hey everybody adam savage here in my cave with brandon allenger hello sir hey good to see you
good to see you sir from prop store he always brings amazing treats to the cave and well i'm
not sure this needs any introduction this is maximus's helmet from gladiator and this is
one of the screen used helmets yeah this is an original and this is a big one for
me i love gladiator when i saw that film i just thought it was amazing
one of my all-time favorites still amazing i mean how many oscars did it win it's just gladiators
a masterpiece and this totally recognizable custom-made helmet from the big arena fight
you know it's distinct to maximus's character he's the only one who wears this helmet in the film
it's beautiful it's the one he takes off when he reveals himself to accommodate right which
is a great moment love that moment in the film um i have met one of these helmets in the past
uh the one i met uh was a had a foam front face because i think it was for the horseback riding
yes i know the one you're speaking okay that's the only one i've ever seen before this one showed
up more recently um that's a great helmet also i think that one the the face is rubber as you say
and because it's rubber there's some cracks in it that that you can see on film as well so it's very
distinct this one is a very comparable piece where the back helmet is fiberglass just like that one
is the the front face plate on this one is rigid and they are interchangeable you can see it's just
held on with the pins here right right and i can also see it's got this really nice very carefully
applied leather liner on the interior so yes it was meant to be seen up close right yeah and and
maybe for that shot you're talking about where he takes it off and he tucks it under his arm maybe
they thought you'd see the interior but yeah the the helmet itself is lined with leather inside as
well the whole helmet look at that wow i didn't even notice the backside's all wow and it looks
like there's like a ring of glue in there it looks like maybe there's an additional liner cup that
was stuck in top of that like a head pad at some point as well so yeah it's got it's got a bit of
a history too yeah yeah we can take it off should we take it off well yeah if you want yeah we're
wearing my gloves right it's just it's just on the stand here i think it'll sort of roll off for us
yeah so if you go in wow see see the glue there must have been maybe some foam padding in there
and keep it stable and you can also see the fiberglass construction in there right oh yeah
that's the top yep it is such a lovely piece again one of my all-time favorite films and
i get really excited when stuff like this shows up because i'll use your photo reference from the
catalog to go find what i consider to be the best replica yeah because there's an endless number of
replicas in this made out of plastic rubber steel what have you but like it's really hard to find
one that's that's yeah no that's true and you know we take a lot of pride in the photography
we want people to see these things and appreciate them even if you're not bidding in the auction we
our fans ourselves we like sharing with other fans we know people want to see these and you know for
me that's one of the most fun parts of the job and of handling this material is getting to see
all the little angles and details that you couldn't see and appreciate on screen you know
and this is one where the paint job holds up from a centimeter away it is it looks every bit like
a piece of metallic beat up hardware uh it's been made for real close scrutiny of the camera there's
these like beautiful weathering around the lines of topography it's just gorgeous yeah
i love the dark infill and the the various dense yeah the real big dents agent yeah
and and this there's a story with this as well where you can see the tip of the crest here oh
yeah missing some paint yeah it's actually damaged and so it looks like it's probably been dropped at
some point that's chipped away and then the the metallic paint finish has chipped back as well
and uh you know that we were told occurred on set and is the reason this one was taken out of
circulation obviously they always have a few yeah this is one of the few that they had for the film
but that is onset damage were these built by simon atherton's people
i don't think so so i definitely did all the weapons right right that's what he usually
does for ridley swords and even like that crazy crossbow the sort of four-way crossbow
that's definitely a simon atherton thing i think this was the costume team and the costume props
team uh i know the costume designer in the film is is jante he was dante okay he does
all rightly stuff right hero yeah um and brilliant costume design i mean every one of russell crowe's
costumes is a masterpiece and communist joaquin phoenix i mean all the costumes are just fantastic
um russell famously has a lot of pieces from his movies um i'm curious if he has one of these
helmets hey send him a text i will tell alaska at some point it's a great question because uh yeah
we actually i don't know if i've told the story we had a gladiator piece in a prior auction
we had it on display in london someone took a picture of it posted online and tagged russell
crowe on twitter and he came back and said that's not real i have the real one and then we responded
to him and said look we're sure you have a real one but this is a real one also and it screen
matches this one particular shot and then he look we posted a photo comparison he looked at it and
he came back and apologized and he said apologies for casting aspersions mate i remember exactly
what he said because i was so excited to read it he said i guess this is one of the ones that would
have been used momentarily while we were changing out the main one so again there's always multiples
yeah we had one i'm sure russell crowe has one maybe he has one of these you've got to find out
i do i do i mean yeah for any single prop on a film the production team is always going to make
like at least six i mean a whole bunch of them so you could lose one you could drop one you could
misplace one and they'd still have one ready to shoot yeah yeah and and it would be interesting
to find out how many of these there were because prior to this one showing up the one that you're
speaking of that's in another private collection was the only one that we had ever seen and you
know maybe russell crowe has one i don't think i've seen pictures of it in his museum but it
doesn't mean he doesn't have it um and then maybe there could be one or two others tucked away in
studio archives but as far as private hands right now there are two and i think um you know this is
obviously the the only one that's obtainable in our auction it is um surprisingly light which of
course you really have to do for actors because they've got to wear these things for hours on end
yeah but it is surprisingly like it maybe weighs like i don't know 12 14 ounces right
yeah i guess i guess they would be deliberately making it as thin of a casting as they possibly
could make it as comfortable as possible you know lining this with leather like this is non-trivial
um someone clearly wet the leather to get it to fit that deep topography of the nose down here
um i'm just impressed with the work uh that is a magnificent piece both inside and out which is
rare right like that the whole inside also kind of sells yeah and if it's like if you think of pieces
from gladiator like where does your mind go oh yeah i mean this has got to be one of this right
one of the swords yeah the armor todd's costumes made a beautiful set of armor that i've had
um which the black one or the black one with the hor the yeah the one from this scene yeah yeah um
i didn't bring it because i was sure you weren't gonna let me put this on so i thought why where
why wear a costume if i can't put on right now it belongs to the consignor so we shouldn't wear it
but we do we do actually have one of the body armors in the auction as well actually there's
a couple there's a prototype gold body armor and then there's a a full finished production uh black
armor with the shoulder the the oh yeah details there's two horses oh wow and i'm sure you're
aware but the you know that he's constantly adding characters to it through the film so it's sort of
like it starts with a couple and then he adds a couple more and then in the end fight there's even
more characters i did not know that oh yeah watch the movie it's there's different configurations
and he's he's constantly adding decorations to it i'm really surprised to be told a gladiator
fact i didn't know i thought i was obsessed with this movie but clearly i have work to do
brandon this is such a beautiful piece um what a amazing thing yeah like i say i'm a huge gladiator
fan myself so for me this was a really exciting one when it comes in the door and um yeah we're
happy to have it and be offering it in the auction yeah this is uh that's absolutely one of my
it's among those movies that i just watched like once a year just because just kind of
refill my tanks sort of infinitely re-watchable 100 uh and maybe they're doing a sequel they're
talking about a secret you know i heard tell of that recently it doesn't feel like a movie that
means i'm not saying i won't be there no i will totally be there yeah i wonder too
yeah ah what a great piece thank you for bringing it here in the cave i feel lucky just to spend
some time around it hey it's always fun sharing the stuff with people who care