96 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?

A stagecoach stopover called Minnie's Haberdashery is the refuge; Tarantino dropped the film when its script leaked online in 2014, then changed his mind after staging a live reading of it.

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

K2, the world's second-highest peak, traps a climbing party in a crevasse; the rescuers haul canisters of nitroglycerine up the mountain to blast a way in.

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

Alaska's summer midnight sun, on top of his guilt, keeps Al Pacino's big-city detective awake in Nightmute, a town played on screen mainly by Squamish in British Columbia.

Which horned figure of Alpine folklore, a dark companion of Saint Nicholas, stalks a family in a 2015 horror-comedy?

Krampus comes for those who have lost their festive spirit; in the film the family's grandmother admits she summoned him herself as a child, and he spared her alone as a reminder.

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

Copenhagen police call it a fall from the roof, but Smilla reads the boy's footprints in the snow and sees that he ran straight for the edge; Bille August filmed Peter Høeg's bestseller.

Which actress plays the title role in Carol, Todd Haynes's 2015 romance that begins in a Manhattan department store at Christmas?

Cate Blanchett's Carol leaves her gloves on the toy counter; when shopgirl Therese posts them back, a thank-you lunch begins their affair.

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

London's Covent Garden houses the shop; the plot takes the Wham! lyric literally, as Kate learns that the heart transplanted into her a year earlier came from Tom.

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

Oslo is Harry Hole's beat in this adaptation of Jo Nesbø's novel; director Tomas Alfredson blamed its muddled plot on a rushed shoot that left 10 to 15 per cent of the script unfilmed.

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 of Andersen's 1844 tale is a villain who carries off a boy named Kai; Disney's writers struggled with her for years until they made her the heroine's sister.

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

The Lion King remake passed Frozen's $1.28 billion in August 2019, though its own director said the photorealistic film was neither animation nor live action.

In Home Alone, the McCallisters fly to which city, leaving Kevin behind?

Paris is the family's destination: a power cut stops the alarm clocks overnight, and in the scramble for the airport nobody remembers the boy sent to sleep in the attic.

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

John Hughes got the idea while packing for a family holiday: listing what he must not forget, he wondered what one of his children would do if left at home.

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

After his diaper's brand label: the orphan had crawled unseen into Santa's sack, and Papa Elf adopted him, so Buddy grows to adulthood believing he is an elf.

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

The Empire State Building is where Buddy first walks in on his father, who takes him for a singing Christmas-gram and has him thrown out.

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.

Which star, then in his seventies, was contractually owed first refusal on Die Hard's lead role?

Frank Sinatra had starred in The Detective in 1968, and the novel behind Die Hard was that story's sequel, so the studio had to offer him the part before anyone else; he said no.

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

Brainerd's police chief is seven months pregnant when the roadside killings land on her desk; the title city, over the state line in North Dakota, is merely where the kidnap is arranged in a bar.

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, whose script opens by claiming to be a true story; Joel Coen has since called it 'completely made up'.

The Revenant dramatises the 1823 ordeal of which real frontiersman?

Hugh Glass, as the story goes, was mauled by a grizzly and left for dead by his companions, then crawled and stumbled some 200 miles to Fort Kiowa.

Who directed The Revenant, winning a second straight Best Director Oscar?

Alejandro G. Iñárritu insisted on shooting by natural light alone, and when Canada turned too warm for snow before he had finished, he took the crew to the tip of Argentina to film the ending.

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

Calgary 1988 ended in a crash for the real Jamaicans too, but where the film's team carries the sled over the line to a standing ovation, they simply walked beside it.

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

Cheating ended Irv Blitzer's career as a champion, and Derice tracks the disgraced coach down working as a bookie; it was the last John Candy film released in his lifetime.

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

Woodstock, Illinois, doubled for Punxsutawney, and plaques there now mark where scenes were shot, among them the pothole Phil keeps stepping 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 restarts every loop; director Harold Ramis first put Phil's ordeal at about ten years, then decided it had to be more like thirty or forty.

Frank Capra's 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.

The 1946 film 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, young George Bailey loses the hearing in one ear after saving whom from an icy pond?

His brother Harry went through the ice, and the cold George caught pulling him out cost him an ear; Harry grows up to win the Medal of Honor for saving a troopship from a kamikaze.

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

Tom Hanks played six parts by motion capture, the conductor, the hobo and Santa Claus among them, having optioned the book in 1999 in the hope of playing the conductor.

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

Herb Brooks had been the last player cut from the 1960 US team that went on to win Olympic gold; twenty years later he coached the college players who won it again.

In Miracle, the Soviets rout the US 10–3 in a pre-Olympic exhibition at which arena?

Madison Square Garden staged the rout on 9 February 1980; thirteen days later at Lake Placid the same Americans beat the same Soviets 4–3, the 'Miracle on Ice'.

