Though we’ve played a lot of virtual trivia games over the past 18 months, we’ve tended to avoid most of the “theme” trivia games because most of them are repeats of game we’ve played before. But luckily we found a theme trivia game that interested us last Thursday night that we DIDN’T play before – and that theme was ’80s movies!

The ’80s was, hands down – THE best decade for movies. CG hadn’t quite become the standard yet so special effects in movies really was a matter of “movie magic,” movies tended to be largely character-driven, the ’80s had the best action stars – Ahnold, Sigourney Weaver, Stallone, Harrison Ford, Eddie Murphy – and movie franchises hadn’t quite become such a thing yet (except Star Wars, Lethal Weapon, Superman, Rocky, Predator, Rambo, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Porkys, Friday the Thirteenth, Halloween, Jaws, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future, yada yada). OK, OK, maybe franchises were kind of a thing in the ’80s – though certainly not as big as they are now (seriously did we really NEED three different Hobbit films)? And will those Fast and Furious movies ever stop making money? Marvel Cinematic Universe? Mention that in the ’80s and you’d just get blank stares.

Sadly, only three teams came out to play for this game, but we wound up in first place. Here were our questions:

1) Main Characters – What 1980s film has a main character that is a ten-year-old boy named Bastian Bux? Thank you Mike for remembering this fact.

2) Star Wars – In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, what is the name of the white-furred creature that attacks Luke Skywalker on the planet Hoth? This prompted a conversation about how dumb some of the names were in this franchise. Salacious Crumb? Is that a dessert or a puppet?

3) In Search Of – What 1980s film’s main character is searching for the Cross of Coronado in the beginning of the film? Name the film, NOT the character. Had the wrong film from the right franchise, miss.

4) Mayors – What blockbuster 1989 film includes a politician named Mayor Borg? I don’t think he was mentioned by name in the film at all, but the clues 1989 and blockbuster were enough for us to get this (talk about birthing a franchise).

5) Back to the Future – In Back to the Future, what is the name of Doc Brown’s dog in 1955, whom he named after a famous scientist? Thankfully Mike remembered this.

6) Top Gun – What is the first and last name of Tom Cruise’s character in the film Top Gun, though he mostly goes by the name “Maverick?” Remember when VHS was the predominant medium and when it first came out, most people tended to have just one or two movies on VHS that they would play over and over again? Mike had a buddy in college whose “one” movie he had was this one. Too bad he wasn’t playing with us on this night because he’d probably know this answer! We missed this…

7) Rain Main – In Rain Man, Ray lists off several airlines that have crashed. He then names what airline, which he says has never crashed?

8) Title Roles – What actor played the title role in 1986 film Crocodile Dundee? For some strange reason, I remembered the name of the actress who played his girlfriend in the movie (Linda Kozlowski, who actually ended up hooking up with him in real life), but drew a total blank on his name. Mike to the rescue again! He was the MVP of this game!

9) Opponents -Which Rocky film first featured the nemesis Ivan Drago? We had a bit of discussion about which installment this was, but this was the only one I’d seen in theaters. And who could forget Dolph Lundgren running around a track in skintight white pants? I was so impressionable when I was 13! Now looking at Dolph Lundgren from that movie, I jokingly asked, “Hey, wasn’t he that Russian woman from Kick-Ass 2?

10) Three Actors – What are the last names of the three actors who played the three men in Three Men and a Baby? It’s always fun when you’re right about what the question will be about when they read the categories!

Mystery – Directors

Given the name of a film director, name which movie of theirs was the highest grossing at the worldwide box office during the 1980s.

M1) Ivan Reitman

M2) John Landis

M3) Sydney Pollack

M4) Steven Spielberg

I drew a blank on John Landis, except for American Werewolf in London, which I knew couldn’t be correct and overlooked that one movie he did in 1980 that was big and is technically a musical IMHO. Which allowed me to win an argument with my husband a few years ago when he said he hated all movie musicals (ahem)! We also missed Sidney Pollack, we went with the movie where Dustin Hoffman was a cross dresser though we did know about that drama he did that won best picture for 1985 which was correct. Wow – THAT made more money in the U.S. than Tootsie? Who knew? We didn’t!

We were in first with 54 points going into the final category about:

Movie Villains

Three of the highest fifteen grossing films at the domestic Box Office in 1988 include scenes in which a villain is run over by a steamroller. Name two of those three films.

Between us, we knew all three – but Mike knew ALL three (see I said he was MVP in this game)!

Well, that was a fun question set! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Biff Tannen!