How much do you remember about "The Green Mile"?

By: John Miller
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
How much do you remember about "The Green Mile"?
Image: Castle Rock Entertainment

About This Quiz

Injustice and indignity are commonplace in this world. But compassion and commitment are, too. How much do you know about the drama of "The Green Mile"?
"The Green Mile" is a 1999 movie about which grisly and terrifying topic?
a serial killer
death row
Chicken McNuggets
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"The Green Mile" is a dramatic film about a death row inmate and the guards who keep watch on him. Much of the movie takes place during the 1930s.

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The movie is based on a book by which famous author?
Dean Koontz
Stephen King
William Blake
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Famed horror writer Stephen King published "The Green Mile" in 1996. It was published in a series of six paperback volumes during that year.

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Who is the star of this 1999 movie?
Tom Cruise
Tom Sizemore
Tom Hanks
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Tom Hanks, ever the star of heart-wrenching dramas, gets the lead role in "The Green Mile." He plays the prison guard named Paul Edgecomb.

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Who is John Coffey?
a corrections officer
a prison warden
a death row inmate
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John Coffey is a gigantic black man sent to death row. He looks intimidating, but prison guards soon see that he's a gentle man who has the mind of a child.

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John has been convicted of which crime?
he robbed a bank and kidnapped a teller
he raped and killed two girls
he attacked his mother
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John has been convicted of killing two girls -- and it is implied that he raped them, too. The justice system has decided that he is to die for his crimes.

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The movie's setting is important. Where does it take place?
the Northeast
the Wild West
the Deep South
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"The Green Mile" takes place in Louisiana. In the 1930s, the Deep South was a place rife with racism and discrimination that greatly affected every aspect of the justice system.

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Doug Hutchison is a guard named Percy Wetmore. What's Percy like?
a psychopath
a kind and gentle man
a genius
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Percy is a cruel psychopath who sometimes abuses the prisoners. But he's related to the first lady of Louisiana, so he can do whatever he wants without fear of reprisals or punishment.

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What method does the prison use to execute death row inmates?
lethal injection
electric chair
Neil Diamond songs played on endless repeat
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The prison uses the electric chair to kill death row inmates. The chair is billed as relatively painless, but in reality, it seems to be a gruesome ordeal.

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The electric chair has a nickname. What is that nickname?
"High-Voltage Victor"
"Old Sparky"
"Edison's Executioner"
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The electric chair is "Old Sparky." It sounds like a pet dog's name, but it refers to the sinister gadget that overshadows every part of the film.

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Eduard Delecroix is another death row inmate. He has a pet mouse named ____.
Mr. Happy
Mr. Jingles
Mr. Plague
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Eduard Delecroix, or "Del," has a pet mouse named Mr. Jingles. The mouse is the only bright spot in the doomed prisoner's existence.

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Hanks is prison guard Paul Edgecomb, and he's suffering from which physical condition?
bladder infection
lung cancer
alcohol withdrawal
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Paul is in pain due to a nasty bladder infection. But he's in luck. John Coffey grabs Paul through the bars of his cell … and somehow magically cures him.

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Del loves Mr. Jingles. He trained the mouse to do what?
fetch
hug him
attack the prison guards
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Del trained Mr. Jingles to fetch a spool of thread. But one of the guards -- the merciless Percy -- decides to kill the mouse by stomping on it.

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Percy is delighted by the fact that he's killed Mr. Jingles. What does John do in response to the merciless mouse murder?
eats Mr. Jingles' lifeless body
brings Mr. Jingles back to life
grabs Percy by the throat and strangles him
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The gentle giant John holds Mr. Jingles in his hands. Then, as prisoners and guards watch in amazement, he brings the little rodent back to life.

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Percy intentionally sabotages Del's execution. What does he do?
he meddles with the equipment
he invites hordes of photographers
he unplugs the electric chair
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The electric chair relies on wet sponges touching the prisoner's head for proper conductivity. Percy purposely leaves the sponges dry. The effect? Del dies a horrifying and painful death.

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Prison warden Hal Moores' wife is suffering from which horrible ailment?
a brain tumor
lung cancer
smallpox
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Hal's wife Melinda has a brain tumor. To his horror, she is slowly but surely dying.

