Mad Props (2024)

1. - There's nothing quite like an escape to the movies.

2. They make us laugh.

3. - You built a time machine out of a DeLorean?

4. - Fall in love,

5. or take us on adventures.

6. - Disgusting. - Wow.

7. - Everything about the movies is magic.

8. But it wasn't until some time in the past 30 years or so

9. that collectors began to realize

10. they could actually own pieces of their favorite films.

11. - This is where all our money goes.

12. - Whether it's a prop held by Harrison Ford

13. that's pivotal to an adventurous scene,

14. or a classic McGuffin we never truly understand.

15. - We happy?

16. - Yeah, we happy.

17. - Owning props has become a very big business

18. in the collecting world.

19. - Prices have gone up really high in the past couple years.

20. - $92,500.

21. - Almost as big as traditional art itself,

22. selling nostalgia and trafficking in magic.

23. - They're revisiting a moment in time that they had,

24. perhaps when they went to the cinema

25. and watched Superman when they were young kids.

26. - What is it that makes prop collectors

27. so passionate about owning a movie studio's garbage?

28. - I took the original glove.

29. I just threw it in my bag, took it.

30. - That is what I intend to find out.

31. This is a real original gremlin?

32. - Yeah, it's the real one, yeah, yeah.

33. - Oh, no way.

34. - Everything that I love, it's all in one thing.

35. - That one as you can see also in the shoulder tubes,

36. the shininess on it, that's actually dried slime.

37. - I think in general film is art

38. and this is a piece of film, so yeah.

39. - This is the size of a car.

40. Okay, so it's like a Notre Dame football game tomorrow.

41. It is the annual Prop Store of London Auction.

42. I need you guys' feedback, I've picked out some props

43. that I think I'm gonna be bidding on tomorrow.

44. I don't think I know, but I want feedback,

45. I want family feedback.

46. My name is Tom Biolchini.

47. I'm a banker in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

48. and I'm proud to serve that great community.

49. For me, Tulsa's America's best kept secret,

50. full of some of the nicest people in the nation,

51. but also rich in arts, music, and culture.

52. I've been married for 20 years.

53. I have two children, Rocco and Lucy.

54. Lucy is 14, Rocco is 11, and he loves movie props.

55. - Mm-hmm, I do.

56. - He actually loves to collect anything, so-

57. - I like Star Wars.

58. - Yes.

59. I'm curious to know what this went for,

60. I'm gonna look it up right now,

61. the screen-matched Red Leader X-Wing Starfighter.

62. - Oh, guys, guys, I think it sold to bidder 4764.

63. - It's an internet bidder.

64. - Oh, 575, 600.

65. - So there's somebody in the room

66. bidding against an internet bidder,

67. that's what's happening right now.

68. 975. - Oh my God.

69. - Come on, come on, million.

70. Come on, it'd be our first time to see a million.

71. A million dollars. - Oh, my God.

72. - Oh, that's crazy.

73. Growing up, like all kids my age,

74. we watched a lot of movies,

75. and those movies today are still great movies.

76. From Indiana Jones to Rocky, to The Goonies, you name it,

77. just about every film from my childhood

78. evokes such wonderful memories.

79. But it was horror that captured my fascination most.

80. I wanted to be a special effects artist,

81. this is what I wanted to do with my life.

82. So from Rocco's age, all the way up to,

83. I don't know, call it seventh grade,

84. by the time I finally got into girls

85. and got out of horror stuff,

86. I wanted to be a special effects artist for horror movies.

87. And I actually created this fly out of clay.

88. So my mom took me to Hobby Lobby, I got the clay,

89. and I created, well, I mean, it didn't look that good,

90. I thought it looked good-

91. - He's pretty good at it.

92. - But I created the fly and it was in my bathroom for years.

93. - He would take fingers and make them look so bloody,

94. and then he would stick them coming out of a drawer

95. or coming out from under a bed.

96. He was just funny.

97. But he loved it so much that we never thought it was odd.

98. That shows you how odd I am.

99. - So second, third, fourth into fifth grade,

100. as we got into middle school

101. is when he started actually getting the props and stuff

102. and start making them

103. and I was working with him on that and helping him.

104. And every time we'd go to his house,

105. we'd be doing that on the weekends.

106. And then it evolved into Tom even getting a camera

107. and starting, we made movies together.

108. - This zombie that was on this table

109. and it was cut off at the spine.

110. The spine had a little motor in it.

111. So I turned on the motor and that would move.

112. And then I'd get behind this, below this table,

113. and I was able to control the mouth of the zombie

114. with one string, I could open up one eye with a string,

115. although it stayed open once I opened it, I had one shot.

116. - And then somehow my head got chopped off,

117. and that was the scene where my head was in a pizza box

118. towards the end of the film.

119. I think there was like six or seven or even more

120. of our friends working on that movie,

121. I remember all day and into the night,

122. and then we all sat in the little house

123. and watched the premiere of it.

124. - Our childhood dreams don't always turn out

125. in the direction we hope.

126. So while I originally hoped to work in the movies,

127. my life instead led me to being a lawyer,

128. and eventually a banker.

129. But my love of films never once wavered

130. so I started collecting

131. all these pieces of my childhood again in my twenties.

132. - Hello, I'm excited to show you

133. the Biolchini Action Figure Room.

134. Over here we have the pinball machine,

135. the Ghostbusters pinball machine.

136. And then up here we have the whole Terminator collection.

137. We have The Goonies set with The Karate Kid,

138. and then we have the Indiana Jones over here.

139. - The 70s and 80s were prime moments in film history

140. because that's when movies truly became events

141. and when the era of blockbusters began.

142. And it was early on that I became obsessed

143. with owning a small piece of those blockbusters.

144. We're starting with,

145. and let me show you the front cover of this thing

146. 'cause it's so awesome, in the Prop Store of London.

147. It's like Christie's auction for movie props.

148. Okay, first thing is the Sports Almanac

149. from Back to the Future Part 2.

150. So obviously in the Back to the Future series

151. they had multiple of these Sports Almanacs,

152. but this one was the one that was aged,

153. that was used in the 1985 piece with Biff and Marty.

154. - All I have to do is bet on the winner and I'll never lose.

155. - Okay, the first bid is at 11,000.

156. - Okay.

157. - Now it's 14, 15, oh wait, it's coming up.

158. Now it's 25,000, would you like to bid?

159. - Yes, 30,000.

160. - Okay, I got you in at 25,000 currently.

161. - I feel like each movie prop that has been used in a movie

162. has been imagined by somebody,

163. usually sketched in a drawing, and then created for a movie,

164. and then that prop is used in telling this story

165. to millions of people.

166. And it's those movie props that people remember

167. and they evoke emotion.

168. - It's definitely interesting.

169. I mean, I love that he's pursuing something that he loves

170. and I love that he's focusing on the parts of the movie,

171. the little parts instead of the entire thing

172. and I like that he's doing what he loves.

173. - This is one of the outfits from Spaceballs,

174. and it's a soldier outfit.

175. This has very little value, and that's not the point,

176. I just thought it was funny.

177. - Wait.

178. Those are the guys that stole our uniforms.

179. - Spaceballs is such a goofy, funny movie,

180. and to own just a little piece of it

181. so I could then put up the picture

182. and put on my favorite lines from Spaceballs,

183. that's why I have it.

184. And I do believe it was screen used,

185. but again, the value I think is more of a sentimental value

186. and a fun value than anything else.

187. So what I'm interested in you all is the Holy Grail.

188. Legitimately, the Holy Grail.

189. - It's from Indiana Jones.

190. - It actually has on the bottom of it a little spin cycle

191. that they used when the cup fell over,

192. when the temple was tearing apart

193. and the cup was falling away.

194. - I can get it.

195. I can almost reach it, dad.

196. - Indiana.

197. Indiana.

198. - Would you like to bid 75?

199. - No, I'm gonna pass.

200. - You're gonna pass, okay.

201. - Are they doing the last call at 70,000?

202. - Yes.

203. 75 is what you'd have to bid.

204. Would you like to bid 75?

205. - Do 75.

206. - Do 75? - Yep.

207. - I mean, he always loved movies,

208. I feel like he and his siblings were always quoting movies

209. and just being kind of funny with things like that.

210. But all of a sudden it was like,

211. okay, here's another little package arriving,

212. what's in this package?

213. So yeah, it just kind of slowly started building.

214. I mean, I've never tried to control it,

215. you've seen the basement.

216. - And they're always a surprise, right?

217. He doesn't really share with you what he has en route

218. or what he's purchased until it shows up.

219. So we're here in downtown Tulsa

220. catching up on some business or other discussions,

221. and in the middle of a business conversation,

222. epiphany hit him out of nowhere and he said,

223. "Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you, look what I just got."

224. And reaches into his briefcase

225. and pulls out the ball gag from Pulp Fiction

226. and throws it on the table and says,

227. "Do you know what this is?"

228. And I said, "I know exactly what that is,

229. that's the ball gag from Pulp Fiction.

230. And why do you have it displayed here

231. in the middle of the restaurant?"

232. - We were doing a renovation project years ago,

233. I had multiple people in and out,

234. and the story came back to me

235. through somebody else who'd used the same group of plumbers

236. where I guess they were talking about the ball gag

237. that they had seen in our basement.

238. So I was like, great, people probably think of us

239. as like these totally kinky people.

240. Because they didn't have any other context,

241. it was a ball gag on a plastic head or something like that.

242. So I'm sure they thought that that was what we do

243. in our spare time.

244. - Okay, so the next one is probably the biggest one

245. that I'm going to bid on.

246. And I don't know if I'm gonna get it

247. because this is the creme de la creme.

248. - Oh yeah.

249. - It is the volleyball from Cast Away.

250. - Wilson.

251. - I know.

252. - It looks like they bid 120,

253. so now the next is 130, would you like to bid 130,000?

254. - Yes, 130.

255. - Okay.

256. So now you have to go to 140,

257. sorry, another bidder beat us out.

258. 140?

259. 140,000.

260. - Oh man.

261. Okay, I'm 140.

262. Yes, on 140.

263. - Okay, good.

264. We beat the other bidders, awesome.

265. We are winning, currently at 140,000.

266. I think he's gonna close it.

267. I think he's gonna close it.

268. He's got the gavel, oh, okay, somebody came in at 150,000

269. so the next bid is $160,000.

