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50 free The Post (2017 Film) trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This The Post trivia quiz covers Steven Spielberg's 2017 film about The Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers, along with the real history behind it. It asks about the film itself (the first project to unite Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, shot in a hurry in the summer of 2017 while Ready Player One was still in post-production), the people it portrays (Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, Ben Bagdikian, Daniel Ellsberg, Robert McNamara) and the events it dramatises: the leak, the injunction against The New York Times, the decision to print and the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling. It also digs into the details fans and history buffs argue about: whose voice plays Nixon, why the film was briefly called The Papers, what the New York Times veterans thought of it, how many pages the study ran to, and what happened to Ellsberg's trial. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who saw the film, a third need a good memory for it, and the rest reward people who know the history as well as the movie. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, the Pentagon Papers and the people involved before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed The Post?
Steven Spielberg
He also produced it, and he later said the story was one that could not wait two or three years to be told.
Q 02Which two stars play Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee?
Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks
The Post was the first time either had worked with Spielberg on the same film as the other.
Q 03In which year is The Post set?
1971
The film ends with the Watergate break-in a year later, the moment All the President's Men begins.
Q 04Which two writers share the screenplay credit on The Post?
Liz Hannah and Josh Singer
Singer, an Oscar winner for Spotlight, was hired to rewrite Hannah's script just ten weeks before filming.
Q 05Which producer bought the rights to Liz Hannah's screenplay in October 2016?
Amy Pascal
Spielberg came aboard the following March after cancelling The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.
Q 06Spielberg made The Post while post-production continued on which effects-heavy film of his?
Ready Player One
He compared it to juggling Jurassic Park and Schindler's List in the early 1990s.
Q 07How did Spielberg handle the role of Richard Nixon in the film?
He used the real White House tapes, showing him only in silhouette
No voice actor was used at all for the president.
Q 08Where did The Post hold its premiere on December 14, 2017?
The Newseum in Washington, D.C.
It went into limited release on December 22 and wide release on January 12, 2018.
Q 09Roughly how much did The Post gross worldwide?
$180 million
That came against a $50 million production budget, with $81.9 million from the US and Canada.
Q 10Which two Academy Award nominations did The Post receive?
Best Picture and Best Actress
It also collected six Golden Globe nominations, including Best Actor for Hanks and Best Original Score.
Q 11Which organisation named The Post the best film of 2017?
The National Board of Review
Time magazine and the American Film Institute also put it in their top ten of the year.
Q 12Who composed the score for The Post, his 28th collaboration with Spielberg?
John Williams
He chose The Post over Ready Player One because the two schedules clashed, leaving that film to Alan Silvestri.
Q 13The trailer for The Post premiered exclusively on which TV programme?
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Q 21By what margin does the Supreme Court rule in the newspapers' favour at the film's climax?
Six to three
The real ruling on June 30, 1971 was a terse per curiam opinion; Nixon then barred the Post from the White House.
Q 22The film's final scene shows a security guard discovering a burglary at which building?
The Watergate complex
Frank Wills's call to the police kicks off the scandal that All the President's Men picks up.
Q 23Which former New York Times counsel called the film "a good movie but bad history"?
James Goodale
Times veterans objected that the script underplayed the paper's role in breaking the story and winning the 1972 Pulitzer.
The trailer's music featured the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.
Q 14Which actor plays Daniel Ellsberg in The Post?
Matthew Rhys
The Americans star went on to play Lloyd Vogel opposite Hanks again in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Q 15Which Breaking Bad actor was singled out by critics for his supporting turn as Post editor Ben Bagdikian?
Bob Odenkirk
Reviewers praised his performance alongside Streep's and Hanks's.
Q 16In the film's plot, Ellsberg first leaks the documents to which New York Times journalist?
Neil Sheehan
The Post only enters when a stranger leaves a hundred pages on a reporter's desk.
Q 17Which think tank does Ellsberg work for when he copies the classified study?
The RAND Corporation
Post editor Ben Bagdikian, a former RAND colleague, tracks him down as the source.
Q 18Which Secretary of Defense, a friend of Graham, warns her about an unflattering story in the film?
Robert McNamara
Bruce Greenwood plays the man who commissioned the study and then kept sending troops to Vietnam.
Q 19How many pages of the report does Ellsberg hand to Bagdikian in the film?
4,000
In real life the handover took place in a Boston-area motel days after the Times had been enjoined.
Q 20Why do the Post's lawyers panic after Graham gives the go-ahead to print?
Bagdikian used the same source as the Times
Sharing Sheehan's source risked contempt of court under the injunction and Espionage Act liability.
Q 24Which Watergate reporter called The Post a "masterpiece"?
Bob Woodward
The film's closing scene deliberately hands off to the story he and Bernstein would break.
Q 25Which 1976 film, in which Jason Robards played Bradlee, begins where The Post ends?
All the President's Men
Robards won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his Bradlee.
Q 26Which grade did CinemaScore audiences give The Post?
A
Rotten Tomatoes settled at 88 percent and Metacritic at 83, indicating universal acclaim.
Q 27Which costume designer was praised for taking Katharine from 'leaden gray to free-flowing gold'?
Ann Roth
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times noted the subtle brightening in her review.
Q 28The Secretary of Defense who ordered the study in 1967 said he wanted it to be what?
An encyclopedic history of the war
He wanted an "encyclopedic history of the Vietnam War" and did not tell President Johnson or Secretary of State Rusk.
Q 29How many volumes made up the Pentagon Papers study?
47
That was 3,000 pages of analysis and 4,000 pages of documents, classified Top Secret - Sensitive.
Q 30The Pentagon Papers cover US involvement in Vietnam from 1945 up to which year?
1968
The report's official title is the Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force.