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This Spaceballs trivia quiz has 48 free questions with answers and covers Mel Brooks's 1987 Star Wars parody from the opening crawl to 'the Schwartz is in you'. There are questions on the cast (who plays Lone Starr, Vespa, Dark Helmet and Sandurz, and who voices Dot Matrix), the characters (Barf, Skroob, Prince Valium, Pizza the Hutt, the Dink-Dinks) and the plot (Druidia's air, the desert moon, the instant VHS, Mega-Maid and the mirror). The making-of stories are the good part: the two Toms Brooks could not sign, the one condition George Lucas set and the joke Brooks built out of it, Lucas's fan letter, John Hurt's Alien cameo, the budget, the film that beat it at the box office, Ebert's verdict, the Stinkers award, and how Tesla ended up with a Plaid mode. The animated series and the 2027 sequel with Josh Gad and Lewis Pullman round it out. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen it once; the hard ones are for people who can quote the shield combination. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the combination to Druidia's air shield?
1-2-3-4-5
King Roland's air-shield combination is 1-2-3-4-5; President Skroob then admits it is the same combination on his luggage.
Q 02Which studio released Spaceballs in June 1987?
MGM/UA
MGM/UA Communications released Spaceballs on 24 June 1987, a decade after the Star Wars it parodies.
Q 03Which two roles does Mel Brooks play in Spaceballs?
President Skroob and Yogurt
Mel Brooks plays both President Skroob, leader of Planet Spaceball, and Yogurt, the small gold sage who breaks the fourth wall to sell Spaceballs merchandise.
Q 04Who plays the hero, Lone Starr?
Bill Pullman
Bill Pullman plays Lone Starr, his first starring film role, after Mel Brooks spotted him in a stage play.
Q 05Which big-name actors did Mel Brooks unsuccessfully try to sign for Spaceballs?
Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks
Brooks sought Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks for Lone Starr before casting a then little-known stage actor in the part.
Q 06John Candy plays Barf, who describes himself as what?
Half-man, half-dog
Barf calls himself a mog, half-man, half-dog, adding 'I'm my own best friend'; John Candy wore the tail and ears.
Q 07Who plays Dark Helmet?
Rick Moranis
Rick Moranis plays Dark Helmet, the diminutive villain whose oversized helmet and flip-up visor parody Darth Vader.
Q 08Who plays Princess Vespa?
Daphne Zuniga
Daphne Zuniga plays Princess Vespa of Druidia; she had starred opposite John Cusack in The Sure Thing (1985).
Q 09Who provides the voice of Princess Vespa's droid, Dot Matrix?
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers voices Dot Matrix, Vespa's droid; mime Lorene Yarnell performed inside the costume.
Q 10Vespa flees an arranged marriage to a narcoleptic royal named what?
Prince Valium
Prince Valium, played by Jim J. Bullock, keeps nodding off during the wedding, and Vespa bolts from the ceremony rather than marry him.
Q 11Princess Vespa's spaceship bears the badge of which carmaker?
Mercedes-Benz
Princess Vespa flees her wedding in a spaceship that carries the three-pointed Mercedes-Benz star on its nose.
Q 12Why do the Spaceballs want to steal Druidia's air?
They have squandered their own atmosphere
The film opens in a galaxy 'very, very, very, very far away'.
Q 13What kind of vehicle is Lone Starr's spaceship, Eagle 5?
A Winnebago RV
Eagle 5 is a Winnebago motor home with wings bolted on; Lone Starr and Barf live in it.
Q 21Spaceball One transforms into what to suck the atmosphere off Druidia?
Mega-Maid
Spaceball One unfolds into Mega-Maid, a colossal robot housekeeper whose vacuum cleaner sucks Druidia's air until the switch is flipped from suck to blow.
Q 22How does Lone Starr finally win the ring-beam duel inside the giant robot?
He reflects the blast with a mirror
Helmet flies straight into the self-destruct button.
Q 23Why are the three Spaceball leaders left behind on the exploding robot ship?
All the escape pods have already launched
Q 14Which crime boss is owed one million space bucks by Lone Starr and Barf?
Pizza the Hutt
He later eats himself to death, wiping out the debt.
Q 15How does the crime boss owed a million space bucks die?
He locks himself in his car and eats himself
Lone Starr and Barf learn the news on TV, absolving them of their debt.
Q 16On which desert moon does Eagle 5 crash-land after running out of fuel?
Vega
Out of fuel, Eagle 5 crash-lands on the desert moon of Vega, where Lone Starr and Vespa trudge across the sand hauling her giant hair dryer.
Q 17What is the name of the mystical power that Yogurt teaches Lone Starr to use?
The Schwartz
He channels it at first through a ring, but learns in the end that 'the Schwartz is in you'.
Q 18Who rescues the stranded heroes in the desert and takes them to Yogurt?
The Dink-Dinks
The Dink-Dinks, tiny robed aliens parodying the Jawas, hum the Colonel Bogey March as 'dink dink dink' and lead the heroes to Yogurt.
Q 19How does Dark Helmet track down Princess Vespa's location?
By watching an instant VHS of Spaceballs itself
He then uses the Schwartz to disguise himself as her father and lure her out of Yogurt's temple.
Q 20How does Dark Helmet force King Roland to hand over the air-shield code?
Threatens to reverse Vespa's nose job
Dark Helmet threatens to reverse Vespa's nose job and 'give her back her old nose', and King Roland immediately surrenders the combination.
The three end up marooned on the Planet of the Apes.
Q 24How does Lone Starr learn he is a prince, allowing him to marry Vespa?
A final message from Yogurt about his medallion
He arrives just in time to stop the wedding to Prince Valium.
Q 25Who plays Colonel Sandurz, Dark Helmet's second-in-command?
George Wyner
George Wyner plays Colonel Sandurz; television viewers knew him as prosecutor Irwin Bernstein on Hill Street Blues.
Q 26Which actor cameos in Spaceballs as a parody of his own chest-bursting character from Alien?
John Hurt
John Hurt, Kane in Alien, plays himself in the diner; the creature bursts from his chest ('Oh no, not again') and sings 'Hello! Ma Baby' like Michigan J. Frog.
Q 27What condition did George Lucas place on Mel Brooks in exchange for letting him parody Star Wars?
No Spaceballs action figures
Lucas's one condition was that no Spaceballs action figures be made, because they would look too much like his own Star Wars toys.
Q 28How did George Lucas react to the finished film?
He sent Brooks a note saying he loved it
Lucas's own company handled some post-production, and he said he was afraid he 'would bust something from laughing'.
Q 29Which Spaceballs product does Yogurt say 'the kids love' in his merchandising speech?
Spaceballs the Flamethrower
Yogurt's merchandising pitch runs through the T-shirt, coloring book, lunch box and cereal before Spaceballs the Flamethrower, adding 'the kids love this one'.
Q 30Which film beat Spaceballs to number one on its opening weekend in June 1987?
Dragnet
Dragnet, the Dan Aykroyd police comedy, opened at number one that weekend; Spaceballs took $6.6 million in second place.