Dead Dinosaurs Seen Here
Stars: They're Just Like Us
I Miss Lance Reddick
Classic Christmas Cinema
Crichton on Film
100

If you want to see the original Tyrannosaurus rex fossils unearthed by Barnum Brown in 1902 & 1908, head to this museum in Manhattan, New York.

What is the American Museum of Natural History?

100

We have a special name for this star, technically a yellow dwarf, which formed 4.6 billion years ago and will destroy our solar system's inner planets 4-7 billion years hence as it violently expands to become a red giant.

What is the Sun?

100

Lance Reddick gained popularity for his role as concierge Charon in this shoot 'em up film series, most recently in spin-off Ballerina, his final film appearance.

What is John Wick?

100

It was Beverly D'Angelo's dog that was "yakkin' on a bone" under the table during Christmas dinner in this 1989 comedy ensemble. Shitter's full!

What is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?

100

This 1990 novel and 1993 film began life as a 1981 Michael Crichton screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a pterosaur.

What is Jurassic Park?

200

Your T.rex enthusiasm still isn't satiated? Head to Chicago's Field Museum and check out this old girl, one of the most complete and legally-entangled specimens ever discovered.

Who is Sue?

200

Alnilam, a gargantuan star 28 times as massive as our sun, is the central point in this familiar three-star constellation, and according to Men in Black, it's where "the galaxy" is located.

What is Orion's Belt?

200

Reddick co-starred alongside Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble in this J.J. Abrams-produced Fox show that you might describe as "The X-Files" without conspiracies.

What is Fringe?

200

I don't know too many Christmas-themed superhero films, but this campy 1992 Tim Burton sequel certainly qualifies.

What is Batman Returns?

(Elektra is another one!)

200

Crichton compared this 1980 novel to King Solomon's Mines, but its 1995 film adaptation--which Crichton had little to do with--has more in common with 1988's Gorillas in the Mist.

What is Congo?

300

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is one of many museums located on the border of this landscaped park in Washington, D.C. (no shopping centers, though).

What is the National Mall?

300

Binary stars, which orbit each other, are surprisingly common, but tri-radiate systems would be subject to this physics problem which inspired a now-famous (but incredibly boring) book.

What is the Three-Body Problem?

300

One of Reddick's first on-screen appearances (uncredited) was as "Soldier on Manhattan Bridge" in this 1998 Tri-Star cinematic masterpiece starring Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno.

What is Godzilla?

300

Once you see this 1946 Christmas standard, it will be forever synonymized with, "Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight..."

What is It's a Wonderful Life?

300

Michael Crichton wrote and directed this low-budget 1973 film starring Yul Brynner and James Brolin which eventually influenced Jurassic Park and the Simpsons' Krustyland.

What is Westworld?

400

I visited this UK capital's natural history museum in 2009, and saw "Dippy the Diplodocus" in the main hall, but she has since gone on tour, replaced by an 82-foot-long Blue Whale skeleton nicknamed "Hope."

What is London?

400

In the TNG episode "Relics," the Enterprises finds itself within one of these hypothetical superstructures, wherein a sufficiently advanced civilization constructs a "shell" around its home star to capture most of its energy output.

What is a Dyson sphere?

400

Reddick co-starred in a middling 2023 Hulu remake of this beloved 1992 sports comedy originally starring Wesley Snipes & Woody Harrelson.

What is White Men Can't Jump?

400

This 1983 comedy about an upper crust commodities broker and a homeless man revitalized the careers of Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.

What is Trading Places?

400

I find that most film adaptations of Crichton books elevate the material, but not this deep-sea psychological thriller starring Dustin Hoffman, Sam Jackson, and a missing giant squid.

What is Sphere?

500

The Museum für Naturkunde, located in this European capital, boasts the world's tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton: a 43-foot Giraffatitan which stands next to an 88-foot long Diplodocus!

What is Berlin, Germany?

They also have the most famous, iconic specimen of Archaeopteryx.

Giraffatitan is basically Africa's Brachiosaurus.

500

The 2014 film Interstellar depicted this stellar corpse so accurately that it was later corroborated by telescope images of Messier 87 in the Virgo constellation and Sagittarius A in the center of the Milky Way.

What is a black hole?

500

One of Reddick's best-known video game roles is Sylens in the Horizon series, and after his death, this Voyager actor (Tuvok) took up the mantle for LEGO Horizon Adventures and future entries.

Who is Tim Russ?

500

Surely this 2000 casino heist box office bomb starring Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, and Gary Sinise is on everyone's annual list of Christmas movies, right?

What is Reindeer Games?

500

Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead (a sort of retelling of Beowulf) was eventually adapted and retitled as this 1999 film starring Antonio Banderas. 

What is The 13th Warrior?

1000

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, one of the best dinosaur museums in the world, is a major attraction of this badlands town, some 68 miles northeast of Calgary, Alberta.

What is Drumheller?

1000

The giant cockroach aliens who attempt to take over Earth in Godzilla vs. Gigan are from the "M Space Hunter" this, a region of space we might associate with star formation.

What is a nebula?

1000

Reddick voiced Hellboy in this cel-shaded roguelite action game (poorly-reviewed, unfortunately) which was released shortly after his death.

What is Hellboy: Web of Wyrd?

1000

This 1974 slasher starring Margot Kidder has been remade twice: first in 2006 with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and again in 2019 with Imogen Poots.

What is Black Christmas?

1000

The 1971 film adaptation of this landmark 1969 Crichton novel changes the four-man "Wildfire" infectious disease team into three men and one woman, but is otherwise impressively similar.

What is The Andromeda Strain?