TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you will be shown an extract from a movie plot and a question. You need to provide the correct answer for it. Short answers containing words that are present in the passage are preferred.
PROBLEM: An encounter in the bar of the Mexico City branch of the Camino Real Hotels, between tired businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), hoping to land a life-saving contract in Mexico, and jaded, falling-apart-at-the-seams assassin Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan), leads both men into an awkward friendship. Julian is confronting the immorality of his profession and experiencing a mid-life crisis that causes him to freeze on a job; Danny is fearing that a vitally important deal will fall through and cost him his job. After an uncomfortable-at-times conversation, Danny leaves the bar. Julian apologizes and invites him to see a bullfight. During the spectacle, Julian reveals the kind of work he truly does, and when Danny is skeptical, takes Danny through the steps of murdering a portly spectator in the arena bathroom. Danny is shocked at how easily Julian can get within inches of the man, even though Julian ends the "tutorial" without going through with the murder.Later, while at an outdoor cafe, Julian asks Danny to assist him in "facilitating a fatality"; Danny flatly refuses and Julian leaves. On leaving the idea seems to be that Julian has had enough of Danny and their friendship has just ended. That evening Julian appears at Danny's hotel room, knocking on the door, pleading to be let in; Julian wants to apologize for attempting to involve Danny in his work. Danny sits within looking undecided, and the scene fades to black without revealing what happened next. There is the sound of glass breaking once the screen goes dark.The film picks up again six months later, during the Christmas season. Danny and his wife, Bean (Hope Davis) are relaxing at their home when Julian arrives, looking for a place to stay. Danny and Bean have reservations about the situation, but decide to let him in. The grateful Julian notices that Danny has framed the ticket from the bullfight, an act that affects Julian profoundly. That night, he shares the real reason for his visit: he needs help with one last job. Julian convinces Danny to go along with the plan because, he tells Danny, "you owe me." After much internal struggle and with Danny talking him through it, Julian completes the task at a Tucson horse race track.On the plane back from Tucson, Julian reveals that the man he just killed was his boss. Killing the boss means now Julian can retire and spend the rest of his life in Greece. Danny is surprised, then amused at Julian's craftiness, but is reminded of Julian's lethal personality when he lightly punches Julian in the shoulder and is sternly warned by Julian, "Don't ever hit me again." Danny remembers his friend is still a killer and immediately apologizes. A split flashback sequence during the flight home (memories triggered by a statement Danny makes), shows what took place a year prior when Danny let Julian into his hotel room: Julian talked Danny out of commissioning a hit on a rival to win the Mexico City business deal.Later, Danny and Bean are shown at the grave of their son, something they do together every year. Julian watches respectfully from a distance, places plane tickets for Greece (his intended place of retirement) on their car windshield, then slips away., Question: Who was Danny and Bean with at the grave?

