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Money Heist Trivia Quiz
Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) follows a criminal mastermind known only as the Professor, who assembles a team that takes city code names — Tokyo, Berlin, Rio, Nairobi, Denver and more — to pull off the biggest heists in history, first on the Royal Mint of Spain and then the Bank of Spain.
Q1. What is Money Heist's original Spanish title?
Answer: La casa de papel. The title means "The House of Paper". Netflix dubbed the series and renamed it Money Heist for English-speaking audiences; Haaretz's critic called the English title bland. During development it had another working title altogether, Los Desahuciados, "The Evicted".
Q2. Whose face is on the robbers' masks?
Answer: Salvador Dalí. Dalí was chosen because his face is instantly recognisable and an iconic reference to Spain; a Don Quixote mask was considered and dropped. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation criticised the production for not asking permission. The masks went with red jumpsuits, echoing the yellow prison clothes of Locked Up.
Q3. Which song do the Professor and Berlin sing before the first heist?
Answer: "Bella ciao". Writer Javier Gómez Santander brought the Italian anti-fascist song to the show after listening to it at home to cheer himself up. In the story the Professor learned it from his grandfather, who fought the fascists in Italy. It became a European summer hit in 2018 because of the series.
Q4. Which character narrates the story?
Answer: Tokyo. The first five lines of the pilot took a month to write, because the writers could not make the Professor or Moscow work as narrator. Tokyo was chosen instead, and Úrsula Corberó's voice weighed heavily in her casting since it is the first voice the audience hears.
Q5. Which building is the target of the first heist?
Answer: The Royal Mint of Spain. Eight robbers take 67 hostages and spend days inside printing money, escaping after 128 hours with €984 million. The second heist, from part 3, targets the Bank of Spain's gold. The Mint's exteriors were actually filmed at the headquarters of the Spanish National Research Council.
Q6. On which network did Money Heist first air before Netflix bought it?
Answer: Antena 3. It ran as 15 episodes of about 70 minutes in 2017, and ratings slipped after a strong start of over four million viewers. Netflix bought the global rights that December, re-cut it into 22 shorter episodes and released it with no promotion, yet it became its most-watched non-English series.
Q7. How were the robbers' city code names chosen in the first part?
Answer: At random. ABC compared the idea to the colour code names in Reservoir Dogs. For the new robbers in part 3, though, the writers also took into account places with a big audience for the show, which is how Palermo, Bogotá and Marseille joined the gang.
Q8. Which colours were banned from the production design?
Answer: Blue, green and yellow. Creator Álex Pina, director Jesús Colmenar and cinematographer Migue Amoedo base each project on one primary colour, and Money Heist's was red, standing out against grey sets. Red tones were tested on different fabrics and lights to achieve "absolute film quality".
Q9. Who sings the theme song "My Life Is Going On"?
Answer: Cecilia Krull. Composer Manel Santisteban, who also scored Locked Up, asked Krull to write and sing the lyrics. She was inspired by Tokyo in the first episode, when the Professor offers her a way out, and wrote in English because it came most naturally to her at the time.
Q10. Where do the Professor and Raquel reunite at the end of part 2?
Answer: Palawan, in the Philippines. A year after the Mint heist, Raquel follows coordinates left on postcards. The show was planned as a limited series, so all the sets were destroyed after part 2. Only Netflix's success brought the cast back for parts 3 to 5.
Q11. What was the series called during its conception phase?
Answer: Los Desahuciados (The Evicted). Pina and Colmenar developed it as the first project of their new company, Vancouver Media, after Locked Up. They chose a heist story because one had never been tried on Spanish television, and Pina insisted on a limited series to avoid diluting the story.
Q12. How many versions did the pilot script go through?
Answer: Over 50. The producers kept rewriting until they were satisfied. Later scripts were finished at a rate of one per week to keep up with filming, and the pilot itself took 26 days to shoot compared with about 14 for each other episode of the first two parts.
Q13. Which actress was offered her role without an audition?
Answer: Alba Flores (Nairobi). Late in development Pina realised the gang needed another woman and asked Flores, who had starred in his series Locked Up. Paco Tous, who plays Moscow, had also worked with Pina before, on the 2005 series Los hombres de Paco.
Q14. The role of the Professor was first proposed to which actor?
Answer: Javier Gutiérrez. He was already committed to the film Campeones. The producers had imagined a 50-year-old Harvard professor type with José Coronado's looks, but the casting directors pushed for Álvaro Morte, whom they knew from the soap El secreto de Puente Viejo; his primary-teacher look made the character more credible.
Q15. Which fashion brand redesigned the red jumpsuits for part 3?
