- There's nothing quite
like an escape to the movies.
They make us laugh.
- You built a time
machine out of a DeLorean?
- Fall in love,
or take us on adventures.
- Disgusting.
- Wow.
- Everything about
the movies is magic.
But it wasn't until some time
in the past 30 years or so
that collectors began to realize
they could actually own pieces
of their favorite films.
- This is where
all our money goes.
- Whether it's a
prop held by Harrison Ford
that's pivotal to an
adventurous scene,
or a classic McGuffin we
never truly understand.
- We happy?
- Yeah, we happy.
- Owning props has
become a very big business
in the collecting world.
- Prices have gone up really
high in the past couple years.
- $92,500.
- Almost as big as
traditional art itself,
selling nostalgia and
trafficking in magic.
- They're revisiting a
moment in time that they had,
perhaps when they
went to the cinema
and watched Superman when
they were young kids.
- What is it that
makes prop collectors
so passionate about owning
a movie studio's garbage?
- I took the original glove.
I just threw it in
my bag, took it.
- That is what
I intend to find out.
This is a real original gremlin?
- Yeah, it's the
real one, yeah, yeah.
- Oh, no way.
- Everything that I love,
it's all in one thing.
- That one as you can see
also in the shoulder tubes,
the shininess on it, that's
actually dried slime.
- I think in general film is art
and this is a piece
of film, so yeah.
- This is the size of a car.
Okay, so it's like a Notre
Dame football game tomorrow.
It is the annual Prop
Store of London Auction.
I need you guys' feedback,
I've picked out some props
that I think I'm gonna
be bidding on tomorrow.
I don't think I know,
but I want feedback,
I want family feedback.
My name is Tom Biolchini.
I'm a banker in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
and I'm proud to serve
that great community.
For me, Tulsa's America's
best kept secret,
full of some of the nicest
people in the nation,
but also rich in arts,
music, and culture.
I've been married for 20 years.
I have two children,
Rocco and Lucy.
Lucy is 14, Rocco is 11,
and he loves movie props.
- Mm-hmm, I do.
- He actually loves
to collect anything, so-
- I like Star Wars.
- Yes.
I'm curious to know
what this went for,
I'm gonna look it up right now,
the screen-matched Red
Leader X-Wing Starfighter.
- Oh, guys, guys, I
think it sold to bidder 4764.
- It's an internet bidder.
- Oh, 575, 600.
- So there's
somebody in the room
bidding against an
internet bidder,
that's what's
happening right now.
- Oh my God.
- Come on, come on, million.
Come on, it'd be our first
time to see a million.
A million dollars.
- Oh, my God.
- Oh, that's crazy.
Growing up, like
all kids my age,
we watched a lot of movies,
and those movies today
are still great movies.
From Indiana Jones to Rocky,
to The Goonies, you name it,
just about every film
from my childhood
evokes such wonderful memories.
But it was horror that
captured my fascination most.
I wanted to be a
special effects artist,
this is what I wanted
to do with my life.
So from Rocco's age,
all the way up to,
I don't know, call
it seventh grade,
by the time I finally
got into girls
and got out of horror stuff,
I wanted to be a special effects
artist for horror movies.
And I actually created
this fly out of clay.
So my mom took me to Hobby
Lobby, I got the clay,
and I created, well, I mean,
it didn't look that good,
I thought it looked good-
- He's pretty good at it.
- But I created the fly and it
was in my bathroom for years.
- He would take fingers and
make them look so bloody,
and then he would stick
them coming out of a drawer
or coming out from under a bed.
He was just funny.
But he loved it so much that
we never thought it was odd.
That shows you how odd I am.
- So second, third,
fourth into fifth grade,
as we got into middle school
is when he started actually
getting the props and stuff
and start making them
and I was working with him
on that and helping him.
And every time we'd
go to his house,
we'd be doing that
on the weekends.
And then it evolved into
Tom even getting a camera
and starting, we
made movies together.
- This zombie that
was on this table
and it was cut off at the spine.
The spine had a
little motor in it.
So I turned on the motor
and that would move.
And then I'd get behind
this, below this table,
and I was able to control
the mouth of the zombie
with one string, I could open
up one eye with a string,
although it stayed open once
I opened it, I had one sh*t.
- And then somehow my
head got chopped off,
and that was the scene where
my head was in a pizza box
towards the end of the film.
I think there was like
six or seven or even more
of our friends
working on that movie,
I remember all day
and into the night,
and then we all sat
in the little house
and watched the premiere of it.
- Our childhood
dreams don't always turn out
in the direction we hope.
So while I originally hoped
to work in the movies,
my life instead led
me to being a lawyer,
and eventually a banker.
But my love of films
never once wavered
so I started collecting
all these pieces of my
childhood again in my twenties.
- Hello, I'm excited to show you
the Biolchini
Action Figure Room.
Over here we have
the pinball machine,
the Ghostbusters
pinball machine.
And then up here we have the
whole Terminator collection.
We have The Goonies set
with The Karate Kid,
and then we have the
Indiana Jones over here.
- The 70s and 80s were prime
moments in film history
because that's when
movies truly became events
and when the era of
blockbusters began.
And it was early on
that I became obsessed
with owning a small piece
of those blockbusters.
We're starting with,
and let me show you the
front cover of this thing
'cause it's so awesome, in
the Prop Store of London.
It's like Christie's
auction for movie props.
Okay, first thing is
the Sports Almanac
from Back to the Future Part 2.
So obviously in the Back
to the Future series
they had multiple of
these Sports Almanacs,
but this one was the
one that was aged,
that was used in the 1985
piece with Biff and Marty.
- All I have to do is bet on
the winner and I'll never lose.
- Okay, the
first bid is at 11,000.
- Okay.
- Now it's 14,
15, oh wait, it's coming up.
Now it's 25,000,
would you like to bid?
- Yes, 30,000.
- Okay, I got
you in at 25,000 currently.
- I feel like each movie prop
that has been used in a movie
has been imagined by somebody,
usually sketched in a drawing,
and then created for a movie,
and then that prop is
used in telling this story
to millions of people.
And it's those movie
props that people remember
and they evoke emotion.
- It's definitely interesting.
I mean, I love that he's
pursuing something that he loves
and I love that he's focusing
on the parts of the movie,
the little parts instead
of the entire thing
and I like that he's
doing what he loves.
- This is one of the
outfits from Spaceballs,
and it's a soldier outfit.
This has very little value,
and that's not the point,
I just thought it was funny.
- Wait.
Those are the guys that
stole our uniforms.
- Spaceballs is such
a goofy, funny movie,
and to own just a
little piece of it
so I could then
put up the picture
and put on my favorite
lines from Spaceballs,
that's why I have it.
And I do believe
it was screen used,
but again, the value I think
is more of a sentimental value
and a fun value
than anything else.
So what I'm interested in
you all is the Holy Grail.
Legitimately, the Holy Grail.
- It's
from Indiana Jones.
- It actually has on the bottom
of it a little spin cycle
that they used when
the cup fell over,
when the temple
was tearing apart
and the cup was falling away.
- I can get it.
I can almost reach it, dad.
- Indiana.
Indiana.
- Would
you like to bid 75?
- No, I'm gonna pass.
- You're
gonna pass, okay.
- Are they doing the
last call at 70,000?
- Yes.
75 is what you'd have to bid.
Would you like to bid 75?
- Do 75.
- Do 75?
- Yep.
- I mean, he always
loved movies,
I feel like he and his siblings
were always quoting movies
and just being kind of
funny with things like that.
But all of a sudden it was like,
okay, here's another
little package arriving,
what's in this package?
So yeah, it just kind of
slowly started building.
I mean, I've never
tried to control it,
you've seen the basement.
- And they're always
a surprise, right?
He doesn't really share with
you what he has en route
or what he's purchased
until it shows up.
So we're here in downtown Tulsa
catching up on some business
or other discussions,
and in the middle of a
business conversation,
epiphany hit him out
of nowhere and he said,
"Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell
you, look what I just got."
And reaches into his briefcase
and pulls out the ball
gag from Pulp Fiction
and throws it on
the table and says,
"Do you know what this is?"
And I said, "I know
exactly what that is,
that's the ball gag
from Pulp Fiction.
And why do you have
it displayed here
in the middle of
the restaurant?"
- We were doing a renovation
project years ago,
I had multiple
people in and out,
and the story came back to me
through somebody else who'd
used the same group of plumbers
where I guess they were
talking about the ball gag
that they had seen
in our basement.
So I was like, great,
people probably think of us
as like these
totally kinky people.
Because they didn't
have any other context,
it was a ball gag on a plastic
head or something like that.
So I'm sure they thought
that that was what we do
in our spare time.
- Okay, so the next one is
probably the biggest one
that I'm going to bid on.
And I don't know
if I'm gonna get it
because this is the
creme de la creme.
- Oh yeah.
- It is the volleyball
from Cast Away.
- Wilson.
- I know.
- It
looks like they bid 120,
so now the next is 130, would
you like to bid 130,000?
- Yes, 130.
- Okay.
So now you have to go to 140,
sorry, another
bidder b*at us out.
140?
140,000.
- Oh man.
Okay, I'm 140.