270. Would you like to bid?

271. - $160,000.

272. Huh, man.

273. - I doubt it's gonna go more than that.

274. - I've got them holding.

275. - Throughout the auction, I found myself wondering,

276. who were these people bidding against me?

277. Were they passionate collectors

278. hoping to own a piece of memorabilia

279. from a movie they loved, or were they museum curators

280. looking to expand their collection?

281. I knew my story with movie props, what was theirs?

282. I needed to find out.

283. I decided to start with a small collector like myself.

284. And while I knew this guy loved movies,

285. there was one franchise he loved the most.

286. - I'm a huge nerd when it comes to Scream stuff.

287. And when they announced it, I told my dad like,

288. "We gotta watch it tonight."

289. - Do you like scary movies?

290. - Uh-huh.

291. - And then I watched it, it was like a school day

292. so I had to turn it off within 40 minutes.

293. But after that one night I was like, I gotta see it again,

294. and I saw it at a local video, it was Blockbuster.

295. They had it on sale, it was part two, I was like,

296. "Mom, I gotta get it."

297. And then they let me buy it and it was like ever since then

298. I've been really obsessed with these movies.

299. - So what does your wife think?

300. I gotta ask.

301. - It's a funny story, I actually got her into these movies.

302. When we met, our first movie day

303. was actually watching the first Scream.

304. - Of course. - So she really liked it.

305. - The king of Scream. - Yeah.

306. - I get it.

307. - I had to take her, it was a nice drive-in night

308. seeing it on the big screen, so of course I had to go,

309. and why not take this girl that I wanted to go out with?

310. And if she needs to know my obsession,

311. it's good that she knows early on.

312. And luckily she likes it.

313. - This is who I am, I want you to know this going in.

314. So is this a screen used knife?

315. - Yes, according to my source, yes.

316. A lot of these I got directly from the set

317. from crew members.

318. And this one comes from Scream 2022.

319. It's a stunt-used slice knife. - Okay.

320. - It was made specifically for slice shots.

321. So this part right here is a blood pump.

322. They put it in, and then once they were shooting,

323. the stunt man would squeeze this little pump

324. and blood would come out of it.

325. - Comes out, yeah that makes sense.

326. - There's holes under the blade.

327. - May I?

328. Okay, so that's where they put it on.

329. - Yeah, and the holes are there

330. for the blood to come out.

331. - And then they put this on here and then they,

332. oh yeah, you can see the holes.

333. - It was used for fast, quick gash, slice shots,

334. but also some action shots where it was used.

335. - What's your long-term plan at this?

336. Is it just to hold onto it, to ultimately sell it,

337. to build your collection?

338. - The things with these props is, from what I've seen,

339. props keep going up in price and value.

340. So if I ever had to, it'd be nice,

341. but my plan is to never sell most of these things

342. 'cause when am I ever gonna get a chance

343. to get another Scream piece?

344. - Would you consider your movie props as art?

345. - Definitely.

346. I think in general, film is art

347. and this is a piece of film, so yeah.

348. - Here we are in West Sussex, England,

349. and we're about to go see the collection of Sean Lesponera.

350. Hey, Sean. - Hey, Tom.

351. Good see you. - How are you man?

352. - Right, so first up we've got Hugh Jackman's claws

353. from X-Men 2, and these ones are quite distinctive

354. 'cause they got broken in the scene in the hallway.

355. - So these are screen used?

356. - They're screen used ones, yeah.

357. Stabs a couple of guards.

358. And originally, apparently he stabbed a couple of beanbags,

359. that's what's supposed to be the guards,

360. and they got broken off at the end of his hands,

361. they're quite distinctive.

362. Got a stunt rubber set production-made

363. from the first film. - Okay.

364. - And I've got some for the metal set

365. from The Wolverine as well.

366. - So when you collect these,

367. when you are looking for movie props,

368. whether they're original or replica,

369. are you looking for good deals,

370. are you looking for something 'cause you love the movie?

371. Tell me the background.

372. - Yeah, I buy something that I love.

373. So if I love the film,

374. I try and get a couple of pieces from that film if I can.

375. - Okay.

376. - But yeah, it's always things I love.

377. I don't buy necessarily to turnaround and sell

378. because I'll keep it for a while

379. 'cause over the years it'll go up in value anyway

380. so that's just a bonus for me.

381. - Yeah, right. - But I buy something I love.

382. - What does your wife think of your collection?

383. - It just depends on the day.

384. - Okay.

385. - You've seen the basement.

386. - So we've got more of a recent one, actually.

387. This is Antonio Banderas' shirt from Mask of Zorro.

388. - Oh, Mask of Zorro, yeah.

389. - Yeah.

390. So I've got that already framed up so it's quite nice.

391. - Have you tried this on yet?

392. - No, because it's all in the frame,

393. I've got to take it all out, I'll peel it off the frame.

394. - Sometimes it's about how these things are displayed.

395. - Yeah, always.

396. - You don't get a screen used movie pop

397. and put it in the closet.

398. - Yeah, yeah, that's right.

399. - You put it out so you can see it.

400. - Yeah, absolutely.

401. - This is a real original gremlin?

402. - Yeah, it's the real one, yeah, yeah.

403. - Oh, no way.

404. Can I touch it?

405. - Yeah, um-

406. - Not really. - No.

407. We tend to not touch because they're so delicate.

408. - I see.

409. - Because of what they're made of.

410. They've basically been restored because basically,

411. a lot of these are falling apart.

412. And it was restored and so when you touch it

413. you should use some gloves, really.

414. - Have you been a collector your whole life?

415. - Not so much, I then got into it more as an adult.

416. - Okay. - More so, yeah.

417. I went to someone's house and he was an artist for Asterix

418. and he had all these amazing models in there.

419. And I saw them, I thought this was incredible,

420. I felt like I'd gone back into being a child again.

421. And that's what started me off, actually.

422. - Okay.

423. Oh my gosh, look at all this stuff in here.

424. Okay, we got more of the X-Men.

425. - I was a bit worried about it because them being metal

426. and the UK having their rules,

427. they might get concerned about what they are

428. even though they're just a prop.

429. And that did happen, there was a problem.

430. So I'm waiting for about a month

431. for them to turn up on my door,

432. and my wife's calling me in my car one day and says,

433. "Sean, don't be alerted

434. but the police are here about your claws."

435. Yeah.

436. And so I knew she wasn't joking

437. because I was a bit stressed about them

438. and what was going on with them not turning up and all that.

439. So the police came on the phone to me and said,

440. "We're a bit concerned about what you're importing here

441. so need we talk to you about it."

442. So I said, "Well, I'm a movie prop collector,

443. you can see from my house,

444. I've got other bits and bobs in the house."

445. And he says, "Oh, are these sharp?"

446. I went, "They might be pointy."

447. And he said, "Right, okay, we've gotta take this further."

448. - Oh gosh.

449. - He said, "I don't know where it's gonna go,

450. I'm not gonna arrest you, but I dunno where it's gonna go."

451. - Oh, I'm not gonna arrest you, oh, thank you.

452. - Yeah, yeah. - That's crazy.

453. Did you ever see Wolverine?

454. - That's right.

455. No, he knew it, he definitely knew it.

456. - Now you understand the sacrifices

457. us movie prop collectors make doing what we do.

458. - Yeah.

459. - Arturo and Sean proved how anyone can be a collector.

460. But I came across another eclectic guy

461. I knew would not only have cool stuff,

462. but who actually felt like a movie character himself.

463. Dave, hi.

464. - Tom, how you doing?

465. - Tom Biolchini. - Good to meet you.

466. - Nice to meet you as well.

467. - Definitely, for sure.

468. - So this is your place. - Welcome to the shop.

469. Nerdiest tattoo shop on planet Earth.

470. - I don't see nerd here, this is incredible.

471. - I like it.

472. - Oh my gosh, there's so much to take in,

473. like in the first couple steps here.

474. - Sure.

475. Kinda like it like that,

476. there's always something to keep you entertained.

477. - Holy smoke, so this is a tattoo parlor, right?

478. - Tattoo and body piercing, yes, sir.

479. - Very nice.

480. I want to get into your movie props,

481. I'm just looking around at everything.

482. I mean, I'm seeing movie artifacts everywhere.

483. - All over, yeah.

484. - Including Deadpool up on the top.

485. - Deadpool's sitting up on the corner.

486. There's all kinds of autographed stuff everywhere.

487. - Where did you get this one?

488. - I got that one from Aaron at Movie Prop Experience.

489. I got the Dothraki arakh from Game of Thrones from them.

490. The whole handle is foam, the blade is fiberglass,

491. it's super duper light.

492. - Game of Thrones is just incredible.

493. - One of my favorite shows.

494. - Oh, and Braveheart.

495. I have McGregor's battle-worn suit-

496. - From Braveheart.

497. - And I love Braveheart.

498. And I've seen Mel Gibson's sword go up for auction,

499. but it's just, it gets ridiculous.

500. - It's ridiculously expensive, yeah.

501. - So how did you come across this guy?

502. - That was one of the first ones I got,

503. I got it from Prop Store of London.

504. - Okay.

505. - Most of my stuff comes through them or Hero Prop

506. because I know that what they say it is is what it is.

507. - Yeah, right, right.

508. - They're definitely the real deal in prop collecting.

509. - So one of the things we've been talking about

510. is the authentication process.

511. - Yeah, I still watch the movie and go through

512. and look at comparing photographs and things like that.

513. Like this is actually the drill from Hostel 2,

514. it was actually screen matched.

515. - Why movie props?

516. Just curious.

517. - I used to collect action figures and toys

518. and I have thousands of them.

519. And when I turned 40 I was like,

520. I should maybe kind of grow up a little bit.

521. Didn't work, I started collecting movie props

522. and continued to collect action figures.

523. So- - That's funny.

524. - Didn't really change much, but yeah.

525. - I only laugh because I'm a movie prop collector

526. and I also collected action figures.

527. So maybe it's in our blood.

528. I don't know. - I guess so.

529. Nerds of a feather.

530. - Yeah, exactly.

531. So what is the response of people when they come in here?

532. - Generally they get in the door and just go,

533. "Wow, this place is awesome."

534. - I view movie props as art.

535. - Sure.

536. And the art of like, somebody created that,

537. you know what I mean?

538. Like old Star Wars stuff, they just took bits and pieces

539. and just glued them on World War II guns

540. and now you have an E-11 blaster.

