When the prop department gets lazy.
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00:00As film viewers, it's easy to lose track of just how much time and effort goes into even the most
00:05mundane details on a movie production. But often Hollywood crafts folk are well aware of our
00:09blissful ignorance and won't put themselves above cutting some corners when the time calls for it.
00:14After all, who's going to notice? But thanks to eagle-eyed film buffs and occasionally the
00:19filmmakers themselves, we've become aware of countless film props from the mundane to the
00:24iconic, which have been unexpectedly reused in other movies. Now these recycled props are
00:29easily missed because of course they are, but once you know you'll never be able to unsee it.
00:35So with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture, here with 10 movie props you won't believe were
00:41reused in other films. Number 10, True Lies Airplane, The Avengers. James Cameron's 1994 action comedy
00:49classic True Lies memorably concludes with Arnie saving the day in a US Marine AV-AB2 Harrier jet,
00:57which he uses to rescue his daughter and literally fire the terrorist antagonist to his doom.
01:03The jet prop reportedly sat in a desert garage for almost 20 years before reappearing in 2012's
01:09The Avengers, briefly visible in the helicarrier when the Hulk is battling Thor. Thor ends up knocking
01:15the big green guy into it with his hammer, prompting him to rip one of the wings off and hurl it at the
01:20Asgardian. Joss Whedon confirmed on The Avengers Blu-ray release that the prop was the very same,
01:25albeit given a makeover by his production team and slapped with the shield insignia.
01:30And the story doesn't end there. A group of collectors then brought the smashed up remains
01:34of the Harrier and spent two years restoring it. Now it's a tourist attraction with one side
01:39restored to its True Lies glory and the others the Avengers.
01:42Number 9, 2001 A Space Odyssey's EVA pod, Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace.
01:49If you've ever seen Stanley Kubrick's magnificent 2001 A Space Odyssey, you quite probably remember the
01:54distinctive design of the EVA pods used by the astronauts to perform scouting and repair
01:59activities outside of their spacecraft. Now Kubrick being Kubrick, he was extremely strict
02:04about all the movie's props being destroyed at the end of production, to ensure that no future
02:08projects could repurpose the materials for their own means. But someone clearly didn't get that memo,
02:14or did and just ignored it, as the EVA pod makes a cameo appearance in the junkyard in Star Wars Episode
02:201, The Phantom Menace, some 31 years later, mere months after Kubrick's death, coincidentally.
02:28Or was it? Well, quite what Stan would have made of this, or of the CGI slathered abomination that
02:32was The Phantom Menace, we'll sadly never know.
02:35Number 8, Seven's Severed Head, Contagion.
02:38And now we have a rather special case of prop recycling, because the prop itself didn't actually
02:43appear on screen in the film it was originally created for. For the climax of David Fincher's
02:47masterful 1995 thriller Seven, Detective Mills is gifted his pregnant wife's decapitated head
02:53in a box, and a lifelike replica of Gwyneth Paltrow's head was made for this scene.
02:59However, Brad Pitt ultimately convinced the producers not to show the prop to the audience,
03:05arguing that the implication was far more effective, and he was surely right.
03:09So whatever happened to that fake severed head? Well, over 15 years later, Gwyneth's fake
03:14noggin was dusted off for Steven Soderbergh's outstanding 2011 thriller, Contagion.
03:20Paltrow's character dies in one of the film's very first scenes, and her replica head was put
03:25to use in an extremely graphic autopsy sequence where her character's scalp is peeled backwards.
03:31The thought of this prop just sitting around in a studio vault somewhere for so long is both
03:35hilarious, but also really, really terrifying.
03:38Number 7, Kill Bill's Samurai Swords, Sin City.
03:41Kill Bill Vol. 1 features a whole heap of swordplay, with the bride and O-Ren Ishii and her
03:46Crazy 88 army all making liberal use of their bladed weapons. But two of the samurai swords used by
03:52the Crazy 88 actually found their way into Robert Rodriguez's Sin City just two years later,
03:57as wielded by the live yet lethal Miho. Quentin Tarantino, who is of course close friends with
04:03Rodriguez, had been keeping the swords in his garage, as you do, and offered them to Rodriguez to
04:08use in his film. Now the story gets even cooler, because on the Sin City DVD, Frank Miller stated
04:14that he personally retconned Miho's swords to have been created by Kill Bill's legendary swordsmith,
04:19Hattori Hanzo. How cool is that?
04:21Number 6, Predator's Minigun, Terminator 2, Judgment Day.
04:25Nobody who's seen 1987's testosterone-fueled action classic Predator can forget the comically
04:30macho deforestation sequence where Mac panic-fires the team's gigantic minigun, nicknamed Old Painless,
04:37into the bushes in the hope of killing the Predator. To no avail, of course. Similarly,
04:41you probably fondly remember the iconic set piece in Terminator 2 Judgment Day,
04:45where Arnie disables an entire fleet of cops, but doesn't kill anyone, by firing a minigun at them.
