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50 free Goodfellas trivia questions with answers. Goodfellas is the mob movie that other mob movies get measured against, and this quiz treats it that way. Fifty questions run from the opening narration to the closing shot, taking in the cast, the improvised scenes, the soundtrack choices, the awards, and the real Lucchese crew whose lives Nicholas Pileggi turned into Wiseguy. It starts gently (who plays Henry, what Billy Batts says about the shine box) and works up to production trivia only obsessives know: how many frames were cut for an R rating, why the Copa shot goes through the kitchen, and how much the real Henry Hill was paid before cameras rolled. If you host movie trivia nights, the whole set is free to lift. Every answer was checked against the film's own credits, Wikipedia and Wikiquote entries, and the pages on the real people involved, and each question carries its source. No fan-forum guesses, no recycled listicle errors.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Goodfellas is adapted from which 1985 nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi?
Wiseguy
Scorsese read it while making The Color of Money and cold-called Pileggi to say he had been waiting for the book his whole life; Pileggi replied he had been waiting for the phone call.
Q 02Which actor plays Henry Hill, the film's narrator?
Ray Liotta
Warner Bros. wanted a bigger name; the part came his way after De Niro saw him in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild.
Q 03Which cast member won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Goodfellas?
Joe Pesci
It was the film's only Oscar win out of six nominations.
Q 04Robert De Niro plays which character in Goodfellas?
Jimmy Conway
Once De Niro signed on, Scorsese was finally able to secure the money to make the film.
Q 05Complete Henry's opening line: "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a ___."
gangster
The next sentence explains that to him it was better than being President of the United States.
Q 06Which character demands "I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you?"
Tommy DeVito
The scene was worked up in rehearsal improvisations, recorded, and only then written into the shooting script.
Q 07Who plays Karen Hill?
Lorraine Bracco
She chose not to meet the real Karen, saying she wanted the creation to come from her, and earned an Oscar nomination for it.
Q 08Who plays Paulie Cicero, the crew's capo?
Paul Sorvino
The actor said the hardest part was finding the character's kernel of coldness, which he considered the opposite of his own nature.
Q 09Jimmy's crew raids the JFK Airport vault of which airline in the film's 1978 robbery?
Lufthansa
The real haul was about $5.875 million, then the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil.
Q 10Henry and Tommy's first major score, in 1967, robs the cargo terminal of which airline?
Air France
The real Henry Hill and Tommy DeSimone walked in with an empty suitcase and walked out with about $420,000; no alarm was ever raised.
Q 11Which song plays over the long tracking shot as Henry leads Karen into the Copacabana?
Then He Kissed Me
The Crystals recording has since turned up in Adventures in Babysitting and Long Shot, but this is the scene everyone thinks of.
Q 12How much cocaine, by value, does Karen say she flushed down the toilet during the raid?
$60,000
That flush left the Hills penniless and pushed Henry toward the only exit he had left.
Q 13Henry's frantic final day as a free man, tracked by helicopters, is stamped with which date on screen?
May 11, 1980
The sequence opens with Harry Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire" and its drum solo returns right before the arrest in the driveway.
Q 21Whose version of "My Way" plays over the end credits?
Sid Vicious
There is no music at all from Henry's driveway arrest until that snarling punk cover kicks in.
Q 22In his final narration, Henry complains he now has to live the rest of his life like an average what?
Schnook
His other grievance: he ordered spaghetti marinara and got egg noodles and ketchup.
Q 23How many Academy Award nominations did Goodfellas receive?
6
Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing; only the Supporting Actor statue came home.
Which film beat Goodfellas to Best Picture at the 63rd Academy Awards?
Q 14When Paulie cuts Henry loose for dealing drugs, how much cash does he hand him?
$3,200
The gesture also revokes Henry's protection, making him fair game for Jimmy.
Q 15Which future Sopranos star plays Spider, the card-game bartender Tommy shoots?
Michael Imperioli
He later wrote five episodes of The Sopranos and co-wrote Spike Lee's Summer of Sam.
Q 16Who plays Billy Batts, the made man Tommy beats in Henry's club?
Frank Vincent
He and Joe Pesci had been a stand-up double act in the 1970s; Pesci's character kills his in Goodfellas, and the favor is returned in Casino.
Q 17Billy Batts taunts Tommy by telling him to go home and get his what?
Shine box
The real Bentvena reportedly asked Tommy DeSimone if he still shined shoes; two weeks later he was dead.
Q 18Which future Pulp Fiction star plays Stacks Edwards, who fails to dispose of the getaway van?
Samuel L. Jackson
The real Parnell Edwards parked the van outside his girlfriend's apartment instead of taking it to a New Jersey junkyard, and police found it two days later.
Q 19Tommy's mother, who serves the crew a late-night meal, is played by whom?
Catherine Scorsese
The director's mother also published a cookbook, Italianamerican, and turned up in several of her son's films.
Q 20Which song plays over the montage of murdered crew being found after the airport robbery?
Layla
Scorsese had the piano coda playing on set so the camera moves could be timed to it.
Dances with Wolves
Kevin Costner's debut also took Best Director over Scorsese, one of the most argued-about results in Oscar history.
Q 25What was the Best Supporting Actor winner's entire acceptance speech for Goodfellas?
"It's my privilege. Thank you."
It remains one of the shortest speeches in Oscar history; he was off the stage in seconds.
Q 26At the 1990 Venice Film Festival, Goodfellas earned Scorsese which prize?
The Silver Lion
The film premiered there on September 9, 1990, nine days before its US release.
Q 27How many actors does Goodfellas share with HBO's The Sopranos?
27
David Chase has said the film inspired the series, especially the dinner at Tommy's mother's house.
Q 28How much was the real Henry Hill paid two weeks before filming began?
$480,000
The cast did not actually meet him until a few weeks before the premiere; he told Ray Liotta he loved the film.
Q 29The Copacabana tracking shot needed eight takes because which performer kept flubbing his lines?
Henny Youngman
The comedian is on stage at the end of the shot; the whole thing had to restart from the street each time.
Q 30Why does the famous Copa shot go in through the kitchen instead of the main entrance?
The crew could not get permission to use the short way in
Scorsese then decided to make it one unbroken take to show Henry's whole life opening up ahead of him.