A lot of time and effort goes into filming a movie, which includes making the props for movies. And after the filming is done, something has to be done with the props. But where do the props go after their job is done? Well, let’s take a look at a few infamous movie props that had surprising endings.
The Death Star fromStar Wars
To everyone’s surprise, not many movie props were kept from the originalStar Warsfilm — basically, anything that wasn’t taken by crew members was just thrown out. This included the lightsaber, which only cost about $12 to make. Fortunately, an employee, names Doug W., that worked at the storage facility the props were kept at got his hands on the Death Star model. In 1988, the Death Star model ended up in Doug’s mom’s antique shop, where it caught the eye of Todd Franklin. Unfortunately, Todd took too long checking to see if the Death Star was, in fact,theDeath Star and it was bought by the owner of a country music venue. The music venue, appropriately names Star World, became home to the Death Star until 1993 when it went out of business. Todd came back for the Death Star and eventually sold it to another collector, Gus Lopez, who still owns it today.
One of the Sharks fromJaws
Most of the props for movies are loved and valued. But the Sharks fromJawswere so terrible that they were destroyed immediately after filming was complete. But not Junkyard Bruce — who is the fourth shark that was not made as one of the film props, but rather to serve as a prop for Universal Studio tours. In 1990, Junkyard Bruce was sold to Sam Adlen, who was, you guessed it, a junkyard owner. Adlen refused to sell the shark, only to part with it after his death. Bruce now belongs to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Puppets fromRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Mostly everyone has seen the famousRudolph the Red-Nosed ReindeerTV special — you know, the one with the cute puppets? Well, those puppets spent more than 40 years as children’s’ toys instead of being valuable props for films. After the special was done being filmed, the puppets were given to an employee’s children, since no one could have predicted that the special would become a fan-favorite. And after 40 years of being treated like any other toy, the nephew of the employee sold them to a toy store owner so they could be restored to their former glory.
Props for movies are generally treated with the respect they deserve, especially the expensive ones. But these props weren’t as fortunate and had quite the adventure after their filming role was complete.