Yes, on 140.
- Okay, good.
We b*at the other
bidders, awesome.
We are winning,
currently at 140,000.
I think he's gonna close it.
I think he's gonna close it.
He's got the gavel, oh, okay,
somebody came in at 150,000
so the next bid is $160,000.
Would you like to bid?
- $160,000.
Huh, man.
- I doubt it's
gonna go more than that.
- I've
got them holding.
- Throughout the auction,
I found myself wondering,
who were these people
bidding against me?
Were they passionate collectors
hoping to own a
piece of memorabilia
from a movie they loved, or
were they museum curators
looking to expand
their collection?
I knew my story with movie
props, what was theirs?
I needed to find out.
I decided to start with a
small collector like myself.
And while I knew this
guy loved movies,
there was one franchise
he loved the most.
- I'm a huge nerd when
it comes to Scream stuff.
And when they announced
it, I told my dad like,
"We gotta watch it tonight."
- Do you
like scary movies?
- Uh-huh.
- And then I watched it,
it was like a school day
so I had to turn it
off within 40 minutes.
But after that one night I was
like, I gotta see it again,
and I saw it at a local
video, it was Blockbuster.
They had it on sale, it
was part two, I was like,
"Mom, I gotta get it."
And then they let me buy it
and it was like ever since then
I've been really obsessed
with these movies.
- So what does your wife think?
I gotta ask.
- It's a funny story, I actually
got her into these movies.
When we met, our first movie day
was actually watching
the first Scream.
- Of course.
- So she really liked it.
- The king of Scream.
- Yeah.
- I get it.
- I had to take her, it
was a nice drive-in night
seeing it on the big screen,
so of course I had to go,
and why not take this girl
that I wanted to go out with?
And if she needs to
know my obsession,
it's good that she
knows early on.
And luckily she likes it.
- This is who I am, I want
you to know this going in.
So is this a screen used Kn*fe?
- Yes, according
to my source, yes.
A lot of these I got
directly from the set
from crew members.
And this one comes
from Scream 2022.
It's a stunt-used slice Kn*fe.
- Okay.
- It was made specifically
for slice sh*ts.
So this part right
here is a blood pump.
They put it in, and then
once they were sh**ting,
the stunt man would
squeeze this little pump
and blood would come out of it.
- Comes out, yeah
that makes sense.
- There's holes under the blade.
- May I?
Okay, so that's
where they put it on.
- Yeah, and
the holes are there
for the blood to come out.
- And then they put this
on here and then they,
oh yeah, you can see the holes.
- It was used for fast,
quick gash, slice sh*ts,
but also some action
sh*ts where it was used.
- What's your
long-term plan at this?
Is it just to hold onto
it, to ultimately sell it,
to build your collection?
- The things with these props
is, from what I've seen,
props keep going up
in price and value.
So if I ever had
to, it'd be nice,
but my plan is to never
sell most of these things
'cause when am I ever
gonna get a chance
to get another Scream piece?
- Would you consider
your movie props as art?
- Definitely.
I think in general, film is art
and this is a piece
of film, so yeah.
- Here we are in
West Sussex, England,
and we're about to go see the
collection of Sean Lesponera.
Hey, Sean.
- Hey, Tom.
Good see you.
- How are you man?
- Right, so first up we've
got Hugh Jackman's claws
from X-Men 2, and these
ones are quite distinctive
'cause they got broken in
the scene in the hallway.
- So these
are screen used?
- They're screen
used ones, yeah.
Stabs a couple of guards.
And originally, apparently he
stabbed a couple of beanbags,
that's what's supposed
to be the guards,
and they got broken off
at the end of his hands,
they're quite distinctive.
Got a stunt rubber
set production-made
from the first film.
- Okay.
- And I've got some
for the metal set
from The Wolverine as well.
- So when you collect these,
when you are looking
for movie props,
whether they're
original or replica,
are you looking for good deals,
are you looking for something
'cause you love the movie?
Tell me the background.
- Yeah, I buy
something that I love.
So if I love the film,
I try and get a couple of
pieces from that film if I can.
- Okay.
- But yeah, it's
always things I love.
I don't buy necessarily
to turnaround and sell
because I'll keep it for a while
'cause over the years
it'll go up in value anyway
so that's just a bonus for me.
- Yeah, right.
- But I buy something I love.
- What does your wife
think of your collection?
- It just depends on the day.
- Okay.
- You've seen the basement.
- So we've got more of
a recent one, actually.
This is Antonio Banderas'
shirt from Mask of Zorro.
- Oh, Mask of Zorro, yeah.
- Yeah.
So I've got that already
framed up so it's quite nice.
- Have you tried this on yet?
- No, because it's
all in the frame,
I've got to take it all out,
I'll peel it off the frame.
- Sometimes it's about how
these things are displayed.
- Yeah, always.
- You don't get a
screen used movie pop
and put it in the closet.
- Yeah, yeah, that's right.
- You put it out
so you can see it.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- This is a
real original gremlin?
- Yeah, it's the
real one, yeah, yeah.
- Oh, no way.
Can I touch it?
- Yeah, um-
- Not really.
- No.
We tend to not touch
because they're so delicate.
- I see.
- Because of what
they're made of.
They've basically been
restored because basically,
a lot of these
are falling apart.
And it was restored and
so when you touch it
you should use some
gloves, really.
- Have you been a
collector your whole life?
- Not so much, I then got
into it more as an adult.
- Okay.
- More so, yeah.
I went to someone's house and
he was an artist for Asterix
and he had all these
amazing models in there.
And I saw them, I thought
this was incredible,
I felt like I'd gone back
into being a child again.
And that's what started
me off, actually.
- Okay.
Oh my gosh, look at
all this stuff in here.
Okay, we got more of the X-Men.
- I was a bit worried about
it because them being metal
and the UK having their rules,
they might get concerned
about what they are
even though they're just a prop.
And that did happen,
there was a problem.
So I'm waiting for about a month
for them to turn up on my door,
and my wife's calling me
in my car one day and says,
"Sean, don't be alerted
but the police are
here about your claws."
Yeah.
And so I knew she wasn't joking
because I was a bit
stressed about them
and what was going on with them
not turning up and all that.
So the police came on
the phone to me and said,
"We're a bit concerned about
what you're importing here
so need we talk
to you about it."
So I said, "Well, I'm
a movie prop collector,
you can see from my house,
I've got other bits
and bobs in the house."
And he says, "Oh,
are these sharp?"
I went, "They might be pointy."
And he said, "Right, okay,
we've gotta take this further."
- Oh gosh.
- He said, "I don't know
where it's gonna go,
I'm not gonna arrest you, but
I dunno where it's gonna go."
- Oh, I'm not gonna
arrest you, oh, thank you.
- Yeah, yeah.
- That's crazy.
Did you ever see Wolverine?
- That's right.
No, he knew it, he
definitely knew it.
- Now you understand
the sacrifices
us movie prop collectors
make doing what we do.
- Yeah.
- Arturo and Sean proved how
anyone can be a collector.
But I came across
another eclectic guy
I knew would not
only have cool stuff,
but who actually felt like
a movie character himself.
Dave, hi.
- Tom, how you doing?
- Tom Biolchini.
- Good to meet you.
- Nice to meet you as well.
- Definitely, for sure.
- So this is your place.
- Welcome to the shop.
Nerdiest tattoo shop
on planet Earth.
- I don't see nerd
here, this is incredible.
- I like it.
- Oh my gosh, there's
so much to take in,
like in the first
couple steps here.
- Sure.
Kinda like it like that,
there's always something
to keep you entertained.
- Holy smoke, so this is
a tattoo parlor, right?
- Tattoo and body
piercing, yes, sir.
- Very nice.
I want to get into
your movie props,
I'm just looking
around at everything.
I mean, I'm seeing movie
artifacts everywhere.
- All over, yeah.
- Including Deadpool
up on the top.
- Deadpool's
sitting up on the corner.
There's all kinds of
autographed stuff everywhere.
- Where did
you get this one?
- I got that one from Aaron
at Movie Prop Experience.
I got the Dothraki arakh from
Game of Thrones from them.
The whole handle is foam,
the blade is fiberglass,
it's super duper light.
- Game of Thrones
is just incredible.
- One of my favorite shows.
- Oh, and Braveheart.
I have McGregor's
battle-worn suit-
- From Braveheart.
- And I love Braveheart.
And I've seen Mel Gibson's
sword go up for auction,
but it's just, it
gets ridiculous.
- It's ridiculously
expensive, yeah.
- So how did you
come across this guy?
- That was one of
the first ones I got,
I got it from Prop
Store of London.
- Okay.
- Most of my stuff comes
through them or Hero Prop
because I know that what
they say it is is what it is.
- Yeah, right, right.
- They're definitely the
real deal in prop collecting.
- So one of the things
we've been talking about
is the authentication process.
- Yeah, I still watch
the movie and go through
and look at comparing
photographs and
things like that.
Like this is actually
the drill from Hostel 2,
it was actually screen matched.
- Why movie props?
Just curious.
- I used to collect
action figures and toys
and I have thousands of them.
And when I turned 40 I was like,
I should maybe kind of
grow up a little bit.
