Fast Times at Ridgemont High Trivia
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45 free Fast Times at Ridgemont High trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High began as a stunt: a 22-year-old Rolling Stone writer enrolled at a San Diego high school under a fake name and spent a year taking notes. The 1982 film that came out of it launched Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates and Judge Reinhold, gave Nicolas Cage and Eric Stoltz their first screen credits, and put 'dude' into the language. This quiz covers the whole picture: the characters and who played them, the mall jobs and the pirate uniform, Spicoli's running war with Mr. Hand, the pool scene that nearly earned an X rating, the soundtrack fights between the director and the producers, the box office, and what became of everyone in the closing captions. There are a few questions on Cameron Crowe's undercover year and Amy Heckerling's later career, too. Difficulty ranges from things any fan remembers to details only the DVD commentary crowd will know. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on the film, its writer, its director and its star, and each question shows its source.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in her feature-film debut?
Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling had made only student films when producer Art Linson showed her the script; she pushed to set even more of the story in the mall, and later returned to high school with Clueless.
Q 02Fast Times writer Cameron Crowe based his later film Almost Famous on his teenage years writing for which magazine?
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone made Crowe its youngest-ever contributor and sent him on tour with the Allman Brothers at 16; a few years later he went back to school undercover for the book behind Fast Times.
Q 03In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, what does Spicoli have delivered to himself during Mr. Hand's class?
A pizza
A pizza: the delivery man who strolls into Mr. Hand's lesson is comedian Taylor Negron, who reprised the bit years later in the film Vamps.
Q 04Who plays the perpetually stoned surfer Jeff Spicoli?
Sean Penn
Sean Penn plays Spicoli in only his second film, after the 1981 military-school drama Taps, and the character's surfer slang helped popularise the word 'dude'.
Q 05What subject does Mr. Hand, Spicoli's nemesis, teach?
History
History is Mr. Hand's subject, and he gets his revenge on the night of the last dance by turning up at Spicoli's house to deliver a lengthy private lecture.
Q 06Who plays Mr. Hand?
Ray Walston
Ray Walston, TV's My Favorite Martian, took the part after Fred Gwynne turned it down over the script's 'nasty stuff', and played Mr. Hand again in the 1986 TV spin-off.
Q 07Who plays 15-year-old Stacy Hamilton?
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh, then 19, prepared to play Stacy by rereading her own high-school diaries and letters; she later earned an Oscar nomination for The Hateful Eight.
Q 08Which actress plays Linda Barrett, Stacy's worldly best friend?
Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Cates plays Linda in her second film, after Paradise; the part was first offered to Justine Bateman, who turned it down to star in the sitcom Family Ties.
Q 09Who plays Brad Hamilton, Stacy's older brother?
Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold plays Brad; Nicolas Cage auditioned for the role but, at 17, was judged too young and got a bit part instead.
Q 10Who plays the smooth-talking ticket scalper Mike Damone?
Robert Romanus
Robert Romanus plays Damone, the scalper whose 'attitude' lessons to Rat end with him ditching Stacy after their encounter in the pool house.
Q 11Who plays Mark 'Rat' Ratner, the shy usher who falls for Stacy?
Brian Backer
Brian Backer plays Rat; the character was modelled on Andy Rathbone, a student Crowe befriended undercover who later wrote Windows For Dummies.
Q 12Where does Stacy work at the mall?
Perry's Pizza
Stacy works at Perry's Pizza in the Ridgemont Mall, across from the cinema where Rat ushers, which is how he keeps running into her.
Q 13Where is Brad Hamilton working at the start of Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
All-American Burger
Brad starts the film as a senior fry cook at All-American Burger, until a shouting match with a customer demanding a refund gets him fired.
Q 21Who is the 26-year-old stereo salesman Stacy lies about her age to date?
Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson, a 26-year-old stereo salesman, takes 15-year-old Stacy to 'the Point' after she claims to be 19, then sends flowers and vanishes.
Q 22Where does Stacy lose her virginity to the stereo salesman?
A baseball dugout
A baseball dugout is where the salesman takes Stacy on their date; he sends flowers the next day and then disappears, and the pool house comes later, with Damone.
Q 23What word does Linda spray-paint on Damone's car and locker after learning how he treated Stacy?
Prick
Linda sprays 'Prick' across Damone's car and locker after he fails to pay his share for Stacy's clinic visit; Rat then confronts him in the locker room.
Q 14What is Brad dressed as at the job he quits over mockery of his uniform?
A pirate
A pirate, for Captain Hook Fish & Chips; Cameron Crowe's future wife Nancy Wilson has a cameo as the girl in a car who laughs at it.
Q 15Which real band did Nancy Wilson, who cameos as the 'Beautiful Girl in Car', belong to?
Heart
Nancy Wilson was Heart's guitarist alongside her sister Ann; she married Cameron Crowe in 1986 and later scored his films Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.
Q 16Under what name was the future Leaving Las Vegas star credited in his feature debut as Brad's co-worker?
Nicolas Coppola
Nicolas Cage was billed as Nicolas Coppola, his birth name, and changed it soon after to escape comparisons with his uncle Francis Ford Coppola.
Q 17Which future Oscar winner plays star football player Charles Jefferson?
Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker, who plays Charles Jefferson, had gone to college on a football scholarship before a back injury turned him to music and acting; he later won the Best Actor Oscar for The Last King of Scotland.
Q 18What kind of car belonging to Charles Jefferson does Spicoli wreck?
A Camaro
A Camaro: Spicoli wrecks it while driving Jefferson's younger brother to a party, then makes it look as if fans of a rival school did the damage.
Q 19Which rival school does Ridgemont rout after Spicoli pins the car wreck on its fans?
Lincoln High
Lincoln High takes the blame for the wrecked car, and a furious Jefferson takes it out on Lincoln's players in a 42-0 rout.
Q 20What is the name of the science teacher, played by Vincent Schiavelli, who swears off coffee?
Mr. Vargas
Mr. Vargas is the biology teacher; the closing captions say he switched back to coffee, and Schiavelli reprised the role in the 1986 TV series.
Q 24Brad's final job, where he foils an armed robbery, is at which store?
Mi-T-Mart
Brad's third job is at the Mi-T-Mart, where he scalds a robber with hot coffee after Spicoli wanders in as a distraction; the postscript makes him manager.
Q 25According to the closing captions, whose concert tickets got Damone busted for scalping?
Ozzy Osbourne
The closing caption says Damone was arrested for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and ended up working at a 7-Eleven.
Q 26The postscript says Spicoli blows a reward on hiring which band to play his birthday party?
Van Halen
Van Halen got it all: the closing captions say Spicoli earned the money by saving a drowning celebrity, then spent the lot on a single night's entertainment.
Q 27Which celebrity does the postscript say Spicoli rescued from drowning?
Brooke Shields
The closing captions say Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning and earned a reward, which he promptly blew on a party band.
Q 28Which Cars song plays over the famous pool fantasy scene despite being left off the soundtrack album?
Moving in Stereo
'Moving in Stereo', from The Cars' 1978 debut album, was never released as a single in the US, yet its use in this scene made it famous.
Q 29Which Go-Go's song is the opening theme of Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
We Got the Beat
'We Got the Beat' plays over the opening sequence, yet the Go-Go's hit was left off the soundtrack album, which carries their song 'Speeding' instead.
Q 30Which Jackson Browne single from the Fast Times soundtrack reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100?
Somebody's Baby
'Somebody's Baby', written with Danny Kortchmar for the film, became the highest-charting single of Jackson Browne's career and his last top-ten hit.