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This Stripes trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers on the 1981 army comedy that Ivan Reitman first pitched as 'Cheech and Chong join the army' and ended up making with Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. It follows the plot from Louisville cab driver John Winger's worst day, through basic training under Warren Oates's Sergeant Hulka, the mud-wrestling bar, the graduation drill and the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, to the accidental invasion of Czechoslovakia. Other rounds dig into how it was made: filming at Fort Knox and a shut-down Jim Beam distillery, the Pentagon deal that supplied real soldiers, the chipped tooth Oates got when the cast dragged him into the mud, the deleted LSD subplot restored in the extended cut, Elmer Bernstein's march, the box office and reviews, and the remarkable roll call of early-career actors in the platoon, from John Candy and Judge Reinhold to Bill Paxton, John Larroquette and Sean Young. It is written for 80s comedy fans, movie night hosts and pub quizzers who know 'That's the fact, Jack' but want the details behind it. Difficulty runs from easy plot questions to expert production trivia, and every answer was checked against Wikipedia and the film's own credits before it went in.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Stripes released?
1981
Columbia Pictures put it out on June 26. Sony re-released it in cinemas for a few days in 2021 for the 40th anniversary.
Q 02Who directed Stripes?
Ivan Reitman
He had just made a summer-camp comedy with Murray. He was born in Komárno, in the very country his platoon invades by mistake.
Q 03Reitman's original one-line pitch for the film was which comedy duo 'join the army'?
Cheech and Chong
He thought of it on the way to a premiere. The duo's manager loved the script, but they wanted complete creative control, so the leads were rewritten for Murray and Ramis.
Q 04What is the name of Bill Murray's character in Stripes?
John Winger
He is a cab driver who loses his job, apartment, car and girlfriend in a single day and decides the Army is his best remaining option.
Q 05Harold Ramis plays Russell Ziskey, Winger's best friend. What is Russell's job before he enlists?
ESL teacher
Ramis had co-written Animal House and Caddyshack but was little known as an actor. Columbia disliked his audition; Reitman hired him anyway.
Q 06In which city does Murray's character drive a cab at the start of the film?
Louisville
The city scenes were shot there for real, and the Army scenes at a nearby base. Filming began in November 1980.
Q 07Which veteran of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch plays the drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka?
Warren Oates
Reitman wanted someone the misfit platoon would genuinely respect. Judge Reinhold recalled the cast sitting enthralled by Oates's Wild Bunch stories between takes.
Q 08What happened when Reitman secretly had the actors drag Warren Oates (Sgt. Hulka) into the mud?
He chipped a front tooth and yelled at the director
Reitman wanted a genuine reaction from the veteran actor. He got one.
Q 09Which SCTV alumnus plays Dewey 'Ox' Oxberger, the recruit who joined up to lose weight?
John Candy
Producer Dan Goldberg knew him from Toronto and he was cast without an audition. Candy invited the platoon actors over for homemade spaghetti during the shoot.
Q 10Which future Night Court star plays Captain Stillman, the incompetent company commander?
John Larroquette
Stillman orders a mortar crew to fire without setting coordinates, wounding Hulka.
Q 11P. J. Soles, Stella in Stripes, was already famous for playing Lynda in which 1978 horror film?
Halloween
She had also been in Carrie and Rock 'n' Roll High School. Soles reported that Dennis Quaid had read for the part of Russell.
Q 12According to Reitman, which star had agreed to play Stella before her agent asked for too much money?
Kim Basinger
Young herself was cast on her looks, with Reitman feeling her sweetness suited Ramis. Her next role was Rachael in Blade Runner.
Q 13Judge Reinhold plays which recruit, who inherited the best jokes from the abandoned first draft?
Elmo Blum
In the extended cut, Elmo's LSD figures in a restored AWOL subplot.
Q 21What is the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle disguised as?
A family motorhome
It was built on a 1970s GMC Motorhome and designed to look like a family Winnebago, but came with bulletproof shields and flamethrowers.
Q 22In which country is the platoon stationed when it is assigned to guard the EM-50?
Italy
John and Russell steal the vehicle to visit Stella and Louise, who are posted in West Germany, which sets the whole disaster in motion.
Q 23Chasing the missing EM-50, Captain Stillman leads the platoon into which country, where they are captured?
Czechoslovakia
Those scenes were shot at the closed Chapeze Distillery in Clermont, owned by Jim Beam. Reitman himself was born there.
Q 14Which recruit, played by Conrad Dunn, is nicknamed 'Psycho' and warns others not to touch his stuff?
Francis Soyer
Dunn remembered that he and the actor playing Ox were the only cast members who knew the words to 'Do Wah Diddy' and taught the rest of the company.
Q 15John Diehl plays Howard J. Turkstra, better known in the platoon by what nickname?
Cruiser
Diehl, like Reinhold, Larroquette, Busfield and Paxton, was in one of the earliest roles of his career.
Q 16Which future Aliens and Titanic actor appears in Stripes as an unnamed soldier?
Bill Paxton
Timothy Busfield, later of Thirtysomething, is the mortar soldier who fires the shell that wounds Hulka.
Q 17Which two SCTV cast members play a border guard and the M.C. at the bar?
Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas
Along with Candy and Ramis, SCTV's original head writer, that gives Stripes four alumni of the Toronto sketch show.
Q 18After Hulka is hospitalised, the leaderless platoon sneaks off base to visit what kind of establishment?
A mud-wrestling bar
Much of the mud-wrestling scene was improvised on the spot by Reitman, and the actor playing Ox was uncomfortable filming it until Reitman talked him through.
Q 19Why are John and Russell punished with garbage-can scrubbing and two weeks of KP for the whole platoon?
They briefly went AWOL
Hulka gives Russell 24 hours of scrubbing and the rest of the platoon two weeks of kitchen duty.
Q 20Why does the platoon arrive late to its own graduation ceremony?
They overslept after practising all night
Winger then leads an unorthodox but perfectly coordinated drill routine that impresses General Barnicke enough to hand them a secret overseas assignment.
Q 24What decoration do John, Russell, Stella, Louise and Hulka receive on their return to the United States?
The Distinguished Service Cross
The four young heroes land on magazine covers.
Q 25Where were the Army training scenes filmed?
Fort Knox
The base sits next to the US Bullion Depository that shares its name. The Department of Defense supplied free labour, locations and equipment in exchange for a recruitment-friendly script.
Q 26Roughly what was the film's production budget?
$9-10 million
It was shot on a 42-day schedule and went on to become the fifth most popular film of 1981 in North America.
Q 27Which studio did Reitman first pitch Stripes to, and which greenlit it immediately?
Paramount Pictures
It was Columbia that eventually released it. The two Toronto-based writers read the script to Reitman in Los Angeles over the phone.
Q 28Which two writers wrote the screenplay with Harold Ramis?
Len Blum and Dan Goldberg
Goldberg also produced alongside Reitman. Ramis was brought in to tailor the leads for himself and Murray.
Q 29Who composed the score for Stripes, including the well-known 'March from Stripes'?
Elmer Bernstein
Best known for The Magnificent Seven, he had become the go-to composer for the era's comedies: Animal House, Airplane! and Trading Places among them.
Q 30Which sequence, in which Winger comforts Stella, did Murray improvise?
The 'Aunt Jemima Treatment' scene
Every scene had some improvisation thanks to Murray and Ramis. Their first kiss was meant to be shot outdoors until it rained.