Didn't work, I started
collecting movie props
and continued to
collect action figures.
So-
- That's funny.
- Didn't really
change much, but yeah.
- I only laugh because
I'm a movie prop collector
and I also collected
action figures.
So maybe it's in our blood.
I don't know.
- I guess so.
Nerds of a feather.
- Yeah, exactly.
So what is the response of
people when they come in here?
- Generally they get in
the door and just go,
"Wow, this place is awesome."
- I view
movie props as art.
- Sure.
And the art of like,
somebody created that,
you know what I mean?
Like old Star Wars stuff,
they just took bits and pieces
and just glued them
on World w*r II g*ns
and now you have
an E-11 blaster.
Just the creative process, it
always makes me so excited.
- Nick Giggey is
a real-life hero,
awarded two purple hearts
for his service in the army.
I love the thought of
seeing the kind of props
an actual hero would
collect and why.
Hi, Tom Biolchini.
Nick, nice to meet you.
- Nick, nice to meet you.
- Jacob.
- Jacob, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Tom.
- Guys, it's nice
being in Boulder, Colorado.
- And this is where
the collection begins.
- Oh, no way.
- This is where
all our money goes.
- Yeah, the lucky wife.
Do you guys work
together on this?
- Yeah, yeah, we
actually kind of,
we go joint on a lot
of these purchases.
So for example, on that
Alien's head, 1986,
Jacob and I, we went
halfsies on that.
- You can see that this
is worn by a actor?
- Yep, yep.
- 'Cause you can see the
shoulders and stuff like that.
What sort of valuation do
you put on an Alien Xenomorph
that was worn by a human?
- Well, the head alone is
probably worth close to 50,000,
the shoulder tubes are
probably about $5,000,
and then the back
tubes 2,500 each.
So the whole thing's
about 60,000.
- Okay.
- Lots of ramen.
- Ramen diet.
- How do you know that
it was actually used,
screen used in the movie?
- That one is, you can see
also in the shoulder tubes,
the shininess on it,
that's actually dried slime
that they actually used
when they put the slime on them.
Then the head, a gentleman
named Harry Harris,
he's a expert in
all things Xenomorph
so he helped me authenticate
that when I was picking it up.
- Oh nice.
- This piece right
here, this Goro,
Alec Gillis has PTSD of
this, but he worked months.
This cost the studio like
a million dollars to make.
Obviously, we didn't
buy it for that.
But if you can just
see the intricacies
of this animatronic suit,
it's really incredible to-
- Man, that's neat.
- Actually see that.
The other kind of fun part
of it is you get a prop,
but now how do you display it?
- Yes, I talk
about that all the time.
- Exactly,
so you get it then.
- Yeah,
yeah, I totally do.
I think it's almost
more fun to display it
than it is to actually buy it.
- I think sharing it
with other people-
- Yeah, absolutely.
- That's really cool.
You have friends over
and they're like,
"Oh wait, I recognize
that, is this?"
And then you can go into
it and talk about it,
and then now you're sharing
that nostalgia that you have
that they probably have too.
- We built a lot of memories
around that piece too
'cause we flew out to LA
to actually pick that up
and then we drove it back.
- Oh.
- So this shipment
was a little crazy.
- Yeah, yeah.
Did you get pulled
over by a cop?
"What's in the back?"
"Oh, nothing, sir."
- "Don't worry about it."
- "It's my k*ller arms."
- It's a big community
of everyone helping each other.
- Yeah, right.
- Just kind of
helping authenticate.
If it's on, let's
say, a franchise
you don't know very well,
you go to that person
who knows that franchise,
they'll look over it.
Because in this hobby,
certificate of authenticity,
you really have to go
to the expert for that.
- Why did you guys
get into this?
What is it about movie
props that draws you
to dedicate an entire room
and then obviously spend a
significant amount of money
collecting these things?
- I'd say it's kind of the
history that you have with it.
So growing up I had watched
movies, every kid does,
and you wonder
like, if you have a,
like this is one of
my favorite pieces,
it's a Jango Fett
blaster from Star Wars.
And just watching those films,
you wanna be that character,
and so being able to actually
own something from it
is really cool,
to say the least.
So that's kind of like
what started it for me.
- Look on screen and see that
piece that you're holding,
it's the nostalgia factor too.
A lot of these things,
you have connections
or memories to them.
And so it's kind of
like tying it together
in that sense of bringing that
memory into physical form.
- So one of the things
I think about a lot
when I'm talking about
I'm a collector myself,
I always think the
value comes from,
it's not just our generation
that enjoys these movies,
it's the generation below us,
and probably the one below them,
and probably the
generation ahead of us.
And so, to me, I think that
that creates the nostalgia
and the value.
And it's the fact that my
kids know these things.
I mean, they know Aliens,
and that makes it fun.
So-
- Our kids come, my kids
come up here every night
and check these out
before they go to bed.
They actually say
goodnight to Venom.
- The pride
these collectors took
in their collections
confirm my belief
that prop collecting
is so much more than
just owning stuff.
It's deeply rooted in
emotional connections
made to the movies we love
and the memories they elicit.
So owning a movie prop
is like owning a memory,
but getting your hands on
authentic pieces isn't easy.
The one place did come
up over and over again.
- That came from Prop Store.
- Prop Store.
- Prop Store of London.
- So let's go to London
and check out the Prop Store.
- Well, movie props wasn't
really a goal for me
when I first started collecting.
For me, it was all about
revisiting my childhood
where I wanted to go back
and find all the little
Star Wars action figures
that I used to collect
when I was a kid.
And then at one of
the fairs I went to
in Westminster in London, a
guy came up to me and he said,
"I've got a Rebel
blaster from Star Wars."
I was like,
"What do you mean you've got a
Rebel baster from Star Wars?"
And I committed to buying it.
I really wanted to
understand its origins,
where it's come from,
its journey to this
collector's convention,
why this guy had it,
and what happens to other
film props and costumes.
So I contacted Bapty,
I got introduced to this lovely
guy called Richard Hooper,
and he picked it up and he said,
"Yeah, no, this is one of ours.
Yeah, I know all the
traits are right,
the construction's right."
And he said, "Well,
while you are here,
do you want to have a
tour of our facility?"
And I said, "Love to."
So there was items
from Flash Gordon
and Clash of the Titans,
other Star Wars blasters,
shields, swords,
g*ns, all sorts.
The production company
would come to them and say,
right, make us a pulse r*fle,
make us a Star Wars blaster.
And they would charge
a rate for that,
and that was based
upon made to hire
so they were then rented
into the production,
they would film with it,
then it would come back
to the hire company.
Subsequently, it would
go on their shelves
and then they would either
redress it, repaint it,
get it out on another
production, or
they'd throw it away.
What are you guys talking about?
How can you possibly
throw this away?
And of course, to them
and everybody within the film
industry during this point,
a lot of that material that
I was finding and uncovering
was really just
considered a byproduct
of the filmmaking process.
The product was
what was in the can,
what they were gonna
put up on screen,
and really there
was no consideration
of either the commercial
value or the cultural
or historical value of
any of these artifacts.
So it was like, there it
is, it's here for now,
and if you want something,
let's do a deal.
And they thought I was bonkers.
- This is the Star Wars
display right here,
and there's so many cool
things in this piece here,
I don't even know where
you begin on this.
- Well, I mean, if we go top
to bottom very, very quickly,
you've got an Ewok mask there
from Return of the Jedi.
You've got Roger
Christensen's script
from Star Wars: A New Hope.
You've got a hough
rebel troop cap,
then you've got a really
wonderful collection
of lightsabers
from the prequels.
There is the hero Obi-Wan
lightweight hero saber
from Revenge of the Sith.
Below that you've got Darth
Vader's gloves from A New Hope.
Of course, they didn't have
much of a budget on A New Hope
so you're talking about
the only pair of gloves,
they only made one Darth Vader
costume for the first film.
Captain Antilles is being
choked, those are the gloves.
- Where
is the ambassador?
- It was purely
collector mentality,
and for most collectors
will understand what I mean
when I say that where
it's about, it's the hunt,
the chase, discovery,
unearthing, it's the journey.
And look, when a lot of people
come and buy from Prop Store,
when they come and deal
with my business today,
a lot of those people are
on a journey of nostalgia.
They're revisiting a moment
in time that they had,
perhaps when they
went to the cinema
and watched Superman
with their friends,
close friends and family
when they were young kids,
and they wanna recapture
that moment in time
and one of the ways to do that
is to get close to those
artifacts that we used
during the filmmaking process.
And that was definitely the
buzz that I was on as well.
- I'm a screenwriter
in film and television,
and I created and
executive produced
the show, House of the Dragon,
which is the successor
to Game of Thrones.
- That's impressive.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So you are talented,
you know the industry,
what a very cool,
okay, I did not know that
coming into this interview.
- There you go.
- So I think it's so cool.
So tell me why you're here.
- Yeah, I'm actually interested
in that fellow over there.
Blade Runner is
my favorite movie.
I particularly love the
costumes from Blade Runner,
Charles Knode, the
great costume designer,
I think they're really
evocative of that certain period
of LA sci-fi noir and I think
they define a generation.
