Mystery Hunt Puzzle 3000

by Bowen Kerins, with help from Adam R. Wood

ANSWER: CARBON

 

The answers to the Jeopardy! questions are:

$200
Galileo called it the perspicillum, but we know it as thisTELESCOPE
Jude Law and David Tennant recently spoke the speech as this title characterHAMLET
Peter Boyle played Frank Barone on this sitcom -- he's the tall oneEVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND
Pinky and the Brain was a spinoff of this Warner Brothers cartoon showANIMANIACS
On this movie's poster, Woody's in black and white with red sunglassesNATURAL BORN KILLERS
All six members of this family appear in its "Pinball Party", even Abe(THE) SIMPSONS
$400
Neils Bohr theorized that light could be both a particle and this new Google serviceWAVE
This Bruce Campbell movie series somehow became a musical(THE) EVIL DEAD
Before Bert and Grover, Frank Oz played the right hand of this musical Muppet known as "Ol' Brown Ears"ROWLF
Over a century ago, five colleges formed a basketball league called the EIBL, better known today as this(THE) IVY LEAGUE
For this poster, Tim Robbins strikes a pose in the rain(THE) SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
A famous dolphinFLIPPER
$600
Watching water pass through membranes may give cartoon blood cells this "jones"OSMOSIS
This musical, inspired by a pay-per-use toilet, was Ken Jennings' last Broadway role -- sadly, not the Jeopardy! champURINETOWN
Frank Welker provides the voice of this tiny Futurama character who pushed Fry into a millenium of sleepNIBBLER
Four survivors fight brain-eating zombies in this flick shot mostly at the Monroeville MallDAWN OF THE DEAD
It's Michelle Pfeiffer with really long fingernailsBATMAN RETURNS
This colorful coward is last, alphabetically, of the opponents in "Banzai Run"YELLOW BELLY
$800
When seen in reverse, this five-letter celestial object becomes a mountain rangeSEDNA
This musical's title is also the only official state song written by Rodgers and HammersteinOKLAHOMA
He played Frank Burns on M*A*S*H(LARRY) LINVILLE
Each week, her column reminds the world about a decades-old "Highest IQ" world record(MARILYN) VOS SAVANT
The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answeredINDEPENDENCE DAY
Wink wink, it's skillfully pushing a pinball machine, say no moreNUDGE or NUDGING
$1000
Consecutive elements in the periodic table are sometimes alliterative -- these form pair number 3GALLIUM AND GERMANIUM
Though an AARP member, Debbie Reynolds proved she ain't down yet by singing in a national tour of this musical(THE) UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN
Frank Caliendo as this actor played a movie critic, partnered with Frank Caliendo as Al Pacino(ROBERT) DE NIRO
Recent research by Robert Deaner suggests that these animals, not chimpanzees, are the most intelligent non-human animalsORANGUTAN(S)
Advertising Volume 2: "The Bride is back"KILL BILL
Scoring a goal in Bally's "World Cup Soccer" earns this type of bonus featureULTRA

The responses form an acrostic that reads left-to-right across categories: THE ANSWER IS FOUND BY SOLVING UDOKU. "Udoku" refers to a Sudoku variant where there is a number missing from each region (now more commonly known as Deficit Sudoku). Two details are necessary to proceed:

  • The "givens" in the grid are in the clues; some clues have numbers in them (or in one case, a number homophone), and all are from 1 to 6.
  • The "regions" for the Udoku are the six "light-up" regions that appear when the page is loaded -- and yes, this is the same light-up that occurs at the start of any episode of Jeopardy!, beginning September 2009.

Using the digits in the top row as an index into the category names (SCIENCE, THEATER, TV'S FRANK, BEST BRAINS, WE'VE GOT MOVIE SIGN, PIN BOLUS) spells the answer CARBON.

Upon completing this puzzle, the following animated image is revealed on the round page: