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50 free Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was panned by half the critics in 1969, became the year's top-grossing film anyway, won four Oscars, gave Robert Redford the name of a film festival and turned Paul Newman and Redford into the definitive movie buddies. William Goldman spent eight years researching the real outlaws before writing a screenplay one studio rejected because 'John Wayne don't run away.' This quiz covers the film front to back — the superposse, the cliff jump, the bicycle, 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head,' Bolivia and the freeze-frame — plus the casting near-misses (Jack Lemmon, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty), the Utah and Mexico locations, the reviews, the awards and the legacy that runs from The Sting to Sundance. It also covers the real Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh: how they got their nicknames, the Wild Bunch, Etta Place and what probably happened in San Vicente in 1908. Every answer is checked against a reference source and each question links to where the fact was confirmed.
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Q 01Who directed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
George Roy Hill
Hill reunited Newman and Redford four years later for The Sting, which won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.
Q 02Who wrote the screenplay, his first original script, and won an Oscar for it?
William Goldman
Goldman researched the outlaws intermittently for eight years; the Writers Guild later ranked the script 11th among the 101 greatest ever written.
Q 03According to Goldman, why did one studio head reject the script the first time around?
'John Wayne don't run away'
The executive would only buy it if the heroes did not flee to South America. Goldman changed 'a few pages' and suddenly every studio wanted it.
Q 04Which line of F. Scott Fitzgerald's did Goldman say inspired him to tell the outlaws' story?
'There are no second acts in American lives'
The point was that Butch and Sundance disproved it: they ran to South America and had a second act, becoming more legendary there than in the old West.
Q 05Which actor turned down the role of Sundance because he disliked riding horses?
Jack Lemmon
McQueen backed out after disagreements with Newman, and Beatty passed because it felt too much like Bonnie and Clyde. Redford simply liked the script.
Q 06In which 1974 disaster film did Paul Newman and Steve McQueen finally team up?
The Towering Inferno
McQueen and Newman had both agreed to do Butch Cassidy at the same time before McQueen walked.
Q 07Who plays Etta Place?
Katharine Ross
Bisset was a top contender for the part. Ross reprised Etta in the 1976 TV movie Wanted: The Sundance Woman.
Q 08In the film, what is Etta Place's profession?
Schoolteacher
She teaches the outlaws enough Spanish to rob Bolivian banks; the real Etta's identity remains a mystery, with theories ranging from teacher to prostitute.
Q 09In what year and state does the film open?
1898, Wyoming
Butch leads the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, and has to win a knife fight against Harvey Logan to keep the job.
Q 10How does Butch keep control of the gang when a rival challenges him for leadership?
He wins a knife fight after a sneaky kick
He then uses the challenger's own idea of robbing the same train on both its eastbound and westbound runs.
Q 11Which railroad do Butch and Sundance rob twice, drawing the wrath of its boss E. H. Harriman?
Union Pacific
Harriman pays a six-man 'superposse' to stay on their trail until both are dead — prompting the film's refrain, 'Who are those guys?'
Q 12What goes wrong during the second train robbery?
Butch uses too much dynamite and blows up the baggage car
As the gang scrambles for the scattered cash, a second train arrives carrying the six-man posse.
Q 13How do Butch and Sundance finally shake the posse?
They jump off a cliff into a river
Q 21What was Robert Redford's initial objection to 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'?
There was no rain in the film
'At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was,' he later admitted, as the song became a giant hit.
Q 22How many Academy Awards did the film win from its seven nominations?
Four
Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score and Original Song; it lost Best Picture to Midnight Cowboy.
Q 23Which cinematographer won the first of his three Oscars for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
Conrad Hall
He won again for American Beauty and Road to Perdition; the sepia opening and the Bolivian sequences are among the film's most admired images.
The jump follows the famous exchange in which Sundance admits he can't swim and Butch replies that the fall will probably kill him anyway.
Q 14To which South American country do the trio flee?
Bolivia
The real outlaws went to Argentina first; the film's South American scenes were shot in Mexico, at Taxco, Cuernavaca and Estudios Churubusco.
Q 15What are Butch and Sundance called once they start robbing banks south of the border?
Los Bandidos Yanquis
Their run of success collapses when they spot a man in a white straw skimmer and fear Harriman's posse has followed them.
Q 16What honest job do the pair briefly take after fleeing the U.S.?
Mining-company payroll guards
Their boss Percy Garris is killed by bandits on their first run, and Butch shoots a man for the first time in his life.
Q 17How are Butch and Sundance tracked down for the final shootout?
A boy recognizes the brand on their stolen burro
Wounded and holed up in a building, they charge out unaware the police have been reinforced by the Bolivian Army.
Q 18How does the film end?
On a freeze-frame of the pair charging out, with gunfire on the soundtrack
The frozen sepia image spares the audience the deaths, which the real outlaws probably met in San Vicente in November 1908.
Q 19Who wrote 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'?
Burt Bacharach and Hal David
It won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and Bacharach also won Best Original Score; some crew felt a pop song had no place in a Western.
Q 20Who sang 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' in the film?
B. J. Thomas
Ray Stevens was offered it first and passed, and Bob Dylan was reportedly approached too; the record topped the Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970.
Q 24Which Utah ghost town, 'the most photographed in the West,' served as a location?
Grafton
Zion National Park, Snow Canyon and St. George were also used; the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon remains a film-tourism stop.
Q 25Where did the film hold its world premiere on September 23, 1969?
New Haven, Connecticut
Newman, Joanne Woodward, Redford, Hill and Goldman attended at the Roger Sherman Theater; it opened in New York the next day.
Q 26How did the film rank at the U.S. box office among 1969 releases?
It was the year's top grosser
It eventually returned nearly $46 million in rentals and grossed over $100 million despite 'mixed to terrible' New York reviews.
Q 27What word did Roger Ebert use for the movie 20 years after his lukewarm 1969 review?
Turkey
He gave it two and a half stars in 1969, and Gene Siskel called it 'too cute to be believed'; both were baffled by its success.
Q 28What did Robert Redford rename his Utah ski resort after making the film?
Sundance
The resort was Timp Haven before; the Sundance Institute followed in 1981 and the festival took the name in 1991.
Q 29Which 1973 film reunited Newman, Redford and their Butch Cassidy director?
The Sting
It won seven Oscars including Best Picture; Hill made Slap Shot with Newman and The Great Waldo Pepper with Redford separately.
Q 30Which 1970s TV series about two outlaws seeking amnesty was inspired by the film?
Alias Smith and Jones
Pete Duel and Ben Murphy starred; Mad magazine also parodied the film as 'Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid.'