2000s Movies Quiz
Hobbits, pirates, Shrek and the Joker: 15 questions on the decade that gave us the modern blockbuster.
Which 2001 film opened Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring was released in December 2001, the first of three films shot back to back in New Zealand, and it earned 13 Oscar nominations, winning four.
The trilogy's finale, The Return of the King, won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, tying the record held by Ben-Hur and Titanic.
Who played Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp based his swaying, slurring pirate partly on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, alarming Disney executives at first but earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Keith Richards later appeared in the series himself, playing Jack's father Captain Teague in the third and fourth films.
What kind of fish is Nemo in Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003)?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Clownfish
Nemo and his father Marlin are clownfish, the orange-and-white reef fish that shelter among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones on the Great Barrier Reef; his forgetful friend Dory is a blue tang.
Demand for pet clownfish surged after the film, the opposite of its message, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Which 2009 film overtook Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie of all time at that point?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Avatar
James Cameron's Avatar passed his own Titanic within weeks of its December 2009 release, helped by premium 3D ticket prices, and went on to earn more than $2.7 billion in its original run.
Cameron waited more than a decade after Titanic to make it because the motion-capture technology he wanted did not yet exist.
Who voiced Donkey in Shrek (2001)?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy's motor-mouthed Donkey stole the film from Mike Myers' Scottish-accented ogre, and the odd-couple pairing proved so popular that it carried three sequels and a string of spin-offs.
Shrek won the very first Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002, beating Pixar's Monsters, Inc.
Which 2004 teen comedy, written by Tina Fey, gave us the rule "On Wednesdays we wear pink"?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mean Girls
Mean Girls starred Lindsay Lohan as a new student navigating Regina George's clique, the Plastics; Fey adapted the script from Rosalind Wiseman's parenting book Queen Bees and Wannabes.
Fans celebrate Mean Girls Day every October 3, the date Aaron Samuels asks Cady what day it is in the film.
Which 2006 film introduced Daniel Craig as James Bond?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Casino Royale
Casino Royale rebooted the series with Craig as a newly promoted 00 agent, adapting Ian Fleming's first Bond novel from 1953 and swapping gadgets for a brutal poker game against Le Chiffre.
Craig's casting was so unpopular with some fans beforehand that a website campaigned to boycott the film, which then became the biggest Bond hit to date.
Which 2006 film finally won Martin Scorsese the Oscar for Best Director?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Departed
The Departed won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, ending a run of five directing nominations without a win for Scorsese that stretched back to Raging Bull in 1981.
The film is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, relocated to the Boston Irish mob.
Which film, set in Mumbai, won eight Oscars including Best Picture at the 2009 ceremony?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, about a Mumbai teenager suspected of cheating on a quiz show, won eight of its ten nominations, including Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and two for composer A. R. Rahman.
The film had nearly gone straight to DVD in the United States after its original distributor Warner Independent was shut down.
Which film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 2003 ceremony, the first hand-drawn winner of the award?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Spirited Away
Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, about a girl trapped in a bathhouse for spirits, beat Ice Age and Lilo & Stitch to the award, and it was Japan's highest-grossing film for almost 20 years.
It was the only non-English-language winner of the category until Miyazaki won again in 2024 for The Boy and the Heron.
In which 2004 film do Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet have their memories of each other erased?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel and Clementine each pay a clinic to wipe the other from their minds, and the film replays their relationship backwards inside Joel's head as it disappears.
Charlie Kaufman won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and director Michel Gondry built many of the effects in camera rather than with CGI.
Who played the coin-flipping killer Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for Chigurh, the bowl-haircut hitman who kills with a captive bolt pistol and lets a coin toss decide whether strangers live.
The Coen brothers' film won Best Picture, and Bardem became the first Spanish actor to win an Academy Award.
In The Dark Knight (2008), which actor played district attorney Harvey Dent, who becomes Two-Face?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart played Gotham's "white knight", the crusading prosecutor whose disfigurement and descent into revenge are the Joker's real victory; Gary Oldman played Commissioner Gordon in the same film.
Tommy Lee Jones played Two-Face in Batman Forever (1995), and Billy Dee Williams was Harvey Dent in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman.
Who directed the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Chris Columbus
Chris Columbus, already known for Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, directed the first two Potter films, casting Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson when they were around 11 years old.
Cuarón took over for Prisoner of Azkaban, Newell made Goblet of Fire, and Yates directed the final four films.
Which Christopher Nolan film from 2000 tells the story of a man with no short-term memory largely in reverse order?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Memento
Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, who uses Polaroids and tattoos to hunt his wife's killer; its colour scenes run backwards while black-and-white scenes run forwards until they meet.
The film was based on a short story by Nolan's brother Jonathan, and its $9 million budget was repaid several times over.
Your results
More to explore
All Entertainment quizzes →About the 2000s Movies Quiz
The 2000s began with a Roman general in a Colosseum and ended with blue aliens on Pandora. In between, Peter Jackson turned The Lord of the Rings into 17 Oscars, Pixar found Nemo, Johnny Depp invented Captain Jack Sparrow, and a $185 million Batman sequel earned a posthumous Oscar for its Joker.