541. Just the creative process, it always makes me so excited.

542. - Nick Giggey is a real-life hero,

543. awarded two purple hearts for his service in the army.

544. I love the thought of seeing the kind of props

545. an actual hero would collect and why.

546. Hi, Tom Biolchini.

547. Nick, nice to meet you.

548. - Nick, nice to meet you.

549. - Jacob. - Jacob, nice to meet you.

550. - Nice to meet you, Tom.

551. - Guys, it's nice being in Boulder, Colorado.

552. - And this is where the collection begins.

553. - Oh, no way.

554. - This is where all our money goes.

555. - Yeah, the lucky wife.

556. Do you guys work together on this?

557. - Yeah, yeah, we actually kind of,

558. we go joint on a lot of these purchases.

559. So for example, on that Alien's head, 1986,

560. Jacob and I, we went halfsies on that.

561. - You can see that this is worn by a actor?

562. - Yep, yep.

563. - 'Cause you can see the shoulders and stuff like that.

564. What sort of valuation do you put on an Alien Xenomorph

565. that was worn by a human?

566. - Well, the head alone is probably worth close to 50,000,

567. the shoulder tubes are probably about $5,000,

568. and then the back tubes 2,500 each.

569. So the whole thing's about 60,000.

570. - Okay.

571. - Lots of ramen.

572. - Ramen diet.

573. - How do you know that it was actually used,

574. screen used in the movie?

575. - That one is, you can see also in the shoulder tubes,

576. the shininess on it,

577. that's actually dried slime that they actually used

578. when they put the slime on them.

579. Then the head, a gentleman named Harry Harris,

580. he's a expert in all things Xenomorph

581. so he helped me authenticate that when I was picking it up.

582. - Oh nice.

583. - This piece right here, this Goro,

584. Alec Gillis has PTSD of this, but he worked months.

585. This cost the studio like a million dollars to make.

586. Obviously, we didn't buy it for that.

587. But if you can just see the intricacies

588. of this animatronic suit, it's really incredible to-

589. - Man, that's neat.

590. - Actually see that.

591. The other kind of fun part of it is you get a prop,

592. but now how do you display it?

593. - Yes, I talk about that all the time.

594. - Exactly, so you get it then.

595. - Yeah, yeah, I totally do.

596. I think it's almost more fun to display it

597. than it is to actually buy it.

598. - I think sharing it with other people-

599. - Yeah, absolutely.

600. - That's really cool.

601. You have friends over and they're like,

602. "Oh wait, I recognize that, is this?"

603. And then you can go into it and talk about it,

604. and then now you're sharing that nostalgia that you have

605. that they probably have too.

606. - We built a lot of memories around that piece too

607. 'cause we flew out to LA to actually pick that up

608. and then we drove it back.

609. - Oh.

610. - So this shipment was a little crazy.

611. - Yeah, yeah.

612. Did you get pulled over by a cop?

613. "What's in the back?"

614. "Oh, nothing, sir."

615. - "Don't worry about it."

616. - "It's my killer arms."

617. - It's a big community

618. of everyone helping each other.

619. - Yeah, right.

620. - Just kind of helping authenticate.

621. If it's on, let's say, a franchise

622. you don't know very well,

623. you go to that person who knows that franchise,

624. they'll look over it.

625. Because in this hobby, certificate of authenticity,

626. you really have to go to the expert for that.

627. - Why did you guys get into this?

628. What is it about movie props that draws you

629. to dedicate an entire room

630. and then obviously spend a significant amount of money

631. collecting these things?

632. - I'd say it's kind of the history that you have with it.

633. So growing up I had watched movies, every kid does,

634. and you wonder like, if you have a,

635. like this is one of my favorite pieces,

636. it's a Jango Fett blaster from Star Wars.

637. And just watching those films, you wanna be that character,

638. and so being able to actually own something from it

639. is really cool, to say the least.

640. So that's kind of like what started it for me.

641. - Look on screen and see that piece that you're holding,

642. it's the nostalgia factor too.

643. A lot of these things,

644. you have connections or memories to them.

645. And so it's kind of like tying it together

646. in that sense of bringing that memory into physical form.

647. - So one of the things I think about a lot

648. when I'm talking about I'm a collector myself,

649. I always think the value comes from,

650. it's not just our generation that enjoys these movies,

651. it's the generation below us,

652. and probably the one below them,

653. and probably the generation ahead of us.

654. And so, to me, I think that that creates the nostalgia

655. and the value.

656. And it's the fact that my kids know these things.

657. I mean, they know Aliens, and that makes it fun.

658. So-

659. - Our kids come, my kids come up here every night

660. and check these out before they go to bed.

661. They actually say goodnight to Venom.

662. - The pride these collectors took in their collections

663. confirm my belief that prop collecting

664. is so much more than just owning stuff.

665. It's deeply rooted in emotional connections

666. made to the movies we love and the memories they elicit.

667. So owning a movie prop is like owning a memory,

668. but getting your hands on authentic pieces isn't easy.

669. The one place did come up over and over again.

670. - That came from Prop Store. - Prop Store.

671. - Prop Store of London.

672. - So let's go to London and check out the Prop Store.

673. - Well, movie props wasn't really a goal for me

674. when I first started collecting.

675. For me, it was all about revisiting my childhood

676. where I wanted to go back

677. and find all the little Star Wars action figures

678. that I used to collect when I was a kid.

679. And then at one of the fairs I went to

680. in Westminster in London, a guy came up to me and he said,

681. "I've got a Rebel blaster from Star Wars."

682. I was like,

683. "What do you mean you've got a Rebel baster from Star Wars?"

684. And I committed to buying it.

685. I really wanted to understand its origins,

686. where it's come from,

687. its journey to this collector's convention,

688. why this guy had it,

689. and what happens to other film props and costumes.

690. So I contacted Bapty,

691. I got introduced to this lovely guy called Richard Hooper,

692. and he picked it up and he said,

693. "Yeah, no, this is one of ours.

694. Yeah, I know all the traits are right,

695. the construction's right."

696. And he said, "Well, while you are here,

697. do you want to have a tour of our facility?"

698. And I said, "Love to."

699. So there was items from Flash Gordon

700. and Clash of the Titans, other Star Wars blasters,

701. shields, swords, guns, all sorts.

702. The production company would come to them and say,

703. right, make us a pulse rifle, make us a Star Wars blaster.

704. And they would charge a rate for that,

705. and that was based upon made to hire

706. so they were then rented into the production,

707. they would film with it,

708. then it would come back to the hire company.

709. Subsequently, it would go on their shelves

710. and then they would either redress it, repaint it,

711. get it out on another production, or they'd throw it away.

712. What are you guys talking about?

713. How can you possibly throw this away?

714. And of course, to them

715. and everybody within the film industry during this point,

716. a lot of that material that I was finding and uncovering

717. was really just considered a byproduct

718. of the filmmaking process.

719. The product was what was in the can,

720. what they were gonna put up on screen,

721. and really there was no consideration

722. of either the commercial value or the cultural

723. or historical value of any of these artifacts.

724. So it was like, there it is, it's here for now,

725. and if you want something, let's do a deal.

726. And they thought I was bonkers.

727. - This is the Star Wars display right here,

728. and there's so many cool things in this piece here,

729. I don't even know where you begin on this.

730. - Well, I mean, if we go top to bottom very, very quickly,

731. you've got an Ewok mask there from Return of the Jedi.

732. You've got Roger Christensen's script

733. from Star Wars: A New Hope.

734. You've got a hough rebel troop cap,

735. then you've got a really wonderful collection

736. of lightsabers from the prequels.

737. There is the hero Obi-Wan lightweight hero saber

738. from Revenge of the Sith.

739. Below that you've got Darth Vader's gloves from A New Hope.

740. Of course, they didn't have much of a budget on A New Hope

741. so you're talking about the only pair of gloves,

742. they only made one Darth Vader costume for the first film.

743. Captain Antilles is being choked, those are the gloves.

744. - Where is the ambassador?

745. - It was purely collector mentality,

746. and for most collectors will understand what I mean

747. when I say that where it's about, it's the hunt,

748. the chase, discovery, unearthing, it's the journey.

749. And look, when a lot of people come and buy from Prop Store,

750. when they come and deal with my business today,

751. a lot of those people are on a journey of nostalgia.

752. They're revisiting a moment in time that they had,

753. perhaps when they went to the cinema

754. and watched Superman with their friends,

755. close friends and family when they were young kids,

756. and they wanna recapture that moment in time

757. and one of the ways to do that

758. is to get close to those artifacts that we used

759. during the filmmaking process.

760. And that was definitely the buzz that I was on as well.

761. - I'm a screenwriter in film and television,

762. and I created and executive produced

763. the show, House of the Dragon,

764. which is the successor to Game of Thrones.

765. - That's impressive. - Yeah.

766. - Okay.

767. So you are talented, you know the industry,

768. what a very cool,

769. okay, I did not know that coming into this interview.

770. - There you go. - So I think it's so cool.

771. So tell me why you're here.

772. - Yeah, I'm actually interested in that fellow over there.

773. Blade Runner is my favorite movie.

774. I particularly love the costumes from Blade Runner,

775. Charles Knode, the great costume designer,

776. I think they're really evocative of that certain period

777. of LA sci-fi noir and I think they define a generation.

778. And I don't have anything from Roy Batty,

779. I think that's the first thing I've ever seen

780. from Rutger Hauer's character that's ever made it out there

781. so it's really exciting to see.

782. - It's absolutely tangible,

783. and you can see it when people either win something

784. at one of our auctions, I feel it still today.

785. - We all have those things in our life

786. that we use to stay connected to people,

787. often tangible ones to evoke memories.

788. The commodity value may excite the banker in me,

789. but more than that, it is the emotional pool that unites

790. why so many people are involved in the prop trade.

791. - My name's Izzy.

792. - I'm Amelia.

793. - Okay, tell me how you guys are associated

794. with the Blade Runner jacket.

795. - So it actually was in our loft.

796. - Yeah, our dad had it,

797. he just had it for longer than we've been born.

798. And we were aware of it

799. but didn't really know much about it,

800. we did not know how exciting it was.

801. - Did he display it at all?

802. - No. - No.

803. - Or was it literally just up in the-

804. - It was literally in the cupboard.

