's Force spirit had just told the freezing Luke to seek out Yoda on Dagobah.

Mumble, the hero of Happy Feet, is which kind of penguin?

Emperor penguin: Mumble hatches into a colony of emperors whose heartsongs he cannot sing, so he tap-dances instead; Happy Feet won the 2006 Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

The title Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a line from a poem by whom?

It comes from Pope's 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard.

The Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In is set in which Stockholm suburb in the early 1980s?

An American remake, Let Me In, followed in 2010.

Greta Gerwig's Little Women (2019) won its only Academy Award in which category?

Best Costume Design went to Jacqueline Durran; it was the film's only win from six nominations, which included Best Picture and acting nods for Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh.

Which Mount Hood hotel in Oregon provided the exterior shots of The Shining's Overlook?

Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood supplied the Overlook's exteriors; the hotel asked Kubrick not to use Room 217, so the haunted room became 237, and interiors were modelled on Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel.

Kathy Bates's Misery Oscar was the first Academy Award for a film based on whose novel?

Stephen King: Bates's 1991 Best Actress win for playing Annie Wilkes, the 'number one fan' who traps a novelist in her snowbound Colorado home, was the first Oscar for any King adaptation.

Who directed the 2004 ice-age disaster film The Day After Tomorrow?

Roland Emmerich showed his first draft to producer Mark Gordon, who had produced his earlier film The Patriot.

In Eddie the Eagle, Taron Egerton plays the first British Olympic ski jumper since which year?

1928: Eddie Edwards was Britain's first Olympic ski jumper since the St. Moritz Games of 1928 when he competed at Calgary in 1988, finishing last in both events; Dexter Fletcher directed, with Hugh Jackman as his coach.

Who won Best Supporting Actress at the 90th Oscars for playing Tonya Harding's mother in I, Tonya?

Allison Janney won for her caustic turn as LaVona Golden, Tonya's chain-smoking mother; Margot Robbie, who also produced, was nominated for Best Actress.

Who narrates the English-language version of the 2005 documentary March of the Penguins?

Morgan Freeman's single third-person narration replaced the French original's first-person penguin voices; the film won the 2006 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

The animated film Balto is loosely based on a 1925 serum run to which Alaskan town?

In the film the wolfdog hero lives with an adoptive goose father named Boris and two polar bears, Muk and Luk.

Alive (1993) was the second feature about an Andes plane crash involving which country's rugby team?

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 went down on October 13, 1972, and the survivors endured more than two months in the snow.

Liam Neeson's The Grey, with its stalking wolves, was based on which short story?

Joe Carnahan's film grossed $81 million; Ottway opens it contemplating suicide the night before the crash.

Wind River's murder investigation unfolds on a reservation in which state?

Wyoming: the story is set on the Wind River Indian Reservation, home of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, though Taylor Sheridan shot it in Utah as the third film of his modern-frontier trilogy.

In 30 Days of Night, vampires besiege which far-north town as its month-long polar night begins?

Barrow, Alaska (renamed Utqiaġvik in 2016), is the town the vampires overrun; Steve Niles first pitched the story as a film, then turned it into a 2002 IDW comic drawn by Ben Templesmith.

The 2015 film Everest dramatises the disaster of which year, in which eight climbers died?

1996: on 10–11 May that year a blizzard trapped climbers near the summit, killing eight, including guides Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal); Jon Krakauer chronicled it in Into Thin Air.

Which horror icon plays the Inventor who builds Edward in Edward Scissorhands?

Vincent Price plays the Inventor who dies before giving Edward real hands; Tim Burton, a lifelong fan, had earlier cast Price to narrate his 1982 stop-motion short 'Vincent'.

In Christmas Vacation, Clark's expected bonus turns out to be a membership in what?

Jelly of the Month Club: the one-year membership arrives instead of the bonus Clark had already spent on a swimming-pool down payment, and Cousin Eddie responds by kidnapping his boss, Frank Shirley.