These 15 questions cover the decade's biggest hits and best-loved comedies, from Shrek and Mean Girls to Casino Royale and Slumdog Millionaire, then dig into Oscar-winning animation, memorable villains and a backwards-running thriller for the real film fans. Whether you queued for midnight screenings or caught up on DVD, see how much of the 2000s you remember.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
What was the highest-grossing movie of the 2000s?
Avatar (2009), which overtook Titanic to become the highest-grossing film of all time in early 2010 and eventually passed $2.9 billion worldwide.
Which 2000s films won Best Picture?
Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, The Return of the King, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire and The Hurt Locker.
What was the first film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature?
Shrek, at the 2002 ceremony, beating Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Which 2001 film opened Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy?
The Fellowship of the Ring The Fellowship of the Ring was released in December 2001, the first of three films shot back to back in New Zealand, and it earned 13 Oscar nominations, winning four. The trilogy's finale, The Return of the King, won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, tying the record held by Ben-Hur and Titanic. - Who played Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)?
Johnny Depp Johnny Depp based his swaying, slurring pirate partly on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, alarming Disney executives at first but earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Keith Richards later appeared in the series himself, playing Jack's father Captain Teague in the third and fourth films. - What kind of fish is Nemo in Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003)?
Clownfish Nemo and his father Marlin are clownfish, the orange-and-white reef fish that shelter among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones on the Great Barrier Reef; his forgetful friend Dory is a blue tang. Demand for pet clownfish surged after the film, the opposite of its message, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. - Which 2009 film overtook Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie of all time at that point?
Avatar James Cameron's Avatar passed his own Titanic within weeks of its December 2009 release, helped by premium 3D ticket prices, and went on to earn more than $2.7 billion in its original run. Cameron waited more than a decade after Titanic to make it because the motion-capture technology he wanted did not yet exist. - Who voiced Donkey in Shrek (2001)?
Eddie Murphy Eddie Murphy's motor-mouthed Donkey stole the film from Mike Myers' Scottish-accented ogre, and the odd-couple pairing proved so popular that it carried three sequels and a string of spin-offs. Shrek won the very first Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002, beating Pixar's Monsters, Inc. - Which 2004 teen comedy, written by Tina Fey, gave us the rule "On Wednesdays we wear pink"?
Mean Girls Mean Girls starred Lindsay Lohan as a new student navigating Regina George's clique, the Plastics; Fey adapted the script from Rosalind Wiseman's parenting book Queen Bees and Wannabes. Fans celebrate Mean Girls Day every October 3, the date Aaron Samuels asks Cady what day it is in the film. - Which 2006 film introduced Daniel Craig as James Bond?
Casino Royale Casino Royale rebooted the series with Craig as a newly promoted 00 agent, adapting Ian Fleming's first Bond novel from 1953 and swapping gadgets for a brutal poker game against Le Chiffre. Craig's casting was so unpopular with some fans beforehand that a website campaigned to boycott the film, which then became the biggest Bond hit to date. - Which 2006 film finally won Martin Scorsese the Oscar for Best Director?
The Departed The Departed won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, ending a run of five directing nominations without a win for Scorsese that stretched back to Raging Bull in 1981. The film is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, relocated to the Boston Irish mob. - Which film, set in Mumbai, won eight Oscars including Best Picture at the 2009 ceremony?
Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, about a Mumbai teenager suspected of cheating on a quiz show, won eight of its ten nominations, including Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and two for composer A. R. Rahman. The film had nearly gone straight to DVD in the United States after its original distributor Warner Independent was shut down. - Which film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 2003 ceremony, the first hand-drawn winner of the award?
Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, about a girl trapped in a bathhouse for spirits, beat Ice Age and Lilo & Stitch to the award, and it was Japan's highest-grossing film for almost 20 years. It was the only non-English-language winner of the category until Miyazaki won again in 2024 for The Boy and the Heron. - In which 2004 film do Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet have their memories of each other erased?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel and Clementine each pay a clinic to wipe the other from their minds, and the film replays their relationship backwards inside Joel's head as it disappears. Charlie Kaufman won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and director Michel Gondry built many of the effects in camera rather than with CGI. - Who played the coin-flipping killer Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)?
Javier Bardem Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for Chigurh, the bowl-haircut hitman who kills with a captive bolt pistol and lets a coin toss decide whether strangers live. The Coen brothers' film won Best Picture, and Bardem became the first Spanish actor to win an Academy Award. - In The Dark Knight (2008), which actor played district attorney Harvey Dent, who becomes Two-Face?
Aaron Eckhart Aaron Eckhart played Gotham's "white knight", the crusading prosecutor whose disfigurement and descent into revenge are the Joker's real victory; Gary Oldman played Commissioner Gordon in the same film. Tommy Lee Jones played Two-Face in Batman Forever (1995), and Billy Dee Williams was Harvey Dent in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman. - Who directed the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)?
Chris Columbus Chris Columbus, already known for Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, directed the first two Potter films, casting Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson when they were around 11 years old. Cuarón took over for Prisoner of Azkaban, Newell made Goblet of Fire, and Yates directed the final four films. - Which Christopher Nolan film from 2000 tells the story of a man with no short-term memory largely in reverse order?
Memento Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, who uses Polaroids and tattoos to hunt his wife's killer; its colour scenes run backwards while black-and-white scenes run forwards until they meet. The film was based on a short story by Nolan's brother Jonathan, and its $9 million budget was repaid several times over.
Browse other categories
Every category has its own quizzes, each with instant explanations.