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

Dead cockroaches, the rebels discover, are ground into the blocks they are fed; Curtis later confesses that before the blocks came, the starving tail section had turned to cannibalism.

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

Who Goes There? appeared in 1938 under Campbell's pen name, Don A. Stuart; Carpenter brought back its shape-shifting creature, where the 1951 film version had made do with a single humanoid.

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

Blue Sky Studios began in 1987 making effects for commercials and films before Ice Age made its name; Disney inherited the studio when it bought Fox and shut it down in 2021.

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

Spain stood in for Russia: a replica Moscow rose on a lot outside Madrid, and when an unusually mild winter brought no snow, the crew faked it with marble dust and went to Finland for real drifts.

The ice-planet Hoth scenes in The Empire Strikes Back were filmed on a glacier in which country?

Norway's Hardangerjøkulen glacier played Hoth in March 1979, in weather so wild that many shots were grabbed just outside the door of the crew's hotel at Finse.

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

A tauntaun carcass, slit open with Luke's own lightsaber, keeps him warm until Han can put up a shelter; Obi-Wan's 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.

In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel skips work on Valentine's Day and takes a train to which Long Island town?

Montauk is where the two first met, and as that last memory is wiped Clementine tells Joel to meet her there; the title is a line from Alexander Pope's poem Eloisa to Abelard.

The 2008 vampire film Let the Right One In, remade in the US as Let Me In, comes from which country?

Sweden: in a snowbound Stockholm suburb, bullied 12-year-old Oskar befriends Eli, the child next door; when he refuses to invite the vampire in, Eli steps inside anyway and starts to bleed.

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

Best Costume Design went to Jacqueline Durran, who gave each March sister a core colour to wear: red for Jo, green and lavender for Meg, brown and pink for Beth, light blue for Amy.

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 took his cue from The Coming Global Superstorm, a book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, and sold the script by sending it to every major studio at once with his terms attached.

In Eddie the Eagle, which actor plays Bronson Peary, a coach the screenwriters invented?

Hugh Jackman's Bronson Peary never existed: the real Edwards learned from two American coaches at Lake Placid, jumping in borrowed boots so big that he wore six pairs of socks.

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

Allison Janney had the part written for her by the screenwriter, Steven Rogers, an old friend, and shared the screen with a live bird perched on her shoulder.

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?

Nome was icebound when diphtheria broke out, so relays of sled dogs carried the antitoxin in; Balto led the final leg, though Togo's team ran the longest and most dangerous stretch.

Alive (1993) dramatises the 1972 Andes plane crash that stranded which country's rugby team?

Uruguay's Old Christians rugby club had chartered the flight; the survivors held out for 72 days, until two of them walked for ten days across the mountains to fetch help.

In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads plane-crash survivors who are stalked through the snow by which animals?

Wolves: Neeson's Ottway is a sharpshooter paid to keep them off oil workers; the film cuts to black as he charges the alpha, and only a brief shot after the credits hints at how the fight ended.

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, since renamed Utqiaġvik, is the town the vampires overrun; Steve Niles had failed to sell the story as a film before IDW published it in 2002 as a comic drawn by Ben Templesmith.

Which Jon Krakauer bestseller recounts the disaster filmed as Everest?

Into Thin Air came out of Krakauer's assignment on the mountain for Outside magazine; he appears as a character in the 2015 film, which he denounced, saying some of its details were made up.

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.

Which actor became the third Rusty Griswold in Christmas Vacation?

Johnny Galecki, later of The Big Bang Theory, played Rusty opposite Juliette Lewis's Audrey; the Griswold children were recast for every theatrical Vacation film.

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.

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

Surrey: the cottage was only a shell, built in a field beside the church at Shere, and Dustin Hoffman's video-shop cameo was unscripted, since he had simply come in to rent a film.

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 it in a San Francisco warehouse because Burton, tied up with Batman Returns, had no wish to spend years on stop-motion; 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 are told by Jack to keep their master Oogie Boogie out of it, and deliver Santa straight to him anyway; 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 from New York for the holiday when a snowstorm diverts his flight to Wichita; improvisation by Steve Martin and John Candy produced a first cut of nearly four hours.

Which action star plays mountain rescuer Gabe Walker in the 1993 thriller Cliffhanger?

Sylvester Stallone, who also shares the writing credit, plays a climber in the Colorado Rockies, yet most of the peaks on screen are Italy's Dolomites, filmed around Cortina d'Ampezzo.

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

Svalbard stood in for Antarctica, with Greenland and Canada; six of the film's eight dogs survive, but on the real 1958 Japanese expedition behind the story only two of fifteen did.

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, Jesper is sent to the island town of Smeerensburg to do which job?