And I don't have
anything from Roy Batty,
I think that's the first
thing I've ever seen
from Rutger Hauer's character
that's ever made it out there
so it's really exciting to see.
- It's absolutely tangible,
and you can see it when
people either win something
at one of our auctions,
I feel it still today.
- We all have
those things in our life
that we use to stay
connected to people,
often tangible ones
to evoke memories.
The commodity value may
excite the banker in me,
but more than that, it is the
emotional pool that unites
why so many people are
involved in the prop trade.
- My name's Izzy.
- I'm Amelia.
- Okay, tell me how
you guys are associated
with the Blade Runner jacket.
- So it actually
was in our loft.
- Yeah, our dad had it,
he just had it for longer
than we've been born.
And we were aware of it
but didn't really
know much about it,
we did not know how
exciting it was.
- Did he display it at all?
- No.
- No.
- Or was it literally
just up in the-
- It was literally
in the cupboard.
- There's actually been a
bunch of Deckard stuff around,
but you don't see
the other characters,
the Replicants, Rachael and
Batty, so it's really exciting,
but I think that's gonna
be a really big deal today.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah,
there are a lot of
people interested in it.
- Yes.
- Which makes it fun.
- And I'm married and I
would like to stay married,
so we have to weigh up.
- Yeah, yeah-
- You might see me in six
months living in that coat
on the street corner
on Piccadilly circus.
- I'm in the same boat.
- Now, were you
surprised by the value?
- Absolutely.
- Okay.
- We'd sort been gearing
up for it not to sell
to not be disappointed,
so very surprised.
- We had no idea 'cause it's
so interesting coming here
and sort of seeing the
excitement and the value
that these kind of objects have.
- 150,000 for a prop
is a really good price.
So that's excellent,
congratulations to you,
I think that's really cool.
- We've had it in the family
for probably about 30 years,
which is like-
- Definitely since
late 80s or early 90s
and we're actually shook.
- Yeah, very long time.
And film props didn't
used to have the value
that they do now,
people sort of weren't
as interested in them
as collector's items.
- You had a huge bid in
there for one of your items.
Now tell me about this.
- So that was the,
the biggest one was Hudson,
played by Bill Paxton,
and I had his armor
and camouflage costume,
the whole lot, helmet.
- Going once at 90,000.
92,500.
Make no mistake, at
140,000, gavel raised, sold.
- I think it's replaced
that modern art thing
that a lot of sort of
people with a lot of money
to spend on the things
they love can buy
so it's kind of, yeah,
it's gone crazy lately.
- Knowing that it's
gonna be preserved,
it's now recognized
for what it is,
and it's gonna be there
for future generations.
A lot of the artifacts
that I discovered
on rental house shelves
and in cupboard boxes
and in attics now sit
behind glass in cabinets
or in museums or archives,
and that is exciting as well
in itself, the preservation.
- The idea of
preserving film props
for future generations
struck a nerve
and made me wonder if there
were other collectors out there
who did more with their props
beyond just sharing them
with friends and family.
- Ciao, how are you?
- I'm good, how are you?
Tom Biolchini.
- Luca Cableri,
nice to meet you.
- Luca, thank you for having me.
Oh, no way.
- Yeah, it's amazing.
- Look at this place.
I mean, this looks
like a museum.
- I love the way this is
displayed, by the way.
- Yeah, thank you.
- I mean, you have
done a phenomenal job.
I don't even know
where to start.
I mean, I obviously
see the alien.
What's the story
behind this guy?
- Exactly what it is.
- Okay, Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtle.
- Yeah, this-
- Okay, is this the
one that they wore?
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah, you can see that
the zipper right over here.
- What's interesting
is that this is,
I don't know what
this is made of,
but you gotta be careful
with some of these materials
'cause in time they're
gonna disintegrate.
- Yeah, look here.
- You're can
already see the cracking.
It's not like a statue
that will last 1,000 years.
- Mars att*ck.
- Yeah.
Robocop.
- Robocop 2.
- Addams
Family, it's gotta be.
- Okay.
- Take it.
So they using all...
- Okay, so this is
the one that recently,
the series that
recently came out?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- This is really cool.
- Yeah.
- It's cool.
- I think these are great.
I don't own one, and
I hope to someday.
- I feel like I gotta have
a lightsaber at some point.
- Buy everything, yeah.
- Yeah.
- If you go around the globe,
the majority or at least
half are gonna know
what these movies are
and they're gonna be
able to identify them.
- Exactly.
- Oh, no way.
- Oh, my gosh.
- This is cool.
- Thank you.
- Whoa.
- Are all these screen used
or some of them replicas
or how does that-
- Pretty much any
costumes in here
are all screen used
or celebrity owned
'cause these, you know-
- Whitney Houston, Michael
Jackson, oh, Jamie Foxx.
- Jamie Foxx.
He won the Oscar for
Ray, he was wearing that
in that scene in the bedroom
where he is playing the piano.
- Oh, that is so cool.
- That's cool.
I like the Michael Jackson
one, that's so cool.
- Yeah, okay so Rocco and
I own Michael Jackson's hat
from the Victory Tour.
- Oh, I've been looking at
those too, those are up there.
- Yeah, that's exactly right.
- That is awesome.
- What's this over here?
- Those are a Marilyn Monroe's,
a pair of her opera gloves.
- Oh, that's neat,
that is really neat.
I love the display, by the way,
I love the way you're
displaying these in this room.
It's really-
- Thank you.
Yeah, I love museums
so I like things to
look curated somewhat.
- These are what, leather?
- Those are Harry
Houdini's leg irons
that he used in
one of his escapes.
- Oh, awesome.
- They came from
the Houdini Society.
- Will Ferrell, we got Johnny
Depp, we got Dwayne Johnson,
Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman,
Morgan Freeman, I
love Morgan Freeman.
And this is who?
- That's Evel Knievel.
- Oh, Evel Knievel.
- Stuntman.
- Oh no way.
That's awesome.
Now this right here,
look at this, Rocco,
Jumanji from when
Robin Williams did it.
So this was a
screen used spider?
- Yep, stunt
spider from the '95 film.
- Sarah.
- Look at this, Pirates
of the Caribbean.
- Mm-hmm, and he
has Johnny Depp up there.
- When did you start collecting
screen used movie props?
- Probably about four
or five years ago
for the screening stuff,
I did prop for other
stuff for a long time.
A friend of mine sent
me a couple of things
and I think it was the
Hunger Games gloves,
and it kind of snowballs.
You're like, oh well
this is kind of cool
to have the real things and
so, and I just love history
and I love the art in
creating costuming.
Everything that I love,
it's all in one thing
and the rarity is the best.
- Yeah.
So what is your ultimate prop,
the one thing, if
money wasn't an object
and there was something that
you could get your hands on,
what would it be?
- Probably the Darth Vader
helmet from A New Hope,
the original movie.
- Okay.
- Because I saw it when
I was four years old
and from '77 to all the
way through the 80s,
every Christmas, every birthday,
it was Star Wars everything.
So that would be the
ultimate to have that helmet
that David Prowse
wore as Darth Vader.
- I love how you said
just a helmet too,
not his whole outfit.
- No just the helmet
would be good.
- Just the helmet, that's all.
- I'm not greedy, come on now.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
The amount of creativity
that went into Paul's
incredible collection
was astonishing to me.
He literally made art
to display other art.
It was incredible.
I knew there would be a ton
of collectors in Sin City,
but we headed over there
to check out another
prop museum experience.
- We're gonna start in our
science fiction section.
'cause it's
everybody's favorite.
Everybody loves
spacesuits, spaceships.
- I'm one of them.
- Exactly, yeah.
So we have things from Robocop,
this is the 2017 reboot.
And right next to it we have
one of my favorite pieces,
this is a hydro snake
from Terminator Salvation.
So this is the fourth
installment of the franchise.
This is a fantastic piece, I
mean, it's fully animatronic.
It has some metal
components to it
but the outside of
it is just a rubber,
has a rubber feel to it,
and all the claws as
well, they're not rubber.
- So what's interesting is the,
I think in these
Terminator movies,
a lot of them were
made that way,
real metal or at
least part metal.
- They do a lot of resin casting
and then they'll do
platting over that
so it has a real
metallic look to it.
- Okay, I'm curious about
this Armageddon one.
- This is a great suit.
It's a full spacesuit
used in the film.
This was used by Michael
Clarke Duncan as Bear.
You can see it in the film
right when they land
on the asteroid.
- If you display it right,
that it becomes a piece of art.
- Well, exactly, kind of
pretty much with anything.
And these are being
considered pieces of art
a lot more lately, the prices
have gone up really high
in the past couple years.
And if you think about it,
I mean, movies are
art themselves.
What I want to jump to is my
favorite part of the displays.
This is a predator in Aliens.
- This is exceptional.
I cannot believe how
big that thing is.
- Yeah, it's very huge.
I mean, the tail actually
goes up into the ceiling.
- That thing is
incredible, it's so big.
Is this a real predator?
- This is a real predator, yeah.
And a lot of people they're
really excited to find out
that it's an actual suit.
It's made out of foam latex
and it's just all the
detail on it is amazing.
- Okay, so you
touched on this earlier,
the value going up.
