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1. Who plays the Dude?
Jeff Bridges
The Dude is modeled on Jeff Dowd, a film promoter and former member of the Seattle Seven whom the Coens knew, and Bridges wore a good deal of his own wardrobe, jelly sandals included. He says strangers have called him the Dude ever since.
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2. What is the Dude's actual name?
Jeffrey Lebowski
Bunny Lebowski owes money to Jackie Treehorn, so Treehorn's thugs look up the name and turn up at the wrong Jeffrey Lebowski, a bungalow in Venice rather than a mansion. The rich Lebowski is played by David Huddleston, and Treehorn by Ben Gazzara.
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3. Which filmmaking brothers made the movie?
Joel and Ethan Coen
They wrote it in the early 1990s but made Fargo first, and it did modestly in theaters before the cult took hold, with Lebowski Fest starting in 2002. The plot is a deliberate tangle in the manner of Raymond Chandler, with the Dude as a stoned Philip Marlowe.
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4. What household item is ruined in the opening confrontation?
A rug
Treehorn's thug urinates on it, and Walter decides the rich Lebowski should pay, so the Dude helps himself to a rug from the mansion instead. Maude later has that one taken back, which is how she and the Dude meet.
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5. What is the Dude's preferred cocktail?
A White Russian
Vodka, Kahlua and cream, though the Dude calls it a Caucasian and makes do with half-and-half, which is what he's buying at Ralphs in the opening with a check for 69 cents. The drink's revival as a bar order is generally credited to the film.
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6. Who plays Walter Sobchak?
John Goodman
Walter is a Vietnam veteran who converted to Judaism for his ex-wife and still keeps the Sabbath, which rules out bowling on Saturday. The Coens built him partly on John Milius, the gun-loving screenwriter of Apocalypse Now.
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7. What sport do the friends play together?
Bowling
The alley is Hollywood Star Lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard, a real place torn down a few years after the film. For all the time spent there, the Dude is never actually seen bowling, and the semifinal the team is sweating over never happens on screen.
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8. Who plays Donny?
Steve Buscemi
Donny barely gets a sentence out before Walter tells him to shut up, a joke on Buscemi's Fargo character, who never stopped talking. He is the one member of the trio who doesn't make it to the end, and his ashes go into a Folgers can.
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9. Which war does Walter keep bringing up?
The Vietnam War
Walter fits Vietnam into any argument, from the bowling rules to the kidnapping, and his eulogy for Donny ends up being about the war anyway. The Dude's own past is leftist rather than military: he claims to have helped write the Port Huron Statement.
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10. What is the rich Lebowski's missing wife called?
Bunny
Bunny, played by Tara Reid, is a trophy wife from Moorhead, Minnesota, whose debts to Jackie Treehorn set the whole thing off. Maude is Lebowski's daughter from his first marriage, and Jackie is Treehorn, the pornographer with a beach house in Malibu.
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11. What does the Dude find on the seat of his recovered car?
A kid's homework
The homework, in a plastic sleeve, belongs to a boy named Larry Sellers, and Walter tracks him down to interrogate him while his father lies in an iron lung. Larry says nothing, so Walter takes a crowbar to a car outside that turns out to be a neighbor's.
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12. What do the German troublemakers claim to believe in?
Nothing
'We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing.' They are played by Peter Stormare, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Torsten Voges, and once recorded a Kraftwerk-style album as the band Autobahn. Aimee Mann plays the girlfriend who gives up a toe.
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13. What is the name of John Turturro's flamboyant bowler?
Jesus Quintana
Quintana bowls in a purple jumpsuit, licks the ball and dances to the Gipsy Kings' version of 'Hotel California,' and much of the business was Turturro's own. He is on screen only a few minutes, and Turturro revived him in his own spin-off, The Jesus Rolls.
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14. Which band does the Dude say he hates?
The Eagles
He says it in the back of a cab while 'Peaceful Easy Feeling' plays on the radio, and the driver, a fan, throws him out on the roadside. His own taste runs to Creedence Clearwater Revival, whose 'Lookin' Out My Back Door' plays in his car.
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15. Who plays the cowboy-like Stranger?
Sam Elliott
The Coens wrote the Stranger with Elliott in mind, and he narrates the film and twice sits down at the bowling alley bar for a sarsaparilla. He is the one who sends the audience out with the phrase 'The Dude abides,' which he's quoting back at the Dude.
