42 (Movie)
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50 free 42 (Movie) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The movie 42 tells how Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and what it cost him to stay silent while crowds, opponents and even teammates tried to drive him out. Baseball itself arranged screenings for thousands of students when the film came out, and it still works as a way into the history. This quiz follows the film from the first scouting trip to the pennant race: what happens in the key scenes, which moments really took place and which were invented, the actors behind the uniforms, and how a long-gone ballpark was put back on screen. A few questions step outside the film to the real season and the people around it. It suits anyone who has just watched the movie, teachers who want a multiple-choice check after a class viewing, and baseball fans curious about how closely Hollywood kept to the record. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which then little-known actor played Jackie Robinson in 42 after auditioning twice for the role?
Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Boseman won the part by choosing to read its hardest scene at his audition. He had been directing an off-Broadway play and was weighing giving up acting altogether.
Q 02Which actor wore a fat suit and prosthetics to play Dodgers boss Branch Rickey in the film 42?
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford also studied Hall of Fame recordings to master Rickey's voice. The director had wanted a character actor for the part, but the star's persistence changed his mind.
Q 03Which Kentucky-born Dodgers shortstop puts his arm around Jackie Robinson before a jeering crowd in 42?
Pee Wee Reese
Pee Wee Reese had refused to join his teammates' protest against Robinson that spring. A statue of the two men side by side was unveiled in Brooklyn in 2005.
Q 04In the film 42, what does Branch Rickey ask Jackie Robinson to do when opponents hurl abuse at him?
Never hit back
Never hit back was the promise Rickey wanted in a three-hour meeting in August 1945. Robinson agreed to turn the other cheek, and Rickey signed him for $600 a month.
Q 05Which Negro leagues team is Jackie Robinson playing shortstop for when a Dodgers scout finds him in 42?
Kansas City Monarchs
Kansas City Monarchs paid Robinson $400 a month, and he played only 47 games at shortstop for them. The club's most famous player was the pitcher Satchel Paige.
Q 06Who hosted a White House screening of 42 for students, joined by Jackie Robinson's widow?
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama held the screening in the State Dining Room ten days before the film opened. She told the 80 students that she and the president had found it very powerful.
Q 07The film 42 was the breakthrough for a lead actor who later played which Marvel superhero?
Black Panther
Black Panther made him a global star in 2018, five years after 42. He was the first Black actor to headline a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
Q 08Which brand-new baseball award did Jackie Robinson win for 1947, the Dodgers season dramatised in the film 42?
Rookie of the Year
Rookie of the Year was handed out for the first time in 1947, and Robinson took it. Forty years later both leagues' versions of the award were renamed in his honour.
Q 09As the film 42 recalls, Jackie Robinson faced a wartime court-martial after refusing to do what?
Move back on an Army bus
Told to move back on an Army bus, Robinson stayed where he was and was arrested. An all-white panel of nine officers acquitted him, and he was honourably discharged later that year.
Q 10Which relief pitcher was the last player to wear 42 after baseball retired it league-wide for Jackie Robinson?
Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera kept the number under a grandfather clause until he retired in 2013, the year the film came out. No number had been retired across a whole major American league before.
Q 11In 42, where is Jackie Robinson caught in a racial confrontation when a Dodgers scout approaches him?
At a gas station
At a gas station is where the scout catches up with him, sent by Rickey to bring him to Brooklyn. That same scout later ran the Dodgers on the day Robinson made his big-league debut.
Q 12Which Dodgers farm team does Jackie Robinson play for in 42 before he is called up to Brooklyn?
Montreal Royals
Montreal Royals got four hits from Robinson in his very first game, including a three-run homer. He spent a single season in Canada before Brooklyn called him up.
Q 13In which Florida city does Jackie Robinson begin spring training with his minor-league club in 42?
Daytona Beach
Q 21Which St. Louis Cardinals outfielder spikes Jackie Robinson's leg with his cleats during a game in 42?
Enos Slaughter
Enos Slaughter left Robinson with a seven-inch gash. In the film Robinson calms his furious teammates and tells them to concentrate on winning the game instead.
Q 22In 42, Jackie Robinson's home run off Fritz Ostermueller clinches the pennant against which team?
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ostermueller beans Robinson earlier in the film, but the real pitch never reached his head. The real Ostermueller also threw left-handed, not right-handed as on screen.
