It’s the actors, the iconic scenes, and the one-liners that everyone usually remembers years after a movie’s release date, but maybe it’s time we gave the props some love, too?

We don’t have time to run through Thrillist and their entire list of the 100 greatest movie props of all time, so we’re going to pluck five and let you dig for the rest.

I’d like to take this moment to say these props aren’t always in quality movies, which is obvious from our first pick:

The hockey stick putter, Happy Gilmore (1996)

Perry Blake, co-production designer: “It was a totally fabricated prop. We started with the hockey stick, in terms of the size of it. The bottom part was, more or less, like a hockey stick, but we also wanted to make it flat and smooth. As far as I know, there wasn’t anything like this that existed — it’s not like you could go online and buy them, and I don’t remember anybody having them.

“…Adam is very involved in his movies, so he was testing them out and looking at them and deciding which one he liked best. We wanted to have one ‘prove-it’ shot that was like a 25ft putt, one where Adam actually made it. So the putter actually had to work.

“I remember the day we were shooting that scene, it was basically like, OK, we’re just gonna sit here, and Adam’s gonna shoot the ball from way back there until he makes it in. Everyone was betting on how many it would be: Is it gonna take him more than five shots? Is it gonna take him 10 shots? Finally, when he made it in, everybody went crazy. It was a lot of fun.”

Adam Sandler hey, there’s a guy who knows how to make money off some utterly atrocious movies.

Next – The plastic bag, American Beauty (1999)

Lynda Reiss, property master: “It was a very low-budget movie. A tiny budget, and I had a tiny portion of the tiny budget. When I talked to Sam [Mendes, director] about the shopping bag, he was very specific about it not having markings on it. No store name, no ‘thank you, have a nice day’ — he wanted a plain, white plastic bag.

…I made calls to various manufacturers but the only way I could get one unmarked plastic bag was to buy 5,000 unmarked plastic bags. Even though it didn’t seem like a lot at the time, it was still in the range of $500. Which with my $17,000 budget or about that, I couldn’t afford it.

…Towards the end of my prep, my assistant and I were in downtown LA and we’re buying all sorts of stuff from all sorts of stores for all the characters. We came back to my house, and we’re unloading my car, and we’re piling all these bags on to the table, and right in the middle of the pile, is this white plastic bag with no markings. And I’m like, THAT’S THE BAG. We didn’t know where it came from — we’d been to 55 different places. The receipts just say ‘item number whatever.’ I have no idea where that bag came from, but it came to me. It came from the prop gods who knew I’d never find one otherwise.”

The props god giveth, and the prop gods taketh away.

This next one is a favourite: The giant joint, Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978)

Tommy Chong, actor (Anthony Stoner): “The Paramount props department on Up in Smoke came up with that humongous joint. It was like tissue paper, only a little heavier. [It smoked] pretty horrible. We weren’t using real weed, we were using an herbal mixture and it wasn’t that tasty. They put a periscope through the windshield, so [the stunt driver] could see where they were going. But it looks like the car is filled with smoke. That wasn’t Cheech and Chong, for sure.

When it gets that smoky, I’m usually stopped somewhere. That big joint was like our trademark, and it still is. We’ve been on the road for years and especially since weed has been legalized [sic], we have fans coming up and presenting us with giant joints all the time. And we accept them, too.”

Of course they do.

Number four – The cup of water, Jurassic Park (1993)

Michael Lantieri, special effects designer (in the Jurassic Park feature Making Prehistory): “I was at work and Steven [Spielberg] calls into the office. He goes, ‘I’m in the car, I’m playing Earth, Wind & Fire, and my mirror is shaking. That’s what we need to do. I want to shake the mirror and I want to do something with the water.’ The mirror shaking was really very easy — put a little vibrating motor in it that shook it. The water was a another story. It was very difficult thing to do. You couldn’t do it. I had everyone working on it. Finally, messing around with a guitar one night, I set a glass and started playing notes on a guitar and got to a right frequency, a right note, and it did exactly what I wanted it to do.”

At least he didn’t strum Wonderwall.

And finally, for our list at least, number five – Sex Panther cologne, Anchorman (2004):

Scott Maginnis, property master: “So I bought a humidor, for storing cigars, and then lined it with astroturf, and then built a unit below it with the elevator on a servo so we could control it. Then I had a sculptor make the actual panther, which was based on some panther photo that I found. It was her idea to have the ear pop off — it was definitely a joint effort.

“But you know when you’re watching the movie and it’s a little wonky when it comes up? When I had it built, we got it to work really smooth. But when we were filming it it was really jerky. We realized the focus-puller for the camera, his [rig] was wireless and it was on the same frequency as the servo. So we were having the toughest time getting it right, then we finally got a perfect one. I talked about it with Adam later and it turned out it was funnier with the jerky take. That was a happy accident.”

Y’all really shouldn’t have bothered making Anchorman 2, that movie has horrible.

There are so many other gems that we haven’t covered – Scarface and that pile of white powder, the red stapler from The Office, the clay pot from Ghost – the list goes on.

Clear a little time and rifle through the full list HERE – happy prop hunting.

[source:thrillist]