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60 free James Cameron trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This James Cameron trivia quiz starts in Kapuskasing, Ontario, and ends at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. In between it covers the physics dropout who drove trucks and taught himself special effects in the USC library, the consortium of dentists who paid for his first short, the model shop at Roger Corman's studio, the fever dream that became The Terminator and the one-dollar script sale that let him direct it. From there the questions move through Aliens, The Abyss and its nuclear-plant water tanks, Terminator 2 and the Porsche-versus-Panzer casting logic, True Lies, the fourteen nominations and eleven Oscars for Titanic, the twelve-year box-office record Avatar finally broke, the Way of Water and Fire and Ash sequels, and the sideline careers: Dark Angel, the deep-sea documentaries, National Geographic, the Deepsea Challenger and the shuttle flight he turned down. There are also questions on his five marriages, the ransom he paid for Guillermo del Toro's father, the New Zealand citizenship and the frog named after him. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Terminator, Titanic (1997 film) and Avatar quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01James Cameron was born in 1954 in Kapuskasing, in which Canadian province?
Ontario
His father was an electrical engineer and his mother an artist and nurse; he later attended school in Niagara Falls.
Q 02At 17, Cameron's family moved from Chippawa to which California city?
Brea
Classmates remembered him building things that 'either went up into the air or into the deep' rather than playing sports.
Q 03Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College in 1973 to study which subject before switching to English?
Physics
He left at the end of 1974 and worked as a truck driver and a high school janitor.
Q 04Where did the young James Cameron teach himself special effects by reading other students' work?
The USC library
He was working odd jobs at the time; a certain 1977 space opera soon made him quit truck driving for good.
Q 05Which 1977 film prompted Cameron to quit his job as a truck driver and enter the film industry?
Star Wars
Two decades later Star Wars creator George Lucas would present him with an American Academy of Achievement award.
Q 06Cameron funded his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978), by borrowing money from a group of what?
Dentists
He said learning to direct on the job felt like a doctor performing his first surgery.
Q 07Cameron's early studio job was as a miniature model maker for which low-budget producer?
Roger Corman
He rose to art director on Battle Beyond the Stars and did effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York.
Q 08Cameron's first credit as director of a major film was on the sequel to which 1978 horror movie?
Piranha
He was hired as visual effects director on Piranha II: The Spawning and took over after Miller Drake left; power struggles with the producer meant it never felt like his first film.
Q 09Besides John Carpenter's Halloween, what inspired Cameron to write The Terminator?
A nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man
The dream was of a killer sent from the future to assassinate him.
Q 10For how much did Gale Anne Hurd buy Cameron's Terminator script, on condition that he direct?
One dollar
Studios liked the script but not the unknown director; Hemdale Pictures agreed to make it with Hurd producing.
Q 11Which actor from Cameron's previous film was considered for the Terminator lead before Schwarzenegger?
Lance Henriksen
Cameron thought Schwarzenegger's bodybuilder physique suited the cyborg villain better; Henriksen got a smaller role.
Q 12Cameron wrote a draft for the sequel to which Sylvester Stallone film in 1984?
First Blood
Stallone rewrote it and it was released as Rambo: First Blood Part II.
Q 13Which actor did Cameron replace with Michael Biehn during production of Aliens?
James Remar
Despite the turmoil, Aliens earned over $130 million and seven Oscar nominations, winning for Sound Editing and Visual Effects.
Q 21Cameron's 1994 Schwarzenegger spy comedy remade La Totale!, a 1991 film from which country?
France
La Totale! became a $100 million-plus Schwarzenegger vehicle; Jamie Lee Curtis won a Golden Globe for it.
Q 22Cameron first met his long-time producer Jon Landau while Landau was overseeing which film for Fox?
True Lies
Cameron said in 2024 that he 'lured' Landau away from Fox to Lightstorm.
Q 23Cameron reunited the T2 cast in 1996 for T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at which theme park?
Universal Studios Florida
Versions later opened at other Universal parks around the world.
Q 14The Abyss was filmed largely in huge water tanks reclaimed from what kind of facility?
An unfinished nuclear power plant
The plant was in South Carolina; cast and crew remembered the water scenes as physically and mentally exhausting.
Q 15Cameron first conceived the idea for The Abyss at what stage of his life?
During high school
The story of oil-rig workers meeting intelligent ocean life ran well over its initial $41 million budget.
Q 16Cameron co-founded Lightstorm Entertainment in 1990 with whom?
Lawrence Kasanoff
The company later signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for his 1994 spy comedy.
Q 17Cameron was executive producer of which 1991 surfing-bank-robbers film directed by Kathryn Bigelow?
Point Break
He and Bigelow were married from 1989 to 1991; he later co-produced her Strange Days.
Q 18Why did Cameron cast Robert Patrick as the T-1000?
His lean, thin appearance contrasted with Schwarzenegger
Cameron's phrase: if the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, the T-1000 is a Porsche.
Q 19Terminator 2 was the first film to earn over what sum worldwide?
$300 million
It also set the opening-weekend record for an R-rated film and won four Oscars.
Q 20Cameron co-founded which visual effects company in 1993?
Digital Domain
He had already started Lightstorm Entertainment; Earthship Productions for deep-sea documentaries followed in 1998.
Q 24Where was the full-size Titanic replica built for the 1997 film?
Rosarito Beach, Mexico
Principal photography began there in September 1996 after Cameron had dived to the real wreck for footage.
Q 25Titanic's fourteen Oscar nominations tied the record set by which 1950 film?
All About Eve
Its haul of wins tied Ben-Hur, a mark later matched by The Return of the King.
Q 26How many Academy Awards did Titanic win?
Eleven
Accepting Best Picture, Cameron and Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence for the roughly 1,500 people who died in the sinking.
Q 27For how many years did Titanic hold the title of highest-grossing film of all time?
Twelve
The film that finally beat it in 2010 was Cameron's own Avatar.
Q 28Whose screenplay was used for the 2002 Spider-Man film after Cameron's version died?
David Koepp
The studio had hired Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas; disagreements led Cameron to walk away.
Q 29Cameron's 2000 television debut, Dark Angel, starred which actress as super-soldier Max Guevara?
Jessica Alba
Co-created with Charles H. Eglee, it drew on cyberpunk and third-wave feminism and was cancelled after its second season.
Q 30Cameron's documentary Expedition: Bismarck was about what?
A German battleship
It preceded Ghosts of the Abyss, his 3D return to the Titanic wreck released by Disney and Walden Media.