04:50And because these scenes just aren't awesome enough on their own, they both in fact share the same
04:56minigun prop. Stenbridge Gun Rentals supplied the weapons for both movies and confirmed that it was
05:01indeed the very same minigun in both films. For T2 though, they modified the minigun slightly,
05:07removing the foregrip and just rearranging the carry handle.
05:10Number 5, Hollywood's Recurring Newspaper Prop.
05:13Every so often, film buffs will stumble across a prop that isn't simply recycled in one or two
05:18movies, but is in fact a stock prop used across a whole gamut of productions. One such prop is a
05:23newspaper, distinguished by a picture of a woman smiling on the inside spread. The prop is actually the
05:28creation of the Earl Hayes Press, a Californian outfit which specialises in making bespoke props
05:34for films and TV. This particular newspaper is basically Hollywood's go-to whenever they need
05:39or want to show a character reading one, because as a fabricated prop full of fake news, it means
05:44that the film's prop department doesn't need to go through the tedious legal clearances necessary
05:48to feature a real news rag. You can find the paper in countless films, including the Texas
05:52Chainsaw Massacre remake and No Country for Old Men. Not to mention Back to the Future, Casper,
05:5710 Things I Hate About You, and literally dozens of TV series.
06:01The newspaper picked up a mainstream media coverage in 2010 when fans started to notice
06:05its ubiquity across Hollywood, so it's perhaps no coincidence that we've seen a lot less of
06:10the common prop in recent years. Hopefully, the Earl Hayes Press aren't feeling the pinch
06:14too much, though.
06:15Number 4, Die Hard's Teddy Bear, The Hunt for Red October.
06:18Though it's far from the most memorable moment in John McTiernan's peerless 1988 action classic
06:23Die Hard, you might recall that John McClane starts out his day brandishing an adorable
06:27brown teddy bear with a distinctive red ribbon tied around its neck, which he intends to give
06:32to his kids. Well, the exact same teddy reappears in McTiernan's 1990 follow-up, The Hunt for
06:37Red October. At the end of the movie, a triumphant Jack Ryan is seen sleeping on a plane next to
06:42a teddy bear he picked up for his daughter. And yes, it's even got the same red ribbon
06:46tied around its neck.
06:47If these films weren't from the same director, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was just
06:51a coincidence. But seeing as they are, there's no way this wasn't an intentional easter egg.
06:55Number 3, Alien's Repurposed Coffee Grinder, Back to the Future.
06:59This is absolutely a case where the subsequent use of a prop completely outshone its original
07:04cinematic utility.
07:05Now, you probably remember that Back to the Future ends with the shameless sequel bait of
07:09Doc returning from the future to warn Marty and Jennifer about their troubled future kids.
07:13You might also remember that Doc has to insert some food scraps into a device called the
07:19Mr. Fusion Generator in order to power the new and improved DeLorean. However, you might
07:24not have noticed that this is not the first time we've seen this device, albeit under a
07:28different name and purpose. It first appeared in the original Alien film as a coffee grinder.
07:34Talk about stepping up your roles going from coffee grinder to fusion reactor.
07:38Number 2, Austin Powers' Wig, Ocean's Eleven.
07:41There are many, many things that are distinctively garish about Austin Powers, from his prominent
07:45teeth to his Coke bottle glasses, epic mound of chest hair, and yes, his rather naff-looking
07:51haircut.
07:52For reasons that still aren't quite clear, Myers wore an Austin Powers wig while rehearsing
07:56for the role, and that wig ended up having a most unexpected second life a few years later.
08:02Steven Soderbergh's 2001 Ocean's Eleven remake features a memorable beat where Rusty disguises
08:08himself as a doctor, and in an attempt to seem more doctor-y, he dons a pair of fake
08:13specs and covers his frosted hair with a boring-looking wig, and that is the very same wig that Myers
08:17rehearsed in for Austin Powers.
08:19Number 1, the 2GAT-123 License Plate.
08:23And now we come to another prop that's been a Hollywood mainstay for decades, much like
08:27the aforementioned newspaper.
08:29This time, though, it's a California car license plate of 2GAT-123, which has been featured
08:34in Beverly Hills Cop 2, Go, as well as Training Day, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Role Models, Pay
08:40It Forward, Traffic, Mulholland Drive, Be Cool, Harsh Times, and countless TV shows.
08:45And as for the reason for this license plate being so commonplace, well, the state of California
08:49no longer issues license plates with the GAT designation, which allows prop masters
08:55to use it without unwittingly identifying any vehicle or person driving around in the
08:59real world.
09:00Because the human brain isn't as drawn to strings of letters and numbers as it is a
09:04human face, it's safe to say that this recycled prop has flown under the radar a little more
09:08easily than that pesky newspaper has.