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CISRA Puzzle Competition 2012 - Solutions

1B. Who Really Shot First?

We are presented with six rather mixed up sentences. There are several things going on here. Firstly, some letters have been replaced by rogues. But even replacing them with letters that make the words make sense, the sentences still seem very weird.

The leap to make is that these are mixed up combinations of sentences. Movie buffs might come to this realisation quicker, because it turns out they are mixed up movie quotes. In fact, each line is a combination of two movie quotes, from two different movies by the same director. (And movie directors "shoot" films - tying in to the puzzle title.) This pattern should help untangle all of the lines. Once this is done, you may notice that each of the intermingled pairs of movie quotes contains exactly the same number of letters (including the mysterious underscore as a "letter"). This suggests matching the quotes up letter-for-letter, ignoring any punctuation. There are then three potential ways to extract letters from each line:

  1. The incorrect letters from the given mixed halves of two quotes.
  2. The corresponding correct letters from the parts of the quotes that are given.
  3. The corresponding correct letters from the parts of the quotes that are not given.

Below, each director, movie titles, and expansion into two full movie quotes is shown, along with the letters extracted by each of the three methods.

Tim Burton:
Batman: I have no wish to fill my few remaining years grieving for the loss of old friends. Or their sons.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Why, I believe they're going to treat us to a little song. It is quite a special occasion, of course. 

Why, I belGeve theR're my few remaining years Erieving -
Iha  v enoWish tofI ll my few remaining years Grieving -
Why, I belIeve theY're go ing totreatus toali Ttlesong -

                           - for the loss special occasion, Af course.
                           - for the loss ofoldfr iendsort  He irsons.
                           - iti squ itea special occasion, Of course.

  1. Incorrect letters: G R E A
  2. Correct letters from given parts of quotes: I Y G O
  3. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: W I T H

James Cameron:
Aliens: Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked pal.
Avatar: I was a stone cold aerial hunter. Death from above. Only problem is you're not the only one. 

I Tas a you haven't been keepSng up on current events, -
M Ayb e you haven't been keepIng up on current events, -
I Was a sto necol d aeri alhuNte rd ea thfroma boveon  -

                           - bHt we just is you're not the only onO.
                           - bUt we just go tou ra sse ski cked paL.
                           - lYp ro blem is you're not the only onE.

  1. Incorrect letters: T S H O
  2. Correct letters from given parts of quotes: W I U E
  3. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: A N Y L

Alfred Hitchcock:
Dial M for Murder: Sooner or later he'll come back here. As I've pinched his latch key, he'll try the one in the handbag.
Marnie: You don't love me! I'm just something you've caught. You think I'm some sort of animal you've trapped! 

You don't love me! he'lT come back here. As I'vK pinched his laHDh key, -
Soo ner o rlat er  he'lL come back here. As I'vE pinched his laTCh key, -
You don't love me! im jU stso meth ingy  ou v eC aughtyo uth inKIm som  -

                           - TH'll try animal you've trapped!
                           - HE'll try theone int he handbag.
                           - ES or tof animal you've trapped!

  1. Incorrect letters: T K H D T H
  2. Correct letters from given parts of quotes: L E T C H E
  3. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: U C K I E S

Martin Scorcese:
Casino: Nicky's methods of betting weren't scientific, but they worked. When he won, he collected.
The Departed: When you decide to be something, you can be it. That's what they don't tell you in the church. 

WAen you decide of bettTng weren't scientiPic, -
NIck ysm ethods of bettIng weren't scientiFic, -
WHen you decide to besoMet hingy o ucanbeiTth  -

                           - but tEey they don't Aell you in Ahe church.
                           - but tHey work edw h Enhe won he Col lected.
                           - ats wHat they don't Tell you in The church.

  1. Incorrect letters: A T P E A A
  2. Correct letters from given parts of quotes: H I F H T T
  3. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: I M T H E C

Paul Verhoeven:
Robocop: You are illegally parked on private property. You have twenty seconds to move your vehicle.
Total Recall: In thirty seconds you'll be dead and I'll blow this place up and be home in time for corn flakes. 

