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
00:46James Cameron's 1994 action comedy classic True Lies memorably concludes with Arnie saving the day
00:53in a US Marine AV-AB2 Harrier jet, which he uses to rescue his daughter and literally fire the
01:00terrorist antagonist to his doom. The jet prop reportedly sat in a desert garage for almost 20
01:06years before reappearing in 2012's The Avengers, briefly visible in the helicarrier when the Hulk
01:13is battling Thor. Thor ends up knocking the big green guy into it with his hammer, prompting him to
01:18rip one of the wings off and hurl it at the Asgardian. Joss Whedon confirmed on The Avengers
01:23Blu-ray release that the prop was the very same, albeit given a makeover by his production team and
01:28slapped with the shield insignia. And the story doesn't end there. A group of collectors then
01:32brought the smashed up remains of the Harrier and spent two years restoring it. Now it's a tourist
01:37attraction with one side restored to its True Lies glory and the others the Avengers.
01:429. 2001 A Space Odyssey's EVA pod, Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace
01:48If you've ever seen Stanley Kubrick's magnificent 2001 A Space Odyssey, you quite probably remember
01:54the distinctive 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 about all
02:04the movie's props being destroyed at the end of production, to ensure that no future projects could
02:09repurpose the materials for their own means. But someone clearly didn't get that memo, or did and
02:15just ignored it, as the EVA pod makes a cameo appearance in the junkyard in Star Wars Episode I,
02:21The 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
02:32that was The Phantom Menace, we'll sadly never know.
02:358. 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. However,
03:00Brad Pitt ultimately convinced the producers not to show the prop to the audience, arguing that the
03:05implication was far more effective, and he was surely right. So whatever happened to that fake
03:11severed head? Well, over 15 years later, Gwyneth's fake noggin was dusted off for Steven Soderbergh's
03:17outstanding 2011 thriller, Contagion. Paltrow's character dies in one of the film's very first
03:23scenes, and her replica head was put to use in an extremely graphic autopsy sequence where her
03:28character's scalp is peeled backwards. The thought of this prop just sitting around in a studio vault
03:33somewhere for so long is both hilarious, but also really, really terrifying.
03:387. 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 the
03:52Crazy 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
04:08to use in his film. Now the story gets even cooler, because on the Sin City DVD, Frank Miller stated that
04:14he personally retconned Miho's swords to have been created by Kill Bill's legendary swordsmith,
04:19Hattori Hanzo. How cool is that?
04:216. 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
04:36Painless, into 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, where Arnie
04:45disables an entire fleet of cops, but doesn't kill anyone, by firing a minigun at them. And because
04:51these scenes just aren't awesome enough on their own, they both in fact share the same minigun prop.
04:57Stenbridge Gun Rentals supplied the weapons for both movies and confirmed that it was indeed the
05:01very same minigun in both films. For T2 though, they modified the minigun slightly, removing the
05:07foregrip, and just rearranging the carry handle.
05:105. 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
05:28the creation 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 or
05:39want to show a character reading one, because as a fabricated prop full of fake news, it means that
05:44the film's prop department doesn't need to go through the tedious legal clearances necessary to
05:48feature a real news rag. You can find the paper in countless films, including the Texas Chainsaw
05:53Massacre remake and No Country for Old Men. Not to mention Back to the Future, Casper, 10 Things I Hate
05:58About You and literally dozens of TV series. The newspaper picked up a mainstream media coverage
06:03in 2010 when fans started to notice its ubiquity across Hollywood, so it's perhaps no coincidence
06:08that we've seen a lot less of the common prop in recent years. Hopefully the Earl Hayes Press
06:13aren't feeling the pinch too much though.
06:154. Die Hard's Teddy Bear
06:17The 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 brown
06:28teddy bear with a distinctive red ribbon tied around its neck, which he intends to give to
06:32his 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 tied
06:46around its neck. If these films weren't from the same director, you'd be forgiven for thinking
06:50it was just a coincidence, but seeing as they are, there's no way this wasn't an intentional
06:54easter egg.
06:553. Alien's Repurposed Coffee Grinder Back to the Future
06:58This is absolutely a case where the subsequent use of a prop completely outshone its original
07:04cinematic utility. Now, you probably remember that Back to the Future ends with the shameless
07:08sequel bait of Doc returning from the future to warn Marty and Jennifer about their troubled
07:12future kids. You might also remember that Doc has to insert some food scraps into a device
07:19called the Mr. Fusion Generator in order to power the new and improved Lorian. However,
07:23you might not have noticed that this is not the first time we've seen this device, albeit
07:28under a different name and purpose. It first appeared in the original Alien film as a coffee
07:33grinder. Talk about stepping up your roles going from coffee grinder to fusion reactor.
07:382. 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. For reasons that still aren't quite clear, Myers wore an Austin Powers wig while
07:56rehearsing for the role, and that wig ended up having a most unexpected second life a few
08:00years later. Steven Soderbergh's 2001 Ocean's Eleven remake features a memorable beat where
08:07Rusty disguises himself as a doctor, and in an attempt to seem more doctor-y, he dons a pair
08:12of fake specks and covers his frosted hair with a boring-looking wig. And that is the very
08:16same wig that Myers rehearsed in for Austin Powers.
08:191. The 2GAT123 License Plate
08:23And now we come to another prop that's been a Hollywood mainstay for decades, much like
08:27the aforementioned newspaper. This time though, it's a California car license plate of 2GAT123,
08:34which has been featured in Beverly Hills Cop 2, Go!, as well as Training Day, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,
08:39Role Models, Pay It 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 to use
08:55it without unwittingly identifying any vehicle or person driving around in the real world.
09:00Because the human brain isn't as drawn to strings of letters and numbers as it is a human face,
09:05it's safe to say that this recycled prop has flown under the radar a little more easily than that
09:09pesky newspaper has.
Comments