- Yes.
- What's that about, what
do you think that is?
- I think it might
just be that people
are finally considering
this an art form.
And we'll move on to the
horror section over here.
- When I was a kid,
I loved horror movies
and this is the
stuff I used to make
so I recognize multiple
of these right away.
Oh, no way.
Is this what I think it is?
- Yeah.
Oh, well what do
you think it is?
- It's from Cast Away.
- It is from Cast Away.
- Cast Away, the pilot.
- That's the pilot, yeah,
that washes up on shore.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Yeah, this is a cool piece.
He's actually full silicone,
he probably weighs
about over 100 pounds.
He has metal armature
all through his body.
- Can I touch it?
- Yeah, you can touch him.
- Oh, my gosh, it's heavy.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Oh, my gosh.
Okay, so I think
this is really cool
because it's a
very, I don't know,
a dramatic scene
in a great movie.
- It is, definitely.
- The funny thing about this
though, as a movie prop,
recognizable, fantastic
movie, what do you do with it?
I mean, unless you have
a place like yours,
I think about myself,
what would I do?
It's such a-
- Yeah, that's true.
I mean, that goes along
with what you collect.
I mean, who really wants a whole
body inside of their house?
- Edward Scissorhands.
- Original Mjolnir
from Thor Ragnarok.
- Thor, yeah.
- Men In Black, the
worm alien guys.
One of the locker aliens again.
Cool piece from Minority Report.
And then right above that we
have one of my favorite pieces.
This is the original machete
used by Quint in the film Jaws.
- This is so
awesome right here.
- Yeah, this is a
beautiful piece.
I mean, it still contains
all of the rust on the blade,
the handle's still worn.
- Here we are in Lyon, France,
and we're gonna go check out
the Musee de Cinema
and miniature,
they have a treasure trove
of screen used movie props,
and they also have
miniature movie props.
This incredible building
is over 700 years old
and once originally housed
a restaurant, stables,
and rooms for weary travelers,
now converted into
several stories
filled with thousands
of props, costumes,
and even their own prop and
costume restoration room.
- I'm Julien Dumont,
and I'm the director and
the owner of the museum.
And this is Marc-Antoine.
- Yeah, I'm the collection
manager of the museum.
- Do you guys
both have a background
in the movie business?
How did you all meet each other?
- Oh, no way, Ghostbusters.
This is the one of the dogs.
- Yes.
- Is this screen
used from part one?
- Yeah.
- Oh, obviously.
- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, that's the one
that came off the head.
- It's
a kind of helmet.
- Oh yeah, I know
that scene perfectly.
- What happened?
- And it's a lifetime of work.
It's a lifetime of
perfecting your craft.
- Really?
- That is unbelievable.
And you know what's another
thing I see a lot of?
Is The Dark Crystal,
and I remember that as
a child watching that.
And I see a lot of props from
The Dark Crystal come up.
So I love that you've
got a little piece here.
- Oh, that's funny.
- Yeah. Right.
Hey, do we have
The Dark Crystal?
Alright, good.
That's awesome.
We spent an entire day
with Julien and Marco,
and even that wasn't enough
time to see much less comprehend
the magnitude and scale
of what was housed
in their incredible museum,
one which was rapidly
rising up the ranks
to be one of the most
popular museums of any kind
in all of Europe.
- Oh right.
Oh, the Gremlins.
- Gremlins, so Gizmo.
- Yeah, that's
some of my favorite parts
of any good movie prop
are the electronics, the-
- Yeah, the rigs, the
things that make them move,
I think that's fascinating.
Why is Gizmo so big?
- The closeup sh*ts.
- That's so fascinating,
it makes sense.
- Okay, yes, of course.
- You saw it blow up.
- It blow up.
- Yeah.
- As a backup.
- As a backup.
- Gosh, look at
the size of this thing.
- This is the size of a car.
- How much does
it weigh, do you know?
- You just seeing
it from this side.
- Yes, exactly.
- Seeing this
incredible piece
made me want to head
back to my hometown
to check out the largest
prop I could think of,
the original house used in
the 1983 film, The Outsiders.
It's one giant prop filled with
other props from the movie.
- My name is Danny Boy O'Connor.
I'm the executive director
of The Outsiders House
in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
and we are sitting
here in the living room
of The Outsiders House,
which is an odd thing
'cause it is a collectible
that houses collectibles
so it's pretty special.
If you told me in 1983
at the theatrical
release of The Outsiders
that one day you would,
that I would own the home
and that I'd be sitting
in it talking to you guys
about how this all came about,
I would think you were tripping.
So it's definitely one of my
favorite movies of all time.
I mean, I can go deep dive
in really artsy flicks
and stuff like that but
at the end of the day,
no movie spoke to me like
The Outsiders spoke to me.
- This is the biggest prop
that I have ever seen,
and it also has been touched
by more famous actors
than any prop I've ever seen so-
- It has.
- We're in The Outsider House.
- It's authentic,
it is the house.
It's a lifelong, it's
a life project of mine
and it has taken about
three and a half years
to get it to where it looks now.
I assure you when I bought it,
it did not look like
it did in the movie
so it took a lot of work to
get it to look like this.
I'm the founding member
of House of Pain.
If you've ever been
to a sporting event
in the last 30 years, you've
perhaps heard Jump Around,
or if you've been
in a hip hop club
or any club for that matter,
a wedding, a bar mitzvah,
I'm sure you've heard the song.
The kids and the
people come here,
it's the vibe that they feel
and it's the collection
that does the heavy lifting,
but you are definitely
walking back
into a piece of your memory
so we've done every
room to reflect that.
So we have it on the table
or we have it by the door.
We show you the scene,
in case you haven't seen
the movie in a minute,
and then you get to
kind of recreate that.
What kids love to do is
recreate it for TikTok
or recreate it for Instagram.
So somebody will
stand at the door,
somebody will stand
where Rob was standing
and then somebody will sit on
the couch in Tom Cruise's spot
and they will take that
photo and recreate.
- Yeah, right.
- Or an easier one would
be to come over here
and do what Ponyboy did
and just stand here.
- Yeah, this one's so cool
because you can match it up to
the kitchen in the back here.
- Exactly.
And so Jack White is standing
here and took that photo,
C. Thomas Howell, who
took it, so as an adult,
he's taken it at that same
spot where he was a kid.
- So who wore this?
- That's Ponyboy's-
- Oh, that's Ponyboy's?
- It was cutoff, and that's,
you see that up until
he gets almost drowned
in the fountain, and then-
- That is a really cool piece.
- And it should be behind glass
but we got it the day of opening
and we didn't have a case
for it, so we put it here.
We asked people don't touch it,
and they, the fans
have been great.
In here, here's the
director's chair
I was telling you about.
There's the red
leather bound script,
which we got from
one of the actors,
so this would've
only went to Sosa's.
C. Thomas Howell
gave us his hoodie,
that's his hoodie that he wore.
- So that's Thomas
Howell's right there?
- That's the hero's one.
Those are the shoes
that Johnny gave us.
- Oh okay, those are ones
you were talking about earlier,
the ones that he b*at up.
- Yep.
And then his complete ensemble
we got from an auction,
which would've been
from Planet Hollywood.
- He got to inspect
this jacket anyways.
- Oh, yeah, no, he actually,
we had him try it on,
and we had Rob Lowe
try his stuff on too,
they're the only two
that can still fit
into the stuff as kids.
And then as you come into
the kitchen, like I said,
it's Hollywood Movie
Magic done in Tulsa.
All of this stuff has
been made to replicate
what it looked
like in the movie.
My intent originally
was to save this house
so that it didn't get torn down.
I realized that there's
a demand for this stuff.
I mean, we've brought
over 4,000 students here
just this school year alone.
No advertising, no budget for
it, nobody out doing outreach.
It just captures the hearts
and minds of everybody
who have read this book
and seen this movie.
If you're an 80s kid,
this is your Graceland.
- That whole experience
made me wonder how actors feel
when it comes to props and how
they affect their performance
in one way or another.
- What I would rather
call it than a prop
would be an activity.
I remember one time I was
doing a film with Bob Dylan.
Bob calls me up at 4:00 in
the morning and he goes,
"Mickey, I got this big long
scene with Jeff Bridges,"
and he goes, "I feel like I
should be doing something."
And I said, "Yeah, you could
choose an interesting activity.
For instance,
while he's talking,
why don't you take a straight
razor, turn it upside down
and just be shaving
in the mirror?
And that'd give you an activity
to not just be standing there
with your hands in your
pocket squeezing your balls."
- Yeah, the audience
may not even realize
how important the
prop is affecting the
most minute moments.
- Who wants a drink here, huh?
Anybody want a drink?
I want a drink.
- The prop thing is
something that comes,
I wanna find an
interesting activity to do.
I remember one time working
with the best actor
I ever worked with.
He had all the dialogue,
and so I need to find
myself an activity
while he's got all
this chattering.
So I said, okay,
I'm playing a role
where the guy is always behind
the eight ball with money.
So I thought, I'm
gonna do the next take,
and I put a lot of
money in my pocket,
and as he's talking
and we're walking,
I'm counting the money thinking,
okay, I got 15 large,
I can pay this one,
I got, I need another two
grand, I need a another,
so the whole scene was really,
the end of the scene,
the actor goes,
"God damn, this scene ain't
about counting f*cking money."
