Prop Switches in Movies!

[ob1al]

I thought that this might be an amusing thread.

Very often, in many beloved films, a prop can look quite different in one scene to the next. Take the Golden Idol in Raiders, for instance. Glass eyes one moment, gone the next.

Here's another old favourite:

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

Edward van Sloan is giving a lecture using a "normal" and "abnormal" brain to demonstrate a point. When Fritz steals the brain, the label has changed dramatically to emphasise the NORMAL and ABNORMAL aspect:

Before:

After:

They clearly made another, bigger handwritten label and glued it over the first typed one. I guess James Whale wanted to get the point home, huh?:lol

What other movies have you spotted discrepencies in?

 

[Zombie Killer]

The classic is Commando when the Porsche 911 has the left side wiped out then he tips it over and drives away in a mint 911. We won't talk about him jumping from the jet.....

 

[micdavis]

Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) drives a '55 Chevy in America Graphitti.

But when he crashes, it's a '56.

 

[Serenity]

Off the top of my head, I would say National Treasure 2 and the President's Book pages. It frustrated me when I was making it, because it had one version of a certain page, then during a close-up, it changed (presumably to make it easier to read).

 

[dbuck]

The '70 Challenger becoming a '67 Camaro at the end of Vanishing Point. (1971)

 

[ob1al]

Another Indy one; Indiana's revolver briefly changing from a Smith and Wesson to a Browning HP semi-automatic pistol in the Raven bar fight.

 

[SgtFang]

Solo hero blaster to Greedo killer and back again.

-Sarge

 

[DarkHelmet]

I always considered the Idol eye discrepancy as more of a dramatic subliminal thing instead of a simple replacement for other reasons.

 

[ob1al]

That's true - it still counts as a switch though! To the eagle-eyed viewer (or collector/replicator), it's a different prop.

There must be tons and tons with cigarrettes and drinks changing size/level. But I guess that's continuity rather then "props", per se.

 

[Capt MarVell]

Beverly Hills Cop II - gunmen leave in a newer black Camaro, but it's a much older model with different body-style, but with similar style accessories, when it arrives at its destination.

 

[Zombie_61]

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (yeah, I know). During the duel between Darth Sidious and Mace Windu, Sidious' lightsaber changes; one moment he's using his own lightsaber, the next he's using Anakin's.

Not a movie, but years ago I was watching a rerun of Get Smart (couldn't tell you which episode). Max and 99 get into a firefight with "the bad guys". 99 reaches into her purse and pulls out a bright red snub-nose revolver; cut to the bad guys shooting back; cut back to 99 and she's holding a black snub-nose revolver; cut to the bad guys shooting back; cut to 99 and she's holding the red one again. :rolleyes

 

[Mike Rush]

Didn't Thade switch guns at the end of Planet of the Apes?

(Funny how this thread comes down to mostly cars and guns!) :rolleyes

 

[Jedi2016]

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (yeah, I know). During the duel between Darth Sidious and Mace Windu, Sidious' lightsaber changes; one moment he's using his own lightsaber, the next he's using Anakin's.

That was due to cuts, if I remember correctly.. Anakin showed up at a different point in the fight, and Sidious was actually using Anakin's saber for some of it. Then they re-cut it all, but didn't bother fixing which prop he was holding.

Same thing happens at the end of the film, too.. there was a short sequence cut from the end fight where the two of them switch sabers.. Anakin's fighting with Obi-Wan's saber, and vice versa. They cut out the part where they switch weapons, but there's still one or two shots where each of them is holding the other one.

Those weren't really "prop switches" per se, but they probably still count, simply because the audience (at least the prop-crazy folks like us) notice it.

 

[blownhemi]

The '70 Challenger becoming a '67 Camaro at the end of Vanishing Point. (1971)

This was the first one I thought of, too. :thumbsup

 

[Lost in Trek]

Star Trek :TMP - Spock and McCoy have switched landing party jackets. (Actually Nimoy and Kelly did this on purpose. They knew it would drive the die hard fans nuts)

 

[Contec]

Edward van Sloan is giving a lecture using a "normal" and "abnormal" brain to demonstrate a point. When Fritz steals the brain, the label has changed dramatically to emphasise the NORMAL and ABNORMAL aspect:

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck's?
Igor: [pause, then] No.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I DID put in?
Igor: Then you won't be angry?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby Someone.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Abby Someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Abby Normal?
Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA? :lol
?

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Another Indy one; Indiana's revolver briefly changing from a Smith and Wesson to a Browning HP semi-automatic pistol in the Raven bar fight.

You see him fire it and then in the next scene you see his revolver has run out and he reaches for the automatic tucked in his belt and starts shooting with it.

 

[ob1al]

I can't watch the scene in the 1931 version without thinking of Gene Wilder. I love Young Frankenstein!:lol

 

[Cenobyte]

In Forrest Gump, the iron in Jenny's apartment in one scene is face down on the ironing board, a few seconds later it is sitting up again, yet she did not move it.

 

[dbuck]

In Forrest Gump, the iron in Jenny's apartment in one scene is face down on the ironing board, a few seconds later it is sitting up again, yet she did not move it.

Yeah, but that's a continuity error, not an actual change in the prop itself.

Now, if the iron was blue, and then in the next scene it was green......