Highwayman Rob’s SFX head used in the 1999 movie Plunkett & Macleane, starring Johnny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and Liv Tyler. This piece would have been used to create the gruesome special effect at the very beginning of the movie of Chance (Ken Stott) gouging out Rob’s eye with his thumb. The piece is made from silicone and is an incredibly lifelike copy of Iain Robertson’s face in a pained expression. It has been painted to emphasise crooked yellow teeth, pink lips and eyes that have been squeezed shut, it even features eyebrows and eyelashes with prop hair, and originally a wig would have sat on top of the head. The right eye has been cut in such a way that when you push down on it, it splits to allow a thumb to be brutally pushed into it. To add to the gore of this effect, the back of the head is removeable and a pot of prop blood would have been attached just behind the eye so when the thumb was removed it was nicely covered in blood. Due to it’s age the ears and the shoulder have begun to split, but the face is still in fantastic condition and is a great piece from the movie.