Who played Rusty in Christmas Vacation, beating Leonardo DiCaprio to the part?

Johnny Galecki, later of The Big Bang Theory, played Rusty opposite Juliette Lewis's Audrey; DiCaprio reportedly lost out for being too serious, and the Griswold kids were recast for every sequel.

A Christmas Story's fictional Hohman, Indiana is based on which real hometown of Jean Shepherd?

Hammond, Indiana, where Jean Shepherd grew up, became Hohman in his stories; Shepherd narrates as the adult Ralphie and cameos as the man who sends the boys to the back of the Santa line.

Love Actually begins how many weeks before Christmas?

Five: the opening title card announces five weeks before Christmas, and the film counts down week by week to Christmas Eve before bookending at Heathrow's arrivals gate in Richard Curtis's directing debut.

In The Holiday, Iris swaps her cottage in which English county for Amanda's LA home?

Surrey: Iris's Rosehill Cottage sits near the village of Shere, though the cottage itself was a set built for the film; Dustin Hoffman's video-store cameo was unscripted after he wandered onto the shoot.

In Gremlins, Stripe spawns his army by leaping into a pool at which building?

The YMCA: Stripe dives into its swimming pool to multiply into a horde; Kate, meanwhile, reveals she hates the holidays because her father died stuck in the chimney dressed as Santa.

Who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, though Tim Burton's name sits in the title?

Henry Selick directed the stop-motion film over three years in San Francisco while Burton, credited as producer and for the story, was busy with Batman Returns; Danny Elfman wrote the songs and sang Jack.

In The Nightmare Before Christmas, which trio kidnaps Santa and hands him to Oogie Boogie?

Lock, Shock and Barrel, Oogie Boogie's trick-or-treating henchmen, snatch 'Sandy Claws' in their walking bathtub; Sally is captured when she tries to free him.

Lloyd and Harry drive from Providence to which ski town in Dumb and Dumber?

Aspen, Colorado, is where Lloyd and Harry return Mary Swanson's briefcase; a wrong turn sends them across Nebraska all night, and they swap the dog-shaped van for a minibike to finish the trip.

In Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Neal Page is trying to get home to which city?

Chicago: Neal is trying to get home for Thanksgiving from New York when a snowstorm diverts his flight to Wichita; improvisation by Steve Martin and John Candy produced a first cut of nearly four hours.

Which cancelled 'Die Hard in a hurricane' project sent Stallone and Renny Harlin to Cliffhanger?

Carolco cancelled it two weeks before shooting; Cliffhanger's $70 million budget was almost double Gale Force's.

Eight Below is set in Antarctica but was shot partly on which Norwegian archipelago?

Svalbard, the Arctic archipelago around Spitsbergen, stood in for Antarctica alongside Greenland and British Columbia; the film remakes 1983's Antarctica, and only six of the eight dogs survive, Old Jack and Dewey mourned at the end.

In Togo, Leonhard Seppala names his undersized husky after what?

A Japanese admiral: Seppala names the runt Togo after Tōgō Heihachirō, victor of Tsushima; the dog is 12 when the 1925 serum relay begins, and Seppala gambles on a shortcut across Norton Sound's breaking ice.

In Klaus, how many letters must Jesper post from Smeerensburg within a year?

6,000 letters within a year is the quota Jesper's father sets before cutting him off; Sergio Pablos's hand-drawn debut won the BAFTA for animated film and was Netflix's first animated Oscar nominee.

In Rise of the Guardians, Jack Frost finally discovers that his 'center' is what?

Fun: Jack realises his center is fun when he remembers saving his sister by turning her plunge toward thin ice into a game; Chris Pine voices him in this adaptation of William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood books.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) won its only Oscar in which category?

Best Makeup went to Howard Berger and Tami Lane, largely for the fauns and the White Witch; the film's other two nominations, for sound mixing and visual effects, lost. It took $745 million worldwide.

In Frozen II, King Runeard's dam was built in the homeland of which tribe?