805. - There's actually been a bunch of Deckard stuff around,

806. but you don't see the other characters,

807. the Replicants, Rachael and Batty, so it's really exciting,

808. but I think that's gonna be a really big deal today.

809. - Yeah, yeah, yeah,

810. there are a lot of people interested in it.

811. - Yes. - Which makes it fun.

812. - And I'm married and I would like to stay married,

813. so we have to weigh up.

814. - Yeah, yeah-

815. - You might see me in six months living in that coat

816. on the street corner on Piccadilly circus.

817. - I'm in the same boat.

818. - Now, were you surprised by the value?

819. - Absolutely. - Okay.

820. - We'd sort been gearing up for it not to sell

821. to not be disappointed, so very surprised.

822. - We had no idea 'cause it's so interesting coming here

823. and sort of seeing the excitement and the value

824. that these kind of objects have.

825. - £150,000 for a prop is a really good price.

826. So that's excellent, congratulations to you,

827. I think that's really cool.

828. - We've had it in the family for probably about 30 years,

829. which is like-

830. - Definitely since late 80s or early 90s

831. and we're actually shook.

832. - Yeah, very long time.

833. And film props didn't used to have the value

834. that they do now,

835. people sort of weren't as interested in them

836. as collector's items.

837. - You had a huge bid in there for one of your items.

838. Now tell me about this.

839. - So that was the,

840. the biggest one was Hudson, played by Bill Paxton,

841. and I had his armor and camouflage costume,

842. the whole lot, helmet.

843. - Going once at 90,000.

844. 92,500.

845. 95.

846. Make no mistake, at £140,000, gavel raised, sold.

847. - I think it's replaced that modern art thing

848. that a lot of sort of people with a lot of money

849. to spend on the things they love can buy

850. so it's kind of, yeah, it's gone crazy lately.

851. - Knowing that it's gonna be preserved,

852. it's now recognized for what it is,

853. and it's gonna be there for future generations.

854. A lot of the artifacts that I discovered

855. on rental house shelves and in cupboard boxes

856. and in attics now sit behind glass in cabinets

857. or in museums or archives,

858. and that is exciting as well in itself, the preservation.

859. - The idea of preserving film props

860. for future generations struck a nerve

861. and made me wonder if there were other collectors out there

862. who did more with their props

863. beyond just sharing them with friends and family.

864. - Ciao, how are you?

865. - I'm good, how are you?

866. Tom Biolchini.

867. - Luca Cableri, nice to meet you.

868. - Luca, thank you for having me.

869. Oh, no way.

870. - Yeah, it's amazing.

871. - Look at this place.

872. I mean, this looks like a museum.

873. - I love the way this is displayed, by the way.

874. - Yeah, thank you.

875. - I mean, you have done a phenomenal job.

876. I don't even know where to start.

877. I mean, I obviously see the alien.

878. What's the story behind this guy?

879. - Exactly what it is.

880. - Okay, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

881. - Yeah, this-

882. - Okay, is this the one that they wore?

883. - Oh, okay.

884. - Yeah, you can see that the zipper right over here.

885. - What's interesting is that this is,

886. I don't know what this is made of,

887. but you gotta be careful with some of these materials

888. 'cause in time they're gonna disintegrate.

889. - Yeah, look here.

890. - You're can already see the cracking.

891. It's not like a statue that will last 1,000 years.

892. - Mars Attack. - Yeah.

893. Robocop. - Robocop 2.

894. - Addams Family, it's gotta be.

895. - Okay. - Take it.

896. So they using all...

897. - Okay, so this is the one that recently,

898. the series that recently came out?

899. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

900. - This is really cool.

901. - Yeah.

902. - It's cool.

903. - I think these are great.

904. I don't own one, and I hope to someday.

905. - I feel like I gotta have a lightsaber at some point.

906. - Buy everything, yeah. - Yeah.

907. - If you go around the globe,

908. the majority or at least half are gonna know

909. what these movies are

910. and they're gonna be able to identify them.

911. - Exactly.

912. - Oh, no way. - Oh, my gosh.

913. - This is cool. - Thank you.

914. - Whoa.

915. - Are all these screen used or some of them replicas

916. or how does that-

917. - Pretty much any costumes in here

918. are all screen used or celebrity owned

919. 'cause these, you know-

920. - Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, oh, Jamie Foxx.

921. - Jamie Foxx.

922. He won the Oscar for Ray, he was wearing that

923. in that scene in the bedroom where he is playing the piano.

924. - Oh, that is so cool.

925. - That's cool.

926. I like the Michael Jackson one, that's so cool.

927. - Yeah, okay so Rocco and I own Michael Jackson's hat

928. from the Victory Tour.

929. - Oh, I've been looking at those too, those are up there.

930. - Yeah, that's exactly right. - That is awesome.

931. - What's this over here?

932. - Those are a Marilyn Monroe's, a pair of her opera gloves.

933. - Oh, that's neat, that is really neat.

934. I love the display, by the way,

935. I love the way you're displaying these in this room.

936. It's really- - Thank you.

937. Yeah, I love museums

938. so I like things to look curated somewhat.

939. - These are what, leather?

940. - Those are Harry Houdini's leg irons

941. that he used in one of his escapes.

942. - Oh, awesome.

943. - They came from the Houdini Society.

944. - Will Ferrell, we got Johnny Depp, we got Dwayne Johnson,

945. Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman,

946. Morgan Freeman, I love Morgan Freeman.

947. And this is who?

948. - That's Evel Knievel.

949. - Oh, Evel Knievel. - Stuntman.

950. - Oh no way.

951. That's awesome.

952. Now this right here, look at this, Rocco,

953. Jumanji from when Robin Williams did it.

954. So this was a screen used spider?

955. - Yep, stunt spider from the '95 film.

956. - Sarah.

957. - Look at this, Pirates of the Caribbean.

958. - Mm-hmm, and he has Johnny Depp up there.

959. - When did you start collecting screen used movie props?

960. - Probably about four or five years ago

961. for the screening stuff,

962. I did prop for other stuff for a long time.

963. A friend of mine sent me a couple of things

964. and I think it was the Hunger Games gloves,

965. and it kind of snowballs.

966. You're like, oh well this is kind of cool

967. to have the real things and so, and I just love history

968. and I love the art in creating costuming.

969. Everything that I love, it's all in one thing

970. and the rarity is the best.

971. - Yeah.

972. So what is your ultimate prop,

973. the one thing, if money wasn't an object

974. and there was something that you could get your hands on,

975. what would it be?

976. - Probably the Darth Vader helmet from A New Hope,

977. the original movie. - Okay.

978. - Because I saw it when I was four years old

979. and from '77 to all the way through the 80s,

980. every Christmas, every birthday,

981. it was Star Wars everything.

982. So that would be the ultimate to have that helmet

983. that David Prowse wore as Darth Vader.

984. - I love how you said just a helmet too,

985. not his whole outfit.

986. - No just the helmet would be good.

987. - Just the helmet, that's all.

988. - I'm not greedy, come on now.

989. Yeah, that's exactly right.

990. The amount of creativity

991. that went into Paul's incredible collection

992. was astonishing to me.

993. He literally made art to display other art.

994. It was incredible.

995. I knew there would be a ton of collectors in Sin City,

996. but we headed over there

997. to check out another prop museum experience.

998. - We're gonna start in our science fiction section.

999. 'cause it's everybody's favorite.

1000. Everybody loves spacesuits, spaceships.

1001. - I'm one of them. - Exactly, yeah.

1002. So we have things from Robocop, this is the 2017 reboot.

1003. And right next to it we have one of my favorite pieces,

1004. this is a hydro snake from Terminator Salvation.

1005. So this is the fourth installment of the franchise.

1006. This is a fantastic piece, I mean, it's fully animatronic.

1007. It has some metal components to it

1008. but the outside of it is just a rubber,

1009. has a rubber feel to it,

1010. and all the claws as well, they're not rubber.

1011. - So what's interesting is the,

1012. I think in these Terminator movies,

1013. a lot of them were made that way,

1014. real metal or at least part metal.

1015. - They do a lot of resin casting

1016. and then they'll do platting over that

1017. so it has a real metallic look to it.

1018. - Okay, I'm curious about this Armageddon one.

1019. - This is a great suit.

1020. It's a full spacesuit used in the film.

1021. This was used by Michael Clarke Duncan as Bear.

1022. You can see it in the film

1023. right when they land on the asteroid.

1024. - If you display it right, that it becomes a piece of art.

1025. - Well, exactly, kind of pretty much with anything.

1026. And these are being considered pieces of art

1027. a lot more lately, the prices have gone up really high

1028. in the past couple years.

1029. And if you think about it,

1030. I mean, movies are art themselves.

1031. What I want to jump to is my favorite part of the displays.

1032. This is a predator in Aliens.

1033. - This is exceptional.

1034. I cannot believe how big that thing is.

1035. - Yeah, it's very huge.

1036. I mean, the tail actually goes up into the ceiling.

1037. - That thing is incredible, it's so big.

1038. Is this a real predator?

1039. - This is a real predator, yeah.

1040. And a lot of people they're really excited to find out

1041. that it's an actual suit.

1042. It's made out of foam latex

1043. and it's just all the detail on it is amazing.

1044. - Okay, so you touched on this earlier,

1045. the value going up. - Yes.

1046. - What's that about, what do you think that is?

1047. - I think it might just be that people

1048. are finally considering this an art form.

1049. And we'll move on to the horror section over here.

1050. - When I was a kid, I loved horror movies

1051. and this is the stuff I used to make

1052. so I recognize multiple of these right away.

1053. Oh, no way.

1054. Is this what I think it is?

1055. - Yeah.

1056. Oh, well what do you think it is?

1057. - It's from Cast Away.

1058. - It is from Cast Away. - Cast Away, the pilot.

1059. - That's the pilot, yeah,

1060. that washes up on shore. - Oh, my gosh.

1061. - Yeah, this is a cool piece.

1062. He's actually full silicone,

1063. he probably weighs about over 100 pounds.

1064. He has metal armature all through his body.

1065. - Can I touch it?

1066. - Yeah, you can touch him.

1067. - Oh, my gosh, it's heavy.

1068. - Yeah, yeah.

1069. - Oh, my gosh.

1070. Okay, so I think this is really cool

1071. because it's a very, I don't know,

1072. a dramatic scene in a great movie.

1073. - It is, definitely.

