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50 free The 'Burbs trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This The 'Burbs trivia quiz covers Joe Dante's 1989 dark comedy from Ray Peterson's first night of strange noises to the ambulance crashing into Art's house. There are questions on the plot (the femur, Walter's toupee, the crematorium in the basement, the gas line and the pickaxe), the neighbours of Mayfield Place (Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman) and the Klopeks themselves, played by Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore and Courtney Gains. The harder questions dig into how the film was made: Dana Olsen's original script title, the ending in which the hero died, the Universal back-lot street borrowed from Leave It to Beaver, Jerry Goldsmith's score, the three endings shot during the writers' strike, the reviews it got in 1989, and the Peacock series that revived it in 2026 with Keke Palmer. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen it once on cable; the expert ones are for people who own the Arrow Blu-ray. Every answer was checked against the film's Wikipedia article and its cited sources before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed The 'Burbs?
Joe Dante
Joe Dante directed The 'Burbs, bringing the comedy-horror blend of his earlier creature features to a single suburban cul-de-sac and a cast led by Tom Hanks.
Q 02What is the name of Tom Hanks's character?
Ray Peterson
Tom Hanks plays Ray Peterson, a suburban homeowner who decides to spend his vacation at home on his cul-de-sac and instantly regrets it.
Q 03In what year was The 'Burbs released?
1989
The 'Burbs opened on February 17, 1989, topping the Presidents' Day weekend box office, and went on to become a cult favourite on video.
Q 04What does the reclusive family next door do late at night that first alarms Ray?
Makes strange noises in the basement
The answer is 'Makes strange noises in the basement': Ray is woken by digging sounds and flashing lights from the Klopeks' cellar, which starts his obsession with the new neighbours.
Q 05Who plays Ray's wife, Carol?
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher plays Carol Peterson, the voice of reason who finally drags the men over for a proper welcome visit to the Klopeks.
Q 06Which actor plays the teenage neighbour Ricky Butler?
Corey Feldman
Corey Feldman plays Ricky Butler, the teenager who treats the cul-de-sac like a TV show, inviting friends over to watch the neighbours' antics from his porch.
Q 07Who plays Mark Rumsfield, the neighbour with a military past?
Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern plays Mark Rumsfield, the gung-ho veteran who acts as lookout while Ray and Art dig in the Klopeks' backyard.
Q 08Which war did Mark Rumsfield serve in?
Vietnam
Mark Rumsfield is a Vietnam veteran whose military bearing is played for laughs, right down to the rooftop stakeout he runs with binoculars.
Q 09Who plays Art Weingartner, Ray's nosy neighbour?
Rick Ducommun
Rick Ducommun plays Art Weingartner, the nosy neighbour who keeps pushing the theory that the Klopeks are ritual murderers.
Q 10What is the name of Ray and Carol's son?
Dave
Dave Peterson, played by Cory Danziger, is sent off with Carol to her sister's so Ray can search the Klopeks' yard in peace.
Q 11What is the name of Walter's dog?
Queenie
Walter's dog is Queenie; finding her running loose with Walter nowhere to be seen is what convinces the men their elderly neighbour has vanished.
Q 12What is the name of Ray's dog, which digs up a bone along the Klopeks' fence?
Vince
Ray's dog Vince digs up a bone along the Klopeks' fence, which convinces Ray and Art that the Klopeks have done away with Walter.
Q 13What bone does the dog dig up?
A femur
A femur — or so Art insists — is what the dog digs up along the fence, turning the neighbours' idle suspicion into what they consider hard evidence.
Q 21What does Ray hit with his pickaxe in the Klopeks' basement?
A gas line
A gas line is what Ray's pickaxe strikes: the house explodes moments later, just as Carol returns to find the street in chaos.
Q 22Why had Walter actually been away from home?
He was in hospital with heart palpitations
He had asked the Klopeks to collect his mail, and they scooped up rather more than that.
Q 23What were the Klopeks' real victims, as Werner finally reveals?
The Knapps, the previous homeowners
Q 14What item of Walter's turns up while he is missing, convincing the men something is wrong?
His toupee
His toupee turns up while Walter is missing, and since he never went anywhere without it, the men take it as proof that the Klopeks have done him in.
Q 15Who plays Dr. Werner Klopek?
Henry Gibson
Henry Gibson, a Laugh-In veteran, plays Dr. Werner Klopek, the family's soft-spoken patriarch whose politeness curdles into menace in the final act.
Q 16Which member of the Klopek family drives an oversized garbage bag to the curb and mashes it down?
Hans, the youngest
Hans, the youngest Klopek, played by Courtney Gains (Malachai in Children of the Corn), drives the bag to the curb in a downpour and pounds it down with a stick.
Q 17Which cult performer plays Uncle Reuben Klopek?
Brother Theodore
Brother Theodore, a monologist and frequent David Letterman guest whose stage persona was pure menacing eccentricity, plays the glowering Uncle Reuben Klopek.
Q 18Who plays Walter Seznick, the elderly neighbour whose disappearance alarms the street?
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon, the long-time Lucille Ball foil from I Love Lucy and Here's Lucy, plays Walter Seznick, the elderly neighbour whose sudden absence drives the second act.
Q 19What is the name of the film's cul-de-sac?
Mayfield Place
The cul-de-sac is Mayfield Place; its houses stood on Colonial Street, the Universal Studios back lot set that had hosted decades of sitcom and film neighbourhoods.
Q 20What do Ray and Art discover when they break into the Klopeks' basement?
What appears to be a crematorium
In the cellar they find 'What appears to be a crematorium' — a huge furnace Art is sure has been used to burn bodies — and start digging into the floor for remains.
Werner confesses that the victims were 'The Knapps, the previous homeowners', killed so the Klopeks could take over the house on the cul-de-sac.
Q 24How does Werner try to kill Ray at the end of the film?
With a lethal injection
With a lethal injection — Werner pulls out a syringe as the ambulance speeds off, and Ray wrestles him for it until the vehicle crashes.
Q 25Whose house does the ambulance crash into?
Art's
The ambulance ploughs into Art's house, the home of the neighbour who started the whole witch-hunt; Werner is pulled from the wreck and arrested.
Q 26Where does Ricky find the human skeletal remains that finally incriminate the Klopeks?
In the trunk of their car
In the trunk of their car, popped open as the Klopeks try to flee, lie human skulls and bones; the family is arrested and the charges against Ray are dropped.
Q 27Who wrote the screenplay for The 'Burbs?
Dana Olsen
Dana Olsen wrote the screenplay, drawing on memories of his own suburban childhood and the secretive neighbours he remembered from it.
Q 28What was the script's title before it became The 'Burbs?
Bay Window
The script was titled Bay Window when it reached Dante, who was then developing Little Man Tate, a project later directed by Jodie Foster.
Q 29What rating did the MPAA give The 'Burbs on its release?
PG
The 'Burbs was rated PG by the MPAA; its suburban paranoia plays as comedy, with the horror kept to shadows and rumour rather than gore.
Q 30Which Dante regular plays Vic, one of the garbagemen?
Dick Miller
Dick Miller, who appeared in nearly every Dante film from Piranha onward, plays Vic, one of the two garbagemen whose truck the neighbours raid.