You Ere illegally you'll be Nead and I'll blow this place up -
You Are illegally par ke do Npri vat e pr oper tyyo uhave tw -
Int Hir tyseconds you'll be Dead and I'll blow this place up -

                           - and be Oome in to moTe yoSr vOhicle.
                           - ent ys Econ ds to moVe yoUr vEhicle.
                           - and be Home in ti meFo rcOr nFlakes.

  1. Incorrect letters: E N O T S O
  2. Correct letters from given parts of quotes: A D H V U E
  3. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: H N E F O F

Terence Young:
Thunderball: SPECTRE is a dedicated fraternity whose strength lies in the absolute integrity of its members.
From Russia With Love: I hope Kronsteen's efforts as director of planning will continue to be as successful as his chess. 

SPELTRE is a dedicateN frIterEity whose _trength will -
SPECTRE is a dedicateD frAterNity whose Strength lies -
IhoPekr on s teenseffO rtSasdIrec torof Planning will -

                           - continue to be as suScessful as his chess.
                           - intheabs ol ut ei ntEgrityof it sme mbers.
                           - continue to be as suCcessful as his chess.

  1. Incorrect letters: L N I E _ S
  2. Correct letters from given parts of quotes: C D A N S C
  3. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: P O S I P E

Collecting all the "incorrect", "given quote", and "not given quote" letters in order gives us three possible new strings: 

greatshotkhdthatpeaaenotsolnie_s
iygowiueletchehifhttadhvuecdansc
withanyluckiesimthechnefofposipe

It looks like the first and last of these are close enough to sentences that we might be able to repeat the first step on them. The middle one looks like unresolvable gibberish. On reflection, the bottom two strings are highly interdependently constrained, since given one string and the source quotes the other string is completely determined. So it might not be surprising if one of these is a garbage string at this point.

This gives us two likely strings to work with for the next step. The smaller quotes might be tougher to search for if you're not familiar with them, but the same pattern of two mixed quotes from films by the same director holds, which makes things a little easier. Also, the directors revealed at this step make sense as they are closely related and connected with the title of the puzzle! It seems film directors are a major theme of the puzzle.

George Lucas:
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: Great shot, kid, that was one in a million!
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones: We're keepers of the peace, not soldiers. 

Great shot, kHd, that peaAe, not solNie_s.
Great shot, kid, that wasOn  ein amiLliOn.
Werek eepe  rSo  fthe peace, not soldiers.

  1. Incorrect letters: H A N _
  2. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: S O L O

Steven Spielberg:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: With any luck he's got the Grail already.
Jaws: I can do anything. I'm the chief of police. 

With any luck Ie's I'm the ChNef of PoSiPe.
With any luck he's g o tth egRai la lrEaDy.
Ican doa nyth In g I'm the chief of police.

  1. Incorrect letters: I N S P
  2. Correct letters from not given parts of quotes: I R E D

(Aside: The Last Crusade line is referring to the character of Marcus Brody, while the Jaws line is spoken by Police Chief Martin Brody - an interesting coincidence of character names that we didn't notice until after this puzzle was released.)

This time we have only looked at the same letters as we did in the previous step, ignoring the overconstrained "used quote" letters. And this time there is a small twist in the way the letters are gathered to form the next step of the puzzle. The words HAN_SOLO, formed from the Lucas quotes, refer to the space mercenary who "shot first" in the eyes of many film fans.

But we're not quite done yet. "Han Solo" would be far too guessable an answer for a puzzle with this title! The Spielberg quotes supply the word INSPIRED. You could potentially read this message two ways: Who/what did Han Solo inspire? Or who/what inspired Han Solo? The title of the puzzle provides a hint. Han Solo is generally considered by many film fans to have "shot first". But metaphorically speaking, if there was a clear inspiration for the character of Han Solo, then that inspiration could be said to have shot "first". So who inspired the character of Han Solo?