Northuldra: Runeard built the dam as a supposed gift to the Northuldra, whose Enchanted Forest homeland it secretly weakened; the tribe was modelled on the Sámi, whom Disney consulted. The sequel grossed $1.45 billion.

In Abominable (2019), teenager Yi finds a yeti on her apartment roof in which city?

Shanghai: Yi finds the yeti hiding on the roof of her apartment block in the city and names him Everest; DreamWorks co-produced with China's Pearl Studio, and the film was originally titled Everest.

In Arthur Christmas, what is Santa's high-tech delivery vessel called?

The S-1 is the vast cloaked spaceship that replaced the reindeer sleigh, run from Mission Control by Arthur's brother Steve; their father Malcolm is the 20th hereditary Santa, and Aardman made the film with Sony.

Touching the Void recounts a near-fatal 1985 descent of Siula Grande in which country?

Peru: Siula Grande stands in the Cordillera Huayhuash of the Peruvian Andes; Simon Yates cut the rope, and Joe Simpson survived the crevasse and crawled for three days back to base camp on a broken leg.

Force Majeure's family watches a controlled avalanche from a restaurant deck in which mountains?

The French Alps: the family's ski holiday is at Les Arcs in Savoie; Ruben Östlund's Swedish title is Turist, and Tomas's own phone video exposes him fleeing the avalanche while his family stayed put.

In The Mountain Between Us, Idris Elba and Kate Winslet's plane crashes in which wilderness?

The High Uintas: the charter plane comes down in Utah's High Uintas Wilderness after pilot Walter (Beau Bridges) suffers a fatal stroke mid-flight without having filed a flight plan; his Labrador survives too.

In the 2009 film Whiteout, US Marshal Carrie Stetko is stationed at which Antarctic base?

Amundsen–Scott, the US station at the South Pole, is Stetko's post in the film (the comic placed her at McMurdo); Kate Beckinsale hunts a killer after cargo from a Soviet plane lost in 1957.

Ice Station Zebra (1968) loosely adapts a novel by which thriller writer?

Alistair MacLean published the novel in 1963; Rock Hudson's USS Tigerfish sails from Holy Loch to the Arctic, and both book and film drew on the 1959 loss of the Discoverer 2 satellite capsule near Spitsbergen.

Who conceived the idea for Blades of Glory but ended up with only a story credit?

Busy Philipps shares the story credit with Craig and Jeff Cox, having pitched the premise of two rival male skaters; banned from singles, Chazz and Jimmy enter pairs as the first male-male team.

How many hours of community service does Gordon Bombay get in The Mighty Ducks?

500 hours of community service is the sentence for Bombay's drunk-driving arrest, served coaching District 5; Disney founded the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim the year after the 1992 film.

Studio boss Darryl Zanuck insisted Miracle on 34th Street be released in which month?

May: Zanuck reasoned more people went to the cinema in warm weather, so the film opened in May 1947 with trailers hiding its Christmas plot; Edmund Gwenn still won Best Supporting Actor as Kris Kringle.

White Christmas (1954) was the first film released in which Paramount widescreen process?

VistaVision, Paramount's answer to CinemaScope, ran 35mm film horizontally for a sharper image and debuted with White Christmas; Irving Berlin wrote the songs, and Bing Crosby had first sung the title number in 1942's Holiday Inn.

In White Christmas, the snowless inn stands in Pine Tree, in which state?

Vermont: the Columbia Inn at Pine Tree, Vermont, has no snow and no guests, and General Waverly has sunk his savings into it; the snow finally falls as everyone sings the title song.

Bill Murray's Frank Cross in Scrooged runs which TV network?

IBC: Frank Cross is the ruthless president of the IBC network, staging a live Scrooge on Christmas Eve; Murray called the shoot 'misery', and the film lost the makeup Oscar to Beetlejuice.

Bad Santa's Willie and Marcus work the Saguaro Square Mall in which city?

Phoenix: the pair pose as a mall Santa and elf at the Saguaro Square Mall in the Arizona city; the Coen brothers executive-produced, and the film is dedicated to John Ritter, whose last live-action role it was.

In The Santa Clause, Bernard gives Scott Calvin until which holiday to report to the North Pole?

Thanksgiving is Bernard's deadline for Scott to report to the North Pole under the fine-print 'Santa clause'; Scott is a toy-company marketing director in Lakeside, Illinois, who put on the suit after Santa fell off his roof.

Which action figure do the rival dads chase across Minneapolis in Jingle All the Way?

Turbo Man is the sold-out toy Howard and mailman Myron fight over on Christmas Eve; Fox was briefly ordered to pay $19 million to a writer claiming the idea was his, before the verdict was overturned on appeal.

In Serendipity, Sara writes her number inside a copy of which novel?

Love in the Time of Cholera: Sara writes her name and number inside a used copy of the García Márquez novel and sells it, leaving fate to return it to Jonathan; his number goes on a five-dollar bill.

How much cash do the brothers find in the crashed plane in A Simple Plan?

$4.4 million in cash is what Hank, Jacob and Lou find in a snowbound wreck; Sam Raimi directed Scott B. Smith's adaptation of his own novel, and Danny Elfman scored it.

The Ice Storm's 1973 neighbours swap partners at what kind of gathering?

Key party: the New Canaan couples drop their car keys in a bowl and go home with whoever draws them; Ang Lee adapted Rick Moody's novel, and James Schamus won the screenplay prize at Cannes.

Frozen River's two mothers smuggle migrants into the US across which frozen waterway?

The St. Lawrence: Ray and Lila drive migrants across the frozen river through the Mohawk reservation straddling the New York–Quebec border; Courtney Hunt's debut won Sundance's Grand Jury Prize and earned Melissa Leo an Oscar nomination.

In Norway's Dead Snow, holidaying students are attacked by zombies dressed as what?

WWII Nazi soldiers: Tommy Wirkola's horror-comedy raises a platoon of undead Germans guarding gold they looted near Øksfjord in 1945; one student pocketing a coin seals the group's fate.

Never Cry Wolf (1983) adapts a 'subjective non-fiction' book by which Canadian author?

Farley Mowat's 1963 book recounts his Arctic summer studying wolves for the Canadian government; the film's biologist Tyler finds the wolves eating mice, not caribou, and puts himself on an all-mouse diet to test it.

Iron Will's 1917 dog-sled race runs from Winnipeg to which US city?

Saint Paul: the 522-mile race ended at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival in 1917; Will Stoneman is modelled on young racer Fred Hartman, though the real winner was Albert Campbell, a Métis musher from Manitoba.

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Blofeld's allergy clinic sits atop which Alpine peak?

Piz Gloria is the name Blofeld gives his clinic on the Schilthorn above Mürren, and the revolving restaurant there kept it; George Lazenby's only Bond outing inspired Inception's snow sequence, Christopher Nolan said.

Inception's snow-fortress assault was shot at Fortress Mountain, in which Canadian province?

Alberta: Fortress Mountain, a ski resort in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary, hosted the set, which took three months to build near the top chairlift; the crew then waited for a real blizzard to arrive.

Hot Tub Time Machine sends its friends back to Kodiak Valley ski resort in which year?

1986: the friends land at Kodiak Valley's Winterfest '86 after a Russian energy drink, Chernobly, spills on the hot tub's console; Lou stays behind to get rich on foreknowledge, founding 'Lougle'.

In Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ellie the mammoth was raised believing she is what?

An opossum: Ellie was raised by possums and hangs by her tail like her adoptive brothers Crash and Eddie; the valley's ice wall turns out to be a dam about to burst.

Cold Mountain is set in North Carolina but was mostly shot in which country?

Romania: Anthony Minghella shot most of it in Transylvania, where the lack of power lines and untouched landscape passed for 1860s Carolina; Tom Cruise wanted to play Inman but the studio balked at his $20 million fee.