1074. - The funny thing about this though, as a movie prop,

1075. recognizable, fantastic movie, what do you do with it?

1076. I mean, unless you have a place like yours,

1077. I think about myself, what would I do?

1078. It's such a- - Yeah, that's true.

1079. I mean, that goes along with what you collect.

1080. I mean, who really wants a whole body inside of their house?

1081. - Edward Scissorhands.

1082. - Original Mjolnir from Thor Ragnarok.

1083. - Thor, yeah.

1084. - Men In Black, the worm alien guys.

1085. One of the locker aliens again.

1086. Cool piece from Minority Report.

1087. And then right above that we have one of my favorite pieces.

1088. This is the original machete used by Quint in the film Jaws.

1089. - This is so awesome right here.

1090. - Yeah, this is a beautiful piece.

1091. I mean, it still contains all of the rust on the blade,

1092. the handle's still worn.

1093. - Here we are in Lyon, France, and we're gonna go check out

1094. the Musee de Cinema and miniature,

1095. they have a treasure trove of screen used movie props,

1096. and they also have miniature movie props.

1097. This incredible building is over 700 years old

1098. and once originally housed a restaurant, stables,

1099. and rooms for weary travelers,

1100. now converted into several stories

1101. filled with thousands of props, costumes,

1102. and even their own prop and costume restoration room.

1103. - I'm Julien Dumont,

1104. and I'm the director and the owner of the museum.

1105. And this is Marc-Antoine.

1106. - Yeah, I'm the collection manager of the museum.

1107. - Do you guys both have a background

1108. in the movie business?

1109. How did you all meet each other?

1110. - Oh, no way, Ghostbusters.

1111. This is the one of the dogs.

1112. - Yes.

1113. - Is this screen used from part one?

1114. - Yeah. - Oh, obviously.

1115. - Oh, yeah.

1116. - Oh, that's the one that came off the head.

1117. - It's a kind of helmet.

1118. - Oh yeah, I know that scene perfectly.

1119. - What happened?

1120. - And it's a lifetime of work.

1121. It's a lifetime of perfecting your craft.

1122. - Really?

1123. - That is unbelievable.

1124. And you know what's another thing I see a lot of?

1125. Is The Dark Crystal,

1126. and I remember that as a child watching that.

1127. And I see a lot of props from The Dark Crystal come up.

1128. So I love that you've got a little piece here.

1129. - Oh, that's funny.

1130. - Yeah. Right.

1131. Hey, do we have The Dark Crystal?

1132. Alright, good.

1133. That's awesome.

1134. We spent an entire day with Julien and Marco,

1135. and even that wasn't enough time to see much less comprehend

1136. the magnitude and scale of what was housed

1137. in their incredible museum,

1138. one which was rapidly rising up the ranks

1139. to be one of the most popular museums of any kind

1140. in all of Europe.

1141. - Oh right.

1142. Oh, the Gremlins.

1143. - Gremlins, so Gizmo.

1144. - Yeah, that's some of my favorite parts

1145. of any good movie prop are the electronics, the-

1146. - Yeah, the rigs, the things that make them move,

1147. I think that's fascinating.

1148. Why is Gizmo so big?

1149. - The closeup shots.

1150. - That's so fascinating, it makes sense.

1151. - Okay, yes, of course.

1152. - You saw it blow up.

1153. - It blow up. - Yeah.

1154. - As a backup. - As a backup.

1155. - Gosh, look at the size of this thing.

1156. - This is the size of a car.

1157. - How much does it weigh, do you know?

1158. - You just seeing it from this side.

1159. - Yes, exactly.

1160. - Seeing this incredible piece

1161. made me want to head back to my hometown

1162. to check out the largest prop I could think of,

1163. the original house used in the 1983 film, The Outsiders.

1164. It's one giant prop filled with other props from the movie.

1165. - My name is Danny Boy O'Connor.

1166. I'm the executive director of The Outsiders House

1167. in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

1168. and we are sitting here in the living room

1169. of The Outsiders House, which is an odd thing

1170. 'cause it is a collectible that houses collectibles

1171. so it's pretty special.

1172. If you told me in 1983

1173. at the theatrical release of The Outsiders

1174. that one day you would, that I would own the home

1175. and that I'd be sitting in it talking to you guys

1176. about how this all came about,

1177. I would think you were tripping.

1178. So it's definitely one of my favorite movies of all time.

1179. I mean, I can go deep dive in really artsy flicks

1180. and stuff like that but at the end of the day,

1181. no movie spoke to me like The Outsiders spoke to me.

1182. - This is the biggest prop that I have ever seen,

1183. and it also has been touched by more famous actors

1184. than any prop I've ever seen so-

1185. - It has.

1186. - We're in The Outsider House.

1187. - It's authentic, it is the house.

1188. It's a lifelong, it's a life project of mine

1189. and it has taken about three and a half years

1190. to get it to where it looks now.

1191. I assure you when I bought it,

1192. it did not look like it did in the movie

1193. so it took a lot of work to get it to look like this.

1194. I'm the founding member of House of Pain.

1195. If you've ever been to a sporting event

1196. in the last 30 years, you've perhaps heard Jump Around,

1197. or if you've been in a hip hop club

1198. or any club for that matter, a wedding, a bar mitzvah,

1199. I'm sure you've heard the song.

1200. The kids and the people come here,

1201. it's the vibe that they feel

1202. and it's the collection that does the heavy lifting,

1203. but you are definitely walking back

1204. into a piece of your memory

1205. so we've done every room to reflect that.

1206. So we have it on the table or we have it by the door.

1207. We show you the scene,

1208. in case you haven't seen the movie in a minute,

1209. and then you get to kind of recreate that.

1210. What kids love to do is recreate it for TikTok

1211. or recreate it for Instagram.

1212. So somebody will stand at the door,

1213. somebody will stand where Rob was standing

1214. and then somebody will sit on the couch in Tom Cruise's spot

1215. and they will take that photo and recreate.

1216. - Yeah, right.

1217. - Or an easier one would be to come over here

1218. and do what Ponyboy did and just stand here.

1219. - Yeah, this one's so cool

1220. because you can match it up to the kitchen in the back here.

1221. - Exactly.

1222. And so Jack White is standing here and took that photo,

1223. C. Thomas Howell, who took it, so as an adult,

1224. he's taken it at that same spot where he was a kid.

1225. - So who wore this?

1226. - That's Ponyboy's-

1227. - Oh, that's Ponyboy's?

1228. - It was cutoff, and that's,

1229. you see that up until he gets almost drowned

1230. in the fountain, and then-

1231. - That is a really cool piece.

1232. - And it should be behind glass

1233. but we got it the day of opening

1234. and we didn't have a case for it, so we put it here.

1235. We asked people don't touch it,

1236. and they, the fans have been great.

1237. In here, here's the director's chair

1238. I was telling you about.

1239. There's the red leather bound script,

1240. which we got from one of the actors,

1241. so this would've only went to Sosa's.

1242. C. Thomas Howell gave us his hoodie,

1243. that's his hoodie that he wore.

1244. - So that's Thomas Howell's right there?

1245. - That's the hero's one.

1246. Those are the shoes that Johnny gave us.

1247. - Oh okay, those are ones

1248. you were talking about earlier, the ones that he beat up.

1249. - Yep.

1250. And then his complete ensemble we got from an auction,

1251. which would've been from Planet Hollywood.

1252. - He got to inspect this jacket anyways.

1253. - Oh, yeah, no, he actually, we had him try it on,

1254. and we had Rob Lowe try his stuff on too,

1255. they're the only two

1256. that can still fit into the stuff as kids.

1257. And then as you come into the kitchen, like I said,

1258. it's Hollywood Movie Magic done in Tulsa.

1259. All of this stuff has been made to replicate

1260. what it looked like in the movie.

1261. My intent originally was to save this house

1262. so that it didn't get torn down.

1263. I realized that there's a demand for this stuff.

1264. I mean, we've brought over 4,000 students here

1265. just this school year alone.

1266. No advertising, no budget for it, nobody out doing outreach.

1267. It just captures the hearts and minds of everybody

1268. who have read this book and seen this movie.

1269. If you're an 80s kid, this is your Graceland.

1270. - That whole experience made me wonder how actors feel

1271. when it comes to props and how they affect their performance

1272. in one way or another.

1273. - What I would rather call it than a prop

1274. would be an activity.

1275. I remember one time I was doing a film with Bob Dylan.

1276. Bob calls me up at 4:00 in the morning and he goes,

1277. "Mickey, I got this big long scene with Jeff Bridges,"

1278. and he goes, "I feel like I should be doing something."

1279. And I said, "Yeah, you could choose an interesting activity.

1280. For instance, while he's talking,

1281. why don't you take a straight razor, turn it upside down

1282. and just be shaving in the mirror?

1283. And that'd give you an activity

1284. to not just be standing there

1285. with your hands in your pocket squeezing your balls."

1286. - Yeah, the audience may not even realize

1287. how important the prop is affecting the most minute moments.

1288. - Who wants a drink here, huh?

1289. Anybody want a drink?

1290. I want a drink.

1291. - The prop thing is something that comes,

1292. I wanna find an interesting activity to do.

1293. I remember one time working

1294. with the best actor I ever worked with.

1295. He had all the dialogue,

1296. and so I need to find myself an activity

1297. while he's got all this chattering.

1298. So I said, okay, I'm playing a role

1299. where the guy is always behind the eight ball with money.

1300. So I thought, I'm gonna do the next take,

1301. and I put a lot of money in my pocket,

1302. and as he's talking and we're walking,

1303. I'm counting the money thinking,

1304. okay, I got 15 large, I can pay this one,

1305. I got, I need another two grand, I need a another,

1306. so the whole scene was really,

1307. the end of the scene, the actor goes,

1308. "God damn, this scene ain't about counting fucking money."

1309. And it was like.

1310. - Sure, maybe that razor blade for Bob Dylan,

1311. or even the wad of money Mickey counted

1312. to help him form the depth of his character on screen

1313. may never be up for auction at the Prop Store,

1314. but even those seemingly innocuous props,

1315. because they are still props, are small pieces of art

1316. that help inform the greater canvas unfolding on screen.

1317. - My name's David Reed James,

1318. and I'm a sculptor for the motion picture industry.

