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60 free The Good, the Bad and the Ugly trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Three gunslingers, one grave, two hundred thousand dollars in Confederate gold. This quiz covers Sergio Leone's 1966 epic from the opening coyote howl to the standoff at Sad Hill: who knows the name of the cemetery, who knows the name of the grave, the noose trick, the exploding hotel room, Tuco's priest brother, the prison-camp torture and the bridge that took the Spanish army two attempts to blow up. Beyond the plot there are questions on how it got made: the working title about two magnificent tramps, the United Artists deal, why Leone passed on Volonté for Tuco, the acid Wallach nearly drank, Eastwood's nickname for his director, why the lips never match the words, and the 177-minute Italian cut. Ennio Morricone gets his own run, from the ocarina to The Ecstasy of Gold and the metal band that opens every show with it, plus the Tarantino, Stephen King and Boba Fett connections. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, the trilogy, its cast and its music, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. For the rest of the genre try our Western Movies quiz, or our Clint Eastwood quiz for the man in the poncho.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?
Sergio Leone
It was his third film with Eastwood and, as it turned out, his last.
Q 02Which of the three leads does Eli Wallach play?
Tuco, the Ugly
He had played the bandit chief Calvera in The Magnificent Seven; Leone cast him for his 'natural comic talent'.
Q 03Which actor plays 'the Bad'?
Lee Van Cleef
He had been the sympathetic Colonel Mortimer in the previous film, and Leone liked the idea of flipping him.
Q 04What is the nickname of Van Cleef's ruthless mercenary?
Angel Eyes
In the Italian version he is called Sentenza; he always finishes a job he has been paid for.
Q 05What does Tuco call Eastwood's character?
Blondie
Joe and Manco were the nicknames in the two earlier films; the Italian is 'il Biondo'.
Q 06The film is set against the backdrop of which war?
The American Civil War
Leone wanted to show the war as useless and stupid, drawing on Mathew Brady's battlefield photographs.
Q 07How much gold is said to be buried in the grave?
$200,000
That was worth about $6.45 million in 2025 money.
Q 08What is the name of the cemetery where the gold is hidden?
Sad Hill
Spanish soldiers built it with thousands of crosses laid out like a Roman circus; fans rebuilt it in 2015.
Q 09What alias does the dying soldier use, the man who knows where the gold is?
Bill Carson
Tuco later blurts out the same name to Union soldiers, tipping off Van Cleef's character.
Q 10What name does Eastwood's character falsely give Tuco as the name on the grave?
Arch Stanton
The gold is actually next door in the grave marked 'Unknown'.
Q 11The gold is finally found in which grave?
The one marked 'Unknown' beside Stanton's
Eastwood's character wrote the real name on a stone in the middle of the cemetery, then admitted it was blank.
Q 12How does Eastwood's character escape Tuco's noose in the hotel room?
An artillery shell hits the building
It's the war intruding on private business, a theme Leone kept returning to.
Q 13What is Tuco's brother's occupation?
Priest
Q 21In which Roman studio did production begin in May 1966?
Cinecittà
Filming wrapped in July after moving to Burgos and Almería.
Q 22Who composed the score?
Ennio Morricone
For this film the main themes were written before shooting, so Leone could play them on set and cut to them.
Q 23The main theme's two-note motif was designed to evoke the howl of which animal?
A coyote
Each of the three leads gets his own timbre when the motif recurs.
Q 24Which instrument carries the main motif for Van Cleef's character?
Father Ramirez rejects him; Van Cleef noted Tuco is the only one of the trio we learn all about.
Q 14What is the Ugly's full name, as read out at his hangings?
Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez
Eastwood's character prefers 'The Rat'.
Q 15What do Tuco and Eastwood's character blow up to clear their way to the cemetery?
A bridge
Leone said the sequence was partly inspired by Buster Keaton's The General.
Q 16Why did the big demolition explosion have to be filmed twice?
The first blast destroyed all three cameras
A Spanish army captain misheard an Italian cameraman's 'ready' as the Spanish word for 'go'; nobody was hurt.
Q 17Who built the doomed river crossing, twice, and rigged it to blow?
Sappers of the Spanish army
It was a real, sturdy structure, so powerful explosives were needed to bring it down.
Q 18In how many films did Eastwood and Leone work together?
3
Eastwood turned down the Harmonica role in Once Upon a Time in the West, which went to another actor.
Q 19How does Van Cleef's character disguise himself inside the prison camp?
As a Union sergeant
He has Tuco tortured while a prisoners' band plays to cover the screams.
Q 20Although an Italian production, the film was shot mainly in which country?
Spain
The Tabernas Desert in Almería played the Southwest; the northern plateau near Burgos hosted the cemetery.
Ocarina
Eastwood's character gets the flute, and Tuco gets human voices.
Q 25Which piece plays as Tuco runs frantically through the cemetery looking for the grave?
The Ecstasy of Gold
Soprano Edda Dell'Orso's wordless vocal makes it one of the most reused pieces of film music ever written.
Q 26Which heavy metal band has used a piece from the score to open its concerts for decades?
Metallica
They also recorded it for a 2007 Morricone tribute album and got a Grammy nomination for it.
Q 27Whose cover of the main theme reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100?
Hugo Montenegro
Muzzy Marcellino did the whistling on the hit single.
Q 28What is the only sung song in the film, performed by prisoners during Tuco's torture?
The Story of a Soldier
Tommie Connor wrote the lyrics; the guards make the band play to drown out the beating.
Q 29Who did the distinctive whistling on Morricone's score?
Alessandro Alessandroni
He also led the choir; Dell'Orso was the soprano and D'Amario the guitarist.
Q 30What was the film's working title?
The Two Magnificent Tramps
Vincenzoni came up with the final Italian title just before shooting, and Leone loved it.