SOLUTION: Answer: their son

PROBLEM: In 1949, American attorney and former U.S. Army Air Forces officer Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger) is vacationing in Great Britain when he spots a familiar Toby Jug in an antique shop window. He asks the proprietor where he bought the jug and he is told that it came from Archbury, which is the location of the former Royal Air Force Station Archbury and USAAF station where Stovall served with the 918th Bomb Group during World War II. Convinced that it is the same jug, he buys it and journeys by train and bicycle to the ex-RAF airfield at Archbury, now abandoned and used as pasture, but with the runways, taxiways, control tower and other buildings still standing. As Stovall relives memories of the place, the scene flashes back to 1942 and the main plot begins.Having recently arrived and been thrown into action, the 918th has gained the reputation of a "bad luck group" suffering from poor morale. One reason is the U.S. strategy of daylight precision bombing and the corresponding losses to German anti-aircraft fire and Luftwaffe fighter aircraft. In addition, their commander, Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill), has become too close to his men to instil adequate discipline. When he is ordered to fly a mission at low altitude to increase accuracy, Davenport rushes to headquarters and confronts his friend, Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck), the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations. His behavior prompts Savage to go to Major General Patrick Pritchard (Millard Mitchell), commanding general of VIII Bomber Command, and tell him that that he feels Davenport might crack under the strain. Pritchard eventually relieves Davenport of command and the 918th is given to Savage.In order to address discipline problems, Savage deals with everyone so harshly that the men begin to detest him. Upset by the contrast of Savage's stern leadership, all of the 918th's pilots apply for transfers. Savage asks the Group Adjutant, Major Stovall, to delay processing their applications to buy him some time since, as an attorney in civilian life, Stovall knows how to use "red tape. When the 918th resumes combat flying with greater success after hasty refresher training, the men begin to change their minds, especially after Savage leads them on a mission in which the 918th is the only group to bomb the target and have all of the aircraft return safely.The word gets around that Pritchard personally chewed Savage out for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order. But rather than incurring any form of punishment for this disobedience, Savage persuades Pritchard to recommend the group for a Distinguished Unit Citation. When the Inspector General arrives to check out the unrest, Savage is packing ready to go, but the pilots withdraw their requests to transfer. Savage also softens his attitude towards the men as he becomes more closely involved with them and is warned about the consequences by Keith Davenport on one of his visits.As the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer and riskier, with enemy resistance intensifying. Many of Savage's best men (including Bishop and Cobb) are shot down or killed. Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job at VIII Bomber Command, but Savage refuses because he feels that the 918th is incapable of performing without him. Reluctantly, Pritchard leaves him in command. However, before a particularly dangerous raid, Savage becomes disoriented and erratic; unable to haul himself up into his B-17, he has to be relieved. While waiting for the groups return, Savage becomes catatonic. Only as they fly back relatively unharmed after destroying the target, does he regain his composure and fall asleep.The story then returns to 1949 and Stovall, who leaves the Toby mug on the fireplace mantle of the abandoned airfield's officers' club and pedals away on his bicycle., Question: What did Savage claim to have malfunctioned when ignoring the recall order?

SOLUTION: Answer: Radio

PROBLEM: In the present day (1970), 121-year-old Jack Crabb, the oldest living man in the world and residing in a hospice, recounts his plentiful life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to have had been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.Jack begins his story in a flashback to 1859 when he was 10 years old where he and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) survive the massacre of their parents by the Pawnee, and are discovered by a Cheyenne brave who takes the pair to his village. Caroline escapes, but Jack is reared by the goodhearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins. As Jack gets older, he unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear; however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack since he saved his life from a Pawnee brave. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is short but very brave. In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Cheyenne upbringing in order to save himself. He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake household, and religion.The following year, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather. The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Merriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers is Jack's now-grown sister, Caroline, with whom he reunites. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger named the Soda Pop Kid. Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.Another year or so later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a Swedish woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel. The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer suggests the couple restart their lives further west and assures them they have nothing to fear of Indians. They set out, but their stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search for her. He is reunited with Old Lodge Skins. Younger Bear has become a Contrary, a warrior who does everything in reverse. Jack makes friends with the hwame Little Horse, but continues on his search for Olga.Jack eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, only because Custer incorrectly determines that was Jack's past job. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the troopers begin killing women and children, Jack turns on them. Jack discovers a Cheyenne woman, Sunshine (AimÃ©e Eccles), giving birth. He returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, not a Contrary anymore, who is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to make her remember him. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees.In November 1868, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp at the Washita River. A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but Sunshine, their child, and her sisters are killed. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge, but loses his nerve to kill Custer.Disheartened, Jack withdraws from life and becomes the town drunk living in Deadwood, South Dakota for the next several years. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to get cleaned up. Hickok is shot and killed while playing cards and, with his last breath, asks Jack to bring some money to a widow he was having an affair with. Jack visits the widow, now a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life, but again rebuffs her sexual advances. This scene provides an homage to Hoffman's role in the movie The Graduate and his seduction by Mrs. Robinson.Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. He prepares to commit suicide, but sees Custer and his troops marching nearby, and decides to return to his quest for revenge. Custer hires him as a scout, reasoning that anything Jack says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack tricks Custer into leading his troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn by truthfully telling Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley. As Custer's troops are slaughtered by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne group, he begins to rave insanely. The mad Custer attempts to shoot Jack who is wounded, but is killed by Younger Bear, who then carries Jack away from the battlefield. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.Back at the Indian camp, Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the Indian burial ground, where the old man, dressed in full chief's regalia, has declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.Back in the present, Jack's narrative ends and he dismisses the historian. The final shot shows the elderly Jack thinking with sadness about the memories of a world which is no more., Question: What year did Jack flashback to?

SOLUTION:
Answer: 1859