And it was like.
- Sure, maybe that razor
blade for Bob Dylan,
or even the wad of
money Mickey counted
to help him form the depth
of his character on screen
may never be up for
auction at the Prop Store,
but even those seemingly
innocuous props,
because they are still props,
are small pieces of art
that help inform the greater
canvas unfolding on screen.
- My name's David Reed James,
and I'm a sculptor for the
motion picture industry.
And I've been doing it for
more than 25 years now.
I worked on Black
Panther, we made Wakanda,
I worked on Avatar.
I've helped design a spaceship
for the movie Serenity.
So I've worked on a
handful of TV shows too.
I worked on X-Files
and Mandalorian.
So this is a prop from
National Treasure 2,
part of a Mayan scene.
This skull, we made
tons and tons of bones
for Land of the Lost.
- So it doesn't
seem odd to you
that people would actually
collect and display
and actually trade the
props that you make?
- Does it seem odd to me
that people would collect and
display the props that I make?
No.
I mean, I think I would
be sort of honored
if somebody wants it
in their living room
or displayed behind
them somehow.
If someone is taking props
that I've had
something to do with
and affectionately displaying
them, that's wonderful.
- Speaking with David
made me want to know more
about the people who
make movie props.
That led me here.
- This is the studio,
this is the workspace.
- Wow, wow.
- Look at the size.
- My name is Alec Gillis,
and I am the owner
of Studio Gillis,
and I'm a creature
effects designer.
This is where the magic happens,
and some of the magic
is happening right here.
This is John Miller.
- Hey, John.
- Hey, John.
- John does our
hard surfaces here,
he's a master prop maker.
When a prop collector says,
"I'm interested in the
mechanical innards,"
that is a truly
appreciative person.
Because what a lot of
people don't understand
when they look at effects
is that the exterior cosmetic
surfaces are exciting
and they're wonderful,
but there's a lot of work
that goes into the engineering
of a sophisticated animatronic.
And for someone to display
just an animatronic
in their home, to me,
is a source of pride
for me and my team.
- This piece right
here, this Goro,
Alec Gillis has PTSD of this.
- f*ck you, Goro.
Yeah, so my company, Amalgamated
Dynamics, at the time,
my business partner and
I, Tom Woodruff Jr.,
created Goro for Mortal Kombat.
And for us at that
time in our career,
it was a plum job to
really push some boundaries
and develop some new technology.
It was a very valuable
learning experience for me,
but it was also very traumatic
because the producers
absolutely hated Goro,
they were really, really,
because it was
slowing them down.
At one point when Goro's
last sh*t was done,
one of the producers famously
said, "All right, everybody,"
normally you say that's
a wrap on this actor
or that effect, or whatever.
He said, "That's a wrap on Goro,
so everybody join with me,"
and he turns and flips
a double bird at Goro,
which is, Tom Woodruff
is inside that.
But my PTSD was assuaged a bit
when Richard Taylor
from Weta said,
"You have no idea how
much this character meant
to Peter Jackson and I,
we fast forwarded through
everything to the Goro parts."
And I thought,
okay, you know what?
It isn't up to other
people to define for me
how I feel about my work.
If it's connecting with
an audience in some way
as deeply as it has with people,
then I call that a success.
- And it's light.
- Great.
- See how lightweight it is?
- It's very light.
- That's Vacuform pieces.
And then John details,
can I show them some
of your beautiful-
- Yeah, please.
- I always break things
whenever I pick them up,
don't I, John?
- Yes.
- So this is something
that, now these are parts
that you've just
found, aren't they?
- So you scavenge real stuff
and then they're added to-
- Yes.
Those are pill canisters,
and these are some solar panels.
- I remember years ago
working with Jim Cameron,
and he was doing sets then.
And he got old Vacuform
Whopper, styrofoam Whopper boxes
and used them for the paneling
of the interior of his
spaceship, painted them black,
and they came from Europe,
all the way from Europe
to do a watch commercial.
I think Roger Corman
made all his money back
just because of James
Cameron's genius, yeah.
- That was Galaxy of Terror.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- I totally forgot, I
worked on that, Robert.
- We worked together?
- Yeah, I totally
forgot about it.
- Oh, you were seven years old.
It's that serendipity of a
career, Nightmare On Elm Street.
Both the wardrobe and
the makeup did evolve.
Originally the makeup was melty,
it looked like melty
cheese sandwiches,
melty like flanges of
flesh coming off of me.
It was that great classic
cover of the shadow.
And he has that
fedora on that dips,
I feel like Carly Simon now,
dips strategically
below one eye.
But I knew as an actor,
the vanity and the tricks
that we actors have, I
knew that if I dipped down,
that I could hide
behind that rim.
We had a great hat,
we had a great fedora.
- Walk me through a
prop that you're gonna make
that is screen used in a movie.
- For me, the favorite
part of the process
of designing props
and creature effects
is in the design itself,
it's in the conceptualization,
it's interpreting the script.
I tend to look at characters
that are presented on the page
in the way an actor does.
I try to imagine that
anything the predator carries,
for instance, weaponry,
that that is an extension
of that character.
- Talk about the glove.
How many gloves did
you have on set?
- I think for the
first film, we had,
well, we had the hero glove,
we had a Mylar glove
to catch the light,
and it had Mylar on the blades,
I think, I dunno whether they
were cardboard or plastic
or what they were,
it was very light.
Then we had a hero glove
that was very, very sharp,
so I could cut through
scenery and things like that.
- So these are metal?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like fish knives
that were curved,
and there was one
very, very sharp one
that was only used
for those, it was,
I think we had one
made out of balsa wood
for fight scene,
that way nobody got
hurt in the fight scenes
when I was terrorizing
the girls or Johnny Depp
or whoever I was
after at that moment.
- This is a display piece.
Sometimes we just do display
pieces just for the heck of it,
just to show off what we can do,
and this is a fiberglass
casting of a like a sci-fi suit,
like a bio-mech warrior suit.
I've taken a head that we made,
here let me just give
you a better look at it.
- Holy sh*t.
- So this is a head that we
made for a commercial spot.
- I know it's actually made up.
- And I thought that would make-
- It is a good-looking
Michael Vick right there.
- I was looking at this earlier,
and the painting on this
is just extraordinary.
- There are so many talented
people in this industry,
and in the world,
and so many talented people
that I have access to
that I love to work with them
and see what they bring to it.
And I'm establishing
the parameters of design
and making sure that it fits
the story and the utility
of the script.
But not everything we do is cool
and some of it's kind
of fun and whimsical.
These are some of
the mechanical heads
we did for the
Santa Claus series,
if you recall that
with Tim Allen.
So these were done
some years ago.
And they're all
servo animatronic for
facial expressions,
they've got about 25
servo motors in each head.
- I love them
because they're real.
They're not cartoony, but
they're so expressive.
They step over the line.
- Sensitivity
in that face.
- Can I touch it?
- Yeah, you
can touch that.
Hey.
- Oh.
- He's tried
that joke three times.
- Prop collectors to me
are like museum curators.
Our pieces of art are made
out of stuff that falls apart.
So for people to appreciate
them enough to buy them,
put them in their homes,
refurbish them for the ages,
I just so greatly
appreciate that.
- I remember we
doing an insert day
and I took the original glove.
I just threw it in
my bag, took it.
- Wait, from Part 1?
- From The Wes Craven collected
Nightmare On Elm Street
Part 1 original hero glove.
And I gave it to my agent at
some point in the next year,
and I had floated
it, stuffed it,
and floated it in plexiglass,
signed it, and gave it to him.
- If art is, if the purpose
of it is to elicit a response,
emotional or intellectual
response, we do that in spades.
To me, I don't know what
other art form other than film
creates the amount of
emotional response, right?
Because it's a
combination of arts,
it's music, it's visuals,
it's painting, it's sculpting,
it's everything rolled into one.
There's another thing
I wanna show you,
we'll go from this
cuteness to this.
- Oh.
- This is a skinned rattlesnake,
and we made this
for the movie Prey,
and it's an animatronic,
and it was meant to be
whether we buried this cable
in the ground so that
when it starts moving-
- Oh,
there's the puppet.
- You'll never see
the cable in the ground.
- Because it's buried.
- But this is a, yeah,
it's buried, it's buried.
But this is a two-person
job, we need another person.
- So, okay, I'll be
the other person.
- Oh, look how happy he is.
- I mean, well,
someone's gotta do it.
- This is what you've
been waiting for.
Oh, look at it, it's
like a rattler, right?
Oh, look at it shake, he can
shake the rattle, literally.
You can come in for an insert-
- Oh, there you go, you got it.
Yeah, you know how to rattle.
- You see that rattle?
- You can
come in for an insert
and either you put a
sound effect with that
and I'm outta my seat.
- That would be
great for a billboard
for outside of your
sushi restaurant.
- Hey, let's
talk about Aliens.
Because it happens to be the
most popular collector's item.
Of all movies, I feel like
Aliens is right up there.
