Movie Smarts

How Well Do You Know The Shawshank Redemption?

Only a true fan gets all fifteen right. How many will you get?

Published 2026-10-22 Updated 2026-10-22 15 questions

The Shawshank Redemption, released in 1994 and filmed the summer before. 142 minutes, rated R.

The Shawshank Redemption: Good Friends, Terrible Address

Andy Dufresne arrives at prison insisting he doesn't belong there, which earns him very little sympathy. The days are harsh, the years drag on, and the men in charge aren't exactly there to help. A friendship with a fellow prisoner named Red gives Andy someone to lean on, even when hope seems like a risky habit. Small acts of kindness matter a lot in a place built to make people feel small.

You've done your time on the couch. Let's see what you remember.

1. What was Andy Dufresne's profession before Shawshank?
- A lawyer
- A banker
- A geologist
- A high-school teacher
Before his trial he was a vice president at a large bank, young for the job and good with numbers. Inside the walls that skill turns out to matter a great deal, first to the guards and then to the men who run the place.
2. In which year does Andy arrive at Shawshank?
- 1937
- 1947
- 1957
- 1967
The film opens with Andy's trial in 1947, and later that same year he's bused through the gates of Shawshank with the other new arrivals. From there his story runs on for almost two decades, into the 1960s.
3. Who wrote the story the film is based on?
- John Grisham
- Stephen King
- Truman Capote
- Scott Turow
The story comes from Different Seasons, King's 1982 collection of four tales with no horror in them. One of the other tales in that book, The Body, became the film Stand by Me. King reportedly never cashed the small cheque he got for the film rights. Years later he had it framed and sent it back to the director.
4. Who directed the film?
- Rob Reiner
- Frank Darabont
- Clint Eastwood
- Robert Zemeckis
Darabont wrote the screenplay too, and this was his first full-length film for cinemas. He adapted Stephen King twice more, with The Green Mile and The Mist.
5. Which state is Shawshank State Penitentiary in?
- Massachusetts
- Vermont
- Maine
- New Hampshire
King set the story in his home state, as he does with most of his books, and the film keeps it there. The prison itself is invented. There's no Shawshank on any map.
6. The exteriors and many interiors were shot at a real former prison. Which one?
- Alcatraz, California
- Eastern State Penitentiary, Pennsylvania
- The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio
- Sing Sing, New York
The reformatory in Mansfield had closed in 1990 and was waiting to be torn down when the film crew moved into its cell blocks, yard and offices. Today it runs tours built around the film and draws visitors from around the world.
7. How does Red describe what he does inside?
- He runs the laundry
- He's the man who can get things
- He keeps the warden's books
- He runs the prison library
As Red puts it, "I'm known to locate certain things from time to time." Cigarettes, a deck of cards, a bottle for a birthday: if a man can pay, Red can get it. Andy first comes to him as a customer, and the two men grow into friends from there.
8. What's the first thing Andy asks Red to get for him?
- A harmonica
- A chess set
- A rock hammer
- A deck of cards
Andy says he wants it to shape the rocks he picks up in the yard, a hobby from his old life. Red half believes him, and decides the little tool is far too small to be worth worrying about.
9. Whose poster hangs on Andy's cell wall first?
- Marilyn Monroe
- Raquel Welch
- Rita Hayworth
- Betty Grable
That's why King's novella is called Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Andy asks Red for the poster in 1949, while the prison is watching Gilda. Over the years the pin-up changes with the times: Marilyn Monroe takes her place, and later Raquel Welch.
10. During the roof-tarring job of 1949, what does Andy win for the work crew by helping the captain of the guards with a tax problem?
- An afternoon off
- Cold beer
- Cigarettes for a month
- Time off their sentences
Three bottles each, ice cold, drunk on the factory roof in the spring sun. Red remembers the crew sitting there like free men. Andy, who arranged it all, sits apart with a strange little smile and doesn't drink.
11. Which composer's music does Andy play over the prison loudspeakers?
- Beethoven
- Verdi
- Mozart
- Puccini
It's the Letter Duet from The Marriage of Figaro, played over the whole yard from the warden's office with the door locked. It costs Andy two weeks in solitary. He calls it the easiest time he ever did, because he had Mozart to keep him company.
12. Who plays Red?
- Morgan Freeman
- Samuel L. Jackson
- James Earl Jones
- Danny Glover
In the novella Red is a white Irishman with red hair. The film keeps the joke: when Andy asks about the nickname, Red says, "Maybe it's because I'm Irish." Freeman's performance, and the narration that runs through the whole film, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
13. How many Academy Awards did the film win from its seven nominations?
- None
- One
- Three
- All seven
It was the year of Forrest Gump, which took Best Picture and Best Actor, with Pulp Fiction and Quiz Show also in the running. Shawshank lost every category it was up for. Then it outlasted all of them in the public's affection.
14. What does the elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen keep as a pet?
- A cat
- A crow
- A mouse
- A pigeon
His name is Jake. Brooks found him as a fledgling and raised him in the library, feeding him maggots from the kitchen. When Brooks is finally paroled after fifty years inside, setting Jake free is the first thing he does.
15. Which line does Andy use to sum up the choice every prisoner faces?
- "Hope is a dangerous thing"
- "Get busy living, or get busy dying"
- "Salvation lies within"
- "Nobody ever leaves this place"
It's Red who calls hope a dangerous thing, and "Salvation lies within" is the warden's line. Andy's answer to both is the one everybody quotes. He says it to Red in the yard, just before the film's final act.

