An Iconic Classic Movie Prop Makes A Stealthy Cameo In A Quirky Tom Hanks Comedy

Easter eggs have become far too commonplace in movies nowadays. It's gotten to the point that they distract viewers from paying attention to the story unfolding on the screen, because to get sucked into the emotion of a movie might cause you to miss a glancing reference to an obscure Marvel character or a deep Mario Kart cut — which, upon spying it, will allow you to laugh many decibels too loud so as to alert every single person in the theater that you are the knowingest knower who ever did know.

Before Easter eggs became a matter of competitive viewing, they were just innocuous bits of ephemera scattered in and around the frame that you might not notice until a subsequent viewing. Some directors invited their audiences to be on guard for obligatory bits (like Alfred Hitchcock and his cameos, the most inventive of which arrived in "Lifeboat"), but for the most part, they were wholly unexpected. And, oh yeah, we didn't call them Easter eggs. They were simply references or in-jokes for people who knew a little more than the average moviegoer. And no one had more fun packing the frame with familiar props and actors than Joe Dante.

Dante wasn't always subtle with his references. For example, he gave Robby the Robot from "Forbidden Planet" actual speaking lines (taken directly from the 1956 sci-fi classic) in "Gremlins", and went hog wild in the sequel with nods to films as disparate as "King Kong, "Marathon Man" and Busby Berkeley's "Dames." If you're wondering how this is different from the chock-a-block Easter eggs of, say, "A Minecraft Movie," that's easy: Dante is a master craftsman who actually loves movies and respects viewers enough to allow his films to entertain on multiple levels. This makes them eminently rewatchable. Much like a vintage Looney Tunes cartoon, certain gags that flew over your head as a kid land as you get older and learn more.

There's no better example of this than Dante's multiple references throughout his career to a film that is considered by many critics to be the greatest of all time. You've probably caught it in at least one of his movies (including his black comedy "The 'Burbs" starring Tom Hanks), but what you might not know is that he was using one of the actual props from the original production. And now, if you've got some seriously deep pockets, it could be yours.

This week, Joe Dante announced on his Bluesky account that the pine Rosebud sled from Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" that has been in his possession since 1984 is going on the auction block. This is, of course, the toy that, in the film's final scene, turns out to be what Charles Foster Kane was referencing in his final utterance before dying. How did Dante get his mitts on this incredibly valuable piece of Hollywood history (there are only two others in existence, one of which is owned by Steven Spielberg)? Amazingly, he saved it from being thrown in the trash.

In an interview with Intelligent Collector, Dante said he was given the sled, an on-camera version of the prop, by a crew member on the set of his underrated 1985 movie "Explorers." While shooting on the part of the Paramount lot that used to belong to RKO (which made "Citizen Kane"), Dante recalled that there were workers doing "a comprehensive clean-out" of the soundstages. According to the filmmaker, "One of the crew who knew I was a fan of vintage films came to me with a wood prop and said, 'They're throwing out all of this stuff. You might want this.' I'm not sure he knew what the sled was, but he must have had some inkling, or why else would he have asked me?"

Dante was so tickled to receive the sled that he promptly snuck it into "Explorers." He also dropped it into "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" and, as you can see above, "The 'Burbs" (in the Klopeks' basement). It's been years since I watched Dante's criminally short-lived NBC series "Eerie, Indiana," but I distinctly remember the director placing it in the episode "The Losers." I'd just watched "Citizen Kane" for the first time that year, and was stoked to see it sticking out for attentive viewers to catch (actually, it's out in the open long enough that it's hard to miss).

I can't believe Dante is parting company with possibly the most memorable movie prop of all time, but he's got his reasons. I want to find a collector who cherishes it as much as I do," he said. "It's time for someone else to share the magic." The starting bid is $250,000, and the auction will close in 33 days. Does anyone have a few million dollars I can hold for a month or so?