- It was really a
fantastic experience
because I had worked
with Jim Cameron
and the Skotak Brothers and
Gale Hurd at Roger Corman's.
And now here Jim had
taken that same team,
added Stan Winston to the
mix, and was working on Aliens
and bringing all that sort
of know-how of that group
to that film.
So when I walked on
set, Jim turns to me,
he's wearing his Hawaiian
print shirt, and he says,
"Hey, who would've
thunk it, huh?"
Because five years
prior to that,
when we were both had yet to
work in the movie business,
we went to see the
first Alien together
and little did either of us
know that five years later
he'd be making,
directing Aliens.
So it was a very magical time.
Nice to have that Aliens
as part of my repertoire,
that movie means a lot
to a lot of people.
I was primarily
responsible, initially,
to sculpt the Facehugger.
I also was in charge
of the Bishop effects.
So I designed all of the stuff
and put Lance
through that horror
of being split in
half by the Queen.
- At the very
ending scene, of course.
- Yeah.
- What is that white
stuff that comes out?
- I guess maybe now it's a
funny story, it wasn't then.
But I had an ice chest full
of different dairy products
for the day, and I
was keeping them cool
and we were going through,
but you do a lot of takes with
James Cameron at the helm,
and, "More, spit more," right?
So I went through it
all and I'm trying to,
look, how do we get through
the last couple of sh*ts?
The tea trolley, thank God
we're sh**ting in London,
there's a tea trolley, right?
So I'm grabbing
creams off of that.
But what I didn't realize
was that tea trolley
had been sitting
there for many hours.
And so I gave Lance
some spoiled cream.
- And I got sick as a dog,
man, it was like,
I mean, it hit me really fast.
- And he goes, "Buddy, I
don't know what you gave me
but I was up all night puking."
- Oh, no.
- And I was like, oh,
I'm gonna get fired.
- And I thought, this ain't bad.
The reason it didn't bother me
is because how
would you be feeling
if you were getting ripped
into f*cking pieces?
- Lance is a
phenomenal human being.
He's not only is
he a great actor,
I mean, it's evident in
everything that he's done,
but he is also a
very positive person,
he's very encouraging,
he's very appreciative
of our practical effects,
of creature effects,
of visual effects,
and he's just always
been there for us
with words of kindness
and enthusiasm.
- Each of us felt
passionate about our roles.
Seriously, I mean, and
it was as normal as it,
I never questioned whether I
was an Android or synthetic or,
I never questioned it.
I prefer the term
artificial person myself.
I remember when Jim wanted
me to do the Kn*fe trick,
Bill Paxton says, "Do
the Kn*fe trick, Bishop."
- Do the thing with
the Kn*fe, come on.
- And I walked away from the
set for a minute and I said,
"Jim, wait a minute.
What if he is such a wise
that what if I put my hand
on top of his and do it
and scare the out of him?"
So that's what we did.
- I assume that
was not a real Kn*fe.
- It was a real Kn*fe.
- It was a real Kn*fe?
- Oh yeah, when I got to
London, knowing Jim, I said,
I'm gonna bring every
Kn*fe I can imagine him
picking for this.
And I did, I brought, like,
I had about 25 knives
in my suitcase.
Trust me.
- So this was for
Netflix's Bright, right?
The Will Smith, and
this is Joel Edgerton
in our orc makeups.
- What was that face?
- It's a human doesn't
get any more pancakes.
- And he had to go through
two and a half hours
of makeup every day
putting this on, yeah.
This little guy is from Jumanji.
This is our display
bust of the little boy
who cheats at the game and
turns into a little monkey boy.
- Monkey boy.
- The original Jumanji.
- Cheats on the game.
- I warned you
about this, Peter.
No, you wanted to play the game.
- That's just great because
we've only seen children,
as you know, we
never really think
of Planet of the Apes children
and we only see
children as werewolves,
but monkey boy that's
a great makeup.
- And we had to put this on-
- Well, I just love the
subtlety around the nose
where it starts to
have the simian snout.
- Everybody has a smattering
of Monkey Boy, we all do.
- Isn't that the
name of your new band?
- Monkey Boy.
- Tonight-
- A smattering.
- A smattering of Monkey Boy.
- Lance
and the Monkey Boys.
- Well, I wanted to,
you had asked if there's
anything you could put on
- Yeah, any chance I can get.
- These gloves are
from a creature we did
for a film recently, and you-
- Do I know the movie?
- It's called Smile.
- Oh, you mean the movie,
the horror movie Smile?
- Yeah.
- I just watched it,
it was terrifying.
- Yeah, well, these-
- These are the hands of that
lady walking down the hall.
- Yeah.
So now can you feel
the finger cups?
We have finger cups, this
is for a rather large.
- I don't wanna ruin
it, I don't wanna-
- You're
not gonna ruin it.
- Okay, you sure?
- Here, just-
- I mean, I just
watched this movie.
Oh yeah, now I can feel it.
- Push it, yeah.
- Hold on.
- Smile and Prey
are on 24/7, streaming.
- There we go, okay.
This is so cool
because you really,
these are the things
I love in the props
we were talking about earlier,
it's not just the outside layer,
it's how it functionally works.
- That's right.
- I just wish
I had bigger hands.
- Well, that's what
a lot of guys say.
- We did, we did a few
things for Cast Away.
We did the dead pilot that
Tom Hanks drags ashore,
takes his shoes.
- It is from Cast Away.
- Castaway, the pilot.
- Yeah, that's the pilot, yeah,
that washes up on shore.
- Oh my gosh.
- Yeah, this
is a cool piece.
- Robert Zemeckis wanted a
lot of very specific things.
He wanted to be able to uncrunch
his rigor mortis fingers
so we had to build an
armature inside that.
It had to float in seawater
at a very specific depth
so we had a chamber that we
could add buoyancy or weight
to get it to float face-down
when he rolls it over.
Maybe lastly, we
could take a look at,
this is the Wolf Predator,
this is what we did for AVPR.
Lance and I worked
on the first AVP,
this was the second
Alien versus Predator.
And this was the predator
who, he's the cleaner.
They call him the
Wolf 'cause he's,
it was named after
the character,
Harvey Keitel's character
in Pulp Fiction.
The guy who's coming down
to clean up the mess.
- Yeah, the cleaner.
- Am I the only
one getting this?
And I'll ask you if it was
part of the inspiration
or concept.
I get Samurai.
- Oh yeah.
- Oh, yeah, yeah,
yeah, no question.
- Am I right?
- That was part of Stan
Winston's original vision
for this character was
that he was sort of like
a mix of cultures.
It implies that he's
been on the Earth
for hundreds if not
thousands of years,
and he's either influenced
or picked up influence
from various cultures.
- He's been coming on
hunting trips for millennia.
- Yeah.
- So what do you
think about these fans
that collect movie props
from Nightmare On Elm Street
or any movie you've been on?
- Movie props and
memorabilia and posters,
they trigger those
great memories
and it helped make me
far less apologetic
for the fact that at my old
age, that's what I'm gonna,
that's what my
obituary's gonna say,
B-movie actor, Robert Englund,
who played Freddie Kruger.
I'm happy with that,
I'm happy with that.
- Most people who've
never seen a Freddie film
still know who
Freddie Kruger is.
The same is the
case for this smile.
Most of the world doesn't even
need to see the full painting
to know it's The Mona Lisa.
Is it any surprise really to
see the exponential growth
in popularity behind
movie prop collecting
in the last decade?
The human race has been
attempting to encapsulate
the growth of our species
through arts and letters
so that future generations
would know how and why
we have grown, or God
forbid, regressed.
So aren't props art
just as much as
paintings and sculptures?
What exactly is it
that constitutes art?
Okay, guys.
- Good to go.
- I have some news.
Let me start with the bad news.
I lost out on the Wilson head.
- No, no Wilson?
- No Wilson.
- Wilson
going for $120,000.
- It went too high
and I had to back out.
- How high did it cost?
- Oh gosh, how much
did it go for guys?
Like a hundred
and, I don't know,
a hundred and
something too much.
- Maybe your mom
was the secret bidder.
- I am, yeah right.
I am the owner of
the Sports Almanac.
- Nice, you got it, good.
- Dad, what?
- The Sports Almanac?
- You got it?
- Yeah, I got it.
I am the owner of unexpected
last-minute gut decision,
the ghost trap from
Part 2 Ghostbusters.
- Oh, no way.
- Oh no way, oh wow.
- Cool.
- Yeah, very cool.
- What else, what
else, what else?
- And then-
- And then what?
- The Holy Grail.
- No way, no, no
- Oh, that's awesome.
- You've chosen wisely.
- Thank you.
- Yes.
- As much of a
movie nerd as I am,
part of the fun is seeing
how non-cinephiles react
to the physical presence
of a famed prop.
Would you believe that
this being screen used
and being something that was
created by somebody for a film
is a form of art?
- My answer would be yes.
I think this is almost
an anthropological find.
It would elicit a memory,
it would elicit a fondness
of a period of time.
We've always learned to use
media to bring people together
and that is so much
a shared experience.
Whether it's a comedy farcical
movie of Ghostbusters,
objects from a movie
that there is a almost
a cult following for,
those things will be treasured.
