[Wendy screaming]

- [Anthony] This is one of

the most memorable scenes in movie history.

It's a moment of anguish combined

with a moment of deranged glee.

It's disturbing in the extreme.

- Here's Johnny!

[screaming]

- This moment from Stanley Kubrick's

The Shining, became indelible

in the minds of moviegoers the world over.

So much so that it's been imitated,

parodied, and referenced over and over again,

for more than four decades.

- [All] Here's Johnny!

[screaming]

- But what became of this object,

the ax Jack Nicholson swings,

as he lurches through the Overlook Hotel?

For decades, no one knew its whereabouts.

Then last year,

one of the axes resurfaced,

and it sold for more than $200,000,

at an auction in London.

While The Shining has been analyzed to death,

the story of the ax is one

that almost no one knows.

It's as important an object

as the Maltese Falcon,

or the ruby slippers, from The Wizard of Oz.

It's a relic from an iconic movie.

So how could it have vanished,

virtually forgotten, for so long?

[television buzzing]

To answer this question, we need some context.

What is it about this ordinary,

off the shelf fire ax, that created

such a lasting impression

in moviegovers around the world?

- [Mike] I think it is absolutely one

of the most iconic props you're gonna find

in a horror movie.

- This is Mike Flanagan,

the director who brought the ax

back to the big screen,

in the sequel to The Shining, "Doctor Sleep",

which was released in 2019.

- [Mike] The thing about the ax

in The Shining, is that it becomes tethered,

at a certain point to the camera itself.

When he begins to swing it,

Kubrick lets the ax drive the camera.

It is whip panning left and right with the blade.

The viewer is essentially turned

into the head of the ax itself,

and we collectively are thrown against the door.

It's an incredibly striking sequence.

And one of the most fascinating ways

I've ever seen of someone filming a weapon.

- The way Kubrick shot it

leaves the viewer feeling uneasy,

like they're the ones swinging the ax,

which is maybe one of the things

that makes it so scary, and so memorable.

[screaming]

Before we go any further,

we have to remember two things.

One, The Shining itself

was dismissed at the time.

When it debuted in 1980,

the reviews were blistering.

Some, like Variety's,

[chuckling] were downright insulting.

It was nominated for zero Oscars,

but it was a contender for Best Director

at the Razzies.

Even Stephen King famously despised

this adaptation of his book,

and he remains one of the few today

to still hold that grudge.

Over time, The Shining's esteem evolved.

It's unsettling rhythms were ahead of its time,

but in it's actual time,

it was dismissed as a misfire by a master.

So a prop from such a film

would not have been regarded as anything special

when the film debuted.

The other thing to remember, it's just an ax.

And back before there was a thriving market

for movie props,

the weapon Jack Nicholson used,

to menace both his family

and the viewers watching curled up in their seats,

was just another tool.

- There was really no value attributed

to these artifacts whatsoever.

It was a disposable part of the production process.

- This is Stephen Lane, CEO of Prop Store,

one of the largest vendors

of rare film and TV memorabilia.

Remember the guy from earlier, holding the ax?

That's him, but we'll get back to that.

- And during that period,

at the end of production,

the fate of the props and costumes

would have a few different paths.

They'd have an end of production sale,

some of the material may go back

to a rental property,

and then anything that was really left over,

maybe a little bit of it get held onto

by producers or directors or talent,

the rest of it

would just be disposed of, thrown away.

- The props for The Shining were no different.

I reached out to Jan Harlan,

The Shining's executive producer,

and Stanley Kubrick's brother-in-law.

And he had this to say about the ax.

The ax was, as you say, an everyday object,

one expects to find among the tools

in this sort of hotel.

We bought several to have spares

for this key prop.

I used to have one in my house

for many years too, after the filming.

My wife threw it out.

Straight to the landfill,

never to be seen again.

- You know, the amount of people

I've spoken to who, for example, from Star Wars,

who took stormtrooper helmets home,

they were given stormtrooper helmets,

and their kids just wanted to play with them,

and they played with them,

and played with them,

or stormed through the blasters,

and they just smashed them all up,

and then they threw them away at the end of it.

You know, the last stormtrooper helmet that we sold,

sold for nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

- So back in 1979, when The Shining wrapped,

they did what many productions

at the time would do,

and had an end of production sale

for the crew, kinda like a garage sale.

And the ax in question,

the one that went for over $200,000 in 2019,

it was sold to a construction worker

for just about £5.

- This particular gentleman bought the fire ax

for £5, to take it home as a wood chopping ax.

So he bought it

for fully practical purposes, nothing else.

- And the ax would remain in his possession,

sitting in his shed for the next 26 years.

Now, when we're talking about this ax,

it's important to remember

that there wasn't just one of these on set.

Prop departments have a saying, which goes,

"If you have one, you have none",

because on a production of that scale,

there will always be multiples of the same item,

in case something goes wrong.

- So there were many axes constructed

for the production.

There would have been hero versions.

She would have had stunt rubber versions,

maybe biscuit foam, lightweight versions,

special effects versions,

with plates connected to them,

to strap onto a torso, once they've been impaled,

and maybe bloodletting versions as well,

so there would have been numerous versions

that would have been created for the film.

- What we're interested in,

and what most collectors care about

is the hero ax.

The one that was actually intended

to be used in scenes with Nicholson

breaking down the door.

There are probably a few of these out there,

but not many.

We know there would have been a number obtained

for the production, and we know at least one

was owned by Jan Harlan

whose wife tossed it away.

While one went to the construction worker

who bought it for £5, to chop wood in 1979.

So the question is, what happened next?

- Well finding so much of these treasures

used to be through networking.

So it was all about meeting people,

crew members who worked in the film industry,

either current or retired,

and then finding out who they knew,

and what they've heard might be

in somebody's private collection.

And I was chatting with a friend of mine

who was a plasterer at Pinewood Studios.

And he phoned me up and he said,

"Yeah, my friend's brought this ax in,

"from The Shining, do you wanna come down and see

"Pinewood, and have a look at it?"

And I was just like, "Yep, I'm coming right now."

I was literally boom,

straight out of the door on the way to the studios.

And met with this lovely gentleman

who worked extensively throughout the entire production

of The Shining.

And then he pulled out this ax,

out of the back of his back of his van.

And there it was, it was a hero Shining ax,

a full metal hero construction head,

with the wooden handle to it as well.

You know, we had a long discussion

about what it really was,

what its inherent value was now,

as a piece of memorabilia,

as a piece of movie history.

And I explained to him that I'd be willing

to pay thousands of pounds for it,

which knocked him off his socks.

And we managed to conclude a deal

that afternoon in Pinewood car park.

- Do you recall what year it was

that it came into your possession,

that it ceased being stored

in the corner of a shed,

and started being stored in museum conditions?

- [Stephen] Yeah, I bought the ax back in 2005,

15 years, loved every moment of it.

- Why did you decide it was time

to put it up for sale?

- We're all only temporary custodians

of any of these artifacts.

You know, I'm not gonna be buried with it.

I think it's just as a period of recognition

of, "Okay, I've had my time with this",

and it was just time for it to find a new home.

- [Anthony] So in September 2019,

the ax goes up for auction in London.

- I saw a background video

from the prop store exhibit at Comic-Con,

and I noticed an ax.

And my first thing was like,

"Nah, that can be the ax from The Shining."

- Well, the estimated price on the ax

for auction day, was 40 to £60,000.

And I had really no indication

of which direction it might go from there.

- Lot number 619, The Shining here.

The Shining, and we are onto here's Johnny!

- I knew it was gonna be the only piece

I wanted to go after.

- And then obviously in an auction