The Americans Trivia
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112 free The Americans trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This The Americans trivia quiz covers all six seasons of Joe Weisberg's Cold War drama, from the pilot's kidnapping of a KGB defector in 1981 to the train to Montreal in "START". The easy questions are ones any viewer can handle: who plays Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, which network aired it, what cover business the couple ran, and the name of the FBI agent who moved in next door. The harder end is for people who noticed the wigs. It asks about Directorate S and the Rezidentura, Nina and Stan, Martha and "Clark", Gregory, Claudia and Gabriel, the Weinberger clock, the mail robot, Betty, glanders and Lassa fever, William, Kimmy and her father, Oleg's arrest, the Dead Hand plot, Elizabeth's Smolensk childhood, Philip's secret son, Henry's boarding school, the Epcot trip, the McDonald's stop and the platform at Rouses Point. There are also questions on the making of the show: Weisberg's CIA past, the 2010 Illegals Program that inspired it, Hurricane Sandy, filming in Brooklyn and Moscow, the two Peabody Awards, Matthew Rhys's Emmy, Margo Martindale's two, and the cast's other roles from Felicity to The Waltons. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its season pages, individual episodes and the cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Cold War and FBI quizzes next.
30 of 112 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What became a running trademark of the spies in The Americans?
Wigs
Wigs are the Jenningses' signature: the critics' consensus on season 2 praised more excitement 'and wigs', and one season 5 recap was headlined simply 'New Wigs, New Family'.
Q 02In The Americans' pilot, what does Philip propose that Elizabeth flatly rejects?
Switching sides
Switching sides is Philip's plan: hand their captive to the FBI and stay for good as real Americans. Elizabeth refuses outright, and the argument sets the two spies against each other.
Q 03Which Phil Collins hit plays as Philip and Elizabeth drive off to dispose of a body in The Americans' pilot?
In the Air Tonight
In the Air Tonight carries the couple from the killing to a reconciliation in their car, a cue so tied to Miami Vice's 1984 pilot that Vulture's reviewer admitted laughing out loud.
Q 04In season 3 of The Americans, what does Philip remove for Elizabeth with a pair of pliers?
A damaged tooth
A damaged tooth, hurt in a fight with FBI agents, turns too painful to ignore, so Philip does the dentistry himself at home, in the laundry room.
Q 05In which Virginia suburb do the Jenningses live?
Falls Church
Falls Church, Virginia, is the Jenningses' quiet suburban base, and in the pilot an FBI counter-intelligence agent moves in as their neighbour, putting the man hunting them on their own street.
Q 06What cover business do Philip and Elizabeth run?
A travel agency
Their cover is a travel agency, Dupont Circle Travel; by the final season Philip has quit spying to run it full time as it loses money.
Q 07Which sport do Philip and his FBI neighbour regularly play together in The Americans?
Racquetball
Racquetball is where the spy and the FBI man hunting him become friends; one early game breaks off when Stan's pager goes and he hurries away to a secret meeting.
Q 08Who plays FBI agent Stan Beeman in The Americans?
Noah Emmerich
Noah Emmerich almost turned the part down because he was done with guns and badges; a director friend had to tell him he would be crazy to refuse.
Q 09In The Americans' pilot, what does Philip try on in a store before breaking into a line dance?
Cowboy boots
Cowboy boots: Philip boot-scoots to Juice Newton's 'Queen of Hearts' while his daughter cringes, an early hint that he enjoys American life far more than Elizabeth does.
Q 10What ceremony do Philip and Elizabeth secretly go through in season 5 of The Americans?
A Russian Orthodox wedding
A Russian Orthodox wedding: after years on a forged licence from their spy bosses, Philip takes Elizabeth to a hideout where a priest weds them under their real names.
Q 11In The Americans' pilot, what does Philip use on the man who leered at his young daughter?
A barbecue fork
A barbecue fork: disguised, Philip finds the man grilling in his back yard, comes close to killing him with it and warns him to stay away from little girls.
Q 12Which arms-control agreement is about to be signed as The Americans reaches its finale?
