Everyday items (especially flashlights) used as futureistic movie props

x-ray

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Thought this could be a bit of fun :)

I was reading this thread when this post got me thinking.

Where have you seen normal everyday items (flashlights/gadgets/toys etc. etc.) used in movies to portray some kind of future technology?
 
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Diesel_Bomber

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In Star Trek Nemesis, the "stylus" that Picard uses on his PADD is actually a butane pencil torch.


:buddies:
 

DonShock

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IIRC, the little round "medical scanner" that McCoy used in the original Star Trek series was actually a salt shaker.
 

Apollo

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Helo, Boomer and Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica using Streamlight Scorpions as....Well, flashlights! :lolsign:
 

Alloy Addict

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Few props are built from scratch, unless the budget is very high. All of the light sabers in the first Star Wars were made from junk. Luke's consister of, at least in part, a flash handle, windshield wiper blades, the display of a calculator, and....I forget what else.

I know this because I have a good friend who was determined to build his own accurate versions.

The blasters in those movies were common war surplus made inoperable, with some scopes and inappropriate flash hiders added on. Han's was a broomhandle Mauser, and most of the Stormtrooper blasters were modified Sten guns.
 

LEDninja

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The Inova X5 tends to be used as a futuristic flashlight (The Island etc.) since it looks so different from a common 2D flashlight. Surprisingly THE "common 2AA flashlight" does not make it into the movies much.
 

ackbar

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Andromeda used common PC parts in the cargo ship. and you can clearly see a IBM logo on the LCD display. and I remember seeing a el'cheapo dollar store radio used as a remote once.
 

LEDMaster2003

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some comedy sci-fi movie had a Universal SS-750 smoke alarm painted silver to add to a "vent".

One of those Saban shows (Power Rangers, etc) had a gun with an outdoor drain grating.
 

spock

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in the 1976 movie "logan's run", with michael york and jenny agutter, the ray gun used was a pistol shaped cigarette lighter. in one scene(not cut)york pulls the trigger and a small flame comes out. he just looks at it and goes right on. at a church sale recently, i found one like new with box and papers for $2. for a long time, i dreamed, worshipped, whatever about jenny agutter.
 

carrot

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I was watching some sci-fi flick, and I saw a Sega Genesis controller used as some kind of control panel on a space suit.
 

AJ_Dual

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spock said:
in the 1976 movie "logan's run", with michael york and jenny agutter, the ray gun used was a pistol shaped cigarette lighter. in one scene(not cut)york pulls the trigger and a small flame comes out. he just looks at it and goes right on. at a church sale recently, i found one like new with box and papers for $2. for a long time, i dreamed, worshipped, whatever about jenny agutter.

The Logan's Run Sandman blasters were butane powered, and in some sense they were "just a big butane ligher", but they were custom pieces from the ground up. That's not to say there may not have been standard lighter parts, tanks or valves in the blaster, but it was by no means just a repurposed lighter.


They were notioriously finicky in operation, either failing to light, or the crew was always worried they'd blow Michael York's hand off...


You can find the websites of some movie prop fans who have scans of the plans, or have built their own models. The fact that it's such a custom piece is why it's one of the "holy grails" of prop collectors and replica makers.

So actualy, it's one of most custom sci-fi props around...

http://www.snowcrest.net/fox/logan/costumes/GR/gunbp1a.JPG
 
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