When Harry Met Sally Trivia
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48 free When Harry Met Sally trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This When Harry Met Sally trivia quiz covers the 1989 film from the drive out of Chicago to the New Year's Eve run across Manhattan. The easy questions are the ones every fan knows: the deli, the line, who directed and who wrote it. Then it goes deeper into how the film was made: the lunch at the Russian Tea Room where it started, the actors who turned down Harry, the working title, the sad ending Rob Reiner planned before he fell in love, and who actually came up with 'I'll have what she's having'. There are questions on the cast (including the President's son playing Sally's ex), Harry Connick Jr.'s soundtrack, the box office, the awards and the film's afterlife, from the London stage version to the 2025 Super Bowl commercial. Every answer has been checked against the film's Wikipedia page and those of its makers, and each explanation adds one detail worth remembering.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which classic film's ending do Harry and Sally argue about on their first drive and later watch together by phone?
Casablanca
Casablanca: Sally insists Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa is right to board the plane rather than stay with a man who runs a bar; years later the pair watch it from separate beds, talking by phone.
Q 02Which cinematographer shot When Harry Met Sally before becoming a hit director himself?
Barry Sonnenfeld
Barry Sonnenfeld had been the Coen brothers' cameraman; on this set he also introduced Rob Reiner to his future wife, and he turned director with The Addams Family in 1991.
Q 03When Harry Met Sally opened in the same summer as which blockbuster?
Batman
Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ruled the summer of 1989, while Reiner's film opened in just a few cities and grew into a $93 million hit.
Q 04What are the full names of the title characters in When Harry Met Sally?
Harry Burns and Sally Albright
Harry Burns and Sally Albright meet as new graduates sharing a long drive east after commencement, and part at the end of it never expecting to see each other again.
Q 05Harry and Sally meet as new graduates of which university before sharing a drive to New York?
The University of Chicago
The University of Chicago: Sally gives Harry a lift east after graduation in 1977 because he is dating her friend Amanda, and the two argue most of the way to New York.
Q 06What question drives When Harry Met Sally?
Can men and women ever just be friends?
Can men and women ever just be friends? On the first drive Harry says no, because 'the sex part always gets in the way', and the next twelve years put his theory to the test.
Q 07At which real New York deli does Sally fake an orgasm?
Katz's Delicatessen
Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston Street hung a sign over the table reading 'Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!'
Q 08Who delivers the line 'I'll have what she's having' in the deli scene?
Rob Reiner's mother
Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle Reiner, was a jazz singer; the line became so famous that Leonard Feather wrote her a song called 'I'll Have What She's Having' for her nightclub act.
Q 09Who came up with the punchline 'I'll have what she's having'?
Billy Crystal
Billy Crystal came up with the punchline during script meetings; it was the last piece added to a deli scene that had been built up in stages.
Q 10What is Harry snacking on when he spits a seed at Sally's closed car window at the start of their drive?
Grapes
Grapes: he assumes the window is rolled down, and the seed hits the glass; Sally turns down his offer of one, explaining that she doesn't like to eat between meals.
Q 11Which traditional song's meaning does Harry puzzle over in the final scene of When Harry Met Sally?
Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne: moments after their kiss, Harry wonders whether the lyric tells us to forget old acquaintances or to remember ones we already forgot; Sally decides it is about old friends.
Q 12Who plays Marie, Sally's best friend?
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher plays Marie, who is brought along as Harry's blind date but leaves the restaurant in a cab with his friend Jess, and ends up marrying him.
Q 13Who plays Jess, Harry's best friend?
Bruno Kirby
Bruno Kirby teamed up with the film's leading man again two years later in City Slickers, once more playing his character's opinionated best friend.
Q 21How did the script of When Harry Met Sally originally end?
Harry and Sally stay friends
The script originally had Harry and Sally stay friends, which Ephron and Reiner felt was truer; Reiner changed his mind after meeting his future wife, Michele Singer, during production.
Q 22Which of these actors turned down the role of Harry Burns?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was offered Harry first and passed; when the part finally went to the director's close friend, he said yes without even consulting his agents, a first for him.
Q 23Which actress had the film's director divorced a few years before he began developing When Harry Met Sally?
Penny Marshall
Q 14The actor who plays Sally's ex-boyfriend Joe is the son of which US President?
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford's youngest son, Steven Ford, plays Joe; it is the news that Joe is getting married that sends a tearful Sally to the phone and Harry round to her apartment.
Q 15Where do Harry and Sally meet for the second time?
An airport
An airport: in 1982 Harry spots Sally kissing her boyfriend goodbye, then talks his way into the seat beside her on the flight; another five years pass before they meet again.
Q 16Where do Harry and Sally run into each other for the third time, in 1987?
A bookstore
A bookstore: Marie notices him staring at them from the Personal Growth section; Sally has split from Joe and Harry's wife has left him, so this time they try being friends.
Q 17What is Harry watching at home on the last night of 1988 before running to find Sally?
Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve special
Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve special is on as Harry tells himself the night is fine, with tradition and Mallomars, 'the greatest cookie of all time'; then he walks the city and runs to the party.
Q 18The older couples who recall their courtships between scenes of When Harry Met Sally were originally based on what?
Real interviews Ephron conducted
Real interviews Ephron conducted with people around the production, on days she didn't feel like writing, supplied the stories; they were then rewritten and filmed with actors.
Q 19Which real-life friendship supplied much of Harry and Sally's dialogue?
Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal
Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal really did phone each other every night to watch television and channel-surf together, which became the split-screen scene of Harry and Sally in their separate beds.
Q 20What was Nora Ephron's original working title for When Harry Met Sally?
How They Met
How They Met was Ephron's first choice; the script went through several working titles, Boy Meets Girl among them, before the final one stuck.
Reiner's marriage to Penny Marshall, the Laverne & Shirley star, ended in 1981; his awkward return to single life fed directly into Harry.
Q 24At which New York restaurant did the director, producer and writer hold the lunch that led to When Harry Met Sally?
The Russian Tea Room
The Russian Tea Room hosted the lunch; Ephron turned down the idea Reiner pitched there, and only a later talk about his life as a single man gave them the film.
Q 25Which singer performs the standards on the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack?
Harry Connick Jr.
Harry Connick Jr., then 21, sang the standards; Reiner thought he sounded like a young Sinatra, and the album became his breakthrough.
Q 26What did the soundtrack's singer win for his work on it?
His first Grammy Award
The soundtrack won its singer his first Grammy Award, Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance, in 1990; the album also went double platinum.
Q 27Which 1924 standard heard in When Harry Met Sally made AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie songs?
It Had to Be You
'It Had to Be You' is heard in Frank Sinatra's recording, but the soundtrack album carries another singer's version, because putting Sinatra on the record would have doubled the fee.
Q 28Who arranged the big band and orchestra on the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack?
Marc Shaiman
Marc Shaiman had met the film's star while arranging for Saturday Night Live; he went on to score City Slickers and A Few Good Men and to co-write the songs for the musical Hairspray.
Q 29What do Jess and Marie argue about keeping when they move in together?
A wagon wheel coffee table
A wagon wheel coffee table: Jess is fond of it and Marie wants it out; Harry, rattled from bumping into his ex-wife, snaps that one day they will fight over who gets it.
Q 30How did Columbia roll out When Harry Met Sally, opening it in just 41 theaters at first?
A platform release
Columbia used a platform release, opening in just 41 theaters in ten cities in mid-July 1989 and expanding to about 800 a week later, once word of mouth had built.