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[-] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 386 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

They used real human skeletons because it was cheaper to pick them up from medical suppliers.

The actors, including JoBeth Williams (pictured) weren't informed that they were interacting with genuine human remains until filming wrapped.

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 91 points 6 days ago

The crazy thing is that this isn't limited to human remains.

Fake cameras often cost more than actual cameras. Fake food is more expensive than real food, which is then wasted.

[-] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 153 points 6 days ago

I've wasted SO much money shooting movies with fake cameras.

[-] Noodle07@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago

True dat. Gotta start with fake money.

[-] Bahnd@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago

Fake food is often designed to survive heat from sets and lights. Filming for ads is different than filming movies, but the same idea applies. They also make low-sound versions of things like paper bags as to not ruin takes when things get carried by actors, moved around, or dragged on the set floor.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 days ago

Using fake firearms is more expensive than using real ones with blanks, using real money is often cheaper than fake Hollywood money

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 points 6 days ago

Lord of war used real AKs for that reason

[-] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago
[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 9 points 6 days ago

The staff later had to get their stomachs pumped because the prop food was toxic.

[-] OpenStars@piefed.social 10 points 6 days ago

Oh is that where the skeletons came from? 🙃

[-] Rug_Pisser@piefed.zip 5 points 6 days ago

Unfortunately the stomach pump was also a prop.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago

Fake food can be reused and real food can't, mkaing fake food cheaper in the long run.

[-] Spezi@feddit.org 4 points 5 days ago

Thats why I only eat fake food. It saved me so much money over my lifetime.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

We have some fake flowers as decor. They're on their fifth year. It is a fight to let me bring real flowers in but there are so many outside

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 days ago

It always pissed me off how in the Big Bang Theory, you always see them with food, but you never see them eat. I can probably count on one hand the number of times in the whole series someone actually takes a bite off camera.

I hope the crew got to eat all the stuff they never touched on camera, cause that shit always looked good. I got so many cravings watching that...

[-] starik@lemmy.zip 11 points 6 days ago

Actors will try to avoid eating in scenes, because if they end up having to do multiple takes, they have to take a bite of the food at the same point in the scene every take for continuity reasons. This can result in them getting sick of the food quickly.

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

Not me, if I was acting in a food scene and we had to do multiple takes, the viewers would notice my plate suddenly getting emptier every few seconds

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

Chris Pratt would do this on P&R.

But honestly I can't tell the difference.

[-] FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

He was famous for spewing in a bucket, because he'd keep eating

Unfortunately, he's a dumb, religious moron who isn't actually a role model at all, unlike Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

Aubrey Plaza sold out to big Dairy. Not as much of an asshole as Pratt but still she could be better.

[-] moopet@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

Could she be butter?

[-] toynbee@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

I'm still unclear on whether that was chicken.

[-] Ariselas@piefed.ca 39 points 6 days ago

Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland also used medical skeletons. It wasn't that long ago that they were really easy to purchase, a couple instructors at my university had full skeletons and would bring them in for class. I wanted to buy one just to keep in my closet as a joke, but beer came first.

[-] ZeldaFreak@lemmy.world 26 points 6 days ago

In Germany a school recently held a funeral for their school skeleton, which was an actual human. They suspected that this was a young Indian man. Up to the 20th century, you could easily buy a dead person from India. There are still schools with actual human remains.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I plan on donating my me to a school with human remains, for dissection in their cadaver lab. Afters, composting. Probably won't happen, but we're gonna try

Wtfff wtf did they at least contact the people this persons remains got stolen from?? Fucking boil this country good lord

[-] Ariselas@piefed.ca 10 points 5 days ago

It was pretty common up till the 60s and maybe later to get human skeletons form South Asia, they were often obtained from flood or landslide victims, and have no identifiers except maybe an inventory number.

Modern stuff however, is obtained when someone donates their remains, and is often only held for a limited time before interred. They are anonymized to the student / researcher, but there is a record of who they were. The med school's anatomy lab here has some pretty neat stuff (or did 20 years ago when I went), including a woman's plasticized torso that had been sliced into 1 inch wafers, and an autopsied man who was born with his organs rotated in his body so that everything was on the wrong side. I still have the illustrations I drew from that anatomy class somewhere.

[-] VinegarChunks@lemmus.org 4 points 5 days ago

I’ve heard that modern cadavers donated for medical research are treated with a high degree of respect and appreciation, which I’m guessing is probably a reaction to the way things used to be.

[-] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It may have been a donation. Donating your body to science can result in you becoming a classroom skeleton, or blown up in the sky with a rocket. If you're lucky enough, they put you in a field and let your body rot, while observing the process. You don't really get a say in it, but cadavers are used for all sorts of things.

[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Beer comes and goes, but skeleton is forever.

[-] OpenStars@piefed.social 43 points 6 days ago

I heard that they just used real ghosts 👻 too 😱 /s

[-] hypnicjerk@lemmy.world 24 points 6 days ago
[-] snooggums@piefed.world 8 points 6 days ago
[-] Big_Boss_77@fedinsfw.app 5 points 6 days ago

Sounds like an unpleasant venereal disease...

[-] rmuk@feddit.uk 3 points 6 days ago
[-] tiny_hedgehog@piefed.social 7 points 6 days ago

Ghosts of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

[-] Billy2600@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

But then what will I rattle to be spooky?

[-] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 40 points 6 days ago

The more interesting tidbit is that this is actually pretty common. The prop house using real skeletons was actually pretty common and not unique to this production. The notable thing about this film was the sheer number of skeletons that they used, so they basically scooped up everything that was out there, and how much the live actors actually interacted with the skeletons. It wasn't particularly unusual for skeletons to be used as props.

Really, just about any time you saw a skeleton on screen before the 90s or so, it was probably real. A lot of real world props and decorations also used real skeletons, sometimes to the surprise of the people using them. For example, if you rode the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney Land, you saw real human skeletons.

[-] nightofmichelinstars@sopuli.xyz 29 points 6 days ago

So you're saying my chance to make it as an actor will outlive me

[-] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago

Hah! And they said my film degree would amount to nothing. Well look at me now! [ drops dead ]

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago

Ah, so not the whole we are both in the pool so if a light falls we are both dead.

[-] neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 6 days ago

Toby Hooper, always pinching those pennies!

[-] tmyakal@infosec.pub 5 points 6 days ago

Don't leave it all on Tobe. Depending on how recently you've asked him, Spielberg directed none, some, most, or all of this movie.

[-] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Hmm wouldn't they have some sort of smell left?

[-] Rug_Pisser@piefed.zip 5 points 6 days ago
[-] moopet@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

To be fair, in Poltergeist they were essentially all part of a broth.

this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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