- I think it's
already recognized
as an art form now, frankly.
I think for many, many years
I was championing the cause
of this stuff needs
to be preserved,
it needs to be recognized.
Who's to say that this
item that I have right now
isn't considered the next ruby
slippers in 30 years' time?
Then I think it's
already transcending
into its own form of art.
- Do you think it's
possible that a movie prop
such as the ghost trap
from Ghostbusters 2
could ever be displayed
and enjoyed in a museum?
- I do, and the reason I
think that is the story.
These are emblematic
of our childhood,
a part of our shared
history and what we love.
So how we make movies
and what's in them
and how we value that in America
has always been a romance,
it's romanticized for us
and we have made it a
very much a romantic part
of our lives.
So I think that if you were
to have something like this
that explained what
this was for the,
not the Ghostbuster expert,
but for someone who enjoyed
the movie growing up
and so forth, I just think
that you have something
that is part of
somebody else's story,
that's relatable and that
meets people where they are.
So, absolutely, I don't know
what else you would have,
but it makes a part
of your own story
part of something larger,
and I think that's what
people like to belong to.
- What Susan said about story
and how movies are relatable
and make your own story
feel like it's part
of something larger,
something about that
just hit home for me.
And people love the movies.
That's the one thing
that we talk about.
I always say that I go into
a art gallery in New York
and I'll see an abstract
piece of art on the wall,
and it's worth a
million dollars.
There's a finite
amount of people
who know who that artist is,
or even care about the painting,
yet it's worth a
million dollars.
I can walk around the globe
with Indiana Jones's whip,
and half the globe
is gonna be able to
identify it immediately.
And most people when they
see Indiana Jones's whip,
it evokes an emotion of fun,
happiness, good memories.
And that's the one thing about
the movies that are so great.
- I think really, it's something
tangible from the movie,
something you can
touch and hold and feel
and then look at the
screen and there it is.
And that's the connection,
that's the magic connection.
- You don't have
to be an encyclopedia
of movie knowledge to
feel that sentiment,
that need for
connection, belonging.
- Cast Away.
- Everyone has some connection
to the magic of movies.
Whether it was because of
someone they watched it with,
that snapshot of
time in their lives,
or because the
story spoke to them.
We all just want that
emotional connection
that makes us feel a part of,
and that's something
for everyone.
Okay, tell me your name.
- Alistair.
- Alistair.
- Well, the middle name is
Blake, named after Blake's 7,
which was broadcast
between 1978 and 1981,
and I was born during
the show's second season
being broadcast.
And my eight year-old
brother said,
"Can you name his baby brother
after his favorite program?"
Which also gave me
the initials ABC,
which I have on my number plate.
I may or may not be back
on Saturday to make a bid.
- Okay, you're gonna
make a bid on something.
- Assuming it's going
to be in the hundreds,
not the thousands, I
only earn 7 an hour.
I have money to spare
because I still live at home.
I live in a rich area
where I don't have
a hope of moving out
and getting my own place.
I've never dated and
I don't have children.
- How did this all come about?
How do you even know about it?
- In the last seven days,
I must have seen something
about an auction coming up.
I was named after something
that is lesser known,
which normally translates into,
it's gonna cost hundreds
rather than thousands
and tens of thousands.
So I thought I'd better look
it up and show an interest.
- Is it a secret on what you're
bidding or can you tell us?
- It's, I think it's
called a technical drawing
of the Liberator from Blake's 7.
- Why that movie?
Why come here and
bid on that piece
if you've never bid in
this auction before?
- If it's a program
I'm named after,
I would love something
from behind the scenes.
It's not a program like Dr.
Who that's been recommissioned
and it's gone big again
and it's still going relatively
strong 20 years later.
- So what do you think
so far of the auction?
- It's amazing.
I've never been
in a group before
where something sold
for 60,000 plus 25%.
- What has surprised you the
most about your afternoon here
at the Prop Store auction?
- The respect I'm being
shown by all concerned
and the camera in front of me.
- It's the power of film
that makes every one of us
want to have just one tiny piece
of it, not just the memory,
but something tangible
we can always hold dear.
- I love Raiders of the
Lost Ark, as a screenwriter
and as a serious
cinephile, The Last Crusade
is the one that holds
the emotional pole for me
because that was the
first one I got to see
in the movie theater.
- So I own the whip from Part 2.
- Fantastic.
- And then the Holy
Grail from Part 3.
- Oh, did you just get that?
- Just got it.
- That was mine.
- Oh, no.
No way.
- Yeah.
- That's hilarious.
- Yeah, yeah, congratulations,
it's an incredible piece.
- I mean-
- Yeah, there you go.
- Oh, God
The Holy Grail from Indiana
Jones and The Last Crusade.
It's an amazing community
where everyone and anyone
is welcome from
all walks of life.
The only requirement, fandom.
- You can try
if you want it, eh?
- Oh, come on.
- Yeah, go ahead.
- I'm gonna put
it on if you let me.
- Yeah, yeah, go, go.
- Sir, he's over here.
- Arts bring people together
and especially if they
have an appreciation
of what goes into the
arts, then they share that,
so the movies keep
getting better and better.
We took our kids to
the operas, the ballet,
but it's all art and
it's all beautiful.
It all expresses so
many of man's feelings
and their goodness
and their badness.
It's a wonderful thing to
share with your family.
- The world of movies,
whether you're in that
world or just a fan,
it's an art that is almost
fully universally loved.
How do I look?
It brings people together,
it bonds us far more than it
divides, it's all inclusive,
something for everyone,
whether moving or infuriating,
dystopian or inspiring, bitingly
funny or just plain goofy,
there is something for everyone.
That is incredible.
- Yeah.
- And while physically
owning a prop from a movie
isn't for everyone,
there's one thing I
can almost guarantee,
everybody loves a good movie.
- I love movies that are,
oh, cut, that was bad.
- You can't say cut.
- Oh, look at that fucker,
I look like one
of the presidents.
- No, this is where
you're looking at me.
- Oh, you're a f*cking
funny guy, man.
You're you're gonna
make faces behind me.
- The whole time.
- I look too perfect.
- Okay, please
introduce yourself.
- Hi, I'm Lance Henriksen.
- So this is the Bible
from The Shawshank Redemption.
- I mean at the time,
I didn't know this was
a one of a kind prop.
Turns out this was the only
one made for the movie.
But when this came to
us, we didn't know that.
San Diego Comic-Con
a few years ago
actually spoke to
Frank Darabont about it
and he went for the whole story
of how the prop man really
struggled to make this cut-out.
You can see the level
of work in there.
It took so long to do that I
just think the guy just said-
- Said that's it,
we'll just get one.
- We'll just get one.
You get, yeah, Look after it.
- Here we are in Lyon, France,
where we're gonna
go see the museum
de cinema and a miniature,
I gotta get that right.
Lemme try that again.
Here we are in Lyon, France,
where we're gonna go
check out the museum de.
Where we're gonna go check out
the museo de cinema
and miniature.
- You said museo again.
- What is it?
- Musee.
- Musee?
- Musee.
- Why don't
I just say museum?
- 'Cause it's
not called that.
- Musee.
And we're gonna go check out
the museo de cinema
and miniature.
They have a treasure trove
of awesome screen used props,
and in addition, they have
these miniature movie props
that we also get to see.
Ah, that sucked.
Stupid acting.
We met a guy by the
name of Sean Lesperanza.
We have now,
Lesponera, Lesponera.
Here we are in West
Sussex, England,
going to go see the-
- What is that?
- And we're here to see the
collection of Sean Lesperara.
Les, what is it?
- Lesponera.
- Yeah, Lesponera.
- Okay, oh wow.
- That's one of the
heavy ones that-
- Oh my gosh, this
is super heavy.
- So apparently they
make it heavy so that the wind-
- Hey, Juan, get over here,
let me try this out on you.
Put your hand out.
- Say that one more time.
- I said, Juan, get over here
so I can try this out on you.
Put your hand down right
here and we'll test this out.
Here we go.
- That's the foam one, right?
- I mean, this would
crush your hand.
- I've had to justify large
purchases with my wife.
It's sometimes you have to
sit down and make a decision
that I wanna buy this thing.
And she'll say, "Why do
you wanna buy this thing?"
And it's 'cause I want it.
I want it, I want it,
I love it, I want it,
and there's no
other way to say it.
- Welcome to San Marcos.
I got the sand thing in my head.
Try it again.
And we're here to
see some movie props
that supposedly prove that
everything is bigger than Texas.
- Bigger in Texas.
- What did I say?
- Bigger than Texas.
- Bigger in Texas.
We're in San Marcos
right outside of Austin.
And we, ah ,
doing it again.
Oh, no way.
- Oh, my God.
- Oh, no way.
Oh, no way.
- Whoa.
- Oh, no way.
- Oh, my God.
- Oh, no way.
Oh, no way, Ghostbusters.
Oh, awesome.
- Love that guy.
- No way, what's
that guy's name?
Oh, no way.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh, look
at all this stuff.
Oh my gosh, look at
all this stuff in here.
Very neat, okay, we're
ooh, Jurassic Park.
- And f*ck Mad Props.
Mad Props (2024)
Moderator: Maskath3