10 Famous Movie Props That Sold For Ridiculous Prices

6. Jack Torrance's Axe (The Shining)

The Shining Jack Nicholson
Warner Bros.

Sale Price: $217,000

By far the most iconic scene in The Shining, the moment when a deranged Jack Torrance hacks through the door of a bathroom and proclaims "Heeeere's Johnny!" has been endlessly parodied, referenced, and replicated over the last four decades.

But there's only one person on Earth who can truly, authentically recreate that scene, should they feel inclined to do so - the person who bought the actual axe used by Jack Nicholson in the film.

Expected to fetch a price somewhere in the region of $51,000 - $76,000 (£40,000 - £60,000), the weapon destroyed that estimate and ended up selling for a whopping $217,000 (£170,000). Yep - that's over $200,000 for an axe. An ordinary axe. Granted, it was held by Nicholson and used in one of the most famous movies of all time, but it does seem a little ridiculous to pay that much for some metal and wood.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!