Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Christine Trivia (Stephen King's Killer Car) trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Christine is the car that fixes herself. Stephen King's novel came out in April 1983 and John Carpenter's film followed that December, and between them they gave horror one of its most recognisable monsters: a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury with a backwards-running odometer and a jealous streak. This Christine trivia quiz covers both versions of the story: Arnie Cunningham's transformation from bullied nerd to greaser, his friend Dennis, his girlfriend Leigh, the bitter old owner Roland LeBay, Will Darnell's garage, Buddy Repperton's gang and the detective who never quite proves anything. It also digs into the making of the film: how many cars were bought and destroyed, why the studio wanted Brooke Shields and Scott Baio, who turned the lead down for Footloose, the twin-sister prank the director never noticed, how the regeneration scenes were shot, the George Thorogood and Johnny Ace songs on the radio, what King himself thought of the movie, and the differences between the book and the screen (a septic truck versus a bulldozer, Pennsylvania versus California). Easy questions for anyone who has seen the film, harder ones for readers of the novel. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, the film, the car and the cast, and each question quotes its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Christine is what make and model of car?
1958 Plymouth Fury
Only 5,303 were built, and the real ones came in just one colour, so the film's fleet was padded out with Plymouth Belvederes and Savoys.
Q 02Stephen King has said the idea for Christine came to him when he watched what happen on his own car?
The odometer roll from 9999.9 to 10,000
That gave him the notion of an odometer that ran backwards, making the car younger instead of older.
Q 03Arnie, the bullied teenager who buys Christine, has what surname?
Cunningham
His full name is Arnold; his acne clears up and his confidence grows as he restores the car, along with a nastier streak borrowed from its previous owner.
Q 04In the novel, how much does Arnie pay for Christine?
$250
Dennis lists the damaged engine block, cracked windscreen and flat tyres, and the backwards odometer, and Arnie buys her anyway.
Q 05The novel is set in Libertyville, a fictional suburb of which city?
Pittsburgh
The film moved the story to Rockbridge, California, and shot largely around Los Angeles.
Q 06What is the name of Christine's bitter original owner, whose spirit possesses the car in the novel?
Roland LeBay
He wears a back brace, and as Arnie takes on his personality he ends up in a back brace too. In the film it is his brother George who sells the car.
Q 07In the novel, how did LeBay's young daughter die?
She choked to death in the car
His wife then killed herself in the front seat by carbon-monoxide poisoning; the film makes the child a five-year-old niece and has both brother and sister-in-law die by suicide.
Q 08Arnie restores Christine at a do-it-yourself garage run by which small-time crook?
Will Darnell
In the novel he uses Arnie as a courier for his smuggling; in the film Christine crushes him against the steering wheel.
Q 09Arnie's girlfriend Leigh, the pretty new student who comes to see Christine as a rival, has what surname?
Cabot
After nearly choking to death during a date in the car she vows never to get into Christine again.
Q 10Which bully, expelled from school and blaming Arnie, leads the gang that vandalises Christine?
Buddy Repperton
His first name is Clarence; Christine kills him and all but one of his gang in the novel, and the last one four years later, in Los Angeles.
Q 11What is the name of the state police detective who suspects Arnie?
Rudolph Junkins
He is run off the road and killed in the novel; the film lets him survive to watch Christine crushed into a cube.
Q 12In the novel, what do Dennis and Leigh use to batter Christine to pieces?
A septic tanker truck
The film swapped it for heavier machinery; in both versions the wreck is then crushed, and in the novel one of the officers feeding it in says 'it bit him'.
Q 13How does Arnie die in the novel?
In a highway crash with his mother
Q 21Alexandra Paul's identical twin sister Caroline once did what during filming?
Secretly took her place in a scene
The director was not told until after he had shot it; Caroline later wrote that her 'highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie'.
Q 22John Stockwell, who plays Dennis, later appeared as which pilot in Top Gun?
Cougar
He went on to direct Blue Crush, Into the Blue and Turistas.
Q 23Which veteran character actor plays the state police detective in the film?
Harry Dean Stanton
He had just played Brain in Escape from New York for the same director and would make Repo Man the following year.
Witnesses suggested LeBay's spirit tried to possess him and Arnie fought back, causing the wreck. The film kills him on a shard of windshield glass instead.
Q 14Where did the ALA rank Christine on its list of most challenged books of 1990-1999?
95th
Reviewers were lukewarm too: Kirkus called it over-long but 'popcorn-readable' and the New York Times found the dialogue 'phony and manipulative'.
Q 15Which director made the 1983 film of Christine?
John Carpenter
He took it as 'a job' after The Thing flopped, and later admitted he did not find the book very frightening.
Q 16Which 1979 Stephen King miniseries had Richard Kobritz produced, leading King to send him Christine?
Salem's Lot
King sent him two manuscripts, Cujo and Christine; Kobritz bought Christine for its 'celebration of America's obsession with the motorcar'.
Q 17Who plays Arnie in the film?
Keith Gordon
He had been in Jaws 2 and later became a director, with episodes of Dexter, Homeland, Fargo and Better Call Saul to his name.
Q 18Which actor auditioned for the film but dropped out when he was offered the lead in Footloose?
Kevin Bacon
The studio had wanted TV star Scott Baio as Arnie; the filmmakers chose relative unknowns instead.
Q 19Columbia wanted which star of The Blue Lagoon for the role of Leigh?
Brooke Shields
The part went to 19-year-old Alexandra Paul, who had never read a King novel or seen one of the director's films.
Q 20Alexandra Paul, who plays Leigh, later spent five seasons on which TV series?
Baywatch
She played lifeguard Stephanie Holden from 1992 to 1997.
Q 24Roberts Blossom (George LeBay) is best remembered as which scary neighbour in a 1990 comedy?
Old Man Marley in Home Alone
He also appeared in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Escape from Alcatraz.
Q 25Who plays the gruff owner of the garage where Arnie rebuilds the car?
Robert Prosky
A stage veteran, he became a familiar 1980s face through Thief, The Natural and Broadcast News.
Q 26The film's opening scene shows Christine's malevolence begin where?
On the Detroit assembly line in 1957
The hood slams on a worker's hand and another man is found dead inside after dropping cigar ash on the seat. The novel instead blames LeBay's spirit.
Q 27Where does Leigh nearly choke to death in the film?
At a drive-in theater
Christine locks the doors to keep Arnie from helping; a passing theatre-goer performs the Heimlich manoeuvre.
Q 28Which song plays on Christine's radio as Arnie dies in the film?
Pledging My Love
It was recorded by Johnny Ace, who died on Christmas Day 1954 after accidentally shooting himself backstage in Houston.
Q 29Which George Thorogood song, released in 1982, became forever associated with Christine after the film?
Bad to the Bone
The soundtrack LP was released on Motown Records and also included Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Dion.
Q 30Who co-wrote the film's electronic score with the director?
Alan Howarth
The pair also scored Escape from New York, Halloween II and Halloween III together.