All the answers

1. What was Andy Dufresne's profession before Shawshank?

A banker

Before his trial he was a vice president at a large bank, young for the job and good with numbers. Inside the walls that skill turns out to matter a great deal, first to the guards and then to the men who run the place.
2. In which year does Andy arrive at Shawshank?

1947

The film opens with Andy's trial in 1947, and later that same year he's bused through the gates of Shawshank with the other new arrivals. From there his story runs on for almost two decades, into the 1960s.
3. Who wrote the story the film is based on?

Stephen King

The story comes from Different Seasons, King's 1982 collection of four tales with no horror in them. One of the other tales in that book, The Body, became the film Stand by Me. King reportedly never cashed the small cheque he got for the film rights. Years later he had it framed and sent it back to the director.
4. Who directed the film?

Frank Darabont

Darabont wrote the screenplay too, and this was his first full-length film for cinemas. He adapted Stephen King twice more, with The Green Mile and The Mist.
5. Which state is Shawshank State Penitentiary in?

Maine

King set the story in his home state, as he does with most of his books, and the film keeps it there. The prison itself is invented. There's no Shawshank on any map.
6. The exteriors and many interiors were shot at a real former prison. Which one?

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio

The reformatory in Mansfield had closed in 1990 and was waiting to be torn down when the film crew moved into its cell blocks, yard and offices. Today it runs tours built around the film and draws visitors from around the world.
7. How does Red describe what he does inside?

He's the man who can get things

As Red puts it, "I'm known to locate certain things from time to time." Cigarettes, a deck of cards, a bottle for a birthday: if a man can pay, Red can get it. Andy first comes to him as a customer, and the two men grow into friends from there.
8. What's the first thing Andy asks Red to get for him?

A rock hammer

Andy says he wants it to shape the rocks he picks up in the yard, a hobby from his old life. Red half believes him, and decides the little tool is far too small to be worth worrying about.
9. Whose poster hangs on Andy's cell wall first?

Rita Hayworth

That's why King's novella is called Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Andy asks Red for the poster in 1949, while the prison is watching Gilda. Over the years the pin-up changes with the times: Marilyn Monroe takes her place, and later Raquel Welch.
10. During the roof-tarring job of 1949, what does Andy win for the work crew by helping the captain of the guards with a tax problem?

Cold beer

Three bottles each, ice cold, drunk on the factory roof in the spring sun. Red remembers the crew sitting there like free men. Andy, who arranged it all, sits apart with a strange little smile and doesn't drink.
11. Which composer's music does Andy play over the prison loudspeakers?

Mozart

It's the Letter Duet from The Marriage of Figaro, played over the whole yard from the warden's office with the door locked. It costs Andy two weeks in solitary. He calls it the easiest time he ever did, because he had Mozart to keep him company.
12. Who plays Red?

Morgan Freeman

In the novella Red is a white Irishman with red hair. The film keeps the joke: when Andy asks about the nickname, Red says, "Maybe it's because I'm Irish." Freeman's performance, and the narration that runs through the whole film, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
13. How many Academy Awards did the film win from its seven nominations?

None

It was the year of Forrest Gump, which took Best Picture and Best Actor, with Pulp Fiction and Quiz Show also in the running. Shawshank lost every category it was up for. Then it outlasted all of them in the public's affection.
14. What does the elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen keep as a pet?

A crow

His name is Jake. Brooks found him as a fledgling and raised him in the library, feeding him maggots from the kitchen. When Brooks is finally paroled after fifty years inside, setting Jake free is the first thing he does.
15. Which line does Andy use to sum up the choice every prisoner faces?

"Get busy living, or get busy dying"

It's Red who calls hope a dangerous thing, and "Salvation lies within" is the warden's line. Andy's answer to both is the one everybody quotes. He says it to Red in the yard, just before the film's final act.