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50 free Kindergarten Cop trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kindergarten Cop is the movie where the Terminator loses a battle of wills to 30 five-year-olds and a ferret wins the day. Ivan Reitman's 1990 comedy sent Arnold Schwarzenegger's LAPD detective John Kimble undercover in a small Oregon classroom, made about $202 million, and left behind a stack of endlessly quoted lines. This quiz has 50 questions on all of it: the plot and characters, the Astoria locations and the real school used for filming, the actors who nearly got the part, the child actors who went on to bigger things, the score, the reviews, the box office fight with Home Alone, the Criterion April Fools' prank and the direct-to-video sequel with Dolph Lundgren. It runs from easy questions anyone who has seen the film once can answer to production details for people who own the 4K disc. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia, Wikiquote and the source cited under each question, so if you argue with a result you'll at least be arguing with a citation. Play it solo, or use it as the movie round at a 90s-themed trivia night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Kindergarten Cop?
Ivan Reitman
It was Reitman's second film with Schwarzenegger, and he later directed him again in Junior.
Q 02What is the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger's detective character in Kindergarten Cop?
John Kimble
Matrix, Slater and Tasker are his characters in Commando, Last Action Hero and True Lies.
Q 03Kimble goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in which small Oregon town?
Astoria
The town had already hosted The Goonies and Short Circuit, and would later host Free Willy.
Q 04Kindergarten Cop was the second collaboration between Reitman and Schwarzenegger. What was the first?
Twins
Twins co-star Danny DeVito was even considered for Kimble, until Reitman decided his height made the cop less believable.
Q 05Which two actors were initially approached to play Kimble before Schwarzenegger?
Bill Murray and Patrick Swayze
Danny DeVito was also considered, but the director felt his height would make the cop less believable.
Q 06Roughly how many children did Reitman and Michael Chinich audition for the pupils' roles?
More than 2,000
One of the kids who auditioned and didn't get a part later became a very famous hobbit.
Q 07Which future Lord of the Rings star auditioned unsuccessfully for a role in Kimble's class?
Elijah Wood
Wood made his film debut that same year in Back to the Future Part II and Internal Affairs.
Q 08The film's fictional school exteriors were shot at which real Franklin Avenue school?
John Jacob Astor
Universal painted murals, added playground equipment and a lawn, and shot mostly after school let out in June 1990 so pupils could be extras.
Q 09Where were the interior classroom scenes filmed?
Universal Studios in Hollywood
The film's opening chase, by contrast, was shot in two shopping malls near Los Angeles.
Q 10The class picnic scene was filmed at Ecola State Park, near which Oregon coastal town?
Cannon Beach
The park is about 25 miles south of the main location; highway scenes were shot on U.S. Route 26 east of Seaside.
Q 11The film's opening scene was shot at Westfield MainPlace Mall and South Coast Plaza, both in which state?
California
Santa Ana and Costa Mesa stood in for Los Angeles before the production moved north to Oregon.
Q 12Who composed the score for Kindergarten Cop, including the widely reused theme "Rain Ride"?
Randy Edelman
Edelman scored several Reitman comedies, and his Kindergarten Cop themes have turned up in trailers, ads and even Disney's Mulan.
Q 13Which studio released Kindergarten Cop in North America on December 21, 1990?
Universal Pictures
It went on to gross more than $200 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of the year.
Q 21What animal does Kimble bring to class as the mascot, and which later bites the villain?
A ferret
When a kid asks what happened to his dog, Kimble deadpans: "This is not a dog. This is a ferret."
Q 22After recovering from her illness, Kimble's partner O'Hara stays in town posing as what?
His Austrian sister
O'Hara was originally meant to be the substitute teacher; she gets sick, so the detective with no patience for kids takes the job.
Q 23What is the true identity of Joyce, the fellow teacher Kimble grows close to?
Rachel, the drug lord's ex-wife
Q 14Approximately how much did Kindergarten Cop gross worldwide?
$202 million
That split as $91.4 million in North America and $101.5 million internationally.
Q 15In the week of January 8, 1991, Kindergarten Cop was second at the US box office behind which film?
Home Alone
Home Alone had opened in November and simply refused to leave the top spot for months.
Q 16What grade did audiences polled by CinemaScore give Kindergarten Cop?
A−
Critics were less generous: Rotten Tomatoes has it at 54%, and its consensus calls the film too grim for kids and too cloying for adults.
Q 17How many stars did Roger Ebert award Kindergarten Cop?
Three
Entertainment Weekly was harsher, giving it a C and predicting it wouldn't be a mega hit. It made over $200 million.
Q 18On April Fools' Day 2012, Kindergarten Cop was jokingly announced by which prestige video label?
The Criterion Collection
The prank praised its "genre revisionist" mix of policier and family comedy; a real 4K release eventually came from Kino Lorber in 2024.
Q 19The film's school set was visual reference for Midwich Elementary in which horror video game?
Silent Hill
The 1999 PlayStation game's fog-bound school is one of its most famous locations.
Q 20Which action star headlined the 2016 direct-to-video sequel, Kindergarten Cop 2?
Dolph Lundgren
Lundgren plays FBI agent Zack Reed hunting a witness-protection database on a missing flash drive; the film shot in British Columbia.
Kimble works it out himself from observing her and her son Dominic, who is really the drug lord's boy.
Q 24What is the name of the drug lord Kimble has pursued for years?
Cullen Crisp
His mother Eleanor is his accomplice, poisoning the prosecution's key witness with tainted cocaine.
Q 25How does the case against Crisp collapse, getting him released?
The key witness dies from tainted cocaine
Cindy, the witness, is poisoned by cocaine laced by Crisp's mother Eleanor.
Q 26How does Crisp create a diversion at the school in the finale?
He starts a fire in the library
Two kids caught kissing during the evacuation think it's just another drill.
Q 27How does O'Hara finally stop Eleanor Crisp?
Knocks her out with a baseball bat
Eleanor had just hit O'Hara with her car and shot Kimble in the shoulder; O'Hara's line: "You're not so tough without your car, are you?"
Q 28How does the film end for Kimble?
He quits the police and stays on as a kindergarten teacher
O'Hara goes back to Los Angeles; Kimble kisses Joyce as the kids cheer.
Q 29Which pupil's tumor suggestion prompts Kimble's line "It's not a tumor!"?
Lowell
Lowell is the class pessimist, also responsible for "Everyone dies, you know" and the warning that ferret bites give you rabies.
Q 30Which pupil informs Kimble that "Boys have a penis, and girls have a vagina"?
Joseph
Kimble's reply is a sarcastic "Thanks for the tip."