371. Harrison Ford "Indiana Jones" hero machete from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. (Paramount, 1984) This hero machete is constructed of polished steel with painted brass handle and measures an impressive 41 ¾ in. long. It was created for the iconic sequence where Indiana Jones finds himself trapped on the rope bridge as they were escaping the Thuggee cult. It was particularly made for use in the scenes where Indy is at the center of the bridge where he proceeds to use it to cut the bridge in half, as the blade needed to be of such a length as to make it clearer and more visible on film. The detail and the construction of this machete match perfectly to that on screen. The paintwork to the handle is quite worn away but from screen shots you can clearly make out the actual brass metal of the lower handle coming through the paint even during filming. Other matching points include undulating blade edge, flat back of blade, positioning of screw fix holes and the milling of the blade. This piece was acquired in the early 1990s directly from Barry Wilkinson, property master on the film. Wilkinson ran his own prop rental business and he purchased and retained numerous props from movies he worked on for the intention of possible re-hire. In the inventory there was only this example of the hero machete. The machete is highly identified and associated with the Indiana Jones character. The classic images of him brandishing a machete are constantly used, and it is easily of equal importance to his other trademarks, the fedora and whip. This is the first time a hero machete has become publicly available. $80,000 - $100,000