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60 free Trading Places trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Trading Places trivia quiz covers the whole of the 1983 comedy: the Duke brothers' one-dollar bet, Louis Winthorpe III's fall, Billy Ray Valentine's rise, Ophelia and Coleman, Clarence Beeks and the gorilla, and the frozen concentrated orange juice sting on the trading floor. There are questions on the plot, the cast and the finale that finance professors still use to explain short selling. The behind-the-scenes half digs into how the script was written for Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, why Paramount fought the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis, how a supposedly dead Don Ameche was found through directory assistance, where the trading floor scenes were really shot, which lines were ad-libbed, and how the film ended up cited in congressional testimony and nicknamed into the Dodd-Frank Act. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer has been checked against a reliable source.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Trading Places?
John Landis
He had already made Animal House and The Blues Brothers, and he pitched the script as an updated 1930s screwball comedy with swearing and nudity added.
Q 02In what year was Trading Places released in theaters?
1983
It opened in June, wedged between Return of the Jedi and Superman III in a record-breaking summer.
Q 03Which city is the main setting for the film's story?
Philadelphia
The writers chose the city for its links to the founding of the United States and the American dream, then undercut that idealism with a hustler begging on its streets.
Q 04What is the name of the street hustler played by Murphy?
Billy Ray Valentine
Murphy rewrote many of his own lines because he felt a white writer would give a Black character clichés like 'jive turkey'.
Q 05Which commodity do the heroes use to bankrupt the Duke brothers on the trading floor?
Frozen concentrated orange juice
The writers had studied real attempts to corner wheat and silver but decided that a mundane breakfast staple would be funnier.
Q 06How much money do the Duke brothers wager on their experiment?
One dollar
The tiny stake is the point: two men's lives are upended for pocket change, and Winthorpe later pays the same sum to settle his own bet with his new partner.
Q 07What is the name of Winthorpe's loyal butler?
Coleman
The English butler ends up pooling his life savings with the others to fund the scheme, and joins them on the beach in the final scene.
Q 08What is the name of the prostitute, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who takes in the disgraced Winthorpe?
Ophelia
She helps him on the understanding that she will be paid once he is cleared, money she plans to use to fund her retirement.
Q 09Which veteran actor played the Duke brother Mortimer, returning to films after more than a decade away?
Don Ameche
The casting director had insisted the actor was dead; he was eventually located through directory assistance in Santa Monica.
Q 10Which comedy duo was Trading Places originally developed for?
Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder
The pair were hot after Stir Crazy, but the project was recast after Pryor was badly burned in a freebasing accident.
Q 11Under what working title was the script first sold to Paramount?
Black and White
The director hated the title but loved the script, which he compared to the class satires of Capra and Sturges.
Q 12Which Mozart opera provides the underlying musical theme for the score?
The Marriage of Figaro
Its overture plays over the opening credits, and the story of a servant outwitting his wealthy master neatly foreshadows the plot.
Q 13Who composed the film's score, earning an Academy Award nomination?
Elmer Bernstein
He had scored The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London for the same director, and wove in Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance alongside the Mozart.
Q 21A 2010 Dodd-Frank provision banning trades on misappropriated government reports carries what nickname?
The Eddie Murphy rule
Trading on a stolen crop report, exactly what the Dukes attempt, was not actually illegal in commodities markets until the reform passed.
Q 22Which regulator cited Trading Places in 2010 congressional testimony on commodities reform?
Gary Gensler of the CFTC
He walked lawmakers through the plot, explaining how the heroes intercept the misappropriated report and use it to ruin the Dukes.
Q 23In which 1988 film do the two Duke brothers return, now homeless, and get handed a wad of cash?
Coming to America
Q 14Which actor played the Dukes' hired fixer, Clarence Beeks?
Paul Gleason
Two years later he would play another authority figure audiences loved to hate: Principal Vernon in The Breakfast Club.
Q 15Which Watergate figure was offered the role of Clarence Beeks before turning it down?
G. Gordon Liddy
He lost interest once he learned the character ends up caged with a gorilla; as a wink, Beeks is shown reading his autobiography on the train.
Q 16Where was the climactic trading-floor scene actually filmed?
The COMEX exchange in 4 World Trade Center
The scene was scripted for Chicago, but permission was refused. Most people on screen are real traders, and a weekday attempt had to be abandoned after the stars distracted the floor.
Q 17Which actor was the director's first choice for Mortimer Duke, before failing an insurance physical?
Ray Milland
When the replacement was finally tracked down, he refused the part until he was paid the same fee that had been offered to the original choice.
Q 18The final beach scene was shot on which island?
Saint Croix
It was the last shot of a 78-day schedule that had begun in a freezing Philadelphia December.
Q 19Jamie Lee Curtis got seven figures for Halloween II. Roughly what was her fee for Trading Places?
$70,000
She took the pay cut to escape being typecast as a scream queen, and later said the part single-handedly changed the course of her life.
Q 20How large is the margin call the Duke brothers cannot meet at the end of the film?
$394 million
Unable to pay, they have their exchange seats sold and every corporate and personal asset seized.
Prince Akeem hands the homeless pair a wad of cash; the 2021 sequel reveals they used it to rebuild their business.
Q 24Which two cast members won BAFTA awards for their performances in Trading Places?
Denholm Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis
They took the supporting actor and supporting actress prizes at the 37th British Academy Film Awards; the screenwriters were nominated but lost.
Q 25The film's only Academy Award nomination came in which category?
Best Original Score
The composer lost to the team behind Yentl, the same film that beat Trading Places for the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy.
Q 26Murphy lost the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy to which performer?
Michael Caine
The winner's turn as a boozy professor in Educating Rita beat both Murphy and the film's own bid for Best Musical or Comedy.
Q 27Where did Trading Places rank among its year's highest-grossing films in the US and Canada?
Fourth
It earned about $90.4 million, just behind Flashdance and well behind Terms of Endearment and Return of the Jedi, without ever reaching number one at the weekend box office.
Q 28Which James Bond film opened the same weekend and pushed Trading Places into third place?
Octopussy
Return of the Jedi, in its third week, took the top spot; Trading Places still went on to spend seventeen straight weeks in the top ten.
Q 29Which rock and roll pioneer has a cameo as a pawnbroker?
Bo Diddley
He is one of several musical guests; the soundtrack also features Little Eva, Brenda Lee and the Silhouettes.
Q 30Muppets puppeteer Frank Oz appears in a cameo as what?
A police officer
Fellow Muppeteer Richard Hunt also turns up, as Wilson, the Dukes' broker on the trading floor.