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In reality, Louisiana didn’t use the electric chair for executions in the 1930s. The state actually employed which means to kill prisoners?
hanging
firing squad
bonfires
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In the 1940s, Louisiana finally updated its execution tool to the electric chair. But in the 1930s, it was still simply hanging people who were sentenced to death.

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Paul decides that he wants to sneak John Coffey out of prison. Why?
so that he can escape the unfair system
to go to Disneyland one last time
so that he can cure Paul's wife
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Paul thinks maybe the magical prisoner can possibly cure Melinda's brain tumor. He hatches a scheme to spring John out of prison long enough to make the sickness go away.

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Paul knows that another prisoner, William Wharton, will tattle on him if he tries to sneak John out of prison for a short time. How does Paul deal with Wharton?
he drugs Wharton
he locks Wharton in a closet
he tells Wharton to go fishing for the day
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Paul drugs Wharton, causing him to fall into a stupor. Then the guards sneak John out of prison for a short time -- during which he manages to heal Melinda's brain tumor.

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The film was incredibly successful. It was nominated for four Academy Awards.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"The Green Mile" blew away audiences around the world. It impressed critics, too, and earned four Oscar nominations, including the prestigious Best Picture award.

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"The Green Mile" won the Oscar for Best Picture.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The movie didn't win Best Picture -- it lost to another major hit, called "American Beauty." The movie swung and missed on all four of its Oscar nominations.

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John cured Melinda -- essentially, by sucking the energy of the tumor out of her body. He then releases the energy of that tumor into which character?
Paul
Wharton
Percy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John exhales the tumor's deadly energy into Percy, who then loses his mind. Percy shoots Wharton, the other death row inmate. And then Percy is committed to a lunatic asylum -- poetic justice at its finest.

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Del keeps Mr. Jingles in a little house made from ______.
a car radiator
a shaving cream can
a cigar box
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Del loves Mr. Jingles dearly and fashions him a home out of a cigar box. The film crew trained more than a dozen mice to play the role of Mr. Jingles.

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John places his hands on Paul and shows him a vision. What is that vision?
that John is now dying of cancer
that John is innocent
that in several decades, Donald Trump will become president
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When John places his hands on Paul, he sees that John is an innocent man. The actual perpetrator of the crime was Wharton, now dead by Percy's hand.

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What is "the green mile"?
the money that it costs to execute a prisoner
death row
an Irish footrace
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"The green mile" is death row. It's an agonizing place for prisoners and sometimes for the guards, too.

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Some critics complained about the movie's running time. How long is "The Green Mile"?
about 3 hours
about 4 hours
about 5 hours
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The movie is roughly three hours long. Long enough, perhaps, to help you get a feel for what it's like to sit around in a prison cell pondering your fate.

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Stephen King has seen many of his books turned into movies. How did he feel about Tom Hanks playing the part of Paul?
he thought it was perfect
he was completely indifferent
he thought Hanks was too well-known to play the part
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

King is notoriously fickle when it comes to judging adaptations of his books. But he thought Tom Hanks was perfect for the role of Paul.

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John is innocent, but he tells Paul that he's ready to die on death row. Why?
the world is too cruel
he knows he's different from other people and he's tired of it
he wants to see his dead mother in heaven
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John is tired of this cruel world. He tells Paul that he's ready to die, even though he didn't commit the crime that earned him the death penalty.

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At the end of the movie, we flash forward in time and see that John has given Paul which superpower?
X-ray vision
flying ability
longevity
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John's special touch helped Paul live an extraordinarily long life, and Mr. Jingles is still alive, too.

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This 1999 movie's budget was a jaw-dropping $60 million.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

These days, $60 million is a ton of money for a movie. But in 1999, it was nearly astronomical. It was the very definition of a big-budget Hollywood film.

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How did the film do at box offices?
it flopped
it succeeded all expectations
it broke even
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"The Green Mile" overperformed at box offices. It grossed nearly $300 million around the world, far exceeding its production budget.

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You Got:
/30
Castle Rock Entertainment