Inspired by the New Spy Chase Scavenger Hunt
In our newest game, the Spy Chase Scavenger Hunt, someone in your group is not who they seem! A spy hides among you, and only by completing a series of challenges and puzzles can you reveal their identity before they slip away with all their dangerous intel. It’s part trivia game, part scavenger hunt, and all a great time.
To get your brains in gear for rooting out dastardly double agents, try your hand at this collection of 13 trivia questions all about espionage, skullduggery, and bizarre real-life spy stories.
1. Who wrote the first spy novel?
A. Ian Fleming
B. John le Carré
C. James Fenimore Cooper
D. Charles M. Schulz
C. James Fenimore Cooper — In 1821, 5 years before publishing his famous The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper published The Spy, set during the American Revolution.
2. How many actors have played 007 only once in a James Bond film?
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 7
C. 2 — Bond fans know George Lazenby played Bond only once, in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. But David Niven also did so, in 1967’s Casino Royale. Of course, the latter was a comical spoof and not considered Bond canon.
3. In the 1960s, the CIA operated Project Acoustic Kitty, which involved fitting (or surgically implanting) cats with microphones and transmitters for use as unsuspected spies. Why was the project abandoned?
A. It was deemed inhumane
B. The technology didn’t work
C. The $20 million price tag was too high
D. Cats respond poorly to training and get distracted easily
D. Cats respond poorly to training and get distracted easily — Yep, turns out cats make lousy secret agents!
4. CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb oversaw the infamous MKUltra program in the 1950s and ’60s. While it consisted of various projects and experiments, its main objective was to develop…what?
A. Mind control
B. Genetic engineering
C. Advanced technology
D. A reputation for being creepy
A. Mind control — Gottlieb attempted all sorts of methods, including psychological torture and brainwashing, to develop forms of mind control. It’s considered one of the more unethical things the CIA has ever done, and that’s saying something!
5. In one of MKUltra’s more, um, interesting projects, prostitutes on the CIA payroll would lure unsuspecting men to CIA-run brothels. The men were plied with mind-altering substances, particularly LSD, and then the prostitutes would attempt to extract secrets from them—all while CIA researchers watched from behind one-way glass. What was this project’s name?
A. Project Artichoke
B. Project Secret Sting
C. Project WTF
D. Project Midnight Climax
D. Project Midnight Climax — A little on the nose there, huh, CIA?
6. During World War II, a hugely popular African American performer in France also became a prolific and successful spy against the Nazis. Josephine Baker performed for the enemy, and then passed overheard information to French freedom fighters and the Allies. Which one of the following methods did she use to store and pass on information?
A. Carrier pigeons
B. Invisible ink on her sheet music
C. Records to be played in reverse
D. Skywriting
B. Invisible ink on her sheet music
— Baker sometimes had to pin these messages to her underwear to smuggle them out after performances.
7. Tom Cruise is famous for doing particularly hair-raising stunts in the Mission Impossible movies. While filming the franchise’s eighth entry, 2025’s The Final Reckoning, he earned a Guinness World Record. What’s it for?
A. Fastest arm-chopping motion while running
B. Highest stunt jump off a building
C. Most burning parachute jumps by an individual
D. Tom Cruise-ing harder than anyone has Tom Cruise-d before
C. Most burning parachute jumps by an individual — Cruise jumped out of a helicopter 16 times while strapped to a parachute that was pre-soaked in fuel and then lit on fire. Guess he earned his paycheck that day.
8. An 18th century Venetian adventurer worked as a spy for France and later his home country of Italy—but he gained fame for something else entirely. What was his name?
A. Giacomo Casanova
B. Cyrano de Bergerac
C. Aaron Burr
D. Dante Alighieri
A. Giacomo Casanova — That’s right, the guy whose affairs were so legendary his name became synonymous with womanizing was also an OK spy.
9. In 1943, British intelligence concocted a plan to disguise the corpse of a dead vagrant as a military officer carrying fake military-attack plans. Against all odds, it actually worked! It helped misdirect Axis forces away from the Allied invasion of Sicily—the first step to defeating Italy in World War II. What was this plan called?
A. Operation Smokescreen
B. Operation Mincemeat
C. Operation Vagabond
D. Operation Look, Over There!
B. Operation Mincemeat
— This unlikely spy has been adapted into a 2021 Colin Firth film and a Tony- and Olivier Award–winning musical.
10. In September 1776, Nathan Hale volunteered to spy on the British for the Continental Army. He planned to disguise himself as a Dutch schoolteacher looking for work and spy behind enemy lines on British-controlled Long Island. Unfortunately, he was almost immediately identified, captured, and hanged. (It didn’t help that he reportedly carried his Yale diploma with his name on it.) What were his famous last words?
A. “Give me liberty or give me death.”
B. “Don’t tread on me.”
C. “OK fine, you got me.”
D. “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
D. “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” — Actually, no official record was made of Hale’s final words. Historians debate whether he actually uttered the famous line, but it’s attributed to him all the same.
11. Novelist Ian Fleming based James Bond on Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and later by the British Secret Service Bureau in the late 1800s and early 1900s. What was his nickname?
A. Smiley
B. The Ace of Spies
C. The Phantom
D. Carmen Sandiego
B. The Ace of Spies — After his execution by Soviet agents in 1925, newspapers also dubbed him the “Scarlet Pimpernel of Red Russia.” We’d stick with “Ace of Spies,” personally.
12. Britain’s famed MI6 intelligence agency was founded in 1909 as the foreign section of the Secret Service Bureau. It adopted its current name, “Military Intelligence, Section 6,” around 1920. In what year was its existence officially acknowledged for the first time?
A. 1909
B. 1924
C. 1949
D. 1994
D. 1994 — Despite appearing in countless Bond films and other media, the British government didn’t admit to its existence publicly until 1994. Coincidentally, that was the same year its iconic Thames-side HQ, nicknamed “Legoland” (derogatory), was completed.
13. Which ONE of the following was NOT a real spycraft or military gadget (as far as we know)?
A. Transmitter disguised as dog poop
B. Eyeglasses with cyanide pills in the arms
C. Wristwatch that shoots laser beams
D. Toolkit designed to be hidden rectally
C. Wristwatch that shoots laser beams — This 007 gadget appeared in a few films but was pure make-believe. The aptly named company Laser Gadgets designed one in 2014, but it’s not actually used by spies. The other three devices, including the rectal toolkit, were indeed real gadgets designed for spies.
Find More Fun
Ready for even more espionage adventure? Learn more about the new Spy Chase Scavenger Hunt, available to private groups of any size at just about any time, and playable just about anywhere.
~
Image credits: Lead photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash; Sidney Gottlieb photo in the public domain by U.S. Federal Government; Venice photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash; MI6 HQ by SIS Building, Vauxhall Cross by Richard Cooke, CC BY-SA 2.0