Hollywood’s holy grail: Props from ‘Indiana Jones,’Pulp Fiction’ are now luxury collectibles
Prop culture is finally having its moment.
Just a few decades ago, key items from even such legendary movies as “Star Wars” were often thrown aside or tucked into someone’s pockets after filming wrapped.
But the new documentary “Mad Props” follows Tom Biolchini, a banker from Tulsa, Oklahoma, as he scours the world for the coolest authenticated props and advocates for them to be viewed as luxury collectibles.
“Back in the day, the studio would say something like, ‘Oh that Darth Vader outfit, maybe we can use it another time’ [and keep it in a store room],” Biolchini told The Post. “They didn’t see these timeless props as something needing curating.”
But the documentary, streaming on Prime starting March 25, features plenty of people who do see it that way — including “Alien” star Lance Henriksen, Robert Englund, who played Freddie Kreuger, and Mickey Rourke, who refers to props as “activities” to enhance his performance in movies like “The Wrestler” and “The Palace.”
“Some people invest in art or sports car that appreciate over time. This is no different,” said Biolchini, adding he’s spent around $250,000 building up his collection over the past two decades. Now, he estimates, it’s worth twice as much.
He also said there is hot competition outside of Hollywood.
“I lose 90% of auctions because I’m bidding against people all over the world,” said Biolchini, who displays his winnings at his offices at VAST Bank in Tulsa. “But I love the [prop] I have and I consider them a true art form. Some of the most expensive and revered works of art hang in museums and not everyone would even recognize them [outside of the museum]. But if I were to travel the world with Indiana Jones’ whip, more than half the people would know it.”
Here are five of the most coveted items from “Mad Props.”
The Holy Grail from ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’
Biolchini chose as “wisely” as Indiana Jones himself when he picked up the Holy Grail from 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” at auction for $80,000.
In the movie, Jones, played by Harrison Ford, accompanies his Grail-hunter father, Henry (Sean Connery) to a temple containing the cup, which is said to grant supernatural powers and heal injuries.
The race to find it becomes even more vital once Henry is gravely wounded by a rival. Faced with a room filled with the real thing and a bunch of lookalikes, Indy and the Nazi-affiliated villiain, Walter Donovan (Julian Glover), each grab a vessel — and meet very different ends.
“It’s such a pivotal scene,” Biolchini says. “The bad guy picked the wrong cup and died but Indy chose the right one.”
Ball gag from ‘Pulp Fiction’
The now-infamous “get the gimp” scene in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” from 1994 is still a shocker: Boxer Butch, played by Bruce Willis, awakens in a pawnshop basement next to his crime boss enemy Marsellus (Ving Rhames) — and they’re both tied to chairs and retrained with red ball gags in their mouths.
Just as the pawnshop owner and his security-guard cousin take Marsellus to another room to rape him, Butch knocks out their leather-clad servant — known only as the gimp and dressed in head-to-toe bondage wear — with a single punch.
“It was a disturbing and awful scene,” Biolchini said. “But it’s funny and memorable movie at the same time.”
He bought the ball gag for just $1,000 five years ago but predicts he could get about $25,000 for it today.
Ghost trap from ‘Ghostbusters II’
Dan Aykroyd was famously inspired by his great-grandfather, a spiritualist, and his grandfather — who experimented with radios to contact the dead — when he dreamed up what would become the iconic “Ghostbusters” franchise in 1984.
Along with their proton backpacks and their vehicle, the Ectomobile, ghostbusters Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis used a “ghost trap” to land their spectral prey.
“It looks like a shoebox and also something like you’d see on a construction site — complete with the hazard stripes. I had to have it because it is just so key to the whole ‘Ghostbusters’ canon,” said Biolchini, who snapped up this piece from the 1989 sequel for $40,000.
‘Spaceballs’ soldier suit
Like with many of Biolchini’s Hollywood treasures, his desire to own a trooper outfit from Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs” was driven by nostalgia — it was one of his favorite movies from childhood.
The1987 “Star Wars” parody starred Bill Pullman and John Candy and also featured Rick Moranis as a nerdy Darth Vader type, known as Dark Helmet, who had white-suited troopers called “Ping-pongs” at his disposal.
Biolchini snapped up one of their suits for $500.
Brooks played President Skrroob as well as the wise, Yoda-esque Yogurt, who teaches Lone Starr (Pullman) about the mystical supernatural power called “The Schwartz.”
“Who can forget the line, ‘Your schwartz is a big as mine‘?” Biolchini said. “My friends and I loved all those lines.”
Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s jacket from ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’
Talk about hell for leather. This biker jacket looks like it’s been to hades and back.
It’s the one worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the second installment of James Cameron’s “Transformer” franchise, as he plays an AI cyborg sent back in time to 1995 to prevent the future leader of the human resistance from being killed as a child.
Schwarzeneggar’s T-800 character demands the jacket from a biker with the line: “I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.”
He later protects a young John Connor by taking machine gun fire in the back, riddling the garment with holes — all still visible.
“All those great lines and that amazing jacket, I had to have it,” Biolchini said.
The distressed look cost him a pretty penny: $22,500.