The INF Treaty
The INF Treaty, signed at the December 1987 Washington summit, hangs over the final season: Soviet hardliners plot against Gorbachev's negotiator, and Elizabeth must decide whether to help them.
Q 13How did FX choose to end The Americans when it renewed the show in 2016?
Two final seasons
Q 21Which Dire Straits song plays as the Jenningses gather their disguises to flee in The Americans' finale?
Brothers in Arms
Brothers in Arms plays as the family collects disguises and passports; soon after, they phone Henry for a goodbye he cannot know is final.
Q 22Whom does Philip warn Stan about before leaving?
Renee
Renee, Stan's new wife, may be a Soviet plant, Philip warns him in their last conversation; the series ends without ever saying whether he was right.
Q 23What passports do the Jenningses use to escape?
Canadian
Canadian passports carry the disguised Jenningses through the border check; first they stop to bury every trace of their American identities in a small hole.
Two final seasons, ordered together as 13 episodes and then 10, gave the writers a fixed finish line two years away; the show ended on 75 episodes.
Q 14Which Fleetwood Mac song plays over the opening chase in The Americans' pilot?
Tusk
Tusk powers the chase, but the kidnappers still miss the ship that was to carry their captive to Russia and must hide him in the trunk of the family car.
Q 15What is the title of The Americans' series finale?
START
START settles the spy story with words rather than bullets: nobody dies in the finale, yet the Jennings family is torn apart all the same.
Q 16Which U2 song plays over the Jenningses' final train journey in The Americans?
With or Without You
With or Without You risked cliché, reviewers at The A.V. Club and Collider admitted, yet both came away won over by how the finale used it.
Q 17Where does Stan finally confront the Jenningses in The Americans' finale?
In a parking garage
In a parking garage, Stan draws his gun on the fleeing family, hears them out, and then steps aside to let them drive away.
Q 18What last American meal do Philip, Elizabeth and Paige eat in the finale?
McDonald's
Their last American meal is at a McDonald's on the drive north; on the train they then sit apart as strangers.
Q 19To which city is the Jenningses' escape train heading in The Americans' finale?
Montreal
Montreal is the destination; at the Rouses Point crossing, border agents carrying sketches of the wanted spies check the disguised pair and still wave them through.
Q 20What shocks Philip and Elizabeth as the train leaves the United States?
Paige is standing alone on the platform
They see Paige standing alone on the platform, having slipped off the train; she returns to Claudia's abandoned safe house and pours a vodka.
Q 24Who is arrested by the FBI in the final episodes after picking up a dead drop?
Oleg Burov
Oleg Burov is arrested by the FBI after retrieving a dead drop; he came to the US without diplomatic cover, so he faces prison rather than expulsion.
Q 25In season 2 of The Americans, propeller plans stolen by the Jenningses turn out to be decoys that doom what?
A Soviet submarine
A Soviet submarine sinks because the propeller plans the Jenningses stole were planted decoys; learning of it leaves Philip demoralized about what his own success has cost.
Q 26The Americans' pilot director Gavin O'Connor also made which 2011 film about brothers in a mixed martial arts tournament?
Warrior
Warrior, like several of O'Connor's earlier films, features the actor who plays Stan; it was O'Connor who phoned his reluctant friend to say he would be crazy to pass on the series.
Q 27Whom do the Jenningses kidnap in The Americans' pilot?
A KGB defector
A KGB defector, Timoshev, is the target; he had raped Elizabeth during her training, and when Philip learns of it he kills the man in their garage.
Q 28What does Stan borrow from Philip in the pilot that lets him see the Jenningses' car?
Jumper cables
Jumper cables bring Stan face to face with the Jenningses' car, which matches the one used in the kidnapping; later he sneaks back at night to search its trunk and finds nothing.
Q 29Which computer network is Philip ordered to bug in season 2 of The Americans?
ARPANET
ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet, has to be explained to Philip: posing as a journalist, he quizzes a computer scientist, then breaks into the university with a hard-drinking reporter as his helper.
Q 30What is Elizabeth's Russian birth name?
Nadezhda
Nadezhda is the name she can reclaim only in the finale, when she goes home to a country she left more than twenty years earlier and no longer knows.