Open Range
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40 free Open Range trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Open Range is the 2003 Western that Kevin Costner directed and starred in beside Robert Duvall. It follows a small crew of cattlemen whose drive across open country brings them into conflict with a rancher who controls the nearest town, and it builds to a long final gunfight that critics singled out for its realism. This quiz covers the story and its characters, the cast and the roles they are known for elsewhere, and how the film was made, from the novel behind it to the shoot itself. A few questions look at the real history behind the title. It is written for fans of the film and of Westerns in general. Every question comes with a short explanation, so a wrong answer still teaches you something about the movie.
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Q 01Which actor, soon to be Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, plays cattle baron Denton Baxter in Open Range?
Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon took over as Hogwarts' headmaster in 2004, the year after his turn as the villain of Open Range. He inherited the wizard's robes after Richard Harris died in 2002.
Q 02Kevin Costner hand-picked the cinematographer of Open Range for his camera work on which Oscar-winning Western?
Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves had J. Michael Muro as its Steadicam operator, and Costner promoted him to director of photography for Open Range.
Q 03Before Open Range, Robert Duvall played retired Texas Ranger Gus McCrae on a cattle drive in which 1989 miniseries?
Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove won Duvall a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination, and he trained with a Texas marksman to handle Gus's Walker revolvers.
Q 04Robert Duvall suffered which injury when a horse bucked him off as he practiced riding for Open Range?
Broken ribs
Broken ribs, six of them, were the price of Duvall's preparation to play Boss Spearman. He was 71 when the Western was filmed.
Q 05Although Open Range is set in the American West, Kevin Costner filmed the Western in which Canadian province?
Alberta
Alberta's ranch country near Calgary stood in for the American frontier, and the town was built on Stoney Nakoda First Nation land.
Q 06Which American Beauty star plays Sue Barlow, the woman who falls for Charley Waite in Open Range?
Annette Bening
Annette Bening followed Open Range with Being Julia, the 2004 comedy-drama that won her a first Golden Globe.
Q 07Years after Open Range, Kevin Costner played ranch patriarch John Dutton in which hit television drama?
Yellowstone
Yellowstone made its debut in 2018 with Costner as John Dutton, and the role brought him a Golden Globe in 2023.
Q 08The open cattle country that gives Open Range its title faded after which 1870s invention spread across the West?
Barbed wire
Barbed wire made fencing huge expanses cheaper than hiring cowboys to handle cattle, and by the 1890s it was standard on the northern plains.
Q 09Which real frontier lawman did Kevin Costner play in a 1994 Western, nine years before he directed Open Range?
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp was a Lawrence Kasdan biopic that Costner also produced, taking the title role himself.
Q 10Kevin Costner disliked every existing Western set for Open Range, so the production spent over $1 million on what?
Building a new town
Building a new town was Costner's answer, and the site was so remote that a $40,000 road had to be laid just to reach it.
Q 11Charley Waite assumes Sue Barlow is married to the town doctor in Open Range; what is she to him really?
His sister
His sister is the truth Charley learns only later, which frees him to declare his feelings for Sue before the gunfight.
Q 12Which burly member of Boss Spearman's crew is beaten and jailed after being sent into town for supplies in Open Range?
Mose
Mose is locked up by the corrupt marshal after defending himself in a fight with Baxter's men, the beating that sets the range war in motion.
Q 13Boss Spearman blasts the hinges off the jailhouse door with which weapon to reach the wounded Baxter in Open Range?
A shotgun
A shotgun gets Boss inside for a close-quarters gunfight that leaves Baxter dying, and Boss declines to finish him off.
Q 21Open Range is dedicated to which Emmy-winning actor, who played Percy and died before the Western reached cinemas?
Michael Jeter
Michael Jeter won his Emmy for the sitcom Evening Shade and played Mister Noodle on Sesame Street. Open Range was his final on-screen role.
Q 22In Open Range, rancher Denton Baxter hates roaming cattlemen like Boss Spearman, who are known by which name?
Free grazers
Free grazers fed their herds on whatever grass lay along the trail, and Baxter hates them for using land he calls his own.
Q 23Denton Baxter, the ruthless rancher who controls the town in Open Range, is an immigrant from which country?
Ireland
Q 14Charley Waite is haunted in Open Range by the killings he carried out as a soldier in which conflict?
The Civil War
The Civil War left Charley, a former soldier, with guilt over killing civilians as well as enemy troops, and that past drives the story.
Q 15At the end of Open Range, Boss Spearman decides to quit the cattle trade and take over which town business?
The saloon
The saloon had belonged to Baxter himself, and Boss asks Charley to come in with him as a partner.
Q 16Which keepsake does Sue Barlow give Charley Waite for luck before the final gunfight in Open Range?
A locket
A locket is Sue's reply when Charley finally declares his feelings for her, just before he faces Baxter and his men.
Q 17In Open Range, Charley Waite's farewell note asks that his saddle be sold to buy Sue Barlow which gift?
A tea set
A tea set was owed to Sue because Charley had smashed hers during a flashback to his soldiering days.
Q 18Boss and Charley knock out the town's corrupt lawmen in Open Range using which drug taken from the doctor's house?
Chloroform
Chloroform lets them subdue the marshal and his deputies without a shot, then lock the lot of them in their own jail.
Q 19In Open Range, what is the name of Charley Waite's dog, shot dead when night riders raid the cattlemen's camp?
Tig
Tig shares his name with Tig Productions, the company Kevin Costner set up with producer Jim Wilson.
Q 20Which Mexican actor, later rebel spy Cassian Andor in Star Wars, plays the young cowhand Button in Open Range?
Diego Luna
Diego Luna came to the Western fresh from his breakthrough in Y tu mamá también, the 2001 road movie that made him an international star.
Ireland is Baxter's homeland, and the actor who plays him was himself born in Dublin.
Q 24Percy is the one townsman who openly defies Denton Baxter in Open Range; which business does he run?
A livery stable
A livery stable is Percy's trade, and he ends up fighting beside Boss and Charley when Baxter's men ride in.
Q 25Before the showdown in Open Range, Boss Spearman treats himself and Charley Waite to cigars and which luxury sweet?
Chocolate
Chocolate and cigars are Boss's last indulgence before the gunfight, bought on the reasoning that the two men may not get another chance.
Q 26As the gunfight nears in Open Range, the frightened townspeople climb a hill to shelter in which building?
The church
The church empties again once the shooting stops, when the townspeople come down to deal with the dead, a detail Kevin Costner took from old photographs.
Q 27What is the name of the frontier town in Open Range that Denton Baxter rules through a corrupt marshal?
Harmonville
Harmonville's marshal answers to Baxter, so the cattlemen get no protection from the law when his riders attack their camp.
Q 28Although Kevin Costner directed and co-starred in Open Range, which honor did he give to Robert Duvall instead?
Top billing
Top billing went to Duvall, the only actor Costner had in mind for Boss Spearman. Costner said he might not have made the film without him.
Q 29Open Range is adapted from a 1990 novel by which astonishingly prolific writer of Westerns, a former rodeo cowboy?
Lauran Paine
Lauran Paine wrote more than 900 books under dozens of pen names, yet The Open Range Men was only the second to reach the screen.
Q 30Kevin Costner cast which ER actor in Open Range partly as an apology for cutting him from The Postman?
Abraham Benrubi
Abraham Benrubi, ER's Jerry Markovic, got a far bigger part this time as one of Boss Spearman's hired hands.