Postman: his father gives him a year to post 6,000 letters or lose the family fortune, so he gets the children writing to a reclusive toymaker, and the legend of Santa Claus is born.

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

Fun: Jack's recovered memories show that he died saving his sister from a frozen pond, and he uses fun to rally the children whose belief revives the Guardians; Chris Pine voices him.

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

Best Makeup went to Howard Berger and Tami Lane; Berger's team had inherited creature designs drawn up for computer animation and spent three months reworking them into things that could be built.

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

Northuldra: Runeard's dam was a ruse to drain the tribe's resources, not a gift; the Northuldra were modelled on the Sámi, and Disney signed an agreement with Sámi leaders on how to portray them.

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, which present does Arthur race to deliver after Santa's high-tech operation misses one child?

A bicycle for a girl in Cornwall slips off the conveyor belt unseen; Arthur sets out with it before dawn in the old wooden sleigh that Grandsanta had hidden to save it from being scrapped.

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 is on a ski holiday at Les Arcs when Tomas, filming the oncoming snow on his phone, bolts and leaves his wife and children at the table; the Swedish title is Turist.

Which actor plays the surgeon stranded with Kate Winslet's journalist after a plane crash in The Mountain Between Us?

Idris Elba's surgeon and Winslet's journalist hire a small plane when their flight is cancelled; the pilot has filed no flight plan, dies of a stroke over Utah's High Uintas, and leaves them his dog.

Which actress plays US Marshal Carrie Stetko, hunting a killer at the South Pole, in the 2009 thriller Whiteout?

Kate Beckinsale's marshal is about to leave the Amundsen–Scott station before winter closes in when a body turns up on the ice, and the trail leads to a Soviet cargo plane lost in 1957.

In Blades of Glory, which actor plays Jimmy MacElroy, the rival who becomes Will Ferrell's pairs partner?

Jon Heder's Jimmy and Ferrell's Chazz are banned for life after a brawl on the podium, then spot that the ban covers singles only; Heder broke his ankle in skating practice, which held up the shoot.

In The Mighty Ducks, lawyer Gordon Bombay must coach hockey after which offence?

Drunk driving earns Bombay community service coaching a pee-wee team of misfits; after the film came out, Disney founded a real NHL team and named it the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

In Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Kris Kringle is hired to play Santa at which New York department store?

Macy's hires him after its parade Santa turns up drunk; told to push overstocked toys, Kris sends a mother to another shop for the fire engine her son wants, and wins the store her loyalty.

Which crooner sings the title song in White Christmas (1954), twelve years after introducing it in Holiday Inn?

Bing Crosby's partner was meant to be Fred Astaire, who read the script and said no; Donald O'Connor then fell ill just before shooting, and Danny Kaye stepped in.

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.

Which actor plays Frank Cross, the ruthless TV boss haunted by three ghosts, in the 1988 comedy Scrooged?

Bill Murray came back from a four-year break after Ghostbusters to play him, with brothers Brian and John in the cast, and later recalled a fair amount of misery on the shoot.

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

Phoenix is just the latest stop: every year the pair take jobs as a mall Santa and his elf so they can rob the place on Christmas Eve; 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.

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.

In A Simple Plan, what do two brothers find in a crashed plane?

Millions in cash, $4.4 million of it, sits in the wreck; the men agree to sit on it until spring, and the plan to keep it quiet ends in lies and murder.

In The Ice Storm, the 1973 neighbours attend 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 over the frozen river through the Mohawk reservation that straddles the Canadian 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 troop of undead Germans guarding valuables they looted near Øksfjord as the war was ending; one student pocketing a gold coin seals the group's fate.

In Never Cry Wolf, a biologist sent to show that Arctic wolves are wiping out the caribou finds they mostly eat what?

Mice: finding the wolves living on them rather than on caribou, the biologist tests whether a large animal can do the same by eating nothing but mice himself; the film adapts Farley Mowat's 1963 book.

Disney's Iron Will follows a teenager through a gruelling 1917 race from Winnipeg to Minnesota by what means?

Dog sled: the real race ran 522 miles to Saint Paul; the film's Will Stoneman is drawn from an American entrant, Fred Hartman, though the man who actually won was Albert Campbell, a Métis racer.

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

Piz Gloria was Ian Fleming's invention; the film found it on the Schilthorn above Mürren, and the revolving restaurant there has used the name ever since. Christopher Nolan modelled Inception's ski chase on the film.

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.

Which 1980s teen-comedy star plays Adam in Hot Tub Time Machine?

John Cusack, who also produced, plays Adam; a spilled Russian energy drink sends the four back, and Lou stays behind in the past to get rich by founding a company called Lougle.

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

An opossum: Ellie was raised by a family of possums beside her adoptive brothers Crash and Eddie; meanwhile the ice wall around the valley turns out to be a dam on the point of bursting.