Answer: Diesel. The Italian company refitted the jumpsuits to better fit the body and launched a clothing line inspired by the show. Netflix's bigger budget for part 3 also paid for more than 50 sets across five main locations, including an uninhabited island in Panama.
Q16. Where were the underwater scenes inside the Bank of Spain's vault filmed?
Answer: Pinewood Studios in the UK. Most of parts 3 and 4 were shot at Netflix's new European hub in Tres Cantos near Madrid, on a set three times larger than before. The real Bank of Spain was off limits for security reasons, so its interior was imagined using Franco-era architecture.
Q17. What image did hackers leave after removing "Despacito" from YouTube?
Answer: An image from Money Heist. It was one of several negative side effects of the show's fame: real robbers wore the red jumpsuits and Dalí masks or copied the gang's plans, and the costumes were banned at the 2019 Limassol Carnival as a security measure.
Q18. Which Paris museum added wax figures of the robbers in 2018?
Answer: Musée Grévin. The show regularly trended worldwide, helped by fans such as Neymar and Stephen King. The robbers' costumes appeared at the Rio Carnival and Dalí banners in Saudi football stadiums, and real footage of these moments was later used in part 3 as a tribute to the fans.
Q19. How many households streamed part 3 in its first week?
Answer: 34 million. Of those, 24 million finished it within the week, and 44 million households watched it in its first month. Over 70 percent of US viewers chose the dub over subtitles, so Netflix hired a new dubbing crew and re-dubbed parts 1 and 2.
Q20. Which international award did the series win for Best Drama?
Answer: The International Emmy. It won at the 46th International Emmy Awards. The franchise grew into a South Korean remake, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, in 2022, and a spin-off, Berlin, in December 2023 with Pedro Alonso, Itziar Ituño and Najwa Nimri returning.
Money Heist quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
What is Money Heist's original Spanish title?
Answer: La casa de papel. The title means "The House of Paper". Netflix dubbed the series and renamed it Money Heist for English-speaking audiences; Haaretz's critic called the English title bland. During development it had another working title altogether, Los Desahuciados, "The Evicted".
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Whose face is on the robbers' masks?
Answer: Salvador Dalí. Dalí was chosen because his face is instantly recognisable and an iconic reference to Spain; a Don Quixote mask was considered and dropped. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation criticised the production for not asking permission. The masks went with red jumpsuits, echoing the yellow prison clothes of Locked Up.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which song do the Professor and Berlin sing before the first heist?
Answer: "Bella ciao". Writer Javier Gómez Santander brought the Italian anti-fascist song to the show after listening to it at home to cheer himself up. In the story the Professor learned it from his grandfather, who fought the fascists in Italy. It became a European summer hit in 2018 because of the series.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which character narrates the story?
Answer: Tokyo. The first five lines of the pilot took a month to write, because the writers could not make the Professor or Moscow work as narrator. Tokyo was chosen instead, and Úrsula Corberó's voice weighed heavily in her casting since it is the first voice the audience hears.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which building is the target of the first heist?
Answer: The Royal Mint of Spain. Eight robbers take 67 hostages and spend days inside printing money, escaping after 128 hours with €984 million. The second heist, from part 3, targets the Bank of Spain's gold. The Mint's exteriors were actually filmed at the headquarters of the Spanish National Research Council.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
On which network did Money Heist first air before Netflix bought it?
Answer: Antena 3. It ran as 15 episodes of about 70 minutes in 2017, and ratings slipped after a strong start of over four million viewers. Netflix bought the global rights that December, re-cut it into 22 shorter episodes and released it with no promotion, yet it became its most-watched non-English series.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
How were the robbers' city code names chosen in the first part?
Answer: At random. ABC compared the idea to the colour code names in Reservoir Dogs. For the new robbers in part 3, though, the writers also took into account places with a big audience for the show, which is how Palermo, Bogotá and Marseille joined the gang.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which colours were banned from the production design?
Answer: Blue, green and yellow. Creator Álex Pina, director Jesús Colmenar and cinematographer Migue Amoedo base each project on one primary colour, and Money Heist's was red, standing out against grey sets. Red tones were tested on different fabrics and lights to achieve "absolute film quality".
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Who sings the theme song "My Life Is Going On"?
Answer: Cecilia Krull. Composer Manel Santisteban, who also scored Locked Up, asked Krull to write and sing the lyrics. She was inspired by Tokyo in the first episode, when the Professor offers her a way out, and wrote in English because it came most naturally to her at the time.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Where do the Professor and Raquel reunite at the end of part 2?
Answer: Palawan, in the Philippines. A year after the Mint heist, Raquel follows coordinates left on postcards. The show was planned as a limited series, so all the sets were destroyed after part 2. Only Netflix's success brought the cast back for parts 3 to 5.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
What was the series called during its conception phase?
