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50 free Blood in Blood Out trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Blood In Blood Out opened on thirty screens in 1993 under a title the studio had changed out of fear, made about a million dollars its first weekend, and then spent three decades becoming one of the most quoted films in Mexican-American households. This quiz follows Miklo, Paco and Cruz from the Vatos Locos of East L.A. to San Quentin and La Onda, and covers the production too: Jimmy Santiago Baca's autobiographical script, the real inmates who appear as extras, Adan Hernandez's 'Chicano Noir' paintings, the plywood mural and the Disney executives who got nervous after the 1992 riots. Every answer is explained, so even people who can quote the whole movie may learn how it got made.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Blood In Blood Out?
Taylor Hackford
He took over after his company New Visions Pictures folded, seeing a chance to make a hard-edged prison film in the tradition of White Heat.
Q 02Under what alternate title was the film released in 1993?
Bound by Honor
The studio changed the name after a theater fistfight at a Las Vegas screening, fearing the original title might incite violence.
Q 03The screenplay is partly autobiographical, drawn from the life of which poet?
Jimmy Santiago Baca
Hackford credits him with most of the final story; he also cameos as an inmate on the La Onda council.
Q 04The film follows three Chicano relatives over which span of years?
1972 to 1984
They begin as members of a street gang in East Los Angeles and end up on very different sides of the law.
Q 05What does the phrase 'blood in, blood out' refer to?
Kill to join, die to leave
It is also the motto of La Onda in the film.
Q 06Miklo Velka leaves which city for East Los Angeles after a fight with his abusive father?
Las Vegas
He moves in with his cousins Paco and Cruz in 1972.
Q 07What is the name of the street gang the cousins belong to?
Vatos Locos
Miklo joins after an attack on their rivals; the rivals retaliate by permanently damaging Cruz's back.
Q 08What is the name of the rival gang whose leader Miklo kills?
Tres Puntos
Their leader is Spider; fleeing the scene, Paco crashes the car and both he and Miklo are arrested.
Q 09In which prison does Miklo serve his murder sentence?
San Quentin
The filmmakers were allowed to shoot inside its walls, and real inmates and staff appear on screen.
Q 10Instead of prison, Paco volunteers for which branch of the military?
Marine Corps
Afterward he joins the LAPD and ends up working as an undercover detective.
Q 11Cruz's heroin addiction leads to the accidental overdose of which relative?
His younger brother Juanito
Cruz turned to the drug for the back pain caused by the Tres Puntos attack.
Q 12Which of the prison's three gangs does Montana Segura lead?
La Onda
He stops Popeye's attempted rape of Miklo, judging his intentions dishonorable, and later opposes the gang entering the drug trade.
Q 13Who leads the Black Guerrilla Army in the film?
Bonafide
He later agrees to a truce with Montana in the prison yard to stop a Black–Chicano war.
Q 21Who is later revealed to have sent the forged orders for Montana's killing, at Miklo's behest?
Magic
As Miklo burns the evidence, Magic swears his life to him as his jefe.
Q 22What does Miklo do when the council is split up and sent to prisons in other states?
Expands the gang across the Southwest
The warden had vowed to send council members to prisons in other states.
Q 23In the final scene, Paco visits one of whose murals in East Los Angeles?
Cruz's
He realizes that by ordering Miklo after Spider he made Miklo what he became, and forgives them both.
Q 14What is the name of the Aryan Vanguard leader?
Red Ryder
The three prison gangs are fictional, loosely based on the Aryan Brotherhood, the Black Guerrilla Family and the Mexican Mafia.
Q 15Whom does Miklo kill in the prison kitchen to earn his place in La Onda?
Big Al
He first builds a rapport with the Aryan Vanguard associate, then kills him; the only way in is to kill a rival gang member.
Q 16After how many years in prison is Miklo first granted parole?
Nine
Disgusted by his menial job on the outside, he joins an armed robbery that goes wrong.
Q 17What happens to Miklo after Paco shoots him in the leg during the robbery?
He loses the leg and returns to prison
Paco had tried to persuade him to surrender peacefully; Miklo ran instead.
Q 18Which drug's spread through the prison drives the second half of the plot?
Cocaine
Competing supplies from the BGA and La Onda council member Carlos set up the war Montana fears.
Q 19Which La Onda council member breaks away to work with the Aryan Vanguard in the drug trade?
Carlos
His brother Smokey bombs the BGA's stash house; the Aryans then let the BGA murder him, just as Montana predicted.
Q 20Montana is stabbed to death just before a visit from whom?
His daughter
He had been granted a special request for the visit after being allowed to tour other prisons to end the violence.
Q 24Who plays Miklo Velka?
Damian Chapa
He went on to play Ken Masters in the 1994 Street Fighter film, Raúl Juliá's last.
Q 25Which actor plays Paco Aguilar?
Benjamin Bratt
The same year he played Officer Alfredo Garcia in Demolition Man, before his Law & Order run as Rey Curtis.
Q 26Who plays the artist Cruz Candelaria?
Jesse Borrego
He was a regular on the TV series Fame for its final three seasons and later played Gael Ortega on 24.
Q 27Which actor is best known for playing Montana?
Enrique Castillo
Vincent Canby of The New York Times singled out his performance for praise.
Q 28Danny Trejo, who plays Geronimo, had actually served time in which prison?
San Quentin
The production filmed inside its walls, and then-inmates and staff appear as extras.
Q 29Which actor turned down the chance to both direct and star in the film?
Edward James Olmos
He cited creative differences; the others listed were also considered for roles.
Q 30Which novelist wrote the first script for the project in the early 1980s?
Ross Thomas
Producer Jerry Gershwin hired him; the project first developed under director Harold Becker.