1319. And I've been doing it for more than 25 years now.

1320. I worked on Black Panther, we made Wakanda,

1321. I worked on Avatar.

1322. I've helped design a spaceship for the movie Serenity.

1323. So I've worked on a handful of TV shows too.

1324. I worked on X-Files and Mandalorian.

1325. So this is a prop from National Treasure 2,

1326. part of a Mayan scene.

1327. This skull, we made tons and tons of bones

1328. for Land of the Lost.

1329. - So it doesn't seem odd to you

1330. that people would actually collect and display

1331. and actually trade the props that you make?

1332. - Does it seem odd to me

1333. that people would collect and display the props that I make?

1334. No.

1335. I mean, I think I would be sort of honored

1336. if somebody wants it in their living room

1337. or displayed behind them somehow.

1338. If someone is taking props

1339. that I've had something to do with

1340. and affectionately displaying them, that's wonderful.

1341. - Speaking with David made me want to know more

1342. about the people who make movie props.

1343. That led me here.

1344. - This is the studio, this is the workspace.

1345. - Wow, wow.

1346. - Look at the size.

1347. - My name is Alec Gillis,

1348. and I am the owner of Studio Gillis,

1349. and I'm a creature effects designer.

1350. This is where the magic happens,

1351. and some of the magic is happening right here.

1352. This is John Miller.

1353. - Hey, John. - Hey, John.

1354. - John does our hard surfaces here,

1355. he's a master prop maker.

1356. When a prop collector says,

1357. "I'm interested in the mechanical innards,"

1358. that is a truly appreciative person.

1359. Because what a lot of people don't understand

1360. when they look at effects

1361. is that the exterior cosmetic surfaces are exciting

1362. and they're wonderful,

1363. but there's a lot of work that goes into the engineering

1364. of a sophisticated animatronic.

1365. And for someone to display just an animatronic

1366. in their home, to me,

1367. is a source of pride for me and my team.

1368. - This piece right here, this Goro,

1369. Alec Gillis has PTSD of this.

1370. - Fuck you, Goro.

1371. Yeah, so my company, Amalgamated Dynamics, at the time,

1372. my business partner and I, Tom Woodruff Jr.,

1373. created Goro for Mortal Kombat.

1374. And for us at that time in our career,

1375. it was a plum job to really push some boundaries

1376. and develop some new technology.

1377. It was a very valuable learning experience for me,

1378. but it was also very traumatic

1379. because the producers absolutely hated Goro,

1380. they were really, really,

1381. because it was slowing them down.

1382. At one point when Goro's last shot was done,

1383. one of the producers famously said, "All right, everybody,"

1384. normally you say that's a wrap on this actor

1385. or that effect, or whatever.

1386. He said, "That's a wrap on Goro,

1387. so everybody join with me,"

1388. and he turns and flips a double bird at Goro,

1389. which is, Tom Woodruff is inside that.

1390. But my PTSD was assuaged a bit

1391. when Richard Taylor from Weta said,

1392. "You have no idea how much this character meant

1393. to Peter Jackson and I,

1394. we fast forwarded through everything to the Goro parts."

1395. And I thought, okay, you know what?

1396. It isn't up to other people to define for me

1397. how I feel about my work.

1398. If it's connecting with an audience in some way

1399. as deeply as it has with people, then I call that a success.

1400. - And it's light. - Great.

1401. - See how lightweight it is? - It's very light.

1402. - That's Vacuform pieces.

1403. And then John details,

1404. can I show them some of your beautiful-

1405. - Yeah, please.

1406. - I always break things whenever I pick them up,

1407. don't I, John?

1408. - Yes.

1409. - So this is something that, now these are parts

1410. that you've just found, aren't they?

1411. - So you scavenge real stuff and then they're added to-

1412. - Yes.

1413. Those are pill canisters,

1414. and these are some solar panels.

1415. - I remember years ago working with Jim Cameron,

1416. and he was doing sets then.

1417. And he got old Vacuform Whopper, styrofoam Whopper boxes

1418. and used them for the paneling

1419. of the interior of his spaceship, painted them black,

1420. and they came from Europe, all the way from Europe

1421. to do a watch commercial.

1422. I think Roger Corman made all his money back

1423. just because of James Cameron's genius, yeah.

1424. - That was Galaxy of Terror.

1425. - Oh, yeah, yeah.

1426. - I totally forgot, I worked on that, Robert.

1427. - We worked together?

1428. - Yeah, I totally forgot about it.

1429. - Oh, you were seven years old.

1430. It's that serendipity of a career, Nightmare On Elm Street.

1431. Both the wardrobe and the makeup did evolve.

1432. Originally the makeup was melty,

1433. it looked like melty cheese sandwiches,

1434. melty like flanges of flesh coming off of me.

1435. It was that great classic cover of the shadow.

1436. And he has that fedora on that dips,

1437. I feel like Carly Simon now,

1438. dips strategically below one eye.

1439. But I knew as an actor, the vanity and the tricks

1440. that we actors have, I knew that if I dipped down,

1441. that I could hide behind that rim.

1442. We had a great hat, we had a great fedora.

1443. - Walk me through a prop that you're gonna make

1444. that is screen used in a movie.

1445. - For me, the favorite part of the process

1446. of designing props and creature effects

1447. is in the design itself,

1448. it's in the conceptualization, it's interpreting the script.

1449. I tend to look at characters that are presented on the page

1450. in the way an actor does.

1451. I try to imagine that anything the predator carries,

1452. for instance, weaponry, that that is an extension

1453. of that character.

1454. - Talk about the glove.

1455. How many gloves did you have on set?

1456. - I think for the first film, we had,

1457. well, we had the hero glove,

1458. we had a Mylar glove to catch the light,

1459. and it had Mylar on the blades,

1460. I think, I dunno whether they were cardboard or plastic

1461. or what they were, it was very light.

1462. Then we had a hero glove that was very, very sharp,

1463. so I could cut through scenery and things like that.

1464. - So these are metal?

1465. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1466. Like fish knives that were curved,

1467. and there was one very, very sharp one

1468. that was only used for those, it was,

1469. I think we had one made out of balsa wood

1470. for fight scene,

1471. that way nobody got hurt in the fight scenes

1472. when I was terrorizing the girls or Johnny Depp

1473. or whoever I was after at that moment.

1474. - This is a display piece.

1475. Sometimes we just do display pieces just for the heck of it,

1476. just to show off what we can do,

1477. and this is a fiberglass casting of a like a sci-fi suit,

1478. like a bio-mech warrior suit.

1479. I've taken a head that we made,

1480. here let me just give you a better look at it.

1481. - Holy shit.

1482. - So this is a head that we made for a commercial spot.

1483. - I know it's actually made up.

1484. - And I thought that would make-

1485. - It is a good-looking Michael Vick right there.

1486. - I was looking at this earlier,

1487. and the painting on this is just extraordinary.

1488. - There are so many talented people in this industry,

1489. and in the world,

1490. and so many talented people that I have access to

1491. that I love to work with them and see what they bring to it.

1492. And I'm establishing the parameters of design

1493. and making sure that it fits the story and the utility

1494. of the script.

1495. But not everything we do is cool

1496. and some of it's kind of fun and whimsical.

1497. These are some of the mechanical heads

1498. we did for the Santa Claus series,

1499. if you recall that with Tim Allen.

1500. So these were done some years ago.

1501. And they're all servo animatronic for facial expressions,

1502. they've got about 25 servo motors in each head.

1503. - I love them because they're real.

1504. They're not cartoony, but they're so expressive.

1505. They step over the line.

1506. - Sensitivity in that face.

1507. - Can I touch it?

1508. - Yeah, you can touch that.

1509. Hey. - Oh.

1510. - He's tried that joke three times.

1511. - Prop collectors to me are like museum curators.

1512. Our pieces of art are made out of stuff that falls apart.

1513. So for people to appreciate them enough to buy them,

1514. put them in their homes, refurbish them for the ages,

1515. I just so greatly appreciate that.

1516. - I remember we doing an insert day

1517. and I took the original glove.

1518. I just threw it in my bag, took it.

1519. - Wait, from Part 1?

1520. - From The Wes Craven collected

1521. Nightmare On Elm Street Part 1 original hero glove.

1522. And I gave it to my agent at some point in the next year,

1523. and I had floated it, stuffed it,

1524. and floated it in plexiglass, signed it, and gave it to him.

1525. - If art is, if the purpose of it is to elicit a response,

1526. emotional or intellectual response, we do that in spades.

1527. To me, I don't know what other art form other than film

1528. creates the amount of emotional response, right?

1529. Because it's a combination of arts,

1530. it's music, it's visuals, it's painting, it's sculpting,

1531. it's everything rolled into one.

1532. There's another thing I wanna show you,

1533. we'll go from this cuteness to this.

1534. - Oh.

1535. - This is a skinned rattlesnake,

1536. and we made this for the movie Prey,

1537. and it's an animatronic,

1538. and it was meant to be whether we buried this cable

1539. in the ground so that when it starts moving-

1540. - Oh, there's the puppet.

1541. - You'll never see the cable in the ground.

1542. - Because it's buried.

1543. - But this is a, yeah, it's buried, it's buried.

1544. But this is a two-person job, we need another person.

1545. - So, okay, I'll be the other person.

1546. - Oh, look how happy he is.

1547. - I mean, well, someone's gotta do it.

1548. - This is what you've been waiting for.

1549. Oh, look at it, it's like a rattler, right?

1550. Oh, look at it shake, he can shake the rattle, literally.

1551. You can come in for an insert-

1552. - Oh, there you go, you got it.

1553. Yeah, you know how to rattle.

1554. - You see that rattle?

1555. - You can come in for an insert

1556. and either you put a sound effect with that

1557. and I'm outta my seat.

1558. - That would be great for a billboard

1559. for outside of your sushi restaurant.

1560. - Hey, let's talk about Aliens.

1561. Because it happens to be the most popular collector's item.

1562. Of all movies, I feel like Aliens is right up there.

1563. - It was really a fantastic experience

1564. because I had worked with Jim Cameron

1565. and the Skotak Brothers and Gale Hurd at Roger Corman's.

1566. And now here Jim had taken that same team,

1567. added Stan Winston to the mix, and was working on Aliens

1568. and bringing all that sort of know-how of that group

1569. to that film.

1570. So when I walked on set, Jim turns to me,

1571. he's wearing his Hawaiian print shirt, and he says,

1572. "Hey, who would've thunk it, huh?"

