Reel Beach: Boldly explore our outer space movie quiz

By BERNIE FLETCHER

Last month, space exploration captured the public’s imagination and sense of wonder. Canadians proudly watched Artemis II and astronaut Jeremy Hansen soar around the moon.

Hansen was the first Canadian to leave earth’s orbit, but many Canuck actors have pretended to go before him on screen.

“Art imitates science and vice versa.”
Jeremy Hansen.

Science fiction and science play off of each other as the human mind dreams of things before they happen. As mankind has reached for the stars so has cinema as far back as 1902’s Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) where a spaceship splashes back into the sea.

Hollywood loves blockbusters like Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (out on May 23) and Disclosure Day (June 12).

Now you can boldly go into space with this movie quiz that’s out of this world.

Your mission is to name the Canadian performer who played a role in a space film. For instance, Sean Sullivan (1921-1985), Robert Beatty (1909-1992) and Douglas Rain (1928-2018) were in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

In that epic film, Sullivan and U of T grad Beatty played scientists who were the first to step on the moon. This was before the Apollo missions. It took 12 days to shoot the brief moon-walking sequence alone. Stanley Kubrick insisted on real space suits and Sullivan “lost 25 pounds”.

It took so long making the movie that Sullivan joked about 2001: “Everybody said that’s not the title, that’s the release date.”
Sullivan was born in Toronto and attended Malvern Collegiate. Back in 1972 he told the Globe and Mail that in early roles he went by “John” but there already was a John Sullivan in Britain.

“My name is really Sean. I didn’t change it. I didn’t want to use it when I was a kid going to Malvern Collegiate so I called myself John,” he said.

Sullivan broke into television in 1953 in the CBC children’s program Space Command with William Shatner and James Doohan. “I was all sorts of weird Martians running around behind rocks,” he said of the show.

To complicate matters, another Toronto actor is Sean Sullivan (Wayne’s World) who is alive and well though some AI slop gets the two mixed up. Can we trust machines?

Douglas Rain played the soothing but ominous voice of the computer Hal 9000 who goes rogue onboard the 2001 Jupiter mission: “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Hundreds of local actors have appeared on the many Star Trek series, including Malvern’s Atticus Mitchell and Scarborough’s Nicole de Boer.

Now, try your hand at the controls of this quiz. Do you have “the right stuff” to reach for the stars?

QUIZ

1. Captain Kirk on the U.S.S. Enterprise?
2. Beam me up “Scotty” on Star Trek?
3. Commander John Adams in Forbidden Planet (1956) …and don’t call him Shirley!
4. Commander Adama in Battlestar Galactica (1978): The Voice of Canada on CBC?
5. Barf in Spaceballs (1987) and a Neil McNeil grad?
6. Lord Dark Helmet in Spaceballs (1987), also an SCTV alum?
7. Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars, Episodes II and III (2002 and 2005)?
8. Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary (2026), which was praised by Jeremy Hansen?
9. Miss Moneypenny in Moonraker (1979), and a close friend of Roger Moore?
10. Richter in Total Recall (1990), also in Starship Troopers (1997)?
11. Mindy Park in The Martian (2015), who discovers Matt Damon is still alive?
12. Klingon General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)?
13. Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI (1991)?
14. Jerry O’Neill in Space Cowboys (2000), and star of the movie M.A.S.H.?
15. Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds in Serenity (2005)?

Please see the answers below:

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS

1. William Shatner (b. Montreal, 1931). Boldly went where no 90-year old had gone before.
2. James Doohan (b. Vancouver, 1920-2005). Wounded in D-Day landing on Juno Beach.
3. Leslie Nielsen (b. Regina, 1926-2010). Was the son of a Mountie.
4. Lorne Greene (b. Ottawa, 1915-1987). Famous for Bonanza.
5. John Candy (b. Newmarket, 1950-1994). Raised in East York.
6. Rick Moranis (b. Toronto, 1953). Will be back in Spaceballs: The New One (April 2027).
7. Hayden Christensen (b. Vancouver, 1981). Grew up in Markham.
8. Ryan Gosling (b. London, 1980). Also played Neil Armstrong in First Man (2018).
9. Lois Maxwell (b. Kitchener, 1927-2007) Raised in Toronto.
10. Michael Ironside (b. Toronto, 1950) Grew up in Riverdale.
11. Mackenzie Davis (b. Vancouver, 1987).
12. Christopher Plummer (b. Toronto, 1929- 2021). Was in The Sound of Music (1965).
13. Kim Cattrell (b. 1956, Liverpool). Came to Canada at age three months.
14. Donald Sutherland (b. Saint-John, 1935-2024). Also in Ad Astra (2019).
15. Nathan Fillion (b. Edmonton, 1971). In television shows Castle, The Rookie.

Mission Score: (11-15) Go for launch; (6-10) Grounded; (0-5) Go for lunch.