Q 23Which Black sportswriter, barred from the press box, travels with Jackie Robinson as his chronicler in 42?
Wendell Smith
Daytona Beach let Robinson play when other Florida towns locked their ballparks or called games off. The ballpark where he made his debut there now carries his name.
Q 14In 42, what do some Dodgers players draw up in spring training to keep Jackie Robinson off the team?
A petition
A petition went round the clubhouse until the manager called the players together and told them Robinson was staying. Its organiser was traded away after the season.
Q 15Which fiery Dodgers manager tells rebelling players in 42 that Robinson stays, then is suspended for a year?
Leo Durocher
Leo Durocher, known as Leo the Lip, was banned for a year just days before Opening Day. A coach ran the team for the first games until a retired manager agreed to take over.
Q 16Which unfamiliar position does Jackie Robinson learn in Panama in 42 so he can crack the Dodgers lineup?
First base
First base was new to Robinson, who had played second in the minors, because Brooklyn already had a second baseman it trusted. He moved back to second the following year.
Q 17Which Philadelphia Phillies manager taunts Jackie Robinson with racial slurs from the dugout in 42?
Ben Chapman
Ben Chapman's abuse backfired: Rickey said it did more than anything to unite the Dodgers behind Robinson. The Phillies fired him the following season, and he never managed in the majors again.
Q 18In 42, what does Jackie Robinson do alone in the stadium tunnel after enduring the Phillies manager's abuse?
Smashes his bat
Smashes his bat against the wall, then weeps: it is the film's rawest scene. It was invented for the screen, and the lead actor picked it to read at his audition.
Q 19In 42, what does the Phillies' general manager force his manager to do with Jackie Robinson after bad press?
Pose for a photograph
Pose for a photograph they did, and the real picture survives. Robinson later wrote that standing beside the man was one of the hardest things he ever made himself do.
Q 20In 42, a hostile crowd at Crosley Field jeers Jackie Robinson until a teammate embraces him in which city?
Cincinnati
Cincinnati sits just across the river from Kentucky, the teammate's home state. Accounts differ on whether the real gesture came there or in Boston, and in 1947 or 1948.
Wendell Smith had recommended Robinson to Rickey in the first place. His newspaper paid for him to travel with Robinson, who had to stay in separate hotels from his teammates.
Q 24Ed Charles, the boy who idolises Jackie Robinson in 42, grew up to win the 1969 World Series with which team?
New York Mets
New York Mets fans knew him as the Glider, and at 36 he was the oldest of the Miracle team. He wrote poetry about baseball and racism during his years in the minors.
Q 25In 42, what does a young Florida fan do once the train carrying Jackie Robinson has pulled away?
Puts his ear to the rail
Puts his ear to the rail, to keep hearing the train: the real Ed Charles said he did exactly that as a boy. The film adds a ball tossed to him by Robinson, which never happened.
Q 26Which popular Dodgers outfielder, known as the People's Cherce, joins the clubhouse revolt against Robinson in 42?
Dixie Walker
Dixie Walker was a batting champion and a Brooklyn favourite, so his opposition carried weight. He wrote to Rickey asking for a trade and left for another club after the season.
Q 27The pennant won at the end of 42 sent Jackie Robinson's Dodgers to the 1947 World Series against which team?
New York Yankees
New York Yankees beat Brooklyn in seven games, with Robinson the first Black player to appear in a World Series. The Dodgers lost to them three more times before finally winning in 1955.
Q 28At which university was Jackie Robinson, the hero of 42, the first athlete to letter in four sports?
UCLA
UCLA knew him best as a football star: baseball was his weakest sport there, and he hit .097 in his only season. He also won the 1940 NCAA long jump title.
Q 29Rachel Robinson, a consultant on the film 42, built her own career in which profession, later teaching it at Yale?
Nursing
Nursing took her from a bachelor's degree in 1945 to a psychiatric master's and an assistant professorship at Yale. After Jackie's death she founded the foundation that bears his name.
Q 30Which actress read the real couple's love letters to prepare to play Rachel Robinson in the film 42?
Nicole Beharie
Nicole Beharie thought the letters, written while Jackie was on the road, told an incredible love story. A Juilliard graduate, she went on to lead the TV series Sleepy Hollow.