1573. Because five years prior to that,

1574. when we were both had yet to work in the movie business,

1575. we went to see the first Alien together

1576. and little did either of us know that five years later

1577. he'd be making, directing Aliens.

1578. So it was a very magical time.

1579. Nice to have that Aliens as part of my repertoire,

1580. that movie means a lot to a lot of people.

1581. I was primarily responsible, initially,

1582. to sculpt the Facehugger.

1583. I also was in charge of the Bishop effects.

1584. So I designed all of the stuff

1585. and put Lance through that horror

1586. of being split in half by the Queen.

1587. - At the very ending scene, of course.

1588. - Yeah.

1589. - What is that white stuff that comes out?

1590. - I guess maybe now it's a funny story, it wasn't then.

1591. But I had an ice chest full of different dairy products

1592. for the day, and I was keeping them cool

1593. and we were going through,

1594. but you do a lot of takes with James Cameron at the helm,

1595. and, "More, spit more," right?

1596. So I went through it all and I'm trying to,

1597. look, how do we get through the last couple of shots?

1598. The tea trolley, thank God we're shooting in London,

1599. there's a tea trolley, right?

1600. So I'm grabbing creams off of that.

1601. But what I didn't realize was that tea trolley

1602. had been sitting there for many hours.

1603. And so I gave Lance some spoiled cream.

1604. - And I got sick as a dog, man, it was like,

1605. I mean, it hit me really fast.

1606. - And he goes, "Buddy, I don't know what you gave me

1607. but I was up all night puking."

1608. - Oh, no.

1609. - And I was like, oh, I'm gonna get fired.

1610. - And I thought, this ain't bad.

1611. The reason it didn't bother me

1612. is because how would you be feeling

1613. if you were getting ripped into fucking pieces?

1614. - Lance is a phenomenal human being.

1615. He's not only is he a great actor,

1616. I mean, it's evident in everything that he's done,

1617. but he is also a very positive person,

1618. he's very encouraging,

1619. he's very appreciative of our practical effects,

1620. of creature effects, of visual effects,

1621. and he's just always been there for us

1622. with words of kindness and enthusiasm.

1623. - Each of us felt passionate about our roles.

1624. Seriously, I mean, and it was as normal as it,

1625. I never questioned whether I was an Android or synthetic or,

1626. I never questioned it.

1627. I prefer the term artificial person myself.

1628. I remember when Jim wanted me to do the knife trick,

1629. Bill Paxton says, "Do the knife trick, Bishop."

1630. - Do the thing with the knife, come on.

1631. - And I walked away from the set for a minute and I said,

1632. "Jim, wait a minute.

1633. What if he is such a wise

1634. that what if I put my hand on top of his and do it

1635. and scare the out of him?"

1636. So that's what we did.

1637. - I assume that was not a real knife.

1638. - It was a real knife.

1639. - It was a real knife?

1640. - Oh yeah, when I got to London, knowing Jim, I said,

1641. I'm gonna bring every knife I can imagine him

1642. picking for this.

1643. And I did, I brought, like,

1644. I had about 25 knives in my suitcase.

1645. Trust me.

1646. - So this was for Netflix's Bright, right?

1647. The Will Smith, and this is Joel Edgerton

1648. in our orc makeups.

1649. - What was that face?

1650. - It's a human doesn't get any more pancakes.

1651. - And he had to go through two and a half hours

1652. of makeup every day putting this on, yeah.

1653. This little guy is from Jumanji.

1654. This is our display bust of the little boy

1655. who cheats at the game and turns into a little monkey boy.

1656. - Monkey boy. - The original Jumanji.

1657. - Cheats on the game.

1658. - I warned you about this, Peter.

1659. No, you wanted to play the game.

1660. - That's just great because we've only seen children,

1661. as you know, we never really think

1662. of Planet of the Apes children

1663. and we only see children as werewolves,

1664. but monkey boy that's a great makeup.

1665. - And we had to put this on-

1666. - Well, I just love the subtlety around the nose

1667. where it starts to have the simian snout.

1668. - Everybody has a smattering of Monkey Boy, we all do.

1669. - Isn't that the name of your new band?

1670. - Monkey Boy.

1671. - Tonight-

1672. - A smattering.

1673. - A smattering of Monkey Boy.

1674. - Lance and the Monkey Boys.

1675. - Well, I wanted to,

1676. you had asked if there's anything you could put on

1677. - Yeah, any chance I can get.

1678. - These gloves are from a creature we did

1679. for a film recently, and you-

1680. - Do I know the movie?

1681. - It's called Smile.

1682. - Oh, you mean the movie, the horror movie Smile?

1683. - Yeah.

1684. - I just watched it, it was terrifying.

1685. - Yeah, well, these-

1686. - These are the hands of that lady walking down the hall.

1687. - Yeah.

1688. So now can you feel the finger cups?

1689. We have finger cups, this is for a rather large.

1690. - I don't wanna ruin it, I don't wanna-

1691. - You're not gonna ruin it.

1692. - Okay, you sure?

1693. - Here, just-

1694. - I mean, I just watched this movie.

1695. Oh yeah, now I can feel it. - Push it, yeah.

1696. - Hold on.

1697. - Smile and Prey are on 24/7, streaming.

1698. - There we go, okay.

1699. This is so cool because you really,

1700. these are the things I love in the props

1701. we were talking about earlier,

1702. it's not just the outside layer,

1703. it's how it functionally works.

1704. - That's right.

1705. - I just wish I had bigger hands.

1706. - Well, that's what a lot of guys say.

1707. - We did, we did a few things for Cast Away.

1708. We did the dead pilot that Tom Hanks drags ashore,

1709. takes his shoes.

1710. - It is from Cast Away. - Castaway, the pilot.

1711. - Yeah, that's the pilot, yeah,

1712. that washes up on shore. - Oh my gosh.

1713. - Yeah, this is a cool piece.

1714. - Robert Zemeckis wanted a lot of very specific things.

1715. He wanted to be able to uncrunch his rigor mortis fingers

1716. so we had to build an armature inside that.

1717. It had to float in seawater at a very specific depth

1718. so we had a chamber that we could add buoyancy or weight

1719. to get it to float face-down when he rolls it over.

1720. Maybe lastly, we could take a look at,

1721. this is the Wolf Predator, this is what we did for AVPR.

1722. Lance and I worked on the first AVP,

1723. this was the second Alien versus Predator.

1724. And this was the predator who, he's the cleaner.

1725. They call him the Wolf 'cause he's,

1726. it was named after the character,

1727. Harvey Keitel's character in Pulp Fiction.

1728. The guy who's coming down to clean up the mess.

1729. - Yeah, the cleaner.

1730. - Am I the only one getting this?

1731. And I'll ask you if it was part of the inspiration

1732. or concept.

1733. I get Samurai.

1734. - Oh yeah.

1735. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no question.

1736. - Am I right?

1737. - That was part of Stan Winston's original vision

1738. for this character was that he was sort of like

1739. a mix of cultures.

1740. It implies that he's been on the Earth

1741. for hundreds if not thousands of years,

1742. and he's either influenced

1743. or picked up influence from various cultures.

1744. - He's been coming on hunting trips for millennia.

1745. - Yeah.

1746. - So what do you think about these fans

1747. that collect movie props from Nightmare On Elm Street

1748. or any movie you've been on?

1749. - Movie props and memorabilia and posters,

1750. they trigger those great memories

1751. and it helped make me far less apologetic

1752. for the fact that at my old age, that's what I'm gonna,

1753. that's what my obituary's gonna say,

1754. B-movie actor, Robert Englund, who played Freddie Kruger.

1755. I'm happy with that, I'm happy with that.

1756. - Most people who've never seen a Freddie film

1757. still know who Freddie Kruger is.

1758. The same is the case for this smile.

1759. Most of the world doesn't even need to see the full painting

1760. to know it's The Mona Lisa.

1761. Is it any surprise really to see the exponential growth

1762. in popularity behind movie prop collecting

1763. in the last decade?

1764. The human race has been attempting to encapsulate

1765. the growth of our species through arts and letters

1766. so that future generations would know how and why

1767. we have grown, or God forbid, regressed.

1768. So aren't props art

1769. just as much as paintings and sculptures?

1770. What exactly is it that constitutes art?

1771. Okay, guys.

1772. - Good to go.

1773. - I have some news.

1774. Let me start with the bad news.

1775. I lost out on the Wilson head.

1776. - No, no Wilson?

1777. - No Wilson.

1778. - Wilson going for $120,000.

1779. - It went too high and I had to back out.

1780. - How high did it cost?

1781. - Oh gosh, how much did it go for guys?

1782. Like a hundred and, I don't know,

1783. a hundred and something too much.

1784. - Maybe your mom was the secret bidder.

1785. - I am, yeah right.

1786. I am the owner of the Sports Almanac.

1787. - Nice, you got it, good.

1788. - Dad, what?

1789. - The Sports Almanac? - You got it?

1790. - Yeah, I got it.

1791. I am the owner of unexpected last-minute gut decision,

1792. the ghost trap from Part 2 Ghostbusters.

1793. - Oh, no way. - Oh no way, oh wow.

1794. - Cool. - Yeah, very cool.

1795. - What else, what else, what else?

1796. - And then-

1797. - And then what?

1798. - The Holy Grail.

1799. - No way, no, no

1800. - Oh, that's awesome.

1801. - You've chosen wisely. - Thank you.

1802. - Yes.

1803. - As much of a movie nerd as I am,

1804. part of the fun is seeing how non-cinephiles react

1805. to the physical presence of a famed prop.

1806. Would you believe that this being screen used

1807. and being something that was created by somebody for a film

1808. is a form of art?

1809. - My answer would be yes.

1810. I think this is almost an anthropological find.

1811. It would elicit a memory,

1812. it would elicit a fondness of a period of time.

1813. We've always learned to use media to bring people together

1814. and that is so much a shared experience.

1815. Whether it's a comedy farcical movie of Ghostbusters,

1816. objects from a movie

1817. that there is a almost a cult following for,

1818. those things will be treasured.

1819. - I think it's already recognized

1820. as an art form now, frankly.

1821. I think for many, many years I was championing the cause

1822. of this stuff needs to be preserved,

1823. it needs to be recognized.

1824. Who's to say that this item that I have right now

1825. isn't considered the next ruby slippers in 30 years' time?