Answer: Los Desahuciados (The Evicted). Pina and Colmenar developed it as the first project of their new company, Vancouver Media, after Locked Up. They chose a heist story because one had never been tried on Spanish television, and Pina insisted on a limited series to avoid diluting the story.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
How many versions did the pilot script go through?
Answer: Over 50. The producers kept rewriting until they were satisfied. Later scripts were finished at a rate of one per week to keep up with filming, and the pilot itself took 26 days to shoot compared with about 14 for each other episode of the first two parts.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which actress was offered her role without an audition?
Answer: Alba Flores (Nairobi). Late in development Pina realised the gang needed another woman and asked Flores, who had starred in his series Locked Up. Paco Tous, who plays Moscow, had also worked with Pina before, on the 2005 series Los hombres de Paco.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
The role of the Professor was first proposed to which actor?
Answer: Javier Gutiérrez. He was already committed to the film Campeones. The producers had imagined a 50-year-old Harvard professor type with José Coronado's looks, but the casting directors pushed for Álvaro Morte, whom they knew from the soap El secreto de Puente Viejo; his primary-teacher look made the character more credible.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which fashion brand redesigned the red jumpsuits for part 3?
Answer: Diesel. The Italian company refitted the jumpsuits to better fit the body and launched a clothing line inspired by the show. Netflix's bigger budget for part 3 also paid for more than 50 sets across five main locations, including an uninhabited island in Panama.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Where were the underwater scenes inside the Bank of Spain's vault filmed?
Answer: Pinewood Studios in the UK. Most of parts 3 and 4 were shot at Netflix's new European hub in Tres Cantos near Madrid, on a set three times larger than before. The real Bank of Spain was off limits for security reasons, so its interior was imagined using Franco-era architecture.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
What image did hackers leave after removing "Despacito" from YouTube?
Answer: An image from Money Heist. It was one of several negative side effects of the show's fame: real robbers wore the red jumpsuits and Dalí masks or copied the gang's plans, and the costumes were banned at the 2019 Limassol Carnival as a security measure.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which Paris museum added wax figures of the robbers in 2018?
Answer: Musée Grévin. The show regularly trended worldwide, helped by fans such as Neymar and Stephen King. The robbers' costumes appeared at the Rio Carnival and Dalí banners in Saudi football stadiums, and real footage of these moments was later used in part 3 as a tribute to the fans.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
How many households streamed part 3 in its first week?
Answer: 34 million. Of those, 24 million finished it within the week, and 44 million households watched it in its first month. Over 70 percent of US viewers chose the dub over subtitles, so Netflix hired a new dubbing crew and re-dubbed parts 1 and 2.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
-
Which international award did the series win for Best Drama?
Answer: The International Emmy. It won at the 46th International Emmy Awards. The franchise grew into a South Korean remake, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, in 2022, and a spin-off, Berlin, in December 2023 with Pedro Alonso, Itziar Ituño and Najwa Nimri returning.
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
Money Heist by the numbers
- Created by
- Álex Pina
- First aired
- 2 May 2017 (Antena 3)
- Netflix release
- 20 December 2017
- Final episodes
- 3 December 2021
- Parts
- 5
- Mint heist haul
- €984 million
- Part 3, first week
- 34 million households
- Award
- International Emmy, Best Drama
Source: Wikipedia: Money Heist
About the Money Heist quiz
Money Heist was a modest Spanish TV series before Netflix re-edited it and turned it into a global hit. The production made unusual choices, including banned colours, city code names and an Italian anti-fascist song, and the show's success had odd real-world effects, from waxworks to hacked YouTube videos. Those details make it a richer trivia subject than the plot of the heists alone.
Questions cover the heists — the Professor's plans, the code-named crew, the Royal Mint and Bank of Spain, the hostages, and the tense standoffs with the police.
What this Money Heist quiz covers
The quiz follows both heists, the Royal Mint and the Bank of Spain, but most questions are about how the show was made and why it exploded: the working title, the 50-plus pilot drafts, the casting decisions, the Dalí masks and red jumpsuits, the forbidden colours, "Bella ciao" and the theme song, the Netflix re-cut and the records and real-world side effects that followed. Each answer below explains the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Money Heist quiz — frequently asked questions
Do I need to know all the code names?
No. One question asks how the code names were chosen, not who has which.
Is it spoiler-heavy?
Lightly. A couple of answers mention events from the end of part 2, such as where the Professor and Raquel reunite.
Does it cover the Berlin spin-off or the Korean version?
No. The quiz is about the original Spanish series and how it was made and released.