Most of the movies we see in theaters have multi-million dollar budgets, but the ones that don’t need to get a little more creative to make a small budget stretch. At some point, movie crews figured out that a little bit of silver paint goes a long way to make a really convincing movie prop.
Over on r/thatsabooklight, people share all the times they saw a movie and noticed something on screen was definitely just a household item. Many of the props on the subreddit are noticed on the Star Wars movies, as the older films were made with an extremely limited budget.
It turns out making a movie is a lot more realistic than you might have originally thought.
1. “In an episode of Mutant X, Jesse uses a familiar looking “device.” It looks like a high tech gadget with buttons, but I recognized it as this old school eyeshadow compact.”
2. Star wars: The Empire strikes back (1980) the snow speeder pilot straps have bubble wrap on them.
3. In Netflix’s Lost in Space [2019] the military crew members wear a $65 foam Airsoft vest.
4. Tiny knife detail from a costume in The Mandalorian.
5. The guards in Total Recall (1990) had fancy scifi wrist computers that were just calculators.
6. The mask used for Halloween (1978) was a William Shatner mask that was painted white.
7. In Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, a fighter carries a completely undecorated Hamilton Beach Ice Cream Maker. This previously unnamed character has spawned a cult following, leading to books, comics, and fan lore.
8. Batman’s boots in Batman Returns are just Air Jordan 6s with an extended top and foam glued on. The sole even still has the Jordan logo.
9. The Spy Next Door (2010) Jackie Chan uses a Dymo LetraTag handheld label maker to program a satellite.
10. This transmitter that cracks access codes in Resident Evil (2002) is a glucose meter with an antenna.
11. In the end credit scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, Taneleer Tivan (The Collector) drinks his martini from an Alessi ‘Big Love’ ice cream bowl.
12. One of young Anakin’s tools is a silver-painted dog toy that I own.
13. Cosplayers, take note.
14. Watchmens (TV) interrogation chamber remote is a Dyson Fan controller.
15. That’s an echo mic. Silver paint is so useful.
16. A mining charge in The Expanse is just a small camping lantern on a tripod.
17. The automated trash bin in Firefly runs Windows 2000.
18. On the show Monk, Episode: Mr. Monk and the Big Reward, they said this was a voice stress analyzer. It’s actually a PSP.
19. The “GPS transponders” carried by Faraday and his science team on Lost are multi-function emergency car tools.
20. In the Phantom Menace a plastic Lacrosse scoop is used for decoration.
