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50 free Full Metal Jacket trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Full Metal Jacket is two films in one, and this quiz covers both halves. Forty-one questions take in the Parris Island boot camp, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman's abuse, the jelly doughnut, the blanket party and Private Pyle's breakdown, then the Tet Offensive, Stars and Stripes, the Lusthog Squad, the sniper in Hue and the Mickey Mouse March. There are questions on the novel The Short-Timers and its troubled author Gustav Hasford, Michael Herr's screenplay, and the Oscar nomination. The production story is a quiz in itself: R. Lee Ermey talking his way from technical adviser into the role of a lifetime, the tennis balls Kubrick's assistant threw at him, the toxic Beckton Gas Works and Norfolk Broads standing in for Vietnam, D'Onofrio's 70-pound weight gain, the actors who turned the parts down, and the score written by Kubrick's daughter under a false name. Easy questions ask which war it depicts; hard ones want the Irish number one single and the character Kubrick himself voiced. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, novel and cast, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Full Metal Jacket?
Stanley Kubrick
It was the last of his films released in his lifetime, arriving twelve years before Eyes Wide Shut.
Q 02The film is based on which 1979 autobiographical novel?
The Short-Timers
Kubrick found it in the Kirkus Review, read it twice and called it 'a unique, absolutely wonderful book'.
Q 03Who wrote the source novel and shared screenplay credit on the film?
Gustav Hasford
He had been a Marine combat correspondent during the Tet Offensive of 1968.
Q 04Michael Herr, Kubrick's co-writer, was the author of which Vietnam memoir?
Dispatches
Kubrick first contacted him in 1980 to discuss a Holocaust film before switching to Vietnam.
Q 05The film's title refers to what?
A type of bullet
A full metal jacket round has a soft core encased in harder metal.
Q 06Where does the boot camp half of the film take place?
Parris Island, South Carolina
In reality it was shot at Bassingbourn Barracks, a former RAF station in Cambridgeshire.
Q 07How does Private J. T. Davis earn the nickname 'Joker'?
By mocking Hartman
Hartman, in turn, names the overweight Leonard Lawrence 'Gomer Pyle'.
Q 08What does Hartman find in Pyle's footlocker during an inspection?
A jelly doughnut
From then on the platoon is punished for every mistake Pyle makes, which leads to the blanket party.
Q 09In what skill does Pyle unexpectedly excel after the blanket party?
Marksmanship
Joker starts to worry when he catches Pyle talking to his rifle.
Q 10Where does Joker find Pyle with a loaded rifle on the last night at Parris Island?
The barracks latrine
Pyle is reciting the Rifleman's Creed; he shoots Hartman, then himself.
Q 11Which rifle does Pyle load in the latrine scene?
An M14
In Hue, Joker's M16 jams at the worst possible moment.
Q 12In Vietnam, Joker works as a sergeant for which publication?
Stars and Stripes
He is based in Da Nang with the combat photographer Rafter Man when the Tet Offensive begins.
Q 13What is the nickname of the unit Joker joins in the second half of the film?
The Lusthog Squad
His friend Cowboy from Parris Island is already in it.
Q 14The film's second half unfolds during the fight for which city?
Q 21R. Lee Ermey was originally hired on the film in what capacity?
Technical adviser
Kubrick first told him he was not vicious enough, so Ermey improvised insults at a group of Royal Marines to prove otherwise.
Q 22In which 1978 film had Ermey already played a Marine drill instructor?
The Boys in Company C
He also played a helicopter pilot in Apocalypse Now while advising Coppola.
Q 23What did Kubrick's assistant Leon Vitali throw at Ermey while he rehearsed his lines?
Tennis balls and oranges
Any slip meant starting over, and 20 error-free runs were required. 'He was my drill instructor,' Ermey said.
Hue
Platoon leader 'Mr. Touchdown' Schinoski is killed as they enter the city.
Q 15How is squad leader 'Crazy Earl' killed?
A booby-trapped rabbit toy
Cowboy takes command, and the squad promptly gets lost in the city.
Q 16The sniper who pins down the squad in Hue turns out to be whom?
A teenage girl
Rafter Man mortally wounds her and Joker, after hesitating, delivers the mercy killing.
Q 17Which character shoots the wounded sniper to end her suffering?
Joker
Animal Mother agrees to the mercy killing only if Joker himself does it.
Q 18What do the Marines sing as they head toward the Perfume River at the end?
The Mickey Mouse March
Joker's closing narration says he is 'in a world of shit' but alive, and not afraid.
Q 19Who plays Private Joker?
Matthew Modine
He kept an on-set diary that became a book in 2005 and an app in 2013.
Q 20How much weight did Vincent D'Onofrio gain to play Private Pyle?
70 pounds
Kubrick called Pyle 'the hardest part to cast in the whole movie'; Modine suggested D'Onofrio.
Q 24How many hours a day did Ermey yell at the recruits while filming the Parris Island scenes?
10
Ermey and the recruits did not rehearse together, so their reactions stayed fresh.
Q 25What sidelined Ermey for four and a half months during filming?
A car crash that broke several ribs
Filming stretched from August 1985 to August 1986.
Q 26Which actor was originally slated to play Hartman and was given the door gunner role as a consolation?
Tim Colceri
Ed Harris turned Hartman down and later called the decision 'foolish'.
Q 27Kubrick spent nine months trying unsuccessfully to cast which actor as Joker?
Anthony Michael Hall
Hall later regretted it; Bruce Willis declined a role because of Moonlighting.
Q 28The ruined city of Hue was recreated at which East London location?
Beckton Gas Works
The site was contaminated with asbestos and hundreds of other chemicals; Modine called the shoot difficult.
Q 29Which former RAF station in Cambridgeshire served as the Parris Island boot camp?
Bassingbourn Barracks
Kubrick famously refused to leave England, so Vietnam and South Carolina both came to him.
Q 30Who was the film's production designer, hired on the strength of The Company of Wolves?
Anton Furst
He went on to win an Oscar for Tim Burton's Batman.