1826. Then I think it's already transcending

1827. into its own form of art.

1828. - Do you think it's possible that a movie prop

1829. such as the ghost trap from Ghostbusters 2

1830. could ever be displayed and enjoyed in a museum?

1831. - I do, and the reason I think that is the story.

1832. These are emblematic of our childhood,

1833. a part of our shared history and what we love.

1834. So how we make movies and what's in them

1835. and how we value that in America has always been a romance,

1836. it's romanticized for us

1837. and we have made it a very much a romantic part

1838. of our lives.

1839. So I think that if you were to have something like this

1840. that explained what this was for the,

1841. not the Ghostbuster expert,

1842. but for someone who enjoyed the movie growing up

1843. and so forth, I just think that you have something

1844. that is part of somebody else's story,

1845. that's relatable and that meets people where they are.

1846. So, absolutely, I don't know what else you would have,

1847. but it makes a part of your own story

1848. part of something larger,

1849. and I think that's what people like to belong to.

1850. - What Susan said about story and how movies are relatable

1851. and make your own story

1852. feel like it's part of something larger,

1853. something about that just hit home for me.

1854. And people love the movies.

1855. That's the one thing that we talk about.

1856. I always say that I go into a art gallery in New York

1857. and I'll see an abstract piece of art on the wall,

1858. and it's worth a million dollars.

1859. There's a finite amount of people

1860. who know who that artist is,

1861. or even care about the painting,

1862. yet it's worth a million dollars.

1863. I can walk around the globe with Indiana Jones's whip,

1864. and half the globe

1865. is gonna be able to identify it immediately.

1866. And most people when they see Indiana Jones's whip,

1867. it evokes an emotion of fun, happiness, good memories.

1868. And that's the one thing about the movies that are so great.

1869. - I think really, it's something tangible from the movie,

1870. something you can touch and hold and feel

1871. and then look at the screen and there it is.

1872. And that's the connection, that's the magic connection.

1873. - You don't have to be an encyclopedia

1874. of movie knowledge to feel that sentiment,

1875. that need for connection, belonging.

1876. - Cast Away.

1877. - Everyone has some connection to the magic of movies.

1878. Whether it was because of someone they watched it with,

1879. that snapshot of time in their lives,

1880. or because the story spoke to them.

1881. We all just want that emotional connection

1882. that makes us feel a part of,

1883. and that's something for everyone.

1884. Okay, tell me your name.

1885. - Alistair.

1886. - Alistair.

1887. - Well, the middle name is Blake, named after Blake's 7,

1888. which was broadcast between 1978 and 1981,

1889. and I was born during the show's second season

1890. being broadcast.

1891. And my eight year-old brother said,

1892. "Can you name his baby brother after his favorite program?"

1893. Which also gave me the initials ABC,

1894. which I have on my number plate.

1895. I may or may not be back on Saturday to make a bid.

1896. - Okay, you're gonna make a bid on something.

1897. - Assuming it's going to be in the hundreds,

1898. not the thousands, I only earn £7 an hour.

1899. I have money to spare because I still live at home.

1900. I live in a rich area

1901. where I don't have a hope of moving out

1902. and getting my own place.

1903. I've never dated and I don't have children.

1904. - How did this all come about?

1905. How do you even know about it?

1906. - In the last seven days,

1907. I must have seen something about an auction coming up.

1908. I was named after something that is lesser known,

1909. which normally translates into,

1910. it's gonna cost hundreds rather than thousands

1911. and tens of thousands.

1912. So I thought I'd better look it up and show an interest.

1913. - Is it a secret on what you're bidding or can you tell us?

1914. - It's, I think it's called a technical drawing

1915. of the Liberator from Blake's 7.

1916. - Why that movie?

1917. Why come here and bid on that piece

1918. if you've never bid in this auction before?

1919. - If it's a program I'm named after,

1920. I would love something from behind the scenes.

1921. It's not a program like Dr. Who that's been recommissioned

1922. and it's gone big again

1923. and it's still going relatively strong 20 years later.

1924. - So what do you think so far of the auction?

1925. - It's amazing.

1926. I've never been in a group before

1927. where something sold for 60,000 plus 25%.

1928. - What has surprised you the most about your afternoon here

1929. at the Prop Store auction?

1930. - The respect I'm being shown by all concerned

1931. and the camera in front of me.

1932. - It's the power of film that makes every one of us

1933. want to have just one tiny piece of it, not just the memory,

1934. but something tangible we can always hold dear.

1935. - I love Raiders of the Lost Ark, as a screenwriter

1936. and as a serious cinephile, The Last Crusade

1937. is the one that holds the emotional pole for me

1938. because that was the first one I got to see

1939. in the movie theater.

1940. - So I own the whip from Part 2.

1941. - Fantastic.

1942. - And then the Holy Grail from Part 3.

1943. - Oh, did you just get that?

1944. - Just got it. - That was mine.

1945. - Oh, no.

1946. No way. - Yeah.

1947. - That's hilarious.

1948. - Yeah, yeah, congratulations, it's an incredible piece.

1949. - I mean- - Yeah, there you go.

1950. - Oh, God

1951. The Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

1952. It's an amazing community where everyone and anyone

1953. is welcome from all walks of life.

1954. The only requirement, fandom.

1955. - You can try if you want it, eh?

1956. - Oh, come on. - Yeah, go ahead.

1957. - I'm gonna put it on if you let me.

1958. - Yeah, yeah, go, go.

1959. - Sir, he's over here.

1960. - Arts bring people together

1961. and especially if they have an appreciation

1962. of what goes into the arts, then they share that,

1963. so the movies keep getting better and better.

1964. We took our kids to the operas, the ballet,

1965. but it's all art and it's all beautiful.

1966. It all expresses so many of man's feelings

1967. and their goodness and their badness.

1968. It's a wonderful thing to share with your family.

1969. - The world of movies,

1970. whether you're in that world or just a fan,

1971. it's an art that is almost fully universally loved.

1972. How do I look?

1973. It brings people together,

1974. it bonds us far more than it divides, it's all inclusive,

1975. something for everyone, whether moving or infuriating,

1976. dystopian or inspiring, bitingly funny or just plain goofy,

1977. there is something for everyone.

1978. That is incredible.

1979. - Yeah.

1980. - And while physically owning a prop from a movie

1981. isn't for everyone,

1982. there's one thing I can almost guarantee,

1983. everybody loves a good movie.

1984. - I love movies that are,

1985. oh, cut, that was bad.

1986. - You can't say cut.

1987. - Oh, look at that fucker,

1988. I look like one of the presidents.

1989. - No, this is where you're looking at me.

1990. - Oh, you're a fucking funny guy, man.

1991. You're you're gonna make faces behind me.

1992. - The whole time.

1993. - I look too perfect.

1994. - Okay, please introduce yourself.

1995. - Hi, I'm Lance Henriksen.

1996. - So this is the Bible from The Shawshank Redemption.

1997. - I mean at the time,

1998. I didn't know this was a one of a kind prop.

1999. Turns out this was the only one made for the movie.

2000. But when this came to us, we didn't know that.

2001. San Diego Comic-Con a few years ago

2002. actually spoke to Frank Darabont about it

2003. and he went for the whole story

2004. of how the prop man really struggled to make this cut-out.

2005. You can see the level of work in there.

2006. It took so long to do that I just think the guy just said-

2007. - Said that's it,

2008. we'll just get one. - We'll just get one.

2009. You get, yeah, Look after it.

2010. - Here we are in Lyon, France,

2011. where we're gonna go see the museum

2012. de cinema and a miniature, I gotta get that right.

2013. Lemme try that again.

2014. Here we are in Lyon, France,

2015. where we're gonna go check out the museum de.

2016. Where we're gonna go check out

2017. the museo de cinema and miniature.

2018. - You said museo again.

2019. - What is it?

2020. - Musee. - Musee?

2021. - Musee.

2022. - Why don't I just say museum?

2023. - 'Cause it's not called that.

2024. - Musee.

2025. And we're gonna go check out

2026. the museo de cinema and miniature.

2027. They have a treasure trove of awesome screen used props,

2028. and in addition, they have these miniature movie props

2029. that we also get to see.

2030. Ah, that sucked.

2031. Stupid acting.

2032. We met a guy by the name of Sean Lesperanza.

2033. We have now, Lesponera, Lesponera.

2034. Here we are in West Sussex, England,

2035. going to go see the-

2036. - What is that?

2037. - And we're here to see the collection of Sean Lesperara.

2038. Les, what is it?

2039. - Lesponera. - Yeah, Lesponera.

2040. - Okay, oh wow.

2041. - That's one of the heavy ones that-

2042. - Oh my gosh, this is super heavy.

2043. - So apparently they make it heavy so that the wind-

2044. - Hey, Juan, get over here, let me try this out on you.

2045. Put your hand out.

2046. - Say that one more time.

2047. - I said, Juan, get over here so I can try this out on you.

2048. Put your hand down right here and we'll test this out.

2049. Here we go.

2050. - That's the foam one, right?

2051. - I mean, this would crush your hand.

2052. - I've had to justify large purchases with my wife.

2053. It's sometimes you have to sit down and make a decision

2054. that I wanna buy this thing.

2055. And she'll say, "Why do you wanna buy this thing?"

2056. And it's 'cause I want it.

2057. I want it, I want it, I love it, I want it,

2058. and there's no other way to say it.

2059. - Welcome to San Marcos.

2060. I got the sand thing in my head.

2061. Try it again.

2062. And we're here to see some movie props

2063. that supposedly prove that everything is bigger than Texas.

2064. - Bigger in Texas.

2065. - What did I say?

2066. - Bigger than Texas.

2067. - Bigger in Texas.

2068. We're in San Marcos right outside of Austin.

2069. And we, ah, doing it again.

2070. Oh, no way.

2071. - Oh, my God.

2072. - Oh, no way.

2073. Oh, no way.

2074. - Whoa. - Oh, no way.

2075. - Oh, my God.

2076. - Oh, no way.

2077. Oh, no way, Ghostbusters.

2078. Oh, awesome.

2079. - Love that guy.

2080. - No way, what's that guy's name?

2081. Oh, no way.

2082. Oh my gosh.

2083. Oh my gosh, look at all this stuff.

2084. Oh my gosh, look at all this stuff in here.

2085. Very neat, okay, we're ooh, Jurassic Park.

2086. - And fuck Mad Props.