Movies Caught Recycling Costumes From Other Movies

When you think about the money studios pour into your favorite movies, it isn't a shocker that they may need to occasionally reuse a prop or a costume. Heck, they've got everything stored out in a warehouse by the highway, right? Maybe using all that junk instead of building a new crown for every Queen Elizabeth movie might save then a buck or two thousand. Still, it can be jarring to see some of these costumes, which have been made famous in classic films, pop up again on an extra in the background. If you're a fan of the biz part of show business, you'll love digging into these recycled movie costumes, which have better careers than a lot of actors we know. Let's just hope someone washes them between movies.

Who can forget that fabulous purple dress Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen) wore as she, Doc, and their boys Jules and Verne ended the Back to the Future trilogy by heading out on the ultimate family road trip? Well, it looks like she donated it to a Goodwill somewhere along the way, because Shannon (Nicole Kidman) came across the exact same dress in a Boston storefront in the movie Far and Away, and just knew she had to have it.

Some dresses just can't catch a break. After surviving the RMS Titanic's collision with an iceberg in the 1996 miniseries Titanic, this black number found itself right back on the doomed passenger liner, this time being worn by an extra in the Oscar-winning 1997 blockbuster Titanic. Talk about a dress that needs a vacation, preferably one that doesn't end at the bottom of the sea.

Big budget sci-fi movies are a godsend for their step-siblings, the often cash-strapped TV science fiction series. Dating back to the days of Star Trek and Lost in Space, these threadbare shows were never shy about using and reusing other productions' props and costumes. Joss Whedon's Firefly proved that no matter how much things change, there's no need to do the work if someone's already done it for you. That's how a group of soldiers in the episode "The Train Job" ended up decked out in the same gear as those bug-hunting badasses from the 1997 movie Starship Troopers.

Period garb often gets reused again and again. If something works for one 1960s series, it will probably work just as well on the big screen. That was certainly the case with this pink frock, which Elizabeth Moss sported in the Mad Men episode "Three Sundays," only for it to pop up again in the 2011 movie The Help, this time worn by Anna Camp.

You don't just make a head-to-toe Wonder Woman costume and then throw it in the garbage when you're done with it. When David E. Kelly's pilot starring Adrianne Palicki as the Amazonian princess flopped before making it on the air, the studio decided to try and recoup some of their losses by loaning out the shiny spandex to their NBC series Harry's Law for an episode, this time worn by former Lois Lane herself, Erica Durance.

There's always a need for foppish hats, whether you're a musketeer, a pirate, or just a guy who happens to like looking good. This dandy number first popped up in the 2001 dud The Musketeer, worn by future Grey's Anatomy star Justin Chambers, only to weave its way through the Hollywood backlots and onto the magnificent mane of Orlando Bloom for the 2003 smash hit Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

If you're a piece of period clothing and small enough to be worn by a size-zero actress, then you've just booked your ticket into Hollywood immortality. Take this fitted jacket that sauntered through both the 2008 flick The Duchess and the recent BBC2 miniseries The Scandalous Lady W, clinging to some of the most desirable stars working today. Unless this jacket puts on weight, something tells us it's just getting started.

Garments don't get much more famous than this pink jacket worn by Kate Winslet in 1997's Titanic as she and Leonardo DiCaprio do their best to outrun bullets, icebergs, and puppy love. And yet even this number popped up again in the 2002 fantasy film Tuck Everlasting. Look guys, that jacket has a family to feed. No judgments.

Strike a pose, because it doesn't matter who you are, if you're wearing this buxom beauty of a dress, all eyes will be on you. Glenn Close absolutely owned this ensemble in the 1988 Oscar darling Dangerous Liaisons. Of course, leave it to Madonna to one up the sultry star and make the dress a legend when she wore it during her 1990 VMA performance of "Vogue."

If you were a teenage girl of a certain era, or are a teenage girl of a certain era at heart, then you know every detail of the movie Grease. Every lyric. Every dance move. Every outfit. And you'd definitely recognize this frilly yellow frock that Didi wore during the Rydell High school dance. You would think an outfit this specific and memorable would be retired to the Smithsonian, but you would be wrong. It only took two decades for it to make a reappearance, this time on an extra during another school dance on the sitcom That '70s Show.

It's understandable to think think that all of Queen Bey's outfits were woven by cartoon elves in a opulent factory under the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, worn once, and then launched into space so aliens can understand how fabulous humanity can be. Shockingly, you would be wrong. Take this ad she shot for 02 Priority back in 2013. She looks incredible, but those duds aren't the original that she is. In fact, the lacy, err...shoulder pads have made their way around town over the years, most prominently popping up on an in-drag Rupert Everett for the 2007 schoolgirl comedy St. Trinians.

Alan Rickman was a standout in whatever movie he appeared in. Take his turn as the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1991 action/adventure Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, where he single-handedly saved an ill-conceived project simply by being capable of speaking with an English accent. His outfits were no less extraordinary, particularly this beaded piece of black armor that showed up again on the back of some random extra in the Oscar-winning Braveheart.

When you're one of the fiercest bounty hunters in all the galaxy, you need gear that won't let you down. That may be why Bossk, the Trandoshan Wookie hunter who appeared in a little movie called The Empire Strikes Back, lifted his outfit wholesale from an astronaut in a 1966 episode of Doctor Who called "The Tenth Planet." In fact, the suit originally came from the Royal Air Force, who used it as a High-Altitude Windak Pressure Suit back in the '60s. Come to think of it, there's nothing more high pressure than taking on an angry Chewie.

It must be nice for a bustier and dress to branch out. After a life spent in period pieces, like Dangerous Liaisons, it was probably a treat to show up on Vinessa Shaw during the family-friendly comedy Hocus Pocus. At least it didn't need to worry about getting stabbed in the back anymore. The wicked witches of this Disney classic surely looked you in the eye when they stabbed you.

To learn much, much more about the many times movies have gotten caught putting actors in outfits seen in other films, visit Recycled Movie Costumes.