The Most Obviously Reused Movie Props
Making a movie is hard — not just the metaphorical work of writing a script and performing a character, but literally building the world of the film. And what with the rising costs of CGI, big name movie stars and blackmailers these days, studios trim the budget wherever they can. That often means reusing chunks of other movies, even if they’re instantly recognizable. Like…
The Golden Idol From ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’
The “Chachapoyan Fertility Idol” is at the center of one of the most iconic action sequences of all time, so you’d think filmmakers would know it’s a little distracting to see it pop up somewhere Indy could never reach. It’s a fun allusion to Harrison Ford in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Andor, but it’s shown up everywhere from The Majestic to Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams. It’s even in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It’s a veritable orgy of fandom crossover.
A Certain Set of Tools
Depending on your particular brand of weird, there’s a very good chance you recognized the terrifying surgical tools used on the Joker in 1989’s Batman. If you’re a musical theater nerd who also appreciates plant-based monsters and medical trauma, you might know them as the tools used by Steve Martin’s dentist character in Little Shop of Horrors, but if you’re somehow more serious about your nightmares, you might know them as Jeremy Iron’s gynecological tools in Dead Ringers. To be fair, it’s a nifty set of tools — they all look like they should absolutely not be used for any of those specialties.
The Newspaper Used in Every Movie
Every movie or TV character seen eating breakfast between approximately 1983 and and 2005 was legally required to be reading a newspaper, but it’s not like they were going to print a bespoke publication every time. They also couldn’t just pick one up from the corner store, or there would be all kinds of nasty copyright issues. That’s why the same fake newspaper has been used everywhere from Oscar winners to sitcoms, seen in movies like No Country for Old Men, Back to the Future, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and 10 Things I Hate About You and sitcoms like Modern Family, Desperate Housewives, Scrubs and Married… With Children. It’s recognizable by the headshot of a dark-haired woman described by the accompanying headline as “3rd Brightest But Hard Gal to See,” who really deserves her own movie. What’s her story?
The Go-To Fancy Dining Chairs
These days, furniture is only built to last approximately two apartment moves, which is why it’s so impressive that the same set of ornate velvet dining chairs has not only survived since at least 1946, they’ve been working that whole time. They first appeared in the Vincent Price movie Dragonwyck and went on to be seen in Young Frankenstein, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Crimson Peak. Most actors would kill for that kind of resume.
Chucky’s Eyes
Part of what makes the Crypt Keeper of TV’s Tales from the Crypt so scary are his haunting blues eyes, perfectly preserved in an otherwise desiccated corpse, but it turns out there’s a reason they look so haunted. The creature was designed by Kevin Yagher, who also designed Chucky of the Child’s Play movies, and when it came time to fill the Crypt Keeper’s orbital sockets, he simply plucked the eyes from one of the hundreds of Chucky dolls we assume are kept in an all-too-easily discoverable room in Universal Studios. Good luck ever unseeing that.