The answer is the third member of a tight group of Hollywood film director friends. George Lucas based the character of Han Solo on the inspiration provided by his good friend and film-making mentor, Francis Ford Coppola. The fact that Coppola is also a director ties in with the strong "directors" theme of the puzzle, and the fact that George Lucas gained much of his film training working under Coppola means that Coppola "shot" (movies) first. The solution to the puzzle, and the only person who can truly claim to have shot before Han Solo, is FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA. We would also accept COPPOLA.

Puzzle design notes:

This puzzle was originally designed by Paul Stewart, who was a 2011-12 summer intern at CiSRA. All of the Group 1 puzzles this year were designed by interns. As well as their official job duties, we held a puzzle design competition for the interns, with a prize awarded for the best puzzle, and the suggestion that we would use it for the 2012 Puzzle Competition. As it turned out, we received several good puzzles, and decided to use the best four as Group 1.

The other three puzzles (1A Follow the Leader, 1C The Question of Infinity, and 1D Labyrinth) are essentialy as submitted by our interns. (The intern puzzle design prize winner we chose, by the way, was Daniel Berger, for 1D Labyrinth.) This puzzle, however, needed some changes made to the last step to improve the elegance. The original puzzle, instead of reducing to two movie quotes by George Lucas plus two movie quotes by Steven Spielberg, reduced to four quotes from Francis Ford Coppola movies, from three movies - one movie provided two of the quotes. This broke the symmetry of the puzzle. The final clue spelled out only "INSPIRED H_SOLO", without the "HAN" spelled out.

In this form, we solved the puzzle fairly easily. When we got to the message "INSPIRED H_SOLO", one of us did a web search and very quickly found the answer of Francis Ford Coppola. Another one of us, independently, reaching the message "INSPIRED H_SOLO" knew the answer was Francis Ford Coppola simply from personal knowledge about George Lucas and his inspirations for Star Wars. So two of us had, independently, trivially made the step from "INSPIRED H_SOLO" to Francis Ford Coppola. We figured this step of the puzzle was trivial, as any team who got to this message would be able to find the answer within a few seconds of web searching.

The problems we saw were that (1) the use of four quotes from three movies by the same director in the second last step was inelegant, given the prior pattern of two quotes from two movies by the same director in the first step, and (2) the use of four quotes from Coppola films would probably prompt some solvers to simply guess Coppola without actually solving the puzzle completely. So we modified the puzzle, bringing in the Lucas and Spielberg quotes, to help hint at Coppola without giving it away too early, and to spell out "HAN_SOLO" in full rather than just "H_SOLO".

The puzzle was highly constrained in its construction. The requirement of two recognisable quotes from films by the same director, with the same number of letters, and with word boundaries in the same places at some point that would allow the mixing of the quotes, is quite strong. Added to this is the fact that the quotes used need to provide the extracted letters for the next step of the puzzle at each layer, and that the rogue letters have to be different from the letter in the same place in the quotes. To alow all of these things, we had to change some of the quotes that Paul used, swapping some out for different quotes from the same movies, or from different movies by the same director. One director got changed; we swapped in James Cameron for Stanley Kubrick.

When all was done, we were pleased. We had removed what we saw as the inelegant part of the original puzzle. We had introduced George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to hint at Francis Ford Coppola without using Coppola movies themselves (which would allow the puzzle to be short-cut). And we had improved the final message to spell out more clearly "INSPIRED HAN_SOLO" rather than just "INSPIRED H_SOLO".

When the puzzle was released, we were dismayed to see many teams in the guess log obviously having reached the message "INSPIRED HAN_SOLO", but being unable to go from there to the correct answer. We'd thought this final step was trivial. We did some web searching using a popular search engine, and to our horror discovered that the links to the pages where Francis Ford Coppola was mentioned as George Lucas's inspiration for Han Solo (which were at the top of the search hits a few months earlier) had been buried under dozens or hundreds of links to other pages that had nothing to do with this fact.

We consider this puzzle a lesson learnt the hard way in puzzle creation and testing. Basically: don't rely on web search engines to provide the same answers during Puzzle Competition time that they do during puzzle testing.